Chapter 337: "Oh My God! My Heart Aches for Big Brother Mammon!"
The Lumiose Press wasn't especially famous within the Kalos region, but it still carried a decent-sized audience.
And journalist Viola herself had quite a substantial fan following. After all, Viola had both looks and figure going for her, along with genuinely impressive professional skill, plus an outgoing, warm personality.
And, as most people knew, Viola also had a younger sister, Violet — the Santalune City Gym Leader. The two sisters, honestly, both ranked among the more accomplished young women of their generation.
The moment Viola's press outlet published this new interview, she immediately promoted it on her own personal social media account. Violet did the same.
The Lumiose Press itself spared no expense promoting it either — pushing it hard, relentlessly. Because they were absolutely convinced this interview was going to blow up.
An exclusive interview with the boss of an evil organization! That was a genuine, once-in-a-lifetime traffic bonanza.
And sure enough, the moment the interview dropped, it caught fire fast. Sure, the overwhelming majority of Kalos citizens had never even heard of Team Rocket — but this was the internet age, after all. A quick search online and you could dig up whatever you needed to know. Detailed information was admittedly hard to come by, but a general picture was more than enough.
By eleven that night, a little over two hours after the video went live, discussion across Kalos's networks had already spiraled into something close to a frenzy. All kinds of forum threads kept popping up nonstop.
"Oh my god!! My heart genuinely aches for Big Brother Mammon!! He's just so incredible!!"
"Choosing to walk into the darkness alone to solve the world's shadow problem once and for all? Hajima, you absolute unit..."
"'If there absolutely has to be someone capable of changing the world, why can't that someone be me?'"
"Damn, that line alone gave me full-body chills, holy crap!"
"He's incredible — from joining Team Rocket to holding total power, in less than a year?! How is he even THIS strong? He actually pulled it off!"
"Duh, the guy literally swept the entire Indigo Conference the moment he started his journey. With that kind of talent and vision, calling him 'chosen' wouldn't even be an exaggeration."
"So Lord Mammon's already in Kalos, huh? Not gonna lie, I've had a childhood dream of driving out darkness and saving the world myself. PLEASE let me join Team Rocket!!"
Post after post, comment after comment scrolling by — Diantha, recuperating at home, felt genuine dread creeping over her.
The HELL?!
"How is this even happening..."
Diantha was genuinely shocked. She'd been scrolling for half an hour now, and the overwhelming majority — no, honestly, ninety-nine percent — of the comments were pure praise, pure admiration. The rare comment or two questioning whether Mammon's "story" was really just a "story" got instantly buried under a flood of pushback.
Team Rocket and Mammon's public image was, at this point, entirely, thoroughly positive.
But was this actually... right?
"This can't be. There's no way it's like this!"
Diantha bit her lip. Was this really the same Team Rocket boss who'd threatened her, used Kalos's safety as leverage to coerce her into offering herself up — the same man now on-screen talking about "the world's future," about "beauty," about "wiping away the darkness once and for all"?
No way. Absolutely no way.
This was fundamentally wrong.
"Mammon! You're really something, putting on an act like THAT!!!"
Diantha genuinely couldn't believe how flawlessly Mammon had pulled off that performance. If she hadn't literally been coerced by him herself just that afternoon, she might genuinely have believed every word of his nonsense too.
But then Diantha let out a heavy sigh. Sure, she believed she knew Mammon's true face — but what good did that actually do her? Was she supposed to go online now and publicly set the record straight? That would be openly slapping Mammon in the face — provoking Team Rocket to the point of no return.
And what, throw away her own afternoon-long sacrifice for nothing?
Not to mention the retaliation from Team Rocket that would surely follow — something the Kalos League simply couldn't afford to withstand.
So...
What's done was done. Better to just tend to her wounds for now.
Diantha sighed heavily, pulling out some anti-inflammatory salve, focusing on healing up before anything else.
Damn it. I can NOT let myself pass out like that again. Way too humiliating.
After treating herself, Diantha drifted into a heavy sleep — the past two days had drained her far too much, and she genuinely needed the rest.
Online, meanwhile, the discourse only kept intensifying.
—
The next day.
"Chairman! Bad news!"
Goodshow had barely settled into his chair at his office when Looker came rushing in, urgent.
"What's wrong, Mio?" Goodshow blinked, caught off guard.
Mio Jenny — Kanto's own Looker — was normally an extremely composed, level-headed, meticulous person. Seeing her like this was genuinely rare.
"Take a look at this."
Looker set her tablet down on Goodshow's desk and hit play.
"Hello everyone, I'm Mammon."
The young man's opening line reached Goodshow's ears, and his eyes went wide with genuine shock. Wait — Mammon?! Mammon's on television?!?
By the time the interview wrapped up, Goodshow sat there staring at the finished video, his graying eyebrows knitted into a deep furrow, his expression genuinely difficult to read.
(Old man, subway, phone.jpg)
"Get Ado and the others in here for a meeting!"
After a long pause, Goodshow said gravely, then hesitated a moment and added:
"And call in Giovanni too."
"Yes, sir!"
—
Back in that same, familiar conference room. Kanto's Elite Four sat assembled once more, Giovanni also present. On the projector screen at the front, the interview had just finished playing.
The entire room sat in dead silence.
"You've all seen it. So — what do you think?" Goodshow's tone was grave.
Ado's sharp brows furrowed slightly, arms crossed, his eyes flickering unreadably, his cold, composed features giving nothing away.
Giovanni sat with a stony expression, equally unreadable.
"Heh heh heh..." Karen's laugh remained as unsettling as ever.
"What else is there to think?" Koga let out a cold chuckle.
"If everything Mammon said in that video is genuinely true, then honestly, I'd want to join his Team Rocket myself."
Koga said flatly, and yes — she genuinely meant it.
She'd joined the Kanto League for the sake of the justice burning in her heart — to eliminate the evil Team Rocket, to wipe out people driven by filthy, corrupt desires. Back then, she'd been full of nothing but passion and conviction. But reality had proven a lot crueler than she'd imagined.
Because of the League's own legal system, even when she captured Team Rocket's criminals herself, there was no death penalty — the system fundamentally lacked genuine deterrent power. Over the years, she'd seen far, far too much, and it had gradually pushed her toward increasingly extreme views, shaping her into the "Ice-Cold Koga" she was known as now.
And no question about it — if what Mammon had said in that video was actually true, Koga genuinely would consider jumping ship. She'd been dissatisfied with the current League for a long time now.
A council full of do-nothing bureaucrats scheming against each other, and a "soft" legal system with no real teeth — if it weren't for Ado, a genuine kindred spirit, and Goodshow, who she still held some old loyalty toward, she'd have left the League a long time ago.
"Koga..." Goodshow's voice carried real resignation.
"Chairman, this isn't aimed at you specifically. You know that." Koga's tone remained cool.
Goodshow genuinely had sacrificed a great deal for the League, for Kanto — he'd spent years trying to hold everything together, and Koga understood that perfectly well.
But she also understood that it hadn't actually accomplished much.
"Heh heh~ this is only his own version of events — we shouldn't take it entirely at face value." Karen's aged voice cut in, smoothing things over.
Sabrina rested her chin on her hand, glancing at the projector screen, quietly stifling a yawn — honestly, she found the whole thing a little boring, and was itching to get back to her weight training. But after a quick, silent internal debate, she let that thought drop, her gaze settling instead on Giovanni.
She still had no idea when Giovanni's own Elite Four challenge match was going to happen — she'd been waiting a while now.
Couldn't beat Mammon — but surely she could beat Mammon's OLD MAN, right?
Ahem — actually, that was probably not a safe bet either, given that Giovanni had caught himself a Groudon, as Sabrina well knew.
Still, no matter — even if she couldn't beat Groudon, surely she could take on one of Giovanni's other mainstays? Surely he wouldn't lead with Groudon right out of the gate.
"Gym Leader Giovanni, was what Mammon said actually true?"
Karen asked Giovanni.
"I don't know," Giovanni said, shaking his head, his voice heavy.
"I honestly don't know what he actually went through during his journey last year. But the part at the beginning..." Giovanni hesitated, then let out a sigh.
"That part really was true. I was the one who neglected to look after him properly when he was young."
At Giovanni's words, everyone in the room reacted differently. Looker opened her mouth several times, seeming about to say something, but each time, seeing Giovanni's darkened expression, she chose to stay silent instead.
Was she going to say Giovanni failed his son as a father? What good would that do? Wasn't Giovanni's busyness itself a product of his own diligent, dedicated service to the League?
"I heard Gym Leader Giovanni recently reunited with his other long-lost child. Congratulations on that," Karen said, smiling pleasantly.
"That said, what Mammon claims here doesn't line up with the intelligence we previously received about why he originally joined Team Rocket. That's worth paying attention to."
"Agreed." Koga nodded.
"As for what Mammon says in this video, I'm reserving judgment — or rather, I strongly suspect this is, in all likelihood, a fabrication."
Koga stated flatly.
As someone who'd had direct, personal contact with Mammon, Koga was confident the "everything for the world, everything for beauty" Mammon in that video was absolutely a constructed persona. That wasn't the man she'd actually encountered.
"But this interview wasn't made for our benefit — as things currently stand, a great many ordinary people out there have already been thoroughly swayed by his rhetoric," Looker said gravely.
"Ambitious, capable, AND skilled at using public opinion to launder his own reputation — this kid... is really something else," Karen said, narrowing her eyes with an amused chuckle.
"But it does send us a message, too — that Mammon really does intend to transform Team Rocket, steering it toward becoming a legitimate organization. That much does line up with what he claims."
"That's purely for his own ambition's sake," Koga said flatly.
"We can't only judge him by his original motives — after all... look at the actual result we're left with now." Karen shook her head.
"Hmph!" Koga huffed, arms crossed, offering no rebuttal.
"Chairman, there's no need to take the online chatter too much to heart. Team Rocket's reputation has already been slowly turning around lately anyway — this interview only accelerated a process already underway."
Karen offered her summary. After all, even if Team Rocket's image improved, what would it actually change?
"Right. Ado, what's your read on this?" Seeing the discussion mostly winding down, Goodshow turned to Ado, who'd stayed silent the whole time.
"This guy's genuinely interesting," Ado said flatly, staring at the frozen image of Mammon on the projector screen.
"?" Goodshow blinked, puzzled. What was Ado even trying to say by that?
Well — Ado had always been like this, occasionally saying things that came off a little strange.
"Karen, how's preparation coming along for the Sooryu Island matter?"
"Already ready. Just need to pick a good date and we can get started."
"Good. Send out advance notice to every region — once Mammon returns from Kalos, we'll begin."
Goodshow said gravely.
—
World Tree Park. A handful of top-tier executives happened to be gathered together, sparring.
"Ara, ara~ the boss really is quite handsome, isn't he." Rika ran a finger along her red lips, the curve of her mouth carrying a distinctly wicked edge.
"Sound logic, clear narrative structure, a genuinely profound ideal — Lord Mammon's little story here is quite entertaining." Colress offered his own assessment.
N: "..."
"Is there a chance Mr. Mammon's actually telling the truth?" Erika ventured, testing the waters.
"Tch~ no way. Mammon's not that kind-hearted. He's always had extremely clear self-interest driving him," Kagura said, taking a bite of an apple, mercilessly shattering a certain Grass-type Gym Leader's rose-tinted view of her crush.
"Mammon really is a shameless showman. Too bad there's no sequel. Rika, spar with me for a bit," Kagura said, having essentially treated the whole video as a TV drama for her own entertainment.
"I'm a little tired right now. Go find Colress instead, Kagura," Rika said lazily, sprawled out on a chair, pulling her sun hat down over her face.
"I still need to go log Registeel's physical data in a bit — have N spar with you instead," Colress said, shaking his head.
"Sure." N nodded.
Still, N couldn't stop thinking about what Mammon had said in the video. If only it were actually true, wouldn't that be something? N felt a genuine twinge of regret at that — though honestly, things were more or less already heading that direction anyway. It was just that Mammon's original motivations hadn't been anything like what he'd described.
"Zekrom. Do you think Mammon might genuinely believe what he said in that video?"
But like Erika, N still held onto a small flicker of that hope.
Zekrom stayed silent.
If Mammon genuinely held an ideal like that, Zekrom thought, it would have flown straight into his own arms the moment it took its Black Kyurem form — no need to have "settled for" that dog-crap-stepping white dragon instead.
—
Hoenn. The Champion's office, in the League tower in Ever Grande City.
Steven and Wallace sat staring at each other, both having just finished watching Mammon's interview.
"Wallace, what do you make of this?" Steven's expression right now was genuinely bizarre.
"Heh heh heh..." Wallace let out nothing but a cold, contemptuous laugh.
"If everything in that video wasn't scripted ahead of time by Mammon, I will eat this ENTIRE computer, I swear to god!"
"And the sheer nerve of him, talking about wanting to make the world 'clean' again — give me a BREAK!"
"That shameless, absolutely SHAMELESS man!"
Wallace was ranting, cursing, all traces of his usual refined poise completely gone.
Yeah — especially seeing all the comments and posts online singing Mammon's praises pushed him even further over the edge. Especially since he'd used a burner account to post one single comment — "this guy's really putting on an act" — and gotten dogpiled with hundreds of replies, some even accusing him of being jealous of Mammon's talent and looks!
Huh? Talent, sure, whatever. But LOOKS? Absolutely not, Wallace refused to concede that one!
"Steven, move! I'm going to go fight this entire army of Mammon-worshiping fanboys myself!"
(End of chapter)
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