Pokémon, you're not allowed to expel me from human form!

“Miss Karen… do you think it’s possible that this is no longer the central area of ​​the Long Wind Grass Sea, but the edge? You may have gone the wrong way in the past ten days. If you set off today, you might have to walk out of the Grass Sea tomorrow.”

"what!?"

Karen stared wide-eyed, completely bewildered.

Luo Ke then picked up his phone, opened a map app, and showed her his location.

"Look, we're here. If we walk in this direction, it will take about ten days to reach Eagle City."

Karen finally understood the problem. She pursed her lips tightly and nodded in the end.

"I understand, thank you for your guidance, sir..."

First, she expressed her gratitude, and then Karen realized that she wouldn't be able to get food here today, and she would have to go through the same process again. So after thinking it over, Karen decided to come up with her ultimate solution.

Before breaking out of Z Company's base, in addition to taking a few wallets from the people she had defeated, she also stole the Ka family's heirloom, the Waveguide Stone!

Carmen thought she was going to find someone who could awaken the power of Aura... but that was a bit of an overreaction.

She took the waveguide stone simply because she thought it was valuable and easy to carry. She planned to exchange it for money or give it as a gift when she was short of cash or when she asked Ningya for help.

And now that time has come!

With that thought in mind, Karen reached into her pocket, and then the smile on her face vanished.

Because... there isn't!

She took out the waveguide stone to examine it last night, and now it's gone!

......

9. Carmen: Karen actually has a brain!

Luo Ke is usually quite easy to talk to and very friendly.

So when he saw that Karen looked very anxious, he asked her a few questions and learned from her that she had lost a very valuable stone.

"Miss Karen, tell me what this stone looks like, and I'll help you find it."

"Okay, thank you, sir!"

Karen first expressed her gratitude, and then, while looking at Rocco with her big, watery eyes, she began to describe it to him.

"It wasn't very big, had some sharp edges, was dark blue, and always felt cold to the touch..."

The more Karen described it, the stranger Rocco looked at her became.

When she got to this point, Luo Ke interrupted her.

"...It has a crystal-like texture, and the overall shape is teardrop-shaped with some patterns on it—and if I'm not mistaken, you didn't take your hair out when you went to bed last night, and you didn't really style it this morning, right?"

Karen's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow, that's amazing! How did you know that, sir?"

Luo Ke stretched out his hand and pointed to Karen's braids.

"Look at the stone stuck in your braid, see if it's the one."

Eh! ?

Upon hearing Rocco's words, Karen grabbed her braid and pulled it over. Sure enough, she saw the sharp part of the waveguide stone pierce into her braid and get tangled in her hair.

Seeing this scene reminded Karen of something she had just witnessed.

Last night, she felt sleepy while examining the waveguide stone and fell asleep while holding it.

She forgot about the waveguide stone as soon as she woke up in the morning...

This made her face turn red, and even her ears felt like they were burning.

"Hey, anyway, here you go!"

Karen then pushed the waveguide stone to Rocco.

"This is our family heirloom, the Waveguide Stone. Legend has it that if someone qualified to awaken the power of waveguide touches the Waveguide Stone, the patterns on it will glow."

"With certain methods, it is also possible to use wave guide stones to awaken wave guide power in qualified individuals."

"But these legends must be lies. After all these years, my family has spent a lot of money and time, and we've found many fraudsters, but none of them are qualified to awaken the power of Aura."

"However, waveguide stones should be quite valuable as antiques, so sir, how about I give you the waveguide stone and then you take me to Eagle City?"

When Rocco first heard Karen say that it was a family heirloom, he wanted to push it back.

After all, taking people to Eagle City was just a side trip for him. Once the other party resolved the problem, he would simply ask her to treat him to a meal in Eagle City. He couldn't possibly ask for someone's family heirloom after helping with such a small matter.

Even if he could tell that Karen didn't like this family heirloom, he wouldn't want it.

However, when he heard that this thing was a waveguide stone and remembered that the other person's name was Karen, he swallowed back what he was going to say and changed his words.

“Miss Karen, I’m happy to take you to Eagle, but I won’t take your family heirloom.”

"I came to Eagle City because I heard that the Ripple Gym moved here, and I came here specifically for the power of Aura. So, if it's possible, could I take a look at this Aura Stone?"

Upon hearing Rocco's words, Karen, just like before when she grabbed Rocco's hand, directly shoved the waveguide stone into Rocco's hand.

"for you."

"However, it's best not to have any expectations about the power of Aura; I feel like this legend is just a hoax..."

As Karen spoke, the waveguide stone touched Rocco's hand, and then the patterns on it lit up, emitting a gentle blue light.

Karen was stunned when she saw this.

According to the knowledge they were taught by their elders since childhood, when a waveguide stone has this reaction, it means that you have found the kind of person that your family has not been able to find for so many years!

The opponent is qualified to awaken the power of Aura!

In this situation, don't give up no matter what. If the other party is willing to marry into the family, then let them do so. If the other party is not willing to marry into the family, then it's fine for the family to take the other party's surname in the future!

In short, surnames don't matter, industry doesn't matter, the power of waveguides is what matters most!

Karen couldn't help but shudder at the memory of her usually gentle grandfather's fanatical expression at that moment.

At the same time, the look in her eyes as she looked at Luo Ke became complicated.

Luo Ke, however, sensed the waveguide stone's reaction before waving the glowing waveguide stone at Karen.

"Miss Karen, does this mean I'm qualified to awaken Aura powers?"

"Ah."

Upon hearing Rocco's question, Karen quickly composed herself and put on her original smile again.

She disliked some of the family's ideas, and consequently disliked wave guide stones and wave guide power, but she wouldn't hold a grudge against others for it, especially someone who had just helped her.

"It seems so."

"According to the family records, as long as you take the wave guide stone to a place with water and follow the procedure, you should be able to awaken the wave guide power."

"I know this process. Just find a place with water and let me help you awaken."

Rocco had said before that he was after the power of the Aura, and Kallen could see the determination in his eyes when he said that.

Since the awakening process isn't dangerous, and since Luo Ke is unwilling to accept the Wave Stone, taking him to awaken his Wave power can be considered a form of compensation for troubling him to take me to Eagle City.

Kallen was also eager to see what was so special about the Aura that had captivated her elders so much without ever having seen it before, when it appeared on a person.

...

"Lady Carmen, we've searched all the routes leading to Eagle City, and we've searched the area around Eagle City many times, but we haven't found any trace of Miss Karen. We're truly sorry!"

The people from Company Z bowed their heads to Carmen and gave her this report.

Carmen didn't blame them after hearing this.

"It's alright. I was the one who let Karen go. If we really have to blame someone, I'm the one who should be blamed the most. It has nothing to do with you."

She comforted her subordinates before turning to the detailed report.

Soon, her eyes, which had been bent over, slowly opened, and a hint of relief flashed in them.

“My little sister has grown up. I was saying before that she wasn’t very bright, but I didn’t expect that she would use a downpour to shake you off not long after she went out… Her seemingly reckless actions were actually planned in advance.”

"If we calculate the time, she should have arrived in Eagle City by now."

"Hmm... Let's put some pressure on Ningya and the people from the Eagle City Alliance branch according to the plan. If Karen really approaches Ningya, it can actually help us and get Ningya to agree to fight the Heavenly King Replacement War with me."

"So be it."

That was the end of the conversation, but after Carmen put down the file, she suddenly realized something and added another sentence.

"By the way, remember to report to me if you find any trace of Karen."

"After all, if she wasn't as foolish as before, then there must have been some plan behind her escaping with the wave guide stone."

Carmen sighed inwardly at the mention of this.

If Kallen truly has a target, she is not afraid of someone who has awakened the power of Aura; in fact, she is somewhat interested in them.

But she and Karen received the same education when they were young.

Thinking back to her grandfather's fervor, what if Karen had been corrupted by it all these years...?

What if you end up bringing back not an opponent, but a brother-in-law who's already slept with you? That would be terrible!

......

10. Ning Ya, looking completely bewildered.

Normally, it would be quite difficult to find a place like Caohai with natural water that is suitable for you to do something private.

But with Mewtwo around, none of this is a problem.

When its spiritual power sweeps across the sea of ​​grass, there is no way they won't find such a place if it truly exists.

So he led the way, while Karen ate the beef jerky he had bought and explained the issue of waveguide awakening to him.

"It's less of an awakening and more of a cultivation process."

"There's nothing complicated about it. The records say that as long as you have the qualifications, you can sit in a lake or other body of water that is large enough and connected to nature, and then the wave guide stone will emit a kind of wave."

"Such fluctuations resonate with water. Those who are qualified to awaken the power of waveguides can feel the resonance of water and then gradually resonate with the waveguide power sealed inside the waveguide stone."

"When you sense this wave power, you will awaken as a user of wave power."

Karen spoke of this knowledge quite casually, while Rocco nodded slightly.

Seeing that Luo Ke understood, she continued to talk about the knowledge recorded in the family records.

"It is said that when one first awakens, one can use very little wave power, but as the number of times one uses it increases and one's perception increases, one can resonate with more and more wave power."

"Furthermore, our family also has records in great detail of how humans use the power of aura for offensive and defensive perception, as well as how to amplify the accuracy and power of Pokémon's special moves."

"Perhaps it's because the records were so realistic that my elders believed in them so wholeheartedly, to the point that their attitude towards the power of waveguides reached a fanatical level, sigh."

By this point, Karen had finished a bag of beef jerky. While sighing about her family, her watery eyes fell on Rocco once again.

He seemed to want to say something, but also seemed a little embarrassed to speak.

With Rocco's high emotional intelligence, he immediately understood what Karen was thinking when he saw her like this.

so...

"Here you go! Still not full? This beef jerky tastes pretty good, I bought a lot because it tastes so good, here are a few more bags for you!"

"And eating only dry food won't do. I have milk tea here, have some!"

As he spoke, Luo Ke took out various things from his bag, and within a few words, Karen had a lot more food in her hands.

Some of them were brought by Luo Ke from other cities, the kind with a long shelf life, while others were selected by Luo Ke from the previous gathering place.

In short, he never lacked food.

"Thank you!"

Karen's eyes lit up as she looked at these things.

Just as Luo Ke had suspected, she... wasn't full!

Everyone in their family is like that: white hair, big appetite, and also very strong.

One bag of beef jerky is definitely too little.