As the saying goes, seven days in the mountains are like a thousand years in the outside world. When Xia Huanao woke up, he could truly say it was like waking from a thousand-year dream.
Rubbing his head, Xia Huanao felt a dull ache, not splitting, but certainly uncomfortable. He glanced at his watch and instantly snapped awake. "What the hell, twelve hours? I slept for twelve hours? No wonder I felt awake, it's because I'm starving."
Xia Huanao quickly rummaged through his backpack, grabbed a bread, and stuffed it into his mouth. He then looked at Diancie, who couldn't possibly endure a dozen hours of sleep and was already asleep. Xia Huanao gently petted Diancie's head and returned her to her Poké Ball.
After his little cutie was back, Xia Huanao turned his attention to his other Pokémon. They were still practicing and seemed to be having a blast. The scene was so intense it even frightened Xia Huanao himself.
Xia Huanao beckoned to Chatot, intending to find out what was going on. Chatot clapped his hands, conjuring a clone to continue training with Rockruff, while its main body came to Xia Huanao's side.
After a few questions, Xia Huanao finally understood. Chatot and the others hadn't been training for twelve hours straight; no Pokémon could withstand that. They had been taking breaks and training intermittently, totaling only six or seven hours by now.
Xia Huanao nodded. "Is that so? That's good. Everyone, come back, we're going to eat."
Speaking of food, Rockruff's ears twitched. With a burst of movement, it dashed towards Xia Huanao, only to be caught by a Poké Ball thrown by Xia Huanao. Rockruff, back in its Poké Ball, was quite annoyed. It had been so careful for so long without discovering its Poké Ball, and now, just as it was about to go eat, it was recalled?
Ninjask then grabbed Lickitung's tail and brought it before Xia Huanao. Lickitung had promised to give him today's honey from Combee, and this needed to be settled first.
Xia Huanao chuckled at Ninjask dragging Lickitung, then asked, "What's up? What are you two up to?"
Ninjask buzzed to explain to Xia Huanao what Lickitung had promised him. Xia Huanao glanced at Chatot and received a confirmation from him. Xia Huanao sighed. "They say monkeys are clever, and it's true. Ninjask, we don't have any Combee honey allocated for this week. Did you perhaps misremember?"
The halo on Ninjask's head flickered, and it lunged at Lickitung with murderous intent. How dare Lickitung use his favorite Combee honey to fool him? If this could be tolerated, what couldn't?
Watching Ninjask relentlessly pursue Lickitung with fatal intent, Xia Huanao shrugged. "Alright, you two can chase each other here. We're going to eat. Breloom, let's go."
As Xia Huanao was speaking, he saw Breloom stacking Poké Balls with its two fists. When Xia Huanao spoke, Breloom was distracted and caused the third Poké Ball in the stack to collapse. Breloom pointed at the Poké Balls, indicating that it preferred stacking Poké Balls here, and that most Grass-type Pokémon could replenish their energy through photosynthesis.
Xia Huanao glanced at the circuit breaker in the training room and shook his head. Although he was curious to see what would happen if he turned off the training room's fluorescent lights, he decided against it and took his Chatot to eat a meal that he wasn't even sure counted as a meal anymore.
As Xia Huanao left the training room to eat and was waiting in line, he idly pulled out his phone, wanting to see if anything new had happened in this short period.
The moment he opened his phone, Xia Huanao saw a photo sent by Miki Mizusawa. Xia Huanao opened it and couldn't take his eyes off it.
The photo showed Miki Mizusawa and her Pokémon posing together. Not only that, Miki Mizusawa's maid, Tea, was also in the picture. Two beautiful women in swimsuits stood between a Pokémon.
Of course, the reason Xia Huanao couldn't tear his eyes away wasn't because he was captivated by the two girls' swimsuits. Having lived two lives, he'd seen plenty of similar things. Even with Shen Yu, there were often such delightful scenes. What truly captivated Xia Huanao was the blue Pokémon standing between Miki Mizusawa and Tea.
That blue Pokémon was Lycanroc, and judging by its color and pose, it was in its Dusk Form. In its Dusk Form, Lycanroc's shiny blue was between the shiny blue of the Day and Night forms. However, Xia Huanao couldn't quite figure it out. First, Rockruff's evolution required the Steadfast ability, which was fine. But Miki Mizusawa's Rockruff wasn't shiny.
As Xia Huanao pondered, stroking his chin, he heard someone behind him start cursing. "Hey, are you moving or not? If not, don't block the way!"
Xia Huanao looked up and realized the queue in front of him had moved forward quite a bit. He quickly took two steps to catch up and apologized to everyone behind him. As it was almost his turn, Xia Huanao put his phone back into his pocket and focused on queuing.
Xia Huanao found the meal truly tasteless. After all, he was eager to know how Miki Mizusawa managed to turn a regular Pokémon into a shiny one.
After thinking for a long time without any progress, Xia Huanao decided to ask Miki Mizusawa directly. However, as he opened their chat, he discovered that Miki Mizusawa hadn't just sent one photo earlier, but two.
Xia Huanao gently swiped his finger across the phone screen and saw that below the original picture, there was another one – a normal photo of Lycanroc, with no sign of it being shiny.
Xia Huanao scrolled up and down his phone, and no matter how he looked, he was certain that both Pokémon were Lycanroc. But what was going on? A temporary shiny form? Could it be an evolution bonus?
Thinking of this, Xia Huanao subconsciously glanced at Chatot. Even for a fleeting moment, that black Greninja looked cool.
Chatot was startled by Xia Huanao's gaze and looked at itself, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Xia Huanao merely glanced at it before returning to his thoughts.
Xia Huanao continued to ponder, spearing food into his mouth with his fork. He didn't even notice he'd emptied his plate, and nearly broke his teeth when he took a bite.
He promptly paid the bill and headed straight for the Pokémon Center. As he walked, he asked Miki Mizusawa how she managed to get a temporarily shiny Lycanroc. Miki Mizusawa simply told him that Lycanroc evolved shortly after she rescued Tea from being "tentacle-played" by a Grand Pudge.
Xia Huanao wasn't particularly happy with this explanation, but thankfully, a divine intervention came to his aid.
Upon returning to the Pokémon Center, he saw a Pokémon with a pink tail stacking Poké Balls with Breloom. This Pokémon's skill was far superior to Breloom's; it had managed to stack ten Poké Balls steadily without any wobbling. Breloom looked at the stack of Poké Balls in utter amazement.
Xia Huanao also froze when he saw this Pokémon, then excitedly rushed over and gently petted its tail. "Mew, long time no see."
Mew floated in the air, nudged its stacked Poké Balls, causing them to scatter all over the floor. Then, Mew said to Xia Huanao, "I'm here to help you. You want to evolve your Pokémon, right? That's easy."
Xia Huanao blinked and asked, "You can help with that?"
Mew fiddled with its tail. "Of course, I helped the little girl Miki Mizusawa's Pokémon."
With Mew's explanation, Xia Huanao finally understood what had happened. Miki Mizusawa was able to evolve so quickly because Mew had persuaded the Sun Pokémon, Solgaleo. Otherwise, it would never have been so easy for a girl to see a green shiny for several consecutive days.
Fortunately, Miki Mizusawa was capable and succeeded in evolving within two days. Otherwise, even Solgaleo wouldn't have been able to endure for a few more days.
As for why it was shiny, Mew had briefly rewritten Rockruff's genetic sequence. However, Mew's "artistry was not yet perfected," so the shiny state was quickly reverted.
Xia Huanao hugged Mew and nodded. "I see. By altering a certain genetic sequence, it changes the Pokémon's state, but because it's unstable, it reverts shortly afterward. So, if you used this ability on a regular Rockruff, would it revert after evolving into a Dusk Form Lycanroc?"
Mew shook its head. "I don't know, but it probably wouldn't, given the immense evolutionary energy."
Xia Huanao touched the Poké Ball at his waist. If Mew was here to help, then this was a tremendous help indeed.
However, Xia Huanao soon became dejected again because his current theory was to use the aurora to evolve Rockruff, but what caused the aurora?
Auroras, as brilliant plasma phenomena, are primarily caused by charged particles from the sun, in simpler terms, solar wind.
Solgaleo was already troubled enough, and now Xia Huanao wanted to torment him with solar wind. Moreover, the dawn Xia Huanao was experimenting with was at the dawn of Fuyuki's time. This was Lunala's territory, and Xia Huanao couldn't expect Solgaleo to come and challenge Lunala, could he?
Thinking this, Xia Huanao sighed.