Although he'd had a great, all out battle with Larry, the Hyper Beam from Dragonite after Terastallizing turned out just a tiny bit stronger—by, oh, about a billion—than Lucas expected, and he accidentally blew a skylight into the Treasure Eatery.
Compensation wasn't necessary, though. Since Larry often uses the Treasure Eatery as a gym battle venue, the Paldea League's allocated arena repair funds could naturally be used to fix up the Eatery as well.
After all, the Paldea League's current mission is to cultivate more outstanding newgeneration trainers. If even the costs of battlerelated venue damage were to fall on trainers, how could they talk about nurturing the next generation?
Geeta saw this very clearly too.
After saying goodbye to Larry, Lucas rode a Dragonite that felt like it had just discovered a whole new world, and returned to the farm under a starry sky.
Time quietly turned to the next day.
…
Lucas brought the evercurious Victini into Lost Platos Town, strode into an appliance store, and in one go ordered over a dozen air conditioners, asking for home installation.
His own room, the living room, and the Pokémon's rooms all needed a unit. Even though Serperior, Mimikyu, and Luxray usually only slept in Lucas's own bedroom, they'd each get one too.
If installing outdoor AC units didn't basically equate to being insane, Lucas would've put several out in the ranch area. In the summer heat, Mudsdale, Sawsbuck, Miltank, and Skiddo would surely suffer.
He really needed to build a larger shelter on top of the ranch's sunshade shed to give the ranch Pokémon a place to rest and escape wind and rain.
That way he wouldn't have to be out under the blazing sun while milking, either.
Landing such a massive order had the appliance shop owner grinning from ear to ear. In this day and age, where do you still get big orders delivered to your doorstep?
Like a pie falling from the sky!
Seeing the owner smiling obsequiously as he saw him out, Lucas headed back to the farm.
No sooner had he arrived than Victini zipped straight into the snowy little lodge where Vulpix lived. Who knew why a Fire/Psychic Mythical Pokémon needed to beat the heat?
Lucas shrugged helplessly and headed with Dragonite to Thunder Lake, where he happened to see Dragonair and the others riding the wind, dancing in the sky. One pinkwhite and two bluewhite figures stood out strikingly.
Below, the Dragonite leader was holding something in its arms, looking up with a smile as the Dragonair performed their dragon dance.
Lucas knew the Dragonite leader was conversing with that imagined illusion it always held.
"Drago~"
Dragonite called softly to Lucas, then fanned its wings and joined the Dragonair in the air, dancing the mysterious, rhythmic Dragon Dance together.
Lucas didn't interrupt their daily routine workout. He walked to the lakeside and looked past a massive net woven by Serperior's delicate vines. In the water on the far side, shadows darted about with vigor.
It had been a little over three months since he'd released the fry. After this period of feeding, judging by the eye, the fattest fish looked to be about half a kilo.
Unlike the farm's crops, there was no way for Lucas to accelerate the fish's growth—unless he used hormones.
But fish raised like that? He wouldn't dare feed them to his Pokémon.
If he wanted them to grow to delicious, plump size, he'd have to wait until the end of the year at least.
Lucas walked a bit further to the other side of Thunder Lake. A massive rock lay halfsubmerged, the Huge Damp Rock gifted by the Palafin leader. It brimmed with Watertype energy and was remarkably effective for training Rain Dance.
As expected, Politoed sat atop the Huge Damp Rock, quietly sensing, while three Poliwhirl trained around it.
Although the Unova trip had gone awry and kept Politoed from participating in double battles, it never showed discouragement. After returning to the farm, it only trained harder, aiming for the next chance to appear.
That tenacity—and the ability to turn it into consistent action—was why Lucas put Politoed on his second team.
Even if Arcanine had far surpassed it in strength, Lucas believed Politoed would catch up one day.
With a faint smile, Lucas turned from Thunder Lake.
In a few days, he'd head to Johto, and needed to prepare. He didn't know how long Dragonite's Extreme Speed training would take.
…
Kanto region, Orange Archipelago, waters around Shamouti Island.
At dawn, two figures arrived.
One was a Delibird—rare to see in the tropical climate around the Orange Archipelago.
The other, judged by appearance alone, could not be identified as a Pokémon.
It wore a tattered cloak, completely shrouding its body. The cloak flapped in the highaltitude winds. Beneath it, a bright blue glow covered its form.
It was floating with Psychic power.
Its name was Mewtwo—the manmade god, an artificial Legendary Pokémon.
From high above, Shamouti's entirety spread out below. A helpless look crossed the face hidden beneath Mewtwo's hood.
It hadn't expected that settling the cloned Pokémon's resettlement would take months.
It had promised to bring Delibird to the Orange Archipelago once done, but delays kept piling up for all kinds of reasons, so this travelloving Delibird had ended up by its side for so long.
Thinking of Team Rocket, buzzing like flies, Mewtwo felt a knot in its chest.
Back on New Island, it had wiped the memories of everyone present—trainers and Pokémon alike—except Lucas and his Pokémon.
But it wasn't yet strong enough to rewrite the memories of the entire Kanto region. It was still growing, after all.
In this period, with perfect control over its body, Mewtwo was confident that compared to a few months ago, it had changed drastically.
If it fought Lucas's Luxray again, it wouldn't be defeated so easily.
After a long time shaking off the relentless Team Rocket pursuers and settling the cloned Pokémon in a place they wouldn't be found anytime soon, Mewtwo finally had time to bring Delibird to the Orange Archipelago.
As it needed to find the Sage Slowking Lucas had mentioned, it teleported directly to Shamouti Island.
"Deli" (Then I'm off)
Seeing the scenery of Shamouti, and thinking it had finally reached the Orange Archipelago, Delibird waved its wing to Mewtwo, ready to resume the trip paused for months.
As for training, Mewtwo had helped it plenty during this time. Delibird felt that if Lucas saw its current strength, he'd be shocked!
Delibird thought back to the time Mewtwo had disguised itself and taken it to stomp all eight Gyms in Johto, and its chest swelled with pride.
Since it had already agreed with Mewtwo and said its goodbyes, Delibird flapped its wings and began turning toward a small island in the archipelago.
According to info Mewtwo had gathered, that island had a bunch of pink Pokémon, seemingly altered by longterm consumption of a certain local fruit. Delibird was very curious and planned to go see.
Watching Delibird leave, Mewtwo suddenly froze, a bad premonition welling up—neither about Delibird nor itself, but about the planet.
It trusted its instincts. While it couldn't foresee the future in images, that faint intuition had helped it avoid many Rocket pursuits.
But this was the first time it had felt a premonition like this. After a brief silence and rapid thought, Mewtwo made a decision.
The three paw pads on its right hand clenched under the cloak. Vast mental power rippled outward as an indistinct wave of telekinesis, instantly catching the departing Delibird and pulling it back.
"Delili??"
Delibird looked at Mewtwo in confusion. What was it doing?
Don't tell it Mewtwo was itching to be a "trainer" again and wanted to go win that Orange League Winners' Cup or whatever…
Mewtwo released Delibird and spoke directly into its mind: "I have a bad feeling. Something major may happen here soon. To be safe, stay with me for now. You can resume your trip later."
Delibird, which almost forgot to flap and nearly fell, quickly beat its wings to hover before Mewtwo, seeing the serious face under the hood.
Having spent months together, Delibird knew Mewtwo somewhat.
Though Mewtwo often frowned, despite having only been active for a year or two since leaving the tank, it acted like a little old man.
But Mewtwo showing this level of seriousness was rare. The last time was when they were almost surrounded by Team Rocket's boss and his top admins.
Delibird had already been reaching into its tail to pull out the slippers stolen from Lucas, ready to summon him…
What could happen here that would make even Mewtwo look this grave?
"Delili?" (Should we call Lucas?)
Delibird looked at Mewtwo anxiously, clearly ready to produce its treasured pair of holyrelic slippers if Mewtwo nodded.
"No need for now. Let's investigate first and see if we can gather any clues."
Mewtwo shook its head, closed its eyes, and surged its Psychic power. In a blink, it covered the entirety of Shamouti Island.
Soon, its glowing eyes opened.
"Found it."
With that, Mewtwo's Psychic power flared again, distorting space.
The next instant, Mewtwo and Delibird vanished from the sky and reappeared at the island's edge, within a cave set into a sheer cliff.
…
Naranja Academy, Chairwoman's office.
Receiving Geeta's message, Lucas took the elevator from his director's office to the top floor.
Standing by the window, Geeta looked out at the sports field. Seeing the vibrant students brought a smile to her face.
She believed these kids would make the Paldea League—no, the Paldea region—more prosperous.
Geeta mused, half to herself, "After the end of the month it'll be summer vacation. Give it another month, and we'll see students in Naranja Academy uniforms."
Sipping Geeta's tea—the price of which probably had an absurd number of zeros—Lucas wore a speechless look.
He couldn't understand why the Academy had to overhaul its appearance every six months. Changing is one thing, but why always swap between orange and grape?
Couldn't there be a Watermelon Academy?
Unaware of Lucas's nonsense, Geeta asked, "Your four focus students—any plans for their summer?"
"They have good talent as trainers, especially that girl Nemona. Her talent may be no less than yours."
"While summer is for kids to have fun and not for heavy homework, I still hope you'll keep them in training shape."
"Chairwoman, you worry too much."
Lucas set down his cup with a smile.
"In terms of enthusiasm for battling, Nemona surpassed me long ago."
"She plans to leave Paldea this summer to travel other regions and hone herself. Eri says she'll go with Nemona."
"Oh?"
Geeta raised an eyebrow, surprised.
Lucas continued, "As for Arven, you know his parents are researching in Area Zero."
Geeta recalled, "Professors Sada and Turo, right?"
Lucas nodded slightly. "His dream is to enter the crater to help his parents—not as a researcher, but as a trainer. So I arranged for Arven to join Nemona and Eri's group. The three of them can travel together and look out for each other."
Geeta asked, "Have they decided which region?"
Lucas snapped his fingers. "Galar. Their culture values battling even more than Unova's Blueberry Academy. They'll grow more there. It's also relatively safe among the regions, with Champion Leon active."
Geeta nodded in agreement. Compared to other regions plagued by villain teams, Galar, under the undefeated champion Leon, was indeed a safer place to travel.
As long as they were careful around Dynamax Pokémon, it should be a great journey.
"What about Penny's plan? Her hometown is Galar, right?"
Geeta's question made Lucas's confident look falter. Thinking of Penny's resolute answer, his expression turned odd.
"Er… Penny says she's staying in the Academy dorms to catch up on movies and anime she missed during last month's boot camp—and to beat a few singleplayer games."
After a brief silence, Geeta said slowly, "…Let her be."
Lucas nodded as well, and the room fell quiet.
Just as Lucas wondered if the blocked Peony would start calling him instead, Geeta handed him another file.
"These are the students scheduled to enroll after the summer. Look them over and see if there are any promising seedlings."
Lucas took the file and flipped through it.
On the last page, he paused, a hint of surprise on his face.
In the "Student Name" field were the two characters: Paul.