Chapter 175: Moltres
Of the Trainers following Ash Ketchum, only a few managed to endure roughly the final quarter of the course. In the end, on the entire torch relay course, only Ash and Natsume were left.
"Ash, do your best. Maybe Delia Ketchum is watching you on TV somewhere right now." Natsume took one stride and moved ahead of Ash.
"Don't worry, Natsume. I've got this!"
Off the field, Gary Oak held Pikachu and stared at the giant screen in the sky with a look of utter despair. The two of them had already failed to keep up in the first half and had been forced to withdraw.
"Gary, what are you thinking about?" Misty looked at him curiously.
Gary assumed the pose of The Thinker, pondering life. "I'm wondering how I ever beat him when we were kids."
"Natsume, please have that… Pokémon stop," came a worried voice. The medical van pulled up beside Natsume and lowered the window, and Nurse Joy spoke with concern.
Up ahead, Zapdos had already exhausted its strength. Its speed had slowed to a walk. Its body swayed, as if it might collapse at any moment. Only a few kilometers of the course remained, but Zapdos had already reached its limit. Natsume looked at Zapdos ahead and shook his head slightly. He had suggested stopping long ago, but Zapdos had rejected it every time.
"Want to stop?" Natsume shouted again.
Up front, Zapdos stretched its long neck, its head pressed close to the ground. Sweat beaded down its long beak onto the road, tracing a wet line. Up ahead, Ash seemed to notice Zapdos was truly at its limit. Holding the torch, he drifted over with some concern and cut the wind in front of it.
"Natsume, this Pokémon should have feathers and not be good at running, right?" Nurse Joy glanced at Zapdos's sleek, bare body and immediately inferred as much.
"Yes." Natsume nodded without overexplaining.
He focused his telekinesis around Zapdos, monitoring its physical condition at all times. In fact, an hour earlier, Natsume had already sensed Zapdos's body reaching its limit. At that point, it didn't even have the strength to drink water, and its consciousness was hazy. That it had lasted until now was only because Natsume was manipulating water to flow into its body automatically. Everything else depended on Zapdos's own will.
"Kraaa—"
A rasp like a broken bellows rose from Zapdos's throat. Ash felt it cast him a glance, intentional or not.
"Natsume, what did it say?"
"It says it's doing this on its own and doesn't need you to block the wind for it."
"I understand." Ash nodded solemnly and sped up, vanishing from Natsume's view.
A moment later, the announcer's shout echoed from the sky. "My goodness—thirty-two hours! It only took thirty-two hours! This year's relay has set a new record! Let us look at the final Pokémon on the course—Natsume's Pokémon!"
The announcer, Buzz, looked at Natsume floating in midair, blinked, and hastily corrected himself. The director timely zoomed the feed and froze the frame on Zapdos. Sensing that it had become the focus, Zapdos jerked its head up. Its eyes bulged round, red from long-held congestion.
Don't lose face. Don't lose face!
"Wow, it looks so pitiful, meow." At the tournament venue, Meowth sat on James's head, staring at the giant screen without blinking. "How strange. Since when did Natsume catch this Pokémon, meow?"
"Strange your head! Get down here and sell the souvenirs!" James yanked Meowth down.
"Hey, hey, hey—our target is Moltres, meow! Are we really just going to stand here selling souvenirs, meow?" Meowth rubbed his head, not quite convinced.
"Uh… but this is just too profitable." Jessie walked over hugging a huge pile of little souvenir pins. A metal chip that cost only a few coins to make could be printed with anything and sold for thousands of times the price. It was ridiculously lucrative.
"The twerp's about to shoot Moltres's flame into the nest, meow!" Meowth pointed across the way. On the platform over there, Ash had already drawn his bow and nocked his arrow, aiming at a structure shaped like a bird's nest in the distance. At the tip of the arrow, Moltres's flame burned bright, reflecting Meowth's unwilling face.
"Curse it, meow! You two are a disgrace to Team Rocket—"
"How much is this?"
"Five hundred for one, eight hundred for two, meow!"
"It's starting! The flame returns to the nest—Moltres will appear!" Buzz's voice rose with passion, and every shot on the broadcast cut to Ash drawing and nocking the arrow.
Natsume looked up at the screen overhead. The arrow bearing Moltres's flame shot into that nest-shaped structure. There was clearly nothing inside that could catch fire, yet once the arrow struck, the flames roared higher!
"Kraa—"
A clear, ardent cry rang from the heavens. A great bird wreathed in flame flew in.
"It's Moltres!" Ash was overjoyed.
"Pika!" Center-parted snapped its head up, and the next second its eyes filled with disappointment. "Pika—" Boring.
Center-parted curled up, shutting down, and hid in Honora's arms.
"It appears—the sacred bird returns to its nest!" With Buzz's call, the screen in the sky froze on the flying Moltres and the slowly burning League torch.
Returning to its nest, Moltres's eyes lit with a touch of surprise. It turned, looked at Ash, and with a beat of its wings shed a flaming feather into Ash's hand. Then it took off again. The flame in the "nest" seemed to merge with the fire on its body, becoming a great fireball that rose into the sky.
Everyone watched, spellbound. Only Natsume, bored, stifled a yawn. This was just an ordinary Moltres.
"Gyaaah—"
Zapdos raised its head and shot a resentful glare at the sky.
"What's wrong? Feel like your thunder's been stolen?" Natsume looked at Zapdos with a half-smile. In its pupils, that towering fireball was reflected. But very quickly, an even fiercer fire suppressed it. Zapdos's eyes blazed with anger, and, miraculously, it started running again.
"Huh?" Natsume stared in surprise. Its body had clearly been wrung dry. Darn it. If only Center-parted had half of this will!
Unfortunately, it was only a brief surge. With a few hundred meters left to the red finish line at the venue gate, Zapdos staggered and stopped. Its legs trembled uncontrollably. Pea-sized drops of sweat fell, steaming as they rose. It swayed, no longer moving forward, as if one more step would make it collapse.
"No one's attention is on you here. No one will care about your victory. You can try giving up." Natsume followed behind and offered counsel. Sometimes being too stubborn isn't good. Finding balance is best.
Zapdos didn't move. It only stared, eyes searing, at that great fireball in the sky. As if taking it as a rival, it trembled and lifted its leg, taking a step forward. High above, Moltres—wrapped in the League torch's flame—seemed to notice something and looked this way from afar.
"Kraa?"
The instant it saw Zapdos, it paused. But Moltres didn't do much of anything. After a simple glance, it turned its head. Suddenly, Moltres dipped sharply. Beneath it, a wisp of the flame that had been borne upward with it broke away and fell. And no matter how it tried to draw that wisp back, it would not budge. It plunged straight down.
What is going on? Its clear eyes showed confusion. There was only one Moltres here! Could it be that this year the flame was so vigorous it slipped its grasp?
"What is that! Could there be another who will be blessed by Moltres this year?!" The broadcast instantly cut to that falling tongue of flame. After dropping to a certain height, the flame suddenly turned and streaked rapidly in a particular direction, vanishing from sight.
"Hm?" Natsume blinked. With his telekinesis fully open, he could clearly sense that the disappearing flame was heading his way.
"It's gone! Which competitor is also going to receive Moltres's blessing?!" Buzz's excited voice rang out.
However, Natsume knew this was certainly no blessing. Because this burning flame, in a sense, belonged to that Moltres of Divinity. For Ash, this ordinary Moltres would only part with a feather.
Whoosh— The spark swept past Natsume and slammed onto Zapdos. In an instant—like a spark falling into a pile of dry grass—that wisp flared and began to blaze.
"Gyaaah!!!"
Zapdos writhed in agony and crashed to the ground, out of control. Only its head was held up, propped death-grip tight by its beak. It cocked its head, staring straight at Moltres in the sky.
Moltres frowned and wheeled away.
"Gyaaah—"
Lightning burst in Zapdos's body of its own accord. Wreathed in flame, it flowed over the charred body like molten rock. In a daze, Natsume saw Zapdos's pupils collapse into ash.
Not good! Natsume reacted and stepped forward, just about to use telekinesis to pull Zapdos out of the flame.
The next moment, the burning electricity detonated in the seams of its bones. Thunder and fire wove into wings. As it burned through the air, Zapdos had already become a surging husk. Staggering, it tore open the finish line with the tip of its beak.