Chapter 164:
"I never thought... you'd force Pikachu's second form to emerge..."
Hayashi Kaede looked at Mewtwo with a strange expression.
"Making Ash 'disappear' right in front of Pikachu?"
Wouldn't that send Pikachu into a rage?
"Pikachu? That Pikachu?" Mewtwo, realizing Hayashi Kaede was referring to that Pokémon, was startled. "You know that Pikachu? Is it a Legendary Pokémon?"
"...Well, I'm not sure about Legendary, but let's say I know it. I know its Trainer too. Its Trainer is also pretty unbelievable, right?" Hayashi Kaede laughed. "It's like, I know them, but they don't know me."
"Huh?"
Mewtwo was confused. You know them, but they don't know you?
From Hayashi Kaede's tone, it did sound strange.
Because he didn't seem surprised by the immense lightning Pikachu had unleashed, nor by the Trainer tearing through its psychic power.
"They are strange, right?" Hayashi Kaede chuckled, looking at it. "Put a psychic barrier around me too. Let me see."
Mewtwo paused, then looked at Hayashi Kaede in surprise. A certain guess in its mind seemed to be verified.
It waved a hand, and an invisible psychic energy enveloped Hayashi Kaede completely.
Of course, this was just an invisible confinement, not compression.
Feeling this confinement, Hayashi Kaede first resisted with his own psychic power. Although he could feel the struggle against the barrier, he couldn't budge it at all.
But Hayashi Kaede wasn't discouraged. After all, his psychic power was only intermediate-level, while Mewtwo's...
Well, now that Mewtwo had overcome a certain mental hurdle, its strength had broken through to "???" level.
The gap between them was as vast as the difference between lake and ocean, it is totally incomparable.
Next, Hayashi Kaede gave up on comparing his psychic power with Mewtwo and instead focused on his physical strength.
To be honest, he wasn't sure what level his physical strength had reached.
The system's description for [True New Human Body] was that he could share part of the physique of Pokémon he had bonded with.
So Serperior, Milotic, Dragonite, Mewtwo... part of their physiques was shared with him.
Especially Dragonite. At over level 70, during the period when Friendship was increasing, he could even feel his strength rising daily and could master it smoothly.
But now, facing Mewtwo's casual confinement, this strength only managed to push the psychic barrier outward slightly.
Yet even that slight push made Mewtwo's eyes narrow. It immediately strengthened the confinement on Hayashi Kaede.
Sure enough he is not an ordinary psychic human after all?
Otherwise, ordinary humans should be incredibly fragile under his power!
"I am afraid that confinement is one of the things that can constraint me, though..."
Hayashi Kaede sighed within the psychic confinement.
His [True New Human Body] trait might make him immune to damage, but it was useless against confinement-type moves.
This meant be wasn't immune to all dangers in this world.
But it wasn't a big deal. His own physique made it hard for most Pokémon to confine him anyway. Not every Pokémon was Mewtwo.
Then again, If Ash could tear through Mewtwo's restraint, there was no reason he couldn't.
Was it the method?
Hayashi Kaede thought about the scene with Ash. Ash had unleashed greater power when he saw Pikachu in mortal danger.
Should he try it?
Even though his Pokémon weren't in danger now, he could use Veridian Power to replicate the corresponding emotion and project it into his mind.
It wasn't difficult, especially since he had just received transmissions from Mewtwo.
Deciding to act, Hayashi Kaede didn't hesitate. He immediately began constructing a scene in his mind: he was restrained.
Mewtwo floated in the air, and beside it was that Salamence. It used Earthquake, hitting... Serperior, and was preparing to fire an enhanced Hyper Beam.
The power was so great that ordinary Pokémon couldn't withstand it.
Holy crap?
The moment the scene flashed, Hayashi Kaede felt his blood surge. Especially when he saw Serperior's pained expression during the Earthquake, combined with the Hyper Beam gathering above.
In that instant, his hands without any hesitation plunged into the psychic restraint. It felt like a flesh-and-blood body thrust into a wall, but Hayashi Kaede didn't retreat at all. Instead, he tore with even more fervor.
This time, in just one second, the psychic barrier shattered before Mewtwo could even react.
An nameless rage rose in his heart.
His hands clenched into fists, and he directly threw a punch at Mewtwo.
The fist flew like a gust of wind, stopping right in front of Mewtwo's face.
At the critical moment, Hayashi Kaede shook his head and snapped back to reality. "Sss..."
Mewtwo: "??"
Looking at the large fist before it, it unconsciously swallowed. It felt that if it hadn't dodged that punch, it would have been injured.
No way.
That Pikachu's Trainer had only torn through its psychic barrier, and it had taken some time.
You tore through it in one second? And launched a counterattack like this?
"Sorry, I was doing a little experiment and got too into it," Hayashi Kaede said, returning from the mental scene. He took a deep breath, trying not to let his strange (wanting to punch Mewtwo) emotions show on his face.
But it was really infuriating.
Life-and-death situations might strengthen the bond between Pokémon and Trainers.
But who could handle life-and-death separations?
Luckily, it was just a simulated scene. Otherwise, Hayashi Kaede suspected he might have flown into the sky and fought Mewtwo.
Mewtwo fell silent. "..."
After seeing the "bond" between Pikachu and its Trainer, it also felt its actions had been excessive.
However, after two months of travel, although it knew it wasn't invincible, witnessing Hayashi Kaede tear through its psychic barrier still surprise a him greatly.
It never expected that the moves it could feel getting injured by—whether the first time or this time—Would both be so incredible.
"Whew..."
After a long exhale, Hayashi Kaede instinctively glanced at Serperior beside him. Seeing it was fine, he sighed in relief under its puzzled gaze, then turned to Mewtwo. "Where's that Salamence?"