Pokemon : I'm Just a Photographer!

Chapter 102: Chapter 102

Mike then opened Stantler’s learnable move list.

"Now look at this. Notice how many Psychic-type moves Stantler can learn."

"Hypnosis, Psybeam, Psychic, Zen Headbutt..."

"It can learn an enormous range of Psychic-type techniques."

"Have you ever seen many other pure Normal-type Pokémon capable of learning this many Psychic moves?"

Professor Oak gestured for him to continue.

Mike picked up the water on the table and took several sips.

For some reason, he suddenly felt as though he had returned to his university thesis defense.

Only instead of professors sitting below him with evaluation sheets, he had Professor Rowan, Professor Oak, and Cynthia.

These three were far more intimidating than any thesis committee.

"Based on the moves Stantler can learn, combined with its natural method of attacking enemies, I suspect that during the Hisui era, the psychic energy within Stantler may have been significantly stronger than it is today."

"Over time, environmental changes may have caused that psychic power to weaken, eventually resulting in modern Stantler."

"So I believe Psyshield Bash was most likely a physical Psychic-type attack similar to Zen Headbutt."

After Mike finished, Professor Rowan and the others fell into thought.

A moment later, Cynthia nodded.

"I think Mike’s reasoning is convincing. A Normal-type Pokémon capable of mastering such a wide variety of Psychic-type moves is already worth investigating."

"I agree," Professor Rowan said.

He looked toward Professor Oak.

"What do you think, Samuel?"

Professor Oak suddenly grinned.

"My conclusion was actually the same as Mike’s."

"However, I didn’t approach it from nearly as many angles. His reasoning was much more thorough."

He looked at Professor Rowan.

"Rowan, your eye for talent is as good as ever."

Mike scratched his head awkwardly.

Gengar, who had been sitting below and watching the discussion like a spectator, heard someone praising Mike and immediately began applauding enthusiastically.

Cynthia heard him and joined in.

Soon, the small room filled with applause.

After a while, Professor Oak spoke again.

"For now, let’s provisionally classify Psyshield Bash as a Psychic-type move, while keeping Normal-type as our secondary hypothesis."

"How does that sound?"

Mike, Cynthia, and Professor Rowan had no objections.

Professor Oak wrote the conclusion down.

"Now we come to the central problem."

"How do we teach Stantler a species-specific move that its entire modern population has completely forgotten?"

After writing, Professor Oak looked toward Cynthia.

"Champion Cynthia, you’re the strongest active Trainer here. What’s your view?"

Cynthia sat in her chair and considered the question.

"I think we could interfere with its move-learning process while teaching it new techniques, gradually guiding Stantler toward rediscovering Psyshield Bash on its own."

At that moment, Mike suddenly remembered that he had the system.

He silently asked whether Psyshield Bash could be purchased through the Viewership Points Store.

{Moves that are not legally learnable cannot be exchanged.}

Mike: "..."

Useless system!

He had briefly hoped he could use the store to teach Pokémon moves they normally couldn’t learn.

Apparently not.

Then another system notification appeared.

{Lost Pokémon: As someone who intends to become a Legendary Photographer, how could you possibly ignore Pokémon that have vanished from the modern world—especially when one may still be capable of returning? You have therefore decided to photograph the supposedly lost Wyrdeer.}

{Wyrdeer: The evolved form of Stantler. As generations passed in an environment lacking sufficient natural predators, the Stantler species gradually forgot its ancestral signature move. Perhaps you can find a way for them to regain that move and evolve once more.}

{Completion Reward: 10,000 Viewership Points and a mysterious gift from the Wyrdeer species.}

’Huh?’

’A mission?’

Mike stared at the floating text in astonishment.

If the system had issued a mission, then...

Did that mean his idea truly had a chance of succeeding?

"Mike, what do you think?"

Professor Oak’s voice snapped him back to reality.

Mike looked up and found Professor Rowan and the others watching him.

"Sorry. I got too absorbed in thinking."

"No problem at all," Professor Oak said kindly. "Academic research requires constant thought and experimentation."

He laughed.

"Tell us your idea. I’ll treat everyone to dinner tonight."

Mike nodded.

"I think we should find several Stantler that were born recently."

"Preferably, their fathers should be Psychic-type Pokémon."

"Then we should ask a top Trainer or Pokémon Breeder who specializes in Psychic Pokémon to supervise their training and have those young Stantler practice Psychic-type moves alongside Psychic Pokémon."

"The reason I want recently born Stantler is that they’re still young and haven’t learned too many moves yet, which should leave them with greater flexibility and potential."

"If their fathers are Psychic-type Pokémon, they may also have an easier time learning Psychic-type moves."

"And if an expert in raising Psychic Pokémon oversees the process, we can design a much more effective training program."

"If they need to be very young, then ideally they should be under a year old," Professor Rowan said.

"I can ask other Professors whether any suitable Stantler are available," Professor Oak offered.

"I actually have several at my laboratory," Professor Rowan said.

"Their mothers are Stantler, while their father is an Espeon. They were born last autumn."

"My original plan was to raise their wilderness survival skills and release them once they were ready."

"Perfect. I’ll ask around and see whether other researchers have any suitable Stantler."

Professor Oak paused as something occurred to him.

"Rowan, isn’t there a Professor in Alola who specializes in Pokémon moves?"

Professor Rowan thought for a moment.

"Yes. I heard him give a presentation on Alola’s Z-Moves at the last summit."

"We could ask whether he’d be willing to help us develop a training method for Stantler," Professor Oak suggested.

"Good idea. I’ll contact him now."

Professor Rowan took out his phone.

A moment later, he looked back up.

"What was his name again?"

Professor Oak also went blank.

Mike hesitantly spoke from the side.

"Um... Professors, are you talking about Professor Kukui from Alola?"

Both men immediately remembered.

"Yes, yes, that’s him."

Professor Rowan found Kukui’s contact information and called.

...

In the Alola region, Professor Kukui was polishing a research paper on Z-Moves when his Rotom Phone suddenly began ringing.

He picked it up and saw that Professor Rowan from Sinnoh was calling.

Kukui immediately answered.

"Professor Rowan, hello—ah! Professor Oak is there too?"

He was surprised to see Professor Oak sitting beside Rowan.

Professor Rowan and Professor Oak greeted him before Rowan explained the entire situation involving Stantler.

By the time Kukui finished listening, his eyes were practically glowing.

Mike stared at him through the screen and wondered whether the man was about to crawl through it.

"So that’s what’s happening?! Do you need my help? Actually, even if you don’t, could I please observe the research from the side? Please!"

Professor Kukui spoke with absolute seriousness.

A Pokémon thought to have vanished.

A lost evolution method.

A signature move forgotten by the entire species.

How could someone who specialized in researching Pokémon moves possibly resist witnessing something like that?

And they were trying to teach Stantler how to use it again.

Kukui swore that if they allowed him to come, he would happily do anything they asked.

"Don’t get too excited," Professor Rowan said.

"We’re calling because we want to invite you here specifically to help guide the move-learning process. Since Pokémon moves are your field of expertise, we wanted to know whether you had time to come to Sinnoh."

"Of course! I’ll buy a plane ticket right now!"

Kukui didn’t hesitate for even a second.

"There’s no need to rush quite that much. Just come directly to Oreburgh City. We’ll be waiting here."

"Understood!"

After ending the call, Professor Kukui immediately booked the earliest flight and began packing.

Back in Oreburgh, Professor Oak also finished making arrangements.

He could borrow two suitable Stantler from other researchers. Combined with Professor Rowan’s three, they would have five young Stantler that met the conditions.

"So there’s only one requirement left," Mike said.

"We need an expert specializing in Psychic-type Pokémon."

Then he remembered something and took out his phone.

"Oh, right. I think I have Elite Four Lucian’s contact information. I’ll ask whether he has time to—"

But Cynthia had already taken out her phone and called Lucian and the call connected almost instantly.

Lucian’s voice came through.

"Boss? Is something wrong?"

"Oreburgh City. I need you here for some work."

"Yes. I’ll be there immediately."

Mike looked at Cynthia after she ended the call, then lowered his eyes to the unsent message on his own phone.

After thinking for a moment, he deleted it.

"As a Champion, assigning him work is entirely reasonable," Cynthia said calmly.

Mike nodded in agreement.

Internally, he had already begun mourning for Lucian.

’My poor Elite Four Lucian.’

’Another overtime shift for him..’

"By the way, Mike," Professor Oak said, "would you be willing to stay in Oreburgh City and participate in the research for a while? It shouldn’t interfere too much with your plans, should it?"

Mike smiled and raised his camera.

"Professor Oak, I’m a photographer."

"If Stantler really does evolve into Wyrdeer, I think the photographs and video of that moment would be incredibly meaningful."

"Hahaha! So you really are a photographer?"

Professor Oak laughed.

"You know so much about Pokémon that I assumed you were a Pokémon researcher like Champion Cynthia."

Professor Rowan sat nearby and stroked his beard.

"Don’t worry. While we’re working here, you can challenge the Oreburgh Gym if you want."

"And if this experiment succeeds, you may very well qualify to become a Pokémon Professor yourself."

"You’re giving me too much credit, Professor Rowan. Becoming a Pokémon Professor is still far beyond me."

Mike shook his head.

"Rowan isn’t exaggerating," Professor Oak said.

"If this research succeeds, the results alone could genuinely qualify you for that title."

"Perhaps you don’t fully understand what this project could accomplish."

"It would expand the Pokédex, add a lost move back into our knowledge of Pokémon techniques, and restore a Pokémon that disappeared from the modern era."

"That would be an enormous research achievement."

"But fossil restoration also brings extinct Pokémon back, doesn’t it?" Mike asked.

"That’s different," Professor Oak explained.

"With fossil restoration, we already know the Pokémon existed. We know the result, and the research focuses on discovering a method to restore it."

"With Wyrdeer, however, we didn’t even know the species existed."

"We didn’t know there was any connection between Stantler and Wyrdeer, much less that Wyrdeer might be Stantler’s evolved form."

"You were the one who proposed the hypothesis that Wyrdeer was Stantler’s evolution, and now we’re following that hypothesis and designing experiments to verify it."

"The difficulty is on an entirely different level."

Professor Oak smiled.

"Of course, both achievements are still tremendously important."

Mike nodded.

Doing research in the Pokémon world was exhausting.

Especially because there were so many things where he already knew the answer but couldn’t simply say it.

Everyone else didn’t merely want to know what the answer was.

They needed to know why.

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