NOVPUB
Chapter 1397 - Hoopa
Autumn was the season of harvest in Verdanturf Town. Because YoYo Day Care had sold a large number of affordable Pokémon that knew the move Grassy Terrain to the town's residents, the Verdanturf Town's agriculture was thriving and full of vitality.
Every day, a large number of fruit farmers would harvest berries from their own orchards and hand them over to representatives from the Devon Corporation, who would then transport and sell them all over the world.
Thanks to Yuga's presence, the Verdanturf Town had formed a cooperative relationship with the Devon Corporation. The company even built a dedicated sales platform for the town's agriculture. Through this platform, the Verdanturf Town's agricultural products could be sold to any corner of the world.
In the past, the fruit farmers of the Verdanturf Town mostly grew ordinary fruits. However, in the past two years, with the joint proposal of Yuga and Mayor Ishida, most of the farmers had started cultivating berries with higher economic value in their orchards.
In the Pokémon world, Trainers had a great demand for high-energy berries—whether for making Pokéblocks, developing medicines, or other uses, berries were indispensable. With the help of the Devon Corporation, the Verdanturf Town's berries sold like hotcakes.
As long as this batch of berries sold well, Verdanturf Town's income for the year would see a significant boost.
Ever since Yuga's return, he had been receiving thank-you gifts from the town's residents every day—mostly fruits they grew themselves.
If it weren't for Yuga, the Gym Leader, Verdanturf wouldn't be enjoying such good days now.
That said, the one thing Yuga lacked the least was berries. So he didn't really want to accept all those gifts. But the townsfolk were just too enthusiastic—Yuga couldn't refuse even if he wanted to.
That evening, Yuga returned from the new shop and, feeling idle, began helping Suzuki Koen organize the projects in the store.
Just then, Suzuki Koen's son, Souta, rushed in holding his head, with his pet Pokémon, the Glameow named Strawberry, trailing behind.
"Ugh, why did it suddenly start raining!"
As soon as he entered, Souta started complaining, pulling out a tissue to wipe the water droplets from his head.
Souta was fourteen this year, but he had not become a Pokémon Trainer. Instead, he was attending a regular secondary school in the Verdanturf Town.
Initially, Suzuki Koen had indeed considered training Souta to become a Pokémon Trainer—wouldn't that be impressive, like her own boss?
After all, she wasn't short on money and worked at a Pokemon Day Care. The conditions were ideal, and raising a Trainer wouldn't be difficult.
But after spending two years at a Trainer school, Souta voluntarily asked to transfer to a regular school. His reason was simple—he wasn't particularly interested in becoming a Trainer.
Suzuki Koen didn't force him. Sure, Trainers had promising futures, but many also ended up broke or even lost their lives. There was nothing wrong with living as an ordinary person.
She herself was an ordinary person, and wasn't she living better than most people now?
"It's raining?" Yuga asked in surprise. The weather had been perfectly fine when he returned earlier. Besides, Verdanturf didn't usually get much rain in the fall.
"Yeah! It just started all of a sudden," Souta said, staring in puzzlement at the drizzling rain outside.
"Glameow~"
Strawberry let out a distressed cry and began shaking its body wildly, sending water droplets flying everywhere.
"Strawberry, stop messing around," Souta scolded, frowning.
Although Souta wasn't a Trainer, Strawberry had always been by his side.
Strawberry wasn't a particularly talented Pokémon—it had been purchased by Suzuki Koen as a pet. Even though it was already over ten years old, its level was still pitifully low.
Souta wasn't a Trainer and didn't have high expectations for Strawberry. The two were more like best friends, inseparable companions who spent every day together.
"Dou Dou, get a towel for Souta and Strawberry!" Yuga called inside, then turned to Souta. "Quick, dry off with a towel, or you might catch a cold."
Even though the temperatures in Hoenn weren't low, it was already late autumn, and getting caught in the rain was still quite chilly.
"Got it, thanks, Brother Yuga! I'm going inside to do my homework!" With that, Souta ran inside with Strawberry.
Souta often came by after school to do his homework and wait for his mother to get off work so they could go home together.
"Go ahead," Yuga nodded, then turned his gaze back to the rain outside.
At first, Yuga didn't think much of this sudden downpour. However, the rain continued for more than half a month with no signs of stopping—it was clearly abnormal.
Recently, quite a few customers at the shop had been complaining about it.
Because of the harvest season, Verdanturf Town usually attracted a lot of tourists in autumn. But due to the prolonged rainfall, most visitors had canceled their travel plans. Mayor Ishida had already come to complain about it several times.
But complaining is useless—Yuga can't exactly force people to come, right?
That day, Yuga was standing at the shop entrance, frowning as he looked at the rain outside. The rain wasn't heavy, but it kept drizzling nonstop, which was incredibly frustrating to watch.
The Clefairy, Mime Jr., and Smoochum stood hand-in-hand by Yuga's feet, sighing together. Because of the rain, they couldn't go out to play, which really bummed them out.
Just then, Azumarill walked in from outside, its body damp with mist and water vapor. It looked relaxed and cheerful, in complete contrast to Clefairy and the others' gloomy mood.
Rainy days might trouble Clefairy and the others, but they didn't bother a Water-type Pokémon like Azumarill at all. Plus, it had been in a sweet mood lately thanks to its budding romance with Granbull, so it was especially cheerful.
Clefairy, Mime Jr., and Smoochum looked at the carefree Azumarill and felt wronged. They quietly followed behind it, deciding to throw a sack over its head and give it a beating to vent their frustration.
Of course, there was no way they could succeed—put together, the three of them still couldn't take down one Azumarill.
In the rain, Mayor Ishida hurried over again. As soon as he entered the shop, he said, "Yuga, please think of something! If this rain keeps up, everyone's berries will rot on the trees!"
Verdanturf Town had experienced a bumper berry harvest, but it wasn't something that could be picked clean in just a day or two.
It should have been a cause for celebration, but with the rain, the berries' quality would inevitably decline. Everyone's hearts, like the sky, were clouded with gloom.
"There's really nothing I can do about that!" Yuga said helplessly.
"Then what can we do? You're the only one I can turn to now," Mayor Ishida replied with a distressed expression. He was a mayor who truly cared for his people, and it pained him to see the farmers' fruit rotting day by day.
After worrying for several days, he finally decided to ask Yuga for help.
Never mind that he was decades older than Yuga—Yuga had always been his pillar of support. When something went wrong, he could only turn to Yuga.
Yuga thought for a moment and said, "Tell you what, go back for now. I'll think of something."
"Really?" Mayor Ishida said in delight. "Then I'll leave it to you."
"Mhm..." Yuga nodded. "I can only promise to do my best."
Mayor Ishida nodded confidently. "I believe you can do it." He had always had blind faith in Yuga.
After the mayor left, Yuga sighed, walked around the store once, then took an umbrella and headed to the Sunflora Ranch.
The persistent overcast skies and rain had heavily impacted the Sunflora Ranch too—Sunflora hadn't been able to photosynthesize for several days.
If it weren't for the ample electricity stored in the power plant, the Verdanturf Town's power supply might have been affected too.
After chatting with Mr. Harrison at the ranch for a while, Yuga and he came up with a plan: to organize a large-scale sunshine summoning event for Verdanturf Town.
Yuga didn't notify anyone else about the plan. The next day, he brought his Grass-type core team and Florges to the Sunflora Ranch.
Mr. Harrison and the Sunflora were already waiting for him. Over a thousand Sunflora were neatly lined up on the hillside, resembling a vast sunflower sea—it was a spectacular sight.
Just then, the rain had finally stopped, but the sky was still overcast, with thick clouds pressing down oppressively.
Under the lead of Yuga's Grass-type Pokémon and Florges, over a thousand Sunflora used the move Sunny Day at once.
More than a thousand red weather balls shot into the sky like fireworks, exploding among the clouds and blowing them apart in an instant.
The combined Sunny Day from thousands of Pokémon covered an enormous area. The Verdanturf Town and all the surrounding villages instantly cleared up.
The golden sunlight poured down from the sky, dispersing the dark clouds in everyone's hearts—especially the farmers'.
"The sun's out!"
No one knew who shouted it first, but soon, people were pouring out into the streets of Verdanturf Town, every face beaming with joy.
In the orchards, the farmers working in their raincoats looked up happily.
Mayor Ishida who is busy with paperwork, heard the commotion and hurried to open the window—sunlight streamed in at once.
"I just knew Yuga would definitely have a way." Mayor Ishida said joyfully.
After the matter was resolved, Yuga returned home, but he had just arrived when he received a call from Wallace.
Ever since Steven handed over the Champion position to Wallace, Yuga had been in more frequent contact with Wallace. Most of the matters on the Hoenn League's side were now handled through Wallace when it came to contacting Yuga.
As for Steven, who knows where he wandered off to again after that auction.
After ending the call with Wallace, Yuga found out that it wasn't just Verdanturf Town that was experiencing abnormal weather; multiple regions across the Hoenn continent were witnessing climate anomalies.
Currently, the cause of this phenomenon had yet to be determined, but most members of the League suspected it was related to Kyogre. Other than Kyogre, they couldn't think of any other reason that could impact Hoenn's weather on such a large scale.
However, ever since the battle over the giant stone shards, Kyogre had disappeared. The League had been secretly investigating its whereabouts but had found nothing so far.
Groudon's situation was pretty much the same.
Of course, the theory that the abnormal weather was caused by Kyogre was only the League's speculation. As for the actual truth, the Hoenn League was still investigating.
The reason Wallace called Yuga was to ask if he had noticed anything. Unfortunately, Yuga knew nothing about it.
Not even two days after Yuga had cleared up the weather in Verdanturf Town, it returned to rainy and overcast conditions, leaving everyone quite helpless.
With no other choice, he took his Pokémon and headed once again to the Sunflora Ranch.
And so, Yuga made several trips in a row to the Sunflora Ranch. Thanks to his efforts, Verdanturf Town was barely able to maintain mostly sunny weather most of the time.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the fruit farmers in Verdanturf Town quickly harvest all the fruit they could, not daring to waste a moment. This was the only reason they were able to avoid major losses.
Now let's rewind time to more than half a month ago.
In the Kalos region, Hoopa was freed from its seal with the help of someone with ill intent.
Sealed inside the Prison Bottle was Hoopa's evil thoughts. It was extremely willful, and as soon as it was released, it mischievously used its summoning rings to control and summon Kyogre, and then Lugia, forcing the two Legendary Pokémon to fight each other.
Afterwards, it casually sent the two Legendary Pokémon back.
After being sealed for so many years, Hoopa's evil thoughts were just that bored.
However, it didn't send Lugia back to where it came from, but instead sent both it and Kyogre to Hoenn.
Thus, in a secret and deep part of the ocean in Hoenn, Kyogre and Lugia began to battle.
These two Legendary Pokémon had different allegiances and developed a grudge due to Hoopa, so naturally, their fight was fierce and unending. As a result, Kyogre's influence on the weather spread across the entire Hoenn continent.
That was the reason for the widespread abnormal weather in Hoenn.
At the same time, because Hoopa's evil thoughts had been released, the Prison Bottle was taken away by someone. The successor of the Arche Valley, Baraz, came to the site where Hoopa had been sealed, but found nothing and left deeply disappointed.
The one who released Hoopa was a stunningly beautiful woman. If Yuga had seen her, he would have recognized her instantly as Ariana, an executive of Team Rocket.
Previously, Ariana had infiltrated the prison where Lysandre was held, attempting to rescue him and recruit him into Team Rocket.
But Lysandre refused.
However, Ariana didn't walk away empty-handed. Not only did Lysandre tell her many secrets, he also handed over the remaining forces of Team Flare to Team Rocket.
As for how Ariana managed to persuade Lysandre, no one knew.
It was Lysandre who told Ariana the secret about Hoopa.
Lysandre came from a special background and knew many hidden legends and secrets of the Kalos region.
Above the desert, Ariana was confronting Hoopa's evil thoughts, with Shadow Lugia baring its fangs and claws at Hoopa's evil thoughts above her head.
Hoopa's evil thoughts were also staring at her furiously.
Naturally, Ariana did not released Hoopa's evil thoughts out of the goodness of her heart, and Hoopa's evil thoughts were not the type to let itself be controlled.
However, because Ariana had the Prison Bottle in her possession, Hoopa's evil thoughts felt somewhat apprehensive.
Though Hoopa could use summoning rings to control Legendary Pokémon, this only worked if the Legendary Pokémon were unprepared. Once a Legendary Pokémon became wary, the summoning would fail, let alone controlling them.
For instance, Lugia and Kyogre were both summoned while they were in deep sleep.
Now, Hoopa's evil thoughts had no way to deal with Shadow Lugia at all. In terms of brute strength, it wasn't even a match—after all, it wasn't complete.
After a fierce battle, Hoopa's evil thoughts indeed lost to Shadow Lugia and was pinned to the ground. It wanted to summon other Legendary Pokémon to help, but Shadow Lugia was already on guard and wouldn't let it succeed.
With no other options, Hoopa's evil thoughts had to pretend to surrender, though in its heart it was already planning how to take revenge and get even later.
Of course, Ariana could tell that Hoopa's evil thoughts were not sincere, but she didn't care. As long as it completed the tasks she gave, that was good enough for her.
