CH68 (432), Moving On

I did not accept any other missions that day since mom, as well as dad, persuaded me to take it slow for a few days, and I agreed since it was Giratiday. I was planning to take it easy until Kyoday and accept one of the less action-promising missions I had on my list that morning. Due to that, I went straight back home after finalizing the commission with Ko.

I spent half of the day inside my room, or rather inside Utopia to talk with everyone that took part in the tide/war. All of us had seen and caused death in one form or the other before that, but this was the first time we were involved in a battle that resulted in so many casualties, so I wanted to make sure that everyone was fine.

The good news was that no one was traumatized by the events of the tide or suddenly decided that he or she did not want to fight any longer. The even better news was that talking with everyone actually ended up helping me as well since I noticed during the talks that most of them seemed to mind the whole thing less than I did.

Still, my talking with everyone made them happy and it made me feel better at the end of it, so I was pretty happy that I had decided to talk with everyone. I left shortly before lunch, but only after handing out everyone their share. The time after lunch, I spent with my parents, and surprisingly, or not, they ended up wanting to talk with me about my mission as well.

We went through the mission and discussed what I had done and what could have been done differently or better. Still, at the end of it, they assured me that I did a pretty good job all things considered. We also confirmed that there was not much I could have done to avoid a confrontation after I decided to engage the boss Arbok despite learning that he had reached the dark gold stage.

They did point out that retreat at that point would have been a valid and acceptable option. They even said that it would, in fact, have been what most if not all people would have expected me to do, but they understood why I chose to stay since they knew where my confidence at that moment came from.

Still, they did agree with my decision to stay after spotting the tide, which had been another point I could have avoided, even if it would have been at the cost of the Arbok tribe being eradicated.

After analyzing the mission and the tide a few times, specifically, why I made certain decisions, they gave me the good guy card since it was obvious according to them, that many of my decisions were done to reduce the casualties as much as possible, even if that ended up not working as well as I thought it would.

Once we were done with our talk, I felt better, and I went with mom to the kitchen to prepare dinner together with her. After dinner, we watched a movie from Jotho that took place in Goldenrod City and showed the secret war going on between the wild, as well as some of the domesticated, Snubbull and Meowth living in the metropolis.

I made sure to stream the movie inside Utopia, and everyone there enjoyed it as well. Now, some may be thinking, is a film about a war between two species a bit too soon, but I would say that it wasn't. The movie was a comedy and seeing the funny gang battle-like war between those two species made me laugh quite a bit. Especially since I always thought that Snubbul looked hilarious anyway.

To be honest, the movie caused some nostalgia in me, but for the love of Mew, I could not determine why. Well, whatever, maybe I would remember it someday. Dad told us that a second part was in production and would come out around the end of this year, or the start of the next one. We unanimously decided to watch the movie at the cinema once it came out.

Anyway, after that, I decided to give the two some alone time and wished them a good night before retreating to my room. The last thing I heard while going up the stairs was mom telling dad that they should watch a rom-com she had chosen, so I sent a quick prayer to Darkrai in dad's name.

I naturally went inside Utopia after locking my door, but I did not call anyone since I was planning to focus on my Rattata project. Due to everything that had happened, I had forgotten to pay attention to the progress yesterday night, so I decided to spend an extra hour working on it tonight.

I made sure everything was okay, before determining if and for whom I should increase or decrease the doses/energy concentration. I spent close to three hours working on the project before I went to sleep. The next morning, I returned to my usual/previous routine.

It was an hour or so before lunch that my second consciousness alerted me to Enji/Arcanine calling out to me from inside Utopia. I was naturally curious why he was doing that, even if I had a pretty big premonition that I knew the reason.

The probability that he was going to tell me that he had felt that feeling of wholeness was pretty high. So high in fact, that I would not bet against it under any circumstances, regardless of how high the possible returns were.

Still, I moved to my room as swiftly as possible and directly entered Utopia after locking the door. My suspicion was confirmed as soon as I appeared beside a super excited Enji. My boy had already gathered everyone so it was under their watchful eyes that I checked whether his feeling was right or not.

Thankfully, he was right this time around, and the final parameter had risen to SSS as well, officially completing his limit-breaking. It had been more than two years since he had reached the (high) silver stage and subsequently evolved, and now, it was finally time for him to break through the gold stage.

Not only would I gain another gold-stage Pokemon with this breakthrough, but the aurora club would also gain another member. It was with those happy thoughts that I gave Enji a final pat on the head before retreating along with the others. Enji who was left alone in the center gave a final bark before initiating his breakthrough.

It was not surprising that his breakthrough took a bit longer than a regular one since I expected that to happen due to him attaining light aurora potential. Still, Enji's breakthrough ultimately did not exceed a minute and as soon as it was over I went up to him to hug him while congratulating him on reaching the gold stage.

The others quickly joined in as well, and as usual, I used the chance while they were talking to check his new status screen.

'Name: Enji

Species: Arcanine

Gender: Male

Age: 7+ years

-

Type: Fire

Potential: Light Aurora (45.935%)*

{Deep Purple (29.53%) -> (31.87%) -> Light Aurora (45.935%)}

Genetic modifiers: None

Abilities: Flash Fire, Justified, Intimidate*

Talents: Pressure -> Alpha's Presence*

Affinities: Fire

-

Bond: Mikail (strong)

Quirk: Lively

----

Parameters:

Stage: Gold Stage (mid)

Vitality: D

Strength: C

Endurance: D

Agility: D

Energy Capacity: D

Energy Density: D

----

Immunity:

Fire

-

Resistance:

Grass (Minor), Ice (Minor), Bug (Minor), Steel (Minor), Fairy (Minor)

-

Weaknesses:

Water (Minor), Ground (Minor), Rock (Minor)

-

Standardized:

Water (in progress)

----

Condition: Healthy, Happy, Excited

----

Masteries:

Fire Energy Manipulation (Advanced)

----

Techniques:

-

(Unofficial) Initial:

N/A

-

Novice:

Psychic Fangs (new)

-

Beginner:

Helping Hand, Retaliate, Reversal, Odor Sleuth, Snarl (new), Fire Blast (new), Incinerate (new), Swift (new)

-

Proficient:

Bite, Endure, Take Down, Leer, Flare Blitz, Play Rough, Flame Burst, Flame Charge (++), Dig (++), Protect (++), Extreme Speed (++), Thunder Fang (new), Fire Spin (new), Safeguard (new), Sunny Day (new), Wild Charge (+), Double Team (new), Outrage (+)

-

Advanced:

Flame Wheel, Agility, Howl, Roar, Ember, Fire Fang, Iron Tail (+), Crunch (+), Heat Wave (+)

-

Mastered:

Flamethrower (+)'

Well, as I had expected, Enji had become my 5th Pokmeon with light aurora potential. Not only that, but he also dethroned Hera/Pidgeot, and became the Pokemon with the highest percentage among the 5. As usual, reaching the aurora grade had unlocked a third ability, and for Enji that ended up being Intimidate, which made sense since the Arcanine line had 3 abilities in their ability pool.

Still, the addition of Intimidate triggered an upgrade in Enji's talent, which I had suspected to be derived from Intimidate. Pressure turned to Alpha's Presence, and from what I could read in its description, this was pretty similar to Ryujin/Gyarados' Alpha Predator talent.

However, unlike Ryujin's talent, Enji's Alpha Presence had an encouraging effect on individuals that had a connection to him, so practically everyone that had a bond with me. In return, his presence was less aggressive/forceful, even if it still had a suppressing effect on those in its radius.

Its more benign nature, along with the fact that it was an upgrade to a talent Enji already had, was probably why it did not trigger automatically. Other than his talent upgrade nothing else in his status had changed, aside from the obvious.

I meant his stage/parameters in case it was not obvious. Enji directly started out at the (mid) gold stage after the starting bonus was applied thanks to the completion of his limit breaking.

All of his parameters were at D-value, aside from his strength which directly started at C-value. This meant he only had to raise three more parameters to C to reach the (high) gold stage. I was confident that he would easily manage that in less than a year.

Anyway, I shared the good news with Enji and the others causing them to congratulate a really happy Enji. It did not take long for one of them to ask Enji to use his talent and he did after receiving my approval. The feeling caused by Alpha's Presence was not that easy to describe.

It was definitely a positive one, but it did not give a bonus per se. No, what it gave rise to was more like a sense of confidence. It felt like his presence was encouraging us, telling us that we could do it, whatever it was that we were trying to do.

We could not test its effect on enemies/others, but the positive effect it showed was already good enough for me to grade it as a great talent. Everyone else agreed with me and Enji looked really happy to receive everyone's praise.

I told him that we would hold his celebration tomorrow, together with the one for the Slythering trio that managed to reach the (high) gold stage. Enji did not mind and happily talked with the others. I saw Shino radiate determination before he flew off, presumably to train until he completed his limit-breaking as well.

I did not stop him, but I made sure to send Luna/Clefable after him, and Gwen/Gardevoir, who had been talking with her, joined her as well. Enji noticed them leaving and excused himself before following after them as well. After the star of the show left, the others also returned to their own places. I also went out and continued my day.

The rest of the day went by without any further surprises, and close to midnight, after finishing up my work of the day on the Rattata project I went to sleep. Still, I was rudely awakened by my second thought stream, which was passively keeping an eye on Utopia.

The reason for the interruption of my sweet, sweet sleep was that Shino began making a semi-loud ruckus by cheering. At least he seemed to be aware of the fact that the others were sleeping, so the noise he made was not loud enough to disturb his neighbors, even if it was loud enough for my second thought stream to register.

I naturally entered Utopia to check up on Shino to see what all this was about. I had a hunch since it was kind of obvious, but I vividly remembered him going to sleep as well after Luna, Gwen, and Enji left. Well, it turned out that he had tried to sleep, but woke up an hour or so later and resumed training since he felt restless.

That was what he told me himself after proclaiming that he got the feeling of wholeness. He assured me that it was for real this time around. I naturally did check his status screen, and he was right. He managed to complete his limit-breaking.

I congratulated him on achieving his goal, but I also told him that he would have to wait until after breakfast for his breakthrough since it was in the middle of the night and everyone was asleep. He seemed slightly disappointed but understood where I was coming from, so he did not complain when I sent him to sleep. I swiftly left Utopia and followed suit as well.

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