Pokemon: Spiritual Master-Chapter 611: Busy Yet Warm

June 9th, Sunday.

Since returning to Hoenn, Johan's life had gradually become more regular - going between the academy and café in a two-point routine, his days were quite fulfilling.

It was just unfortunate for his students.

Although "Pokémon Psychology" was an elective course, Johan still adhered to the principle of not misleading students, cramming all the previously missed lessons into his schedule.

It was highly efficient, but also made his students cry out in misery.

Studying Pokémon psychology was truly exhausting.

But fortunately, tired as they were, the students remained very focused in class, notably not daring to slack off or doze, creating an extremely good learning environment and atmosphere.

Besides teaching, Johan had also resumed his online "Pokémon psychological consultation."

However, he was now very different from before - too many people wanted consultations, and a large portion were actually fans who just wanted to chat with him, so efficiency had actually decreased.

Of course, he spent most of his time training with his Pokémon and on daily life.

Speaking of which, Johan had just gotten off work and brought Gengar and Dragonite to the supermarket for big and small bags of groceries, then returned home to prepare dinner.

Tonight's main dish was Tomato Bouffalant Braised Beef Rice, along with various other menu items like Flame-Grilled Blaziken Whole Leg, Scallion Wooloo Roll Wraps, Frozen Luvdisc Sashimi, Salt-Baked Shellder with Vermicelli, Mousse Fresh Milk Mille-feuille, and so on.

Of course, these dishes sounded quite extravagant, but they were actually just the common naming style for restaurant menus in the Pokémon world, and didn't really have much to do with actual Pokémon.

Hmm.

"Rotom, oven mode."

In the café's backyard, Johan, wearing an apron, said without looking back.

"Understood, Roto~ Super transformation! Oven mode!"

Rotom called out as it entered the oven, emphasizing a sense of "ceremony."

The oven was already stuffed full of prepared ingredients, requiring only temperature control.

"Little brother, yours can be cooked a bit rarer - Dragonite likes it medium-rare."

"Aidii~"

Besides Rotom's oven, Armarouge's "teppanyaki" was also one of Johan's most reliable "cooking utensils" at the moment.

High temperature combined with metal armor panels - whoever grilled knew how good it was, creating aromatic dishes every time.

"Coach, the beef is mashed enough - if you keep going there won't even be residue left."

"Garruu zzZ"

Coach Urshifu's hand-pounded beef balls had become one of the household's specialty foods during this time.

Johan discovered that while awake Urshifu pounded faster, the beef balls made by sleeping Urshifu had a unique flavor - two different textures.

"Ninetales, don't make the ice too cold - if it's too cold, the sashimi will freeze solid and be impossible to chew."

"Oowoo~~"

Ninetales obediently nodded, gently breathing on the ice in front of it. The ice blocks that had shown signs of melting due to the high temperature from the on-site grilling froze again.

The little one stared seriously at the ice blocks, ready to breathe on them again at the slightest sign of melting.

It was extremely meticulous, as if the world would collapse if the ice melted.

"Hammer sis, is the pot fixed? I need to start cooking."

"Cha!!"

Tinkaton immediately raised the perfectly repaired pot, showing no trace of repair work - it was perfect.

After fixing the pot, Tinkaton turned back to its own tinkering.

During this time, whenever it had free time, it would start hammering, planning to forge a new set of more resilient and sharp blades for Ceruledge - though the results remained to be seen.

"Larvitar, stop eating! You've almost finished all the scallions!" Johan bent down to look under the table.

The tiger-headed Larvitar was hugging several scallions and munching on them.

A Pokémon like Larvitar actually liking to eat scallions - you probably couldn't find a second one in the entire Pokémon world.

Perhaps because it had eaten so many branches from the Tree of Beginning, Larvitar discovered that eating more green plants could actually help it digest faster!

The faster it could digest, the more it could eat - perfect!

"Yoji..."

Larvitar looked at the scallions in its hands and reluctantly took out two.

Eating meat without garlic reduces the flavor by half...

Johan looked helpless, consoling himself that at least Larvitar's resistance to Grass-types should be maxed out.

But speaking of Grass-types, Johan remembered his desire to catch a Grass-type Pokémon.

Preferably one that required little food and could even produce "food" in return.

Tropius would be quite nice...

Gogoat was actually pretty good too, and could produce goat milk.

But he quickly suppressed this thought.

Catching Pokémon required careful consideration.

"Dragonite, go borrow some more salt from Salt King - we need it for the salt-baked dish."

"Woo~~ (ˊˋ)"

Dragonite flapped its small wings twice and flew to the nearby Garganacl.

Garganacl had already resigned itself, honestly taking a large chunk of salt from its body and giving it to Dragonite.

Salt King had been pondering a question lately.

This salt was taken from its own body, then used to cook food, which it then ate - did that count as eating itself?

"Gengar, don't secretly inject toxins into the meat!" Johan looked up and caught Gengar preparing to make mischief.

"Ka, Ka-kaah..."

Gengar immediately put its hands behind its back, looked up at a forty-five-degree angle, and started whistling, though its eyes still occasionally glanced at Johan, seemingly trying to confirm if he was still watching.

Johan shook his head. This purple chubby little guy - last time out of curiosity, it almost caused the whole family to be "poisoned," depleting Johan's already limited supply of Pecha Berries.

"Ka-kaah~~"

Seeing Johan still watching, Gengar grinned mischievously, then obediently stuck out its tongue and produced a scroll.

Seeing this scroll, Johan recognized it almost immediately.

"That 'ancestral recipe' from Lacey?"

This was exactly the "apprenticeship gift" that Lacey from Blueberry Academy had wanted to give Johan.

However, because Johan had glimpsed that the recipes inside were too extreme, he had refused it. He didn't expect this chubby little Gengar to secretly accept it.

Then Gengar spat on its hands, slowly unrolled the scroll, found one of the recipes, and showed it to Johan.

Recipe - Pecharunt's Chain Mochi.

Ingredients: ...poison, Ghost-type energy...

Johan: "???"

There was this stuff in the recipes?!

The control mochi that Pecharunt used to control those three things - Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti?

No way...

But reading further, he discovered the recipe ended with a note - "All of the above is pure speculation, do not attempt lightly."

Johan: "..."

He immediately said irritably: "Give me the recipe - don't experiment randomly in the future."

"Ka-kaah..."

Gengar hung its head, trying to look down at its toes, only to discover - hey, it couldn't see them!

However, Johan understood its personality well - in less than two minutes, it would recover.

"Vii~ Vii~"

Victini floated in mid-air, clenching its fists in a posture of cheering everyone on.

It had to be said.

Since Victini joined, the already energetic team had become even more energetic. How to exhaust Dragonite's energy had become a daily problem for Johan - simple flying circles were no longer enough.

"Puri!"

Jigglypuff sat to the side with puffed cheeks and crossed arms.

Tonight's concert was ruined again! All they knew was eat, eat, eat...

"Jigglypuff, come help me taste this."

Jigglypuff rolled on the ground and quickly stood up, taking quick steps toward Johan with its "pat-pat" footsteps.

"Puri! ε===(っ≧ω≦)っ"

Let me handle this!

In the midst of the busy activity, a long-absent "guest" suddenly came to the door.

Flutter flutter—

A Delibird was seen pulling its bag-like tail, swaying as it flew over.

"Ka-kaah?"

Seeing this guy, Gengar immediately went to greet it.

"Woo~" Delibird landed in the yard and waved at Johan and the others.

Long time no see...

Smack!

Gengar slapped it, making it stumble, then grinned with laughter.

"Ka-kaah!"

How's it going!

It was indeed Team Rocket's, or rather Boss Giovanni's message-delivering Delibird.

"Oh, perfect timing - join us for dinner, Delibird." Johan looked up and smiled amidst his busy work.

Smelling the aroma in the yard, Delibird swallowed.

"Woo~"

I could smell the fragrance from far away...

"By the way, big sister, take out the gifts I prepared." Johan said.

"Aidii~~"

Sister Indeedee quickly put down her garlic-peeling task, wiped her hands on her apron, and went inside. Under Delibird's curious gaze, she brought out some items from the house.

There were CDs for Boss Giovanni, a maid dress for Matori, dolls for Porygon2 and Mewtwo, and of course something for Delibird too.

"Just some little trinkets I bought in the Unova region."

The CDs were currently popular records from Unova - Boss Giovanni could listen to music during his work breaks.

As for Matori's maid dress - it was well known that Matori was quite open-minded.

"Woo?"

Do I... do I have something too?

Looking at the crystal carving of itself in its hands, Delibird couldn't help but show a moved expression.

"Of course." Johan smiled and bent down to pat its little head. "We're all friends. Though it's nothing expensive - please don't mind it~"

"Woo!!"

Delibird shook its head repeatedly, solemnly and carefully placing the crystal Delibird in a corner of its bag. Even if the bag got messy in the future, this corner would never be messy!

After putting away the items, Delibird remembered the mission it came for.

It hurriedly rummaged through its bag again.

It produced a transparent sealed glass container. Between several layers of transparent glass was placed a thumb-sized black crystal.

"Hmm?"

Seeing this thing, Johan was stunned.

"This is..."

Gengar leaned its head over, its eyes almost pressed against the glass.

"Ka-kaah..."

Black and shiny - you can tell at a glance it has great affinity with this old ghost.

"Yoji?"

Larvitar poked its head out from under the table, its small eyes slightly glowing.

This is ore, right? I think it definitely won't taste bad.

"Oowoo!"

But Ninetales seemed to sense some threat from it, showing a serious expression and suggesting Johan freeze it first.

It had a feeling that was both familiar and strange but definitely not simple.

"Woo!"

However, Delibird soon pulled out a report from its bag. Johan took it and looked - his pupils suddenly contracted.

"Necrozma crystal?!"

The report didn't specify it was Necrozma's crystal, but it indicated it came from the Aether Foundation.

It seemed that when Team Rocket was creating Mewtwo and collecting genes, they had cooperated with the Aether Foundation, obtaining this crystal from them. But after research, they found this crystal too dangerous and ultimately couldn't utilize it.

Combined with Team Plasma's Colress using Aether Foundation crystals to reverse-engineer the [Fusion] device, and Boss Giovanni's methods...

It wasn't hard to deduce that this small crystal belonged to the legendary cosmic Pokémon from the Alola region - Necrozma!

"Team Rocket and Team Plasma were both seduced by the Aether Foundation - President Lusamine is quite capable..."

Then Johan realized and slightly shrank his neck.

"Good thing, good thing Team Rocket didn't incorporate this crystal's genes into Mewtwo's creation process, otherwise..."

Mew's genes plus Necrozma's genes plus human genes - what would be created would be truly terrifying.

"But why is Boss Giovanni giving me this thing?"

Johan looked at the pitch-black crystal.

Did Boss Giovanni think he had an affinity with legendary Pokémon and wanted him to try?

Try and die?

"Ninetales, freeze it!" Johan said decisively.

"Oowoo!" Ninetales showed a relieved expression and immediately breathed on the glass container.

Such "dangerous" things were safest when frozen!

Thinking of this, Ninetales breathed on the container several more times.

"Woo~"

Delibird watched as the originally palm-sized glass container turned into a person-tall ice sculpture, its eye twitching.

This is... too safe, isn't it?

"Ka-kaah~~"

Gengar opened its mouth wide and stuffed the huge ice sculpture into its mouth, storing it in dimensional space.

Johan also withdrew his gaze.

For now, he'd pretend not to know about this matter.

"Almost ready - time to eat." Johan clapped his hands and announced.

"Yoji!!"

Power!!

The big family sat around the enlarged round table in the garden. As Johan removed his apron, took the beef rice that Sister Indeedee had served and the berry juice Rotom handed him, Johan raised his cup.

"Let's dig in!"

Although in the Pokémon world, Johan had experienced all kinds of storms and waves, even riding legendary Pokémon at his peak.

But in his view, this feeling of everyone gathering together happily was incomparable and irreplaceable.

"Hey!!! Larvitar, don't get carried away! Put Salt King down, put him down!"

"Yoji! ψ(｀∀′)ψ"

Garganacl: (:3」∠)

That night, under the bright moon and sparse stars.

Johan slept soundly in bed, with gentle breezes blowing past, his dreams both real and absurd.

He dreamed he encountered an extremely rare Pokémon and spent tremendous effort to capture it.

"Arceufabric, I choose you!"

Huh?

"Is something wrong here?" Johan murmured in his sleep.

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Powerstones?

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