Chapter 415: Double Iron Head

【Substitute】.

A technique that uses type energy to construct a fake body, used to block the opponent's moves.

That's how it normally works.

But Dr. Akihabara's version of 【Substitute】 is different — it attempts to add Porygon2's own information data stream on top of type energy, decomposing and injecting it to form a true second avatar rather than a substitute, so it can use moves normally—

"How is any of that normal…"

Baimu was momentarily speechless, and could only say that it was worthy of Dr. Akihabara, the creator of virtual Pokémon, who had once again introduced a groundbreaking technology against the backdrop of an anime full of black-tech.

The doctor said this avatar technique was currently a prototype, unlike Tessellation and Texture, Texture 2 which were finished products. It could only be applied to evolved Porygon2; ordinary Porygon couldn't successfully split their own data, and even if they barely succeeded… they would easily lose various databases.

Porygon2 emitted an emotionless mechanical tone.

The content was genuinely terrifying.

Porygon's database included its memories, moves, subconscious, and so on; if lost, it would easily lead to scary scenes like "Who are you, mister?"

Baimu couldn't help but ask: "Are you sure Porygon2 won't have this problem? Doctor, this message of yours is making me a little nervous."

Theoretically it won't — the doctor had already let the Unit-01 and all Porygon2 successfully use it once.

The Porygon2 in his phone replied: Because Porygon2 can perfectly back up the database within its body, there's no need to worry about data loss after splitting. Part of the reason it can successfully create a second avatar is also because of this important principle.

"Theoretically, huh…"

He muttered softly.

The value of the special Substitute went without saying — it was a bug-tier move that could turn singles into doubles. If this were in a game, Porygon2 would probably be the Pokémon with the highest singles usage rate by far.

Dr. Akihabara really stuffed quite a few bug-tier things into it just to beat Rotom.

A little cheating.

Huh? I'm the one cheating?

Then never mind.

Baimu really couldn't resist the temptation to ask about the special Substitute, and the Porygon2 in his phone was also watching him with bright eyes, clearly recognizing just as well the powerful value this thing held in battle.

"…How long will it take you to master this special Substitute? Or does the hard drive automatically teach it once loaded?"

The latter! But it should take some time to get familiar with it!

Porygon2 still answered in a mechanical tone, but one could faintly hear a hint of excitement.

"Excellent!"

Baimu breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that this thing would require Porygon to figure it out on its own through the contents of the hard drive, because it looked very difficult to learn, and forcing it would definitely mean not learning it in a short time.

Logically speaking, given the way Porygon learns moves, Dr. Akihabara should be able to make Porygon learn all its loaded moves in an instant, but for "more reasonable growth," this person had suppressed Porygon's moves to as low a level as possible.

So that trainers who obtained Porygon could participate in the former's growth.

After all, getting something for free wasn't good for a trainer's growth.

Practice! Let's hurry to the park and practice!

Porygon2 opened the phone's map, marked the nearest park, and urged the trainer to hurry inside.

Having just evolved, it was just like Hydreigon and Milotic — completely unable to sit still.

"No, we're going somewhere else."

Baimu entered an address that made Porygon2 feel like it had seen it somewhere before.

Ah! This is—

"Tetsuya's house."

He got into a taxi on the roadside.

Since Dr. Akihabara's side was settled, he had to hurry to find Tetsuya and learn Double Iron Head, so he could leave New Zi Jin City sooner and head to the next city with a Gym.

Besides, he'd bought so many from the imitation fragrance — couldn't let them go to waste.

But for the current Aggron, 【Double Iron Head】 could only be icing on the cake, not playing as powerful a role as Mega Evolution; it was just that as a rare high-power move, if used properly it could occasionally create miraculous effects.

With the Rock type and the Solid Rock Ability, not learning Double Iron Head felt like a waste no matter how you looked at it.

"Time to show your comprehension! We'll learn it in one night!"

Baimu patted the Poké Ball at his waist and said softly.

No response.

Clearly Aggron had no intention of responding to such unreasonable talk — learn it in one night? Even Hydreigon learning Dragon-type moves couldn't necessarily learn them in one night!

Getting no feedback, Baimu sighed.

Perhaps infected by his personal habits, every single Pokémon at home was exceptionally calm and objective.

Joking words like this naturally couldn't fool them into responding.

Unless he truly believed they could do it — only then would these guys act, and even if the hope was slim, they'd go all out to fight for it. Conversely, if the trainer made joking remarks without hope, they would absolutely not get fired up and blindly charge at a wall.

Even Hydreigon was the same.

It would only agree verbally.

If it were one of Ash's hot-blooded Pokémon, they'd probably try hard together with the trainer regardless of whether it was possible, and then succeed thanks to plot development.

Of course.

Every time Ash learned something, he firmly believed he could learn it smoothly — new moves would naturally be learned successfully, and at worst he'd switch to a similar move.

That was a trainer and Pokémon running toward each other.

Following the address Tetsuya had given him, Baimu found this former Conference Champion's home—

Friendly Shop?

He stared blankly at the blue-roofed building before him. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows plastered with various promotional posters, he could see shelves selling all kinds of Pokémon medicine, items, and merchandise. When his gaze shifted to the counter, he saw a Meowth sitting on the table licking its paw.

Unlike a normal Meowth, it wore a felt hat and boots like a human, looking inexplicably rather dashing.

And the cashier behind it…

"All Baimu!"

Tetsuya inside the counter happily circled around the door and walked out of the shop, Meowth silently following along. "When I got your message this morning, I thought you weren't coming!"

"Meowth?"

Meowth tilted its head up to look at All Baimu, a raspy, smoke-worn voice paired with sharp eyes, as if it found nobody particularly pleasing.

But right now it was thinking—this was the guy who took out its three companions?

Apart from being one of the better-looking humans by face, it wasn't anything special!

Meowth's eyes went wide, certain it must have been because its friends—Sceptile and the others—hadn't fought a real strong opponent in too long and had let their guard down. It had to find a way to win back its pride.

Seeing Meowth staring at him, All Baimu gave it a friendly smile, then awkwardly apologized to Tetsuya. "Something came up on my end, sorry for the last-minute change of plans—really trouble you."

That morning, because of Dr. Akihabara's arrival and the matter of Unit Zero, he had planned to set Tetsuya's side aside for the time being. Who would have thought Dr. Akihabara would leave without a word.

"Don't mention it! I'm already happy enough that you came!"

Tetsuya's face was full of smiles—not a trace of annoyance to be seen, but rather the joy of a friend suddenly dropping by. He waved quickly. "Come in! It's dusty outside!"

All Baimu walked into the shop and was about to take in the interior when a rumbling vibration suddenly rang out beside his ear.

Clatter-clatter—

He turned his head and saw Tetsuya, with Meowth in tow, had pulled all the rolling shutter doors shut.

"Uh, was that necessary?"

"No worries, no worries—there's not much business anyway." Tetsuya waved a hand dismissively, smiling. "Besides, if I leave, there's no one to watch the shop. My sister hasn't gotten out of school yet, and my parents are off on a honeymoon trip. I can't exactly leave a Pokémon to run the store, can I?"

"... I think maybe you could." All Baimu glanced at his phone and quietly pressed his thumb down on Porygon2, who was eager to try its hand at the cashier job on the screen.

Porygon2 very cooperatively made a struggling motion.

Bleep~bleep~

Tetsuya asked, puzzled, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing."

All Baimu replied offhandedly, then suddenly felt his hand brushed twice lightly. He turned his head and saw Meowth with a face full of curiosity.

This guy seemed to have sensed Porygon2's presence.

Seeing this, Tetsuya hurriedly pulled Meowth back. "Don't go touching other people's phones! Ah, sorry, it doesn't usually act like this."

"Meowth."

Meowth curled its lip disdainfully.

This guy... has it been playing the Maneki-neko for so long that its personality has changed?

All Baimu remembered that during the battle with Ash, Meowth had been very aloof—Team Rocket's Meowth would talk to it and get brushed off. He hadn't expected it to be this lively now.

Could it be that it had resolved its grudge with the Big Boss Persian?

That made sense.

It had been over three years now; Blissey had resolved its knot in less than half a year.

Speaking of which, Tetsuya's parents had gone off traveling too... No wonder Tetsuya had stayed in New Zi Jin City instead of going off to challenge the next League—to avoid his school-age sister running wild without anyone to look after her, right?

All Baimu recalled the pair of brothers he'd met in North Orangehua City—that younger brother was the type who, left unsupervised, kept getting into trouble with good intentions.

Passing through the back door of the shop and through Tetsuya's house, a backyard containing a battle field came into view.

Tetsuya stood with hands on hips, proudly saying, "This is where I train my Pokémon every day! Not bad, right?"

"It's pretty decent, yeah."

He surveyed the surroundings, confirming it was open enough that moves would be unlikely to smash into a neighbor's walls or windows.

One major reason ordinary city trainers couldn't train their Pokémon frequently was the venue issue—even though the Pokémon world was vast and sparsely populated, it was impossible to set up too many battle fields in densely populated urban areas.

Therefore, ambitious trainers either lived on the city outskirts with open views and no worries about venues, or spent all day burrowing into parks.

Tetsuya belonged to the former.

There was hardly anyone around where his house was located.

"I'm counting on you! Donphan!"

Tetsuya opened the Poké Ball in his hand, and a short-legged elephant clad in thick black armor landed on the ground.

"Don!"

It looked left and right, and upon spotting All Baimu immediately showed an eager expression. "Don!"

A chance to redeem itself at last!

Tetsuya hurriedly held back the rampaging elephant. "Calm down! It's not a battle! All Baimu and his Pokémon are here to learn a move!"

"Don?"

Donphan shook its long black ears, somewhat puzzled.

Learn a move?

Learn what—

"Aggron..."

Aggron appeared beside All Baimu, lowering its head just enough to meet Meowth and Donphan's gaze. The blue eyes looking down from above seemed to emit a cold light, causing the latter two to shudder inwardly and instinctively step back.

The cold glint in those blue eyes quickly faded.

Because All Baimu had spoken.

"The one who's going to teach you Double-Headbutt is this one! I'm counting on you, Donphan!"

"Aggron!"

Aggron immediately switched to a gentle expression, amiably greeting Donphan and Meowth.

"Meowth..."

Meowth's fur had nearly stood on end, and its sharp claws had even poked out from its fluffy paw pads, but seeing this attitude it quickly retracted its claws and replied in a lukewarm tone.

Donphan, meanwhile, was listening to Tetsuya's explanation, and upon hearing that the other wanted to learn its signature move Double-Edge, its expression turned somewhat complicated.

"Dooon… Dooon!"

It raised its trunk slightly in acknowledgment, but when it glanced at Aggron, wariness still lingered in its eyes — its trunk had already caught the scent called "danger."

This guy is even more ferocious than that super-giant Steelix I fought yesterday!

Only…

It's not a battle, though.

Donphan resignedly curled into a tire and rolled forward with a rumbling rumble.

Aggron froze at the sight of its movements, turned to look at its trainer, and pointed at itself. "Gugou?"

I have to turn into a ball too?

"Uh, is Donphan's Double-Edge performed in this curled-up form?" Baimu sidestepped the giant beast's gaze and looked at Tetsuya.

Tetsuya shook his head awkwardly. "Not exactly… Donphan is thinking about how to teach Aggron — it can't get its brain to turn properly unless it curls into a tire."

"Meow!"

Meow crossed its forepaws over its chest and nodded in approval.

I see, so it even thinks about how to teach — sounds very responsible.

But…

"Just have Donphan demonstrate the move and let Aggron imitate and grasp it on its own."

Baimu pulled out a Mime Herb and suggested to Tetsuya, "Under normal circumstances there's no way to learn Double-Edge — this time the learning will mainly rely on this Mime Herb."

"That's fine by me… but will it really work?"

Tetsuya eyed the colorful leaf skeptically.

"We'll know once we try." He stuffed the Mime Herb into Aggron's mouth — Dr. Kukui's paper described having the Pokémon eat the Mime Herb to produce the effect.

In the games it's mostly used as a held item, but it will definitely disappear in the end.

And Donphan, under Tetsuya's guidance, stopped rolling — hearing it didn't have to figure out how to teach on its own was more than welcome; it had never been the clever, quick-witted type, and trying to teach a move to someone would surely end in a muddled mess.

"Dooon!"

Donphan violently swung up its trunk, an astonishing momentum gathering, then its four hooves pushed off as it lowered its body and charged forward — the brownish-yellow Rock-type energy transformed into a radiant halo wrapping around its body, completely enveloping it into the shape of a giant energy boulder, like a massive energy ball rumbling ahead!

The air currents kicked up along its path kept tugging at the hems of Baimu and Tetsuya's clothes, whistling sharply!

Just the residual shockwaves from its charge already carry this much power…

"Worthy of a Rock-type signature move!"

Baimu nodded in satisfaction — and Donphan is still part Ground-type on top of that, so it hasn't even shown Double-Edge's ultimate power.

Since there was no clear target, Donphan just charged all the way to the edge of the field and stopped.

"Dooon!"

It turned to look at Aggron with an expression that said "your turn," though in its heart it thought there was no way this could be learned that easily.

How could a move like that possibly be picked up so casually?

"Will it work?"

Baimu also looked at Aggron with curiosity.

Aggron savored the strange juice lingering in its mouth, considered for a few seconds, then nodded. "Gugou!"

I'll give it a try!

So.

It stepped into the field, and under Donphan's flat gaze, clenched both claws tight.

"Gugou!"

The air suddenly began to tremble!

A bright brownish-yellow light gradually lit up across Aggron's body!

"Dooon?"

Donphan froze in shock.