The next day, Julian came downstairs with a yawn, accompanied by a similarly yawning Celebi and Jirachi. They hadn't gotten back until almost one o’clock the night before.
And then they still had to wake up at seven-thirty for breakfast.
If you thought about skipping and sleeping in? Heh, Love and Slowking would make sure you learned how to be a good kid.
Love and Slowking had already prepared breakfast: beef buns with millet porridge.
Jake wasn't there; he must have gone out fishing early.
Tina was eating at the table. Hearing the commotion, she called Julian over to eat—but her gaze was quickly drawn to the cute, yellow, star-like Pokémon perched on Julian’s left shoulder.
"Son, what Pokémon is this?"
Tina hurried over to Julian, her eyes fixed intently on Jirachi.
"Jirachi. Mom, you’ve seen it before—it’s the Pokémon that came out of the meteorite," Julian explained.
He didn’t say much more. Naturally, Julian wouldn’t reveal Jirachi’s true strength or abilities.
"So, it’s that one!"
Tina nodded. Of course, she knew about that meteorite—Julian had told them earlier that a Pokémon would hatch from it.
This bizarre kind of "hatching" was something Tina had never seen before.
She hadn’t expected the Pokémon that emerged to be so cute. Its adorable look struck her right in the heart.
Before Jirachi could react, Tina scooped it into her arms, rubbing her cheek against Jirachi’s to express her overflowing affection.
Jirachi didn’t resist—it could sense that Tina meant no harm.
After holding it for a while, Tina reluctantly let go.
"Here, this beef bun is really tasty—Love made it. And this porridge is delicious too—Slowking cooked it," Celebi demonstrated to Jirachi how to eat the beef bun.
First, take a small bite, then sip out the broth inside.
Or, after a small bite, dip the rest of the bun into the porridge—the taste would be just as wonderful.
When Tina saw Jirachi actually eating human food, she almost wanted to stop it—but then she heard Julian say: "Mom, it’s fine. Jirachi can handle it."
He couldn’t exactly tell her that Jirachi only had seven days to live—that would break her heart.
Besides, Jirachi was still a First-class Legendary; human food really couldn’t harm it in the slightest.
"Son, your Aunt Sarah is coming over as a guest tonight," Tina said.
"Aunt Sarah Bennett?" Julian asked.
Tina nodded. "Yes, your Aunt Sarah has returned to the country."
The Aunt Sarah that Julian referred to was his mother’s best friend. She used to visit their house often, but eight years ago, her whole family went to Maplia—not to immigrate, but because her husband’s family needed him to develop new markets there.
Now that the Maplian market had stabilized, Aunt Sarah and her husband naturally chose to return to Drakoria.
"Hmm, got it," Julian nodded.
"What do you mean, 'got it'? This time, your Aunt Sarah and her whole family are coming. That little Haley who always followed you around when she was young will be here too. It's been eight years—that girl must have grown into a fine young lady by now."
"I remember she was only eight when they left for Maplia. That makes her sixteen now—hardly a 'fine young lady,'" Julian muttered.
An image of a little girl surfaced in his mind. Whenever Aunt Sarah went shopping with his mother, she would leave her daughter, Haley, in his care. So, Julian had always felt a brotherly affection for Haley. It was a pity when her whole family moved to Maplia.
"Love, Slowking, we'll have three guests tonight."
Both Pokémon nodded in unison.
With guests coming, they couldn't be careless tonight—they had to treat them with the highest standards.
After breakfast Moltres flew Tina to Lake University for her lecture.
Ever since the first time she had ridden on Moltres’s back, Tina had fallen in love with the feeling. And with it being autumn now, Moltres’s warmth made the ride even cozier.
After his mother left, Celebi took out a brand new phone and handed it to Jirachi, with a few apps already downloaded.
Celebi: "Jirachi, let me teach you how to play Pokémon Glory. From now on, the three of us—you, me, and Slowking—can team up and play together. We won't include Julian—he's trash."
Julian looked at Celebi with disdain but didn't say a word. Instead, he directly activated the child mode on Celebi's phone.
Celebi: "Big bro, I was wrong! I'm the trash here!"
"Hmph, watch your words next time," Julian sneered. 'Hah, like I can’t handle you.'
He then took out his own phone and browsed the Trainer Association forum to see if anything noteworthy had happened recently.
Most of the news was about someone finding some treasure in a secret realm or a trainer successfully breaking through to become an Elite.
"The Hundred School League has already started."
Julian checked the news and realized the date—the league had indeed begun three days ago.
Among the updates, he saw introductions for all the members of the Imperial University team, including Ryan.
Surprisingly, this year's Hundred School League was being held at the Universiade Stadium in Lake City.
The league was still in the preliminary stages, so the competition wasn't intense yet. Julian decided to wait until the semifinals or finals to go watch.
After all, he was a graduate of Imperial University, and the event was practically in his backyard. If he had time, of course, he'd go check it out.
"Almost 9 o'clock."
Remembering that someone was coming for a challenge at 9 a.m., Julian walked to the backyard and recalled Lucario, Melmetal, and Kartana into their Poké Balls.
This time he planned to use these three Pokémon for the battle.
The match was scheduled for 9 a.m.
And it ended at 9:20 a.m.
It was a full 6vs6 battle.
Julian rubbed his chin as he watched the challenger’s dejected back, muttering to himself, "Was I too harsh? But that can’t be right—I even dragged the battle out for twenty minutes."
He had already gone easy on the challenger. Otherwise, the fight wouldn’t have lasted more than a few minutes.
Kartana crossed its arms and declared, "One who cannot withstand such a blow is unworthy to be my opponent."
"You are the one who went too hard," Julian rolled his eyes.
The challenger’s shattered confidence had a lot to do with Kartana—this guy had taken out the challenger’s ace Pokémon with a single strike.
If Julian hadn’t offered some encouragement afterward, the challenger might have forfeited on the spot.
Later Julian had Lucario and Melmetal hold back a little to prolong the battle. Otherwise, Kartana would have single-handedly wiped out the opponent in under ten moves.
If word spread that challengers were getting flattened like that, no one would dare to take on their Gym anymore—and that would cut off one of their sources of experience.
Returning home, Julian saw that Celebi and Jirachi were already playing Pokémon Glory. He glanced at Jirachi’s stats: 0 kills, 18 deaths, 9 assists.
It was just a beginner, but those numbers still looked terrible.
Could it be that in the future… it’d be a total noob too?
*****
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