Pokémon such as Moltres and Articuno are known as Mythical Beasts. This title is given to Pokémon whose base stats far exceed those of ordinary Pokémon and whose numbers are extraordinarily rare.
Lugia, the god of the sea, is one being belonging to the Johto region.
He stands on the same level as Ho-Oh, and together they are revered as the Gold and Silver Twin Gods of Johto.
However, due to a certain incident long ago, Ho-Oh became completely disillusioned with humanity and has never appeared before humans again. For hundreds of years, no trace of Ho-Oh has been found.
Although Lugia appears slightly more often than Ho-Oh, his appearances are still extremely rare.
Lugia governs the Ocean Currents. Because he resides in the sea year-round and controls the flow of the oceans, he is commonly called the god of the sea. In reality, however, he does not possess the Water type.
Every region has its own resident deities.
Except Kanto.
This information had once been explained to Ash by various powerful figures. When he first learned that Kanto had no native deity, he was stunned.
Other regions had at least two or more Mythical Beasts, yet Kanto had none.
If one absolutely had to name a Mythical Beast associated with Kanto, it would probably be Mewtwo, a man-made god.
In other words, Kanto's prestige… had been created by Team Rocket.
The power possessed by a god is terrifying. Holding a divine domain means one's strength has at least reached the God Level.
Not all Mythical Beasts can reach the God level, but any Mythical Beast with a domain must be God Level.
Which made Cynthia's words even more unbelievable.
Protect Lugia?
Ash seriously doubted his ears.
"Uh… Miss Cynthia," Ash said hesitantly, "did you misspeak? You want us to protect Lugia, the god of the sea? If Lugia just casually exhaled, we'd probably be blown a hundred thousand miles away. Wouldn't it be the other way around?"
Even Brock, who normally couldn't stay serious in front of Cynthia, had to straighten up at this moment.
Protecting the god of the sea?
That sounded like a joke.
"You're right," Cynthia admitted calmly. "What I said earlier wasn't precise."
She paused.
"To be exact, it's not the god of the sea."
"It's just… a Lugia."
The three of them froze again.
God of the sea or Lugia, what difference did that make?!
Seeing their expressions, Cynthia finally stopped speaking in riddles.
She took out a black-and-gold Poké Ball, walked to the center of the living room, and released it.
A pitch-black Pokémon appeared before them.
It was bird-like, with wings shaped like massive hands. Dark-blue dorsal fins lined its back. Despite its dark coloration, it looked… oddly cute.
But the moment Ash and the others saw it, their expressions changed completely.
Because aside from its color, Its appearance was identical to Lugia.
However, its size was far too small.
A real Lugia should be larger than Pidgeot, perhaps even twice as large. This one was only about the size of a Pidgeotto.
Between the two, the difference was overwhelming.
"Don't doubt it," Cynthia said. "This is Lugia, just in its juvenile stage. And its condition isn't good."
She looked at Ash.
"Ash, come here."
Ash didn't hesitate. He stepped forward and knelt beside the small Lugia.
He placed a hand on its body and closed his eyes.
Aura Power and Tokiwa Power flowed out together.
Almost instantly, his Aura Power encountered resistance, but the Tokiwa Power entered smoothly.
Yet the moment the Tokiwa Power entered, it was nearly converted by an unfamiliar force.
Ash's expression hardened.
His Aura Power surged outward, forcefully dispersing the weak resistance.
Aura Power firmly established itself within Lugia's body, blocking the invasive force from tampering with the Tokiwa Power.
After a moment, Ash withdrew his hand.
"There's a dark-type power inside Lugia," Ash said gravely. "It's constantly eroding him. That power has already converted his original Psychic typing. Right now, his types are Dark and Flying."
"And it's still spreading."
"If this continues, Lugia's life will be in danger."
Cynthia's eyes widened slightly.
"You figured all of that out in an instant… Is that the effect of combining Aura Power and Tokiwa Power?"
Ash scratched his head, a little embarrassed.
"Aura Power identifies the nature of the invading power. Tokiwa Power examines the body's condition. Once both results overlap, the answer becomes clear."
Once again, Ash had surprised Cynthia, though not in battle.
This time, however, it mattered.
"Do you have a solution?" Cynthia asked, hope flickering in her eyes.
Originally, she had only intended for Ash to watch over Little Lugia while she searched ancient ruins for a cure.
But after witnessing Ash's Tokiwa Power, she dared to hope.
"I can't be sure yet," Ash admitted. "I need to recover my strength first."
Whether it would succeed was one thing, but at the very least, Ash needed to wait until his strength fully recovered.
The damage he had taken in the previous battle was far from minor. Although he appeared fine on the surface, if anyone else had suffered injuries of that magnitude, standing up, let alone remaining conscious, would already be a testament to extraordinary willpower.
Even with his recovery abilities, he would need at least until the next day to fully recover. For safety's sake, any experimental treatment had to wait. Lugia's physical condition was already precarious; if something went wrong during an experiment, the consequences would be disastrous.
"By the way," Misty asked after tomorrow's arrangements were settled, unable to contain her curiosity, "what exactly is going on with this Lugia? And why is he with you, Miss Cynthia?"
Why did Cynthia have a Lugia with her? And more importantly, did the god of the sea even have offspring? They had never heard of such a thing.
Cynthia recalled Lugia into the black-and-gold Poké Ball, then sighed softly.
"The matter involving Lugia can be considered… a coincidence," she said. "But it's also related to Team Rocket."
The three exchanged glances.
Team Rocket was already like a dying ember, barely clinging to existence. Did they really still have the capability to cause something like this?
After everyone sat down, Cynthia explained the entire situation in detail.
The incident began when Cynthia was traveling to Kanto.
While passing through the Orange Islands, she accidentally discovered traces of an evil organization's activities. Investigating in secret, she was shocked to find that the group, Team Galactic, was attempting to capture Lugia, the god of the sea.
They failed to locate the adult Lugia.
But instead, they somehow obtained a juvenile Lugia.
Based on the intelligence Cynthia gathered, this Lugia was very likely the offspring of the current god of the sea. Team Galactic planned to use him as bait to lure out the real Lugia.
Where they got the confidence to attempt such a plan was beyond comprehension.
More unbelievable still was the fact that they had actually succeeded in capturing the child of a god.
Was the offspring of the god of the sea really something that could be taken so easily?
Cynthia followed Team Galactic to one of their bases, and there, she confirmed Lugia's existence.
Whether or not Little Lugia was truly the god of the sea's child remained uncertain. But one thing was beyond doubt: he belonged to the Lugia lineage. Even that alone was enough to provoke the god of the sea into action.
As expected, Cynthia destroyed the base single-handedly and rescued Lugia.
However, by the time she found him, something was already terribly wrong.
Lugia's body had turned completely black. Even after being rescued, he remained in constant pain, his expression filled with suffering.
Cynthia interrogated several high-ranking members of Team Galactic, but none of them understood what had been done to him. They only knew that the procedure was performed by a newly recruited doctor.
As for where that doctor went, when the base was attacked, he happened to be away. With full surveillance access, once he realized what had happened, he fled immediately.
Cynthia waited half a day, but the doctor never returned.
With no other choice, she brought Lugia to the Kanto League and informed both the Kanto and Johto Leagues to take custody of the captured Team Galactic members.
At the League, the best doctors and the most advanced medical equipment were used to treat Lugia.
None of it worked.
They couldn't even ease his symptoms.
They could only watch helplessly as his vitality continued to drain away.
In the end, the League resorted to an emergency solution, a custom Poké Ball.
The Johto League contacted the Steel Master of Azalea Town, requesting a Poké Ball designed specifically to stabilize Lugia's life force and suppress the abnormal Dark-type energy inside him.
The result was effective, but only temporarily.
Lugia's condition stabilized, but it couldn't last forever.
A permanent solution was still needed.
Thus, the Kanto and Johto Leagues entrusted Lugia to Cynthia, the one who had rescued him, while dispatching search teams to the Orange Islands to locate the god of the sea.
If they could find Lugia and explain the situation, there was still hope.
Meanwhile, the identity of the doctor was finally uncovered.
He was not originally a member of Team Galactic.
He was a former member of Team Rocket.
"So Little Lugia's condition was caused by a doctor who defected from Team Rocket?" Ash asked after hearing everything.
That so-called Team Galactic doctor had originated from Team Rocket, and Team Galactic had just happened to obtain Lugia?
The coincidence felt… unsettling.
"By the way," Brock said thoughtfully, "what exactly is Team Galactic? An evil organization in Kanto? I've never heard of them."
"Their base of operations is in the Sinnoh region," Cynthia explained. "They're the most notorious evil organization there. Their leader's identity is still unknown, and their operations are extremely secretive, even the Sinnoh League knows very little about them."
"They're the complete opposite of Team Rocket's high-profile approach."
"However," she continued, "their scale is no smaller than Team Rocket's. Their influence spreads across the world. And with Team Rocket's recent collapse in Kanto, Team Galactic has been absorbing many of their former members."
"They're growing stronger."
The room fell silent.
Ash, Misty, and Brock exchanged uneasy looks.
It seemed that by dismantling Team Rocket, they might have unintentionally helped create something even more dangerous.