It was another day when the "Shear Line" was richest in gold.
In the eternal torment brought by the flame straight sword, the holy swordsman's words were a pillar to all swordsmen—"My Ringed Straight Sword will never lose!"—a curse carved deep into the gloom of the soul.
Watching Kartana get one-shot, catch fire, and tumble to the ground, Hikaru rubbed his chin and suddenly thought of something.
Ultra Wormholes spitting out Ultra Beasts… isn't that basically a Red String Invasion?
Kartana lay in the bonfire, its mind already scorched and hazy.
A newbie breaks in, happens to meet a king-tier Sacred Swordsman, the flame sword arts are monster-class, and even going all out can't win.
Infuriating.
"Is this when you throw a ball?"
The kids pointed at Kartana, and Hikaru said:
"One important note: even though this guy's very weak right now, it's bathed in a type of energy from Ultra Space. That energy makes them hard to capture."
"But that energy will fade with time—or you can remove it through special means."
Out of caution, Hikaru didn't pick Kartana up with his hands.
Otherwise, if this thing suddenly came to and slashed him, even as a super Sinjohian he couldn't tank it—his hand would come off for sure.
An Attack stat of 181 isn't a joke—one point higher than Deoxys's Attack Forme.
No doubt, these guys are seriously dangerous.
What intrigued Hikaru, though, was Kartana's body composition.
Anyone could see it: the elements of "origami" + "blade."
And paper, in Shinto culture, holds special meaning—regarded as a "divine object," a medium between people and gods.
Because of that, in the Ultra Forest where it comes from, there aren't just special plants—there are human guardians called "Kami-Paper Attendants."
Since it has the Grass type, that implies the "paper blades" on Kartana can regenerate.
Aegislash picked up the severed "paper blade," resting that razor-edged sheet on its ribboned arms.
Even a Steel-type like Aegislash could feel the sharpness in that paper.
Touch it rashly and it'll slice your skin open in a blink.
Which also means—this is a rare "Ultra Material!"
[Ultra-World Material: Divine Paper.]
[Description: A severed "divine paper blade" from Kartana, part of an Ultra Beast's body. Even if cut off, it can draw power from the Ultra Forest to regrow. Divine Paper is both razor-sharp and resilient, suitable for crafting special weapons.]
[Origin hint: These beasts seem to be "folded" from Divine Paper and thus come into being.]
[Craftable items: sword-type gear, Poké Ball stickers, Totem Stickers, energy stickers]
Using Divine Paper for stickers feels a bit like overkill…
Kartana wobbled up out of the fire. One of its paper blades had been severed; it pondered for a long moment in silence.
Today's swordplay—lesson received!
"If we capture it, that would greatly help our research on extradimensional space in the future—"
Professor Burnet muttered:
"I really learned something interesting this time! But since it came from another world, that means we can send it back, right?"
"If we communicate with it, it should be no problem?"
Hikaru nodded.
"It's speaking an otherworld language, but I think I can understand it."
Hikaru used telepathy to speak with Kartana, and the latter was stunned—honestly, it should have been stunned earlier, but at the time it was busy cutting things.
Wait, how do you speak our language?
Kartana replied, full of curiosity.
Hikaru knew.
In fact, Kartana is one of the few Ultra Beasts that can "speak." Its speech is Japanese sentences reversed with some noise layered in.
Faced with Hikaru's communication, Kartana felt it had no face to linger here.
The blade I lost today—I'll etch this in memory. Legendary Sacred Swordsman, I have learned from you!
One day, when my sword arts are perfected, I will reclaim my honor!
But you, "human," are impressive!
Since you are the partner of a Sacred Swordsman—
One who wields a mighty holy blade!
You are truly strong!
So—become my "Kami-Paper Attendant!"
I just happen to be lacking an attendant!
Skyla: "It's chattering about something. It sounds excited?"
Hikaru: "It wants me to be its Kami-Paper Attendant. That's a vocation in Kartana's world—there are humans over there, too."
"But though it's called 'Attendant,' it basically means training alongside Kartana as partners—so, you can think of it as being its Trainer."
"I don't really mind, but is that okay? I'm a person from another world to you."
Hikaru and Kartana continued speaking. It seemed no one from another world had ever served as a Kami-Paper Attendant.
In the anime, Kartana only showed up once—went around cutting things, sliced a meteor, even split space, then left.
In a special episode, Kartana appeared as a run-of-the-mill Ultra Beast, just a hitter; it briefly crossed blades with Elite Four member Kahili, and that was that—no special story.
Even Aegislash glanced its way.
Swordsman, huh… We've already got plenty of Pokémon wearing that tag. Your paper blade doesn't have much competitive edge here!
Me, I'm a traditional "greatsword." Iron Valiant is a high-tech "lightsaber." Lilligant's leaves are "leaf-blades." We even know Keldeo and the Swords of Justice.
And furthermore—
Aegislash lowered its single eye and began to lecture the Kartana.
A true swordsman doesn't slash around at random, but tempers the heart! Only when you reach a pure and tranquil mind can you be called a qualified swordsman!
Cyrano: "Huh? It looks like it's scolding that Ultra Beast."
Banshirō: "Mm… that's odd. They shouldn't share a language, so how are they 'talking'?"
"No, we actually don't understand a word," Hikaru shrugged. "But between swordsmen, it's enough if intent gets across."
The words don't matter as much as conveying the meaning.
Because Aegislash had already displayed a pure, tranquil heart, Kartana grew excited!
That—this is one of the sword-arts mysteries I've been seeking!
So my training is still lacking! I've gained a new insight today—this great favor shall be repaid!
"Projecting kingly dominance, forcing the strong to bow—Kartana has become the disciple. So you're the real protagonist!"
Hikaru looked at Aegislash and silently roasted it.
Well, it is the "Royal Sword Pokémon," after all.
Kartana conveyed its intention to Hikaru: its current training was insufficient; it wasn't permitted to choose a Kami-Paper Attendant yet—and now he saw why.
So it decided to return to the Ultra Forest and, when its training bore fruit, come back to invite Hikaru again.
However, Kartana looked up at the Ultra Wormhole in the sky, and didn't intend to leave just yet.
[Another presence is coming.]
[Something my sword—trained to this day—has never been able to cut.]
Kartana stared at the sky.
"Hm? You're saying there's something above the wormhole?"
If a tremendous force pulls on them, multiple wormholes can appear in the same region—but Unova's spacetime is quite robust; even one is astonishing in theory.
"Another one?! At the very top of the sky!"
Under everyone's astonished gazes, high above Kartana's Ultra Wormhole—at a height too distant to see clearly—a pitch-black fissure appeared again!
But this time the fissure didn't last long. With an explosive bloom of firelight, a new Ultra Wormhole tore open, and a colossal silhouette burst into this world!
Rrrrrrrr—!
Like the roar of a rocket launch, searing fire and thrust scoured the fissure's spacetime into blinding day. A heat like nuclear fusion surged forth, and a Pokémon—shaped like a bamboo stalk fused to a rocket—fell from the higher wormhole!
Professor Burnet's face went pale.
"Something's falling! This is bad—if something that big slams down, the Nature Preserve will be destroyed!"
This shouldn't have happened—but because Colress reincarnated from another world, the spacetime state of this area was disrupted.
Perhaps it's also tied to the time machine—and the appearance of a certain Shiny legendary trio.
And the root of it all was Arceus descending to the Sinjoh Ruins, making the three orbs—meant to be powerless—resonate again.
Hikaru: "If time and space get scrambled, the coordinates of the universe go awry."
"And there's a kind of Ultra Beast that absorbs iron and minerals from the ground, causing terrain collapses."
"They draw strength from planets to fill themselves, then roam the cosmos on powerful thrusters."
"UB-04: Blaster."
"Also known as—"
"Celesteela!"
Kartana shares the same number, even half the same typing. There's no direct link between them, but they make for a curious mirror.
Kartana is the lightest Ultra Beast, while Celesteela is the heaviest!
[That's the entity I have never managed to cut.]
[It fell from space into our world and drank of the world's energy.]
[To protect my world, we honed our sword arts and tried to slice it—but neither my own dull blade, nor the renowned masters before me, could cut it.]
Hikaru: "So you're a little swordsman of justice. But with your swordplay, you certainly can't cleave that Pokémon."
Before Kartana learns Sacred Sword, the strongest Fighting-type move it can realistically use is just Brick Break—and even that's hard to master on its own.
Hikaru pondered.
Ah, so that's how it is!
The Pokédex says Kartana can cleave a certain iron tower in one stroke—
An iron tower… and Celesteela's body is shaped just like one!
It's the launch gantry of a rocket!
"Did it follow you here?"
[Perhaps it sensed the "wormhole" opening and set out again. Unluckily, this isn't where it meant to go either!]
Many Ultra Worlds have no humans; only Kartana's world has otherworldly humans—they can coexist with Ultra Beasts and even forge contracts.
Thus the Ultra Forest is the only place where "Trainer battles" take place.
As for Celesteela's "Ultra Canyon," calling it a single world is misleading—it's more like a set of dying sulfur planets.
"That thing's going to hit!"
Skyla sent out her Flying-type Pokémon, trying to stop the falling Celesteela, and Principal Cyrano released a high-level Mandibuzz as well!
"A Flying-type grand melee!" But a Celesteela in hyper-velocity descent isn't so easily stopped—that's meteor-strike energy.
In the legends of Celesteela, that's exactly how they crash-land on planets.
[If you can't cut it, then with your power alone you can't stop it. But if the Sacred Swordsman joins in—using that great shield—there's a chance to intercept.]
Kartana floated in the air. In short, its sword arts weren't mastered enough to do what the Alola-era Kartana did—split a meteor in one blow. Compared to that master who severed space, it was still a newbie.
Shooting it down would only make a worse disaster—since it's already falling. What we need now is to slow her descent; and this steel grande dame weighs 999 kilograms—stopping her won't be easy!
"Tailwind!"
Skyla commanded her birds; they beat their wings to whip up gales, using wind to counter the momentum of that falling rocket-giant!
But the effect wasn't ideal!
Cyrano: "To witness a scene like this—"
Hikaru: "Principal Cyrano, don't tell me you're about to say 'I could die happy after this.'"
Cyrano: "Er… it's pretty thrilling, isn't it!"
"Sensei, what do we do now?"
Rosa and the others stared in fright at the descending Celesteela. If this thing just slammed down, the Nature Preserve would explode into chaos and the forest would burn!
"Don't panic. Skyla's idea—using wind to slow her fall—is right. But the birds aren't stirring up wind strong enough!"
"So we need wind from something stronger!"
"And those 'somethings'… have been charging up in the Nature Preserve already!"
Hikaru gave a sharp whistle and used psychic power to make sunlight spill across the area!
At the call of sunlight, the big guys hidden in the deep river rose one after another with earth-shaking roars, revealing their true forms!
Gyarados!
The Nature Preserve is the only place in Unova where "wild Magikarp" exist. It isn't on the standard map—and it also hosts Unova's highest-level, naturally evolved Gyarados.
The highest-level individual had reached a staggering level 100!
One, two, three… Under the call of sunlight, ten Gyarados surfaced nearby!
Their overwhelming presence made even Kartana tremble—these Gyarados were monstrously strong!
A special vocation: Dragon Tamer!
Through a Dragon Tamer's power, one bonds with "dragon Pokémon," not just "Dragon-type Pokémon."
Though Gyarados isn't Dragon-type, its Egg Group is "Dragon"!
"Gyarados! Use Rain Dance!"
Hikaru commanded the Gyarados. The blue leviathans roared at the sky; thunderheads gathered in a blink, and a boundless black overcast smothered the heavens. Sheets of rain fell in torrents!
Just when everyone braced to be drenched, Torterra used Frenzy Plant to raise a gigantic "wooden hall!"
And Hikaru's Larvesta began to glow.
Ability swap—an illegal Ability: Drought.
The fierce sunlight drove away the clinging moisture and kept this spot dry amid the deluge!
"Me-laa!"
Banshirō's Larvesta's eyes bulged!
Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
Banshirō's Larvesta talked the way Banshirō did—emphasizing a word by shouting it three times!
Which also showed just how shocked it was!
What kind of Ability is that? Who gave it to you? Why don't I have Drought?
Hikaru's Larvesta put on a stern face and said very seriously:
"Me-laa~!"
Eh! The spirits of the ancient city said I should become a sun god.
I said that wasn't appropriate. The spirits of the ancient city said they had already decreed it!
Modern Larvesta don't have Drought because they haven't been blessed by the sun god. Believe in the sun god, and you too shall become Drought!
Banshirō's Larvesta was dazzled by the spiel.
You're amazing! I'll follow you from now on! Wait, so you're an old-timer from the ancient city?
"Rain Dance… using water to reduce re-entry heat and prevent a forest fire?"
The three kids looked up at the sky. Hikaru explained, "Now it's a weather lesson."
"In rain, Water-type moves get stronger, Fire-type moves get weaker, and the Aftermath Ability can't trigger."
"Light-beam-type moves also lose power and effectiveness—but there are two moves that, in rain, become sure-hit!"
"Gyarados squad—"
"Use Hurricane!"
(End of Chapter)
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