In the black world—
Mewtwo slowly flew out of the crater in the wall, staring at Ash with a solemn expression.
There wasn't a trace of contempt left in his eyes.
This human…
He couldn't even call him a "human" anymore.
Monster was more accurate.
Ever since Mewtwo was born, Giovanni had told him over and over:
He was the strongest Pokémon in the world.
Previously, the most powerful Pokémon in the world had been Mew.
And he, born as a clone created by extracting Mew's genes, was said to surpass even Mew.
That was why he had been named Mewtwo.
So, from the very beginning until now, Mewtwo had always believed:
He was the strongest Pokémon in the world.
If there were any Pokémon stronger than him, it would only be Mew.
But now—
He had just been punched into a wall by a human.
For a moment, he honestly wondered if he was dreaming.
Humans…
Weak, useless, fragile humans…
One of them had just shattered his psychic barrier and punched him square in the face.
His cheek still throbbed with pain.
But from that punch, he finally understood what was special about this human's power.
So that's it. Your so-called "psychic power" is actually Aura.
"That's right," Ash said. "From the moment I realized I could control Aura, I knew my Aura was stronger than most people's—stronger even without training. Stronger than a lot of Pokémon, too."
The tense expression on Ash's face relaxed a little. He grinned.
"Well? Pretty strong, isn't it? You couldn't even beat me—do you still think you're the strongest Pokémon in the world?"
Can't beat you? Don't be ridiculous. You only hit me because you caught me off guard. As long as I'm ready, you'll never get close to me again.
Mewtwo's telepathic voice was tinged with anger.
He was clearly ashamed of having been sent flying by a human.
At the same time, he was desperately trying to argue that he hadn't been truly outmatched—he'd just been taken by surprise.
Mewtwo could at least admit that Ash himself was incredibly strong.
But Aura? He could use that too.
Aside from sensing and tracking, and maybe a bit of extra attack power, he didn't consider Aura all that important.
If he fully unleashed his psychic power, this human's "pure physical attacks" would never even get near him.
Even if Ash launched an Aura Sphere, Mewtwo was confident he could block it with his mind.
Psychic power was supreme.
However, despite his irritation, Mewtwo didn't immediately attack.
Instead, he wanted to ask Ash something.
Since you possess such power… why didn't you use it when you fought Giovanni?
Ash fell silent for a second.
"Are you crazy? Pokémon battles are for Pokémon. The Trainer isn't supposed to be the one fighting on the field."
Then why are you fighting me now?
"You're the one who claimed to be the 'strongest Trainer,' remember? Isn't a fight between Trainers fair game, then?"
Mewtwo: …
Why did that sound… sort of reasonable?
Everyone watching was stunned.
If you didn't think too hard, what Ash said really did sound logical.
But if you thought about it for even half a second—
What are you talking about, exactly?
You call this a "battle between Trainers"?
Thankfully, the League rules clearly state that only Pokémon are allowed to battle, and Trainers may only direct from the sidelines.
If Trainers were allowed to participate directly…
Then what was the point of anyone fighting Ash?
You'd just hand him the trophy by default.
Why?
Because he'd skip the entire match and go straight for a "capture the king" strategy:
Knock out the Trainer in one punch, and their team collapses.
For the first time in his life, Gary felt that the League's "no Trainers on the battlefield" rule was absolutely correct.
...
[Gary: I'm done. I'm actually done. Do you hear yourself when you talk?!][Ash: That wasn't me, that was Black Ash, okay?!][Misty: With how your brain works, I'm pretty sure you'd say the same thing.][Raihan: Hey, Leon—if Trainers could fight too and you met Ash in battle, how exactly would you respond?][Leon: …I'd propose a League-wide rule that permanently bans Trainers from fighting.]
Leon was almost speechless.
If Trainers could join in, there was no point in him even stepping onto the stage.
Just give the championship belt to Ash.
[Mewtwo: Strange. Where's Mew? At this point in time, he should already be here.][Cynthia: In the white world, Mew showed up because Ash was in danger. Right now… he's probably just sitting back and watching the show.][Mewtwo: …That does fit his personality.]
Mewtwo slowly closed his eyes.
He really didn't want to watch himself getting beaten by Ash anymore,
Even if it was happening in another world.
...
In the black world—
Mewtwo's psychic energy began to rise steadily.
It seems the first step in my revenge against humanity… must begin by dealing with you. There's no point discussing anything further until then.
Ash sighed. He'd already lost count of how many times he'd done that today.
"Is it really that hard to just sit down and talk?"
I have nothing to say to humans.
Mewtwo raised one hand slightly.
A terrifying psychic wave erupted from him, transforming into a massive telekinetic force that wrapped itself around Ash and tried to restrain him.
Ash exhaled again.
The blue glow of Aura erupted around him and clashed against Mewtwo's psychic energy, blocking it and preventing Mewtwo from fully immobilizing him.
"Mewtwo, you know about type matchups, right?"
"Your psychic power is a Psychic-type ability. But Aura—strictly speaking—is more like a Fighting-type power. So you have the type advantage over me."
"But…"
"Once a Fighting-type gets in close to a Psychic-type…"
"The advantage flips."
The moment he finished speaking, Ash vanished.
Mewtwo's pupils shrank. He instantly retracted his telekinesis and spread it around himself as a psychic field.
"BOOM!!"
Right on cue, Ash appeared in front of him and threw a punch.
This time, however, Mewtwo didn't try to block with a static barrier—he warped the space in front of him with raw psychic power.
Ash's fist tore through the air, compressing it until the void itself seemed to rumble.
A wave of compressed wind slammed toward Mewtwo.
But Ash's body was still constrained by psychic force.
Just now, you said that if you got close… what would happen?
You'd get controlled like this…?
For the first time, Mewtwo—whose heart usually remained unmoved by everything—felt a surge of sarcastic satisfaction.
Didn't this human just say that once he got close, he could flip the matchup?
And yet here he was—locked down once again.
What did that prove?
That Mewtwo's psychic power was still overwhelming.
General "type theory" didn't apply to him.
"Aura Sphere."
Ash ignored the mockery in Mewtwo's voice.
His own voice was low and steady.
On his trapped palm, an enormous, brilliantly glowing blue Aura Sphere suddenly formed.
Mewtwo's expression changed at once.
At this distance—
He couldn't dodge.
He hurriedly tried to bind the Aura Sphere with his psychic power and threw up another barrier between them.
Psychic power—if strong enough—could control almost anything.
But the premise was simple:
Your energy had to be greater than your opponent's.
Otherwise, Psychic might be "supposed" to be supreme—
But it still wouldn't win.
You use a move, I bounce it back with telekinesis—that was how it should work.
And yet the energy inside Ash's Aura Sphere was far beyond Mewtwo's expectations.
His hastily gathered psychic power simply couldn't restrain it.
"BOOOOM!!"
The explosion that followed was deafening.
The shockwave screamed across the battlefield, sending Gary and the others skidding backwards several meters.
The whole of New Island trembled under the impact.
Black smoke billowed across the center of the arena.
As everyone watched nervously, a figure burst out of the smoke—
Ash.
He flipped several times in midair and landed steadily.
His clothes were torn in a few places,
But overall, he was unharmed.
"How is it, Ash? Where's Mewtwo?!" Gary shouted anxiously.
Had Mewtwo already been taken out?
The blast had been enormous.
Even someone as powerful as Mewtwo shouldn't have come out of that unscathed at such close range.
Ash just shook his head.
"No way it's that easy. His power's above Champion level, and Aura Sphere is resisted by Psychic-type energy. On top of that, he used telekinesis and psychic barriers to blunt the damage."
"At best, that was a light wound."
Gary: …
That was a light wound?!
Was Mewtwo made of solid steel?!
Weren't Psychic-types supposed to be glass cannons—high offense, high speed, lousy durability?
As the smoke dissipated, Mewtwo's figure emerged.
He was indeed injured… for all of three seconds.
A serene blue light washed over him, and the wounds simply vanished.
"This move is… Recover! You've got to be kidding me—he can spam that too?!"
Gary stared, dumbfounded.
Ash had worked that hard just to put a scratch on him—
And Mewtwo wiped it away in an instant.
Just how long were they supposed to fight like this?
Was Ash going to get worn down before Mewtwo even broke a sweat?
"Mewtwo…"
Enough. Unless you knock me down, I have nothing to discuss with you.
Mewtwo cut him off before he could launch into another "talk-no-jutsu."
Compared to fighting Ash,
He found Ash's constant talking even harder to endure.
It really did feel like brainwashing.
For the moment, he forgot entirely about being a clone.
Forgot about revenge.
For the first time in his life, Mewtwo had found an opponent who could stand on equal footing with him—
And that opponent was human.
He realized something:
He was actually enjoying this fight.
This feeling…
He'd never experienced it before.
Ash heard Mewtwo's declaration and let the worry fall from his face.
Since Mewtwo had said, "beat me first, talk later,"
Then he'd just have to make him lie down.
"Alright then… don't blame me for not holding back."
Come on, then.
Blue light sparked in Mewtwo's eyes.
Psychic power and Aura looked almost identical in color—
The difference was that Aura hardly ever appeared in humans,
So every time Ash used it, people mistook it for psychic power.
In Mewtwo's current state,
He had already driven all the power in his body to the limit—
And it was still rising.
"Hmph…"
Ash pushed off the ground with one foot and shot forward.
The air popped with a sonic boom, and within an instant, several Ash "copies" flashed across the field.
"Shadow Clone…?!" Misty gaped. "Since when can he do that?!"
He could use Aura, had ridiculous physical strength—and now this?
"How can it be Shadow Clone?" Gary muttered. "These are afterimages from sheer speed."
"Shadow Clone uses energy to create copies that fool an opponent's eyes and attacks. But this… it's just raw movement. His afterimages don't even last two seconds before fading."
After watching a couple more seconds, Gary had already broken down the trick.
On the field,
Ash's high-speed movements caused his afterimages to flicker everywhere, disrupting Mewtwo's vision.
His speed was so extreme that even Mewtwo's psychic senses struggled to track him.
Earlier, Ash had charged straight in, and Mewtwo had pinned him with telekinesis.
Now, Ash had changed his approach.
Catching him again wouldn't be so simple.
"Hmph…"
After more than ten seconds of constant motion, everyone was starting to see double.
Finally, Ash struck.
Another plain-looking punch—
Except Mewtwo felt the telekinetic field around him tremble violently.
He instantly redirected all his psychic power toward the point of impact,
Binding the space where he sensed Ash's thought-force.
But in the very next heartbeat, he realized he'd grabbed at empty air.
And then a vicious gust of wind blasted up from below him.
By the time he processed what was happening—
Ash's fist was already slamming into his jaw.
"BANG!!"
The uppercut sent Mewtwo flying.
Ash didn't stop.
He kicked off the ground, flashed into the air after Mewtwo,
Spun once, and drove a savage kick straight down, smashing Mewtwo back to the arena floor.
"BOOM!"
The ground shook with the impact.
And Ash still wasn't finished.
The moment he landed, he dropped right onto Mewtwo's chest,
Straddled him—
And began punching.
Mewtwo reflexively raised his hands, psychic power flaring around them to defend.
But hastily-formed psychic barriers were no match for Ash's Aura-infused fists.
One punch, two punches, three punches—
Each thunderous blow echoed through the arena.
In the time it took Mewtwo to think a single complete thought, the outcome had already been decided.
Ash never gave him a chance to focus and rebuild his psychic defenses.
And Mewtwo's physical durability simply couldn't match Ash's.
The roar of those punches went on for a full five minutes.
Finally, Ash's fists slowed and came to a stop.
Mewtwo's arms, which he'd raised to shield his face, fell limp.
His head was swimming.
Every punch had rattled his brain.
The only reason he hadn't blacked out entirely was his sheer willpower.
...
[Lance: Good grief, that's brutal.][Sabrina: Actually, Black Ash held back. Each punch looked heavy and loud, but his real goal was just to disrupt Mewtwo's psychic condensation, not to cause lethal damage.][Caitlin: Right. Forming psychic constructs takes focus and a short charge time, even for Mewtwo. Every time he tried to gather power, Black Ash's fist landed just in time to break it apart.][Korrina: Wait, Aura can disrupt psychic power like that?!][Sabrina: You don't even need Aura specifically. With enough raw strength, every impact shakes the target's head and concentration. Black Ash's punches kept jolting Mewtwo's brain so he literally couldn't focus enough to build proper psychic defenses.][Mewtwo: Sigh… Watching myself get pummeled like this, my emotions are… complicated.][Sabrina: Back then, you couldn't fully control the immense power in your body, right? Your strength hadn't been trained or refined at all—it was just raw growth.][Sabrina: If you'd mastered your power, Black Ash wouldn't have defeated you this easily.][Mewtwo: I did fail to control my power at that time, sure… but why does that sound like you're saying, 'even if you had mastered it, you still wouldn't win'?]
In other words,
Even if the Mewtwo in the black world fully mastered his strength,
He still might not be able to beat Black Ash.
[Professor Oak: If we look purely at power levels—your original strength was roughly that of a second-tier legendary with a divine role. Ash's Aura-enhanced power is already somewhat above that, though still short of a first-tier legendary.]
In other words—
Black Ash's power sat somewhere above a priestly second-tier legendary,
But still below a first-tier legendary.
Among humans, that was basically…
Invincible.
He clearly hadn't had this level of power when he first started traveling.
...
In the black world—
Breathing heavily, Ash pushed himself up off of Mewtwo,
Rolled to the side,
And flopped down on his back next to him.
"Whew… So… haa… can we talk now?" he panted.
Why… are you so intent on saving me? We hadn't even met properly before today. At Viridian Gym, we only knew of each other's existence.
"Heh. Who needs a reason to save a Pokémon?"
"If we just leave you like this, sooner or later, you'll fall into a bottomless abyss of hatred."
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