Pokémon: Who told him to come out of Pallet Town!

Chapter 38: Reunion, Ash Gains a New Admiral

As dawn breaks in the forest, dew condenses on the tips of leaves, and cold mist soaks into the morning light.

Natsume stepped out of the tent, yawned, rubbed his eyes, and caught a glimpse of a figure lying by the fire.

He was a top student; his hair was disheveled, and he looked like he had been asleep for a while, with frost still clinging to his eyelashes.

Seemingly a little cold, she hugged Xia, who was fast asleep in the sleeping bag, tightly.

"Skin--"

Natsume looked in the direction of the sound and saw Pikachu's figure under a large tree not far away.

The other person held a syringe in one of their small, short hands, with the needle tip pointing at the end, and held the syringe while holding a cotton ball in their other hand.

The putter was aimed at the big tree behind it, and it slammed into it!

"Pikachu!"

In just a moment, Pikachu jumped down, clutching its tail, and pressed the cotton ball in its hand against the injection site.

"Pikachu, your dosage control is getting better and better; it's very close to the theoretical value."

Natsume picked up the steel reagent and looked at the markings on it in the sunlight.

Hmm, not bad. With his forgetfulness skills honed, Pikachu has learned to administer his own dosage.

"Pikachu!"

Pikachu stretched out its little hand and angrily pointed to the top student sleeping soundly by the fire.

Last night, the top student started to fall asleep with his eyelids drooping.

To avoid turning into a steel egg butt, Pikachu didn't dare close his eyes for a moment during the rest of the night.

He would give himself an injection every hour, and he would even add firewood to the fire as he pleased.

"You're right, Pikachu, you should cover her with a blanket."

"Pikachu?"

"Pikachu, Pikachu!"

Pikachu angrily waved his hand in protest against Natsume's haphazard translation.

"Alright, go to my tent and find her a blanket. I'll go find Ash and the others."

Faced with the angry Pikachu, Natsume touched its little ears.

"Pikachu!" As if he had thought of something, Pikachu's eyes lit up, and he dashed into Natsume's tent, rummaging through it for something.

I glanced at the time on my Rotom phone; it was only six o'clock.

Normally, everyone wakes up around eight o'clock.

So Ash should be sleeping at this time.

Natsume felt a little embarrassed to go over and bother Satoshi at this time—so he made a phone call.

A village, by a small river.

Two sleeping bags, one blue and one green, lay like caterpillars on one side of the riverbank.

"Natsume, what are you doing! Natsume, what are you doing! Natsume, what are you doing! Natsume..."

"Hmm... What's going on? I think I heard Professor Oak roaring."

Inside the sleeping bag, Xiao Zhi pushed aside the middle-parted hair that was curled up on top of his head, got up, and rubbed his eyes.

"Ah~ are you still sleepy?"

Xiao Zhi felt dizzy and wanted to lie down and catch up on sleep.

"Wait a minute, Ash, this isn't an illusion."

Beside him, Xiao Gang also crawled out of his sleeping bag, pointing at Xiao Zhi's backpack:

"The sound is coming from here."

"What is it?" Xiao Zhi looked puzzled and rummaged through his backpack. After a while, he found the source of the sound inside.

His Pokédex!

"Natsume, what are you doing! Natsume, what are you doing! Natsume, what are you doing!"

At the top of the Pokédex, accompanied by Professor Oak's roar, a large image of Natsume appears.

"What is this? A video call? Ash, your Pokédex has this function? Normal Pokédexs don't seem to have this feature."

Xiao Gang glanced at it and seemed somewhat surprised.

"Isn't it only allowed to make phone calls? I didn't even know that myself."

Xiao Zhi rubbed his hair and answered Natsume's video call.

Sure enough, Natsume's image appeared in his Pokédex.

The other party is adding firewood to the fire.

"How's it going, Ash? Aren't you happy with the special Pokédex I gave you?"

"Us?" Ash caught the key word.

"Yes, this batch of Pallet Town Pokédex entries is all based on software information I entered. What do you think?"

"Oh, now that you mention it, Xiao Mao can video chat with me too."

Ash's eyes lit up; he had been scolded by Gary for not being able to choose a starter Pokémon.

"Great! I'm going to video call him to show off my new partner, Bulbasaur!"

"Of course you can. Go find the instruction manual; it contains the contact information for all the trainers in Pallet Town."

Natsume's voice followed.

"Instruction manual? What's that?" Ash looked at Natsume with a puzzled expression.

"The booklet I gave you at the beginning."

"Oh... a booklet..." Ash seemed to be thinking, but then Natsume's voice rang out:

"I think I forgot to give it to you."

Xiao Zhi: "..."

"But next time you meet Shigeru, just check his catalog; you can both find your own numbers there."

"Come back quickly, Pikachu needs you."

With that, Natsume hung up the phone.

Hmm... that little Charmander was abandoned on Route 24, so to avoid any accidents, it's best to go there as soon as possible.

After all, they had spent some time at the Pokémon Research Institute this time.

If Natsume and the others die before they arrive, then things will be very bad.

As one of Ash's future right-hand men, this Charmander had extremely poor talent at the beginning.

Even its size is much smaller than that of a regular Charizard.

But the combat power they later displayed was top-notch.

Natsume had a premonition that there was something here that could trigger the system's tasks.

"For example, under Ash's protagonist aura, Pokémon can gradually increase their talents. Is that part of the system?"

【+1. 】

Natsume made a huge profit of one yen.

"ah--"

Suddenly, a cry of surprise came from Jiaozi.

Natsume turned around and saw the other person stand up in terror, holding a blanket covering him—an internal view of a Super Armored Rhinoceros.

"Hehehe!"

Beside the tent, one of the instigators was covering his mouth and chuckling.

"Mr. Natsume, did you cover me with this?" All the top students looked over and saw only Kasumi, who was still sleepy and had been woken up by him, and Natsume, who was adding firewood to the fire.

"Hmm." Natsume nodded, taking the blame for Pikachu.

He discovered that ever since he handed over those ten books of "life's learning" to the top students...

The other party's attitude towards me was a bit off.

Hmm... Natsume originally expected that he would exert pressure, causing their relationship to gradually deteriorate, and that the other person would eventually be unable to bear it and leave on their own.

Or perhaps when you kick the other party out a month later, you can save yourself some trouble.

Hmm... this should lower his favorability rating considerably. Although it was Pikachu's prank, he accepted it.

Natsume glanced at the top student, only to suddenly notice that the fear on the latter's face had disappeared.

Instead, a red line swept across the sky, and smoke began to rise from above, making the fire appear even larger than the campfire in front of them.

Natsume: "???"

"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Natsume. While I am learning, I will certainly not forget to train my Pokémon!"

The prodigy carefully rolled up the Super Armored Rhinoceros in his hand, then stood up and bowed deeply to Natsume.

Natsume: "..."

He suddenly realized that this top student with such imagination actually had the potential to become a researcher.

"Natsume-nii! We're back!"

Not far away, Ash and Brock's voices could be heard.

Natsume looked up, somewhat taken aback.

"Pikachu!"

Pikachu jumped onto Ash's other shoulder.

"Natsume-nii, I caught Bulbasaur!"

As he spoke, Ash eagerly pulled out a red and white ball and released Bulbasaur.

"Then, Ash, your dream has really come true." Natsume clapped his hands in congratulations.

He remembered that before the journey began, Ash often came to his service to help feed the Pokémon.

Among them, the one the other party likes the most is Bulbasaur.

"You're back just in time! I made some really delicious meat soup yesterday, and... wait, where's my meat soup?"

Xiaoxia's strange voice came from behind. When she turned around, she saw that Xiaoxia was holding an empty pot.

"Pikachu was greedy and ate it all tonight," Natsume said, frantically winking at Brock beside him.

"Pikachu?"

Pikachu scratched his head. He clearly remembered that it was Natsume who got up in the middle of the night and disposed of the body in that pot of unknown substance.

However, since Natsume took the blame for him, he will also take the blame for Natsume.

"Pikachu, Pikachu!"

Pikachu patted his belly, indicating that it was delicious and he loved it.

"Really? Pikachu! I'll make it for you separately next time!" Xiaoxia wasn't angry at all; on the contrary, she was very happy.

"Oh dear, Pikachu, why are you so greedy?" Ash rubbed Pikachu's head.

"Haha, in that case, I'll make breakfast today." Xiao Gang understood Natsume's look and immediately took over the conversation.

"Okay, let's set off after we finish eating, heading straight for Konoha City!"

"Idiot, we need to get to Route 24 first!"