Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Chapter 202

Gengar, meanwhile, spotted Garchomp and immediately pulled out the Poffin he had deliberately saved for her.

He held it out, and Garchomp accepted without any ceremony before happily eating.

The two Pokémon hadn’t known each other for very long, but after sharing several meals, Garchomp had developed an excellent opinion of Gengar.

What an attentive little dude!

"GRAH!"

[If anyone bullies you again, tell this Big Sis! I’ll cut them down for you.]

Gengar slowly turned his head and looked straight at Mike.

Garchomp fell silent.

Then she turned away and continued eating her Poffin.

[The wind’s pretty strong over here. Can’t see a thing.]

Gengar: "..."

Professor Rowan ignored the little drama and looked around the group.

"Then we’ll wait for Professor Sycamore and Samuel to arrive before heading out?"

Lucian and the others nodded.

Mike thought about it for a moment before making another suggestion.

"Should we bring in a Trainer who specializes in Bug-types too? Scyther is a Bug-type Pokémon, so having someone with extensive experience raising and battling with Bug-types should make the discussion a lot easier."

"That makes sense."

Rowan nodded in approval.

The last time they had investigated Stantler’s evolution, Mike had been the one to suggest bringing in Lucian as a Psychic-type specialist, and that had helped them unravel Wyrdeer’s evolution much faster than expected.

Roark asked, "Who would be a good choice?"

Mike grinned.

"How about Aaron? He’s a Bug-type Elite Four member. When it comes to Bug Pokémon, he should know more than enough to be useful."

"Aaron..." Rowan considered it. "He would be a good choice, but is he free?"

Cynthia silently looked toward Lucian.

Lucian drew in a breath.

Then he took out his phone and called Aaron.

"Hello? Lucian? What’s up?" Aaron’s voice came from the other end. "You don’t normally call me for no reason."

"Come to Celestic Town. There’s a research project we need you to participate in."

"What kind of research needs me? Is this even proper research? I’m a Trainer, not some Pokémon professor. What am I supposed to contribute?"

"Just come."

Cynthia’s voice faintly carried into the call.

Aaron immediately changed his tone.

"B-Big Sis?! Got it! I’m coming right now!"

The call ended.

Mike looked toward Cynthia.

Had Aaron really been that traumatized by her during their time together?

Then again, after thinking about it, Mike suddenly felt that the Sinnoh League was actually pretty good compared with a lot of the others.

Whatever else could be said about them, the Champion and Elite Four were people who actually got things done.

Sure, some of them constantly searched for opportunities to slack off and the Champion herself occasionally disappeared to pursue whatever interested her, but their overall competence was unquestionable.

Compared with regions where one Champion traveled the entire world digging up rocks while another spent half his life running Pokémon Contests, Sinnoh was already doing pretty well.

There were also places where the Champion served as a corporate chairman, places where the Champion was more interested in acting, regions that barely had a functioning League at all, and others that seemed to manufacture League Champions by the dozen.

By comparison, the Sinnoh League honestly might be one of the least dysfunctional Leagues in the world.

...

By evening, Professor Sycamore, Professor Oak, and Aaron had all arrived in Celestic Town.

Mike prepared a generous dinner for everyone, and once they had eaten, the entire group gathered in the courtyard to discuss what came next.

"Are we doing the Scyther evolution experiment tomorrow?" Mike asked. "Or should we wait until the full moon and handle it at the same time as Ursaring?"

The suggestion was rejected almost immediately.

"Absolutely not," Professor Oak said. "If we already have the means to bring one of these Pokémon back earlier, why deliberately wait? We should handle one experiment first, then use the remaining time to prepare properly for the next. Piling every experiment together at once only increases the chance of something going wrong."

Mike nodded.

When Oak put it that way, it made perfect sense.

Aaron, however, was still several steps behind everyone else.

"Huh? Scyther evolution?" He scratched his head. "Why did you call me all the way here for that? Just give Scyther a Metal Coat and evolve it."

Mike stared at the little green tuft of hair sticking up from Aaron’s head and fell silent.

’So... he still doesn’t even know why he was summoned?’

Lucian looked at Aaron.

"Kleavor."

Aaron blinked. "What’s that? Scyther can evolve into something besides Scizor? Is it some other form or something? Don’t tell me this is like Wyrdeer again..."

His voice trailed off.

Aaron slowly looked around the courtyard.

Professor Sycamore.

Professor Oak.

Cynthia.

Lucian.

Researcher Mike.

Gym Leader Roark.

Wait a minute.

Wasn’t this basically the same lineup as the Wyrdeer evolution?

Aaron’s eyes widened as he looked toward Lucian.

Lucian nodded.

"Exactly like Wyrdeer. Kleavor is an evolution of Scyther that existed during the Hisui era."

Aaron blinked twice. ℯℯ𝑙.

Then he jumped straight into the air.

"HELL YEAH!"

A second later, two stingers were resting against his neck.

Aaron: "..."

...

Early the next morning, Mike stepped out of his room and immediately noticed Aaron hanging from a tree inside a thick cocoon of silk.

He stared for a moment before turning toward Lucian.

"What exactly happened to Aaron?"

Lucian was sitting as elegantly as ever with a cup of tea in hand.

Hearing the question, he calmly adjusted his glasses and answered, "He challenged Beedrill and got himself strung up."

Mike pointed at himself in disbelief. "My Beedrill?"

Lucian nodded.

"That doesn’t sound right. Beedrill is strong, sure, but he shouldn’t be able to beat one of the Elite Four yet." Mike looked back toward the cocooned Aaron and rubbed his chin. "If he really can, then I suppose I wouldn’t mind taking the Bug-type Elite Four seat myself."

"Are you serious?!"

Cynthia spoke so quickly that Mike immediately turned toward her.

Her eyes were practically glowing with anticipation!

How wonderful!

Another potential "Lucian" had volunteered to become an Elite Four member!

Mike fell silent.

Lucian set down his teacup, adjusted his glasses again, and asked almost hopefully, "How about the Psychic-type seat instead? Want mine?"

"No."

Mike rejected him without hesitation.

"Think about it. I could even pretend you defeated me fair and square."

"Go to work properly and stop dreaming about retirement!"

As Mike passed Lucian, he gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.

Lucian: "..."

"What a shame," Cynthia murmured.

Professor Rowan: "..."

Still swinging slightly from the tree, Aaron finally couldn’t take it anymore.

"Does nobody want to ask for my opinion?"

Nobody answered him.

Professor Oak merely pulled out his phone and took several photographs from different angles before nodding with complete satisfaction.

"Mm. Nice. Very photogenic."

Mike stared at him. "Professor Oak, since when did you start saying things like ’photogenic’?"

Oak smiled. "Scientific research has to keep up with the times."

Aaron: "..."

Mike eventually turned back to Lucian. "So did Aaron really lose to Beedrill?"

Lucian nodded first, then shook his head, which only made Mike more confused.

"He did lose, but he wasn’t using one of his Pokémon. He personally challenged Beedrill to a fight. He couldn’t win, refused to stop pestering him afterward, and then Snivy gave one little cry and had him hung from the tree."

Mike’s mouth twitched. "Oh, so Aaron himself lost to Beedrill. I thought you meant one of his Pokémon lost... Wait. You’re saying he fought Beedrill hand-to-hand?"

"Mm."

There it was!

Another superhuman Sinnoh native.

Mike glanced toward Snivy, who was standing near the cocoon, and sighed.

"All right, let Elite Four Aaron down."

A Vine Whip stretched past Mike, plucked Aaron from the tree, and gently placed him on the ground before another sharp sweep of leaves tore the cocoon open.

Aaron climbed out, brushed bits of silk from his clothes, and immediately began examining what remained with the enthusiasm of a Bug specialist rather than someone who had just spent the morning hanging from a branch.

"I have to admit Mike, your Beedrill’s silk is much tougher and stickier than ordinary Bug silk. And if I’m not mistaken, there’s a little poison mixed into it too, right?"

That was the Bug-type Elite Four for you.

When it came to insects, Aaron really did know his stuff; he was a Trainer who had climbed all the way into the Elite Four using Bug-types, after all.

"Yeah. Back when he was still a Weedle, we specifically trained his silk-spinning ability," Mike explained. "He ate something like nine hundred and ninety-nine leaves during that period. Practically put himself into a carb coma."

"No wonder." Aaron nodded, looking pleased that the result matched what he had expected.

Mike took the opportunity to look him over more carefully.

Aaron had short, vivid green hair with one particularly conspicuous cowlick sticking up from the crown of his head, while his irises were green as well.

He wore a white sleeveless top decorated with orange-red geometric patterns, loose bright-orange trousers, a white belt, and gray-white gloves, giving him the clean, youthful look of someone who had somehow turned a lifelong obsession with bug catching into an actual career.

No wonder he had so many female fans.

Aaron, apparently having forgotten the indignity of the cocoon already, asked eagerly, "So when are we leaving?"

Mike looked toward Professor Rowan and Professor Oak.

"You’re the one in charge of this project," Oak said with a smile. "We’ll follow your lead."

Mike grinned. "Then we’ll leave after breakfast."

Everyone agreed.

...

Once breakfast was finished and the equipment packed, the group headed toward the bamboo grove where Cynthia had found the Scyther colony. Mike, the professors, the Elite Four members, and Roark were joined by several research assistants who had been brought over from Professor Rowan’s institute.

On the way, they passed the shrine of the Celestic Ruins.

Professor Rowan noticed Mike looking toward it for quite a while and asked, "Interested in the shrine?"

Mike nodded. "Yeah. I’ve heard it preserves a lot of Sinnoh’s oldest myths. Once we’ve dealt with Scyther’s evolution, I was planning to come back and have a proper look."

"I can show you around."

Cynthia, who had been walking ahead, slowed and glanced back.

Mike paused in surprise.

"I grew up here, and that shrine is one of the reasons I eventually chose to become a researcher of mythology and ancient history," Cynthia explained.

"Thanks."

Cynthia nodded and continued leading the way.

As Mike walked, he casually studied the town around him.

Celestic really did have an unusually elderly population; practically everyone he had seen since arriving had been an older resident.

Once they left the settlement itself, the surroundings became even quieter, with beautiful scenery, clear air, and little more than cicadas and birds breaking the silence.

Glameow suddenly emerged from her Poké Ball and slipped into the shrubs beside the road, preferring to walk through the greenery rather than stay with the crowd.

One of the others, charmed by her appearance, crouched and tried to reach out for a pet, but Glameow instantly arched her back and hissed with enough hostility to make the person flinch.

"Meow!"

"Sorry," Mike explained. "Our Glameow doesn’t let strangers touch her."

The other person withdrew their hand immediately.

"Oh. Is that how she is? Sorry."

Glameow paid no further attention to them and continued on her way, keeping a little distance from the group without ever leaving Mike’s line of sight.

Before long, Cynthia stopped and looked toward the bamboo grove ahead.

Several Scyther could already be seen resting among the stalks.

Mike raised his camera and took several photographs before the group deliberately chose a secluded location some distance from the colony as their temporary research site, both to avoid provoking the wild Scyther and to make it easier to arrange their equipment.

"We’ll start with the Scyther that have already been caught, right?" Mike asked.

Professor Rowan nodded. "That was the plan."

The initial experiment would use domesticated Scyther and test several possible evolutionary triggers one by one: direct exposure to Black Augurite, carrying it through battle, increasing their level while holding it, and several other methods they had prepared in advance.

Only after they understood how captured Scyther reacted would they compare those results against wild members of the species.

Two research assistants brought out Poké Balls and released the test subjects.

Both Scyther had been transferred over from Professor Oak’s laboratory the previous night and were apparently the only two currently available there.

Looking at the two green mantis Pokémon standing in front of him, Mike turned toward Aaron.

"Aaron, you know Bug-types better than anyone here. When we reach the part where they need to battle and gain experience, can I leave that to you?"

"No problem."

Aaron agreed immediately.

"Good. Then let’s get everything ready."