CH9 (623), Pinkmania

At exactly 11 a.m. the referee gave the starting signal, which had pink-haired Julian and I released our Pokemon. "Go, Mr.Flowers," Julian said while releasing a Vilplume that happened to be as pink as his Snorlax and Primeape had been. "Do your thing, Bruce," I instructed while releasing Bruce/Crobat as previously planned.

The two came "face to face", and as soon as Bruce appeared on the battlefield, he released a Haze, obscuring Vileplume's vision, while also vanishing inside the black mist. "Flowers, Petal Blizzard. Get rid of the black mist," Julian gave a surprisingly quick and smart order.

While Vileplume had no flying-type moves that could blow the mist away such as Gust or Hurricane, Petal Blizzard provided an alternative that could achieve a similar effect as Hurricane. Still, there was obviously no way we would wait for them to simply clear away our cover without having at least made some use of it.

"Batman, Sandman Maneuver," I gave an order no one here aside from Bruce could understand. I used my aura and psychic senses along with our bond to track Bruce even inside the black haze, and I saw how he "silently" approached/flew towards the back of Vileplume while it summoned a pink petal tornado.

While the pink "blizzard" was not enough to completely disperse the black mist, it did clear the immediate area around Vileplume, revealing Bruce, who was already behind Vileplume. Nonetheless, Bruce was already in position, so it was too late to dodge his next move. He used a point-blank Hypnosis on Vileplume, who not having expected it, lasted all but a second or two before succumbing to sleep.

"No! Mr.Flowers, wake up, please" Julian called out trying to rouse his sleeping Pokemon. Naturally, we did not plan to just wait for it to do that. "Supersonic followed by Air Slash Barrage," I instructed and Bruce dutifully executed it.

The Supersonic was in case Vileplume managed to wake up before it got knocked out. Immobilized/defenseless as it was, it had no way to escape the Supersonic, so its senses got messed up, ensuring that it would be confused even if it woke up. Not that I thought that Vilepume would have the chance to come to before the Air Slash Barrage took it out.

Bruce fired off one Air Slash after the other, at what could be considered a point-blank distance, and Vileplume had to take those attacks without being able to dodge or muster a defense. The first Air Slash hit and Vileplume released a grunt. The first was swiftly followed by a second one, and a third one, each causing Vileplume to release a grunt of pain.

By the third Air Slash that hit home, Vileplume showed signs of waking up, but the fourth Air Slash that hit it before it could do so actually caused visible injuries, which indicated that the natural energy shield/protection that normally prevented lethal injuries had broken/been used up.

While Pokemon could usually endure that, Vileplume was not all there right now due to the Hypnosis, so the shock of its "protection" breaking caused it to fall unconscious. Seeing Vileplume slump like that, Julian immediately recalled it before a fifth Air Slash could hit. Bruce had sent that one out before Vileplume got knocked out, so it had not been his intent to attack a defeated foe.

Still, had Julian not recalled his Vileplume, that Air Slash could have caused some serious damage. Admittedly, I had been ready to interfere by using my telekinesis to drag Vileplume's prone body away from the Air Slash. Thankfully, it did not come to either situation thanks to Julian's quick reaction. The referee declared me/Bruce the winner, and I went up to Julian since I was interested in talking to him about his team and possibly more.

"Hey, man. That was some great reaction speed," I praised him as an opener. "Thank you," he returned with a nod. "Can I help you with something," he followed up with a tilt of his head, and I gave him a nod of my own.

"Yeah, I'd like to ask some questions if you don't mind," I returned, and he gave me a look before he said, "Sure, go ahead, but let's grab a seat first," before heading towards one of the benches set up for spectators. "So, what do you wanna know," he questioned after we sat down.

"Well, I've noticed that all your Pokemon so far were pink, so I was curious if the rest of your Pokemon are pink as well," I asked curiously, and Julian seemed happy enough to answer me. "Yep," he popped the p on that one.

"I'm from Pikan Island and nearly all Pokemon there are pink. With pink being my favorite color, I've made sure that my whole team is pink as well. Aside from Prime, Laxy, and Mr. Flowers, I also have Trixie, my Dugtrio, Otto, my Pidgeot, Rina, my Nidoqueen, Rino, my Nidoking, Butters, my Butterfree, Kate, my Raticate, and finally Polo, my Poliwrath. I couldn't register Otto, Rina, Rino, and Polo since they were too strong. Not that it matters anymore since I lost to you," he rattled off before saying the last part with surprising nonchalance.

So he currently had 10 Pokemon, all belonging to species that could be found on Pikan Island as far as I knew. Still, this gave me the opening I wanted for my next question. "That's an impressive lineup," I praised before asking the million-dollar question. "So, are you not planning to capture any other Pokemon, or rather do you have to travel back to Pinkan Island if you want to do that?"

He chuckled a bit at that before he shook his head. "No, while I've caught my whole team back home, I don't have to return to Pinkan Island if I want to add a new Pokemon to my team. I have stored an abundance of Pinkan Berries in my bag since my Pokemon love to eat those, and I also quite like their taste," he said while patting the murse/handbag. I did not comment, and he continued his explanation.

"Eating those berries over an extended period would transform any new capture pink, so even if it takes a year or two, I can help any Pokemon I capture become pink as well, though I'm planning to ask any Pokemon I want to capture beforehand if that is something they would be okay with since I have no plans to do so against the Pokemon's will. I'll simply not capture them if they don't want that.

The reason I'm heading to Hoenn is that I'm hoping to add a pink Altaria, Roselia, as well as Milotic to my team, and I've heard that finding them there is supposedly easier than anywhere else," Julian finished, giving me the exactly what I needed for my next question.

"Really? That's interesting. Would you mind showing me one of those Pinkan Berries?" I asked curiously without having to feign any interest since my interest was genuine. "I don't mind," Julian said before taking out a pink Berry from his bag. "Go ahead," he said, handing me the Pinkan Berry. I took it and naturally directly used my observe ability on it.

'Name: Pinkan Berry

Type: Normal/Grass

Class: E

Description: A slightly nutritious and filling berry. Long-term consumption can turn a Pokemon pink, and humans can be affected as well, turning all follicles pink.'

The Description was pretty much just like I expected, though the human part was a bit surprising. Still, it made sense and I should have been able to guess it myself. Hmm, Julian did say that he liked eating these as well, so I could not help but wonder if he had natural pink hair if it was due to him eating Pinkan Berries. If it was because of the berries, did this count as dyeing them?

I guess asking him would be a bit rude, so I kept my curiosity in check since I did not want to worsen his mood before the next part. "Say Julian, would you be willing to part with a few of your Pinkan Berries? I'm interested in buying some from you if you are," I asked/offered and my request seemed to surprise Julian.

"Really? I don't mind," he said with a shake of his head. "I can gift you one or two if you simply want a taste," Julian offered, but I declined since I was going to need a bit more than that due to something I had planned with them, which if it worked would be an incredible discovery. The more Pinkan berries I could plant at the start, the faster Utopia could grow more of them.

"Thank you, but I'd like a dozen or two if that's possible," I refused his generous offer with a shake of my head before asking the "million-dollar" question. "So, how much do you want for them?" I inquired, and Julian seemed to think a moment before he gave me an answer.

"Well, Pinkan Berries are not rare back home, but they can pretty much be only found there since they can't be grown everywhere like most other berries," he began while giving me a look when he said the last bit, obviously hinting at something before he continued.

"Still, I don't mind giving you 20 berries for 1000 Poke. You usually wouldn't be able to get them for that prize even back at Pinkan Island, but my family has a Pinkan Berry orchard, so I can give it to you for cheap," Julian said before fishing out a business card and handing it to me.

"If you want some more berries later on, you can give the number on the card a call. It's the number of our family business. If the order is big enough we'll deliver it to a place of your choice, otherwise you have to head to Pinkan Island to pick it up yourself. Oh, and before I forget it, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to pay market the price for those orders since I'm currently giving you a friendship discount," he finished and I pocketed the business card with a "thank you".

Not that I thought that I would need it since I had absolute confidence in Utopia. I did not doubt that Utopia would be able to grow Pikan Berries without any problem, but that did not mean that I had to be rude to Julian. Anyway, after I put the card away, Julian first pulled out a "shopping bag" that he apparently had inside his handbag, before he started to take out the twenty berries I had asked for.

He placed the berries inside the bag he took out first before passing it to me. I thanked him for his thoughtfulness before taking out 1000 Poke from my purse and handing it to him. After that exchange, we talked for a few more minutes, mostly about areas where one might be able to find the three Pokemon he was interested in before I wished him a good day and left for my cabin.

There I stored the whole bag inside Utopia, and as I had expected there was no problem with the usual process. Utopia was able to upgrade and replicate the berries as usual, though like always growing berries was the smarter option instead of directly replacing them. I planted all 20 Pinkan Berries in the Flora Subspace, and they germinated without any problems.

The reason I was so interested in the Pinkan Berries was not that I suddenly wanted to turn my Pokemon pink, but because of an idea I had. While the pink variation caused by the Pinkan Berries was just a "cosmetic" change, I knew for a fact that there were Shiny Pokemon whose "shiny coloration" was pink, so I could not help but wonder if the Pinkan Berries could be used to actually trigger a Shiny variation in those specific species.

Honestly, this was such a "simple" and "easy" project/idea that I could not help but wonder why it had not been done before. At least as far as I knew no such experiment had been performed, and I had no document on anything like it inside my mental library. If this experiment ended up working out, I would have discovered something unbelievably incredible since the number of pink, or at least pinkish Shinies was much larger than one would expect.

If I was not wrong there were actually 70 or so species that had a pink(ish) shiny form, so the Pinkan Berry could theoretically allow me to grant each one of those Pokemon to become a "superior" version of their species since the Shiny gene did grant its holder a 15% overall bonus. I'd practically be able to create "Shiny farms", which in hindsight made me realize why most would probably not publicize or even document this even if they found out about it.

Regardless of whether I would keep this to myself or not in case it ended up working, I was definitely looking forward to seeing how the experiment went. Now all I had to do was wait until a sufficient number of Pinkan Berries had grown/accumulated and then get myself a few Pokemon whose Shiny was pink before I could test my theory, though I did not expect any results for a year or two.

Author's comment:

It really is quite surprising how many pink Shinies there are. I had honestly not expected that kind of number when I looked it up, especially since some of these species are pretty strong. Vaporeon, Magmar, the whole Walrein line, and the whole Ampharos line are just a few examples, though Walrein is probably more purple than pink.

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