Mossdeep City, Steven's home.
As soon as Steven entered the door, he received a communication from Rustboro City.
While walking into his treasure vault and looking at the wall full of rare stones, he pressed his communication device.
A kind middle-aged male voice came through.
"Steven, what have you been busy with lately? How are your Gym challenges going? I heard you've been traveling back and forth between Mossdeep City and Fallarbor Town recently. Did something happen?"
"Everything's going smoothly." Steven paused, then added: "Father, I met a very interesting person."
"Oh?" Hearing this, President Devon [Devon Corporation's president] immediately became interested: "A boy or girl?"
"A boy. He's the owner of a Day Care."
"A Day Care?" President Devon also became interested.
Steven hummed in acknowledgment: "I'm in Mossdeep City now. I'll be suspending my Gym challenges for a while to handle something."
Hearing this, President Devon became even more curious.
What could be worth his son treating it so seriously?
However, Steven didn't elaborate. After chatting briefly, he ended the communication.
He looked at the wall of stones in front of him and unhesitatingly packed them all up, preparing to bring them all to the Day Care for Kawaki to study.
*
Three hours after Steven left, the Chingling egg finally reached its hatching time.
Accompanied by a flash of brilliant light, a small Pokémon that looked like a bell with red and white ribbons on its head appeared before Kawaki, Growlithe, and Bewear.
Kawaki focused his attention, and this Chingling's information appeared before his eyes.
[Pokémon: Chingling]
[Gender: Female]
[Ability: Levitate]
[Moves: Wrap, Growl]
[Status: Healthy]
[Mood: (◦˙▽˙◦)]
[Joy Level: 50]
[Friendship: 50 (Is this my mama?)]
[Description: So happy to be born today! —Chingling]
The newly hatched Chingling looked curiously at this world that was brand new to it, and at the human who had been caring for its incubation all along.
Was this its mama?
"Ring ring~!" Hello, Mama!
Kawaki: "..."
While newly hatched Pokémon easily mistook the first creature they saw for their mother, the problem was he was male!
Kawaki helplessly rubbed his forehead.
Seeing that Mama seemed a bit displeased with it, Chingling immediately frowned and looked confused.
Chingling's joy level began dropping rapidly.
"Woof woof!" Growlithe barked a few times at Chingling.
Kawaki sighed helplessly. Whatever, why argue with a child?
"Hello, Chingling. I'm Kawaki. Welcome to our family!"
Seeing that Mama didn't dislike it but was actually welcoming its arrival, Chingling immediately cheered up. It swayed its body, producing clear, pleasant chiming sounds.
"Ring ring!"
[Chingling's mood improved, Joy Level +60, received Chingling's gift: "Growl" TM.]
[TM (Growl): A Normal-type move that makes opponents hear a cute cry, diverting their attention and making them careless, thus lowering the opponent's Attack. Uses remaining: 9999/9999.]
Kawaki: "..."
Growl, huh...
Although the move was quite common, thinking about it differently, this was one of only two moves Chingling knew. For it, this was its most important possession.
Upon their first meeting, Chingling had given away its most precious thing.
"I understand, Chingling. I'm also very happy to meet you." Kawaki reached out and patted Chingling's little head.
This made Chingling even happier. Its joy level reached 100, and it gave away the other of its two moves as a gift as well.
[Chingling's mood improved, Joy Level +30, received Chingling's gift: "Wrap" TM.]
[TM (Wrap): A Normal-type move that attacks the opponent by wrapping them with a long body or vines. Uses remaining: 9999/9999.]
"Alright, little cutie, come downstairs with us and get to know our home!" Kawaki said.
"Ring ring!"
Chingling floated beside Kawaki's face, finally settling on his shoulder as they went downstairs together.
Kawaki took Chingling on a tour around the Day Care, introducing it to the general situation of the Day Care and the Pokémon living there.
All the Pokémon in the Day Care warmly welcomed Chingling's arrival.
Whether it was Bewear, Oddish, Growlithe, or the Cleffa.
Chingling was very happy about everyone's welcome. It swayed its body, producing clear chiming sounds, greeting everyone in this way.
After playing for a while, Chingling seemed to feel tired and settled beside Kawaki to sleep soundly.
Just from taking Chingling on one tour, its friendship level rose from 50 to 100, and it had completely accepted Kawaki as its mother.
Looking at the sleeping Chingling, Kawaki suddenly found this Pokémon quite adorable.
No wonder James in the anime was so fond of Chimecho.
For the Day Care, Chingling could serve a decorative purpose perfectly.
Once it evolved into Chimecho, it could hang under the Day Care's eaves as a wind chime.
If customers visited, it could produce clear sounds to welcome guests to the Day Care.
Not bad!
*
Kawaki had thought Steven would need several days to return from Mossdeep City to the Day Care.
But unexpectedly, the next day at noon, he saw Steven carrying a large backpack as he pushed open the Day Care's door.
"You're back so quickly?" Kawaki was very surprised.
Steven nodded. To return to the Day Care as quickly as possible, he had used his family's helicopter, which was why he could return so fast.
He placed his backpack on the counter, then pulled out a colorful stone about the size of a basketball.
Kawaki looked down, and the next second, this large stone's information surfaced in his mind.
[Key Stone Ore: A stone containing unknown power that can allow Pokémon carrying Mega Stones to Mega Evolve. Unprocessed, it appears to be raw material for making Key Stone bracelets.]
It really was it!
Next, Steven poured out marble-like round stones with strange patterns embedded inside from his backpack.
Those were clearly Mega Stones that could allow Pokémon to Mega Evolve!
However, what surprised Kawaki was that Steven had unknowingly collected so many - there had to be at least twenty!
Kawaki's gaze quickly swept over them, and detailed information for each stone surfaced in his mind.
[Gardevoirite], [Gengarite], [Metagrossite], [Aggronite], [Mawilite], [Alakazite], [Houndoomite]...