Auron's words left the three of them lost in thought.
In the real world, just because you like a Pokémon doesn't mean you have to capture it.
After all, Pokémon are living individuals too — they have their own joys and sorrows, their own thoughts.
You capture them, but then you don't train them, don't care for them, don't spend time with them.
In that case, you might as well have left them where they were.
And if you have too many captured Pokémon, you don't have time to accompany and care for each one.
There's no Professor here who'll faithfully take care of them for you.
And for trainers like Jace and Fugui who run themed teams, capture decisions require even more deliberation.
Take Jace, for instance — even if he absolutely adores Pelipper, could he slot a rain weather-setter into his sun team?
So capturing a Pokémon isn't a case of getting swept up in the moment, seeing something you like, and dragging it back to be your family on a whim.
So why doesn't Auron just roam the world's Pokémon shops and buy every egg he likes with a high quality stat line?
It's not like he can't afford it.
It's because capturing a Pokémon means adding another family member. Would you see something you like, get swept up in the moment, and drag a stranger back home?
"I do like Zoroark," Jace thought it through, then ultimately decided against capturing her. "But my team is basically locked in at this point. Even adding something, it would need to fill a gap. Zoroark? I'll pass."
He ran a sun team — and a heavy-hitting one at that. Zoroark simply wasn't a fit.
"Same here!"
After Fugui said it, he and Jace exchanged a look.
呜呜呜,心痛啊!
What red-blooded person wouldn't want a pink, cute Pokémon?
A Pokémon with gradient-pink and white coloring!
"What about you?"
Seeing that both Jace and Fugui chose not to capture Zoroark, Auron nodded and turned to Anghura.
"I can't — my family won't let me capture any more Pokémon on my own."
Her heart bled as she said it.
Her first three Pokémon — Mini Dragon, Hydregion, and Lapras — had all been chosen for her by the family.
But her last three Pokémon were captured by her in secret.
In families like hers, your personal Pokémon aren't really yours to decide. You have to defer to the family elders.
So those three Pokémon she captured herself had always been a thorn in her family's side.
If she weren't the most doted-upon member of the family, her three Pokémon probably wouldn't have had good fates.
Plus, her family had given her an ultimatum: if she captured any more Pokémon without the family's approval, her new Pokémon and the three little ones — Togepi and the rest — would be sent to the family's breeding sanctuary.
At the sanctuary, the Pokémon would live well enough. But Anghura would never see any of them again as long as she lived.
"Wait — why? Don't you like her?"
A bit confused, Auron asked. He actually didn't want to capture Zoroark himself either.
But he did want to research her. The thing was, if his friends captured Zoroark, he could still research through them.
Alas, they all had their own reasons for not capturing.
And Auron didn't want to capture because he already had nine Pokémon.
Six battlers: Crobat, Snorlax, Charizard, Crawdaunt, Electabuzz, and Farfetch'd.
Two morale-boosters: Mini Dragon and Igglybuff.
Igglybuff occasionally stepped onto the battlefield as a battle Pokémon too.
And one Deoxys — a legendary.
Too many Pokémon was a problem too; he couldn't care for them all properly.
"So if I captured Zoroark, I'd have ten. Even though my team has no particular theme to maintain, it's still something I've thought through carefully."
The Pokémon he had weren't arbitrary either — they were chosen to handle various team archetypes even without a unified theme.
"I've got six Pokémon right now. I want to get them all properly trained before I consider adding new ones."
In the end, Anghura didn't explain the family situation. A family's dirty laundry stays in the house — even if her relatives were difficult, she didn't want others knowing.
"Then I'll capture her."
Auron sighed. If he wanted to do research, he'd have to do it himself. And besides — this Zoroark might be the only one in the world.
[Research requires the actual existence of a Zoroark specimen — you can't publish a research paper凭空捏造.]
(Sigh… another Pokémon to look after.)
Auron sighed and prepared to lure… coax… convince Zoroark to come back with him.
But then it hit him — he barely looked after his Pokémon at all.
He only handled cooking and making Energy Cubes for them.
The actual training was overseen by Crobat and Snorlax, the two big parental figures. Auron didn't have to lift a finger there.
All he really did was后勤 — keep the supplies stocked, buy TMs, find Pokémon who could teach moves.
Still, one more Pokémon did mean one more responsibility.
But hey, if you can handle one sheep, you can handle a whole flock. What's one more, really~
"Go for it! I'm rooting for you~"
Anghura quickly shook off her bad mood and cheered excitedly for Auron.
She couldn't capture this Pokémon herself — but if Auron did, she could still rua it, right?
Sure, she couldn't have it forever. But that's still better than never seeing it again because it was never captured.
"Hey Zoroark — wanna come home with me?"
"Honhon?"
Zoroark saw Auron like that and immediately fixed him with a wary stare, already preparing to bolt.
"Um…"
The scene just froze there.
Auron was a bit embarrassed. When he thought about it carefully, he realized he'd never actually captured a Pokémon before.
Crobat was an egg. Snorlax was an egg. Charizard was an egg. Electabuzz was an egg. Mini Dragon was an egg. Farfetch'd was an egg.
Deoxys was, for all intents and purposes, hatched from an egg too — he'd raised all of them from before they were born.
The only two who weren't raised from the egg stage were Crawdaunt and Igglybuff.
Crawdaunt walked into a Poké Ball voluntarily. Igglybuff was threatened into a Poké Ball by Charizard.
Neither of those really counted as Auron capturing them.
So sure, Auron had a whole team of Pokémon — but this was his first time actually catching one.
. . . . . . . . . .
On the open sea, on an unnamed little island, a faint spatial ripple appeared at that moment.
A spatial fragment was merging with the world. The spatial ripple had begun — soon, a new Pokémon Mystery Zone would form.
Inside the spatial fragment, the instant it connected with the main world, one of the Pokémon within slowly opened its eyes.
"Where… is this?"
Today's another three chapters — I'm awesome!
Also, guess which mysterious Pokémon this is~
.(ˊωˋ)*.
———
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