Chapter 354: Mew Really Is Beyond Help — AZ and Floette
"Meow~ what's up, big pillar guy? I'm in the middle of a game right now."
The pink light faded, and Mew, thoroughly displeased, called out to Regigigas.
It had recently gotten hooked on video games again, and had just been in the middle of a PvP match when Regigigas kept badgering it.
"...Take a look at this."
Regigigas, thoroughly exasperated, pointed at the leafless tree lying on the ground.
"It's just a tree, meow, you—huh?"
Mew glanced at it and gave a genuinely human-like pout, then looked again and noticed something off.
The pink cat drifted lower, circling the tree twice, gnawing on its own paw, deep in thought.
"This smells like that rainbow deer... this is Xerneas, meow?"
Mew finally settled on it, sounding genuinely startled.
"Wait, why would Xerneas be HERE, meow?"
Mew stared at Regigigas, utterly baffled.
Xerneas lived on the continent across the sea — that was seriously far from here.
Regigigas gave a genuinely human-like shrug, indicating it had no idea either.
"I was just sleeping, and it suddenly dropped onto my head."
Regigigas looked equally baffled. As far as it knew, the only creature capable of teleporting Xerneas here with absolutely no warning was that mischievous little troublemaker.
But why would it do something like that?
"Wait, let me ask Mammon, meow." Mew thought it over and pulled out a phone, dialing Mammon with practiced ease.
Yeah — thanks to its convenient size, Mew could actually operate a phone just fine. Regigigas, by contrast, was simply too enormous to manage one at all.
"Heeey? Mammon, yeah — there's suddenly a Xerneas tree in the park, meow. Ohh~ you sent it over? Okay, no worries then."
"Oh right, Mammon, could you open up a little extra snack and drink allowance for me every day, meow? It's not enough."
"You can't? Why not, meow? Mammon, I'm your very own kept cat! How could you do this to me? Sniff, you don't love me anymore."
"I got fat? Where exactly am I fat, meow? I've always looked exactly like this, thank you very much — different from when we first met? Oh, that was just because I was Transformed back then, made myself a little slimmer at the time — THIS is my genuine, true form, meow. You can't hold my fake past appearance against my real, current self!"
"Mammon, you're a man acknowledged by Reshiram itself — you're supposed to embrace the truth, meow! I am NOT lying! Ask big pillar guy if you don't believe me, I've always been this plush!"
Overhearing Mew waging full-scale diplomatic warfare with Mammon over its snack allowance, Regigigas quietly sank back into the ground for a nap.
This pink cat had genuinely lost the plot.
As for the new neighbor, Xerneas — Regigigas had no objection at all. Xerneas was a genuinely gentle, benevolent Legendary; having it join World Tree Park could only be a good thing for the place.
—
Kalos.
"This Mew really is beyond help."
Mammon hung up the phone with an utterly exasperated expression. Letting that pink cat learn how to use the internet had honestly been one of his worst decisions ever.
Mew's mind has been thoroughly poisoned by the internet at this point. (Tragic.)
Just now, that cat had actually complained to him that it had only played three matches today and already run into two cheaters. Genuinely, what was this world coming to.
Why cheaters, you ask? Well — Mew was Lord Mew, after all. If someone could beat even it, obviously they had to be cheating!
Ehh... Mammon actually thought Mew had a reasonably decent point there.
Mammon glanced around, then fired off a message to the nearby Team Rocket squad, telling them to head to Team Flare's secret base and round everyone up.
Originally, everyone at that base had been wiped out by Yveltal — but with Xerneas's life-sharing, they'd all been revived, meaning they could still be squeezed for use.
Mammon, meanwhile, headed toward Geosenge Town with Caitlin.
In the plaza at Geosenge Town, the Ultimate Weapon stood there, imposing as ever.
"So this is the Ultimate Weapon?"
Caitlin studied the massive, flower-shaped mechanical device before her with genuine admiration.
"That's right. A 'God's Tool' built by the King of Kalos three thousand years ago — a genuinely era-defying invention, so far ahead of its time that even now, replicating it would be extraordinarily difficult."
Mammon marveled at it. This was exactly the kind of talent granted to those truly favored by heaven — a single creation of theirs could leap generations ahead of their own era. As far as Mammon knew, there were several such geniuses scattered across the Pokémon world.
Three thousand years ago, AZ had built the Ultimate Weapon — a device capable of both total annihilation and eternal life.
And this current era had its own equivalent — the brilliant husband-and-wife pair of professors from the Paldea region, Sada and Turo.
They too had created a genuinely era-defying device: the time machine! Capable of pulling Pokémon from the ancient past and the distant future into the present day. Sure, it had relied on the special crystal from Area Zero to actually build it — but it remained a genuinely extraordinary invention regardless, technology that thoroughly transcended its own era.
"Is that genuinely true? But its existence seems to bring nothing but disaster."
Just then, a low, weathered voice spoke up from behind the two of them.
Mammon turned, and the moment he got a clear look at the figure, his eyebrows rose slightly.
Standing there was a "giant" of a man, dressed like some kind of vagrant — the description "giant" wasn't an exaggeration, given his sheer height, easily close to three meters tall.
A genuinely absurd height, well beyond anything an ordinary human should be.
His hair was white, his face weathered by time, currently tilted upward, gazing at the Ultimate Weapon with an expression of overwhelming complexity — a mixture of remembrance and profound, agonized regret.
"Mr. AZ. I hadn't expected to cross paths with you here."
Mammon addressed the vagrant-like man with a smile — AZ himself.
Yes — this vagrant-seeming man was, in fact, Kalos's King from three thousand years ago, AZ himself — the very man who'd invented the Ultimate Weapon!
Having once been bathed in the Ultimate Weapon's own light, AZ had achieved eternal life — but his beloved, eternal companion Floette had left him in despair as a result. Ever since, AZ had remained mired in unending suffering, and because of his immortality, unable even to seek death, forced to wander the length of Kalos in a dazed stupor for the entirety of three thousand years.
"I didn't expect you'd actually know who I am." AZ looked at Mammon, his clouded eyes rippling faintly.
"Of course. The greatest king Kalos ever had, three thousand years ago." Mammon said with a smile.
At that, Caitlin's eyes widened slightly. A Kalos King from three thousand years ago???
Even after everything she'd already witnessed alongside Mammon, this genuinely stunned her. A man from three thousand years ago??!
"The greatest king..." A deep, bitter twist crossed AZ's mouth.
His clouded eyes turned once more toward the Ultimate Weapon — his proudest creation, and also the very source of his endless suffering and regret.
"I am nothing but... a sinner."
AZ's voice was thick with anguish.
Yes — he was a genuine genius, hailed as someone whose talent and technology had far exceeded the limits of his own era. But now, all AZ had left was numbness and pain. His life had no end in sight; he'd lost his own "heart," left with nothing but endless, eternal wandering.
He wanted, desperately, to find his beloved friend Floette again — but three thousand years had passed, and still he hadn't found it.
The device known as the "God's Tool," the Ultimate Weapon — all it had ever brought him was sorrow. A genuinely cursed device.
"I don't wish to pass judgment on the past, but Mr. AZ, your talent deserves recognition. As far as I'm concerned, you truly were a great king."
Mammon shook his head.
"I understand the pain in your heart, but I believe you will find your friend again. You'll be reunited, without question — so please, stop burdening yourself with the sorrow of the past."
"You truly can forgive yourself now. Your invention... was extraordinary."
To Mammon's own view, AZ was, at the end of the day, simply a genuinely pitiable man. His most cherished friend, Floette, had died in war, and in his grief, he'd invented the Ultimate Weapon to bring Floette back and reunite with it.
But because it was the war that had killed Floette, his fury had never subsided — so he'd turned the Ultimate Weapon into a genuine weapon, transforming himself into a god of destruction, bringing the war to its end.
But Floette, once revived, learned that its own resurrection had come at the cost of countless Pokémon lives sacrificed to power the weapon — and so it left AZ behind.
From that point on, AZ had been consigned to an eternity of loneliness and grief.
"..."
AZ stood frozen, stunned in place. Could he really... let himself go, at last?
Without him even noticing, tears had welled up in his eyes, blurring his vision entirely, utterly beyond his control.
"Hnnh... hnnnh..."
This man, who had wandered for three thousand years, sank to his knees, burying his face in his hands, unable to hold back the choked sobs that came pouring out.
Three thousand years. Three thousand years he'd spent wandering in a dazed stupor, every single day, every single second, still genuinely trapped in the past.
Why had he built the Ultimate Weapon? Why had he sacrificed so many Pokémon lives just to activate it?
AZ could never forgive that past version of himself — all his suffering, at its root, had never once let go of what happened three thousand years ago. He had never truly found release.
But now, at last, someone had told him he could finally let himself go.
"So often, all a person really needs is one small, simple word of acknowledgment."
Watching AZ weep uncontrollably, Mammon felt a genuinely mixed swirl of emotions himself.
Eternal life... had brought AZ nothing but endless sorrow. Floette's departure had left him permanently unable to reconcile with himself.
He'd appeared free, on the surface — but his heart had remained locked away all this time.
And now, at last, he'd found his release.
Caitlin, too, stayed quietly silent — she genuinely didn't know why AZ had suddenly broken down in tears, but that low, choked sobbing was still deeply, undeniably moving to witness.
Just then, a beam of light descended from the sky, and Mammon looked up.
A Floette, carrying a single black flower, drifted slowly down toward them — this was the Eternal Flower Floette.
"Hua~"
At the sound of that clear, bright cry, AZ's head snapped up instantly, and the moment he laid eyes on the Eternal Flower Floette, he knew, with absolute certainty — this was his most precious friend, at last.
Trembling, AZ raised both hands and caught the Eternal Flower Floette.
"Hua~"
The Eternal Flower Floette gently reached out, brushing a hand against AZ's cheek. Three thousand years had passed, and yet its gaze remained just as pure and untouched as the very first time they'd met.
"Floette... three thousand years..."
Tears streaming uncontrollably, AZ murmured softly, his voice trembling, gently cradling the Eternal Flower Floette against his chest.
At long last, he'd been reunited with it once more.
"Pokémon and humans, humans and Pokémon — truly remarkable, isn't it~"
Watching this genuinely touching scene unfold, Mammon didn't disturb their long-overdue reunion, only marveling quietly to himself.
Though, credit where due — the Eternal Flower Floette really was adorable, genuinely beautiful.
I wonder if there's any chance I could get one of my own?
Mammon studied the Eternal Flower Floette, mulling over the possibility of securing one for himself.
After all, the Eternal Flower form only comes from a regular Floette being bathed in the Ultimate Weapon's own light — maybe there was a real chance here?
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