"A game?"
The moment those two words landed, the lively atmosphere died completely.
The residents gathered around, all from different worlds, traded blank looks, their faces written with pure confusion.
For most of them, the word meant absolutely nothing.
Everyone came from somewhere different, and the gaps in civilization between their worlds were enormous. Some had come from places more primitive than ancient history; others hailed from worlds of advanced technology.
But regardless of origin, here in the world of Pokémon, in this sealed-off Reverse World, everyone lived pretty simply.
"A game..." The young woman who had been speaking a moment ago blinked, apparently hearing the word for the first time herself.
She turned toward the young man beside her, the one who had just made the crack about age.
If she remembered right, he came from a fairly developed world and would probably know what it meant.
"Hey, Lee, you know what that is?"
The young man paused, then scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, a game. It's something you play on electronic devices, just for fun."
As he said it, he instinctively held his hands out like he was gripping a controller.
"Like on a computer or a gaming console, you control a character on a screen, go on adventures, fight battles, that kind of thing. Back home it was one of the most popular ways people killed time."
That got nods of understanding from the people nearby, though the young man seemed to catch himself a second later and gave a helpless shrug.
He looked back at Kairos with a puzzled expression.
"Why bring it up, though? We can't play anything like that here in the Reverse World."
"No electricity, and no hardware either."
He wasn't wrong.
This place, while a world in its own right, functioned more like a sealed pocket of space. Beyond the ancient city kept running by Giratina's power and the bare basics of a livable environment, there was no industrial foundation of any kind. No electricity, no internet, no computers, and naturally, no chance of games existing here.
Hearing that, a number of people who had perked up at the unfamiliar word let out quiet sighs. It felt like being told about some incredible dish, then learning that the ingredients existed on a planet tens of thousands of light-years away.
But just as everyone was ready to let the subject drop, Kairos shook his head.
"Don't worry about that."
He looked out at the group.
"I have a way to let everyone play. No extra equipment, no electricity required."
"The only question is whether you're interested."
The young man's eyes lit up at once.
"Wait, you actually brought a console in with you? That could work..."
He rubbed his chin, thinking it through.
"There's no way to charge anything in here, but if it's a handheld with spare batteries, you could stretch it out for a while. Letting everyone get a taste wouldn't be bad at all."
The reactions from everyone else, though, were pretty different.
The large man in medieval armor crossed his arms, looking thoroughly unconvinced.
"What's a gaming console? And it needs batteries? Sounds like a pain. Nothing beats watching Pokémon actually fight each other."
"Exactly. How is anything virtual going to compete with real combat?"
Someone clapped him on the shoulder.
"Still, getting a chance to try something new isn't a bad thing. You should open yourself up a little more."
Kairos watched the various reactions without bothering to explain further.
Words would only go so far; showing was always going to beat telling.
So without any further ceremony, he raised one hand and made a casual gesture in front of the group.
A strange ripple passed through the otherwise still air.
In the next instant, a pale blue glowing panel materialized out of nowhere in front of every single person standing there.
The panels floated in midair, thin as a sheet of glass yet perfectly clear, each one displaying an array of elaborate icons and text.
"What is this?!"
The crowd recoiled sharply, instinctively stepping back.
The armored man nearly drew his sword, eyeing the floating panel in front of him with open suspicion.
"Is this some kind of illusion?"
The man in the suit stared wide-eyed, reached out to touch the glowing surface, and felt his fingers pass straight through it without making contact.
"Holographic projection? The technology level out there has gotten this advanced?"
Everyone stared, gasping and murmuring to each other.
Kairos offered a short explanation.
"This is the game."
He gestured toward the panels floating before them.
"As you can see, whenever you want, you can just play."
"I'd recommend starting with the first one: Emerald. It has the highest difficulty and should give everyone here a real challenge."
As he spoke, Kairos quietly posed a question to the system in the back of his mind.
"System, these people are all top-tier fighters from different worlds, starting at Champion level. Does that qualify them as special players?"
If so, the feedback and emotional value they generated should be considerably higher than ordinary players.
The system's response came quickly.
"In response to the host: they do not qualify as special characters and cannot provide the significant additional bonuses that figures like Cynthia or Iono provide due to their unique status. However, these individuals possess exceptionally high combat ability, strength of character, and wisdom, making them high-quality players."
"Therefore, the emotional points they generate will be somewhat elevated."
Hearing that, Kairos felt a quiet wave of satisfaction.
With that many of them, the numbers were looking good.
If they all got genuinely invested in the game, the total points would be substantial.
Beyond that, these people were genuinely bored to begin with. Being the only one here with anything entertaining to offer, he was essentially doing them a favor while earning a little on the side. Hard to argue with that.
Just as Kairos was quietly running through his calculations, something unexpected happened.
The ground began to shake violently.
A moment later, an enormous claw of black energy burst up through the earth and closed around Kairos in an instant.
Several people in the crowd startled, some instinctively stepping forward.
But the claw moved way too fast. In the blink of an eye it had already taken him, vanishing into a dark void that sealed itself shut moments later as though nothing had happened at all.
The whole thing unfolded so quickly that no one had time to react.
It wasn't until Kairos had completely disappeared that those who had been focused on the glowing panels snapped back to reality.
The scene immediately erupted.
"That was the Dragon Lord just now, right?"
"Definitely. That aura was unmistakable. The Dragon Lord came personally!"
"I knew there was something different about this guy. To have the Dragon Lord show up for him in person!"
"Man, I haven't seen the Dragon Lord in ages. Honestly kind of jealous. To be valued like that..."
"Being jealous won't get you anywhere. The guy's clearly got something going for him, that's just how it is. That said, maybe we figure out what this thing actually is."
The suited man steadied himself and turned back to the glowing panel still floating in front of him.
Despite Kairos's disappearance, the panel hadn't gone anywhere. It just hovered there quietly.
He studied it carefully and found three distinct icons, each one featuring an elaborately drawn illustration.
"He mentioned something called Emerald just now... That must be this one?"
His eyes settled on the leftmost icon.
It depicted a gleaming, translucent green gemstone, with text beneath it reading: "Pokémon: Emerald."
He wasn't entirely sure what he was getting into, but the man had recommended it, so there was no harm in finding out.
With that, he reached out and carefully tapped the green icon with one finger.
The moment he made contact, a thunderous, bone-deep dragon's roar exploded in his ears.
"ROAR!!"
The panel went dark, every icon vanishing at once.
In the next moment, a scene began to unfold before his eyes.
On the other side.
Being yanked away like this, Kairos was used to it by now.
The weightlessness and disorientation of crossing through space no longer rattled him.
When he opened his eyes, the scenery had shifted entirely.
Gone was the ancient city with all its daily noise. He was high above the Reverse World now, suspended in open space.
All around him, reality twisted and churned, broken rocks drifting silently through the void.
And there, floating perfectly still before him, was a familiar silhouette.
Giratina.
"Human..."
A low, resonant voice pressed directly into Kairos's mind.
It carried a weight of authority that sent a faint tremor through his thoughts.
"Though I do not know how you accomplished it, you have done well."
Giratina's massive head tilted slightly, its gaze settling on Kairos.
"That creature's power is weakening at a rate I have not seen before."
Kairos listened, then gave a single nod.
"We had a deal. Naturally, I followed through."
Now that he understood Giratina's true situation, he spoke with considerably less caution than before.
Giratina seemed to approve.
"Good."
It offered the rare word of acknowledgment.
Then, with a slow sweep of one enormous claw, a streak of light lifted away from its body and drifted gently toward Kairos.
"This is yours. Take it back."
Kairos looked closer and recognized it immediately: the colorful feather he had given to Giratina before.
It floated softly through the air and settled back into his possession with quiet grace.
The moment it returned to him, Kairos felt a warm and powerful energy moving through his body, noticeably stronger than when he had first held it.
He pulled up the system panel to check.
After scanning the readout, Kairos felt a flicker of genuine surprise.
The feather had originally been depleted from prior use, its power to summon Ho-Oh's image fully exhausted.
But now it had been restored. It could once again summon Ho-Oh's phantom for a decisive strike at a critical moment.
"That feather has been restored with its protective power. You no longer require my shelter."
Giratina's voice rang out again.
Kairos understood immediately.
So that was why it had taken the feather and held onto it: it had been recharging it on his behalf.
He had genuinely misjudged Giratina.
Though now he found himself curious about something. Did it really have to be Ho-Oh specifically? Could Giratina handle that kind of restoration too?
He had always assumed that since the feather came from Ho-Oh, only Ho-Oh could restore it.
Just as Kairos was about to put the feather away, Giratina spoke again.
"But I want to ask: do you have any desire to join my world?"
The question came a little out of nowhere.
Kairos paused, caught off guard.
He looked at Giratina and let his mind work through it.
So he had genuinely been wrong about Giratina all along.
The mark it had placed on him before wasn't for surveillance or control. It really had been meant as protection, just as the woman had said. A safeguard that could save his life at a critical moment.
The mark pulling him into the Reverse World after a month was likely just a natural side effect, nothing more. Giratina had never actually been trying to force him into anything.
With those words just now, the last of his doubts cleared up.
He had simply misread the situation.
With that settled, things were much simpler.
And honestly, even if he wasn't interested right now, who could say what the future held?
Living on even after death... that actually did sound pretty appealing, if he was being straight with himself.
"Living in your world alongside everyone here sounds like it would be something else."
Kairos thought for a moment before giving an answer that didn't fully commit to anything.
"I'd imagine I'll come, when I'm old."
Giratina said nothing in reply, but a faint softness passed through those red eyes.
It appeared satisfied with that answer.
To a being like Giratina, the span of a human life was barely a ripple in time, over in the blink of an eye. A wait like that was nothing at all.
As long as Kairos had given his word that he would come eventually, that was enough.
Kairos then steered the conversation back to what actually mattered.
"With its power steadily draining, we still can't fully resolve things this way. We need a plan to defeat Spiritomb outright and take back the fragment of the Reverse World."
At that, Giratina's six wings surged sharply.
A tremendous force erupted from its body, and the space around it fractured into jagged cracks under the pressure.
"When the moment is right, I will act."
Its voice carried undisguised killing intent.
Giratina had clearly been ready to deal with the Spiritomb that had stolen a fragment of its world for a long time.
Kairos thought it over and found it completely understandable.
The Reverse World had been pushed to the edge of collapse. Giratina had been forced into near-constant sleep. It had probably been waiting for a chance to end Spiritomb for longer than he could imagine. That attitude made perfect sense.
So, with Giratina willing to step in personally, dealing with Spiritomb should be manageable.
His mission looked as good as done.