Some held items can be integrated into a Pokémon's body; otherwise, some large held items simply couldn't be carried by small Pokémon.
However, the rainbow wing, whether it was placed on Pidgeotto or Butterfree before, would not integrate, and could only be directly carried on their bodies.
But this time, Charmander actually integrated it into its body, which was what Ash found strange.
Ash still knew how to retrieve a Pokémon's held item, but the rainbow wing was quite special, and Ash didn't know if the rainbow wing could be taken out of Charmander's body.
If it couldn't be taken out, then it would mean that to save Charmander, he directly lost a legendary item, and even lost the qualification to become the Rainbow Hero.
Ash felt no regret about this; as long as Charmander could be revived, paying a small price was no problem.
Even though this time the price was not small.
Although Charmander's condition had stabilized, he still needed time to recover, so he remained in the ward.
After Ash and the two others went in to see Charmander, they returned to the Elf Center's lounge.
Regarding Dayou and the others, Joy said that she used Chansey to treat Dayou, and after he regained consciousness, that group of people directly scurried away.
But before leaving, Dayou's eyes were filled with resentment, and Joy reminded Ash and the others to be careful.
Ash didn't take this to heart; such a guy, even if a hundred of them came, would not be his opponent.
After seeing Charmander's tragic state, Ash even felt that he had been too lenient, only knocking out a few of the opponent's teeth.
Compared to Charmander, the damage that guy suffered was simply not worth mentioning.
With no further issues, Ash and the others went to sleep first; Charmander was fine now, and it was just a matter of how well he recovered.
The time came to the next morning, Ash sat up from the bed, still groggy, and then found that in front of him stood an orange-red Pokémon!
It wasn't until Ash rubbed his eyes carefully that he recognized it.
Besides Charmander, who else could this Pokémon be?
"Charmander? Why are you here? Are your injuries healed?"
"His injuries are completely healed~"
Joy's voice rang out, and Ash turned to see that Joy had appeared at the room's entrance at some point.
Joy's voice also woke up Brock and Xiao Xia, and the two, still sleepy, immediately became alert upon seeing Joy.
"Joy, you're here too?" Ash was still a bit confused for a moment, not knowing why Charmander and Joy would come to their room so early in the morning.
"Yes, to be precise, this little guy wanted me to bring him to you," Joy said softly, smiling as she looked at Charmander.
"Charmander asked you to bring him over?" Ash turned his gaze to Charmander, and their eyes met; from Charmander's resolute yet grateful eyes, Ash seemed to understand something.
Last night, although Charmander was severely injured, even on the verge of death, his consciousness was clear.
He knew who helped him yesterday, and he knew whose credit it was that he was now safe and sound, and the thing within him that filled him with infinite power and pulled him back from a dying state was, for others, an absolutely rare treasure.
But the other party directly used it for him, pulling him out of hell.
So, after Charmander woke up, the first thing he wanted to do was come find him, find the human who had sacrificed so much for him!
"Charmander, are you here to thank me? No need to be so polite; meeting is fate, if I hadn't gotten lost and happened to see you, I probably wouldn't have had the chance to save you later." Ash got out of bed, half-squatted in front of Charmander, and said with a grin.
He didn't mention how much he had sacrificed, merely attributing everything to fate.
Upon hearing this, Charmander rubbed his small head against Ash's pant leg, and his small hand pointed to Ash's waist, "Li!"
Ash froze, then was overjoyed: "You want to become my Pokémon?"
"Li!" Charmander nodded firmly; he came here precisely for this reason.
No matter how foolishly loyal, there's a limit, and after yesterday's events, Charmander fully understood.
He had been abandoned by his Trainer.
His bitter waiting for his Trainer was completely idiotic behavior.
If he had simply been abandoned and deceived, he would probably be heartbroken and utterly despondent now.
But at the same time, a ray of light shone into his heart—that young man who, when he was about to faint from hunger, chose to give him food to fill his stomach, and then rescued him in the pouring rain!
His life was given by the young man in front of him, so he decided to dedicate the rest of his life to the young man in front of him.
This life, he entrusted it to him!
"In that case, please take care of me from now on!"
Ash took out a Poké Ball and gently touched Charmander's body; Charmander entered the Poké Ball, which didn't shake at all, and then let out a crisp sound.
His longed-for Charmander had finally come into his possession in this way; indeed, good deeds are rewarded!
"I caught Charmander!!"
"Pikachu!"
"Ralts~~"
The sound of capture was inevitably accompanied by Pikachu's cry, and Ralts, who had just woken up and didn't understand what was happening.
No matter what happens, just follow Big Pi-sensei and shout, and it'll be fine.
"Congratulations, Ash, you've caught another powerful and rare Pokémon."
"What kind of dog-shit luck is this? First, a Shinny Ralts falling from the sky, Bulbasaur, and then Charmander; the starter Pikachu is also no simple existence." And he even met Ho-Oh.
Xiao Xia didn't say the last sentence, but all of the above was already enough to prove how strong Ash's dog-shit luck was.
To put it bluntly, these were opportunities that a normal person would absolutely rarely encounter in a lifetime, yet Ash encountered all of them in just one month!
Is there any justice left? Is there any law left?!
Ash released the newly caught Charmander and checked its aptitude again, confirming it. Hmm, it's 4S, no mistake—wait a minute?! 4S!!
Ash rubbed his eyes, making sure the information he got was correct.
Charmander's aptitude had silently risen from 3S to 4S, with the additional S being for stamina.
Not only did yesterday's near-death experience leave him with no sequelae, but it actually elevated his aptitude even further?
Not only that, Charmander's level also jumped from Novice to Ordinary Intermediate.
This kind of strength leap and aptitude improvement was truly abnormal; if it wasn't for Insight Eye being wrong, then something magical he didn't know about had happened to Charmander.
When in doubt, ask the big shots!
Ash first thanked Joy, then recalled Charmander and went to wash up and brush his teeth, finally entering the restroom, closing his eyes, and entering the group chat.
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: Big shots, big shots, something strange has happened here.]
[Breeder Xiao Zhi: What strange thing?]
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: It's just that I just caught a new Charmander, and that Charmander…]
Ash recounted Charmander's situation in the group one by one.
Upon learning of Charmander's situation, the big shots in the group were not first shocked by Charmander's aptitude improvement, but by Ash's luck.
[Champion Ash: You are truly lucky! To encounter a 3S aptitude Charmander, this level of aptitude is probably a once-in-a-millennium rarity within the entire Charmander species. My Charizard only had one S aptitude to begin with.]
[Feiqiu Xiao Zhi: No, why do I always run into you, this show-off, every time I log in? Are you even human?! Can you share a little bit of luck with me! Just a little! At least let me not always catch Magikarp!]
Feiqiu Xiao Zhi saw the show-off as soon as he entered the group, making his liver ache with anger. Why did he always so precisely encounter a certain show-off flaunting whenever he entered the group!
Even if he occasionally didn't, he would foolishly scroll up through the chat history, infuriating himself all over again.
This behavior could only be described as a sin.
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: Uh—I also don't know why I always run into you, Feiqiu Dalao. Speaking of which, why do you Dalaos always reply to me the moment I enter the group? Are you all always watching the group?]
Ash noticed that whenever he asked a question in the group, someone would reply to him in less than five seconds. Were these people just constantly watching the group with nothing else to do?
He knew that he was exhausted just from traveling every day, and only occasionally had time to check the group during breaks to learn some knowledge.
Usually, with Xiao Xia and Brock nearby, entering the group required closing his eyes and activating the light spot in his mind, which would undoubtedly appear very strange to Xiao Xia and Brock.
Therefore, entering the group also depended on the time. Sometimes he could pretend to be resting his eyes to enter the group, and he could also openly enter the group while sleeping at night. But normally, like now, he couldn't possibly say he was going back for a nap and then enter the group right after catching Charmander, could he?
So he could only come to the restroom here.
But everyone else in the group seemed to be in the group at all times. Were they that free?
[Bo Dao Yong Zhe Xiao Zhi: It's not that we're always watching the group, but rather that we've set you as a special focus. As long as you send a message in the group, the group chat will remind us in our minds... However, Feiqiu probably hasn't set it; he'd rather not see you, but he always happens to come in just when you're showing off. It can only be called a fated rivalry.]
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: Special special focus? Is there such a setting? Why do all of you set me as a special focus?]
Ash was stunned; this was the first time he had heard that the group could have a special focus setting. With special focus enabled, as long as someone came online and spoke, they would receive a notification from the chat group.
No wonder every time he popped up, someone in the group would immediately answer, and as the first person appeared, others would also pop up one after another. So everyone had set him as a special focus, but why?
Was his message as a small newcomer that important?
[Champion Ash: Because you are the only one in the group who hasn't reached the peak in any field, a pure newcomer.]
[Breeder Xiao Zhi: You are like a blank canvas now, on which any color can be painted. We all want to experience the feeling of being a mentor.]
[Bo Dao Yong Zhe Xiao Zhi: Theoretically, each parallel universe represents a possibility of our own evolution, so there's also a possibility that a 'me' in one universe could possess all the knowledge and power from all parallel universes.]
[Bo Dao Yong Zhe Xiao Zhi: So we want to see if, under our guidance, you can absorb all the knowledge of us, who stand at the peak of various fields, and make it your own, becoming that theoretical existence.]
[Champion Ash: If you can do it, you will definitely become the Pokémon Master of your dreams!]
Ash looked at the messages from the various big shots in the group, his eyes gleaming with an unusual light.
So the big shots think so highly of me!
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: The big shots think too highly of me—but I will do it, become a Pokémon Master!]
[Champion Ash: Heh heh, that's the kind of confidence we need. Speaking of which, what you said about Charmander's stamina aptitude becoming S is related to the rainbow wing. Regarding this, let the Rainbow Hero explain it to you.]
[Rainbow Hero Ash: The rainbow wing, as Ho-Oh's separated core feather, possesses part of Ho-Oh's core power, such as—Nirvana Rebirth!]
[Rainbow Hero Ash: Under normal circumstances, this ability will not be triggered. First, the Pokémon must enter a near-death state, which is not simply losing the ability to battle, but truly being on the verge of death. Secondly, its attribute must be Fire, and finally, it must possess the aptitude and emotions to be recognized by the rainbow wing.]
[Rainbow Hero Ash: Newcomer, you just said the rainbow wing didn't immediately integrate into Charmander's body, right?]
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: Hmm, I placed the rainbow wing on Charmander, and it took about half an hour to integrate into his body.]
[Rainbow Hero Ash: The rainbow wing is different from ordinary items; under normal circumstances, it cannot be integrated into a Pokémon's body. To integrate it, the Pokémon needs to have an unswerving devotion to you, the Rainbow Hero candidate, as well as a compatible Fire or Flying attribute.]
[Rainbow Hero Ash: In other words, during that time, Charmander felt your affection and sacrifice for him, and his feelings for you also changed, ultimately leading to the rainbow wing integrating into his body, which then caused the aptitude improvement, and his level also increased significantly.]
[Mengxin Xiaozhi: This is just one feather from Ho-Oh; isn't the effect a bit exaggerated?]
Just a single feather could have so many effects; this was simply incredible. If Ho-Oh's main body were to come, wouldn't it be able to directly raise Charmander to 6S aptitude?
[Rainbow Hero Ash: Not exaggerated at all. Ho-Oh's three Legendary Beasts evolved from ordinary Pokémon to Legendary-level existences purely through Ho-Oh's divine radiance. The original three Legendary Beasts all had ability values above 4S, and the probability of their descendants having S-rank aptitude also significantly increased. This is Ho-Oh's divine power—Nirvana.]