“Ko-gee?”
Gastly circled the Mega Stone in Nathan Hale’s hand, its face full of curiosity.
A Mega Stone?
What’s that?
“If I remember correctly, this should be your Mega Stone, too.”
Nathan Hale rubbed the spherical stone in his hand and murmured.
“Ko-gee?”
Mine?
Gastly froze.
So what exactly is this thing?
“Mega Stones…”
Seeing Gastly’s utterly bewildered expression, Nathan Hale smiled and began to explain.
As everyone knew, with only a few exceptions, most Pokémon had either one or two stages of evolution.
Take Gastly, for example.
Its first evolution was Haunter, and its second was Gengar.
Gengar was its final evolutionary form.
After that, no matter how much its strength or level increased, Gengar’s appearance wouldn’t change very much.
However, if it possessed the corresponding Gengarite, along with a Key Stone capable of unlocking the power of Mega Evolution, and Gengar had developed a sufficiently strong bond with its Trainer, it could undergo Mega Evolution and become Mega Gengar!
And that was what a Mega Stone was for.
“Ko…
gee.”
Mega Gengar?
Gastly secretly swallowed, its eyes shining.
Doesn’t that name alone sound incredibly powerful?
Mega!
“You need to evolve into Gengar first.”
Nathan Hale poured a bucket of cold water over Gastly’s fantasies.
“Ko-gee!”
But Gastly didn’t seem discouraged in the slightest.
It nodded solemnly.
Looks like I need to train hard!
Seeing this, Nathan Hale smiled.
He hadn’t expected the Mega Stone to serve as such an effective source of motivation.
Normally, Gastly couldn’t exactly be called lazy during training, but Pokémon like Gastly were naturally mischievous and sly.
Whenever Nathan Hale wasn’t watching, it would find some way to slack off.
He had never really found a good solution to that.
Now, however, with the Mega Stone and the lure of becoming Mega Gengar, Gastly might actually train more seriously.
But compared to Gastly’s simple fantasies about the future, Nathan Hale was thinking much further ahead.
Why had the Mega Stone fallen into Dr.
Solas’s hands?
And why were the people from Da Zi Jin Holdings so desperate to obtain it?
There were two theories regarding the origin of Mega Stones.
The first was that Mega Stones might have been created when certain special stones, such as Fire Stones and Water Stones, were exposed to the energy of Xerneas and Yveltal after being struck by the Ultimate Weapon approximately three thousand years ago.
That was why so many Mega Stones could be found scattered throughout the Kalos region.
The second theory was that, more than a thousand years ago, an unprecedentedly massive meteorite had struck the Hoenn region, creating what was now Sootopolis City.
At the center of that meteorite was an enormous Key Stone.
The Mega Stones and Key Stones scattered throughout Hoenn were fragments of that meteorite.
Therefore, finding a Mega Stone in Hoenn wasn’t particularly difficult to accept.
But the problem was…
Why would Da Zi Jin Holdings, an energy company, be interested in Mega Stones?
And how had they known that Dr.
Solas possessed one?
Unless he figured out those two questions, even if Nathan Hale had managed to fool Dahui, as long as he kept Gengar’s Mega Stone, there was a good chance they would come looking for him again.
“Wait.”
Nathan Hale brought over his computer.
He began searching through the history of Devon Corporation and Da Zi Jin Holdings.
Very quickly, drawing upon his knowledge of the Pokémon world’s lore, he found the key.
∞ Energy!
Or, as it could also be called, Life Energy.
It had been proposed by the grandfather of Devon Corporation’s current president, inspired by the Ultimate Weapon from three thousand years ago.
After generations of refinement, the technology had finally been successfully developed.
Devon Corporation was ostensibly a manufacturing company, yet it had developed technology capable of converting life energy into ∞ Energy.
Combined with the problems plaguing Da Zi Jin Holdings as an energy company, this ultimately led to Da Zi Jin Holdings’s bankruptcy.
At the same time, this energy technology had helped Devon Corporation grow into the colossal company it was today, powerful enough to rival Silph Co.
of the Kanto region.
And according to the theories surrounding the origin of Mega Stones…
Mega Stones themselves originated from the Ultimate Weapon.
Their energy, theoretically speaking, was likewise a form of Life Energy, or ∞ Energy.
So naturally, the people from Da Zi Jin Holdings were pursuing Mega Stones for the sake of ∞ Energy.
With that deduction, many of the questions suddenly made sense.
After going through all the information, Nathan Hale sat in his chair, resting his chin on one hand as he fell into thought.
Now that he understood the situation, he had indeed come up with several ways to eliminate the trouble completely.
But they would require careful planning.
For now, after dealing with Dahui, the remnants of Da Zi Jin Holdings probably wouldn’t come looking for him again anytime soon.
That gave him some breathing room.
“Gastly, let’s continue practicing your use of Hypnosis—”
“Ko-gee—”
Unexpectedly, Gastly’s voice came from the kitchen.
Accompanied by the smell of gas, Gastly floated over to him.
It had somehow gotten another size bigger.
Its face wore an awkward grin.
Only three seconds!
I only went over by three seconds!
One human and one Pokémon stared at each other for several seconds.
“Hic—”
Nathan Hale: “…”
The next day.
Nathan Hale dressed somewhat formally and left home with Gastly.
He had a Pokémon Psychology class to teach that day.
The autumn temperature in Rustboro City was fairly pleasant.
Yesterday’s rain had caused the previously oppressive heat to drop sharply, so even though Nathan Hale was wearing a shirt, vest, and simple suit, he didn’t feel particularly warm.
His class was during the second period, so he spent the time beforehand resting in the counseling room.
Nathan Hale made coffee and organized his lesson plans.
Gastly watched videos.
Recently, Gastly had become quite fond of watching videos on Nathan Hale’s computer.
And, surprisingly, it really had learned quite a few things from them.
When the bell signaling the end of first period rang, Nathan Hale brought Gastly with him to the classroom.
Pokémon Psychology was a relatively unpopular elective.
That was obvious from the fact that Nathan Hale had only taught his first class several days after the semester began.
So there was no need for a massive lecture hall.
His class was held in a small, somewhat secluded classroom on the second floor.
However, when Nathan Hale reached the staircase on the first floor, he encountered a tall female teacher with long black hair coming toward him.
“Teacher Nathan Hale, heading to class?”
The woman wore a light-blue dress and looked gentle enough, though her smile carried a hint of distance.
“Yes.
I didn’t expect Teacher A Quan to remember me.”
“Teacher Nathan Hale, you’re joking.
We weren’t sitting very far apart at the last faculty meeting.
You should get to class.
We’ll chat another time.”
“Sure.”
The instant Nathan Hale passed by Teacher A Quan, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
An icy coldness surged upward, penetrating straight to his bones.
A Quan.
Aqua’s A Quan!
One of the three senior executives of Team Aqua!
If he hadn’t happened to encounter her today, Nathan Hale really might never have remembered that among the hundreds of teachers at Rustboro Pokémon Academy, there was actually someone like her.
Nathan Hale took a deep breath.
His pace never changed as he continued up the stairs.
Team Aqua was still lying low.
Diantha—no, even Steven—had yet to become Champion.
There should still be quite some time before the “Land-Sea Conflict” between Team Aqua and Team Magma erupted.
And here at the academy, A Quan was merely an ordinary instructor teaching marine meteorology.
As long as he didn’t provoke her, there shouldn’t be any problems.
He couldn’t even be certain that A Quan had already become one of Team Aqua’s executives at this point.
On the surface, they were simply two insignificant teachers at a prestigious Pokémon academy.
That status was already excellent for ordinary people, but to powerful Trainers, it was hardly anything remarkable.
That distance in her smile…
Good.
The farther apart, the better.
Preferably, we never have to meet again.
“Ko-gee.”
Gastly poked its head out from behind Nathan Hale’s clothes, narrowing its eyes at A Quan’s retreating figure.
Who are you looking down on?
It licked its long tongue.