The moment did not come completely out of nowhere.
May was walking along a narrow mountain path with Natsui, holding the Egg in her arms and chatting happily. At first, she only felt the Egg tremble slightly. She did not think much of it. She assumed her hands had just shaken because the road was uneven. Then she heard a faint cracking sound, and only then did she realize something was happening.
"Natsui, look!"
She lowered her head and said excitedly, "It looks like this Egg is about to hatch!!"
"Yeah, it looks like it could happen at any moment."
Natsui took a glance at it, noticed the unusual changes in the Egg, and then looked around at their surroundings.
They were halfway up a mountain. There were no towns ahead of them, no villages behind them, only forest. There was no one else around for kilometers, and there was no Pokémon Center nearby either.
"It looks like we'll have to welcome this new life ourselves. Well, it's getting dark anyway, so let's stay here for the night."
Hatching an Egg was not actually difficult. Natsui and May did not even need to do much to help. Still, this was the first time either of them had seen it happen in person. They had no experience, and they were both afraid something unexpected might go wrong. Because of that, Natsui stayed very cautious.
He released several of his Pokémon. They put up the tent, arranged a simple camp, and prepared hot food and water. Once everything was ready, Natsui, May, and the group of Pokémon sat around the campfire together, all watching the Egg.
Gengar also emerged from the shadows and watched with obvious interest.
Natsui smiled when he saw that.
"What? After living this long, have you still never seen a Pokémon hatch?"
"Actually, no."
Gengar shook its head. Its face was unusually serious instead of playful as it said with some emotion, "I've already forgotten what it felt like when I was born."
That was a heavy topic.
Natsui looked around and saw that all of his Pokémon had lowered their heads. The mood had turned strange. Looking at this Egg had made them think of their own pasts.
No one remembered what they looked like when they were born. And many of his current Pokémon had never even seen their parents.
Gardevoir had been given to him by someone else.
Dragonite had been abandoned.
The Crystal Steelix had always been alone.
There were too many cases like that.
Natsui himself was the same. Coming to this world had meant leaving everything behind on Earth. His parents, his family, and his friends were all gone. Sometimes, he felt like someone with no roots and nowhere to return to.
He could not go back.
"Let's not think about those things."
He shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Since we're together now, we're a family. No matter what we run into from now on or what happens later, we'll face it together."
They were now closely connected through the bond of their Poké Balls. They were not family by blood, but they were closer than family. Because they had each other, they were no longer alone.
May listened quietly. She still had her parents and her younger brother, so she could not fully understand that feeling of being alone. Even so, the heavy mood still affected her.
Fortunately, the Egg shook again, and everyone's attention was pulled back to it.
A few cracking sounds rang out, and the Egg suddenly changed shape. It did not remain an Egg at all. Instead, it transformed directly into an Eevee.
Not even a single piece of eggshell was left behind. It was almost like magic.
This newborn Eevee was smaller than a wild one, which was no surprise. It was only a tiny baby, so of course its body was smaller.
Even so, it was still a Pokémon. It had only just been born, but its body was already complete. It could move, see, hear, and make sounds. It was only a little weak. Aside from that, it was no different from any normal Eevee.
"It's an Eevee! That's wonderful!"
The moment May realized the Pokémon she had received was an Eevee, she became overjoyed. Eevee was incredibly popular. Almost everyone liked it because of how cute it was, and May liked it as well.
There was another reason she was so happy. She and Natsui now had the same kind of Pokémon, just like with Combusken. Since they had the same species, she could learn things from Natsui's Eevee. That would let her own Eevee improve much faster.
The newborn Eevee looked around curiously, staring at the two humans and the Pokémon gathered around it.
Before it could get a proper look, a large fluffy head suddenly came close, sniffing at it while wagging its tail excitedly. It was Natsui's Eevee.
Among everyone there, Natsui's Eevee was the happiest after May, simply because they were the same species.
The other Pokémon also moved closer and looked at their new companion. All of them welcomed this new life with great care.
May placed the food and water she had already prepared in front of Eevee.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is May."
She smiled.
"Welcome to the family."
...
Getting a new Eevee made May happy for a long time. But after the excitement settled down, it was time to continue their journey.
After resting on the mountain for the night, Natsui and May set out again the next day. A lively little Eevee bounced around beside May the entire way.
Natsui also released his own Eevee and let it lead the baby around while showing it the surrounding nature.
They walked and rested along the way, and eventually they arrived at a large city called Kasado City.
Natsui had never been here before. He had not even heard the city's name. That was simply because he did not know much about it. But when they entered, they saw tall buildings everywhere. It was busier than either Viridian City or Pewter City.
It did not have an official Gym, so its name was not especially famous.
May excitedly asked whether a Pokémon Contest was held there, and soon she received both good news and bad news.
The good news was that Kasado City did hold a Pokémon Contest, and its scale and popularity were almost on the same level as the Saffron Contest.
The bad news was that the Kasado Contest had ended half a month earlier.
May did not know what expression to make. She had arrived too late.
Before she could even start feeling disappointed, however, she heard another piece of news. It was about the legend of "Red Lightning" in Kasado City.
The legend of Red Lightning was about a mysterious figure in the city. It wore a red cloak and a mask and was known as Red Lightning, attacking Trainers everywhere.
It was said to move as fast as lightning and even use Pokémon moves. That was how it got the name.
This strange figure challenged Trainers on the road, and after winning, it would scribble graffiti all over their Pokémon. It had already defeated many people, and the locals were worried.
Natsui thought it over.
"A weirdo who can use Pokémon moves? And all it does after winning is graffiti the loser's Pokémon? That sounds more like a Pokémon in disguise."
He started thinking. Red Lightning? Had that person appeared in the anime? He could not remember it at all.
"That shouldn't be the case... right?"
May frowned.
"I heard it can even speak human language. If that's true..."
She had been about to say that, if it could talk, maybe it was not a Pokémon after all. But then she remembered Natsui's Gengar and Team Rocket's Meowth. Both of them could speak. If another one showed up, it would not be that strange.
Could it really be a Pokémon?
"Anyway, let's be careful."
May sounded worried.
"After all, we're Trainers too. If we happen to become its target, that'll be trouble."
"Wouldn't that be perfect?"
Natsui laughed.
"Whether it's a person or a Pokémon, since it's already caused such a mess, then if we run into it, wouldn't it be better to stop it?"
That was true.
May had originally thought Red Lightning was just an urban legend. She had forgotten that Natsui himself was even more outrageous than most legends. Besides, the city was huge. The chance of actually meeting Red Lightning should have been low.
There should have been nothing to worry about.
And yet, while they were walking through a park, they suddenly heard a sharp laugh.
They looked up and saw a figure in a red cloak standing on a large tree, watching them from above.
"A red cloak... could it be..."
"Heh-heh-heh-heh."
The red figure looked down at them, and a man's voice came from inside the cloak.
"So, you've already heard my great name. That's right, I am Red Lightning!"
Red Lightning stretched out a red claw and pointed at the Eevee beside Natsui.
"Now, battle me!"
The figure jumped down in front of Natsui and May.
The moment Natsui saw Red Lightning clearly, he knew he had guessed right. He recognized it immediately as a Scizor.
He had one himself, so he knew the body shape and head structure too well. There was no way something like that could fool his eyes.
This Scizor's left eye looked different. Its color seemed off, or perhaps it had been modified somehow.
Together with the red cloak, Red Lightning looked surprisingly cool. Seeing that, Natsui suddenly felt like getting a cloak for his own Scizor too.
May, however, was still confused.
She asked, "You want to battle Eevee? Does that mean you're actually a Pokémon?"
Scizor's body shape was fairly humanoid, and the red cloak covered most of it. On top of that, masks made for Pokémon were not rare. It was difficult to tell at a glance.
She simply did not have enough experience yet.
Red Lightning did not answer. Instead, it raised its right claw and attacked directly.
Energy gathered in the claw, and then a Hyper Beam shot straight toward Natsui's Eevee.
Eevee, Natsui, and May were all within the attack's range.
Natsui's expression darkened immediately.
It was an unspoken rule that Trainers were not supposed to be attacked during Pokémon battles. Both humans and Pokémon generally followed that rule.
This Red Lightning understood human language and had been living in the city. That meant it obviously knew the rules as well. Attacking them like this was deliberate.
Natsui's impression of it dropped at once. He decided there was no reason to hold back.
"Fine. Since we happened to run into each other, I'll just treat this as getting rid of a nuisance for the city."
He looked at the Scizor and did not move to dodge the Hyper Beam at all. There was no need for him to worry about it. If someone attacked a Trainer directly, someone on his side would deal with it.
A large black sphere of energy flew out from the shadow at his feet and collided perfectly with the Hyper Beam.
Boom!
The two attacks crashed into each other and exploded.
Gengar stood in front of Natsui and May, blocking the shockwave from the explosion. On the other side, Red Lightning also crossed its claws to shield itself from the blast, but its red cloak was blown away.
May finally saw its true form.
"Scizor!? So it really is a Pokémon!"
Once its identity was exposed, May also noticed the device hanging around Scizor's neck. It was a speaker.
"It looks like we really found out the true identity of Red Lightning."
After the smoke cleared, Natsui walked forward, picked up a prosthetic eye from the ground, and tossed it lightly in his hand.
This prosthetic eye had originally been attached over Scizor's left eye. It had fallen off during the explosion.
"Hm. A camera, plus the speaker under your neck. So you're not a Pokémon that can actually talk at all. The so-called Red Lightning is just a puppet being controlled."