The giant Registeel stood over three meters tall, motionless.
Its hand rose slightly, then slowly fell again. It looked remarkably like a patient relearning how to move after years of paralysis.
"Beep, beep, beep—"
A strange sound came from inside its body. If one listened closely, one could just make out a muffled "Regi."
Baimu stood on higher ground, barely level with the six red dots that seemed to be its face.
"Hello there."
He raised his phone, preparing to make initial contact with the Steel Regi through Porygon2.
But Registeel did not "look" at him. It turned its facial dots toward Aggron instead, their red light flashing counterclockwise.
"Beep, beep, beep, beep!"
"What's it beeping about?"
Baimu looked down at his phone. Porygon2 stared back from the screen, utterly baffled.
"I—I couldn't understand it..."
"Grr..."
Aggron had not understood either. It gave its trainer a troubled look, then tried another low growl.
Registeel's facial dots flashed again, and the beeping of a decrepit robot came from within its body.
"Still couldn't understand it."
Porygon2 was at a complete loss. Never before had it encountered a Pokémon whose speech it could not understand.
Aggron had given up entirely.
It had no idea how to deal with a Pokémon that had no eyes. Facing Registeel felt less like facing a living creature than a streetlamp.
Was there emotion in the beeping?
It could not hear any.
"So everyday conversation is going to be a problem," Baimu said, a little troubled.
Who knew something like this could happen?
He knew Ultra Beasts spoke a language different from the Pokémon of the animated world, but the Regi had trouble communicating with ordinary Pokémon too?
Yet the shrine maiden at Snowpoint Temple in the Diamond and Pearl anime had clearly understood Regigigas...
Well.
She