"Team Magma."
Giovanni narrowed his eyes slightly.
"I understand. Go investigate it thoroughly."
He waved his hand.
"Yes."
Matori bowed and exited the room.
In the dimly lit chamber, only a single Persian remained beside Giovanni.
It elegantly stretched out its tongue and licked its fur.
"Hoenn, I haven't even come looking for you yet, and you're already setting your sights on Team Rocket, huh."
His low voice echoed faintly in the darkness.
"So really, I'm innocent, Officer Jenny."
Listening to Blaise speak with a carefree grin in the interrogation room, Officer Jenny felt like she was one step away from smashing the table apart.
Bang.
The door slammed shut.
"Still haven't found any criminal record on this guy?"
The Officer Jenny in charge of the interrogation asked.
"No."
Another Jenny sighed helplessly.
"Team Magma's objectives were never simple vandalism to begin with. And he only arrived in Johto recently, there's no record of him in the League database at all.
"As for Hoenn, we still haven't received a response."
"Is that really okay?"
Sitting nearby and drinking tea with Bugsy, Silas looked over curiously.
As the Azalea Town Gym Leader, with Team Magma causing trouble within his jurisdiction, Bugsy should have been far more concerned.
"It's fine. Don't underestimate Officer Jenny."
Bugsy blinked.
"If they can't find anything, there's no way I'll uncover something myself."
To put it bluntly, even as a Gym Leader, Bugsy couldn't compare to the Jenny family, whose influence spanned regions and social classes worldwide. At best, he was just… well, a nice guy.
On paper, he might be the one "leading" the Azalea Town police force, but in reality, that was simply the Jenny family showing respect for his strength.
"Fair enough."
Silas nodded.
"By the way, how did you manage to stop Blaise?"
Bugsy asked with interest.
"From my perspective, he wasn't anything special, but he should still have at least one Elite-level Pokémon, right?"
"…Don't tell me you—?"
His eyes suddenly widened.
"No, no."
Silas quickly waved the idea away.
"It went like this."
He briefly recounted what had happened.
"Green light appearing in the forest?"
Bugsy took a sip of tea.
"That was probably Celebi."
"How do you know?"
Silas asked curiously.
"That's another story."
Bugsy shrugged.
"In the past, there was a group living near Ilex Forest who believed and claimed, they had seen Celebi, the Guardian of the Forest, there.
"For a while, it attracted a lot of attention. They even built a small shrine."
Talking about the local legends around Azalea Town, Bugsy spoke with ease.
"But you know how it is, Legendary Pokémon don't like appearing before humans, especially ones like Celebi.
"So as time passed, that so-called faith faded away. In the end, only two or three fanatics still believed Celebi lived in Ilex Forest.
"When they passed away, no one in Azalea Town believed it anymore, and the shrine gradually fell into ruin.
"However…"
Bugsy suddenly paused, as if remembering something.
Silas was hooked.
"However?"
"I remember that Kurt, that old man—specifically went there a few times."
Bugsy rubbed his chin, sounding unsure.
"Mr. Kurt?"
Silas froze for a moment.
"Yeah. Those old folks definitely know things we don't."
Bugsy continued.
"But I'm not completely sure. That old man wanders off all the time.
"When your Apricorn Poké Balls are finished, you can ask him while you're there.
"Don't get your hopes up, though. He probably won't tell you."
Bugsy looked faintly resentful.
Now it was Silas's turn to fall into thought.
Kurt knowing about Celebi, was that possible?
Yes. Very possible.
He quickly reached that conclusion.
After all, Professor Oak, Celebi, and Kurt—those three could definitely be connected.
"I've heard that powerful Legendary Pokémon can temporarily boost a Pokémon's strength without side effects…"
Bugsy sighed again.
"But this is the first time I've ever seen it."
"Same here."
Silas nodded in agreement after coming back to himself.
That power far exceeded his expectations.
Fortunately, Celebi's forced enhancement still followed the laws of the world.
Even as a Legendary that governed forests and time, Celebi couldn't forcibly elevate a Pokémon with only Elite-level potential beyond that threshold.
"What a shame. I didn't get to experience what a peak Elite-level Pokémon feels like."
Silas thought with a hint of regret.
Unfortunate, but not a big deal.
From the situation earlier, giving that opportunity to Pidgeot had been the optimal choice.
It wasn't that Blaziken couldn't have handled things, but this way yielded the greatest benefit.
Pidgeot's current breakthrough state was proof enough.
In terms of talent, potential, and raw strength, Blaziken was undeniably superior to Pidgeot.
But when it came to breaking through to the Elite tier, Pidgeot was clearly ahead.
More importantly, Silas worried that jumping directly from Pesudo-Elite to Elite might have shattered Blaziken's mental state once the power faded.
That wasn't hard to imagine.
A sudden surge of strength and the emptiness afterward, could easily crush a Pokémon's mentality.
Compared to that, any potential physical strain was insignificant.
"Still… would forest vitality and time-reversal energy cause lasting damage?"
Silas began to think more deeply.
If the Legendary involved had been something like Reshiram or Zekrom, the outcome might have been very different.
No matter how he looked at it, Celebi's power was extremely limited in terms of destructive force.
"I suggest you keep an eye on Pidgeot's mental state recently."
Unaware of Silas's thoughts, Bugsy offered his advice.
"And have it reflect on that state while the memory is still fresh."
Like Silas, Bugsy felt this was entirely a good thing.
Plenty of people had seen Legendary Pokémon before, it was just Celebi.
He wasn't jealous. Not at all.
"Besides, it's a Grass-type Legendary."
Bugsy silently comforted himself.
"I'm a Bug-type Trainer."
However, Bugsy seemed to forget one thing, As of now, there is no known Bug-type Legendary Pokémon.
Celebi, as a Grass-type Forest Guardian, was already one of the Legendary Pokémon most closely related to him.
Of course, before Genesect appeared, even "Young Rayquaza" could barely be jokingly called a Bug-type god.
Just… generally much weaker.
But hey—who says Caterpie can't be a belief?
"Mm. I understand."
Silas nodded seriously.
Bugsy was genuinely looking out for him.
Bugsy nodded in satisfaction.
Good, a young man who listens to advice.
"Alright. If there's nothing else, head back and rest."
Bugsy stood up after finishing his tea.
"Meet at the Azalea Gym entrance at seven tomorrow morning.
"You worked hard today. I didn't expect Team Magma to show up, you were put at risk."
"It's fine. It was my responsibility."
Silas replied quickly.
"Wait, this is bad."
His expression suddenly changed.
"What's wrong?"
Bugsy tensed immediately.
"On the way to Team Magma, I spotted two Team Rocket members, but I got distracted thinking about Celebi and forgot about them."
Silas knocked lightly on his head.
"At this point, they've probably already escaped."
"That's nothing."
Bugsy relaxed.
"I thought it was something serious."
He laughed.
He smiled and said, "The Team Rocket operation at Slowpoke Well is the real priority. Those two were probably just sent out temporarily, by now they were likely scared out of their wits and already ran off."
"That makes sense."
At this point, Silas had completely devolved into a nodding machine.
"Then I'll head back first," he said, taking his leave.
"See you tomorrow morning."
Bugsy personally walked him out of the police station.
"I'll head out as well. I'll leave things here to you."
After exchanging a few brief words with Officer Jenny, Bugsy also left the scene.
Under the cover of night, the police station was brightly lit.
The holding cells of the Azalea Town Police Station hadn't been this lively in a long time.
Behind the bars, members of Team Rocket, dressed in black, and Team Magma, dressed in red, were separated by cell doors and hurling insults at each other nonstop.
The Officer Jennys felt these people were seriously unwell, arguing instead of sleeping in the middle of the night.
At the same time, the Johto League's upper management was developing a massive headache.
How on earth had Team Rocket and Team Magma ended up tangled together?
That alone was bad enough, but why did it have to be Johto? Couldn't it have been Kanto or Hoenn instead?
If word got out, who knew what other regions would think. Would they assume Johto was just easy to bully?
That night, the Jenny family received a piece of rather pleasant news from a certain conscientious major businessman who also happened to be a Gym Leader.
Meanwhile, Silas—fast asleep in a bed at the Azalea Town Pokémon Center, had no idea how many chain reactions had been set off that very day, all because of a single glance he'd cast before entering town.
"Ah~"
Bathed in sunlight, Silas lazily stretched.
"Good morning."
A passing Nurse Joy greeted him warmly.
"Good morning, Nurse Joy."
Silas returned the smile.
This Nurse Joy was the same one he had met yesterday, the one working at the Pokémon Center near Ilex Forest.
Because it was unsafe to venture deep into the forest late at night, she had stayed overnight at the Azalea Town Pokémon Center after the mission ended.
After all, they were all family.
Watching Nurse Joy happily chat with another Nurse Joy, whose actual familial relation to her was probably impossibly distant, Silas couldn't help but feel that the Jenny and Joy families were outright bugs in the world's system.
Aside from the one "shiny-colored" Nurse Joy he'd seen last year in Fuchsia City, he'd never encountered one who looked any different.
"I really need to ask Brock sometime how he manages to tell them apart."
Silas couldn't wrap his head around it.
He considered himself a perceptive Trainer—but things like "hair being a few centimeters shorter" were really details a human could notice?
He subconsciously glanced up at the clock.
"Oh no."
Silas inwardly cursed.
He was going to be late.
He hurried out of the Pokémon Center and sprinted straight toward the Azalea Gym.
Half an hour later.
Inside the perpetually dim Ilex Forest.
"I don't understand this at all."
Bugsy stared with reddened eyes at Silas, who was completely surrounded by Bug-type Pokémon.
"Why? Why are so many cute little guys clustering around you?"
Silas forced an awkward smile.
Cute… huh?
It wasn't that he was biased against Bug-types, but watching all these bugs wriggling around on the ground really did make his scalp tingle.
At long last, he understood how Misty felt whenever she saw Bug-type Pokémon.
"If you think they're cute, why don't you try catching them with a Bug Catching Net?"
Silas said to Bugsy with a near-tearful expression.
"That won't do."
Bugsy shook his head solemnly.
"These kids are better suited to living freely in the forest."
See? See that?
Low emotional intelligence version: Their potential's too low; I don't want them.
High emotional intelligence version: They belong in nature.
Commanding Ampharos to zap away yet another Pokémon that had climbed up his pant leg, Silas felt genuinely numb.
This wasn't normal, he'd never been this popular before.
"It looks like the legend that Celebi has an extraordinary pull on forest Pokémon is true."
Bugsy nodded in agreement at Silas's predicament.
A Legendary Pokémon's aura wasn't something that faded easily.
Even if the assistance had been indirect, the lingering presence alone was enough to drive ordinary Pokémon wild.
"In that case, there's not much room left for Bug Catching Nets to shine."
Looking at the ever-growing crowd of Bug-types, Bugsy started getting a headache too.
He liked Bug-type Pokémon, sure but this was way too many.
They weren't here to catch Pokémon anyway; the goal was to test how Bug Catching Nets performed in the wild.
In a situation like this, forget nets, even tossing a random Poké Ball might result in a capture.
"Beedrill. Vespiquen. Pinsir. Butterfree. Forretress. Drive them away."
After a brief thought, Bugsy threw out five Poké Balls in succession.
Boom.
In the next instant, nearly all the Bug-type Pokémon scattered in panic.
Bugsy's five Pokémon hovered or stood in place, radiating overwhelming pressure.
For Bug-type Pokémon, who survived in harsh environments under strict natural laws five Elite Four–level Bugs were nothing short of demons.
Silas's Ampharos instinctively assumed a battle stance.
Stare.
Beedrill turned its gaze toward Ampharos.
Those razor-sharp twin stingers and the tail stinger that flashed with cold light, made Silas think that if Giovanni didn't already own a nearly invincible Beedrill, he'd be confident Bugsy's was the strongest in the world.
"Beee~"
The next moment, to Bugsy's utter disbelief, all five of his Pokémon lunged straight toward Silas's arms.
"Wait—what?!"
....
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