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"Pi——" Caterpie—quick, use—
Caterpie commanded itself: "Pii——"
Water Gun!
The next instant, a jet of Water Gun shot out from Caterpie's body.
This rooted Joy, who had originally intended to pick Caterpie up, to the spot.
Joy stood there blankly, watching the Caterpie in front of her chirp away. What followed was a dazzling display of various moves. It was like setting off a bouquet of fireworks right in front of Joy.
After a long while, Joy rubbed her eyes and then pinched her own arm.
"Ouch... so it's not a dream? Did I not sleep well last night?"
"Pii~"
After tossing out one last fireball, the Caterpie on the ground fell fast asleep.
Meanwhile, on the other side, in the Sinnoh region.
The Team Rocket members tasked with monitoring the Wizard waited until they confirmed that the Wizard was truly gone before cautiously approaching the totem pole placed on the ground.
"What is this?" one of them picked it up. "I think I saw through the telescope that he touched this thing with his hand and then disappeared."
"No idea, never seen it before."
Looking at this strange totem pole, the two pondered for a moment and exchanged a glance.
"How about we hand this over to Boss Giovanni?"
"Alright."
The two quickly reached a consensus, picked up the totem pole, reported it to Team Rocket headquarters, and turned to leave.
Unaware of this, the Wizard hastily finished his business and was about to head to the Pokémon Center to pick up Caterpie when he ran into a sighing Indeedee on the way.
Green Rain day was also a major event for the farm. Because fiber was genuinely in severe shortage right now, almost all the Pokémon on the farm, including Magearna and Rotom, and even Ditto, were out collecting fiber all over Pelican Town.
While pulling up weeds from the ground, Indeedee sat in a corner with a miserable expression on its face.
Pelican Town wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. Rumors spread by who-knows-who had spread all over Pelican Town in just one night.
Even though no one would say it to its face, Indeedee could hear everyone's inner thoughts, so it caught every single piece of gossip they whispered about it behind its back.
It was completely unable to defend itself! And it didn't even share a language with them!
How was this any different from spreading dirty rumors about a mute?! Where was the difference, exactly?!
"Indeedee?" The Wizard called out to Indeedee, waved his hand to isolate it from the Green Rain, and then sat down beside it. "What's wrong?"
"Indeedee, indee, indeedee!!!"
Indeedee complained.
"I see." The Wizard paused, feeling a sense of empathy for a moment. He himself had done the same, choosing to move to the outskirts far away from Pelican Town because of some rumors and because of his ex-wife.
"Would you like to come with me to the Sinnoh region for a few days?" The Wizard thought for a moment and said. "Once they don't see you for a while, they'll forget about this matter on their own."
"Indeedee? Indeedee!!"
"Really." The Wizard nodded. Confirming that Indeedee genuinely wanted to go, he immediately took out a piece of paper, wrote down the cause and effect on Indeedee's behalf, and snapped his fingers.
The letter had already been transmitted to Ron.
"Alright, then we'll set off tomorrow. You can go back to the farm and pack your things first." The Wizard said, waved his hand, and turned to head to the Community Center.
Upon arriving at the Community Center, Joy had already healed Caterpie. Seeing the Wizard enter, she couldn't help but say, "Caterpie is all better now, but there's one little thing you need to pay attention to."
"Hmm?"
"If you really don't know what to feed Caterpie, the shops in the Kalos region sell specialized food for Bug-type Pokémon." Joy paused. "Stop feeding it random, messy things."
"Ah, ah, right." The Wizard scratched his head a bit awkwardly. After recalling the thoroughly despairing Caterpie into its Poké Ball, he immediately left.
Watching the Wizard leave, Joy couldn't help but let out a long breath.
Even though it wasn't fed very well—to a certain extent, that Caterpie had been raised very well by the Wizard. Even Bug-type Pokémon experts would have to come to the Wizard to ask how to train a Caterpie to be like that.
Thinking this, Joy warned herself not to judge a book by its cover, and buried herself back in her work.
Time flashed forward to the next day.
All the Pokémon that had been parasitized by moss because they lacked fur—including Magearna—were currently crowded around the pond, trying their hardest to scrape the moss off their bodies.
The one in charge of this task was Bellossom, whose swordsmanship had reached the realm of perfection during this time. With a flourish of its sword against a Geodude, all the moss on the Geodude's body fell to the ground.
It was even noticeably smoother than before.
Ron, meanwhile, was tallying up yesterday's loot while taking the mail out of the mailbox to read.
As soon as he opened it, Ron saw the letter from the Wizard. Holding it in his hands and reading it, he finally realized why Indeedee had been looking at him so guiltily all day.
"So it's going out with the Wizard for a while?" Ron muttered. He closed the chest containing the fiber and went straight into the cabin.
After absentmindedly patrolling the farm once, Indeedee dragged Meowth along, deciding to go confess to Ron that it was about to leave.
"Indee. Indeedee?"
"Magearna." Magearna pointed to the cabin for Indeedee.
"Indeedee." Indeedee glanced at the mailbox. Seeing that the mailbox it had been thinking about all day had finally been opened by Ron, its heart skipped a beat.
Despite being nervous, Indeedee pulled Meowth into the cabin.
"In——"
"Um, Ron, it has something——" Before Meowth could finish, it saw Ron stand up from the fridge.
He was holding a large stack of ingredients, which he handed to Indeedee: "Let's go. It's just a trip to Sinnoh with the Wizard, right? No problem."
"Indeedee?" (You're not angry?)
Ron shook his head.
To be honest, it had just found something else it wanted to do; it wasn't like it was out there spreading rumors about him, so what was there to be angry about?
As Ron thought this, Indeedee off to the side couldn't help but rub its paws together awkwardly.
However, everything had gone smoothly in the end.
Indeedee thought, following Ron, who was carrying the large stack of ingredients, to the Wizard's Tower.
The Wizard had been waiting there since early morning. Seeing Ron deliver Indeedee over, he couldn't help but wave at Ron.
"These are the ingredients you might need for the trip." Ron paused, then added, "Since you're taking Indeedee with you, let Indeedee handle the cooking."
"Hmm?"
"Viola said the food you make is terrible," Ron continued. "Don't bring our Indeedee back starved and skinny."
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