Pokémon: Who let him leave Pallet Town?

Chapter 101: The Dream Armor with Parted Hair
"Pikachu?" The man with the middle parting touched his head, looking incredulous.

"Okay, let me explain how that little shield appeared."

Natsume's telekinetic powers swept across the area, confirming that there was nothing about the parted-hair will that needed repair.

Pi Zhong lowered his head, lost in thought.

At this moment, it also realized the importance of the matter.

This shield seems to give it a means of protecting itself in the spiritual world.

"Part your hair in the middle, try to find that feeling from back then, and try to condense a shield?" Ash encouraged from the side.

The man with the middle parting nodded, his face showing a constipated expression.

Before long, milky white mist began to appear above his head.

The mist condensed in his hand, and a small, translucent shield, as white as jade, appeared.

"Pikachu!" The man with the middle parting excitedly raised the small shield in his hand.

“This is…” Natsume opened the system panel. The change in his middle-part hairstyle should be related to the divine authority within him.

【Pikachu Raymond】

[Divine Authority Trait: Land of Eternal Rest]

[Exclusive to Divine Authority: Fragmented Dream Armor]

Sure enough, the center-parted hairstyle gained a unique skill exclusive to divine authority.

However, isn't this thing lacking in divine authority?
Natsume couldn't figure out where the authority he had taken from was to fill the gaps in his power. It was probably because he had only just fully digested the large amount of divine authority he had received last time.

Natsume activated the incomplete dream armor.

【Fragmented Dream Armor】: In the Land of Eternal Slumber, Pikaremon can create armor to protect himself. However, due to insufficient divine authority, the armor is not fully formed, and data is currently unavailable.

"Oh~" Natsume nodded, it was pretty much what he thought.

"Ash, you can go out for a bit," Natsume transmitted to Ash.

"Oh, okay." Xiao Zhi nodded blankly.

Inside a tent in the preparation area, Ash opened his eyes.

"Ah—Prodigy, what are you doing here!" The first thing Xiaozhi saw when he opened his eyes was the sulking Prodigy.

"It's nothing. I wanted to ask Mr. Natsume a question while I waited for him to wake up."

"Uh, okay, I'll take the middle-parted hair out for a bit."

Following Natsume's instructions, Ash carried the man with the middle parting out.

Outside the competition venue, even though it was night, many contestants were still practicing, so it wasn't surprising that Ash was there.

The inner world of someone with a center parting.

"I'll have Ash send his Pokémon to attack you in the real world," Natsume's voice rang out.

"Pikachu?" The man with the middle parting was startled.

"Test your little shield and see how much of a nightmare it can block."

As he spoke, a dark blue particle condensed in Natsume's hand, and a small notebook appeared.

"Get ready!" As soon as Natsume finished speaking, his mental world suddenly went dark.

A humanoid monster engulfed in flames appeared not far away, presumably the nightmare created by the little fire dragon's attack.

Natsume squinted, feeling that the humanoid monster looked somewhat familiar.

The next moment, the monster charged towards the man with the middle parting.

"Pikachu!" The man with the middle parting raised his shield, and the humanoid monster exploded the moment it touched him.

"Pi?" The man with the middle parting poked his head out and secretly glanced ahead.

The shield seemed to be able to counteract nightmares, and its color dimmed slightly. Natsume made a note of this in his notebook.

One after another, a water person and a wooden person appeared.

It's a nightmare created by the attacks of Squirtle and Bulbasaur.

Seeing the lifelike carving on the wooden figure's face, Natsume finally realized, "Damn, that's his face!"

“I’m actually a nightmare figure in your mind.” Natsume glanced at the man with the middle parting.

I'm heartbroken, utterly heartbroken!
The man with the parted hair pulled his head back in embarrassment.

"Boom!"

The two nightmare monsters crashed into the milky white shield and vanished into nothingness, along with the shield in the middle-parted-hair's hand.

"How long will it take you to reassemble this shield?"

Natsume asked.

"Pi—" He shook his head, his hair parted in the middle, indicating that he didn't know.

"It's okay, I'll help you with the test."

Ten minutes later, the shield with the center-parted hair solidified again. "Bang bang bang!" The shield shattered, and the center-parted haircut collapsed to the ground.

Another ten minutes passed, and the man with the middle parting was about to condense a shield when Natsume stopped him.

"Can you control the condensation of these milky white gases? For example, instead of condensing a shield, condense a sword?"

Natsume patiently guided her.

The guy with the middle parting paused for a moment, thinking the shield was pretty good and could protect him.

It even planned that once its divine duties were complete, it would condense a tortoise shell, lie inside, and continue sleeping soundly in the spiritual world.

Milky white mist emerged from the top of the man's parted head, and with his efforts, the gas split in two.

A portion of the mist condensed effortlessly into a small round shield. Compared to the previous shield, this small round shield was only the size of the man with the middle parting, not enough to cover his entire body.

Another part of the mist, with Natsume's telekinesis, transformed into a small short sword.

"Pikachu!" The man with the middle parting looked at Natsume seriously, indicating that he could not give up his shield.

“Okay.” Natsume’s lips twitched.

"Bang!" The small round shield shattered after blocking an attack.

"Bang bang bang bang!" The short sword slashed through four nightmare monsters before shattering and disappearing.

"See? Many times, offense is more effective than defense."

Natsume took detailed notes in his notebook.

After some testing, the combination of a small round shield and a short sword proved to be the most effective.

"Pikachu—" He spread his hands with his middle-parted hair, indicating that it might be time to rest.

"No, there are too few experiments. There might be coincidences. We need to conduct more experiments."

In his mental world, Natsume lifted up the middle-parted hair who had fallen asleep on the ground.

I really don't know why my Pikachu is asleep in the real world, yet it can still be sleeping in the mental world, a dream within a dream.

A whole night passed.

The next day, early in the morning.

"Wow, Ash, what did you do last night?" Misty looked at Ash and Pikachu with surprise, both sporting panda eyes.

"Ah~ off to give the middle-part hairstyle special training."

Xiao Zhi yawned.

"How's it going, Natsume-kun? Have your stats come out yet?" Ash turned to look at Natsume, who had emerged from the tent.

Natsume also had dark circles under his eyes, but his face looked energetic.

"Now that you've collected them all, Ash is definitely going to be the champion of this P1 Fighting Championship."

"Really? That's great!"

Ash trembled with excitement at the thought of battling against the Fighting-type Elite Four in the future.

That night, Natsume gained a preliminary understanding of the new abilities of the man with the middle parting.

First, the milky white mist that could condense into armor should be related to the "quantity" of the clergy, that is, authority.

If the man with the center parting wants to obtain more milky white mist to form armor that condenses over his entire body, he needs to absorb more divine fragments.

Currently, the divine authority within the man with the middle parting is only enough to condense into a very small round shield and a very small short sword.

As long as the attack isn't from a very powerful Pokémon, the middle-part hairstyle can withstand it.

The Dream Armor defeats the Nightmare—then hides for ten minutes—and reassembles the Dream Armor.

This is the tactic that Natsume has devised for the middle-part hairstyle so far.

After finishing their meal, the group entered the preparation area and began today's competition.

"Ash, Natsume, do your best!"

In the audience, Xiaoxia, Xiaogang, and Jiaozi cheered for the two.

"Welcome everyone to today's P1 Fighting Tournament!"

The host appeared at the right time.

"Today, the strongest will be decided. Let's wait and see!"

The stands were bustling with excitement, everyone knowing what to watch in each competition zone.

In the A-level arena, watch out for that cunning Dragonite.

The B-level arena allows you to watch the revival matches of eliminated A-level contestants.

In the C-level arena, let's see who the two wild Pokémon duo are.

In the D-rank arena, just look at that Pikachu that falls asleep the moment it lays down.

"Haha, this year's P1 fighting tournament is so much more interesting than in previous years!"

(End of this chapter)