Meria House.
Even in Jubilife City, where every inch of land was worth a fortune, this building showed no sign of age compared to its neighbors.
Li Wei had already heard Meria's story from Mr. Zoro.
"Hello, we'd like to go inside and have a look. Here's the authorization Section Chief Zoro gave me."
Zoro had hurriedly arranged an electronic document for him and sent it to his phone.
Without that authorization, Li Wei probably wouldn't have been allowed into the orphanage. His only option would have been to force his way in.
After glancing at the document and Dragapult,
the middle-aged security guard nodded. "Go on in, but keep an eye on your Pokémon. It would be best to put it back in its ball."
There was nothing Li Wei could do about that. Dragapult certainly wouldn't want to go into her ball right now.
Before they arrived, Meria House had already received a call from Zoro informing them of Li Wei's visit.
The moment she entered, Dragapult saw the person she had thought about day and night.
To the left of the entrance was a large group photo of Meria, wearing a hat and smiling sweetly, surrounded by children.
The photo had been framed behind glass and was exceptionally well preserved.
"Grru..." Dragapult gently rubbed her enormous head against the glass.
Though it felt cold, it seemed so real to Dragapult.
"A Pokémon!"
"What a cool Pokémon!"
The enormous Dragapult and Metagross soon caught the attention of the children in Meria House.
With so many rowdy children around, Drakloak quickly hid on top of Li Wei's head, resting its own head against his.
Li Wei was over six feet tall, so no matter how high the children jumped, they couldn't reach Drakloak.
"Please stop! Don't damage that!"
A short-haired woman in her twenties hurried forward to stop Dragapult when she saw what the Pokémon was doing.
Li Wei quickly stepped between them. "Sorry, she isn't damaging anything. She just misses Miss Meria terribly."
"Huh? Really?"
Watching what Dragapult was doing, the short-haired woman couldn't really argue.
"Hey, hey, mister! Can you tell me what it's called?"
A little girl with two braids and gaps in her teeth tugged at Li Wei's trouser leg, looking up at him expectantly.
"That's Metagross."
"What about that one? What about that one?"
"That's Drakloak."
"Dra... Drakloak!"
"So shiny!"
"So cool! So cool!"
"Mister, why is there a Pokémon growing out of your head? Is it because you're a Pokémon too?"
The children surrounded Li Wei, bombarding him with questions. It was noisier than a marketplace.
The security guard laughed without a care. "That's why I told you to put your Pokémon away!"
He hadn't been worried about the Pokémon attacking anyone. He had simply seen how these children reacted to Pokémon plenty of times before.
"Everyone, come back here!" Several staff members came out one after another and led the children away.
"Metang..."
Metagross quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Those little troublemakers had nearly climbed onto its head.
At the sight of Dragapult, a flicker of recollection crossed the eyes of a woman nearing fifty.
Especially when she saw how longingly Dragapult gazed at Meria in the photograph.
She nodded with a smile. "I'm Rosa, the acting director here. May I ask if she..."
But twenty years had passed. Could this really be the same Dragapult? Even Rosa wasn't sure.
Acting director?
Li Wei nodded. "She's Miss Meria's Dragapult. Drakloak is her child."
A heartfelt smile spread across Rosa's face.
"You're finally here, Dragapult. Please come with me. I have something to give you."
Li Wei nodded. "Dragapult, let's go for now. We'll have a look at some other things."
"Grru..."
Dragapult reluctantly left, looking back at the group photo every few steps.
Rosa led them into a room, and Li Wei tossed out a Luxury Ball. "Come out, Lucario."
Li Wei still needed Lucario to translate.
Since Li Wei already had a Shiny Metagross, Rosa wasn't surprised to see that he also had a Lucario. She explained,
"This is the room Miss Meria lived in."
The room looked familiar to Li Wei. Its layout was almost identical to the upstairs bedroom on Misty Mountain.
A recliner, a bed, a dressing table, and a bay window. Even the curtains were the same.
The only difference was a framed photograph on the table, showing Dragapult and Meria together.
In the photo, Meria rested one hand on Dragapult, her smile tender and affectionate. She looked beautiful.
Even Li Wei recognized the room, so it went without saying that Dragapult did. She sank into her memories.
Dragapult sat in a daze beside the bay window, gazing at Meria's photograph as memories washed over her.
Rosa spoke slowly. "Then let me begin with how Meria House came to be."
Li Wei had already heard this story. It was mainly being told for Dragapult's sake.
Meria had been wealthy, but her life had hardly been fortunate. Her parents died in a car accident, leaving her nothing but a cold, lifeless inheritance.
Fortunately, the Dreepy her parents had given her as a child stayed by her side until she was thirty.
Dreepy had been with her for twenty-five full years and had long since become family.
When she was thirty, Meria fell gravely ill. There was essentially no treatment available; surgery was her only chance.
The surgery failed.
After the operation, Meria could only lie in bed. About seven days later, she passed away.
She donated all her money to establish a foundation.
The foundation's funds were used solely for the upkeep and operation of Meria House.
There was a great deal of money, and with only one children's orphanage to support, it had kept the place running for many years.
Rosa merely managed it on Meria's behalf. Someone else would eventually take her place, but Meria would always be the orphanage's director.
"As for Dragapult, before Director Meria passed away, she asked us to look for you."
Dragapult raised her head and met Rosa's eyes.
"Director Meria asked us to tell you not to wait for her anymore. She had gone to heaven, far away."
"We went about ten times, but we never found you. We were actually relieved, thinking you'd already left."
"We never imagined that even after twenty years, you would still be there."
Dragapult knew Meria was gone,
but she was still waiting for her.
All to honor that promise.
As long as Meria appeared, Dragapult could become her Pokémon again.
"Dragapult, these are the twenty-seven letters Director Meria... left behind. I can finally give them to you."
Rosa opened a drawer and took out a thick stack of letters, each tucked inside an envelope.
The envelopes were old-fashioned but well preserved. Each bore Dragapult's name, with no address.
These were twenty-seven letters, and twenty-seven tokens of Meria's longing for Dragapult.
"Grru..."
Li Wei accepted them on Dragapult's behalf.
Those twenty-seven letters were light, yet they weighed a thousand tons.
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