"What's wrong?"
When Squirtle suddenly called out to them, Xin Mu thought Squirtle wanted to come along again. But he wasn't heading to the cafeteria, so that didn't quite make sense.
"Squirtle. (Are you taking the motorcycle?)"
"What else?"
"Squirtle. (Remember to bring a rain poncho. I have a feeling it's going to rain.)"
Squirtle opened the window and leaned halfway out, seemingly feeling the humidity in the air, before concluding that it would definitely rain.
"The weather forecast said it would be sunny..."
"Squirtle. (Your human weather forecasts are astonishingly inaccurate. Trust me instead. It'll definitely rain this afternoon. It's a skill I learned from a Swampert before.)"
Many animals and Pokémon could sense changes in nature. Pokémon that lived in the sea, in particular, had long since etched that survival skill into their DNA.
Normally, Squirtle didn't possess this trait. They weren't fundamentally sea turtles.
Of course, they weren't strictly tortoises either. They could still enter the water under normal circumstances, but most only lived in coastal waters.
Swampert were actually much the same, but they liked to build nests on beautiful beaches, where storms and tsunamis could devastate their homes.
As a result, Swampert had evolved the ability to sense subtle changes in the sound of the waves and the sea breeze through their fins, allowing them to predict storms.
Whenever unusual weather approached, they would take defensive measures in advance.
If Squirtle really had learned something, the prediction carried some weight. Or perhaps weather forecasts simply tended to feel unreliable.
"Meow. (I'll drive instead.)"
Xin Mu put down the motorcycle keys, and Meownei picked up the car keys herself.
Although all sorts of technology continued to advance, raincoat development had stalled. Riding in the rain was uncomfortable no matter how you looked at it.
There was