The Houndoom riding with Darkrai was a massive help, but the sudden downpour made tracking Mira much harder. Her scent was steadily being washed away by the rain.
Fortunately, her escape route was unusually straightforward. She had been running in almost a perfectly straight line, which made Houndoom's job much easier. Along the way, Darkrai and Gardevoir used Psychic to examine the traces left behind on the ground, confirming they were still heading in the right direction.
Darkrai weaved swiftly through the forest while Luther clung to its back, lost in thought.
The only reason he had agreed to Oleander's request was that he'd seen the deep guilt in both her eyes and Cyrus's.
The truth was, neither of them owed him anything. They hadn't done anything wrong; the people at fault were someone else entirely. If leaving the main battlefield would ease their guilt even a little, Luther was willing to do it.
Evergreen's fate was still unknown after the explosion beneath the base. Even if he had survived, the others would capture him and leave him for Luther to deal with later, so Luther could pursue Mira without worrying.
The problem was, he had no idea how he was supposed to face her.
Mira had always been the odd one out in the Hodgepodge Organization. She was like a sheep that had wandered into a pack of wolves; to stay alive, she had no choice but to pretend she was one of them.
Even now, Luther still hadn't decided whether he should kill Mira... or simply let her leave Sinnoh and disappear forever.
His body was growing heavier with every passing minute, and his vision blurred from time to time. Ever since they set out, waves of intense discomfort had been coming and going, settling into a tightness in his chest. Even breathing was becoming difficult.
He hadn't told anyone. When Diantha had asked during the journey if he was alright, he had forced a smile and insisted he was fine. It seemed this was the first time he'd gotten sick since coming to this world, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time.
Darkrai, which had been racing forward, suddenly slammed to a halt. The abrupt stop nearly threw the distracted Luther off its back. Darkrai and Houndoom both turned toward the dense thicket beside their path. Houndoom's nose twitched rapidly, its pupils shrinking as a low growl escaped its throat.
Seeing Houndoom repeatedly lick its paw, Luther immediately understood the signal.
Blood.
Darkrai slowed its pace, carefully approaching the source of the scent with Luther. At first, Houndoom had only caught the faintest trace, but the closer they got, the stronger it became. Soon, even Luther could smell the thick, metallic scent of blood.
Suddenly, Darkrai stepped in front of him. Psychic energy spread outward, scanning the surroundings while remaining alert to every blade of grass.
Peering past Darkrai, Luther saw a corpse lying in the distance. Its lifeless eyes stared blankly into nothing, and a nearby puddle was stained a deep red. Protected by the two Pokémon, Luther slowly walked forward.
Five more bodies lay scattered across the clearing. Amplification Devices were strewn everywhere. Luther accidentally stepped on a broken mechanical part, and the sharp crack startled the already tense Houndoom. Darkrai instantly raised a hand, a Dark Pulse already forming.
These six people were the organization members who had chased after Mira. They had fought her here, and judging from the bodies alone, Mira had won.
Yet, something felt strange. The battlefield had been churned into a muddy mess by the fighting, but there wasn't a single Pokémon in sight. Amplification Devices littered the ground in pieces, yet there were no corpses of Pokémon.
Fighting through the dizziness, Luther carefully searched the muddy ground, hoping to find Poké Balls buried beneath the slush. He found nothing.
Just as he was about to walk around the massive boulder for a closer look, a Gengar emerged silently from the shadows. Darkrai had sensed it long before; it reached out first, intercepting Gengar's Shadow Claw and grabbing its arm, forcibly dragging it out of the darkness.
Still shaken, Luther noticed the Gengar was staring blankly at him. A moment later, the Pokémon suddenly pointed frantically toward the other side of the boulder, shouting at Luther with such desperation that it nearly broke free of Darkrai's grip.
Luther's heart sank as an overwhelming sense of dread spread through him. He hurried around the rock.
Mira sat quietly with her back against it. Her golden hair rested over her shoulders, framing her delicate face, her head leaning slightly to one side. She looked as though she had simply fallen asleep.
But the front of her abdomen was soaked crimson.
Luther knelt beside her and carefully checked for a pulse. Nothing.
His body began trembling violently. He slowly sank to the ground, covering his head helplessly. His thoughts were in complete chaos, and he struggled to breathe. He stood back up, stared blankly at the rain-filled sky, and took a few aimless steps as though his soul had left his body.
Luther suddenly realized something. He had always said the Hodgepodge Organization had to be destroyed, but when it came to Mira... he had never truly hated her.
Five Poké Balls rested beside her. For some reason, in the final moments of her life, Mira had recalled all of her Pokémon, except for this second Gengar, the one that had always remained hidden and never participated in battle.
Still dazed, Luther noticed Gengar holding out the hiking backpack to him. The moment he took it, for just an instant, he could almost see Mira turning back to face her enemies. Without hesitation. Without regret.
Gengar's body trembled uncontrollably, its eyes filled with a grief it could no longer suppress. Gardevoir and Darkrai quietly shielded Luther from the pouring rain as he slowly unzipped the backpack.
There wasn't much inside. A few neatly folded changes of clothes, some travel snacks, and several carefully wrapped letters and documents. Inside the only inner compartment lay a travel guide for the Alola region and a small amount of cash.
The corners of the travel guide were worn from being read so many times. When Luther opened it, he saw every page was covered with little symbols and notes Mira had made. They were messy and cryptic, probably only she knew what any of them meant.
He didn't have the heart to read through it page by page. His chest felt painfully tight, so he flipped straight to the last page. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a tiny line of handwriting in the margin:
"Would things be better if I escaped here?"
Luther let out a long, heavy sigh, still clutching the guide. She really had wanted to run away to somewhere no one knew her. She wanted to give up her dream of becoming a great Pokémon Trainer, give up ever challenging Champions, and simply live a quiet life.
If that was all she wanted, why had she turned back? Luther refused to believe those six pathetic pursuers could have stopped her if she had chosen to run.
A flash of light from Gardevoir illuminated a name written on one of the envelopes tucked into the corner of the backpack.
The recipient's name was Luther.
His heart skipped a beat. He looked up at Gengar, and guided by the Pokémon's Psychic, the letter floated gently into his hands. His fingers trembled as he tore open the envelope.
---
"Champion of the Lily of the Valley Conference.
'Calling you that probably makes you feel pretty good, doesn't it?'
'By the time you read this, I should already be somewhere in Hoenn. Don't come looking for me. It took me so long to finally escape. I hope you'll treat Mira of the Hodgepodge Organization as if she died.'
'Luther... I envy you. I really do.'
'Evergreen once told me that you used to complain all the time about how unlucky you were. That your luck was terrible, and that you always drew the worst brackets.'
'But do you know something? Every time I saw you on television... every time I watched you become the center of attention... I hated you.'
'You had Cynthia's attention. You had Diantha looking after you. Because of Evergreen, what should have been a disaster instead became an opportunity, and you entered the Champions' circle. They valued you. They admired you. They protected you out of guilt, and because of that, you were able to fully discover your own talent.'
'Late at night, when everything was quiet, I always asked myself... what's the difference between you and me? Why could you openly show everyone your talent and become famous, while I could only stay underground, hiding in the shadows, silently watching you grow into everything I'd always wanted to be?'
'Eventually... I found my answer. I was just unlucky. That's all.'
'If I hadn't met Evergreen that day... if I hadn't been tricked into joining the Hodgepodge Organization... if I hadn't become one of them... would I have been standing beside you on the stage of the Lily of the Valley Conference?'
'Was joining the Hodgepodge Organization my fault? What did I do wrong? I never even got to choose. I was dragged onto the wrong path before I understood what was happening. A child barely in her teens had to survive among a group of lunatics. I had to constantly play both sides while proving my usefulness, because otherwise they'd throw me away like garbage.'
'Have you ever thought about what that kind of life was like? I saw those captured Pokémon screaming before the experiments almost every day. It always felt like they were begging me to save them, and I couldn't do anything.'
'You probably think I'm cold-hearted. That I willingly became the organization's tool. That I was too much of a coward to resist, and that I had no backbone. But... how old was I back then?'
'I wanted to live. Was that wrong?'
'I raised such amazing Pokémon. I wanted to stay alive long enough to show everyone my talent. Was that wrong?"'
---
Luther's hands shook violently as he reached the final part of the letter. His nose stung, and rain mixed with tears as they streamed silently down his face.
---
"The information Cyrus received... I was the one who gathered it before sending it out. If you don't believe me, ask Cyrus. There's a little Electrode doodle I drew inside the documents.'
'There's one more thing I need to apologize for. I've always known where your parents' Pokémon were; I just never told you. I hoped one day I could trade that information for something. I know that makes me a terrible person, even though I knew how much you, and they, wanted to see each other again.'
'Deep in the snowy mountains near Snowpoint City, that's where Wigglytuff, Mawile, Amaura, and the others settled down. I only found them by accident while collecting Ice-type Pokémon for the Leaders. Whenever I passed through, I always brought them food. They're doing well, and the Pokémon living nearby aren't strong enough to threaten them.'
'I've already given up on my dream of challenging Champions. I've already given up on proving my strength and my talent. I only want to live a quiet life.'
'Please... tell the Champions to stop looking for me.'
'Goodbye forever.'
'...Mira, the unlucky one."'
---
Still clutching the letter, Luther stood there for a very long time. The letter rambled from thought to thought, as though written by someone desperately trying to pour out everything in her heart before it was too late.
He could no longer hold back his tears. Holding Mira's lifeless body tightly in his arms, Luther finally understood where the conflicting feelings he'd always had toward her came from.
She had never wanted to do the wrong thing; she had simply been forced to. Back at the Sun Heart City Gym, Luther had never understood the meaning behind the way Mira had looked at him. Now, he did.
It had been Admiration. Jealousy. Envy. And hatred.
Mira had resisted countless times. She had helped Cyrus obtain the organization's confidential information. She had kept the whereabouts of Luther's parents' Pokémon a secret.
Even during the battle just now, despite being badly outnumbered, she had stubbornly targeted the Amplification Devices instead of the Pokémon themselves, freeing the creatures under their control.
She had protected the last bit of conscience she still had. But no one had ever been there to protect her. From childhood, she had always been alone, even in death.
Everyone came to understand her far too late. So late that Luther didn't even have the chance to apologize for misunderstanding her.
(End of Chapter)
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