"Gaao~" Cyclizar chirped happily, expressing that it enjoyed anything Naoki made.

  Although he didn't uand Cyclizar's words, Naoki could roughly guess its meaning from its expressions aures.

  He pyfully asked, "Even the spicy ramen?"

  Cyclizar's head drooped immediately. "Cyclizar."

  "Just kidding!" Naoki chuckled, patting Cyclizar's head. He then started seriously sidering what kind of dish to make.

  Fried pork chops, sandwiches, steamed sea bass, glutinous rice dumplings, steamed eggs, cream of mushroom soup. He had made all of those before. With limited ingredients at home, Naoki could only create new dishes by biniing ingredients differently.

  With this in mind, Naoki began experimenting.

  He randomly picked a few ingredients from the chopping board: fresh, tender pork tenderloin, eggs, and rock salt from the Nacli. He ed the pork tenderloin in egg batter and fried it in a pan, used Alcremie's cream and Nacli's rock salt as fillings flutinous rice dumplings, and used processed sea bass meat to make sandwiches.

  However, after w for a long time, none of the dishes seemed to have the effeaking Dragoronger.

  [Fried Tenderloin (bsp;Cooking effebsp;Restores stamina.]

  [Snow Puffs (B): Cooking effebsp;Moderately increases the friendliness of Pokémon who love sweets. Very appealing to Alcremie.]

  [Sea Bass Sandwich (C+): Cooking effebsp;Carrying it on your person will easily attract Water-type Pokémon.]

  Naoki: "..."

  He couldn't help but sigh ahe fried tenderloin to Cyclizar, who ate it happily.

  Naoki fell into deep thought. "This is a bit tricky!"

  His eyes sed the various ingredients oable, and when they nded on some fruits in the basket, he suddenly remembered a dish he had made before.

  Fruit Sad!

  That was it! Fruit Sad!

  It ecial dish that could randomly gee Pokémon moves if it was this.

  Excited by the idea, Naoki immediately took out the fruits, cut them into pieces with a knife, and arrahem on a white por pte.

  Soon, a fruit sad was ready.

  Naoki looked down, and the information about the dish appeared in his mind.

  [Fruit Sad (C-): This delicacy is made from various fruits. It bihe fvors of different fruits and is quite popur with some Pokémon.

  Cooking effebsp;Skill refi. After eating, one of the Pokémon's moves will ge randomly.

  Evaluation: Basic food, easy to make, a good choice for home and travel.]

  If he fed it tonite.

  Naoki imagined Dragonite mastering a whole bunoves, a happy smile on its face, excitedly snuggling up to him.

  But then, he envisioned a sario where Dragonite fot all four of its moves and ran away heartbroken.

  A gamble on luck.

  Naoki hesitated. He was well aware of the probabilities and nature of these types of games, so he was a bit hesitant to take the risk.

  The worst-case sario after feeding it tonite was that it would fet all four of its moves. If that happened, feeding it the Fruit Sad again would definitely result in it learning a new move.

  If he was lucky, Dragonite might even learn powerful moves like Dragon Rush, Draeteor, on Cw.

  But if it learned something like Tackle, it would be a waste of time.

  To him, it might just be a sunk cost, but Dragonite wouldn't uand that. If it was unlucky, it might even fet all four moves it had worked so hard to learn. Then, it would lose trust in him and run away heartbroken.

  "No, I 't feed it to."

  After careful sideration, Naoki decided to wait and see if Dragonite could learn Dragon Tail. He would build trust with it first and thehe Fruit Sad based ouation.

  After all, he wasn't in a hurry, and there was still plenty of time.

  With that decided, Naoki packed up the remaining ingredients, took the Snow Puffs and sea bass sandwiches to the salt shelter, found Alcremie and Smoliv who were pying with the Nacli, and shared the treats with them.

  After they finished eating, Naoki collected the empty ptes auro the .

  He walked to the kit area to put away the dishes, and that's wheiced that the fruit sad he had left there was gone.

  "?"

  Naoki looked back at Cyclizar, who was not far behind, and asked, "Did you eat the fruit sad?"

  "Cyclizar." Cyclizar nodded, but seeing Naoki's expression, it couldn't help but worry if it had done something wrong.

  Naoki reassured it, "No, I'm not bming you, I'm just asking."

  He then inquired, "Do you feel any different in your body? For example, have you learned a new move or fotten an old one?"

  "Cyclizar?" Cyclizar was initially fused, but soon its eyes lit up, and it stood up to demonstrate the move it had just learned.

  Purple dragon energy gathered on its tail. When the energy reached a certain point, Cyclizar swung its tail forcefully, creating a "whoosh" sound in the air. Although it didn't hit anything, judging by the a, it owerful move.

  "Dragon Tail?" Naoki raised an eyebrow. "Is this the move you just learned?"

  "Cyclizar!" Cyclizar nodded.

  "Have you fotten any other moves?" Naoki asked.

  Cyclizar s head sideways.

  From that perspective, Cyclizar was quite lucky!

  Naoki nodded. "I see."

  ...

  In te January, in the 198th year of the Pokémon League dar, the temperature in the Paldea region gradually warmed up.

  It had been five days sihe salt shelter was built. After a five-day interval, the breeding of Nacli and Skiddo was officially on track.

  This m, after feeding the chis, Naoki went to the salt shelter. After five days of the Nacli's stant movement, a yer of fine rock salt particles had accumuted on the colleembrane.

  Seeing this, Naoki's face lit up with the joy of a successful harvest.

  Koraidon stood beside him, holding five Nacli. The five Nacli were stacked together, led fortably in Koraidon's arms.

  Naoki and Cyclizar worked together to lift the colleembrane, gathering the rock salt and pg it into a sealed cloth bag.

  The Nacli, still in Koraidon's arms, watched curiously.

  "Nacli, nacli..."

  They suddenly realized that Naoki seemed to like the salt crystals on their bodies! This made the Nacli very happy. In their eyes, Naoki had not only rescued them from the dangerous wild but also taken good care of them. He had built them a safe new home and provided delicious food every day. They had also made new friends here, including the sisterly Alcremie and the quiet, gentle Smoliv.

  This filled the Nacli with gratitude and affe.

  Witnessing this se, one of the Nacli excitedly jumped off of Koraidon. Following its lead, the other four Nacli also climbed down.

  They ran towards Naoki, rubbing against him while making "Nacli, nacli" sounds.

  Suddenly, more rock salt fell from their bodies, like a flurry of snowfkes.