Ash Ketchum and his friends have a very specific "talent."
No matter where they go, trouble follows them like a Shadow Tag. They are absolute magnets for incidents, disasters, and legendary encounters.
While Kashiwagi had noticed himself developing a similar trend lately, he still wasn't quite on their level.
However, even though Iris had technically left the group, it seemed her "protagonist buff" hadn't worn off yet. She had somehow managed to get lost in a sandstorm, lose her Pokémon, and get herself trapped inside the Mirage Tower.
But here was the bizarre part.
She could still make phone calls to the outside world!
"Team Magma's infrastructure is terrifyingly efficient..." Kashiwagi marveled silently.
From what he knew, most of the signal towers in the Hoenn region were actually installed by Team Magma.
To prevent wild Pokémon from chewing on the wires or destroying the equipment, they had disguised the towers as all sorts of strange natural objects.
On the other end of the line, Iris pleaded, "Until I find the exit, please take care of Emolga for me. I'm counting on you!"
"Actually, I think I'll try to come find you instead," Kashiwagi replied.
He glanced at his phone. Porygon was displaying Iris's real-time location, and it didn't overlap with the area where the previous sandstorm had been raging.
If there was a signal, there was a location.
Even if Iris was currently stuck in some alternate dimension, the "anchor point" between that dimension and reality had to be exactly where the GPS signal was originating.
"You look for an exit from the inside," he instructed.
"I'll see if I can find the entrance from out here."
Iris didn't push back and agreed immediately. But just before she hung up, a low, guttural growl echoed from her side of the line, followed by a sharp, high-pitched roar.
Wait, are there wild Pokémon inside the anime version of the Mirage Tower too?
Kashiwagi's curiosity was piqued.
If anyone else were trapped in there, he might hesitate to get involved in something so risky. But this was Iris—the future Unova League Champion.
Unless his interference somehow rewrote the timeline, she was almost guaranteed to come out of this unscathed.
Besides, he had his Lucky Scale!
He might doubt a lot of things, but he had absolute faith in the Lucky Scale's effects.
The only issue was the sandstorm.
Emolga and Iris had been separated for a while now; once the current storm died down, there was no telling when the next one would strike.
...
"Alright, time to move," Kashiwagi announced.
He looked down at Emolga, who was currently sprawled out on a soft cushion, rubbing her round belly with a look of pure bliss.
He thanked Blissey for looking after the little squirrel and returned the nurse Pokémon to her Poké Ball.
"E-mooo..."
True to her nature, Emolga wanted to crawl back into a Poké Ball and slack off now that her stomach was full.
When nothing happened, she realized her Poké Ball was still with her trainer. She turned her big, watery eyes toward Kashiwagi, looking incredibly pitiful.
"I know, I know. You're too lazy to walk," he sighed.
He picked her up, set her in a shaded spot, and began packing up the tent.
Aggron, who was resting nearby, glanced sideways at Emolga. He didn't say a word, but his massive size and menacing iron features were enough to make a bead of nervous sweat roll down Emolga's head.
She was clearly intimidated by the hulking Steel-type.
However, she soon realized that Aggron wasn't nearly as temperamental as a certain "Dragonite" she knew.
Despite his ferocious appearance, he was calm, steady, and didn't even huff at her.
Gaining a bit of courage, she tried scooting closer.
No reaction.
She moved a little closer.
Still nothing.
Emolga grew bold. She began to climb onto Aggron's back. Just as she gained some height, she met a pair of pale blue eyes looking right at her. She quickly looked away, acting casual.
To her delight, even at this distance, Aggron didn't attack or even try to scare her.
Completely relaxed now, Emolga scrambled up and perched herself right on Aggron's shoulder.
That's right.
This was her goal all along! If you're going to slack off, you might as well find the best seat in the house.
"E-mo!" she chirped contentedly, curling up.
Aggron's broad shoulder provided plenty of room for her to find the perfect sleeping position.
By the time Kashiwagi finished packing the tent and turned around, he saw the little glider fast asleep.
"Eat, then sleep... she and Galarian Corsola would probably get along great," he muttered.
He exchanged a look with Aggron. Both of them were thinking of the "professional slacker" in their own party who made this Emolga look like a hard worker by comparison.
Unfortunately for Emolga, her nap was destined to be short-lived.
...
"E-mo?! E-MOOO!"
Emolga suddenly bolted upright, her backside feeling like it was being grilled on a frying pan.
As the sun beat down, Aggron's steel body temperature rose rapidly. Her soft fur and flesh were no match for a suit of sun-baked armor.
"Hahaha!"
Kashiwagi laughed and caught her as she jumped, tucking her into the folds of his UV-protective cloak.
"Just stay in there quietly."
"E-mo..."
She grumbled, clearly unhappy with the cramped quarters, but she knew she didn't have a better option.
Soon, following Porygon's navigation, Kashiwagi reached a high ridge. He looked down at the vast, empty expanse of yellow sand.
The Mirage Tower lived up to its name—there wasn't so much as a brick in sight.
What were the spawn conditions for the tower in the games?
He tried to remember.
In Pokémon Emerald, it just appeared randomly when you entered the desert and vanished when you left. Once you took a fossil from the top floor, it disappeared forever.
In the anime, the Mirage Tower hadn't really appeared at all.
Does it only manifest during a sandstorm? If so, that made things simple.
Kashiwagi approached the coordinates but stopped before getting too close. He gave a sharp flick of his wrist. Aggron understood instantly, slamming a massive claw into the sand.
BOOM!
With a series of thunderous cracks, glowing blue stone pillars erupted from the ground (Stone Edge), racing toward the GPS coordinates and shattering upon impact.
Still, nothing happened. The air remained empty.
Aggron followed up by blasting the area with Flamethrower. Once they confirmed there were no invisible obstacles, Kashiwagi moved forward.
He tried calling Iris again. The call went through, but she didn't pick up, and he couldn't hear a ringtone nearby.
"As I thought. We need a sandstorm to trigger it."
Kashiwagi retreated and placed a call to Pyrite Town.
He summoned Steelix from her hard work tilling the fields.
Since Aggron didn't know the move Sandstorm, he had to call in the specialist.
"Roooaaaar! (Steel-ix!)"
Steelix didn't waste a single second. As soon as she arrived, she got straight to work.
Her horizontal steel ridges began to spin like the blades of a high-speed industrial blender.
The surrounding sand seemed to be commanded by an unseen force, rising up in a massive, swirling vortex.
In an instant, a localized Sandstorm blotted out the sun, enveloping the entire area in a gritty haze.
Under the safety of the cloak, Emolga peeked out cautiously. Seeing the chaos outside, she let out a tiny squeak and burrowed back in, gripping Kashiwagi's shirt for her dear life.
Kashiwagi, now wearing his goggles, squinted through the dust toward the GPS coordinates.
Suddenly...
The very air seemed to ripple and distort.
A towering, monolithic structure of sun-baked sandstone manifested out of thin air.
The Mirage Tower loomed over them, looking both majestic and terrifying amidst the raging storm, radiating an aura of ancient mystery.
As the wind howled through the sand, a piercing scream echoed from within the tower.
Wait... is that scream getting louder?
Kashiwagi blinked. A dark blur was rocketed out of the tower's massive entrance at breakneck speed.
As the figure drew closer, he realized it was a young girl with wild black hair, fluttering in the wind like a tattered flag.
She was desperately clinging to a blue, shark-like object protruding from the ground.
The blue object was Digging through the sand at such a high velocity that the girl was practically airborne, trailing a wake of dust behind her.
The screaming was definitely coming from her.
And they were heading straight for him.
"Out of the way! GET OUT OF THE WAYYYYY!"
"Stop them," Kashiwagi commanded, stepping back.
Steelix and Aggron locked eyes for a split second, silently debating who should handle it.
Steelix took the lead.
She stopped her spinning ridges and whipped her massive tail like a colossal lash.
CRASH!
With a deafening thud, her tail slammed into the sand, creating an impenetrable wall of steel directly in their path.
CLANG!
The impact was sharp and metallic.
A small, shark-dinosaur hybrid Pokémon—a Gible—tumbled out of the sand, wobbling in place with dizzying swirls in its eyes.
The black-haired girl tumbled onto the ground, her face covered in grit and her clothes disheveled.
"Pah! Ptooey! I told you not to go so fast!"
Iris scrambled to her feet, scolding her Gible while simultaneously bowing to Kashiwagi without even looking up.
"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"
Hearing the familiar voice, Emolga poked her head out from the cloak and leaped toward her trainer with an excited chirp.
Unfortunately, her wing membranes were still stiff from earlier. She barely cleared a meter before she started plummeting toward the sand.
Luckily, Kashiwagi reached out, caught her mid-air, and handed her over.
"E-mooo!"
Reunited at last, Emolga was ecstatic.
"Ah! Emolga!" Iris cried out, pulling her into a tight hug.
"I was worried sick! Where on earth did you go?"
"E-mo~"
Emolga rubbed her cheeks against Iris's face, acting even more affectionate than her usual self in the anime.
Perhaps the scare of being lost had actually made her appreciate her trainer a bit more.
After their heartfelt reunion, Iris finally looked up and saw Kashiwagi—along with the massive Aggron and the truly gargantuan Steelix.
"Whoa! Awesome! I've never seen a Steelix that big before!"
She stared up in genuine awe, then quickly remembered her manners.
"I'm so sorry, and thank you so much for taking care of Emolga. I hope she wasn't too much trouble."
"It was no trouble at all," Kashiwagi replied with a slight nod. His gaze drifted toward the Mirage Tower, which was already beginning to fade as the sandstorm settled.
"So, what did you find in there?"
"In there?"
Iris turned around just in time to see the tower vanish completely.
She let out a sudden, horrified shriek.
"AAHH! My backpack! My lunch! The food for Gible and the others is still inside!"
"Don't panic. We can just use Sandstorm to bring it back," Kashiwagi explained calmly.
"That tower only manifests when the sands are whipped up."
Iris had a sudden epiphany.
"Oh! No wonder I couldn't find the entrance earlier, and then suddenly it just... appeared!"
"Right. So, what does it look like inside? And what did you run into?" he asked again.
Gurgle—
The first answer came not from Iris, but from her stomach.
The two stared at each other.
"..."
The future Champion's face turned a shade of crimson that was visible even through the desert dust. She turned her head away, laughing awkwardly.
It seemed that while she had spent a lot of time traveling with Ash, she hadn't quite developed his "thick skin" yet.
"...If you don't mind, why don't we have some lunch? You can tell me everything while we eat," Kashiwagi suggested with a small sigh.
Iris hesitated for a moment—she wasn't usually the type to trust strangers so easily—but then she remembered this guy had saved her Pokémon and tracked her down to help.
She gave him a bright, toothy grin.
"Thank you! I'll accept that offer with a grateful heart!"
...
Behind the cool shade of a massive sand dune.
Kashiwagi was incredibly generous with his supplies, and Iris—along with her Pokémon—was busy inhaling the food as if they hadn't eaten in weeks.
Just as he expected, the tiny Axew that used to hide in her hair had evolved into a powerful Fraxure. In the future, it would become her championship ace, Haxorus.
Beside her sat the most ill-tempered Dragonite in history; the stubborn Excadrill who had ignored her orders for dozens of episodes; and the Gible she had caught in Blackthorn City.
No wonder she was chasing that Flygon, Kashiwagi thought. She's only got five Pokémon on her team right now!
"Aren't your Pokémon going to eat?"
Iris's voice snapped him out of his internal monologue.
"They've already eaten. It is 1:00 PM, after all," Kashiwagi replied. "You still haven't told me what exactly you ran into inside the Mirage Tower."
"What I ran into..."
Iris's expression turned a bit strange.
"Would you believe me if I said I saw stone monsters carved into the shapes of Pokémon?"
"If you're serious, I'll believe it," he nodded calmly.
The anime world was unique for a reason—it was filled with bizarre anomalies.
He knew about the black vajra-like artifact that could turn into a Giant Gengar, the ancient bell that transformed into a Giant Jigglypuff, the stone Poké Ball that once held a Giant Claydol, and even evil spirits capable of possessing people.
The ancient civilizations dreamed up by the writers made this world a literal parade of monsters and magic.
Iris looked surprised by his casual acceptance, but she continued.
"There are four floors in total. Every floor is packed with traps. If you step on the wrong tile, you either fall through the floor or a Pokémon statue comes to life and attacks. And the worst part? Once you break them, they just put themselves back together. It was such a pain!"
Self-repairing Pokémon statues...
He mused that the Mirage Tower, which in the games was purely a place to grab a fossil, had been reimagined here as a sophisticated ruin of some ancient civilization.
"But I did find two perfectly preserved fossils on the top floor! They're in my bag! Once we get my bag out, I'll give you one!" Iris declared.
"That's really not necessary—"
"I insist! You saved me and Emolga! It's the right thing to do!" Iris was surprisingly firm about her gratitude. Then, a thought struck her.
"By the way, how did you get my phone number?"
"I figured out who you were based on Emolga's description, then I asked Takeshi to give it to me."
Kashiwagi didn't see any reason to lie, though he skipped the more technical steps of his search to let her fill in the blanks herself.
Iris was genuinely surprised to hear that name.
"Big brother Takeshi..."
During her childhood, she usually spent her time playing with wild Pokémon in the forest and rarely interacted with the other people in the Village of Dragons. Her only real friend was Shannon, who was the same age.
Takeshi was an older "brother" from her clan who had looked after her back then, though they weren't particularly close.
"I didn't expect you to know him! Oh, I haven't even asked your name yet!" Iris realized she had forgotten the most basic social grace.
"My name is Kashiwagi."
He said it plainly. People in the Village of Dragons should be familiar with that name by now—Takeshi had surely bragged about him quite a bit.
But Iris? Not so much.
"Kashiwagi-san! Thank you so much for the hospitality!" There was no recognition on her face, only deep gratitude.
"Just Kashiwagi is fine."
"Got it!" Iris nodded, but then her eyes sparkled with a sudden shift in tone.
"If you don't mind me asking... do you raise any Dragon-type Pokémon?"