As the hatch opened, under everyone's watchful eyes, an old man with a thick mustache, wearing small round glasses and with dark skin, popped his head out of the submarine.
Although he was short and looked to be at least in his sixties or seventies, his spirit was exceptionally vigorous, and his eyes, in particular, sparkled with a wise light.
After climbing out of the submarine, he began to pull out many strange little gadgets as if by magic, measuring the wind direction with one and receiving signals with a small satellite antenna with another, bustling about happily.
It was only when he glanced aside that he noticed the others nearby.
"Hmm? You young lads and lasses over there, you'd better be careful!"
The completely unprompted sentence left Natsui and the others baffled.
Ash asked in surprise, "Huh? Be careful of what?"
However, the old man ignored them and, standing up, said to himself, "Wind force is good, water temperature is okay, sea current is unchanged, solar spectrum is all normal… they'll be here very soon!"
These words were so baffling that Natsui and the others could only look at each other, completely clueless.
"Here? What's coming here? Who is this guy anyway?" Misty turned her head and asked in a low voice.
Tracey was also puzzled. "I don't know, but from the looks of it, he seems to be conducting some kind of scientific research."
Just as they were wondering, the sea surface around them suddenly began to boil, with large amounts of splashes and bubbles appearing. But before they could figure out what was happening, the waves grew more intense, and suddenly, tens of thousands of Magikarp leaped out from under the sea!
"Magi… Magikarp!?"
"What's going on? Why did so many Magikarp suddenly appear!?"
Ash and the others were shocked. In their astonishment, they realized that after appearing, the Magikarp paid them no mind at all, instead swimming uniformly in one direction.
The feeling was as if someone, somewhere, was commanding them.
It was only upon seeing this scene that Natsui understood that the old man's warning had been about this dense, red tide formed by the Magikarp.
Even if they meant no harm, if someone were to accidentally fall into the sea at that moment, they would almost certainly be doomed, smashed to pieces by the sheer number of Magikarp.
At that moment, the Lapras they were riding on also seemed to be frightened by the Magikarp. Its body trembled slightly, and it froze in place, letting itself be carried by the sea current.
Seeing this, Ash quickly reached out a hand to soothe it.
After steadying himself, and once the initial shock had passed, Natsui keenly noticed that the old man in the submarine didn't seem surprised at all by the appearance of the Magikarp. Instead, his face lit up with excitement.
Nearby, unlike Natsui, Tracey's gaze had been fixed on the Magikarp. After observing for a while, he also noticed something.
"Strange, what are those rings on the Magikarps' tails?"
Hearing his words, Natsui shifted his gaze from the old man to the Magikarp.
Just as Tracey had said, many of the Magikarp had colored rings tied to their tails.
These rings were mainly red, yellow, and blue, but aside from their color, there was no other difference in their design.
Who could have possibly put these things on them?
At that moment, the old man in the submarine, after looking through his binoculars for a long time, said to himself in a cheerful voice that completely belied his age, "Target confirmed. Speed and direction are exactly as predicted. Excellent! Commencing dive, the chase is on!"
With that, he closed the hatch of the submarine and started it up again, following the direction of the Magikarp.
Watching the submarine move further and further away until it disappeared from sight, Misty couldn't help but say, "What was that all about? Coming and going in such a hurry. I really don't understand what's going on."
Tracey frowned, as if he had suddenly remembered something. "Wait a minute, that direction is…"
He took a map out of his backpack and, following the coordinates, quickly found a small island.
"I knew it!" Tracey's eyes lit up as he pointed to the island. "Look, these Magikarp are heading in this direction, and this island, Kinnow Island, is right on their path!"
"Kinnow Island?"
Apart from Tracey, who was a local, this was the first time Natsui and the others had heard this name, so it was completely unfamiliar.
Seeing their confusion, Tracey explained, "As I recall, it should be an uninhabited island, not very large. Very few people know about it, let alone have set foot there. I only know a little because I heard my grandparents mention it a few times when I was a child."
"I see!"
Tens of thousands of Magikarp and a mysterious old man—these factors combined clearly piqued Ash's interest. He said excitedly, "Something must be about to happen! Anyway, let's go check it out too!"
As his companions, Misty and Tracey naturally had no objections, especially since they also wanted to see what was going on.
Natsui thought for a moment and decided not to rush on with his own journey. He first spoke to Sabrina, asking her to follow behind on Charizard, while he himself sat on Lapras with Ash and the others, heading towards Kinnow Island.
Waves splashed as Lapras tried to maintain its balance in the turbulent current while avoiding contact with the Magikarp.
On its back, Ash and the others were excitedly discussing why the swarm of Magikarp had gathered, but the reasons they came up with were one more ridiculous than the last.
Natsui listened quietly without saying much, but couldn't help but sigh inwardly again.
He just knew it. Whenever he ran into Ash, there was a high chance of triggering a plot event.
Clearly, this time was no different, and they had been drawn into some incident that Ash was meant to experience.
However, he didn't dislike such trouble. In his view, a journey was made up of one unknown adventure after another. Only by continuously experiencing such incredible and wondrous events could one be fully tempered and grow quickly.
The sound of splashing water filled his ears, disturbing his thoughts.
So many Magikarp gathered in one place, moving together, was a truly massive spectacle.
Although they were usually pathetic and seemed useless with no fighting ability, as Water-type Pokémon and as fish, they still possessed impressive speed in the sea.
He looked down and saw Lapras paddling hard, trying to keep up behind them. But carrying so many people, it was slowly being overtaken, eventually falling to the very back of the group.
Fortunately, after about fifteen minutes of travel, they could already see Kinnow Island in the distance, so they didn't have to worry about losing their target.
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