"I thought it would be a long time before I saw you again after we split up. I didn't expect you to show up just a few days later, and at night, too."
Shelly leaned against the wall inside her secret warehouse, arms crossed, looking at Natsui, who suddenly paid a visit, and couldn't help teasing him with a mocking tone.
It was already past 7 PM. The sky outside had turned dark, and the entire cargo warehouse area was quiet without a single sound.
Ignoring her teasing, Natsui asked mysteriously, "Last time I came, didn't I see a convenient place here?"
Hearing this, Shelly's face changed. She covered her chest with one hand and looked at Natsui vigilantly. "What do you want to do!? I knew your purpose in helping me wasn't pure and that this day would come, but I didn't expect you to be so urgent!!"
Natsui looked at her, visibly confused by her reaction. After a moment of surprise, he realized that she had misunderstood the reason for his visit.
"What are you imagining?" Natsui rolled his eyes. "I just want a quiet place. I have something private to do, and I need your help."
"Handle?" Shelly still didn't trust him. "You mean something physical, right? I was just wondering why you didn't bring that girl who's always following you. Did you really come here so late for this?"
Natsui sighed.
Actually, he didn't blame Shelly for overthinking. On such a quiet night, a man rushed to knock open the warehouse door. After just drinking red wine at dinner and still smelling of alcohol, he barged in without explanation. No matter how one looked at it, this seemed unusual.
He knew that if he tried to explain more, it would just make things weirder, so he decided to stay quiet.
Too lazy to waste words with her, Natsui followed his memory from last time. He passed the indoor pool, where the Sharpedo-shaped submarine was docked, then through a partition. He arrived at the inner side of the warehouse, stepped on a hidden staircase, and went up to the second floor.
Overall, this warehouse where Shelly hid was about 160 meters long, 80 meters wide, and 7 meters high. It was generally used to store large cargo. among dozens of similar warehouses in the pier area, it is unremarkable.
However, although it looked no different from the outside, the interior had long been transformed by Shelly into a secret base with complete facilities.
Take the current second floor, for example. It was built by her using visual effects after compressing the space. If one looked solely from the outside, one wouldn't know there was actually a second floor inside!
And the entire second floor was also transformed by her into a living area, divided into several different rooms. Not only were there bedrooms and bathrooms, but there was even a fully functional dining room. Besides that, there was another relatively spacious vacant area separated from the others.
Perhaps Shelly wanted to move this to another functional area, but because she was too busy or had quit Team Aqua, she temporarily lacked the energy or the means to manage it. In short, it had been shelved until now.
Natsui didn't treat himself as an outsider at all and pushed the door open directly to walk in.
As soon as he entered the room, Natsui released Gardevoir, Raikou, and Suicune from their Poké Balls. Gengar also emerged from his shadow, joining the group.
Shelly entered, spotting two Legendary Pokémon posted in opposite corners. Gardevoir and Gengar flanked Natsui, alert and ready. Seeing this, Shelly understood that Natsui's purpose was both urgent and top secret.
"Alright, I take back the joke just now. It seems you left that girl and came to me alone, indeed not to do anything plotting against me."
Natsui glanced at her helplessly.
He found it odd that Shelly, who had sounded so serious just moments before, now claimed she was only joking with him.
He thought Shelly was convincingly acting indifferent to the situation, but could tell she was pretending.
One could only say, indeed, the smarter a woman is, the better she is at deceiving people.
"As long as you understand. So, can I ask you to go outside and keep watch for me now, to prevent any sudden situations?"
"Just say you want me to leave," Shelly said with a snort. "But I'm warning you, my place isn't very strong. Don't make a mess!"
"Don't worry." Natsui shook his head. "I know what I'm doing. It'll be fine."
After giving Natsui one last look, Shelly left the room, leaving him alone to continue his task.
And when she left, Natsui took out an Ultra Ball and aimed it at the center of the room.
"All guard Pokémon are ready. The third communication with Deoxys begins now!"
Like recording an experiment, after speaking to his few Pokémon in a steady tone, he pressed the switch on the Ultra Ball. With a flash of blue light, his Deoxys appeared in the room.
Since the last great battle in the lake and capturing Deoxys, Natsui had already communicated with it twice in private.
Unfortunately, communicating with this extraterrestrial Pokémon was very strenuous. Not only was it extremely strong, but it also possessed super-high intelligence. He could only communicate with it bit by bit through Gardevoir's Telepathy without provoking it.
Fortunately, he had defeated it head-on, so it showed no resistance toward him, its Trainer.
Once it appeared, Deoxys didn't make any strange moves. It just swept its calm gaze over the few Pokémon and finally rested it on Natsui's face.
A thin blue aurora lanced from its chest, hovering between it and Natsui.
This was also the reason why Natsui had to find a hidden place to communicate with Deoxys.
It was simply too eye-catching!
If it were in the wild, even in a place with few people, as long as the aurora appeared, it would be hard not to notice it within a radius of many kilometers. How could there be any privacy! Let alone a place with greater foot traffic, like a Pokémon Center.
Only a fully enclosed room like this could keep the aurora contained and outsiders unaware.
Precisely because of this reason, even until now, after capturing Deoxys, Natsui hasn't been able to truly control it like other Legendary Pokémon, achieving true proficiency!
Moreover, Natsui had tried before asking Gengar to translate Deoxys' words, but Deoxys spoke an alien language. Gengar couldn't understand it and simply couldn't achieve normal communication.
Luckily, Gardevoir's Telepathy allowed Natsui to communicate with Deoxys more accurately and clearly by psychic means.
Nodding to Gardevoir, Gardevoir immediately placed its hand on Natsui.
Almost simultaneously, a strange feeling arose in Natsui's heart. Having done this many times, he knew he was already connected to Deoxys' mind!
"...Friend..."
As he connected, Natsui felt a lonely, desolate voice from Deoxys' heart.
"Don't worry." Natsui answered in his heart, "Just as I said before, you are not the only one who landed on this planet. Our journey has just begun. We will definitely meet your kin in the future. Besides, have you forgotten? My Pokémon and I are your companions and friends now."
Actually, it can be seen in movies and anime that, during their long cosmic travels, they always travel alone. Accompanying them were only cold meteorites acting as homes. Therefore, they especially longed for friends. Even their travel was conducted to find their own kind.
"...Promise..."
"That's right, this is our promise." Natsui nodded. "But correspondingly, you will have to fight those strong enemies for me in the future!"
Hearing Natsui mention strong enemies, Deoxys seemed to think of the Rayquaza it had fought twice. Flames seemed to be burning in its heart!
And its intense emotional fluctuations were quickly transmitted to Natsui's heart through Telepathy.
"Calm down first..." Natsui hurriedly comforted, "Don't get excited yet. The strong enemies I refer to are not that Rayquaza, but other opponents of the same level as Rayquaza—Ho-Oh, Groudon, Kyogre..., and some other Pokémon not yet encountered. I might battle them in the future."
"...I understand... I will help you..."
Hearing Deoxys' answer, Natsui couldn't help smiling.
This was the most relaxed and fruitful of the three communications. It seemed he and Deoxys had basically reached an agreement.
...
Coming downstairs, Natsui immediately saw Shelly leaning bored against the wall.
Catching his relaxed demeanor, Shelly checked the clock and drawled, "Finished already? You're fast."
Natsui didn't know if Shelly meant something else or if he was thinking wrong.
But hearing this, Natsui just felt that a certain aspect of him was seriously insulted!
"Fast? No way! I'm young and strong, full of energy. My record speaks for itself—anyone who's spent time with me knows I have stamina! How could I be fast?"
"I didn't expect you to really be this kind of person; I really didn't misjudge you." A faint sneer hung on the corner of Shelly's mouth. "You went up for less than 7 minutes. Adding the time for preparation and finishing, plus the time you spent going up and down the stairs, it took about 3 minutes in total. If this isn't fast, what is?"
"This is my high efficiency! This proves I'm excellent enough!" Natsui opened his mouth to retort.
"Is that so?" Shelly stretched lazily, twisted her hips, and walked past Natsui. The moment she stepped onto the stairs, she laughed, "If I had known this, I wouldn't have needed to let you go upstairs just now. After all, since it was so fast, wouldn't it be more convenient and end sooner to solve it here?"
Speaking of this, even without turning back, she seemed to sense Natsui was about to open his mouth to refute something, so she waved her hand and interrupted him.
"Don't come to me for this kind of thing again. It's not worth the trouble. I'm going to bed now. Please turn off the lights and lock up before you leave. Goodnight, Mr. Quick Shot."
She absolutely did it on purpose!!
Watching her go upstairs in a happy mood, how could Natsui not know she was intentionally teasing him?
Actually, counting it down, her falling to such a state today was all his fault. If he hadn't intervened in the Kyogre matter, although the Hoenn region would have become disaster-ridden, she herself absolutely wouldn't have become like this now.
At least, she wouldn't have needed to leave Team Aqua, which was like home.
And being able to tease him with such a joke also illustrated from the side that Shelly's attitude toward him had unknowingly changed a lot.
She was also venting the oppression he once exerted on her through this method.
Forget it, since everything seems to be developing in a good direction, I won't pursue the matter of you slandering me. I'll let you off this time!
But next time, if you dare call me Mr. Quick Shot again, don't blame me for getting back at you!
...
When returning to the Pokémon Center, although not much time had passed, Misty had already fallen asleep.
Natsui returned to his dormitory, washed up briefly, and soon entered dreamland.
After this friendly talk with Deoxys, Natsui knew that next time he faced the world's strongest Pokémon, he could stop relying on numbers and face them head-on.
Although there was a high probability of losing, the progress wasn't just a little bit!
Even after Deoxys' strength grew slowly, except for a few individual ones, he no longer needed to worry about any Pokémon!
A night without words.
Early the next morning, after breakfast, Natsui and Misty had no lingering attachment. They went directly to the port to take a boat and leave Sootopolis Island.
As for that magnificent celebration—
Because it would still take several days, Natsui couldn't stay here forever. Moreover, the finale performance was by Juan again, which didn't really pique any interest in him. So he just went along with Misty's wish and left here as soon as possible.
The next destination for the two was to pass through several small islands and finally return to the Hoenn mainland to challenge the next Gym city.
However, compared to the long trek from Petalburg, which took several days to reach here, this short trip wouldn't take that much time. In just about a day, they could step onto the Hoenn mainland again!
And as the Badges increased slowly, the Ever Grande Conference seemed to be getting closer and closer.
Natsui even had an illusion; vaguely, he seemed to smell the scent of the Conference's sacred flame!
------------------
Currently on Patreon: 870 chapters available.
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LIZBETH1242
Coming soon: up to Chapter 1000 will be available in 15 days.