"Y-you're just going to let me leave?"
Seeing that Lu Chen did not look as though he was joking, the gigantic Dragonite spoke earnestly.
"Thank you so much for the information, and thank you for sparing my life."
By now, the gigantic Dragonite's injuries had already healed considerably.
Gigantic Pokémon recovered far faster than ordinary Pokémon. Those horrifying wounds had stopped bleeding, and the tears in its wings had begun to close.
The gigantic Dragonite struggled to its feet, slowly spreading its enormous wings.
But before leaving, the gigantic Dragonite looked at Lu Chen and Lapras and apologized again.
"I'm sorry. I was too impulsive just now. I attacked you in the heat of the moment."
Lu Chen smiled and waved a hand. "It doesn't matter. You couldn't hurt me anyway."
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Dragonite's face.
But just before it left, Lu Chen stopped it.
"Wait."
Dragonite looked back.
"Could you give me one of your reverse scales?"
Dragonite tilted its head in confusion but asked no questions.
It peeled an enormous dragon scale from its body and set it in front of Lu Chen.
Then, with a beat of its wings that stirred up a gale, its massive body slowly rose into the night sky and flew toward the sea.
It flew farther and farther away, growing smaller and smaller, until it disappeared into the distant darkness.
Lu Chen picked up the dragon scale.
It felt warm in his hand, its surface gleaming with a dark golden sheen and containing pure Dragon-type energy.
This was the ideal material for teaching Gabite Dragon Dance.
After seeing Dragonite leave, Professor Oak and Delia walked over as well.
"You actually drove off that gigantic Dragonite..." Professor Oak was still marveling, his voice full of disbelief.
Delia also looked at Lu Chen in amazement.
But as Professor Oak watched the gigantic Dragonite depart, he felt some regret.
"Then why didn't you catch that Dragonite?"
"It's very powerful, and it has ties to ancient times. It should be helpful to you."
Lu Chen shook his head. "That Dragonite has its own goals and pursuits. There's no point in forcing it to stay with me."
Professor Oak thought it was a pity, but he agreed with Lu Chen.
"Oh, right," Professor Oak said, suddenly remembering something.
"I've recently made some new discoveries in my research on Fossil Pokémon, and I'm preparing to publish a paper. I'd like to list your name as the third author. What do you think?"
"Sure." Lu Chen nodded indifferently.
Professor Oak happily left, clutching the valuable data he had just collected from the gigantic Dragonite.
This was the first time in human history that samples had been collected from a gigantic Pokémon in the field. Once published, the paper would undoubtedly send shock waves through academia.
"What a windfall!"
After the gigantic Dragonite left, Pallet Town soon returned to its peaceful quiet.
But lying in bed, Lu Chen found himself unable to sleep.
The matter with Dragonite had reminded Lu Chen of many things.
He was not the only one who could not sleep.
Aerodactyl had not returned to its hilltop. It lay in the clearing outside the mud house, its wings half-folded, its eyes fixed on the night sky.
Lapras swam from the river to the bank, half its body submerged as it quietly looked up at the sky.
For once, Gengar had not slipped into the shadows, instead floating above the roof.
Only Gouging Fire remained as haughty as ever.
Gabite lay by the field, watching its seniors in some confusion, simply feeling that tonight's atmosphere was different.
Lu Chen walked out of the mud house and sat on the threshold.
Looking at the star-filled sky, he suddenly spoke.
"That Dragonite was so determined to find its companions. It suddenly made me wonder... have I been too eager to forget the past?"
The Pokémon all turned to look at him.
"Even though the ancient world was rotten to the core, it was still our past."
Lu Chen's voice was soft, as though he were speaking to himself.
He thought of ancient times.
Of the bloodshed in those years.
In that era, he had friends and enemies too.
He had even had a woman who understood him.
"I wonder if that idiot queen ever became a proper queen in the end..."
An exquisite, stunningly beautiful face surfaced in his mind. Even now, Lu Chen remembered how Her Majesty always messed things up, leaving him to step in and clean up every time.
Remembering the past, Lu Chen could not help smiling faintly as he spoke to Lapras and the others.
"And do you remember Aaron?"
"The guy who kept asking to become my disciple every day, the one with a talent for Aura. He later became an Aura Guardian."
The corners of Lu Chen's mouth lifted slightly.
"After that great war, I wonder if my sudden disappearance caused anything to go wrong..."
"I wonder how long they all lived, too."
Lu Chen stroked Lapras beside him, his voice growing a little quieter.
"If we get the chance, we should look into how that history turned out."
Lu Chen knew that traveling to the present was already a miracle, while his companions and enemies from back then had long since vanished into the river of history.
Even if Lu Chen learned how their stories had ended, he could change nothing now, but... he was still a little curious.
"I really would like to know how things ended for all of them."
Naturally, news of the gigantic Dragonite appearing in Pallet Town could not be kept from the reporters.
Their noses were incredibly keen. No sooner had Dragonite left the waters around Pallet Town than helicopters followed it.
Although Dragonite was extremely fast, he was currently injured, and the reporters were doing everything they could to track him.
When one outlet lost it, another took over, like an endless relay race.
At last, in waters dozens of nautical miles from Pallet Town, a reporter captured a full photograph of Dragonite.
The instant the photograph reached the television station, the entire studio fell silent.
The gigantic Dragonite in the picture was covered in wounds.
Several patches of scales were missing from its wings, exposing the dark red flesh beneath.
A large, obvious patch of frostbite marked its flank, with an icy blue layer of frost still clinging to its scales.
An even more horrifying wound marked its chest. The scales around its edges had been vaporized outright, leaving an eerie, charred black.
"Wh-what happened here?"
Even the news anchor's voice was trembling.
"This is the gigantic Dragonite! The very same Pokémon that easily defeated the gigantic Tentacruel earlier today! Who could have wounded it like this?!"
The internet completely exploded.
"Holy shit! Why is Dragonite covered in wounds? Who did this?!"
"That's a gigantic Pokémon! Even a Champion might not be able to beat it, right?"
"Wait, I remember the last direction Dragonite appeared in was... Pallet Town?"
"Pallet Town?! Isn't that where Professor Oak lives?!"
"No way. Professor Oak?"
The moment this theory appeared, it spread across the internet like wildfire.
"Professor Oak was a Champion-level Trainer in the Kanto Region when he was young! Even if he focuses on research now, he must still have that foundation!"
"He only gets scarier with age! Think about it. Professor Oak has researched Pokémon for decades. Who could understand them better? If he stepped in, that Dragonite would've been beaten senseless!"
"My god, Professor Oak has been hiding his strength!"
"What do you mean, hiding his strength? He's still got it! Professor Oak is badass!"
Discussion threads flooded the forums, each more outrageous than the last.
Some began digging up Professor Oak's battle records from his youth, while others analyzed just how powerful the Pokémon kept at Professor Oak's Laboratory were.
Someone even solemnly claimed to have personally witnessed Professor Oak knock out a Tauros with a single punch.
Professor Oak himself remained completely unaware.
Clutching the samples he had collected from Dragonite, he walked happily back toward the laboratory, planning how to write his paper.
Meanwhile, at Pokémon League headquarters.
In a quiet conference room, Lorelei and Agatha of the Elite Four, along with several senior Pokémon League officials, were passing around the photograph of the wounded Dragonite.
Agatha set down her cane and remained silent for a long time.
"It was him."
She said only those words.
Lorelei nodded, her expression complicated.
"I can't think of anyone else."
A senior Pokémon League official frowned and asked, "By 'him,' do you mean the time traveler from ancient times mentioned in Professor Oak's earlier report?"
"That's him." Agatha gave a bitter chuckle.
"That gigantic Dragonite was probably coming for him."
Lorelei said nothing.
She looked down at her Poké Ball, which held her ace, Lapras.
She suddenly very much wanted to know what had happened between Lu Chen's Lapras and that gigantic Dragonite.
But what concerned her more was Lu Chen himself.
"In any case," she cleared her throat and addressed everyone present.
"Since the Dragonite incident has settled down, the Pokémon League doesn't need to take action for now. But we must keep an eye on Lu Chen."
After a pause, she added:
"I suggest that I be responsible for continuing to follow Lu Chen's situation. Since I've already had contact with him, it would be more convenient."
Agatha glanced at Lorelei, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
There this girl goes again.
Meanwhile, somewhere else.
Team Rocket headquarters.
Giovanni sat behind a broad desk, holding a photograph.
In the photograph, the gigantic Dragonite was covered in wounds as it flew toward the sea.
"Interesting."
Giovanni set the photograph on his desk and tapped it lightly twice.
"Pallet Town... Professor Oak? Could that old bastard Samuel Oak really be hiding his strength?"
His gaze was deep and sharp.
The Team Rocket grunt standing before the desk asked cautiously, "Boss, should we send someone to investigate the gigantic Dragonite?"
Giovanni fell silent for a moment, then the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"No. All we need to do now is maintain the status quo and wait until the Ultimate Weapon is complete."
"Whether it's that gigantic Dragonite, Professor Oak, or Lance, they'll all have to grovel at our feet!"
"Yes, boss!"
Meanwhile, the Dragonite on the news was still flying.
Its injuries, like its identity, had become an enormous mystery.
No one knew where it had come from.
No one knew why it was covered in wounds.
Nor did anyone know that the person who had truly beaten Dragonite into that state was currently loosening the soil around Starf Berry saplings on a farm in Pallet Town.
Time flew by, and more than two months had passed since the gigantic Dragonite attacked Pallet Town.