Pokémon Chronicles: The New Beginning

At the pharmacist contact point.

After the two left, Hawk and Link immediately began to argue.

The shopkeeper accused Link of ruining his business, while Link laughed, calling the shopkeeper short-sighted and money-driven.

"Alright, give me those eight healing potions. I want to take them to show my teacher."

After their spat, Link suddenly became very serious.

The shopkeeper also sensed something was amiss and asked, "Is there something wrong with these healing potions?"

Hearing this, Link paused for a moment before explaining, "I only detected Oran Berry as the material in these potions."

After processing this information, the shopkeeper's voice suddenly rose in surprise, "Making a healing potion with just Oran Berry? How is that possible?"

Link nodded in agreement, which is why he wanted to take these healing potions to his teacher for further examination.

"Oh, and leave me some of the rotten fruit. I really want to see how these are supposed to be formulated into potions." Link added as he left.

The shopkeeper nodded, though his attention was no longer on Link. Instead, he kept muttering to himself, "Ten times the profit, ten times the profit!"

...

The shopkeeper nodded, but his attention was no longer on Link; he kept repeating, "Ten times the profit, ten times the profit!"

...

Outside Hope City.

Uncle Darby and Natsume were sitting in the carriage on their way back.

Occasionally, Darby would look back at the rotten fruit trees in the cart.

The shopkeeper had stocked quite a bit of rotten fruit, but he really didn't understand why Natsume wanted these rotten fruit trees.

"These rotten fruit trees are great stuff; they can make the flowers bloom sweeter, the grass greener, and produce more fruits," Natsume replied with a smile, while Uncle Darby looked completely puzzled.

"It's to make chemical fertilizer..." Natsume thought to himself, humming a little tune, feeling very pleased.

With the chemical fertilizer ready, he could start planning the first phase of training for the Pokémon in the orchard.

Upon returning to Darby Farm, Natsume immediately got busy, asking Uncle Darby to find two large sealed barrels to place in the yard.

Seeing Natsume's strange behavior, Darby scratched his head and decided to ignore it for now. He was excited about sharing the news of their earnings with his wife.

Four gold coins—four whole gold coins! This suddenly gave them the illusion that making money was easy.

But thinking about how the Oran Berries in the farm were nearly consumed, they sighed quietly; the urgent task was to find a way to obtain more Oran Berries.

With this in mind, Darby equipped himself with his farming tools and eagerly headed to the grove of fruit trees, determined to find ways to increase the yield of Oran Berries.

Little Andy saw his father heading to the grove of fruit trees and shouted as he followed along, wanting to play with the Starly in the woods.

In the garden, Natsume, pleased that no one was interrupting him, began busying himself with the plan to make chemical fertilizer.

He first filled the barrels with water and checked their sealing.

After washing them out, he moved the barrels into the sunlight and then retrieved the rotten fruit trees from the cart, tossing them into the barrels.

After mashing the rotten Oran Berries with a stick, he added a certain ratio of clean water and finally covered the barrels.

Having performed this operation skillfully, Natsume let out a sigh of relief as he left the barrels to bask in the sun.

The decomposition of the rotten fruit would ferment, and through microbial action, it could slowly release various nutrients, allowing him to obtain a specific concentration of nutrient liquid.

After further processing these nutrient liquids, he could use them to create special chemical fertilizers.

Different fruit trees produced chemical fertilizers with varying effects, and by mixing certain ratios of different fruit trees, he could create even more potent fertilizers.

For example, combining a certain ratio of Kee Berries or Maranga Berries with any two fruit trees could produce "super effective chemical fertilizer."

Since Oran Berries contain rich vitality that can help Pokémon restore energy, chemical fertilizers made from these fruit trees would be a type of "growth fertilizer."

"I wonder what Venusaur is doing right now."

"And Gardevoir... they must be worried sick since they found out I was missing."

"Or rather, I might not even be missing; that version of me in another world might be dead, and they would surely be heartbroken."

Looking at the barrels in front of him, Natsume sighed deeply, recalling all the moments he had shared with his Pokémon.

Venusaur was his starter Pokémon, and he had learned the method of making chemical fertilizer during their travels together. Thinking back to that time was truly carefree. 

...

After finishing his tasks, Natsume made his way to the grove of fruit trees.

In the distance, he saw little Andy happily running, with Starly frantically fluttering in front of him.

"This familiar feeling is quite nice."

Watching little Andy and Starly chase each other in the woods, Natsume smiled knowingly, feeling a connection to the times he spent with Pokémon in his previous life.

A world where Pokémon and humans coexist harmoniously would one day come... he silently repeated this thought, at least for now, the farm felt like that.

Natsume watched for a while before continuing towards the grove of fruit trees, where he saw Cherubi and Petilil basking in the sun.

Petilil stretched its body under the sunlight, then slowly walked toward the direction of the ordinary fruit grove.

Upon reaching the boundary between the two orchards, Petilil paused and gazed at the distant sky, remaining completely still.

In the distance, Starly flapped its wings and flew back, landing on a wooden fence and calmly glancing at Petilil as it began to preen its feathers.

Only when a white cloud blocked the sunlight did Petilil finally look away in solitude and silently return to the woods. 

Natsume quietly observed everything in front of him, showing a thoughtful expression.

For the next few days, Natsume arrived at the orchard on time each day, helping to clear weeds and rotten fruit while observing the Pokémon.

Each time he arrived at the grove of fruit trees, he always saw Petilil standing at the boundary between the two orchards, basking in the sunlight and staring at the sky.

It seemed very lonely... Natsume silently concluded that Petilil resembled a bird trapped in a cage, longing for the blue sky.

"A Petilil longing for freedom, huh?"

"Maintaining this mindset in the orchard is honestly quite moving."

"But I wonder if it would be willing to become my Pokémon and accept my training."

Natsume thought to himself, knowing that he was fully prepared to breed Pokémon, and the next step was to officially capture one.