Chapter 164. Ash's Stone Statue
"Ash!!!"
"Pika-pi!"
Two waves of force collided, and Ash fell to the ground.
"Ugh—so painful!"
Ash slowly got up.
"Great, he's okay!"
Seeing this, Misty and the others all breathed a sigh of relief.
"Pika!"
Pikachu leapt into Ash's arms, feeling like it had just escaped disaster.
Up in the sky, Mew and Mewtwo were silent.
The complete Gene Authority.
No one can withstand it.
"Thank goodness, the twerp's fine…"
Behind them, Jessie and James, still clinging to each other, also let out the breath they'd been holding.
But suddenly, they looked toward Natsume.
Natsume's face was grim.
A ghostly blue radiance poured off him, making his whole body look like a blue crystal statue.
Visibly, that psychic glow kept gathering into his eyes.
"Natsume… y-you… what's happening to you?"
Misty and the others noticed Natsume's abnormal state as well.
The blue light in his eyes grew ever more intense, like two electric beams aimed straight at Ash.
"I'm fine, Pikachu—"
Ash tried to set Pikachu down, but felt his body growing more and more sluggish.
"Pika?"
Pikachu's eyes widened.
It, too, sensed that something was wrong with Ash—his chest was turning colder and harder by the second.
Looking up, Ash had already become a stone statue.
"What… what's going on?" Brock cried out.
"Natsume, did you use some kind of petrification on Ash?" Misty spun around, staring at Natsume in confusion.
He did not answer, only stared in silence at the stone Ash.
All of a sudden, the blue light in Natsume's eyes tinted scarlet, and two trails of blood slid down from the corners of his eyes.
"Ah!" Misty yelped, startled.
What is it with one after another of them doing this?
"He's overusing psychic power, focusing it all into his eyeballs, and they can't take it."
Mewtwo and Mew ceased fighting and appeared behind the group.
"Mew mew—"
Mew let out a mournful cry.
"Meow, it says Ash was hit dead-center, meow.
That's like taking a direct hit from the Gene Authority, meow.
Everything in his body built by genes will be reorganized into a stone statue, meow—too scary, meow!"
The moment Ash was struck, Natsume saw, in his system's research task on the Pallet Physique, that Ash's bodily integrity was plummeting.
He reflexively probed with psychic power.
What he saw nearly stopped his heart—Ash was about to stop being a carbon-based lifeform.
The situation was dire.
Natsume could only wring out every drop of psychic power, forcing it to permeate every cell in Ash's body, holding each cell's structure together.
But the complete Gene Authority was not something human power could oppose.
Natsume fell back step by step.
Even with total overdraw of his body, he could not reverse the tide, and in the end he left all of his remaining psychic power guarding Ash's brain.
"Natsume… am I going to die?"
In the mental world, Ash spoke, dazed.
Natsume did not answer.
With his psychic power utterly drained, his brain throbbed like it was tearing itself apart.
Dividing off even a sliver of focus made the pain spike exponentially.
"Pika?"
Pikachu stared blankly at stone Ash.
It reached out gingerly and found Ash's cheek cold as rock.
"Chu!"
Light flared over Pikachu's body, and a jolt of electricity struck Ash.
"Chu!"
Unbelieving, Pikachu blasted Ash again with electricity.
"Pika pika?"
Pikachu turned, instinctively wanting to seek help from Natsume, only to see him swaying on his feet, propped up solely by Honora.
"Pika—"
Center-parted and the clone Pikachu walked up together and patted Pikachu on the shoulder.
"Pika!"
Pikachu waved them off, then loosed an even stronger bolt at Ash.
No—usually in times like this, Ash always wakes up when Pikachu shocks him.
The clone Pikachu stared at Pikachu, then turned back, electricity sparking over its body as it struck Ash again and again.
"Pika—"
Center-parted pressed its paws together, draped its little blanket over Ash's head, scooped up a Diglett in its arms, and started digging.
It didn't really understand why, but last time Natsume had suddenly come back after center-parted finished making a grave, so center-parted figured there had to be something to that.
"Chu!"
"Chu!"
"Chu!"
"Pikachu…"
In the mental world, Ash stared at what was happening outside.
"Pikachu… you must have some way, right?
Please, please save Ash!"
Misty turned, pleading with Mewtwo and Mew.
"Mew—"
Mew shook its head, regretful.
"Meow, it says that won't work, meow.
It's irreversible, meow."
"Wait, Natsume just spoke into my mind," Honora blurted.
"He said we can use psychic power to preserve Ash."
"But… it has to be a Psychic who understands human anatomy."
Understands human anatomy?
Everyone looked to Mewtwo.
It had human genes in its body and had read many books on scientific fields.
Without question, it was the best candidate.
"I won't save him," Mewtwo said, shaking its head.
"You—you—!" Misty spluttered in fury.
"Do you really think you're right?" Brock jabbed a finger at the field.
"Look—those Pokémon have all stopped."
On the battlefield, countless Pokémon had ceased pummeling each other and were staring, dumbfounded, at stone Ash and Pikachu.
"What is this…"
The Pokémon who had been brawling lowered their heads.
They had feelings too—especially now that Natsume's psychic power was entirely concentrated around Ash's head.
The emotions radiating outward were being magnified without limit.
"I know—you may not be right, and I may not be right," Mewtwo said, still indifferent.
"But this world must be right, and in the world, humans do not exist."
"What nonsense are you spouting?
We're humans—without humans, how did you come into being?" Misty's anger flared.
Mewtwo closed its eyes and refused to argue.
These people couldn't understand what it meant.
"If you don't believe me, ask it," Mewtwo said, pointing at Mew.
"Mew—"
Not necessarily.
Mew shook its head.
"Hm?"
Mewtwo opened its eyes, only to see Mew staring fixedly at the battlefield.
Mewtwo followed its gaze.
"Chu!"
"Chu!"
"Chu!"
Tears stood in Pikachu's eyes as it shocked Ash again and again.
"Whoosh—"
The cap on the statue's head slid off and plopped onto Pikachu's head.
"Pika pika—"
Center-parted, grieving, took the cap off Pikachu's head.
At the side, a small mound of earth had grown high.
"Such strong emotion…"
Mewtwo noticed tears shimmering at the corners of every Pokémon's eyes.
But it still felt nothing.
Humans still had no proof of existence.
Like the earth, the sea, wind, thunder, and fire in the natural world—things whose value of existence had many proofs.
Humans had none.
"No…"
Mewtwo suddenly realized something.
A faint light began to bloom over Ash's body.
A nameless aura arose—one that felt uncannily familiar to Mewtwo.
Just like that day when half of Mew's Divinity flew toward it.
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