Pokémon: Who let him leave Pallet Town?

Chapter 221 Golden Rod
With three stone slabs tucked in his arms, Natsume returned to Pallet Town with great excitement.

Power has been restored to the research institute, and its own laboratory is being built steadily.

Upon arriving in the backyard, a large, transparent vat filled with red and black fluid was already prepared.

This was created yesterday under his command by the Prodigy using the shells and crystal clusters he left behind.

"Lollerton, go soak in there!"

Natsume then jumped off Loletta.

The weather has been great these past few days, providing ample time for the sufficient amount of Infinite Tina to soften the carapace and fuse with Loletta.

The softened carapace of the tetanus in the large tank looks like a bouncy pudding from a distance.

But as Loletta entered, it was as if a fluid had completely submerged it.

"Now there won't be any guys interfering with me, right?"

Natsume clapped his hands, turned around, and walked into the house.

"Boom!"

A thunderclap sounded out of nowhere, and Natsume froze.

Looking in that direction, I realized it was towards the Orange Islands.

Even though they were thousands of miles apart, they could still faintly sense the anger contained within that booming thunder.

What's wrong with Zapdos?
Natsume scratched his head.

He rode Lollerton back, and by the time he arrived in Pallet Town, it was already dusk.

During this time, he first noticed that dark clouds began to gather over Zapdos Island.

Soon after, one could feel the rumbling thunder coming from Zapdos Island from time to time.

It must have been the death of its old colleague that made it unhappy.

Natsume shook his head slightly, not paying much attention, and turned back into the house.

Including travel time, his short trip to the Orange Islands took about five days.

"Mr. Natsume!"

After placing the three stone slabs in the laboratory, Natsume went outside and saw Takako waiting there.

Why are you reacting so strongly again?

Natsume looked at Jiaozi strangely, whose face was flushed and whose eyes were darting away.

"Um... Mr. Natsume, am I considered your secretary?"

"I'm so proud of myself," the boy stammered.

"What secretary?" Natsume asked with a strange expression.

After a long while, he finally realized:

"Oh, it was Kona who contacted you?"

Natsume hit the nail on the head.

What did they say?

Natsume went outside, got a glass of water, and looked at Jiaozi with curiosity.

"Uh, she seems a little angry, but I have already explained Mr. Natsume's academy construction philosophy to her in detail!"

Jiaozi nodded seriously.

"Okay, then when you have time in the future, please keep an eye on it."

Natsume yawned.

Since Dr. Mulan's granddaughter Sonia blocked him last time, Natsume has been deeply reflecting on himself.

The final conclusion was that these people's thinking couldn't keep up with his.

Since that's the case, Natsume simply left everything to Jiaozi to handle.

"Okay, print out several thousand business cards in this format, and change the contact information to yours."

As Natsume spoke, he handed Jiaozi a business card that was supposed to be that of the dean of Sunshine Academy.

Jiaozi accepted it with great joy, his eyes sparkling with delight.

"Oh, right, Mr. Natsume!"

As if remembering something, Jiaozi called out to Natsume, who was about to leave.

"That translation software, the beta version is out, and it's currently being distributed to a group of trainers for testing."

"Then send a copy to Xiaozhi and the others."

As he spoke, Natsume pulled out a golden rod from somewhere and returned to the lab. This golden rod was given to him by Ash, and along with the other black rods, it had been "eaten by Lugia."

Inside the laboratory, Professor Nishino Mori frowned deeply.

In front of him was a pile of black sticks.

The black rods were collected with Mewtwo's help. Mewtwo returned a day earlier than Natsume, so Nishino Mori had obviously been thinking about it for quite some time.

"Natsume, the golden rod you mentioned is right here!"

Professor Nishino Mori happily took the golden rod from Natsume's hand and examined it from head to toe.

"Professor Nishinomori, have you noticed anything?" Natsume approached.

“These black sticks are covered with many strange symbols.”

As he spoke, Professor Nishino clapped his hands, and a screen automatically moved closer, displaying an enlarged image of a black rod.

"I discovered that these symbols are very similar to a Pokémon called Unknown, which was first discovered in some ruins."

"At first, no one paid much attention to this strange Pokémon because a single Unown is very weak."

At this point, Nishino Mori paused, then said:
"But later, the Alliance discovered that when a large number of unknown totems gathered together, they would unleash astonishing power."

"The method you described, similar to this black rod, of imprisoning and absorbing the power of others, was also experienced by an Alliance expedition in an ancient ruin."

"Let me show you, these are the original documents."

In just one day, Professor Nishino Mori gathered a lot of information, including the video footage left behind by the expedition team.

Those were countless unknown totems, trapping a Garchomp within them.

Next to Garchomp, Natsume also saw a familiar figure.

"Bamboo orchid?"

Natsume blurted out.

"Ah, this ruin is in the Sinnoh region. At that time, Cynthia had just become the champion, and she was the one who rescued that expedition team."

As Nishino Mori spoke, he pointed to the trapped Garchomp and said:

"This Garchomp is very powerful, but after being trapped, it also lost all its strength, just as you described."

Upon hearing this, Natsume nodded, his gaze falling on a black rod.

With a telekinetic scan, every aspect of the black rod was exposed to Natsume.

365.
In an instant, Natsume knew the number of unknown totems engraved on the black rod.

I picked up another one.

"364."

"366."

"365."

"Stop looking, I've already counted them. There are a total of 365 black rods, and each black rod is engraved with an average of 365 unknown totems."

Professor Nishino interrupted Natsume.

"Could it be related to the year?" Natsume wondered curiously.

A year is roughly 365 days.

"Hmm, I don't know, but I'm more curious about how these black rods can acquire similar powers by carving the appearance of unknown totems?"

Dr. Nishino was amazed.

Have you asked the AI?

Natsume told Dr. Nishinomori about the AI ​​coming back to life, and the latter was very surprised and talked with him for a long time.

Often, when you're stuck, asking the AI ​​can provide unexpected solutions.

"When I asked, they said I should believe in science, and that these are all feudal superstitions."

Nishino Mori's expression was strange.

Unlike the low-intelligence instruments in the laboratory, the AI ​​gave him a feeling of being "human" inside and out.

They even learned to take sides based on their own "background" and instinctively disliked anything with a mysterious aura.

Natsume nodded, picked up the golden rod, and the moment he swung it, the pile of black rods in front of him seemed to come alive and began to tremble.

"Let's go, let's find some volunteers, maybe we can find out something."

With that, Natsume went to the backyard.

(End of this chapter)