"...That's the situation, Brother Hu. I'll have to trouble you and the Bureau again."
With the large supply of Moon Stones and the long-lasting Poké Blocks Chen Mo had provided, the Clefairy tribe no longer had any worries about food or fuel. They finally agreed to Chen Mo's earlier proposal.
From now on...
This sinkhole would serve as the contact station between the Clefairy tribe and humanity.
Whenever the Clefairy exhausted most of their food or energy supplies while searching the cosmos, they would return here to resupply.
During the rest of the time...
The Countermeasure Bureau would be responsible for protecting the area.
After all...
This place wasn't only the Clefairy's home.
It also contained an enormous Berry forest.
Chen Mo's livestream had already exposed the existence of those rare Berries.
Wealth attracted greed.
If the Bureau didn't take over and secure the location, it would almost certainly become the center of chaos.
"Clef!"
While Chen Mo was gazing thoughtfully at the blue sky above, the large Clefable that served as the tribe's leader hurried over on its short little legs, wearing an excited expression.
Hearing its clear cry, Chen Mo turned toward it with a smile.
"Finished packing everything?"
"Clef!"
The leader nodded vigorously.
Then, before Chen Mo could continue speaking, the Clefable suddenly waved at him before pointing toward the spacecraft behind it.
"...Hm?"
Chen Mo looked puzzled.
Earlier, while the Clefairy had been loading supplies aboard, he had already toured the spacecraft once.
But now...
The leader was obviously asking him to board it again.
Although confused, seeing the anxious look on the Clefable's face, Chen Mo brought Pikachu and Gengar aboard once more.
Inside the futuristic spacecraft...
Countless Clefairy fluttered through the air, carrying out the final inspections before launch.
That's right.
The tiny pink wings on their backs weren't merely decorative.
They really could fly.
Their altitude was limited, but inside the spacecraft they moved around with remarkable convenience.
Not long afterward...
Chen Mo saw a Clefable walking toward him, accompanied by several Clefairy.
Held carefully in its arms...
Was Jirachi's Cocoon of Slumber.
At the chief Clefable's instruction...
Another Clefable reluctantly stepped forward and carefully handed the cocoon to Chen Mo.
"You..."
Chen Mo looked at the leader in surprise.
Since Jirachi had originally been discovered by the Clefairy...
He had briefly considered taking Jirachi with him.
But after witnessing how carefully the Clefairy treated Jirachi as their deity...
He had abandoned that idea.
Instead...
Chen Mo and the Countermeasure Bureau had agreed to provide the Clefairy with food and energy for their future space expeditions.
In exchange...
The Clefairy would allow the Bureau's specialists to study and manage the sinkhole that now served as their habitat.
A fair trade.
Chen Mo had his own principles.
No matter how one looked at it...
He had no reason to take Jirachi away from the Clefairy.
He had already given up on the thought.
Yet now...
Right before parting...
The Clefairy were voluntarily entrusting Jirachi to him.
"Clef, clef~"
The chief Clefable smiled warmly.
After more than two hours of constant conversation...
Chen Mo had gradually become familiar with the Clefairy language.
At this point...
He no longer needed Pikachu's translation.
The chief Clefable explained:
Although they had finally found the deity who had quietly protected them all this time...
After discussing it together...
The tribe concluded that Jirachi originally belonged to this planet.
If they quietly took their sleeping god away into space...
It would be deeply disrespectful.
On top of that...
Outer space itself wasn't exactly safe.
After much consideration...
The Clefairy decided to leave their divine guardian—Jirachi—here on Earth.
"I see..."
"I don't have any objections."
"But, Clefable..."
"I can tell your tribe has a very favorable impression of humans."
"You trust us very easily."
"As a human, I'm naturally happy that your people think so highly of us."
"However..."
Chen Mo accepted the Cocoon of Slumber while speaking slowly.
"Humans are much more complicated than you imagine."
"In the future, whenever you return to Earth, you'll meet many different kinds of people."
"When that happens..."
"I hope you'll remember what I'm about to say."
"No matter what..."
"Always keep a certain level of caution."
"Don't trust humans too easily."
"...Including me."
Now that Pokémon had become widespread...
An ultra-rare species like Clefairy already attracted tremendous attention.
Combined with what they'd demonstrated during the livestream...
They were simply far too innocent.
To keep these adorable extraterrestrials from becoming easy targets for malicious people...
Chen Mo felt obligated to offer this warning.
The earlier part of his speech...
The chief Clefable nodded repeatedly.
But...
When Chen Mo said, "Including me..."
The Clefable immediately shook its head.
The next second...
It looked directly into Chen Mo's eyes with complete seriousness.
"Clef! Clef, clef!"
"You are also our god."
"No matter what happens..."
"No matter what circumstances we encounter..."
"We will always believe in you."
July 15th. 5:38 PM.
Riding atop Pidgeotto...
Chen Mo hovered above the rim of the sinkhole.
Silently...
He watched the Clefairy's spacecraft slowly ascend into the sky.
Higher...
Higher...
Until it became nothing more than a tiny shining star...
Before finally disappearing into the endless blue.
Just then...
A thought suddenly occurred to him.
Compared with China's rockets...
The Clefairy's spacecraft was clearly far more advanced.
With technology like theirs...
Simply landing on Earth shouldn't have damaged the ship so severely.
"Could it be..."
According to legend...
The eternal ruler of the skies—Rayquaza—
Lived within Earth's ozone layer, invisible to ordinary human eyes.
It possessed one well-known habit.
Whenever lifeforms from outer space entered Earth's atmosphere...
If Rayquaza judged them to be invading its territory...
It would attack without hesitation.
The events of Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys had begun exactly because Rayquaza relentlessly pursued Deoxys after its arrival on Earth.
"...Damn."
"I actually forgot about that."
Chen Mo frowned deeply.
At that moment...
Marshadow's voice echoed in his mind.
"Don't worry."
"Someone of that one's status wouldn't bother slaughtering a group of Clefairy."
"The damage to their spacecraft was probably nothing more than a casual warning."
"...You're probably right."
Chen Mo sighed softly.
Legend claimed that Rayquaza fed on meteorites.
But he'd never heard of it taking any particular interest in Clefairy.
Besides...
Other extraterrestrial Pokémon like Solrock and Lunatone also descended from space.
As far as anyone knew...
The only cosmic Pokémon Rayquaza had ever relentlessly hunted...
Was another Legendary of comparable rank—
Deoxys.
From that perspective...
Rayquaza probably wasn't interested in weak Pokémon arriving from outer space.
Still...
The Clefairy had already departed.
Even if Chen Mo immediately gave chase atop Pidgeotto...
He'd never catch up.
All he could do...
Was silently hope they would leave Earth's atmosphere safely.
"...No matter how many times I see it..."
"It's still unbelievable."
Standing once again above the sinkhole...
Chen Mo looked toward the sparse forests and yellowed earth beyond the mountains.
Then compared it with the vibrant greenery inside the crater.
The contrast...
Was simply astonishing.
He had already confirmed the truth about the Berry forest with the Clefairy.
The Berry seeds themselves...
Had all been gathered by the Clefairy from outside.
Some had even been gifts from kind wild Pokémon.
As for growing them...
This was actually the Clefairy's first time cultivating such plants.
In fact...
At the beginning...
Even common Oran Berries died in huge numbers.
The turning point...
Had come only after they discovered Jirachi's Cocoon of Slumber.
There was little doubt.
The existence of the Berry forest...
Was inseparable from Jirachi.
"It seems..."
"You've figured out this little one's ability."
Marshadow spoke again.
Chen Mo nodded.
"More or less."
"But it still feels unbelievable."
Without the help of the Eye of Detection...
The first thing that came to Chen Mo's mind regarding Jirachi was naturally the movie Jirachi: Wish Maker.
In that film...
Jirachi never directly displayed the power to grant wishes.
When Max wished for lots of candy...
Jirachi had simply used Teleport to gather every piece of candy from nearby shops and move them in front of him.
Very similar...
To how Moon Stones had mysteriously appeared before the Clefairy.
But...
Teleport couldn't possibly explain why an entire Berry forest flourished so unnaturally.
It was only after Marshadow reminded him...
That Chen Mo remembered another forgotten scene.
During Ash's journey through Unova...
They had encountered another Jirachi.
One of the local residents—whose name Chen Mo no longer remembered—
Had wished for Jirachi to restore his mountain to its former lush beauty.
Unfortunately...
Team Rocket interfered midway through the process.
Jirachi was forced to use Doom Desire, leaving it badly injured and unconscious.
At that moment...
The resident's father had mentioned an extremely important concept.
"Jirachi seems capable of becoming one with the earth veins and water veins."
In the end...
Jirachi resonated with those veins...
Recovered from its injuries...
And restored life and flowing water to the barren mountain.
Which meant...
Jirachi possessed the ability to manipulate the very ley lines and water veins of the planet.
Chen Mo's theory was simple.
The reason the Berry forest had grown so luxuriantly...
Was likely because sleeping Jirachi had unconsciously activated that ability.
It had drawn energy from the surrounding land and underground water...
Concentrating all of it inside the sinkhole.
That rich, fertile environment...
Allowed the Clefairy to grow enormous quantities of Berries with ease.
An incredible ability.
However...
It was also precisely why Chen Mo found it so difficult to understand.
According to Jirachi's established lore...
After absorbing the power of the Millennium Comet...
It entered deep sleep while returning its energy to the land...
Waiting until its next awakening.
The beautiful environment of Forina in the movie...
Had largely been thanks to Jirachi.
Yet...
Neither the movie nor the anime had ever shown Jirachi using its abilities while still sealed inside the Cocoon of Slumber.
And now...
The Jirachi Chen Mo had received from the Clefairy...
Had already used its powers repeatedly despite remaining asleep.
Honestly...
That completely overturned everything Chen Mo thought he knew.
"Marshadow..."
"You and Jirachi are both Legendary Pokémon."
"Any thoughts on how it's able to use its abilities while still asleep inside the cocoon?"
Chen Mo finally asked.
"What do you mean Marshadow Doraemon?"
"My name is Marshadow!"
Marshadow sounded utterly exasperated.
"Just like your answer earlier..."
"I don't know everything."
"I've never met a Jirachi before."
"And Lord Ho-Oh never told me about them."
"...Fair enough."
"...What's with that expression?!"
Dark smoke billowed from Marshadow.
It wanted nothing more than to leap out of Chen Mo's shadow and punch this infuriating human.
But...
Realizing they were still high in the air...
It reluctantly held back.
After a long pause...
It spoke again.
"So..."
"What are you going to do with Jirachi?"
"Give it to that Countermeasure Bureau?"
"No."
Chen Mo shook his head.
The Clefairy had entrusted Jirachi to him because they trusted him.
There was no way he'd simply hand it over.
Unlike Meloetta...
Who had already spent a long time among humans...
Both the movie and anime suggested Jirachi was astonishingly innocent.
"For now..."
"I'll take care of Jirachi myself."
"I just wonder..."
"Whether I'll live long enough..."
"To see this little one awaken from the Cocoon of Slumber."
"Pidgeotto."
"Once we're past the mountains, let's land for a bit."
"I want to make some simple arrangements for Jirachi."
Pidgeotto answered with a loud, spirited cry.
Its body immediately dived toward the sparse woodland below.
After landing...
Chen Mo habitually released his Aura to scan the surroundings.
It was a routine he'd developed during his travels.
Aura... is with me!
The invisible wave spread outward from his body.
At that exact instant...
The Cocoon of Slumber in his arms emitted a faint glow.
Every Pokémon—
Including Marshadow hidden inside his shadow—
Immediately noticed.
In that instant...
The world fell silent.
Infinite darkness swallowed Chen Mo's vision whole.
An overwhelming loneliness flooded everything.
Then...
Within that endless darkness...
A delicate voice rang out.
It sounded as clear as wind chimes.
Yet unbearably lonely...
And heartbreakingly aggrieved.
"...Why..."
"...Why didn't you call for me...?"
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