Early the next morning, Eichi wasn't woken up by his alarm clock, but by Wimpod. Upon waking up, the Pokémon was presumably hungry and crawled onto Eichi, repeatedly rubbing its chin against his face.
Eichi was rubbed awake this way. He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Wimpod's face. Eichi sat up, and Wimpod looked at him with pitiful eyes, crying out incessantly.
"Hungry already? Hang on, I'll prepare breakfast for you," Eichi said with a smile, understanding its meaning.
He got out of bed and took some honey and Moomoo Milk from his backpack, adding a drop of honey to the milk. He poured it into a bowl and placed it on the floor. Wimpod quickly leaped off the bed, rushed to the bowl, and began drinking frantically. It was clearly starving.
While it ate, Eichi went to wash up. Soon, the alarm went off, and the other three woke up as well. They all washed up together, and afterward, Eichi prepared breakfast for Beedrill and the others.
After finishing its milk, Wimpod seemed to have an excess of energy and began running around the bedroom. Once Beedrill and the rest finished their meal, Eichi recalled them into their Poké Balls.
By this time, Wimpod had likely run itself tired. However, it still seemed a bit afraid of Beedrill and the others, so it simply lay quietly to the side. Eichi realized that Wimpod wasn't familiar with the team yet and would need some time to build a bond.
When Eichi moved to return it to its Poké Ball, Wimpod looked relieved. For it, the Poké Ball was its favorite place to stay, as it felt a great sense of security inside.
After putting all his Pokémon away, Eichi shouldered his backpack and headed out. He had breakfast at the cafeteria and went to class as usual.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye. The Pokémon eggs belonging to the other students were hatching one after another. Tetsu's Trapinch hatched as well, and Eichi watched the process alongside him.
Eichi specifically used his Eye of the Bug Emperor to check it. As expected, it was a Trapinch with Excellent talent. It looked very promising. Since Tetsu's egg had hatched, he asked Eichi when his own would hatch.
Regarding Eichi's Pokémon, Wimpod had been living quite comfortably these past few days. Eichi had originally intended to start training it on the third day, but Wimpod was completely unwilling. Eichi didn't want to force it. It was different from Scyther back then. Scyther was a natural-born warrior, so Eichi had started its training on the second day.
Wimpod was different. As its name suggested, before evolving into Golisopod, it simply wasn't suited for early training. Therefore, Eichi didn't push it. For the past few days, Wimpod had been eating and drinking the best. Even when training eventually began, Eichi planned to keep the workload light.
Eichi's strategy was to build a solid foundation for Wimpod and not have too high expectations for now. Its training standards would be different from the other Pokémon; everything would change once it evolved.
"Eichi, has your Pokémon egg hatched yet?"
Eichi was snapped out of his daydreaming by Tetsu's voice. He collected his thoughts and replied, "It hatched. It came out last night."
Upon hearing this, Tetsu became very curious and hurriedly asked, "What? It hatched? So, what kind of Pokémon is it?"
Eichi smiled, pulled out a Poké Ball, and released Wimpod. Once it emerged and saw Tetsu, it tensed up and immediately ran behind Eichi's heel.
Tetsu looked at Wimpod with great curiosity. He walked over, stopping a meter away from Eichi, and crouched down to observe it. "Eichi, what Pokémon is this? I've never seen it before."
"This is Wimpod, a Bug and Water-type Pokémon from the Alola region," Eichi said, pointing to it.
"The Alola region? Where is that?" Tetsu asked.
"The Alola region is an area very far away from the Johto region," Eichi replied with a smile.
Tetsu then asked, "So, what's its potential like?" He then patted his head and added, "Look at me. For you, Eichi, a Pokémon's potential doesn't really matter. Any Pokémon will become incredibly strong in your hands."
Eichi smiled but didn't say anything.
That evening, since there were no classes in the afternoon, Eichi went to the Pokéblock Making Room as usual. Since the exchange tournament ended, Eichi spent every evening there.
He turned on machine Number Ten, took out some berries, and placed them inside to start making Pokéblocks. He was currently making an Intermediate Pokéblock. Through his recent efforts, he could now produce most types of Intermediate Pokéblocks.
He had exchanged for these recipes at the Logistics Department using his credits. The school had a policy where students who performed well in regular tests and academy exams could earn credits.
Eichi was the top student in every test, earning 300 credits each time. The highest rewards came from the final and midterm exams. In the midterms, Eichi was first in his class, earning 500 credits. He was also the top of his year, which earned him another 1,000 credits.
In the final exams of the previous semester, Eichi was again first in his class, earning 700 credits, and first in his year, earning another 1,500 credits. Combined with the credits from small quizzes, he had earned several thousand credits last semester alone from exams.
At the Logistics Department, an Intermediate Pokéblock recipe cost only one or two hundred credits. Eichi had exchanged for dozens of them, exhausting his credits. However, having recently acquired another 7,000 credits, he had returned to exchange for a few more recipes and was now trying them out.
Three minutes later, Eichi exported the newly made Pokéblocks. They were cyan-colored, identical to the ones Beedrill was currently eating. This was the exact Pokéblock Beedrill used.
Eichi could make them now. While it was fine to make them for private use, selling them would be a problem. That would be illegal because these Pokéblock recipes were patented. Unless authorized by the patent holder, selling them was a crime. As long as he didn't sell them, making them for himself was perfectly fine.