"Gu~"
Bewear's fluffy, warm body felt just like a giant plush toy.
Kawaki blinked, and the fear in his heart slowly began to calm.
"I'm okay... just had a nightmare," he said softly.
"Gu...?"
Bewear gently let go. Moonlight streamed in through the window as the two sat in its gentle glow, looking at each other.
Bewear blinked, its expression showing a hint of confusion.
It seemed to have noticed something different about its little master.
Kawaki: ...
He opened his mouth, almost ready to tell Bewear the truth—that the original Kawaki had passed on and gone to be with his parents.
But could he really say something so cruel? Wouldn't that truth be far too painful for this Bewear?
Yet, looking into its eyes, Kawaki couldn't bring himself to speak the words.
"I... I just dreamed about them," he said instead.
"Gu?!"
Bewear instantly understood who "them" referred to.
"They said... they want us to live well. It still hurts, but I think... if we keep going like we were before, and Mom knew, she'd be heartbroken, wouldn't she?"
Bewear's eyes shimmered as it stared blankly at Kawaki. "Gu…"
"So, Bewear, starting tomorrow, let's live well together! I've decided to run this daycare again, just like Mom and Dad did. I want to bring back the life and joy this place used to have!" Kawaki declared with determination.
"Gu…" Bewear stared in a daze. Then, its face blossomed into a big, bright smile. "Gu!"
Wonderful!
Little Master had finally come out of the shadows!
No problem!
It would do everything it could to help bring the daycare back to life!
Bewear scooped Kawaki into a big, fuzzy hug.
"Alright, alright, let's get back to sleep. We've got a lot to do tomorrow," Kawaki sighed, hugging Bewear back and patting its shoulder.
From this day forward, he was Kawaki—and Kawaki was him.
Bewear, once the caretaker of this daycare, knew all too well how tiring the work could be. They needed proper rest tonight to handle what tomorrow would bring.
If it was well-rested, it could take on more work—then Little Master wouldn't have to work so hard!
Little Master hadn't bought much food today... Hmm, maybe tomorrow morning it would head into the forest to find some more! Bewear thought.
Once Bewear fell asleep, Kawaki finally had time to reflect on that strange dream.
His heart was filled with complicated emotions. Was that... really the original Kawaki and his parents reaching out to him?
He wasn't surprised that the Pokémon world had souls. After all, this world had a Spirit Realm.
The original Kawaki must've known how much he owed Bewear, and that's why he entrusted it to him.
But what puzzled Kawaki most was what the original's mother—Officer Jenny—had said in the dream. She mentioned leaving behind a gift?
Was it this daycare?
Kawaki wasn't sure. But the next morning, when a police motorcycle pulled up outside the daycare, the truth slowly came to light.
Early that morning, when Kawaki woke up, Bewear was nowhere to be found in the daycare.
He looked around for a while and soon heard Bewear's voice outside.
When he stepped out, he found Bewear standing at the door, arms full of berries.
Kawaki blinked. "Where did you get all these berries?"
"Gu!" Bewear set them down. It had gathered them from the forest!
That way, they wouldn't need to worry about going hungry!
At the orphanage, there had always been someone to prepare meals for them. But now that they were on their own, they had to learn how to get food themselves!
Kawaki quickly realized the truth.
This daycare was located in the wilds, close to a forest rich in natural resources—not only a variety of wild Pokémon but also a wealth of berries and edible plants.
"Amazing," Kawaki said sincerely. This Bewear was just too dependable.
In this moment, it didn't feel like a Bewear at all—more like a living, breathing Audino.
Bewear, however, didn't seem to think it was anything special. It was about to put the berries down when—
The sound of a police motorcycle echoed from a distance.
Kawaki and Bewear turned to look.
A woman in a police uniform, accompanied by a majestic Arcanine, stopped her motorcycle at the front of the daycare.
Kawaki: "?"
The Officer Jenny took one look at the boy in front of her, her expression complicated.
Though she had seen him many times before, this might be their first actual conversation.
Ten years ago, one Officer Jenny left her family, giving up a promising career in law enforcement to pursue love and her dream of becoming a Breeder. She married an ordinary man.
The two ran this very daycare and gave birth to a son.
But three years ago, the couple perished in a shipwreck, leaving their child behind in this world.
Before the accident, that same Officer Jenny had submitted an application to her family, requesting a Growlithe egg for her son. The plan was to give it to him when he turned ten.
At first, the Jenny family rejected the request. But after the shipwreck, when the elders saw the boy who had lost everything, they eventually relented.
Three years ago, someone from the family came to invite this boy—Kawaki—to return and join the family. But he refused. He said he didn't want to leave the place where his parents had lived.
He ended up in an orphanage.
The shipwreck victims' families received a large compensation payout, but a seven-year-old child couldn't possibly manage that kind of money.
To prevent exploitation, the Jenny family took custody of the funds and donated a portion to the orphanage every month—just to ensure Kawaki and the other children had enough to eat and wear.
Now that Kawaki had turned ten, old enough to become a Trainer, it was finally time for the Jenny family to return the compensation—and the Growlithe egg—to him.
"Hello, Kawaki. It's nice to meet you. I'm Layla Jenny," she introduced herself.
"Officer... Jenny?" Kawaki blinked, not quite understanding why she was here.
Was this about the ownership of the daycare?
But the next second, he watched her turn and retrieve a Pokémon egg from the motorcycle—a pale egg adorned with flame-like markings.
The moment his eyes landed on it, information about the egg surfaced in his mind.
[Growlithe's Egg: Will hatch into the Fire-type Pokémon, Growlithe.]
[Health Status: Healthy]
[Father: Arcanine (Champion-tier strength)]
[Mother: Arcanine (Champion-tier strength)]