Pidgey Lost Its Soul Along with Its Stone—Help It

Today had been so much fun. Yan Yang happily headed home with Litleo, humming a little tune along the way, feeling as though his steps had become much lighter.

However, on the way home, Yan Yang spotted a Pidgey standing listlessly on the ground. Its dejected appearance made it impossible not to spare it another glance.

And this Pidgey looked familiar. He seemed to have seen it somewhere before. After thinking carefully, he remembered—it appeared to be the one that had landed on Litleo's egg last time.

After spending so much time with Pokémon, he could recognize individual Pokémon even among the same species. Unlike other people, who thought all Pokémon of the same kind looked more or less alike, there were actually major differences. Some were taller, some thinner, some had longer feathers, and some had brighter eyes...

This Pidgey was clearly larger than others of its kind. A rough look at its condition showed that it had lived for quite some time; every part of its body was already fully mature. It should have evolved long ago.

Besides, Yan Yang had encountered most of the Pidgey in this forest a few times, but he had never seen this one before. It had probably flown over from another forest.

Litleo curiously crawled over and poked it with a little paw, but Pidgey still showed no reaction.

Pidgey were Pokémon famous for their bad tempers. If someone touched one and it still remained so listless, then the situation had to be serious. Could it be depressed?

As someone who had been through something similar, Yan Yang could understand Pidgey's current state well. Out of respect for Entei's usual teachings and his own love for Pokémon, he was more than willing to lend this Pidgey a hand.

And this time, he chose to help it himself instead of calling Entei. It would not be good to keep troubling him. Besides, Yan Yang needed more practice himself, and he could take Yan Bao along to get familiar with the forest.

But first, he had to find out what exactly had happened. It was time for God's Eye to make an appearance again.

Very soon, Pidgey's information appeared before his eyes:

"Pidgey (Stranger)

Gender: Female

Type: Normal, Flying

Level: 22

Ability: Keen Eye (Its accuracy cannot be lowered, and it ignores changes to the opponent's evasion)

Item: None

Moves: Omitted

Status: In despair after losing something important, which has also prevented it from evolving.

Evaluation: It has a temper as notoriously bad as Mankey's. Be careful of their flocks in the wild. If it's alone, then forget I said anything."

Yan Yang roughly understood why Pidgey was like this. Had it lost something very important? That really would make someone sad.

Thinking back, it seemed to have been interested in Litleo's egg before. Then the thing it had lost should have been something fairly large and round as well, right?

"Pidgey, did you lose something?"

Pidgey showed no response at all.

"Did you lose a stone?"

As though it had heard some crucial keyword, Pidgey instantly snapped out of its previous dejected state and chirped anxiously, "Pidgey~ Yes, yes! I lost a very important stone. Have you seen it?"

"No, but I can help you look for it."

Pidgey was a little disappointed. So he did not know where it was after all. It chirped sadly, "Pidgey, Pidgey~ I've been looking for so long and still couldn't find it. Maybe I'll never find it again."

"Don't worry. If we work hard, we'll definitely find it. Isn't it something very important to you? You can't just give up like this. Pull yourself together!" Yan Yang began encouraging Pidgey.

Pidgey regained a little confidence, but it was still somewhat distracted overall.

Wild Pokémon were not particularly aggressive. Usually, as long as one did not deliberately provoke them or pick a fight, there would be no trouble. At least, every Pokémon Yan Yang had encountered had been easy enough to talk to.

Even if he did run into one with a bad temper, the aura of a Legendary Pokémon on him meant that very few Pokémon would dare to come at him head-on. So Yan Yang had always been rather carefree and did not keep his guard up much around unfamiliar Pokémon.

Helping this Pidgey was simply an act of kindness.

Seeing that it was doing a little better, Yan Yang began asking what had happened.

Although Pidgey was still a little sad, it slowly explained.

"A stone about as big as me, with some reddish patterns. It wasn't very round, and it was really heavy. My mother gave it to me. It gets warm, and it's really comfortable to lie on when the weather is cold..."

"I really like all kinds of stones. I've picked up lots of them, but this one was my favorite. Then, more than two weeks ago, it disappeared. I've looked for so long, but I still can't find it..."

That description did not sound like the egg at all. Then why had it landed on the egg back then? It had made him think it was about to do something. Apparently, it had really searched itself silly—anything round with a bit of red on it would catch its attention.

Yan Yang quickly sorted through the information, then had it lead them to the place where it had kept the stone.

It was not far away, still within this forest, but it was an area Yan Yang had rarely visited before. No wonder he had not seen it much.

There was a small hollow in the ground, showing that a stone had once been pressed there.

There were no drag marks nearby, though the surrounding grass was a mess. But that was normal. This place did not belong to anyone's territory, and many Pokémon passed through it.

After a simple inspection, Yan Yang guessed that a fairly large Pokémon had taken it. The stone was not light, after all. Small Pokémon like Sentret would not have been able to lift it and could only drag it along.

As for whether another Flying-type Pokémon had carried it away through the air, that did not seem very realistic. A bird carrying a large stone would have been far too conspicuous. He did not believe no Pokémon would have seen it.

So he reached a conclusion: a relatively large land Pokémon had probably taken it.

Though that did not really count as stealing, did it? Such a big stone had been left right in the middle of the road. Who would know it belonged to someone else?

Yan Yang could not help asking, "Are you really that careless? You just left it in the middle of the road?"

Normally, shouldn't valuable things be hidden somewhere safe?

Pidgey: "..."

What could it say? It had only taken the stone out to bask in the sun, then gone off to look for food when it got hungry. When it turned back, the stone was gone.

Maybe it had been careless, but other Pokémon shouldn't just take a big stone from the roadside, right? Besides, its scent should still have been on it.

Seeing it like this, Yan Yang felt rather helpless. It was even more carefree than he was. If its stone had really looked nice, other Pokémon might have wanted to take it.

Just as he was about to say more, Yan Yang noticed Litleo diligently sniffing around the pit, seemingly trying to identify the lingering scents and use them to find the Pokémon that had stolen the stone.

Yan Yang was a little curious. Could it really smell anything? Litleo wasn't a canine Pokémon, so its sense of smell shouldn't have been that good.

Still, even if it couldn't compare to canine Pokémon, its nose was much better than his and Pidgey's.

After sniffing for quite a while, Litleo seemed to have discovered something, and its face lit up with delight.

"Yang, the scents of several Pokémon here are very strong. One of them might have been left by the Pokémon that took the stone."

Yan Yang was pleasantly surprised by Litleo's discovery, but he also knew it probably wasn't right. Yan Bao had most likely gotten it wrong. After all, two weeks had passed, so the scent should have long since faded. What it smelled now was probably the scent of Pokémon that had rested here later.

Still, so as not to disappoint Litleo, he happily said, "That's great. Now we have a lead. Yan Bao, you're amazing."

Litleo happily spun around. Being praised by its Trainer felt wonderful. Unfortunately, it had no idea it was actually headed in the wrong direction.

Pidgey became excited as well. Was it about to find its stone?

To keep the two Pokémon from being disappointed, the next step should be asking the Pokémon nearby whether they had seen anything. That was the right approach.