With Yuga's joining in, the pressure on Masato Shirai and the others was suddenly reduced.
Those monsters, upon seeing Yuga, seemed like cats catching the scent of fish, rushing forward in a scramble. But without exception, they were either swallowed directly into Gengar's stomach, or else arranged neatly into the shadow space by Mismagius.
Without anyone needing to remind him, Yuga unconsciously made his way over to the already-dead Golurk.
The moment he laid eyes on the Golurk, Yuga immediately sensed a familiar aura, and right after that, a person—or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, a Pokémon—came to mind.
King Rabi!
Upon seeing Yuga approaching, May immediately shouted out: "Yuga, quickly destroy that Golurk!"
Yuga was somewhat surprised as to why May and Rand were here, but this was clearly not a good time to ask questions. So he simply nodded to May, then, together with Gengar and Mismagius, rushed swiftly towards the Golurk.
But as Yuga got closer and closer to the Golurk, the speed of energy erupting from its chest began to increase drastically. The surrounding monsters also started to riot, as though they had been stimulated by something.
Yuga faintly felt that the Ghost World Origin Stone inside his shadow space seemed to want to come out.
Gengar and Mismagius swept away everything before them, and soon Yuga arrived beside the Golurk.
Looking at the energy surging from the Golurk's chest, Yuga could not help but think: ordinary Golurk do not have this kind of ability.
Although the legend said that within the seal on a Golurk's chest was endless energy, that was always considered an exaggerated tale. But with this Golurk, it seemed to have become reality.
There was definitely something wrong with this Golurk.
Before Yuga could think of a way to resolve the problem of the Golurk, Gengar and Mismagius had already directly dragged its corpse into the shadow space.
The instant the Golurk entered the shadow space, Yuga felt that the abnormality of the Ghost World Origin Stone had disappeared.
Seeing this scene, May and Officer Saskia widened their mouths in disbelief.
Once the Golurk disappeared, those monsters instantly turned into headless flies. Without anyone else needing to do anything, they one after another reverted back into black energy, and then slowly dissipated into the air.
When Gengar came back out again from the shadow space and saw the dissipating energy, his gaze was full of regret. He made an "OK" gesture towards Yuga, indicating that the Golurk had already been dealt with, and then burrowed back into the shadow space once more.
After the monsters vanished, the circus ringleader Lax and Typhlosion, along with Alakazam—who had all been buried under the monsters—appeared before Yuga's eyes.
These three fellows had not actually died, but their faces of utter terror and their bodies full of miserable wounds made one feel like laughing despite the circumstances. Especially Lax—who knew whether at this moment he was regretting releasing those monsters or not.
Of course Lax regretted it. He had originally thought that this was the trump card his master had left for him, but who would have imagined that it was in fact a death talisman. He had nearly lost his life!
ε(┬┬﹏┬┬)3 Wuwuwu… so terrifying!
With the situation resolved, May and Saskia came running over, panting heavily.
"Yuga, thank goodness you came. Otherwise we would have been in huge trouble," May said with the look of someone who had just escaped from death.
"What exactly is going on?" Yuga asked.
So May told him everything, from how she accepted the commission from the People of the Water, to how she encountered Rand, and then how she went to the police for help, and so on, all of it explained to Yuga.
Through interrogating the deputy head of the circus, May and the others had learned that in fact all of the circus higher-ups obeyed one master, and that master was none other than King Rabi.
Hearing this, Yuga thought to himself: So it really was King Rabi!
But May and the others did not know that King Rabi was a Pokémon. They thought he was a human!
Within the circus, other than the ringleader Lax, the rest were just peripheral members. Those who knew King Rabi's true identity were only Lax, the captured Umbreon, and the Alakazam that stayed by Laxus's side.
When May and the others interrogated the deputy head, of course they could not learn King Rabi's real identity.
From May's words, Yuga learned that King Rabi's purpose in sending people to stir up trouble in the human world seemed to be to investigate the cause of the decline and fall of the gods during ancient times.
Yuga knew that in ancient times, the number of Legendary Pokémon was extremely great. They lived freely in the outside world just like ordinary Pokémon, and they lived together with ordinary Pokémon without any restriction.
But then, one day, the Legendary Pokemon began to disappear one after another. No one knew exactly when it happened, but before long, the entire Pokémon world had only a scant few Legendary Pokémon left.
Yuga had seen many powerful Pokémon and ancient existences, and he had also asked them this very question, but they either said they did not know, or else avoided the subject entirely. In short, the reason why the Legendary Pokémon disappeared was still a mystery to this day.
It was just that Yuga really did not understand why King Rabi wanted to investigate this matter.
From all the information given by May, Yuga deduced that King Rabi, who had already become a Pokémon, had most likely already left the human world and gone into the wilderness areas to establish his own power.
That King Rabi could even remotely control human subordinates—this was something Yuga truly admired.
In order to investigate this matter, King Rabi's subordinates had stirred up no small amount of trouble in the human world, and this naturally attracted the attention of the League.
This time as well—if Lax and the others had not captured Asuka, the police would not have used such tough measures to arrest them.
King Rabi had also, from who knows where, obtained some clues. He thought that from the ancient clans one could find leads to the mystery of the disappearance of the Legendary Pokémon. So first, he sent people to the ancestral land of the People of the Water, and afterwards he even began planning to make a move against the Remnants of the Dragon Clan.
However, they did at least have some self-awareness. The Dragon Tamer and Village of Dragons were both things they did not dare to target, so they set their sights instead on the Draconid People, which had already disappeared.
Of course, the orthodox Draconid People were still all imprisoned by the League. Since King Rabi's men had no ability to get them out, they shifted their attention to some people who carried the bloodline of the Draconid People.
Asuka was one of them.
Asuka's hometown was in White Cloud Town, near Meteor Falls. Though her family were not Draconid People, and they themselves did not even know that in their veins flowed the blood of the Draconid People, if one traced back several generations, they had an ancestor who was originally from Meteor Falls.
King Rabi's people captured Asuka, intending to use a special potion to forcibly awaken in her the unique ability belonging to the Remnants of the Dragon Clan. With this ability, they wanted her to open a ruin of the Remnants of the Dragon Clan that they had discovered.
Unfortunately, before their plan could even take off, they were already defeated. The People of the Water and the League both noticed their movements, and dispatched people to investigate.
It could be seen that King Rabi's subordinates were really not very skilled at handling business!
There was just one point, though: even the members of the circus did not know whether their master had sent only their group to investigate this matter, or whether there were other arrangements elsewhere.
After the matter was mostly cleared up, Yuga left Lax to be interrogated by Masato Shirai, and then went together with May and the others to the Pokémon Center to visit Asuka.
At this time, Asuka had already awakened, but her body was extremely weak. Because of the potion, it was highly likely that her body would never again recover to the healthy condition it once had.
Correspondingly, however, she had successfully awakened the unique ability of the Remnants of the Dragon Clan—the Dragon Force, the power to communicate with Dragon-type Pokémon, and even to easily achieve a deep connection of heart and intent with them.
But whether or not a power obtained at the price of health was truly worth it—no one could say for sure.
Because Asuka's identity had already been clarified, Joyka informed Verdanturf University, letting the school know about Asuka's situation.
At the same time, the school had also notified Asuka's parents.
Asuka's parents were both part of the League's military department, and it was said that they were already on their way to Verdanturf City.
When Yuga and the others arrived at the Pokémon Center, there happened to be people from Verdanturf University visiting Asuka. Seeing that Asuka was really alright, they did not go over to disturb her, but only greeted Joyka before leaving.
With the circus matter investigated and resolved, both Rand and May were in a hurry to leave, each returning to report on their own tasks (their commissions).
Yuga had originally wanted to keep them for a few days, but since they were both so impatient, he could only give up.
Rand quickly go to home, spending half a day reunited with his father before leaving again, while May left directly on that very same day.
Over at the police station, Lax, who had been captured, was interrogated. Probably frightened by those monsters, Lax quickly confessed everything.
The results of Lax's interrogation were not much different from what the other circus insiders knew, but there was one thing he knew that the others did not. That was the location of the ruin of the Remnants of the Dragon Clan that their King Rabi had discovered.
Two days after the matter was reported to the League, the League sent people to take away all of King Rabi's subordinates. At the same time, they brought along two other people with special identities, one of whom Yuga recognized.
The two were one man and one woman. The man was called Seiryu, and from the name alone it was clear that he was of the Dragon Tamer Clan. The other was a girl named Iris, from Village of Dragons, and she was once Ash's traveling companion.
Both of them were Remnants of the Dragon Clan, branches of the ancient clans.
The purpose of the two people coming to Verdanturf City was very simple. The League had entrusted to them and to Yuga the mission of exploring that Remnants of the Dragon Clan' ruin.
Of course, all the gains obtained within the ruin belonged entirely to the explorers themselves. Yuga and the others only needed to thoroughly investigate the situation inside the ruin and then report it to the League.
Yuga had no objections to this. Perhaps inside the ruin there might be some unexpected harvest to be obtained!
On the day before departing for the Dragon's Ruin, Yuga finally got in contact with Gengar and Mismagius.
That day, after Golurk had entered Yuga's shadow space, when Yuga went home he had intended to ask Gengar and the others what exactly was the situation with Golurk. Yet he unexpectedly discovered that the shadow space had been sealed. He was unable to communicate with the Gengar, the Mismagius, and the Palossand inside.
Originally, he had been very worried, but deep within, there was a kind of intuition that told him he did not need to worry. It was a feeling that could not be clearly explained in words. Yuga almost instantly understood that it was the power of the Ghost World Origin Stone that was communicating with him!
Anyway, from then on, Yuga simply calmed himself and quietly awaited the result.
Sure enough, when he saw Gengar again, it had become a master level Pokémon.
...
[ Gengar (Gengarite) ]
Type: Ghost, Poison
Ability: Cursed Body
Gender: Male
Aptitude: Purple
Level: 91
Moves: Grudge, Shadow Punch, Lick, Mean Look, Curse, Shadow Ball, Dream Eater, Hypnosis, Dark Pulse, Psychic, Perish Song, Trick Room, Hex, Nightmare, Sludge Bomb, Will-O-Wisp, Poison Jab, Thunderbolt, Ally Switch, Night Shade, Dazzling Gleam, Skill Swap.
...
At the same time, from the mouths of Gengar and Mismagius, Yuga also understood the reason for that Golurk's peculiarity.
It turned out that within Golurk's body, there was also a Ghost World Origin Stone, only it was much smaller than the one within Yuga's shadow space.
When the Ghost World Origin Stone originally shattered, the fragments that separated from the main body of the Ghost World Origin Stone certainly could not have been only the one in Yuga's hand. His was merely the largest fragment among them.
Yuga's fragment had been brought out from the Ghost World by Muya (the former trainer of Gengar and Mismagius). As for how the one inside Golurk's body had wandered out from the Ghost World—this was unknown.
That smaller fragment of the Ghost World Origin Stone had been specially treated and placed into Golurk's body, and it reacted with the energy naturally carried inside Golurk's body. That was why Yuga and the others had previously seen that phenomenon of ghosts and demons running rampant.
As for who had placed the Ghost World Origin Stone into Golurk's body, Yuga could not hazard a guess.
Golurk originally belonged to King Rabi, but King Rabi himself was now also a Ghost-type Pokémon. Yuga knew better than anyone how great was the attraction of the Ghost World Origin Stone to Ghost-type Pokémon.
Surely King Rabi could not have been so foolish as to have such a treasure but not keep it for himself, and instead hand it over to someone else, right?
Or perhaps it was that dead Golurk itself that had placed the Ghost World Origin Stone into its own body?
Yuga pondered for a long time but could not figure out the truth. In the end, he could only put this matter aside. In any case, the fact that Gengar's strength had advanced was a good thing.
Yuga's fragment of the Ghost World Origin Stone had wanted to merge with that smaller one, but the portions of energy that had already dispersed could not be gathered back. Thus, all of it ended up benefitting Gengar, which was why Gengar had advanced.
Mismagius, on the other hand, did not benefit at all.
That fragment of the Ghost World Origin Stone was too small. The energy that dispersed was only enough for a single Pokémon to use. Mismagius was already a master-level Pokémon. Even if all of that energy were given to it, it still could not become a level one-hundred Pokémon, so it simply left it all to Gengar.
Instead, it was Palossand that managed to gain a tiny bit of benefit, its level rising by several.
On the second day after Gengar and Mismagius returned, Yuga, Yuuryusei, and Iris boarded the aircraft headed for the Sinnoh Region.
That Dragon's Ruin was located in the Sinnoh Region.
Iris was no different at all from the Iris that Yuga had remembered—very lively. She had never been to the Sinnoh Region, so along the way she asked Yuga many questions about Sinnoh with great enthusiasm.
Furthermore, Iris knew Cynthia. After learning that Yuga was a friend of Cynthia, she also asked many questions about Cynthia.
Seiryu was a very calm young man, about the same age as Iris, and remained very quiet along the way.
However, Yuga also noticed that every time he and Iris happened to be chatting about a topic that interested Seiryu, the young man would silently perk up his ears to listen.
The technological progress of the Pokémon world was extremely rapid—it could be said to be advancing with each passing day. Compared with when Yuga had first come to the Pokémon world, the means of transportation now were far more convenient.
In less than three days' time, Yuga and the other two successfully arrived in Jubilife City of the Sinnoh Region.
From Jubilife City, they would travel to Twinleaf Town, and then from Twinleaf Town head southwest to search for the Dragon's Ruin.
The location of the ruin that Lax had given was not very specific. If they truly wanted to find the destination, Yuga and the others would have to rely on their own on-site investigation.
The three of them did not linger long in Jubilife City. After disembarking from the aircraft, they hurriedly left Jubilife City by car for Twinleaf Town, and finally, before nightfall, they arrived in Twinleaf Town.