A more detailed discussion would have to wait until they returned to the Contestant Village later that day. After chatting briefly, everyone headed back to the spectator stands to wait for Ash's match to begin.
Luther remained in the waiting room, using his phone to reply to all the congratulatory messages he had received.
The first message came from Maylene, who was watching in front of the television. Along with her congratulations, she sent a photo. In it, Lucario was turning its head away with an unwilling expression, refusing to pose with Maylene for the picture. Who knew what Maylene had done this time to make Lucario angry again?
Besides her congratulations, Gardenia also shared some news about the weather in Hearthome City.
The hurricane rain had finally passed after yesterday.
This storm had been unprecedented. Both Oreburgh City and Hearthome City had suffered severe damage.
Despite the city's efforts and even with numerous Pokémon working together tirelessly, they had been unable to stop the flooding caused by the prolonged downpour.
Even Gardenia's Hearthome Gym had been submerged at one point, which was enough to show just how terrifying the storm had been.
The urban area of Oreburgh City had not suffered as badly as Hearthome City, perhaps because of its geographical location.
However, the mining regions around Oreburgh City had experienced repeated mountain disasters. Mudslides and collapses occurred one after another. Even now that the rain had stopped, nobody dared to venture deep inside for an immediate investigation.
Reading Gardenia's description, Luther felt that this might actually be good news for Oleander and the others.
In the period following the hurricane, the mining areas would be sparsely populated. If the Hodgepodge Organization weren't completely foolish, they would certainly accelerate their gathering plans and take advantage of this opportunity.
That would also make Oleander's stakeout and their plan to wipe them out in one sweep much smoother.
If they truly succeeded in the end, then this once-in-several-decades hurricane would have provided enormous help.
"Oh right, let me secretly show you a few photos."
Gardenia's mysterious tone immediately piqued Luther's interest.
A series of photographs suddenly appeared on his phone screen.
The sky was pitch black, like spilled ink. Lightning flashed across the heavens, tearing through the raging sea below.
Two figures hidden behind towering waves appeared blurry and indistinct.
One large, one small.
The larger one possessed an enormous body, cutting through the wind and rain without the slightest fear of the terrible weather.
The smaller one occasionally burst from the sea's surface with a splash before diving back beneath the waves and disappearing.
Because of the weather and poor lighting, every photograph captured only the silhouettes of the shadows. It was impossible to obtain a clearer image.
"The areas affected weren't just Eterna and Oreburgh City. Strictly speaking, we were only hit by the storm's aftereffects."
"Newmoon Island, Fullmoon Island, Iron Island, and the nearby coastal regions were all affected as well. Fortunately, their preparations were better, so they weren't in as sorry a state as we were. Still, there are always surfers who love excitement and went out into the storm."
"Their descriptions are remarkably consistent. They all saw two Pokémon, one large and one small, playing among the storm clouds and across the sea's surface."
"Among them, some sailors who had ventured from Fullmoon Island into the open sea became stranded offshore. They encountered waves several meters high and nearly lost their lives. Yet at the final moment, the massive wave simply dissipated."
"They witnessed the two Pokémon diving into the deep sea. After that, the entire sea region calmed down, and the hurricane rain that had blanketed Fullmoon Island for ten consecutive days finally came to an end."
Luther stared at the blurry black silhouette in the photographs, comparing it with the sailors' descriptions.
The faintly visible white body, the power to calm a hurricane storm, perhaps even the power to create one in the first place.
Wasn't this Lugia?
That's right. If Luther remembered correctly, in the anime, Lugia had a child.
Ash had even gone on an adventure with Lugia's child, the one called Silver. Judging by Ash's travel timeline, that must have been about two years ago.
The information recorded in the Pokédex was often gathered from folklore and eyewitness accounts. The fewer data samples there were for a Pokémon species, the more the recorded information tended to lean toward human speculation.
In earlier years, Absol had been known as the Disaster Pokémon. Humans believed they brought calamities wherever they appeared. Only later, through research, was their name cleared. They merely sensed the signs of major disasters in advance and appeared to warn others.
The Pokédex claimed that Lugia could stir up towering tidal waves. Luther believed that.
But the claim that Lugia could cause torrential rain lasting forty days and nights sounded a little far-fetched.
Even the Space-Time Duo had to sleep for decades, centuries, or even millennia after a major battle. That alone showed how difficult it was for Legendary Pokémon to recover their power, let alone wield it freely.
Luther was more inclined to believe that Lugia had been following the hurricane storm, allowing its child to experience and understand that force. Then, after realizing the storm was about to cause catastrophic damage, it had used its own abilities to calm everything down.
It might have been an idealized interpretation, but if he compared it with his impression of the Lugia Ash had once met, it actually made sense.
After all, Silver might have reached the age where it needed to learn how to control its power and deepen its understanding of the world. Lugia bringing its child out on a journey seemed perfectly reasonable.
Gardenia, meanwhile, was extremely curious about what kind of Pokémon it was and said she planned to sail out to sea to see if she could encounter it.
"And what exactly do you plan to do if you find it?" Luther asked with amusement.
"If it's a Grass-type, I'll catch it and bring it back. If it's a Psychic-type, I'll catch it too and let it keep Exeggutor company!"
Gardenia's words were full of passion and confidence, but when Luther remembered that she would potentially be facing a Lugia traveling with its child, he decided to remind her that the Pokémon in question might very well have been the source of the hurricane storm.
After all, there was also the possibility that Lugia had deliberately created the hurricane to train its child. Who could say for certain how Legendary Pokémon thought?
Gardenia immediately stopped replying.
As a complete non-swimmer, she was easy to scare.
Because the large screen in the waiting room had been muted, Luther only realized after finishing the conversation that Ash had already defeated three of Kanae's Pokémon.
Kingler had knocked out Zangoose, then traded knockouts with the Electrode that had a type advantage against it.
And now Charizard was wreaking havoc on the battlefield.
It grabbed hold of Onix, forcibly carried it high into the sky, and then slammed it down with Seismic Toss.
Seeing that familiar move brought Luther's childhood memories flooding back.
When he returned to the spectator stands, Luther asked James for a bottle of drink.
James handed it over impatiently before immediately turning his attention back to the battlefield.
"You've been beaten by Charizard quite a few times yourselves," Luther teased.
Meowth replied,
"That has nothing to do with why we're watching the twerp's match. I seriously don't know what goes through his head. Every major tournament, he leaves all these familiar Pokémon behind and insists on fighting with brand-new teams."
Jessie nodded in agreement.
"This time he's finally come to his senses. You have no idea—watching the twerp's matches in the past was nothing but stress. If I didn't keep a few emergency heart pills nearby, I always felt like I'd stop breathing and pass out at any moment."
It had to be said that although Team Rocket had spent years opposing Ash, when it came to moments like these, they were firmly on his side.
Even Luther couldn't quite explain that mentality.
Still, the trio had a point.
This time, Ash had finally figured it out.
Luther could understand forming bonds with new Pokémon while traveling through a new region and choosing not to rely on his old partners.
But when it came to a major tournament, not giving even a single roster spot to those old companions and leaving them stuck in Professor Oak's Laboratory watching from afar...
That was a bitter feeling indeed.
(End of Chapter)
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