It took us more than 3 hours to close in on our goal, and thanks to Kinji's Scyther as well as Yanmega we remained unmolested the whole way. Their Dark Gold aura was more than enough to deter any Pokemon from approaching us.
At least that was the case for the Pokemon in the areas we covered so far and in the outer as well as most of the inner area of the Viridian Forest too. The Pokemon were simply too weak to do to go against Dark Gold stage Pokemon.
Thankfully the area we arrived in was only in the middle of the inner area, so Kinji's strategy worked the whole way, otherwise, we would have had to sneak the rest of the way.
In the center area and the inner area close to the center area, such an aura projection would have resulted in us being besieged and/or attacked by those that felt provoked. The Pokemon in those places were strong and influential enough to afford to feel provoked.
We slowed down after getting closer, and a few minutes later Kinji raised his fist, signaling us to stop.
"I'm hearing sounds of a fight, and they seem to come from the area where Shedinja should be."
I focused on my hearing when he said that and after filtering some of the other sounds of the forest I heard a lot of cries from Spearow and a lot of rustling noises.
"You're right, I'm hearing a lot of Spearow and probably a few Fearow as well." I agreed, before making a suggestion. "Let's go there and see if it's the Shedinja that's being attacked. We can help it if that's the case. I'm sure saving its life will make it more open to my request."
"Alright, normally I prefer to leave it to nature, but I'll help if it's the Shedinja," Kinji replied and we began moving towards the battle noises.
I called out Thor/Pikachu, who climbed on top of my head and we set off. It took us less than a minute to arrive there and we saw a small flock of Spearow and 3 Fearow attacking a single Shedinja.
Shedinja was holding up despite being besieged by so many flying types, which was one of the types that could hurt it. It was really lucky that his attackers were Spearow instead of other flying types since the Spearow line was a physically oriented one.
That was the only reason he held on until now since most of his attacks were useless against them. However, I saw him getting skimmed once or twice which proved that his in-game terms HP was more than just 1. Though, it was probably still pretty low, since Shedinja seemed to be on its last legs.
"Let's go," Kinji said and Thor released a Thunderbolt into the flock getting their attention and bringing the weaker ones out of the sky.
Scyther and Yanmega chose that moment to flare their aura which made them all release a squawk of fear/surprise before the Fearow cried retreat. The flock immediately flew away leaving the ones that had been taken out of the sky behind.
"Thor, knock them out," I told Pikachu while pointing at the roughly 20 Spearow that were starting to recover from his previous Thunderbolt.
"Pika, CHUUUUUU!" Thor first affirmed before jumping off my head and releasing a Thunderbolt that he held for a few seconds. He landed on the ground and swiftly ran around the area, making sure they were all knocked out.
He only had to help three Spearow on their way to la-la-land, before he ran back and climbed back on my head. According to him, none had died, while 3 seemed heavily injured, 5 were injured quite a bit, and the rest were only slightly injured.
"Good job," I praised him before turning towards the reason we came here in the first place.
Shedinja had not run away like the flock and was observing us cautiously, so I began to apply what I learned in the academy. I released my aura that said "trust me, bro. I'm on your side", and I could see how Shedinja became less tense as soon as I used my mojo.
I took a look at Kinji who signaled to me that the stage was mine. His Scyther and Yanmega also retreated a bit and turned their presence/aura away from Shedinja.
That helped Shedinja relax a bit more and taking note of all its actions as well as reactions since our arrival I was pretty sure it already developed his ego. If the same was true for sapience remained to be seen. Still, I began to walk closer to him to talk to him face to face.
Normally, all I would have to do was call out Ali/Ralts, and let "Trace" do its work, but that would mean I would have to repeat the process if he ever wanted to change his saved ability. I didn't want that, and I had come up with a great solution for that.
"I'll get straight to the point. I have a Ralts who can copy an ability and I want him to do so with yours. Since I do not want to keep searching for a Shedinja every time I want him to have Wonder Guard, I offer you the opportunity to live with me." I went straight to the point and as expected its reaction was rather neutral.
"Shed, inj, inja, She, Shedinja," was its reply, which translated to "what does that have to do with me, and why should I go with you?".
That bit of communication was enough for me to conclude that he had gained sapience. Still, it seemed to be a recent thing, at least that was the feeling I got.
"Good question and the answer is easy. First of all, I won't force you to fight but make sure you can fight if you want to. I will also ensure that you have a safe space to live in, with an abundance of energy in the environment.
I also know you don't have to eat, and can sustain yourself using ambient energy, but I'll provide you with a steady food source anyway. I'm pretty sure those conditions should be good enough, especially because you seem to have become a target." I outlined my offer while reminding him of the situation we saved him from.
He seemed to mull over my offer, and I projected feelings of sincerity to show that I meant what I said. I was not sure if it was my aura that convinced him that I was serious or not, but he agreed to my proposal.
"Alright, I'll have to capture you real quick to transport you to your new home. Don't resist, alright?" I informed Shedinja before pulling out one of the BugBalls I made.
I might need to make a Bug/Ghost one for him later on, but that could wait since I was planning to leave him inside Utopia most of the time anyway. Anyway, I went up to him and softly touched him with the ball to capture him while using that moment to check his stats as well.
'Species: Shedinja
Gender: Male
Type: Bug, Ghost
Potential: Deep Yellow
Stage: Silver-stage (high)
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Wonder Guard
Talents: None
Affinities: Bug, Ghost'
The BugBall shook only once probably due to Shedinja being surprised by the change in environment, but the capture was completed after that. The status was not too bad since I had no intention of making him part of the main team, or any of the sub-teams for that matter.
Shedinja normally started as genderless, but it seemed the ego that had formed was a male, so it adjusted to that. The only reason I thought that was possible was his ghost type. I stored the ball inside Utopia before turning towards Kinji who had been quietly observing the situation.
"So, you're done, I presume?" He simply asked, and I shook my head.
"I plan to capture the Spearow as well. They got hurt and were left behind because of me, so I'll heal them and find them another place to stay." I replied before turning towards the Spearow on the ground.
I went up to each of them to first check their mind, before checking their status and capturing them. I checked their minds to see if any of them were sapient or not, but none were sapient. Moreover, none had any promising potential.
The best one had light yellow potential, while the worst one had deep red potential. Stage wise they were all at different phases of the bronze stage. There were a total of 27 Spearow 12 females and 15 males.
Still, their potential was not important since I was planning to place them inside the subspace anyway. They were the start of my second resource species. Anyway, I put the balls away after I was done and turned back toward Kinji.
"Bro, thank you for helping me out," I said sincerely, but he waved me off.
"No need to thank me for such a small matter. I didn't do all that much anyway besides leading you here," Kinji returned and this time I was the one to disagree.
"Don't say that, leading me here was already more than enough," I said after coming closer and patting him on his shoulder. "Really, thank you for helping me out," I repeated, and he just smiled.
"Do you need something else? Or do you need me to lead you out of the forest, if not I'll head deeper into the forest? I'd offered you to come along, but I think it would be too dangerous for you right now." He asked, and I choose not to keep him up since I could feel that he was itching to go.
He wanted to train and I was really grateful that he was willing to take some time to help me despite his focus on reaching the Bug King rank.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking. Don't let me hold you up, and I wish you success in your training. Take care of yourself and call if there is any way I can help you." I told him and he patted my shoulder.
"Will do," he said with a nod. "Take care of yourself," he added before calling out a Venomoth and heading towards the center area of Viridian Forest with his three Pokemon.
After he vanished from my sight, I called out Horus/Xatu and asked him to teleport me home. Once we were back home, I prepared myself a late lunch, before checking up on Eggy. I was late by two hours, but since I had been unavailable that was ok.
After Eggy's check-up, I released Shedinja and Utopia did its thing. He got his little eerie forest, and his potential was improved to light green at 83.51%. I chose to not release him to leave the artificial link to me through the ball intact.
Once Shedinja was relocated to his new habitat I focused on the Spearow. I was going to place them inside the fauna subspace, so I decided to adjust the layout.
The main space roughly had an 18 km² area at the moment, including the areas left by my parent's Pokemon, so each subspace had 1.8 km² in size. I chose to allot a fifth of the sub-space as their area, which is 360k m², and they would be unable to leave that area without my approval.
While they did not need that much space right now, I was planning to increase their number a bit more before leaving them to propagate on their own. Besides, I had more than enough space, so why not.
Currently, there was only grass on the ground, so I decided to relocate a few lower-class berry trees and other fruit trees. The lower classes, I was talking about here were the F and E-class.
They were originally from the flora sub-space, but I had moved quite a number of those into the storage since I could not bring myself to destroy or throw them away after they were replaced. Now, I was planting some of them in the area assigned to the Spearow.
I made multiple copses with a mix of berry and fruit trees, before releasing all 27 Spearow inside the subspace. After the upgrade, the worst potential was light orange while the best was yellow. I also released them from their Pokeballs to sever the artificial link between us.
Utopia went straight to work and started to heal them and the first ones woke up within seconds. As soon as 10 were awake, I told them about their new situation, and they did not complain after a look around them.
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