Let's Hatch an Egg

Of course, it was a Pokémon Egg.

Although Akesato had already decided that his system was garbage, he had always felt that its design choice of "not making Pokémon Eggs drop from defeated monsters" was perfectly reasonable.

Other worlds were one thing, but in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, the wild monsters were Cursed Spirits formed from concentrated curses. They had absolutely nothing to do with cute and charming Pokémon.

If they really had to drop Eggs, then only things like Gastly, Misdreavus, and Phantump would make any sense. Akesato could only walk the path of a "Ghost-type Master" with no turning back.

Fortunately, the garbage system was fairly reliable in this regard.

The key to obtaining Pokémon was not Cursed Spirits, but living beings—or, more precisely, Maki and the other two.

Akesato had cleared so many maps without any reaction, yet the system responded when the three introduced themselves.

—Pokémon meme detected. Meme collection and conversion in progress. Congratulations, you have obtained a Pokémon Egg.

Thinking back to when the system had activated eight years ago, Akesato formed a certain guess.

Of course, whether it was correct would have to wait until the Egg hatched.

Akesato had been so eager to get home precisely because he wanted to hatch the Egg.

According to Pokémon worldbuilding, artificial incubation required specialized equipment and a complete process. Unfortunately, the unscrupulous system had provided neither. Akesato could only rely on superstition and his understanding of Pokémon to piece together a desperate method.

Talk to the Egg, sleep while holding the Egg—after all, that was the central theme of Pokémon.

What? Pokémon Journeys? One Ball Man? Built-in charm?

Sorry, Akesato had transmigrated too early. He had never seen them. Sun and Moon was the finale, and he had never even heard of Goh.

Yes, that was exactly right.

After all, that was how Ralts had hatched.

One morning, he woke up to find shattered eggshells all over his bed, along with a tiny little girl with green hair and white clothes on his arm, barely larger than his palm.

Then, to sum it up in four words—

Akesato had hit the jackpot.

If not for getting hungry in the end and mom calling him to eat, he would have stayed on that incredible high forever.

With a successful experience under his belt, there was no way Akesato would not use it again.

The moment he got home, Akesato took out the Egg and held it against his chest, stroking it as he murmured, "Hatch quickly..."

He looked almost as bad as Jindai High School's football team—before Sousuke Sagara joined.

The result shocked mom for an entire year.

"Ari, are you okay?"

Akemi was genuinely frightened. She thought her son had been cursed by some Cursed Spirit and had undergone a drastic change in temperament.

"I'm fine, really. This is a necessary process. If I treat it well, it'll treat me well."

Akesato himself did not think much of it. It was the same with getting along with people.

"As long as you're fine. But if you act like this, Little Sa will get jealous."

"Sa~"

Sitting beside Akesato, Gardevoir hurriedly shook her head. Yet the dimness in her eyes and the droop of her emerald hair made it obvious that she was indeed feeling a little down.

She was usually the one who received this treatment. Especially when she had been a Ralts, she had practically used Akesato's lap as a chair and his stomach as a cushion.

Her aggrieved expression, coupled with how she did not want to make her trainer worry, made one's heart ache.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault."

A single glance was enough to undo Akesato. He reached out to take Gardevoir's hand, but had nowhere to put the Egg, leaving him flustered.

In the end, Gardevoir used Psychic to lift the Egg, curiously examining this future companion.

Akesato suddenly had an idea. "Little Sa, do you know how to hatch an Egg?"

Pokémon were all oviparous. For egg-laying creatures, hatching should be an instinct, probably.

"Sa? ((⊙_⊙)?)" Gardevoir tilted her head, then placed the Egg in her arms.

Akesato: "..."

Wasn't this still his method?

Forget it, he should do it himself.

Just as he reached out to take the Egg back, another pair of hands reached over and took it first.

It was Akemi.

"If it's just holding it and talking to it, Mom can do that too. Hurry and be born—preferably as a child as cute as Little Sa."

"Sa~" Gardevoir was delighted by the compliment.

Akesato was delighted too. If Mom's words came true, that would be double the joy.

Setting aside the lucky-jinx factor, Akesato also thought having Mom hatch the Egg was a good choice.

In the entire Akesato family, only she had experience being a mother.

If mom had something to do, everyone could take turns. Anyway, everyone in the Akesato family was a good person. It wasn't a bad thing for Pokémon to be close to any of us.

"Mm-hm, then it's happily decided. Mom, you hold it for now. I'll go cook. Little Sa, come help me."

"Sa~ sa~"

"Wait. Little Sa, go wash the vegetables first. Ari, go back to your room first. There's a letter from MF Bunko—I put it on your desk."

"Two pieces of good news at once. Little Sa's premonition was really accurate."

Akesato jogged all the way back to his room. Two minutes later, he ran back out and placed the letter on the coffee table.

"It's a contract offer. The physical book can be published soon. I'll call the editor right away."

"Hello, is this Machida Editor? Hello, I'm RED, the author of Infinite Stratos—"

Seeing Akesato like this, Akemi and Gardevoir were happy for him as well. The Akesato household brimmed with joy, and even the Pokémon Egg in Akemi's arms trembled gently, as though it could sense the warm atmosphere of the family.

The third day arrived.

Due to preparations for the contract, Gardevoir's exhaustion, the new Pokémon Egg, and a whole series of other matters, Akesato hadn't gone out to scan maps and grind levels. He had stayed home the entire time, and even slept more soundly than usual.

What woke him from his sleep was an itch in his nose, as though something were scratching it.

"Little Sa, stop messing around."

Still half-asleep, Akesato answered instinctively. Back when Ralts had been small, she would occasionally crawl onto his face and play like this.

To his surprise, the scratching on his nose grew stronger. When he opened his eyes, he found himself staring into a pair of panda eyes.

Literal panda eyes—the eyes of a panda.

It was a little panda only a few dozen centimeters tall, with a bamboo leaf in its mouth. Its black little paws curiously pawed at Akesato's face.

"Playful Panda!"

Akesato blurted out. The little guy seemed startled and promptly stepped on his face before jumping out through the half-open bedroom door.

"Don't run!"

Akesato hurriedly got out of bed and chased after it.

The moment he stepped outside, he saw Akemi and Gardevoir running in circles after the wildly bouncing panda. Its bratty nature was on full display.

As expected of a Playful Panda—it was completely different from the well-behaved Ralts.

In that case, he couldn't raise Playful Panda the same way he had raised Ralts. If a naughty child wasn't properly disciplined, it would really turn the house upside down.

"Little Sa, use Psychic to hold it still."

"Sa~"

Although Gardevoir was reluctant to bully a newborn, her master had given an order, so she complied and directly caught Playful Panda.

Akesato reached over and flicked its forehead, lecturing, "You can play, but there needs to be a limit. Don't cause trouble for others, and don't make a mess of the house!"

"The little one was only just born. How could it understand so much? You can't be too impatient when raising children."

Akemi laughed, seeming to have found something else Akesato wasn't good at.

His mother proactively opened her arms and picked Playful Panda up. As she rocked it, she comforted it:

"Good boy, don't be scared. Your brother and sister were just playing with you."

Though it wasn't as humanlike as Gardevoir, Akemi genuinely liked this Playful Panda, both because pandas were adorable and because of its mischievousness.

Her two sons, Kamo Noriki and Akesato, were both far too steady and mature. They lacked the liveliness children should have, and Playful Panda's appearance perfectly filled that gap.

To that, Akesato could only say: as long as mom was happy.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

Akesato naturally went to answer it. He had arranged to meet the editor that morning. Though it was a little early, there was no need to leave someone waiting outside.

As he headed toward the entrance, he didn't forget to signal Gardevoir with his eyes, telling her to hide in a room. The editor was an ordinary person, unrelated to the Jujutsu world.

However, the moment Gardevoir turned around, Playful Panda, who had been pretending to behave in Akemi's arms, revealed its true colors. With a biu, it sprang up again, bounced off the walls and ceiling several times, passed right through the door Akesato had opened, and landed squarely on the face of the white broom-haired man at the doorway.

Akesato: "Holy... shit..."