Chapter 21. Mt. Moon
The sky was clear and bright.
Under the shade of a big tree, the group was taking a break.
On Ash Ketchum's shoulders, there was a Pikachu on the left and a Pikachu on the right.
Right now, he was staring at Natsume with curiosity.
"Natsume, are you modifying a Poké Ball?"
Seeing the pile of scrapped red-and-white balls by Natsume's side, Ash couldn't help being curious.
Ever since they left Pewter City yesterday, Natsume had been carrying a bunch of wiring and tools he couldn't name, and had been crazily scrapping Poké Balls.
In just these two days, probably over a hundred Poké Balls had met their end.
"Yes, I'm going to engrave this chip and circuit into it."
Natsume spoke without turning his head.
"Why implant that kind of thing?"
A small orange head leaned in from the side.
"Because it looks good."
Natsume still didn't look up.
Misty: "…"
"What a waste."
With that, Misty turned around to help Brock with the cooking.
"Bang!"
A faint pop sounded, and the Poké Ball in Natsume's hand failed again.
Staring at the scrapped ball, Natsume looked a little dazed.
"Recording complete.
Would you like to compile a failure summary?"
Beside him, the Rotom Phone spoke diligently.
"Save it for later."
Natsume fixed his eyes on the ruined Poké Ball.
Hmm… a Poké Ball Rotom felt simple in theory, but was harder to do than imagined.
First, a Poké Ball only has very simple circuitry inside, and only a very tiny area even has that circuitry.
Rotom can't fuse into it at all.
What Natsume needed to do now was implant circuitry into the Poké Ball, along with a chip that could accommodate Rotom's core.
The chip was salvaged from the toy he'd used to make the toy-car Rotom last time.
That toy was about the same size as a Poké Ball; if he got the wiring right, it would work.
The slightly tricky part was expanding the Poké Ball's original circuits so they could interface with the chip while squeezing out the best performance.
"It must be because I don't have a proper lab."
After thinking for a long time, Natsume still felt the problem wasn't with him.
After all, he really did feel the theory was simple.
He had already used that S-rank scratch card, and—unsurprisingly—the trashiest guaranteed reward—a Master Ball.
Natsume didn't dare experiment with a Master Ball, so he could only practice on ordinary Poké Balls first, then slightly more complex Great Balls, then Ultra Balls, and only at the very end touch the Master Ball.
But he was stuck at the very first step.
"Pikachu—hee hee!"
From the side came center-parted's laughter.
Natsume glanced over, then casually grabbed a little chair and began winding wires around it.
"Pika!?"
"Natsume, doesn't your Pikachu already have the Electric-type… 'Revelry Chair'?"
Ash wanted to say the full name of the chair, but the professional term was too much of a mouthful, so he copied Natsume and just called it the Revelry Chair.
"That was the first tier of the Revelry Chair, and center-parted has fully adapted to it.
I'm making the second tier now.
There are ten tiers in total."
"Pika!?"
Center-parted wobbled on Ash's shoulder, looking like he had a hard life.
"Pikachu!"
Pika-god patted his center part to comfort him.
"Is that so…"
Ash scratched his head.
Starting the day before yesterday, Natsume had asked him to bring center-parted along whenever he trained Pikachu, to take turns in battles, and even to eat the same food, saying something about… keeping the variables aligned?
Over these few days together, Ash had realized that Natsume's Pikachu seemed a little different from his.
Center-parted actually knew a Grass-type move called Grass Knot!
When he discovered it, Ash was stunned and pestered Natsume for a long time to teach his own Pikachu too.
He was mercilessly refused.
No helping it—Natsume himself had only ever obtained a single Technical Machine.
As for Ash, maybe later.
"All right, everyone, time to eat!"
Off to the side, Misty called the two of them over.
"We'll set out after eating.
We should arrive at Mt. Moon by tonight."
Brock encouraged them.
Evening, Mt. Moon.
"Faster than I expected.
It's only just dusk."
In front of the four, a bald little mountain riddled with craters like the moon's surface came into view.
"Huh?
Why is it as bright as daytime here?"
Misty was a bit surprised as she looked at Mt. Moon.
Right now, all kinds of equipment and Flying Pokémon could be seen everywhere on the mountain, transporting who-knew-what.
The entire Mt. Moon was blanketed in searchlights and floodlights, bright as day.
"Ah!
Looks like there's some kind of research project here.
The road's closed, and over there the staff have put up a cordon."
Not far away, Ash came back looking a little dejected.
"Come with me," Natsume waved to the three of them, then walked straight toward several staffers up ahead.
"I'm Natsume, a researcher from Professor Oak's Laboratory."
Natsume showed his credentials.
"Natsume-senpai!"
Among the staffers, someone recognized him.
"Huh?
You guys?"
Natsume vaguely remembered the faces in front of him.
They were researchers from the Pewter Museum of Science.
"What are you doing here?"
"This isn't a good place to explain.
Let's head inside first.
Are these your friends, Natsume-senpai?
They can come in too!"
Saying that, two researchers ushered everyone in.
"By the way, you still haven't answered Natsume's question."
With about ten minutes' walk still to Mt. Moon, Brock looked curiously at the two researchers along the way.
He'd dealt with the Pewter Museum of Science several times.
"Ugh, don't mention it.
Something must have happened with the League—they suddenly mobilized people and sealed off Mt. Moon.
We were the closest in Pewter, so almost all our researchers got called over."
"Yeah, I heard an Elite Four member is here too.
No idea what big deal it is."
The two researchers spoke at length, but Ash only latched onto the words "Elite Four member."
"Natsume, what is an Elite Four member?"
Ash looked curiously at Natsume.
Hearing him, Natsume, who had been fiddling with a Poké Ball, raised his head:
"In a given region, the strongest Trainers within the League are called the Elite Four.
For example, Kanto has the Elite Four."
"The Elite Four!"
Ash's eyes lit up at once.
"Alright, I'm going to challenge the Elite Four member at Mt. Moon!"
"Pikachu!"
Beside him, Pika-god was fired up too.
On Ash's other shoulder, center-parted, who had been hanging there with a snot bubble, jerked awake.
"Pika—"
Center-parted was devastated.
He had finally learned the art of sleeping while standing, but the constant fuss around him kept waking him up.
What's more, this Trainer named Ash whom Natsume had him follow for training was simply a battle maniac.
In a mere three days, Ash had battled nearly every Trainer they'd met on the road.
Even with another Pikachu sharing the load, center-parted had still fought almost ten matches.
Worst of all, this kid liked to give nonsense orders!
Like telling him to use Thunderbolt he couldn't even use yet against a Geodude.
And now he wanted to challenge some Elite Four member.
No way he could win.
Impossible.
Center-parted had already decided that if Ash sent him out against an Elite Four member, he would choose to flop down and sleep.
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