"So, did you enjoy it so far?" Ash asked, late that evening.
"A lot," Koraidon nodded, as she looked out over the lake. "It's… nice to help Pokémon out."
She turned to Ash. "Is it like that for you, dad? Or, was it? I don't know which way around to say that."
"I guess it's a bit the same, and a bit different," Ash replied. "It's… it seems a lot like what happens when I first catch a new Pokémon, where it's working out what I can about how to help them out the quickest. Like with Grimer."
"I am pleased with how we did with Grimer," Miraidon said, displaying happy-images on their eyes. "She seemed a lot happier when we were done, and that is what matters."
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "That's what matters. And that you had fun with it is… it's a bonus, and that's really good."
He tapped a hoof on the ground, then looked up at Latias. "That makes sense, right? It's good when what you do is the right thing to do and also a fun thing to do, because it means you don't have to pick… it's like with Cynthia and her history hobby, I guess. Or, not quite the same."
"We learned that from you, dad," Mew said, firmly. "And I learned it from Mewtwo, too. It's that… okay, so your Pokémon usually battle, because you're a competitive trainer. But we don't have to. And the way that works isn't that being your Pokémon means that most of them are made to battle, like it would be with… with Paul, I think?"
They frowned, tail flicking, then caught the tip in a paw. "It's more like… because a Pokémon wants to battle, then it's more likely that they join your team. It's that way around."
"Yes!" Miraidon confirmed. "I like that way of thinking about it."
"I think I like it too," Sandshrew said, looking contemplative. "I've been picking up some things myself during the training sessions… and it really is a lot of fun to push yourself hard, right? But that's not true for everyone, and that's okay."
"A lot of things are okay," Latias agreed. "Even…"
She frowned, then, and tilted her head. "I'm not actually sure how to describe it? But when I was back at Altomare, I couldn't fight. At all. And that eventually could have got me in trouble, with those two trainers… and I know now that it wasn't safe for me to not be able to fight at all. But at the same time… I lived at Altomare for a long time without anything going wrong. So… I don't know."
"You're saying that, uh…" Ash began, trying to word it right. "That almost all the time, a Legendary Pokémon doesn't even need to fight. And that you were okay for a really long time before you first got in trouble."
"Right," Latias agreed. "Only, I don't know how correct that really is? It's just an idea mostly."
Zorua made a pleased noise, then launched himself on a floaty jump from Koraidon to Latias's wing.
"What's tomorrow?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," Ash replied. "I guess maybe it hasn't been announced yet?"
"I don't remember anything either," Pikachu contributed.
"If it's something that doesn't take up too much time, I think I'd like to try picking something up?" Buneary requested. "I feel like it'd be good for me to have a fire move… it might be mostly redundant with Ice Beam and High Jump Kick between them, but I can think of several dual-type Pokémon I'd have trouble with."
"Hmm…" Ash thought. "First thing that I can think of is Blaze Kick, since you're good at jumping and kicking… I might need to think about it more, though."
"All right, everyone!" Professor Rowan said, bright and early the next morning. "Like with the borrowed Pokémon, this is part of the summer camp where you can help me out – this time, with some research."
His mustache bristled impressively. "While I'd like to say that scientists have found out a lot about Pokémon, we certainly haven't found out everything about them. There's still a lot to learn… and what you're going to be doing today is studying the Pokémon in the lake in the way that Pokémon watchers do."
One of his assistants, Yozo, took up the instructions. "That means that each of you is going to pick a Pokémon to study, especially how they behave in their natural habitat. You can do it as individuals or groups, and you're not permitted to catch any of the Pokémon as they're being studied. In addition, for safety reasons, you're not to leave the lake… but apart from that, you can pick any wild Pokémon in the lake."
He looked back and forth. "Does anyone want to give me a quick summary of what a Pokémon Watcher does?"
Ash raised his hoof, and Yozo chuckled before pointing to him. "Ash?"
"My friend Tracey is a Pokémon Watcher," Ash explained. "So… the way he did it was, he used a pair of binoculars and sketched the Pokémon, and he made sure he did it from far enough away that he could watch what they were doing without disturbing them. And he took notes about how the Pokémon was behaving, too."
"That's a good summary of the basic idea," Yozo agreed. "If you manage to do that, you'll be in with a good chance! And we'd like to see presentations from everyone at the end of the day."
"Do you think this is sneaking up?" Koraidon asked, quietly.
She paddled a little closer to the Dewgong lying on a rock, trying to make sure she produced as small a splash as possible.
"I don't know," Sandshrew replied. "I do know that that Dewgong doesn't seem to have decided to leave… what do you think, Zorua? Are we close enough?"
Zorua looked up at Dewgong, then down at the notepad, and picked up a pencil. He had to hold it in both paws, and Sandshrew shifted a little to hold the notepad in place.
"Yes," Zorua added, starting to draw, and his tongue stuck out the side of his muzzle a little.
"And I'd better see what there is about Dewgong, while they're lying there…" Koraidon added, raising a claw to her muzzle as she floated in the lake. "Well, they're lying down, and it's sunny… so maybe they're sunning themselves?"
She frowned. "But that would just be a guess… there's no way to know for sure, is there?"
"I think that's why you say what they're doing?" Sandshrew guessed.
"Oh, right," Koraidon realized. "Which means that… Dewgong is lying on their back, in the sun. And there's something shining behind their head… Zorua, is it okay if I move to the side a bit?"
"Okay," Zorua agreed, and Koraidon paddled sideways – slowly sculling the water with her paws, to avoid making splashes that might scare the other Pokémon in the lake.
"Oh, there's a block of ice behind their head," she realized. "Like a pillow."
"Which one do you think we should do?" Miraidon asked. "There are a lot of Pokémon."
"I know about a lot of Pokémon, because-" Mew began, then stopped.
"Because," Miraidon said, in a final sort of way. "You know about a lot of Pokémon, because."
"Right," Mew agreed, nodding. "And… well, I do know a lot about them. But using any of that would be cheating, this is supposed to just be about observation. Correct?"
Miraidon nodded. "I agree," they said, then their eyes flashed slightly and they perked up. "However, I think I have thought of something. Would you be able to use what you know about a lot of Pokémon to decide which would be the most interesting?"
"Good question," Mew agreed, then pointed with their paint-tipped Smeargle tail. "That is a very strange Pokémon to find in a lake. Gorebyss are normally found in the open sea."
"Oh, yes!" Miraidon realized. "I remember that. I was a lot younger then, but we met some Huntail and Gorebyss in Hoenn. I should have remembered, they evolve with DeepSeaTeeth and DeepSeaScales. That was recent research."
They nodded. "I think this is a good idea. Thank you, sibling."
Then, after a moment, they frowned. "Do you wish to do the sketching?"
"I don't think I would be very good at it," Mew admitted. "But I could give it a go."
"I will try," Miraidon decided. "However I do not think I will be able to do it while in swimming mode. Would you be able to hold me up?"
"I could do the sketching?" Riolu suggested.
"That might be cheating," Miraidon said. "I would like to do this properly."
"...that's not something I've seen a Smeargle do before," Professor Rowan said, watching as Miraidon floated through the air suspended from a Smeargle-tail.
The Dragon-type had a notepad taped to one forepaw, and a pencil to the other, and was carefully drawing a Pokémon below them as they imitated a balloon.
"I suppose they could learn Fly, though," Rowan's assistant said.
"True," Professor Rowan agreed,
"Professor, do you have a moment?" Cynthia asked, coming over. "Is there a reason why you picked this lake, specifically, for study?"
"Well, it's up Mount Coronet, so I wanted to look at the kind of Pokémon that inhabit a lake up high in the mountains," Rowan replied. "Why?"
"Oh, just that I think you're going to have something new to research here," Cynthia explained. "I was training Jangmo-o over by the far side of the lake, and a Lumineon tried to confuse and hypnotize him."
"That poor Lumineon," Yozo said. "Is it all right?"
"Eevee dealt with the problem," Cynthia replied. "But I was curious, because it wasn't the first time I'd seen a Pokémon in the lake that you normally wouldn't expect in a lake – so we went to investigate, and it turns out the lake is connected to the sea. That's how there's Gorebyss and Huntail and Lumineon in here."
Rowan blinked.
"I'm fairly sure this lake isn't at sea level," he said. "You're certain?"
"Not completely, I didn't have any of my Pokémon go all the way to the end," Cynthia replied. "I thought I'd tell you before asking Latias to have a look, because she's just about the best lifeguard and if she does head down there it'll mean she's not around for a bit… it's certainly fascinating, though, isn't it?"
"That's an amazing set of sketches," Conway said, quietly, as Dawn finished her presentation about Wooper and Quagsire. "The report was good, too, but the pictures… It looks like she spent days on them, not just… what, an hour or two?"
"Yeah, I didn't know she was a sketch artist too," Angie agreed. "How does someone pick up that many talents?"
"One at a time," Cynthia said. "Or all at once, it depends on what's more convenient."
"I-" Conway began, then adjusted his glasses. "I'm not entirely sure what to…"
He stopped, rethought, and restarted.
"Champion," he said. "I have the greatest respect for you, of course, as does everyone in Sinnoh. But… I'm not sure you can just decide to acquire more skills. Especially not more than one of them at once, just because it fits into your schedule."
Cynthia frowned, considering that.
"You can certainly practice," she said. "And, really, being passionate enough about something to practice – and to strive to improve – is most of what it takes to learn something, in my experience."
Koraidon was going up to present next, and Ash stood by to translate.
As she got going, Dawn sat back in her place next to Cynthia.
"That was a nice blast from the past," she said. "It's been months since I've done that, and being able to use nice pencils is almost a completely new experience."
"Ah, of course," Cynthia realized. "Wrapped graphite or charcoal? Or something else I'm not thinking of?"
"A few wooden pencils, but they were made around a solid graphite core," Dawn told her. "They weren't machine made, and the raw material had to come from Galar."
"I'll have to look that up," Cynthia decided, then looked up as Koraidon explained about how the Dewgong had dropped off to sleep, rolled over, and fallen in the water.
Zorua had done a sketch of that, as well, which wasn't as polished as Dawn's work but certainly got the idea across.
AN:
Historically speaking, pencils were a British (English) monopoly for about a century, as the only known deposit of solid graphite was near Keswick.
I was surprised too – that deposit is still unique in scale and nature.