Because an extra thick-skinned girl had shown up—one who outwardly claimed to be here for a battle but was actually just here to freeload a meal—Hakuya ultimately added one more person's worth of portions to his original grocery shopping plan.
"Hurry up and come inside. Stop standing out there looking silly."
Carrying the heavy bags of groceries, Hakuya glanced back at Courtney, who was still standing in the doorway, and called out to her.
"Okay."
Courtney nodded, then stepped forward to follow him closely.
Upon entering, the first thing to catch her eye was an interior environment brimming with the atmosphere of everyday life.
The entire dormitory was laid out like an apartment, with the living room and kitchen connected to form an open public area. Light gray tiles covered the floor, the walls were painted with off-white latex paint, and a modest white ceiling light hung from above. Against the wall sat a set of dark gray fabric sofas, paired with a natural wood-colored coffee table.
Even though it was a teachers' dormitory provided by the Trainers' School, it was fully equipped with all the necessary furniture and appliances.
"You can sit in the living room and wait for a bit. I'm going to the kitchen to cook."
"Understood... Thank you..."
"Meowha~"
In the living room, Floragato glared hostilely at the purple-haired, red-hooded girl sitting on the sofa not far from her.
Towards human bipeds who trespassed on her territory, cats treated them all equally with a psychology of hostility.
Meanwhile, Latias similarly puffed out her cheeks, unhappily sizing up the purple-haired girl back and forth.
She had already used telepathy to find out exactly why Courtney was here right now.
If she dares to tail and stalk him all the way here today, what about a few days from now? Won't she knock Trainer unconscious, drag him back, and force him to become her sex slave?!
However, Courtney herself was an incredibly self-centered girl who always did things her own way.
Faced with Floragato's undisguised hostility and the dissatisfied glares Latias shot her way from time to time, she remained sitting perfectly straight on the sofa. Even though it was her very first time stepping through the door, she carried herself with the unhurried composure of a head wife managing an entire harem.
Of course, rather than calling it the composure of a head wife, it was more accurate to say this girl simply didn't care at all.
Seeing the tense, swords-drawn atmosphere in the living room, Alcremie sighed softly, then ran off to brew some tea.
Although she also felt this perverted stalker girl harbored malicious intentions and might have improper thoughts about her Trainer, since she was a guest, she still had to fulfill her duties as a host and treat her properly.
Alcremie-mommy has always been this considerate and kind.
"Nai~"
A short while later, she walked toward the girl on the sofa carrying steaming hot green tea.
Facing Alcremie, who was barely taller than her feet, Courtney didn't feel the slightest bit of contempt.
—This is a powerful Pokémon that tanked Primal Groudon's Fire Blast + Precipice Blades head-on without losing its ability to battle.
Nodding seriously and solemnly, this extremely envious girl even specifically used both hands to respectfully receive the tea, then softly thanked Alcremie.
While Courtney was taking small sips of hot tea and waiting, the sound of chopping vegetables and the faint aroma of food drifted out from the kitchen.
Hakuya cooked very fast.
Before long, a bowl of freshly cooked egg noodles was placed in front of Courtney.
Just smelling the mouth-watering aroma wafting from it, the girl couldn't help but feel her appetite stir. Not to mention, after experiencing the battle against the Dual Gods, tailing him the entire way, and waiting outside Hakuya's dorm door all afternoon, she was genuinely starving right now.
Gulp—
Looking at the steaming bowl of noodles on the table, Courtney gently swallowed her saliva.
Subsequently, she ultimately failed to resist the temptation of the food and picked up the chopsticks and spoon.
Tucking the hair falling by her ear behind it with one hand, Courtney carefully brought the soup spoon to her lips and took a small, shallow sip of the broth first.
Instantly, her eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth curled up involuntarily.
Compared to lean pork noodles, the broth of egg noodles lacked that rich, meaty aroma. If the chef's skills were lacking, the refreshing, savory flavor that should accompany the egg drop would become bland and tasteless, making it hard to swallow.
Aside from the broth making her eyes light up, the texture of the noodles was also incredibly stunning.
With one bite, the inherent chewiness of the noodles was irresistible. Combined with the perfect garnish of the egg drop, it almost instantly conquered this yandere girl's tongue.
"How is it? The taste should be passable, right?"
Right at this moment, Hakuya walked out from the kitchen again, carrying a bowl of fresh meat broth.
Glancing down at the noodles, which were already more than half gone, he knew Courtney had started eating ahead of time.
"Delicious."
A thousand words welled up in her heart.
Courtney tried her best to scour her mind for adjectives to describe it, but after struggling for a long time, it ultimately condensed into these two simplest, yet most effective words of review: "Delicious."
The more ordinary a dish is, the more it reveals a person's culinary skill level.
In a daze, Courtney even felt as if this large bowl of noodles was glowing with a golden light.
Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility that she was just about to pass out from hunger.
"As long as it's delicious. If it's not enough, you can get some more from the pot."
Receiving dual positive feedback from both Courtney's actions and words, Hakuya couldn't help but reveal a satisfied smile.
A single "delicious" from the person eating is enough to completely satisfy the person cooking.
However, making egg noodles for Courtney to eat was merely a side task. The more important thing was rewarding his Pokémon.
"Floragato, why are you being a picky eater again? Eating only sour things is bad for your teeth."
Watching Floragato going full speed devouring the plate of pickled fish on the table, Hakuya knocked on her head in exasperation.
Although it was true he had specifically made this dish for her, she couldn't only eat this one dish—
"No, absolutely not. Even if you don't use the [Bite] move in the future, you still have to pay attention to your diet."
After stopping Floragato from picking out only sour food to eat again, Hakuya didn't forget about the little jet plane and Alcremie on the other side. As a Trainer, he had to try his best to balance a bowl of water evenly; every Pokémon had to be taken care of.
"Latias, make sure you eat plenty of this stir-fried pork with chili. To suit your taste, I specifically added extra chili, so absolutely do not hold back."
"La-woo~"
Being called out by name, Latias visibly panicked for a second.
It wasn't until she realized her Trainer was just telling her not to be polite and to eat more of her favorite dish that the panicked expression on her face completely faded.
Thank goodness... Trainer didn't notice me secretly using psychic power to put food in his bowl just now.
Latias breathed a soft sigh of relief, then continued sending her familiar, tsundere-toned psychic telegrams to Hakuya.
Even without you saying it, Trainer, I would treat this place like my own home! I'm absolutely not holding back, okay!!!
And compared to Latias's tsundere little actions that could be seen through at a glance, Alcremie was actually the trickiest one to handle.
"Alcremie... uh, I can eat by myself."
Watching Alcremie raise a spoon to his mouth, although Hakuya's face was full of helplessness, he ultimately pursed his lips and obediently swallowed it, accepting the loving feeding from Alcremie.
After all, if he didn't take a few bites first, he figured Alcremie wouldn't eat anything either.
Seriously, if she feeds me a few more times, I feel like sooner or later I'll devolve into a useless lump who can't survive without Alcremie.
"What is it?"
After being forced to accept being fed by Alcremie-mommy, Hakuya turned his head, only to see the girl staring at him intently without blinking.
"Do you... always eat like this..."
Courtney put down her bamboo chopsticks and asked bluntly.
Although it was still that staccato, pausing speech pattern that made one want to clean their ears out, and although there were absolutely no emotional inflections—her tone remaining flat the entire time—from her movements and her eyes, Hakuya could still see the confusion in the girl's heart.
"Mhm."
After responding, Hakuya asked a question in return.
"You're trying to ask how Pokémon can be like humans, sitting at the same table and eating the exact same food, right?"
"...Yes... this kind of relationship... is very rare..."
Courtney nodded without denying it.
Rather than calling it very rare, it was more accurate to say Courtney had never seen it before.
Especially after seeing the food Floragato and the others were eating, she suddenly felt the egg noodles in her hands were quite pathetic.
It felt like she was being treated differently—
Courtney pursed her lips imperceptibly, a ripple of emotion breaking the surface of her heart for the very first time.
Rather than being curious about Hakuya's daily interactions with Floragato and the others, she felt she suddenly cared a bit about why she, a beautiful young girl with an attractive face, couldn't even compare to Pokémon?
"There's nothing strange about this at all. Whether it's Floragato, Alcremie, or Latias... none of them are pets for me to casually order around. They are my most important partners and my family."
Hakuya solemnly answered the doubt Courtney had raised initially.
Unlike other Trainers who treated Pokémon as pets for battling, he truly viewed Floragato and the others as family members who accompanied him day and night. The same living environment, the same dietary conditions—whatever the Trainer had, the Pokémon had the right to, or rather, should have as well.
This was the Trainer's creed that Hakuya firmly upheld.
"Furthermore, to a certain extent, humans are also a type of Pokémon. Demeaning Pokémon is, in reality, demeaning and looking down upon humanity itself. Therefore, humans shouldn't possess any sort of arrogant superiority complex."
Finally, Hakuya shrugged, effectively bringing an end to this topic.
He wasn't wrong at all.
He remembered that in the Canalave City Library in Sinnoh, there were records of humans and Pokémon intermarrying in the past. So perhaps humans and Pokémon truly belonged to the same species during a certain period in ancient times, with absolutely no reproductive isolation.
Meanwhile, the girl looked at the heartwarming scene of Hakuya interacting with his Pokémon before her, unable to help but lose herself in a daze for a moment.
In the general consensus of Team Magma, the importance of humans was far, far greater than that of Pokémon.
And precisely because of this, from Leader Maxie all the way down to the ordinary grunts, they were incredibly fanatical about Primal Groudon.