Chapter 330: Take a Deep Breath Feeling Dizzy Is Normal

In reality.

Team Rocket Headquarters, top-floor conference room.

Archer, Proton, Petrel, Ariana, and the others were all present.

However, an unusually tense atmosphere filled the room.

The giant screen had just finished showing their Boss getting humiliated, while the real Giovanni sat there with a completely calm expression.

As a result—

No one dared to speak.

Only Matori remained perfectly composed.

She opened a folder and cleared her throat.

"Boss, I’ve finished recording all of the experimental data from the parallel world’s Mewtwo Project."

"Mm."

Giovanni finally spoke.

Then he looked toward the four Executives.

"What do you think?"

Archer straightened his cuffs.

"I believe the parallel world has given us quite a few new ideas."

"In particular, the integration of Legendary Pokémon blood produced unexpected changes in Mewtwo."

"So..."

Giovanni’s voice remained flat.

"You’re suggesting we add new materials to the next test subject as well?"

"Uh..."

Proton leaned back in his chair.

"It’s not necessarily a bad idea."

"As long as we can obtain the materials, Team Rocket’s research division is fully capable of reproducing the process."

Ariana added coolly:

"And then what?"

"The Mewtwo we already created escaped."

"Even if we create another one, how exactly do we guarantee that it won’t break free of our control again?"

Giovanni lifted his wineglass.

"What happened in a parallel world has limited value as a reference."

"Learn the lessons that are worth learning."

"Adjust whatever needs to be adjusted."

"There’s no point dwelling on previous gains and losses."

"Then, Boss..."

Archer asked:

"Are we continuing with the next test-subject project?"

"We are."

Giovanni slowly took a sip of red wine.

"But freeze half of the funding for now."

"We’ll wait until we have a more mature plan."

"Understood."

Giovanni set down his wineglass.

Then his gaze returned to the giant screen.

"Where are those three right now?"

"Unova."

Matori answered without expression.

"Would you like me to call them back?"

Giovanni lightly tapped his fingers against the table.

After several seconds of silence—

He waved a hand.

"Forget it."

"Leave them where they are."

"For now, our priority is this live screen."

"Understood."

Matori closed the folder.

...

The video on the screen continued playing.

Inside the helicopter cabin Selene was enthusiastically reenacting the entire process of catching Mewtwo with her whole body.

"When Mewtwo first opened its eyes, every machine in the entire laboratory blew up!"

Selene pulled a lollipop from her little bag, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

Then she continued speaking around it.

"After that, it started asking all these philosophical questions like, ’Who am I?’, ’Why am I here?’, and ’Who created me?’"

"I didn’t really understand any of it!"

"I haven’t even figured out why I’m so cute yet!"

"And it just kept talking to itself without paying any attention to us."

Aurelia calmly took over the explanation.

"After Mewtwo woke up, its emotions were extremely unstable."

"The energy inside its body was also completely out of control."

"Our psychic powers weren’t strong enough to suppress it."

"But!"

Selene nodded furiously.

"At the critical moment, we remembered the emergency Poké Balls Dad gave us!"

"The one Big Sis had contained Dad’s Gardevoir."

"Gardevoir was super strong!"

"It immediately used its psychic power to restrain Mewtwo!"

"And then?"

Steven cracked another sunflower seed.

"Go into detail."

"Your uncle loves hearing this kind of stuff!"

Selene pulled the lollipop from her mouth and put on an extremely serious expression.

"Then came the moment to witness a miracle!"

"After Mewtwo calmed down, it stared at Big Sis and me for a long time."

"Then it said..."

"’There’s a very familiar presence around you.’"

Aurelia gently patted the Mew perched on top of her head.

"More precisely, it meant Mew."

"Mewtwo said that Mew felt like family because they came from the same origin."

"And then comes the important part!"

Selene continued excitedly.

"After sensing Mew, Mewtwo insisted that there was another really familiar presence around me too."

"I thought about it for ages before realizing it might have been this Poké Ball Dad gave me."

Selene pulled the Poké Ball from her pocket and held it up in front of her eyes.

"Then Mewtwo walked over to me on its own and said it wanted to leave that place with us."

"Obviously, I couldn’t exactly refuse!"

"So I pulled out a Master Ball..."

"And Mewtwo pressed the button itself!"

"Dad said this was a secret weapon and that I wasn’t allowed to open it unless it was absolutely necessary."

Selene looked curiously at the Poké Ball in her hand.

"But what’s actually inside this thing?"

"Why did Mewtwo say it felt something really familiar coming from it?"

Asher reached over, took the Poké Ball from Selene, and tucked it back inside his coat.

"Adult secret."

"Kids don’t need to ask so many questions."

"Dad, you’re doing it again!"

Selene puffed out her cheeks.

"Big Sis and I are already this old!"

"Just tell us!"

Steven’s hand paused midway through cracking another sunflower seed.

Then an expression of sudden realization appeared on his face.

"Brother Asher, inside that thing..."

"Ahem."

Asher raised a hand again.

Steven automatically swallowed the rest of the sentence.

"You talk too much."

"Eat your sunflower seeds."

Aurelia also held out Gardevoir’s Poké Ball.

"Dad, here’s this one back too."

Asher nodded and put Gardevoir’s Poké Ball away.

Just then—

Whoosh!

The helicopter door was suddenly pulled open from outside.

Everyone turned to look.

Behind Sabrina floated an enormous procession of palm-sized dolls.

There were roughly fifty or sixty of them.

They hovered in two long lines through the air, like two enormous snakes made entirely of dolls, following Sabrina all the way back to the helicopter.

Steven quickly counted them.

"...Fifty-eight, fifty-nine..."

"Giovanni really sent quite a lot of people this time."

"This should make Team Rocket behave themselves for a while, right?"

Asher nodded as well.

"Yeah."

"Later, we’ll arrange them into some kind of display outside the Kanto League headquarters."

"Give Lance something to smile about."

[VIP Chat Group]

[Diantha]: Hahaha! Selene has quite a talent for acting too. Another promising little actress! Looks like when I write scripts for Elaria in the future, I won’t have to worry about finding actors anymore.

[Elaria]: Mom...

[Raihan]: So Mewtwo was actually drawn to them because they felt "familiar"? Doesn’t that basically count as recognizing relatives on the spot?

[Clemont]: Based on what we’ve seen in the video, aside from Mew, there’s really only one other thing that could make Mewtwo feel that kind of familiarity...

[Flint]:@Asher, bro, don’t tell me you actually have an Ultra Necrozma?

[Asher]: Do you even need to ask? Of course I don’t.

[Steven]: I can testify. Brother Asher doesn’t have one.

[Volkner]: Your testimony is completely worthless! You two practically share the same pair of pants! You’ve gotten so good at covering for each other that it’s basically instinct by now!

[Lorelei]: Heh. The understanding between men is often built upon mutually covering for one another.

[Steven]: The more you people want to know, the less I’m going to tell you. Hehe.

[Asher]:@Steven, you "hehe" your @%#￥€￥＞?￡￥...

[Screen]:@Asher has been detected making a prohibited statement. A ten-minute mute will now be applied!

[Wallace]: ...Steven really is mentally exhausting.

[Leon]: To be fair, it’s probably a good thing Steven didn’t receive any memories. Considering he apparently knows Asher’s secrets in every lifetime, combined with that habit of constantly provoking him... One of these days, Asher might actually silence him permanently.

[Steven]: Impossible! Brother Asher and I have been best brothers for several lifetimes! How could he possibly—Mmph... Brother Asher... What are you doing...?

[Asher]: It’s fine. Take a deep breath. Feeling dizzy is normal.