Wait, I Was the Nurturer All Along?

Sketch.

The signature move that made Smeargle famous.

With this absurdly dirty move alone, Smeargle had managed to remain a popular competitive Pokémon for years, despite having some of the lowest base stats in the entire Pokédex.

Sketch's effect was simple and brutally effective: it copied a move used by an opponent and made it the user's own.

It could even steal most Legendary Pokémon's signature moves.

Truly the root of all evil.

How could a Pokémon as wicked as Smeargle even exist?!

But then again, if his Eevee had learned Smeargle's signature move, Sketch...

It seemed they had found another "specialty" for the Sunshine Gym!

Still, Qingyu's knowledge of Sketch was mostly limited to the games he had played in his previous life.

Whether it could produce such ridiculous results in reality remained an open question.

And was an Eevee that knew Sketch even legal...?

While Qingyu was questioning his Eevee's legality, his little special-ops Eevee had already returned to the ever-faithful Sunshine Gym.

"Vee?"

Eevee felt the world spin and instinctively closed its eyes. When it opened them again, Qingyu was already standing before it.

The moment it saw its Trainer again, the little Pokémon grew excited, chattering "vee, vee" nonstop as though sharing stories from its trip.

Although Qingyu couldn't understand Pokémon language, he could still feel Eevee's excitement.

"Looks like you really enjoyed that trip."

Qingyu smiled.

Rewards and growth could wait. Making Eevee happy mattered more than anything.

Those 50 growth points were well spent.

Next time I squeeze some points out of the system, I'll let Eevee explore another region too.

"Vee~ (≧≦)ゞ"

Eevee laughed just as cheerfully, but halfway through, its stomach suddenly let out a long, loud string of rumbles.

The little Pokémon immediately curled up in embarrassment, staring straight at Qingyu with sparkling eyes so adorable they ought to have been illegal.

"Playing outside really wore you out, huh?"

Qingyu stroked its fluffy little head. Waiting for it to return had left him a little hungry too.

At this point, they might as well indulge and have a late-night snack.

Late that night, Qingyu sat on his bed, gently stroking Eevee as it slept quietly in a little ball beside his pillow. His gaze settled on the small lines of text before him.

[For you, a reincarnator, training Pokémon is no longer a challenge, thanks to everything you absorbed from your wife in your previous life.]

[Under your direction, Eevee quickly made visible improvements during its travels.]

Yep, definitely visible improvements.

Without this travel-and-growth system, I would never have believed Eevee could learn Sketch...

That's way too OP!

Qingyu grumbled inwardly and continued reading.

[Task: Use the travel-and-growth feature to accelerate Pokémon development. (Completed)]

[Reward: Pokémon Raising Compendium by Blue, the Nurturer]

Here comes the main event!

Qingyu lightly tapped the screen, and a thick stack of notebooks soon appeared in his hands.

Blue, whose full name was Blue Oak, was the protagonist's rival in the first-generation Pokémon games and one of the main cast in the Pokémon Adventures manga.

In the manga, every Pokédex holder-a protagonist-had a particular specialty. Blue, whom Professor Oak called "the Nurturer," naturally excelled at raising Pokémon.

He was said to possess such incredible skill at raising Pokémon that he could significantly improve their strength and had quickly raised a full main team after taking over as the Viridian Gym Leader.

And that was exactly what Qingyu needed most right now.

Looking at the slightly creased notebooks in his hands, which had clearly been leafed through many times, Qingyu couldn't help nodding.

Looks like the genuine article? Blue's own copy, practically mint condition?

These are the Nurturer's personal insights. Anything I learn is a win!

With that thought, Qingyu opened a notebook to the first page.

The table of contents alone made the care put into it obvious.

Not only were the Pokémon thoughtfully organized into categories, but many also had exhaustive raising guides covering everything from diet to training.

It was practically a work of art!

Of course, since Blue was from Kanto, his notes only covered some of the Pokémon in the Kanto Pokédex.

Fortunately, Eevee could be found throughout the various regions, so Blue's notes happened to include a guide to raising one.

On reflection, that made perfect sense.

After all, if the system gave me something I couldn't use right now, it would be pretty useless!

He turned to the pages devoted to Eevee.

Blue had specifically added a small note at the beginning: he had never actually raised an Eevee himself, so this section was based on conclusions he had drawn from observing how Professor Oak and another friend raised theirs.

"Blue's friend? Could that be Red...?"

An image involuntarily surfaced in Qingyu's mind: a figure wearing a baseball cap, with a Pikachu perched on his shoulder.

Wasn't Red's Eevee even less legal than mine?

I need to sit up properly for this!

"Eevee is a very special Pokémon. Its very existence is a miracle."

"Pokémon with branching evolutions are not particularly rare, but Eevee is the only one whose full evolutionary potential remains far from being discovered."

In just a few lines, Blue had laid out Eevee's defining characteristic-

Because of its unstable genes, Eevee could evolve into different forms under different environmental conditions, and it might even have evolutionary paths that had yet to be discovered.

"Blue really does live up to his reputation. Reliable as ever."

Qingyu glanced at the Eevee sleeping peacefully beside his pillow, nodded, and read on.

"For other Pokémon, the battle instincts built through extensive combat at a young age are crucial, almost determining the upper limit of their strength."

"Eevee alone is an exception. What determines its combat power is not its strength, but a state that is difficult to describe."

"Based on my observations, Eevee has difficulty growing stronger before evolution, yet there are many cases of significant improvement after evolution."

"More importantly, its closeness with its Trainer also appears to be a key factor in improving its strength."

"Therefore, we can draw the following conclusion:"

"For an Eevee's Trainer, focusing on developing their bond is far more effective than forcing it to battle."

"Hiss-"

After reading Blue's notes, Qingyu couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.

Thank goodness I didn't send Eevee into the wild to grind levels on its first trip. Wouldn't that have blown up in my face?

Blue's reasoning made perfect sense, and he had very detailed data to support it. It was clearly a scientifically grounded view.

It was just that...

Had Qingyu's instinctive choice really happened to line up with Blue's thinking?

Wait, I was the Nurturer all along?

After studying Blue's techniques for raising Eevee, Qingyu glanced at the little Pokémon snoring comfortably beside his pillow and quickly settled on a plan for its future development-

Let things take their natural course.

Since improving its strength was difficult, he would look to the future and aim for evolution.

Among Eevee's currently known evolutions, Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon were all closely tied to friendship or affection.

If Blue's view was correct, building a deeper bond with Eevee as soon as possible really was his best option for now.

Before it evolved, training it with its newly learned Sketch and experimenting with some unconventional dirty tactics should be enough to handle ordinary Gym Challengers.

As for which form it would eventually evolve into, he would leave that choice to Eevee.

Early the next morning.

Qingyu woke from his dreams and released Eevee, which had rolled into his arms at some point during the night.

He instinctively reached for his phone on the bedside table and opened Poké TV, intending to watch a few good videos before getting up.

It wasn't the best habit, but if he didn't reward his hardworking self before getting out of bed, he always felt listless for the rest of the day.

However...

The moment he opened the app, he was dumbfounded.

What was going on?

Why did the top-right corner say 999+?

Had I woken up to an online hate mob?!