After the Excadrill incident, Cole returned to his daily routine of training Pokémon and cultivating berry trees.
On this day, he received his first batch of berry trees from the Berry Exhibition trade. He eagerly transported them to Mt. Olympus for planting.
These trees came from a friend in the Orange Islands of Kanto. Their berries had one distinctive quality — an incredibly refreshing flavor. Biting into one released a sweet and sour taste reminiscent of a cool summer breeze.
Though the trees only had an E-grade energy rating, Cole made the trade specifically for their unique flavor.
After bringing the trees to Mt. Olympus, he held off on planting them. These trees were meant for grafting, and by his calculations, Jean's trees would arrive soon. He planned to graft these two batches together.
{T/N: Jean is that guy who had the stall next to theirs at the Berry Exhibition.}
The two batches from different regions produced berries with opposite flavors. Cole was eager to see what new varieties might emerge from grafting them together.
Of course, failure wouldn't matter much — it was all experimental, with low chances of immediate success.
As expected, Jean's trees arrived the next day.
With both batches in hand, Cole began preparing for the grafting process. He brought Chikorita, Floette, and the Flabébé group to Mt. Olympus, using his previous grafting method of dividing the trees into two groups.
After planting the grafted trees, he had the little energy bottle and fairy group take turns using Grassy Terrain on them.
While Floette and the Flabébé group couldn't initially use Grassy Terrain, they had the potential to learn it. When he discovered Chikorita knew this move, he used his cheat ability to help the others master it.
After several days of practice, the group learned the technique, though their execution remained a bit clumsy. With time, they would improve.
After planting the new trees, Cole inspected his previous grafting batch.
The weak ones had died off, while the survivors flourished with abundant leaves and branches. He expected they would soon flower and bear fruit — a prospect he anticipated eagerly.
Testing over ten of the healthier trees' energy levels, he was thrilled to find two or three approaching A-grade, just shy of the threshold. Cole believed they might reach A-grade once fully mature.
If that succeeded, his business would soar!
He wondered about the grafted trees' berry flavors, knowing poor taste would somewhat decrease their value.
Of course, for A-grade berries, taste became secondary to their effects on Pokémon growth. Even mediocre-tasting A-grade berries would sell well due to their rarity.
Still, better taste would be a bonus — after all, who would choose inferior-tasting berries when better ones were available? Delicious berries naturally fetched higher prices.
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When he returned home, Cole spotted hints of green emerging from the Ganlon berry tree in the distance.
After his consistent daily care, the tree had finally taken root and begun sprouting new growth. Initially transplanted as a bare trunk with all its branches and leaves pruned away, it had looked quite stark.
Now the once-bare tree had regrown its "hair", promising to restore its former leafy canopy. Could A-grade berries be on the horizon?
Cole couldn't wait to see what kind of berries the Ganlon tree would produce after his cheat ability's intervention.
A passing Larvitar noticed him standing there with a goofy grin and waddled over to pat him.
"Yow?" — What's wrong with you? Got your head stuck in a door?
Cole happily crouched down to pat its little head, "You rascal, I'm just happy. Your meals might be getting an upgrade soon!"
Larvitar's eyes lit up at this news. Though it ate plenty every day, something still felt missing. Despite eating large amounts that digested quickly, it wondered if these upgraded meals would bring a new experience. Nothing beat the feeling of a nice full belly.
Lost in these thoughts, Larvitar couldn't help grinning too.
Passing by, Daisy saw the trainer and Pokémon standing side by side with matching silly grins and silently shook her head as she left.
I heard stupidity is contagious, better keep my distance...
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In the following weeks, the trees Cole had traded for at the Berry Exhibition arrived in succession, while he shipped his cultivated trees to the other parties in batches.
He spent the remainder of summer vacation on the mountain conducting grafting experiments. Setting aside a special area on Mt. Olympus, he worked on grafting trees from different regions together.
Thanks to help from Chikorita, Floette, and the Flabébé group, the trees showed an impressive survival rate. Though some couldn't adapt to the climate, most flourished with new branches and leaves.
During this period, Cole seldom left Mt. Ascendant and Mt. Olympus, only occasionally welcoming visits from the orphanage residents or Keith, or making trips to see Ramos.
He kept in touch with Kiara and Julia by phone. The sisters proved invaluable in cultivating the grafted trees, offering both grafting techniques and helping match compatible tree types for his grafting plans.
In truth, the sisters viewed Cole's orchard as their own experimental field — they could share in the grafting results without doing the hands-on work themselves. It was quite a beneficial arrangement.
But he didn't mind — the sisters' help was clearly more valuable.
Besides this, Cole maintained regular contact with Professor Augustine, selling him berries. Their relationship remained excellent.
As September arrived, berries ripened abundantly throughout Cole's orchard. Pecha, Oran, Rawst, Chesto, and Persim berries all matured during this period.
Cole's decision to keep Floette and the Flabébé group proved invaluable, as their presence significantly enhanced the plants' flowering and fruiting.
Each day, the big sister led the fairy group on their rounds through the orchard. They particularly loved visiting the flowering trees, and their frequent visits made the blossoms increasingly vibrant.
Though most flowers were pruned to ensure berry quality, the remaining ones — enhanced by Floette and the Flabébé group — produced significantly better berries.
While Floette and the Flabébé group hadn't matched Florges's mastery over plants, their influence on the berry trees was subtle yet persistent. The longer they stayed with Cole, the more his orchard thrived under their nurturing presence.
The bountiful berry harvest brought substantial profits. With this money, Cole specially ordered grass-fed sheep's milk from Roman and Bianca's farm for both the mountain's Pokémon and the orphanage children.
Of course, he included his own supply — they say drinking a glass of grass-fed sheep's milk daily could help you grow to 1.90 meters tall.
Cole didn't need to be 1.90 meters, but 1.80-something would be nice, right?
As his expertise in berry cultivation grew, combined with Floette and the Flabébé group's influence, the quality of his orchard's new berry batch improved remarkably.
This allowed him to reasonably increase his prices when trading with Nurture Nest Breeding House, resulting in significantly higher earnings than previous transactions.
Nurture Nest readily accepted the price increase, acknowledging that quality-based pricing was perfectly reasonable. Their confidence in his orchard's future development and desire for deeper cooperation made these minor price adjustments inconsequential.
Beyond strengthening ties with Nurture Nest Breeding House, Cole began a new partnership with Evergreen Nursery, delivering their first berry shipment.
For negotiations with Evergreen, he entrusted everything to Alfred, knowing his own limitations in this area.
After extensive experience with Nurture Nest Breeding House, Alfred had become adept at handling these matters. Evergreen's feedback confirmed their satisfaction with his performance.
More importantly, they were delighted with the berries' quality and taste. According to their reports, when young Pokémon at Evergreen Nursery consumed food made from Cole's berries, they showed improved appetites, better health, and exceptional growth.
Proper nutrition was crucial for young Pokémon's development.
However, Cole's partnership with Evergreen hadn't yet matched the depth of his relationship with Nurture Nest Breeding House. Expanding his orchard would be necessary to strengthen this cooperation.
Since Evergreen Nursery was a major enterprise, they were currently working with just one of their many branch stores.
Such expansion couldn't happen immediately — Cole needed to build up more capital first. After all, how could he grow his plantation without proper funding?
Though his berry business was thriving, the start of school meant he had to pause his grafting experiments to return to class on time.
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On the first day of school, Cole entered the classroom with his backpack, overhearing his classmates share stories about their summer vacations — where they'd traveled, which rare Pokémon they'd caught, and how their Pokémon had grown.
Daniel was the biggest showoff of all, standing atop his desk while holding up an adorable Bounsweet and boasting:
"Look, look! Isn't my Bounsweet the cutest thing ever? It's definitely the most adorable in the world!"
His classmates rolled their eyes at his bragging, ignoring him completely.
Still, the Bounsweet was undeniably cute, and its sweet berry fragrance made the classroom air noticeably fresher.
Cole passed by Daniel and whispered to Valerie: "Wasn't he obsessed with his Furfrou before? What happened to make him so taken with Bounsweet?"
Valerie rolled her eyes, "Who knows what's going on in his head?"
Cole asked again, "Where did he get this Bounsweet?"
"He went to Alola during summer vacation and caught it there." Valerie explained.
Bounsweet was rare in the Kalos region but common in Alola, where they could be found in most forests.
Actually, Valerie had also gone to Alola. Her family and Daniel's were old friends, and both families had arranged to vacation together in the Alola region that summer.
However, she didn't want people associating her with that idiot boy, so she never mentioned her Alolan trip.
But even though Valerie wouldn't say anything, her Pichu would! When Cole asked about her summer vacation activities, she hesitated, but Pichu immediately gave away its trainer's secret.
"Oh, so you went to Alola too—"
Before Cole could finish speaking, Valerie quickly covered his mouth.
"Shh, don't say it! What if others find out I went traveling with that idiot?" She nervously glanced around, afraid her classmates might have heard.
Knowing that Valerie and Daniel didn't get along, Cole tactfully kept quiet.
After showing off without getting any response, Daniel finally noticed him chatting with Valerie.
He jumped down from the desk, plopped down next to Cole, and put his arm around his shoulders, "Hey, Cole, you're here! How was your trip to Lumiose with Professor Omura during summer vacation?"
Cole replied irritably, "I wasn't there for fun, but it was okay."
Daniel didn't dwell on this topic.
After showing off his Bounsweet for a while, he suddenly said, "Cole, remember when Miss Palermo came to our school before summer break?"
"Yes." Cole nodded, "Wasn't she supposed to be recruiting students? Who did she end up choosing?"
"Well..." Daniel sighed, "Miss Palermo wasn't interested in any of our school's students."
Cole wasn't surprised, "That makes sense — our school hasn't produced any outstanding students. So... did Miss Palermo not find any students at all?"
"I heard she visited many other schools besides ours." Daniel said with a gossip-loving expression, "But she didn't choose anyone from those schools either."
Even Valerie, who didn't get along with him, couldn't help but prick up her ears, as she was also a fan of Palermo.
Before Cole and Valerie could ask more questions, Daniel launched into his gossip, pulling out a photo and laying it before them.
"Look, this is Miss Palermo's new student."
"She's so young?" Valerie exclaimed.
In the photo was a little girl with pink hair, round cheeks, and big eyes — delicate and cute. She was holding a playful Fennekin, but couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old.
Daniel shot Valerie a disapproving look, "What does age matter? If Miss Palermo chose her, this little sister must have something special. She might become like Miss Palermo someday — a queen who takes the Kalos region by storm."
Valerie shook her head, "I doubt it."
Daniel gave her a look that said he wasn't bothering to argue.
"What's this little girl's name?" Cole asked curiously.
Daniel shrugged, "How would I know?"
"If you don't even know her name…" Valerie snapped, "Where did you get the photo, and how do you know she's Miss Palermo's student?"
Daniel glanced at her, "That's none of your business. A mountain man has his ways."
Valerie grew so angry she barely restrained herself from smashing her chair over his head.
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