Chapter 87: Hatterene in the Shelter

Chapter 87: Hatterene in the Shelter

On the day the Reservoir was completed, all the Pokémon in the Orchard came to watch. Among them, the Gyarados and Clauncher were the most excited, as this would be their new Home from now on.

"It's about time, let's open the Sluice Gate!" Bai Feng shouted.

Hearing Bai Feng's instruction, the Nidoking and Nidoqueen standing by the Sluice Gate worked together, slowly pulling the Sluice Gate up.

As the dam was slowly opened, the water from the Tributary instantly surged into the Reservoir. Before long, the Reservoir had accumulated a large amount of water.

"Roar~"

"Roar~"

"Roar~"

...

Seeing this, the eight Gyarados immediately couldn't wait to dive into the water. While roaring excitedly, they comfortably stretched their strong bodies.

*It's still most comfortable in the water!* the Gyarados sighed inwardly.

The Clauncher were not to be outdone, jumping into the water one after another. They thrashed back and forth in the water, their small Tails slapping the surface rapidly.

Seeing the Gyarados and Clauncher having fun, Brionne and Vaporeon couldn't help but join them. For a while, the Reservoir was incredibly lively.

When they returned Home in the evening, to celebrate the completion of the Reservoir, Bai Feng gave all the Pokémon another Rejuvenation. The Pokémon were absolutely thrilled.

*Please let this kind of good thing happen every day.*

Several days passed in the blink of an eye since the Reservoir was completed. The Gyarados and Clauncher adapted very well to their new Home. Even Vaporeon liked to run to the Reservoir during most of its free time and was now practically a permanent resident there.

Brionne also ran over there every few days to train its subordinates.

Bai Feng planned that after the Reservoir's environment stabilized after some time, he would find some cash crop suitable for planting in water and bring them back to plant.

At the same time, Bai Feng also began to consider hiring a new Nanny.

After finishing the day's work and coming back, he still had to help with housework. Bai Feng was so tired he could barely straighten his back; he had truly had enough.

But where could he hire a Pokémon? Pokémon skilled in housework were not easy to find.

Because of this matter, Bai Feng was a little distracted during school.

"Bai Feng, what's wrong? Are you worried about something?" Classmate Shen Mu asked with concern.

"I'm fine, just thinking about some things," Bai Feng said, shaking his head. Then he thought, perhaps Classmate Shen Mu could help come up with an idea.

"It's like this..."

So Bai Feng told Classmate Shen Mu about his troubles.

"I see..." Classmate Shen Mu lowered his head and fell into thought.

After a while, he seemed to think of something and suddenly looked up and asked, "Bai Feng, do you know about Pokémon Shelters?"

"Pokémon Shelter?" Bai Feng looked confused.

"Yes, Pokémon Shelters," Shenmu nodded. "You know, there are some Stray Pokémon in various cities. To prevent Stray Pokémon from affecting the city's image, some cities specifically establish a Pokémon Shelter to take in those Stray Pokémon and provide them with basic living necessities."

"There's such a place?" Bai Feng said with surprise. "I really haven't heard of it. This place seems quite good."

Classmate Shen Mu shook his head and said, "The Pokémon inside can only guarantee the most basic living conditions. In fact, most of them don't live very well."

"So you want me to go take a look there?" Bai Feng asked.

Classmate Shen Mu nodded and said, "The Pokémon in Pokémon Shelters can be adopted, and the Pokémon League strongly encourages Pokémon Trainers or families to adopt Pokémon from there."

Bai Feng thought to himself: *Then I can certainly go take a look.*

"Does our Biyi City have a Pokémon Shelter?"

"Of course," Classmate Shen Mu nodded. "If you want to go, after school I can accompany you."

Bai Feng said happily, "That would be great, thank you for the trouble."

"It's okay, anyway I don't really want to go Home too early," Classmate Shen Mu said.

Bai Feng basically knew everything about his situation, so he spoke to Bai Feng without many reservations.

After school in the afternoon, Bai Feng and Classmate Shen Mu went to the West District together.

Classmate Shen Mu had been to the Biyi City Pokémon Shelter before. With his guidance, Bai Feng quickly arrived at their destination.

The Pokémon Shelter was in a very remote place in the West District. Although it was said to be in the West District, it was actually in a corner bordering the West District and the East District.

The entire Shelter was in a large Yard. Speaking of which, it was a bit similar to Bai Feng's Home, except the buildings were quite dilapidated and seemed to have been built a long time ago.

Classmate Shen Mu explained, "This was originally a Villa belonging to a wealthy family. Later, because it was haunted, the family sold the Yard to the Pokémon League at a low price.

Later, the Pokémon League sent Pokémon Trainers to investigate the situation and finally discovered that it was just a few Ghost-type Pokémon causing mischief in the Villa.

Even later, Biyi City needed to build a Pokémon Shelter, so the Pokémon League allocated this dilapidated Villa. Because funding was insufficient and the higher-ups didn't pay much attention to it, the Yard has never been renovated."

Bai Feng nodded in understanding.

The two walked to the gate of the Villa and rang the doorbell.

"Who is it!"

Just then, the gate opened with a creak, and a disheveled Manager walked out, rubbing his eyes. He seemed to have just woken up, his hair messy like a bird's nest.

"Hello," Bai Feng greeted politely.

The Manager saw two children standing at the door and asked impatiently, "What do you want?"

Bai Feng replied, "I heard that Pokémon can be adopted here, so I wanted to come and see."

Hearing this, the Manager finally looked at Bai Feng properly and said with suspicion, "You want to adopt a Pokémon? Do your parents agree?"

Bai Feng said with a smile, "You can rest assured about that."

The Manager looked at Bai Feng in silence for a moment, then stepped aside and said, "Come in."

"Thank you, Manager," Bai Feng said with a smile.

"Thank you, Manager," Classmate Shen Mu also added.

After entering the Yard, Bai Feng began to look around the environment inside.

The Yard was indeed very large, even bigger than Bai Feng's Home. It truly lived up to being the former Villa of a rich family. There were many rooms in the Yard, but many were completely damaged and seemed uninhabitable.

There were many Pokémon in the Yard. Some were working, like sweeping the floor; some were playing, like hide-and-seek... The Pokémon all had smiles on their faces and seemed to be living quite well.

The arrival of Bai Feng and Shenmu caused the Pokémon to stop what they were doing and look at the two with curious eyes.

The Manager turned his head and urged the two, "Hurry up."

"Coming!" Bai Feng quickly followed upon hearing this.

Under the Manager's guidance, Bai Feng and Shenmu came to a dim room. It seemed this was the Manager's office and Residence.

The Manager sat behind the desk, picked up a pen, and asked without looking up, "What's your name?"

"Bai Feng."

"Where do you live? Who else is in your family?" the Manager continued to ask.

"I live at the Blue Bird Orphanage. My family also includes..."

Bai Feng's household registration was currently still at the Blue Bird Orphanage. Before he became an adult, he couldn't establish his own household registration.

Hearing Bai Feng's answer, the Manager looked up in surprise.

"You're an orphan? You, an orphan, are here to adopt a Pokémon? You..."

The Manager didn't finish the rest of his sentence, but Bai Feng roughly knew what he wanted to say, which was probably along the lines of "Can you raise a Pokémon well?"

"Can't orphans adopt Pokémon?" Bai Feng retorted.

The Manager didn't answer, just lowered his head and continued to register Bai Feng's information.

"Why do you want to adopt a Pokémon?"

"I run an Orchard and I'm usually very busy with work. I can't take care of everything at Home, so I want to invite a Pokémon Home to help share the housework."

Hearing Bai Feng's words, the Manager looked up in surprise again and asked, "Didn't you say you're an orphan?"

Bai Feng nodded and said, "Yes, is there a problem?"

"Then you said you run an Orchard!" the Manager said irritably.

"That's right, can't orphans run Orchards?" Bai Feng retorted again.

The Manager was choked by Bai Feng's question. Indeed, there was no such regulation, but this didn't make sense! How old are you? And you already have your own Orchard?

The Manager said to Bai Feng irritably, "Let me see your identity document!"

Bai Feng nodded and pulled up his identity document on his mobile phone.

The Manager carefully compared the photo on the identity document and found that it was indeed Bai Feng. At the same time, the identity document clearly stated that Bai Feng was an orphan.

As for whether Bai Feng had an Orchard, when the adoption procedure was processed, the material would be submitted, and the higher-ups would naturally verify the authenticity, so the Manager didn't need to worry.

After confirming Bai Feng's identity, the Manager asked again, "How many Pokémon do you want to adopt? And what kind?"

Bai Feng didn't answer, but instead asked, "Can I see the Pokémon here before deciding?"

"Such a hassle!" The Manager impatiently threw down the pen in his hand. "Follow me."

Under the Manager's guidance, Bai Feng and Shenmu returned to the Yard. The Manager took out a loudspeaker and shouted loudly into it:

"Everyone come out! Come out! Come out!"

As the sound spread throughout the Yard, Pokémon walked out of the rooms one by one, and soon the entire Yard was filled.

Bai Feng roughly estimated that there were at least a hundred Pokémon living here. It was impressive that this Manager could manage them.

In reality, Bai Feng had misunderstood. The Pokémon here were not managed by the Manager, but by themselves.

Due to the special nature of this place, the Pokémon living here were all very well-behaved, afraid that if they caused trouble or made a mistake one day, Biyi City would close down the Pokémon Shelter and leave them homeless.

Although the conditions here were not the best, the Pokémon League would regularly distribute food expenses to them.

And the Manager, as the Manager here, although he usually didn't handle affairs, he also didn't pocket their meals. The Pokémon were already very satisfied with this.

Of course, the small amount of food expenses from the Pokémon League couldn't ensure they ate their fill every meal, but at least they wouldn't starve to death, which was much better than wandering outside.

"This young boy is here to adopt Pokémon. All of you behave well. If you can be chosen, then good days are coming!" the Manager shouted into the loudspeaker at the Pokémon.

As for whether he himself believed these words, no one knew.

The Pokémon looked at each other, showing little desire to perform. They had become accustomed to the life here and had low expectation of being adopted.

Some Pokémon had been adopted in the past, but they had never seen each other again and didn't know how the adopted Pokémon were doing now.

The Pokémon were a little resistant to the unknown life.

Seeing the Pokémon's reaction, the Manager spat in annoyance and muttered, "A bunch of useless lumps."

Shenmu was a little angry hearing this and seemed to want to say something, but Bai Feng held him back.

There was no need to conflict with the Manager. If the Manager was truly treating the Pokémon badly, rashly conflicting with him would only cause the Pokémon to suffer after they left.

Moreover, based on Bai Feng's previous observations, the Pokémon didn't seem to dislike the Manager, and their emotions when looking at the Manager were calm, without any fear or nervousness, indicating that their bond with the Manager was decent, at least not bad.

At this moment, Bai Feng stepped forward and said, "My name is Bai Feng, and I live in the East District of Biyi City. I run an Orchard, so you won't have to worry about food and drink there. Also, it's very close to here, so if you want to come back and visit, you can come back anytime."

Bai Feng had roughly guessed the mindset of these Pokémon. They had completely adapted to their current stable and peaceful life and simply didn't want to change.

Seeing that everyone was still indifferent, Bai Feng felt a bit helpless and could only continue, "The work tasks there aren't heavy, just doing some housework. Is there anyone among you who is good at housework?"

The Pokémon's eyes flickered, but Bai Feng still noticed that the one they looked at the most was a Hatterene.

In fact, Bai Feng had noticed the Hatterene hidden among the Pokémon from the beginning.

The most striking thing about this Hatterene was a very hideous and terrifying scar on its cheek.

Hatterene's original habitat is in the distant Galar Region and it is not a common Pokémon. Logically, it shouldn't be easy to see one in the Kalos Region, yet this one appeared in the Shelter.

Bai Feng couldn't help but ask the Manager about the Hatterene's situation.

The Manager didn't hide anything from Bai Feng and told him the entire reason why the Hatterene was here.

It turned out that this Hatterene had been smuggled from the Galar Region by Pokémon Hunters several years ago.

Hatterene was already considered a relatively rare Pokémon in its original habitat, the Galar Region. If it could be smuggled to Kalos, its value could almost double.

Unfortunately, this Poaching Gang had bad luck. Not long after arriving in the Kalos Region, they were noticed by the police.

During the battle, the airship the Poaching Gang was traveling in experienced a violent explosion, causing almost all the Pokémon captured by the Poaching Gang on board to be killed.

Most of the Pokémon the Poaching Gang caught at the time were Initial Form Pokémon that had just been born and had almost no self-preservation ability. Of course, they couldn't withstand that level of explosion.

Even the Hatterene at that time was still just a Hatenna.

Relying on an emergency Psychic protection, the Hatenna barely survived the explosion, but its cheek was also cut by a large wound from the fragments of the exploding airship. Even healing moves like Heal Pulse couldn't make that wound heal.

As the wound healed, a terrifying scar was left on the Hatenna's face, and this scar became even more noticeable as it evolved into Hatterene.

In reality, if someone was willing to spend a large sum of money, with the help of medical technology, the wound on the Hatenna's face could actually be healed.

But who would be willing to spend so much money on a "useless" Pokémon?

Perhaps it was due to too much trauma, but ever since the Hatenna woke up from that explosion, it had never used a move again and was deemed a useless Pokémon.

Nurse Joy had examined the Hatenna's condition. She said that the Hatenna's body had no problems; it refused to battle and refused to use moves probably due to psychological issues.

With such problems, even though Hatenna was a rare Pokémon, no one was willing to take it in.

After it was impossible to find out where the Hatenna came from, it was sent to this Pokémon Shelter to be housed.

(End of Chapter)