The rest of the week after Rose's birthday was less exciting, but I was okay with that, since I knew that sooner or later something interesting would pop up, and I was right. The excitement suddenly burst forth on Arcday the following week after Hashirama/Venusaur came up to me and asked me to check his status.
My walking green thumb dinosaur was done with his limit breaking and ready for his breakthrough. It was a bit of a surprise, but this time around, I had actually come pretty close with my estimation of when Hashirama would be done with his limit-breaking and breakthrough.
Close to a year ago, I said that he would break through in about a year, and here we were with exactly that happening. This also meant that Hashirama had spent nearly 3 years in the silver stage from start to finish, of which a bit less than 2.5 years were spent in the (high) silver stage thanks to the limit-breaking training.
Well, to be honest, Hashirama probably could have been done with his limit-breaking a bit less than a year ago if he had solely focused on it, but just like with Tyrogue and the others we naturally did not do that, because we collectively agreed that doing so was unbalanced.
Instead, Hashirma also spent time working on his psychic resistance, which he managed to standardize just two months ago. He also learned new moves and trained those along with his old ones. He even upgraded his custom moves by replacing Vine Whip with Power Whip.
Well, the breaks were probably another reason for the additional time it took to reach this point, but all work and no rest was stupid, so there was that. Anyway, back to what was happening right now. I announced Hashirama's upcoming breakthrough and we all gathered in his habitat.
Everyone began to encircle him and I gave him a few final encouraging words since I knew he was quite excited about his breakthrough. He would be reaching light aurora potential if everything went as it should, so he was curious about the ability he would unlock. We had discussed it among ourselves, and I had my opinion on what it would be, but that did not change that it was a big thing for Hashirama.
Anyway, I hyped him up before I stepped back and joined the others in the circle, who were all just as excited. This was a first for me, but I actually heard them betting on what his new ability would be and on whether it would be a smooth breakthrough or if something else would happen.
I had to laugh when I heard even Hashirama joined in and bet on himself having a smooth breakthrough. Togepi was forced/asked to wait until everyone else had made their bets before she was allowed to do hers, and she bet 3 days worth of snacks on everything going smooth for an aurora breakthrough.
That we knew what a smooth aurora breakthrough looked like was probably something only my group could boast about. Not that we would since we were not stupid or suicidal.
Anyway, once that was settled, Hashirama began his breakthrough, and while it did take longer than a regular breakthrough to the gold stage, it was in the normal range for an aurora breakthrough, so Hashirama, Togepi, and 6 others would be getting a lot of extra snacks for the next few days.
Well, wager conclusion aside, I directly went up to Hahsirama who was checking his body. I saw no real difference, but as soon as he saw me stepping to his side, he told me that he could feel that something had changed, that something was different. However, he could not really place what exactly had changed since there was no visible change.
I congratulated him and directly checked his status screen, without waiting for the others to rush over, after telling Hashirama that I would check it for him.
'Name: Hashirama
Species: Venusaur
Gender: Male
Age: 8+ years
-
Type: Grass, Poison
Potential: Light Aurora (13.13%)*
{Purple (62.03%) -> (65.27%) -> Light Aurora (13.13%)}
Genetic variation: None
Abilities: Overgrow, Chlorophyll, Thick Fat*
Talents: Solar Overgrowth
Affinities: Grass, Poison
-
Bond: Mikail (Strong)
Quirks: None
----
Parameters:
Stage: Gold Stage (mid)
Vitality: D
Strength: D
Endurance: D
Agility: D
Energy Capacity: D
Energy Density: D
----
Resistance:
Grass (Major), Water (Minor), Electric (Minor), Fighting (Minor), Fairy (Minor)
-
Weaknesses:
Flying (Minor)
-
Standardized:
Psychic, {Fire*, Ice*}
----
Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited
----
Masteries:
Grass Energy Manipulation (Advanced)
Poison Energy Manipulation (Novice) -> (Proficient)
----
Techniques:
-
Novice:
N/A
-
Beginner:
Tackle, Double-Edge, Growl (+), Take Down (+), Worry Seed (+), Bullet Seed (new), Body Slam (new)
-
Proficient:
Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Mega Drain, Sweet Scent (++), Petal Blizzard (++), Giga Drain, Sleep Vine (C), Poison Vine (C), Sweet Vine (C), Sleep Bomb (C), Poison Bomb (C) Petal Dance (new), Hyper Beam (new), Safeguard (new), Protect (new), Sludge Bomb (new), Earthquake (new), Toxic (new), SS Vine (C), SP Vine (C), SSW Vine (C)
-
Advanced:
Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Seed Bomb, Leech Seed, Vine Whip (+), Power Whip (new), Solar Beam (+), Growth (+), Energy Ball (new), Venoshock (new), Earth Power (new)
-
Mastered:
Sunny Day (++)
-
Combo moves/Custom moves:
Sleep Vine (Proficient), Poison Vine (Proficient), Sweet Vine (Proficient), Sleep Bomb (Proficient), Poison Bomb (Proficient), SS Vine (Proficient), SP Vine (Proficient), SSW Vine (Proficient)'
Well, I confirmed that he had indeed attained light aurora potential, and thus unlocked a third ability, which was most likely causing the change that Hashirama was feeling.
A quick look down showed that he had not unlocked any modifier, and also revealed the culprit. It seemed just like Parvati/Beedrill before him, Hashirama's being had grabbed the closest ability in his genetic ability pool, which happened to be the one a Mega-Venusaur would gain. Namely, Thick Fat.
I was actually really happy about that since this helped him take care of two of his remaining three type-weaknesses. Meaning that Hashirama should currently only have a single (minor) flying type weakness, and a quick look at the type relation section confirmed that he did really only have that weakness left.
I also saw that he was starting at the (mid) gold stage with all Ds across the board, which meant that he had to simply raise four of them to C to reach the (high) gold stage. He should be able to do that within a year.
Anyway, I shared all that and he was really happy to hear it. The others that had come over just a few moments ago congratulated him, and I could hear some of them say how lucky he was to get out of resistance training for two types.
I just smiled and looked through the rest of the status screen, and I saw that his breakthrough had caused no other changes. Hence, I turned back to everyone and told them that we would be celebrating his breakthrough tonight, or rather that I would join them in 3 hours and that they could start now if they wanted.
The cheers were answer enough, so I pulled all our party stuff out before I left since it was close to dinner time and I wanted to help mom. After the dinner was ready, dad helped us set the table and we began eating.
"So, wanna go on vacation in the upcoming few weeks?" Dad suddenly asked us, and I was a bit surprised since that literally came out of nowhere.
"I mean the first month of your break is nearly over, and I thought you might be interested in traveling somewhere before your break is up," he elaborated probably after seeing my surprised look. How he managed to read that of my perfect poker face I don't know.
"Our time at the orange islands was fun, so I'm all for it," mom eagerly spoke up before I could, but I guess that was fair since dad's question was originally addressed to both of us.
"But where would we go? Do you already have somewhere in mind?" she finished, waiting for dad to answer, leaving me wondering whether I should reply to dad's previous question, or wait for him to answer mom's question before giving my answer.
While I was pondering over "to be, or not to be", dad spoke up, rendering the point for my hesitation moot. "Well, obviously the Orange Islands are out, and so are Kanto and Rota for the same reasons. We could go for the close option with the Sevii Islands or we could travel a bit further and go to Alola," he proposed and the way her eyes gleamed when dad said Alola, I would say that mom already had an idea which one she liked more.
Frankly, I was more interested in Alola as well, mostly because I was interested in taking a look into the Salandit tales and habitats there. Furthermore, I've heard that the Totem Pokemon from canon were kinda really a thing. The alolans called them Chief Pokemon since they tended to be the leaders of their tribes.
Also, these Chief Pokemon were not really Totem Pokemon per se, since the chiefs were kinda permanently like that and not dependent on some outside energy, which was not truly the same in canon.
The real reason I said they resembled the Totem Pokemon was that the local population did apparently come to an agreement with the many big-sized tribe leaders to police certain parts of the islands, which basically meant keeping the Pokemon there from wreaking havoc, in exchange for not touching the wildness/naturalness of nature in those areas at all.
That situation kinda resembled the canon setting a bit, hence the comparison. All in all, there was a surprising amount of Pokemon that were quite a bit larger than the usual size of their kind but did not fit the range of the giant gene.
I would have assumed them to have a royal gene because Pokemon with a modifier from that series always seemed to be bigger than their regular counterparts, but royal Pokemon also always seemed to have a distinct addition/difference that came with the modifier, even if it was a single change as with Stan/Gyarados.
That distinction was something the Chief Pokemon did not have, they were simply bigger and stronger than their regular counterparts. It was safe to say that I was interested in learning more about them and getting to see some of them for myself.
"I think a vacation is a great idea," I finally spoke up. "Also, Alola sounds great," I added and mom nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I like Alola more as well," she chose to verbalize her agreement.
"Well, that settles that," dad decided that was enough to confirm Alola as our destination. "That said, when do you guys think we should leave and how long should we stay there? I'm open to everything," he sent the ball back into our court.
"I'm fine with everything as well, as long as it is not tomorrow since I still have to pack, and if we are staying more than a week, we have to sweep and clean everything before we leave, so I guess any day after Giratiday is fine with me," mom said, directly roping us into the cleaning as well on the sly.
"I'd say we finish the week and leave next week when the new month begins. We can stay at Alola until the end of the month," I suggested and mom looked interested while dad seemed like he did not fully agree.
"Is a month not a bit too long, I thought more along the line of two or three weeks," he returned, and mom shook her head.
"A month is just a week or so more than three, so I don't see a problem. We could leave on Grouday instead of staying for the full month, I guess," she said, evidently liking the sound of a month in Alola, and I could understand why she did.
A tropical region, with a lot of sunlight, and a lot of beaches. What was there to dislike? I mean even the people had an overall reputation for being nice. I agreed with mom, and seeing me agree with her, dad just nodded. He said that he would take care of organizing anything, and with that our vacation plans were a go.
Surprisingly, two things happened during the rest of the week. The first one happened right the next day/on Mewday. Saphira/Altaria came to me an hour after lunch and shared that she reached the (high) silver stage. I was naturally really happy to hear that and hugged the not-so-little fluff ball.
The second one happened on Kyoday. Nyx/Umbreon came to me shortly before dinner and told me that she had reached the (high) gold stage. That was obviously terrific news and I naturally praised her to the high heavens. She got a lot of snacks and desserts out of it, which helped offset the ones she lost in her bet on Arcday, so she was quite happy as well.
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