Chapter 326: The League vs. Team Rocket, the Ultimate Showdown! Blame Giovanni for All of It!
"How do I even go about talking to Mammon?"
Back home, freshly showered and changed into her pajamas, Diantha found herself thoroughly at a loss.
Sure, she'd said she'd go personally to speak with Team Rocket's leader — but now that it actually came down to it, she genuinely had no idea how to even approach a conversation with Mammon.
And on top of that, the psychological pressure was genuinely enormous.
What if the conversation went badly, and Team Rocket decided to just declare war on the Kalos League outright? She had no idea whether she could even hold her own against Mammon in that scenario.
No — even if she personally could hold her own against Mammon, none of her people could hold their own against Team Rocket's top-tier executives.
However you looked at it, this whole situation was putting an enormous amount of pressure on Diantha.
"Sigh — well, what's coming is coming, good or bad."
Diantha finally let out a resigned sigh, unable to hold back a small groan.
Her beloved Kalos region had always been so diligent and conscientious, never facing any real disasters or crises — genuinely peaceful, all things considered.
Diantha herself had never harbored any grand ambitions either — she just wanted to be a good actress and a good Champion, quietly waiting for the day some talented successor would surpass her.
Their region had kept such a low profile — so why had Team Rocket set its sights on them anyway?
If Team Rocket had simply never come, their region would've been fine, no problems at all.
"Maybe I should just ask another region's Champion."
Diantha hesitated a moment, checked the time — only seven in the evening, so the other regions' Champions were surely still awake.
She'd never had direct contact information for any of the other regional Champions before — sure, they all shared the same title, but with the regions administratively separate, everyone stayed busy with their own Champion duties or personal pursuits. Basically no cross-region communication to speak of.
But when Hoenn had reached out for help previously, that had at least gotten Diantha a few other regional Champions' contact info from the Chairman.
After thinking it over, Diantha called Steven. It connected before long.
"Hello?"
"Champion Diantha?"
A warm, mellow young man's voice came through.
"It's me. Champion Steven, I take it?"
"That's right. Something on your mind, Champion Diantha? Feel free to speak plainly."
Steven got straight to the point — outside their brief contact during Hoenn's earlier plea for help, the two of them hadn't had any further communication since.
Diantha calling at this hour clearly meant something serious.
"It's like this — today I discovered Team Rocket's leader, Mammon, has shown up in Lumiose City, so..."
"Is that so? Timing-wise, that tracks. Mammon's probably looking to establish Team Rocket's presence in Kalos next."
Steven mused for a moment at that, not especially surprised.
After all, it had already been nearly half a month since Mammon had finished "planting his flag," so to speak, in Sinnoh.
"That's our assumption too — which is why I wanted to ask for your advice, Mr. Steven. How should I handle Mammon?"
Diantha chose her words carefully, using the phrase "ask for your advice."
"There's no need to be so formal, Champion Diantha — though honestly, I don't have much useful advice to offer." Steven's voice carried a complicated, resigned edge as he sighed.
Sure, word had apparently spread across the regions that he had "experience" dealing with Mammon — but where exactly was that experience supposed to have come from? Once in Hoenn, once in Unova — and both times, he'd walked away with nothing to show for it except being blackmailed into two widely-circulated photoshoots.
Which had, as a direct result, produced an absolutely absurd number of people online shipping him with Wallace now.
And the worst part — after that Unova threesome photoshoot got released, apparently there were now people out there shipping him with Alder too.
Goddammit. Ship everything, why don't you. Is there anything you people WON'T ship?
"Mammon's personal strength is fundamentally off the charts, Champion Diantha. My genuine recommendation would be to negotiate with Mammon using a conciliatory approach."
"If you're hoping to use force to drive Mammon and Team Rocket out of Kalos — how to put it — the odds of that succeeding through the Kalos League alone are genuinely not high."
Steven's words were, honestly, already about as diplomatic as he could make them — or rather, he was genuinely being generous toward Diantha and the Kalos League here.
Never mind Kalos alone — even throwing two more regional Leagues into the mix, Steven didn't think the odds would look meaningfully better.
And honestly, if Diantha's call had actually been to ask him to come over and help take Mammon down himself...
Steven really wanted to politely decline. Fight Mammon? Is that even something a person is supposed to be able to do?
"I see. That's actually the same conclusion we reached in our discussions today," Diantha said, understanding.
"That's the wise call. Honestly, if you genuinely wanted to bring Team Rocket down and capture Mammon for real, you'd need to set an absolutely airtight trap, gather every regional League's strongest fighters, prepare for every contingency, and go in fully accepting that you might have to sacrifice an entire region to pull it off — and even then, success is only a maybe."
Steven said seriously, and that was even the best-case scenario.
"That... exaggerated?"
Diantha was stunned at that.
She was seriously starting to suspect Steven was overstating things here.
"It's not exaggerated in the slightest, Champion Diantha. That Mammon guy is a genuine, absolute freak!"
An even more melodic, borderline effeminate young man's voice cut in over the phone.
"Is that Mr. Wallace?" Diantha guessed immediately.
The one and only Master-rank Coordinator, the former Hoenn Champion who'd been personally captured alive by Team Rocket's Caitlin — twice.
Ahem — that "twice" part was also something she'd only learned from Drasna earlier today; otherwise Diantha genuinely wouldn't have known.
"Yes. Sorry for the crude language just now, but that bastard Mammon really is genuinely, unimaginably strong."
"Oh, forgive my language once again — but what I mean to say is, that guy is an absolute monster, pure and simple. Sorry, I just can't help myself whenever that... newbie comes up."
Wallace's speech had grown a little scattered and agitated, but Diantha was starting to piece together the general gist.
What exactly had Mammon done to Wallace, to leave him with this much lingering resentment?
Could it be... Mr. Wallace got romantically pursued by Mammon?
Diantha's curiosity was going through the roof — she'd seen photos of Wallace before, and honestly, his features were more delicate than most girls', so being pursued by a man didn't strike her as all that outlandish.
"Alright, Wallace, take a breather for a second. Anyway, Champion Diantha, the advice I can offer you is genuinely limited," Steven said, gently pushing aside a visibly frothing-at-the-mouth Wallace to address Diantha directly.
Not that Steven was exaggerating anything, really — genuinely eliminating Team Rocket for good would require accepting the possibility of sacrificing an entire region.
After all, there was still the matter of Primal Kyogre's Primordial Sea to consider — sure, Giovanni's Primal Groudon could theoretically go toe-to-toe with it, but even that outcome would purely be a case of dealing heavy damage while suffering just as much yourself.
And besides, in Steven's own view, Team Rocket hadn't yet crossed the line into a threat requiring total, all-out annihilation.
"And I have to point something else out to you, Champion Diantha — while Team Rocket certainly was a genuinely evil dark organization in the past, it's Mammon who leads it now."
"Are you saying Mammon himself isn't actually evil?"
Diantha said, thoughtful.
"That's right — no, not entirely right either. How do I even put this?" Steven paused, considering.
"Mammon does have his own lines he won't cross. He doesn't count as a bad person in the traditional sense — but he's also absolutely not a good person, either."
"His personality's more... unpredictable? I'm not really sure how to describe it. In any case, he's a man who does pretty much whatever he pleases — and in a certain sense, his temperament is... genuinely not bad."
Steven said, sounding resigned.
Diantha found herself thoroughly confused by Steven's description. What does "doesn't count as evil in the traditional sense, but also absolutely isn't a good person" even mean?
"Steven, why are you PRAISING him?! How does that guy Mammon not count as evil?!"
Diantha could hear Wallace's dissatisfied muttering clearly through the phone.
Sounded like Wallace really did hold some genuinely deep resentment toward Mammon.
"Who are you gonna blame for the bad habit you picked up yourself? I've told you plenty of times to head back to Sootopolis City and let Wallace's mentor keep you in line for a while."
Steven rolled his eyes.
"Absolutely not — my teacher would confiscate every single one of my outfits. And besides, if it weren't for Mammon — damn it! How would I have ever discovered this whole new world?! I'm never going to fall in love with another woman again."
Wallace's teeth practically ground themselves down to dust.
"..." Steven had nothing left to say to that.
Diantha felt like she'd just stumbled onto a massive piece of gossip. Her curiosity was absolutely burning now — what exactly had Wallace picked up as a "habit" here?
"Anyway, Champion Diantha, my genuine recommendation is: as long as you approach the conversation with Mammon sincerely and in good faith, he won't overreach. As for Team Rocket setting up here at all..."
"Honestly, you don't need to weigh that too heavily either — Kanto has also given them tacit approval, though from what I hear, the Kanto League is already gearing up for a full-scale 'grand negotiation' with Team Rocket. I'd wait for word out of Kanto before doing anything drastic."
Steven told Diantha, having picked up a bit of the rumor mill himself.
Word was, the Kanto League hadn't reached any kind of compromise with Team Rocket, and apparently was preparing to have a full-on "show of muscle" against them next, to settle once and for all which side would hold the real say.
No question, this was shaping up to be an absolutely massive, world-scale showdown — Kanto's headquarters would almost certainly be mobilizing combat strength from every region to bring against Team Rocket.
This would be unprecedented, arguably the single largest conflict the Pokémon League had ever staged since it began governing the world.
Throwing the League's entire combined strength against a single organization — that was genuinely absurd on its face.
But honestly, Steven suspected even that wouldn't necessarily guarantee victory for the League's side. That was really the most absurd part of it all.
No way around it — the shadow Mammon cast was simply too deep, too far-reaching.
"A grand negotiation?"
Diantha startled at that — this was the first she'd heard of it.
"That's right. Get yourself prepared, Miss Diantha — I imagine Kanto will be calling on us to head over there when the time comes." Steven nodded.
This wasn't exactly a secret he couldn't share, either — Steven trusted Diantha wouldn't leak it, given that she was, after all, the Kalos League's own Champion.
How could a League Champion possibly be one of Team Rocket's own, after all?
And even setting that aside — even if Mammon somehow found out this news, would he actually care all that much?
Based on Steven's own understanding of Mammon, he suspected Mammon genuinely wouldn't take it to heart at all — or, honestly, he might even be pleased to hear it.
After all, if Team Rocket managed to win this all-out, League-wide showdown, then exactly as Mammon himself had once said — he'd have thoroughly, unambiguously ascended above everyone else.
"I understand."
Diantha licked her suddenly-dry lips. Felt like she was about to witness history unfolding... no, wait — she was about to be dragged directly into history, wasn't she?
"Oh, one last question."
"Go ahead."
"I looked into Mammon's background — he's supposedly the eldest son of Kanto's own Viridian Gym Leader, Giovanni. Is that information accurate?"
"That's correct. Mammon really is Gym Leader Giovanni's son."
"Then how did Mammon end up joining Team Rocket in the first place?"
Diantha asked the question that genuinely puzzled her the most — the information she'd found made no mention of an answer to that.
If Mammon had never joined Team Rocket, how much stronger would the League be right now?!
At that, Steven fell into silence on the other end.
"How to put it..."
A distinctly heavy sigh carried through the phone, his tone thick with resigned exasperation.
"It's kind of a complicated story, but as for the reason..."
"Blame Gym Leader Giovanni for all of it!"
(End of chapter)
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