"Hm?"
Cain frowned.
He was the first to enter Pacifidlog Town.
According to what was written in the report, the people who came to investigate were fiercely attacked as soon as they approached. If they had not reacted quickly enough and their movements had not been agile enough, they most likely would not have been able to return.
But now, when Cain and the others approached, there was no movement at all.
Cain closed his eyes and extended his psychic power.
"There is nothing. There is no living presence in the surroundings, not even a single Pokémon."
Cain kept his eyes closed and perceived for a moment before saying the information he had grasped.
Steven, beside him, also frowned.
"Could it be that the enemy knew in advance that we would come, so they withdrew before we arrived?"
"But what happened to the inhabitants of Pacifidlog Town?"
"Could they also have taken all the inhabitants of Pacifidlog Town with them?"
"That seemed somewhat unrealistic, right? Besides, according to the behavior and methods Team Heaven had shown before, that clearly was not their style of acting."
"Also, I feel that in the surroundings there is still, to a greater or lesser extent, an unusual aura. It is something familiar, but also something unknown. This aura is very faint, almost impossible to identify."
Phoebe, beside Steven, slightly moved her little nose, as if she were sniffing something. But in reality, she was using her exclusive spectral power to perceive.
"Correct. It seems this truly does not resemble Team Heaven's method. In the past, following the president's orders, I had contact with them several times. They do not possess this ability."
"Seeing this result makes me think of some old friends."
After hearing the words of the two, Cain nodded deeply in agreement.
"Old friends? You mean..."
Steven and Phoebe looked at each other, and in the other's eyes, they saw the same guess.
"Those who can make an entire group of living people disappear from nothing... are there not only them left?"
Cain curved the corner of his lips. His right hand casually drew a line in the air, and a spatial crack opened like a mouth, revealing what was inside.
Inside, a person could be seen looking at him with a smile. Behind that person, there were also quite a few individuals dressed in strange clothes.
But all of them had, without exception, a similar aura: that familiar fluctuation of psychic power.
"So it really is you. It has been a long time. I have been looking for you all this time, and I did not expect you to be hiding here..."
Will, Irene.
After seeing the appearance of the two people leading the group, Cain was truly warm, as if he had seen old friends he had not seen for a long time.
Although, indeed, they had not seen each other for a long time.
Seeing Cain, Irene showed a cold expression. She only made two Poké Balls appear in her hand to express her stance. In contrast, after seeing Cain, Will revealed an extremely exaggerated smile, a smile that made one feel he was somewhat twisted and was a little unsettling.
"Well, I didn't expect that we could really wait for you here. Cain, the Sandstorm Elite Four of the Hoenn region! Oh, now I should call you Champion Cain. Impressive. Becoming the Champion of the Hoenn region at this age... you truly are young and promising."
"Only, the Champion of the Hoenn region also turns out to be the leader of Hoenn's greatest underground force, the leader of Team Heaven, and moreover, one of the highest executives of Team Rocket, the greatest underground force of the great Kanto region. Hmm... I seem to remember that you were also promoted, right? Deputy Leader of Team Rocket?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... you truly are an extraordinary figure. You managed to rise to the highest position on both the white side and the black side. Looking at it this way, I really am not as good as you."
Will said all this in a strange and sarcastic tone.
Cain, hearing him, did not interrupt him immediately. He only looked with a gloomy face and narrowed eyes at that former black messenger of the Sacred Church, now a homeless dog.
It was not the first time Will had exposed his old secrets in front of Phoebe and the others.
If one time could be taken as groundless slander, when it became two or three times, although Steven, Phoebe, and the others trusted Cain greatly, inevitably some reservations would appear in their hearts.
And those reservations would very likely become the most fatal point when cracks appeared with Cain in the future.
The Sacred Church had specially investigated Cain's identity. Originally, Cain had thought it was because his enmity with the Sacred Church was quite great, but after the matter with Celebi, Cain understood: it was probably closely related to Kael obtaining his name at the end.
But that was no longer important, because without Cain knowing it, it had already become an established fact.
Cain also did not know whether changing the history of the past would bring or produce any impact on the things that had already happened in the present.
Because of that, under Kael's final request, he told him his name.
As for why Will also knew it so clearly, even to the point of guessing that Cain had become Team Rocket's deputy leader, in reality, it was nothing more than a random guess.
After all, no matter how he guessed, whether right or wrong, it all served to throw dirt on Cain and make him feel uncomfortable.
"Juan's matter was also your doing, right?"
Cain had his back to Steven and the others, so they could not see his gloomy face at that moment. Cain directly used telepathy to interrogate Will.
In reality, even if Cain did not ask and Will did not answer, both of them knew it in their hearts.
"Tsk... You still use telepathy with me? Is there something you cannot say?"
"That's right. I also went to remind your president Juan. Only, it seems he does not trust you one hundred percent like the companions you have behind you. I still remember very clearly the tangled expression of your president at that time."
"Only, considering that you are too important to the Hoenn League and to the Hoenn region, and even in the entire League you are already someone of decisive weight, they did not act against you."
"So, the older a person is, the more worries they have in their heart."
Will continued constantly mocking Cain.
(End of chapter)