Chapter 103: You Dare Use My Own Magic Against Me?
[VIP Chat Group]
[Steven]: I knew it! I knew it! I might mistake someone else, but there’s absolutely no way I could mistake Brother Asher! Everyone who defended him earlier, step forward!
[Wallace]: ...
[Wallace]: The one time I finally chose to believe you, you made me lose so completely! Damn you, you bastard!! @Asher
[Asher]: Calm down, calm down. That was my parallel-world counterpart. I personally know nothing about this.
[Steven]: Keep making things up. I’d like to see what else you can invent.
[Misty]: After taking off the mask, my husband actually looks quite handsome in that outfit.
[Violet]: ?? Misty, is this really the time to discuss whether he looks handsome?
[Lily]: That’s what happens when someone is hopelessly in love. Try to be understanding.
[Elesa]: Wait. The important question is why Asher wore a mask to participate in Pokémon Contests. With his abilities, couldn’t he have simply entered under his own name?
[Lisia]: Asher said in the video that he didn’t want Cynthia to find out.
[Gary]: What I can’t understand is why he chose the alias "Kricketune Man." Even "Dragonite Man" would have sounded better.
[Brock]: Asher has gone silent again.
[Steven]: That’s Brother Asher’s signature move. I’m already used to it.
[Gary]: Silence?
[Ash]: Gary, did you think of something?
[Gary]: Didn’t Tiana say in the video, "Daddy says silence means agreement"?
[Gary]: In that case, shouldn’t we assume that whenever Asher remains silent, he is admitting that something is true?
[Ash]: But Asher has gone silent several times in the VIP chat already...
[Gary]: Exactly. He admitted to all of it.
[Elesa]: Asher: You’re actually using my own magic against me?!
[Iris]: Hahahahahaha! Gary, you’re ruthless!
The video continued playing.
It appeared that another considerable stretch of time had been skipped.
Eterna City.
Tiana jumped down from Salamence’s back, smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt, and looked up at the city before her.
"So this is Eterna City. The greenery really is as beautiful as everyone online said."
Tiana breathed in the fresh air and stretched.
"I’ll check in at the Pokémon Center first. I can challenge the Gym tomorrow."
Tiana arrived at the Pokémon Center and checked in without any trouble.
That evening, after taking a shower, she lay on her bed and examined the Badges inside her Badge case.
"Mine Badge, Coal Badge, Cobble Badge, and Fen Badge. I already have four."
Looking at them together, she nodded thoughtfully.
"Traveling is actually pretty easy."
[VIP Chat Group]
[Byron]: Easy? She said it was easy?!
[Elesa]: She began her first journey with three pseudo-Legendary Dragon types. How could it not be easy?
[Lillie]: Still, Tiana really doesn’t seem to have encountered any serious difficulties throughout her journey.
[Steven]: That’s because Brother Asher paved every road for her in advance.
[Flint]: The only hardship Tiana has probably suffered in her entire life was getting iced coffee in the morning.
[Wulfric]: We never received treatment like this when we were traveling...
[Valerie]: I don’t think that has anything to do with the era you traveled in...
The video continued playing.
Tiana finished her milk, tossed the empty cup into the trash, and stood up while dusting off her hands.
"All right. Tomorrow, I’ll challenge Eterna Gym. Tonight, I should get plenty of rest—"
Before she could finish, the television beside her suddenly turned on.
A man in a dark-gray suit appeared on the screen. He sat behind a long table, with the emblem of the Sinnoh League displayed behind him.
Several people sat on either side of the table—Cynthia, Lucian, Bertha, and several faces Tiana didn’t recognize.
"We interrupt the current broadcast with an emergency League announcement."
The man’s voice was calm and forceful.
"The Sinnoh League and the Celestic Town Historical Research Institute have jointly confirmed that activity within the space-time rift deep inside Mount Coronet has risen to the highest level ever recorded during the past twenty-four hours."
The screen changed to an aerial photograph.
The clouds above Mount Coronet’s peak had been torn apart by some kind of force, forming an enormous vortex.
Within its center, two pillars of light—one blue and the other pink—could faintly be seen intertwining and colliding repeatedly.
"The League has designated the surrounding area of Mount Coronet as a temporary restricted zone. No unauthorized personnel may enter."
The man paused.
"Furthermore, the abnormal activity of the space-time rift has caused space-time distortions to appear in several locations throughout the Sinnoh region. Reported phenomena include, but are not limited to, abnormal local flows of time, shifts in spatial coordinates, and sightings of prehistoric Pokémon originating from unknown locations."
Tiana remained where she was, her fingers tightening slightly around the strap of her backpack.
"Mommy..."
The image on the screen changed again.
This time, it showed footage recorded near the outer region of Mount Coronet.
Countless wild Pokémon were running across a field. The scene itself appeared perfectly ordinary, but the timestamp in the bottom-right corner continuously changed.
One second, it displayed twelve o’clock in the afternoon.
The next, it jumped to three o’clock in the morning.
Then it returned to eight o’clock in the morning.
"The League hereby issues the following warning: Should any Trainer discover a space-time distortion, immediately move away from the affected area and report it to the nearest Pokémon Center or League branch."
In the corner of the footage, Tiana noticed a figure flash past.
It was a man with black hair and golden eyes, dressed in a black coat.
He was crouching at the edge of the space-time rift with a notebook in his hand, apparently recording something.
The image remained onscreen for less than a second before being replaced.
However, Tiana had already recognized him.
"...Daddy?"
[VIP Chat Group]
[Professor Rowan]: The scale and affected area of the space-time rift shown in that footage far exceed those of any anomaly we have ever recorded. If a rift of that magnitude continues expanding, the entire space-time structure of the Sinnoh region could be affected.
[Professor Sycamore]: The League in the video still has enough control to establish a restricted zone, which suggests the situation remains manageable. However, how is Asher able to conduct research in that environment without being affected?
[Professor Birch]: Aura? Or perhaps some other kind of energy barrier? Technology capable of completely isolating someone from space-time turbulence doesn’t exist in our world.
[Professor Juniper]: Is this another technology unique to the parallel world...?
[Professor Kukui]: Wait. Did any of you notice the footage in which the time kept jumping between different hours? The Pokémon continued running normally while the time shifted between different periods of the day.
[Professor Kukui]: That means only the dimension of time was affected by the space-time distortion. Spatial continuity remained stable.
[Professor Oak]: Creating an area in which only a single dimension is distorted should theoretically be extremely difficult.
[Steven]: @Asher, Brother Asher, what do you think?
[Brock]: Why isn’t he talking again? Is he playing dead?
[Daisy]: Hehe. If tagging @Asher doesn’t work, we can tag @Misty instead. They live together, after all.
[Steven]: That makes sense! @Misty, where is Brother Asher?
[Gary]: @Misty
[Wallace]: @Misty
[Misty]: Uh... Well, he said he was going to take an afternoon nap and went straight back to the bedroom.
[Gary]: Seriously? We’re all here analyzing everything, while the person at the center of the entire situation simply went to sleep?
[Valerie]: These videos are all about Asher, yet he doesn’t seem interested in them at all.
[Steven]: This is why I’ve always said Brother Asher conceals his true depths. None of you understand him. To quote Raina, Brother Asher is a master at playing dumb!