Slowking was already preparing lunch, and Julian also started getting lunch ready for the Pokémon.
He released all his Pokémon.
"Arf~"
Arcanine wagged its tail, happily looking around—it really wanted to run a few laps across this plain.
Pawniard gently sniffed the golden flowers. Stimulated by the pollen, it couldn't help but sneeze a few times.
Perhaps the golden flowers looked appetizing—Steelix bit off a few, chewed them, and then realized they didn't really have any taste.
Kartana felt its hands getting itchy—it really wanted to slice up all these golden flowers.
"Alright, time to eat."
Julian placed boxes of Pokéblocks in front of each of them.
Aggron got metal ore, Melmetal got refined metal, Tyranitar got various rocks and minerals, while Duraludon got a mix of half metal and half rocks.
Celebi sat on top of Arcanine's head, and of course, Julian also gave Celebi a portion.
If Celebi didn't eat Pokéblocks and relied solely on junk food for energy every day, its level would have dropped long ago.
It was precisely because Julian gave it Pokéblocks daily that he didn't bother restricting its junk food intake too much.
"What's wrong? Why do you look a bit dazed?"
Julian pinched Celebi's cheek. It seemed a little different somehow.
But he didn't dwell on it—who knew if this little trickster was just pretending?
After distributing all the food, Julian heard Slowking's voice, saying lunch was ready.
Today's lunch was ramen, so it was prepared relatively quickly.
Slowking usually kept lunch simple because they had to continue exploring afterward—no extra time to waste.
Only dinner would be more elaborate.
Julian also gave Jirachi and Nebby their respective portions of Pokéblocks.
He ignored Celebi, who was sitting with Jirachi.
This immediately upset Celebi. It thought to itself—it hadn't argued with Julian today, so why wasn't it getting any Pokéblocks? Was Julian trying to starve it?
A wave of grievance instantly welled up inside it.
"Julian, you didn't give Celebi its portion!"
As a good brother, Jirachi hurriedly spoke up.
Julian looked at Celebi, who was gazing at him with pitiful eyes, and said sternly, "Stop pretending—you're pretty good at acting. Didn't I just give you a box earlier?"
Hearing Julian say that—and even accuse it out of thin air—made Celebi feel even more wronged. It shouted loudly:
"If you're not giving it to me, then don't! Why say you did? Hmph!!"
Now it was throwing a tantrum—like it had the right to.
Julian wasn't having it either. He turned and pointed at Arcanine, saying, "Just now you were right th—wait… why are there two of you?"
There was another Celebi sitting on Arcanine's head, happily eating Pokéblocks with a pleased expression.
Then he looked back at the aggrieved Celebi in front of him.
There really were two Celebis.
So earlier, he had given the Pokéblocks to the other Celebi—that fake one. No wonder it seemed a bit off back then.
"You bas***d! Who are you? How dare you impersonate me, Lord Celebi!"
Celebi also realized it had misunderstood Julian. It flew over to the other Celebi, glaring angrily at it.
But the other one simply ignored it, continuing to sit on Arcanine's head and eat its Pokéblocks. Arcanine didn't seem bothered either.
This made Celebi even angrier. How dare it ignore me? It really didn't take it seriously at all!
Julian, meanwhile, looked curiously at the fake Celebi, wondering which Pokémon it actually was, and how it had so smoothly blended into his team.
None of his Pokémon seemed to have noticed it.
But now that it was discovered, none of them showed any hostility—probably because this Pokémon hadn't shown any hostility either. Otherwise, Julian's Pokémon would have torn it apart already.
After finishing its last piece of Pokéblock, the fake Celebi looked up at the still-chattering Celebi, suddenly jumped up, and with a bam, punched Celebi right on the cheek.
When it landed back on Arcanine's head, its body shimmered slightly, transforming from a Celebi into a small, white, fox-like Pokémon.
The little fox Pokémon covered its stomach, laughing at Celebi.
"Ahhh—I'm going to kill you!"
That punch didn't really hurt, but it bruised Celebi's pride. Celebi was so furious it was practically about to spit blood and immediately charged at the other party.
But the little guy was extremely agile. With a light leap, it dodged Celebi's attack and punched Celebi on the cheek again.
As the saying went, you don't hit people in the face—yet this guy had hit its face twice. Celebi was truly enraged now, and its Pseudo-Champion aura burst out.
Clearly, Celebi wasn't playing anymore.
The little white fox, intimidated by Celebi's aura, finally lost its mischievous expression and revealed a look of fear.
"Hmph! Today, I'll teach you why flowers are so red. I'll be gentle… but you'll definitely scream!"
Celebi slowly approached the little fox, a somewhat menacing expression on its face. But after just a few steps, the back of its neck was grabbed by Julian.
"Alright, that's enough. Don't scare it."
Julian stopped Celebi, who protested unhappily, "But it ate my Pokéblocks and punched me twice! When have I, Celebi, ever suffered such a loss?"
"And you still have the nerve to say that? What's your level, and what's its level? Aren't you embarrassed that it managed to punch you twice?"
The little fox in front of them was only at the Ordinary-level, while Celebi was already a Pseudo-Champion—their strengths were worlds apart. Yet, under such circumstances, it had still been punched twice.
That was just plain humiliating. If Julian were Celebi, he wouldn't even have the face to fight back.
"That was a sneak attack! As they say, 'A gentleman uses his words, not his fists.' While I was educating it, it took advantage of my guard being down to ambush me! This guy isn't just a thief—it's a sneaky, despicable thief!"
Celebi grew even more indignant, waving its claws angrily at the little fox.
"And what about the second punch?"
The first punch could be considered a sneak attack, but after being hit and trying to fight back, it still got punched a second time.
"That's because I wasn't being serious! I was afraid I might accidentally kill it. This guy may be a despicable thief, but it doesn't deserve death, right? Hmph!"
Alright then—since you have an excuse for everything. Whatever you say goes.
But the fact that the little fox managed to punch Celebi twice did speak of its skill to some extent—though, of course, it was mainly because Celebi was kind of useless.
Celebi was all flab now. Its Pseudo-Champion strength was entirely from eating Pokéblocks. While the power was real, since following Julian, it hadn't been in a single battle.
"Blockhead, let me go! I'm going to beat it up!"
Sensing that it was no longer in danger, the little fox started making faces at Celebi again, even turning its backside toward it. Celebi was so angry it started yelling nonstop.
*****
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