Xia Huanao looked at the distinctly girlish decor and asked, "What, what is this place?"
Mu Zhishui picked up a pot from the table. "This is my room. Would you like some water?"
Xia Huanao took the cup. "Thank you, your room is very pretty."
Mu Zhishui sat on the floor with Xia Huanao. "I didn't bring you here for you to critique a girl's room."
Xia Huanao clasped his hands together and apologized quickly, "Sorry, sorry."
"If the venue wasn't so crowded, I wouldn't have brought you to my bedroom. Besides, this is the Linglong City branch of the Rainbow Star Group."
Hearing this, Xia Huanao's heart skipped a beat. They say the more beautiful a girl is, the better she is at lying. With Mu Zhishui's level of devastating beauty, wouldn't he be completely fleeced?
Thinking this, Xia Huanao swallowed nervously, daring not to speak. Mu Zhishui just stared at him. After a moment of silence, Xia Huanao suddenly spoke, "Tianwang gaitu hu."
Mu Zhishui paused slightly, then replied, "Xiao ji dun mugu."
"Qi bian ou bu bian." Xia Huanao asked again.
"Fu hao kan xiang xian." Mu Zhishui's response became faster.
"True trainers don't raise Butterfree to level fifty."
"But let Caterpie evolve into Rayquaza at level one hundred."
"You four, me eight, him twelve!"
"In the end, all become twenty-five and two."
The two grew increasingly excited as they exchanged more secret codes, finally embracing each other. "To think I'd meet someone from home."
After calming down slightly, Mu Zhishui asked, "Why so many questions?"
Xia Huanao scratched his head. "The first confirmed if you were from home, the second checked your education level, the third confirmed if you played this game, and the last confirmed if you understood battles. It's important to proceed step-by-step, a good habit. Actually, I could have confirmed everything with the seventh phrase."
"Super Diancie, base stat 700."
The two smiled and sat on the ground together. "How did you get here?"
Xia Huanao pulled a popsicle stick from his pocket. "This is how I got here."
Seeing the purple popsicle stick, Mu Zhishui stood up and rummaged through her room, then produced a similar purple popsicle stick. "What a coincidence, me too."
"We won't mention things from our past lives. I didn't expect you to be part of the Rainbow Star Group in this life."
"I didn't expect you to be so famous either, look at your string of titles."
"Using knowledge from a past life in this one, isn't that only fitting, right Diancie?"
Diancie, suddenly called by Xia Huanao, turned around, a small question mark appearing above her head. Xia Huanao quickly waved his hand. "It's nothing, you and Magearna, continue playing."
The two little princesses went off to play by themselves.
"Let's get back to the point. What was I going to talk about? It's all messed up now..."
Xia Huanao frowned. He had forgotten what he intended to ask, what with the Teleport and the excitement of meeting someone from home. After thinking for a long time, Xia Huanao finally remembered, "I originally wanted to confirm your background and talk about Mega Evolution. With the Rainbow Star Group's capabilities, they only found a Key Stone?"
Mu Zhishui shook her head. "No, they didn't even find a Key Stone. I found these two myself."
"Then why not use the Rainbow Star Group's power to find the Evolution Stones? Don't you have a Kirlia?"
"The Rainbow Star Group is terrible, a complete collection of villainous characters. Do you understand what I mean? To tell you the truth, even the death of Arceus has the Rainbow Star Group's shadow in it."
"No wonder. I thought, could those guys actually build a rocket capable of reaching space? But why would the Rainbow Star Group kill Arceus?"
Mu Zhishui gave a wry smile. "Who wants to kill Arceus? I don't know the purpose of the Rainbow Star Group's constant search for these Pokémon, but it's definitely not to kill them. It was an accident. The agreement was supposed to be that we would help their rocket launch, and they would help us search for Pokémon in space. Unexpectedly, things went wrong."
"Is that so? Then why didn't the Rainbow Star Group build their own rocket?"
"Do you think a rocket they build would succeed in launching? It would definitely be shot down by the Pokémon Alliance."
Xia Huanao didn't know what to say. With the way the plot was developing, neither the Pokémon Alliance nor the Rainbow Star Group seemed like good people...
"Getting back to it, I don't want to use the Rainbow Star Mall's power to find Mega Evolution Stones, so I chose you. You didn't disappoint me; you really got the Evolution Stones, but where did you get them?"
Xia Huanao turned to look. "Diancie, come here for a moment. This sister is looking for you."
Diancie turned to look at Xia Huanao. Seeing him wave, she stood up and floated over. Magearna also stood up and walked to Mu Zhishui's side.
"You know, Diancie is the little princess of the Diamond Mining Country, so of course I went to the Diamond Mining Country to find it."
Mu Zhishui listened and felt a bit dejected. "The Diamond Mining Country, huh? Then you're saying that if you wanted it, they could even find a Z-Crystal exclusive to the little princess, right?"
Hearing this, Xia Huanao turned to look at the little princess. "Diancie, does the Diamond Mining Country really have a Z-Crystal for you?"
Diancie propped her chin, indicating she didn't know.
Mu Zhishui looked at the two of them. "Forget it, what good is a Z-Crystal? You can only have Diancie hold one item anyway."
Xia Huanao disagreed. "No, according to the rules of Lingyao Star, Evolution Stones don't take up an item slot. Back when I got the Evolution Stone in the Diamond Mining Country, Diancie absorbed it directly into her body. And right now, Diancie is holding a berry. So, theoretically speaking, Diancie can hold both an Evolution Stone and a Z-Crystal. But we'll only know for sure after an experiment."
"We're getting off track again. Since your method isn't very helpful, I'll have to keep searching myself."
"Do you need my help? One more person means one more pair of hands."
Mu Zhishui bowed to Xia Huanao. "Then thank you. It's a shame I only have two Key Stones, otherwise I'd give you another one for your girlfriend."
Xia Huanao rubbed his nose. "Your intention is kind enough."
"So, the second question. How will you deal with the Pokémon Alliance?"
Xia Huanao pointed at Mu Zhishui. "What about you? How will you deal with the Rainbow Star Group? They probably don't know about Mega Evolution either, do they?"
Mu Zhishui took out a photo. "Look, I'm the legitimate heir of the Rainbow Star Group, who would dare touch me? Even if the Pokémon Alliance wants to intervene, they can't bypass the Rainbow Star Group. It's you they'll be targeting since they can't touch me. You have to be careful."
Xia Huanao held Diancie on his lap. "I have the little princess. If they ask, I'll say the Evolution Stone was given to me by the little princess. The Key Stone was given to you by Cresselia, and I don't know anything. As for how I know how to use it, I translated it with Rotom. It's a seamless plan, no flaws. If there are any other problems, it will depend on who can bluff better."
Mu Zhishui had great faith in Xia Huanao's bluffing skills.
"That's good, but is it really okay to pin the blame on the Pokémon?"
Xia Huanao lowered his head and looked at the little princess. "Diancie, can you do me a favor?"
Diancie raised her hand high, and judging by her posture, she agreed.
"You, just bluff Diancie then."
Xia Huanao looked at his watch. "It's almost time, we should head back. If we don't go back soon, they might think something happened between us."
Mu Zhishui smiled. "I'm already in my twenties this life, how could anything happen between me and a teenager like you? But you're right, it's not good for us to be gone for too long. Kirlia, use Teleport to send us back."
...
At the battle exchange venue, after Xia Huanao and Mu Zhishui left, the atmosphere returned to normal. Mega Evolution would be announced sooner or later; there was no need to rush. However, when Xia Huanao and Mu Zhishui returned to the venue together, it caused quite a stir.
Of course, it was mainly the girls who flocked over, wanting to take pictures with Diancie and Magearna, the two little princesses.
Xia Huanao looked around. "Where's Rotom? Where did that scoundrel go?"
Rotom Pokédex flew over from afar. "Uh, I'm back. Do you know, I was almost disassembled, Rotom."
Xia Huanao reached out and flicked the screen of Rotom. "Is that so? I saw you flying out from among the group of young ladies. You must have been very happy."
"I wasn't, Rotom, don't say such things, Rotom."
Xia Huanao gently tapped between Rotom's eyes with his finger. "Let's just say you're right."
With that, Xia Huanao walked with his hands behind his back towards the members of Liu Ling University. "Everyone, I'm back. What was the result of Li Qiufeng and Huang Tianxiao's match?"
Everyone shrugged. Lu Bingming stepped forward. "A draw. The two captains drew, but it was very intense."
"Really, a draw? That's not bad."
After staying with everyone at the battle exchange for a while longer, it was nearing its end. Everyone dispersed, and Xia Huanao and his group returned to their villa.
"Everyone rest well. We're heading back to Liuling City tomorrow. After all, the graduation ceremony for the fourth-year students is about to begin, and you need to be back on time."
Xia Huanao looked at the message on his phone. "Uh, you guys go back first. I have something to attend to. The Pokémon Alliance has found me."
Everyone looked over. "Is it about Mega Evolution?"
Xia Huanao sighed. "What else could it be? Looks like I'll have to have another verbal argument. I'm really not good at this."