"Shiko!"
Himeko suddenly raised her voice.
"What is it?"
Shiko straightened up, looking at her in a daze.
He had just started to feel sleepy, only to be interrupted again.
"How can you be this lazy? Don't you want to get stronger?"
"What you're doing is wasting your talent!"
Himeko's expression was very serious.
"Of course I want to get stronger. Isn't this exactly me working hard for that goal?"
Shiko answered with a completely straight face.
As soon as he finished, he couldn't help but yawn.
Working hard?
Just hearing that made Himeko angry!
Where in this looks even a little like working hard?
You call sunbathing and napping "working hard"?
You trying to fool little kids?
"The second clause in our agreement. You haven't forgotten, right?"
Shiko softly reminded her.
Himeko's "ice queen" expression clearly froze for a second.
She lowered her head and thought back.
When she lifted her head again…
Shiko could clearly feel that there were literal flames burning in Himeko's eyes.
"Don't tell me… your 'training method' is sleeping and sunbathing!"
Himeko frowned, staring straight at him.
"Yeah. That is my training method."
Shiko nodded, looking completely sincere.
He wasn't lying.
He was bound to the Lying Flat System; all he had to do was eat, sleep, and bask in the sun to get stronger.
This wasn't laziness.
This was seriously cultivating!
"You…"
Himeko pointed a finger at Shiko.
She didn't even know what to say.
"And you still dare say your potential ceiling is higher than a Legendary Pokémon's! I've never seen a Legendary this lazy!"
Himeko finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, glaring at him.
"That's just because you haven't seen enough."
Shiko looked totally unconcerned.
WarGreymon's potential and combat power…
Were not something a mere Third-tier Legendary could compare to.
At the very least, it was at Second-tier Legendary level!
"My knowledge is lacking?"
Himeko was so angry she actually laughed.
She, Isobe Himeko, a dignified Champion-level Trainer.
The youngest Champion-level ever, known as the number one prodigy among Trainers.
Not to mention anything else—
She had seen more than a few Legendary Pokémon.
And that still counted as "not seeing enough"?
Then what would count as seeing enough?
"I'm done talking to you. You lazy pig!"
Himeko shot Shiko a fierce glare,
Then turned around and walked out of the camp.
"Where are you going?"
Shiko called after her back.
"I'm going to catch another Pokémon to replace a certain Charmander that only knows how to sleep and sunbathe!"
Himeko replied, cheeks puffed with anger.
"Then come back early to cook."
Shiko nodded and even reminded her.
"You—!!"
Himeko whipped her head around to glare at Shiko again, stomping her foot hard.
Then she spun back and stalked off without looking back.
"Just wait until I evolve into WarGreymon. We'll see what you say then."
Shiko watched Himeko's figure grow smaller and smaller in the distance,
Muttering to himself.
As soon as he finished muttering,
Drowsiness washed over him again.
He lay down on the soft, fragrant grass, using a long stone slab as a pillow.
Shiko stretched lazily and slowly drifted off into dreamland.
...
"She's still not back?"
By the time Shiko woke up, an hour had already passed.
The two daily quests were complete.
He looked around.
There was no sign of Himeko anywhere.
"Did something happen to her?"
"No, that shouldn't be it. She was a Champion-level Trainer, after all. And this is just the outer edge of the forest. There's no real danger here."
"No, no, better safe than sorry. I should go look for her."
"But I need to eat my fill first!"
Shiko analyzed the situation while muttering to himself,
And walked over to the stove in front of the tent.
On the simple stone stove, a pot of food was still simmering over a low flame.
He lifted the lid.
Inside was a full pot of Pokéblocks.
These Pokéblocks were different from the ones he'd had yesterday.
They were transparent and colorless.
From the looks of it,
They'd just been simply cooked and prepared, with no berry jam added.
Shiko grabbed one and tasted it.
Not bad.
Soft and chewy, with a faint sweetness, going down very clean and refreshing.
"Just a bit more."
"Fill up first, then go find her."
As he thought that,
He picked up a ladle and a bowl and started serving himself.
Clatter, clatter!
Right at that moment,
Shiko suddenly heard a noise behind him.
He instinctively tensed up and turned around warily.
The bushes shook violently, and a gray-brown blur burst out from within.
The gray-brown blur was unbelievably fast.
In an instant, it shot right up to Shiko.
"Bune! Bune!"
Shiko focused his gaze.
Only then did he see clearly what had jumped out of the grass and rushed up to him.
It was an adorable Buneary.
And—
The color of this Buneary…
Didn't look quite right.
A normal Buneary's long, fluffy fur was yellow.
But this one in front of him was pink!
Pink!?
This was a mutated individual—a Shiny Pokémon!
"Bune! Bune!"
The Buneary cried anxiously in front of Shiko,
Its expression tense and flustered.
"You're saying there's a Pokémon chasing you?"
As soon as Shiko finished speaking—
All of a sudden,
From deeper in the forest ahead,
Came the sound of countless heavy footsteps pounding toward them.
It was like a lot of something was stampeding in this direction.
The sound grew closer and closer.
Within Shiko's field of view,
Deep in the shadowy forest,
A wave of purple, like an incoming tide, slowly surged outward…
(End of Chapter)
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[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]