In ancient times, the Starf Berry had another name.
The Berry from the stars.
It sounded rather romantic, but the reason was simple. For a Starf Berry to grow, it needed one crucial thing.
The meteorite shell that encased the Mythical Pokémon Jirachi.
Jirachi, who awakened only once every thousand years, carried a trace of wish-granting power on his shell.
Only by absorbing that tiny bit of Jirachi's wish-granting power could Starf Berries gain the ability to boost a Pokémon's capabilities in battle.
The Starf Berries occasionally found in the wild existed because, some thousand years ago, a fruit had happened to absorb a fragment of the meteorite shell left behind when Jirachi awakened.
So no matter how people of this era tried to cultivate Starf Berries, they were doomed to fail.
Lu Chen looked up at the sky.
Night had deepened. Behind the thin clouds, a few stars flickered in and out of sight, forming a peculiar configuration.
Looking at the sky, Lu Chen murmured:
"So there are only a few years left until Jirachi's once-in-a-thousand-years awakening."
"That also means the last time Jirachi woke up was over nine hundred years ago."
"No wonder nobody knows how to cultivate Starf Berries."
But as luck would have it...
Lu Chen turned toward Gengar, who was curiously examining the television nearby, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"Gengar, look for Jirachi's meteorite shell."
"I remember you secretly stashed away quite a bit when we met Jirachi back then."
"Gar?!"
Gengar froze, a rare look of surprise appearing on his perpetually grinning face.
He had thought no one had noticed what he did back then. He had never expected Lu Chen to have discovered it anyway.
Under Lu Chen's half-smiling gaze, Gengar reluctantly opened his mouth and rummaged through his separate space for quite a while.
Only then did he pull a palm-sized meteorite fragment out of some forgotten corner.
The moment the fragment appeared, the entire room grew a little brighter.
Specks of starlight twinkled across it, as though a small piece of the starry sky had been plucked down, containing a strange power.
Seeing the meteorite fragment, Lu Chen couldn't help remembering his encounter with Jirachi in ancient times.
Without Jirachi's help that time, half the continent might have been destroyed...
Lu Chen did not dwell on those old memories.
Instead, he suddenly realized something.
The people he had once known, along with that part of history, had all vanished into the ancient past tens of thousands of years ago.
There was no way to investigate them at all.
But might special beings like Jirachi, who awakened only once every thousand years, still know something about what had happened back then?
And this time, Jirachi's awakening was only a few years away.
Lu Chen silently made a note of it.
The next time Jirachi awakened, he would have to ask him in person.
Lu Chen could already picture the scene.
When he stood before Jirachi then, he would definitely give him quite a fright.
After all, for Jirachi, who awakened for only seven days every thousand years, each person he met would meet him only once in their lifetime.
And Lu Chen might well become the first human to meet Jirachi twice.
"I'm actually looking forward to that." Lu Chen chuckled.
Lu Chen was already planning to spend all his remaining eight hundred thousand on Starf Berry seeds, then make a fortune selling the Berries once they had grown.
Retirement was within reach.
Meanwhile, at Professor Oak's Laboratory.
Professor Oak was waiting for someone.
The Pokémon League had already replied to him. They would send two members of the Elite Four to investigate.
Even Professor Oak himself had been shocked.
He had expected the Pokémon League to send an elite investigator at most, not two members of the Elite Four.
The visitors were Lorelei, the Ice-type Elite Four member, and Agatha, the Ghost-type Elite Four member.
When Lorelei and Agatha entered Professor Oak's Laboratory, Professor Oak was already waiting at the entrance.
Lorelei's long burgundy hair draped over her shoulders. She was tall and had a cool demeanor, but she still greeted Professor Oak properly when she saw him.
"Professor Oak, it's been a while."
Beside her, however, an elderly woman with graying hair and a cane snorted.
"Oak, have you gone senile? You actually reported meeting a Trainer who traveled here from ancient times?"
Agatha tapped her cane lightly against the ground, her tone full of mockery. "I think all that research has addled your brain."
Professor Oak opened his mouth at her barbs, wanting to argue, but when he thought of what would happen shortly, he forced himself to hold back.
Watching the two seniors at each other's throats, Lorelei stood awkwardly to one side, unsure what to say.
The three of them then set off together to find Lu Chen.
But the moment they arrived, Professor Oak got a shock.
Delia was there too.
"Delia?! What are you doing here?"
Smiling, Delia raised the basket in her hands.
"I came to bring Mr. Lu Chen something to eat. He's only just moved here, so he must be short of everything."
Professor Oak's mouth twitched.
Good grief. Things had just gotten even livelier.
Agatha watched it all coldly.
Her gaze settled on the young man a short distance away, who was talking to Professor Oak and Delia.
He was dressed plainly in a newly purchased set of casual clothes, with handsome features and a rather sunny smile.
However she looked at him, he was just an ordinary, good-looking young man.
Agatha frowned.
She wondered whether Professor Oak really had gone senile, to be taken in by a young man like this.
Yes, Agatha did not believe a word about someone traveling to the present from an ancient battlefield.
She simply assumed Professor Oak had been deceived.
"Let's see how long this pretender can keep up his act."
Agatha sneered and lightly tapped her cane.
Thud.
An extremely soft, muffled sound rang out.
A black shadow slipped silently out of Agatha's shadow, hugging the ground as it swiftly approached Lu Chen.
The shadow moved so fast it was almost invisible, reaching Lu Chen's back in the blink of an eye.
Just as Agatha decided Lu Chen was nothing special and would be subdued by her Gengar in the next instant-
Suddenly.
A similar shadow split off from Lu Chen's shadow!
As though sensing something, it shot out from beneath Lu Chen's feet and charged toward Agatha!
The two shadows rapidly overlapped and tangled on the ground, like two black snakes biting at each other.
Agatha was a little surprised by the sight.
"Oh? A Ghost-type Trainer too?"
But Agatha remained utterly confident.
Her Gengar had been with her all her life and was undoubtedly a Pokémon at the peak of Elite Four level!
He was immensely powerful, absolutely beyond what the young fellow before her could handle.
"Interesting, but that's all."
At that moment, Professor Oak and Lorelei also noticed Agatha's actions.
Seeing that Agatha had actually attacked Lu Chen outright, Professor Oak was scared out of his wits!
Of everyone present, Professor Oak understood best just how unfathomable Lu Chen's strength was.
"Agatha! What are you doing?! Stop right now!"
Professor Oak rebuked her sharply, his voice changing pitch.
"Apologize to Lu Chen at once!"
But Agatha was no ordinary stubborn old woman. She was not the sort to listen to advice, even when it came from Professor Oak.
Sure enough, Agatha merely sneered without looking back.
"Apologize? Once I've caught this pretentious brat, we'll decide who should apologize."
Lorelei frowned too, finding Agatha's behavior terribly rude.
But she did not step in to stop her.
Because Lorelei was also curious whether this man, who looked ordinary apart from being handsome, really had come from ancient times.
"Be careful, Mr. Lu Chen."
Delia, meanwhile, watched Lu Chen with worry written all over her face.
To her, Lu Chen was just a young man who had recently moved in. How could he possibly be a match for one of the Elite Four?
And just then.
Lu Chen slowly turned his head.
For some reason, the instant Agatha saw his eyes, a chill ran down her back.
Because in Lu Chen's eyes, she saw icy killing intent.
And indifference toward life.
Agatha had only seen that sort of gaze decades ago.
That had been the era of Trainers two generations before, before the Pokémon League had been established. Trainers fought for themselves, and quite a few had killed countless people.
Their eyes had looked exactly like those of the young man called Lu Chen before her.
"You're courting death."
Lu Chen's voice was calm, yet as cold as ice.
By now, Agatha felt that something was very wrong, but she kept putting on a brave front.
She believed in her own strength.
But in the very next second.
A Pokémon's head slowly began emerging from the two tangled masses of shadow.
Agatha spotted her own Gengar immediately.
Seeing her Gengar's head emerge first, Agatha breathed a sigh of relief.
That meant her Gengar had gained the upper hand in their exchange just now.
However.
As more of Gengar's body emerged from the shadows, the slight relief on Agatha's face instantly froze.
No.
That was completely wrong.
Her Gengar was not emerging on his own.
He was being gripped by the neck and forcibly dragged out of the shadows like a little chick.
A Gengar covered in strange markings was baring his signature mischievous grin.
With one short, thick claw clamped tightly around Agatha's Gengar's throat, he slowly rose from the shadows.
And Agatha's Gengar, the peak Elite Four-level Gengar who had accompanied her all her life and crushed opponents in countless battles, was struggling frantically.
His limbs flailed, his eyes bulged, and hoarse choking sounds escaped his mouth, his entire face twisted with fear.
Yet he could not budge an inch.
The patterned Gengar's strength was absurd. His five stubby fingers seemed welded to his neck like branding irons, remaining utterly unmoving no matter how he pried or struggled.
Everyone was dumbfounded at the sight.
Delia was the first to be stunned.
The basket in her hands fell to the ground with a clatter, sending fruit rolling everywhere.
She instinctively covered her mouth, her eyes wide and round. The two Gengar were reflected in her pupils, and her mind went blank.
Wh... what was happening?
Agatha was one of the Elite Four!
One of the strongest Trainers in the entire Kanto Region!
Her ace Gengar had proven himself in countless top-level battles.
Yet now, that Gengar was like a child whose candy had been stolen, completely helpless in another Gengar's grasp.
Delia felt her view of the world being shaken.
Then came Lorelei.
For the first time, the Ice-type Elite Four member's expression changed.
She had originally stood aside merely to watch, even thinking there was no harm in Agatha teaching the young man a lesson.
But now, the composure on her face had completely vanished.
Lorelei's pupils abruptly contracted, and even her breathing stopped for a beat.
It wasn't that she had never seen powerful Ghost-type Pokémon.
But the oppressive presence this patterned Gengar displayed far exceeded anything she knew.
As a member of the Elite Four, Lorelei could clearly sense that the patterned Gengar had not gotten serious at all.
Like an experienced hunter toying with prey already in its grasp.
A gap in strength of this magnitude...
Cold sweat coated Lorelei's palms, and she unconsciously took half a step back.
Then there was Professor Oak.
Professor Oak had known Lu Chen was strong. He had known from the very beginning.
Aerodactyl could easily suppress his two ace Pokémon.
But even Professor Oak had never imagined Lu Chen could be this strong.
Before Lu Chen made his move, Professor Oak had actually had a rough assessment in mind: Lu Chen's Pokémon were strong, roughly at the middle of Champion level.
But now, his assessment had been completely overturned.
Agatha's Gengar was the Ghost-type Elite Four member's mainstay. Though not on par with a Champion's ace, it still stood at the very top of the Kanto Region's pyramid.
And the result?
Lu Chen's Gengar had seized it by the throat with one hand, holding it like a toy.
Lu Chen's Gengar had not even used a single move, overwhelming its opponent through sheer strength alone.
"Strong" was no longer enough to describe this.
This was fucking terrifying.
Could this Gengar have already surpassed Champion level and touched that level at the very pinnacle of training?
Pokémon Master?!
"No... impossible..."
Agatha's voice trembled.
Her cane fell to the ground with a clatter, and she staggered back two steps. For the first time, terror appeared on that perpetually harsh, cold face.
"Impossible... my Gengar... how could it..."
Lu Chen looked calmly at Agatha, his voice neither soft nor loud:
"Take it easy, old lady. Don't get so worked up."