Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

This entire cave system is connected to three exits. Cynthia and Hong Meiling entered through one of them, and now, Heatran intends to escape through another.

Meiling could sense that it was trying to escape, but how could she just let it go so easily?

She hurriedly formed an orb of qi delicately in her hands as it hovered over her palm. She typically launches this as a long-ranged bomb, but this time, she leapt towards the now-retreating Heatran and pressed the orb straight on its hip.

The orb exploded immediately in a dazzling iridescent explosion, and both Meiling and Heatran were blasted away from the violence impact as smoke flooded the cave.

As the smoke cleared, the vague figure of Heatran could be seen crawling weakly against the ground. It seemed that Meiling managed to damage it to the point of incapacitation.

“Cynthia, the Poké Ball! Now!” Meiling yelled.

Despite the pressing opportunity to capture a Legendary Pokémon, Cynthia’s brain could feel itself shutting down.

That little tornado thing she did… a-and she teleported! A-and the rainbows coming out from her b-b-b-b-body? And that glowing orb thing in her h-h-hand? Wh-what’s happening?! She defeated Heatran with her own hands! Even my two Pokémon were losing in a two-on-one battle!

Is this woman a descendant of Dialga? Palkia? Giratina? Hell, Arceus?! But aren’t those Pokémon genderless? How do they reproduce with humans?!

Cynthia could feel her world spinning, until Meiling’s continuous shouts at her snapped her out of her daze.

However, instead of limply throwing the Poké Ball towards the subdued Heatran, she subconsciously launched it towards Meiling.

The skill of throwing a Poké Ball is a must-have for all Pokémon Trainers. Plus, many Trainers have signed up for training to train the art of throwing Poké Balls specifically – this is because there are many situations that require long-distance throwing of a Poké Ball to safely capture a Pokémon.

Cynthia is no exception. The Poké Ball arced across the air and plopped straight on top of Meiling’s head.

Bonk!

…Forget it. We’re in a relay race now.

Just as Meiling was about to use Cynthia’s Poké Ball to catch Heatran, two other Poké Balls could be seen thrown towards them.

Those two stalkers! I almost forgot about them! How dare they! Meiling cursed inwardly.

The two, although wide-eyed and dumbfounded by Meiling’s performance, were likewise brought back to reality from Meiling’s shouts, and they hurriedly threw their own Poké Balls.

Bonk!

However, what pissed Meiling off was that only one of the two Poké Balls was actually thrown towards Heatran, while the other landed straight on top of her forehead!

What the-?! Do I look like a Pokémon to you?! I’m a human!

Correction! Not human! A youkai! But even then, that’s no excuse for you to throw that damned ball towards me!

Meiling swirled qi gracefully in her hand, swatting away the Poké Ball that was thrown towards Heatran like a baseball. At the same time, she activated Cynthia’s Poké Ball and threw it backwards towards Heatran.

Picking up the Poké Ball that left an indent on her forehead, she tossed it upwards into the air, and imbued with dazzling, rainbow-like qi, she kicked the Poké Ball straight back to its owner.

The ball was likewise imbued with iridescent energy as it hit the thrower hard in the abdomen.

“Ow!”

The young man keeled over immediately and could no longer get back up.

“How dare you two have the gall to try this,” Meiling’s voice boomed across the cave. “Consider yourself lucky I didn’t kick the ball straight back into your face.”

Behind her, the Poké Ball rolled towards Heatran and touched its limb. A dazzling light was emitted, and Heatran was captured!

The Poké Ball seemingly squirmed a little before settling down.

Bending down, Meiling picked up the Poké Ball and walked back towards Cynthia with a smile, “Is this your Heatran?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Cynthia blurted out, her face turning as red as a tomato as she bowed nearly ninety degrees towards the ground. “I didn’t mean to throw the Poké Ball towards you.”

“Bah! It’s okay – your hand slipped, I saw!” Meiling beamed as she plopped the Poké Ball into Cynthia’s open hands.

Cynthia hesitated slightly as she stared at the still-warm Poké Ball in her hands. She shook her head and pushed the Poké Ball into Meiling’s grasp, “No. This is your Heatran.”

Meiling was visibly shocked when she said this, Look, kid, this is Heatran, the Legendary Pokémon… not some lame Magikarp or whatever…

“I-I insist!” Cynthia pushed, seeing Meiling hesitate. “I can’t take this. You did all the work.”

Meiling singlehandedly subdued Heatran. Cynthia realized that, even if she sent out all her Pokémon, it would be an uphill battle regardless. At best, she would be able to defeat Heatran, but she wouldn’t be able to capture it from running away.

Although the point of Cynthia’s journey was to capture Heatran, her pride as a Trainer deduced that Meiling is the rightful owner of Heatran.

“You did the work, you get the Pokémon,” Cynthia reminded.

Meiling looked down, fiddling with the Poké Ball in her hand. She knew that Heatran would be a waste in her hands, and would be better off with Cynthia instead.

Plus, she could only stay in this world for about ten days, and she fears that she might not be able to take the Pokémon she captured back to Gensokyo. Although there is a possibility that she might return to the world of Pokémon, it isn’t exactly concrete. Meiling’s original plan was to capture a few Pokémon, drop them off at a Pokémon Nursery the day before she leaves, and come back to collect them when she’s bestowed the chance to return to this world again.

But it’s both expensive and pitiful for her to look after a Heatran. She still thinks it’s better to give it to Cynthia and allow it to shine to its fullest capabilities under Cynthia’s hands.

“Miss Meiling, I’ll say it again – I’m not accepting it,” Cynthia firmly stared.

“Guess my first Pokémon is a Heatran,” Meiling joked. After all, she knew Cynthia is stubborn. It’d be shameful to force her to accept the Poké Ball.

Cynthia returned a smile.

“Cynthia, where are you planning to go now?” Meiling inquired.

She took a moment to think, and replied, “I plan to take a boat south towards Sunyshore City and challenge the Gym Leader to earn my fourth badge.”

The Sunyshore City Gym? Meiling recalled. In the original game, the leader of the Sunyshore Gym is Volkner, and he is the strongest gym leader in Sinnoh… but Cynthia is young, so he must also be young. Maybe the Gym Leader is somebody else.

Of course, there is a possibility for Volkner to still be Sunyshore’s Gym Leader. After all, Gym Leaders rank much lower than Champions, which means that there should be no surprise if there is a teenage Gym Leader. With how strong Volkner is, he could become their Gym Leader by now.

“Cool! If possible, can I come with you?” Meiling asked.

“Of course,” Cynthia smiled.

Previously, Cynthia let Meiling follow her because she was worried about her safety, but now, she has an epiphany that no Pokémon in the entirety of Stark Mountain is a match for Miss Hong Meiling.

Plus, she is very interested in this enigmatic girl-in-green. She believes that Meiling is the descendant of a human and a Pokémon, so she let Meiling tag alone so she could have more opportunities to observe her.

The two Trainers who were here to steal the Heatran were long gone, and the two girls walked out of the cave one after another.

Along the way, other Trainers were scurrying into the cave, unaware that Meiling had already captured the Legendary Pokémon.

Unfortunately, their endeavors were doomed to be fruitless.

“How will we get there?” Meiling asked. Although Cynthia said they would be taking a boat, she didn’t know the way there.

She could still roughly recall the layout of Sinnoh, but after the battle with Heatran, she simply accepted that the real Pokémon world differs from the world contained within the game, and guessed that Sinnoh’s layout would be much more complicated.

“Let’s go back to town to rest for the night,” Cynthia said as she started acting out their plan tomorrow. “We can relax until tomorrow morning, and take a bus towards the port, and from there, the boat will take us to Sunyshore.”

The town was located at the foot of Stark Mountain, and there is a Pokémon Center too. The Trainers who travel to Stark Mountain largely come here to rest alongside their Pokémon.

It’s a long walk back down the mountain path, and by the time they would enter town, it would probably be evening.
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