The two Pokémon collided with tremendous force, and for a moment, the entire Bird's Nest seemed to hold its breath.
"BOOM!"
After the brief stillness, a deafening roar finally echoed outward.
"Who won?"
"I don't know!"
Zhuge Zijing's question was answered without hesitation by Zhuge Ziyu, who was craning his neck to look — and it was not an answer at all.
But at this point, it wasn't just those two watching with bated breath. Every person and Pokémon inside the Bird's Nest had risen to their feet, staring at the point of impact, waiting for the result to reveal itself.
"Deoxys!"
The white light faded. The result was clear.
Deoxys — lost.
Lu Ze watched Deoxys plummet from the sky and shouted its name, then immediately sprinted forward.
The protective energy barrier in the arena had been shattered by the collision's force, which was the only reason Lu Ze could charge straight onto the field.
"Thud!"
"Hiss…"
He caught the falling Deoxys successfully — but the price was that Lu Ze's arm felt like it had dislocated.
"Chiich!"
Crobat flew over immediately, concern written all over its face as it looked at Lu Ze's expression of pain.
"Chiich…"
"Don't worry, I'm fine."
Lu Ze flashed a grin at Crobat, then handed Deoxys over to Charizard, who had flown over as well.
Charizard was slower than Crobat, sure — but even the slowest Snorlax had only just gotten moving.
"GRAAAOOO!"
In the sky above, Rayquaza's ragged breathing gradually steadied. The intimidating aura around it softened, and its blood-red pupils returned to their normal color. It had exited [Outrage] mode.
Rayquaza cast an appreciative glance at Lu Ze and the Deoxys in Charizard's arms. A faint smile crossed its face before it turned and flew away.
Deoxys, still unconscious, had no idea how much trouble its battle with Rayquaza would bring it later.
"Xiao Ze, are you okay? What about Rayquaza?"
It wasn't long before Lu Ze was surrounded by people — not just Lu Xing Guo and Zhuge Ziyu, but the medical team that had been on standby as well.
But Deoxys was a Legendary, after all. Before Lu Xing Guo and the others could even reach them, Deoxys had already come to, still cradled in Charizard's arms.
Once awake, Deoxys looked at Lu Ze without a word. But Lu Ze could tell — after that battle, Deoxys's mood had lifted considerably.
[Recover]
Deoxys raised a hand to stop the medical staff, whose eyes were lighting up with the urge to treat it, and then used [Recover] twice in succession, restoring itself to the condition it had been in at the start.
"You good?"
"Shishi!"
Deoxys shook its head, signaling that it was fine.
"Aaah! Son of a—!"
But Lu Ze had barely finished asking before the medical team snapped his dislocated arm back into place.
The yelp that tore out of Lu Ze was primal.
"Relax, I'm very good at this!"
The medical staff member grinned at Lu Ze before moving on to his other arm. Before the sentence was even finished, the second arm was back in its socket too.
"Damn, that's impressive!"
Lu Ze swung both arms a few times, found everything felt normal, and immediately gave the medical staff member a thumbs up!
"AAAAAHH!!!"
At that moment, another sound cut through the air — a grief-stricken, soul-tearing wail.
The group instinctively turned their heads toward it.
Zhuge Zijing was kneeling on the ground, staring at a machine nearby that was flickering with faint sparks of electricity.
"What's wrong with him?"
Zhuge Ziyu's mouth twitched, but he explained to Lu Ze anyway: "He's mourning the money."
"Mourning the money?"
"Yeah. During the battle between Rayquaza and Deoxys, the energy barrier couldn't withstand the combined force of two Legendaries, so… you get the picture."
Lu Ze's eyes widened. He quickly shook his head: "No… I don't understand!"
Zhuge Ziyu rolled his eyes with a look that said, Why are you all such cheapskates?
"Don't worry, I wasn't planning to make you pay for it."
"Oh, then I understand."
"Hahahahaha~"
Laughter and chatter carried everyone apart. After all, the Legendary battle was over — they still had data from the fight to organize and analyze.
Though Deoxys and Rayquaza had clashed for only three or four minutes, this had been the only battle in the entire world to ever capture Legendaries' battle data with such precise instrumentation.
The group departed in good spirits. This achieved the unlikely result of the entire arena being happy while only Zhuge Zijing was left in grief.
Watching his grandfather and father get busy, Lu Ze could only shrug helplessly. He looked over at Crobat and the others.
"So… should we head back first?"
"Chiich!"
"Baa!"
"Chuu~"
All the Pokémon nodded.
They wanted to get back too. Crobat's special training with Charizard wasn't finished yet.
And after seeing Charizard's speed just now, she'd decided Charizard was hopeless again and was determined to get back and fix that.
And Farfetch'd — the only reason it wanted to go back was because its training time was coming up.
I work so hard, y'know~
Charizard, at this point, had no idea what was waiting for it back home. It had simply agreed because Snorlax wanted to go back, so it followed along.
Snorlax had already curled up in Charizard's palm and dozed off — she always took a morning nap after breakfast, so she needed to get home for that.
"Alright then."
Lu Ze agreed, then looked around. He noticed that the only other person standing around with nothing to do was Zhuge Ziyu beside him.
"Uncle Ziyu, can I head out first?"
"Sure. Looks like there's not much for either of us to do."
Zhuge Ziyu scanned the area and confirmed — besides him and Lu Ze, everyone else had a task.
Lu Xing Guo and the others were reviewing the data they'd just collected. The research staff were busy at their stations.
Even Zhuge Zijing was crouched on the ground, face long, meticulously calculating how much it would cost to repair the Bird's Nest after this battle.
After all, the clash between Deoxys and Rayquaza hadn't just cracked the energy barrier.
There was the crater Deoxys had punched into the ground when Rayquaza sent it crashing down.
The gouge that Rayquaza's [Hyper Beam] had plowed through the arena floor.
The meteor impacts from Rayquaza's [Dragon Ascent], and the craters left behind after clearing the debris.
"Rayquaza! The nemesis of my life!"
Zhuge Zijing stared at the riddled, pockmarked battlefield and spat out those words with bitter anguish.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"He'll be fine. He's just like this. Don't worry about him."
Zhuge Ziyu shot an amused look at Zhuge Zijing.
Zhuge Zijing didn't actually know all that much about Pokémon. But to have reached the position of top official in the administration, he was clearly capable. He could coordinate official personnel optimally, put the administration's funds exactly where they were needed — and knew how to bring money in for the administration too.
On top of that, he was fair-minded, which was why the higher-ups were comfortable letting someone who didn't know much about Pokémon hold the top seat.
(End of chapter)
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