Chapter 307: You've Been in Contact With Arceus? You Reek of It
Ash joining Team Rocket was, from Mammon's perspective, genuinely excellent news. His Team Rocket really was on a roll, wasn't it! And picturing the eventual conversation between Team-Rocket-Ash and Red down the line was already enough to make Mammon want to laugh out loud. Sure, Ash was still the same Ash — incapable of doing anything genuinely wicked — but Mammon considered his Team Rocket to be running an entirely legitimate operation these days. Fine, some of the methods leaned a little extreme now and then, but that kind of work would never fall to Ash anyway.
Seeing Ash's trio still deep in animated discussion over the Team Rocket app's contents, Mammon left them to it and headed with Caitlin and the others toward World Tree Park. Ash's group quickly caught up too — freshly recruited as they were, and with the app's contents proving so genuinely wild, they still had plenty of questions on their minds.
"Mr. Mammon~"
Not long after entering the park, Erika hurried over, warm and elegant in her maple-leaf kimono.
"Erika. Been a while."
Mammon opened his arms; Erika's eyes crinkled with bashfulness — mostly because of the crowd trailing behind him. Still, unable to resist the pull of missing him, the flower-loving young woman closed the distance, wrapping her arms around his waist, cheek pressed into his chest, the two embracing gently.
"Whoa~"
"Pika~chu~"
Ash and Pikachu let out identical, quiet exclamations, matching expressions on both their faces. For someone whose heart held nothing but battling and dreams, romance between men and women was entirely beyond Ash's comprehension — and honestly, of zero interest to him. A woman? Nothing smelled as good as Pikachu did. On the road to becoming a Pokémon Master, there was absolutely no room for something as inconvenient as a girlfriend! (Dead certain face.jpg) Not that this stopped him from thoroughly enjoying the spectacle of two people he knew getting cozy together.
"Gym Leader Erika really is with Mammon!" Misty whispered, thoroughly delighted and more than a little envious, gossip radar fully engaged. When Erika had first mentioned the "date," Misty had been only half-convinced. But now here they were, actually embracing!
Huh? So cold!
Misty suddenly shivered, glancing warily around herself — she'd just felt an unmistakable chill. Her gaze swept the area, landing cautiously on Caitlin, whose lips still carried that same faint, unreadable smile. But a woman's intuition told Misty that smile was more than a little forced — and, worse, that Caitlin's eyes seemed to be tracking her specifically. That couldn't be right, though — I've never done anything to offend her, have I?
After a brief embrace, the thin-skinned Erika drew back a step, composed once more.
"It hasn't actually been that long — about a month, give or take," Erika said softly.
"Things went really smoothly in Sinnoh, so we didn't end up staying long," Mammon replied. Had to admit, Sinnoh really had gone smoothly — Team Galactic barely posed any real challenge, and nothing especially entertaining had come up either.
"How's managing the park been going lately? Tiring?"
"Not at all. I find the work genuinely meaningful, and the Pokémon here don't seem to mind me either."
"Though security today was really lax — letting Ash and his friends wander right in. And—"
Erika trailed off, glancing over curiously at Ash's group.
"Ash, how did you all end up back here?"
Erika was genuinely curious — hadn't Ash's group's opinion of Mammon been distinctly poor just before she'd left them, especially given how strongly Ash himself objected to wrongdoing?
"Ahaha~ how do I put this, Gym Leader Erika — things just don't always go the way you'd expect." Ash rubbed his nose, faintly embarrassed.
"I had a chat with Ash and his friends. Ash, Misty, and Brock are all provisional Team Rocket members now," Mammon said with a smile.
"Really?" Erika looked genuinely startled. That fast? Mammon had actually managed to talk them into joining already? Provisional or not, that still made them part of Team Rocket — and Ash, of all people, a boy overflowing with righteous conviction, actually agreeing to join. Did Mr. Mammon feed him some kind of sweet-talking potion? Team Rocket's reputation in Kanto was, after all, thoroughly rotten to the core.
"Heh — Mammon said Team Rocket's actually going after evil organizations now, so I figured I'd see for myself if that's true." Ash explained his reasoning plainly.
"It's not false, actually. And the organization has plenty of strong trainers — you could arrange friendly sparring matches with them for training, Ash." Erika's voice was warm and gentle. She knew perfectly well Ash counted as a genuine "monster"-tier rookie; if he could be won over sincerely, that would only strengthen Team Rocket further.
"Mm-hm~! I will!" Ash nodded vigorously, genuinely looking forward to it. Like that irritating Paul he'd just battled — sure, Ash thought his mouth was way too sharp, but he had to admit, the guy was genuinely strong. Ash swore to himself he'd beat that guy someday, and give him a proper taste of his own attitude while he was at it. And it wasn't just Paul either — that blue-haired girl, Dawn — no telling for sure, but she was surely just as impressive.
"That's right, Ash — in Team Rocket you can also arrange matches with strong trainers from other regions. Unova, for instance — trainers your own age, roughly on par with Dawn and Paul. Excellent opponents, all of them." Mammon was, of course, referring to Mei, Touko, Dulse, and the rest. Team Rocket really did have no shortage of talented young trainers these days.
Ash's eyes lit up — he genuinely loved a strong rival.
"Erika, could you fill Ash and his friends in on how the organization works? They've probably got quite a few questions by now." Mammon said to her.
"I'll head inside and take a look around first."
"Alright."
Erika nodded. Mammon and Caitlin then headed off toward the World Tree; Platinum and Paul didn't follow along, genuinely curious about the ranch itself and choosing to explore on their own.
Approaching the entrance near the World Tree, no obstruction met them this time — Therian Landorus did drift by briefly, glancing at the two of them before moving on. Seemed to be quite the diligent guardian. Made sense, though — for a Pokémon, the World Tree was basically paradise itself. Mew held court within it, and Regigigas slumbered somewhere beneath its roots. With an ecosystem this pristine, making a home here was about as good as it got.
As Mammon drew closer to the tree, the ground beneath him began to tremble faintly. The earth ahead of him swelled upward, and an enormous "giant" slowly emerged from the soil. Regigigas.
"Regigigas. How's it been, settling in here?"
Mammon waved at it.
"No worse than my original resting place," Regigigas's dull, mechanical telepathy answered.
"Human. On you—"
The dots across Regigigas's chest flickered faintly as it studied the human it hadn't seen in a while.
"Something wrong?"
"You've been in contact with Arceus."
"You caught that, huh. Yeah, that's right."
"I could never mistake his scent. Human — you truly are fortunate."
Regigigas fell silent for a moment before saying this. Arceus's presence was simply too distinct to Regigigas's senses — and the scent clinging to Mammon was, remarkably, still quite strong. There was no way Regigigas could have missed it.
"Oh? Regigigas, you're well-acquainted with Arceus?"
Mammon raised an eyebrow, the question pointed.
"...I had dealings with him, long ago."
Regigigas's telepathy carried a faint note of something like resignation, followed by a sigh. But that sigh was unmistakably carrying a whole story behind it. Mammon didn't press the matter further — that would have been rude. Though he suspected privately that Regigigas's famously slow-starting body probably had something to do with Arceus somewhere in the mix. Still, ancient history was ancient history — and clearly not something Regigigas took much pride in. Better to let it lie unless it wanted to bring it up itself.
"Alright then, Regigigas — mind calling Mew out for me? This little guy never picks up when I call."
Mammon said with a smile.
"One moment."
Regigigas didn't head into the World Tree itself, instead standing there for a while looking as though it had drifted off into a daze. Mammon guessed it was reaching out to Mew telepathically.
"It's coming."
"Alright, thanks."
Well — "coming" turned out to be a loose term. A full fifteen minutes passed before a streak of pink light finally shot out from within the World Tree.
"Yaaay, Mammon~ long time no see, meow~"
The pink light drifted closer and slowly dispersed, revealing an adorable pink cat, its bright, chipper telepathy ringing out.
"Mew, what happened to you?"
Mammon had been about to give Mew a gentle reminder about punctuality — but seeing its appearance up close, the question came out instead in genuine surprise. Because compared to their last meeting, Mew had noticeably... filled out. Its belly especially — protruding, distinctly beer-belly-like.
"Haven't been out much lately, so I've gotten a little plump. No need to make such a fuss, meow." Mew's tone lacked much real conviction, both little paws cradling its round belly, radiating a thoroughly endearing, sheepish charm.
Caitlin's elegant face carried a distinctly odd expression.
"You call that 'a little plump'?"
Mammon pointed at Mew's stomach, then pointedly gestured at his own washboard abs. The comparison spoke for itself.
"...Mammon, how rude. I'm still growing, you know — putting on some size is perfectly normal, meow." Mew's cheeks puffed out at that, hands planting indignantly on its hips. So what if it had eaten a bit more lately without moving around much, leading to a slightly "fuller" figure?
Mammon: "..."
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