Chapter 4: Fletchling
After the children got to know each other briefly, Director Meili said to Yangtai, "Yangtai, take Bai Feng to see his room. I'll go prepare some things for him."
"Got it!" Yangtai replied playfully to Director Meili.
"Bai Feng brother, come with me!" he said, skipping ahead to lead the way for Bai Feng.
Because communication wasn't very smooth, Bai Feng hadn't spoken much. Only Yangtai himself was chattering away. When they reached the room door, he skillfully opened it.
"Here you go, this is it! Caicaizi and I cleaned this room together!" Yangtai said proudly.
"Thank you," Bai Feng said gratefully. He quickly scanned the room. It was indeed very clean and tidy. Although there weren't many furnishings, everything necessary was there, clearly indicating prior preparation.
After Bai Feng finished looking around the room, Yangtai finally looked at Gardevoir and asked with a face full of curiosity, "Bai Feng brother, is this your Pokémon?"
Does Mom count as my Pokémon? She should, right? Bai Feng reluctantly nodded.
"This is my first time seeing a Pokémon up close! So cool!" Yangtai stared at Gardevoir with envy. Although he had a lively personality, his behavior was very well-mannered and restrained; he didn't rashly try to touch Gardevoir.
"Bai Feng brother, why don't you ever talk?"
Seeing Bai Feng only nod or shake his head without saying a word, Yangtai asked curiously. He didn't find Bai Feng difficult to get along with.
Just then, Director Meili walked in and happened to hear Yangtai's question. She instructed him, "Your Bai Feng brother hasn't had much contact with people before, so he hasn't learned how to speak yet. You and Caicaizi can teach him more often."
"Okay, leave it to us!"
Although Yangtai found it a bit strange that Bai Feng hadn't learned to speak at his age, he readily agreed and was happy to be able to help the Director.
Director Meili placed the things she was holding onto Bai Feng's bed and explained to him, "These clothes and daily necessities belonged to Dongyu before. He doesn't need them anymore. I saw you didn't have any luggage, so I found all these for you."
Bai Feng said gratefully, "Thank you." This was truly a timely help.
Director Meili shook her head and said, "No need to thank me, they're just old things. As long as you don't mind, it's fine. Our funding isn't very sufficient here, so many things can't be bought just because we want to."
Bai Feng nodded in understanding. Even if the clothes were old, they were much better than wearing leaves like he did on the Island.
Just like that, Bai Feng settled down at the Blue Bird Orphanage. The children at the orphanage were all very well-behaved and gave Bai Feng a warm welcome.
At noon, he also saw the other two children—Limo and Dongyu.
Limo was usually looked after by Caicaizi. She was a very cute little girl, like a delicate porcelain doll. However, according to Director Meili, the child had a problem with her throat and might not be able to speak in the future.
Dongyu was a slightly thin boy, one year older than Bai Feng but about the same height.
He had a somewhat cold personality and didn't talk much, but his behavior was very polite, and his attitude towards Bai Feng was also good. He even proactively went to Bai Feng's room to greet him after school.
Director Meili specially prepared a hearty lunch at noon to celebrate Bai Feng's joining the Blue Bird Orphanage.
The orphanage usually ate simple food, so everyone was very happy to have a rare abundant meal. Silly little You even blurted out, "I wish Bai Feng brother could join us every day!"
Everyone found this both amusing and a little sad. At this moment, Bai Feng was incredibly thankful that Gyarados hadn't followed him back then. Otherwise, with the current conditions, how could he possibly feed it?
Two months passed in the blink of an eye, and Bai Feng had completely adapted to life at the Blue Bird Orphanage.
Although life here wasn't wealthy, it was much better than when he was on the Island. Moreover, everyone here had a harmonious bond, and while the days were ordinary, they were peaceful and tranquil.
During this time, Officer Jenny and Captain Sanders both came to visit Bai Feng and brought him many daily necessities. Officer Jenny, in particular, knew that Gardevoir was with Bai Feng, so she specifically gave Bai Feng a can of Pokéblock.
Actually, the mainstream food for Pokémon in the Kalos Region was Poképuff, but Poképuffs were not easy to store and would spoil easily after a few days, which was why Officer Jenny switched to giving him Pokéblock.
Seeing that Bai Feng was adapting well at the Blue Bird Orphanage, Officer Jenny and Captain Sanders left with peace of mind.
Bai Feng did many things during this month.
Every day, he would help Director Meili with housework, and his free time was spent learning the language of this world and training Gardevoir.
In learning the new language, Yangtai and the other children helped him a lot. Not only were they always responsive to his requests, but they would also promptly point out and correct him whenever he made a pronunciation error.
Because of this, Bai Feng made rapid progress in language communication over these two months. Now, even without Gardevoir's translation, he could roughly understand what others were saying, though he still stammered when speaking himself.
In training Gardevoir, Bai Feng made a new discovery, thanks to the can of Pokéblock Officer Jenny gave him.
Previously, he had discovered that Pokémon would automatically absorb the free special energy in the air and store it within their bodies, forming their own origin energy.
But after Gardevoir ate the Pokéblock, Bai Feng was surprised to find that compared to absorbing from the air on its own, Pokéblock was much, much more efficient at increasing a Pokémon's origin energy.
Therefore, if Gardevoir wanted to become strong quickly, it had to use food like Pokéblock or Poképuff regularly to aid its training.
But this required money, which was precisely what Bai Feng lacked the most.
To be honest, Bai Feng hadn't yet figured out what he wanted to do in this Pokémon World in the future.
Although considering this question wasn't urgent for an eight-year-old child, he wasn't truly an eight-year-old child, so making future plans as early as possible was very important.
However, no matter what profession he pursued in the future, he would not give up on cultivating Gardevoir.
On one hand, this was related to his own survival ability. On the other hand, Gardevoir was his mother. He didn't want his mother to be a weak existence that couldn't protect itself and couldn't withstand hardship.
Because of the existence of special creatures like Pokémon, this world couldn't be safe everywhere. Perhaps one day, danger would strike.
Fortunately, his Golden Finger was very powerful. After this period of continuous purification and refinement, the origin energy within Gardevoir's body had been greatly improved in both quality and purity. Correspondingly, its combat strength had also significantly increased.
The only issue was its control over its own origin energy was too weak.
This day, Bai Feng decided to go out and test Gardevoir's combat strength, so he shouted:
"Gardevoir, come out with me!"
Gardevoir was currently in the Living Room watching TV with Caicaizi and the others. Hearing Bai Feng call it, it reluctantly stood up.
TV was a novel thing for Gardevoir, who had just come into contact with the Human World, so during this time, Gardevoir had been completely engrossed in television, watching even commercials with great interest.
The discomfort of being called by Bai Feng at this moment was on the same level as the discomfort of being woken up by noise early in the morning.
"Bai Feng brother, are you going out?" Caicaizi turned her head and asked.
Bai Feng nodded and replied word by word, "Behind... Forest... Back before dinner."
"Oh, I'll tell Director Grandma. Be careful outside," Caicaizi instantly understood his meaning.
Just like that, Bai Feng took Gardevoir and left.
The Forest Bai Feng mentioned was behind a hill not far from the Blue Bird Orphanage. According to Dongyu, Pokémon often appeared there, so today he planned to try his luck.
After crossing the hill, Bai Feng indeed saw a small Forest not far away. He headed straight there with Gardevoir and found a few Fletchling playing in the branches inside the Forest.
Fletchling were not afraid of humans. Seeing Bai Feng and Gardevoir approach, they looked at them curiously, showing no signs of flying away.
"Fletchling, can I discuss something with you?" Bai Feng asked cautiously, afraid of startling them away.
"Yagu?"
The Fletchling closest to Bai Feng and Gardevoir tilted its head in confusion.
Bai Feng continued, "I'd like to ask you to have a battle with my Gardevoir."
Bai Feng had originally thought it would take some effort to persuade the Fletchling, but unexpectedly, this Fletchling turned out to be a battle maniac and immediately nodded in agreement.
Finding an open space, Bai Feng had the Fletchling and Gardevoir stand on opposite sides of the clearing, while he stood outside to act as the referee. He didn't plan to command Gardevoir.
"If you're ready, the battle begins now!"
"Yagu~~~"
As Bai Feng gave the signal, the excited Fletchling attacked first. Its speed was very fast, instantly turning into a white blur and crashing towards Gardevoir.
Quick Attack!
In a hurry, Gardevoir used its most proficient move, Confusion. A blue light flashed in its eyes, and the charging Fletchling was instantly frozen in mid-air.
The Island where Bai Feng and Gardevoir used to live was a place with little danger, and there weren't many Pokémon on the Island. This led to Gardevoir living a carefree life before. As a result, its combat strength was incredibly weak, and it only knew a few moves.
After repeated verification, combined with his understanding of Pokémon from his previous life, Bai Feng roughly knew that the moves Gardevoir knew were Confusion, Dazzling Gleam, Mystical Fire, and Heal Pulse. However, it could only use Confusion and Heal Pulse smoothly.
Gardevoir was proficient in using Confusion because it often used Confusion to pick fruit from trees on the Island. It was proficient in using Heal Pulse because Pokémon on the Island would often come to it for treatment after getting injured in fights.
As for Dazzling Gleam and Mystical Fire, these two more powerful attack moves were neglected because they weren't needed in daily life.
"Yagu~ Yagu~ Yagu~"
The restrained Fletchling frantically flapped its wings, trying to break free from the hold of Confusion, but the next second it was thrown out.
*Splat*~
The Fletchling hit a tree not far away and instantly fainted.
Uh~ The Fletchling was knocked out too quickly, Bai Feng didn't even react.
However, Gardevoir was a Final Evolution Stage Pokémon after all, its base stats were much higher than a Fletchling's, and it had been cultivated by Bai Feng using the Golden Finger for several months. It was understandable that its strength was a bit stronger than a wild Fletchling.
This wave was completely a level crushing, nothing else mattered.
Bai Feng walked over to the Fletchling, picked it up from the ground, and then injected his Golden Finger energy into its body. Before long, the Fletchling woke up with a look of contentment.
"Ya~ Gu~" So~ comfortable~
"Fletchling, are you okay?" Bai Feng asked.
"Yagu~ Yagu~ Yagu~" I'm fine, I'm fine! A little more, a little more!
The Fletchling scrambled up and hopped around on Bai Feng's palm.
Bai Feng continued to use his Golden Finger to help the Fletchling sort out the origin energy in its body, while saying to it, "Fletchling, it's a bit difficult for you to fight my Gardevoir alone. How about you call your friends over, and you all attack Gardevoir together?
After we're done, I'll sort out the energy in your bodies like this again, okay?"
Again? Gardevoir, standing nearby, immediately felt a bit unhappy, but it didn't dare to object.
Really! I'm the mom, Bai Feng should listen to me!
The old mother's family status was not looking good.
"Yagu~ Yagu~" Okay, okay! Wait for me, I'll be right back.
The Fletchling agreed quickly.
Sure enough, the Fletchling returned shortly, followed by about ten other Fletchling of similar size.
However, these later Fletchling were not as easy to persuade as the first one. They collectively demanded to experience the "special treatment" first. If the effect was really as good as the first Fletchling said, then they would be willing to help.
Alright, alright... Bai Feng was helpless. They really didn't want to suffer any loss.
So all the Fletchling experienced the pleasure of the "special treatment". Indescribable groans rose one after another in the Forest. If someone didn't know, they might have thought someone was doing inappropriate things to Pokémon in this Forest.
Understanding the benefits of the "special treatment", the Fletchling could no longer refuse Bai Feng's proposal and had to stay and work for Bai Feng as hired birds.
Just like that, Gardevoir began its training journey of taking on a flock of Fletchling alone.
Gardevoir, who could only skillfully use Confusion as an attack move, had too few attack methods. Therefore, Bai Feng required it to use Dazzling Gleam and Mystical Fire at the appropriate times when being surrounded by the Fletchling, and not just use Confusion.
Gardevoir's level was indeed higher than the Fletchling's, but its skill usage wasn't necessarily stronger than theirs. Coupled with the fact that it had never been surrounded by so many Pokémon before, it was flustered for a while and soon became quite battered.
In contrast, the Fletchling, although they also looked battered, were full of fighting spirit. Even after being hit by Gardevoir again and again, they would still charge forward without hesitation.
It must be said, this group of Fletchling were capable birds. As long as the payment was sufficient, they would endure being beaten and scolded.
(End of Chapter)