Chapter 431:
"Sorry to bother you, Kaede, Elite Four Rosaline."
Just as Kaede was calling Pidgeot, preparing to leave with Rosaline, Satoshi finally put aside his reservations and flew over on his Aegislash.
"Hmm? Frostbite?"
With just one glance, Kaede noticed the frost condensed on Aegislash's body. It seemed that getting too close earlier had caused it to be caught in the Blizzard's aftermath.
"Yeah, that's right." Satoshi nearly teared up. He was at a bit of a loss about what to do now.
He really shouldn't have listened to those netizens' coaxing.
The money he made from this wasn't worth almost getting stranded at sea.
"No problem."
Kaede took a storage capsule from his belt, retrieved an Energy Cube, and also pulled out a Full Heal.
Although he wasn't a traveling Trainer, he naturally kept Energy Cubes on hand that could handle various status conditions.
This one was made with Aspear Berries. After eating it, a Pokémon could quickly recover from being frozen and even gain a slight resistance to Ice.
He usually prepared these Energy Cubes for Dragonite and Salamence.
Satoshi let out a huge sigh of relief as he watched Kaede feed the Energy Cube to Aegislash, seeing steam quickly rise from its body to melt the frost, and then applying the Full Heal to restore the frozen, reddish parts to normal.
"Thank you so much, Kaede!"
"Don't mention it. You don't look so great either. Have some of this."
Kaede took another Energy Cube from the storage capsule and handed it to him.
"Thank you, thank you..." Satoshi was even more touched.
"Hey, we're practically old friends by now," Kaede laughed, even though this was their first proper meeting.
He then asked, "I'm curious, how did you find this place? It's dozens of kilometers from the coast, right? Aegislash couldn't fly this far in such a short time."
"About that..." Satoshi sheepishly held up his phone and explained everything that had just happened.
Kaede glanced at the livestream feed on the phone and couldn't help but smile.
The chat was full of demands for him to battle Rosaline again.
Kaede pretended he didn't see it.
"No problem, no problem. So, you can't get back to the cruise ship now?"
"Yeah..."
"Not a big issue." Kaede took out another Poké Ball and lightly tapped it. Salamence instantly appeared on the ice.
Its scarred face, however, made Satoshi take an involuntary step back the moment it materialized.
"Let Salamence give you a ride. It's very fast."
This was something Kaede had discovered last time. After eating the special recipe, Salamence and Dragonite could easily sense the situation in the surrounding sea.
"This..."
Satoshi looked at Salamence's seemingly ferocious expression.
"Rooar?"
Salamence turned its head, looking at Kondō Satoshi as if asking, 'You got a problem with that, kid?'
"Okay, okay, okay!"
Before the reply was fully out of his mouth, Salamence had already grabbed his clothes with its mouth, tossed him onto its back, and soared into the sky.
Fortunately, he managed to recall Aegislash into its Poké Ball at the last moment.
"Look for the nearest cruise ship, don't go the wrong way!"
Kaede shouted a final reminder.
Then, without further ado, he had Pidgeot carry Rosaline, mounted Dragonite himself, and they flew off toward the horizon.
...
Back at the Breeding House, watching Pidgeot land alongside him, Kaede said, "Elite Four Rosaline, please wait a moment. Let me prepare the reward for the Sky Challenge."
"Reward?"
Rosaline was taken aback. She was about to refuse, but suddenly remembered Kaede's earlier comment about "good food."
And the fact that this Sky Challenge attracted so many people made her hesitate for a moment before nodding.
Their earlier battle was already eye-catching enough. Now that they were back, most of the customers at the Breeding House hadn't left; in fact, there were even more.
Kaede walked into the Breeding House and then to the plantation, starting to think about what dish he should create.
Rosaline remained quietly in place, but seeing so many customers carefully observing her, she couldn't help feeling a bit curious.
She had researched most of Kaede's Pokémon's birth or capture dates, so she roughly knew when this Breeding House started operations.
It had only been about half a year.
Yet in just half a year, this young boy had made this place so successful.
It felt quite impressive.
"I remember each city should have at least three places that sell Energy Cubes, right?" Rosaline asked.
This was a League regulation for cities, ensuring that traveling Trainers wouldn't worry about their Pokémon's food on the road.
Every city must have places that sell Energy Cubes.
Even at Pokémon Centers, travelers in need could stay for free, with the first day's meals also complimentary.
"Why did you all choose to come to this remote Aogiri Town to buy Energy Cubes?"
Aogiri Town was indeed remote, neighboring only Aogiri Forest. And beyond Aogiri Forest, there weren't any other cities. In the past, few traveling Trainers were willing to come here. It was only recently that the number of traveling Trainers visiting had increased significantly.
Occasionally, someone even passed the first stage of Hayashi Kaede's Sky Challenge.
Hearing Rosaline's question, the people in the Breeding House looked at each other. Finally, a relatively young guy stepped forward. "Because the Energy Cubes Kaede makes are delicious to Pokémon, and the effects are great."
"Yeah, the effects are really good. You can clearly feel your Pokémon's strength improving much faster than before," someone else chimed in.
They were all quite curious too, gathered around.
Just the first-stage Sky Challenge reward, the Elegant Morning Glory Energy Cube, they could feel it significantly boosted their Pokémon's agility. It wasn't on the same level as the ones usually bought at the Breeding House.
This made them realize that the dishes Kaede made also had varying effects.
To get the good ones, you either had to challenge the stages seriously or place a paid order...
Actually, sometimes you couldn't even buy some of the particularly excellent ones with money.
Because... sometimes, those special Energy Cubes sold out the moment they were listed.
They simply couldn't buy them, just couldn't...
So, right now, they were also very curious to see what reward Kaede would bring for the final stage of the Sky Challenge.
"The effect are really that good?"
Rosaline grew even more puzzled. Coincidentally, the younger Indeedee sister walked over at that moment. It was holding a storage capsule and handed it to Rosaline.
"Indeedee, Indeedee~"
This was the reward for passing the earlier stages of the Sky Challenge.