Charizard prodded Shelmet's shell with one claw. Shelmet wobbled, but nothing else happened.
Auron bent down and tilted his head to peer inside the shell. A pair of eyes stared back at him from the dark, trembling faintly.
He blinked. His Aura registered Shelmet's emotional state immediately.
"Okay, Charizard. Stop scaring her. She's terrified."
"Gah~"
Charizard took the pat obediently and stepped aside.
Perhaps sensing that Charizard had moved away, Shelmet cautiously extended the tiniest sliver of her head and looked around.
"Hey there~"
"Kucchi!"
The cheerful greeting startled Shelmet all over again. She let out a squeak and yanked her head back into the shell.
"Gah~"
Charizard stifled a laugh, then spread his hands helplessly — as if to say, *that one definitely wasn't me.*
Auron shot him an unamused look. "That was entirely your fault. You scared her so badly she's stuck like this."
"Hehe~"
Dratini and Snorlax dissolved into laughter at Charizard's deflated expression.
"Alright, stop terrorizing Shelmet. I'm making dinner — has everyone eaten?"
"Lax~"
Auron sighed. "Fine, I know."
For Snorlax, the question of being full or not simply didn't exist. If there was food, Snorlax could eat it.
Dinner came together quickly. In no time Auron had a large bowl of mixed noodles ready, which Snorlax carried out to the living room and portioned out — one serving per person, including small dishes for Auron and Shelmet.
Auron had already eaten out earlier, but it was his own cooking and it smelled good — one taste wasn't going to hurt.
Once the portions were distributed, everything remaining went to Snorlax.
Snorlax had an uncanny instinct for quantities. Every time he served the others, the portions were exactly right — enough to fill everyone comfortably without a scrap of waste.
Auron had noticed this early on and handed all portioning duties over to him permanently. Fast, precise, never wrong.
"Lax~"
The moment he finished, Snorlax couldn't hold back any longer. He drove a fork into the basin, gave it a full rotation, and deposited a massive twirled nest of noodles directly into his mouth.
*(Chomp.)*
He gave Auron a thumbs-up without pausing his chewing.
Snorlax had learned chopsticks after the hotpot incident. But for noodles served by the basin, asking him to use chopsticks was genuinely cruel.
Auron and his Pokémon slurped away happily.
Beside them, Shelmet caught the smell drifting from her dish. She couldn't help herself — she extended her head by degrees, bright little eyes scanning the room. Nobody was watching. She stretched down and buried her face into the noodles, slurped up one strand, and quickly retreated into the shell.
One noodle, pulled into the shell.
Unfortunately, these weren't longevity noodles, so a single strand wasn't especially long.
What followed was a rhythm: Shelmet extending her head, stealing one noodle in her mouth, retreating, finishing it — then emerging to repeat the whole thing.
Auron watched her without comment.
He wasn't sure how she'd ended up at his place, but he was already sold on keeping her.
With Shelmet around, he'd still need to buy a blender — but the Pokéblock recipes that required Shelmet's shell as a natural juicing vessel now had an actual path forward. Different berries placed inside her shell produced different juice effects. He'd need a Shelmet for that to work at all.
First order of business: convince her to stay. How she'd gotten here was secondary. As long as she didn't belong to someone else, that was all that mattered.
And beyond all that — Shelmet had triggered a specific memory.
A while back he'd come across a post on a certain site discussing something about the juice inside a shiny Shelmet and what it apparently did to other Pokémon. The phrasing had been deliberately vague, but the implication was unmistakable — *that kind* of effect.
He wanted to find out if it was real.
He understood that Shelmet's juice varied depending on which berries she stored. But if left completely to her own devices — if she just ate whatever she liked naturally — would it actually develop the way that post described? He genuinely needed to know.
And today, conveniently, he'd gotten a Shiny Charm from Dax as payment. The timing was perfect.
He ran through his roster mentally. Only two of his Pokémon could currently receive a Shiny Charm with worthwhile results.
Shiny Crobat was green — ruled out.
Shiny Clawitzer was orange — worse than the original red, ruled out.
Shiny Electabuzz just shifted the orange-yellow to gold-yellow, but after evolving to Electivire it swapped back, so neither form looked good — ruled out.
Shiny Charizard and shiny Dratini were already shiny — no change needed.
That left Snorlax and the not-yet-born Deoxys.
Shiny Snorlax was sky blue. Nice.
Shiny Deoxys was gold. Rich-looking.
Two viable targets. And now, possibly, Shelmet as a third.
Shiny coloration didn't improve combat performance or unlock special abilities — with Shelmet possibly being the exception — so the only reason to pursue it was aesthetics. Might as well go for something that looked good.
Dinner wrapped up quickly.
Shelmet's dish was empty.
And Shelmet herself had shifted from her earlier upright position to lying flat on her back, belly to the ceiling.
Visibly stuffed.
Auron didn't mind. He'd put out that amount specifically for her. If she overate, it was his miscalculation — he didn't have Snorlax's gift for reading other Pokémon's appetite thresholds.
"Hey, Charizard — hold on before you go out. Explain this to me."
He caught Charizard on his way toward the door for a post-dinner walk, and pointed at Shelmet.
"Gah, gah... gah!"
"Gah, gah. Gah~"
Auron furrowed his brow as Charizard launched into an animated explanation — wings spread, arms waving. He nodded along and signaled for him to continue.
"Kucchi!"
"Kucchi! Kucchi!"
Before Charizard could finish, Shelmet popped her head out and started yelling at him, indignant.
"Gah?"
Charizard glanced sideways at her. Shelmet immediately retreated.
"Kucchi..."
Auron rubbed his forehead. So Charizard had essentially *grabbed* someone — no, a Pokémon — and dragged her home.
*(End of Chapter)*