The night was deep and silent.
Inside the lighthouse guest room, the gentle caress of the ocean waves still seemed to linger in her ears.
Misty lay curled on her side, her fingers unconsciously tracing the wet trails on her pillow.
She had been crying.
Dragonite's riddle—"neither living nor dead"—was like a stone cast into the lake of her heart, sending out ripples that refused to settle.
The web woven from hope and the unknown was far more conducive to tossing and turning than pure despair.
But no matter how you looked at it, this was good news, wasn't it?
At the very least, it wasn't a confirmation of death.
It wasn't bad news, finally.
"Sister..."
Misty took out her phone and began typing a message to her sister.
This wasn't exactly sensitive information that couldn't be revealed.
A Giant Dragonite, with such massive size and such a powerful energy reaction, walking straight over.
Vermilion City must have detected it long ago.
As for why no one came?
Did they really think Bill was just there for show?
He was, after all, one of the academic world's renowned super-scholars.
Not someone the average person could afford to offend.
——
In the bed in the next room.
Brock lay with his hands clasped behind his head, staring at the ceiling.
Vaguely, he seemed to see the reflection of the shifting stars.
His dark face lacked its usual composure, and a faint, almost imperceptible smile hung at the corner of his mouth.
To see a Legend right at the start of a journey.
For a Pokémon Trainer, what kind of happiness was this?
"...The world... the vast ocean..."
Brock muttered to himself.
The image of those three figures dancing in the water at the Cerulean Gym inexplicably flashed through his mind. He immediately shook his head vigorously and buried his face in his pillow.
Thinking about that at a time like this... that really wasn't good.
He knew a little bit about Misty's situation now.
Their peers had heard rumors about just how crazy the previous Gym Leader of the Cerulean Gym had been.
Trying to challenge "Sea King" class Pokémon in the ocean... such a thing was simply too difficult, too insane.
The opponent's terrain advantage was absolutely massive.
Pokémon in the wild were different from Pokémon in the human world; once a dispute over territorial dominance began, it was a life-or-death struggle.
Just like animals fighting to be the alpha.
The loser would be driven out or killed.
Getting a confirmation from a Legend this time was already the best possible outcome of a misfortune.
Brock could only sigh, grateful that his own old man hadn't been that crazy back in the day.
Losing to the Elite Four was just a loss.
Thank goodness he didn't lose his mind.
A Pokémon Trainer's growth speed in the early stages is very fast, because that is simply realizing the potential the Pokémon already possesses.
But once a certain level is reached, and the Pokémon's potential has been fully realized, taking a step further becomes incredibly difficult.
At this stage, there are generally only two ways to get stronger.
1: Obtain a stronger Pokémon, which naturally has more potential to realize... such as catching Totem Pokémon and Legends, or raising Pokémon that are late bloomers.
2: Through cultivation, the Pokémon and the Pokémon Trainer seek an internal breakthrough... such as Mega forms and the like.
Neither method is superior to the other.
Because both are difficult.
Breaking through a bottleneck is never an easy task.
——
Ash lay flat on his back.
His hands were folded over his chest.
Everything that happened today replayed in his mind like a fast-forwarded film—the shadow of the giant beast, the telepathic dialogue, Misty's tears, the Professor's fanaticism...
He closed his eyes, trying to disperse these chaotic images.
At that moment, he noticed the system interface, glowing with a faint blue halo, silently floating in the upper left corner of his vision.
A new prompt box popped up quietly:
[Achievement: First Contact with Legend - Completed]
[Reward Received: Dragon Scale]
[Effect: A scale that is thick and tough. It can cause certain Pokémon to evolve.]
Dragon Scale?
Ash was slightly stunned.
The earlier scene had been too grand, too stimulating; he hadn't thought about the System in the heat of the moment.
Though, being Ash, he should have expected the System to do its thing.
But why was there no reaction when he saw Ho-Oh last time?
Was it because he was too far away?
——Dragon Scale?
——Giving this to me now is useless!
Ash remembered this item was used to evolve Seadra into Kingdra.
——Where am I supposed to find a Seadra?
——Besides, one Gyarados is enough for Water-types right now.
——Any more than that wouldn't be appropriate.
Ash slowly opened his eyes, staring at the dim ceiling.
He needed to expand the range of situations he could handle.
Sea: Gyarados.
Land: Pikachu.
Sky: Pidgeotto.
Next, he needed to continue expanding his adaptive domains.
For example, a frontline meat shield, recovery and healing, ranged crowd control, and so on.
After all, his current situation was a journey.
Fortunately, he had Brock and Misty as support, so Ash didn't have to figure out how to solve every problem alone.
...Okay, actually, he really wanted a Psychic-type or a Ghost-type.
Even though Bill's Gardevoir was male.
Psychic-type Pokémon were just genuinely awesome.
"Aaaah..."
Ash scratched his hair irritably.
——Even though I bragged to Misty about wanting to be a Water-type Pokémon Master.
——System, please don't actually keep giving me Water-type Pokémon items.
——First a Prism Scale, now a Dragon Scale; I can't use these right now.
——Can't you give me something like a Mega Stone?!
Just as Ash was getting annoyed.
"Pika..." Beside him, Pikachu mumbled vaguely in his sleep.
He rolled over, his tail unconsciously sweeping across Ash's calf, bringing a slight sensation of numbness.
This little guy was worn out today, too.
There was no battle, true.
But simply facing a Giant Dragonite was heart-stopping enough... it consumed mental energy.
Pikachu had truly been prepared... to protect Ash to the death if things went wrong.
Meanwhile.
The laboratory at the bottom of the lighthouse was still brightly lit.
"That's it!" Bill's eyes were bloodshot, yet his face showed no sign of fatigue; instead, it overflowed with an intense excitement.
He was directing several large, buzzing instruments.
He was preparing to draw up a continuous stream of seawater from the area where Dragonite had appeared today, performing extremely precise filtration, centrifugation, extraction, and analysis.
This was the basic literacy of a Pokémon Professor.
As for directly asking that ancient existence for a scale or a drop of blood?
He was crazy.
But he hadn't reached that level of madness yet.
The extremely minute epidermal shedding and residual energy particles diffused in the seawater... these "natural shedding" samples were his treasure right now!
"Increase filtration precision by an order of magnitude!"
"Increase centrifugal force!"
"Yes!"
"Just like that!"
Bill stared tightly at the data streams scrolling on the screen, muttering rapidly under his breath.
"Even if I can only analyze a tiny bit of structural information... a tiny bit of energy characteristics..."
"It's all priceless!"
"It's just a pity I didn't get to ask for all the information I wanted."
That Giant Dragonite had refused to reveal who its colleague was.
This left Bill slightly disappointed.
But even so, today's harvest was already satisfying.
Research, as they say, is the unraveling of mysteries bit by bit.
The process of research is also part of the enjoyment; there's no need to get there in one step.
Outside the window, the sea was calm and waveless; the moonlight spilled down, gently covering all the heart-stopping traces of the day.
There was only the low hum of laboratory instruments.
And the rising and falling thoughts of three people.
In the silent night, they spoke of the lingering waves that were hard to quell after an encounter with a legend.
An encounter with a Legendary Pokémon is something worth remembering for a lifetime.
____
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