Chapter 78: The Ho-Oh Has Spirit

Upon hearing that chirping sound, Axel's heart suddenly pounded.

According to his understanding of the Ho-Oh just now, this little guy clearly only had a body, but no consciousness.

'Then what was up with that chirping just now?'

"Little guy," Axel tried calling out.

The Ho-Oh turned its neck, locked eyes with Axel, and blinked gently.

In its gaze, there was clearly a bit more intimacy and affection than before.

"You're conscious now?"

"Ho-Oh!", The Ho-Oh tried its best to stretch its neck as long as possible, gently rubbing against the bodies of Axel and Gardevoir.

Axel and Gardevoir exchanged a smile.

Now their team also had a fully evolved divine beast cub.

A family of three, all mythical beasts, who else could compare?

"Let's go, Ho-Oh, fly straight to Pallet Town!"

"Ho~Oh!"

The Ho-Oh let out a call, flapped its wings, stirring up a strong air current, and flew toward Pallet Town.

Gardevoir glanced at the surrounding environment, and suddenly recalled the location where the Clefairies resided.

In the previous life, Gardevoir was never able to evolve, and even had trouble being properly nurtured.

Axel searched everywhere for guides, and after hearing about the events on Mt. Moon, resolutely brought Gardevoir to Kanto.

During that journey to Mt. Moon, Axel had spent nearly all his savings to buy a spot on the outskirts, allowing Ralts to receive the fairy-type energy summoned during the Clefairies' ritual.

Since they were here in this life too, Gardevoir didn't plan on missing this opportunity.

With their current strength and potential, they should be able to easily secure a more central position and significantly boost their strength.

Thinking this, Gardevoir shook Axel's arm.

She pointed toward Mt. Moon, ["Master... that mountain looks pretty... want to go..."]

"You want to go there?", Axel thought for a moment and finally nodded.

"But we'll need to wait a bit, okay? After we go home today, let's rest first. Then I plan to challenge Pewter Gym."

"Once that's done, we'll head to Mt. Moon, how about it?"

Pewter Gym was a place Axel had long planned to visit.

Last time, after triggering a passive tag from Brock, his cooking and nurturing abilities had both greatly improved.

This had indirectly brought a significant boost to his training skills.

If he could trigger another in the real world, and the two tags could fuse, he might easily surpass Brock's cooking skills.

"Garde~"

Gardevoir leaned in Axel's arms and nodded softly, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned.

She just knew her master would never refuse her requests.

She only had to remember where the opportunities were from her past life, and then take her master flying.

As for trust issues and such, she didn't have to worry about them at all.

———

The next day, when Axel woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.

Because she knew Axel didn't have anything going on today, Aunt Delia hadn't come to wake him up.

However, Daisy gave him a call, asking if he wanted to go to Mt. Moon to participate in the upcoming Clefairy Festival.

Axel originally intended to decline Daisy, but recalling that Gardevoir also wanted to go to Mt. Moon, he agreed.

When he went downstairs, Delia was already preparing lunch.

"Axel, you're awake. Were you tired yesterday from going to Professor Oak's place?"

"I heard you've become Professor Oak's researcher—on par with Ash and Gary now."

"Today Ash and Gary officially went out traveling, but I bought a lot of ingredients."

"For lunch, we're having creamy buns, mushroom brain oil soup, and truffle grilled sausage. Let's celebrate properly."

"Thanks, Aunt Delia," Looking at the ingredients in her hands, Axel couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat on his forehead.

If he wasn't wrong, cooking today was again going to be full of Aunt Delia's startled screams...

Very soon, under Aunt Delia's extremely easily misunderstood methods, the two finished cooking the meal.

Since Ash wasn't around, Axel became Aunt Delia's only one to care for.

"Axel, have a creamy bun. Auntie kneaded it by hand, so soft and round."

"Don't cut open this sausage. You have to swallow it in one bite to enjoy the flavor. Watch me demonstrate."

"Ah~ (one bite swallowed)"

"See? Isn't that just right?"

"Y-yes, Aunt Delia, you're amazing..."

After spending a few hours alone with Aunt Delia, Axel finally understood the true weight of the phrase "Auntie, I'm your husband."

Not exaggerated at all.

Luckily, the meal didn't take too long. After eating, Axel added Aunt Delia as a contact.

After promising to visit again next time, he set off for Pewter City.

Due to the large number of people nearby, Axel didn't summon the Ho-Oh this time, choosing instead to walk with Gardevoir and Pheromosa.

In Axel's view, Kanto's public security was slightly worse than Aurient's.

If they were in Aurient, he could ride the Ho-Oh openly in the city without a second thought.

But in Kanto...

It was fine to use it during battle, but parading it around, better not for now.

Pewter City wasn't far from Pallet Town, and Axel's group didn't rush, they basically walked and played along the way.

After a day, Duraludon and Dragonair had gotten very familiar with each other.

The general routine was Dragonair teasing and messing with wild Pokémon along the way. Whenever it saw Caterpie or Weedle types, it'd casually fire off a weakest-power attack.

Each time that happened, Duraludon would rush over to apologize profusely.

As the dragon clan's great general, he felt obligated to protect all his dragon kin companions.

As for other companions, Duraludon said he couldn't protect them for now, maybe after some observation.

.

.

.

.

By noon the next day, Axel and the group passed through the last forest and finally arrived at a city's entrance.

Along a quiet stone path, there stood a sign completely made of rock.

[Welcome to Pewter City. The Gym Leader here, Brock, is a man as strong as rock!]

"..."

Seeing the gym's signboard, Axel was utterly speechless.

It was hard to imagine that Kanto's weakest gym leader could be such a confident man.

'Since that's the case...'

'Let this rock-strong man take on the Ho-Oh!'

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