In the clearing outside the dormitory building, Hakuya accepted Courtney's request for a battle.
Since it was already evening, and this area not only saw little foot traffic but was also well-lit by several rows of bright street lamps, there was no need to worry about disturbing the residents or poor visibility.
After confirming the battle rules, Hakuya and Courtney stood on opposite sides of the field, leaving a good distance between them.
"I leave it to you, Floragato."
Having activated the [Omni-Transformation] state for Floragato in advance, Hakuya handed the battlefield over to the large cat behind him, who was already itching for a fight.
"It's a... rookie starter Pokémon... from the Paldea region..."
Seeing Hakuya's Floragato, Courtney excitedly tossed the Great Ball in her hand.
Compared to Alcremie, who had tanked Primal Groudon's attacks head-on, Floragato had left an equally profound impression on her. Being able to briefly go toe-to-toe with Primal Groudon and only barely fall behind, coupled with that full-power [Petal Blizzard] sword that actually parted the sea—it was enough to prove just how formidable her strength was.
However...
This kind of powerful opponent was exactly what she wanted.
"Moo——"
With a flash of white light, Courtney's ace Pokémon appeared from the Great Ball.
Looking like a cross between a Bactrian camel and a yak, it had three bright blue circles on both the left and right sides of its body. Two humps, evolved from bone, grew on its back, continuously spewing scorching, surging red flames.
Immediately after, accompanied by Camerupt's roar toward the sky, a sparkling Mega Stone was revealed beneath its thick mane.
"Hehe..."
A faint smile appeared on Courtney's face, and she subsequently raised her right hand.
"Analyze... reconstruct... let me thoroughly analyze you in battle... Mega Evolve!"
Beneath the girl's nearly fanatical, obsessive voice, a dazzling ribbon of energy instantly connected her and Camerupt. The temperature in the air skyrocketed in an instant, causing the concrete ground beneath their feet to visibly expand and crack.
"MOO!!!"
As the light of Mega Evolution faded, Camerupt's body underwent an earth-shattering transformation.
Its already incredibly thick coat changed from orange-yellow to orange-red, and its wildly growing mane instantly covered its lower limbs. The two miniature humps on its back merged into one, looking exactly like a terrifying, active volcano ready to erupt with magma at any moment.
"Eruption..."
"Moo——"
Amidst a long, resonant sound resembling a steam locomotive's whistle, majestic white smoke billowed from Mega Camerupt's nostrils, and the ring of black rocks on its back subsequently erupted with blinding white light.
BOOM!!!
A terrifying pillar of magma fire shot straight into the sky. Even though the night was dark, it illuminated the dark clouds formed by accumulated smoke. Countless scorching magma orbs bombarded directly toward Floragato opposite it.
"Block it with Petal Blizzard."
Hakuya ordered calmly.
Like a magician, Floragato raised her cat paw. Countless pink and white petals materialized from thin air, forming an impenetrable petal shield that instantly and completely blocked the ferocious [Eruption].
This was the customized move usage he and Floragato had created during the Wallace Cup.
By controlling the trajectory of the falling leaves and flying petals, Floragato could freely shape them into forms like swords or shields. Whether used for offense or defense, it was incredibly handy.
Seeing Floragato easily dismantle the [Eruption] attack, Courtney didn't show the slightest hint of discouragement.
After all, this was an opponent who had briefly fought back and forth with Primal Groudon. Fighting at a type disadvantage, or directly neutralizing a high-power [Eruption] attack, was nothing to be surprised about.
"Stone Edge."
"Floragato, use Shadow Claw."
Both sides issued their attack commands almost simultaneously.
Facing the countless massive, grayish-blue stone pillars bursting from the ground before her, Floragato didn't slow down in the slightest. Black, nightmare-like energy coated her sharp claws respectively. With just a light swing, the incoming [Stone Edge] attack was cleanly sliced to pieces in an 'X' shape.
Bang!
Smoke billowed upwards!
The chilling gleam of her claws sliced through the air, swiftly closing in on Mega Camerupt.
"Camerupt, use—"
Before the command could be finished, Courtney saw a flash of red light as Mega Camerupt was sent flying past her eyes with a deafening crash.
A [Sucker Punch], backed by an immense base Attack stat, viciously smashed into Mega Camerupt. Even though it wasn't a STAB move, it yielded an extremely excellent result. Before the opponent could recover from the pain, Floragato pressed the attack, raising her foot high and using a continuous [Low Kick] Fighting-type combo to completely strip Mega Camerupt of its ability to battle.
In just a few brief exchanges, the battle ended with Mega Camerupt's defeat.
This battle result was entirely within Hakuya's expectations—having activated her [Omni-Transformation] state, Floragato's stats were not inferior to Mega Camerupt's in the slightest. While it was true the latter held a type advantage, facing Floragato—who possessed rich combat experience—and considering Courtney couldn't currently draw out 100% of its strength, such a swift defeat was perfectly reasonable.
"Meowha~"
"Very good. You've improved again~"
Hakuya reached out and gently rubbed Floragato's head.
Although the battle hadn't been difficult, he never skimped on praising his Pokémon.
At the very least, after experiencing the grueling battle against Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon, coupled with activating her Bond Phenomenon form for the first time, Floragato's practical combat ability was indeed noticeably higher than before.
Hakuya looked at the beautiful figure standing with her head bowed in silence. He initially thought the other party was immersed in the sting of defeat and feeling depressed. But immediately after, the purple-haired girl in the red hood unexpectedly raised her head, the corners of her mouth curling up into a smile.
"...You won."
Courtney recalled her Camerupt, which had dropped out of its Mega state. A rather alluring blush seeped through her pretty little face.
Her beautiful smoky-purple eyes sparkled with light, practically writing the words "I like you" in bold across her face.
"???"
Noticing the fanatical smile blooming on the girl's face, Hakuya sweatdropped slightly.
So my thought that Courtney would be devastated was completely overthinking it.
Even though both were declarations of defeat after a battle, Courtney's emotions and expressions were entirely different from Roxanne's earlier. The latter was a look of bewilderment and helplessness at being completely crushed in a 6-on-1 sweep, ultimately leading to a resigned acceptance of having no other options. But this yandere girl appeared unusually happy, as if she was very glad to see such a devastating ending.
This is a bit too weird. Anyone who didn't know better would think I was conducting some sort of 'training' activity.
And directly opposite him, the girl tilted her head, uttering words that left even more room for imagination.
"...Since you won... how do you want to dispose of me..."
"...Do you want money... or do you want to do what you did to that girl named Roxanne..."
"Stop, hold it right there!"
Hakuya immediately put a stop to Courtney's behavior, which was highly likely to fail a content review.
Although it was true that both her pretty face and her graceful figure—accentuated by the red pencil skirt uniform—were very much to his taste... and although her usually emotionless, adorkable, yet occasionally yandere traits were also quite appealing... he absolutely would not let his little head do the thinking for his big head.
"We've only known each other for a day. You're being a bit too creepy."
Hakuya crossed his arms over his chest, demonstrating that he was a man of principles and bottom lines.
"Oh... I thought the defeat condition you mentioned was that... I felt like you would really like it..."
Completely ignoring Hakuya's cold gaze—which looked at her as if she were trash—Courtney very calmly moved past this topic, acting as if her mind going to the gutter was purely because Hakuya had kissed Roxanne for far too long right in front of her earlier.
And her beautiful smoky-purple eyes revealed a faint sense of distress and disappointment.
"Ugh..."
For a moment, the corners of Hakuya's mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly.
What the hell are you feeling disappointed about?!
We are having a proper Pokémon battle!
Sighing, Hakuya, expressing his inability to comprehend the thought processes of a yandere girl, finally stated his demand for winning.
"The demand isn't complicated. You just need to tell me Leader Maxie's current location."
"...I'm sorry... I cannot fulfill that request..."
Courtney merely shook her head gently and responded.
Of course she wasn't an idiot.
There was only one reason Hakuya wanted to know the Leader's location: to capture the ringleader first.
Just as Hakuya frowned, pondering whether he should just have the little jet plane pull a memory-reading maneuver, the female Team Magma Admin before him pursed her lips and stated another condition she could accept.
"...However... I can act as your eyes and ears... and leak information to you..."
"Hmm?"
Hakuya blanked out slightly.
He originally thought Courtney's refusal meant she was preparing to continue aiding the villains. He didn't expect she was planning to save the day through a roundabout route.
"...Too strong... Primal Groudon's power... is very strong... the Leader might not be able to control it..."
Whether she saw through Hakuya's confusion or not, the girl let out a soft hum and slowly continued speaking.
Unlike thoroughbred criminal syndicates—like Team Rocket—who would wantonly steal other people's Pokémon purely to gain more profit, the original intentions behind the establishment of both Team Magma and Team Aqua were inherently idealistic. Namely, to build a better homeland for humans and Pokémon. Fundamentally, their starting points had nothing to do with "evil." This was also one of the reasons why Courtney joined Team Magma.
But after witnessing Primal Groudon's power, Courtney also grew skeptical of the world Maxie envisioned constructing.
Primal Groudon's power was simply far too immense. Rather than saying they could use its power to expand the land and create a more suitable living environment for humanity, it was more accurate to say humanity would first suffer utter annihilation because of this super-ancient Pokémon.
"I see..."
After listening to Courtney's halting explanation entirely, Hakuya revealed an expression of understanding.
It had to be said, this yandere girl Courtney, despite being an elite Admin of an evil syndicate, was unexpectedly principled.
Maxie had recognized her worth, and Team Magma was the organization she had stayed with for so many years, so she didn't want to choose outright betrayal. Even though their ideals diverged now, the girl still wanted her former comrades to realize their mistakes.
Being directly arrested by the League to eat prison food was a completely different matter for Courtney than realizing their mistakes and turning themselves in.
Looking at Courtney, who refused to relent on the location but was only willing to act as an inside spy, Hakuya rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought.
Initially, he wanted to just have Latias use mind control to extract the intel.
But on second thought... while he could definitely pinpoint Maxie and Archie's location, he couldn't exactly slaughter his way into the Submarine Explorer 1.
Furthermore, if Courtney chose to be stubborn and refused to cooperate, there was no guarantee nothing would go wrong during the operation.
If they alerted the enemy at this stage, the difficulty of capturing the leaders of those two organizations later would skyrocket.
Relying on the Explorer 1, as long as Maxie and Archie wanted to, they could constantly roam the depths of the magma and the deep sea, refusing to show their faces until they achieved their goals. When that time came, let alone the League, even he would find it a bit of a headache.
—One option is to follow the plot, utilize Courtney as an inside man, and ultimately catch them all in one fell swoop. The other is to go off-script, blindly and overconfidently intervening, which could potentially cause unforeseen complications or even let them escape. Just like Team Rainbow Rocket and the original plotlines, that would mean I'd have to go through a New Game Plus...
"Alright. Let's do as you suggested for now, Courtney."
After pondering for a moment, Hakuya completely figured it out.
Even if they couldn't capture Maxie and Archie in one fell swoop at the current stage, managing to plant a spy within Team Magma ahead of time—and an elite Admin second only to the Leader, no less—was absolutely an unexpected windfall.
And just as a faint hint of joy appeared on Courtney's face, Hakuya added another sentence.
"However, I must state this in advance: Team Magma is currently on the League's wanted list. If the situation escalates too severely, then Maxie and the others will still have to face the corresponding legal judgments. Serving over a decade in prison would be getting off light."
Although according to the plot, Maxie and Archie would fully witness the terrifying power of Primal Kyogre and Groudon, realize the destruction of their ideals, and choose to turn over a new leaf... now, with the intervention of the Team Rainbow Rocket version of Giovanni, he was too unsure of the plot's direction.
He couldn't guarantee they wouldn't actually pull off something massive later. Even if he had Rayquaza acting as a safety net then, those two guys, Maxie and Archie, would still have to accept League punishments far more severe than in the original plot.
"Understood..."
Courtney nodded solemnly.
She simply wanted to do what she wanted and should do at this moment.
If she truly couldn't change the minds of Maxie and the other Team Magma members, she also knew exactly what she had to do in the end.
"By the way, if they're about to make a major move, you can call this number to contact me in an emergency."
Upon parting, Hakuya suddenly remembered something. He wrote down the contact number for his current PokéNav on a piece of paper and handed it over.
Although to maintain internal secrecy and prevent surveillance by the League's official intelligence departments, members of Team Magma had their own internal communication methods and would basically never use PokéNavs produced by the Devon Corporation...
...he couldn't possibly stay guarding the Hoenn region all the time at this stage.
After attending the celebratory banquet, he still had to follow his original plan and head to the Galar region to get his Fighting-type Badge. He figured he'd be without a fixed residence for a very long time, rushing back and forth between different League regions like a wandering traveler.
Therefore, having a necessary emergency contact method was a must.
"...I will keep it safe."
Taking the small slip of paper with the contact number written on it, the girl's beautiful eyes visibly brightened for a moment.
As if having obtained a priceless treasure, Courtney solemnly folded the paper neatly and placed it into her uniform pocket. Then, lifting her face, she spoke to Hakuya.
"...Next time I will become even stronger... and when that time comes... we will battle again..."
"Alright."
Faced with the girl's second battle invitation, Hakuya smiled and nodded.
The way people interacted in this world had always been very simple.
Having a Pokémon battle to draw closer to one another had long become universally known underlying code.
Not to mention, they were no longer in their initial hostile relationship, but rather underground allies. Their relationship had progressed another step.
After seeing off this female Team Magma Admin and returning to his dorm to check the time, Hakuya realized it was already very late.
"I didn't expect time to pass this quickly."
Hakuya sighed in surprise.
Before he knew it, it was exactly midnight again.
Perfect timing. He still hadn't gone for a stroll in the Easter Egg Dungeon he unlocked after beating Primal Kyogre and Groudon.
Randomized world... Start!