Day 12 of the Johto journey. Clear.
In the future, Reiji still had no plans to leave. It was daytime, and Giovanni was still camping the return point in the past. Going back now would be walking straight into a trap.
He had to wait until night. Scyther was still soaking in the lake, and Celebi stayed inside its ball. It was not time yet.
Reiji kept thinking about how to break the setup. His future self had failed to escape. Was it because he had not had time, or because he had not been confident enough to try?
The key had something to do with Gengar. If it involved Gengar, then the obvious answers were shadow power or the extra strength Mega Evolution could bring out.
But the opponent was Giovanni, and Giovanni had two Champion-tier Legendary Pokémon. Even if Gengar pulled off something ridiculous, it would not be enough. Giovanni had more than one Legendary.
So it probably was not just Mega Evolution or shadow power.
That left the other force on the same level as shadow power: antigravity.
And if antigravity was involved, there was only one place that made sense.
Giratina's Reverse World.
The problem was that Gengar had not learned antigravity. How was it supposed to open a way into Giratina's Reverse World? In the movie, the ones who could open passages to the Reverse World were Legendary Pokémon, along with that little Shaymin.
Unless it was Mega Gengar.
Mega Gengar could connect to another dimension. If that dimension could lead anywhere, then Giratina's Reverse World should be included.
After returning to the past, his only viable route was to have Mega Gengar drag him into the Reverse World. There was a reason he did not want to hide in some random other-dimensional space instead.
A random other dimension was unknown territory. If Gengar was caught there, it was over. The Reverse World was different. Once they entered it, Team Rocket would no longer be the only ones hunting them.
Giratina would have its eyes on Team Rocket too.
Elite Four-tier and Champion-tier presences would stand out far more than Reiji. In the eyes of a Legendary Pokémon, they were the bigger threat. They would be the first targets to remove before they could damage the Reverse World.
Once he decided that plan was workable, Reiji went over the other options again. With all his Pokémon, the only one that could move him from the return point instantly was still Celebi.
Celebi had time travel, and it had shown terrifying power once under the Dark Ball's control, but in its normal state it was too weak for a straight fight. It wasn't getting away from Giovanni by force.
After thinking it through, Gengar was still his only real exit.
Once night fell, he would go back.
Reiji spent the whole day by the lake, playing with Umbreon and Zapdos. Time passed faster than expected. When night came, he finally released Celebi and gently set it into the lake.
The moment Celebi soaked in the water of Lake of Life, soft green light rose from its body. Its eyes slowly opened, and it saw Reiji holding it.
"Ce...bii…" Celebi felt the life force in the lake and began recovering fast. Far faster than Poliwrath and the others had. As expected of Celebi. Legendary Pokémon really were different.
"Celebi, can you heal Scyther too?" Reiji looked toward Scyther, which was still soaking nearby. It was badly injured after being crushed by Scizor.
Celebi nodded and took Scyther's arm. Green light spread over both Pokémon. As Celebi recovered, it healed Scyther at the same time.
After a short while, the light faded. Celebi floated back into the air, fully awake again, and Scyther lifted off too. Its injuries were gone.
"Scyther, how do you feel?" Reiji took out its Poké Ball, ready to recall it.
Scyther nodded, clearly satisfied with its condition.
"Good. Come back, then."
After recalling Scyther, Reiji turned to Celebi.
"Celebi, can you still take me back?"
Celebi nodded and reached for Reiji's hand, ready to send him back right away.
"No, no, not yet. Come here first. I need to explain something." Reiji walked toward the shore.
He had not even put his shoes on. There was no way he was going back right this second. He would move only when everything was ready.
"bi?" Celebi did not know what he was waiting for, but it followed him onto the shore and over to the fire.
Reiji dried himself beside the flames, put on his shoes, then had Gengar come out and eat a few Ghost Gems. Once Gengar entered its Mega Evolution state and returned to his shadow, Reiji explained the situation to Celebi.
"Celebi, there are enemies waiting in the world we're going back to."
"You'll be weak after the jump. I need you to go back into this Poké Ball the moment we arrive, so I can protect you. Gengar will take us and run. Do you understand? The enemies over there are too strong. This is the only way I can keep you safe."
Seeing how serious Reiji was, Celebi became serious too. It nodded, stared at the Poké Ball in his hand, and took his hand.
"Gengar, put out the fire. After we go back, protect Celebi's ball no matter what. Swallow it if you have to. And wake me up as fast as possible. There are still things I need to say."
"Gar." Gengar answered.
A shadow spread over the campfire, swallowed it into the ground, and snuffed it out instantly.
Then Celebi used its power.
Blue light flooded the forest. A whirlpool of time and space opened in front of Celebi and Reiji, blazing so brightly that Reiji had to raise a hand over his eyes.
After that, he had no idea what happened.
All he could do was let Celebi pull him into the air and through the vortex.
He was going back to the past.
…
Celebi's forest.
Trees. Soil. A crater.
Yesterday, this place had taken a Hyper Beam head-on. Now it was bare and ruined, with nothing left but a large, empty crater. Reiji lay at the bottom of it.
The moment he appeared, the ground began to shake.
As he opened his eyes, Celebi pressed the button on its Heal Ball and was recalled. The shadow lying on the ground was swallowed by Gengar.
Gengar woke him just in time for Reiji to see it happen.
He also saw the vicious beast standing at the edge of the crater, lit by bright moonlight, and Vicious grinning beside it.
"Hahaha! The Boss was right. You really did time-travel." Vicious laughed harshly. "I can't believe we actually waited you out here. You were a pain to find after vanishing for 2 whole days."
At the same time, 3 more figures appeared around the crater. Reiji could not see all of them clearly. Some were standing in the shadows under the trees.
"So you're the kid who killed Fourth. Not bad. If the Boss didn't want you alive, you'd already be dead."
"Boss, Psychic isn't picking up any escape route," a woman said coldly. "He's trapped."
"Take him quickly. We've already wasted 2 days here." This one was a deep male voice.
Reiji looked around and swallowed.
He was surrounded.
Were these 4 all Elite Four-tier Trainers? He had thought there would only be Vicious and Giovanni. Now there were 2 more.
They really thought highly of him.
Still, it did not matter now.
He was going to make a mess in the Reverse World anyway. Sorry, Giratina. Better you than me.
"Darkrai, open the Reverse World."
"Gengar…" The moment Mega Gengar heard the name, it understood.
Time to run.
Any one of these 4 people could beat it senseless. It could not afford to fight them.
Mega Gengar yanked Reiji into the shadow in an instant. It was so fast that Reiji had barely finished saying "Darkrai" before he vanished in front of all 4 of them. None of the people surrounding him had time to react.
"Not good. He's running." The woman tried to catch Gengar with Psychic, but Gengar threw out a Dark Pulse and broke her focus. The blast also knocked Gengar into the Reverse World, and it disappeared into the dimensional opening it had created.
"After him."
Giovanni finally stepped out of the shadows, his expression dark as he watched Reiji vanish into another space.
He had come in person, yet the boy had still escaped.
He had heard it too. The hidden dark Pokémon was called Darkrai, and it had opened Giratina's Reverse World.
The Reverse World.
He had been there before. Aside from everything being upside down, there was also a short-tempered Ghost-type Legendary Pokémon inside.
Not something he wanted to provoke.
To be clear, Giovanni wasn't afraid of Giratina. He simply had no interest in picking that fight. That was the confidence of a Champion-tier Trainer — and Team Rocket had the technology to capture Legendary Pokémon if it really came to that.
"Boss." The woman came to the opening Gengar had left behind and held it steady with Psychic. Her glance toward Giovanni asked the question for her.
Were they really chasing him in?
"I won't repeat myself. You're not going. Come back with me." Giovanni turned away.
He was not personally diving into the Reverse World to chase a brat who had only just reached Elite Four tier, no matter how valuable that brat was. Darkrai or not.
As the head of Team Rocket, he had billions moving through his hands every minute. A single kid was not worth that kind of time. Coming here once was already more respect than the boy deserved.
Since Reiji had escaped, Giovanni had no interest in playing hide-and-seek.
He spoke to the girl behind him without looking back.
"Send the order. From now on, if anyone runs into that boy, alive or dead is fine."
"Yes, Boss."
The girl recorded the order and passed it to Matori, then left with Giovanni by helicopter.
Neither of them noticed the blue figure watching the helicopter from deep in the forest.
Only after the helicopter disappeared did Suicune enter the bottom of the crater and sniff the ground.
It caught Celebi's scent, Gengar's scent, and another scent that felt wrong.
It knew where they had gone.
The Reverse World had many entrances connected to the real world. The problem was that those openings were brief and hidden on this side. Most people would never find them. From inside the Reverse World, though, the exits appeared as clear black whirlpools.
At the same time, in the future, Reiji was night fishing. Matori stood beside him, both watching him and helping with his gear.
The moment past Reiji escaped into the Reverse World, future Reiji's hand paused on the fishing rod.
Then he relaxed again.
Gengar's voice came through at the same time.
"Gar. He made it…"
"Yeah," future Reiji said with a smile. "He made it."
Matori looked at him in confusion, but he only kept grinning.
"Who made it? Who are you talking to?" Matori scanned the beach.
There was no one here except the 2 of them. Reiji had not been talking to her either.
So he was talking to himself again.
What was wrong with this man now?
"Matori, I enjoyed the time we spent together," Reiji said as he baited the hook and cast again. "Especially the time in bed."
The world was about to fall apart, but he was still getting skunked. Let him cast a few more times. That was his last wish. Just one big fish before the end.
"Bastard, why are you bringing that up?" Matori's face flushed at once, and she looked around again.
She was not angry. This had been Giovanni's order from the start: agree to all of Reiji's requests. That naturally included warming his bed.
"Nothing. Just appreciating the time we have left. We won't be together much longer."
Reiji looked toward the line where the sea met the sky. The sun had just started to rise.
Too bad it was broken.
The whole world was collapsing, starting from the edge of his vision. No one could stop it.
Not even Arceus.
This was only a branch of his timeline. Who knew whether this branch even had an Arceus? It was probably still over in Ash's main timeline.
This future existed because of him. The future he had crossed into was his own future. Every time he crossed time, the future changed. If his past self changed the outcome, then this version of future Reiji would disappear.
If past Reiji still got caught by Giovanni, then the future would continue as it had before. This Reiji would not disappear. Every version of himself along this timeline would fail to change anything, and time would keep moving down Team Rocket's path.
As for why a stronger future version of himself had never come back, he already had a guess.
Maybe that future self had defeated Team Rocket, but the victory was so ugly and painful that he no longer had the face to meet his past self.
Or maybe he had failed, and there was no future left at all.
If that was the case, he had already died. There was no one left to come back.
"What is that? What's happening? Why is the sky cracking?" Matori stared in terror at the splitting sky.
The sun had only just risen, but a piece of it was missing, revealing empty darkness behind it, like a black hole swallowing everything.
"Nothing much," Reiji said with a smile. "This timeline just stopped existing."
"What do you mean, stopped existing?" Matori looked lost. The idea was too far beyond her.
"It's fine if you don't understand. We won't feel any pain."
Reiji did not think it was cruel. He did not feel like the lives on this timeline were innocent victims, and he felt no guilt.
Everyone was still alive in the future, weren't they?
No one had disappeared.
Only they were disappearing.
"Naoki, Shun, I'm coming. I can finally leave this rotten world. Hahaha… finally."
His voice sank low. Even when he laughed, it came out rough and hoarse.
"Shun, Naoki, Senta… I'm coming. Curse me, hit me, do whatever you want. I'll take all of it. All of it. Haha…"
His laughter stopped.
Right in front of Matori, his body began to break apart into tiny points of light.
It started with the fishing rod in his hands.
In the end, he still never caught a big one.
The light spread from his fingers to his arms, then to his feet, his body, and finally his head.
Before vanishing completely, he looked back at Matori and gave her a gentle smile.
Then he was gone.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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