The sudden wailing cries sounded very familiar to Yuga. Connecting this with the news Robert had relayed, he seemed to realize something.
"Joyka, I have something urgent to take care of. I'll leave this place to you and Ninetales," Yuga called out to Joyka.
Joyka knew Yuga must have something important to do, and she agreed without hesitation: "Go handle your business, don't worry about things here!"
Yuga responded and, guided by Zubat, rushed home at full speed.
As soon as he got home, Yuga didn't pause for a moment and dashed straight into the Dragon Den Sub-Ecopark.
Latios and Latias, the sibling duo, were playing over the surface of the Dragon Lake. When they saw Yuga approaching, they immediately stopped their frolicking and flew over to him together.
Yuga got straight to the point and said, "Latios, Latias, I have something I need your help with."
The two Pokémon nodded without hesitation and then asked what it was.
They were already aware of the heavy fog sealing off Verdanturf City. After Yuga explained his suspicion, the two Pokémon immediately carried him and flew off into the skies.
Outside, the fog seemed to have grown even thicker, and the moisture in the air was noticeably heavier. Latios set Yuga down on the ground, exchanged a glance with his sister, and then charged straight into the dense fog.
Very quickly, bursts of dragon cries echoed from within the thick mist—it was Latios and Latias. The cries were extremely similar to the sorrowful howls that had just echoed above Verdanturf City.
In other words, the ones who had sealed off Verdanturf City in the dense fog were likely another pair of Latios and Latias.
Sure enough, as the cries of Yuga's Latios and Latias rang out, the exact same wailing sounds echoed once more in the sky over Verdanturf City—but this time, they seemed to be communicating with the sibling duo.
No one knew how long it took, but eventually, their communication yielded results—the fog began to gradually dissipate, and sunlight once again shone into Verdanturf City.
Seeing the fog lift, the citizens of Verdanturf City came to their doorsteps or leaned out their windows and began to cheer.
Outside Verdanturf, Steven pointed excitedly at the city re-emerging from the fog and shouted, "Look! The fog is clearing!"
Professor Birch said joyfully, "It must be that Yuga figured something out."
Although the fog had cleared, the special barrier that had shrouded Verdanturf City had not disappeared. Because of that, Professor Birch and the others couldn't hear the dragon cries from within.
Just then, Robert suddenly exclaimed, "Quick, look! What's that!"
Professor Birch and Steven followed Robert's pointing finger and looked in that direction. In the high sky above Verdanturf City, two Pokémon were floating—and beneath them, two more Pokémon were facing off against them.
Professor Birch pointed at the four Pokémon and said, "That's… Latios and Latias!"
Steven and Robert took a closer look. Among the four Pokémon, weren't there clearly two Latios and two Latias?
Steven said, "Could it be that the ones who sealed Verdanturf City were Latios and Latias?"
Robert shook his head at this point and said, "No, I think it's the Latios and Latias up top. The two below should be Yuga's Pokémon."
As Yuga's best friend, Robert knew Yuga had a Latios and a Latias.
Professor Birch agreed: "That must be it. The two pairs of Pokémon seem to be facing off—it doesn't look good."
Steven said, "They're not going to fight, are they? Let me see if I can enter Verdanturf City now." As he spoke, he released his Metagross, jumped onto its head, and rode it as he flew toward the city.
But he didn't get very far before he was stopped once again by the invisible and untouchable barrier.
High in the skies above Verdanturf, the two pairs of Latios and Latias continued their tense standoff. The atmosphere was extremely intense. Down below, Yuga wiped a cold sweat from his forehead, afraid that the four of them might break into a fight at any moment.
If they really did start fighting, Verdanturf City would be in deep trouble. He couldn't let that happen.
Latias and Latios shared the same thoughts as Yuga, so they had been doing their best to calm the emotions of the two fellow clansmen in the sky, trying to coax out of them the reason for sealing off Verdanturf City.
Unlike Yuga's Latios and Latias, who were siblings, the Latios and Latias that had sealed Verdanturf City were a married couple.
They were extremely agitated, but their attitude toward their kind was still relatively friendly. So, under the siblings' persistent efforts, they finally learned from the couple the reason Verdanturf City had been sealed off.
The Latios and Latias couple lived in a place far removed from the human world and had never had any contact with humans.
But not long ago, while the two Pokémon were playing out at sea, they came across a ship in distress. Out of kindness, they rescued the people on board and brought them back to where they lived.
However, those people repaid kindness with betrayal. They stole the couple's child and fled, which enraged them greatly.
The place where the Latios and Latias couple lived wasn't easy to access. Those people had secretly followed the couple while they were out, and that's how they managed to leave.
It was also because the couple had been too careless.
The child of Latios and Latias wasn't their biological offspring. As legendary Pokémon, it was extremely difficult for them to produce a child. That particular child had hatched from an egg they had found.
Because they had been without a child for so long, the couple cherished that child dearly. One could say they feared even holding it in their mouths would cause it to melt, or holding it in their hands would cause it to fall. Now that their child had been stolen, how could they not be furious?
So, the couple followed the clues and chased after them. Later, they learned that the group of people were actually poachers. They had run into trouble with powerful Pokémon while poaching, which was how they ended up in distress at sea.
A few nights ago, the couple finally found the poacher group and launched a fierce attack against them.
That poaching group hadn't just captured the Latios and Latias couple's child—they had captured many other Pokémon as well. Because the child couldn't endure the abuse of the poachers, it escaped with the help of other Pokémon, causing the couple to miss it.
From those other Pokémon, the couple learned what kind of abuse their child had suffered, and in a fit of rage, they wiped out the entire poaching group.
Following the clues given by the other Pokémon, the couple chased their way to Verdanturf City.
But inside Verdanturf City, although the couple clearly sensed their child's presence, they simply couldn't find it no matter what. They suspected that humans were hiding the child, and in their anger, they sealed off the entire city.
Because of the poachers who repaid kindness with betrayal, the couple now completely distrusted humans. They feared that humans might secretly take their child and leave Verdanturf, which would make it even harder for them to search.
After understanding the cause of all this, the sibling duo suggested that the couple ask Yuga for help, and told them that Yuga held a very high status among humans and could help them find their child faster.
But the couple reacted very strongly to this proposal. They now hated humans intensely and were extremely wary of all humans, flat-out refusing to make contact with Yuga.
Because the communication failed, the heavy fog over Verdanturf City soon thickened once again, and the Latios and Latias couple disappeared once more from human sight.
After returning, the sibling duo recounted everything that had happened to Yuga. Although the couple had refused to seek help from Yuga, that didn't mean Yuga couldn't take action on his own.
"Do you know what kind of Pokémon the missing child is?" Yuga asked.
Latios nodded and told Yuga that the missing one was a Mudkip.
Upon hearing that, Yuga immediately dialed Mayor Ishida's number, told him everything that had happened, and also informed him of his own plan.
Very soon, a public announcement searching for a Mudkip appeared on the televisions in the homes of Verdanturf City residents. It stated that the Mudkip was the reason for the thick fog enveloping Verdanturf City and urged any citizens who found the Mudkip to deliver it to the Verdanturf City Police Department. Citizens who found the Mudkip would receive a reward from the Verdanturf City government.
This announcement was being played in the home of an ordinary Verdanturf City resident.
It was a typical family of three. After seeing the announcement, the father said, "If we find that Mudkip, will Verdanturf City return to normal?"
The mother, who was preparing lunch, responded upon hearing that, "I guess so, right? Didn't the news say that?" Though how a single Mudkip could cause such a thick fog over all of Verdanturf is really hard to imagine.
The father then said, "I really hope that Mudkip gets found soon. Living like this is just too miserable... But if I could be the one to find that Mudkip, that'd be great! Didn't the news say the government is offering a reward?"
The mother rolled her eyes and said, "You might as well just keep dreaming." Verdanturf City is so big, and now it's sealed off by fog—how can you easily find a Mudkip? It's not like it doesn't have legs.
The father burst out laughing after hearing that.
What the couple didn't know was that their conversation had been overheard by their daughter.
The daughter was nine years old this year and would be eligible to become a trainer next year. However, their family was not well-off, so the little girl had been hesitating about whether to become a trainer, since buying a decent starter Pokémon would cost quite a bit of money.
Actually, she really did want to become a Pokémon trainer.
Until two days ago—she found a Pokémon.
The little girl quietly returned to her room and took out an old Poké Ball from the drawer. The Poké Ball had been a gift from a friend at school.
After opening the Poké Ball, a Mudkip appeared in front of the girl. However, this Mudkip was in a state of unconsciousness.
The little girl had already used medicine on the Mudkip, but it still hadn't woken up.
"Are you the Mudkip everyone is looking for?" the girl gently stroked the Mudkip's back as she spoke. "Is Verdanturf's fog really because of you? Can you make the fog disappear…"
But the unconscious Mudkip gave no response.
"Should I turn you in…? But… but I'm so scared…"
The little girl fell silent for a moment, then muttered softly to herself again.
She really liked the Mudkip. She was afraid that once she handed over the Mudkip, she would lose her only chance to become a trainer. She was also afraid that everyone would blame her for hiding the Mudkip for so long, and that they would place the responsibility for Verdanturf's thick fog on her.
Time passed again in the blink of an eye, and two more days had gone by. The fog in Verdanturf City had now become so dense that visibility was completely gone.
During these two days, Yuga had dispatched a large number of Pokémon to search for the Mudkip, but still nothing had been found. There were no updates from the police department either.
He had asked the Latios and Latias siblings to maintain communication with the Latios and Latias couple, trying to persuade them to lift the fog and the lockdown on Verdanturf City, but all attempts had been refused.
The couple had even started to grow impatient with the siblings who kept speaking on behalf of humans, and gradually began refusing to communicate altogether.
Yuga felt that things couldn't go on like this, so he had Mayor Ishida issue another public announcement. This time, the content was:
If someone could deliver the Mudkip to the Verdanturf City Police Department, neither the Verdanturf City Government nor the League would pursue any responsibility from that person. They would also be allowed to choose one of the League-rewarded starter Pokémon—Torchic, Treecko, or Mudkip (choice optional)—plus a cash reward of 100,000.
This announcement caused a huge stir among the citizens. Everyone hoped they could be the one to find the Mudkip. Some even brought their own Mudkips to the police station, trying to get the 100,000 for free.
Unfortunately, Yuga had sent a Chatot to the police station. With just a few casual questions, the fake Mudkips were quickly exposed.
More than half a day after this announcement was released, Yuga finally received a phone call from Masato Shirai—the Mudkip might have been found.
After hanging up the call, Yuga immediately rode his Pokémon straight to the police station and saw the Mudkip.
Joyka was there as well. The Mudkip was still unconscious and needed her to examine and treat it.
Yuga asked Masato Shirai, "How was it found?"
Masato Shirai replied, "A citizen reported it and brought it in. This Mudkip had been injured and was picked up by a little girl. She was too scared that everyone would blame her, so she hadn't dared to hand it over until now."
He then carefully explained the whole story of how the little girl found the Mudkip to Yuga.
Yuga nodded upon hearing it. Understandable—she's not even ten years old yet; it's totally normal to be afraid.
"Let's just hope there's no mistake," Masato Shirai said with a worried expression.
"There shouldn't be any mistake."
Mudkips are such rare Pokémon—how could one just be picked up so casually? The chances of being wrong are very slim.
Soon, Joyka came out. Yuga hurried over and asked, "How's the Mudkip? Is it okay?"
Joyma looked exhausted. She let out a long breath and said, "Its life isn't in danger, but it's seriously injured and has been injected with an excessive amount of drugs. It will need proper recovery and care."
Yuga breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that. Fortunately, it's okay. As long as its life isn't in danger, everything else can be handled.
If something really had happened to the Mudkip, that Latios and Latias couple would probably go berserk.
It wouldn't be difficult for Yuga to subdue them, but if it came down to a real fight, Verdanturf City would be the one to suffer.
"Then I'll leave things here to you. I need to go talk to those two," Yuga said, pointing to the sky as he spoke.
Masato Shirai said, "Go ahead. I'll take good care of the Mudkip."
After leaving the police station, Yuga once again released his own Latios and Latias and asked them to deliver the news about finding the Mudkip to the couple.
The siblings returned shortly after, but this time, they also brought the couple with them. The couple's faces were filled with anxiety, though the way they looked at Yuga was still full of wariness.
Obviously, humans still couldn't earn their trust.
Under the extremely guarded gazes of the couple, Yuga brought them into the Verdanturf City Police Department.