Chapter 363: Asher Might Not Be an Eevee Fan, but He’s Definitely a Doting Dad

The video continued playing.

Sophie’s communicator suddenly rang.

"Ah, Professor... Mm, all right. I’ll bring them over now."

Sophie ended the call and turned toward the three of them.

"The Professors said they’ve made some progress with the Eggs and would like you to come over now."

Selene instantly sprang up from her chair.

"Let’s go, let’s go!"

"Big Sis! The Eggs are about to hatch!"

Aurelia sighed.

"Your stomach doesn’t hurt anymore?"

"Of course not."

"That was psychosomatic stomach pain. Once I heard good news, I naturally recovered."

"..."

The three returned to the laboratory.

Professor Sycamore and Professor Kukui were standing in front of the lab table.

Under the lights, the two Eggs gave off a faint sheen.

Professor Kukui still looked painfully sleep-deprived, but his voice was unusually excited.

"You two!"

"We ran both Eggs through a high-precision scanner just now and finally discovered something interesting."

"Each Egg has a special energy mark embedded within its shell pattern."

Professor Sycamore turned the monitor around and pointed toward two symbols circled in red.

"Look."

"The patterns of these two marks are completely different from the natural markings on the shells."

"They were very clearly added afterward."

Aurelia and Selene leaned closer.

Both froze.

Selene pulled out Gardevoir’s Poké Ball.

"Big Sis, isn’t this..."

Aurelia also took out Gallade’s Poké Ball.

"Mm."

"They left these marks behind when they gave us the Eggs."

Red light flashed.

Golden Gallade and silver Gardevoir appeared on either side of the laboratory table.

Professor Sycamore’s eyes instantly lit up.

"Ohhh!"

"Professor Kukui, look at these energy readings!"

"They’ve already exceeded the normal threshold range for ordinary Pokémon!"

Professor Kukui rubbed his chin.

"Then if we use these marks as energy-conduction mediums and feed matching energy into the Eggs..."

"Theoretically, we should be able to accelerate the hatching process."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Selene patted Gardevoir on the shoulder.

"Go!"

"President Lunala gave us this Egg. We can’t let it go cold."

Golden Gallade and silver Gardevoir each placed a hand on one of the Eggs.

The marks on their chests lit up.

The energy bars on the instrument screen began climbing.

10%...

20%...

30%...

Then stopped at 38%.

"Hmm..."

Professor Sycamore tapped the machine.

"Again."

This time it stopped at 41%.

Professor Kukui checked the equipment.

"Mm..."

"It’s not a problem with the machine."

"The energy output probably isn’t efficient enough to reach the required threshold."

"Then what do we do?"

Selene tilted her head.

Professor Sycamore thought for a moment.

Then his eyes suddenly lit up.

"I’ve got it!"

"Mega Evolution can drastically increase a Pokémon’s power for a short period of time."

"Maybe that would be enough to break through the threshold."

"I’ll contact Sophie and ask her to check whether the institute has the corresponding Mega Stones—"

"Oh, no need, no need."

Selene waved dismissively.

"Big Sis and I have had complete sets of Mega Stones since we were seven."

"...Complete sets?"

Professor Sycamore’s voice went slightly weak.

"When you say ’complete sets,’ you mean...?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

"Every currently discovered species-specific Mega Stone."

Selene casually poured more than a dozen Mega Stones onto the laboratory table.

Clatter, clatter, clatter.

A colorful pile spread across the surface.

"I didn’t know what kinds of Pokémon I’d catch in the future, so I figured I’d just collect every type."

"They’re also pretty fun to use as marbles."

Professor Sycamore stared silently at the table covered in Mega Stones.

He was beginning to deeply regret not agreeing to cooperate with the Sun-Moon Group earlier.

Selene immediately noticed the look on his face.

She coughed lightly and planted her hands on her hips.

"Professor, if you invest in the Sun-Moon Group, Mega Stones are included free!"

"As many as you want!"

"You can even choose the types!"

"Selene!"

Aurelia spoke up.

"Let’s deal with the important matter first."

Selene puffed out her cheeks.

"Fiiine."

The sisters each took out their Key Stones and activated them.

"Gallade!"

"Gardevoir!"

"Mega Evolve!"

Rainbow-colored light instantly filled the entire laboratory.

Gallade’s form rapidly changed.

The blades on its arms grew longer and sharper.

The white armor behind it extended like a flowing cape.

And the sun mark on its forehead erupted with dazzling golden light.

Outside in the corridor—

Delphox’s pupils contracted wildly.

It opened its notebook and, with a trembling paw, wrote down one final line.

Hero Awakening Form—Avatar of the Sun! SSR-Tier! No... UR-Tier!

Selene’s Gardevoir completed its Mega Evolution as well.

Its dress transformed into flowing darkness like the night sky itself.

The moon mark on its forehead condensed into a miniature moon, while tiny fragments of silver-white light drifted around its body.

Mega Gallade and Mega Gardevoir simultaneously placed their hands on the two Eggs.

As energy flowed into them the shells began to tremble.

Cracks spread outward from the marks in every direction.

Crack.

A split appeared at the top of the golden Egg.

One fluffy brown ear popped out.

Crack, crack.

The silver Egg split open as well.

A curled, fluffy tail squeezed through the opening.

Then—

Two Eevee poked their heads out at the same time.

But unlike ordinary Eevee both had the same marks on their foreheads that had appeared on their Eggshells.

[VIP Chat Group]

[Dawn]: Ah! Eevee! And they’re Shiny too! Wait... Do they actually count as Shiny? Eevee with marks on their foreheads probably doesn’t count as Shiny, right?

[Bianca]: Who cares whether they technically count as Shiny?! They’re cute, and that’s all that matters! Two fluffy Eevee! I want to squish them so badly!

[Erika]: To be fair, Asher really does have excellent taste. Setting strength aside for the moment, all the Pokémon he arranges for his daughters are incredibly good-looking.

[Lorelei]: True. He’s already arranged Eevee for several of his daughters. At this point, I have reasonable grounds to suspect Asher has some secret obsession with Eevee.

[Bruno]: Good lord. Don’t tell me Asher’s secretly an Eevee fanatic?

[Asher]: Can you stop slapping random labels on me? When have you ever seen me raise an Eevee? You’re seriously taking things from a parallel world and applying them directly to reality again?

[Steven]: Brother Asher is absolutely right. Everyone, please stop casually projecting parallel-world events onto reality. Brother Asher clearly has absolutely no particular interest in Eevee!

[Asher]: @Steven, your eye stopped hurting already?

[Steven]: ...

[Asher]: Let me say this one more time. I have absolutely no particular interest in Eevee. Stop blaming parallel-world nonsense on the real me. Anyone who keeps saying it is going to have a problem with me.

[Elaria]: Um... Dad...

[Asher]: Hm? What’s wrong, sweetheart?

[Elaria]: I... I’ve actually always thought Eevee were really cute. If you don’t mind... Could I raise one too?

[Asher]: Eevee are great! You absolutely should raise one! Just wait there, my good girl. Dad will arrange one for you right now.

[Volkner]: @Asher, what a face-change.

[Flint]: I don’t know whether Asher is an Eevee fanatic. But he’s definitely a hopelessly doting dad.

[Lucian]: Agreed.