CH28 (158), The Holidays With The Parents (1)

My parents came yesterday shortly after I finished confirming that the house fit mom's minimum cleanness standards. Hugs were exchanged and we talked a bit about stuff that happened in the 3 weeks since we last saw each other. Talking over the phone was not the same after all.

We went to a Pizzeria I found for dinner and we talked a bit more before we split for the night. Honestly, they tried to act like everything was alright, but I could feel that something was weighing on them. I did have aura after all, and my emotion sense did its job perfectly in that aspect.

I did not want to intrude, but I was hoping they were planning to tell me what it was that was bumming them out. Anyway, we were done with breakfast and I was planning to ask my parents to show me their Pokemon. I wanted to check their status to see if they had made any progress.

"Mom, Dad. Could you call out everyone? I want to see them, it's been some time." I told them after we cleared the table.

As soon as I asked that I felt them tense, and the downcast feeling they gave off became more prominent, which was not a good sign at all.

*sigh*

"We were planning to tell you about it today anyway, so I'll just tell you right now. Let's go take a seat on the couch, I have to tell you what happened last week." Dad said, and mom just quietly took my hand and led me to the living room, where she made me sit beside her, but didn't let go of my hand.

All that didn't fill me with confidence, and after dad began telling me about the tide and what happened there. I felt a big pang when I heard that Sunny and Lono had died, giving up their lives to defend my parents.

While I was sad that they lost their lives, I was also really grateful to them for saving my parents from harm. That also explained why they were feeling the way they did. The two were still dealing with the loss of their partners.

Mom more so than dad, since Sunny had been with her for more than 10 years. In comparison, dad had spent about 4 years with Lono, which did not make his loss any less awful, but the bond between them was not as great as the one between mom and Sunny.

Pokemon here were not just pets, at least not for serious trainers. No, as long as one was not an asshole, spend long a time with their Pokemon, and established a genuine bond, they became like family to one.

Moreover, all of the partners of strong trainers were sapient, so it really was like losing a family member for them. It was no wonder my parents felt the way they did.

I couldn't be any more grateful to the two for their sacrifice, and I prayed for their souls since I knew that they like all sapient beings would move to the afterlife to be judged.

I was hopeful that they would get into heaven or at least get a nice new start if they reincarnated, since they did a lot of good and died helping innocents and protecting someone. Still, there were other ways I could express my gratitude as well.

"What happened to their bodies?" I asked because what I had planned depended on that point.

"We brought them along. We're going to bury them at the eastern end of our property." Mom answered my question and before I could say anything my father spoke up.

"We'll dig the earth ourselves without any help and only our Pokemon can manually help with refilling the hole after the body has been lowered. You can't help with those two steps, it's part of the customs for trainers." He said and I could only nod.

Still, that did for a bit in my plan. While they were digging the hole I was going to buy something to honor the two.

"Okay," I replied in a glum tone before hugging them both.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, before we separated. They stood up and said that they were going to change so that they could go out to dig the graves. I nodded and told them I was going out for the next 40 or so minutes. They consented and we split apart.

I run at my highest speed towards the city and it took me less than 5 minutes to arrive. From there I moved towards a high-end fabric store I discovered during one of my occasional strolls through the city.

I was planning to see if I could find a fabric that could keep the bodies safe from decay and any harm, while also making sure nothing bad happened like attracting ghost types or anything. I wanted to wrap Sunny and Lono's corpses in them if something like that existed, and I was pretty confident that it did. I was not disappointed.

The clerk told me that they had two fabrics that fulfilled my request but the price was really high, especially the second one. The width of both fabrics was 1.5 meters.

I needed 16 meters, 8 meters each, to make sure they were completely wrapped, and each meter of the first fabric cost 12,000 Poke. According to the clerk the fabric was made from Leavanny and Frosmoth silk that was treated with a special process.

The second fabric actually cost 32.000 Poke per meter and after hearing how it was made I couldn't really complain. Not only was Leavanny and Frosmoth silk used but also silk from a freaking Volcarona. It went through a special treatment method as well.

This was stuff that high-ranking trainers used for some of their clothes, at least the higher grade rolls. I obviously chose to buy the second fabric since it fit my purpose the best and it was really hard to damage as long as no strong Pokemon tried to rip it apart.

After paying over half a million Poke I took my purchase with me and returned home. I went towards my parents and told them about my plan of wrapping the bodies before they got buried and they agreed.

The staff at the PokeCenter had made sure that the bodies were presentable so I carefully wrapped them in the white fabric and then proceeded to wait for my parents to finish digging the holes. Roughly 10 minutes later they were done and we lowered both caskets into their respective graves.

Afterward, each parent with his/her Pokemon refilled the open graves with earth once more. They then took out two gravestones that they placed at the head of the grave with their name, species, age, death date, and their heroic deed carved on it.

The rest of the day we were all in a slightly somber mood and we talked about some interesting moments we had with them, be they sad, or funny. By the end of the day, everyone felt better(?), or rather more at ease and after a late dinner that consisted of spaghetti for us and their favorite Pokefood for our Pokemon, we went to our rooms while the Pokemon went to their places on the property.

I fell into contemplation once I was alone. While I couldn't increase the strength of my parents, I could still increase their potential by putting them inside Utopia.

It wouldn't suddenly make them stronger, but the potential increase and optimization, in general, would make it easier for them to improve and to overcome blocks they encountered, including breaking through to the next stage.

I hadn't done that until now because I had no plans of mentioning Utopia to anyone, but I had decided that I was going to go through with it tonight without anyone knowing.

The plan was easy, I was going to wait until everyone fell asleep, and then I was going to slip to their dens/dwellings one by one, pulling them into Utopia while they were sleeping. I would return them outside once the optimization was done, and no one would find out what happened.

To make sure they didn't wake up I was planning to use an odorless and tasteless medicine incense as well as a potion, that would make sure they slept through the event. As for them waking up because of my approach, that wouldn't happen.

All of them knew my smell and energy feeling, so they would subconsciously categorize me as a non-threat, thus not waking up like they would if anyone besides my parents or me tried to approach them.

I waited for roughly 3 hours before I sneaked my way outside. I quietly and carefully made my way towards my first target, the pond. A lot of my parent's Pokemon were currently staying there. I pulled out a few bottles of the relaxing potion that would make sure they stayed asleep and poured out 5 of them into the water.

With the amount of water inside the pond, 5 bottles were enough for them to be in deep sleep for the next 30 minutes. For those on the pond surface like Lapras, I burned two incense. Obviously, they would still wake up if I tried to hurt them or anything like that, but since I didn't plan to do anything like that I was in the clear.

The first one I pulled inside Utopia was Aomi, mom's Lapras, to do that I levitated over to touch her since the risk of her waking up was lower that way than using telekinesis on her.

I checked her status beforehand for the before-after comparison. I waited for the process to end and pulled her out once more, returning her to the place she had been.

As for the habitat Utopia generated for her, that got added to Manami's area, or rather it was used to expand her area. I naturally checked her status once more to see the improvement.

Name: Aomi

Species: Lapras

Gender: Female

Type: Water, Ice

Potential: Deep Green -> Light Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Aomi's potential had increased by one grade, and her stage was still as it had been at the start of their journey. Next up I pulled in my father's Lapras. Just like with Aomi I added his habitat to Manami's, which doubled the size of her area.

Name: Kaiyo

Species: Lapras

Gender: Male

Type: Water, Ice

Potential: Light Blue -> Deep Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

As for his status, he also had increased in stage since their journey began, but unlike Aomi, his potential increased by two grades to deep blue.

Next up, I used my telekinesis to pull in Rivers, since I did not want to dive into the pond. Thankfully, he didn't react to my telekinesis brushing him. After his optimization was done I placed him back. I placed the habitat created for him behind the Butterfree habitat, creating a second row of habitats/areas.

Name: Rivers

Species: Poliwrath

Gender: Male

Type: Water, Fighting

Potential: Light Blue -> Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Rivers also got his potential increased by one grade reaching blue, and he had no change in his stage as well. I repeated the same process for Star, but this time I was even more careful since it had a psychic typing as well. Thankfully, it went without a hitch. I placed its habitat into the northeast in the second row.

Name: Star

Species: Starmie

Gender: Genderless

Type: Water, Psychic

Potential: Green -> Deep Green

Stage: Silver-stage (high)

Unfortunately, Star's potential only improved by one grade turning deep green. Her stage remained as it had been before the journey too. Azure was the last one in/on the pond that I had to pull into Utopia.

Name: Azure

Species: Kingdra

Gender: Male

Type: Water, Dragon

Potential: Deep Green -> Light Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Like many before him, dad's Kingdra got his potential raised by one grade improving to light blue, and just like everyone else his stage had not risen yet as well. The habitat created for him was placed in the southeast of the second row.

Once I was done with the pond I quietly walked towards the alcove the Butterfree stayed and burned the sleeping incense. Afterward, I first pulled Emerald inside Utopia followed by Cyan, and their addition increased the size of Mothra's area by 1.5 times.

Name: Emerald

Species: Butterfree

Gender: Female

Type: Bug, Flying

Potential: Green -> Light Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (low)

Her potential actually increased by two grades reaching light blue, and dad's Butterfree turned out just as lucky since Cyan's potential increased by two grades as well, turning green.

'Name: Cyan

Species: Butterfree

Gender: Male

Type: Bug, Flying

Potential: Deep Yellow -> Green

Stage: Gold-stage (low)

I repeated that same process for every one of their other Pokemon as well. I went to their place, made sure they kept sleeping pulled them in, pulled them out, checked the change, and went to the next one.

I merged identical habitats into existing ones, and new habitats were used to complete the first ring/row as well as second/ring/row. In the end, I managed to do so for all of them except for mom's Fearow. I had already put him inside Utopia once, so there was no reason to do it again.

Among all of them, only Titan showed any improvement stage-wise since their journey began and dad had already mentioned his breakthrough to the (low) dark gold stage while narrating the events of the tide.

Now, as far as potential was concerned there were improvements across the board. The biggest one was the aforementioned Titan.

Name: Titan

Species: Nidoking

Gender: Male

Type: Poison, Ground

Potential: Blue -> Light Purple

Stage: Gold-stage (high) -> Dark Gold (low)

His potential actually improved to light purple, which was the highest among any of his parent's Pokemon.

Name: Titania

Species: Nidoqueen

Gender: Female

Type: Poison, Ground

Potential: Blue -> Deep Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Mom's Nidoqueen on the other hand "only" had her potential raised by one grade to deep blue. Others who had their potential raised were her Rapidash. Epona actually had an increase in two grades.

Name: Epona

Species: Rapidash

Gender: Female

Type: Fire

Potential: Light Blue -> Deep Blue

Stage: Silver-stage (high)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Run Away, Flash Fire

Talents: None

Affinities: Fire

Another one was Agni. Dad's Arcanine managed to get a two-grade increase as well.

Name: Agni

Species: Arcanine

Gender: Male

Type: Fire

Potential: Light Blue -> Deep Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Finally, the last one to turn deep blue was Duke. His potential rose by one, but that was enough for him to reach deep blue.

Name: Duke

Species: Crobat

Gender: Male

Type: Poison, Flying

Potential: Blue -> Deep Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (high)

The next ones had their potential increased to blue, or in mom's Fearow's case it already was blue.

'Species: Fearow

Gender: Male

Type: Normal, Flying

Potential: Blue

Stage: Silver-stage (high)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Keen Eye, Sniper

Talents: None

Affinities: Normal, Flying'

Her final Pokemon Weavile also reached blue potential thanks to a two-grade increase.

Species: Weavile

Gender: Male

Type: Dark, Ice

Potential: Deep Green -> Blue

Stage: Silver-stage (high)

Genetic variation: None

Abilities: Inner Focus, Keen Eye

Talents: None

Affinities: Dark, Ice'

Just like his dad's Rhydon, who had a two-grade increase as well.

Name: Vibra

Species: Rhydon

Gender: Female

Type: Ground, Rock

Potential: Deep Green -> Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

The last blue potential member was Skye, who received a one-grade improvement.

Name: Skye

Species: Pidgeot

Gender: Female

Type: Normal, Flying

Potential: Light Blue -> Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (high)

This left only Cell, who had his potential increased by a single grade as well, joining the light blue club.

Name: Cell

Species: Magnezone

Gender: Genderless

Type: Electric, Steel

Potential: Deep Green -> Light Blue

Stage: Gold-stage (mid)

Overall, the operation was a giant success. The only Pokemon among his parent's partners that had not reached the blue color spectrum, were Cyan and Star. I mean, Titan even had light purple potential now, which was pretty awesome.

My actions meant their upper strength ceiling had increased and the road to that goal had become a bit easier as well. So, knowing I had done a good deed I sneaked back into my room and fell asleep.

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