Chapter 326: Ode to an Egg

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Those three days were extremely fulfilling for Tiana—

If nothing else, the number of times she’d gotten beaten had reached an all-time high since arriving in the real world.

More than once, Tiana stared up at the ceiling and sighed deeply.

"There is no love left in this family."

Elaria quietly added from beside her: "But Big Sis Tiana... isn’t this only happening because you kept causing trouble yourself?"

Elaria’s words immediately sent Tiana into a profound internal drama.

She’d been in the real world for quite a while now.

Sure, she had caused plenty of trouble...

But she’d also brought so much joy to this family!

She cooked with Mom Misty.

She trained with Mom Dawn.

She went shopping with Mom Elesa.

Even the promotional tagline for Mom Diantha’s newest movie had been her idea.

As for Cynthia...

All right.

She admitted she’d caused her actual mom a little more trouble than the others.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was—

She would be returning to the future soon.

Once she left, this family would lose a genius beautiful girl capable of keeping the atmosphere lively.

There would be no one left to tell jokes at the dinner table.

No one left to volunteer as the first taste-tester for new desserts.

No one left to freeze time in the middle of the night, sneak into the kitchen to steal ice cream, and somehow run straight into Dad anyway.

By the time she reached this point in her thoughts, Tiana had practically moved herself to tears.

She jumped straight onto the sofa, grabbed the remote control, and held it like a microphone.

"Just wait!"

"Once I’m really gone, Dad is definitely going to regret it!"

"When that happens, the moms will sit silently in the living room, unable to eat anything, thinking that a home without me has no meaning at all!"

Just as Tiana was completely immersed in her one-woman performance about how deeply the entire family would miss her—

The door opened.

Asher walked in holding a box.

"Tiana, there you are."

Tiana’s eyes immediately lit up.

The corners of her mouth started rising uncontrollably.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s finally here!

Dad must not be able to bear seeing me leave.

He’s come to apologize!

Tiana quickly adjusted her expression.

With her back toward the door and both hands in her pockets, she adopted a lonely yet stubborn pose.

"Dad, I know you’re regretting everything now, but it’s okay. As an obedient child, I’ve always—"

"All right, stop adding scenes to your own drama."

Asher shoved the box into Tiana’s hands.

"It’s your favorite pudding."

"Your moms are already downstairs. Hurry up and come down."

Tiana: "..."

Downstairs—

All six moms were already standing in a row.

Misty, Dawn, Elesa, and Diantha each stuffed a small package into Tiana’s hands.

Cynthia stepped forward and gave her a hug.

After saying goodbye to her moms one by one, Tiana winked at Asher.

"Oh, right, Dad!"

"I left your farewell present in the yard."

"Make sure you check it out~"

Asher’s heart immediately skipped a beat.

"When did you put it there?"

"Last night."

"You’ll find out very soon~"

Tiana smiled brilliantly.

Then she turned toward Elaria.

"Elaria, make sure you behave yourself~"

Elaria blinked.

Before she could respond, a pillar of white light from the system enveloped Tiana.

When the light faded—

Tiana had disappeared.

"What farewell present was Tiana talking about?"

Cynthia looked toward Asher.

"I have no idea. She—"

Before Asher could finish—

BOOM!

A deafening explosion came from behind him.

Everyone turned toward the courtyard in unison.

Right in the center of the yard was now an enormous crater two meters across.

A note had been left beside it.

It read:

Dad, this is my farewell present to the family. No need to thank me~

Asher lowered his head and looked at the crater.

Then he raised his head toward the sky.

Finally—

He closed his eyes.

"TIANAAAAA——!!!"

At the same time, the livestream screen lit up once again.

[Ding! Intermission complete. The livestream will now resume!]

[VIP Chat Group]

[Steven]: Finally! These days without any videos to watch were even more unbearable than when I was an egg!

[Wallace]: Why don’t you explain those profound "egg-life reflections" you sent me yesterday first? Didn’t you say you were going to write a poem?

[Leon]: What poem? Steven writes poetry?

[Wallace]: He sent me one yesterday. It was called Ode to an Egg it goes something like this: I am an egg,

Forever do I roll.

Should Diancie appear,

Three thousand miles I’d go.

[Lance]: ...

[Raihan]: I’m going to throw up.

[Volkner]: Steven, you truly are the pride of the Hoenn region.

[Steven]: Thank you for the compliment. My talent is reserved for those capable of appreciating it.

[Flint]: Has anyone else noticed that Steven somehow became even more shameless after coming out of that Egg?

[Sidney]: That can still increase? I thought he’d already hit the maximum.

[Steven]: You people have no artistic sensibility whatsoever! My poem is clearly overflowing with emotion and evocative imagery! It’s only slightly inferior to Brother Asher’s poetry!

[Asher]: Don’t drag me into this. I’ve never written a poem in my life.

[Steven]: Brother Asher, you don’t need to write poetry. Your life itself is a poem. And I—

[Wallace]: All right, all right. Stop praising him. The livestream is back. Pay attention to the video.

The video on the giant screen began playing.

Saffron City.

Backyard of Saffron Gym.

Aurelia stood in the courtyard with her eyes closed and both hands folded over her chest.

A faint layer of blue psychic power surrounded her entire body.

Her golden Kirlia stood behind her, also with its eyes closed.

Even its breathing was perfectly synchronized with Aurelia’s.

At the same time a pink figure slowly emerged from the treetop above her.

Mew.

No one knew exactly when it had started, but Mew had developed a habit of hiding in this tree and secretly watching Aurelia train.

Whenever Aurelia practiced her psychic powers, it would spin around together with the iron balls.

Whenever Aurelia took a break to eat snacks, it would stare eagerly at her with its tail swishing back and forth.

That strategy always earned it a share of the treats.

Today, after Aurelia finished lunch, she called toward the tree as usual.

"Come down."

"I brought Poké Puffs today."

"Mew?!"

Mew immediately did a somersault straight out of the tree.

Aurelia gently caught it with her psychic power and lowered it onto her lap.

"Slow down."

"I prepared plenty."

"If you eat too quickly, you’ll choke."

Aurelia opened the lunchbox.

Poké Puffs of every color were arranged neatly inside.

Mew’s eyes instantly turned into stars.

Its entire head plunged straight into the lunchbox.

"Eat slower..."

Aurelia gently supported Mew’s back with her fingers to keep it from choking itself on the cream.

Mew finally pulled its head out of the box.

Its face was covered in cream of every imaginable color, making it look like someone had overturned an entire paint palette on it.

"Mew~"

It gave a satisfied cry and nuzzled against Aurelia’s chest.

Aurelia pulled a wet wipe from her pocket and cleaned Mew’s face.

"You’ve been getting clingier and clingier lately."

As she spoke, Aurelia lightly tapped the tip of Mew’s nose with one finger.

"Oh, right."

"I won’t be able to come here very often from now on."

"You don’t have to wait for me every day anymore, okay?"

Mew tilted its head.

Then it suddenly floated out of her arms and dove headfirst toward the handbag Aurelia had placed on the grass nearby.

"Wait, there’s—"

Aurelia reached out to stop it but it was already too late.

Mew used its tiny paws to flip the entire bag upside down.

Its contents spilled everywhere with a clatter—

Including all kinds of Poké Balls.

The Poké Balls rolled across the ground.

One of them happened to stop directly at Mew’s feet.

Mew immediately took a liking to the purple-and-white Master Ball.

It reached out one paw and touched it.

A flash of red light.

The Master Ball rocked only once.

Ding.

Then it went completely still.

...

TL: Original is from Ode to the Goose, its quite a famous (?) or at least commonly seen classical poem.