After agreeing to Chairwoman Geeta and Caitlin's invitation regarding Blueberry Academy, Aiden rested well for another two days.
After sending Cynthia back to Sinnoh, he finally recovered his motivation and prepared to settle the final matter in Area Zero.
The Sinnoh Champion being away from her region for a long time could indeed cause some problems.
After all, other regions weren't like Hoenn, where even when Steven was away, Wallace of comparable strength was there to hold down the fort, making the Champion's life incredibly hectic—
Lucian was dedicated, but his strength was indeed still some distance from Champion level. If anything really happened, it wouldn't be something he could decide.
In the anime plot, Cynthia had also once considered whether to give up her Champion position, but for various reasons ultimately didn't.
After all, with her setting the standard before her, the weight of the Sinnoh Champion position was simply too heavy—indeed, no one could bear it.
Being Champion wasn't that easy!
Aiden, now returned to being a solitary bachelor, sat at the Gym entrance sighing inwardly.
However, none of this had anything to do with him, a newly promoted Elite Four member preparing to slack off.
Anyway, first use the Anywhere Door to find the Toile—Regigigas!
Aiden stood up, walked into his bedroom, and came to the "system"-rewarded Anywhere Door.
If it weren't for this thing, he really couldn't think of how to transport Regigigas to Paldea.
Speaking of which, the legendary giant was said to be an existence that transported continents to various regions—how did it do that?
Regigigas, like Groudon, couldn't fly, right? Its flight ability was achieved by elbow-striking the ground to create reaction force—
Was it another master of water routes?
Aiden couldn't help but become curious, while also feeling a bit regretful—he probably wouldn't get to see how Regigigas swam.
After all, by the time it drifted across the ocean to Paldea, who knew how long would have passed, and he might not even be around anymore!
After silently reciting the location of the deepest level of Snowpoint Temple in his mind, Aiden opened the Anywhere Door.
Sure enough, Regigigas appeared right before him.
Just like when he had left last time, it still maintained its posture sitting on the ground motionless, its three-colored dots flashing very regularly, seemingly still thinking.
Only then did Aiden suddenly recall—oh right, back then after he came to wake up Regigigas, he had directly asked it a question while it was still confused.
"Do you have any wishes?"
Could it be this sentence that made Regigigas keep thinking until now?
But nearly a month had passed, and it still hadn't figured it out—
Slow Start ability, terrifying indeed!
"Hey, Regigigas, do you still remember me?"
Aiden thus no longer hesitated, actively stepping forward and shouting loudly at it.
If his voice was too soft, he was afraid Regigigas was too focused and wouldn't hear at all.
"Reg—gi—?"
The motionless Regigigas suddenly made a sound, its body shifting slightly forward.
After a few seconds, it finally noticed the young man who had appeared before it.
At the same time, it also immediately recognized him as that messenger of Arceus, the culprit who had awakened it.
Even worse, it had caused it to start thinking, and so far it still hadn't figured out what wish it still had!
But why had it returned so quickly?
"Regi——!"
Seeing the three-colored dots on Regigigas's chest suddenly all flash with yellow light, seeming very confused, Aiden slowly spoke: "If you can't figure it out, then why not just stop thinking?"
"I'll give you a suggestion—come with me to a good place."
"It's a uniquely scenic underground cave with very special energy, filled everywhere with ancient crystals from 2 million years ago."
"I heard from Arceus that you seem to like finding places like this to hand-sculpt several statues resembling your own appearance?"
"Regi—?!"
This time, Regigigas, which had previously shown little emotional fluctuations, suddenly had a much higher tone, clearly moved by Aiden's words.
Even its reaction speed was noticeably faster than before.
Has Slow Start finally finished stacking?
Aiden blinked, then suddenly realized another problem—Regigigas was so huge, how would it fit through his Anywhere Door?
It felt like even getting one foot in would be strenuous.
However, this problem had just appeared when it was quickly solved by Regigigas itself.
"Regi——!"
Regigigas suddenly let out a loud roar, the sound immediately echoing through the underground of Snowpoint Temple, causing the ground to tremble.
Aiden thought it was excited and was about to use its most primitive and ancient travel method to go to Paldea.
Commonly known as, demolition!
But this was also the main purpose Snowpoint Temple was built for—
Right, exactly!
This building with six floors and complex corridor structures had only one purpose from the day it was built.
That was to immediately convey this message to the outside world when Regigigas woke up.
As long as Snowpoint Temple was demolished, the outside world would naturally know this information—
Although it was hard to imagine, thinking about it, it seemed quite reasonable?
However, Regigigas didn't do what Aiden thought—directly using Hyper Beam to smash the ground, causing itself to take off and fly quickly.
Instead, it raised both arms high, as if doing some kind of stretching exercise.
And with its actions, Regigigas's body actually quickly began to shrink on its own, the originally dozen-meter-tall giant gradually shrinking to only half a person's height.
"Regi!"
Looking at the excitedly waving Regigigas before him, now looking somewhat cute due to its smaller size, Aiden was stunned, slowly raising his left hand and giving a thumbs up.
Awesome.
Although he knew most Pokémon could instinctively use the Minimize ability when in danger, he really hadn't expected a Legendary Pokémon of Regigigas's size to be able to freely enlarge and shrink like this.
This way, it could pass through the Anywhere Door.
Aiden nodded, then led the way to the Anywhere Door that suddenly appeared underground.
He first closed the door, recalled the appearance of the Great Crater of Paldea in his mind, then suddenly opened the door.
The moment the door opened, that unique subterranean kilometer-deep, thick and inescapable Stellar crystal ore energy came rushing in.
"Regi——!"
This time Regigigas's reaction was incredibly fast, directly jogging to squeeze through before Aiden.
Sure enough, even the usually lazy Toilet King, when encountering something it truly liked, inevitably became active.
Aiden also quickly followed in, then saw Regigigas directly leap into the crystal ore layer, then poke its head out.
Although Regigigas's face was fundamentally incapable of making expressions, he suddenly felt he could vaguely see something resembling "happiness."
"Regi!"
Regigigas seemed very satisfied with this place, even laboriously using its palm composed of three stone pillars to give a thumbs up.
Then, it no longer cared about Aiden's existence and began its performance art as if no one else was around.
It quickly restored its body to normal size, casually taking all the Stellar crystal ore from the surrounding walls and piling it beside itself.
Then, Regigigas began thinking again—
According to Aiden's guess, this step should be recalling its own appearance.
The currently known five Regi forms all originated from Regigigas, seemingly sculpted by it in different periods according to era characteristics.
In modern times, it seemed to have once awakened and created the lightning-fast Regieleki, which looked completely different from the main body.
And now, Regigigas, seized by a whim, seemed ready to bring out its traditional craft again, using these Stellar crystals to sculpt a brand new Regi.
Honestly speaking, compared to other Legendary Pokémon who were always making big news, Regigigas was quite simple.
A giant capable of moving mountains and filling seas, single-handedly transporting the current continental plates, whose only hobby was finding a good place to lie down and directly using local materials to start sculpting figures.
Truly the oldest plastic model otaku in the Pokémon world.
So the question was, what should one sculpted from Stellar-attribute materials be called?
Registellar?
Aiden guessed inwardly.
As for whether more pillars would appear in the future, he didn't know.
Seeing that Regigigas had completely fallen into thought, he didn't plan to stay here much longer either.
"Then I'll be leaving first!"
Finally greeting it and waving his hand, Aiden quickly walked through the Anywhere Door to return home.
Having resolved Arceus's final task, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Thus far, everything regarding Area Zero and Paldea was on the right track. They only needed to wait for the Time Machine to function and safely bring back the exploration team members.
Except for the two Treasures of Ruin that hadn't been recovered yet, all the major events in Paldea that he could recall should have concluded.
Chi-Yu and Ting-Lu—
With his current strength, handling them indeed wasn't difficult.
He only needed to find the right opportunity to seize their vessels and immediately send them into the system, purifying the thousand-year resentment attached to them, to obtain treasures from his "hometown."
However, it was such a hassle.
Why not simply have them practice by sending those two to deal with them before Red returned to Kanto and Nemona went with him to Blueberry Academy?
On the second day after returning from Area Zero, Nemona had actually already come to his door, expressing her strong dissatisfaction that "summer vacation life was simply too boring, with no one left to challenge."
Indeed, this was the case—after all, during summer vacation not only did students have their own arrangements, but even Gym Leaders like him had rare rest time.
It should have been a good time for everyone to slack off, but Nemona instead couldn't adapt.
Perfect timing to give her something to do.
Aiden thus walked out of the Gym again, heading to the not-too-distant villa opposite where Nemona lived.
Being both teacher and student with Nemona, as well as neighbors, the servants in her household had long known him, so they weren't surprised when he came to visit.
Entering Nemona's villa full of "nouveau riche" atmosphere, Aiden in the lobby immediately heard movement coming from upstairs.
"I won!"
"Penny, quick bring your face over, I'm going to put a sticker on you!"
"So—why are we gathered at your house playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game!"
"Because summer vacation is so boring, it's only fun when everyone is together~"
"—"
Aiden went upstairs and immediately saw a very chaotic scene in the living room.
Nemona was hugging Penny, trying to force another sticker onto her face already covered in stickers;
Arven had his arms crossed, looking helpless with a "why am I here" expression;
Penny naturally had the same speechless look on her face, while also desperately resisting Nemona's actions.
Incidentally, all three of their faces were covered in stickers, so when Aiden came up he was stunned.
Only Red, head lowered trying to minimize his presence, hadn't been hit—
Because all his stickers were on that red-and-white cap. It seemed the others had already silently agreed that the hat was Red's true body.
"You—what are you doing?"
Aiden's ill-timed voice immediately made all four turn their heads.
"Teacher Aiden!"
After discovering it was Aiden, the four people's reactions were different, even vastly different.
However, Aiden didn't really mind.
After all, he had been through his student days too—having companions to play around with was quite nice.
As long as Nemona caught them, she wouldn't come looking for him for the time being~
"I found you guys a job. There are two Pokémon that might be slightly difficult to challenge—any interest?"
Aiden cut straight to the chase.
"Yes!"
As expected, Nemona immediately became excited, even directly throwing aside the stickers in her hand.
Red beside her, although he didn't directly speak, also stood up and made a motion of twisting his cap.
Silence speaks louder than words at this moment.
Arven and Penny also breathed sighs of relief, looking gratefully at Aiden.
With Aiden's words, at least Nemona should temporarily stop dragging them to play that completely incomprehensible Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Thank you, Brother Aiden/Teacher Azure!
Nemona and Red's growth speed seemed faster than Aiden had imagined.
Originally he had thought that the Treasures of Ruin, which were extremely troublesome in mechanics and couldn't be defeated through frontal combat, would leave them at a loss, only gradually thinking of ways to break the situation after slowly adapting.
But the two of them quickly came up with a completely new strategy beyond Aiden's expectations—
Since the Treasures of Ruin's "Calamity" would take effect on Pokémon, then just bounce it back!
——
Anyway, the waves stirred up could flip Pokémon over, and you're telling me this does no damage?
So, when facing the first Treasure of Ruin, Chi-Yu literally angered itself to death—
Its cause of death was being infinitely reflected back resentment, double the backlash, until finally even its vessel couldn't withstand it, and the condensed Pokémon form immediately dissipated.
As for Ting-Lu, it fared slightly better.
But not by much.
This short-tempered stubborn one was toyed with by the two like a bullfight, repeatedly pulling aggro to crash into Protect barriers set up by Pokémon, with resentment also stacking deeper and deeper.
In the end, it was Aiden who really couldn't bear to watch anymore, grabbing Ting-Lu's antlers as it was bounced away, finally giving it a quick end.
Thus, the four Treasures of Ruin were also collected by Aiden.
Next, Aiden prepared to set out for Blueberry Academy, to give the students there a good "lesson" in the Unova region as well.
------------------------------------------------------
30+ Chapters Ahead: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)