[Your proactive assistance has greatly shocked Raikou, who harbors wariness and prejudice toward humans.]
[Shock Points from Raikou +50!]
A notification flashed across the panel, but Fuyuki barely paid it any mind. Compared to that, what really caught his attention was Raikou's injury.
Or rather, what kind of existence could even hurt it.
Pokemon? No. It had to be humans.
His thoughts immediately drifted to the movie The Legend of Thunder, to the scene where Team Rocket tried to capture Raikou.
If anyone could pose a threat to it, it would be Team Rocket.
Raikou's eyes flickered, as if it still hadn't fully snapped out of what had just happened.
Then, without warning, a thunderclap echoed in its mind.
What is this human planning?!
Its gaze sharpened like lightning, locking onto the human child in front of it.
Yet after finishing the treatment on its injured foreleg, the boy simply lay back down again. He pressed close against Raikou's fur, shut his eyes obediently, and went right back to sleep.
What audacity!
This child actually dared to be so brazen with it!
Under normal circumstances, Raikou would have pulled away at once, scolding such insolence before leaving without another glance.
But… the image of the child earnestly treating its wound surfaced in its mind, and the words it was about to say quietly died away.
Moonlight spilled softly outside the cave, and Raikou's heart gradually settled.
It lowered its head, looking at the human child curled up beside it, leaning against its body as he slept. A feeling too complex to name stirred within.
This was the first time it had ever been this close to a human.
The child's sleeping face was harmless, nothing like the crafty, deceitful humans it had encountered before.
"..."
The night passed in silence.
The next morning, when Fuyuki opened his eyes, Raikou was gone.
He rubbed his eyes and was just about to step outside when Raikou walked back in, several Berries held in its mouth.
Seeing him look over, Raikou spoke through telepathy, its tone cold and flat. "Don't get the wrong idea. I just didn't want you starving to death and leaving me unable to explain things to Entei."
Fuyuki: "..."
Why did that line sound oddly familiar?
Still, he didn't really care. Even if Raikou hadn't brought food back, he could always spend Shock Points to buy something from the shop.
At the moment, he had a full 205 Shock Points saved up.
Compared to three months ago, that was practically a fortune.
Maybe it was some ingrained farming instinct kicking in, but he kept feeling the urge to grow something here.
Since he'd decided to stay on Mount Tensei, it made sense to slowly start improving the surroundings.
Setting aside building a home, just going out every day to look for Berries took a lot of effort.
And if they ran into a bad year, when nothing grew in the wild, they really could starve.
Rather than waiting on trees to bear fruit and living at the mercy of nature, it felt more reliable to plant things himself.
Munching on a Berry, Fuyuki browsed through the system shop, searching for anything related to cultivation.
When the shop opened, what greeted him was a chibi-style farmland display, like something straight out of a farming game.
[Farmland: 9x9 plot. Comes with extremely high-quality soil. Any crop planted here will thrive. Can be placed anywhere. Cost: 5000 Shock Points.]
Way too expensive… hard pass. Besides, Berries weren't picky about soil quality. As long as the land wasn't completely barren, they'd grow just fine.
"Alright, let's see what Berry seeds they have…"
Sitrus Berries, Oran Berries, Pecha Berries, and even rarer ones like Liechi Berries, Ganlon Berries, and Salac Berries. The selection was surprisingly complete.
Beyond Berries, there were all kinds of crop seeds for sale too.
Wheat, corn, soybeans, and then hops, cabbage, strawberries, pumpkins. The variety was impressive.
What really caught his eye, though, was the fact that the shop sold different growth stages of the same crop.
[Sitrus Berry Seed: Plant it in soil and care for it. After some time, it will grow into a Sitrus Berry tree. Cost: 100 Shock Points.]
[Sitrus Berry Sapling: A young sprout. Skips the seedling stage and can be planted directly. With proper care, it will grow into a towering tree. Cost: 400 Shock Points.]
[Sitrus Berry Tree: A fully grown Sitrus Berry tree. After planting, you can harvest Sitrus Berries the very next day. Cost: 1000 Shock Points.]
If he bought a full-grown Sitrus Berry tree outright, that meant they'd instantly have a fruit-bearing tree.
The temptation was real, but one look at his balance told him it wasn't happening.
"Forget it. I'll just grow them myself," he thought.
He'd been saving all the leftover Berry pits from the past few days. Once he planted them, they should sprout by autumn.
That way, he could save a decent chunk of Shock Points.
After all, there were plenty of other things he'd need to spend them on.
Building a home, buying furniture, walls, and flooring, setting up an ecological park, installing an artificial sun…
He'd even been thinking about using Rare Candy to feed Entei all the way to Lv100 before he turned ten and set out on his journey.
If he pulled that off, they'd be unstoppable. No danger would be too much to handle.
Staying on Mount Tensei forever was out of the question. As a lifelong Pokemon fan, even in his previous life he'd dreamed of the Pokemon world.
He had to go see it for himself. Pallet Town, Ash, famous locations from the stories, he wanted to check them all off.
Entei also needed to leave someday to fulfill its own mission. When that time came, they could travel together and walk that path side by side.
As for the problem of getting back home…
Fuyuki's gaze settled on an item at the very bottom of the shop.
[Teleportation Device: A miraculous device infused with the power of Palkia, the god of space. Once installed at a base location, the accompanying teleport bracelet allows instant travel back to that base from anywhere. Safe and reliable. Cost: 100000 Shock Points.]
They could place the device right here on Mount Tensei, inside this cave, and return whenever they wanted.
The only issue was the number of Shock Points required.
Fuyuki: "..."
"Seriously… how am I supposed to earn Shock Points faster?"
He let out a long sigh and flopped onto the leaf bed Entei had prepared for him.
Raikou: "?"
His mind started racing.
He was still very young, with an appearance that looked harmless enough to lower anyone's guard. And after spending so much time together, both Entei and Marshadow were completely defenseless against his attempts to act cute.
If he leaned into that, got on Ho-Oh's good side, and shamelessly acted adorable, would Ho-Oh be willing to carry him on a low-altitude flight over human cities?
If people saw him riding on Ho-Oh's back, that alone would probably generate an absurd amount of Shock Points.
If one city wasn't enough, then fly over a few more. If that still wasn't enough, just cover a few regions.
That would solve everything, from his home's startup funds to the Shock Points needed to boost Entei straight to Lv100.
Now that… that was a plan.