"Please take good care of me from now on, Cottonee!"
Chén Nuò reached out his hand toward Cottonee, a trace of gentleness in his eyes as he tried his best to show goodwill with the mindset of making a friend.
Cottonee looked bewildered, staring at this new master in front of it. Feeling the goodwill radiating from him, it obediently reached out its green leaf.
The green leaf and the boy's small hand met, and a bond was formed right then and there!
"It looks like our boy is getting along well with this little puff of cotton."
Shàngshān Píng said with a smug look on his face.
"You've got the nerve to say that, when our family isn't short on money and you just get him a Cottonee."
Píng Kāngjìng gave Shàngshān Píng a sidelong glare. To be honest, Cottonee—a Pokémon that blossomed everywhere in the Unova region—could hardly be considered a very rare Pokémon.
It was just that their numbers were relatively smaller in other regions; you could still find them in the Kalos region if you looked, since the Kalos region had always had a rather mixed variety of Pokémon.
Finding a Pokémon like this to be their son's first partner looked as if it had just been caught randomly on the roadside.
"Don't you worry about that. How could I not take our son's first partner seriously? This Cottonee here? It's not some wild Cottonee caught off the street.
This is a top-tier Cottonee cultivated through meticulous care; its individual abilities are definitely the absolute peak among all Pokémon of the same type. You have no idea how hard I've specially sought out people to meticulously raise it over the past two years.
Besides, this Cottonee is a bit illegal!"
When Shàngshān Píng talked about this Cottonee, he was practically brimming with pride. Of course he couldn't just casually catch a Pokémon outside for his son—that would be far too perfunctory, and it wasn't like they were short on cash.
He simply had to get a really exceptional Cottonee. He had intentionally left it unevolved as something to prepare for his son, and he had even prepared a Sun Stone—a very high-purity Sun Stone at that—to guarantee that it would turn into a Whimsicott with extremely high talent after evolving.
"Illegal? Shàngshān Píng, you need to remember your position. You're the mayor of Lumiose City in the Kalos region, don't go doing things like this so casually!"
Píng Kāngjìng spoke in a quite serious tone, because she didn't want to see Shàngshān Píng abusing his status to engage in illegal activities; the impact of something like that would be enormous.
"Huh? Where is your mind wandering? I meant this Pokémon is a bit unreasonable, not that it was acquired through illegal channels! I'm not that strapped for cash; would I bother going through illegal procedures just for a Cottonee? A Dratini would be a different story!"
Shàngshān Píng explained hastily. Seeing the fierce look on his wife's face, he figured that if he didn't hurry up and explain, his wife's gaze could kill him a few hundred times over.
"Just remember that."
Píng Kāngjìng said coldly. Her husband held a high position, but precisely because of that, he had to strictly obey the law. Otherwise, once her husband got into trouble for something, it would greatly affect their son as well.
As far as she was concerned, it didn't matter whether her husband lived or died, but if he dared to affect her son, she would dare to skin her husband alive!
What more could Shàngshān Píng say? He could only tag along with a forced smile. There was no way he could expect his wife to apologize to him—in his dreams!
For the next three days, Chén Nuò stayed constantly by Cottonee's side. After all, they weren't leaving quite yet, so he seized the time to build a bond with this little puff of cotton before they would soon set off on a journey together.
Aside from that, he also needed to make a trip to the school in Alola to say goodbye to his partners.
On the very day they were set to leave, when Chén Nuò arrived at school to bid farewell to his classmates, he found that almost all of his peers were looking at him with starry, tear-filled eyes, reluctant to see him leave.
Chén Nuò felt quite touched just looking at them.
Of course, besides these schoolmates, there were also other friends, such as the teary-eyed Kiawe and Sophocles.
And then there was Lana, who brought him a big fish with a blank expression.
"Chén Nuò, I caught this. Take it as a farewell gift! You must come back soon! By then, I'll catch a Kyogre for you!"
Lana handed the fish over with a grin.
Looking at the fish Lana was handing him, Chén Nuò didn't know what to say for a moment. He might as well just take it back for Mom to make pickled fish soup. As for Lana's claim about catching Kyogre, he didn't doubt it for a second—this girl was truly capable of catching a Kyogre!
"All right, then thank you, Lana!"
Chén Nuò didn't let down Lana's kind intentions; he accepted the fish and expressed his gratitude.
"Chén Nuò! Chén Nuò!"
Accompanied by a series of calls, a girl with green twin-tails was running toward him at top speed—it was Mallow!
"Mallow!"
Seeing the girl with the green twin-tails, Chén Nuò burst into a smile. To be honest, among so many friends, Mallow and he had the most compatible personalities, since both of them particularly liked Grass-type Pokémon.
"Knowing you were leaving today, I specially baked Bounsweet-shaped cookies for you. And didn't you like Whimsicott? I brought a Whimsicott-shaped bento box right here. How about it? I specially researched this!"
Mallow's enthusiastic and lively demeanor set her quite apart from the others. Most of the classmates looked tearful when they saw him, or else filled with regret and sadness.
Only Mallow's enthusiastic and lively appearance made her entirely different from everyone else.
"All right, thank you all for your company over the years. It's not like I'm never coming back—Alola will always be my home!"
Seeing everyone warmly seeing him off, Chén Nuò felt quite happy inside. Just as he finished saying goodbye to everyone and was about to leave, a black limousine pulled up in front of the school gates.
Chén Nuò immediately stopped in his tracks.
Then, a butler stepped straight out of the limousine and opened the rear door for a girl wearing white silk stockings, a long white dress, and a white sun hat.
"Lillie!"
Seeing the girl before him, Chén Nuò wore a tiny smile—he had actually thought this girl wouldn't come!
After that incident occurred, the girl had developed severe Pokémon phobia. But she loved Pokémon very much, and that had never changed.
It was just that whenever Pokémon approached her or got very close to her, she would freeze up or jump away.
Chén Nuò had previously taken appropriate preventive measures to try and minimize this issue for her, but he hadn't expected that after the outbreak of that incident, the girl still fell back into this affliction, like some inescapable destiny.
If not for this problem, Chén Nuò would have considered taking this girl away with him, seeing as he had promised Gladion that he would take care of Lillie. But with Lillie's condition, that was probably out of the question.
"Brother Nuò, I want to go with you!"
Lillie looked at Chén Nuò and said nothing else, simply speaking the words straight from her heart.
Chén Nuò shook his head, intending to open his mouth to say something, but was directly interrupted by the girl!