Chapter 201
After lunch, nobody lingered any longer than necessary.
The group boarded a train together and headed straight for Celestic Town.
Sitting in his seat with one cheek propped against his hand, Mike sighed.
"My original plan was to walk from Eterna City to Celestic Town. I didn’t expect to end up coming here by train from Oreburgh instead. Once we’re done with everything in Celestic, I’m planning to head back to Eterna City, leave from there, and travel north toward Crown City."
Roark, sitting nearby, looked over curiously. "Do you not like taking trains when you travel?"
"It’s not that I dislike them. I just prefer traveling on foot when I can." Mike shook his head. "I’m a photographer, after all. I’m not particularly concerned about how quickly I reach my destination."
"Is getting to Crown City urgent?" Lucian asked before taking another sip of coffee.
Mike glanced at him and couldn’t help thinking that Lucian really did love coffee.
"Not really. Crown City was just the destination I picked at the beginning."
"If Crown City is only the destination, then does the exact route really matter?"
"Well... when you put it that way, I suppose not."
"In that case, when you return to Eterna City, you might as well head into the Mount Coronet range instead." Lucian set down his coffee and adjusted his glasses.
"There are mountains everywhere, with dense populations of wild Pokémon and plenty of different species. Mount Coronet itself also has large snow-covered areas, so the Pokémon living there have a character all their own."
He continued as though casually making conversation. "Cynthia mentioned that while she was pursuing Pokémon Hunter J recently, she fought an Articuno. That Articuno is apparently recovering somewhere in Mount Coronet right now, and there seem to be other ruins scattered through the mountains as well. Aren’t you interested in taking a look?"
’Articuno?!’
Mike was immediately tempted.
The only question was whether he could actually handle an Articuno at his current level.
He hesitated for a moment, but then another thought occurred to him: Ice-type Pokémon would make pretty good material, and if he went into Mount Coronet, he could also use the video to explain the dangers of traveling through the mountain range.
After all, Mount Coronet was one of the places where the Sinnoh League dealt with the greatest number of wilderness accidents.
If he could get good footage while also warning people about the terrain, dangerous areas, and proper precautions, then fewer Trainers might get themselves into trouble.
He would get a video out of it and potentially reduce the number of rescue incidents at the same time.
Perfect!
Mike nodded to himself several times, but then noticed the faint smile tugging at the corner of Lucian’s mouth and narrowed his eyes.
’Why do I suddenly feel like Lucian deliberately steered me toward Mount Coronet?’
That didn’t make sense, though.
What would Lucian gain by sending him there?
Surely he wasn’t doing it just because he wanted Mike to suffer, and if Mike actually encountered something dangerous—
Mike abruptly paused.
’Wait a second.’
’This bastard doesn’t want me to film Ice-type Pokémon, update The Wide World of Pokémon, and make an entire segment explaining Mount Coronet’s dangers and safety precautions so the League has fewer idiots to rescue, does he?!’
Mike stared straight at Lucian.
Lucian remained perfectly composed beneath his gaze, elegantly drinking his coffee as though he had absolutely nothing to hide.
That settled it.
Lucian had definitely planned this!
’Good grief. Now you’re even finding roundabout ways to nag me for updates?!’
Mike cursed him inwardly.
’Just you wait, Lucian. There’s plenty of overtime in your future.’
Roark, meanwhile, had absolutely no idea what kind of silent conversation was taking place between them.
He merely saw Mike staring intensely at Lucian while Lucian calmly drank his coffee, and some increasingly questionable possibilities began surfacing in his mind.
’Are they .... N-No way... right?’
...
The train eventually arrived at Celestic Town.
Mike stepped onto the platform and walked out of the station, where a fresh, cool breeze immediately washed over him. He had passed through quite a few towns by now, but this was the first one he had seen that felt so profoundly quiet.
Even Twinleaf Town seemed lively by comparison.
Low, old-fashioned wooden houses were scattered throughout the settlement, with winding stone paths threading between them.
There weren’t many residents, and most of the people Mike saw were elderly locals who had spent their lives preserving traditions passed down through generations.
As he walked along the stone road, he could almost feel the weight of history hanging over the entire town.
Celestic Town was also known as a place where the past had been preserved.
According to legend, the settlement had existed since the land of Sinnoh itself was born.
Nestled between mountain foothills and surrounded by overlapping forests, it was regarded as one of the smallest and oldest settlements in the entire region.
At its center stood the shrine of the Celestic Ruins, the town’s sacred ground, which was currently watched over by the grandmother of Sinnoh Champion Cynthia.
This was Cynthia’s hometown. She had grown up here.
Drasna, the Dragon-type Elite Four member from Kalos, also traced her roots back to Celestic Town.
It was said that the legends of Dialga and Palkia and their command over time and space had influenced her deeply enough to set her on the path of a Dragon-type Trainer, eventually making her the only female Dragon-type Elite Four member.
Mike couldn’t quite explain why, but he found himself liking Celestic Town almost immediately.
Even the air seemed steeped in history.
Lucian led the group through town and eventually stopped outside a large courtyard.
He pushed open the gate and headed inside, where Professor Rowan was tending to several Ursaring.
"Professor."
Mike smiled when he saw the familiar back turned toward them.
Professor Rowan straightened, looked over his shoulder, and recognized Mike.
He walked over and gave Mike a firm pat on the shoulder.
"You’re here?"
Mike nodded, then quietly rolled the shoulder Rowan had just struck.
The old man still had one hell of an arm.
"Is Professor Sycamore here yet?" Mike looked around but didn’t see him.
"He’s still on the way, along with Samuel," Rowan replied as he poured tea for everyone. "Originally, we were planning to gather here closer to the time of Ursaring’s evolution, but when we heard today that Black Augurite had been found, everyone changed their plans and started heading over early. I only arrived today myself."
"So that’s why." Mike took a sip of tea. "When I saw you already taking care of the Ursaring, and how well-behaved they were around you, I assumed you’d been staying in Celestic Town for quite a while."
"No. Everyone still has matters to deal with at their own research institutes, so ordinarily we remain at our respective labs."
"I see."
Rowan looked toward Roark. "What does the Black Augurite look like? Let me see it."
Roark immediately brought out the case.
Rowan cleared a space on the table, and Roark placed the case down before opening it.
The professor studied the black, glasslike stone inside, picked it up carefully, and examined its sharp edges from several angles.
"So this is Black Augurite?"
"Yeah. Barring anything unexpected, Scyther can use it to evolve along a path completely separate from Scizor and become Kleavor."
"A branched evolution." Rowan nodded thoughtfully. "At first, I almost wondered whether Kleavor might evolve from Scizor instead."
𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
"Professor, Scizor already has a Mega Evolution," Mike reminded him. "That means Scizor is already a final evolutionary stage."
"That’s true." Rowan’s interest only grew. "Although if Scizor has a Mega Evolution, do you think Kleavor might have one as well?"
"Probably not," Roark said.
"I’d lean toward no as well," Mike agreed.
"If you’d asked me before, I would have said the same thing without hesitation." Rowan set the Black Augurite down carefully.
"Now, though, I’m no longer so certain."
Lucian looked over. "Why?"
"Because Pokémon from the Hisui era have begun reappearing, and not long ago Professor Sycamore in Kalos apparently discovered a Mega Stone unlike any previously documented example. He believes it corresponds to a Mega Evolution that hasn’t been recorded before."
Mike’s eyes widened.
’What?’
’Who?’
’Professor Sycamore?’
’He found a completely new Mega Stone?!’
Wasn’t this the professor people joked about committing academic fraud?
Mike had always treated that whole joke as nonsense and ignored it, but Sycamore shouldn’t have been discovering completely new Mega Stones at this point in the timeline either.
Ash was still traveling through Sinnoh.
How were previously unknown Mega Evolutions already starting to surface?
’Could it be that the Mega Evolutions from the XY era were actually being discovered and categorized by Professor Sycamore around this period?’
Surely it couldn’t be one of those absurd Mega forms he remembered from Pokémon Champions.
That little stomach-pouch-looking thing, the one that looked like some kind of Ultraman...
Just thinking about those bizarre Mega designs almost made Mike lose his composure!
He quickly asked which Mega Evolutions had already been formally documented in this world.
Lucian went through them one by one, and by the time he finished, Mike was left staring blankly ahead.
There really were new ones.
Mike drew in a slow breath.
’Is this because of the butterfly effect I caused?’
After thinking for a long while, he looked toward Rowan.
"Professor, if it’s possible, could you ask Professor Sycamore whether he’d let me see that Mega Stone?"
Mike was genuinely curious now.
He wanted to know whether the appearance of a previously unknown Mega Stone had somehow been caused by the changes he had introduced into this world—or whether Sycamore had simply misidentified something.
Rowan gave him an interested look. "You’re interested in Mega Evolution too?"
"A little." Mike smiled. "Maybe it’s because of your influence, Professor, but I’ve become pretty interested in Pokémon evolution in general."
Rowan laughed.
"I’ll ask him for you."
Rather than saying Mike had merely been influenced by him, Rowan felt it would be more accurate to say that Mike possessed an unusually strong instinct for anything involving Pokémon evolution.
While everyone continued chatting, a sharp rush of displaced air suddenly sounded overhead, followed by an oppressive presence descending toward the courtyard.
The Rotom Phone immediately began babbling in panic.
"Extremely dangerous target approaching, Roto! Power level extremely high, Roto! Beginning strength evaluation... evaluation complete! Even Gengar and the others together wouldn’t win, Roto! Run away, Roto! Run away right now, Roto—!"
"You’re too loud. Shut down."
"Command not understan—Roto..."
Mike manually switched the phone off and recalled Rotom to its Poké Ball.
Rotom had genuinely made traveling much easier, but good grief, it was noisy.
A moment later, Cynthia jumped down from Garchomp’s back.
She gave Mike a small nod when she noticed him sitting there, then turned toward Professor Rowan.
"Professor, I found them. There’s a bamboo grove not far outside Celestic Town, and quite a few Scyther live there."
Rowan poured her a cup of tea.
"Good work."
"Thanks."
Cynthia accepted the tea and sat beside Mike.