Half an hour later.
The Ghost World.
It was unusually quiet here now.
Gone were the wails of the ghost Pokémon that had been infected by the fog, and gone was the oppressive presence that Spiritomb had brought along with it. The entire Ghost World felt as though it had been swept clean, vast and serene.
Kairos stood at the entrance to the Ghost World, gazing up at the sky.
The sky here was a deep, rich shade of purple, dotted with countless flickering points of light, as if the entire universe had been compressed overhead into a single breathtaking view.
It was a sight that was both eerie and beautiful, carrying with it a sense of the surreal.
Compared to the first time he had come here, this place felt like an entirely different world.
Back then, the Ghost World had been blanketed in gray, suffocating mist. The air had reeked of decay and chaos, making it hard to breathe.
Now, the air was noticeably fresher. There was still a faint chill to it, but it no longer felt oppressive.
"I wonder how those infected ghost Pokémon are doing."
After the battle had ended, most of the infected Pokémon had been taken away by the League for treatment and observation.
He hoped they would all recover. They were innocent, after all, simply caught under the control of Spiritomb's strange power.
While Kairos was lost in thought, a shadow on the ground nearby suddenly stirred.
It moved like something coming to life, stretching and warping rapidly before a figure emerged from within.
It was Will, the master of the Ghost World.
He looked considerably more energetic than before. His injuries had clearly largely healed, though his face still carried a trace of exhaustion. He had obviously been busy handling the aftermath.
"I didn't think you'd be coming back so soon. Is something the matter?"
Will looked a little anxious, even.
"No, just stopping by." Kairos gave a small nod.
Will hesitated, as if carefully choosing his words, then finally couldn't help but ask: "There's actually something I've been wanting to ask you. Who was that person?"
As he spoke, his expression shifted into something like the look of a man trying to shake off a terrifying memory.
"That one from before, the white one..."
Even just bringing it up made Will's heart stir with a kind of quiet awe.
He still remembered it clearly: that white figure, standing before Spiritomb with an air of absolute dominance.
In its presence, the Spiritomb that had nearly destroyed the entire Ghost World had seemed as fragile and helpless as a child who knows nothing of the world. That kind of terrifying power...
Kairos glanced in the direction where the battle had taken place.
"That one is called Mewtwo."
"Mewtwo..." Will murmured the name softly, committing it firmly to memory.
"As for how I know it..." Kairos paused.
"That's a bit hard to explain. I'll keep that part to myself for now."
Will blinked, then quickly caught himself and didn't press further.
He took a slow breath, his expression turning solemn. He bowed deeply toward Kairos.
"Regardless, we owe everything to you this time. If not for you, the Ghost World would truly have been finished. This is a debt that those of the Ghost World lineage will never forget."
Will raised his head and met Kairos's eyes with a steady gaze. "I'll say it again: from this day forward, if you ever need anything, whether it's the resources of the Ghost World or the Ghost-type Trainers under our banner, say the word and we will answer without question."
He meant every word of it.
Kairos didn't make a show of declining. He simply nodded.
"No need to be so formal about it, but I hear you."
Just as the two of them were talking, the air nearby suddenly rippled.
A deep, dark figure slipped out from within the distortion and landed in front of Kairos.
Marshadow.
The moment it appeared, it came charging straight over.
"Kairos!"
It waved its little arms and launched into a rapid-fire string of questions.
"Who was that white guy? He was pretty strong — I've never seen him before either. He's nowhere near Ho-Oh's level, but still not bad. Actually feels like he might even be stronger than I am. So why were you hiding from him? Don't you know him? Wasn't it you who called him here?"
Kairos's head was spinning by the end of it.
"Well... I don't actually know him that well."
"Oh, really. Huh."
Marshadow turned and looked over at Will, who was standing to the side.
"Oh? You're here too?"
Will, who had been watching the whole exchange, felt the corner of his mouth twitch.
So I've been standing here the entire time, said all of that, and this thing didn't even notice me?
Am I invisible to you?
Will let out a helpless sigh, but he was perceptive enough to recognize that these two probably had things to discuss. He took the hint gracefully.
"Well then, I won't keep you. There's still a great deal of restoration work here in the Ghost World that needs my attention. I'll excuse myself."
As he turned to leave, he cast one last glance at Marshadow and quietly grumbled to himself.
This one's never been this enthusiastic around me. What a difference in treatment.
Once Will had walked off, Kairos turned to face Marshadow.
"How is the faith energy situation looking?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
That was what he cared about most.
Marshadow gave a nod, its expression growing serious. "I can feel it. The faith energy has gotten noticeably denser over this past stretch of time. I honestly have no idea how you managed it. It's ridiculous."
It pointed toward a certain direction in the sky. "That's Ho-Oh's presence. It's faint, but I can sense it: tiny points of light converging from that direction."
So it seemed that many of the rescue team players had already reached the Time Labyrinth and triggered Ho-Oh's assistance mechanic.
Kairos turned the situation over in his mind.
"At this rate," Marshadow continued, "it won't be more than a few days before I can pinpoint Ho-Oh's exact location."
Kairos nodded, quietly satisfied.
That was faster than he had anticipated.
Getting to meet Ho-Oh would be a good thing, no doubt about it.
Whether it meant drawing on Ho-Oh's power directly, or simply having Ho-Oh recharge his feather indefinitely, either way it was a win.
But then a small frown crossed his face.
Relying solely on the assistance mechanic within the rescue team game to accumulate faith energy was stable enough, but far too slow.
After all, the number of players in that game was limited, and the story moments that could actually trigger Ho-Oh's intervention were few and far between.
If he wanted to build up a massive stockpile of faith energy in a short amount of time, this method alone wasn't going to cut it.
He needed a faster way.
Kairos thought it over, and an idea came to him quickly.
"What if Ho-Oh's image were incorporated into the virtual reality game?"
Wouldn't that do it?
Virtual reality games were all about absolute immersion and realism.
If, in that world, Ho-Oh was no longer a cluster of pixels on a screen or a cutscene playing in the background, but a truly living, divine presence — if players could look up at the sky and see that brilliant, radiant sacred bird spreading its wings overhead, blotting out the light as it descended before them — the sheer visual impact would shake something deep in every single person who witnessed it.
The faith energy that would pour in from that alone would come like a flood.
That would be fast. Very fast.
But then...
Kairos glanced at the new mission that had just appeared on his system panel.
"The next game has to be villain-themed..."
That created a conflict.
A legendary creature like Ho-Oh, one that symbolized hope and salvation, felt completely out of place in a game built around villainy.
He couldn't exactly have players play as the bad guys trying to capture Ho-Oh, could he?
Forget collecting faith energy: if Marshadow ever found out about that, getting an earful from it would be the least of his problems.
Now, if it were Moltres, that would be a different story. Team Rocket did have a documented history with Moltres. But Ho-Oh? That felt genuinely wrong.
"Too bad. It's just not possible right now."
Kairos let out a sigh.
But it was fine. There was plenty of time. Once this villain-themed game was wrapped up, there was nothing stopping him from bringing Ho-Oh into the next one.
Ho-Oh wasn't going anywhere, after all.
Right, speaking of which...
Kairos's gaze settled on Marshadow.
"Now that things have settled down on the Ghost World side, are you planning to keep staying here?"
Marshadow had originally turned up here because Ho-Oh had told it to keep an eye on Spiritomb. Now that Spiritomb had been dealt with by Mewtwo, and the Ghost World was largely empty of both people and Pokémon, the place felt hollow.
Faced with the question, Marshadow was visibly caught off guard.
It seemed like it had never really thought about it before. This person and all his things going on...
Kairos shrugged.
"In that case, what do you say about coming along with me?"
Having Marshadow by his side would serve two purposes: on one hand, it meant having a Mythical Pokémon's combat strength at his disposal; on the other, he'd always be in the loop on Ho-Oh's situation.
"Come along with you, huh."
Marshadow blinked.
"I'll have to think about it!"
Kairos nodded.
"No rush. I've got somewhere to be first. We'll talk when I get back."
"Where are you off to now?"
Kairos turned and activated the Transit Scroll.
The familiar wave of dizziness washed over him and faded just as quickly. When he opened his eyes again, the League's sleek, tech-lined streets were gone, replaced by the familiar noise and faint smell of machine oil that hung in the air of the lower district.
This time, though, something was different. The usual sense of decay and suffocation had lifted. In its place was an energy that was hard to name but unmistakably alive.
He stood at the mouth of a secluded alley, got his bearings, and stepped out.
The scene in front of him gave him pause.
Was this really the grim, crumbling lower district he remembered?
The streets, once narrow and filthy, were noticeably wider and cleaner now. Patches and repairs were still visible here and there, but the mountains of refuse that had once piled everywhere were completely gone, replaced by neat rows of streetlamps and buildings still under construction.
People moved all around him, busy and purposeful, none of that hollow, glazed look he had seen before. Everyone seemed to carry something lighter in their expression.
Even the walls were different: the chaotic graffiti had been scrubbed away and replaced with vivid, colorful artwork, all of it featuring cheerful Pokémon designs, and not just any Pokémon, but ones from the Hoenn region that had never existed in this world.
It seemed that in the time he'd been away, the changes here had exceeded anything he had expected.
Kairos didn't linger. He remembered where the Watchers' base was.
He picked up his pace and headed in that direction.
Along the way, he noticed even more changes that surprised him. Many of the derelict, abandoned buildings had been converted into temporary shelters or supply distribution points.
He could even spot people in matching uniforms keeping order in the streets, though the uniforms weren't the rigid military gear of the League; they looked more like the attire of a civilian defense organization.
Before long, the familiar gate of the Watchers' base came into view.
Though "familiar" was almost the wrong word now. It had been completely transformed.
The rust-pocked iron doors had been replaced with heavy alloy gates fitted with what looked like advanced security systems.
The perimeter walls had been raised and reinforced, and warning lines had been strung up along the outer edge.
Several fully armed guards stood at the entrance, their eyes sweeping the area with alert precision.
But the moment their gaze landed on Kairos, that vigilance dissolved instantly into stunned, barely contained excitement.
"Is that... is that Mr. Kairos?!"
One of the guards seemed to recognize him and nearly lost his composure, his voice pitching upward as he grabbed his radio: "Quickly! Alert the President! Mr. Kairos is back! Mr. Kairos is actually back!"
The gates swung open with a deep rumble, and several guards practically ushered him inside.
The moment he stepped through, the energy hit him head-on.
The open courtyard that had once been bare and sparse was now dotted with temporary structures, filled with people in constant motion: some hauling supplies, some calibrating equipment, and a few Pokémon in noticeably excellent condition lending a hand nearby.
Before he had time to take it all in properly, the sound of quick, purposeful footsteps came from the direction of the main building.
A handful of familiar faces walked toward him at a brisk pace.
Old Hart came forward first, stopped in front of Kairos, and stood there for a moment looking lost for words. Elara's eyes were shining, a smile on her face. Alicia was dressed in neat administrative attire, her manner still composed and cool, though those ice-blue eyes of hers held something that hadn't been there before: a quiet, lingering concern. And there was Alan, who had clearly grown taller, and who immediately launched himself at Kairos without any preamble.
"Bro! You're back!!"
"Good to see everyone's doing well." Kairos ruffled Alan's hair and greeted them all.
"Doing well? Better than we've ever been."
Old Hart seemed to finally come back to himself.
"You disappear for that long and you finally decide to come back, huh."
Elara smiled. "Back is all that matters. You're back, Kairos. You've gotten a little thinner, a little darker too, but you look well. That's what counts."
Alicia stepped forward, gave a slight incline of her head, and spoke with unmistakable respect in her voice.
"Welcome back, Mr. Kairos. We owe you more than we can say."
Kairos waved it off and let his gaze move over everyone before settling on Alicia.
"From the look of things, you've got a full grip on the situation?"
Alicia nodded, her expression turning measured and deliberate.
"Yes. After you left, everything changed dramatically. With Gouging Fire's backing, the factions that had been watching and waiting, or even looking for ways to push back, fell into line quickly."
"I'm no longer the figurehead president I was before. I have real authority now."
"That's good." Kairos didn't seem particularly surprised.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones