Chapter 273: Arceus — Yes, It's Arceus!
Michina Town. A small settlement in the Sinnoh region.
Michina sits on the shore of a lake, blessed with abundant natural resources, its heart marked by the Michina Ruins.
The town carries thousands of years of history, and though its scenery is lovely, Michina itself has never been especially well known.
If anything, the ruins are really the only thing here worth seeing.
And it was to this little town that Mammon and his two companions had now come.
"Cynthia, do you know anything about Michina's history?"
Mammon, dressed in a black coat, strolled unhurriedly toward the center of town, asking the question of Cynthia, who walked a step behind him.
As a well-known archaeology and mythology enthusiast in Sinnoh, Cynthia had at least some knowledge of ruins across the region.
"I do know a little, though I can't vouch for how accurate it is."
She thought for a moment, then looked up at the great mountain rising from the center of town.
"I once heard from a fellow archaeology scholar that Michina was, a thousand years ago, a bleak and desolate place — until it received a gift from a god. Michina witnessed a divine miracle, and from that point on it flourished."
Cynthia spoke as she did; Sinnoh, being a region saturated with myth, had ruins and legends in staggering abundance. Even Cynthia hadn't managed to study every single one of the region's myths — properly investigating even a single ruin already demanded enormous time and effort.
So her knowledge of Michina's history specifically was limited. It was, after all, just an obscure little town.
"Who was this god?" Mammon asked.
"Supposedly the legendary Arceus?" Cynthia answered, hesitating slightly, unsure of herself.
Arceus?
Caitlin's expression turned puzzled. What kind of Pokémon was that?
"Looks like you don't know much about it either. No matter — let's go ask the ruins' guardian."
Mammon looked up at the mountain before them: Mt. Michina, the town's central landmark. The Michina Ruins sat at its peak.
The three of them climbed the mountain path and soon reached the summit, the ruins now directly ahead.
"Excuse me, may I ask who you are?"
A girl with brown hair tied into two buns had just pushed open the ruins' gate, and blinked in confusion at the sight of the three visitors.
"We happened to hear there was a thousand-year-old ruin here, so we came especially to pay a visit," Mammon said, flashing a sunny smile.
He recognized this girl at once — she was a descendant of Damos, bearer of the Empathic Gift.
The Empathic Gift was an ability that allowed one to communicate heart-to-heart with Pokémon, passed down from her ancestor Damos. Honestly, the ability to communicate mentally with Pokémon wasn't all that rare in itself — the Power of Viridian, Aura, even ordinary Psychic powers could all achieve some form of communion with certain Psychic-type Pokémon. There was even someone like N, who, as the child of a human and a Pokémon, could naturally sense and communicate with Pokémon's emotions.
Compared to more versatile abilities like the Power of Viridian, the Empathic Gift could only manage mental communication, and it even failed outright when a Pokémon's fury grew too intense — its wielder could be struck and injured by the emotional backlash. In many ways, it was a heavily limited power.
And yet its single greatest distinction was this: the Empathic Gift was not bound by space or time.
The movie had shown as much — Sheena's Empathic Gift had once reached across different points in space-time to contact Palkia and Dialga themselves, calling on them for help.
Which was, frankly, absurd.
"I see — please, come in. I'm Sheena, guardian of these ruins."
The girl called Sheena broke into a smile at his words, stepping aside and gesturing for the three of them to enter.
As guardian, her duty was to protect this ancient temple site, passed down through generations, and to share its history and glory with the wider world.
But as Sheena studied Cynthia, something nagged at her — this elegant, refined woman looked strangely familiar.
"Wait — you're Champion Cynthia, aren't you?"
Sheena finally placed her, eyes lighting up in delighted surprise.
Though her duty as ruins-keeper kept her from venturing out much, Sheena was still a young woman living in an age of thriving internet culture. She'd seen videos and photos of Cynthia online before — though since she herself wasn't a trainer and had little interest in battling, she hadn't known much beyond that. And since Cynthia wasn't wearing her signature black coat today, but ordinary clothes, Sheena hadn't recognized her right away.
"That's right. Hello." Cynthia nodded, smiling in response.
"I'm truly honored — I never imagined you'd visit our ruins."
Sheena was still rather starstruck; after all, the woman before her was the strongest Champion in all of Sinnoh.
"Please, come in, all three of you. My fellow guardian is out at the moment — I'll show you around myself." Sheena led them inside.
She was a gracious host, and quite the talker — which made sense, really; how else could a guardian properly introduce visitors to the ruins?
The first floor didn't take long to tour. Sheena then led them up to the second floor, more open in layout but lined with far more murals, along with a strange device resembling a model of space-time.
"Miss Sheena, what Pokémon is this?"
Mammon had stopped before one of the murals. It depicted ancient Michina Town — and hovering above the town was the carved image of a Pokémon.
Its form resembled something between a horse, a qilin, and a centaur, with a wheel-like ring shaped like a cross around its waist. The mural labeled it "the Ring of a Thousand Skies."
It was, of course, Arceus.
"Arceus — yes, it's Arceus!"
Sheena's face was bright with pride as she explained.
"A thousand years ago, Michina was still a barren wasteland. One day, a meteor fell from the sky — and it was Arceus who appeared and shattered it before it could strike."
"But the falling fragments from that meteor still further drained what little life Michina's already-poor soil had left. It was my ancestor, Damos, who prayed to Arceus — and received its answer."
Sheena's expression turned wistful, full of reverence.
Cynthia and Caitlin listened intently. Mammon, meanwhile — so it really is different, he thought, narrowing his eyes slightly. He'd suspected as much from the start.
In the original movie, thanks to a tragic misunderstanding, Sheena had deeply resented her ancestor Damos, believing that his attempt to seize the Jewel of Life and break his promise to return it had been shameful. But from everything Sheena had said so far on this tour, Mammon could tell — there was no trace of that shame in her. Only pride.
And listening to the history she was telling now, he was beginning to understand why.
This world's version of Michina's history was, quite clearly, very different from the movie's.
"And then what happened?" Mammon asked, curious.
"Then Arceus appeared again! It fused its five Plates — Earth, Water, Splash... erm, the Meadow, Zap, and Draco Plates — into the Jewel of Life, and gave it to my ancestor."
"The Jewel of Life was miraculous beyond words. Its power brought the barren land back to life, made it fertile and prosperous — and that's how Michina came to be what it is today."
Sheena smiled as she spoke — but then her tone shifted, taking on a note of old bitterness.
"But after that, something went wrong."
She continued.
"After borrowing the Jewel's power to make Michina flourish, my ancestor Damos came to understand something: that this vitality, granted by a god's blessing, was never really something they had earned through their own effort."
"So Damos wanted to return the Jewel of Life to Arceus. He knew that once the Jewel was gone, the land's fertility would slowly fade — but he believed that Michina could still sustain itself, through the people's own hard work."
"Because by then, the Jewel had already restored the foundation of the land itself."
Sheena bit her lip.
"That's right — a god had already given them their chance. The Jewel of Life was ultimately just an external gift; one couldn't lean on it forever," Cynthia said, clearly moved by Damos's decision.
The Jewel of Life was Arceus's blessing — with it, Michina need never fear becoming a wasteland again. But it remained, in the end, Arceus's treasure.
What if it were stolen? Or what if, one day, Arceus simply decided to take it back?
The only reason Damos had prayed to Arceus in the first place was that Michina's soil had been too barren, and the meteor's fragments had ravaged it even further — they'd had no other options left.
But now, with the Jewel's help, the land had come back to life, and the people could sustain that fertility with their own two hands.
"Exactly. But one of Damos's own subordinates betrayed him — he feared that losing the Jewel of Life would turn Michina barren again, so he stole it, and tried to seize control of Damos himself."
"Thankfully, Damos was ever watchful, and managed to turn the tables on the traitor."
Sheena's voice rose again, chest puffed with pride for her ancestor.
"Damos was amazing!"
Mammon applauded — well, it wasn't just that the story differed from what he remembered; it had changed almost beyond recognition.
Hearing his praise, the young guardian broke into a wide grin.
"So did Damos ever return the Jewel of Life to Arceus?" Mammon asked.
Um....
Sheena hesitated at the question — but after a glance at Cynthia, she shook her head.
"No, he never did. Damos spent the rest of his life waiting for Arceus to return, hoping to give the Jewel back and thank it properly for its blessing."
"But even until the day he died of old age, Arceus never came again. No matter how many times he prayed, there was no answer." Sheena sighed.
"And so it's been passed down ever since, generation after generation — we've always been waiting for Arceus to come back."
That was it — beyond simply guarding these history-steeped ruins, Sheena's other calling was to wait for Arceus's return.
To give back the Jewel of Life, and to sincerely thank it for the gift it had given this land.
"I see," Mammon said, eyes glinting faintly.
This — this was the biggest difference from the movie.
In the film's version of events, the Plates could be considered Arceus's very life source — treasures of supreme importance, quite literally part of its being. It was because the Plates had been knocked loose by the meteor that Arceus had been gravely wounded in the first place; once Damos found and returned them, Arceus instantly recovered its full strength and reclaimed every scattered Plate.
Which showed just how vital the Plates were to Arceus.
But that, Mammon knew, was only the movie's version of the lore. In the games, the Plates mattered to Arceus, but losing one wasn't some absolute catastrophe.
In fact, in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the deity had originally watched over the people of the Hisui region — until a legendary hero, accompanied by ten Pokémon, challenged it directly. Arceus, recognizing the strength of humankind, withdrew to a world that didn't belong to humans, scattering its Plates across Hisui as it went.
That had clearly been deliberate, on Arceus's part.
Which meant the Plates weren't strictly essential to Arceus — certainly not in the same way as this world's movie-Arceus, for whom losing the Plates apparently meant losing its very life force.
It seems in this world, the Plates aren't Arceus's life source after all — so it doesn't treasure these five particular Plates all that much. Or—
Mammon's thoughts turned inward, weighing another possibility.
This world's Arceus has a splinter self — and that splinter has the Legendary Plates!!
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