Naoki had no choice but to get up and ahe phone. As the video call ected, Dr. Sada's familiar and fident face appeared on the s.

  Seeing her, Naoki immediately perked up.

  "Dr. Sada?"

  Dr. Sada smiled. "Long time no see, Naoki. How have you been tely?"

  Refleg on the past few days, Naoki smiled and nodded. "Everything’s been going well."

  He khe reason for Dr. Sada's call, so he called out toward the door.

  Soon enough, Koraidon’s scarlet figure appeared in the room.

  Naoki smiled. "Say hello to the doctor."

  Koraidon looked at the s, and with a happy cry, said, "Raao~"

  Dr. Sada watched the boween Naoki and Koraidon and smiled. "You seem to be growing closer."

  "Actually, Koraidon has always been very well-behaved," Naoki said, gng at his Pokémon.

  "This is really surprising," Dr. Sada said, p for a moment. "Maybe your Koraidon is special."

  She reflected on her ret work. To see if Koraidon and Miraidon could live harmoniously with humans, she and her husband, Dr. Turo, had introduced their son Arven to the Pokémon.

  But the results weren’t as promising as they had hoped.

  'Why?'

  Dr. Sada sank deeper into thought.

  Watg her on the s, Naoki started thinking about Dr. Sada and Dr. Turo’s work, and how their focus had affected their son, Arven.

  After a brief moment of ption, Naoki decided to speak up.

  "Doctor, have you entered any difficulties with your experiment?"

  Dr. Sada didn’t expect that question. After a pause, she shared their challenge: "Arven's retionship with Miraidon and Koraidon hasn’t been ideal."

  "I don’t uand," she tinued. "Even though Koraidon and Miraidon won’t attack humans once caught in Poké Balls, they still remain on edge around us."

  Naoki thought about the mgressive Koraidon from the game and offered a guess. "Could it be due to their mgressive personalities? Even among the same species, Pokémon have different temperaments."

  Dr. Sada nodded but seemed uain. "That’s not quite it. Their personalities aren’t as docile as your Koraidon's."

  Naoki hesitated for a moment, then spoke again. "There might be one more factor."

  Dr. Sada looked surprised. "Oh?"

  Naoki tinued, "It might be because of Arven."

  Dr. Sada froze, startled by the suggestion.

  Naoki expined, "You and Dr. Turo have dedicated so much time to your research that Arven might feel ed. He may think that Miraidon and Koraidon have taken his parents’ attention away from him, and that could be why he’s struggling to ect with them."

  Naoki didn’t o say more—Dr. Sada uood the rest.

  She frowned slightly and fell into deep thought.

  Naoki remained silent, givihe time she o process the information.

  Uedly, Dr. Turo, who hadn’t appeared on the s until now, stepped into view. His calm demeanor trasted with Dr. Sada's.

  "It seems we’ve overlooked something important," Dr. Turo said, his tone measured.

  "Thank you for the reminder, Naoki."

  Naoki thought to himself that he simply didn’t want to withe tragic fate of Arven, whose parents would both die iure.

  As he watched Dr. Sada and Dr. Turo deep in thought, Naoki struggled with how to warn them about the explosion at the Fourth Observatory iure—a disaster that would take their lives.

  However, no matter how much he thought about it, Naoki couldn’t e up with a good solution.

  If he revealed the plot directly and told them about the impending dahe two doight not believe him. Even if they did, their obsession with research would likely prevent them from taking any precautionary measures.

  Just as Naoki was about to say something, Dr. Sada spoke up, "That’s all for today’s unication."

  After a brief pause, she added, "Once we finish our research here, Turo and I will visit Arven. See you ime, Naoki."

  Naoki hesitated but eventually nodded. "Okay."

  "Fet it," he thought. "I’ll wait until ime."

  After all, there were still at least seven ht years before the i would occur. By then, Naoki figured he would be more familiar with the two doctors and could expiuation iail.

  Naoki, now wide awake, decided to start steaming another batch of green grass dumplings for his Gogoat.

  As he looked at the steaming dumplings i, he suddenly remembered that these green grass dumplings might have an effe the King of Bountiful Harvests.

  Green grass dumplings could provide Grass-type energy to the King of Bountiful Harvests.

  As long as the King ed enough grass dumplings, bined with the energy drawn from the faith of the nearby farmers, He wouldn’t ergy.

  Naoki imagihat perhaps the King of Bountiful Harvests could bee like the Gogoat, uo tain His energy unless he releases it regurly.

  But unlike Gogoat, who simply releases energy through bursts of activity, the King of Bountiful Harvests could use His energy to bless crops and make flowers bloom.

  Naoki also remembered that green grass dumplings could occasionally cause crops influenced by the King to mutate, creating a positive cycle betweewo.

  In the game, after helping the King of Bountiful Harvests recover His two steeds, the King would agree to travel with the pyer.

  Naoki wondered, "Will the real-life King of Bountiful Harvests act the same way?"

  He mused on the possibility that one day, the King of Bountiful Harvests might visit the ran person.

  For some reason, a vivid picture appeared in Naoki's mind.

  —The King of Bountiful Harvests was having afternoo the ranch. He sat elegantly on a chair, with grass cakes and green grass dumplings ly arranged on a small round table in front of Him. In His hand, the King held a cup of bck tea, a specialty from Kitakami Township, sipping it with grad poise.

  Naoki couldn’t help but think, ' The image is quite beautiful.'

  If the King of Bountiful Harvests were willing to e to the ranaoki wouldn’t mind hosting a tea party for him every day, preparing a delightful spread of afternoon tea and snacks.

  But all of this was based on the premise that the King’s willio e.

  As the legendary ruler of a Gar, it remained uaiher the King of Bountiful Harvests would ever leave His homend.

  Until that day, Naoki knew he had to work hard to gather enough s aion to draw the King to the ranch, much like a faithful believer building a kingdom for the god he worships.

  Of course, Naoki's efforts were definitely not just for the King’s two steeds. 'No way!'

  ————

  April 16, Year 198 of the Alliance dar, Summer.

  That m, something big happe the ranch.

  Three more Nacli evolved into Naclstack!

  The evolved Naclstack had grown se that their current living quarters were too cramped to tain them.

  Early in the m, Naoki began instrug them to dig out more spad expand their living quarters.

  However, the group of Nacli that had grown up in the house had no idea how to go about this.

  "Nac...s..."

  They exged fused and sorrowful looks, making low, aggrieved noises, clearly indig that they didn’t know how to help with the expansion.

  Naoki sighed. "Well, that’s a problem."

  He fell into deep thought, w how to solve this.

  Meanwhile, the lone Nacli who hadn’t yet evolved looked at the four t Naclsta front of it. It seemed on the verge of tears, clearly overwhelmed by being the only o behind.

  Seeing its sad expression, the thoughtful Alcremie immediately stepped forward to fort Nacli, gently patting its body with her tiny hands.

  Naoki caught a glimpse of the se from the er of his eye.

  He had always been impressed by this partiacli.

  When it was in the wild, this Nacli had been the weakest in its group, appearing a little malnourished.

  Naoki had always taken a issez-faire approach to the salt produ of the Nacli family. For this reason, he hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that Nacli had been following Alcremie around the ranch all day.

  Naoki didn’t want to lock them up just for the sake of harvesting rock salt.

  Now, seeing the sad expression on this Nacli, he immediately stepped forward and forted it warmly:

  “Don’t be sad! Even if you ’t evolve in your lifetime, I’ll still take care of you forever!”

  The other four Naclstack looked on with envy.

  “Nac... Nacli…”

  Nacli felt both anxious and touched.

  Though it was touched by Naoki’s words, it didn’t want to gh life without evolving into a Naclstack!

  It wao provide more rock salt to Naoki, just like the other Naclstack had!

  Seeing Nacli’s flicted expression, Naoki realized he had said the wrong thing.

  Scratg his head, he quickly ged the subject. “Don’t worry! I’ll do my best to help you evolve ime!”