Mewtwo refused to believe it. He knew what the fading points of light meant.
He did not want to ask why, and he did not need to.
Ignoring the gift left for him, he simply kept trying to gather those points of light with his hands.
Tears, just like the life force scattered across the dark expanse, were something Mewtwo had never been able to control. Once again, he had lost, left to embrace a world belonging to one alone...
Before disappearing, Chen Ming glanced back one last time. Mewtwo's gaze grew increasingly hollow, his hands repeating the same mechanical motions over and over.
So, he really shouldn't have appeared at all. It would have been better to just let things take their natural course. It should have...
Right before leaving, Chen Ming wiped the corners of Mewtwo's eyes one last time, and that silent smile finally infected him.
Snapping back to reality, Mewtwo didn't know how to say goodbye, but he knew that if he didn't speak now, he would never have the chance.
"Why did you have to show up?!"
No, that wasn't it! He shouldn't have said that. Why couldn't he stop himself?!
"If you hadn't appeared, I wouldn't exist right now either..."
He gave up on trying to gather the points of light and instead wiped frantically at the tears streaming down even harder.
Overwhelmed by such a heavy surge of emotion, Chen Ming stood with his mouth open, unsure of how to respond. He could not grasp the deeper meaning behind the words and could only take them at facevalue.
It seemed he really had messed up. Fortunately, he had managed to cut his losses in time; Mewtwo would pull through on his own, just like in the anime.
Come to think of it, Mewtwo's helpless expression really matched his own current state quite well.
Another nonsense, mischievous thought popped into his head.
"Yeah, it's my fault. Let's just go with that. Mewtwo, no matter what, I want to thank you. Be well, and live on with all your might."
Pokémon never put up a facade. I really shouldn't have gone and disrupted the natural order of things. Remaining a silent observer was the right choice all along.
Mewtwo couldn't believe it. Even after uttering such hurtful words, he still received an entirely unexpected response. What an unimaginably gentle kind of strength that was.
So the warmth he had felt back then was never a lie after all.
Mewtwo grew even more furious with himself. He wanted to call out, to make amends and keep him here, but Chen Ming was already gone.
Everything within the space abruptly collapsed, and all the phantom images faded into nothingness.
"This is bad! The subject Mewtwo's emotional fluctuations are spiking!"
"Quick, increase the sedative dosage to calm him down!"
...
"The dosage has already exceeded normal limits, but his emotions are still fluctuating wildly."
Professor Oak stared intently at Mewtwo's containment capsule. "Administer the full amount!"
"But—"
"There are no buts! If he dies just like that, then he doesn't deserve to be the strongest Pokémon we've ever created!"
...
Chen Ming's "corpse" was being transported away. All of this chaos had been anticipated by Chen Ming—or rather, he had planned for it the very moment he appeared before Mewtwo.
His final words were meant as a comfort, but they were also laying the groundwork for this exact step. Chen Ming had used Mewtwo once again.
Amber's situation and Mewtwo's current state were both part of the preparations he made to escape safely.
That repetitive expression of gratitude at the end was both a comfort to Mewtwo and a solace for his own conscience.
I'm out now. The final step cannot fail either.
There were four Team Rocket members transporting the "corpse." Judging by their unremarkable appearance, they were hardly important figures.
While Chen Ming slept peacefully on the outside, his mind was racing inside.
His formidable spiritual power kept constant watch on his surroundings. Thanks to his relentless training and high level of vigilance, he remained fully aware of his situation.
Evidently, the four Team Rocket members had no idea they were carrying a micro-camera. If he showed even the slightest trace of abnormality, Giovanni would know instantly.
Just as he had predicted beforehand, even the most useless failures had to be reported to Giovanni when disposed of, not to mention he wasn't entirely useless, was he?
They carried him deep into the island, to a place where not even a single Pokémon would wander past.
The method for disposing of failures was simple and brutal: direct incineration at high temperatures.
After burning for at least half an hour, Chen Ming sensed that the cameras on them had stopped recording.
The four Team Rocket grunts figured it was about done and prepared to head back.
Chen Ming couldn't afford to wait any longer. Unlike the real, immensely powerful Mewtwo, he knew—even without checking his status panel—that he was reaching his absolute limit. If they kept burning him, there wouldn't be much of him left.
The four men collapsed to the ground in terror, staring in horror as Chen Ming was enveloped in flames.
He bore a humanoid feline shape, and his massive tail was charred black by the fire, a terrifying mixture of black and purple.
A surge of powerful telekinesis was instantly unleashed. Before they even had a chance to send out a Pokémon, they passed out cold on the ground.
He then cast a high-level hypnosis technique comparable to that of an adult Mewtwo, wiping their memories completely clean.
It was just a pity that executing it wasn't as effortless as watching Mewtwo do it in the anime. Just dealing with four people left Chen Ming completely exhausted—perhaps because his existing injuries were taking a toll on him.
He roughly sensed where the nearest mainland lay and ultimately chose a small stream deep within the forest.
He flashed away using an ultra-long-distance Teleport, consuming the very last dregs of his tightly wound spiritual energy as a wave of sleepiness washed over him.
The stream water soaked his charred body. With his dying breath, he pulled up his status panel and triggered his transformation back into a human.
***
"Hey—Professor Oak, this place is really weird."
A child at the summer camp pointed into the distance and asked curiously.
"Look, Professor Oak, there are so many Pokémon gathered over there, even Happiny and Blissey! Did something happen?"
"Let me check."
Professor Oak hurried to the front. Indeed, many Pokémon had gathered ahead, including even wild Happiny and Blissey, which were normally quite rare. Yet none of them chose to leave upon seeing humans.
Most of the surrounding Pokémon were Bug-type, and their power wasn't particularly high. Of course, they wouldn't have chosen a dangerous location to hold a Pokémon summer camp in the first place.
As Oak tried to approach, the Pokémon formed a circle, blocking his path.
Sensing this, the professor made a guess and slowly projected his goodwill, patiently letting the Pokémon trust him.
The children naturally learned a great deal watching this scene, and the professor's actions served very much as a demonstration.
Before long, the Pokémon parted to make way.
The professor walked along the path and soon spotted a small stream.
The water was crystal clear, except that in the very middle lay a child of about seven or eight years old. His clothes bore obvious burn marks, and he was unconscious in the water, completely unresponsive.
The professor hurried forward to investigate.
Fortunately, the nearby Happiny and Blissey had been using their healing moves, so the injuries only looked terrifying.
He briefly checked the child's forehead; his skin felt rather scorching.
Communicating to the surrounding Pokémon that he needed to take the child to the hospital, he unclipped a Poké Ball from his belt.
"Come out, Dragonite."
"Take him to the nearest Pokémon Center."
"Dragonite!"
Professor Oak placed the child on Dragonite's back, choosing to stay behind to lead the summer camp children back.
Dragonite flew swiftly toward the Pokémon Center and soon arrived before Nurse Joy.
Nurse Joy was exceptionally perceptive when it came to patients and spotted the child on Dragonite's back at once.
"Blissey, go grab a gurney right now! We need emergency treatment!"
Joy spoke quickly as she rushed over to Dragonite, receiving the child from its back. "Please leave him to me!"
"Dragonite—!" (Understood!)
At the Pokémon Center near Pallet Town, the Pokémon trainers were mostly beginners who had rarely, if ever, laid eyes on a rare Dragonite, so they naturally crowded around in curiosity.
This Dragonite had a very gentle temperament and didn't mind them at all, but it needed to hurry back and report to Oak, so it took flight once more.
Professor Oak was busy escorting the summer camp children back, briefly promising them they would resume the camp another time, before heading straight back to the study room in his research lab.
Just as he reached the laboratory gates, Dragonite flew back down.
K– "Oh, Dragonite! How did it go? Did you deliver him safely?"
Oak stroked Dragonite's head and asked with a smile.
"Dragonite—!" (Delivered perfectly!)
"Good, good. Wait here for a moment while I go grab something, and then you can fly me over there too."
After offering a brief greeting, Professor Oak strode toward the bookshelves.
He searched through the shelves for a long time, muttering to himself: Where was the sketchbook from his younger days?
"Aha! Found it."
A pile of books tumbled down, and a sketchbook hidden deep in the corner slipped out along with them. Seeing it, Professor Oak picked it up.
He hurried and flipped to the middle pages.
There was a large sketch, differing from all his other drawings; the imagery filled the entire page.
It depicted a much older man and a strange Pokémon. In all his years of research, Professor Oak had never found a second one like it anywhere in the world.
Written beneath the illustration were the words: Perhaps, you will help me in the future too.
The man in the drawing looked seven or eight parts similar to the child. Professor Oak stared at it for a long time, falling into a daze as if recalling something from the past.
If not for Dragonite crying out from outside (Hurry up, if you stay any longer, his wounds are going to heal completely!), he might have stayed lost in thought even longer.
Professor Oak slowly broke into a smile. "So that's how it is."
After tidying up his books and sketchbooks, he quickly returned to Dragonite's side.
"Let's go, Dragonite. To the Pokémon Center."
In the Pokémon Center's emergency room, the red light was still glowing. Even though Professor Oak had arrived quite late, the light had yet to go out.
Another full half-hour passed before Blissey finally wheeled the gurney out into a recovery ward.
Nurse Joy wiped the sweat from her brow and called out, "Excuse me, who is the child's family member?"
"Here, I'm right here."
Professor Oak waved his hands toward Nurse Joy.
Joy could no longer maintain her usual deference toward Professor Oak and immediately launched into a lecture: "Goodness, Professor Oak! Do you have another grandson now? Do you have any idea how severely injured that child was..."
Oak could only raise both hands in helpless surrender, offering his sincerest apologies.
Mentally exhausted from shaking off Nurse Joy, he walked straight into Chen Ming's ward. The boy was lying there quietly, finally out of critical danger.
Professor Oak simply sat down, gazing blankly at Chen Ming's face.
The more he looked, the more familiar the boy seemed, prompting a quiet sigh of reflection.
"You're as old as Ash now... right, Chen Ming?"