Gary offered no explanation to the Legendary Beasts. There was nothing more to say — actions would speak far louder than words ever could.
He waited in patient silence as the soft healing light radiating from the two Heal Balls gradually faded and dissolved into the cool air. Then, with steady hands, he pressed the release buttons and let Entei and Suicune materialize onto the ground before him.
Both Legendary Pokémon were still unconscious, their massive bodies sprawled across the cobblestones with the heavy stillness of the defeated. Their injuries had been mended by the Heal Balls, their burns and bruises erased, but the trauma of losing so decisively had pulled them deep beneath the surface of wakefulness. Still, they were Legendary-tier Pokémon — creatures forged by forces older than memory. They would not sleep for long.
Raikou moved the instant it saw its companions laid out on the ground. The electric tiger crossed the distance in a single bound, planting itself between Gary and the fallen pair, its golden mane crackling with residual voltage, its eyes blazing with fierce, protective fury. Every muscle in its body was coiled and ready, a living lightning bolt waiting to strike.
Tyranitar watched from Gary's side but made no move to intercept. It simply stood there, arms crossed, radiating an aura of quiet dominance that made the surrounding air feel heavier.
"Raikou," Gary said, keeping his voice calm and even. He stepped forward slowly, hands open at his sides. "I have no malice toward any of you. I only intervened to stop you from doing something you would deeply regret — cornering a mother and her child who have done nothing wrong." He held the electric beast's burning gaze. "Now that tempers have cooled, can we talk?"
Gary knew Raikou understood every word. The Legendary Beasts were not simply powerful — they were ancient and perceptive, creatures whose intelligence ran as deep as the storms they commanded. He waited, reading the tension in Raikou's posture, watching for the moment the fury softened into reason.
Raikou's growl rumbled low in its chest like distant thunder. It did not attack.
Beneath Raikou's watchful guard, Entei stirred first. The great lion Pokémon's eyes opened slowly, amber irises catching the light. A moment later, Suicune lifted its elegant head, its long cerulean mane pooling around it like water. Both Pokémon rose to their feet — shakily at first, then with the practiced dignity of beings that refused to remain down — and turned their gaze toward Gary with unmistakable hostility.
The weight of three Legendary Pokémon staring him down simultaneously was not something most trainers would endure without flinching. Gary met their collective glare without so much as a step backward.
"Go ahead and glare," he said flatly. "You came here to punish wrongdoers. I respect that. But if you refuse to acknowledge that you were misled, I have no problem doing this again — ten more times if that's what it takes." He let the words land, let the silence after them breathe. "I beat all three of you once already. I'd rather not have to do it again."
Entei and Suicune exchanged a glance. There was something deeply uncomfortable in the expressions on their faces — the particular indignation of noble creatures who had charged in righteously and discovered, mid-charge, that the ground beneath them was not what they had assumed.
They came here as enforcers of justice, Gary thought, watching them. Being told they nearly became the villains of this story stings.
"You were deceived," Gary continued, his tone shifting from steel to something more measured and sincere. "Zoroark is not your enemy. She never was. The true culprit — the one who manipulated this entire situation — is right now inside Crown City. And I can take you directly to him."
The three Legendary Beasts glanced at one another again, something wordless and ancient passing between them in that shared look.
It was Karl who stepped forward then, his weathered face drawn with urgency. Rowena stood beside him, her hands clasped tightly, knuckles pale.
"Entei, Suicune, Raikou — the young man is telling you the truth," Karl said, his voice carrying the quiet gravity of someone who had lived with the weight of Crown City's history for decades. "Zoroark is innocent. Please. Believe him."
Rowena nodded firmly. "We have known Zoroark. She would never bring harm to this city without cause. Someone has been using her — using all of us."
The three Legendary Beasts regarded the two elders for a long moment. Then, one by one, they dipped their great heads — a small, deliberate gesture, but one that carried enormous weight. They were willing to listen.
Gary exhaled quietly. "Okay. Then come with me."
Now that the Legendary Beasts are willing to cooperate, the rest becomes simpler, he thought, his mind already moving ahead to the next obstacle. Grings Kodai himself posed no real physical threat. The man had no remarkable battling ability of his own. His Ghost-type Pokémon were numerous but not particularly powerful. The greater concern was Kodai's subordinate — a trainer named Guen, who fielded a pair of Scizors and a Ninjask. Both were genuinely formidable Bug-type Pokémon, fast and dangerous in their own right. But Gary had watched Zoroark fight, and he knew the Illusion Fox Pokémon could handle them. They were Gym-tier threats at best — dangerous to ordinary trainers, but not to a Zoroark fighting for her child.
The real danger was time. Every second that passed was a second closer to Kodai achieving what he had come to Crown City to do.
"We need to move quickly," Gary said, his voice dropping into something urgent. "Grings Kodai's goal is to absorb the time ripples. If he succeeds, what happened in Crown City twenty years ago will repeat itself — the plants will wither, the city will die, and Celebi will be left devastated."
The effect was immediate.
"What?" Karl's voice cracked. "Twenty years ago?"
Rowena's face had gone pale. "Kodai — he caused that disaster?"
Both of them had lived through the catastrophe of twenty years past. They had watched the flowers and trees of Crown City blacken and wither as though touched by an invisible plague, had breathed the ash-dry air and felt the grief of a city mourning its own green heart. To learn now that it had not been a natural calamity — that it had been engineered by a single man's greed — was a blow that struck deep.
"That's correct," Gary confirmed. "Twenty years ago, Kodai was accidentally exposed to the time ripples and absorbed their energy into his body. That exposure gave him an ability he has treasured ever since — the power to perceive the future. But that power is fading. The energy is running out." His voice hardened. "So he engineered this entire situation. He set up Zoroark, manipulated the Legendary Beasts, and threw this city into chaos — all so he could come here, find the time ripples, and drain them again."
There was no point concealing any of this. Karl's grandson, Kodai's own young attendant who had grown disillusioned with the man's cruelty, already knew the full scope of Kodai's plan. The truth would surface regardless.
Gary turned his gaze back to the Legendary Beasts. "Entei, Suicune, Raikou — once we enter the city, if you encounter Ninjask or Scizor, engage them immediately. Don't hesitate. They are Kodai's Pokémon, and they will be working to keep us away from him."
All three Legendary Beasts responded with low, resonant acknowledgments — not words, but sounds that carried unmistakable intent. They had come to Crown City seeking justice. Now they knew precisely where to aim it.
Moreover, Gary noted with quiet satisfaction, the Legendary Beasts were well aware of Celebi's existence and its sacred connection to the time ripples. The full picture had snapped into focus for them: they had been puppets in Kodai's scheme, manipulated into attacking an innocent Zoroark while the real criminal positioned himself to commit his crime unopposed. The fury that had been directed at Gary and Zoroark was now redirected, concentrated, and burning white-hot toward Grings Kodai.
Old grievances and new ones both, Gary thought, watching the electricity spark quietly along Raikou's flank. Kodai is going to have a very bad day.
"Then we move," Gary said. "Find Kodai. Stop him before he reaches Celebi."
The moment the words left his mouth, all three Legendary Beasts were gone — three streaks of elemental power surging into the streets of Crown City with the force of a breaking storm.
Gary recalled Tyranitar and Blastoise in two flashes of red light, then mounted Zapdos, the Electric-type Legendary Pokémon rising smoothly into the air at his direction. Together, they swept into the ancient city from above, Gary's sharp eyes scanning the winding streets and stone-walled gardens below.
Crown City's old quarter sprawled beneath him like a labyrinth of history — moss-covered walls, arching bridges over narrow canals, and dozens of carefully tended gardens tucked between centuries-old buildings. Gary remembered from what he knew of Kodai's plan that the time ripples were located within one of those gardens. But which one? There were far too many to search individually in the time they had left.
Fortunately, he was not searching alone.
The Legendary Beasts moved through the city streets with breathtaking speed, their supernatural tracking abilities engaged and hunting. They had never encountered Zoroark before today — but they did not need prior familiarity. Zoroark's scent was unique, singular, woven through with something wild and fox-sharp that stood out clearly against the stone-and-moss smell of the old city. Within minutes, all three beasts had converged on the same point.
Gary brought Zapdos down and found them gathered at the edge of a broad courtyard garden, their advance halted.
He understood why the moment he took in the scene.
Zoroark stood rigid in the center of the courtyard, her crimson mane disheveled, her dark eyes locked on the small, limp form cradled in Grings Kodai's arm. Zorua — her child, her reason for enduring every humiliation and every bolt of pain Kodai had forced her to absorb — was motionless, held against Kodai's chest like a hostage and a shield simultaneously.
Zoroark dared not move. She dared not even breathe too sharply.
Ahead of Kodai, barely twenty meters away, the air shimmered with a deep, resonant violet light — the time ripples, pulsing slowly like a wound in the fabric of the world, beautiful and terrible in equal measure.
Kodai's Shuppet hovered nearby, and without a flicker of hesitation, the man issued his command. "Shuppet. Thunderbolt."
The Shuppet released a crackling lance of electricity that struck Zoroark squarely across the chest. The Illusion Fox Pokémon staggered but did not fall, biting back whatever cry of pain rose in her throat. She could not retaliate. She could not flee. The moment she moved against Kodai, Zorua would suffer for it.
Raikou let out a low, furious rumble beside Gary. All three Legendary Beasts turned their eyes toward him, imploring — why aren't we moving? Why are we waiting?
Gary studied the scene with careful, analytical calm. His Eye of Insight — the system ability that allowed him to perceive the true names and identities of Pokémon even through illusions — was already active. And what it showed him was not what the others saw.
The Zorua in Kodai's grip had barely stirred throughout this entire confrontation. For a small Pokémon being carried by an enemy, that stillness was telling. And meanwhile, Kodai himself had been slowly, steadily drifting toward the time ripples — as though drawn by them, as though he could already feel their pull — without seeming to consciously realize he was being guided there.
Zoroark has already begun, Gary thought, a thin smile crossing his face. She's buying time. Everything Kodai thinks he's seeing is a carefully constructed lie.
Entei's roar split the air — low, volcanic, insistent. The great fire lion was urging Gary to act before Kodai reached the ripples.
"Don't worry," Gary said quietly, his voice carrying only to those immediately beside him. "What you're all seeing right now is an illusion. Zoroark has already taken control of the situation. Wait for the illusion to break before any of us makes a move."
The three Legendary Beasts stared at him with expressions that could only be described as scandalized disbelief. They were Legendary-tier Pokémon — beings of elemental majesty and ancient pride — and they had been deceived by an illusion without even realizing it.
The indignity was profound.
Gary didn't linger on their wounded dignity. His gaze had returned to Kodai, who was now striding with purpose toward the shimmering violet light, his mechanical claw device already extending from his sleeve — a cruel instrument engineered specifically for the purpose of siphoning time energy.
On the far side of the courtyard, Ash's voice rang out, raw with desperation. "Stop! If you do this, the forest — everything around this city — will be destroyed! Don't you care about any of that?"
Kodai glanced at him with cold, dismissive contempt. "Why would I? As long as I secure the future, what happens to this city is entirely irrelevant."
He thrust the mechanical claw directly into the heart of the time ripples.
The purple energy responded immediately — surging, eager, pouring into the device and flooding through it into Kodai's body. A dark, luminous aura bloomed around the man like a second skin, pulsing with stolen power. His face twisted into an expression of grotesque euphoria.
"Gengar," Gary said quietly, his voice barely above a murmur. "Get Zorua. Now."
A shadow detached itself from Gary's own shadow on the ground — silent, formless, slipping across the courtyard with the effortless invisibility of a Ghost-type in its element. Gengar moved without sound, without disruption, weaving through the space between Kodai and the real Zorua without disturbing so much as a breath of air.
"Gen," came the softest whisper of a sound, and then Zorua was gone from wherever Zoroark's illusion had concealed her — safely gathered into Gengar's shadowy arms, whisked away before Kodai's absorbed attention could register the movement.
Neither Kodai nor Ash noticed. The illusion held seamlessly around the absence.
"You monster!" Ash shouted, his hands balled into fists at his sides, his voice cracking with fury. "Do you think it means nothing what happens to this city? To the people who live here? To the Pokémon?"
By now, the time ripples had been fully drained. Kodai stood at the center of a swirling corona of dark violet energy, his arms spread wide, his expression one of absolute, triumphant arrogance. The stolen power radiated off him in waves, making the air around him taste like ozone and old, broken things.
"Yes," Kodai said, his voice resonant with borrowed power, loud enough for everyone in the courtyard to hear. "Twenty years ago, it was my encounter with the time ripples that caused the plants of this city to wither and die. All those people who grieved for their gardens, their forests — none of them ever suspected the truth. Not one." He laughed softly. "And now it happens again. And again, no one will know it was me. They will blame Zoroark, just as they always have. The perfect crime, performed twice."