After receiving the news, Haru first replied to Galar's invitation, telling them that if the situation in Altomare was resolved, he would definitely take part in the tournament.
Next came Blue's bold declaration that he was the strongest in the world.
Well… since Blue had already reached that level, as his good friend, Haru naturally had to help him spread the word.
Otherwise, how could he call himself a proper friend after all the effort Blue had put in?
So, Haru simply shared Blue's statement on his own social media.
He even added a caption praising him:
"Did you guys know? Blue's been quietly getting stronger all this time, and now he's finally astonished the world. He's done it!"
Hmm… his hard work being recognized by everyone—Haru figured Blue would be happy to know that.
Sure, it might attract a flood of challengers—Elite Four–level trainers or even Champions—but for our unbeatable Blue, wouldn't that just be a warm-up?
Battles are fun, after all.
As long as the unbeatable Blue kept winning, his reputation would only grow stronger, right?
Sweeping Red off the map was only a matter of time.
With that cheerful thought, Haru turned off his phone.
His original plan had been to interrogate the thief sisters who had been locked in the basement for quite a while.
But since he'd just received a letter from Bianca, he had to make a trip to the Grand Cathedral first.
Just as the letter mentioned, Bianca had already been waiting there for quite some time.
To ensure her safety, Mew No. 2 was sitting not far from her. But Bianca didn't seem nervous at all—she was casually flipping through a book titled "Pokémon Postnatal Care."
No idea where she'd found that.
And because Mew No. 2 was there, Professor Oak—who had always been intrigued by Haru and the Mewtwo clone—had also been "special summoned" onto the field, so to speak.
He seemed eager to get close to Mewtwo, to study the human–Pokémon hybrid up close. But afraid of provoking her and earning her displeasure, he kept his distance, observing quietly.
It was worth noting that a stack of books sat beside him.
Haru could see that the top one was titled "Legendary Research: Can Humans and Gardevoir Really Produce Offspring?!"
…Well. That explained exactly where Mew No. 2 had gotten her reading material.
Perhaps noticing Haru's arrival, the once-anxious Bianca's eyes lit up. She immediately ran toward him.
"You're finally here! I've been waiting forever!"
Bianca wasn't that old, nor did she have much experience handling sudden crises.
And since the missing person this time was her only remaining family, it was no wonder she looked so lost.
So, to her, Haru—who had previously fought Team Rocket and even faced Lugia head-on—was her only hope.
Surely the great Haru could solve this perfectly, right?
She didn't say it out loud, but deep down, that was exactly what she believed.
If even Haru couldn't rescue her grandfather, then… she really didn't know what else she could do.
"Mm. Let's go inside—we'll talk there."
Haru gave her a look, then glanced at Professor Oak, who was still scribbling something in his notebook, and led the way into the Grand Cathedral.
"Alright, let's hear it. What exactly happened?"
Once they were seated inside, Haru immediately turned to Bianca.
Maybe because her "pillar of strength" had arrived, Bianca seemed noticeably calmer now, her tone much steadier.
"It all started yesterday," she began.
"I went fishing by the sea. My hook got snagged a few times, so I decided to give it one last cast—and if nothing bit, I'd just go home."
"But what I reeled up was a glass bottle."
"The bottle was opaque, the mouth tightly sealed, so you couldn't see what was inside."
"You opened it, and a demon popped out?" Haru interjected, unable to resist, since the story felt way too familiar.
But Bianca immediately shook her head.
"Of course not! Why would you think that?"
"I was planning to just treat it as trash and take it back for Trubbish to dispose of—I had no intention of opening it."
"But when I picked it up, I noticed something strange. My name was written on the bottle."
"Curious, I pulled out the cork and found a folded letter inside."
"Oh? So that's the 'kidnapping notice' you mentioned?"
Now Haru was intrigued.
He'd originally assumed the so-called 'kidnapping notice' had been delivered straight to the Grand Cathedral, like before—but this method was far more creative.
To pull this off, the sender had to make sure Bianca would fish in a specific place at a specific time, all without being noticed. Not an easy feat.
"You didn't check the water afterward? If someone manually hooked the bottle onto your line, they couldn't have swum far."
"Of course I did," Kanon replied. "Right after reading the letter, I immediately sent out my Pokémon to scout the area."
"…But my Water-type Pokémon didn't find anything," Bianca said with a hint of disappointment, shaking her head.
If only she'd caught whoever delivered that bottle underwater, maybe the kidnapping wouldn't have happened.
Maybe—even the case of the Soul Dew would've been solved by now.
"After that, I got scared those criminals might come after me," she continued. "So I stayed close to Mewtwo the whole time.
I never thought… it'd be my grandfather who ended up disappearing."
Her voice faltered, the weight of guilt pressing down again.
It wasn't her fault, not really—but the fact that her grandfather had been taken instead of her gnawed at her heart.
If she hadn't been with Mewtwo all that time… maybe her grandfather wouldn't have gone missing.
"So, how exactly did your grandfather disappear?" Haru asked.
From her expression, he could already guess her thoughts—but instead of comforting her, he pressed on.
"It happened early in the morning. He always opens the cathedral doors at that hour," she explained.
"But today, before he even reached the Grand Cathedral, he vanished."
"He did leave home—but somewhere along the way, he just… disappeared."
"Hmm… vanished into thin air, huh?" Haru murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
The distance between Bianca's house and the cathedral wasn't far, and the route wasn't isolated.
To abduct someone along that stretch without being seen would take considerable skill.
Unless—no one was around, the attacker moved incredibly fast, and there wasn't a single sound to alert anyone nearby.
Only under those conditions could it have gone unnoticed.
Teleportation, perhaps?
That was the first thing that came to Haru's mind—the Psychic-type move that allowed for short-range instant travel.
He himself often had Mew use it for pursuit or surprise attacks.
Still, few Pokémon could even learn the move, and fewer still could use it with the kind of precision Mew did.
From a statistical standpoint, that possibility was slim.
Then again… there was always the absurd alternative—that Bianca's grandfather had been texting while walking, tripped into a canal, and drowned.
But honestly, Haru thought that was even less likely than the idea that he'd gotten fed up with bureaucracy and just ran away without a word.
He turned these possibilities over in his mind, then asked,
"By the way, you still have that 'warning letter,' right?"
"Of course," Bianca said, pulling a neatly folded sheet of paper from her coat pocket.
Haru unfolded it and gave it a quick read.
The content matched everything she'd described, word for word.
The letter's font was printed—no handwriting to analyze, no clues to trace.
"Got it," Haru sighed, handing the letter back. "I'll question those two women we caught earlier next.
They were the first to steal the Soul Dew. Maybe they know something."
He couldn't help but feel exasperated.
What was it with this tiny island and all its drama?
Stolen relics, rampaging Legendaries, and now the cathedral caretaker kidnapped.
Still, if the culprits really were the same thieves who took the Soul Dew, the motive actually made sense.
They might have stolen it—but knowing how to use it was another story.
Reality wasn't like the anime—you couldn't just slap the Soul Dew into the cathedral's mechanism and start commanding the city's defense system.
That would've been way too low-budget.
No—only Bianca and her grandfather would know the true method of activation.
Which meant the old man's kidnapping might have been precisely for that reason.
But since the thief sisters had already been locked up in the basement for some time, they couldn't have done it.
That ruled them out.
So the most likely suspects left were… Team Rocket, again?
Even though Haru had all but wiped them out last time, who could say if a few members hadn't slipped through the cracks here in Altomare?
Just like that Dr. Namba he'd caught deep underwater.
Thinking that, Haru turned toward the white-haired woman lounging idly nearby.
"Lugia," he said, "I need you and your daughter to stay here and guard the cathedral. Don't let anyone suspicious in.
If someone insists on forcing their way through—beat them up, tie them up, and hang them outside. I'll deal with them when I get back."
If the person who kidnapped Bianca's grandfather was the same one who stole the Soul Dew, they likely now knew how to operate Altomare's defense system.
If they reached the cathedral, the whole mechanism could fall into enemy hands.
And worse—if the Soul Dew were corrupted by evil intent, it would vanish completely, causing Alto Mare itself to collapse and sink.
To prevent that, Haru needed someone reliable to stand guard.
Lugia might be a bit airheaded, but as a Legendary, she was more than capable of fending off Team Rocket.
"No problem!"
The white-haired woman saluted energetically, her long ahoge springing upright like a flag of determination.
"…Good spirit," Haru said, nodding. "I'll leave it to you."
Beside her, the smaller Lugia crossed her fins over her chest, giving her mother a dubious look.
"…"
Why did she feel so uneasy about this? She didn't know why the human had assigned her mom to guard the place—but she could already picture her falling asleep in a chair, or wandering off to "borrow" some ice cream from a nearby shop.
Yes, borrow.
Since, obviously, the woman didn't have any money.
In the end, would she be the only one doing any actual work again?
How had she ended up in this mess with humans anyway? She'd only meant to drag this idiot woman away quickly…
The more the little Lugia thought about it, the more resigned she felt.
Just then, Professor Oak—who had been quietly acting as background decoration—suddenly pointed at the two white-haired figures.
"Come to think of it," he said, "I've been meaning to ask… who exactly are they?"
After spending some time with Haru, Oak had learned a fair bit about the Pokémon around him.
He knew that Haru's Legendaries and Mythicals often preferred human forms—and that those forms were fixed once chosen.
But these two white-haired girls—he didn't recall seeing them before.
Were they Pokémon or humans?
From the look of them, they seemed more like a pair of sisters… or maybe a mother and daughter.
Surely Haru hadn't actually brought home a mother-daughter pair of Pokémon, right?
Before Haru could answer, Mew No. 2—who had silently set down her book—suddenly glared at the white-haired woman, teeth clenched.
"Thieves!" she spat.
"Thieves?" Oak blinked in confusion.
Haru coughed awkwardly. "Ahem… actually, they're Lugia."
"…"
Oak froze for a moment, then squinted at Haru.
"…And you," he asked slowly, "what exactly is your relationship with these two Lugia?"