New Trainer 14-Day Free Starter Menu
Early the next morning, after a night of rest, Ben and Randy stood at the front of the day care waving goodbye to Kawaki.
"Thanks again for the hospitality, sir! See you!"
Kawaki smiled and nodded. "Safe travels!"
With the guests gone, the day care quickly quieted down.
Bewear headed upstairs to clean the guest rooms.
Kawaki, meanwhile, took down the "Open for Business" sign outside.
As usual, Taillow showed up to mooch some food, but today, Kawaki noticed something new:
After several days of free meals, the day care's current menu could no longer satisfy it.
To Taillow, the food here could fill its belly, sure—but it no longer brought it joy. And without increased joy, Kawaki couldn't gain any more intel on Latias and Latios.
"Looks like it's time to start working on new Pokémon recipes," Kawaki muttered.
But first, he had something else to do.
Taillow's earlier tip about Clefairy had stuck in his mind.
Plus, last night when he hosted that kid Ben, he'd also received detailed information about Clefairy's exact habitat.
So today, Kawaki decided to take a half-day break and bring Bewear and Growlithe to Meteor Falls to look for Clefairy.
As for the Axew sighting...
According to the intel, Axew lived in groups, protected by powerful Haxorus. Unless Axew itself agreed, it wasn't something Kawaki could just pursue on a whim.
While Bewear was still finishing up the cleaning, Kawaki went to check on Swampert and Quagsire in the backyard.
Then he visited the herb garden to check on Oddish's progress.
Unfortunately, Oddish's strength was still too low to make plants grow quickly like higher-tier Grass Pokémon. Most of the seeds in the soil had yet to sprout.
That left Oddish a little dejected—it wasn't sure if it was really helping Kawaki at all.
But instead of scolding it, Kawaki simply patted its little head and comforted it.
"Don't worry. Take your time."
"Naa-dsh~!" Oddish perked up again, visibly cheered by the encouragement.
Kawaki smiled, turned, and headed back to the lobby with his little shadow, Growlithe, tagging along behind.
Bewear was already waiting, cleaning gear stowed away.
"Alright, let's head out!" Kawaki said.
"Gu!" Bewear replied.
The three of them—one human and two Pokémon—locked up the day care and set off for Meteor Falls.
The day care sat between Meteor Falls and Fallarbor Town. Heading east along the main road would lead to Fallarbor, while heading west would bring them to the falls.
According to legend, Meteor Falls had once been a mighty mountain. A massive waterfall had once cascaded from its peak, but one day, a huge meteor crashed into the mountain, hollowing it out and leaving a vast cavern behind. The waterfall shifted, now pouring into the interior.
The meteor had created a unique ecosystem. Pokémon rarely seen elsewhere—like Solrock and Lunatone—were commonplace in Meteor Falls.
At 8:00 AM, Kawaki and Bewear arrived at the entrance to Meteor Falls.
At the end of the path sat a pitch-black cave mouth, beside which stood a warning sign, placed there by humans.
"DANGER: Wild Pokémon inside. Unauthorized entry prohibited."
"Well… we're not exactly ordinary people, are we?"
Standing in front of the cave, Kawaki hesitated slightly.
"How's your strength, Bewear?"
Bewear didn't answer. Instead, she grabbed both Kawaki and Growlithe, tucked them under her arms like luggage, and marched straight into the cave.
You really just asked Tapu Bulu how strong she is?
Kawaki:
Well, guess that answers that.
Since they were here, if they ran into anything too dangerous, they could always just run.
To his surprise, the inside of the cave wasn't as dark as he expected. Due to the meteor impact at the mountain's summit, beams of light pierced through the ceiling in regular intervals, illuminating the cavern's interior.
In the distance, Kawaki could already see several Solrock and Lunatone silently floating in midair.
So this was their nesting ground.
"Let's steer clear of those," he said to Bewear.
Both Pokémon were known for using Explosion. If one of them suddenly decided to go boom with its base 250 power… yeah, they were toast.
Besides, their goal today wasn't Solrock or Lunatone.
It was Clefairy.
Bewear glanced at the two Pokémon floating like suns and moons but said nothing.
Meteor Falls had multiple layers—ground level, underground, and elevated paths. The complex structure made it easy to get lost.
Luckily, Kawaki had precise intel on where to find Clefairy.
Avoiding the explosive pair, he followed a manmade stairway upward, past clusters of Geodude and Graveler, and finally arrived at the area mentioned in the intel.
He searched the area and, sure enough, found a familiar silhouette in a pit nearby.
It was a fluffy, star-shaped, round and pink Pokémon with a long tail.
Clefairy—found!
The Clefairy was sniffing around with its head down, glancing left and right like it was searching for something.
"Huh? Only one Clefairy?" Kawaki murmured.
Didn't the spaceship crash bring a whole bunch of them?
As that thought crossed his mind, Clefairy's data floated into his mind.
[Pokémon: Clefairy]
[Gender: Female]
[Ability: Magic Guard]
[Moves: Pound, Growl, Sing, Defense Curl, Minimize, Sweet Kiss, Charm, Copycat, Disarming Voice, Stored Power]
[Status: Healthy]
[Mood: In a mess]
[Joy: -30]
[Friendship: 0 (You're a stranger)]
[Description: If I don't fix the ship soon, I'll be stuck here forever! —Clefairy]
Kawaki: "???"
Fix the ship?
Wait… he wouldn't be surprised if Solrock and Lunatone had come from space via meteors…
But… are you telling me these Clefairy really came here in a spaceship!?
He was stunned.
Just then, the Clefairy ducked into a narrow tunnel and vanished.
Kawaki rushed over to check. The tunnel was pitch dark—maybe dug out by Onix or Geodude—but where it led was unknown.
Still, if the Clefairy had ventured in confidently, that probably meant there weren't any dangerous Pokémon inside.