Chapter 544: Night Raid on Champion Dawu

"Is there anything we can do?"

Balza spoke the words everyone had expected.

Mei Mei Yali poured three cups of strong coffee and listened quietly and seriously.

After all, this matter was directly tied to their future life; even if they hadn't been born in the Valley of Creation, they couldn't simply turn a deaf ear.

"Well… that depends on the specific arrangement of the operation."

All Baimu indicated that the person in overall charge of the operation was a former superior of his, named "Master Liu Ge."

Whether there was room for them to help specifically would still require asking the other party's opinion… Coming to Kalos in the first place had already earned him a good scolding from Master Liu Ge.

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

Master Liu Ge's voice over the phone was thick with the flavor of "I expected better of you," making one inexplicably guilty.

In any case, he didn't quite dare to provoke that fellow again for the time being.

Hearing this, Balza didn't press the matter either — he still rather subscribed to the principle of leaving professional matters to professionals — and said: "Alright then, but if there's anything we can help with, please don't hesitate to ask!"

Mei Mei Yali nodded along.

"I will… Hm?"

All Baimu turned his head to look for Hu Pa, only to find it sprawled on the sofa fast asleep; he had no idea how much of what he'd just said had actually gotten through.

It was not yet three in the morning in the Kalos region, and the night outside the window was at its thickest.

Going to find Champion Dawu at this hour, apart from surveillance cameras, there was probably no need to worry about other watchful eyes.

And in principle—

All Baimu didn't want Fradali to know he had come to Kalos; this would help catch the other party off guard when he charged into Fradali's lab with Z1 and the Shiny Rayquaza to rescue Z2.

Mm.

If he was going to do it, he was going to do it big; he had previously commissioned the Shiny Rayquaza to help as well, so there was no reason to leave it out at the critical moment.

"I'm not deliberately trying to spy on you sleeping, Champion Dawu-san…"

He muttered in a low voice, unsure who he was even speaking to; after waking Hu Pa, he explained the situation in detail, and seeing it was only half-awake, he deliberately waited a while.

Hu Pa's gold ring had a very fatal "flaw"—

It had to be an object or location that the creature understood in order for the door to open accurately.

Otherwise, it would be like in those little Hoopa shorts — clearly asking for a stone to press dough with, but ending up summoning a Roggenrola instead.

Clearly asking for rain, but its ear-bells misheard it as candy, resulting in a rain of candy.

It was reliable at critical moments, sure, but the occasional little interludes really made one want to tear out all their hair.

Mei Mei Yali had once said with a cold laugh that Hu Pa might be useless at everything else, but opening doors to find doughnuts was absolutely world-class — it had never once made a mistake from childhood onward.

And in the past, whenever All Baimu had asked it for help, he had to break things down piece by piece, explaining over and over, before barely achieving his goal.

The hardships in between were more than an outsider could imagine.

Case in point—

Right now, in order to let Hu Pa open the door accurately, All Baimu had no choice but to answer its curiosity, which could aptly be called "a hundred thousand whys."

"Why do you have to open the door under the bed?"

"Because we need to let Porygon-II go in and check whether there are surveillance cameras. Surveillance cameras, you understand? Things that can take pictures of you, like this…" (pulls out phone)

"Oh~ then why can't you be photographed?"

"If you're photographed, you'll be discovered — it's like hide-and-seek…"

It took an enormous amount of effort.

All Baimu finally resolved Hu Pa's questions; truthfully, he had at one point suspected that Hu Pa actually understood some things but deliberately pretended not to in order to tease him.

Otherwise, why would it claim to understand the moment Mei Mei Yali glared at it?

"Open sesame~"

Hu Pa activated the gold ring on its left horn.

Its previous catchphrases for using the gold ring had always been "Hoopa hoopa" and "Come out, come out"; the last time All Baimu had told it the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, it had added "Open sesame."

Don't laugh — it actually had a nice ring to it.

The gold ring opened, and blue light waves flowed within it.

All Baimu took out his spare phone, turned on the camera, and slowly extended the upper half into the gold ring; the screen suddenly displayed a pitch-black scene.

The environment was safe.

He slowly rotated it in a circle, and from the other side caught sight of some narrow, elongated light, faintly recognizable as…

It really was the view under the bed.

"How is it? How is it?"

Hu Pa squeezed over to look.

He hurriedly shushed it, took out another phone, and said softly: "It's over to you."

The Porygon-II on the screen nodded, transferred over to the spare phone, and reappeared on the other side of the gold ring.

It had two tasks.

One: determine whether there were cameras in the room.

Two: if there were cameras, find a way to tamper with the surveillance footage to a certain extent without alerting the other party's system.

There was no doubt the second task carried a certain degree of danger, so All Baimu told it to do only what it could.

Fortunately—

After Porygon-II's information reconnaissance, there were no surveillance cameras in the room.

But the unfortunate thing was, their covert operation seemed to have been discovered.

A familiar voice came from within the gold ring.

"Friends under the bed, may I ask what you're whispering about down there in the middle of the night… what are you discussing?"

All Baimu and the others instinctively looked at Hu Pa, who covered his mouth and shook his head desperately, adamantly denying that it was his talking that gave them away.

Startled, Porygon-II quickly ducked back into the phone, and a soft exclamation of surprise came from the other side.

Suddenly.

The backup phone's screen lit up brightly.

It turned out Champion Dawu had Metagross lift the entire bed into the air.

"Dawu-san! It's me! All Baimu!" All Baimu hastily called out, not even daring to poke his head out, afraid Metagross's Meteor Mash would blow his head off… even though the odds were slim.

The other side fell silent for a moment upon hearing his voice.

Then.

Dawu, in his pajamas, flashed briefly across the screen, leaving only his chest area visible, "…All Baimu?"

"Yeah, sorry Dawu-san, but I had no choice…"

All Baimu turned his head and quietly asked Hu Pa to open another large gold ring elsewhere in the room; Barza and Mei Mei Yali stepped back together to make room, fulfilling their duty as melon-eating spectators.

The gold ring opened.

He was able to walk into the room from another direction.

From that earlier position, he would have had to stick his head through first and then clamber out with great effort… mainly the posture was too awkward, and his skin wasn't that thick yet.

"Good evening, Dawu-san."

With a flicker before his eyes, All Baimu awkwardly greeted Dawu nearby, who was both annoyed and helpless, "Hear me out with my sophistry… no, my explanation."

"Yes, you should explain properly — from why you've come to Kalos, to what that thing behind you is." Dawu sat on the bed that had been set down.

The Shiny Metagross was on the other side of the bed, and upon seeing him look over, it friendly raised a claw to greet him.

This fellow, like Aggron, has a genuine big-brother personality, likes to take care of the smaller Pokémon, is full of responsibility, and is deeply admired by Manon's Chespin.

"Uh, is it convenient to talk here?"

All Baimu looked around; the room's décor was quite lavish.

Is this the Lysandre Labs?

Dawu, as if he could see through what he was thinking, said bluntly: "It's fine, no one will hear a thing we discuss."

"…"

He gathered his thoughts for a moment.

Although he wasn't entirely sure why Dawu was so confident, the man was, after all, the crown prince of a tech company — when it came to inventions, how could he possibly be any worse than Lysandre Labs?

He just hadn't put them to evil use, that's all.

It took nearly ten-odd minutes before All Baimu finished telling Dawu about his thoughts, Hu Pa's existence, and Master Liu Ge and the others' covert operations.

"So it was you who called the International Police over; they had quietly passed word to me earlier."

Dawu pondered for a few seconds, then said with a nod.

"They passed word to you?" All Baimu was rather surprised, then on second thought, wasn't that perfectly normal?

Master Liu Ge and Dawu had fought together during the liberation of Orre; there was a natural foundation of trust between them, and besides, the latter was a Champion — it was only proper to inform him of their side's actions.

The problem was…

Master Liu Ge hadn't mentioned this move to him.

As All Baimu's mouth twitched, Dawu looked over at Hu Pa, who was curiously poking at this and that like a curious baby nearby.

He suddenly sighed: "Hu Pa… I specifically didn't reply to your messages, and I also asked Miss Xijiana not to go bother you.

"It was so you could focus on preparing the Gorgeous Grand Festival and the League Conference, but you still came, and brought along the key existence for breaking through the current predicament."

Just as previously guessed.

The reason Dawu and Master Liu Ge's side had been slow to act was that they hadn't been able to gather Team Flare's anti-human planning documents.

Even though the partial evidence already collected carried considerable weight, to thoroughly bring down Lysandre and the other top brass, and leave Team Flare with no ability to rise again, those alone were not enough.

Now, at this point.

Everyone involved in the operation was well aware that Team Flare was no mere skin rash of an illness, but a terrorist organization capable of causing major disaster!

If it's a terrorist organization, then one must employ strategies for dealing with a terrorist organization.

They couldn't let Team Flare rebuild again and again like Team Galactic and Team Shadow did, causing turmoil.

"Uh… Dawu-san, I'm not trying to throw cold water on this, but your plan may not be achievable…" All Baimu raised his hand and laid out the prerequisites for Hu Pa to open a door.

Setting aside what form Team Flare's planning document even exists in… paper? Computer data? Just getting Hu Pa to understand the concept of the thing was already a huge ordeal.

And if it were an electronic file, then it must exist on Team Flare's internal network — how to covertly log in and download it was a very important issue.

"I understand, but there's no better way in the short term."

Dawu's gaze was calm as he slowly shook his head.

Team Flare was already fully prepared, and it was extremely difficult for an undercover agent to reach the level of access needed to see the complete planning document.

The only way was to steal it from the computers of the executives or even Lysandre himself.

Fortunately, the planning document didn't need to be submitted to the International Police higher-ups and go through another round of procedures — they could fully prepare the personnel in advance and lie in wait.

As for the problem of Hu Pa opening the door, he believed it could certainly be solved.

"Once the document is in hand, move immediately!"

Dawu said with absolute resolve.

Of course.

This matter needed to be discussed with Master Liu Ge and Miss Xijiana's side, and a detailed action plan had to be drawn up.

An operation against a large organization could absolutely not be like in the original anime, where just a few of them sent their Pokémon charging in blindly.

The situation would only be more complicated.

All Baimu nodded. "Understood."

With the serious matters out of the way.

Champion Dawu's expression quickly softened. "Baimu, although I've always hoped you wouldn't get involved with Team Flare's affairs, but… you really are still the same you."

Back during the Kalos incident.

He had witnessed All Baimu and Pokémon like Metagross charge headlong against the dark Pokémon to protect the people behind them.

That scene still moved him deeply to this day.

The bond between people and Pokémon, the protective hearts of people and Pokémon.

In that single instant, like a gemstone hidden within a rock wall, as the surface sand crumbled away, the incomparable brilliance within burst forth.

Champion Dawu believed he would never forget it for the rest of his life.

What made him even happier was that despite traveling for so long, seeing so many more people and Pokémon, gaining an entirely new identity, and taking in bustling cities and lush fields.

All Baimu still hadn't changed.

That Jin Ziban heart was still beating fervently within his chest.

"Let's end this together."

Champion Dawu extended his hand and said with a smile.

All Baimu froze for a moment, then laughed and grasped the hand of this silver-haired young man before him. "Alright! Dawu-san!"

"What's going on? What are you doing?"

Hu Pa curiously scooted over.

"Nothing. Speaking of which, Hu Pa, you might be in for some special trouble next." He waved his hand and said seriously, "Do you know what an electronic document is?"

"Electronic document? What doodad is that?"

Hu Pa covered her mouth with her right hand and tilted her head in confusion. "Is it some new kind of donut?"

All Baimu twitched the corner of his mouth. "Of course not. An electronic document is…"

Over the next stretch of time.

Until dawn, Hu Pa was receiving a detailed crash course on electronic documents, computers, and the like from All Baimu and the other three; her little head was nearly dizzy from it all.

Champion Dawu also took the opportunity to meet the Balza siblings, and both sides were pleasantly surprised during their self-introductions.

The former thought the latter two came from a reclusive, mysterious tribe, and that the Valley of Creation where they lived must surely contain precious stones that could drive him wild.

The latter, meanwhile, admired Champion Dawu's status.

As well as his many good deeds worthy of a firefighting captain — from going to the Kalos region to help the people there, to coming to the Kalos region to investigate Team Flare.

Where on earth was Champion Dawu the Hoenn Champion? He was practically busier than the World Champion!

The three of them had a most pleasant conversation.

After daybreak.

The group used Hu Pa's power to contact Master Liu Ge. The latter had not joined Team Flare as an undercover agent, but had instead infiltrated Kalos high society to investigate who Flare Leader was connected to.

When they met, Master Liu Ge didn't give All Baimu a friendly look.

After all, a certain someone had been marketed by Shana into something like "the village's hope" back in Kalos, and Master Liu Ge firmly believed he should be preparing for the gorgeous grand festival and the League Conference.

If he missed it, wouldn't that be a complete waste of Shana's marketing budget?!

Get your priorities straight!

Master Liu Ge was truly frustrated by his inability to live up to expectations; even upon learning that All Baimu had brought Hu Pa over as a breakthrough, he still felt he should immediately return to Hoenn.

A certain someone acted as if he hadn't noticed.

After contacting Miss Xijiana's side, Master Liu Ge and Champion Dawu, as the two leads, began discussing the detailed plan. To avoid arousing Flare Leader's suspicion, the two sides couldn't communicate for too long.

All Baimu originally wanted to take part, but thought it over carefully.

Ah!

He still had someone he needed to meet… no, a dragon.

So he asked Hu Pa to send him to a safe spot about a hundred meters from Rayquaza.

However.

There is no safe spot in the ozone layer.

"Long time no see—"

All Baimu's voice, the moment he stepped out of the golden ring, was forcibly choked back by a suffocating turbulence.