Chapter 95: Lillie: "I Missed You, Mammon"
"You—"
Mr. Fuji's voice shook. Not just his voice — his entire aged frame trembled slightly.
Anger. And fear.
The Pokémon House was his last anchor. If something happened to the Pokémon here — to all of them — he would have nothing left.
"Shameless."
"That's entirely up to you, Mr. Fuji." Mammon leaned slightly closer and regarded the old man's clouded eyes. "As long as you cooperate fully, nothing will happen. I'll arrange regular supply deliveries to the Pokémon House — they'll all grow up healthy and well cared for. And with those resources, you'll be able to take in even more Pokémon in need, won't you?"
The scene looked, objectively speaking, exactly like a villain in a drama forcing the hand of a righteous character.
The kind who doesn't survive past episode three.
Erika had reached the point where she couldn't look directly at it. Caitlin, by contrast, was entirely composed — Mammon was always right.
"And if you refuse?" Mammon's smile was thoroughly unpleasant. "Well. Who knows what might happen."
Please stop.
Erika was going numb. She could see Mr. Fuji gasping with barely controlled fury.
Can't you just talk to him normally? she thought desperately. You're making us look like the worst people alive!
"You'll get your punishment for this! All of you!"
Mr. Fuji glared at Mammon — and swept Erika and Caitlin into the glare as well. As far as he was concerned, anyone traveling with Mammon couldn't be any better.
"Even so," Mammon said pleasantly, "you'll need to unlock Mewtwo's power before any of that becomes relevant."
Karmic retribution. Sure. Hilarious.
Mr. Fuji's hands clenched into fists at his sides. He wanted — he genuinely wanted — to produce some kind of weapon right now.
But—
His shoulders dropped. He had nothing. The Pokémon House was his only vulnerability, and they both knew it.
"I'll need a laboratory. Proper equipment. And I'll need to run a full diagnostic on Mewtwo's current physiological data." The old man forced the words out through a dry throat.
"Of course. No problem at all — we'll accommodate whatever you need."
"Then come back when you're ready."
Mr. Fuji left without looking back.
He needed to calm down. He'd made peace with this, years ago — accepted that building the Pokémon House was his penance for the lapse in judgment that had led him to create Mewtwo for Team Rocket.
And now—
"People with soft spots are so easy to work with."
Mammon pulled out his phone, fired off a message, and watched the old man's retreating back with a quiet smile.
(He notified Ariana to send a team to retrofit the Lavender Town base — carve out a proper laboratory. The space was already there; the challenge was sourcing the precision instrumentation.)
"Mrrr—"
Erika made a sound like a small wounded animal.
"What's going on with you?" Mammon looked over at her, genuinely puzzled.
"This humble person — this humble person is no longer clean." Erika pressed both hands over her face.
The look Mr. Fuji had given her on his way out had broken something inside her.
She, Erika of Celadon City — lover of flower arrangement, scion of a distinguished family, Gym Leader of one of Kanto's eight official League Gyms.
A life without a single stain, beyond an unfortunate tendency to oversleep. The pride of every young person in Celadon. Not quite a spotless lotus blossom, but close enough to count.
And today, a genuinely kind old man had looked at her like she was a villain.
She hadn't done anything.
She was already nursing grievances from two consecutive mornings of being pinned down and thoroughly kissed — with bonus wandering hands — and now she was being lumped in with Team Rocket on top of it. Erika was at her absolute limit.
"What are you talking about."
Mammon blinked. He'd looked, honestly. Erika was very clean. The shape was neat and refined — like a bowl carved from white jade.
"Perhaps this humble person no longer deserves to exist in this world," Erika continued, deep in her private tragedy.
Mammon looked at Caitlin.
Caitlin touched her chin thoughtfully. After careful consideration:
"Probably just a chuunibyou episode."
"It is NOT!!"
Erika snapped back to life instantly, puffing out her cheeks.
"Good. Don't overthink it." Mammon smiled at her. "Other people don't get to pass judgment on us. As long as your own conscience is clear, that's all that matters."
Erika startled slightly.
He knew what she was actually upset about.
"Caring too much about what other people think will wear you out. Life is short. Living it freely and fully — that's the only thing worth doing."
He stretched his arms wide and said it all with the complete laziness of someone who had thoroughly internalized this principle.
I've already lived one life, he thought. This one is mine to do whatever I want with. Any objections?
None whatsoever.
Caitlin nodded with great conviction, a stunning smile rising at the corner of her lips. Exactly right.
"As long as my own conscience is clear... that's enough?"
Erika turned the idea over. She hadn't actually done anything wrong. Why was she tormenting herself?
Right. I'm perfectly fine.
Wait.
She glanced at Mammon, and the image of this morning rose immediately in her mind — being pressed into the mattress, unable to push him off —
Her face ignited.
And his hands. Why were his hands so impossibly dexterous? She'd been wearing her undergarments and he'd unfastened them with the ease of someone who'd done it a thousand times — faster than she could have done it herself —
Out on the grass at the edge of Lavender Town, the three of them had spread out a picnic mat and settled into a rare moment of ease.
"Mammon, I have a question — would you be willing to answer it?"
Erika had been holding it in long enough.
"About Mewtwo's origins and the old man." Mammon was already ahead of her. He was thoroughly enjoying having Caitlin's lap to rest his head on. Her slender fingers were working gentle circles at his temples.
"Yes. What he said — about creating it—"
"Exactly what it sounds like." Mammon reached to his hip and produced a deep crimson Poké Ball — Dark Mewtwo's. He turned it over in his fingers. "Mewtwo is an artificial Pokémon. And it's only been awake for a short time."
"—!!"
Erika's pupils contracted sharply. She inhaled. Even Caitlin's composure slipped a fraction — an artificial legendary?
Caitlin had encountered artificial Pokémon before. Gladion's Type: Null had been created by the Aether Foundation, after all. And Type: Null — now Silvally — was genuinely powerful; Caitlin estimated it was roughly comparable to Tapu Lele in raw strength.
But Dark Mewtwo was something else entirely.
She'd watched it with her own eyes yesterday. Going blow for blow with Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh.
"How is that even possible?" Erika whispered.
"Hard to imagine, isn't it? But that's what science can do when it's pushed to its limits."
Mammon understood the disbelief completely. A human-made Pokémon of that caliber would stagger anyone.
"Mew's genetic code as the foundation. Optimal genes from various other Pokémon spliced in and recombined. Combined with advanced cloning biotechnology. That's how Mewtwo came to be."
"That's... extraordinary."
"And it's a one-time phenomenon." Mammon's voice was quiet but certain. "Timing, coincidence, fate, technique, genetics — every variable aligned perfectly. Mewtwo's existence is a miracle, not a formula. You could replicate every step of the process identically, use the same genetic recombinations, follow the same blueprint exactly — and what you'd produce would not be Mewtwo."
A legendary at that level of strength couldn't be explained by science alone. Something more had gone into it.
"Actually—" He shifted slightly on the lap pillow. "Do you believe in time machines?"
"...Time machines?"
Caitlin's expression went subtly uncertain. The kind she was thinking of?
"Yes. A machine that crosses time. That moves through it."
"That's — that can't actually exist, can it?" Erika said.
Modern science could produce spatial-compression technology — storage bags, Poké Balls, devices built on dimensional principles — but a time machine was a different category of impossible.
"What if I told you that somewhere in this world, someone has already built one. And used it to send Pokémon from the ancient past and the distant future into the present."
The corner of Mammon's mouth curved upward.
"...What."
Erika felt like she had used up her quota of shock for the day, and it was still afternoon.
She didn't think he was making it up. Mammon was many things — he was absolutely insufferable, he had no concept of boundaries, and he seemed to view her personal space as a challenge — but he didn't tell pointless lies. And honestly, if an artificial legendary was real, a time machine was at least in the same neighborhood of implausibility.
"I'll take you to see it sometime. The Pokémon that came through are worth looking at — you might find something you like."
He said it as casually as if he were recommending a restaurant.
Area Zero, he was thinking. That's a trip that needs to happen eventually. Those Paradox Pokémon are impressive across the board — and those two legendary guardians especially.
"Yes, yes, yes!!" Erika was already excited. A time machine!
Rring. Rring.
Mammon's phone rang.
He checked the screen.
Lillie.
"Hey, Lillie."
"Mammon — are you busy?" Her voice came through soft and clear.
"No, taking a break."
"Oh good. I was afraid I might be interrupting something."
"Not at all. You can call me whenever, Lillie — even if I'm in the middle of something, it's fine."
Does that mean... I matter more than whatever he'd be doing?
In the garden of Aether Paradise, Alola, Lillie pressed her lips together. The smile spreading across her face was completely beyond her control.
She was so happy.
On the picnic mat, Erika pressed her mouth shut. Unbelievable. He was doing this right in front of her. He'd kissed her and put his hands everywhere this morning without a word of affection, and now he was saying things like this to someone else?
Mammon was truly the worst.
Caitlin, for her part, lowered her eyes and kept her expression carefully blank.
Lillie. She knew her — the girl she'd played the flutes with at the Altar of the Moone. Lusamine's daughter.
A perfectly harmless young lady with no combat ability and no trainer rank.
Utterly nonthreatening. Caitlin was completely confident in herself.
"You're so good at saying nice things, Mammon." Lillie's voice had brightened noticeably. "Anyway — Nebby came back today!"
"Ma~xi~"
A rasping cry drifted through the phone. Lunala's voice.
"That's wonderful. I'm sorry I can't be there right now."
"She seems to miss you, too. Mammon — when are you coming back to Alola?"
Lillie's voice carried an expectation she wasn't quite managing to conceal.
She knew — she knew — that Mammon was Mitsuki's boyfriend. She'd known for a while now.
But she couldn't help it.
They'd only been apart for a few days, and she missed him already.
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