Bai Chen thanked Lusamine sincerely.
She waved it off with a soft smile.
"Think nothing of it. If your strength and your partners grow, that's good news for me too."
Then, with her usual grace, she left to give him space to rest.
Once alone, Bai Chen released Nergigante from her Monster Ball.
Curious, he asked,
"So, how was it inside?"
"Rooar~"
Nergigante tilted her head, tail flicking.
"Not bad. There's a big plain, a beach… and these shiny crystal things everywhere."
Bai Chen blinked. A custom interior?
Clearly, Lusamine had ordered this Monster Ball specially tuned for her.
But that wasn't what mattered most—
If the Monster Ball could hold an Elder Dragon,
then it could hold any monster.
And more importantly,
it let him hide Nergigante's existence from the world.
That night, under Lillie's relentless insistence, Bai Chen stayed put to rest and heal.
To prevent him from sneaking out to train,
she literally moved her bedding into his room and slept on the floor beside him.
Bai Chen could only sigh with a wry smile.
"You're really treating me like a child now, huh."
The night passed quietly.
By dawn—six o'clock—his wounds were gone.
The Ultra Regeneration (Rarity 8) had worked wonders.
He glanced at the girl sleeping below, still hugging a Clefairy plush,
and slipped quietly from the bed, taking his Z-Ring and crystals.
On the roof, Nergigante was dozing, wings folded.
"Come on," Bai Chen whispered, climbing onto her back. "Let's go to the beach."
Testing a Z-Move here would shake the house apart,
and after how Lillie had cared for him until two in the morning,
he couldn't bring himself to wake her.
But one person was awake.
From the second-floor window, Lusamine watched as he flew off into the morning sky.
"Already up and training again," she murmured, half amused.
She stretched, yawned, and muttered,
"Coffee. Definitely need coffee."
Downstairs, she brewed her cup,
then stepped to the window just in time to see Bai Chen and Nergigante land on the shore.
Her curiosity stirred.
Could an otherworldly monster really use a Z-Move?
On the beach, Bai Chen slotted the orange Fighting Z-Crystal into his Z-Ring.
He called to Nergigante before him,
"Alright. Let's try it—our Z-Move."
He crossed his hands before his chest.
Ding—
The crystal shone brilliantly.
A glowing symbol of a fist appeared in front of Nergigante.
At that instant, Bai Chen felt his mind and body fuse completely with hers—
the same sensation as when they used the Bond Move.
Nergigante reared up,
mirroring his stance even with her back turned.
Z-Moves demanded specific poses,
like ritual dances fueled by rhythm and emotion.
Words were optional—style was personal.
Lillie had even demonstrated the movements for him last night,
showing the precision of a top student who practically was a walking Pokédex.
Bai Chen grinned.
"Alright, Nergigante—use All-Out Pummeling!"
Energy drained from his limbs instantly—
and the air itself thickened with power.
Countless motes of natural energy gathered around Nergigante,
pouring into her like molten light.
She punched.
A flurry of crimson shockwaves erupted,
hammering the sea in rapid succession.
BOOM!
The ocean exploded upward—
a column of water twenty meters high.
Bai Chen's eyes gleamed.
"She really can use Z-Moves… and that power—wow."
By rough estimation,
it matched the strength of ten consecutive Elder Palms.
"A new finishing move, right after the Bond Skill…"
He studied his body—surprisingly, he wasn't drained.
No dizziness, no collapse.
He even felt like he could fire off another one.
"So the physical strain differs by species, huh?"
He looked at the Z-Ring on his hand… and an idea sparked.
Upstairs, on Hala's open-air balcony,
Lusamine sipped her coffee, sea breeze in her hair.
From this distance, she had a perfect view of the beach.
Watching Nergigante unleash the Z-Move, she murmured,
"Remarkable… even beings from another world can channel the island's natural energy."
It wasn't too shocking for her.
If the monsters could be stored in Poké Balls,
then in essence, they shared the same biological core as Pokémon.
But then—
something new caught her eye.
Below, Nergigante shrank using her size-shift ability.
Bai Chen adjusted something, then ran to stand before her, facing the sea.
Lusamine squinted.
"What's he planning now?"
Bai Chen and Nergigante suddenly took synchronized stances—
and before she could blink,
Bai Chen shone white and launched himself straight into the ocean.
The impact blasted the seawater outward like a detonation.
Lusamine choked.
"Pffft—!"
Coffee sprayed from both mouth and nose.
She grabbed tissues, coughing and wiping the mess off the table.
When she dared look again,
Nergigante was hauling a drenched, triumphant Bai Chen back from the waves.
She gripped the railing, eyes wide.
"I didn't imagine that… right?
Did Bai Chen just use a Z-Move—Breakneck Blitz—himself?!"
Her expression twisted between disbelief and exhaustion.
"No. No way. Maybe I got up too early. I should go lie down."
Still muttering, she walked back toward her room.
"When this is over, I'm throwing a Poké Ball at that man.
I swear, he's just a Pokémon pretending to be human."
She paused at the door.
"Absolutely ridiculous."
Meanwhile, dangling from Nergigante's mouth,
Bai Chen was grinning ear to ear, soaking wet.
He had only wanted to try—
And yet it worked.
He had actually used a Z-Move himself.
But the backlash hit quickly.
A sudden wave of numbness rippled through him;
For one or two seconds, his body wouldn't even respond.
The exhaustion was heavier than what Nergigante had suffered.
Still, even as he panted, he couldn't help laughing.
"This Z-Ring and Z-Crystal… are absolute masterpieces."
He'd felt the power firsthand—
the surge, the resonance, the precision of that energy flow.
A perfect fusion of two worlds.
The art of a craftsman—and the dream of a hunter.
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