Time returned to the present.
Cicada Ninja's words stunned everyone present. Even Zhang Xuan had never seen this gloomy fellow act so humble before a junior.
Strange. Truly strange.
After a brief moment of thought, Zhang Xuan frowned and asked, "What happened?"
After she made her stance clear, Natu withdrew its Psychic Barrier, its gaze remaining fixed on the dazzling sun overhead.
Elder Hua Dongmei and Milotic also looked toward Cicada Ninja, whose aged, gaunt body was trembling slightly, waiting for his answer.
Su Hao neither answered nor asked anything immediately. Instead, he turned his gaze into the distance.
Liao Xingchen was riding Charizard over on the swift wind, hurrying here in a panic.
Before long, Charizard landed.
Liao Xingchen flipped down from its back. Having witnessed Cicada Ninja's loss of composure when he received the message from the Pokémon League during the escort, and having contacted them to confirm the news, he glanced at Cicada Ninja before saying, "I'll explain the situation."
He placed his phone on the coffee table and pulled up a video.
After watching it carefully, Zhang Xuan frowned slightly. "A volcanic eruption?"
Liao Xingchen nodded. "Yes. Not long ago—roughly while you were wrapping up the aftermath of the battle—Mount Fuji, one of the Sakura Nation Alliance's objects of faith, erupted again after a long silence."
"If Mount Fuji had merely erupted, it wouldn't have had such a huge impact. The Sakura Nation Alliance had long prepared numerous contingency plans for this, not to mention the power of Pokémon."
"Isn't that right, Master Cicada Ninja?"
Cicada Ninja's hand, which had been trembling nonstop as though he had Parkinson's, finally stilled. He then sighed and nodded gently, as though he had aged ten years.
"You're right."
As a powerful Trainer whose status in the Sakura Nation Alliance