At seven o'clo the evening, the rain down outside the window.

  Naoki stood i, taking out the bag of soil ri special elements that he had bought from the market, and began preparing a fortified dish specifically for the Nacli.

  Behind him, the se was one of te and happiness.

  Smoliv was led in the flowerpot, gently swaying as it watched everything around it with a rexed demeanor.

  Alcremie yfully running around on the wooden floor with the five Nacli, all of them making joyful noises.

  Butterfree had perched itself atop a cupboard, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

  The three Skiddo were huddled beside the bed, leisurely chewing on grass balls. Pawmi was cirg around them, though it was unclear what it to.

  Koraidon and Cyclizar y zily on the ground, waiting for dinner.

  Dragoood in front of the dazing out at the heavy rain, seemingly lost in thought.

  Naoki observed the se for a moment before turning his attention back to his cooking.

  Tonight's dinner was almost ready. He just o finish preparing this st special dish before they could officially start eating.

  He focused ily on the soil in front of him, which looked more like finely ground flour than actual dirt.

  Although it was called soil, it resembled flour that had been carefully refihis "flour" reminded Naoki of the cooking teique of "frying."

  After a moment of sideration, he poured the soil into a pot, added an appropriate amount of rock salt, and began to stir-fry it.

  While these soils could be eaten directly by Nacli, without proper preparation, they wouldn't exhibit their special, beneficial properties.

  Whenever he thought about this, Naoki felt more like an alchemist than a cook, as if he were enting food rather than simply preparing it.

  He shook his head to clear the thought. Gradually, the rock salt and soil merged together, and a faint salty fragrance began to emanate from the pot.

  To humans, this smell might not be very appealing, but for the Nacli, it had a highly entig effect.

  The Nacli, who had been pying and chasing each other, stopped iracks when they caught the st. They eagerly approached, making their usual "Salt, salt" noises as they looked at the pot expetly.

  'What is that smell? It smells so good!' they seemed to say.

  Satisfied that the dish was ready, Naoki turned off the heat and transferred the mixture into a food bowl he had prepared in advance.

  As he looked down at his creation, a summary of the dish's properties appeared in his mind:

  [Roasted Soil with Rock Salt (B-): A special dish made by mixing soil ri minerals and trace elements with nutritious rock salt. It may be favored by certain Pokémon.

  Cooking Effebsp;Salty Level 1, slightly improves the quality of rock salt produced by Nacli.

  Special Effebsp;Fortification Level 1, slightly increases the physical strength of Nacli.

  ent: A very creative dish! Using human cookihods to prepare Pokémon food is an excellent choice!]

  'Huh'?

  Looking at the fried soil in front of him, Naoki was surprised.

  'Two kinds of effects.'

  To be ho, he wasn't all that surprised by the first effect. What really caught him off guard was the sed one: [Strengthening the body].

  Naoki couldn't help but pare it to the grass dumplings his Skiddo ate. Those dumplings helped his Skiddo learn Grass-type moves, but they didn't seem to offer any additional bes.

  But now.

  The Nacli were eagerly waiting, uo tain their excitement.

  Seeing their enthusiasm, Naoki pced the dish on the ground.

  The five Nacli immediately jumped in, surrounding the food bowl, and begaing with gusto.

  As Naoki watched them, he fell into deep thought.

  Soon, a possibility came to mind.

  As is well known, Nacli are born from the rock salt yers deep underground. They leave traces of salt wherever they go, suggesting that much of their bodies are posed of rock salt.

  Therefore, this dish of rock salt-fried soil not only enhahe quality of rock salt produced by the Nacli but alsthens their bodies.

  Realizing this, Naoki's doubts melted away.

  'This is good stuff!' he thought.

  He couldn't help but wonder what kind of "monsters" these Nacli would bee if he fed them this special soil every day.

  After all, there was the example of his Skiddo, which had grown strong from its diet of grass dumplings.

  Excited by the possibilities, Naoki immediately decided that ohe typhoon passed, he would head baarket to see if he could pce a rge order for this soil.

  'Naoki thought of the towhis soil roduced. 'If I get the ce, I should visit.'

  The Zapapico Town is well-known for its rich mineral resources. It's said that the Auspicious Armor and the Malicious Armor, which allow Charcadet to evolve, were discovered deep within the mihere.

  Because of this, Anaza Town once experienced a gold rush, attrag many trainers hoping to find these rare treasures to help their Charcadet evolve.

  Unfortunately, the rarity of the Auspicious and Malicious Armor was beyond what most people imagined, and ma empty-handed, without a single piece to show for their efforts.

  Naoki had learned about this from a show called "Paldea Straories."

  With dinner ready, Naoki brought the food to the table and called over all the Pokémon to start eating.

  After dihe wind and rain outside grew even stronger.

  Dragonite couldn't help but feel a longing as it watched the storm intensify.

  'If I go outside now, could I learn a new move like st time?' Dragonite wondered.

  With this thought, Dragourned bad looked at Naoki with hopeful eyes.

  Naoki was sitting cross-legged on the bed, s the wool of his Skiddo. Despite living outdoors, the Skiddo weren't dirty at all, nor did they have the typical smell of goats. Instead, their brown fur carried a faint, pleasant st of grass.

  Hearing Dragonite's call, Naoki turo look at it. He quickly uood what Dragonite was asking for.

  After a moment of thought, he said, "It's not impossible."

  Dragonite's eyes lit up immediately. "Awooo!" it excimed, knowily what Naoki was hinting at.

  A move that could be practiced during a typhoon.

  The first thing that came to Naoki's mind was the Flying-type move Hurrie, which has a power of 110.

  Hurrie: Attacks the oppo by whipping up a fierce storm, with a ce to fuse the target.

  In the game, aside from its retively low accuracy, this move has almost no drawbacks. It's extremely powerful and has a ce of leaving the oppo fused.

  But iy, things might be different.

  Naoki expihe general idea of the move tonite.

  "Do you want to give it a try? The weather outside is terrible—are you sure you don't want to resider?" Naoki asked.

  But Dragonite shook its head firmly, rejeg the idea of bag down.

  It looked determined. "Ouch!" it decred.

  Dragonite are naturally unafraid of wind and rain. This is why they're known for resg ships in distress during storms at sea.

  Every Dragonite goes through such a trial. Acc to the stories passed down onite Isnd, only those who truly master hurries and storms bee the king onite.

  Seeing Dragonite's resolve, Naoki couldn't help but smile. He got up from the bed, ready to apany Dragoside. "Okay, let's go!"

  But Dragoopped him, extending its rge paw to gently push Naoki bato the bed. "Ouch!" it said, this time with a serious tone.

  Dragonite was worried about Naoki's health, especially after the st time he caught a fever from being out in the rain. It didn't want Naoki to get sick again, so it insisted on going alone.

  Uanding Dragonite's , Naoki reached out and affeately patted its head.

  'This is really toug,' Naoki thought. When this Dragonite first came to the ranch, it was solely focused on being stronger. But now, it had begun to adapt to ranch life, ie into the family, and even learn to care about him.

  'Does this mean our bond has grown deeper?' Naoki wondered.

  "Ouch?" Dragoilted its head, slightly fused by Naoki's silence.

  Naoki stood up, patted Dragonite's shoulder, and said seriously, "In that case, go ahead! Everyone and I will be waiting for you here at the ranch. Be careful and e back safely!"

  Dragonite's eyes burned with determination. "Awooo!"

  Before it set off, Naoki took a piece of lucky pudding from the refrigerator a tonite, hoping to boost its lud help it successfully master Hurrie.

  Dragonite eagerly swallowed the pudding in one gulp, then walked out into the heavy rain. It turned back to wave its paw at Naoki o time before its small wings began to fp gently, lifting it into the sky.

  Naoki stood uhe eaves, watg Dragonite disappear into the stormy sky. Only after its figure was pletely out of sight did he turn bad return to the warmth of the room.

  Naoki sat on the carpet, leaning against one of his soft Skiddo's, and turned oV to pass the time. However, due to the stormy weather, the TV signal oor, and all he could see was a s filled with static.

  Naoki sighed, "…"

  It seemed like watg TV wasn't an option tonight.

  He sidered going to bed, but he doubted he'd be able to fall asleep easily, especially since he had taken a long nap earlier iernoon. He wasn't feeling tired at all.

  "I should have bought some books from the bookstore," Naoki thought regretfully.

  With nothing else to do, he y down on the bed, his mind wandering tonite and whether it would be able to master Hurrie during the storm.

  Before he k, Naoki drifted off to sleep, lulled by the natural white noise of the wind and rain outside the window.

  In the sed half of the night, the storm intensified. Strong winds howled, and heavy rain pounded against the house.

  ...

  Naoki awoke to the sound of the sting outside. He knew from the hat the typhoon assing through.

  The room itch dark, and Naoki initially thought that Koraidon had turned off the lights for him. He fumbled around, trying to turn them ba, but when he pressed the switothing happened.

  "It looks like there's a power outage," Naoki muttered.

  He found his fshlight, tur on, and looked around the room, notig that Dragonite wasn't there. ed, he asked Koraidon, "Has Drago e back yet?"

  "Gah," Koraidon responded with a nod of its rge head.

  Naoki frowned, worry creeping into his thoughts. "It's been so long... could something have happened?"

  "Ah, gah…" Koraidon yawned zily, showing no sign of .

  ...

  Meanwhile, more than ten kilometers away over the o, Dragonite was in the midst of the storm. It roared fiercely, eling the air around its body into a powerful cye. Uerred, it leaned forward and charged directly toward the eye of the typhoon.

  The usually serene blue sea had turned dark and tumultuous, with massive waves rolling across the once calm surface. The horizon had nearly vanished, blending the sea and sky into a single ominous shade.

  Dark clouds covered the entire sky, f a massive, spiraling wall of clouds driven by the cye. This cloud wall desded from the heavens in a spectacur, vertical drop, creating an awe-inspiring but terrifying sight.

  The clouds stretched out endlessly, blotting out the sun and plunging the world beh them into deep, unbroken darkness.

  In this doomsday-like se, Dragonite's body seemed as tiny as an ant against the backdrop of the colossal storm. This was the umpteenth time it had charged toward the eye of the typhoon.

  Despite being battered by fierce winds and covered in scars, Dragonite's determination never wavered. Instead, the relentless challenge only ighe pride that y deep within it, the pride of a Dragonite.

  'I will quer this storm,' it thought, 'and make it to the ter of the eye in one go!'

  With renewed resolve, Dragonite accelerated to its maximum speed and surged forward.

  As it drew closer to the storm's heart, the winds grew more violent and fierce. The immense pressure crushed against Dragonite's body, nearly knog it off band sending it spiraling back dozens of meters.

  "Ouch!" Dragonite roared, fpping its wings furiously to steady itself. Images of its past struggles and Naoki's encing words fshed through its mind.

  Its eyes bzed with unyieldiermination.

  Once again, Dragonite surged forward, Naoki's words eg in its ears:

  "If you want to use a move successfully, you must first uand the power behind it and learn to trol the energy."

  "If it doesn't work the first time, then try again and again. One day, you will succeed."

  "As long as you don't give up and keep w hard, one day, people and Pokémon all over the world will look up to you!"

  Dragonite plunged into the storm once more.

  Ahead, the violent winds swept toward it again.

  This time, the experience gained from tless failures guided its as.

  'If I don't want to be pushed back, I o aow!'

  Dragonite quickly turned sideways and spread its wings wide, allowing the airflow to pass by without resistance.

  Success!

  But before it could savor the moment, another wave of wind struck.

  Without hesitation, Dragonite adjusted its posture and charged fain.

  The winds raged all around, but Dragonite gritted its teeth and pressed on.

  'I'm almost there. Just one more step!'

  As the eye of the storm came within reach, an unpreted surge of power welled up from within its body. Strong Flying-type energy radiated fronite, dispersing the st gust of wind that threateo push it back.

  With a final burst of speed, Dragonite plunged into the eye of the storm.

  The moment it entered, all the chaos around it ceased. The r winds and torrential rain disappeared, repced by an eerie, tranquil sile felt as though Dragonite had stepped into another world, one filled with a sense of pead harmony.

  This was the first time Dragonite had reached the eye of a storm.

  Gentle currents of air swirled around its body, a testament to its newfound mastery of the wind.

  Dragonite looked around ihen raised its head, curious about what y above.

  With scarred but determined wings, it began to asd, eager to see what was beyond the clouds.

  Just as it was about to reach the cloud yer, Dragonite suddenly felt a mysterious presence, as though something was watg it.

  It turned around abruptly and saw, in the distance, a massive, dark figure—a dragon-like silhouette swimming through the sky, immense and powerful.