Only then did Hinata realize how much the man before her had been keeping under wraps.
But that was all. Hinata had never paid much attention to the outside world, so knowing that he was a Conference winner made no difference to her.
It merely made her think he was rather impressive.
Apart from Hinata and Fūgetsu, there were no other Pokémon Rangers here. Now that everyone had gathered, they pooled all the information they currently had.
They rested where they were. After hearing the two Rangers' accounts, Xia You rubbed his chin.
"So, from when this happened last night until now, you haven't found any trace of Celebi, but you've found a lot of ash in the forest?"
"Yes," Fūgetsu said. "It's all ash left behind after trees were burned to nothing in a fire. What puzzles us, though, is that there haven't been any major fires in this forest lately. We really don't know where all that ash came from."
"Given Celebi's abilities, it sounds like it brought the ash along while traveling through time." As someone who owned a Celebi himself, Xia You offered his own expert analysis. "That's the only explanation for where the ash came from. Did you follow it to look for Celebi?"
Hinata and Fūgetsu exchanged a glance.
In the end, Hinata answered, "Since it happened last night, we did find the ash when we arrived this morning and searched accordingly. But there are too many thorns and vines in the forest. They've already changed the terrain, and some places have been completely covered. We had nowhere to start. Besides, Celebi is so small that if it wanted to hide somewhere, finding it wouldn't be easy."
Hinata was right. Celebi could simply hide in any tree hollow. As long as it didn't show