A pleasant melody drifted from Mu Li's room, clearly audible throughout the surrounding area.
Jigglypuff and Sylveon, basking in the sun on a swing, involuntarily twitched their ears and instinctively looked towards Mu Li's room.
"This song sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" Jigglypuff mumbled, "Could it be the song for our next performance?"
Sylveon, however, remained still, merely mimicking Jigglypuff's actions, her ears playfully twitching: "Probably. It's been so long, and it's time for the competition. A Li finally remembered that he's still a singer."
As she spoke, Sylveon emanated faint blue light that continuously spread outwards.
With a pop, Gardevoir instantly teleported into existence, looking at Sylveon with a puzzled expression and asking, "Did you call me for something?"
"Listen..." Sylveon said.
It didn't take long for Gardevoir to blurt out, "That sour smell of love, hmph."
With that, she directly opened a fist-sized spatial portal, reached through, and grabbed Ditto from the house in Modu.
Ditto was transported over, completely bewildered and rolled up like a burrito.
"Stop Slack Off, there's a new song," Gardevoir explained to the bewildered Ditto.
At the mention of songs and performances, Ditto instantly became excited.
After listening to Mu Li's song, Ditto blinked its eyes, transformed, and took on the appearance of Fu Peiyao.
"Do I look like her?" Ditto asked with a smile, pointing at itself, striking a playful pose.
It had to be said, Ditto had almost perfectly replicated Fu Peiyao's appearance.
"You do look like her, but you're not going to perform in that form, are you?" Gardevoir asked, puzzled.
Jigglypuff's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed excitedly, "It's not impossible! It would definitely blow the audience away!"
Sylveon snorted coldly, "You're right, it would indeed blow the audience away, and after the performance, A Li would directly blow us away too."
Ditto immediately slumped, shedding Fu Peiyao's form and returning to its original appearance: "Let's discuss how to perform instead."
Jigglypuff echoed, "Right, the performance is the most important thing."
Gardevoir looked at Jigglypuff with some surprise and asked, "Why are you still here? Does this performance have anything to do with you?"
Jigglypuff froze, pouted her small mouth, and instantly inflated into a balloon, huffily preparing to float away, only to be reeled back in by Sylveon's ribbons.
"What? Didn't you tell me to leave?" Jigglypuff was still huffing.
"Stop teasing her, she's already silly enough," Sylveon grumbled, "Let's talk about serious matters."
"What serious matters?" Ditto asked, puzzled.
"Don't you think our band is missing a keyboardist?" Sylveon asked.
"That's true, I've always thought so too, but where do we find a keyboardist?" the "balloon-shaped" Jigglypuff mumbled.
Sylveon couldn't help but roll her eyes, lightly tapping Jigglypuff's head with a ribbon before saying, "Can't you speak properly? Do you think you're a pufferfish?"
Jigglypuff opened her mouth, and like a deflated balloon, flew in a circle in the air before landing back on the swing.
"For a keyboardist, don't they need hands?" Jigglypuff asked somewhat dejectedly, looking at her small paws.
"Indeed," Ditto echoed, "Bewear has hands."
A bead of sweat trickled down Gardevoir's forehead: "Let's not mention Bewear. He's so docile, more suited to be a plush toy."
"If we're talking about hands, the Sweet Cold Queen from the flower field and Florges have them," Sylveon suggested.
"You mean the Sweet Cold Queen who can kick rocks for no reason?" Ditto couldn't help but shiver, saying, "Let's forget about her. I'm afraid she'll get too excited and kick the keyboard to pieces."
"Florges has a good personality, but unfortunately, she's not interested in anything other than flowers," Gardevoir said.
"We can't possibly let Lucario come, can we? He's so short, can he even reach the keyboard?" Jigglypuff grumbled.
Gardevoir retorted indignantly, "Speaking of short, you have no right to talk about him, okay? Besides, you can be the lead singer, yet you're concerned about whether Lucario can reach the keyboard?"
"I think that newly evolved Greninja in the lake next door is pretty good, and his movements are quite agile," Sylveon suggested again.
"His movements are good enough, but haven't you heard that he's planning to join the recent Lake Center Chorus? I've seen their rehearsals; he's the most noticeable one among all those frogs, completely off-key when Singing, and can't even keep a beat," Gardevoir grumbled.
Jigglypuff said excitedly, "There's actually a chorus like that? How come I didn't know?"
Gardevoir said helplessly, "Because they specifically blacklisted you. I don't need to explain why, do I?"
"How outrageous! They dared to hide it from me!" Jigglypuff puffed up again, "I'm going to go beat them up."
"Forget it, do you think it's still like before? There's no Water-type combat power at home? Now they have Gyarados backing them up. If you go, you'll just be a smaller sandbag," Gardevoir implicitly soothed.
Jigglypuff's foot, which she had stepped out, stiffened, seemed to hesitate for a moment, then retracted, pretending as if nothing had happened.
"Why don't we ask the new Mewtwo?" Sylveon suddenly suggested.
Gardevoir's eyes lit up, and she echoed, "That's a good idea! Although its appearance can't be shown, it can transform!"
Ditto blinked its small, bean-sized eyes, curiously asking, "Why can it also transform?"
Gardevoir shrugged, "Don't ask. If you ask, it's Psychic, and Psychic is omnipotent."
"But speaking of Mewtwo, does that mean all Psychic-types can do it?" Jigglypuff asked.
"Not necessarily," Sylveon said, "Just having Psychic power isn't enough. If the control isn't precise enough, they won't even be able to press the keys properly. They'd need at least Champion-level strength."
Jigglypuff said dejectedly, "There aren't many Champion-level Psychic Pokémon on our farm, are there? We can't possibly let Alakazam join, can we?"
"Not necessarily!" Gardevoir suddenly laughed, "We still have another option."
"Who?" Ditto asked, puzzled.
Gardevoir smiled and shook her head, "Let's ask Mewtwo first. If it agrees, then we don't need to think so much."
Ditto's eyes directly turned into two question marks: "Although I don't know who you're talking about, I always feel that your idea is a bit dangerous."
Gardevoir smiled without a word: How is it just dangerous? It might even cause a big battle!
After Mewtwo returned with the main group, the band members naturally found it.
"Me? You want to invite me to join the band as a keyboardist?" Mewtwo looked at the four Pokémon with a puzzled expression, "But I don't know anything about keyboards?"
"It doesn't matter, you can learn! You're a Psychic-type, don't you learn things quickly?" Gardevoir said, "For something like a keyboard, all you need are hands."
With that, Gardevoir found some live band performance videos online and played them for Mewtwo to watch.
Mewtwo watched intently for a long time before saying, "It looks pretty good. These songs seem quite interesting to perform."
"So you agree?" Gardevoir asked, surprised.
Mewtwo thought for a moment, then replied somewhat helplessly, "No, although I'm still somewhat interested in songs, I'm not interested in performing. So, I apologize."
Jigglypuff immediately deflated: "We were rejected."
Ditto deflated in the same way: "That's right."
"Then what should we do?" Jigglypuff asked somewhat dejectedly, "Are we going to have to trick someone from outside?"
Ditto suggested, "Actually, we don't necessarily need a keyboardist, do we? We've been doing fine for so many years without one, haven't we?"
Sylveon shook her head, "Before was before. It doesn't really matter if our own performances are missing a keyboardist, but for performances with A Li, I hope we can do better."
"That's true," Ditto also highly agreed with Sylveon's idea, "Why don't we look for someone outside?"
Gardevoir shook her head and said, "There's no need to look outside for now. I still have a backup candidate."
However, as Gardevoir said this, a hint of worry, more or less, still flickered in her eyes.
Sylveon sharply caught Gardevoir's emotions, and a look of shock appeared on her face: "No way? The backup candidate you're talking about, it's not the same one I'm thinking of, is it?"
Sensing Sylveon's emotions, Gardevoir also knew Sylveon's guess, and she nodded vigorously: "If I'm not mistaken, it should be her."
Sylveon couldn't help but shiver, saying, "Do we really have to invite her? Pokémon will die! No, no, A Li might die!"
"A Li won't die, but a big battle is definitely unavoidable," Gardevoir's eyes flashed with a look of determination: "However, for the development of the band, we have no choice."
"You're crazy, you're crazy!" Sylveon couldn't help but shriek.
Only Jigglypuff and Ditto looked at Gardevoir and Sylveon adorably.
"What are they talking about? Weren't they just discussing a keyboardist? How did it suddenly turn into dying Pokémon?" Jigglypuff asked.
Ditto shook its head, indicating it didn't know: "They're always so strange."
With that, Ditto kneaded itself into a ball, transformed into Jigglypuff's appearance, and sat beside her.
Two equally troubled Jigglypuff sat in a row, looking incredibly cute.
And beside them, there was a Sylveon in a state of frenzy, and a Gardevoir who seemed to be undergoing a dark transformation.
Mu Li, who had just finished organizing the song, poked his head out of the window and happened to see Jigglypuff and the others, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "What are these four doing together? Wait, why do I always have a very bad feeling? Is something big about to happen?"
Mu Li couldn't help but shake his head, comforting himself, "This must be my imagination. How could Gardevoir and the others cause any trouble? An illusion, it must be an illusion. I must be too stressed lately."
With that, he withdrew his body, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes to rest.
And Gardevoir, who seemed to be in a state of dark transformation, subconsciously glanced at Mu Li's room, her voice sounding exceptionally cold: "I'm sorry, A Li."