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

Chapter 21: Mount Tsukimi

Under a clear blue sky, a group of people were resting in the shade of a large tree.

On Ash's shoulder, there's a Pikachu on his left and another on his right.

At this moment, he was looking at Natsume with a curious expression.

"Natsume-kun, are you modifying a Poké Ball?"

Ash was filled with curiosity as he looked at the pile of broken red and white balls around Natsume.

Since leaving Nibi City yesterday, Natsume has been spending all his time with a bunch of wires and tools he doesn't know what they're called, frantically destroying the red and white balls.

In just the last two days, it is estimated that hundreds of red and white balls have been destroyed.

"Yes, I'm going to engrave this chip and circuitry into it."

Natsume said without turning his head.

"Why would you want to implant something like this?"

A small orange head popped up from the side.

"nice."

Natsume replied without turning his head.

Xiaoxia: "......"

"What a waste."

After saying that, Xiaoxia turned around and went to help Xiaogang, who was cooking.

"Bang!"

A faint explosion rang out, and the red and white ball in Natsume's hand was destroyed once again.

Natsume stared blankly at the broken red and white ball.

[Recording complete. Shall we conduct a failure analysis?]

Beside me, the diligent voice of Rotom's phone rang out.

"Save it for now."

Natsume stared intently at the broken red and white ball in his hand.

Hmm... Rotom-on Poké Ball, although it seems quite simple in theory, is more difficult to implement than I imagined.

First of all, the Poké Ball contains only very simple circuitry, and these circuits exist in only a very small area.

Rotom simply cannot integrate.

What Natsume needs to do now is to implant circuitry into the Poké Ball, as well as a chip that can house the Rotom's main body.

The chip was taken from a Rotom electric toy we worked on last time.

The toy is about the size of a Poké Ball; once the circuitry is correct, it can be used directly.

The slightly challenging part is expanding the original circuitry of the Poké Ball to maximize its performance while still allowing it to interface with the chip.

"It must be because there's no proper laboratory."

Natsume thought about it for a long time, but he felt that the reason was not with him.

After all, he genuinely found the theory behind this thing to be simple.

The S-level scratch card for Natsume has already been used up, and unsurprisingly, it was the worst guaranteed reward—a Master Ball.

Natsume didn't dare to experiment with the Master Ball, so he could only practice with these ordinary red and white balls first, then the slightly more complex Super Ball, Advanced Ball, and finally the Master Ball.

But he got stuck on the first step.

"Hi hi!"

Laughter came from the side, belonging to someone with a middle parting.

Natsume glanced at it, then grabbed a small chair and started winding the wires around.

"Skin!?"

"Natsume-kun, doesn't your Pikachu already have a rocket chair based on the Electric attribute?"

Xiao Zhi wanted to say the full name of the chair, but the technical term was too difficult to pronounce, so he followed Natsume's example and called it the Carnival Chair.

"That's the first-tier carnival chair. I've already adapted to the middle parting. I'm making the second tier now. There are ten tiers in total."

"Skin!?"

The middle-parted hair swayed precariously on Xiaozhi's shoulder, looking utterly miserable.

"Pikachu!"

Pikachu patted his middle parting in a gesture of comfort.

"Yeah......"

Xiao Zhi scratched his head.

Since the day before yesterday, Natsume-san has asked him to wear his middle-part hairstyle when training Pikachu, and to take turns battling others. They even eat the same things, saying something like, "We need to maintain relative variables."

After spending these past few days together, Ash realized that Natsume's Pikachu seemed to be quite different from his own.

The person with the middle parting hairstyle actually has a grass-type skill called "Grass Knot"!

When Ash discovered it, he was amazed and pestered Natsume for a long time, wanting him to teach his Pikachu as well.

Then I was ruthlessly rejected.

Unfortunately, Natsume himself only ever received one learning machine.

We'll talk about Xiaozhi later.

"Alright, everyone, let's eat!"

Xiaoxia was standing to the side, greeting the two of them.

"After we finish eating, we'll set off. We should arrive at Tsukimiyama around tonight."

Xiao Gang encouraged them.

......

......

Evening, Mount Tsukimi.

"It's faster than I expected; it's only just dusk."

Before the group of four appeared a bare hill that looked like a crater on the surface of the moon.

"Huh? Why is it like daytime here?"

Xia looked at Mount Tsukimi in front of her, somewhat surprised.

At this moment, various instruments and flying Pokémon can be seen everywhere on Mt. Tsukimi, seemingly transporting something.

The entire Tsukimi-yama was bathed in the light of various searchlights, as bright as day.

"Ah! It seems like there's some kind of research project going on here. The roads are closed, and there are staff members setting up a cordon over there."

Not far away, Ash walked over, looking somewhat dejected.

"Come with me." Natsume waved to the three of them and walked straight toward a few staff members not far away.

"I am Natsume, a researcher at Professor Oak's laboratory."

Natsume showed his identification.

"Natsu-senpai!"

Among the staff, someone recognized him.

"Huh? It's you guys?"

Natsume vaguely recognized the people in front of him.

They are researchers at the Nibi City Academy of Sciences.

"What are you doing here?"

"It's not convenient to talk here, let's go inside first. Are you friends of Senior Xia? Please come in too!"

With that, the two researchers ushered everyone inside.

"By the way, you haven't answered Natsume's question yet."

It was about a ten-minute walk to Mount Tsukimi. On the way, Xiao Gang looked at the two researchers with curiosity.

He had also dealt with the Nibi City Academy of Sciences a few times.

"Sigh, don't even mention it. Something must have happened on the Alliance's side. They suddenly mobilized manpower and surrounded Mount Tsukimi. Our researchers from Nibi City, who are closest to it, have been almost all called over."

"Yeah, I heard that a Champion Trainer has also come. I wonder what big thing it is."

The two researchers were talking at length, but Ash only managed to grasp the five words "Elite Four Trainer".

"Natsume-kun, what's an Elite Four Trainer?"

Ash looked curiously at Natsume beside him. Upon hearing this, Natsume, who was engrossed in fiddling with the red and white balls in his hands, looked up:

"In a region, the most powerful trainers in the league are called the Elite Four. For example, in the Kanto region, there are four Elite Four."

"The Four Heavenly Kings!"

Ash's eyes lit up immediately. "Alright, I'll challenge this Elite Four Trainer from Mt. Moon!"

"Pikachu!"

Pikachu, standing to the side, was also full of energy.

On Xiaozhi's other shoulder, a man with a middle parting and snot bubbles hanging from his nose suddenly woke up.

"Skin--"

With his middle-parted hair, he was utterly despondent. He had finally mastered the art of sleeping standing up, but the noisy people around him would always wake him up.

Moreover, the trainer named Ash, whom Natsume had trained with, was practically a battle maniac.

In just three days, Ash battled almost every trainer he encountered on the road.

Even with another Pikachu helping him, the middle-parted-hair guy still fought nearly ten battles.

Most importantly, this kid likes to give bad advice!

For example, let him use a move he doesn't know at all, like the 100,000 Volt attack on Geodude.

This time, what kind of Elite Trainer will they be challenging?

We can't beat them, it's impossible for us to beat them.

The guy with the middle part has already decided that if Ash lets him battle against the Elite Four trainers, he'll just go to sleep.