Pokémon: Pikachu Bonds

Xiaozhi and his group, who are heading for the Kaji Gym, are still traveling with high spirits today...

"I remember there is a very beautiful lake not far away. How about we go there for lunch?" Xiaogang suggested.

"I agree! This kind of weather is perfect for eating by the lake." Xiaozhi agreed.

"Pica~Pica~"

"And we can go fishing, and maybe even give us a snack for lunch." Xiaoxia also agreed.

"Then let's head towards the beautiful lake!" Xiaozhi said excitedly, and then Xiaozhi and his group ran towards the beautiful lake according to the instructions in the guide book...

In the grass not far away...

"It's great to have a chef around. I can eat hot meals every day. It's not like we often have to eat cold steamed buns." Musashi said as he took a bite of the hard steamed bun in his hand.

"Then let's catch Pikachu while they are concentrating on eating, and take away their prepared lunch as well," Meowth suggested.

"Let's act quickly without further delay." Kojiro said anxiously.

Then Kojiro and his crew began planning how to capture Pikachu.

.......

"Pikachu Lake will be here soon, let's speed up!" Xiaozhi ran excitedly.

"Pika~" Pikachu followed closely behind.

"Xiaozhi, run slower. If you run too fast you'll be in danger." Xiaoxia behind him reminded.

"Ah!!" As soon as Xiaoxia finished speaking, Xiaozhi and Pikachu missed their step and rolled down the slope...

"Really? I just reminded him to be careful, but he missed a step the next second." Xiaoxia sighed.

"Xiaozhi, are you okay?" Xiaogang asked.

"I'm fine~ But there are a lot of Slowpokes and Slowpox here." Xiaozhi said while rubbing his injured waist.

"Really? But this should be the beautiful lake written about in the travel guide. Why does it feel like the water here is about to dry up? Could it be that the content in the travel guide is a lie?" Xiaogang took out the travel guide and confirmed it repeatedly.

"Not only is the lake almost drying up, but even the Slowpokes and Slow Hippopotamuses living here seem listless. Could something have happened here?" Xiaozhi speculated.

"Look at that rock in the center of the lake. It looks like the proof of the king." Xiaoxia suddenly said, pointing to the center of the lake.

Xiaozhi and Xiaogang looked in the direction that Xiaoxia pointed... and sure enough, there was a certificate of the king on the rock in the center of the lake.

"Who should have placed this certificate of kingship in the middle of the rock?" Xiao Gang guessed.

"Is it man-made?" Xiaoxia asked in surprise.

"Hmm~ It should be put there to allow a certain Slowpoke to evolve into a Hippo King. I remember that the leader of the Slowpoke tribe should be the Hippo King, but there is no Hippo King in the current Slowpoke tribe, so some people want to use the Certificate of King to create a Hippo King to lead these Slowpokes." Xiaozhi expressed his guess.

"Young man, you guessed right~ I was the one who put the King's Certificate there." A crisp voice rang in everyone's ears. Xiaozhi and others looked in the direction of the voice... They saw an uncle in work clothes and a blue-haired lady in work clothes standing not far away. When Xiaogang saw the blue-haired lady, his eyes immediately turned into peach blossom eyes.

"Who are you?" Xiaoxia asked puzzledly.

"My name is Alice, and this is my father, Professor Airy." The blue-haired lady introduced.

"My name is Xiaozhi."

"My name is Xiaoxia."

"My name is Xiao Gang. It's lunch time now. Let's sit down and enjoy lunch together."

Xiaozhi and his friends introduced themselves one by one, but Xiaogang's self-introduction was still different from others.

"Quack~" At the moment when Xiaogang held Alice's hands, Frog took the initiative to get out of the Poké Ball and aimed a poisonous attack at Xiaogang's kidney.

"Poison...poisoned." Xiaogang's face turned purple and he fell limply to the ground. Seeing this, Frog Brother grabbed Xiaogang's right leg and dragged him away.

"Are you trying to artificially create a hippo king?" Xiaoxia asked.

"That's right. Not long ago, this was a beautiful lake. But due to overdevelopment by an unscrupulous developer, the bedrock collapsed, causing the lake water to leak out through the cracks in the bedrock. The water level has dropped to where it is now."

"If the lake dries up again, the Slowpoke tribe will have no place to live. In order to help the Slowpoke tribe find a new paradise, we specially searched for a King's Certificate."

"After all, only the Hippo King can lead the Slowpoke tribe to find a new paradise." The blue-haired lady explained.

"So this kind of thing actually happens. No wonder you guys wanted to artificially create a hippo king." Xiaozhi suddenly realized.

Without deliberate human intervention, it would be difficult for Slowpoke to evolve into Hippopotamus. After all, the key item for Slowpoke to evolve into Hippopotamus is the Proof of King. Although the Proof of King is not very rare, it is well known that Slowpoke is a silly Pokémon, and it is harder than climbing to the sky for them to find the Proof of King on their own.

"But if you want to artificially create a Hippo King, why not just capture a Slowpoke and Shellder, then command Slowpoke to wear the King's Certificate, and then let Shellder bite its head." Brock, who was no longer poisoned, asked the question.

"This method simply won't work. According to ancient records, not every Slowpoke can evolve into a Hippo King. Only the special Slowpoke in the tribe is qualified to wear the King's Certificate."

"Otherwise, the number of hippo kings wouldn't be so rare. You have to know that only one hippo king is born in each Slowpoke population, and not all Slowpoke populations will have a hippo king born." Professor Airey shook his head and said.

"That's true~ I've rarely seen a wild Hippo King in the eight years I've been traveling, and I've almost never seen a Hippo King captured by a trainer." Xiaozhi murmured.

Hippopotamus is the exact opposite of the slow-reacting Slowpoke. Its IQ is comparable to that of the world's top scientists. Ash still remembers the Hippopotamus in the Orange Islands. Such a highly intelligent Pokémon will never be captured by a trainer unless it actively follows the trainer, but the chance of this happening is almost zero.

Even if a trainer accidentally captures a special Slowpoke and lets it evolve into a Hippopotamus, it will leave its trainer the moment it evolves into a Hippopotamus and go find a group of Slowpokes without a Hippopotamus and become their leader. Over time, trainers who have Slowpokes will give up this evolutionary route.

"Miss Alice, is the purpose of placing the King's Certificate on the stone to pick out a special Slowpoke?" Xiaogang asked.

"That's right, look there." Alice said, pointing to the middle of the lake.

Upon hearing this, Xiaozhi and his group looked towards the center of the lake... They saw a Slowpoke stepping on stones and slowly walking towards the center of the lake, but before it took two steps, it was bitten on the tail by Shellder that rushed out of the water and evolved into a Slowpoke...