The rain shrouded the valley with no sign of stopping. Although the rain was not heavy, it was enough to make the long river flowing through the valley into a wave of waves, and the sound of running water mixed with the sound of rain, which made the people under the dark clouds more and more irritable.

The "infirmary" in the Valley of Flames, located next to the auditorium, is a small three-story building, which is already overcrowded at the moment. There was a long queue of injured people and injured Pokémon under the canopy, and the medical staff were also busy, eager to turn into monsters and grow four hands.

Fortunately, most of the wounded had suffered only some external injuries, so the houses adjacent to the infirmary were temporarily requisitioned as "rest rooms for the wounded", and doctors ran from building to building with medical kits on their backs, sweat and raindrops.

Sayo didn't want to take up the Flame People's medical resources at such a critical juncture. However, the rain washed away the blood stains on the white sweatpants a little frighteningly, and as soon as he stepped into the Valley of Flames, he was dragged and thrown into the infirmary by the frightened people in turn.

The bloodstained trousers were cut open, and after the disinfection was applied, the white bandages were wrapped around the skin, wrapping the calves tightly - the appearance looked exaggerated, in fact, the energy of the Shadow Ball only hurt the skin, but the wound area was slightly larger, which was a small problem for Xiao Ye to "heal after spraying two sprays and leaving it alone".

After the clichés such as "avoid the rain and prohibit strenuous exercise" were over, the busy doctor rushed to the adjacent bed, waved an alcohol cotton ball at the Charizard's wings, and poked it into a wail.

The infirmary in the Valley of Flames does not distinguish between patient races, and humans and Pokémon are in the same room. Sunfeather's mighty chicken also sat drowsily next to Charizard, waiting to be healed—it was also badly injured when it was struck by King Nido's Earth Spike.

The Mighty Chicken trainer sat in a chair by the door, his eyes darting back and forth between the scarred man and the Pokémon for a few times, and finally hung down guiltily.

"Sorry...... It must hurt, right?"

"yes, it really hurts. The mummified tourist covered his heart with his calf tied.

"Eh......"

Yang Yu was stunned for a moment, thinking that Xiao Ye had other injuries besides his legs, and just wanted to ask a few words, he saw the other party say in a heavy tone, "This can be said to be a painful loss of property - my pants have just been bought." If you knew that it was better to buy shorts, you would have survived. ”

“......”

Seeing the red-haired boy's worried expression gradually distort, the tourists laughed.

She looked at the little friend's expression and said, "Why don't you do this, in exchange for helping you once, can you answer me a question?"

"Of course, please!"

Yang Yu is not a person who can really not care about his mistakes and affect his companions when others say "don't care". Seeing that Xiao Ye took the initiative to propose a "compensation strategy", he nodded almost without thinking, completely ignoring what the other party would do if he asked about the secret news that he had been gag by the patriarch.

Xiao Ye answered, thought for a moment and then spoke.

"Yang Yu, what did you think of when Charizard caused an explosion with overheating?"

The boy was unaware of this question, and was firmly stunned.

The tourist wanted to comfort Yang Yu by throwing out a question that was not so perfunctory and did not involve the secrets of the Flame Nation, but seeing that the other party's reaction was a little wrong, he immediately added, "If you don't want to talk about this, I can change the question." ”

Yang Yu's expression struggled slightly, but he shook his head decisively.

"Nope. It was my mistake that hurt you, and even if you don't ask, I have to tell you why. ”

His fingers subconsciously clenched the scarf that hung down his shoulders.

"Actually......"

"I'm 'scared' of the flames. ”

It's been three years since that accident. And at that time, every image, every sound, and every bit of temperature were deeply imprinted in the young man's mind, taking root day after day, and he will never forget it.

It also seemed to be a hot summer with sunny and rainy days. The young boy has not yet become a trainer and has just received his first Pokémon of his own from an adult. The little fluffy turkey looks like a fluffy dumpling, not at all imposing, but it is already the best partner in the world for boys.

The boy has a friend he has known since childhood. He was not a native of the Valley of Flames, and his snowy silver hair did not bear any resemblance to the Flame People, but he had a similar temperament and close relationship with the boy, and was the boy's most important friend. Sometimes they laughed, sometimes they were noisy, and they often had a self-righteous Pokémon battle after dinner.

The boy's friends are slightly older than him, and they have more experience in Pokémon battles, and they are rarely defeated even when they are at a disadvantage. Young people are always reluctant to admit defeat - the boy trains his Pokémon hard and learns more tactical skills, including the Flame People's killer weapon, "Burst".

This is a somewhat dangerous trick for young children who don't have the ability to "control fire" – but only "somewhat dangerous". The flames that a small turkey can emit are too weak to hurt people even if they go out of control, and at most smoke the trainer's face to ashes.

The boy practiced it as a nirvana. While progress was still unclear, he fought many more battles with his friends and lost many times. Finally, one day—it was a somewhat gloomy afternoon, he remembered—was cornered again, and when he was about to be defeated, the boy who couldn't hold his breath called out the name of the nirvana that he had not yet mastered.

It stands to reason that even if the worst outcome occurs - the fire chick fails to control its own flames and spreads out of control to the surrounding area, at most it will be a waste of physical strength and lose a game again. However, something that no one could have predicted happened.

The moment the boy shouted that command, the fire chick evolved.

Its body grew tall and reborn in a matter of seconds, accompanied by a red glow of fiery properties that unleashed as its physical strength approached its limit. The excessively hot flames were spit out in an orderly manner, stacked haphazardly, expanded, and finally exploded after crossing the threshold.

The boy was fortunate to be far from the epicenter of the explosion and was not affected. Then, he watched as the out-of-control flames consumed his friend.

The picture that followed was a little blurry - he couldn't remember what he had done, whether he had rushed forward in a panic to put out the fire, called for help from adults, or stood there in a daze?

He remorses his impulsiveness, and blames himself for hurting his friend. The overwhelming negative emotions that he couldn't get rid of were no longer able to face the things he was most familiar with, and his Pokémon partner seemed to be in touch with him, unable to spit out a trace of fire.

Three years later, it is still the case.

Maybe it's because he has recalled this regret too many times, and he is already "familiar with the way", Yang Yu's tone of telling the past is quite calm. Xiao Ye listened to him quietly, and remained silent after the last sentence.

She knew that she had no position to persuade Yang Yu to do anything.

- Of course, when Yang Yu finished telling and wanted to apologize to Xiao Ye for being sincere and excessive, Xiao Ye didn't dare to remain silent anymore. Finally fooled this level with the saying "you answered my question is considered two clear", Xiaoye excused himself to go out to breathe, and quickly left the infirmary.

As soon as he went out, the shape of the person standing next to him made Xiao Ye stunned for a moment.

“...... Yongzhen?"

The brown-haired boy who was wrapped in layers turned his head and said melancholy, "My mother said that I coughed too much, and I had to block it tightly so that it wouldn't be annoying." ”

“......”

So you put on a mask and then put an airtight grimace mask on your face?

It was still raining outside, so it was inconvenient to travel, so the two of them stopped in front of the window at the end of the corridor after a few turns, letting the wind outside the window dilute the smell of disinfectant on their bodies.

"I overheard your conversation just now. Yong Zhen said very honestly, looking Xiao Ye up and down, looking curious, "That guy hasn't made an old mistake for a long time, how big of a formation have you made?"

Sayo: "......"

Thinking about all the contributions that Charizard has made throughout the ages, especially when it comes to demolishing the site, Saya suddenly feels a little weak.

After grinning and teasing Maya's violent behavior, Yujin pulled the mask on his face to reveal a pair of brown eyes.

Yang Yu felt that he had done something wrong, so he always spoke very badly about himself. It's not like that. The boy restrained his playful expression, "He said 'scared,' but he never ran away." ”

"When I fought against you, Gala Gala used 'Deflagration' - uh, it was only half used?" "Yong Zhen looked at the guy in front of him who interrupted other people's special moves every day, and decided to give up on the details first, "Despite the fear of flames because of that incident, 'Deflagration' is still a regular item in his daily training, and he will never stop unless he has completely lost his physical strength." Now he might be a hundred times more proficient at deflagration than I am, so you can rest assured. ”

Yongzhen said what he wanted to convey most with a serious expression.

"-Yang Yu is a reliable teammate, I hope you can trust him. ”

Saya smiled.

"Of course, that's what I've always thought. ”

"That's great...... Uh, provided you don't amplify the bomb. ”

“......”

"If you blow it up like that again, maybe it's not just him, I'm afraid. ”

“......”

“...... Luckily, it's raining today, and if it's sunny, there might be a forest fire......."

“...... I'm sorry, but I don't think it's nice to be in the forest......"

By noon, all the personnel who had gone out on patrol had returned to the Valley of Flames ahead of schedule. Many people were injured, but fortunately, most of them were not serious, and there were no deaths or serious injuries.

After the injuries were counted and dealt with, the Valley of Flames convened an emergency operations meeting - this time, Saya, who had touched the key information, was also one of the speakers.

She recounted in detail everything she saw in the sky, especially the swarm of drones hovering high in the sky. As soon as these words came out, everyone was in an uproar.

At this point, everyone has realized the crux of the matter.

The calm of the first two days was not for nothing. Anyone with a little combat experience can be sure that those drones were by no means quietly hovering over Mt. Aso on the first day. Most of the unidentified enemies relied on these mechanical eyes to fully grasp the movement patterns of the Flame People for two days, so that they could launch a thunder offensive on the third day.

Since the search for the Upegu only focused on the situation on the ground, no one noticed that they had been observed in this way for two whole days.

The creepy feeling wrapped around everyone's back. The atmosphere in the chamber was surprisingly solemn, hardly like the heartless people who were always smiling.

What's even more powerless is that walkie-talkies, drones, and large-scale dark crows all show that the enemy is powerful and menacing, but they can't guess what the purpose of the mastermind behind the shadows is.

In the end, in order to ensure the safety of their clansmen, everyone decided to cancel the previous reconnaissance plan, strengthen the perimeter defense, and not leave the Flame Valley for the time being. As for the search for Wupeigu, there is a serious lack of information at present, and it is not possible to formulate a plan of action, so we can only leave it for tomorrow to discuss again.

After the meeting ended, Xiao Ye received a notice to go to a certain room in the infirmary—the string of numbers looked very familiar, and Xiao Ye quickly remembered that it was the hospital room where Qing Na, who had been injured during the night attack of the Wind Thieves, had visited with Yang Yu.

Xiao Ye only thought that Haruna was looking for her something, and didn't think much about it. And when she pushed the door in, she was stunned by the sight before her.

The next patriarch candidate, Harina Higahara, the captain of the Flame Valley Guard, Yasumu Hibara, and the current Flame Nation Changhuo Yuanye - the three of them sat by the window, looking at the guests who came to the appointment.

====================

Small Theatre:

Sayo: Actually, I'm a little curious, why are most of the original Pokémon of the Flame People made up of fire chickens? The Orange Islands don't have a habitat for this race, right?

Yang Yu: Our friends in Hoenn helped introduce it - because everyone wanted to accept Niwa-sama as a starting Pokémon, but Niwa-sama was always sleeping and never showed up, so I had to settle for the next best thing, giving up "Firebird" and choosing "Turkey".

Night: ...... Your attitude towards the gods is so special.

Flame, Niwa God, Bird: ............ (Don't dare to show up) (I had to sleep)