"Re‑gi～"
The "lights" on Regigigas's chest kept flashing urgently.
Its massive body radiated such oppressive aura it was hard to breathe.
"Salamence, we're out."
Hunter J called down to the Salamence beneath her.
She had no intention of wasting more time here with Regigigas.
There was no point.
Against something that big, even her petrification cannon was useless.
And with that kind of power, this patch of land was nowhere near enough for Regigigas to wreck.
Snowpoint City next door was probably about to be in serious trouble.
Hunter J, however, didn't care about that part at all.
Salamence heard her and began to bank away.
"Boss, we've lost contact with Number Seven and his squad. How's it looking on your side?"
Her subordinate's voice suddenly crackled through the communicator.
"Plans have changed. Everyone pull back. The target's out of control."
Hunter J replied blandly.
As for "losing contact with Number Seven," she didn't spare it a thought.
Subordinates were disposable tools to her.
Given Hunter J's reputation, there was never any shortage of hunters begging to work under her.
Right then, though, a wave of pure dread washed over her.
The feeling of death.
That icy chill that made goosebumps rise all over her body—she'd only felt that a few times, back when she'd just started out as a Pokémon hunter.
Hunter J snapped her head around.
A gigantic yellow beam was tearing through the air straight toward her and Salamence.
Regigigas's Hyper Beam.
"Salamence!"
Hunter J's scream went razor‑sharp.
Salamence picked up on the danger too.
It tried to juke aside—but it was far too late.
There was no time to throw up a Protect barrier either.
Boom!
Hyper Beam slammed into Salamence full force.
The deafening blast and rolling shockwave blasted outward, rattling the air.
Salamence, hammered by Regigigas's attack, tumbled like a cut kite from the sky, crashing hard into the ground.
Its aura was all but snuffed out.
As Salamence hit, Hunter J was thrown from its back as well.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she landed on her back in the snow, breath shallow and ragged.
Salamence had taken most of the blow for her, but the shock still did terrible damage.
Hunter J's pupils were already starting to lose focus.
Maybe she really was about to die here.
"Well, would you look at that. That HP bar's a bit over‑the‑top, huh. Kinda pitiful."
A voice drifted over, half gloating, half amused and mocking.
It slipped into Hunter J's dazed mind, even as her consciousness blurred around the edges.
Her whole body wouldn't move anymore.
Even turning her head was almost impossible.
"Damian, this really isn't the time for jokes."
Cynthia's brows drew together.
She spoke to Damian with a helpless note in her voice.
At the same time, she hurried over to Hunter J's side and knelt down, checking her injuries.
Snow still covered the ground here in a thick white layer.
But the snow beneath Hunter J was steadily turning red.
That was why Damian had commented on the "HP bar."
Cynthia quickly spotted the mess of shredded flesh at Hunter J's left abdomen—clearly where the Hyper Beam's blast had torn through.
She immediately pulled out a bottle of Hyper Potion and began spraying.
Potions didn't work on humans nearly as well as on Pokémon.
But in an emergency, they could at least ease a wound.
"Cynthia, you really are a saint. That woman is Hunter J, and you're actually trying to save her."
Damian sauntered up behind Cynthia, clicking his tongue.
"The crimes she's racked up are probably enough to get her locked up for life."
"That's a separate issue, Damian. She's still human."
Cynthia's refined features stayed composed as she answered, voice low and even.
"No matter how many awful things she's done, if I can save someone in front of me, I won't just stand by and watch them die."
Hunter J's crimes were one thing.
Her lying here on the brink of death was another.
Saving her was Cynthia's conscience.
What happened to her afterward would be handled as it should be.
Cynthia understood that perfectly well.
"And that's exactly it, huh. You people…"
Damian couldn't help a soft laugh.
It was the thing he genuinely admired about Champions like Cynthia and Steven.
They truly held goodwill toward this world.
If Damian were standing where Cynthia was, he wouldn't have done this.
Someone as vicious as Hunter J?
Better off dead and done.
Hunter J's gaze was already glassy, the world dimming around the edges.
She still heard the conversation between Cynthia and Damian, though.
Her bloodless face twisted into some unreadable expression she no longer had the strength to speak about.
"You can't save her, Cynthia. Her injuries are too severe."
Caitlin's voice cut in suddenly.
"That Hyper Beam probably pulped most of her organs. High‑grade Potions can only do something about the external damage."
As a Psychic, Caitlin could feel the rough state of Hunter J's body.
Unless they rushed her into a top‑tier hospital right this second, maybe they could pull her back… maybe.
The odds were still low.
Cynthia fell silent.
"But Damian's mini Sacred Ash should work."
Caitlin added that last part.
Mini Sacred Ash was the best healing item she'd ever seen.
And more importantly, it worked terrifyingly well on people too.
Maybe that was because its primary ingredient was Ho‑Oh's feathers?
"Don't look at me. I'm under no obligation to save her."
Damian raised a brow and smiled at Cynthia's look.
"And open your eyes, Cynthia. See that rampaging Pokémon in the distance?"
He pointed toward the mountainous "giant" in the distance.
The legendary Regigigas.
Even after blasting Hunter J and Salamence out of the sky, it still hadn't calmed down.
Its massive arms kept swinging, and one Hyper Beam after another was blasting wildly in all directions.
It clearly had no such thing as "Hyper Beam recoil."
Exactly like the anime.
Regigigas was still so enraged it had lost all reason.
Each Hyper Beam detonated with another thunderous boom.
Smoke billowed; rubble flew; everything around Regigigas was a smoking ruin.
Peaks, ground, temple—nothing had escaped damage.
"Doesn't take a genius to figure out who set Regigigas off. This woman, obviously. Now she's just getting bitten by the thing she poked. Serves her right."
Damian's tone dripped mockery.
"Of course, if you beg me, I'll hand over some mini Sacred Ash and save her life."
The black‑haired boy's mouth curled, malice plain in his eyes.
"But think about it very carefully, Cynthia. Do you really want to save someone this vile? You'd really beg me for her?"
Caitlin's delicate brows tugged together.
Even so, she said nothing.
She could already guess Damian's angle: he wanted to test Cynthia.
If Cynthia backed off because of his little speech and let Hunter J die…
Once your "humanity" made its first little compromise, it was very hard to close that crack again.
"…Damian, I'm asking you. Please save her."
Cynthia didn't hesitate for long.
She lowered her pride and made the request.
She still stuck to her own beliefs.
She couldn't just stand there and watch a life slip away in front of her.
"You really are…"
Damian couldn't keep the smile off his face.
Exactly as expected.
Which was what made it interesting.
That was Cynthia, through and through.
He fished a vial of mini Sacred Ash out of his bag and walked over to Hunter J.
"Today's your lucky day, I guess. But from now on, that life belongs to Team Rocket."
Damian crouched down, looking at Hunter J's pallid face.
He sprinkled half the vial's contents directly over her wounds.
Then he mixed the other half into a bottle of water and carefully poured it into her mouth.
Damian didn't hold back at all.
He wasn't Cynthia.
If he saved Hunter J, then she was going to pay that debt back to Team Rocket—with her talents.
Handing Hunter J over to Cynthia?
Not happening.
At his words, Cynthia's expression shifted slightly.
In the end, she swallowed whatever she'd wanted to say and sighed inwardly.
What could she say?
The effect of mini Sacred Ash was immediate and unmistakable.
Hunter J's wounds visibly knit and improved on the spot.
Some color even returned to her face.
"This medicine…"
Seeing it with her own eyes, even Cynthia was stunned by mini Sacred Ash's healing effect.
"If it were the real Sacred Ash, that would be enough to bring the dead back to life, more or less. Mini Sacred Ash isn't quite that broken. But pulling someone back from the brink like this? That it can do."
Damian stood up.
In less than half an hour, most of Hunter J's injuries should be mended.
At the very least, she'd be out of life‑threatening danger.
"Where did this come from?"
"From my own company's R&D. Don't overthink it. A potion this insane only works because of its primary ingredient. And that stuff is not easy to get."
Damian could practically hear Cynthia's thoughts.
With a potion this ridiculous, especially one that worked on humans too…
"Miracle drug" wasn't far off.
But mini Sacred Ash was made from Ho‑Oh's feathers.
That alone meant it could never be mass‑produced.
Unless they planned to pluck Ho‑Oh bald.
And that would definitely piss Ho‑Oh off.
Though Damian did feel that with Ho‑Oh's regen, it probably wouldn't take long to grow a full coat back anyway.
"…"
Cynthia really was curious about what exactly mini Sacred Ash was made from.
But she'd also just learned something else.
Damian's company had this kind of research output?
"That just leaves the big guy."
Damian looked off toward Regigigas, still ripping the surroundings apart.
"Man, that's huge."
He couldn't help a low whistle.
From where he stood, Regigigas really did look like a mountain.
Easily twenty or thirty meters tall at least.
Nothing like the anime.
Then again, that tracked.
Official Pokédex data said Regigigas was only 3.7 meters high.
In the anime, it was about that size too.
But Damian knew those numbers were bogus.
Take Groudon, for example.
The Pokédex listed base‑form Groudon at 3.5 meters, and Primal Reversion at 5 meters.
But in the anime, Primal Groudon was clearly over ten meters tall at minimum.
And Damian had seen Primal Groudon with his own eyes.
He could say with confidence it was at least fifteen meters.
Primal Kyogre's body length was pushing twenty meters, after all.
"At this rate, it'll hit Snowpoint City soon."
Cynthia watched Regigigas slowly trudge forward, lips pressed tight with worry.
Snowpoint Temple wasn't far from Snowpoint City to begin with.
With that kind of destructive power, there was no way Snowpoint would survive a rampage intact.
"Guaranteed. Why are you looking at me?"
Damian turned his amused gaze on Cynthia.
"Damian, please stop it."
Once again, Cynthia appealed to Team Rocket's boss.
"Ha… Cynthia, what exactly do you take me for?"
Sure, this whole trip had been about Regigigas in the first place.
But he wasn't about to say that out loud now.
"What's in it for me?"
"You can catch Regigigas, can't you?"
"Even ignoring what use some Slow Start thing would be to me—Cynthia, legends at this level don't just roll over because you 'catch' them. They don't necessarily feel like following you."
Damian snorted.
He was definitely interested in Regigigas.
Whether Regigigas wanted to go with him was another question entirely.
Cynthia drew a deep breath, her gaze firming.
She knew she couldn't stop Regigigas on her own.
She didn't have that kind of power.
Damian did.
He could, if he felt like stepping in.
"As long as you can stop Regigigas from destroying Snowpoint City, Damian, I'll agree to one request from you—as long as it doesn't cross my bottom line."
"You sure about that?"
Damian stared at her, interest glowing.
"Join Team Rocket? Or have my kid?"
Cynthia's breathing hitched.
Seriously?
Those were the two options? Join Team Rocket or have his child?
What kind of choice was that supposed to be?
And on top of that…
She could already feel Caitlin's razor‑sharp gaze drilling into her from the side.
Cold sweat beaded on Cynthia's back.
~~
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