Seeing that the two still couldn't understand what it wanted, the Raccoon got anxious and ran toward the corner.
Leah and Emily hurriedly followed. Before long, they stopped at a large tree stump not far from the south gate of the farm.
"Squeak—"
With a cry, the Raccoon dragged out a wooden sign with a house scratched onto it with its claws, then pointed at the stump behind it: "Squeak——"
"It wants you guys to help turn this into a house, meow."
"Thank you, I have eyes and a brain, I can understand," Leah couldn't help but say.
Meowth scratched its head upon hearing this: "Then Meowth had better get back to farm work, meow. Farm work can't be skipped for even a day, meow."
There really wasn't anything Meowth could do here, so the two waved their hands and let it go.
"But making it into a house would require wood, right?" Emily rested her chin on her hand, looking at the stump. "We can't just hollow out the stump, can we?"
"As for wood, I actually have quite a bit at home," Leah said. "If it's just making some furniture and modifying the stump, it should be enough."
"Squeak!"
The Raccoon happily bowed to the two of them.
"But if you want a home," Leah continued, "you can't just sit around. You have to help out. Relying entirely on others won't work."
"Squeak?"
The Raccoon pretended not to understand, tilting its head at Leah.
"Then it's settled. Starting tomorrow, report to my doorstep, and we'll renovate your home together."
"Squeak?"
The Raccoon tilted its head again, acting cute.
"I don't like people who just sit back and enjoy the fruits of others' labor."
"Squeak." (But I'm just a Raccoon!)
The Raccoon pointed at itself and squeaked.
"Raccoons too," Leah said, standing up. "That's that. I still need to pick some more Fiddlehead Ferns. What about you, Emily, did you find a suitable spot?"
"I think so," Emily said. "If you need anything, or need a hand, come find me at my house anytime. I'm free during the day."
"Will do."
"Squeak!" The Raccoon lay limply on the stump, unable to figure out how it ran into this kind of person.
Of course, it was nice that they were willing to help, but in its imagination, there should be a warm-hearted good Samaritan who would build it a house without a second thought, then prepare food for it without a second thought so it could pursue a beautiful Miss Raccoon, and then without a second thought give it enough food reserves so it could have its first, second, third, fourth litter...
Meanwhile, Ron.
The Gym battle ended at an extremely fast pace the moment Bellossom took the field.
It wasn't that Viola's Pokémon were too weak, but rather that Bellossom was simply too strong.
Looking at Ron's Bellossom, which was dragging a wooden club and trying to comfort Ribbon, Viola handed the badge to Ron and said, "I heard Ramos mention your Bellossom a while ago... I didn't expect it to really be this strong."
Although Viola had anticipated the strength of Ron's Pokémon, she hadn't expected a Fighting-type Bellossom, nor had she imagined it could effortlessly crush her Pokémon with a wooden club.
Furthermore, she suspected Bellossom might have been going easy on her; after all, what she had heard before was that this Bellossom wielded an incredibly sharp sword.
"Bellossom?" (Are you okay?)
"Rattata..." Ribbon sat there feeling aggrieved.
"Bellossom." Bellossom continued. "Bellossom." (If you really feel like you can't win Contest Battles, then how about...)
"Rattata!" Ribbon shook its head, readjusted the accessory on its head, and waved its paw at Bellossom: "Rattata!" (No! I can do it!)
"Bellossom..." Bellossom fell silent for a moment, holding up its wooden club, and looked at Ron.
"——No need." Ron comforted Ribbon and picked it up.
The wooden club was indeed something Ron had specifically swapped out for Bellossom.
The reason was that after years of slitting the throats of flying monsters in the mines, Ron was very worried about a Pokémon homicide occurring during a Gym match or the Pokémon League tournament.
So he specifically found a weapon with lower damage, or rather, one that wouldn't kill in a single strike.
"I'm sorry, dear," Viola patted Ribbon's head. "Actually, you were really great... This was your first battle, right?"
"Rattata."
"Then that's already amazing," Viola said. "Without a Trainer's commands, figuring out that since you couldn't catch up to Surskit, you could use the Dig you just learned to block Surskit's path—that's really impressive."
"Rattata?" (Really?)
"Really!"
"Rattata, Rattata." Ribbon wiped its tears and reluctantly accepted Viola's praise.
It then rested its chin on its paw, looking a bit troubled.
Obviously, if it wanted to get stronger, wanted to participate in Contest Battles like Haley's Pokémon and successfully win, combat training was unavoidable.
But Ribbon didn't want to fight at all!
Ribbon let out a long sigh and sat in Ron's arms.
"Rattata."
When Ron returned to his ranch, as soon as he walked in, he saw the ranch owner surrounded at the door, frantically trying to use Poké Balls inside.
"Get back in the ball, Miltank!"
"Stop eating, please, stop eating!"
"You have to compensate us for this, right? These are special pasture grass seeds brought from our boss's hometown," the worker argued, glancing at his colleague who was groveling and begging the Miltank. "They were just planted and eaten clean!"
"Compensate, compensate, just help me catch the Miltank first," the ranch owner said helplessly. "They don't want to go back in the balls anymore."
"..."
Just as everyone was looking at each other in dismay, a blur flashed past the two men.
Immediately after, several painful cries came from inside. The Miltank, which had been feasting, were now scurrying all over the place, being beaten black and blue by Bellossom's club.
——
"Miltank~"
"Moo!"
"What are you standing there for? Recall them while you still can," Ron said helplessly to their stunned backs. "If you don't recall them soon, you'll be sending them straight to the Pokémon Center."
"Oh, oh, right, right."
The Miltank, which had been scrambling around the field and originally didn't want to return to their Poké Balls, saw Bellossom charging at them with a club, looking like it was going to beat them all to death. At that moment, the Poké Balls looked like their saviors, and they scrambled over each other to get back inside.
"Saved..." The ranch owner breathed a sigh of relief, then turned his head to look at Ron. "Ah, it's you, Ron."
Ron paused for a moment before remembering that this was the ranch owner who had ordered Miltank from Pelican Town before.
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