Not Being a Trainer This Time

"Aa-gassi!"

Koraidon instantly understood, spread its wings at once, dove down, and caught the falling Happiny just in time.

The still-shaken Happiny opened its eyes and saw a human and a strange Pokemon who had just saved it.

"Buku?"

"You’re okay now." Naoki soothed the shaken Happiny.

Judging by the way it looked, there didn’t seem to be a Trainer nearby, which meant this Happiny was wild!

Happiny, the Playhouse Pokemon. After it evolves, it becomes Chansey and Blissey.

In the Pokemon Center and Pokemon Hospital, these two Pokemon are Miss Joy and the doctors’ best partners and assistants!

Thinking of that, Naoki’s first reaction was that the doctor for the Pokemon Hospital on the World Tree was finally settled.

"Let’s go down first." Naoki glanced at the situation below and spoke.

The fight between the Mankey and Bombirdier wasn’t over yet. Koraidon slowly landed on another peak.

As soon as they landed, Happiny jumped out of Naoki’s arms, looking anxiously in the direction of the Mankey and Bombirdier.

"Buku!"

Happiny turned to look at Naoki and Koraidon who had saved it, then looked back across, and actually just ran off.

Naoki hurriedly called out, "Happiny!"

"Buku!" Happiny called back from afar, but didn’t turn around.

Naoki was a bit dumbfounded.

How come it just escaped and then rushed right back in?

Luckily, at this crucial moment, the fight between the Mankey and Bombirdier came to an end.

The Mankey, having burned through a ton of energy but never managing to hurt the Bombirdier above their heads, actually got so mad they fainted.

And it wasn’t just one Mankey!

The rest of the Mankey seemed to regain their senses. They glared angrily at the Bombirdier, and then several of them suddenly burst into a white light.

Those few Mankey had literally evolved into Primeape out of sheer anger!

The veins of rage popped on the Primeape’s foreheads, but since they couldn’t fly, they had no choice but to carry their fainted companions back to their own turf.

Happiny, meanwhile, ran to the spot where the Mankey had just been throwing their fit and anxiously started searching for something.

Seeing this, Naoki quickly realized what Happiny was looking for!

It was looking for that round stone that had just been snatched by the Mankey!

Because Pokemon like Happiny really love things that are white and round. If the round stone in their pouch gets taken away, they’ll bawl their eyes out and make a huge fuss.

That’s because they’re still young and can’t lay eggs like Chansey yet.

So the only thing they can do is imitate Chansey and look for white, round stones as a substitute.

It’s said that Pokemon scholars once observed that wild Happiny will carefully cherish smooth, egg-like round stones by placing them in the pouch on their belly, sometimes stuffing so many in that they can’t even move.

This really is...

Naoki actually didn’t know what to say for a moment.

He followed along with Koraidon. Unable to find the stone, Happiny just plopped down on the ground and burst into loud, wailing sobs.

"Aa-gassi..." Koraidon’s head was pounding from all the noise.

Naoki looked around and noticed that on both sides of the mountain path were complex valleys and cliffs. That stone just now was very likely to have fallen into the valley.

Seeing that Happiny was still crying, Naoki quickly took out some Pokeblock to coax it.

"Alright, alright, don’t cry. That stone probably fell down the cliff. I’ll have Koraidon take you down to look for it."

Happiny really did stop crying and lifted its tearful eyes to look at the human in front of it.

"Buku?"

Naoki nodded and promised, "Really."

Happiny’s eyes instantly lit up. "Buku!"

Naoki checked the time on his Rotom Phone, saw it was still early, and then went down to the bottom of the mountain with Koraidon, bringing Happiny along.

As soon as Koraidon landed, Happiny immediately couldn’t wait to start searching all around.

Naoki and Koraidon also helped search at the side.

But after the whole group had searched for a long time, they still didn’t find a single round stone.

"Buku..."

Happiny now also realized it might never find that precious stone again, and the whole Pokemon looked utterly crushed.

That look was exactly like a middle-aged man who’s just been laid off from his company.

Naoki and Koraidon exchanged a glance, and he comforted, "Don’t worry, if we look more carefully we might still find it."

However, Happiny gave up. It turned away in dejection and walked off into the distance.

No matter how Naoki called out to it, Happiny remained unmoved, like its soul had left its body.

Naoki: "..."

Just then, a Phanpy found its way over and said it had found a glowing stake!

Hearing this, Naoki regretfully glanced at the departing Happiny, but the important task came first.

He followed behind the Phanpy to the destination to pull out that stake.

Happiny, meanwhile, had walked to a strange place.

It looked like a large gate, locked shut by four chains.

Happiny looked up at it, then climbed up the cliff and sat there in a daze, completely out of it.

*

Maybe it was because the Pokemon here were familiar with this mountain region.

In just two hours, Naoki had already followed behind them to pull out five stakes and had found the exact location of the Icerend Shrine where Chien-Pao was Imprisoned.

Seeing that it was almost noon, Naoki glanced at the sun high in the sky and decided to take a break and have lunch first.