Ralts jumped onto Ash, causing the eggshell on her head to fall to the ground, while the other half of the eggshell remained in Ash's hand. However, no one paid attention to these things at the moment. Xiao Xia and Pikachu were all staring intently at Ralts.
After a long while, Xiao Xia let out a shriek-like sound: "So cute!!!"
Her small body, light pink skin, and deep blue hair made her a different kind of cute compared to Clefairy. Even without seeing her eyes, anyone who saw her would instinctively exclaim, "So cute!"
Especially for girls, there was practically no resistance to a Pokémon like Ralts.
"Uh, well, she seems to be very clingy to me, doesn't she?" Ash carefully squatted down, placed the eggshell from his hand on the ground, and then gently lifted Ralts from his body, making it easier for her to hold onto him.
Ash didn't understand why Ralts was so clingy to him, and what kind of Pokémon was Ralts anyway? During this time, he had been catching up with the experts in the group, and he had almost recognized all the Kanto Pokémon, but he had never seen a Pokémon like this. (The group allowed sharing images from memory or imagined images.)
Could this be a Pokémon from outside Kanto? Speaking of which, Ralts's Pokémon egg seemed to have fallen from the sky. Could she really be from the moon?!
"Can I hold her, Ash?" Xiao Xia came in front of Ash, her big, watery eyes looking at him with a look of longing. It was clear she really wanted to hold Ralts, even more so than Clefairy.
Xiao Xia hadn't shown such an expression even when she first met Clefairy.
"You can, but she's not my Pokémon. You still need to ask for her permission, okay?" This time, Ash didn't blurt out Ralts's name like he did with Ho-Oh.
Otherwise, if he knew Ralts's name but didn't recognize the Pokémon, it would be a bit strange.
Xiao Xia squatted in front of Ash and whispered, "Um... what's your name? Can I hold you?"
Ralts turned her head at the sound. After a moment of silence, her figure suddenly disappeared. Ash and Xiao Xia were both startled. The former even subconsciously wanted to use Aura to sense where she had gone, but the next second he felt a slight weight on his other shoulder.
Ash turned his head to look and, sure enough, Ralts, just like Pikachu, had run onto his shoulder, and at the same time, her small hand was tugging at his hair.
This behavior was self-evident: she didn't want to be held by Xiao Xia, which greatly disheartened Xiao Xia.
Even Pikachu, upon first meeting, quickly accepted Xiao Xia, but Ralts showed some resistance towards Xiao Xia. Only Ash was the one she felt close to.
"Why is she so clingy to Ash? Is it because Ash caught her when she fell?" Xiao Xia asked with some reluctance and confusion.
How could a newly hatched Pokémon only cling to Ash and not to her? Is this reasonable?
"It's probably because Ash was the first person Ralts saw after she was born. Some Pokémon become completely devoted to the first Trainer they see after birth, and Ralts is that type of Pokémon," Brock, who had been silent, explained.
"Ralts? Is that this Pokémon's name?" Even Xiao Xia, who was quite knowledgeable, didn't recognize the Pokémon Ralts, as Ralts is not a Pokémon that appears in Kanto, and is even very rare in the Hoenn region.
"That's right, this is a Pokémon that inhabits the Hoenn region. It's very rare here in Kanto, one could even say completely unseen. Even in the Hoenn region, it's an extremely rare Pokémon. I only learned about this Pokémon when I was looking at some Pokémon from other regions in my free time."
"Ralts, is that your name?" Ash also pretended to have just learned Ralts's name, and reached over with one hand to gently pat Ralts's small head.
Ralts wiggled her body, looking very pleased. From the lower half of her face that was visible, one could vaguely sense Ralts's happy emotions; it seemed even such a small gesture from Ash could make her happy for a long time.
Brock also walked over and brought his face close to Ralts. This somewhat creepy gesture made Ralts immediately hide behind Ash, peeking out with her small head timidly, which almost melted Xiao Xia's heart.
"Brock, what are you doing? You're scaring her!"
"Ah, ah~ Sorry, I wanted to confirm if my guess was correct." Brock made an apologetic gesture towards Ralts, but it seemed to have no effect. A newly hatched little one is indeed quite sensitive.
"Confirm what?"
"Confirm if this little one is a Shinny Pokémon."
"Shinny Pokémon?" Ash and Xiao Xia said in unison, the former with a confused expression, the latter with a shocked one.
"What's a Shinny Pokémon?" This term once again touched upon Ash's blind spot of knowledge.
"Shinny Pokémon are also called Variant Pokémon. They have an appearance different from their species and are extremely rare Pokémon. Among thousands or tens of thousands of the same type of Pokémon, it's not certain that even one Variant Pokémon will appear. Because they stand out in their group like a Shinny in the dark, they are also called Shinny Pokémon."
This time, Xiao Xia didn't scorn Ash for his ignorance, because the concept of Shinny Pokémon is indeed less known, and some people never encounter a Shinny Pokémon in their entire lives, let alone capture one.
Looking at Ralts, she seems to have decided to stick with Ash. It's like Ash did nothing and just gained a Shinny Pokémon... Is this reasonable?
"A Shinny Pokémon, so you're that amazing, Ralts." Ash excitedly brought Ralts from behind to in front of him and held her up high. Only he knew that Ralts was not just rare because she was Shinny; what was even rarer was her aptitude, a god-like aptitude that is difficult to find even among millions of Pokémon.
Shinny combined with all S-rank aptitude—most people wouldn't even encounter it with a lifetime of luck. This is simply a blessing from heaven... Wait, heaven... a blessing?
Ash suddenly remembered something. He seemed to have just drawn an S-rank one-time ability last night—Chosen One's Radiance.
That ability would allow him to encounter an extremely rare Pokémon within three days, with a high probability of capturing it. Ash had originally thought that an extremely rare Pokémon would probably be a Legendary Pokémon or something, and how could he possibly capture such a Pokémon?
But looking at the blue-haired loli in his hands, Ash realized, isn't this all S-aptitude, Shinny, blue-haired loli even rarer than a Legendary Pokémon?