Not Being a Trainer This Time

Giratina felt a chill under Naoki’s ambiguous gaze, widening its eyes as it demanded, ”Why are you staring at me?”

Naoki snapped back to reality, shaking his head with a smile, ”Nothing, just suddenly thought of something.”

Giratina pondered, ”What is it?”

Naoki kept it vague, ”Just take good care of this flower sea! You’ll know when the time comes.”

By then, who knows what expression Shaymin will have upon seeing this modified Reversed World.

Naoki left with Calyrex and Dugtrio.

Leaving Giratina alone, looking bewildered at the pink flower sea before it.

It flapped its wings, stirring up a breeze.

Suddenly, countless petals were lifted by the wind, fluttering magnificently through the sky.

Giratina stared at this scene, then flew forward to sniff the flowers, discovering to its surprise, that they had quite a pleasant scent.

Then, Giratina lay down boldly upon them, and began to snore away.

*

In the evening, Naoki was in the Pokemon Tavern counting the fruit wine in the barrels when he suddenly heard the sound of sirens outside.

He stepped out the door to see Miss Jenny passing by the ranch with a Growlithe.

”What’s going on?” Naoki asked in surprise.

Miss Jenny stopped the police car, and the Growlithe jumped down from the seat beside.

Miss Jenny followed suit, stepping out of the car and said to Naoki:

”I’m leaving the car at your ranch for a bit, need to take Growlithe to patrol the back mountain later.”

Autumn had arrived again, and to avoid another dreadful forest fire like last year, the Porto Marinada Town police station had strengthened patrols of the back mountain.

”Just leave it there, I’ll keep an eye on it for you!” Naoki squatted down, petting Growlithe’s head as he asked, ”Didn’t the town call a forest ranger over?”

”They did.” Miss Jenny replied helplessly, ”But there’s only one ranger, the back mountain is too big, he may not be able to manage it all, so while we’re free now, we’re just helping out a bit, the fire department sent some people too.”

Naoki nodded, understanding they were concerned about fire outbreaks.

”Thank you for your hard work!”

Miss Jenny smiled slightly, ”It’s our job, well, I’ll leave you to it, we’re heading out now!”

Naoki nodded, watching Growlithe follow Miss Jenny off towards the back mountain.

Seems like the jobs of the police and firefighters in this world are quite taxing!

Naoki shook his head, turned back to the Pokemon Tavern, filled the empty wine barrels, and brought over some berries and sandwiches.

Once guests arrive, the tavern can start operations.

After he finished that, Naoki went home.

It was now four-thirty in the afternoon, as far as he knew, Miss Jenny would be patrolling until at least nine in the evening.

Though this season the students at Paldea Academy should be on summer vacation, right?

No, this world is different from the one he lived in his previous life, those students probably wouldn’t stay home resting during summer vacation, they would surely travel to various cities, challenging gyms.

After all, the gym leaders in the Paldea Region have no holidays before November arrives.

Only during the League Conference held in the Paldea Region can those gym leaders wrap up a year’s work, enjoying more than two months of vacation time.

Naoki shook his head, though Geeta treated him well, there’s no way he’d agree to become a gym leader.

In comparison, the lifestyle of a free person is much more carefree!

With that thought, Naoki took out a cookbook titled ”300 Recipes” from his bag and began studying.

This was something he bought from town in the morning, the purpose being to learn new recipes to create more delicacies for Pokemon, developing more useful dishes.

After all, with his own limited ideas, the dishes he made were quite repetitive... if the Pokemon wouldn’t tire of them, he certainly would.

”Mushroom sauce... required ingredients, shiitake, button mushrooms, king oyster, bamboo shoots...”

”Spicy meat stew, ingredients are fatty meat, salad oil, minced garlic, ginger paste...”

”Wine-braised fully ripe Paldea tomato? Vodka-steamed Kalos eggplant? Paldea crab meat and ham dumplings... Paldea Seafood Rice...”

Looking at the pictures of the delicacies above, Naoki thought they looked quite appetizing.

Mushroom juice, spicy meat soup, wine-braised fully ripe Paldea tomato, and vodka-steamed eggplant have the necessary ingredients at home.

However, the ingredients for the crab meat and ham dumplings are not available because this dish requires using raw ham slices to replace the dumpling skins to wrap the filling, which looks very extravagant.

”Never mind, I’ll just try out these dishes today.”

Naoki stood up, took the ingredients from the refrigerator, and then began preparing the dishes.

As time passed, and the sky outside gradually darkened, the Pokemon who had been playing outside all day came back home, and Naoki had prepared dinner for the day.

[Mushroom Juice (C): Prepare mushrooms like juice, make a rich soup, it’s a village specialty drink, very appetizing.

Cooking Effect: Mushroom Hunter. If consumed by a Pokemon with the Pickup ability, it will become better at finding mushrooms, with a high probability of picking mushrooms back for the Trainer.]

Naoki: ”...” What is this?

It only works for Pokemon with the Pickup ability, and the only Pokemon with the Pickup ability in the ranch is Teddiursa.

However, Teddiursa is still traveling outside and hasn’t returned for a long time.

But this dish gave Naoki a new idea.

Perhaps he could raise a group of Pokemon with the Pickup ability and send them out to pick mushrooms and items, just like the Felyne expedition teams in Monster Hunter.

The Felynes hired by hunters form expedition teams to go out and help hunters gather herbs and mushrooms and bring them back.

It feels somewhat similar to the Pickup ability of Pokemon.

Naoki continued to look at the next dish.

[Spicy Meat Soup (C+): A rich broth harmonized with meats, beef soup with chicken essence and soy sauce added, slowly simmered to fully unleash the pungency of ginger, and upon drinking, offers boundless endurance.

Cooking Effect: Sprint Lv1. After consuming, humans and Pokemon will experience reduced stamina consumption during running battles for a certain time, lasting for 15 minutes.]

Reduced stamina consumption? Naoki raised an eyebrow; the effect of this spicy meat soup is quite useful and can be tried.

Next is the wine-braised fully ripe Paldea tomato, its effect is appetizing. As the name suggests, humans and Pokemon who have no appetite can eat it, and then they’ll want to eat.

Quickly braised small tomatoes in white wine, tasting sour and sweet, the blend of tomato’s tanginess and white wine’s aroma indeed whets the appetite.

Naoki decided to make this dish for whichever Pokemon wouldn’t want to eat in the future.

The next one is vodka-steamed eggplant, which makes the body warm, similar to the effect of hot soup noodles.

Lastly, the Paldea Seafood Rice.

Made with prawns and mussels along with rice, it smells appetizing.

[Paldea Seafood Rice (B): A dish made with prawns and mussels, rice fully absorbs seafood broth, a bounty of the sea, a dish full of Paldea’s distinctive flavor.

Cooking Effect: Sea’s Blessing. When consumed by humans, it greatly increases the probability of catching rare fish while fishing; when consumed by Pokemon, it gains the blessing of the sea, greatly enhancing the effect of training in the ocean, lasting 3 hours.

Review: Paldea Seafood Rice, a distinctive dish full of the sea’s bounty!]

Oh! It finally came out!

Looking at this effect, Naoki was delighted to finally have a new dish that helps Pokemon!

And it’s an all-purpose dish that works for both humans and Pokemon.

Eating it boosts the probability of catching rare fish, which is like divine assistance for anglers.

In the Pokemon World, rare fish don’t just refer to ordinary fish; they can also mean fish-type Pokemon.

Ordinary fish-type Pokemon include Magikarp, Feebas, Goldeen, and Basculin, among others.

Rare fish-type Pokemon include Mudkip, Carvanha, Relicanth, and maybe even Gyarados and Milotic.

If you’re feeling bold, it’s not impossible to fish up Kyogre.

After all, in the anime, Lana caught a small Kyogre with a fishing rod.

And when consumed by Pokemon, it can greatly enhance the effect of ocean training.

This might not be very useful for land-based Pokemon.

But it’s completely different for those Dragonairs eager to evolve into Dragonite.