Chapter 736: The Star of Hope to Find the Big Cat
The next day, morning.
"Stone-kun! You finally came out!"
Diancie's soft and cute voice rang in Kazuya's ears, instantly waking him up from his light sleep.
Sitting up.
Kazuya turned his head to look to the side.
Then his eyes widened, falling into a brief state of bewilderment.
A moment later, he snapped back to reality.
"So that crystal was a sleeping Jirachi."
Kazuya pinched his chin and muttered.
Regarding the many works involving Jirachi.
Kazuya had more or less seen or heard of them, but because Jirachi's crystallized state before awakening was too ordinary, it truly hadn't occurred to him that it was this Pokémon.
Thinking about it now.
There were actually hints early on.
That comet in the sky was the biggest hint.
The Pokémon that could be related to comets were only a few: Jirachi, Kyurem... at most counting Deoxys.
Presumably, the comet hanging across the sky right now.
Was the legendary [Millennium Comet].
This was a proper noun.
Referring solely to this comet overhead right now.
It was considered a unique setting in the Pokémon world:
This Millennium Comet would appear once every thousand years, lasting for seven days each time.
Similarly.
Every time this comet arrived.
It would call out to the Wish-granting Mythical Pokémon, Jirachi, awakening it from its thousand-year slumber, and its awake duration was also only seven days.
Awakening once a millennium.
It was the same situation as Xerneas and Yveltal.
But there were also differences.
Xerneas and Yveltal actively released their energy and entered a slumber, perhaps purely out of a love for sleeping.
They could choose whether to sleep or not.
Just like how Xerneas appeared more frequently, clearly not the kind to only appear once a millennium.
And Jirachi...
At least in the situations that appeared in the original work.
It was basically forced into slumber every time.
"Who are you?"
Jirachi's voice was a bit slurred, feeling like a little baby who had just learned to speak not long ago.
It was quite cute, though.
"I am Diancie, the Princess of the Diamond Domain."
Diancie held Jirachi in her hands and introduced herself.
It looked just like an older child holding a younger child.
"Princess?"
Jirachi tilted its head in confusion.
It seemed it didn't understand this word.
This was also normal.
Jirachi woke up once a millennium, for seven days at a time.
The growth of its personality and mind was restricted, naturally making it like a child.
"Mhm, what about you? Stone-kun, what is your name?"
Diancie nodded gently, and then asked.
Hearing this, Kazuya finally remembered.
Yesterday, Diancie seemed to have used the address "Stone-kun". Could she have already discovered Jirachi inside the crystal back then?
"My name is Jirachi!"
"Jirachi, that's a really good name."
"Diancie too!"
In just a few words, exchanging names.
The relationship between the two immediately became very good, hugging and rubbing against each other.
"Jirachi, this is my master, Kazuya, a very amazing person!"
"How is he amazing?"
Star-kun tilted its head.
"Who knows."
Diancie also tilted her head.
"..."
Kazuya scratched his face expressionlessly.
Whatever.
He was already used to this disciple's style.
Diancie was different from his previous disciples.
It wasn't that she didn't respect him, but she was just a bit empty-headed on ordinary days.
Actually, this was quite nice.
There was no sense of distance, making it easy to get along.
If something really happened.
This silly disciple would instead be the first one to rush forward.
After all, Diancie didn't think too much about things.
Unlike Rami and Kazan who considered too much and would instead have many scruples when doing things.
"Jirachi, where do you come from?"
Kazuya reached out and took Star-kun from Diancie's arms.
A hint of desire hid in the depths of his eyes.
To Kazuya.
Developing a desire for a certain Pokémon or something.
Was something that hadn't happened for a very, very long time.
The last time was probably over a hundred years ago, and the target of his desire was the 'Super Genie' Hoopa.
And the reason was:
He wanted to let Hoopa try and see if it could help him 'scoop' Meowscarada over.
He failed back then.
Meaning.
The Big Cat was not in this world.
But back then, apart from the path of Hoopa, Kazuya had also thought of other paths.
The 'Wishing Star of Seven Nights' Jirachi.
Was one of them.
Jirachi's 'wish-granting ability' had many restrictions. In short, it was an exclusive ability that absolutely could not reach the evaluation of 'overpowered'.
For example, in the original work.
Max-kun wished for snacks.
Jirachi indeed fulfilled his wish and got him a pile of snacks.
But those snacks were actually teleported out of thin air from a vendor in a nearby amusement park using Teleportation.
In essence, it was exactly the same as Hoopa's scooping.
It didn't create snacks out of thin air.
It merely brought over physical objects that already existed in the world.
From this, it could be seen.
Jirachi's wish-granting ability was actually somewhat useless.
If one wanted to use this power to achieve a wish of ruling the world, dominating the universe, or subduing Arceus, that was fundamentally completely impossible.
If one had to make a wish, they could only make a more realistic one.
To have Jirachi directly bring the Big Cat in front of him.
That certainly couldn't be realized.
After all, the Big Cat wasn't in this world at all.
Jirachi couldn't bring something that didn't exist in front of him.
Forcing it to do so would most likely create a monster Meowscarada formed from pure energy.
When that time came, Kazuya would have to wipe his own mess and deal with this monster.
But having Jirachi get him some hints or something on how to find Meowscarada shouldn't be a problem, and it wouldn't cause a massive energy drain on Jirachi either.
This was also the reason why a look of desire appeared in Kazuya's eyes when he saw Jirachi.
Jirachi.
Was practically equivalent to the hope of finding the Big Cat.
"Umm... from the village."
Jirachi placed a small hand on its chin, looking up and thinking for a while before answering.
"The village... Oh, Pokémon Village."
A drop of cold sweat trailed down Kazuya's forehead.
If it weren't for his telepathy, he probably really wouldn't know which village Jirachi was talking about.
Most creatures hearing this would probably assume it was some human village.
But by capturing the images in Jirachi's mind.
Kazuya knew what Jirachi meant.
It was the Pokémon Village made up of Pokémon.
The Pokémon Village was located in the southeastern part of the Kalos region.
It was a location from the [Pokémon Mystery Dungeon] series.
That place was like an RPG alternate world dominated by Pokémon. There were even Pokémon running shops and adventure teams in the village.
It could be considered a location full of fantasy colors.
Similar locations included Pokémon Square and Pokémon Beach.
But here came the problem.
The world setting of [Pokémon Mystery Dungeon] had no humans in it.
Humans had perished in ancient times due to a great war with Dark Matter.
The sole human.
Had also reincarnated as the protagonist Pokémon.
He had to partner up with his Pokémon buddies to defeat Darkrai, who intended to create a world of darkness.
But those things.
Had nothing to do with this world.
There was no such thing as Dark Matter in the ancient times of this world.
If one wanted to find dark matter, they would at least have to wait until the Orre region three thousand years later to catch a glimpse of it.
So how could something like the Pokémon Village exist?
This place shouldn't exist in this world.
However.
In Jirachi's memories.
Such a place did exist.
At this moment, Kazuya couldn't help but start thinking. Could this Star-kun have crossed over from another parallel universe?
"Do you want to go back?"
Diancie, beside them, spoke up and asked.
"Mhm! I want to go back! Everyone is still waiting for me!"
Jirachi nodded vigorously, its small face filled with determination.
"..."
Kazuya couldn't help but look bitter upon hearing this.
It wasn't that he didn't want to help Jirachi return to its hometown.
On the contrary.
He really wanted to do so.
After all, he hoped to get Jirachi's help, but didn't want to get it for nothing, so he was also prepared to help Jirachi return to its hometown as an equivalent exchange.
It was precisely because of this.
That Kazuya had asked where Jirachi came from.
This location could be anywhere, it might even be a place that didn't exist.
For example, the little boy Jirachi in the movie came from Forina in the Hoenn region.
The dinosaur-era Jirachi that appeared in the anime came from the Unova region but had no hometown.
So if they wanted to help Jirachi.
First, they had to ask clearly where its hometown was.
But the problem now was a place like the Pokémon Village. Could they really send Jirachi back?
"Are we going to send it back?"
Volcanion's voice appeared from behind.
He had approached at some unknown time and heard what Jirachi said.
"Mhm, let's give it a try."
After hesitating, Kazuya still nodded.
They had to go look for it no matter what.
Perhaps.
Such a Pokémon Village truly did exist in this world.
In his memory, the approximate location of that village was in the southeastern part of the Kalos region, which wasn't too far from the Allearth Forest.
It wouldn't take much time to go search for it.
"That's great! Jirachi! We're going to send you home."
Diancie lifted Jirachi high up.
"Really? Thank you, Diancie, Kazuya."
Jirachi happily waved its small hands.
"Hey hey, there's me too."
Volcanion quickly spoke up to show His presence.
"Master, when are we setting out?"
Diancie turned her head to look at Kazuya.
When Kazuya was present.
Decisions were basically made by him.
Only when Kazuya wasn't present.
Would Volcanion, who had gradually become able to stand on His own over these years, take charge.
As for Diancie herself.
She wasn't good at using her brain, so she didn't have many opinions of her own.
This point was also the opposite of the Diancie from three thousand years later.
"No rush, this child just woke up. You guys take it to eat something and play for a while first."
Kazuya reached out and rubbed Jirachi's head.
The little guy was soft and squishy.
The feeling of petting it was extremely nice.
He, on the other hand, needed to consider a few things.
For example...
The approximate location of the Pokémon Village.
The reason why Jirachi could only stay awake for seven days.
And the unspoken rules of its wish-granting ability.
These were all areas that needed consideration.
There were quite a few things.
Kazuya needed to make a sound plan.
To ensure that within the seven days, while sending Jirachi back to its hometown, he could also smoothly let it use the True Eye on its stomach to absorb the energy of the Millennium Comet and complete his wish.
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