Entei said nothing more. It simply licked Little One's cheek gently, then raised its head to gaze at the autumn rain falling outside.
More than a hundred years was enough time for many things to change. It was no longer the innocent, naïve Pokémon it had once been.
Over the past hundred years, it had encountered many things and met many people.
So Entei knew very well that its Little One was quite different from an ordinary child.
Little One had always refused to call it Dad.
Little One seemed to know a lot of things.
Sometimes, Little One acted like a little adult.
All of this showed that its Little One wasn't an ordinary human child.
But so what?
The time they had spent together was real, and Little One's "love" for it wasn't fake, either.
No matter what, this was its Little One, its child.
It would protect this child for his whole life. No... forever.
At that moment, Entei's mind was filled with thoughts.
Human lives had to come to an end eventually. As a father, it would never let Little One die.
When Lord Ho-Oh returned, it would ask him to grant Little One eternal life, just like it and Raikou and Suicune had.
No matter how great the price, Entei would pay it willingly.
In the afternoon, the rain stopped.
The air was filled with the damp scent of earth and grass, and a brilliant rainbow hung in the sky.
At the first sight of the rainbow, Dongshu thought their photographer, Ho-Oh, had flown back. But after taking a closer look, he was disappointed to find that it was just an ordinary rainbow.
The ground was wet, and if he went outside, mud would cake his feet.
Dongshu didn't want to get covered in mud, but he wanted to go outside and pick all the Berries that had already grown.
That way, by the day after tomorrow, the trees would be full of fruit again.
Seeing this, Entei could only sigh and let Dongshu ride on its back to the orchard. They picked all the Berries from the trees, put them in baskets, and stored them in the Warehouse Dongshu had dug out.
Looking at the heaps of Berries piled up like little hills inside the Secret Base, Dongshu grinned, unable to stop a radiant smile from spreading across his face.
Now they wouldn't have to worry about going hungry all winter!
Meanwhile, at the foot of Heavenly Green Mountain,
an elegant blue figure stepped onto the land.
It looked up at the peak of Heavenly Green Mountain, which disappeared into the clouds, and furrowed its brow slightly.
Entei was up there.
Suicune set off along the mountain path, its four legs carrying it swiftly uphill as its ribbon-like tail swayed lightly behind it.
As it went, Suicune kept an eye on the scenery around it.
Heavenly Green Mountain... hadn't changed.
At least, it had looked the same the last time Suicune came back.
So what could possibly be keeping Entei here, preventing it from leaving?
The scenery blurred past. As the Incarnation of the North Wind, Suicune was incredibly fast.
Before long, it reached the mountainside.
The summit was still some distance away.
But Suicune could sense that Entei was here. Not only that, Marshadow was here, too.
No, not just the two of them... Suicune knitted its brow. It could faintly sense another presence besides Entei and Marshadow.
That presence was very weak... Suicune had only felt this sort of thing from Pokémon that had just hatched from eggs.
At that moment, an incredible thought suddenly occurred to Suicune.
Could Entei and Marshadow have secretly raised a Pokémon hatchling here on Heavenly Green Mountain, behind its and Raikou's backs?
But that couldn't be right! Neither Entei nor Raikou seemed like the kind of Pokémon who would do something like that.
And Marshadow was even less likely.
It had arrived.
Suicune stopped in its tracks.
It looked up at the cave ahead.
Suicune remembered this place. Back when they guided the Rainbow Hero through his trials, they would sometimes come here to rest.
But compared with the cave in its memories, this place seemed to have changed quite a bit.
A grove full of Berries had sprung up beside the cave at some point.
The fruit trees stood in neat rows, as if someone had planted them.
As Suicune continued forward, its gaze passed through the entrance and into the cave.
The cave, once lined with uneven rock walls, had now become a square room, just like a human home.
What shocked Suicune even more was that the floor had been covered with wooden boards that gave off a natural feel.
"What is this?!" Suicune looked utterly astonished.
Just then, a familiar figure emerged from inside the cave.
Suicune looked up and saw that Entei had come out and was gazing back at it from a distance.
"Entei..."
Suicune was about to speak to Entei through telepathy when, in the next instant, it noticed a human child standing behind Entei—one it had never seen before!
Suicune's pupils shrank sharply.
The child noticed its arrival at that moment, too. The instant he saw Suicune, he froze in place.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Suicune turned its gaze back to Entei.
Its voice sounded as gentle and melodious as a flowing stream.
"Entei, what happened here?"
"As you can see, I adopted this child." Entei's voice was solemn. "Let me introduce him, Suicune. This is Dongshu, my child."
Adopted... A child...
Suicune's pupils trembled violently.
How could this be?
Why had Entei, a Pokémon, brought a human child back to Heavenly Green Mountain and taken him in as its own?
More importantly, it seemed to have forgotten its mission...
Suicune's tone grew increasingly serious.
"Entei, we deserve an explanation," it said.
"Little One's parents died protecting us Pokémon. He had no family left in the human world, so I brought him to Heavenly Green Mountain and decided to raise him." Entei gave a brief explanation. "Marshadow and Raikou already know."
Suicune: "..."
So it was the only one who hadn't known?
Suicune had no right to interfere with Entei's decision, and it didn't want to interfere, either.
It simply said softly, "Entei, you've stayed on Heavenly Green Mountain for too long. You and I both have our own missions, and we don't have time to look after a human child."
Entei remained silent. It couldn't answer Suicune.
It had already made its choice. Between fulfilling its mission and caring for Little One, it had chosen the latter.
"If Lord Ho-Oh holds me responsible, I'll take the blame alone," Entei said gravely.
"Lord Ho-Oh will be back soon," Suicune said.
Of the Legendary Beasts, Suicune was closer to Ho-Oh, so it knew far more about Ho-Oh's whereabouts than Entei or Raikou did.
The two Pokémon didn't hide their conversation from Dongshu. He couldn't help grabbing a tuft of Entei's fur.
Ho-Oh was coming back?
No, given Ho-Oh's personality, he probably wouldn't blame Entei, right? Probably... right?
Dongshu looked anxiously at Entei beside him. A lot of thoughts raced through his mind.
Soon, one of them rose to the forefront.
If things really came down to it, should I just run away?
First, I could travel around the world and shock everyone, earn enough Shock Points, then exchange them for a hundred Rare Candies and level Entei straight up to level 100. Then we wouldn't have to fear Ho-Oh.
Before you continue