For Natsui and May, only two major goals remained in Kanto.
They were the final battle of the Battle Frontier and the long-awaited Grand Festival.
Both would be extremely difficult to win.
Brandon, the strongest figure in the Battle Frontier, was known as the Pyramid King.
The Pokémon under his command were famous for their overwhelming power, and he had crushed countless confident challengers.
The Grand Festival, meanwhile, was destined to be a gathering of elites.
Every opponent there would be a Coordinator who had earned five Ribbons, and none of them would be easy to handle.
Natsui was doing fine.
With the number of powerful Pokémon he had, it was almost impossible for him to lose.
So as long as May could cross that next threshold—even if she only reached the top four—it would already be a huge sign of growth for her.
Because it was already late, the two of them rested for one night in Gummie Town.
However, because there were simply too many Trainers around, they could not get a room in the Pokémon Center dormitory.
Left with no other choice, Natsui had to endure the receptionist's strange look as he took May to a nearby hotel to get a room.
Fortunately, aside from being a little shy, May did not say anything about it.
Instead, she slept soundly on the soft, comfortable bed.
By the time dawn arrived, all of her recent fatigue had completely disappeared.
Starting from Gummie Town, the two of them headed west once again.
It was worth mentioning that the Kanto Grand Festival was not being held in a large city.
Instead, the venue had been set at the Indigo Plateau.
That changed the order of Natsui and May's goals.
Originally, Natsui had planned to accompany May to the Grand Festival first and only then go challenge the Battle Pyramid.
But now, after learning that the Grand Festival would be held at the Indigo Plateau, he immediately made finding the Battle Pyramid his main priority.
He took out the real-time map Scott had sent him.
Just as Natsui expected, the location of the Battle Pyramid had changed again.
This time, it had left the area near Pewter City.
"Pewter City is Brock's hometown, right?" May could not help asking when she heard Natsui mention the name.
"That's right." Natsui nodded.
"You also know he used to be the Gym Leader. The Gym is in Pewter City. Right now, his father is acting as the temporary Gym Leader."
"Then do you think he'll go back to the Gym in the future?"
Walking beside Natsui, May hopped over a small puddle and asked without turning her head.
"After all, he's already become a Pokémon Breeder now. It feels like that has nothing to do with being a Trainer anymore."
Thinking of Brock later on, when he was still a Gym Leader and had grown much stronger, Natsui shook his head.
"He'll definitely go back.
Being a Breeder and being a Trainer don't interfere with each other.
On top of that, a Gym Leader has status, salary, and benefits.
He's not going to give that up so easily."
As they talked, the two of them had already traveled far away from Gummie Town and reached a broad plain.
After crossing the plain and circling around a small hill, the view suddenly opened up.
In the distance stretched a chain of snowy mountains.
Below them lay a vast forest, and beside it a lake reflected clear ripples of light.
The scenery was not only beautiful, it also made the air itself feel fresher.
"What an amazing view," May could not help saying.
The two of them stopped there for a while to admire it.
Both even took out their phones to capture the sight.
By coincidence, a flock of Swablu and Altaria flew across the sky, adding even more life to the scenery.
At that exact moment, an aurora suddenly appeared overhead.
"Eh? An aurora?" May froze for a moment, then frowned.
"Why would there be an aurora in a place like this? And why did it appear so suddenly?"
As soon as she said it, May suddenly felt that this scene was familiar somehow.
Her heart stirred, and she quickly looked at Natsui.
He gave a small nod.
"That's right. It really is an aurora.
And if I'm not mistaken, this is probably connected to Deoxys."
"Deoxys?" May was shocked.
"There's one here too?"
"It's not that strange." Natsui smiled lightly.
"Including my own Deoxys, I've already encountered three of them.
And that was just in Hoenn.
They aren't tied to any one region.
They move around by flying through space and the atmosphere, so it wouldn't be strange for one to appear in Kanto.
Still, since we've already run into the signs of it, we might as well go see what's happening."
May naturally had no objections.
She would go wherever Natsui pointed.
Now that they had decided, the two of them stopped lingering.
They moved down the slope toward the forest beneath the aurora.
The Swablu and Altaria that had just flown above them suddenly lost their sense of direction under the influence of the disturbance.
A moment ago they had been flying in formation, but now they began scattering in panic, as if frightened or disoriented by some invisible force.
However, Natsui and May had no time to worry about them.
Moving lightly, they soon reached the bottom of the slope and entered the forest.
Natsui wanted to take out a compass to check their direction, but he found the needle spinning wildly.
May was startled and quickly took out her phone, only to find that it had lost its signal completely.
"It looks like the electromagnetic interference here is very serious."
Natsui frowned.
He took a Poké Ball from his waist bag, but discovered that he could not even open it.
May was startled and quickly tried one of hers too.
But no matter what she did, she could not release the Pokémon inside.
"The Poké Balls won't open! Natsui, what do we do?"
Without the help of Pokémon, most Trainers would be nearly helpless in a dangerous place like this—unless they were people like Bruno or Sabrina.
But something as simple as Poké Balls being sealed from the outside was nowhere near enough to stop Natsui.
"Gardevoir."
The moment he called softly, the first Poké Ball on his left side opened on its own.
In a flash of blue light, Gardevoir stepped out by herself.
This was one of the conveniences of Psychic-type Pokémon.
In fact, it was not only Gardevoir.
If he wanted, strong enough Pokémon like his Deoxys, Rayquaza, the Legendary birds, the Legendary beasts, or even the giant Red Gyarados could all force their way out of their Poké Balls.
After Gardevoir appeared, Gengar also crawled out from the shadow at his feet.
With those two by his side, Natsui could handle most unexpected situations.
Seeing the two Pokémon beside them, May immediately felt relieved.
That was the reassurance a Trainer felt when trusted Pokémon were near.
Even if a dangerous wild Pokémon appeared, they would not be forced to run helplessly.
The forest was huge, and with no real clues to follow, the two of them could only move forward and hope to find something.
Fortunately, there was still a path through the trees beneath their feet, so they would not lose their way completely.
However, as they went deeper into the forest, both of them began to feel that something was wrong.
While looking around, May said softly, "Natsui, isn't it a little too... quiet here?"
Just as May said, it really was too quiet.
There was no sound of wild Pokémon anywhere, and even the wind itself seemed to have frozen under the effect of the disturbance.
The feeling was exactly like—
Just as Natsui was thinking that, Gengar suddenly spoke.
"There's movement up ahead!"
Natsui glanced at Gengar and Gardevoir.
Although both of them were staring toward a patch of trees in the distance, neither of them looked especially wary.
That told him it was probably not something immediately dangerous.
He was just about to have Gengar scout ahead when he understood why the two Pokémon were acting that way.
A figure suddenly leaped down from a large tree and landed in front of them.
When they looked closely, it was the Pokémon Ranger they had met before—Solana.
Why was she here too?
That really was some coincidence.
A moment earlier, Natsui had been thinking that this strange situation reminded him of the last Celebi incident, and now Solana had appeared again almost immediately.
Still, it was not too surprising.
Pokémon Rangers patrolled these areas regularly.
Whenever something unusual happened in the wild, they were naturally among the first to arrive.
"It's you?" Solana said.
She was clearly surprised to see Natsui and May.
But almost immediately, her expression turned a little awkward.
It was obvious she was remembering what had happened the last time they met.
May, on the other hand, did not think much of it.
After seeing Solana, she asked curiously, "Solana, why are you here too?"
From May's point of view, the aurora created by Deoxys did not really count as an "incident," and it had not caused any obvious destruction yet.
At most, it looked like the display of a powerful Pokémon.
She did not think it would be enough to alert the Rangers.
Hearing May's question, Solana seemed to snap out of her awkwardness and gave her a grateful look.
Whether May intended it or not, speaking first in such a friendly tone gave Solana a way out of the tension.
"Because a strong geomagnetic disturbance appeared in this area and started interfering with equipment.
That's why Ranger Headquarters sent me here to investigate."
Geomagnetic disturbance?
Just as Natsui had guessed.
Looking behind Solana, May did not see any sign of Lunick, so she could not help asking, "Where's your partner?"
"Do you mean Lunick?" Solana shook her head.
"He has another assignment right now, so he isn't with me.
More importantly, why are you two here?"
May glanced at Natsui.
Seeing that he still had no intention of answering, she turned back to Solana and explained, "We were just passing through.
We saw the aurora here and came to take a look.
We just happened to run into you."
Just passing through?
Was it really that simple?
The Celebi incident had been like this, and now this aurora situation was too.
Even though Solana had not spent much time with Natsui, she could not help feeling that things were not that simple around him.
Is there something here that we Rangers don't know about?
It was not strange for Solana to think that way.
Rangers had access to a lot of information, but their knowledge about Deoxys clearly was not complete.
Naturally, she had no idea that the aurora and electromagnetic anomalies were signature signs of Deoxys's presence.
But she was about to find out.
At that exact moment, space in the sky suddenly twisted.
In the next second, a Deoxys emerged from it.
"Deoxys!?"
Solana was stunned.
She had absolutely not expected to run into a Pokémon like this here, but she recognized it immediately.
After appearing, Deoxys stayed only for a brief moment.
It looked down from a distance, and Natsui felt something strange.
Even though it was far away, and he should not have been able to see its expression clearly, Natsui somehow felt that this Deoxys did not carry any hostility toward him.
Then it clicked.
This Deoxys was probably one of the two from LaRousse City.
What a coincidence.
Still, Deoxys seemed to have appeared only to make its presence known.
A moment later, it vanished again.
For Solana, however, even that brief appearance was enough to confirm the seriousness of the situation.
"I see.
Then the geomagnetic disturbance in this area really must be connected to Deoxys.
Otherwise, it wouldn't appear here."
After muttering that to herself, Solana looked at Natsui again and said seriously, "Natsui, this involves a Mythical Pokémon again.
Please help me this time."
After saying that, and perhaps afraid he would remember the bad impression from before, Solana quickly added, "Don't worry.
What happened last time definitely won't happen again.
As long as it's an order from you, I'll follow it this time."
Seeing how sincere she looked, Natsui paused for a moment.
He did not actually dislike Pokémon Rangers.
In fact, he respected them.
What had bothered him before was simply Solana's earlier attitude.
Now that she was willing to lower her head first, Natsui did not want to make things tense between them again.
Besides, he would surely deal with Rangers more often in the future.
And more importantly, if this really was a Deoxys he already knew, then he could not just ignore it.
"Don't depend on me too much.
But if there's really a place where I'm needed, I won't stand aside."
Even though he said that, Natsui already knew that as long as Rayquaza did not get involved, this situation probably would not turn into a dangerous fight.
Seeing that Natsui was willing to help, Solana visibly let out a breath of relief.
In fact, ever since the Celebi incident, she had looked into Natsui quite a bit.
Not because she had ill intent, but purely out of curiosity.
What first caught her attention was how he seemed to have no records before a certain point, almost as if he had appeared out of nowhere.
But that was not what impressed her most.
What truly made her curious was everything he had done after becoming a Trainer.
That was what made her interested in Natsui himself.
And if possible, she really wanted the chance to get to know this man better and completely erase the bad impression she had left on him before.