I need to think of a way.
Kaito thought for a while. If a game was stuck, it meant there were still items he hadn't found.
Since he couldn't fight wild monsters, he'd explore the starter village first.
Maybe he could trigger some quest?
So he searched house by house, walking into every corner and pressing the A button several times.
However, until it got dark outside, he had flipped through the entire village two or three times and found nothing.
Did I guess wrong?
He couldn't find any useful items in the village. Did he still have to leave?
The Pidgey from the tree earlier was manageable, but what if he encountered an aggressive monster?
He couldn't rely on successfully fleeing every time.
What if Bounsweet died in the game? Would it affect real-world Fragrant?
Kaito wouldn't gamble on something like this.
He simply put down the Switch, rubbing his head. Playing games for so long made him dizzy.
He felt his thinking might be wrong.
Game problems didn't necessarily have to be solved in-game, since this game was connected to reality.
If I could make Fragrant learn combat skills in reality, could that project into the game?
Thinking this, Kaito immediately opened his computer to search for how Pokémon learned moves.
According to online methods, Pokémon obtaining combat moves could be broadly divided into two types.
One: Learning. Whether human or Pokémon, you could teach skills you mastered to those qualified to learn. For example, if a human knew butterfly stroke, you could teach a Snorlax butterfly stroke, but you couldn't teach a Bounsweet butterfly stroke because it didn't even have arms.
What humans could teach were mostly body movement-type moves. Supernatural moves like breathing fire or water had to be taught by Pokémon.
Two: Enlightenment. This was an extremely low probability event. During growth, Pokémon had a small chance of comprehending some moves. These were moves their ancestors had learned, engraved in DNA and passed down. In fantasy terms, this was inherited memory.
Comprehending skills were extremely rare, basically like winning the lottery—pure luck, once in a blue moon.
So, currently, Kaito could only try the first method.
There were also online rumors that some companies were recently researching move tutors, allowing Pokémon to learn skills more efficiently, but they hadn't launched yet. Just gossip to read and forget.
About Bounsweet, there was plenty of information online. This Pokémon was too common and especially close to humans. Many people who couldn't become Battle Trainers could still raise one if they had the chance.
Casual searches found many posts about raising Bounsweet.
However, this Pokémon wasn't very welcome in Battle Trainer circles because the cost-performance was too low.
With the same resources invested, Steenee's evolved strength was only about 60% of other Pokémon.
In short, notoriously weak. Unless truly poor, Battle Trainers generally wouldn't contract Steenee. Even if they did, they'd replace it after earning money later.
Some experts had also analyzed, feeling this was because Steenee might not be the final form. There should be another evolution above it, which was why the gap with other final forms was so large.
Kaito saw a post online where a netizen shared their Steenee raising process, claiming they would find Steenee's final form.
However, after spending 50 million in resources, they still found nothing and finally gave up. They commented: "Wanting a roadside weed Pokémon to compare with carefully bred rare Pokémon, my brain must have problems."
After this "warrior," no one else was seen raising Steenee. At most, they used it as a transition. With any money, buying a Caterpie was more useful.
This common Pokémon was an N-card or R-card in their eyes.
Rather than spending effort developing a low-tier card, wasn't feeding resources to an SSR better?
To this day, Steenee has almost become a label for "poor Battle Trainers."
Of course, though unwelcome in combat, Steenee's cute appearance was still popular in the pet world.
Normal Steenee was too common to bring superiority through cuteness, but the rare variant Steenee was different.
That purple-leaf Steenee's price could almost match Ponyta's. Online, you could see many big celebrities holding various Steenee photos.
Kaito looked at the green-leaf Bounsweet beside him. Was she really a trash Pokémon?
So what if she was?
This was his first Pokémon. Even if she couldn't fight, he would absolutely never abandon her.
Stee? Fragrant, who was sleeping, suddenly lost her balance and rolled forward. She happened to roll into Kaito's hand, upside down, opening her eyes and looking confusedly around.
Stee!!! When she saw Kaito, she immediately called out happily, completely ignoring her current situation.
Kaito smiled slightly, holding her in his arms.
Are you hungry? I got too immersed in playing and forgot to feed you.
He took the pet food Granny Yuki gave him, grabbing a handful to feed Fragrant.
Stee! Fragrant seemed to really like this food. Since she had no hands, she pressed her whole face onto Kaito's hand and started nibbling.
Kaito fed with his left hand, operated the mouse with his right hand, continuing to browse online.
Simultaneously pondering his plans in his heart.
He couldn't do fire-breathing or water-spraying skills either, couldn't teach those. But some body techniques were possible.
Like Tackle, this move should be learnable with a body. Or kicking—though Fragrant's short legs were like peanut kernels, she still had them. Having legs means learning kicking techniques, perfectly reasonable.
In that Steenee raising post online, he also found some useful intel.
Before evolving into Steenee, Bounsweet could learn two attack moves. One was Rapid Spin, spinning up to whip people with her mangosteen leaves. Like an electric fan.
The other was the familiar Razor Leaf. This move and Vine Whip were absolutely representative of Grass-type moves. Oh, right, and Solar Beam.
Without knowing these three moves, you'd be embarrassed to say you were Grass-type when greeting people outside.
He couldn't understand Razor Leaf—after all, he couldn't forcibly tear off Fragrant's leaves. But Rapid Spin was easy to teach.
Kaito found a nylon rope and tied it to the stem on top of Fragrant's head, then lifted her into the air and started spinning.
Fragrant, this is Rapid Spin. Remember this feeling. How about it? Comprehending any moves?