Elf-like Life

Chapter 7, The Starry Night Expedition

Well, there are many team names to choose from.

For example, the Green Bean Adventure Team, the Little Round Adventure Team, the Wakaba Adventure Team, or the Hourai Adventure Team are all pretty good, but if I had to choose one...

"Hey, how's the Starry Night Expedition Team going!"

Seeing that Charmander was still hesitant and excited, Pikachu simply offered a suggestion.

Forehead!

Why the Starry Night Expedition Team of all times?!

Could it be because of tonight's dreamlike meteor shower?

And then, combined with the nighttime, is that why it came to have such a name?

So it means "night of meteor showers," right?

But it sounds pretty good, emmm.

Seeing that Charmander agreed, Pikachu proudly patted its chest:

"Then it's decided! As for a slogan, we need to have our own!"

"How's it going, GKD!"

Pikachu suddenly made a spectacular turnaround: "How about it, Charmander? From now on, our motto is 'gkd!'"

Hey hey hey, I was thinking there aren't any experienced users posting JPG images here, do you guys also care about speed?

This is just a simplified version of the slogan in pinyin; the full version is actually like this!

[Just do it! Quickly shout with me, "Go for it, everyone!!"]

This is terrible, oh my god!

So Charmander quickly suggested:

"Pikachu, that slogan is great, but please don't use abbreviations in the future. How about simplifying it to 'Just do it, let's go!'?"

An excited Pikachu nodded without hesitation, then immediately pulled Charmander around in circles.

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"Great, great, this sounds good too!"

One lap,

Two laps,

Three laps.

At this moment, Charmander felt Pikachu's overwhelming joy from the bottom of his heart. The two of them officially formed their first expedition team, with a new team name and a cool slogan.

Four laps,

Five laps,

Six laps,

"Splat!" (X2)

It wasn't until they stepped on a drifting bottle that slipped right under their feet that the two little ones both fell flat on their faces, with countless little yellow stars forming a circle around their heads:

"Oh dear... I almost forgot the important thing... Charmander, your drifting... bottle."

Upon seeing the message in a bottle, Charmander instantly remembered everything that Gardevoir had said before.

The message in a bottle is the only clue to unlocking the little dragon's origins.

The bottle was always in Charmander's arms from the moment they first met, and later it slid to the beach, so Pikachu immediately mistook it for his personal treasure.

"It really is a little dragon. I thought that bottle contained your treasure map, so I always thought it was yours..."

Pikachu continued speaking,

The little dragon held up the message in the bottle and examined it closely, but no matter how hard he racked his brains to recall, all his memories of the message in the bottle remained blank.

"No... I still can't remember anything..."

While talking to himself, the little dragon naturally opened the bottle stopper, and the yellowed parchment came into view again.

However, this time is different.

This time, the writing on the parchment actually started to become clear!

Right at the very first line of the parchment, the first line of text was GET!!

"Huh, could these be Charmander's abstract calligraphy masterpieces?"

The little dragon instantly confirmed that the crooked and messy handwriting in the first line, which had even been criticized by its Chinese teacher as hopeless, was definitely its own handwriting, meaning it was undoubtedly its own calligraphy.

That's strange. Before, everything was so blurry I couldn't see anything at all. Could it be that I've been watching too many movies and it's causing vision problems?

Yellowed parchment, first line

[To myself 11 years from now...]

Pikachu didn't originally intend to spy, but took advantage of Charmander's momentary lapse in attention to sneak over.

At first glance, I hadn't even seen it, but my curiosity was still piqued. I rested my chin on my little paw and said with a silly, adorable expression:

"Hey, what does this calligraphy say? You can't hide it just because it's treasure, little dragon~"

"It says above,"

"I love you, even if it's thundering in Hoenn in January, sandstorms raging on the Isle of Armor in March, and snow falling in Alola in June!"

"Hey hey hey hey!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Pikachu suddenly started to stutter, and even blushes of ripe red apples appeared on both sides of his cheeks:

"I, I, I... like you?"

!!!

"Ahem, of course it doesn't say 'I like you' on this. Judging from the words, it was written to myself 11 years ago. As for its meaning, I don't really understand it either."

Pikachu's face remained a ripe apple color.

Because the second line below is blank.

The third line is still blank.

The fourth line remains blank.

The information in the first line alone is not enough to deduce all the information recorded on this parchment.

But Charmander didn't want to give up, so he started to force himself to recall the positions of the second and third rows.

Damn it, is that all the information we have?!

If I try harder to recall, there might be even more clues!!

Let me think about it some more. I refuse to believe that my previous memories are completely blank. What kind of writing is this, "To Myself 11 Years Later"? That's just too outrageous!

What exactly happened 11 years ago?!

Pikachu, who was standing nearby, suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

However, once Charmander tries to force himself to remember, he immediately falls into pain.

"If you can't remember, then don't keep thinking about it, Charmander! Hey, hey, are you listening, Charmander?"

Damn it, I can't remember anything, but my head is throbbing, like my brain is deliberately going against my will and just doesn't want to recall anything!

"Little Charmander, stop thinking about it~"

At this moment, Pikachu noticed the change in the flames on Charmander's tail.

The flame state is linked to the tail.

When happy, it is a deep red, pulsating flame; when troubled, it is a bright orange-red; when angry, the red deepens; and when poisoned, it is a weak, pale red.

As for the blue flames earlier, Pikachu believes that Charmander was too deeply poisoned.

"Little Charmander, stop thinking about it!!"

The flames on its tail grew weaker and weaker, and the little dragon began to go berserk in pain; its little head could clearly no longer bear the agony.

"Ughhhh, I can't remember!"

The next moment, Pikachu really didn't know how to comfort the little Charmander in front of it that was constantly going crazy, so it could only use its little paws to pat its head, a gesture that was both affectionate and warm:

"It's alright, little fire dragon, you'll gradually remember in the future."

"Don't think about it anymore today. Let go of all the pain and get a good night's sleep. Besides, you've only just woken up from being poisoned; you don't have the energy to recall anything."

Charmander suddenly remembered Gardevoir, and the warmth that struck his heart in that instant was no less than that of Gardevoir.

"Pikachu..."

Seeing that Charmander had not yet calmed down, Pikachu immediately offered three words of comfort:

"Are you really alright, Charmander? We already have this clue from 11 years ago, don't we?"

"We'll find out when we go to Treasure Town tomorrow. There's a world-famous library in the school on the east side of town. We can go there to look up information."

"I'll be your guide throughout the whole process. Besides, everyone in town is super kind and friendly, and they'll all help you."

Really, Pikachu! Thank you so much!

"It's nothing, I'm going to sleep now."

It was getting late.

The meteor shower in the night sky has quietly faded away, and the entire reef has returned to its usual tranquility. Normally, Pikachu would be fast asleep by this time.

But things are different today.

After the excitement of the meteor shower and the formation of the expedition team, Pikachu was just beginning to feel sleepy.

As for Charmander, after the headache, he also experienced a period of fatigue.

I hope Penglai won't hit me, cough cough. The Starry Night Expedition Team has been officially named. Why Starry Night? I can't really explain it. Starry Night Penglai Expedition Team is pretty good too, hehehehe. The busy 7:30 is over. Today I'm drinking with the boss again, and also working as a Korean BBQ chef. I feel like my BBQ skills have improved again!

(End of this chapter)