Chapter 485: The Black Dragon Boy

A divine beast, out of curiosity, lured him from Hoenn to Kanto.

Baimu felt rather helpless; these creatures acted with a certain degree of arrogance, but he could somewhat understand—they lacked normal means of communication and many human common senses.

Fine!

Curiosity, huh!

Don't blame me for using special means to peek into your little secrets.

He stared at the Shiny Rayquaza just before him, gathering his own emotions and feelings.

Since the ability to communicate had only ever worked on Latios before, Baimu couldn't be certain if he could succeed—he could only give it his utmost effort.

Remember, the mental connection established with Latios was built upon a faint pity for it, affection drawn from its portrayal in every movie, the wish to save it, and the hope that it might return to Hoenn.

And all these thoughts shared one common thread—

Not a single drop of malice or selfish desire toward Latios, pure and untainted.

If he were to replicate this, he believed he must correct his view of Rayquaza, cleanse and clarify his own intentions.

Why establish a mental connection?

Just as Rayquaza was curious about him, he felt the same emotion—wondering where it lived daily, how much power it possessed, what it did in its routine, and so on…

Then came admiration.

Admiration for Rayquaza's strength and coolness—how could a combination of gray-black and gold be so perfect? Its Super Evolved form in the movies was just too flashy.

Lastly, goodwill.

He didn't dream of capturing Rayquaza, nor did he wish for such a free Pokémon to be confined like Steelix, forced to stay inside a tiny Poké Ball for long periods—being friends was the best choice.

Baimu wanted to build a relatively equal friendship with Rayquaza.

You… willing to be my friend?

Ploosh~

Like a bubble bursting.

Intense emotions rippled through the still pond of his heart; a sixth sense, never triggered before during his communication with Drapion, compelled him to raise his hand.

Familiar golden light appeared in Baimu's palm; as he pressed his palm against Rayquaza's forehead, it flowed steadily into its body, unceasingly, leaving the watching Salamence and Drapion staring at each other in astonishment.

Young Drapion blinked its eyes, instinctively moving closer—only for Big Drapion to swiftly grab it and shove a claw into its mouth, forcibly silencing it.

The younger one struggled, whimpering loudly for a while, then hung its claws dejectedly, like a husky tied to a post.

If Hu Pa were here, it would find this scene familiar.

Exactly the same.

At this moment, Baimu also recognized the scene before him—the consciousness space filled with golden light, not blinding, stripped of all externals, leaving only pure self.

——Truly a 【Divine Heart】!

A special ability that only works on divine beasts? Ridiculous!

Alice possessed the Dragon Heart because she held pure enough love for Dragon-type Pokémon—she could even say, "There are no bad Dragon-type Pokémon."

Then doesn't that mean…

Damn, how much do I actually like divine beasts? It makes no sense—I like many non-divine Pokémon too. Is my love for my own team fake?

Impossible!

Besides, Baimu's ability differs somewhat from Alice's Dragon Heart—she communicates and understands. Mine is direct mental exchange: I understand your thoughts, you understand mine, mutual sharing.

That's why he felt the Divine Heart resembled Telepathy.

Baimu stopped thinking about what he couldn't understand—his immediate priority was establishing mental contact with Rayquaza.

He looked at the Shiny Rayquaza, whose form still loomed immense within the consciousness space; around it swirled a pale green mist, ethereal as cloud smoke, resembling flowing energy.

Come.

Listen to my thoughts. Speak yours.

The words never left his lips—only surfaced within his mind.

His "hand" touched Rayquaza's "forehead" again; their minds linked, their wills and thoughts flowing toward each other, exchanging information with far greater efficiency than language.

They "looked" at each other—emotions too complex for speech passed between them, rising from one, then settling back into the other's heart.

In this exchange,

Baimu learned why the Shiny Rayquaza responded to his call—it didn't even know itself.

It had merely chased a faintly familiar yet utterly alien vibration, accidentally arriving near Hoenn, then accidentally hearing his "voice."

Yes, his prayer had reached directly through the Key Stone into the Shiny Rayquaza's ears, drawing it unconsciously toward him.

The Shiny Rayquaza also remembered him—the strange human it had glimpsed briefly near Kalos; its intense curiosity drove it to abduct Baimu.

It had to abduct him.

It knew Hoenn's skies already had a master—getting too close risked offending it.

So it flew Baimu far out to sea, to the Buried Relic in Kanto, a place it had visited several times long ago—hidden, free of strange odors, perfect for figuring out the reason, and conveniently allowing it to observe closely and satisfy its curiosity.

That's how things had progressed to now.

This creature had no ill intent—its only offense was violating human norms—

Abduction, and such.

On the other hand, Baimu realized that though the Shiny Rayquaza's appearance seemed fierce, it was in truth like a simple child, quietly observing anything it found interesting—unlike Drapion's withdrawn, emotion-driven surveillance, this one, given any chance, would actively join whatever fascinated it.

That's why, back on the plane during his Dragon Heart test, it ignored the danger and trouble of approaching human-made objects, deliberately coming close just to take a look.

When Hu Pa summoned it to face the Legendary Pokémon, it agreed without hesitation, charging forward bravely like a tool dragon.

Though later it was blasted from the sky by their combined attacks, it wasn't angry—in fact, it was delighted to have seen Arceus and Hu Pa, such strange Pokémon.

A truly cheerful young man.

In contrast, Hoenn's Rayquaza had a terrible temper—someone who'd surely speak up about it would be Deoxys Forme One, for instance, being knocked into years of slumber only to be chased down again afterward.

Of course.

Bad temper aside, the Hoenn Rayquaza could still be called enthusiastic; after being saved by Deoxys, it quickly calmed down, and would respond to the Meteor People's requests.

All in all, a straightforward, single-minded hulk of a man.

All Baimu undoubtedly preferred the shiny Rayquaza — who could blame him, valuing his life as he did, unable to afford the deadly game of fighting-then-friending? Besides…

The shiny was just too cool!

One day, riding the shiny Rayquaza across the sky, he was sure he'd be moved to tears.

On the other side, meanwhile.

The shiny Rayquaza "gazed" at the human boy before it; its curiosity about him had not faded with this mind-exchange.

A mind-exchange wasn't full information-sharing — they had only swapped a portion of memories and thoughts, nowhere near understanding everything about each other; otherwise Rayquaza's memories alone would have burst All Baimu's brain.

It was precisely this "retention" that left it not only unsatisfied by the openness, but even more eager to learn everything about the latter.

Why could he summon it? Why did it feel a familiar pulse from him?

Had they met before?

Why had it no memory of it?

As for the other's attempt to befriend it —

Rayquaza, naturally —

would not refuse.

Having received the definition of "friend" from All Baimu, it very much wanted to experience this so-called friendship, and tried to figure out what 【Trust】, 【Honesty】, 【Fondness】, 【Consideration】 meant.

Rayquaza ached to experience things it had never known.

In its long life, only these unknown surprises could make it feel it truly lived in this world — and the beauty of life, the longing for the future.

Mysterious person!

I look forward to you bringing me more delight!

The Rayquaza, now a pleasure-seeker, had its eyes crammed full of All Baimu's figure, as if no room remained for anything else.

The exchange ended.

Both sides got a relatively satisfactory result.

"Haa…"

All Baimu's palm left the other's forehead, his breathing gradually steadying — the mind-exchange had drained more spirit than expected… or perhaps it was because the conversation partner's information load was simply too vast?

No, that wasn't it.

He was probably just sleepy.

He pulled out his phone to check the time — already past eight. At a normal hour he'd probably be either lying in bed scrolling his phone, or already asleep.

All Baimu looked at Hydreigon and Dragapult and the others. Dragapult was fine, but Hydreigon and the sibling Duo of Messia clearly looked a bit worn out — their blinking had quickened, and their expressions showed some fatigue.

However, the big backpack holding most of the travel supplies was on the ship and hadn't been brought over; right now he only had a relatively light bag on him, stuffed with a few Pokéblocks and some things that might be useful for climbing the tower.

So what to do now?

All Baimu looked up at Rayquaza, but the latter gave no indication, only returning an expectant look.

"…"

He took a deep breath and asked, "Would you mind if I called someone else over?"

The shiny Rayquaza's purpose was simple — it just wanted to observe him. But unlike Dragapult, which liked lurking in the shadows to watch, it preferred keeping its subject right under its nose.

Night had fallen deep now. All Baimu planned to leave the rest of the business for tomorrow — he and his Pokémon had to fill their bellies and get some sleep to recover their spirits.

Rayquaza nodded, the motion almost imperceptible.

"Thanks."

He breathed a sigh of relief, pulled out his phone, and contacted Balza to ask Hu Pa for help.

Johto was indeed adjacent to Hoenn, but for humans that distance was still too far; without Hu Pa's rings, he and his Aggron and the others might well have gone hungry and cold today.

After getting in touch with Balza, he also reached out to Miss Xijiana to explain the current situation.

The other side seemed utterly speechless, silent for a long time — especially after hearing that the shiny Rayquaza was particularly interested in him and was reluctant to let him go, the silence stretched even longer.

After a thorough explanation, Miss Xijiana grudgingly accepted the fact that the shiny Rayquaza had become friends with him, but when it came to contacting the latter, she righteously and resolutely chose to refuse.

"I am Dragon God Rayquaza's most loyal fan! I will absolutely not defect!"

"I'm not asking you to defect…"

"Don't say another word! I will forever love my Dragon God Rayquaza! I will forever be the successor it acknowledges!"

"You…"

All Baimu stared at his phone with a splitting headache, feeling that in a different world setting, Miss Xijiana might well have cursed the shiny Rayquaza as a "heretic, evil god" or the like.

After all, who could blame her — Miss Xijiana held a rock-solid faith in the Hoenn Rayquaza.

In the games and the special chapters, setting aside her own intense sense of mission, her reverence and faith toward Rayquaza were in a class of their own in this world — pity that in both versions she never won Rayquaza's favor.

Now this is what they mean by "the simp never dies well."

Fine.

Can't really put it that way, either.

But Miss Xijiana's flat refusal did make things a bit awkward for All Baimu. Though he trusted she wouldn't grow to dislike him over it, the "successor" identity was probably going to be tricky.

Climbed the tower for nothing! Damn!

He felt his vision go dark, nearly holding his breath till he passed out. Luckily, one glance at the shiny Rayquaza reminded him that climbing the tower might have been for the sake of meeting it, and his mood eased considerably.

If he couldn't be the successor, then so be it.

All Baimu helplessly made plans with Miss Xijiana to definitely come back tomorrow, then hung up.

The latter, having traveled for years, was long used to sleeping outdoors in forests, and had the sense to dodge rain — he figured there was nothing else to worry about.

Suddenly.

"Xiaobai… huh? Why is Rayquaza here?"

Hu Pa's voice appeared along with its ring.

It poked out half a small head, curiously looking at All Baimu and the shiny Rayquaza, then glanced around at the surroundings. "Wow! Where on earth are you guys playing? Such a weird place!"

"…Here, this is Rayquaza's home, never mind that. Hu Pa, could you please bring my backpack over?" All Baimu pressed his palms together in pleading.

"Then can Xiaobai treat me to donuts?" Hu Pa sat on the ground and named its price.

But the moment the words fell, a jade-like hand that had suddenly appeared pinched its cheeks.

Mei Mei Yali's voice came through the ring into his ear. "Hu Pa! You already ate donuts today, don't you know that?"

"Did I? Hu Pa doesn't remember… ow ow ow ow ow! Okay okay! Hu Pa remembers now! Jeez!"

Hu Pa aggrievedly covered its cheeks and burrowed straight out of the ring, using this to escape Mei Mei Yali's clutches.

All Baimu laughed. "Looks like there's no way to treat you to donuts. How about a Poké Block?" He held out a rainbow-colored Poké Block.

"Hmph hmph… having this to eat isn't bad either, thanks Xiaobai!" Hu Pa took it and stuffed it into its mouth, then looked at the shiny Rayquaza beside them. "Does Rayquaza want some too?"

Hm?

Hearing this, he immediately looked at the shiny Rayquaza. The latter was staring fixedly at his little bag, looking eager to try.

"You want some?"

All Baimu tentatively took one out and waved it in front of this jet-black dragon.

The shiny Rayquaza chose to open its long maw.

He then tossed five Poké Blocks from his hand into it in a row, so it wouldn't just be a snack between its teeth. After finishing the feeding, he couldn't help thinking, "Sure enough, no matter how domineering a dragon, inside its body it's still pink, pink, pink."