As Clemont gave the order, Zinogre acted first.
He lunged forward, golden lightning coiling around his forepaws. Ash countered immediately: "Double Team!"
Greninja wove a hand seal, and over a dozen identical copies flooded the field. Zinogre slammed a paw down, shattering a clone. In his True Ultra-Charged State, every strike from Zinogre beckoned lightning from the sky. He swiped twice more, clearing the surrounding illusions.
"Use Cut!" Ash commanded.
The remaining ten Greninja copies lunged at Zinogre, light-blades manifesting in their hands.
"Cataclysmic Thunder!"
Zinogre roared to the heavens, and ten thousand bolts of lightning rained down. The massive area-of-effect attack vaporized the clones, leaving only the original. Greninja was incredibly fast; just as a bolt was about to strike, he used Cut to clash directly with the lightning. After a burst of energy, Greninja backflipped through the air and landed steadily.
"Are you okay, Greninja?" Ash asked. Greninja nodded, his eyes burning with fighting spirit.
Ash clenched his fists, his emotions rising. "He's strong. Really strong!"
In the stands, Serena scanned Greninja with her Pokédex. "Greninja is Water/Dark... he takes double damage from Electric moves. How is Ash going to beat Mr. Bai's Zinogre?"
Ash's mind raced. "Keep moving!"
Greninja began to circle Zinogre at high speed. His velocity was elite—among the top thirty of all Pokémon, including Legendaries and Megas. Zinogre's eyes tracked him, remaining calm and centered.
"Water Shuriken!"
Greninja hurled three blades of water. Zinogre didn't flinch, taking the hits directly. He resisted Water damage, and since Greninja had just evolved, the move wasn't at its peak power yet.
"Keep them coming!"
Greninja blurred, weaving a dome of shuriken around the King of Lightning.
Bai Chen watched Ash closely. A faint aura of Blue energy began to rise from Ash's body—unconscious and undetected by Ash himself. Simultaneously, a mysterious energy rose from Greninja. The two energies tangled in the air, vibrating in resonance.
Is that the Synchrony?
The condition for the Bond Phenomenon was for Ash and Greninja's feelings to synchronize perfectly. Once they reached that peak, a miracle would occur, changing Greninja's form.
"Bond Phenomenon... I want to see it now!" Bai Chen shouted across the field. "Ash! You haven't been slacking on your Aura training, have you?"
Ash nodded. "Of course not! I have to grow alongside Greninja!"
"Then use it! Release your Aura!"
Ash didn't fully understand, but he followed the instructions. He held his right hand out, gripping his wrist with his left. "Aura is with me!"
Whoosh!
A burst of Blue energy exploded from Ash, the pressure kicking up dust. But... nothing else happened. The "powerful force" Bai Chen mentioned didn't manifest. Ash looked confused, wondering if he'd used the wrong method.
But suddenly, Ash's vision flickered. For a single frame, he saw Zinogre as a towering, gargantuan beast right in front of his face. "What was that?"
Bai Chen noted the brief synchronization. It wasn't tight enough. They needed more pressure.
"Shift Gear."
Facing the barrage of Water Shuriken, Bai Chen commanded Zinogre's symbiotic Klink and Klang to act. They launched metal gears with the precision of a tracking system, intercepting and shattering every shuriken.
"Let's get serious. Ultimate Aura!"
A terrifying pressure radiated from Zinogre, the Master-level aura seemingly freezing the air itself. Greninja's movements slowed.
"Ultimate Volt!"
Zinogre, cloaked in blinding gold, charged like a railgun. "Dodge it!" Ash yelled. Greninja leaped aside, but as Zinogre brushed past, a discharge of electricity slammed into the ninja. Greninja was sent tumbling across the field, his body twitching with static.
Too strong! Just a graze dealt massive damage. A direct hit would be the end.
"Can you still fight?" Ash asked. Greninja stood up and formed a new shuriken. He had his answer.
"Ash, I'm going all out now." Bai Chen pushed harder. "Zinogre, Overload State!"
Golden gears on Zinogre's body began to spin at impossible speeds. The voltage inside him skyrocketed. Above, the dark clouds could no longer contain the tension. Lightning cascaded down like waterfalls, turning the arena into a landscape of the apocalypse.
One Billion Volts. This was the state that had broken Mega Rayquaza's jaw.
Ash felt it—a primal fear. His breathing became ragged, his heart hammered against his ribs. He lowered his head, his body trembling instinctively.
Is this... Zinogre's true strength?
It's... It's amazing!
"AHHH!" Ash roared, clenching his fists and looking up. The fear was gone, replaced by pure, unadulterated excitement. "Greninja, let's go! Water Shuriken!"
Ash's emotions flooded through the Aura connection. Greninja's anxiety stabilized instantly. He threw three shuriken, but Zinogre slammed the ground with Thunderous Palm, creating a wall of rising electricity that vaporized the water.
"Double Team!" Greninja tried to close the distance.
"Useless. Cataclysmic Storm!" Zinogre called down a curtain of lightning.
"GET CLOSER!"
Greninja wove through the gaps with desperate agility, using Cut to slice through the bolts he couldn't dodge. It was a reckless, "no-brain" charge, but it worked. He reached Zinogre.
"Use Cut!"
"Jump and counter with Thunderous Palm!"
Zinogre leaped high, trading positions. His massive forepaw slammed down on Greninja from above. The impact was earthquake-level. Greninja was driven straight into the dirt.
"Oh no!" Serena gripped her Pokédex. "A direct hit..."
Suddenly, Bonnie pointed. "Greninja hasn't lost!"
Zinogre's paw was hovering just above the ground. Beneath it, Greninja was holding the massive limb back with his light-blades, his body half-buried in the crater.
Bai Chen was impressed. Those skinny limbs can stop Zinogre's weight? Not bad. "Zinogre, crush him into the ground!"
Ash could feel it. Greninja was at his limit. If they didn't break free now, it was over. He remembered Bai Chen's words: Your Greninja is quite something.
"Greninja hasn't given up, so neither will I!"
Ash raised his hand again. Vroom... vroom... vroom...
He pushed his Aura harder and harder. Finally, his vision shifted again. He was looking at Zinogre's paw from below. This is... Greninja's eyes?
The roar of thunder faded from Ash's ears. He felt a surge of hot blood. Placing a hand over his heart, he whispered, "So this is how you feel..."
He took a breath that drowned out the lightning. "THEN LET'S TAKE THIS WIN! GRENINJA, EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT!"
A pillar of water erupted from Greninja, so powerful it forced the Overloaded Zinogre back several steps.
"What is that move?" Serena and the others were stunned.
Greninja slowly climbed out of the crater, glowing red eyes staring from within the swirling vortex of water. Ash's movements were now perfectly mirrored by his Pokémon.
"This power..."
Ash stepped forward, and Greninja stepped out of the water pillar. The water condensed on Greninja's back into a massive shuriken. His appearance had changed—he now bore a striking resemblance to Ash, with black tufts on his head and red markings reminiscent of Ash's hat.
"Mega Evolution?" Serena gasped. They couldn't understand how he did it without a Key Stone.
"Bond Phenomenon," Bai Chen explained loudly. "It's more powerful than Mega Evolution."
In a Mega Evolution, base stats increase by 100. In a Bond Phenomenon, they increase by 110.
"It's a miracle caused by the synchronization of your Aura," Bai Chen told the confused Ash.
In the original timeline, this form took weeks to master. But thanks to Bai Chen's earlier training, Ash's Aura was strong enough to stabilize the form on the first try.
Bai Chen checked the new panel:
[World Synchrony] (Rarity: ?): In Bond state, Level increases by 10, and all skill proficiencies become Master-level. (Derived from World's Protection; Uncopiable). [Ability: Shuriken Mastery]: Water Shuriken power is increased and can be fused with other moves.
Greninja's level jumped from 42 to 52, making him two levels higher than Zinogre.
"Finish it," Bai Chen murmured. I'll take that Bond Phenomenon data now.
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