Underneath a shimmering curtain of azure water, a head slowly emerged.
It had a long, silvery-white neck and a mouth that resembled a heron's—though lacking a beak—and triangular black fins that looked like a mask over its eyes.
It was a creature of mystery and breathtaking beauty.
However, upon seeing this Pokémon, not only Kashiwagi, but the other Team Aqua members as well, wore expressions of utter confusion.
Shelly turned her head sharply toward Kashiwagi. "Is... is the Lugia in the Orre region really this small?"
"No way," Kashiwagi shook his head firmly.
The creature before them was barely half the size of a normal Lugia seen in the records.
Its head and neck looked positively "miniature," and its total body length likely didn't even exceed four meters.
This was a textbook baby Lugia.
In the history of the Pokémon world, there was indeed a recorded instance of a Lugia chick—Silver.
It had once met Ash and his friends, been captured by Team Rocket in the Whirl Islands, and was eventually rescued.
"A wild, undersized Lugia?"
Shelly turned her gaze back, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Soon, a spark of excitement flickered in her expression, and she moved to step closer.
Kashiwagi reached out and stopped her.
"Wait. Can't you feel that? The atmosphere isn't right."
"The atmosphere...?" Before Shelly could process what he meant, a terrified scream erupted from a Team Aqua member nearby.
"Aaah!"
The group spun around to see a man pointing at the cave entrance they had just entered. His face was pale with dread.
"Lu—Lugia!"
Peering through the entrance was a massive, towering head. A faint silver glow clung to it like moonlight, radiating a cold, lonely aura.
It was another Lugia—magnified several times over—looking down at them with icy, piercing eyes.
An invisible pressure filled the pitch-black cavern, making the air feel heavy.
The Team Aqua grunts and Kashiwagi stood frozen in place.
However, the Team Aqua members were used to high-stakes situations, and Kashiwagi wasn't one to lose his cool just from a bit of Intimidate.
They quickly regained their composure.
Shelly stepped forward, raising her hands in a gesture of peace.
"We apologize for trespassing in your territory. We mean no harm and have no intention of attacking you or your child. Please, believe us!"
"Please forgive our intrusion! We have no ill intent whatsoever!"
Kashiwagi added, stepping up beside her and mirroring the gesture.
He wasn't sure if Lugia understood the universal sign for surrender, but as a Psychic-type Pokémon, it should be able to sense their aura and distinguish good from evil.
Kashiwagi desperately recalled the episode where Ash encountered the Lugia parent and child.
He felt a wave of relief knowing that, thanks to Ash's efforts, this Lugia hadn't completely lost its faith in humanity after escaping Team Rocket.
In the anime, a Lugia's rage was a terrifying thing...
Wait,
a sudden realization hitting him.
Is it just me, or is this one even bigger than the one from the show?
Don't tell me this is the 'Dad' Lugia?
His heart skipped a beat.
As he pondered, the massive Lugia confirmed that neither the Team Aqua members nor Kashiwagi—or their Pokémon—held any hostility. The crushing pressure instantly dissipated.
"Choooo—"
Even so, it made its displeasure clear.
The Great Lugia shifted its body to clear the exit, wordlessly issuing a "Get Out" command to its uninvited guests.
Seeing this, Shelly immediately ordered her subordinates to check the situation outside, then moved toward the cave entrance without actually leaving.
"You want to ask, or should I?"
She glanced at the Great Lugia, then at the curious "baby" Lugia, before finally looking at Kashiwagi.
"...Hold on. Let me try one thing first."
The moment Kashiwagi saw the small Lugia, he knew he had likely followed the wrong lead.
But for the sake of certainty, he decided to verify it.
Under Shelly's puzzled gaze, he spoke softly to the little Pokémon.
"Silver?"
"Woo!"
The baby Lugia's eyes lit up instantly at the name. Beside it, the parent Lugia froze for a moment, staring at Kashiwagi with an expression of disbelief.
"Is it really you, Silver?"
Kashiwagi asked again.
The baby Lugia lunged out from behind the waterfall, chirping happily as it hurried toward him.
The Great Lugia also lowered its long, graceful neck, circling Kashiwagi and peering intently at his face, as if comparing him to someone in its memory.
"You know them?!" Shelly asked, stunned.
Kashiwagi shook his head.
"No, no. I don't know them personally. I just know the people who helped them once—Whoa!"
The baby Lugia tackled him, knocking him over. it sniffed his face repeatedly, looking him over from every angle.
When it realized this wasn't the familiar face it was looking for, its eyes filled with disappointment.
"Sorry to let you down. I'm not Oliver, Ash, or Ritchie. But I do know them," he told the mother and child.
Hearing those familiar names, the last traces of hostility vanished from the parent Lugia.
It was clear they were quite innocent at heart; they assumed that if Kashiwagi knew the names of those who had saved them, he must be a friend.
"Sigh..."
Kashiwagi slowly stood up, patting his Galarian Corsola to calm her after she had extended all her smoky tendrils in alarm.
He turned to Shelly.
"Go ahead and ask your questions. I'm done with mine."
"..."
Shelly gave him a very complicated look.
As an Admin of Team Aqua, she had only ever caught glimpses of Kyogre and Groudon. How did this guy from Orre know so many Lugia?
Between the escaped Lugia, the Mother Lugia, and "Silver," the kid was a walking legendary magnet.
"Please tell me... why are you here? Why did you..."
As Shelly conducted her "interview," Kashiwagi pulled out his phone to send a message to Miller confirming the failure of the mission.
Of course, without a signal at the bottom of the ocean, it wouldn't go through, but he just needed to vent his frustration.
He'd finally tracked one down, only for it to be the wrong one.
Where could the Orre Lugia have gone?
Please don't tell me it's hiding in some random ditch in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe I should ask this pair?
He wondered if Lugia had some kind of secret "group chat" among their species.
Since Lugia's design was partially based on a beluga whale, and whales communicate via song over vast distances...
Following this bold guess, he looked back at the Lugia pair.
By now, Shelly had finished her questioning.
The Lugia mother and child had indeed fled the Whirl Islands after being targeted by Team Rocket, eventually settling in the waters of the Hoenn region.
However, now that they had been discovered by humans, they would likely catch the ocean currents and move elsewhere. Even though they were technically bird Pokémon, Lugia didn't follow typical migratory patterns; they could travel anywhere via the currents or stay in one spot for ten thousand years. It was entirely up to their whim.
Shelly, satisfied with the explanation, stepped back. Meanwhile, a Team Aqua grunt reported that their unconscious comrade had just fainted and the submarine was fully functional.
Kashiwagi stepped forward one last time to ask the Lugia pair if they knew of another Lugia near the Orre region.
The two looked at each other, clearly not understanding what "Orre" was.
"It's... uh... do you know a Lugia that flew in from the north?" Kashiwagi tried to show them a map on his phone, but they simply didn't understand how to read it.
The "curse of knowledge" made normal communication difficult.
When he tried to ask about the locations of other Lugia in the world, the mother and child shook their heads regretfully. They rarely had contact or communication with others of their kind; everyone mostly kept to themselves.
"I see..."
Kashiwagi couldn't hide the disappointment on his face.