What a letdown.
Kashiwagi had traveled all that way for nothing. Even though he'd mentally prepared himself for the possibility, finding the wrong one was still a major annoyance.
Now what?
Was he really going to have to go to Kalos to find Hoopa for help?
At this stage, the events of Hoopa and the Clash of Ages probably hadn't even kicked off yet. He'd been keeping a close eye on the news online, and it was likely that even the Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction incident hadn't started.
If the plot hadn't begun, finding Hoopa would be impossible—there wasn't a single trace of the Dahara City or the Arch Valley on the internet. And without knowing where the Valley was, how was he supposed to find the mischief Pokémon?
For now, Kashiwagi could only keep an eye out for Lugia sightings online while resuming his journey across the Hoenn region.
But strictly speaking, this short trip wasn't a total loss. Silver was still in its growth phase, and while it didn't have much else to give, it had plenty of naturally shed feathers.
Seeing that Kashiwagi looked happy picking up one of its feathers, the little Lugia dove back behind the water curtain and brought out a whole pile of them. Even the Great Lugia shook itself, letting two of its own massive feathers flutter down as a gift.
"That's too many! You don't need to—whoa! What's this?"
Kashiwagi hurriedly tried to stop Silver from diving back for more when a crystal-clear, teardrop-shaped gem fell out from the pile of feathers onto the ground.
"A Mystic Water?"
He looked at Silver. The little one peeked at it curiously, but seeing it was just a "rock," it pulled its head back, uninterested.
The Great Lugia clearly knew its value, but it generously nudged Kashiwagi's outstretched hand with its snout, indicating that the item was also a gift for him.
"Then I'll take it. Thank you."
Kashiwagi reached out to stroke the Great Lugia's neck before doing the same for Silver. The parent's skin felt a bit rougher, whereas Silver was incredibly smooth—his hand practically slid right off the feathers.
...
...
After saying goodbye to the Lugia pair, Kashiwagi walked out of the cave. Shelly and the other Team Aqua members had been waiting for a while and waved to him from the shore.
"Did you get the information you wanted?"
"No." Kashiwagi shook his head.
"I see... I'm sorry we couldn't be more help this time," Shelly apologized with a hint of genuine regret.
After all, the main reason they'd dove down here was to help Kashiwagi meet Lugia; asking why they were in Hoenn had been a secondary goal.
Who would have thought they'd run into a completely different set of Lugia?
"You guys have helped plenty. If it's meant to be, I'll find the right one eventually," Kashiwagi smiled at her.
The die had been cast; moping about it wasn't going to make the Orre Lugia magically appear.
...
...
The search for Lugia was put on hold for now.
Back at the research lab in Dewford Town, Kashiwagi brought up the question of whether Porygon2 had a further evolution to Dr. Akihabara.
Hearing this, the Doctor's expression became rather awkward.
"Well... there is... but something went a bit sideways with it."
"What do you mean?"
"It's hard to explain! Anyway, Porygon2 is already an outstanding Pokémon! With it, you definitely won't lose to any trainer."
"I know that, but when you're this vague, Doctor, it makes me nervous."
"Ugh, fine!"
Dr. Akihabara rubbed his hair in a frenzy.
Just as Kashiwagi thought he'd pushed too hard, the Doctor whispered, "I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else!"
"Deal," Kashiwagi nodded.
The Doctor then launched into a bizarre explanation.
"Unit 0 disappeared into cyberspace and vanished!?"
Unit 0 and Unit 1 were the two original Porygon developed by the Doctor—the ones that had appeared in the anime records.
"Yes," Dr. Akihabara nodded gloomily.
"I tried to have Unit 1 look for it, but it couldn't find anything. I was worried Unit 1 would disappear too, so I put the project on hold."
In this world, the birth of Porygon-Z was the result of a strange coincidence.
At the time, discussions about extra-dimensional space were trending in the scientific community. Experts wanted to know if humans could travel to other worlds.
To capitalize on the hype, Dr. Akihabara wrote a program designed to allow Porygon2 to survive in extra-dimensional space.
However, for some reason, every time the Doctor finished a part of the code and went to rest, he'd return to find the progress much further along than where he'd left it.
At first, he thought it was a prank by his assistant or a friend. Since the code seemed fine, he kept going—until one day, he decided to peek.
He discovered the one writing the code was Unit 0 itself!
This discovery left the Doctor shocked, excited, and a little terrified. The power to "create" was usually considered the domain of humans, yet a developed Pokémon was creating its own evolution program.
How could he not be thrilled?
Driven by his scientific curiosity, he pretended not to notice and allowed Unit 0 to continue until the update patch was complete.
It went smoothly at first. Porygon2 changed its form again, and Dr. Akihabara dubbed it Porygon-Z.
But then, Unit 0—the first to evolve—went rogue! It attacked Dr. Akihabara, trashed the lab, and escaped into cyberspace, never to return.
To get it back, the Doctor sent Unit 1 (still a Porygon2), but it couldn't match Unit 0's newfound aggression. After much hesitation, the Doctor modified the patch Unit 0 had helped create and evolved Unit 1 into Porygon-Z as well.
The two Porygon-Z had a massive showdown in cyberspace. Unit 0 eventually fled, and Unit 1 had to be brought back because it couldn't catch up and was starting to become unstable.
It was clear that even with the modifications, the patch Unit 0 had created was flawed.
The Doctor labeled that update file the "Dubious Disc" and locked it away, spending his time since then trying to stabilize Unit 1.
"The vanishing Unit 0... that's a creepy little story," Kashiwagi muttered.
He really couldn't handle these scientists; they were truly mad when they got into the zone, willing to gamble even when they knew things were wrong. And then they couldn't even fix the mess they made...
Fortunately, it didn't seem to have anything to do with him.
Kashiwagi bid farewell to Team Aqua and Dr. Akihabara.
Soon after, he received his first sponsorship payment: 5 million PokéDollars.
According to Shelly, the sponsorship was paid quarterly—once every three months—for one year.
Kashiwagi found the one-year term strange. Was it a lack of confidence in him, or were they being extra considerate? Usually, these things were three-year contracts at minimum.
Who knew.
Either way, he was just happy his Pokémon had their food expenses covered. He finally didn't have to worry about the cost of raising Deino or any other pseudo-legendaries he might get.
Once Deino evolved, Kashiwagi planned to use his saved-up rewards for specific base stats.
Just yesterday, the little guy had reached Level 40 while learning Dragon Rush. He was only 10 levels away from the evolution requirement.
With the help of the simulator, that was only about a month's worth of work.
Though, to be fair, if it were any other pseudo-legendary, it might have already reached its final evolution by now. Deino really lived up to its reputation for having the longest growth cycle.
"You've got to pick up the pace, my little dragon!"
He lifted the fur around Deino's neck, fluffing it up against its cheeks. The Pokémon gave a muffled response.
"Dei-noo!"