Cairo fell silent behind Tobias and did not try to stop the boy again.
That day, when the pirates were dividing the captives, Ayla had asked who his daughter Lily's relatives were. He had instinctively raised his hand, and his daughter was killed on the spot. Because their family had all been captured, there was almost no chance of ransom. To the pirates, they were useless.
The couple was assigned to the Red Devil Pirates.
"You old hag!" Tobias roared again, unable to hold back. "Say something. Old hag! Agree or disagree!"
Agatha ignored him. She only glanced down at Tobias and gave no reply.
Witnessing this, Ayla aboard her ship felt something was wrong. This old woman seemed to be deliberately stalling for time.
She subconsciously looked toward the sea.
Sure enough, a black shadow was continuously releasing Hypnosis at the Tentacool crowding around the S.S. Anne. In just a few dozen seconds, nearly half of the Tentacool in the nearby waters had fallen asleep.
"Damn old woman!"
Ayla was enraged by the sight. She pulled out her curved blade from her waist, and two pirates grabbed the barely clothed hostage from both sides.
She shouted loudly, "Recall your ghosts now! Or I'll kill this guy right here!"
Agatha did not respond. She could not be bothered to.
To her, as long as the S.S. Anne returned safely to Kanto, that was enough. She could not force her way through directly, but this pirate ship and these Tentacool were far from enough to stop her ghost army.
What the Sinnoh officials called avoiding casualties only applied to her. These pirates, and the higher-ups of Sinnoh, were already in bed together.
Agatha slowly closed her eyes.
On the pirate ship, the curved blade was raised high.
Yet it never came down.
* * *
Shiro did not move. The psychic power had been released on its own by Mesprit.
For a brief moment, time on both ships seemed to freeze.
Mesprit floated in midair. Its gray-white arms crossed in front of its chest to form an X, and its usually calm voice trembled with urgency.
'These humans… why do they kill their own kind?'
It could not understand the anger and hatred pouring out from the people on the ship.
Unown A was far more direct. It jumped from Shiro's shoulder onto his head and shouted with all its strength, 'Shiro, don't worry about that! Hurry up and kill these pirates!'
Mesprit's bright yellow vertical pupils immediately turned toward Unown A.
Unown A shrank back at once, hopping back onto Shiro's shoulder and hiding behind his neck.
"Because they want to satisfy their desires," Shiro said, meeting Mesprit's gaze. "Pokémon have simple desires. Humans are more complicated."
Unown A quickly chimed in, 'Exactly! Didn't you get captured by humans before? There must have been other Pokémon there too, right?'
Mesprit hovered in silence. As it thought, memories it had long buried began to surface on their own.
In Sinnoh. In its homeland. At the foothills leading to the dwelling of the gods.
Humans had occupied the place, using unknown machines and Pokémon that had betrayed the gods.
Mesprit's expression slowly twisted with pain and fury. It covered its tightly shut eyes with both hands, and the two tails behind it flailed wildly out of control.
Shiro's eyes widened in shock. He immediately looked at Unown A.
'What's going on?'
Unown A stared back just as wide-eyed and shook its body repeatedly.
'I don't know… I think I said the wrong thing.'
As they exchanged looks, the psychic field enveloping the two ships began to fluctuate violently instead of remaining steady.
There was no time to scold Unown A. Shiro rushed forward, leapt up, and hugged the thrashing Mesprit tightly.
If its psychic power went berserk, everything would be over.
Just as Shiro looked up to ask Unown A for help, Unown A extended a slanted limb with a complicated expression and pointed at Mesprit in his arms.
In the next instant, Mesprit calmed down and fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.
"This is…"
Shiro stood there, confused. Unown A hurried over and used psychic power to conceal Mesprit.
Once Mesprit fell asleep, the psychic power covering both cruise ships dissipated within moments. Time began to flow again, though everyone on board remained trapped in that brief daze.
What just happened?
Did time stop?
Tyler and two crew members, who had just stepped onto the deck and regained movement, were not overly surprised. They instinctively looked toward Shiro.
"Was it Dr. Shiro?"
"It must have been him…"
They whispered among themselves. Several passengers who followed behind them listened in disbelief.
That pause just now.
Was that time stopping?
Was it the power of that young researcher?
People gathered on the deck, whispering and guessing.
Meanwhile, Shiro continued questioning Unown A through psychic power.
'What exactly happened just now?'
After thinking for a moment, Unown A replied, 'It was probably because Mesprit remembered when it was captured. It had deliberately forgotten it, but when I mentioned it, the memory came back…'
'You're such a jinx, A,' Shiro said helplessly, lightly rubbing his neck. 'Then why did it calm down so fast?'
'Maybe…' Unown A hesitated before continuing, 'maybe it felt safe?'
Safe?
Shiro frowned. That did not feel right.
If anything, Unown A had done most of the saving. Pokémon saving Pokémon made more sense.
'There's no way it's for that reason,' Unown A said, then added cautiously, 'It should probably be related to Him.'
'Him?'
Arceus?
Shiro thought so, but Unown A refused to say any more. He did not press further.
* * *
On the edge corridor of the ship's middle level, a door behind Agatha was pushed open. Lorelei hurried out, not even noticing the notebook tucked under her arm slip free and fall to the floor.
"Grandma, what just happened?" she asked anxiously. "That power felt like—"
Agatha remained silent. Her gaze shifted toward Shiro, who was leaning against the railing on the lower deck.
Psychic power.
It was that boy's Pokémon.
A researcher with such a high-level Psychic-type Pokémon made no sense.
Perhaps it was a family-inherited Pokémon.
That was Agatha's conclusion.
On the pirate ship, the only black-cloaked figure immediately retreated once movement returned, leaping straight into the sea. In the rush, a streak of silver hair was briefly revealed.
The remaining dozen pirates instantly fell into chaos, shouting over one another.
"Boss Jona ran away! It must be the Sea God! We angered the Sea God!"
"This ship is going to swallow us whole…"
"I haven't even trained my Tentacool to Advanced-level yet. Should we jump into the sea and run? Jump into the sea!"
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