Chapter 334: Mammon: "If Someone Has to Change the World, Why Not Me?"
"Miss Viola, how much do you actually know about Team Rocket?"
Mammon paused thoughtfully, then asked Viola.
"I've looked into some information — Team Rocket is a genuinely evil, dark organization."
Viola nodded.
So, big sis, you knew all along?
The cameraman swallowed hard, quietly steadying the camera. He could feel himself starting to break out in a cold sweat. But there was no backing out at this particular moment — all he could do was keep filming. Because if he somehow managed to upset this guy, he didn't even want to think about how it might end for him.
"That's right. Team Rocket is an evil organization — back home in Kanto, there's not a soul who doesn't know its name. Kidnapping, extortion, robbery, even horrifically inhumane Pokémon genetic experimentation — there's no crime they haven't committed."
Mammon said slowly.
"So why did you decide to join Team Rocket?" Viola asked the question again.
"From what I understand, you're Mr. Giovanni's eldest son, and Mr. Giovanni is the most respected Gym Leader in all of Kanto. Raised personally by him — why would you walk down a path like this?"
"By all rights, you should have had an unlimited, bright future ahead of you."
Viola wasn't just chasing dramatic effect here — she was genuinely, deeply curious. After all, someone who'd swept every single competitor in his debut year to claim the Indigo Conference title had, by any measure, a boundlessly bright future ahead of him. And on top of that, he had an official, respected family background too!
"Right — a lot of people have asked me this question, honestly. There's more than one factor behind it." Mammon let out a small, tired laugh.
"If I'm going to actually get into it properly, it might end up being a fairly long story."
"That's fine! We'd be happy to listen!"
Viola said immediately, unable to hide her eagerness.
"Alright. Let me think — where should I even start."
Mammon's expression turned thoughtful.
"When I was very young, my mother passed away. And I originally had a lovely little brother — but around the same time, when I was still small, my brother was kidnapped and went missing."
"I'm so sorry." Viola offered him a look of genuine sympathy.
So... was it just an unhappy childhood? No, surely it wasn't that simple.
"From that point on, I started to vaguely understand that this world wasn't as beautiful as people liked to imagine it — that it had a genuinely cruel side to it."
"My father did love me — I always knew that, deep down. But he had his own responsibilities, and he was always incredibly busy."
"I read books alone. Watched videos alone. Fell asleep alone, in a dark, empty room."
Mammon continued, his voice level and calm.
But nobody listening could stay calm at that. Caitlin's faint smile had entirely drained away, her gaze fixed on the young man under the spotlight. Platinum bit her lip gently, her thoughts tangled and heavy — coming from such a warm, privileged family herself, having been treated like a little princess her whole life, she found it genuinely hard to imagine the kind of life Mammon was describing.
Mother dead. Brother missing. A father too busy to be present. A childhood spent entirely alone.
This was...
"My father is a genuinely excellent, dedicated Gym Leader. Yes — genuinely excellent and dedicated."
"Inspired by him, my own goal from a young age was to become an excellent trainer myself. Eventually, when I got older, he gave me my very first Pokémon — a Shiny Gastly."
"I loved it dearly. It was such a sweet, hardworking little thing."
Mammon offered a faint, gentle smile.
"I set out from Viridian City with Gastly by my side. In a way, that journey ended up meaning a great deal to me personally — and yet, at the same time, meaning almost nothing at all."
"Why do you say that?"
Viola, who'd been listening carefully in silence, couldn't help asking.
"What is the actual meaning of a journey, really? Is it the journey itself? Or all the small moments experienced along the way? Or simply the result waiting at the end?" Mammon asked back with a light chuckle.
"That's..." Viola found herself at a loss for words.
"I was thinking about that same question at the time. My journey went smoothly — more smoothly than I ever could have imagined."
"I met the woman who's now my girlfriend on that journey. I gained so many wonderful Pokémon companions along the way. I experienced real growth firsthand. I saw so much. Felt so much."
Mammon tapped his fingers lightly against his thigh, his gaze drifting slightly, as though sifting through old memories.
"And then, with my own eyes, I saw members of Team Rocket in their black uniforms. That was the first time I ever encountered Team Rocket — they were robbing a family, stealing a child's Pokémon right out from under them. That child was crying so hard."
"They even took the child hostage, threatening the parents to hand over more money."
"I genuinely couldn't understand it."
"Why would people like this exist in the world?"
Mammon said, quietly.
Viola opened her mouth as if to say something, but held back, letting Mammon continue.
"I beat those few Team Rocket members and called Looker to report it. Even as they were being taken away, they hurled abuse at me."
"I still don't understand that, honestly."
"They were clearly the ones in the wrong. I stopped them, corrected their mistake — and they still cursed at me for it."
Mammon's voice was smooth and clear, and the entire living room had gone utterly silent.
"I saved that family, and they thanked me for it. When they learned I was Giovanni's son, they lit up, telling me how proud they were, that I was truly worthy of being his son, that my father had raised such a fine boy."
"I still didn't understand that either. I was the one who saved them — what did that have to do with my father at all?"
"Along the way, this kind of thing kept happening, over and over."
Something in Viola's chest tightened uncomfortably. Something wasn't right here.
"My journey continued. I collected all eight badges and made it into the Indigo Conference."
"I beat every single opponent with ease — and it suddenly dawned on me: maybe it wasn't that they were all too weak. Maybe it was that I was simply too strong."
"Maybe I really was that one, special person."
The corner of Mammon's mouth curled up slowly.
"Actually, right after I won the Indigo Conference, on my way back to Viridian City, I ran into a Team Rocket executive along with a handful of grunts."
"That executive recognized me, and extended an invitation — asking me to join Team Rocket."
"Team Rocket — I'd run into them countless times over the course of my journey, and every single time, they were committing some new atrocity. They were the maggots festering beneath Kanto's surface. This world's own shadow."
Mammon gently rubbed his fingers together.
"I originally intended to refuse. But Miss Viola, can you guess what I saw?"
"What?" Viola was completely absorbed in the story by now.
"The very first Team Rocket members I'd ever encountered — they were standing right behind that executive."
"WHAT?!" This time, Viola's exclamation carried an entirely different tone — pure, genuine shock.
"But weren't they...? Didn't you...?"
"Yes. I found it strange too — they should have already been locked up in a cell, taken away by Officer Looker."
"I asked the executive about it. He just smiled and said — it was only a temporary holding. They had plenty of ways to get people back out."
This...!!
Viola's pupils trembled faintly. She could practically picture the self-satisfied, mocking expression on that executive's face as he'd said it — mocking who, exactly, was left conveniently unsaid.
"At that point, I honestly didn't even know what I was thinking anymore. I asked him one more question."
"'Why does Team Rocket do so many terrible things?' Do you know what he told me?"
Viola shook her head.
"He gave me this amused, mocking little smile, and said — 'We do it because we want to. Does it need a reason?'"
Not just Viola — even the cameraman and Violet felt something jolt in their chests at that.
"We do it because we want to"? What an impossibly light, casual thing to say — but look at everything Team Rocket had actually done!!
"In that moment, I understood — the feeling I'd had as a child hadn't been wrong. This world wasn't purely beautiful. This sky wasn't really clear and blue, not entirely."
"And honestly, I thought what he said made a certain kind of sense. Some things — if you want to do them, you just do them."
Mammon tilted his head slightly, his tone still perfectly calm.
"So I accepted that executive's invitation. I joined Team Rocket."
"Why would you make a decision like that, though?"
Viola blinked, still not understanding. He'd known full well how evil Team Rocket was, known they were exactly the shadow keeping this world from being whole — and he'd joined them anyway?
Shouldn't he have destroyed it instead?
"Miss Viola, do you know something? The human heart is the single most unpredictable thing there is. Wherever light falls, a shadow inevitably follows."
"Truly wiping out Team Rocket for good — do you have any idea how massive an operation that actually is?"
"And besides, even if you did wipe them out entirely — so what? The dark underbelly of this world would still be there, festering beneath the surface. Today it's Team Rocket. Tomorrow, maybe it's 'Team Locomotive.' The day after, 'Team Airplane.'"
Mammon let out a short laugh, unable to resist the joke.
"Instead of destroying it, why not simply take full control of it yourself? What do you think?"
Viola's head was spinning. She understood now!
"This world isn't perfect. This sky will always have its clouds. Every single region has people crying somewhere, and there's no avoiding that."
"Because the shadows in the human heart are simply that terrifying, that intractable — that's why we see them everywhere: Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova. Every single stretch of land has its own dark organizations, its own kind."
"Making this world clean again — what an unimaginably difficult thing to actually pull off."
"But if there absolutely has to be someone out there capable of reshaping the world's entire structure—"
Mammon spread his arms wide, a wild, feverish grin breaking across his face.
"Why can't that someone be me?"
Yes — if there absolutely had to be someone capable of changing the world, why couldn't that someone be him? Mammon?
The entire living room fell into total silence — quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Viola stared at the young man across from her, feeling every hair on her body standing on end.
Caitlin's expression, this time, had shed its usual polite, closed-lip smile entirely — she was genuinely, openly beaming, radiant with pride.
Ahh~! Mr. Mammon!!!
Platinum clenched her small fists in excitement, half-tempted to jump straight out of her seat. Mr. Mammon!! Why does he have to be THIS cool?!
Serena's eyes shone with the same intensity, completely captivated by the young man in front of her.
Violet pressed her lips together tightly. This was just too—
Viola took several deep breaths, trying to steady her wildly churning emotions — genuinely, this was the first time she'd ever experienced anything like this. Listening to a subject speak and feeling chills run through her entire body — not from dread, but from some indescribable, overwhelming sensation.
This was genuinely, truly electrifying.
"Mr. Mammon, you're truly... truly magnificent!"
Magnificent! No further words necessary!
For a moment, Viola genuinely had no idea what else she could possibly say — "magnificent" was the only word that came close.
"You flatter me, Miss Viola."
"Well then — let me properly reintroduce myself to our viewers."
Mammon said modestly, his handsome face still carrying that same easy smile as he turned to face the camera directly.
"Hello everyone. I'm Mammon. Team Rocket's boss — Mammon!"
(End of chapter)
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