In the black world—
Ash's whole body lit up with a blue glow,
And a similar, faint light appeared over Venusaur as well.
Immediately after, in the circle around Venusaur's body,
Four or five thick green vines suddenly erupted from the ground!
Rhydon, already charging in with a savage grin on its face,
Was instantly blasted away by the renewed Frenzy Plant,
And slammed straight into the far wall of the arena!
There weren't many Frenzy Plant vines this time,
But they struck Rhydon squarely in the chest.
On top of that, Rhydon had already taken heavy damage from the previous Frenzy Plant.
So now…
It lost the ability to battle.
Giovanni's expression was nothing but question marks.
What just happened?
Did Venusaur use Frenzy Plant again?
How is that possible?!
It had just finished using Frenzy Plant—
It should still be in its recharge state, completely unable to move!
...
[Lance: What the— that's busted! Total cheat mode!]
[Bruno: Seriously! If you can't win, you just flip on hacks? Is this even a fair fight anymore?!]
[Cynthia: Ash's appearance… it looks like he's entered an Aura Fusion state with his Venusaur, right? But… can Aura Fusion remove move recharge like that?]
[Professor Oak: After watching carefully, I have a hypothesis about what's happening.]
[Professor Oak: When Black Ash and his partner enter Aura Fusion, they're effectively of one mind and one body. In other words, Black Ash can not only send commands with his thoughts—he can directly mobilize the energy inside his Pokémon to use moves.]
[Professor Oak: No creature can normally look both left and right at exactly the same time, but a Trainer and Pokémon perfectly sharing one mind can. They can perform two completely different actions at once.]
[Professor Oak: So when Venusaur itself was locked in Frenzy Plant's recharge state—unable to move or call on its own energy—Black Ash used Aura Fusion to tap into Venusaur's power in its place, and forced out another Frenzy Plant.]
[Professor Oak: Of course, this is only my speculation. Other than Black Ash himself, no one truly knows what's going on.]
Silence.
The whole world fell completely silent.
What was this supposed to be?
Don't call this "Aura power"—just call it what it really is: cheat codes.
Look at the abilities Professor Oak just listed out—
Add those to the pile of Aura Fusion features we've already seen…
Honestly, is there any stronger power-up method in the world than this?
Even the Galar region's Dynamaxing, even Alola's Z-Moves—
In terms of pure amplification, they don't even come close to Aura Fusion.
Thank goodness this technique can only be used by Ash.
If everyone could use it, the world would be in total chaos.
You'd have scenes like—
"Heh, you think this is my full power? Aura Fusion! I just jumped from Gym Leader level to pseudo-Elite in one go."
"Funny, I wasn't serious either. Aura Fusion! Straight from pseudo-Elite to full Elite!"
At that point, everyone's visible "battle ranks" would be fake numbers, right?
The real question would just be: whose hidden cards are deeper?
[Ash: That's incredible… Aura is that strong…]
[Misty: Don't just stand there being jealous. Work harder on yourself. You do at least have the talent to control Aura, and you even have a fusion technique that not even Raihan can use. Be satisfied with that much already!]
[Raihan: She's right. I've been with Lucario for years. I can communicate with Aura, sure… but fusing my Aura with my Pokémon's like that? I can't do that at all. That might really be your unique talent, Ash.]
[Bea: Now the so-called "legendary" stuff is really starting to sound believable. I'm actually looking forward to both of your futures now—White Ash and Black Ash both… I wonder if, in the end, one of you will be standing in front of Leon in that video.]
[Leon: Heh, absolutely. I'm looking forward to challengers like that too!]
[Bea: Anyway, you still haven't answered me. If Ash and I had kids someday, would our descendants inherit Aura talent? Direct bloodline inheritance should have a pretty high success rate, right?]
[Ash: …]
[Misty: …]
[Serena: …]
[Hanako: Oh my~ Anyone have a picture of Miss Bea? Send it to me.]
[Ash: MOM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!]
Ash was completely numb.
Just what exactly was his mother trying to do here?
Playing matchmaker on the public comment feed?!
Could she not?
He hadn't sunk so low that he needed to find a girlfriend through the global chat, right?! That was way too much.
Leaving aside the chaos in the real world—
The battle continued on the black screen.
...
In the black world—
Giovanni silently recalled Rhydon.
The automatic fire-suppression systems in the ceiling activated,
Extinguishing the flames still lingering across the field.
However, the entire arena had been charred black, with deep pits everywhere.
The burnt floor, torn apart by Frenzy Plant vines,
Had left the Viridian Gym battlefield almost unrecognizable.
"Kid… how did you do that?"
Ash just smiled and didn't answer.
What, like he was going to tell him?
Aside from the fact that they were opponents at the moment,
Something like this was a top-level strategic secret.
If word got out that he could override move recharge like that,
How would anyone ever fight him again?
There'd be no way to prepare counters.
Giovanni's commands had actually been excellent—
By Ash's own standards, the man was clearly superior in tactics.
In his pre-battle investigation, every scrap of information he gathered had said the same thing:
Giovanni crushed challengers through overwhelming experience and strategy.
A Rhydon that knew Fire-type moves wasn't strange in itself.
What was impressive was the way Giovanni created openings and fearlessly bet everything on a desperate all-or-nothing play.
If not for Aura Fusion being completely outside Giovanni's knowledge—
In this match,
Ash probably would have lost, despite his overwhelming type advantage.
"Don't want to answer, huh…? Very cautious, kid. But that trick won't work on me twice."
"It's your turn now."
Giovanni casually pulled out his second Ultra Ball and tossed it.
When the ball burst open, a Pokémon wrapped in boulders appeared on the field—
The final evolution of Geodude: Golem!
Behind Ash, Brock narrowed his eyes.
"This Golem's training is really impressive… Easily stronger than my dad's. Much stronger, actually."
"That's fine, isn't it?" Misty said quickly. "Ash's Venusaur can still fight, and he still has Wartortle too! Both of them have four-times-effective moves against Golem!"
Right now, Ash's advantage still looked overwhelming in her eyes.
Brock, however, slowly shook his head.
"Ash's Venusaur is already heavily damaged. And that Golem is more agile than Rhydon—I don't doubt it can use Rollout or other movement techniques."
"As for sending in Wartortle… It's not that I'm looking down on it, but the power gap really is too big. If Venusaur had this much trouble, switching to Wartortle would just make it worse."
Hearing that, Misty fell silent.
Why did it feel like the one who made the first move—Ash—had somehow ended up in a disadvantage now?
"But don't worry," Brock added. "He still has Pikachu."
"Oh, right! Pikachu!"
Misty's eyes lit up again.
Never mind what textbooks said about Electric vs. Ground-type disadvantage—
She only knew one thing: Pikachu was invincible.
On the field, Ash looked at Golem and recalled Venusaur.
Just like Brock had said, a battered Venusaur was no longer suitable for this fight.
Golem had much better mobility than Rhydon, and Venusaur no longer had the stamina to endure its attacks and then counter.
Ash wasn't the kind of Trainer who would throw his Pokémon away for a pointless sacrifice.
But this Golem was definitely tricky.
He had three Pokémon that could realistically take the field here:
Aerodactyl, Charizard, and Pikachu.
Wartortle just wasn't strong enough yet.
"Alright then—it's you, Pikachu. Let's force out his third Pokémon first!"
After thinking it over, Ash decided to send Pikachu in early.
At the very least, Pikachu could take down Golem.
And once Giovanni was forced to reveal his third Pokémon,
Ash could decide which of his remaining partners to send out.
After all, in a normal Gym battle, Ash wouldn't even use Pikachu anymore.
This partner, who'd been with him since before he started his journey,
Now had completely unfathomable strength.
The last time Pikachu had gone all out was against Koga, one of the Elite Four-in-training.
And this time, Ash could feel from Giovanni
An oppressive pressure even stronger than Koga's.
"Pikachu? Kid, you're not sleepwalking, are you?"
When Giovanni saw Pikachu appear, he didn't feel pleased at facing a supposed "weakling"—
Instead, his expression darkened in anger.
He'd sent out his Golem in earnest,
And Ash's response was… Pikachu?
Even beginner Trainers knew Ground beat Electric, and Electric did nothing to Ground.
And this wasn't just any Electric-type—it was Pikachu, the species everyone mocked as weak and overused.
Giovanni felt completely insulted.
It was rare for him to take a battle this seriously,
And this was the attitude he got in return?
"What's wrong? Looking down on my Pikachu? You'll know soon enough once we start."
"Hmph. Sharp-tongued brat… I won't hold back. Golem, Rollout!"
Giovanni didn't waste any more words.
He intended to crush Pikachu in one hit and teach Ash a lesson.
Golem pulled its limbs and head in, compacting into a boulder,
Then rolled forward at high speed!
Like a truck barreling down a highway, it tore across the field toward Pikachu.
"Iron Tail."
"Pika—CHU!"
Pikachu's tail gleamed with a metallic shine,
And with a light leap and spin, it brought the shining Iron Tail down in a fierce arc.
The tip of the tail sliced through the air so sharply it sounded like it might split the whole Gym in two.
BOOOOM!
The resulting impact shook the entire Viridian Gym as if struck by an earthquake.
Dust rained constantly from the ceiling, showing just how terrifying that one strike had been.
Brock subconsciously wiped at imaginary sweat on his forehead.
Why did this scene feel so familiar?
Right—
When he had battled Ash, he'd been just like Giovanni is now.
He'd mocked Ash for using an Electric-type,
Then watched in disbelief as Pikachu one-shot his Geodude out of Rollout with Iron Tail.
The only difference this time was—
Pikachu's opponent wasn't a Geodude, but Geodude's final evolution, Golem.
And his opponent wasn't just any Gym Leader—
It was Giovanni, the strongest Gym Leader in all of Kanto.
At this moment, Giovanni's face had gone completely blank,
His body stiff, like he'd turned to stone.
What… was that?
Iron Tail?
The shockwave from that one blow
Had been even more terrifying than a Ground-type's Earthquake or a Fighting-type's Focus Punch.
As the smoke slowly cleared,
A gigantic crater was revealed in the middle of the battlefield.
At the bottom of the pit, Pikachu was standing calmly atop a massive rock.
The rock was covered in dense cracks from top to bottom.
That "rock" was, of course, Golem.
Its mouth hung open, its eyes shut tight, lying there without moving.
The result was obvious:
Pikachu had knocked Golem out in a single hit.
"Uncle Giovanni, do you still think my Pikachu is weak?"
Ash smiled brilliantly as he asked.
...
[Lance: Good grief! Is this a re-enactment of the old scene or what? Except this time it's even more over-the-top than against Koga!]
[Steven: It's not just "a little stronger." That strike… is at least fifty percent stronger than the one against Koga. Maybe even more.]
[Bruno: No way. Even if Black Ash has insane talent as a Trainer, it hasn't been that long since he cleared his sixth Gym, right? At most, what—a bit over a month? Can Pikachu really double its strength in that time?]
[Ash: Uh, did you all forget that other thing I got… the Light Ball?]
[Lance: Oh crap, that's right! Black Ash did get a Light Ball! He just didn't use it right away and said he'd give it to Professor Oak to research first!]
[Cynthia: So… Professor Oak must have confirmed that the Light Ball had no side effects, and only then did Black Ash let Pikachu hold it.]
[Serena: Wait, the color of Pikachu's weights changed!]
With Serena's reminder, everyone took a closer look—
The metal rings on Pikachu's wrists, ankles, and tail,
Which had originally been silver,
Had now turned a deep red.
[Professor Oak: You're right, they've changed. And it's not just a color change—this red metal… I feel like I've seen it somewhere before…]
[Steven: Star Meteor Iron. It's one of the densest extraterrestrial metals in the world.]
[Steven: When I was out mining, I once found a piece of that iron. A chunk no bigger than a fist probably weighed close to a thousand pounds. It's an extremely heavy metal—very small size, extremely high mass.]
[Misty: A fist-sized piece weighs that much… Then the weight Pikachu's carrying now has to be at least a hundred kilos!]
Everyone: …
This was beyond overkill.
Seriously beyond.
Letting one Pikachu carry a hundred kilos of weight—
Did Ash have no conscience?
A normal Pikachu weighed, what, six kilos or so?
[Bruno: Hold on… If Pikachu is lugging around a hundred kilos of weights… then how strong is Black Ash, who always keeps Pikachu on his shoulder?]
Bruno's soul-crushing question sent the chat into silence again.
Just when everyone thought Pikachu's training weights were already insane,
They realized there was an even worse monster in this equation.
Thinking back to the footage they'd just watched—
Pikachu had indeed been perched on Ash's shoulder, loaded with that Star Meteor Iron.
In other words, Ash's shoulders had basically been carrying a hundred kilos all year round.
Without a break.
Was this not a guaranteed recipe for chronic shoulder problems?
Wouldn't that strain his muscles or warp his bones?
[Ash: I only got this strong because I trained so hard!]
[Misty: See? If you worked as hard as Black Ash, by the time the current Silver Conference comes around, you might be able to fight for the Champion's seat yourself.]
[Cynthia: Speaking of which… it's still daytime for you guys over there in Johto right now, isn't it?]
[Lance: Yeah, Johto's still in the middle of the day. What about it?]
[Cynthia: Take a wild guess—how long do you think we've actually been watching this "movie"?]
[Professor Oak: Oh my goodness! I just checked my computer—the date it shows is already the next morning! Have we really been watching that long?!]
[Lance: That's impossible. It's been daytime non-stop on my side. If I'd stayed up all day and night, even I should be feeling at least a little tired!]
[Cynthia: My guess is… time has stopped.]
[Professor Oak: Time stopped? But the clock on my wall is still ticking!]
[Cynthia: I'm talking about what's happening inside the livestream. Time itself has been frozen—even our physical "state" has been frozen. But we, and our Pokémon, can still move and think freely within that stillness.]
[Cynthia: Clocks are just human tools—things made to record time and let us feel it passing. But right now, even though we can move, the world's true time—everything outside this livestream—is frozen.]
[Cynthia: Put it this way… do you kids understand now?]
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