Finally with no choice, everyone went searching for Heliolisk but couldn't find it.
Later, the gecko emerged on its own — it had been sunbathing among the Sunflora and gotten so comfortable that it accidentally fell asleep. What a misunderstanding.
That evening when Daisy returned home, Cole was surprised to see a Pidove following behind it.
"Where did you get this Pidove from?" Cole asked, surprised.
"Garde~ Garde~" — What do you mean 'get'? You really don't know how to talk!
Daisy gave him a hard smack.
"Garde~ Garde~" — I think you need another flying mount, and this Pidove is perfect. I've decided to recommend it to you.
Daisy had confirmed that the stone could indeed help it grow stronger, so as agreed, it brought the Pidove home to recommend to its beloved child.
"Wait, why would I need another flying mount? Don't we already have Talonflame?" Cole was baffled by his mom's behavior.
Daisy argued forcefully:
"Garde~ Gardevoir~" — Doesn't Talonflame need to patrol the orchard? You keep asking for its help but never give it extra pay.
Cole replied helplessly, "Fine, next time I'll give it more pay and tell it that Daisy fought for this on its behalf."
Upon hearing this, Daisy became stubborn.
"Gard~ Garde~" — I don't care, I don't care! The Pidove is yours now.
Cole: "..."
In the end, he accepted the Pidove under his mom's "coercion".
That night while giving everyone their wellness treatment, Cole looked at Daisy and Heliolisk with surprise and asked, "What have you two been doing lately? Your energy has grown so quickly."
"What are you talking about? I don't know!" Daisy dodged the question, not wanting to reveal that it planned to get stronger in secret to surprise everyone.
Cole was stunned by his mom's poor acting.
Fine, if you won't tell me, then don't. Not only have you started staying out late, but now you're keeping secrets too. What a headache for your son!
Heliolisk was more honest though — when asked, it told him about absorbing solar energy from the Sunflora.
"You can do that?" Cole said, surprised, "No wonder you were hiding among the Sunflora today and wouldn't come out."
Heliolisk scratched the back of its head sheepishly.
"Well done, that's clever. Keep it up." Cole praised it, then turned to the other Pokémon, "The same goes for all of you — make full use of your initiative."
He meant that as mature Pokémon, they should learn to become stronger independently.
The Pokémon exchanged confused glances, not quite grasping his meaning.
Due to Daisy and Heliolisk's rapidly growing energy, Cole had to dedicate more time to helping them purify and compress it.
In terms of energy accumulation and quality, Heliolisk had now become the second strongest Pokémon on Mt. Ascendant, surpassed only by Daisy.
The newcomer Pidove also received a wellness treatment today. Though such treatments could be addictive for Pokémon, Pidove seemed more interested in the food than the treatment itself.
As it thought about the Pokéblocks it had eaten that evening, Pidove drifted into a dreamlike state. The goddess had promised it would have access to this delicious food every day, as much as it wanted.
Could such a wonderful life be real? Pidove could hardly believe it.
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Early the next morning, Daisy departed for the Trevenant Forest again, leaving Pidove with her son under the pretense of letting them bond.
Since Cole had morning work to attend to, he initially left Pidove in Hatterene's care.
However, halfway through his work, Hatterene came running in urgently, saying something had happened to Pidove.
When Cole rushed over, he found Pidove rolling on the ground, clutching its stomach. Hatterene explained that Pidove had eaten too many Pokéblocks at once.
For these high-energy Pokéblocks, most Pokémon feel satisfied after three or four — but Pidove had consumed more than ten at once, explaining its current discomfort.
"Hatte~ Hatte~" — It's all my fault, I should have watched it more carefully.
Hatterene said remorsefully.
Cole shook his head reassuringly. "How could it be your fault? There's no way you could have predicted this. I'm the one who should have explained things to Pidove properly — it just arrived and doesn't understand anything yet."
He went over and picked up Pidove, gently rubbing its stomach.
"Pidove, are you okay?"
Pidove looked at him with tearful eyes, "Wuu wuu~ Am I going to die? Why does my stomach hurt so much?"
Cole said with a gentle laugh, "Die? Not at all. You just ate too much, that's all."
Pidove shook its head in disbelief, "That's impossible! How can eating too much make your stomach hurt? Eating lots should feel good and make you happy!"
Since birth, it had never eaten its fill even once. In its mind, having a full stomach should have been pure bliss — how could it be so uncomfortable?
Hearing these words, Cole's heart sank.
After rubbing Pidove's stomach for a while with no improvement, he took it to the Pokémon Center.
✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲✲
Nurse Joy identified the problem as soon as she picked up Pidove, "Did it eat too much?"
Cole nodded guiltily, "Yes, I wasn't paying attention and it ate too many Pokéblocks."
Nurse Joy smiled reassuringly, "It's nothing serious. This Pidove was just caught recently, right? Many newly caught wild Pokémon go through this at first."
She had seen plenty of similar cases — this wasn't unusual.
"Wait here a moment, Pidove will be fine soon." After comforting Cole, Nurse Joy carried Pidove to the treatment room.
Sure enough, she returned shortly with the bird. Though no longer writhing in pain, it still looked rather dejected.
Perhaps the harsh reality — that having too much food could make one uncomfortable — had been quite a shock. Having abundant food but being unable to eat it all felt truly tragic.
After paying the treatment fee, Cole carried Pidove out of the Pokémon Center and advised it gently, "Don't be so hasty next time, okay? If there's anything you don't understand, you can always ask me or the other Pokémon on the mountain."
"Coo Coo Coo~" — I understand...
Pidove responded weakly.
On its way to the Center, it hadn't noticed its surroundings because of the stomach pain. Now that the pain was gone, it finally noticed all the humans around.
Having wandered alone in the wild for so long, Pidove wasn't at all timid. It wriggled free from Cole's arms and perched on his shoulder, gazing at everything with curious eyes and peppering him with questions.
Everything around was new and fascinating. Cole answered all its questions with patience.
Just then, a passerby with a Venipede walked past them. Pidove let out a sudden cry and darted toward the Venipede, beak poised to strike.
The Venipede and its trainer, startled by the sudden attack, frantically tried to drive Pidove away.
Cole, equally startled, rushed forward to intervene.
"Pidove, stop! Why are you attacking them?"
When the passerby realized the Pidove had a trainer, they began cursing at Cole, demanding he control his Pokémon and warning that they were fortunate the Venipede wasn't hurt — or else.
Since he was clearly at fault, Cole could only apologize repeatedly until the passerby left.
Pidove returned to his shoulder, looking confused, "Why did you apologize? It's a bad guy — it would eat me!"
As it turned out, Pidove had once been attacked by a group of Venipede in the wild, leading it to believe all Venipede were dangerous predators.
Cole didn't simply scold Pidove for the trouble — after all, this was a Pokémon that had never interacted with humans before and needed time to adjust to its new environment.
"This place is different from where you used to live. No one here lacks food, so Pokémon don't attack each other. You shouldn't attack other Pokémon either, understand?" He explained patiently.
"Coo Coo Coo~"
Pidove nodded, though somewhat uncertainly.
On the way back, it didn't attack any more Pokémon. It proved quite clever, actively asking Cole about things it didn't understand. He took these opportunities to teach it the rules of living in the human world, which it took to heart.
Gradually, Cole found himself growing fond of this Pokémon — though naive and sometimes impulsive, it was eager to learn and quite bright.
When Daisy first suggested keeping it, he had been indifferent, but now he thought it was an excellent idea.
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Meanwhile, at a pool deep in the Trevenant Forest, Daisy was conducting meditation training.
Today, instead of battle training with the leader Trevenant, she practiced under the guidance of the black stone.
The black stone, placed in the center of the pool, helped improve Daisy's meditation efficiency by at least fifty percent.
As a former wild Pokémon who had lived alone, Daisy had never received formal training in Psychic Powers. None of her kind had taught her how to use psychic abilities — all her methods, including meditation, were self-taught.
But the meditation method taught by the black stone was different — it had been refined through generations of psychic-type Pokémon's experiences.
Though Daisy was curious about the black stone's identity and knowledge of this meditation method, it never directly answered her questions.
And so, she spent the entire morning in focused meditation.
In the afternoon, she moved on to another task.
The black stone had advised her on how to analyze and simulate the special energy in the diamond.
It suggested that Daisy absorb all the diamond's energy into her body, then use her own Source Energy to assimilate it. This would give her a high chance of having her energy acquire the same properties.
Creating something from nothing is difficult, but deriving two from one is much easier. Since the diamond contained pure Fairy-type energy, and Daisy was a Fairy-type Pokémon, her body wouldn't reject it.
However, one issue remained — she wasn't strong enough to extract and absorb all the diamond's energy at once.
At this point, the black stone offered to help.
Under its direction, Daisy placed the diamond on top of the black stone. Suddenly, deep blue light began flickering from the stone's surface.
The light gradually spread to the diamond, enveloping it, and Daisy watched as pink Fairy-type energy slowly drew out from the diamond.
'Get ready now, I'm starting!' The black stone's crisp voice rang in her mind.
The pink Fairy-type energy suddenly transformed into a thread of light that shot into Daisy's body, connecting her chest to the diamond.
"Gardevoir!!!"
The sudden influx of external energy was agonizing. Daisy gritted her teeth, letting out muffled groans.
As the Fairy-type energy flowed in, Daisy's brown pupils turned pink, and her body began undergoing subtle changes.
Cole had previously mentioned that because his mother hadn't been developed by his Special Ability energy since her Ralts stage, many hidden energy circuits remained closed, wasting much of her potential.
Now, as this energy flowed in, the hidden circuits in Daisy's sensory organs began to glow. Pathways that had been completely concealed due to lack of development started to resurface.
Energy filled these hidden circuits, which gradually began to open.
However, the black stone didn't let this energy flow freely through Daisy's body. Instead, it sealed all of it within her newly revealed hidden circuits.
This energy was ultimately foreign and very powerful. Daisy's goal was to assimilate this energy and fully analyze its secrets — not to be assimilated by it. She needed time to gradually transform this energy into her own.
After what seemed like an eternity, all the energy from the diamond had been absorbed by Daisy. The diamond changed from pink to colorless and transparent.
"Huff huff huff~~~"
Daisy fell to her knees, breathing heavily with sweat beading on her forehead.
'Feel the changes in your body yourself, I need to rest.'
The black stone's voice echoed in her mind — clearly, helping Daisy had not been easy for it either.
"I understand, you rest well."
With that, Daisy sat cross-legged floating in mid-air, using Psychic Power to examine her condition.
✲✲✲
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