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This Champion match let Luther see a side of Cynthia he could never have grasped from the anime alone.
Cynthia's fearsome, overwhelming Strength filled Luther with a sense of pressure; he didn't know the history between Lucian and Cynthia— he only saw Cynthia's precise control of the battle and the terrifying Strength of her Pokémon.
Whether Elite Four Lucian had forced out all of Cynthia's Strength, Luther had no confidence in judging; at least from Luther's perspective, it didn't seem so.
Milotic's two battles were clearly handled with ease, and switching to Garchomp for a head-on clash with Bronzong further showed she was top-tier in both Strategy and raw power.
Luther had once entertained the idea of using Strategy to annoy Cynthia… but not anymore; that thought vanished completely and had to be snuffed out in its infancy.
Cynthia clearly had the Ability to overpower any scheme with sheer force; facing Professor Rowan had made Luther overestimate Strategy's impact on a battle's outcome; this match reminded him again that well-trained Pokémon with superior Strength were what mattered most.
In Battles between powerful Pokémon Trainers, Strategy was just a garnish for Pokémon Battle— true success still relied on one's own strength.
Marill and Ralts had stars in their eyes; they'd witnessed a Battle on a whole different level. Compared to this Champion match, their usual training and Battles were mere child's play, delivering a massive Shock to Marill and Ralts.
Jumpluff watched Cynthia and the departing Garchomp with a complicated expression, then turned to glance at Luther, fell silent for a moment, and proudly raised its head.
Cynthia and Jumpluff were never meant to be together; Cynthia had gone too far ahead, while Jumpluff had already made its own choice.
Misdreavus was probably the most laid-back of Luther's Pokémon; after watching the match, it calmly floated beside Luther, swaying back and forth, showing no particular change.
Eevee, cradled in Mai's arms, was visibly starry-eyed, stretching out its paws and pointing at Garchomp while babbling excitedly, clearly indicating Garchomp had gained a little fan.
Mai was curious about how Corsola, Slowbro, and Pachirisu would react, but she was disappointed.
As the match neared its end, Slowbro shifted its body slightly; with his sluggish reflexes, he turned around blankly and accidentally stepped on Pachirisu's tail. Pachirisu jumped up in pain, but Mai couldn't hear its cries amidst the thunderous cheers.
Pachirisu looked at the focused Mai and ultimately gave up on complaining to its trainer, opting for the most direct approach instead.
Every grievance has its source. Pachirisu leaped up and slapped Slowbro across the face with its tail, striking hard.
Satisfied, Pachirisu landed and waited for Slowbro to show embarrassment, guilt, or a pained, flustered expression, but Pachirisu clearly didn't understand this Slowbro Mai had recently caught… or perhaps didn't understand Slowbro at all.
Slowbro opened its mouth; its vacant eyes didn't even register the tiny Pachirisu. After being hit, it took several seconds to let out a long "ahh," then it stopped moving entirely.
Pachirisu felt underestimated; as the team's earliest member, it thought it needed to have a word with Slowbro, so it scrambled up onto Slowbro's head and started biting.
When Luther and Mai turned to look at Slowbro, its eyes remained vacant, standing there like it was pondering life itself; Pachirisu's gnawing posture on Slowbro's head reminded Luther and Mai of Slowking…
Mai's struggle to pull Pachirisu off Slowbro's head touched Luther; he felt he had to do something, so he swiftly pulled out his camera and captured the moment.
Slowbro finally reacted; under Luther and Mai's gazes, it raised its stubby little hand to its head at an unimaginably slow pace, rubbed it for a while, then turned toward Mai at a snail's pace, tilted its head, and zoned out.
Luther finally remembered to open his Pokédex on this famous meme-worthy Pokémon; he felt it was worth revisiting this adorable creature.
"Slowbro, the Hermit Crab Pokémon; it can use powerful Psychic Ability type Moves, but it's usually dull and doesn't like arguing with others."
From its name to its Pokédex entry, "dull" ran through everything; far from just disliking arguments… Mai's Slowbro clearly wouldn't argue at all.
Mai rubbed the squirming Pachirisu in her hands, trying to make it understand that this was just Slowbro's nature.
Luther's phone buzzed once while he was admiring the meme god Pokémon.
The message came out of nowhere— not spam; the sender was Professor Rowan.
Luther froze.
"She's actually in Veilstone City?"
That was his first thought.
Inside the Sinnoh Pokémon League's Suzuran Island meeting room, Flint, Aaron, and Lucian sat at the conference table, casually playing a game.
Across from them were the Pokémon League staff who handled the Sinnoh Pokémon League's daily internal affairs, about a dozen in total.
Lucian, Flint, and Aaron were playing a multiplayer game on their phones; it seemed that in any world, as long as phones existed, mobile games were a natural outcome, often simple and card-based… though the Elite Four still had handheld consoles tucked away, they didn't seem inclined to pull them out for a group session just yet.
The game the Elite Four were playing wasn't Pokémon-themed; to them, Pokémon themes were too realistic. They craved fantasy— wild, imaginative fantasies… like what a world without Pokémon would be like.
Games about a world without Pokémon were popular in the Sinnoh Region, and the Elite Four were huge fans of this genre.
It was a shame Luther wasn't here; he could've really indulged the Elite Four's fantasy cravings.
Roy, the one in charge of Sinnoh Pokémon League event-related matters, was sighing nonstop; he felt his job was tough— really tough.
It had been half an hour since Cynthia and Lucian's match ended, and she'd vanished.
Half an hour ago, Roy had told Cynthia that the Sinnoh Pokémon League was about to hold an urgent emergency meeting; Cynthia nodded repeatedly, then turned around… and poof, she was gone.
The Sinnoh Pokémon League's quarterly routine meeting had been forced to convene early due to an unexpected incident; the timing was perfect— right after Cynthia and Lucian's match, leaving Cynthia no excuse to skip it.
Normally, Cynthia dodged these meetings with all sorts of excuses, each one uniquely creative and sometimes touching.
Severe cold, stomachache, dizziness, feeling top-heavy, fever, full-body soreness, allergies…
A written leave request? Never; Cynthia didn't bother with those.
"What usually came in? I have a severe cold. I'm resting."
That was the entirety of Cynthia's leave message to Roy.
Roy was genuinely worried about his region's popular Champion Cynthia's health; with how often she got "sick," the label of frail and sickly was unavoidable; judging by the escalating severity of her described illnesses, she might be terminally ill by next year.
But what could Roy do? Besides coaxing Cynthia, what else could he do?
The "frail and sickly" Cynthia finally pushed open the meeting room door, sauntering in with three paper bags, found a comfy spot, and leaned back.
Roy did his best to ignore the enticing aroma wafting from Cynthia's bags, rubbed his nose, and activated a holographic projection playing a news clip.
The news was brief, summing up to one sentence: A factory on the outskirts of Veilstone City was ambushed, with over a dozen human casualties, dozens of Pokémon injured, and flames that burned the factory's underground, triggering a chain explosion.
A murmur of hushed discussion filled the meeting room; it was clear they were shocked, too.
Flint, Lucian, and Aaron silently put down their phones, glanced at the projection, and looked thoughtful.
Cynthia munched on a burger, sipped a milkshake, grabbed some fries, and kept enjoying her breakfast without looking up.
A paper document landed in front of everyone in the meeting room; the sound of flipping pages replaced the murmurs.
Cynthia hooked the edge of the file with her pinky, flipped a few pages, found the dull document utterly uninteresting, and shifted her focus back to her food.
Roy didn't mind; all he needed was for Cynthia and the Elite Four to be present and witness the meeting. It was fully recorded, and as Sinnoh Region's top Pokémon Trainers, they had to attend an event like this.
Though Bertha wasn't physically in the room, she silently joined the meeting via a video call Lucian had set up.
"It's been confirmed as Cyrus's doing; he's the one behind it…" Roy sighed, unsure how to describe this incident.
"Since he's involved, it's not surprising it escalated this far; I think we all should've been somewhat prepared, but I'd still like to know more about this factory," Lucian said, tapping the table, signaling they shouldn't dwell on Cyrus's actions— he wanted evidence.
"The entire factory is nearly reduced to rubble; the chain explosion underground caused a sinkhole, sparking panic among nearby residents; dozens of Pokémon were injured in the incident, and there are reports of human deaths, though no Pokémon deaths have been reported yet."
A Pokémon League staff member used the projection to display a few photos of the damaged factory, alongside historical images of the surrounding area for comparison.
The photos he showed and the words he spoke made the meeting room grow even quieter, except for the obnoxiously loud sound of Cynthia slurping her milkshake.
Lucian tapped the table rhythmically, looking at the photos of the ruined factory, and spoke helplessly, "What about the factory's background? Did you find anything?"
"Nothing solid— fake identities; the identities used were even from deceased people; there's little useful info, and we suspect some of it might be deliberate misinformation."
Pokémon experiments, fake identities, hidden in Veilstone City, while he'd been searching around Hearthome and Veilstone with no leads… it was right under his nose all along.
Lucian furrowed his brow; he wasn't new to clashing with evil forces, but to pull this off so flawlessly… the water was really deep, and for Cyrus to be angry enough to cause such a massive scene, it seemed things were far dirtier than he'd previously understood.
(End of Chapter)