"Boom!"

  The m, a loud cp of thunder jolted Naoki awake.

  He opened his eyes, dazed for a few seds, then abruptly sat up in bed. It was raining! Dense raindrops pelted the window, creating a rhythmic drumming sound. The sky outside was shrouded in a dark curtain of rain.

  Several Pokémon in the room were also awakened by the thuhey opeheir eyes sleepily and looked around in fusion.

  There was o water the pnts on rainy days, so Naoki could afford to be a bit zy. He y back down and closed his eyes, intending to catch a few more minutes of sleep.

  But then, he felt an insistent gaze fixed on him.

  Opening his eyes, he saw Koraidon's rge head peering over the bed, looking at him expetly, its stomach rumbling.

  Naoki sighed. "Alright, alright."

  He relutly got dressed and out of bed.

  On rainy days, the air ihe house was filled with dampness, making it quite unfortable. Before preparing breakfast, Naoki put on rubber boots and a raincoat, theo the shed to fete firewood, pg it in the firepd lighting it.

  As the indoor temperature rose, the moisture evaporated, rest the room to its usual dryness.

  Looking up at the old wooden house, Naoki muttered to himself, "Thankfully, it's not leaking."

  Several Pokémon had woken up. Alcremie left the cupboard and joined Smoliv at the window, where they both watched the heavy rain outside.

  Koraidon y down on the wooden floor, patiently waiting for Naoki to cook.

  Cyclizar went uhe eaves, standing there and feeling the wind's breath.

  Above its head, Butterfree stood on the wooden box, gently fluttering its wings and the rain.

  Naoki took out the ingredients and started preparing breakfast, thinking to himself, "This house is almost several decades old."

  The inal randfather had always lived here. Back then, times were much simpler and less advanced, and ranchers primarily focused on raising livestock. So, there was nothi on the property except for the wooden house and an abandoned Pokémoer.

  As for why the hadn't been expanded, perhaps the old ma it was big enough for him to live alone, Naoki mused.

  Taking a deep breath, Naoki sidered his pns to expand the .

  Soon, breakfast was ready. Naoki brought it to the table, then took out a Poké Ball and released the soundly sleeping Dragonite.

  Dragonite woke up, rubbed its eyes, and quickly noticed the rain outside.

  This made Dragonite's eyes light up, and it quickly said to Naoki,

  "Roar!" It's raining!

  "I know." Naoki uood what Dragonite meant. "Let's eat first, and then we'll go up and take a look after we're done."

  Dragonite immediately started eating breakfast quickly.

  Naoki finished a bowl of pe and said tonite, "I o feed the chis. We'll try again after you e back from the milk delivery." Then, he grabbed a cucumber and headed out, mung on it as he walked towards the goat pen.

  On rainy days, the Skiddo didn't want to ve, so the three of them huddled together uhe awning, watg the rain outside.

  Seeing Naoki approach, they all looked up at once.

  Naoki checked their feeding trough and saw that all the Green Grass Dumplings were gone.

  Naoki: "..."

  He had just filled it st night! These three Skiddo were quite the eaters.

  Sighing silently, Naned himself to his fate and refilled the trough with dumplings. They were almost out, so he would have to make more iernoon.

  One of the Skiddo let out a joyful bleat.

  "Maa, maa, maa~"

  "Did you learn a new move?" Naoki asked casually.

  "Maa!"

  One of the Skiddo nodded.

  "Oh?" Naoki's curiosity iqued. "What is it? Show me!"

  The Skiddo began its demonstration. It looked serious, and Grass-type energy surged around its body, densing into a sharp leaf bde. The Skiddo trolled the leaf bde, sshing forward like a sword.

  This is.

  "Leaf Bde?" Naoki raised an eyebrow.

  "Maa~" The Skiddo looked very pleased.

  Watg this, Naoki was inexplicably reminded of the Legendary Pokémon Za from the Gar region.

  He suddenly asked, " you make the leaf bigger and hold it in your mouth to attack?"

  "Maa?" The Skiddo looked fused, as if it didn't uand.

  Naoki looked around, plucked a bde of grass from the ground, put it in his mouth, and showed it to the Skiddo.

  Ding!

  A metaphorical light bulb appeared above the Skiddo's head.

  It used Grass-type energy to create another Leaf Bde, but this time, instead of attag directly, it held the sword-like leaf horizontally in its mouth.

  "Wow, that's cool!"

  Naoki couldn't help but ugh. He hadn't expected his Skiddo to actually pull it off. Now it could go to the Gar region and cospy as Za!

  Holding the Leaf Bde in its mouth, the Skiddo turs head left and right, then seemed pleasantly surprised to discover that it was easier to trol the bde this way!

  The other two Skiddo looked on with envy.

  They wao do that too.

  So, they turned around and started frantically eating Green Grass Dumplings.

  "..." Naoki felt a bit overwhelmed by the se.

  He said goodbye to the Skiddo ao the salt shelter, where he filled the Nacli's feeders with salty food and then pyed with them for a while.

  After that, he headed to the chi coop. As soon as he entered, he heard a chorus of cheerful chirping.

  He looked down, and when he saw the se on the haystack clearly, a surprised expression appeared on his face.

  The eggs had hatched! In addition to the inal three hens and one rooster, there were now six new little lives in the chi coop.

  Six fluffy chicks!

  That was fantastiaoki had pine eggs in the coop st time, six of which had hatched, and three more were still incubating.

  "Thanks for your hard work!"

  To reward the diligent hens, Naoki filled their troughs with chi feed and water, then took out tools to the coop's floor.

  But at that moment, he noticed a row of inspicuous footprints on the ground.

  "Huh?"

  He crouched down to examihem more closely.

  The small, plum-shaped footprints led from the door to the feed trough, then back outside.

  Was it an animal? Or a Pokémon? Several possibilities came to Naoki's mind.

  He followed the trail of footprints outside, but the grass obscured them, and the rain had washed some away, making them disappear outside the coop.

  He stood at the door and looked around. The chi coop was built by the river and surrounded by a wooden feo enter, one would first o pass through the fence.

  But the gaps between the fenks were very small, meaning the intruder wasn't rge or was very agile, able to jump high.

  After entering the chi coop, it hadn't harmed the hens but had chosen to steal a handful of chi feed without attrag the attention of other Pokémon. This suggested that the intruder was cautious and acted carefully.

  What could it be?