Hoopa’s Question

Rope waved gently at the two people in the distance.

He was leaving, and he hadn't informed many people. He had only asked Sennogi and the others to come and see him off. Rope wasn't one for pomp and circumstance, and as an outsider, there was no need to make a big deal out of his departure.

"You can go back now. I'm leaving too."

Sennogi and Takeshi, standing by the shore, looked up at the sky above the lake. There, Rope spread his fiery wings, flapping them as he hovered mid-air, seeming to wave at them. Though he was far away, they felt as though Rope were speaking directly to them.

"Be careful on your journey."

Sennogi said seriously. Though she didn't know what they would face when traveling through time and space, she knew it wouldn't be as dangerous as walking from the village entrance to the city.

Rope nodded. Then he looked at Celebi, who was looking troubled.

"What's wrong? Hurry up, everyone is waiting for us to return."

Rope urged with a smile.

Celebi glared at Rope angrily.

"Yes, yes, but if you want to get back sooner, why did you take on this task? Don't you know that bringing back any extra items will further increase the danger of time travel?"

Honestly, Celebi couldn't understand why Rope would agree to such an unreasonable request. The key point was, why did Rope make her do something that Rope had agreed to do?

Is there no law?! Is there no justice?!

Though she glared fiercely at Rope, Celebi's hands didn't stop moving. Her small hands stirred constantly, as if mixing something.

As she stirred, a silver vortex gradually appeared above the lake's surface. A powerful suction force emanated from it.

The calm lake surface suddenly became turbulent. And at the bottom of the lake, the Pokémon who had been living comfortably seemed to collectively realize the dire situation.

Immediately, several Pokémon tried to leap out of the lake onto the ground.

But as soon as they broke the surface, they felt the pulling force descending from above.

Sennogi and Takeshi stared in shock as the entire lake, along with the Pokémon within it, was pulled upward. Looking up from below, it resembled a giant turquoise jelly. The jelly contained numerous Pokémon.

"This is what I promised you, and I will definitely fulfill it."

Sennogi heard Rope's voice in her ear.

Sennogi looked in the direction of Rope. She vaguely saw Rope waving at her. She felt like Rope had winked at her.

"It seems... I don't need to buy that batch of Poké Balls after all."

Takeshi watched this spectacular scene, his lips twitching slightly, unsure of what to say.

In any case... a large sum of money had been saved. This money could be used to continue buying land, as the land prices there weren't too expensive anyway. This amount of money could buy quite a bit of land.

The entire lake was sucked into a silver vortex and transformed into a water ball the size of a basketball.

Rope held the water ball in his hand and covered it with flames. It was as if he were sealing the source itself.

However, the source could contract on its own, so if the flames shrunk, they would shrink as well. Rope dared not shrink the flames.

Even a slight misstep could kill several Pokémon.

Celebi wiped the sweat from his forehead and glared at Rope. "Can we go now?"

As he spoke, he snapped his fingers, and a silver thread intertwined with a pale yellow light appeared before Rope's eyes, forming a portal to another dimension.

Rope nodded and said, "Let's go. The story here... continues."

Then he walked toward the space-time gate without looking back.

In the blink of an eye, the two had disappeared from where they stood.

Sennogi looked at the sky, which no longer showed any signs of the supernatural, and a look of regret involuntarily appeared on his face.

Takeshi's face, however, was filled with more distress.

"That bastard Rope left so decisively, but who's going to clean up this mess here???"

Looking at the large lake before him, now drained of water, Takeshi had no idea how to proceed.

"I'll handle it."

Just as Takeshi was struggling with the dilemma, Sennogi's voice suddenly rang out beside him.

The high priestess of the shrine looked at the reappeared source of water before her, about to kneel down to pray and have a long-awaited conversation with the source of water.

They had been together for decades, but this was the first time they had been separated for such a long time.

But before the high priestess could kneel down, the source of water trembled slightly, as if apologizing to the high priestess.

Then, to the high priest's astonished gaze, it flew out of the temple.

In the village, everyone saw a water-blue streak of light fly out of the temple and head toward the lake.

Everyone had also witnessed the miracle by the lake earlier, but since there had been so many incredible things happened in recent days, their emotions remained relatively stable.

Before they could reach the lakeside, the miracle had already vanished.

Just as they were about to disperse, upon seeing the blue streak of light, they paused for a moment before ultimately heading back toward the lakeside.

At the lakeside, Takeshi was about to ask Sennogi how she planned to handle the situation. But before he could speak, Sennogi waved her hand, and in an instant, the water-blue streak of light appeared on the horizon.

The water-blue streak of light rushed toward Sennogi and transformed into a diamond-shaped gemstone at her side.

Sennogi pressed the gemstone against her forehead, returning to the state she had been in when she had subdued Kujira.

Under Takeshi's astonished gaze, Sennogi clasped her hands together and slowly opened them toward the sky.

A pitch-black cloud appeared above the large lake, while the rest of the village and the entire Thousand Lakes Wetland were hit by a light rain.

Only the sky above the central lake was drenched in rain. In an instant, a layer of water gathered at the bottom of the lake.

Takeshi looked at Sennogi, who exuded a sense of sacred authority. He finally realized that after Rope arrived, his sister was no longer just a simple human being.

She wielded the power of water. She was the true embodiment of the source of water.

At that moment, many people in the village had already gathered by the lake. They saw the completely different rainfall over the central lake and above their heads, and they saw Sennogi's sacred figure.

Many recognized her as Sennogi. Many dared not acknowledge her as Sennogi.

In their eyes, Sennogi was still the beautiful little girl who grew more endearing as she grew older.

Not the divine figure before them, who could effortlessly annihilate them with a single gesture.

Watching Sennogi's movements and silhouette, countless hearts tightened. They recalled unpleasant memories and fell into an inexplicable panic.

Where there are people, there are conflicts; it is the same everywhere.

"Brother."

Sennogi's voice suddenly reached Takeshi's ears through the rain.

Takeshi looked up at Sennogi in the sky.

The rain fell steadily. Sennogi's divine robe showed no traces of stone carvings, but his hair and face were already soaked by the rain.

"Rope has already told me everything."

Rainwater trickled down Sennogi's cheeks, dripping into the puddles on the ground. 

"I... I'm really envious! And I want to work hard to make this wish come true."

"It's so unfair. Rope can see me just by going back, but I have to wait so long to see him again."

The rain fell harder, and the wind whimpered.

The central lake was about to overflow.

Just like the sadness that was about to overflow in my heart.

In the spacetime tunnel, Celebi looked at the young man beside her for a long time, then let out a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?"

Rope had noticed her gaze all along, but hadn't asked.

"Nothing, I just wanted to say... you're such a heartless person."

Celebi looked serious and disgusted.

"A human life is short. Sometimes, even if you want to, you can't do what you want. Do you know what sixty years means to an ordinary human? Do you know what sixty years means to someone who hasn't experienced the hardships of immortality?"

Rope said nothing.

After a moment, he smiled.

"People with such insight are different. Their words are so profound."

"I'm different. I'm just a rough person who doesn't understand anything. For my own goals, I can sacrifice a lot, and I can make others sacrifice a lot too."

"I've never been a good person or a kind person."

"Before I achieve my purpose, everything that stands in my way must be destroyed."

Rope said this with a smile on his face. But the gaze he revealed was like a knife.

Celebi knew she couldn't say anything else. Anything else would be meaningless. She was also well aware that her fragile relationship with Rope wasn't enough to allow her to act recklessly in his presence.

Although this was the spacetime tunnel, her territory, she truly felt that thinking she could handle Rope here would be overly arrogant.

Celebi wasn't that kind of person. She knew exactly what she could and couldn't do.

As for what she had asked Rope to do, it wasn't urgent. Time held no meaning for Celebi.

They could easily extend the time they needed to prepare indefinitely.

Seeing that Celebi wasn't speaking, Rope ignored her and instead focused on the bizarre sights within the spacetime tunnel.

Last time, he had felt various discomforts in the spacetime tunnel, but this time, he felt no discomfort at all. Instead, he felt a warm and comfortable sensation, as if he were sunbathing on a beach. He didn't know what was going on.

However, Rope wasn't stupid. He quickly thought of the mark on his hand. He raised his hand to look, and sure enough, the mark, which resembled a serpent eating its own tail, was glowing continuously.

Rope didn't know what it meant, but he assumed it must be something that helped him adapt to this environment.

Although Rope never wanted to experience time travel again.

Danger was one thing, but more than that was the entanglement of cause and effect and the mind. Once you crossed time and space, this entanglement felt like crocodiles tearing at your heart. Death rolled.

Up ahead, a white light appeared.

"We're here."

As Celebi whispered softly, a flash of white light appeared before Rope's eyes, followed by the familiar sensation of weightlessness.

However, this time, before Rope could spread his fiery wings, he had already touched the ground.

Then came the feeling of something hitting his stomach. Fortunately, he wasn't far from the ground, so it didn't hurt too much.

"You're back? So soon?"

Whitley's voice rang in Rope's ears. Opening his eyes, he saw Whitley's hanging braid and those sparkling eyes.

Rope lay on the ground, looking at the young girl bent over him, and smiled, "Quick? This was a long journey!"

Rope felt a sense of nostalgia.

Celebi hopped on Rope's stomach twice, hummed, and then turned back into a leaf, returning to Rope's chest.

Daisy reached out her hand to Rope, who took it and stood up.

Before he could thank Daisy, he saw Sennogi over there.

Sennogi was smiling gently, looking at the person in front of her.

As Rope looked at Sennogi's gentle and innocent smile, he felt as though he had been transported to another world.

"You're back."

Sennogi said softly.

The confusion on Rope's face faded, replaced by a gentle smile.

"I'm back."

Thus, this was the third time Rope and Sennogi had met.

"How long have I been gone?"

Rope asked suddenly, as if remembering something.

"About ten minutes, not very long."

Whitley glanced at his watch and said seriously.

"Enough talk, there's a lot to do. Our mission is still daunting!"

Rope said, then stood up and started to walk toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

Daisy saw Rope preparing to leave and asked.

"I'll go to Grass Village first, then mark the locations of all the villages. Check if there are any human settlements already known to the League, starting with those still inhabited."

Rope briefly outlined his plan, then turned to Whitley and said, "Whitley, you'll come with me, along with Hoopa."

"Aren't we going to save Celebi first?"

Just as Whitley was about to pack her things, Hoopa suddenly spoke up.

All eyes turned to Hoopa, puzzled as to why Hoopa was so boldly questioning Rope's decision today.

Rope looked at Hoopa's serious expression and sighed helplessly, "First of all, saving Celebi can wait. After all, we're traveling through time to save him."

"But saving someone on the same timeline doesn't have the constraints of time."

Hoopa spoke just as seriously.

Rope was quite surprised by Hoopa's knowledge. After all, not everyone knew such things.

"That's right, there are fewer obstacles on the same timeline, but I already have the means to change history."

Rope waved the mark on his hand.

"Secondly... Celebi is still asleep. Without her, without coordinates, how do you plan to find another Celebi?"

Rope also spoke up after five years of silence.

Hoopa was completely speechless.

It seems... that's how it is!

"Desperate measures are not advisable. Hoopa, even in such a situation, you must remain calm first."