Chapter 205: Your Very Existence Is a Mistake
The video continued playing.
Lana watched Hoopa squirm indignantly while Elaria held it down and couldn’t help laughing.
"Don’t worry. Big Sister Lana can’t interfere directly with your trial, but I can give you a useful piece of information."
"Every afternoon, the Wishiwashi school moves from the deeper waters downstream to the shallows in the middle reaches to feed."
"They stay there for about two hours."
Elaria’s eyes lit up.
"So the downstream area will be empty during that time?"
"Exactly."
Lana raised one finger.
"What you need to do is use that opportunity to safely escort the Popplio back to their home."
"Then, when the Wishiwashi return, you stand at the entrance and stop them."
"Tell them that someone already lives there."
"Stop them..."
Elaria lowered her head and looked at her tiny hands.
"You want me to stop hundreds of Wishiwashi all by myself?"
Hoopa floated up from her head, rubbing its little hands together.
"Are we fighting? Hoopa can—"
"No."
Elaria and Lillie spoke in perfect unison.
"Why?!"
Hoopa puffed out its cheeks indignantly.
"Hoopa can just summon a good friend to help!"
"There’s almost nothing it can’t do except fly!"
"No, no."
Elaria pushed Hoopa back onto her head.
"If it’s a trial, then I have to solve it myself."
"This time, I’ll do it on my own."
Under Lana’s guidance, Elaria followed the stream upstream.
Eventually, she found the group of Popplio inside a narrow tributary.
At that moment, more than a dozen of them were crammed into a stream less than two meters wide.
One Popplio that appeared to be their leader lay sprawled across a rock beside the water, its tail dangling into the stream.
Its expression looked as though it had already lost all hope in Pokémon life.
Elaria crouched down until she was at eye level with it.
"Hello."
"I’m here to help you go home."
The Popplio raised one eyelid and glanced at her.
Then it lowered its head again.
Clearly, it didn’t believe this tiny little girl could possibly be of any help.
Hoopa floated down from Elaria’s head and planted both hands on its hips.
"Hey! What kind of attitude is that?!"
"If Elaria says she’s going to help you, then she’ll definitely help you!"
"Among everyone Hoopa knows, other than Elaria’s daddy, nobody has ever dared show Elaria this little respect!"
The little sea lion was startled by Hoopa’s face suddenly appearing right in front of it.
It rolled straight off the rock—
Splash!
And landed in the water.
Elaria quickly reached out and pulled Hoopa back.
"Hoopa, you’re going to scare them if you act like that."
"Hoopa was only stating the facts."
Hoopa folded its arms, still looking extremely unconvinced.
Ralts floated over the surface of the water and gently reached out to stroke the Popplio’s head.
The Popplio froze.
Then, slowly and cautiously—
It touched Ralts’s hand with its nose.
Seeing this, Elaria’s lips gradually curved into a smile.
"It’s willing to trust us."
Hoopa scratched its head.
"Hoopa hasn’t even translated anything yet. How does Elaria already know?"
"Because Ralts can sense emotions."
Elaria crouched down and poked the Popplio’s round belly with one finger.
"Ralts told me that it’s really happy right now."
[VIP Chat Group]
[Lana]: That Popplio actually knew to observe Elaria first! Even by human standards, that level of caution makes it pretty smart.
[Mallow]: Well, it looks like the leader of the group. It makes sense that it would be a little more cautious~
[Siebold]: Seeing Popplio suddenly reminds me—my restaurant has a dish called Popplio Tail~
[Viola]: ? Mr. Siebold, that sounds rather unethical.
[Siebold]: Hehe, don’t worry. It only resembles a Popplio’s tail in shape. The ingredients have absolutely nothing to do with Popplio.
The video continued playing.
Two o’clock in the afternoon.
Right on schedule, the Wishiwashi school began its daily feeding migration.
Elaria crouched behind a bush upstream, observing everything through a pair of binoculars she had borrowed from Lana.
"Status report."
Elaria lowered her voice.
"The enemy forces downstream are withdrawing."
Hoopa responded in an equally serious tone.
"Estimated time until complete evacuation: ten minutes."
"Status of our allied forces upstream?"
The lead Popplio turned and looked at its companions lined up neatly behind it.
Then it raised one front flipper in a salute.
"Allied morale is stable," Hoopa translated.
Elaria lowered the binoculars.
"All right."
"Proceed according to plan."
Upon receiving the order, the Popplio followed their leader and began swimming downstream in a grand procession.
Elaria followed behind them.
"Once all the Popplio enter their habitat, the Wishiwashi should be about ready to come back."
"When that happens, we’ll stand at the entrance and stop them."
"Then we’ll tell them that someone else is living there now."
Hoopa tilted its head.
"How do we tell them?"
"With our fists?"
"With reason."
Elaria answered seriously.
"Daddy says fighting should always be the last resort."
"If you can reason with someone, you should reason with them first."
"Hoopa doesn’t think Wishiwashi understand reason."
"Then we use our fists."
Two hours later—
Just as expected, the Wishiwashi school returned on time.
The dense mass of fish swam back from the shallow feeding grounds, resembling a dark cloud moving through the water.
Hoopa’s eyes immediately lit up.
It planted both hands on its hips and shouted loudly enough for the entire valley to hear—
"WISHIWASHI! YOUR KING HAS ARRIVED! COME FORTH AT ONCE AND RECEIVE YOUR SOVEREIGN!"
"Hoopa, you have to be polite!"
Hoopa turned toward Elaria.
"But that doesn’t sound imposing enough!"
"Elaria should talk like Hoopa!"
Hoopa struck a dramatic pose.
"’You insignificant Wishiwashi! Your very existence is a mistake!’"
"That’s too mean."
Elaria seriously rejected the suggestion.
"Daddy told me girls shouldn’t talk like that."
"All right, all right."
Hoopa spread its hands helplessly.
"Then you do it yourself."
Just then—
The surface of the water began to churn.
Totem Wishiwashi—
Or rather, a gigantic fish-shaped formation composed of countless individual Wishiwashi—
Slowly rose from beneath the surface.
The assembled Wishiwashi in School Form was absolutely enormous.
Its "mouth," formed from innumerable tiny fish, was large enough to swallow several Popplio whole in a single bite.
"They can combine together?!"
Elaria instinctively took a step backward.
Tens of thousands of Wishiwashi simultaneously released a deep, vibrating hum.
The sound waves were powerful enough to make the small stones along the stream tremble and bounce.
"Looks like we’re not getting a chance to reason with them."
Elaria took a deep breath.
Then she turned toward Hoopa.
"Hoopa."
"Prepare to execute Plan B."
"Got it!"
Hoopa rubbed its hands together.
Then it suddenly pointed behind the Totem Wishiwashi.
"Look!"
"KYOGRE!"
The Totem Wishiwashi instinctively turned around.
The surface of the water behind it was completely empty.
There wasn’t even a Magikarp in sight.
By the time it turned back—
Elaria had already spun around and started running downstream.
The Wishiwashi school had dominated this stretch of water for years.
Naturally, it couldn’t possibly swallow such an insult.
It immediately chased after her.
Tens of thousands of tiny fish surged through the stream at high speed, creating a noise that sounded like a hundred washing machines entering their spin cycles simultaneously.
As she ran, Elaria glanced backward.
The Totem Wishiwashi was moving much faster than she had expected.
"Ralts!"
Elaria lifted Ralts from her arms and held it out in front of her.
"Hold them back for a moment!"
Ralts stretched both tiny hands forward.
A pale-blue psychic barrier spread across the middle of the stream.
Boom!
The Totem Wishiwashi crashed headfirst into the psychic barrier.
The first few dozen fish were knocked backward and flipped over—
But the school behind them instantly filled the gaps and continued pushing forward.
Just one second before the barrier was about to shatter—
Elaria finally stopped running.
"We’ve lured them far enough!"
"Hoopa, teleport me straight over there!"
Hoopa had been waiting for those exact words.
It rubbed its little hands together—
And a golden ring opened beneath Elaria’s feet.
The next instant—
She vanished through the portal and was transported directly back to the downstream habitat.