Chapter 289: The Prelude to Lugia's Explosive Birth

Although the battle with Brother Brother Qingmu was thoroughly enjoyable, the Hyper Beam from the Dragonite after its Terastallization into the Normal type was a tiny bit too powerful, exceeding Luo Mu's expectations and accidentally blowing a hole in the roof of the Poké Restaurant.

Luo Mu did not need to pay compensation, however, because Brother Brother Qingmu habitually used the Poké Restaurant as a venue for Gym battles, so the venue repair funds allocated by the Paldea League could naturally be applied to fixing the Poké Restaurant as well.

After all, the Paldea League's current mission is to cultivate more excellent new-generation Trainers; if even the costs for venue damage resulting from battles were to fall on the Trainers' shoulders, then what talk could there be of cultivating the new generation?

Geeta saw this point very clearly.

After bidding farewell to Brother Brother Qingmu, Luo Mu rode his Dragonite, which seemed to have opened the door to a new world, traveling day and night to return to the farm.

Time quietly arrived at the second day.

Luo Mu took Victini, who looked at everything with novelty, into Pingdie Town, walked into an electronics store, and all at once ordered more than ten air conditioners, requesting door-to-door installation.

An air conditioner had to be installed in his own room, the living room, and the Pokémon rooms; even though Serperior, Mimikyu, Luxray, and the others usually slept in Luo Mu's own bedroom, it was the same.

If installing outdoor air conditioning units weren't practically insane, Luo Mu would have definitely installed several air conditioners in the pasture area, as Mudsdale, Stantler, Da Nai Guan, and Skiddo would likely suffer uncomfortably from the summer heat.

Indeed, it was still necessary to build a larger room on top of the existing sunshades in the pasture area to provide the pasture Pokémon with a place to rest and take shelter from wind and rain.

Under the beaming smile of the electronics store owner seeing him off, Luo Mu returned to the farm.

Although various unexpected factors prevented Politoed from participating in the double battle during this trip to Unova, it showed no signs of discouragement; instead, after returning to the farm, it trained even harder, striving for a chance to appear in the next opportunity.

At this moment, after informing Luo Mu, the Dragonite flapped its wings, joined the queue of Dragonair and the others, and together they began dancing the mysterious Dragon Dance.

Below, the Dragonite Leader vaguely held something in its arms, looking up with a smiling face at the Dragon Dance of the Dragonair and the others.

It had been nearly three months since the fish fry were released; after feeding them during this period, a visual estimate suggested the fattest fish weighed roughly over half a jin.

To let these fish grow to a fat and delicious state suitable for eating, one would have to wait until the end of this year at the very least.

It was simply a pie falling from the sky!

As soon as they arrived at the farm, Victini flew straight like a streak of smoke into the ice-and-snow hut where Vulpix lived; no one knew why a Mythical Pokémon of the Fire and Psychic types still needed to escape the heat.

"Bo-wu~"

The electronics store owner, having received such a huge order, smiled so broadly that the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears; in this day and age, could there still be such large orders delivered right to one's door?

Unlike the farm's crops, Luo Mu had no way to accelerate the growth of these fish unless he fed them hormones.

Shrugging helplessly, Luo Mu went with the Dragonite to Thunder Lake, where they happened upon Dragonair and the others dancing in the wind mid-air, one pink-and-white figure and two blue-and-white figures standing out remarkably.

Even though Politoed's strength had now been surpassed by Feng Su Gou by a wide margin, Luo Mu believed that one day Politoed would catch up.

Luo Mu did not disturb their daily routine exercise; arriving at the lakeside, his gaze fell on the other side separated by a fine net of vines formed by Serperior, where some shadows in the water were swimming rapidly, appearing full of vitality.

This perseverance of Politoed, and its execution in transforming that perseverance into motivation, was also the reason Luo Mu included it in his second team.

The corners of his mouth rising slightly, Luo Mu turned his back and left Thunder Lake.

Luo Mu walked a few more steps to the other side of Thunder Lake, where a huge rock loomed in and out of sight within the lake water; that was the giant Damp Rock gifted by the leader of the Finneon, containing very rich Water-type energy and having a very significant effect on training Pokémon's Rain Dance move.

As expected, atop the giant Damp Rock, Politoed sat there carefully comprehending, while three Poliwag surrounded it to train.

But Luo Mu would not dare to feed fish raised in that manner to his Pokémon.

Luo Mu knew that the Dragonite Leader was communicating with that illusion it had conjured in its imagination.

In that case, Luo Mu himself would not need to endure the big sun overhead while milking.

In a few more days, they would be heading to the Johto region, so preparations needed to be made; as for the Dragonite's training in the Extreme Speed move, no one knew how long it would continue.

Kanto region, Orange Islands, the area surrounding Asertia Island.

Early morning, two figures visited this place.

One figure was Delibird, an Ice- and Flying-type Pokémon that rarely appeared around the Orange Islands with their southern climate.

The other figure, judging by appearance alone, could not be identified as a Pokémon.

It wore a tattered cloak that enveloped its entire body; beneath the cloak, which fluttered loudly under the influence of the air currents, a layer of bright blue light covered its body.

This indicated that it was using psychic powers to float and fly.

Its name was Mewtwo, the Artificial God, an artificial Legendary Pokémon.

Looking down from high above, the full view of Asertia Island came into view, and a trace of helplessness appeared on Mewtwo's face hidden beneath its hood.

It had not expected that resolving the issue of settling the cloned Pokémon would consume several months of its time.

Originally, it had promised to take Delibird to the Orange Islands after finishing the matter, but due to delays caused by various factors, the travel-loving Delibird had ended up staying by its side for so long.

Whenever Mewtwo thought of that group of Team Rocket members who were as annoying as flies, a feeling of depression welled up in its heart.

It had erased the memories of itself from the minds of all Trainers and Pokémon on New Island at that time, except for Luo Mu and his Pokémon.

However, its power was not yet strong enough to directly modify the memories of the entire Kanto region, after all, it was still growing.

Over this period, Mewtwo, which could now perfectly control its body, felt confident that compared to itself several months ago, it had undergone a world of difference in transformation.

If it were to face Luo Mu's Luxray again, it would not be defeated so easily.

After spending some time shaking off the relentlessly pursuing Team Rocket members and settling the cloned Pokémon in a place where they absolutely could not be found for a while, Mewtwo finally had the leisure to bring Delibird to the Orange Islands.

Because it needed to find the Wise Slowking that Luo Mu had mentioned back then, it directly Teleported to Asertia Island.

"De-li~" (Then I'll be off~)

Seeing the scenery of Asertia Island and thinking that it had finally arrived at the Orange Islands, Delibird waved its wings at Mewtwo, intending to resume the journey it had put on hold for several months.

As for training, Mewtwo had helped it train quite a bit during this period; Delibird felt that if Luo Mu were to see its strength now, he would surely be very surprised!

When Delibird recalled the memory of Mewtwo disguising its appearance and taking it to challenge and overturn all eight Gyms in the Johto region, its heart was filled with a sense of accomplishment.

Since it had long ago made an appointment with Mewtwo and the farewells had already been exchanged, after saying a word to Mewtwo, Delibird flapped its wings, intending to turn around and fly toward a certain small island in the Orange Islands.

According to the data Mewtwo had collected for it, that small island contained a group of pink Pokémon, seemingly altered post-naturally after long-term consumption of a certain fruit on the island; Delibird held great interest in them and intended to go see.

Mewtwo, watching Delibird leave, suddenly froze in expression; an inexplicably bad premonition surged in its heart, not directed at Delibird, nor at itself, but at this planet.

It trusted its intuition very much; although it could not do things like foresee future images, relying on that faint, vague intuition had helped Mewtwo evade quite a few pursuits by Team Rocket.

But this was the first time a situation had arisen that triggered such an intuition in it; Mewtwo fell silent for an instant, its brain thinking rapidly, and finally made a decision.

The three paw pads on Mewtwo's right hand, hidden within the cloak, tightened; vast psychic energy instantly transformed into a somewhat indistinct wave of telekinetic power that spread out, immediately captured the Delibird that was flying away, and directly pulled it back.

"De-li-li??"

The Delibird looked at Mewtwo, its face full of confusion; what was it suddenly wanting to do?

It couldn't be that its trainer addiction had flared up again, insisting on dragging itself to fight through that Victory Cup of the Orange Islands once more.

Mewtwo released its hold on the Delibird, and its telepathy rang out in the Delibird's mind: "I have a bad premonition that something major might happen here during this period; to be on the safe side, you should temporarily stay by my side—it is not too late to start our journey later."

The Delibird, which had nearly fallen for forgetting to flap its wings, froze for a moment, then quickly fluttered its wings to fly before Mewtwo, seeing the serious expression hidden beneath its hood.

Having spent several months together, the Delibird still understood Mewtwo to some extent.

Although Mewtwo usually frowned often, aside from the days spent in the culture tank, Mewtwo had clearly only been active for a year or two, yet it acted just like a little old man.

But Mewtwo displaying such a serious expression was a rare occurrence; what left the deepest impression on the Delibird was probably that time it was nearly surrounded by the leader of Team Rocket and his executive subordinates.

At that time, its wings had already dug into its tail feathers, intending to pull out the slippers it had swiped from Luo Mu to summon him.

What kind of major event could occur here that would make even Mewtwo display such a serious expression?

"De-li-li?" ("Should we call Luo Mu over?")

The Delibird looked worriedly at Mewtwo, ready to take out its treasured relic slippers the moment Mewtwo nodded.

"Not for now; let us first investigate this place and see if we can gather any clues."

Mewtwo shook its head, closed its eyes, and its spiritual power surged out rapidly, covering the entire Asertia Island in the blink of an eye.

Soon, Mewtwo opened its eyes, which shimmered with a faint light.

"Found it."

As soon as the words fell, the psychic energy surrounding Mewtwo surged violently once again, and space began to distort.

In the next instant, the figures of Mewtwo and the Delibird vanished from the high sky and appeared at the edge of Asertia Island, inside a cave built within a sheer cliff.

Inside the Orange Academy, in the Chairman's office.

Having received Geeta's message, Luo Mu took the elevator from his own Director's office to the highest floor of the academy building.

Standing by the window, Geeta looked out at the playground; the figures of the students, full of youthful vitality, brought a smile to her face.

She believed that these children would surely make the Paldea League, no, make the entire Paldea region even more prosperous and thriving in the future.

Geeta said with half a sigh: "After the end of the month comes summer break; wait another month, and the students we see will be wearing the Grape Academy uniforms."

Luo Mu drank Geeta's good tea, whose value was unknown but surely had several zeros in its price tag, with a speechless expression.

He really could not understand why the academy had to go to such great lengths to change its appearance every half year; changing to something new was one thing, but why did it always have to switch between Orange and Grape?

Could it not be Watermelon Academy?

Geeta, unaware of what nonsensical thoughts Luo Mu was having, turned her head and asked: "Do your four key students have any arrangements for the summer break?"

"Their talents as trainers are quite good; especially that child named Hearing Hearing Nimo, her talent might be no less than yours."

"Although summer break is a holiday for children to play happily and does not require any heavy homework assignments, I still hope you can have them maintain their training status."

"Chairman, you are overthinking it."

Luo Mu put down his teacup and smiled slightly.

"If we speak only of enthusiasm for being a trainer, that child Hearing Hearing Nimo has long surpassed me."

"This summer break, she plans to leave the Paldea region to travel to other regions to temper herself; classmate Arven said she also wants to travel together with Hearing Hearing Nimo."

"Oh?"

Geeta raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.

Luo Mu continued: "As for Penny, Chairman, you should know that her parents are conducting research in the Paldea Great Crater."

Geeta recalled for a moment: "That would be Professor Sada and Professor Turo, correct?"

Luo Mu nodded slightly: "Her ideal is to enter the Great Crater to help her parents, not as a researcher, but as a trainer, so this time I have arranged for Penny to join Hearing Hearing Nimo and Arven's group, letting the three of them travel together so they can look out for one another."

Geeta asked: "Have you specifically decided which region?"

Luo Mu snapped his fingers: "The Galar region; there, Pokémon battles are revered even more than at the Indigo Academy in the Unova region; there, they will gain more growth, and furthermore, that place counts as one of the safer areas among all the regions, with that Champion Dan Di active there."

Geeta could not help but nod in agreement; compared to other regions where evil organizations appear, the Galar region, under the activities of that undefeated Champion Dan Di, indeed counted as a relatively safe travel region.

As long as they paid careful attention to those Dynamax Pokémon, it would surely become a wonderful journey.

"Then what are the arrangements for classmate Eri? Her hometown is in the Galar region, correct?"

Geeta's question made Luo Mu's proud expression pause; recalling Eri's decisive answer, Luo Mu's face showed a strange expression.

"Uh, as for Eri, she said she wants to stay cooped up in the academy dorms to catch up on the movies and anime she didn't have time to watch after last month's hellish training, and also seems intent on clearing several single-player games."

After a moment of silence, Geeta said slowly: "... Let her be."

Luo Mu also nodded, and for a time, the air was filled with an atmosphere of silence.

Just as Luo Mu was thinking about whether Peony, who had been blocked by Eri, would call him, Geeta handed him another document.

"These are the students scheduled to enroll after summer break; please confirm them and see if there are any promising talents you feel are worth noting."

Luo Mu reached out and took the document, beginning to flip through it.

When he flipped to the last page, his movements paused, and a hint of surprise appeared on his expression.

In the column for student names, the two large characters "Paul" were clearly written.

(End of Chapter)