The Future-Seeing Xatu

It was now 3:13.

There were a little over two hours left until the 5:30 return trip.

Heiduo looked up at the towering Mt. Silver. Generally speaking, he needed to prepare to head down at 5:30, because by six, all of Mt. Silver would grow dim.

Night would fall.

At night, Mt. Silver was troublesome for two reasons. First, the mountain paths became dark and difficult to make out, making it easy to lose one's footing and fall. Second, Ghost-type and Dark-type Pokémon became exceptionally active, and neither had any sense of territory. The former especially wandered everywhere, teasing other Pokémon and feeding on their negative emotions.

Heiduo had dealt with those creatures more than once. They were often extremely troublesome, skilled at using Hypnosis and status-inducing moves. When they wanted to flee, they simply hid in the darkness and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye.

Eventually, even Umbreon had become enraged and learned [Mean Look], pinning them in place so they could not escape.

In short, Mt. Silver at night was incredibly troublesome. Unless absolutely necessary, Heiduo had no desire to explore it after dark.

"Keep moving forward."

Heiduo nodded to Scizor. To be safe, he had two Pokémon follow behind him, sometimes three. That made it much easier to adapt whether advancing, retreating, or facing large groups of wild Pokémon.

Today, Scizor and Beedrill were on duty.

They slowly continued upward.

The hot spring capable of healing Red's old injuries was located at the summit of Mt. Silver, and Heiduo was still more than halfway away from it.

If Heiduo, like Red, had been aiming directly for the hot spring at the peak, he could have pushed all the way to the top by now. But the hot spring was not his ultimate purpose