Chapter 462: Athena's Thoughts
"Alright then. Gardevoir, please talk more with Serperior, let it know a few things, and also about the human world."
After recalling Serperior into its Poké Ball, Hikaru patted Gardevoir's shoulder.
"..." Gardevoir sighed faintly.
"Thank you for your hard work, Gardevoir." Hikaru gently stroked its head-crest.
"Gardevoir..." (I know...)
Gardevoir replied helplessly, but the corners of its mouth turned up.
...
Xiongguo.
The vast and sparsely populated country of Xiongguo often had various secret realms appear. In its early days, with its insufficient population, it had even clashed with the "magical beasts" that emerged from these realms.
Later, as more and more secret realms appeared and the abilities of Pokémon became increasingly complex, Xiongguo had no choice but to compromise and adopt a policy of peaceful coexistence with Pokémon.
However, against this backdrop, Xiongguo's relationship with most Pokémon was not good.
Helplessly, because of the early wars, Xiongguo had not gone far on the road of coexistence between Pokémon and trainers.
Fortunately, most Pokémon had no particular desire to compete for territory.
It was early spring, and all things were reviving.
On a plain, a warm breeze blew, and the vast grassland instantly turned into a green ocean, with ripples spreading everywhere.
And on a small hill on this plain, a blonde woman tied up her hair, looking at the flock of Mareep grazing harmoniously below. A Plate appeared in her hand. After sensing it for a moment, she helplessly put the Plate back into the dimensional backpack behind her.
The woman looked to be in her twenties, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and a tall figure.
Clearly, this was the person Hikaru had seen in the Flower of Time at the Tree of Beginning.
"Still guarding it?"
"Strange, in the past, this little pink cat would disappear for half an hour at a fixed time. Why has it been guarding here every day for the past two days? Is it because of this newly appeared Huaxian?"
She murmured to herself, then suddenly remembered the location the human had mentioned yesterday.
"Huaxia region, Qian Province, Daming City, Renji Hospital, Cao Mingming... Should I make a trip for this information?"
She seemed to be weighing whether the trip was worth it.
"I'll make the trip. I can't always rely on this half-hour window to explore, and... going through the Plates is still dangerous..."
She looked towards the east, pondered for a moment, then summoned an Altaria, jumped onto its back, and disappeared from the spot.
...
March 10th.
Two days had passed since he caught Serperior. Due to Mew's worries, Hikaru had been staying at the Tree of Beginning these past few days.
But today, Hikaru released Athena from the training house.
He had no choice. She had slept for several days without eating anything. If he didn't let her out, she would probably die under the hypnosis.
Looking at Landa, who hadn't replied for a long time, Hikaru figured that this Team Rocket Elite Four member had most likely been abandoned.
The use of the Plate should have also been figured out by them.
He just didn't know what type of Plate it was that had fallen into Team Rocket's hands.
Athena slowly woke up. Before her consciousness fully returned, she wanted to stand up and reach for the Poké Ball at her waist, only to sense that her body couldn't muster any strength.
Her consciousness slowly returned.
It seemed she had been captured...
She glanced over, and sure enough, a young man was sitting nearby. Beside him was a red-haired girl, who she knew was Latias.
"The Qinling Mountains. Looks like Team Rocket has abandoned you..."
Hikaru tossed his phone to her. On it was his chat history with Landa. He was thinking about how to deal with this woman.
He had originally wanted to trade for a Plate with Team Rocket, but now it seemed it wouldn't be that easy.
The only option left was to hand her over to the League. A core member of Team Rocket's Elite Four could probably be exchanged for a lot of points from the League.
"The Qinling Mountains?"
Athena touched her head. "Team Rocket abandoned me? What was it you wanted to trade for?"
As a member of Team Rocket's Elite Four, Athena was well aware of Team Rocket's style. Although missions or objectives were sometimes very important, the organization still had a human touch. They would save high-ranking officers if they could, and as an Elite Four member, she carried even more weight.
Now, Hikaru didn't care at all if the Plate's function was exposed.
"A Plate with a peculiar effect. Since Team Rocket is unwilling to trade now, I'll have to think about how to hand you over to the League."
"A Plate..."
Athena's eyelid twitched. She was abandoned for a single treasure?
After all these years, she had done so much for Team Rocket, and now her worth was less than a single Plate?
This was too disheartening...
She collected her thoughts. "I think we can talk, Hikaru."
"Oh? Talk about what?"
Hikaru had a reason for letting her out, of course. Otherwise, it would be much better and safer to just hand her over to the League while she was unconscious.
He wanted to get more information about Team Rocket from Athena's mouth.
"As you said, since Team Rocket has already abandoned me, the order to attack you back then was given by Landa under Giovanni's instruction. He wanted your Charizard. I was just the one executing the order, so there's no direct hatred between us."
Her tone was very sincere. "Handing me over to the League might get you a bounty, but it's far less valuable than the allegiance of an Elite Four-level trainer."
"...Does this mean you want to betray Team Rocket?"
Hikaru became interested.
"No, it was they who abandoned me first." Athena knew very well that once she was in the hands of the League, there would be basically no chance of getting out.
"Why should I believe you?"
Hikaru pondered the feasibility of it. It was indeed a good suggestion, but his face remained as calm as still water.
This woman had once nearly trapped him in a fatal situation. This grudge wasn't as simple as she made it out to be.
"My Pokémon are in your hands..."
Before Athena could finish her sentence, Mew flew over from a distance.
Its voice arrived before it did. "I'm here to play with Lugia, Hikaru!"
It had come to play with Hikaru's Lugia.
Two Pokémon, one Mythical, one Legendary, both with the disposition of a child, so they had become very familiar in just two days.
Now, seeing Athena sitting on the ground and Hikaru's cold expression, it immediately knew that Hikaru was busy with something important, so it flew onto a nearby tree.
It couldn't help but mumble, "Humans are so troublesome, all these grudges... so many bad thoughts..."
After waiting for a while, it felt bored again. "Hikaru, I'm leaving, okay?"
Hikaru glanced in the direction Mew had left, then turned his gaze back to Athena. "That's not enough... Your Pokémon are too strong."
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