"Gaao~" Cyclizar chirped happily, expressing that it enjoyed anything Naoki made.
Although he didn't understand Cyclizar's words, Naoki could roughly guess its meaning from its expressions and gestures.
He playfully asked, "Even the spicy ramen?"
Cyclizar's head drooped immediately. "Cyclizar."
"Just kidding!" Naoki chuckled, patting Cyclizar's head. He then started seriously considering what kind of dish to make.
Fried pork chops, sandwiches, steamed sea bass, glutinous rice dumplings, steamed eggs, cream of mushroom soup. He had made all of those before. With limited ingredients at home, Naoki could only create new dishes by combining existing ingredients differently.
With this in mind, Naoki began experimenting.
He randomly picked a few ingredients from the chopping board: fresh, tender pork tenderloin, eggs, and rock salt from the Nacli. He wrapped the pork tenderloin in egg batter and fried it in a pan, used Alcremie's cream and Nacli's rock salt as fillings for glutinous rice dumplings, and used processed sea bass meat to make sandwiches.
However, after working for a long time, none of the dishes seemed to have the effect of making Dragonite stronger.
[Fried Tenderloin (C): Cooking effect: Restores stamina.]
[Snow Puffs (B): Cooking effect: Moderately increases the friendliness of Pokémon who love sweets. Very appealing to Alcremie.]
[Sea Bass Sandwich (C+): Cooking effect: Carrying it on your person will easily attract Water-type Pokémon.]
Naoki: "..."
He couldn't help but sigh and fed the fried tenderloin to Cyclizar, who ate it happily.
Naoki fell into deep thought. "This is a bit tricky!"
His eyes scanned the various ingredients on the table, and when they landed on some fruits in the basket, he suddenly remembered a dish he had made before.
Fruit Salad!
That was it! Fruit Salad!
It was a special dish that could randomly generate Pokémon moves if it was this.
Excited by the idea, Naoki immediately took out the fruits, cut them into pieces with a knife, and arranged them on a white porcelain plate.
Soon, a fruit salad was ready.
Naoki looked down, and the information about the dish appeared in his mind.
[Fruit Salad (C-): This delicacy is made from various fruits. It combines the flavors of different fruits and is quite popular with some Pokémon.
Cooking effect: Skill refinement. After eating, one of the Pokémon's moves will change randomly.
Evaluation: Basic food, easy to make, a good choice for home and travel.]
If he fed it to Dragonite.
Naoki imagined Dragonite mastering a whole bunch of moves, a happy smile on its face, excitedly snuggling up to him.
But then, he envisioned a scenario where Dragonite forgot all four of its moves and ran away heartbroken.
A gamble on luck.
Naoki hesitated. He was well aware of the probabilities and nature of these types of games, so he was a bit hesitant to take the risk.
The worst-case scenario after feeding it to Dragonite was that it would forget all four of its moves. If that happened, feeding it the Fruit Salad again would definitely result in it learning a new move.
If he was lucky, Dragonite might even learn powerful moves like Dragon Rush, Draco Meteor, or Dragon Claw.
But if it learned something like Tackle, it would be a waste of time.
To him, it might just be a sunk cost, but Dragonite wouldn't understand that. If it was unlucky, it might even forget all four moves it had worked so hard to learn. Then, it would lose trust in him and run away heartbroken.
"No, I can't feed it to Dragonite yet."
After careful consideration, Naoki decided to wait and see if Dragonite could learn Dragon Tail. He would build trust with it first and then use the Fruit Salad based on the situation.
After all, he wasn't in a hurry, and there was still plenty of time.
With that decided, Naoki packed up the remaining ingredients, took the Snow Puffs and sea bass sandwiches to the salt shelter, found Alcremie and Smoliv who were playing with the Nacli, and shared the treats with them.
After they finished eating, Naoki collected the empty plates and returned to the cabin.
He walked to the kitchen area to put away the dishes, and that's when he noticed that the fruit salad he had left there was gone.
"?"
Naoki looked back at Cyclizar, who was not far behind, and asked, "Did you eat the fruit salad?"
"Cyclizar." Cyclizar nodded, but seeing Naoki's expression, it couldn't help but worry if it had done something wrong.
Naoki reassured it, "No, I'm not blaming you, I'm just asking."
He then inquired, "Do you feel any different in your body? For example, have you learned a new move or forgotten an old one?"
"Cyclizar?" Cyclizar was initially confused, but soon its eyes lit up, and it stood up to demonstrate the move it had just learned.
Purple dragon energy gathered on its tail. When the energy reached a certain point, Cyclizar swung its tail forcefully, creating a "whoosh" sound in the air. Although it didn't hit anything, judging by the action, it was a powerful move.
"Dragon Tail?" Naoki raised an eyebrow. "Is this the move you just learned?"
"Cyclizar!" Cyclizar nodded.
"Have you forgotten any other moves?" Naoki asked.
Cyclizar nodded its head sideways.
From that perspective, Cyclizar was quite lucky!
Naoki nodded. "I see."
...
In late January, in the 198th year of the Pokémon League calendar, the temperature in the Paldea region gradually warmed up.
It had been five days since the salt shelter was built. After a five-day interval, the breeding of Nacli and Skiddo was officially on track.
This morning, after feeding the chickens, Naoki went to the salt shelter. After five days of the Nacli's constant movement, a layer of fine rock salt particles had accumulated on the collection membrane.
Seeing this, Naoki's face lit up with the joy of a successful harvest.
Koraidon stood beside him, holding five Nacli. The five Nacli were stacked together, nestled comfortably in Koraidon's arms.
Naoki and Cyclizar worked together to lift the collection membrane, gathering the rock salt and placing it into a sealed cloth bag.
The Nacli, still in Koraidon's arms, watched curiously.
"Nacli, nacli..."
They suddenly realized that Naoki seemed to like the salt crystals on their bodies! This made the Nacli very happy. In their eyes, Naoki had not only rescued them from the dangerous wild but also taken good care of them. He had built them a safe new home and provided delicious food every day. They had also made new friends here, including the sisterly Alcremie and the quiet, gentle Smoliv.
This filled the Nacli with gratitude and affection.
Witnessing this scene, one of the Nacli excitedly jumped off of Koraidon. Following its lead, the other four Nacli also climbed down.
They ran towards Naoki, rubbing against him while making "Nacli, nacli" sounds.
Suddenly, more rock salt fell from their bodies, like a flurry of snowflakes.