BXBX NOVEL Chapter 1128: Departing for the Temple of the Sea
Chapter 1128: Departing for the Temple of the Sea
Before finding May and the others, Yuga and Hill first located the Shep family. Through the clues they provided, they found several scattered Pokémon belonging to Gon, and then they successfully located the isolated island and rescued May and Gon in time.
As the ghost ship sailed toward the Shep family\'s location, the unconscious Gon finally woke up groggily. Just like after his previous bout of unconsciousness, the backlash from excessive use of psychic power had miraculously healed once more.
However, neither Yuga nor May knew about Gon\'s psychic backlash; they only thought that he got psychical injury. So when Gon woke up, no one noticed anything unusual.
After reuniting with the Shep family, Yuga planned to take them back to Lilycove City, where he had arranged to hand over the criminals with the search agency.
As for Suicune, who had originally been with the Shep family, it had long since vanished. According to the Shep family, Suicune\'s injuries were quite serious, so worried about it, Gon and Hill directly said their goodbyes to Yuga.
When Yuga and the others arrived in Lilycove City the people from the investigation bureau had already arrived first. The visitor was the deputy director of the investigation bureau.
The structure of the search agency\'s higher-ups was almost identical to that of the supervision bureau, with a director and four deputy directors. The one who came this time was one of the four deputy directors, named Himekawa, ranked sixth on the Hoenn Champion List.
Because Yuga detailed the events of this incident and his suspicions over the phone, the investigation bureau took it very seriously and thus dispatched a deputy director.
After arranging for the Shep family and May and Max to settle at the Pokémon Center, Yuga boarded the ghost ship to meet the people from the investigation bureau on the beach west of Lilycove City.
As he disembarked from the ghost ship, Yuga saw a neatly lined-up group of people by the seaside, with a flying vehicle parked nearby.
The person in charge approached Yuga enthusiastically as soon as he saw him, shaking Yuga\'s hand and happily saying, "I\'ve long heard about the famous Gym Leader Shimizu, and today I\'m finally fortunate enough to meet you."
This person was Himekawa.
Himekawa was nearly fifty years old and had gained fame within the League for many years, rising from a lowly position in the investigation bureau to the role of deputy director today. He was an idol in the hearts of a generation.
He had a robust physique, towering a head above Yuga, who was already over 1.8 meters tall, creating a strong sense of pressure when he approached. However, his face had a somewhat silly look, which gave off the impression of a big, goofy guy. According to Yuga, this person was very well-liked in the League.
Yuga humbly replied, "Director Himekawa, you\'re too kind. I have long admired your esteemed name!" Although Himekawa was merely the deputy director, Yuga wouldn\'t foolishly include the "deputy" in his address; one must show respect to navigate well in officialdom.
Yuga\'s words indeed made Himekawa quite happy. After a bit of mutual flattery, Yuga said, "Let\'s first handle the transfer of the criminals. We captured quite a few this time, so I hope Director Himekawa can assist us further."
Following Yuga\'s instructions, the ghost-type Pokémon began to carry the criminals off the ship one by one. In no time, a crowd of heads appeared before Himekawa.
Seeing the sudden appearance and disappearance of the ghost-type Pokémon, Himekawa\'s mouth slightly opened in surprise. Although he knew Yuga had a ghost ship, witnessing it firsthand was still astonishing.
Ghost ships mostly exist in legends; ordinary people truly cannot encounter one.
Yuga\'s ghost ship had previously made an appearance during Rayquaza incident in Rustboro City, and related videos has been circulated online, so it was not a complete secret.
Young people nowadays are truly becoming more and more unprofessional! Himekawa silently criticized in his heart, it was oblivious that he was a Grass-type gym leader, yet he was surrounded by such a large group of Ghost-type Pokémon, which was quite contrary to martial virtue!
"Bring all these people onto the ship!" Himekawa shouted, and immediately, his subordinates behind him sprang into action, quickly moving nearly a hundred criminals onto the flying vehicle in less than two minutes.
There were three items to hand over: Gillruta\'s corpse, a black chip, and two Pokémon belonging to the White Leader.
Thinking of his suspicions, Yuga solemnly said to Himekawa, "Director Feichuan, these three items are extremely important, so please ensure that you take them back to the League intact!"
Himekawa understood the seriousness of the matter and solemnly assured him, "Rest assured, Gym Leader Shimizu, I will safely bring these back!"
Yuga was a hall of fame-level trainer in the Hoenn League. His rank might not be high, but his status was a bit higher than Himekawa\'s, so Himekawa treated Yuga\'s words with great caution.
Himekawa didn\'t delay in Lilycove City. After handing over the items to Yuga, he immediately took the people back to the Hoenn League headquarters.
As Yuga watched the flying vehicle soar into the distance, he couldn\'t shake the feeling that something was about to happen.
In fact, Yuga\'s intuition was accurate; not long after Himekawa\'s flying vehicle left Lilycove City, it was ambushed by the White Leader, whose objective was none other than Gillruta\'s corpse and the memory chip.
However, having lost his strongest Pokémon, Zangoose and Cacturne, he was no match for Himekawa. Not only was he repelled, but he was also severely injured again. If he hadn\'t run fast, Himekawa would have captured him directly.
After returning to the Pokémon Center, Yuga secretly took Marlin to Chris\'s family\'s inn, where he temporarily left him, then contacted Robert, hoping he could come to pick him up.
Although Marlin had no memory and didn\'t know who they really were, Yuga knew he must be related to Gillruta and the White Leader.
Chris\'s dad was Robert\'s uncle, and since Yuga was also a good friend of Robert, when Yuga said he wanted to leave Marlin at the inn, Chris\'s dad agreed without hesitation.
On the phone, Yuga instructed Robert to hand Marlin over to Wallace or Steven after picking him up, ensuring that he would be properly arranged.
The reason he didn\'t hand Marlin over to Himekawa to take along was to keep a backup plan; if anything happened with Himekawa, Marlin could still be a safeguard.
Once he finished all of this, Yuga returned to the Pokémon Center, ready to take a break when Jack showed up at his door.
Seeing Jack standing at his room\'s entrance with a troubled expression, Yuga asked curiously, "What\'s wrong? Is there something you need?"
Jack replied somewhat awkwardly, "I... have a favor to ask you."
"Come in and tell me."
After inviting Jack into the room, Yuga asked, "What\'s making you so uncomfortable? This isn\'t like you!" Jack was usually straightforward and spoke directly, so it was quite rare to see him so hesitant.
Jack took a deep breath and said, "I want to ask you to escort the descendants of the People of the Water and Manaphy to the Temple of the Sea!"
This matter was extremely important, but after the recent incident, Jack felt powerless. He realized that it would be difficult to guarantee Manaphy\'s safe arrival at the Temple of the Sea relying solely on himself.
However, it was evidently too late to apply for more forest rangers to come!
Given the proximity principle, seeking help from Yuga was the best choice! However, this matter didn\'t fall within Yuga\'s responsibilities as a gym leader, and getting others involved in his task made Jack feel quite ashamed.
"Oh, so that\'s why!" Yuga suddenly realized. "Alright then, since you\'ve come all this way, I\'ll accompany you to see the legendary Temple of the Sea."
He had known Jack for a while and had always had a good relationship with the forest rangers, so since he had asked, he might as well help. Moreover, with May and Max also involved, he felt a bit uneasy.
After May and Manaphy were captured by the Black Leader, Max cried miserably. After May returned, he followed her closely, immediately starting to search as soon as she was out of sight. He was completely different from Max who used to belittle May.
"Did you really agree?" Jack exclaimed, his voice unconsciously rising several octaves.
Yuga smiled and nodded.
"That\'s great!"
The weight in Jack\'s heart finally lifted. He hadn\'t expected Yuga to agree so easily. To him, this task seemed thankless.
After receiving Yuga\'s promise, Jack happily returned to his room, finally able to rest peacefully.
Early the next morning, Yuga\'s ghost ship set sail from Lilycove City. The submarine that Shep and the others originally used was directly abandoned, as it was nowhere near as safe as Yuga\'s ghost ship.
Now that they were at sea, the Ghost-type Pokémon no longer had to expend their psychic energy to control the ship\'s flight. Traveling over the ocean was much easier than flying in the sky.
However, what Yuga and the others didn\'t know was that a Wailord was closely trailing behind their ghost ship, specifically the one carrying Archie.
Due to the special bio-tech skin implanted on Wailord\'s surface, this skin could not only shield against the psychic perception of Psychic and Ghost-type Pokémon but also blend the Wailord into the environment, achieving visual deception. As a result, Yuga remained completely unaware of the Wailord following them.
This kind of technology is actually not rare in the Pokémon world; it\'s used in many industries, and the League has corresponding technology that is quite mature. However, the one Archie used was evidently more advanced.
After Milolovide left, Archie immediately piloted the Wailord to find Yuga and began following them.
In fact, the Wailord that rescued the several Psychic-type Pokémon earlier was Archie\'s Wailord. Yuga was able to quickly locate the isolated island thanks to the information that Archie\'s Wailord discreetly relayed to those Psychic-type Pokémon.
Archie did this because he did not want Manaphy and the Temple of the Sea to fall into Team Rocket\'s hands.
Although Team Aqua was currently under the control of Team Rocket, Archie was unwilling to accept that fate and did not want to be subordinate for life. Therefore, he sought to pit Yuga and Milolovide against each other, hoping to reap the benefits as a bystander.
He just didn\'t expect Milolovide to be so incompetent, which forced him to intervene and save Milolovide again.
While Archie didn\'t want to be under Team Rocket\'s thumb, he also had a grudge against Yuga.
Since Milolovide had become adversarial with Yuga, he couldn\'t allow Milolovide to be captured or killed easily.
The Temple of the Sea was the ancestral land of Manaphy, but Archie knew that it was related to Kyogre. Only by finding Kyogre could he have a chance to turn the tables, so he had no choice but to take the risk and continue following Yuga.
Yuga\'s terrifying prowess was something Archie had witnessed firsthand, but he couldn\'t miss this rare opportunity.
In fact, Archie was genuinely envious of Yuga, who possessed such strong abilities at such a young age. If he had that kind of strength, he would have already turned against Team Rocket long ago.
The weather was exceptionally fine that day, the sea was calm and peaceful, and the ghost ship sailed swiftly and smoothly across the mirror-like water\'s surface, with Manaphy leading the way, it would occasionally leaping out of the water to chase after passing Pokémon happily.
The Temple of the Sea was a truly magical place; it did not remain fixed in one location but constantly changed its position with the ocean currents. Only Manaphy could sense its presence and locate it.
Manaphy was also the key to opening the Temple of the Sea! Newly born, Manaphy would only become the true "Prince of the Ocean" after receiving the legacy of the Sea Crown within the Temple of the Sea, granting it the ability to regulate the world\'s oceans.
Days passed as they sailed over the sea, yet Yuga and the others still had not caught sight of the Temple of the Sea, while Manaphy remained as carefree as ever.
Whenever Yuga asked how much longer it would be until they reached the Temple, Manaphy would cutely respond, "Soon, soon!"
The worst off was Archie, who was hiding in the belly of a Wailord. Having spent too long at sea and not being able to replenish supplies in the Lilycove city, his stored food and fresh water were almost running out. As a result, he had to ration his meals every day.
Two more days passed, and Yuga gradually realized that they had begun to sail out of the Hoenn region. Ahead lay Sinnoh.
"Manaphy, are you sure you\'re leading the right way?"
"Manaphy, Manaphy!"
Manaphy popped up from the water, cradling a Shellos it had somehow found, with an expression that clearly said, "What are you talking about? I don\'t know anything!" This left Yuga quite frustrated.
"Brother Yuga, Manaphy must know what it\'s doing, so don\'t be anxious!" Seeing Yuga jump in anger, May comforted him.
"Alright!" Yuga took a deep breath, deciding not to argue with a child.
"Manaphy, Manaphy..."
At that moment, Manaphy surfaced again, calling out to Yuga from a distance, indicating that they were almost there.
Yuga was about to say not to trust the little guy when suddenly, the ghost ship shook violently.
"What happened? What\'s going on?"
May fell to the ground, tightly gripping the ship\'s railing and anxiously asking.
Yuga was also unsure of what was happening; he quickly held onto the ship\'s edge and looked out, only to see a massive whirlpool had appeared unexpectedly on the right side of the ship.
Logically speaking, with such a large whirlpool, the ghost-type Pokémon piloting the ship shouldn\'t have missed it. Could it really mean they had arrived at their destination? Given that the Temple of the Sea was such a grand and significant place, wouldn\'t it be entirely normal for there to be one or two strange phenomena when it appeared? So he shouted to Dusknoir: "Dusknoir, let the ship ascend immediately!"