Yes, that was exactly how it was. After all, Ralts had been hatched that way. One morning, he woke up to a bed full of eggshells and a green-haired, white-dressed little girl no bigger than his palm lying on his arm.

  Four words summed it up. Akira had hit the jackpot. If hunger had not kicked in and his mom had not called him to eat, he would have stayed in an “Awesome” high all day.

  With successful experience in hand, there was no way Akira would not use it again. After getting home, he immediately took out the egg and held it in his arms, rubbing it gently while whispering, “Hatch soon.” The sight was almost like Jindai High School American Football Team before Sousuke Sagara joined.

  The result was enough to shock his mom for an entire year. “Ari, are you okay?” Akemi Aki was genuinely frightened and thought her son had been affected by some curse from a Cursed Spirit.

  “I’m fine, really fine. This is a necessary process. If I treat it well, it will treat me well,” Akira said casually. He felt that getting along with people worked the same way.

  “As long as you’re fine. But if you keep this up, Little Sha will get jealous,” she teased. “Sha~” The Gardevoir sitting beside Akira quickly shook her head, but the dimness in her eyes and her drooping green hair made it obvious that she felt a little down.

  She was usually the one who enjoyed this kind of treatment. Especially during the Ralts stage, she practically used Akira’s leg as a chair and his stomach as a cushion. She looked wronged yet tried not to worry her master, which made the sight painful.

  “I’m sorry. That’s my fault,” Akira said, unable to bear it. He reached out to hold Gardevoir’s small hand, but with no place to put the egg, he ended up fumbling awkwardly.

  In the end, Gardevoir used Psychic Power to lift the egg, studying this future companion with curiosity. Akira suddenly had an idea. “Little Sha, do you know how to hatch an egg?”

  All Pokémon were oviparous, so for egg-laying creatures, incubation should be instinctive, probably. “Sha?” Gardevoir tilted her head, then placed the egg into her own arms.

  Akira fell silent. This was still the same method as his. Forget it, he would do it himself.

  Just as he reached out to take the egg back, another pair of hands stretched out and hugged it first. It was Akemi Aki. “If it’s just holding it and talking, Mom can do that too. Come out soon, and be a child as cute as Little Sha.”

  “Sha~” The praised Gardevoir was very happy. Akira was happy too. If his mom’s blessing worked, that would be double happiness.

  Setting aside that factor, Akira also felt that letting his mom incubate the egg was a good choice. In the entire Ake Clan, only she had real experience as a mother. If she was busy, everyone could take turns, since the whole Ake Clan were good people, and it would not be a bad thing for a Pokémon to grow close to anyone.

  “Mm, then it’s happily decided. Mom, you hold it first. I’ll cook. Little Sha, come help me.” “Sha~ Sha~” “Wait, Little Sha, go wash the vegetables first. Ari, go back to your room. There’s a letter from MF Bunko, I put it on your desk.”

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  “Double good news. Little Sha’s intuition was spot on,” Akira said. He ran back to his room and came out two minutes later, placing the letter on the coffee table.

  “It’s a contract invitation. Physical books can be released soon. I’ll call the editor right now.” He picked up the phone and started talking, sounding excited and focused.

  Seeing Akira like this, Akemi Aki and Gardevoir felt happy as well. The Ake Clan was filled with cheer, and even the Pokémon egg in Akemi Aki’s arms trembled slightly, as if it sensed the pleasant atmosphere.

  By the third day, things had settled into a routine. Because of contract preparations, Gardevoir’s exhaustion, and the new Pokémon egg, Akira stayed home instead of going out to clear areas and level up. He even slept more soundly than usual.

  What woke him was an itch in his nose, as if something were scratching it. “Little Sha, stop it,” Akira muttered half-asleep. When Ralts was younger, she sometimes climbed onto his face to play like this.

  The scratching only got worse. When he opened his eyes, he saw a pair of Panda eyes. Literally Panda eyes, belonging to Panda itself.

  It was a small Panda only a few dozen centimeters tall, with a bamboo leaf in its mouth. Its black little paws curiously pawed at Akira’s face. “You naughty Panda!” Akira blurted out.

  The little one seemed startled. It stomped on Akira’s face and jumped through the half-open door that he had not noticed. “Don’t run,” Akira said as he hurried out of bed to chase it.

  As soon as he stepped out, he saw Akemi Aki and Gardevoir running around after the hopping Panda. Its troublemaking nature was on full display. As expected of a naughty Panda, it was completely different from the well-behaved Ralts.

  Since that was the case, it could not be raised the same way. If a troublemaker was not properly taught, it would cause real chaos. “Little Sha, use Psychic Power to hold it still.”

  “Sha~” Although Gardevoir did not want to bully a newborn, she still obeyed her master’s order and pulled the naughty Panda over. Akira flicked it on the forehead and lectured it, telling it to play within limits and not mess up the house.

  “It was just born. How could it understand all that?” Akemi Aki said with a laugh. She seemed to have found another thing Akira was not good at.

  She opened her arms and picked up the naughty Panda, gently rocking it while comforting it. “There, there. Don’t be scared. Big brother and big sister were just playing with you.” Although it was not as human-like as Gardevoir, Akemi Aki genuinely liked this naughty Panda.

  Part of it was because Panda was cute, and part of it was because of that naughtiness. Her two sons, Noritoshi Kamo and Akira, were both too steady and lacked the liveliness children should have. The arrival of the naughty Panda filled that gap.

  As for that, Akira felt that as long as his mom was happy, it was fine. Just then, the doorbell rang. Akira naturally went to answer it.

  The editor appointment was that morning. Even if it was a bit early, there was no reason to keep someone waiting outside. As he walked toward the entrance, he signaled to Gardevoir to hide in the room, since the editor was just a normal person and had nothing to do with the world of Jujutsu.

  However, the moment Gardevoir turned around, the naughty Panda in Akemi Aki’s arms revealed its true colors. It shot up, bounced off the walls and ceiling, and passed straight through the door Akira had just opened. It landed squarely on the face of the white broom-headed figure standing outside.

  Akira froze.

  Pancham slammed straight into him, but the broom-headed man did not get angry. He only jolted slightly, made a strange “oh-do” sound, and casually pinched the back of Pancham’s neck to lift it up. Through the mask that covered the upper half of his face and doubled as a headband, he studied it carefully.

  “Hey↗… a very interesting existence. Definitely not human, not a Cursed Spirit, and not a normal living creature either. If I had to say, it should be a Pokemon. Is it part of your Jujutsu?”

  “More or less.”

  Akira nodded honestly, thinking that calling his little pet a Pokemon really had been correct. This world truly did have Pokemon as well. He remembered Satoru Gojo once saying that Hanami was closer to a Pokemon in nature, and there were also guesses that Yuki Tsukumo’s Jujutsu was related to Pokemon.

  The white-haired broom head asked, “What is this little one called?”

  “Pancham.”

  “Very naughty, and very Panda-like. Panda is great, heh heh heh.”