Chapter 467: The Peng of the Kun-Peng?

Looking for kin to save it.

All Baimu was caught off guard and couldn't quite process it for a moment.

It was only when his peripheral vision caught the silver feather held in Chansey's hand that he understood—Lugia had sensed those silver feathers from the mother-and-child pair of its own kind, which was why it had specifically asked him about the whereabouts of other Lugia.

But could other Lugia help it? Purge the dark surgery?

"This Hu Pa can help!"

The little Hu Pa, ever public-spirited, eagerly raised its hand and shouted, looking just like a kindergartner enthusiastically answering the teacher's call, and without further ado began manipulating its golden rings.

Yet Lugia didn't so much as glance at it, still staring at All Baimu and spraying a puff of mist from who-knows-where, hoping he would hurry up and tell it where its kin were.

This fellow seemed not to have grasped that Hu Pa was the one who could actually find its kin.

Fair enough.

Unless someone was told in detail and saw it with their own eyes, who would believe there was a Pokémon under heaven that could open holes to anywhere in the world at will, and could even pinpoint a person as long as it had specific conditions?

Simply unreasonable.

"Hu Pa, hold on a moment."

All Baimu reached out as well, stopping the little Hu Pa's idea of summoning another Lugia over.

Given the strange scene at hand, bringing out another Lugia would neither solve the problem nor do anything but add to the chaos, and explaining things would just be a waste of effort—let alone if some unpleasant little misunderstanding arose…

Although with Hu Pa around there was no need to worry too much about safety, getting blasted twice for no reason was hardly an entertaining prospect.

Besides, the one who tied the bell must untie it—the sins humans created should be solved by humans; only by dispelling the resentment in Lugia's heart could they strive for the chance of it returning to Ohra someday.

In the game, purifying Shadow Lugia could only be done through the Purification Chamber, but Purify Spray as a new-generation product might just be even stronger than six doses—why seek far and wide when the answer was close at hand?

"You see…"

He organized his words, explained the existence of Purify Spray to Lugia, then hurriedly found the still-awake Gaoshan, obtained the test video of Purify Spray purifying Shadow Pokémon, and played it for the latter.

Who would have thought Lugia would simply scoff at it, spraying out a puff of mist to reject his proposal about using Purify Spray.

Porygon2 translated: 'It still wants to know where its kin are.'

Why?

All Baimu wiped the water off his face, completely baffled.

Considering Lugia had been tormented by darkification for so long, seeing this thing should have made it pretty happy—why was it not only unhappy but also visibly resistant?

Thinking it over, it could only be that something happened during the process of purifying Lugia involving the Dragon Tamer and Professor Muuyin, causing it to develop a psychological resistance.

"Purify Spray is amazing, Hu Pa wants one too!"

Hu Pa's words startled All Baimu out of his thoughts, but thankfully this time it didn't casually use its rings to grab one—perhaps it knew this thing had an owner.

"This stuff only works on Shadow Pokémon, and there might only be one Shadow Pokémon under heaven—Lugia. It'd be useless to you." He persuaded Hu Pa a couple of times, then turned to try persuading Lugia again.

The response he got was still a mist-like puff of water, with no sign of where it came from—just a "poof—" sound.

Wanting what it shouldn't, not wanting what it should.

Headache.

And yet this fellow's design elements clearly lean more toward the 【Peng】 side of 【Kun-Peng】, yet its behavior is closer to Kun… or maybe more like an alpaca?

Then again, telling it where the mother-and-child Lugia were—

This fellow would immediately fly off, wouldn't it?

Truly frustrating.

All Baimu really wanted to help Lugia, but he was also well aware that this fellow simply didn't trust him… or rather, humans—yet still tried to get the whereabouts of its kin from him.

Would finding its kin solve the problem?

Lugia was equally frustrated; it had long since lost all faith in humans and only wanted to stay as far away as possible. If it hadn't truly been unable to bear the torment of darkification, and couldn't find an effective solution, why would it ever have come to All Baimu…

Honestly, the Lugia that was constantly on guard against humans had fantasized that the other party's long silence might mean that fellow of its kind had also been captured, and that sneaking over carried the risk of being caught again.

But at this point, it truly had nowhere left to turn.

The Lugia, which had practically become a walking bundle of contradictions, felt utterly exhausted in body and mind, wishing it could find a deep-sea trench and sink into silence forever, never to rise again—but the darkification that struck from time to time wouldn't let it off that easily.

How it longed to sleep peacefully.

"Hu Pa, I'm going to have to trouble you again."

All Baimu had no choice but to ask Hu Pa again, having it open a passage to Professor Muuyin's front door.

Because he wasn't familiar with this person, he couldn't just barge into the man's bedroom and drag him out of bed; besides, the man had a wife, and rushing in uninvited would be terribly rude.

A little extra trouble, then.

"You… you wait a moment."

He said softly to Lugia, hesitated, then sent out Nurse Chansey to help try persuading it, and only then stepped into the passage.

Hu Pa naturally followed along.

Outside the passage.

A crescent-white research institute came into view, with lights still on inside.

"Is this Ohra?" it asked, looking around curiously, and seeing the lush green trees all around, couldn't help saying: "But there are so many trees here—didn't Little White say Ohra is a desert?"

"Because this is the northwest, which only takes up about a fifth of the Ohra region—maybe even less."

All Baimu pointed at the shadowy outline of Gaoshan to the east. "See that bald volcano? Most of the Ohra region is as bare as that."

Hu Pa squinted to look, and wanted to ask more, but turned its head to see All Baimu press the doorbell of the research institute.

Buzz—

In the quiet night sky, the doorbell sounded slightly jarring.

Hu Pa waited two seconds, then couldn't help saying: "Let's just go straight in."

"I rang the doorbell not because I can't get in, but to let them know someone's here." He replied quietly.

Then came a creak, and the iron gate swung inward.

At the far end, a small door opened, and a man in a white coat leaned halfway out, bleary-eyed and adjusting his glasses.

"... And you are?"

"I'm here on the recommendation of Sharen from Iron Town. I have an urgent matter for Dr. Mukami." All Baimu knew the other man might not recognize him, but would certainly know Sharen, so he borrowed his name.

Hearing that, the man indeed opened the door fully and said, "Oh, I see. Then I'll go call the doctor. Please come in and have a seat."

All Baimu stepped inside, looked around, and felt it was no different from an ordinary office, so he found an empty spot on the sofa piled with documents and sat down.

Mischievous Hu Pa flipped through this and that, and finding he couldn't understand any of it, drew circles with his fingers at the corners of his head like Ikkyu, as if thinking hard about something, then suddenly said, "Are there donuts here?"

"Most likely not."

"Hu Pa wants donuts~"

"Bear with it. Once things are done, I'll take you to buy some."

"Really?" Hu Pa's eyes lit up slightly, then said dejectedly, "Mei Mei Yali won't agree. She only lets me eat five donuts a day. I've already finished mine today."

All Baimu: "..."

Do phantom beasts not get fat, not get diabetes?

"We'll sneak off and buy some then." He said comfortingly, then pulled a Poké Block from his pocket and handed it over. "Eat this to hold you over for now."

Poké Blocks are far healthier than donuts loaded with oil and sugar.

But Hu Pa had worked so hard for him without complaint — one donut, a hundred donuts, wouldn't even come close to repaying it.

"Wooo..."

Hu Pa covered his cheeks as he chewed the Poké Block. "This one's not bad."

While they were talking—

Dr. Mukami arrived, hair a mess, hurrying along.

"It's you! All Baimu-kun! You're back in the Orei region?" He was startled when he saw All Baimu and Hu Pa. They weren't close, but they'd met once back in Iron Town, and Sharen had deliberately spread the word — it would've been impossible not to know him.

As for Hu Pa... there were more Pokémon in the world than he'd ever seen, so it was nothing strange.

"Dr. Mukami, I ran into Lugia."

All Baimu paused, then asked bluntly, "But it still goes Dark periodically. Why? Didn't you and Ryujin fully purify it back then?"

Dr. Mukami didn't answer right away. Instead, his brow furrowed as if confirming, and he asked, "You're saying Lugia still goes Dark now?"

"Yes, I saw it with my own eyes."

"... The thing I worried about most really did happen." He sighed, took a cup of coffee from his assistant, and sipped it slowly to wake himself up.

Having been woken up in the middle of the night, he needed to gather his wits first.

All Baimu had one too, but he wasn't interested, so he simply gave it to the curious-faced Hu Pa.

Hu Pa took a small sip, and immediately stuck out his tongue at the bitterness.

"Hu Pa hates this stuff."

"Add MooMoo Milk and sugar and you'll like it." All Baimu reminded him gently. When he looked back at Dr. Mukami, the latter was already fully awake.

He recalled, "Back then Ryujin and I worked together with all our strength, and only barely managed to restrain Dark Lugia inside the Purification Chamber. But the dark power on it was more stubborn than I'd imagined... I think this was my fault."

"Your fault?" All Baimu didn't understand.

Dr. Mukami nodded and said, "Back then, before I'd even finished building the Purification Chamber, the Shadow Team found out about it and kidnapped me. The head of the Dark Modification Department at the time, Elina, got a lot of information about purification from me, and improved Dark Lugia's resistance to purification, trying to create the ultimate Dark Pokémon..."

Hearing him say that, All Baimu instantly recalled the storyline of Round Arena 2 — he remembered that Ryujin and the Shadow Team's falling-out began precisely with his father's kidnapping.

It seemed the former Dr. Mukami had failed to keep his mouth shut.

Understandable — not everyone can withstand a villain's death threat, let alone the possibility that they might have truth serum or something.

The pitiful thing was that Lugia had been patched with a Dark modification because of it...

How tragic.

But in the game, the Purification Chamber clearly had results in fully purifying Lugia — so why did flaws appear after the worldview shifted?

All Baimu couldn't figure it out, just as he couldn't figure out why the Shadow Team could rise from the ashes three times.

Dr. Mukami continued, "Later, inside the Purification Chamber, Lugia went Dark over a dozen times repeatedly. Each time it was purified, the interval before the next Dark episode grew longer. The last time, Lugia went two whole months without going Dark, and we all thought we'd succeeded."

He sighed, "Lugia had also had enough of being trapped in that cramped place. At my daughter Mana's suggestion, we chose to set Lugia free — never expecting that we hadn't completely cured its Dark episodes."

Precisely because it hadn't been cured, the frequent Dark episodes caused Lugia's trust in humans to drop lower and lower, until it could no longer trust human technology.

No wonder Lugia didn't care at all when it heard Dr. Mukami's name.

It's like a patient hearing someone brag about how amazing a doctor is — a doctor who tormented them for a long time without ever curing them. They won't slander the doctor, but they won't place their trust in them again either.

"What about now? Do you have a solution now?" All Baimu pressed. "For example, that Purification Spray — would it work on Lugia?"

"... Hard to say."

Dr. Mukami shook his head. "The advantage of Purification Spray is convenience and speed — no need to put each Dark Pokémon into the Purification Chamber one by one. But in terms of purification effect, it hasn't been enhanced much."

"Then what should we do?"

"The only option is for Lugia to return to the Purification Chamber, so I can do further research tailored to its condition... It looks like that's not going to work." Dr. Mukami saw All Baimu's trembling lips, and wasn't too surprised.

Pokémon aren't human playthings — they have their own feelings, and their trust in humans has limits too.

Even Dr. Mukami, arguably the foremost researcher of Dark modification technology, couldn't truly comprehend the suffering the Dark Pokémon endured — it can't be put into words.

He could only try to empathize, but couldn't feel it himself.

Everyone wanted to help the tormented Lugia — whether out of some selfish motive or to atone for the humans who'd hurt it. But when Lugia itself refused to accept human help, they had only two choices—

One: force treatment in the name of its own good.

Two: respect its wishes and give up treatment.

Without question, Dr. Mukami and All Baimu could only choose the latter.

Because they saw Lugia as an independent being, not a puppet to be moved about at will. But having to sit by and watch it suffer the torment of Dark episodes out of respect for it — that was itself a torment for both of them.

"Could you give me a bottle of Purification Spray to try first?" All Baimu asked.

"Of course."

Dr. Muyin nodded, then said after a few seconds: "If it's possible, could you give me a chance to meet it? I know it may not be willing to see me, but perhaps I can think of a way."

All Baimu had no objection, he just had to give Lugia a heads-up in advance.

Shortly after.

Through the tool-person Little Hu Pa's ring, he returned first to the overseas island. Lugia was still lying by the mountain stream, while Chansey tilted its head and began to sing, like a lullaby.

"Mmm…"

Lugia slightly opened its eyes and exhaled a puff of white mist. It was no longer in a hurry — after enduring all those years, would it really mind waiting just a little longer?

"I've brought the Purify Spray, and Dr. Muyin wants to see you for a moment. What do you say…"

All Baimu asked softly.

Logically speaking, Dr. Muyin bore no grudge against Lugia and even owed it a debt of gratitude, so there was absolutely no need to explain in advance. But the trouble was that Lugia had now entered a state of total hostility, its target of hatred expanding directly from Team Shadow to humanity as a whole.

If it suddenly saw him, it might well lose its temper on the spot.

Fortunately, although Chansey had failed to persuade it, it had at least calmed its heart completely, temporarily entering a peaceful sage-like state — neither agreeing nor refusing.

It was under these circumstances that Dr. Muyin, with a dazed expression, once again saw the Pokémon he had parted from years ago.

"Lugia…"

He murmured softly.