Planting Trees and Cooking

The direction Lairon was heading in caught Baimu completely off guard.

"Greenery... saplings?"

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He looked at the shop's sign, then lowered his head to peer inside at the lush interior, which seemed to be surrounded by a green forest. He felt as if he had come to a flower and bird market.

Lairon looked extremely excited. It stood at the entrance, peering inside, then turned to look at Baimu.

"...You really want to raise plants?"

He asked hesitantly. He had not expected Lairon to remember something he had casually mentioned while chatting earlier. Besides, what was a Steel-type Pokémon doing raising flowers and plants?

Seeing that his Trainer's expression remained normal, Lairon hurriedly nodded.

"All right, then."

Baimu led Lairon inside.

There were actually quite a few shops selling flowers, plants, and trees in Pyrite Town. Their main customers were wealthy people. Whether they wanted to cultivate their tastes or improve the natural environment around their homes, these plants were quite useful.

However, keeping plants alive in a place like Pyrite Town was genuinely difficult. Not only was there little rainfall, but the soil was also severely lacking in nutrients. They could only rely on artificial cultivation and careful tending.

Baimu also liked places shaded by luxuriant trees, but he really had no confidence that he could keep a tree alive.

Still.

Since Lairon was interested, there was no harm in giving it a try.

Under the shop assistant's introduction, Baimu kept asking Lairon which varieties it liked. He soon discovered that Lairon had become dazzled by the choices, clearly wanting everything and nodding at whatever he asked.

This left him at a loss. In the end, he made the decision himself and picked a small sapling that was supposedly able to grow very large and could survive in Pyrite Town's soil, along with a potted bonsai that was said to bear Berries.

"Let's just pick these two this time. Once we've managed to keep them alive, we'll come back for more. What do you say?"

Baimu lowered his head and asked Lairon.

However, the creature was already staring at the purchased sapling and the bonsai on the other side, stars beginning to shine in its eyes. "Gurdor~"

"Just how much do you like plants?"

He could not help laughing as he gave the shop assistant the address of his surface residence. The delivery fee was a little expensive, and they would not deliver until tomorrow, but it was still better than carrying such large things himself.

Besides, he did not even know how to transplant them!

After leaving the shop.

He asked Lairon if there was anything else it wanted. Lairon shook its head with little interest, caring only about its sapling and bonsai.

Baimu returned Lairon to its Poké Ball and sent out the pink Chansey.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. What do you want?"

"Lucky..."

Chansey glanced around, then came over and tugged at its Trainer's trouser leg while shaking its head, indicating that there was nothing it wanted.

The Underground City was not a pleasant place for it. The malice of the people around them was glaringly obvious, often making it feel as if it could barely breathe. For now, it only wanted to leave.

Seeing that Chansey was dispirited, Baimu prepared to return it to its ball. But after thinking it over, he put the Poké Ball away instead, bent down, and pressed both hands against its cheeks, squeezing them inward.

Chansey's mouth immediately became O-shaped, and its little paws flailed about in panic.

"Luh! La! Lucky!"

It seemed confused about what its Trainer was trying to do.

"Don't panic. I'm right here beside you. It's okay. No one here can hurt you..." Baimu looked seriously into Chansey's eyes. "We only came out to shop, to buy some things we can't usually get. No one is going to do anything bad to you."

He coaxed it patiently, one word at a time.

Chansey gradually calmed down, and its expression returned to normal.

Only then did Baimu release its cheeks. "So, have you decided now? You helped earn some of the money we're spending, so I'll buy you whatever you want!"

"Lucky..."

Chansey hesitantly glanced around, then tried hard to recall something before beginning to wave its paws about.

At first, its movements were difficult to understand. But once they became gestures for stir-frying, tossing a wok, and the like, Baimu asked several careful questions and finally understood what it wanted—

It wanted to learn how to cook.

Because it wanted to see the entranced, lingering expressions on Baimu and Lairon's faces when they ate fried eggs again.

Delicious food could put people in a good mood.

And seeing the people and Pokémon it cared about smile was what Chansey most wanted. So whether it was healing or cooking, it wanted to master it all.

Its dream was to become a Pokémon that could make its companions feel genuine happiness!

"...You really are something."

Baimu fell silent for a while. He rubbed Chansey with helpless affection. If one had to use a single term to describe its personality, "self-sacrificing" would be absolutely perfect and fitting.

Were most Chansey like this?

Regardless, the heart it possessed was enough to move him.

"Lucky~" Chansey smiled shyly.

"All right, then. Cooking it is."

Baimu looked around and decided to take it to the largest department store in the Underground City. They would surely have cookbooks, ingredients, and all kinds of professional kitchenware brought in from the outside world.

After returning from shopping.

The sky had already grown somewhat dim.

Baimu abandoned the idea of moving over that very day and sorted through the things he had bought.

He had spent nearly two million on this trip.

Why so much?

Leaving aside the miscellaneous items, the most expensive thing was the latest Worry-Free Travel Backpack produced by Devon Corporation. It looked very small on the outside, yet could hold far more than its external size would suggest.

Only after seeing this thing did Baimu understand why Brock could always produce stools, pots, bowls, and other items at lunchtime and dinner.

So it was black technology!

It was said that the principles behind the travel backpack came from a Pokémon, though it was unclear which Pokémon.

Unfortunately, good things were expensive. Baimu had paid 1.5 million for it, while the shop owner had worn an expression that seemed to say Baimu had gotten an incredible bargain.

It had roughly ten cubic meters of internal space, which Baimu felt should be enough.

As an aside.

He had taken custody of Jian's three Pokémon.

Because they had taken special drugs, and the drugs could be detected during a medical examination, their selling price would inevitably be greatly reduced. Of course, he had no intention of selling them. He planned to keep them within the organization.

As Squad Leader, he felt that if possible, it was necessary to increase the strength of his squad's members.

After all, he would not be escaping Pyrite Town anytime soon. Defecting right after becoming Squad Leader would be too dangerous.

He would find a few more reliable people who would not recklessly sell Pokémon and help these three pitiful Pokémon find a good future.

Baimu leaned against his soft pillow. To his left, Chansey slept like a well-behaved child, breathing softly. At his feet, Lairon had nearly pressed a dent into the bed, its snores deep and muffled.

Once Lairon evolved into Aggron, the bed probably would not be able to bear its weight at all.

He should cherish the present...

He closed his eyes and slowly drifted into a dream.

The next day.

Bang, bang, bang.

Someone knocked on the door.

Baimu had just finished washing up when he opened it. He had assumed it was Cheng Hong and the others, who had received the news, but unexpectedly, it was Flobo, whom he had only met yesterday.

"Morning. Did I disturb your sleep?"

"No, I was already awake. Is something wrong?"

He asked curiously. The man standing before him did not seem like someone with much free time.

"I just came to ask on someone's behalf. Do you have any intention of selling Jian's three Pokémon?" Flobo got straight to the point. His directness was genuinely impressive.

Baimu fell silent, then stepped aside. "Come in and talk?"

"All right."

Flobo nodded.

Baimu was not surprised that someone had come asking about the Pokémon. The place where he had left Mightyena and the others was hardly a tightly run institution. Those shameless people had probably sold all his information by now.

That was perfectly normal in Pyrite Town.