Energy

Infinity Energy

"Koujie?"

Gastly circled the Mega Stone in Jing He's hand, curiosity written all over its face.

A Mega Stone?

What was that? "If I remember correctly, this should be your Mega Stone too."

Jing He rubbed the orb in his hand and murmured softly.

"Koujie?"

Mine?

Gastly froze for a moment.

So what exactly was this thing? "A Mega Stone."

Seeing Gastly's baffled expression, Jing He smiled faintly and gave a simple explanation.

As everyone knew, aside from a small number of Pokémon, most Pokémon had one or two stages of evolution.

Take Gastly, for example. Its first evolution was Haunter, and its second evolution turned it into Gengar.

Gengar was its final evolved form.

After that, no matter how much its strength or level increased, Gengar's appearance would not change much.

But if it possessed the matching "Gengar Mega Stone," along with a "Key Stone" capable of unlocking the Mega Stone's power, and if Gengar and its trainer shared a sufficiently close bond, it could undergo "Mega Evolution" and become Mega Gengar!

That was what Mega Stones were for.

"Ko, Koujie..."

Mega Gengar?

Gastly secretly swallowed, its eyes shining.

Just the name alone sounded awesome, didn't it? It was super! "The premise is that you have to evolve into Gengar first." Jing He poured cold water over the daydreaming Gastly.

"Koujie!"

Yet Gastly did not seem affected in the slightest. It nodded with a solemn, earnest expression.

Looks like it needed to train hard!

Jing He smiled at the sight. He had not expected this Mega Stone to serve as such effective motivation.

During normal training, Gastly could not exactly be called inattentive, but Pokémon like Gastly were mischievous and sly by nature. Whenever Jing He stopped watching, it would find ways to slack off and loaf around. Jing He had never found a good solution for that.

Now, with the Mega Stone and the temptation of Mega Gengar, Gastly might train more seriously.

However, compared with Gastly's simple fantasies about the future, Jing He had far more on his mind.

Why had the Mega Stone ended up in Dr. Solanus's hands, and why did Greater Mauville Holdings want it?

First, there were two theories regarding the origin of Mega Stones.

The first was that certain special stones, such as Evolution Stones like Fire Stones and Water Stones, had been irradiated by the energy of Xerneas and Yveltal released by the Ultimate Weapon around three thousand years ago. That was why so many Mega Stones were scattered across the Kalos Region.

The second theory was that over a thousand years ago, an unprecedentedly massive meteorite struck the Hoenn Region, creating what was now Sootopolis City. At the meteorite's core was a gigantic Key Stone, while the Mega Stones and Key Stones scattered throughout Hoenn were fragments of that meteorite.

Therefore, finding a Mega Stone in the Hoenn Region was not particularly difficult to accept.

But the question was—

Why would Greater Mauville Holdings, as an energy company, be searching for Mega Stones? And how had they learned that Dr. Solanus possessed one?

Unless he figured out those two points, even if Jing He managed to fool Da Hui for now, as long as he held Gengar's Mega Stone, they would most likely come looking for him again.

"Wait."

Jing He brought over his computer.

He began searching through the histories of Devon Corporation and Greater Mauville Holdings.

Before long, relying on his understanding of the Pokémon World, he found the key—Infinity Energy!

It could also be called "living energy." It had been proposed by the grandfather of Devon Corporation's current president, inspired by the Ultimate Weapon from three thousand years ago, and had only been successfully developed after generations of refinement.

Devon Corporation, a manufacturing conglomerate, had developed technology capable of converting Life Energy into "Infinity Energy." Combined with certain underlying issues within the energy company Greater Mauville Holdings, this had ultimately led to Greater Mauville Holdings going bankrupt.

At the same time, this energy had helped Devon Corporation become the giant it was today, powerful enough to rival Silph Co. of the Kanto Region.

And based on the origins of Mega Stones, they too had originated from the Ultimate Weapon. Theoretically, their energy was also a form of "living energy," or rather, "Infinity Energy." So naturally, Greater Mauville Holdings' people were pursuing Mega Stones for Infinity Energy.

Following that line of reasoning, many questions suddenly seemed to have answers.

After reading through the information, Jing He sat in his chair with his chin resting on his hand, deep in thought.

Now that he understood this much, he had indeed thought of several ways to eliminate the trouble completely, but they would require careful planning.

Still, having just dealt with Da Hui, Greater Mauville Holdings' group of "remnants" probably would not come after him again anytime soon.

That allowed him to breathe easy for the moment.

"Gastly, let's continue practicing Hypnosis," Jing He called.

"Koujie—"

To his surprise, Gastly's voice came from the kitchen.

Accompanied by the smell of gas, Gastly floated over to him, noticeably fatter than before, wearing an awkward grin.

Three seconds. It had only gone over by three seconds! Human and Pokémon stared at each other for several seconds.

"Burp—"

Jing He: "..."

The next day.

Jing He put on a relatively formal outfit and left home with Gastly.

He had a Pokémon Psychology class to teach that day.

The autumn temperature in Canalave City was still quite pleasant. A rainstorm yesterday had caused the previously sweltering heat to plummet, so even dressed in a shirt, vest, and slim-fitting suit, he did not feel hot.

Since his class was in the second period, he rested in the consultation room with Gastly first—Jing He made coffee and organized his lesson plans while Gastly watched videos.

Gastly had recently been watching videos on Jing He's computer quite often. To be fair, it really had learned a thing or two from them.

Only when the bell marking the end of first period rang did he take Gastly to the classroom.

Pokémon Psychology was a relatively unpopular elective. The fact that Canalave Pokémon Academy had been open for so many days and this was Jing He's first day teaching it made that clear enough. Therefore, he did not need a large lecture hall; his classroom was a small, secluded room on the second floor.

However, when Jing He reached the stairs on the first floor of the teaching building, he encountered a tall female teacher with long black hair coming toward him.

"Teacher Jing He, heading to class?" The woman wore a light-blue dress and looked very gentle, though her smile carried a trace of distance.

"Yes. I didn't expect Teacher A Quan to remember me."

"You're joking, Teacher Jing He. We weren't seated far apart at the last faculty meeting. Go teach your class first. We can chat another time when we have the chance."

"Alright."

The instant Jing He and A Quan passed each other, a chilling cold ran up his spine.

A Quan... Team Aqua's A Quan! One of Team Aqua's three top executives!

If he had not run into her today, Jing He truly would not have remembered that among the hundreds of teachers at Canalave Pokémon Academy, there was someone like her!

Jing He took a deep breath and continued upstairs without changing his pace. Team Aqua was still lying low, and Steven Stone had not yet become Champion. There should still be quite some time before the Land-Sea Conflict sparked by Team Aqua and Team Magma. At the academy, A Quan was merely an "ordinary" instructor of Oceanic Airflow Studies. As long as he did not provoke her, there would be no problem.

He could not even be sure whether A Quan had already become one of Team Aqua's executives at this point.

On the surface, they were both merely insignificant teachers of ordinary subjects at this prestigious Pokémon academy. Such positions might be excellent in the eyes of many ordinary people, but to powerful trainers, they seemed somewhat insignificant.

Distance in her smile... Distance was good. The farther away, the better. Ideally, they would never have to meet again.

"Koujie."

Gastly poked its head out from behind Jing He's clothes and narrowed its eyes at A Quan's retreating back.

Who was she looking down on? It licked its lips.

Thanks to Jiuhu 1, Dino, Reader 2021030110209418, My Usual Heart, Ice Snow Frost 12, and many other generous supporters for their gifts!

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