Chapter 218

Chapter 218: Chapter 218

The second presenter was the still somewhat inexperienced Alain.

He brought out Charmander and began explaining his research through practical examples, following the structure he had prepared beforehand.

Lucian took the stage third.

Dressed in his usual purple suit, he looked completely at ease despite this being his first time presenting at an academic summit.

His warm, measured voice carried steadily through the hall as he worked his way through the report, and by the time he finished, the entire audience responded with applause.

Research into the Hisui era and the ancient Hisui region had become one of the most closely watched subjects among Pokémon scholars that year.

Numerous researchers had already traveled to Sinnoh to investigate the subject in greater depth, including such well-known figures as Professor Birch, Professor Elm, and Samson Oak from Alola.

Many other prominent researchers were also preparing to remain in Sinnoh for further study, including Professor Juniper of Unova, whose own field focused on the origins of Pokémon.

Professor Kukui was the next presenter.

Using the work he and Lucian had done to help Stantler relearn a move once unique to the species as his starting point, Kukui gradually expanded the discussion into the broader concept of signature moves before presenting his own hypothesis.

When he finished, numerous hands rose throughout the hall.

Question after question came his way, but Kukui answered every one without hesitation.

Professor Oak sat among the audience listening to both the presentation and the discussion afterward, nodding with clear approval.

He leaned slightly toward Professor Rowan and lowered his voice.

"Kukui’s idea actually has some merit."

Professor Rowan nodded as well. "If Mike is right that nearly every Pokémon with a Hisuian form once possessed a signature move, then it may be worth testing. We need to determine whether that phenomenon was exclusive to Hisuian forms, or whether other regional forms and species might possess similar forgotten moves."

Judging by Professor Oak and Professor Rowan’s reactions, both were clearly quite interested in Kukui’s findings.

Once Professor Kukui left the stage, the next presenter was Sinnoh Champion Cynthia.

"Assistant Mike, do you know what Champion Cynthia is presenting today?" Sonia asked curiously from beside him.

"Something involving mythology and legends... probably," Mike replied.

"Mythology?" Sonia looked surprised. "I thought Champion Cynthia’s presentation would also be about Pokémon from the Hisui era. She was involved in the Wyrdeer project, wasn’t she?"

Mike looked at her and grinned. "It is about Pokémon from the Hisui era."

Sonia turned toward him.

Under the dimmed auditorium lights, Mike’s face seemed almost mysteriously shadowed—

Until he reached up and slapped away the chubby little hand covering half of it.

Gengar gave him an innocent, mischievous look that practically radiated (*σ′?`)σ.

Sonia stared for a second, still processing what Mike had said.

"Pokémon from the Hisui era? But didn’t you say Champion Cynthia was presenting on mythology and legends..." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait—you mean the myths and legends of the Hisui era?!"

"Shh. Listen carefully." Mike raised a finger to his lips.

Onstage, Cynthia began her presentation.

As the first text appeared across the enormous screen behind her, she addressed the audience.

"The discovery of Wyrdeer demonstrates that there is still an enormous amount we do not know about the Hisui era. As a historian specializing in mythology, my presentation today concerns an analysis of the legends of ancient Sinnoh.

"As shown here, these are records Mike and I discovered within a set of ruins. The Pokémon carved into these stone tablets are species that existed during the Hisui era. It was precisely because of these depictions that we first attempted to evolve Stantler into Wyrdeer."

Just as Kukui had done earlier, Cynthia used Stantler’s evolution into Wyrdeer as the entry point for her presentation.

The image behind her then changed.

A stone tablet depicting the ancient deities of the clouds appeared on the screen.

"Beyond records of ordinary Pokémon, we discovered this tablet within the same ruins. The inscription is written in the language used during the Hisui era. Based on our current estimates, the period represented by these ruins dates back more than a thousand years."

Cynthia enlarged the ancient writing.

"The general meaning begins with, ’When the heavens brought great drought...’ From passages such as this, we can infer that the people of that era practiced a very clear form of divine worship."

Professor Juniper sat among the audience listening to Cynthia’s translation, gradually becoming numb with surprise.

She could recognize what those ancient records were describing.

The Pokémon involved were species she knew extremely well—at least three of them were.

The thunderstorm represented Thundurus.

The great storm represented Tornadus.

The "God of Abundant Harvests" was Landorus.

As for the "God of Spring" Cynthia mentioned...

Unless something had gone very wrong with the interpretation, that had to be the Enamorus mentioned in Cynthia’s paper.

Juniper couldn’t read the ancient script herself, but she had no reason to suspect Cynthia had translated it incorrectly.

Perhaps individual phrases weren’t perfectly exact, but the overall interpretation was almost certainly close.

Landorus and Enamorus were unmistakably carved into the tablet itself.

’So... that’s what Enamorus looked like?’

Professor Juniper stared at the image in something of a daze.

Cynthia continued her presentation, next displaying selected passages from the ancient journal that had once belonged to Melodi.

"These entries also concern the Hisui era and the mysterious deity referred to as the God of Spring. According to the record..."

The image shifted again.

A pink scale covered in mysterious patterns appeared on the screen, visibly carrying an unusual power.

Discussions immediately broke out throughout the auditorium.

"Assistant Mike..." Sonia leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Don’t tell me that’s actually a scale from this mysterious God of Spring?"

"That’s exactly what it is. A scale shed by the God of Spring."

Sonia turned to him at once after hearing the absolute certainty in his answer.

Mike saw the curiosity written all over her face, reached into his belongings, and took out the scale before handing it to her.

Because of the dim lighting, Sonia initially didn’t even realize what Mike had placed in her hand.

She simply felt the cool object against her palm, lowered her gaze, blinked, looked back up at the image on the giant screen, and then slowly looked down again.

Sonia’s eyes went enormous.

"A-Assistant Mike... th-this..."

"As you can see." Mike smiled. "An Enamorus scale."

"This... you... how..." Sonia stared at the scale in her hands, able to feel the immense amount of energy contained within.

After several long seconds, she finally managed, "So that scale they’re showing... actually belongs to you?"

"Of course." Mike took the scale back. "When I explored those ruins, the Bronzong and Claydol guarding the place gave it to me as a gift."

Sonia fell silent.

"So... the God of Spring really existed?"

"Barring some enormous misunderstanding, yes."

Sonia searched through everything she knew about Pokémon, yet she still couldn’t remember ever hearing of any Pokémon called the God of Spring.

"Then why have I never heard that name before?" she whispered.

"What about Enamorus?"

Sonia searched her memory again before eventually shaking her head.

"Nothing."

"Because she disappeared."

Mike’s voice remained calm as he said it.

Sonia’s eyes widened again.

"Oh..." Her voice fell noticeably. "I see..."

Mike couldn’t help laughing when he noticed how genuinely saddened she looked.

"I’m currently tracing the history of the God of Spring. Maybe someday I’ll figure out why Enamorus disappeared."

"Then good luck!" Sonia immediately brightened again, enthusiastically cheering him on.

Mike nodded and was about to put the scale away when a soft cry caught his attention.

"Hatenna..."

He lifted Hatenna from the top of his head and found her staring directly at the scale in his hand.

"You want this?"

Hatenna looked up at him and eagerly nodded her little head.

"Hatenna~"

[It’s warm. I want it~]

Her voice was soft and sweet.

Mike looked curiously at the scale.

"Warm?"

The thing felt cold in his hand.

Yet Hatenna thought the scale was warm?

Mike remembered that Hattrem, Hatenna’s evolved form, possessed Fairy typing, while the scale itself contained an enormous amount of Fairy-type energy.

That gave him another thought.

"Hatenna, can you absorb the energy inside?"

Hatenna shook her head.

"Hatenna~"

[I can’t.]

Mike sighed in disappointment.

Seeing his reaction, Hatenna immediately assumed she hadn’t done well enough and lowered her head guiltily.

Mike noticed and pinched her tiny nose.

"What are you blaming yourself for? That has nothing to do with you."

He placed the scale in her hands instead.

"If you like it, you can keep it."

As long as one of his Pokémon was carrying the scale, Mike could still benefit from the luck buff anyway.

Hatenna stared at the scale he had given her, cried out happily, then climbed onto Mike’s shoulder and planted a tiny kiss on his cheek.

"Hatenna~"

Her voice was almost unbearably sweet.

Mike’s heart practically melted!

’Ohhh, Hatenna... my precious little sweetheart...’

Glameow, who had been lying across Mike’s lap, stared silently at him with her eyes, apparently thinking about something.

Beside them, Snivy blinked her eyes.

The corners of her mouth gradually curled upward as she sat a little straighter and began watching everything beside her from the corner of her eye.

Sonia watched Mike’s mood brighten almost instantly and couldn’t help but think that he really did adore his Pokémon.

Hatenna had only kissed his cheek once, and he already looked that happy!

Gengar had noticed the reason too.

He placed a chubby hand against his cheek and fell into deep thought.

Hatenna kissed Mike.

Mike became happy.

Therefore...

Kiss = Mike happy!

Gengar’s eyes lit up.

’Dang! I’m a genius!’

Grinning from ear to ear, he shuffled closer.

Mike turned and found Gengar’s huge round face approaching his own.

His expression immediately changed from confusion to horror.

"Gengar, don’t... don’t. Listen to me. No. Don’t—n-numb... numb..."

Sonia: ∑(〇?〇)!!!

"Assistant Mi—"

Before Sonia could finish speaking, Snivy calmly stuffed a Cheri Berry into Mike’s mouth with the ease of someone who had done this far too many times before.

Sonia: ∑(〇?〇)!!!

Within less than a minute, Sonia had been stunned twice!

Once Mike recovered, he glared at the grinning Gengar and irritably pinched his cheek.

"That wasn’t a kiss! That was licking! And if you’re going to lick me, do you really have to use your whole tongue?!"

"Gaar..."

[I... I’m used to doing it that way...]

After thoroughly squishing Gengar’s cheeks for a while, Mike finally let him go and returned his hand to Glameow, gently running his fingers through her fur as he looked back toward Cynthia’s presentation.

Then he suddenly felt something damp against his palm.

Mike lowered his gaze.

Glameow was licking the center of his hand with her tongue.

He stared at her without saying anything.

Glameow looked up, realized Mike was watching, and immediately flushed before turning her head away.

Snivy’s eyes widened.

Her grin stretched so wide that she could barely contain herself, while her two little legs kicked excitedly in the air.

’Yes, yes! Exactly like that!’

Despite keeping a perfectly serious expression as she watched the presentation, Snivy continued sneaking glances at Hatenna on Mike’s shoulder.

Hatenna was smiling happily and seemed entirely unbothered.

Mike looked away and continued gently petting Glameow as he focused on the stage again.

Cynthia had already finished the main portion of her presentation, and the session had entered the question period.

A bespectacled professor stood to address her.

"Champion Cynthia, I have a question. You translated every passage containing the ancient script shown in your presentation. Does that mean you’ve already deciphered most of the language?"

Mike stared at the researcher and found him incredibly familiar.

"That’s Professor Spencer Hale," Sonia whispered as she leaned closer. "He’s a scholar specializing in ancient writing and was also the first researcher to discover the Unown."

Mike suddenly remembered.

Professor Spencer Hale—the researcher of ancient script from Pokémon 3: The Movie, whose work had involved the Unown.

’And wasn’t that Entei created by the Unown...?’

"I’ve only learned part of the language," Cynthia answered honestly.

"Then how were you able to translate the inscriptions so completely?" Professor Hale asked. Realizing that his wording sounded slightly confrontational, he immediately clarified himself.

"My apologies. What I mean is that your translations sounded extraordinarily complete. Although I haven’t been able to decipher the inscriptions in full myself, based on what I can understand, your interpretation appears extremely close to the original meaning."

"Most of the translation was actually completed by another participant in this research," Cynthia explained.

"The same person who formally proposed that Stantler could evolve into Wyrdeer and then led us through the process of proving it—Assistant Mike."

A light suddenly fell across Mike.

Mike went silent for a moment before putting on a smile, lifting the hand that had been resting on Glameow, and waving toward the surrounding scholars.

Sonia stared at him in shock.

’Assistant Mike can translate ancient languages too?!’

"That explains it!" Professor Hale’s expression immediately brightened. "Assistant Mike, would it be possible for me to ask you several questions afterward? My apologies, what I mean is, I have a few matters concerning the inscriptions that I’d very much like to discuss..."

"I understand. Don’t worry. We can talk afterward," Mike replied.

"Thank you very much."

Professor Hale expressed his gratitude, then turned back toward Cynthia.

"In that case... wouldn’t this imply that the three cloud deities associated with the Unova region actually originated in Sinnoh—no, in ancient Hisui—and later traveled to Unova?"

Sitting below the stage, Professor Juniper’s expression became rather complicated.

’Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being called out here...?’