Gengar

Chapter 24: Gengar

Monday morning, at Lu Ze's home, at the breakfast table.

Lu Ze said to Lu Ba somewhat ingratiatingly,

"Dad, I want to go to the shop after school this afternoon. Munchlax still needs to learn a few moves. Could you lend me Kommo-o for a while?"

Lu Ba did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Sure, borrow him. It would be great if you could even get him out of there. That homebody Dragon-type stays in the training room all day and never goes outside. Oh, take Zubat with you too. Send him to Umbreon to learn a few more moves, so those two stop showing off their affection in front of me all day."

Lu Ze called out to the Zubat eating beside him.

"Zubat, when I leave for school later, go with my dad, okay? Learn some more of Umbreon's moves too."

"Buzz~ Buzz~"

Zubat flew up to show that he understood, then landed back on the table and continued eating.

Aside from Lu Ze's Pokémon eating at the table, only Audino and the newly caught Eevee were at home. Lu Ba and Lu Ma's other Pokémon were all at the Day Care. There was plenty of room there, along with environments suited to each of them, so they did not have to stay inside Poké Balls.

After getting Lu Ba's permission, Lu Ze reached out and petted Eevee before asking Lu Ma,

"Mom, what Forme are you planning to evolve your Eevee into?"

Lu Ma pressed her chopsticks against her teeth and said troubledly,

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet. They all seem pretty good."

"Then why not evolve it into Espeon? I quite like Espeon."

Lu Ma was a little pleased.

"Sure, then I'll listen to my son. You've really solved a big problem for Mom."

Lu Ze gave Eevee another rub and asked,

"What do you think, Eevee? Is it okay to evolve into your mother's Forme?"

Eevee raised its head and tried to make a sound, but its mouth was full of food. With no other choice, it shut its mouth, nodded, and continued stuffing its face.

Lu Ze continued stroking Eevee as he thought,

That way, it can evolve into Sylveon later. Dad can do some research and turn that into a new paper, raising his standing in academia a little. Sigh, I'm such a good kid, always thinking about Dad.

A faintly smug smile appeared on Lu Ze's face without him realizing it.

Seeing his expression, Lu Ma waved a hand in front of his eyes.

"What are you grinning foolishly about? You're going to be late for school."

"Huh? Ah, then I'm off to school. Bye-bye."

Lu Ze looked up at the time and hurriedly ran toward school.

The day of studying passed quickly, and before long, school was over.

The three of them waited for Su Tingxi outside the school gates. During a break earlier that day, Lu Ze had already told Sui Yan and Tang Yunqin that they would not be going to the Pokémon Battle Center to train today. Instead, they were going to Lu Ze's Day Care and had asked whether they wanted to come. All three readily agreed.

"Sorry to keep everyone waiting."

Su Tingxi came out of the school gates and apologetically spoke to the three laughing and fooling around by the tree.

"It's fine. Let's go. It isn't far, so we can walk there."

"Alright. We can also see whether there are any Dragon-type Pokémon Eggs and support the business."

Su Tingxi smiled happily. When he was alone, he liked browsing various Pokémon and Pokémon Eggs online, so he was more than willing to visit a Pokémon Day Care.

Lu Ze curled his lip and said,

"There might not be any Dragon-type Pokémon Eggs. Dragon-types are very rare."

"Just come take a look with me."

"Fine." ×2

"I don't have a problem with it either."

The three answered together, making Su Tingxi even happier.

When they arrived at Lu Ze's family Day Care, the four of them headed straight for the area where Pokémon Eggs were displayed.

The scattered customers in the store were buying Pokémon food or Energy Cubes. With the rise of delivery services, people now only came in person to choose Pokémon Eggs. For other things, such as Pokémon food and Energy Cubes, they simply placed orders online, and Lu Ma had someone deliver them.

"Hmm, there don't seem to be any patterns that look like they belong to Dragon-type Pokémon."

Su Tingxi said this after studying them carefully for a while.

Since the seniors had already received their Pokémon, Lu Ma had not brought many new Pokémon Eggs over from the main store. Only the first two rows were filled, totaling fewer than a hundred eggs, so Su Tingxi finished looking through them very quickly.

Lu Ze also scanned the display and spotted a Pokémon Egg whose evolved form had the Dragon type.

Pokémon: Exeggcute

Gender: Female

Type: Grass, Psychic type

Ability: Harvest (can repeatedly produce Berries that have already been used)

Aptitude: Purple Aptitude

Basic Moves: Absorb, Hypnosis

Egg Moves: Ingrain, Moonlight, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder

Lu Ze pointed at Exeggcute's Pokémon Egg and said to Su Tingxi,

"This seems to be an Exeggcute Pokémon Egg. If it evolves in the Hawaiian Islands, it becomes an Alolan Form Exeggutor, which is Grass and Dragon-type." (The Hawaii form was equivalent to the Alola Region form.)

"Huh? That sounds pretty good. Lu Ze, analyze it for me."

Su Tingxi stroked his chin as he looked at Exeggcute's Pokémon Egg, hoping Lu Ze could offer some advice. After all, although he wanted to build a Dragon Team, it did not necessarily have to be filled with Pseudo-legendaries, or even entirely Dragon-types. Right, Dragon-type Elite Four?

Lu Ze thought for a moment before saying,

"Alolan Form Exeggutor is actually pretty good. Since its Psychic type becomes Dragon-type, it gains a quadruple resistance to Water, Grass, and Electric types. But it also gains a quadruple weakness to Ice type. Compared to Normal Forme Exeggutor, its Attack stat is better, but its Speed is lower, and it loses Chlorophyll, the Ability that boosts Speed."

"Still, because it was a Psychic type before evolving, it can learn Trick Room and set up Trick Room itself. And because of its Dragon type, a Special Attack build can learn Flamethrower, while an Attack stat build gets Earthquake, solving its former weakness against Steel types."

"Its improved Attack stat and its signature move Dragon Hammer are stronger than Dragon Claw. On the Special Attack side, it also has Draco Meteor, Leaf Storm, and so on. It has many weaknesses and relies rather heavily on Trick Room, but its offensive pressure is still quite good. It's up to you."

After hearing Lu Ze's analysis, Su Tingxi was deeply conflicted. Should he take it or not? The sheer number of weaknesses troubled him. The rest was fine, but Flying, Poison, Bug, Dragon, Ice, and Fairy types were all fairly common, aside from Dragon and Fairy types.

"Let me think about it first. Let's go do what you came here for."

Su Tingxi simply could not make up his mind, so he grabbed Lu Ze's hand, eager to leave the area.

"Hey, wait, you're going the wrong way. I need to go inside."

Lu Ze said helplessly when he saw Su Tingxi trying to drag him outside.

Su Tingxi changed direction, lowered his head, and led Lu Ze inward by the hand.

"Sorry. Let's go."

"Sigh, I'll lead the way."

"Okay."

The four entered the large garden behind the building. A small forest lay directly ahead, while Lu Ba's laboratory and Kommo-o's training room stood in a row of buildings to one side.

Sui Yan and Tang Yunqin had been there before and did not show much reaction. Su Tingxi, on the other hand, had looked content from the moment he entered. He felt that being surrounded by so many Pokémon was the most wonderful thing.

"Oh, Lu Ze is back? You brought classmates too? Hello, everyone."

Hearing the voices, Lu Ba came out of his laboratory with a smile and greeted them.

Tang Yunqin obediently said,

"Hello, Uncle Lu."

Sui Yan, who was clearly missing a screw, said,

"Morning, Uncle Lu."

Lu Ba froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"Haha, morning, Sui Yan."

"Dr. Lu? You're Dr. Lu?"

Only then did Su Tingxi react, asking in shock.

"That's right, but you can call me Uncle Lu as well. You're Xiao Ze's classmate, so there's no need to be so formal."

Su Tingxi's eyes shone just as Tang Yunqin's had when she saw Dratini.

"Really, Uncle Lu? I like you so much. I always thought you were in Upper Capital. I never expected you to be in Chang'an City. Oh my god, what a pity."

Su Tingxi spoke with both excitement and regret, looking like a devoted little fan.

"Gengar!!"

A Gengar suddenly sprang out from behind Lu Ba, startling Lu Ze and the others.

"Ah! Gengar, you scared me again!"

Tang Yunqin glared angrily at Gengar. The first time she had come here with Lu Ze and Sui Yan after meeting Lu Ze, Gengar had frightened her. Ever since then, it had startled her from time to time.

Lu Ze and Sui Yan were used to it. They had been frightened by Gengar ever since they were little. Aside from the sudden shocks, it did nothing else, and after enough time, they stopped caring.

Su Tingxi, meanwhile, had been so caught up in his own emotions that he was left dazed by the scare.

Sui Yan poked Su Tingxi with a finger and asked,

"Hey, are you okay?"

Only then did Su Tingxi come back to his senses. He clutched his rapidly beating chest and swallowed.

"Th-that scared me to death."

Lu Ba awkwardly stroked Gengar, whose wide grin showed how pleased it was with itself for scaring someone, and said to Su Tingxi,

"Sorry, kid. It scared you. I'll give him a proper lesson."

"Gengar~"

Hearing Lu Ba's words, Gengar became a little unhappy. Its mouth drooped downward as it put on a pitiful expression.

"It's fine, Uncle Lu. Ghost-type Pokémon all like scaring people. I'm okay."

"Gengar~"

Gengar cast off its dejection, grinned again, and approvingly patted Su Tingxi's waist. It could not reach his shoulder because it was too short, leaving it no choice. Its expression clearly said, "You've got good sense, kid."

Lu Ze was a little curious.

"How come I haven't seen Gengar in such a long time?"

Lu Ba lovingly stroked Gengar and said,

"A while ago, Gengar got bored and went out front. It scared some customers, and your mother flew into a rage. It was so frightened that it didn't dare come out and see anyone for nearly a month. Your mother isn't here today, so it finally came out to get some air."

"Haha, so that's what happened."

Lu Ze, Tang Yunqin, and Sui Yan mercilessly laughed at Gengar.

Gengar: ???! I'll remember this!

"By the way, Dad, where's Kommo-o?"

"Boom!"

The moment Lu Ze finished speaking, Kommo-o rushed out of its personal training room and struck a pose.

Kommo-o: This lord has made a dazzling entrance!

Lu Ze could not help laughing as he touched the tail sticking out from Kommo-o's rear. He could already imagine Kommo-o eavesdropping behind the door, then impatiently rushing out the moment it heard its name.

Lu Ba knew his Pokémon's personality very well and laughed.

"You all go have fun first. I'm going back to continue writing my report. Come on, Gengar, let's head back too."

"Gengar~"

"Goodbye, Uncle Lu." ×3

After Lu Ba left, Lu Ze released Munchlax.

"Kommo-o, do me a favor. Help me specially train Munchlax some more."

Lu Ze counted on his fingers one by one.

"Finish teaching it Bulk Up from last time, then Stomping Tantrum, Body Slam, Sleep Talk, Superpower, Zen Headbutt. It would be even better if you could teach it Hyper Voice."

Since Munchlax did not need anyone to teach it Rest and had comprehended it on its own, Lu Ze could only ask Kommo-o to teach it Sleep Talk, which paired well with Rest.

"Roar!"

Kommo-o wrapped Munchlax in one arm and patted its chest with the other claw to show there was no problem.

"Alright, I'll leave Munchlax to you. We'll go see how Zubat's training is going."

"Roar!"

Kommo-o held Munchlax as it headed toward its personal training room, while Lu Ze and the other three walked toward the forest where the Eevee couple lived.