Frostvale City lived in permanent summer, so its residents had needed another way to mark the turning of the year.
Long ago, they'd landed on this.
The auction.
It kept money moving and drew visitors in from everywhere.
The wind chime climbed slowly—a few hundred at a time, sometimes only a few dozen—until Nikozo stepped in and took it without breaking a sweat.
It disappeared from the stage and reappeared on the table in their room.
Nikozo lifted it out of its gift box and gave it a light shake. That clear ring made it impossible not to feel a little better.
"Chimecho are going to love this."
The next lot was a King's Rock.
Opening bid: 500,000.
Which didn't dampen anybody's enthusiasm. It sold for several times that.
Akiyama sat that one out. He couldn't imagine ever needing it.
Slowking just didn't do much for him.
Lots came and went. Some went for millions or tens of millions. Some went for double or triple digits.
There was no discernible pattern. It all seemed random.
Nobody stuck in a room without bidding got bored, either. You could pipe in music, even customize the scenery.
Gengar had been let out early on and was poking at everything he could reach, thoroughly delighted by the purple panels.
The room flickered through settings—a skyline of glass towers one minute, a little beach the next.
"Our next lot is a Prism Scale, shed by a Feebas, capable of evolving certain Pokémon!"
"Opening bid: twenty thousand."
That one caught Akiyama's eye.
Within seconds it was at 280,000.
It didn't stay there long, either. It jumped to two million and stopped dead.
"Isn't that already more than what the Nanami family charges for a Milotic?" Akiyama frowned.
Nikozo nodded. "It is. About five percent over."
"But the Nanami family doesn't sell that many. You have to reserve one in advance. And some people just prefer raising theirs from scratch."
That made sense to Akiyama.
"Oh! One of tonight's headliners already—a Mega Stone!"
The host actually sounded startled, like she hadn't expected it this early.
Akiyama looked straight at the purple panel.
There was a photo, and there was a video.
He opened the video, and the stone rotated on display from every possible angle.
He watched the whole thing, then sat back down.
Black, red, black. Definitely not Alakazam's.
"Not the one?" Nikozo asked.
"Nope. Houndoom's, I'd say."
Kadabra deflated a little at that.
"You can tell just from looking? That's impressive."
"I just happen to know it." Akiyama didn't think much of it. In his last life there had only been a few dozen Mega Evolutions, and remembering the broad strokes hadn't been hard.
The opening bid was steep. Two million flat.
"That's rich," Nikozo said. "If you mine one yourself on the Evolution Isles, it doesn't cost you a thing."
"The Isles are enormous, and not everybody's cut out to be a miner. You could earn two million in the time it'd take you to find a needle in that ocean," Akiyama said mildly.
Nikozo nodded.
The Mega Stone sold quickly.
Thirty million.
The lot after that got Akiyama's attention.
"This is a peculiar sample of slime that seems to change ceaselessly. It was found washed up on the Frostvale shoreline."
"Opening bid: three hundred League coins."
Akiyama enlarged the video. A purple, jelly-like mass was shifting shape, and even its color wavered—just a spot of it, before it reverted to purple.
"A Ditto?" His brow furrowed. Then he bid.
He took it without anyone contesting.
When the purple jelly appeared on the table, Nikozo leaned in, curious.
It was the first bid Akiyama had made all night.
Gengar, Kadabra, and Gardevoir crowded around too.
Akiyama gave it a poke.
The purple jelly did not react. It just kept changing, absorbed in its own business.
"You know what a Ditto is?"
Nikozo shook his head. Never heard of it.
Akiyama remembered a rumor about Ditto from his old life.
A failed byproduct of cloning Mewtwo.
Team Rocket.
"Mewtwo. It's always Mewtwo with you people. Every world, same obsession." He shut the fragment of tissue back in its box, sank onto the couch, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
At this rate, Mewtwo Strikes Back wouldn't even surprise him.
Before anybody could say a word, the host was already introducing the next lot.
"Our next item is also a Mega Stone."
"Opening bid: two million!"
Akiyama looked up and studied it carefully.
Yellow wrapped around both sides of the central pattern, and dead in the middle sat rose and vermilion.
That was it. That was absolutely it.
"Bid!"
The price had only climbed to eleven million.
It leapt to thirty million in one stroke.
Nobody came back at him.
That kind of jump made it obvious somebody intended to have it, and nobody was going to make an enemy over something they might never use. Pointless spite cost more than it paid.
Moments later, the stone was on their table.
Kadabra brushed it with his psychic power, and the stone answered with a glow.
At the same moment, Akiyama raised his arm, and the Key Stone in his bracelet lit up in response.
The light took a while to fade.
"You've got a good eye. Called it on the first try." Nikozo sounded a little envious.
"Just luck." Akiyama laughed it off.
Kadabra hadn't evolved yet. Once he became an Alakazam, Mega Evolution was on the table.
Gardevoir clapped her small hands together, happy for him.
Gengar reached for the stone, and Kadabra lifted it out of range with an easy Confusion.
Mine.
Gengar was instantly beside himself. He grabbed Akiyama's sleeve and jabbed a finger at Kadabra.
Look at him. Look at him. Look at what he's doing.
Akiyama didn't know whether to laugh or groan.
He was being shaken hard enough that he had to do something, so he just hauled Gengar up by the middle.
"Keep that up and you're going to scramble my brains. We'll see what else comes up. If there's one for you, I'll buy it."
That settled Gengar down.
But his luck seemed to have run out along with everything else. None of the remaining Mega Stones were any use to Gengar or Gardevoir.
Once the initial fuss burned off, Gengar didn't much care.
Gardevoir cared even less.
One trip back to Greenleaf Town and she'd have anything she wanted.
Besides, Akiyama was right here, and she could protect him. Whether or not there was a stone involved didn't matter in the slightest.
She was never going to doubt the bond between them.
Kadabra, meanwhile, had the air of a well-behaved kid who'd finally gotten the one toy he actually wanted. He couldn't put it down.
"Tomorrow we'll find a craftsman and have something made for you. Otherwise you'll just be carrying it around."
"Something like this."
Akiyama held his bracelet out where Kadabra could see it.
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