The gears of time turned slowly, and before anyone realized it, another year had passed.
On a day when the sunlight was just right, Ash stepped into Viridian Forest.
The forest was filled with the familiar scent of grass and trees.
Birdsong and the chirping of insects wove together into a natural melody.
He had come here to help Professor Oak conduct some ecological research on Pokémon.
As Ash walked, he would occasionally stop to record traces of Pokémon activity around him.
While he was focused on taking notes, a faint, almost imperceptible ripple suddenly spread beside him.
He turned his head and discovered, to his shock, that an invisible pink Pokémon had appeared at his side.
The Pokémon was small and looked very much like an adorable little cat.
It also had a long tail, the tip swaying lightly.
It circled Ash playfully, its body glowing with a faint pink light.
Ash’s eyes instantly widened, and his mouth opened unconsciously, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
“Mew?” he whispered, his voice full of surprise.
After all, Mew was a legendary Pokémon—an extremely rare one.
He had never expected to encounter it here in Viridian Forest.
So, should he say this was exactly what he should expect from the number one wandering troublemaker of the Pokémon world?
Ash’s heart leapt with joy, and he took some sweet Energy Cubes from his backpack.
Mew’s little pink nose twitched gently.
It curiously floated closer, lowering its small head and sniffing carefully.
Then a trace of delight flashed through its eyes.
A moment later, it stretched out its tiny paws, picked up one Energy Cube, and placed it into its mouth.
“Mew~”
Mew let out a satisfied little cry, an expression of enjoyment appearing on its face.
Its tail also began swaying happily.
Before long, it had eaten all the Energy Cubes Ash offered.
Watching Mew eat with such relish, Ash could not help showing a gentle smile.
“If you like them, I still have more,” he said softly, taking out a few more Energy Cubes.
Pichu watched Mew from the side, its eyes full of friendliness.
Every now and then, it called out a couple of times as if greeting Mew.
After finishing the food, Mew circled Ash a few more times, then stopped in front of him.
It tilted its head, its watery eyes staring at him as though expressing thanks.
Ash could not resist reaching out, wanting to pat Mew on the head.
The instant his fingers touched Mew’s soft fur, a strange sensation surged through his heart.
It felt like a peculiar electric current spreading from his fingertips throughout his entire body.
His body jolted sharply.
His eyes widened, and surprise appeared on his face.
Immediately after, he felt as if something inside his body was stirring.
A special power was slowly awakening.
[Congratulations, host.
You have obtained psychic powers.]
The system’s familiar voice rang out in his mind, clear and shocking.
Ash was both startled and delighted.
He had never expected that this contact with Mew would actually allow him to gain psychic powers.
He tried to focus his mind, sensing the newly awakened power inside his body.
A small stone in front of him slowly rose and floated in the air.
Seeing this, Ash felt an indescribable rush of excitement.
“Pichu, look!” he said excitedly, pointing at the floating stone for the Pichu on his shoulder.
Pichu’s eyes also widened as it cried, “Pichu, Pichu!” Clearly, it was also very surprised and happy that Ash had suddenly gained psychic powers.
Mew watched Ash from the side, seeming to understand what had happened.
It gave a soft “Mew~,” as though celebrating for him.
Ash took a deep breath and withdrew his psychic power.
The stone slowly dropped back to the ground.
He knew that even though he had gained psychic powers, he would still need practice before he could use them skillfully.
Thinking of that, he looked at Mew and said gratefully, “Thank you, Mew.”
Mew tilted its head, circled Ash a few more times, then turned and flew toward the depths of the forest.
Ash stood where he was, his gaze following Mew’s pink figure as it gradually disappeared into the distance.
Then he pulled out a portable camera.
With a click, that moment was forever frozen in the frame.
…
The setting sun dyed the river a flowing amber.
Ash crouched beside the moss-covered pebbles, the cold river water flowing over his fingers.
“Finally done.” Ash washed his hands and let out a breath of relief.
Suddenly, the Pichu on his shoulder shot upright.
Its little paws pointed anxiously upstream, its cry carrying obvious panic.
“Pichu!
Pichu!”
Following Pichu’s paw, Ash looked upstream and saw a brown shadow drifting toward them.
The muddy current carried dead branches and fallen leaves, pushing the shadow in and out of sight.
Ash narrowed his eyes and finally saw the creature curled up on a piece of driftwood.
It was an Eevee, soaked from head to toe.
The fluffy cream-colored fur around its neck was covered in mud, bobbing helplessly with the water.
Eevee was lying on a rotting log, almost completely submerged in the river.
Its half-lidded brown eyes were clouded with water, and its ears, tangled with water grass, drooped limply on both sides of its head.
Every wave that struck it made its weak body tremble.
A wound on its hind leg glowed a ghastly red in the river water.
Threads of blood seeped through its fur and into the stream, startling several small fish into fleeing.
“It’s an Eevee!”
Ash’s pupils contracted sharply.
His heartbeat suddenly quickened, and all that remained in his ears was the roar of rushing water.
He had no time to think.
Instinctively, he drew on the psychic power that had just awakened inside him.
A pale blue glow burst from his palm.
Gentle telekinesis turned into an invisible hand, supporting the trembling little creature.
In front of that power, the rapid current seemed to slow.
Eevee’s mud-covered ears trembled faintly.
Its once-unfocused gaze suddenly gathered, looking toward the young man reaching out to it.
When it was gently lifted from the water, droplets still fell from its soaked fur.
But now that its hind leg was no longer submerged, the wound no longer looked quite so horrifying.
Ash immediately cradled Eevee carefully in his arms, his body warmth passing through his drenched clothes.
“Don’t be scared.
You’re okay now,” he said in an extremely soft voice, gently brushing the water grass from Eevee’s face with his fingertips.
The little creature in his arms trembled and nuzzled toward the warmth.
Its damp nose lightly pressed against his wrist as it gave a weak “Eevee,” its tail brushing powerlessly over the back of his hand.
Ash knelt on one knee on the gravel-covered riverbank and carefully laid Eevee flat on a clean grass pad.
Pichu obediently crouched nearby, its round eyes fixed on the injured Eevee without blinking.
Ash opened the hidden compartment of his backpack and took out a first aid kit.
After giving Eevee emergency treatment, Ash immediately picked it up and ran toward the nearest Pokémon Center.
…
When the neon sign of the Pokémon Center finally lit up in his vision, Ash practically slammed through the glass doors.
Nurse Joy heard the commotion and looked up.
The smile on her face instantly turned serious.
“Nurse Joy, please save it!” Ash gently placed Eevee on the examination table.
Beneath the mud-stained bandages, blood had begun to seep out again.
Nurse Joy immediately began examining it with practiced movements.
Her fingers hovered over the wound on Eevee’s hind leg.
“The infection is serious.
It needs surgery immediately.”
She looked up at the young man’s face, her tone softening.
“You treated it in time.
If you had been half an hour later…”
Before she could finish, the treatment room doors had already been pushed open.
Ash could only watch through the glass as the lights came on and Eevee’s small figure was swallowed by a wash of white light.
Pichu jumped onto his shoulder and rubbed its cheek against his.
Every second of waiting felt especially long.
Ash slowly slid down the wall and sat on the floor, the image of Eevee struggling in the river flashing repeatedly before his eyes.
The smell of disinfectant grew sharper in his nose as Ash leaned against the cold, hard wall of the Pokémon Center.
Pichu curled up on his lap, its fur brushing against his palm.
Suddenly, Ash remembered something.
He reached into his pocket and took out a small shard of glass.
It was something he had removed from the fur around Eevee’s neck.
The shard was unusually hard.
It was clearly reinforced glass, the kind only laboratories would use.
Professor Oak’s research institute used glass like this.
“Man-made…” Ash whispered.
…
Fifty meters beneath Viridian City, the fluorescent tubes in a laboratory buzzed faintly.
A researcher in a white coat had cold sweat beading at his temples.
His fingertips repeatedly rubbed the edge of a communicator, and the “R” symbol was especially obvious under the light.
“Boss, bad news.
Experimental Subject 001 escaped.” His voice echoed through the sealed space.
The surveillance footage suddenly flickered violently.
In the looping video, the Eevee that should have been weak and frail arched its back, every strand of fur standing on end.
The next second, its brown eyes suddenly glowed with an eerie red light.
As its front paw clawed at the air, the metal bars twisted and warped like hot wax.
Amid the spray of reinforced glass shards, the laboratory’s blast-proof glass shattered with a thunderous crash.
“Oh?
It escaped?” A deep voice came from the screen, accompanied by the sound of a leather chair turning.
The middle-aged man in the chair turned around.
“It doesn’t matter.
It’s only an Eevee.
If it ran, then it ran.” He reached out and switched off the screen.
The instant the screen went dark, the cold smile on his face was like a snake flicking its tongue.
His fingertips tapped across the keyboard, and another set of images opened on the curved monitor.
Inside a cultivation chamber, a white embryo slowly stretched its limbs in pale green nutrient fluid.
Beneath skin like mother-of-pearl, blood vessels could be faintly seen spreading like a spiderweb.
“Mewtwo…”
The man pressed his fingers against the screen, as if he wanted to pierce through the cold glass and touch that unfinished life.
“The moment you succeed, the entire world will crawl beneath my feet.”
…
The sun set in the west.
After an unknown amount of time, the door to the treatment room finally opened.
Nurse Joy removed her mask, revealing a relieved smile.
“The surgery was successful.
Eevee is out of danger now.”
When Ash rushed into the observation room, Eevee was lying on a padded hospital bed.
He called home to explain the situation, then stayed there to keep Eevee company.
…
Amid the steady beeping of the monitor, he sat down on a folding chair beside the bed and carefully held Eevee’s little paw.
“Don’t be scared,” he whispered.
“From now on, no one will ever hurt you again.”
Outside the window, the night deepened.
The lights of the Pokémon Center spread a warm glow across the glass, surrounding the young man and the sleeping Pokémon.
…
At two in the morning, the Pokémon Center was so quiet that the hum of the ventilation ducts could be heard.
Amid the steady beeping of the monitor, Eevee’s ears moved first.
Its eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
The pain after the anesthetic wore off sent spasms through its hind leg.
But when its gaze fell on Ash’s crooked sleeping posture, a soft whimper escaped its throat.
The young man’s cheek was pressed against the cold metal bedrail, his hair falling over his forehead.
His right hand was still holding Eevee’s little paw.
Memories surged in like a tide.
The warm embrace that had suddenly appeared in the river, the warmth from this human’s palm, and that voice piercing through the roar of the water—
“Don’t be scared.”
Eevee trembled as it pushed itself up.
The bandages rubbed against the bedsheet with a faint rustling sound.
It carefully moved around the IV tube.
Every inch it shifted pulled painfully at its wound.
When its fluffy belly finally pressed against Ash’s cheek, the young man’s eyelashes trembled slightly, but he still did not wake.
Eevee rubbed its nose against his temple and buried its head deep into the crook of his neck, which carried the scent of sunlight.
The monitor’s green light flickered in the darkness, and the footsteps of a night-shift nurse sounded faintly in the distance.
On that small hospital bed, the injured Pokémon and the sleeping young man shared each other’s warmth in the silent night, as though two stars had finally found the orbit where they were meant to meet.