Chapter Eighty-Six: Move Tutor and Move Recorder

As the local rascal of the Coral Plateau, the Dazzle Bird, apart from foraging and dazzling other monsters, spent its time collecting shiny items like shells and pearls to decorate its nest. Over time, it amassed a mountain of pearls, as evidenced by the shells nearly covering the walls of its lair. Naturally, all of this ended up benefiting Su Yi. Thanks to Zizi’s generous contribution to his funds.

After a brief moment of surprise, the stall owner laughed and said, “Haha! Since you have them, I can certainly take them off your hands.” Of course, he wasn’t running a loss. The items he bought had their own sales channels—this was pure profit. The high-quality pearls Su Yi brought were enough to keep him comfortable for a whole year.

“Very well,” Su Yi nodded.

The stall owner then carefully picked out the pearls, evaluating their worth, and finally gave a generous price. Su Yi was taken aback—the price was much higher than what the friendly store offered. As expected, that smiling clerk in the shop was nothing but a shrewd merchant!

Fortunately, these rare goods finally sold for a good price, and now Su Yi had enough to buy a TM machine. The money was transferred electronically to the Rotom phone bound to his ID card.

“Mallow, dinner’s on me today. Whatever you want to eat, take your pick! Anything you like!” Su Yi said with a smile.

…

“A dessert shop?!” Mallow hesitated outside the store.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you like sweets?” Su Yi asked, puzzled.

“But… there are so many people here…” Mallow fidgeted, not wanting anyone—especially her fans—to know about her fondness for sweets. She always felt a little embarrassed; the image of a calm, determined fighting-type girl having a sweet tooth was… well, cute, but not something she wanted others to see.

Su Yi quickly guessed her concern and smiled. “If you care too much about what others think, you’ll lose yourself.”

“But if you don’t want to eat here, we can just take it to go.” Without hesitation, Su Yi ordered a large selection of desserts and took them outside.

“You know the area best—pick a spot?” Su Yi shook the bag in his hand.

Looking at the colorful, delicious treats in the bag, Mallow nodded. “My place is pretty spacious.”

…

Led by Mallow, Su Yi followed her home.

Unlike typical houses, Mallow’s home had a wide training area, with exercise equipment scattered around—a miniature gym, really.

“It’s a bit messy…” Mallow hurriedly tidied up the equipment, tossed some discarded chocolate wrappers from the table, and straightened the pillows on the couch. Perhaps it was that unique, no-nonsense air serious girls have.

Su Yi watched her bustling about, a smile on his face.

“If you want to laugh, just laugh,” Mallow said, embarrassed and a little deflated.

Su Yi joined in to help, saying, “It’s nothing—when I lived alone, my place was even messier.”

“Wait, are these… TMs?” As he cleaned, Su Yi noticed some small discs scattered on the table and exclaimed in surprise.

The small discs resembled the TMs from the games, each painted with a color representing a type, and labeled with the move’s name. They certainly weren’t something you’d expect a priest to own.

“Yes, some are Technical Machines, others are TRs,” Mallow explained. TMs could be used repeatedly, while TRs were single-use. Makes sense—if every TM could be used infinitely, how would the creators make a profit?

“Mind if I take a look? I’m quite interested in these,” Su Yi asked.

Mallow nodded. “No problem. I don’t really use them anymore; you’re welcome to them.”

Her team’s movesets were already well-established. Unless she caught a new Pokémon, these TMs would only gather dust.

“Ahem! Just borrowing them, mind you—borrowing!” Su Yi emphasized, not wanting to look like he was begging.

“Dynamic Punch, High Jump Kick, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch…” Su Yi checked each one, realizing they were all moves suited for fighting-type Pokémon.

He couldn’t imagine his own sharp-clawed companions learning these. At most, maybe Sprout could manage.

Sprout using Cat Punch? Well, her future path was as a weapon-wielding hunter cat, so maybe these moves weren’t quite right.

But perhaps Bear Cub could use them to expand his coverage.

Hmm… Actually, Blissey could also learn Fire Punch, Ice Punch, and Thunder Punch—the farmer’s trio. But did a doctor really need those?

Wait! Blissey was a field medic—it might actually need a set of self-defense moves like these.

There weren’t many TMs here, since these were just leftovers, but Su Yi was now very curious to see which of his companions could learn them.

As Su Yi looked over the TMs, Mallow took out the desserts and couldn’t wait to dig in. The sweet flavors delighted her taste buds, and she closed her eyes in bliss, a look of pure happiness on her face, as if she were melting into a sea of sweetness.

“Mallow, how do you use these TMs—” Su Yi eagerly turned to ask, only to see her covering her face, lost in the rapture of sweets.

“Huh? What?” Mallow snapped back to reality, panicked to find Su Yi watching her.

“Well… I have no resistance to sweets,” she said shyly, turning away with her fork still in hand.

“Are you surprised? I rarely tell anyone because it’s a little embarrassing, so… please don’t tell anyone else,” she added, blushing furiously.

Su Yi smiled. “Don’t worry.”

Mallow was a girl who could lose herself in desserts, Cynthia was a queen with decision paralysis, Leon had no sense of direction, and Lance was the Flying-type King…

Aren’t these all charming quirks?

Lance: Mind your manners, won’t you?

…

Back to business.

Mallow explained how to use the TMs—nowadays, you could just have Rotom Phone scan the contents to use them. When a TM was used, it even emitted a strange pulse, helping Pokémon learn the move more deeply.

TMs are truly magical, aren’t they?

“But how do you tell which moves my companions can learn? Try them all one by one?” Su Yi muttered to himself, flipping open the Hunting Guide to the Companion Beasts page.

While Mallow continued to savor her sweets, Su Yi picked up a Swords Dance TM and murmured, “This one is single-use. If I try it and they can’t learn it, wouldn’t that be a waste?”

Just as he was struggling with this dilemma, a sudden exclamation mark appeared on the icons of Rapidclaw and Sprout in the Companion Beasts interface.

When Su Yi put down the Swords Dance TR, the exclamation mark vanished. Picking up the Fire Punch TM, the icons for Bear Cub and Blissey lit up.

“Could it be!?”