"Owo, three... seventeeeen, twenty... Holy moly, so many?!" Naoki excimed, stunned by the sheer number of eggs.

  He g the hen, eared utterly exhausted after her prodigious feat. She stumbled around, looking drained and listless.

  After a few moments, she staggered back to the feeding trough and began to devour the chi feed with a ravenous hunger.

  Naoki watched with . Did I break her? he wondered.

  He quickly recalled the effects of the steamed chi feed:

  Wheo roosters, it accelerates egg fertilization. Wheo hens, it causes them to y a rge number of eggs in a short period.

  However, after ying eggs, the hen will enter a 15-day cooldown period during which it ot y eggs or e this dish again. It will also o e rge amounts of food tain its strength.

  "So, she's replenishing her depleted energy," Naoki cluded, relieved.

  Thankfully, the dish didn't permaly drain the hen. It seemed to fun like an advance payment, accelerating the egg-ying process and requiring a recovery period afterward.

  Naoki tio observe the hen. After finishing her own portion of feed, she proceeded to eat the other two hens' shares as well.

  She didn't stop until the trough was empty. Then, she returo her , led amongst the pile of eggs, yawned, and promptly fell asleep.

  Naoki began to calcute in his head. Based on the inal owner's memories, eggs in this world were retively cheap. A carton of ten eggs sold for only 250 Pokédolrs at the market.

  Zack buys eggs from ranchers at wholesale prices, so his selling price was lower than the market rate. This meant the pile of eggs before Naoki was worth less than 500 Pokédolrs. After dedug the cost of the chi feed, there wouldn't be much profit left at all.

  With this realization, the dish's effect didn't seem so extraordinary anymore.

  Naoki took half of the eggs for himself ahe rest for the hen to incubate. He then opehe coop door, allowing the other three chis to roam and bask in the sunshine.

  After that, he went to water the crops. With just over 4,000 Pokédolrs left and over two weeks until harvest, he o find another source of ine.

  Eggs wouldn't bring in much profit, so Naoki decided to explore Casseroya Lake, located north of the ranch.

  To protect the ranch from wild Pokémon while he was away, he asked Cyclizar to stay behind and guard the house.

  Returning to the , Naoki retrieved the six Poké Balls he had purchased in Mesagoza Town. He had kept them tucked away in a drawer, intending to use them for future outings and adventures.

  He looked at Koraidon, atg him ily.

  "Have you seen these before?" Naoki asked, holding up a Poké Ball.

  "Gaaashi!" Koraidon s massive head.

  Naoki surmised that Koraidon must have seen Poké Balls while it was with Professor Olim in Area Zero. In the game, Koraidon rofessor Olim's Pokémon.

  After Professor Sada's death, it lost a territorial battle against another Koraidon and fled from the Paldea crater, eventually entering the game's protagonist on a beach. The protagonist then received Koraidon's Poké Ball from Professor Olim's son, Arven.

  So, did that mean Koraidon's Poké Ball was currently in Arven's possession?

  Naoki pohis. Arven was often called "Little Batman" because, like Batman, he had lost his parents, Professor Olim and Professor Turo.

  As their son, Arven had once lived with his parents and Koraidon. But Koraidon's wild instincts and fighting spirit had eventually led it to attack other Pokémon. Fearing that Koraidoence would be discovered, and to prevent further harm to other Pokémon, Professor Olim had relutly retur to the Paldea crater.

  Young Arven bmed Koraidon for taking his mother away, and his rese grerofessor Olim, preoccupied with researeglected him. This led Arven to develop a dislike for both Koraidon and his parents, resenting aion of them.

  "I'll worry about that ter," Naoki decided, pushing those thoughts aside for now.

  Koraidon's Poké Ball was with Arven, and Pokémon that had already been caught couldn't be caught again with a different Poké Ball. The first capture imprinted a unique mark on the Pokémon, preventing it from entering another ball.

  Naoki recalled this being the standard rule fur Poké Balls. As an experiment, he held the ball against Koraidon's body.

  A few seds passed, but nothing happened. Koraidon remained outside the ball, looking fused.

  "Guess it won't work," Naoki sighed, putting the Poké Ball away and abandoning the idea of capturing Koraidon.

  Naoki packed his travel backpack with water, berries, Poké Balls, and other essentials. He was ready to set off with Koraidon to explore Casseroya Lake and survey its fish popution.

  Suddenly, Koraidon's cries echoed from outside.

  Naoki, backpack slung over his shoulder, stepped out to iigate. Koraidon ointing towards the rarance, r, "Gaaao!"

  "What's wrong?" Naoki followed Koraidon's gaze and saw two figures, oall and one small, approag.

  The woman in front was striking, with a wild aura. She wore a white b coat over a primitive animal-skin tuni animal tooth neckce ad her neck. Behirailed a young boy, about eight years old. He shared her short, sandy hair, and they bore a clear resembo each other.

  They stopped a short distance away, their eyes fixed on Naoki and Koraidon. The woman, her gaze lingering on Koraidon, spoke to Naoki with fidend poise.

  "Hello there," she began, "did you rescue this Pokémon?"