"Headmistress Lillian, have any new Pokémon been brought into the shelter lately?" Edward asked as he sat beside her, watching her treat the wounds on Ruckus. The wounds weren't deep, but with all the scars on his body, they looked painfully severe.
"There have been. Just in this recent period, we've had 127 Pokémon formally registered, and another 30 that haven't been logged yet," Headmistress Lillian replied calmly as she treated the injuries. She had seen too many cases like this, and it no longer shocked her.
In the past, she used to get angry, upset, and complain whenever these situations occurred. But now, she had grown numb. After all, she was just a shelter director—not a god. There was no way for her to stop people from abandoning their Pokémon. Honestly, even if a legendary Pokémon tried, they probably couldn't stop it either.
"Some of them are born with deformities—missing a limb or a tail. Others are severely ill, and their owners couldn't afford treatment, so they were dumped here. Some were completely healthy but still abandoned," she said heavily.
Humans have a thousand faces. And abandoned Pokémon come with a thousand reasons.
Edward scratched Q's head but said nothing.
Even he couldn't stop something like this.
"But there is one little guy that's quite interesting," Headmistress Lillian added with a faint smile, seemingly remembering something. Edward seized the opportunity to follow along and steer the conversation away from the heavy topic.
"Come with me. You'll see for yourself," she said, smiling. Having finished applying medicine to Ruckus, all that was left was for him to wake up on his own.
She led Edward to the shelter's backyard.
Greeny the Shroomish was sunbathing, half-dozing in the warm rays. Nearby sat Kirlia and Mightyena.
Edward raised an eyebrow. He knew Greeny liked sunbathing, but what were Kirlia and Mightyena doing there? Those two were infamous thieves—and yet, they were getting along just fine with Greeny?
Because of Greeny's unique body, it emitted an excessive amount of spores—so much that it made most other Pokémon in the shelter avoid it. Being near it risked paralysis, poisoning, or sleep at any time. Who could tolerate that?
As a result, Greeny was usually surrounded by an empty no-man's zone.
"Kirlia and Mightyena have become friends with Greeny. Kirlia uses her psychic abilities to form a barrier that shields them from the spores," Headmistress Lillian explained gently.
Edward followed her while holding Q. Behind them, Fortune looked curiously at Kirlia and Greeny.
Soon, Headmistress Lillian led Edward under a tree.
She pointed upward.
Edward followed her finger and spotted—floating midair—a strangely colored, eerily serene Shedinja?
"Shedinja?" Edward was surprised.
This species of Pokémon was quite rare.
In the games, Shedinja could be obtained if a Nincada evolved while the player had an open slot in their party.
But in the real world, the emergence of Shedinja remained a mystery.
According to current research by Pokémon Professors, Shedinja's appearance was largely attributed to chance, and possibly influenced by environmental conditions.
In short, it was rare and peculiar.
However, its combat power wasn't impressive.
Although few people owned a Shedinja, most trainers knew how to deal with it: it could only be harmed by super-effective moves. All other attacks were useless.
On the surface, that sounded amazing. But realistically, most Pokémon knew at least one move that wasn't their own type.
Because of this, Shedinja had become something of a "newbie killer"—the kind of Pokémon that only gave rookie trainers who didn't study their Pokédex a hard time.
Its base stat total was only 236—even at max level, it remained incredibly fragile.
A single super-effective move, and it was gone.
As a result, very few people were willing to raise Shedinja as their main Pokémon.
The last time the League recorded a Shedinja participating in battle was decades ago.
"We received a Nincada recently. After it evolved, this little guy just… appeared. It's been floating beside this tree ever since," Headmistress Lillian said, looking at the Pokémon with a touch of wonder in her eyes.
Edward patted Q on the head.
Honestly, he was beginning to wonder if this shelter had some kind of mystical feng shui aura.
Why else would so many strange events keep happening here?
Because of its rarity, many Pokémon Professors were interested in studying Shedinja.
"Headmistress Lillian, if I remember correctly, Professor Birch once mentioned he was looking to research Shedinja. He even offered 50,000 PokéDollars for one," Edward said while watching the little Pokémon.
There was something magnetic about it—just looking at its shell-like body gave a hazy, dreamy feeling.
"Huh? Really?" Headmistress Lillian hadn't heard of that. But after confirming it with Edward, she quickly called Professor Birch to invite him over for research.
After all, 50,000 PokéDollars was more than enough to support the shelter's Pokémon for quite a while.
And since Professor Birch was one of the most well-known researchers in the Hoenn region, she trusted that he wouldn't harm the Shedinja.
"Kyuu?" Q had climbed onto Edward's head, curiously examining the floating Shedinja.
It was the first time it had seen such a Pokémon.
Fortune, on the other hand, glanced at it once and went back to reading.
Clearly uninterested.
The Shedinja slowly floated over. A soft, glowing halo rested above its head.
Edward couldn't help but reach out to touch it—
But his fingers passed right through.
The Shedinja drifted down, hovering motionlessly above Edward's open palm.
"You seem to be quite liked by Pokémon," Headmistress Lillian observed, somewhat surprised.
When she had approached the Shedinja earlier, it didn't react at all.
"Maybe I'm just favored by Ghost-types," Edward chuckled.
After all, he was still carrying several Fear Candies on him.
(End of Chapter)