Chapter 280: The Older the Duck, the More Stylish!

The video continued playing.

Ursaring raised its head and eagerly shuffled over to Asher, its long tongue hanging out as it let out an unusually docile growl.

Seeing this, Asher pulled a Pokéblock from his pocket and tossed it over.

"How have things been lately?"

Ursaring caught the Pokéblock, stuffed it into its mouth, chewed twice, then began making all sorts of sounds and gestures.

"Mm. Mm."

Asher nodded as he listened.

"I see. It started last week?"

"About how often does it happen?"

Dawn stared at her hubby having a perfectly fluent conversation with a wild Ursaring and felt like she had wandered into some kind of fantasy movie.

"Hubby... you can understand what it’s saying?"

"Barely."

After Ursaring finished its report, Asher tossed it another Pokéblock.

Ursaring clasped both paws behind its head, looking bashful after being praised.

Dawn watched the scene for a moment before poking Asher’s arm.

"Hubby... don’t tell me you know every Pokémon in this forest?"

"It’s not that exaggerated."

Asher counted on his fingers.

"I only know a few hundred or so."

"A FEW HUNDRED ISN’T A LOT?!"

"Compared to the number of people I know, it really isn’t."

Asher sounded completely justified.

Ursaring scratched the back of its head and let out a simple, good-natured growl before pointing deeper into the forest.

Asher pulled out yet another Pokéblock and tossed it over.

"All right, Big Bear. Lead the way."

Ursaring caught the Pokéblock and happily lumbered deeper into the forest on its thick legs.

Dawn followed behind Asher, one hand still gripping the corner of his clothes.

"Hubby, you still haven’t properly explained what’s wrong with this forest."

"Simply put, a Legendary Pokémon around here has been acting up lately."

Asher pushed aside a hanging vine.

"Its energy field has disturbed the ecological balance of the entire forest, forcing a lot of wild Pokémon to migrate outward."

The moment he finished speaking—

An urgent roar came from Ursaring ahead.

Asher grabbed Dawn and quickly pushed through the final stretch of bushes.

The view suddenly opened up before them.

This was the heart of the primeval forest and the source of the abnormal energy fluctuations.

A Darkrai hovered in midair with its eyes closed.

Dark-purple mist continuously poured from around its body, forming something that resembled a barrier it could no longer shut off.

The instant the mist touched the ground, the surrounding grass and plants began to wither.

Darkrai itself was trembling faintly beneath the strain of that power.

Dawn tightened her grip around the Poké Ball in her hand.

"It looks like it’s in so much pain..."

"Mm."

For once, Asher’s expression became noticeably more serious.

"Its energy is out of control."

"If we don’t stabilize it soon, the ecosystem of this entire forest will be completely destroyed."

"Then what do we do?!"

"Don’t worry."

Asher took a Poké Ball from his waist and casually tossed it once in his palm.

"Leave it to me."

He pressed the button.

Red light flashed.

A Quaquaval landed in the clearing.

Unlike an ordinary Quaquaval, most of this one’s plumage was pure black, with only small portions of red.

From a distance, it looked almost like flames burning through the darkness.

The first thing it did was raise its right wing—

And push up the custom-made Devon Corporation sunglasses resting on its face.

Then it began gliding across the ground with sharply rhythmic steps.

A flawless moonwalk.

Every movement landed perfectly on the beat.

"All right, enough showing off."

Asher pointed toward the Darkrai hovering in midair, still leaking black mist.

"Same as always—"

"Kick it."

[VIP Chat Group]

[Lacey]: Wow~ What’s going on with that black Quaquaval?! I searched through the entire Paldea Pokédex and I’ve never seen that color before!

[Professor Sycamore]: A Golden Gyarados, a pink Gardevoir, and now a dark-colored Quaquaval. Asher really does enjoy occasionally shattering our existing academic understanding.

[Steven]: Brother Asher already has Arceus under his thumb. What’s changing a Pokémon’s color compared to that? He can dye them however he wants.

[Marnie]: ...Cool.

[Gary]: So I think we’ve solved the mystery now. Hina’s Quaxwell is probably descended from this Quaquaval.

[Lorelei]: That makes sense. I was wondering how someone as socially anxious as Hina could possibly raise such an outgoing duck. Turns out the duck brought those genes with it.

[Raihan]: Following that logic—Could this black duck of Asher’s be the actual founder of the Quaxmen?

[Tiana]: Congratulations! You found the blind spot! (￣ω￣)

[Leon]: Hahaha! So once Hina’s Quaxwell evolves into Quaquaval, does it officially inherit leadership of the Quaxmen?

[Tiana]: That’s right~ There’ll even be an official Quaxmen succession ceremony. It’s super grand! (￣ω￣)

[Steven]: Niece Tiana, you know about that too?

[Tiana]: Of course I do! I’m from the future. The Quaxmen becomes huge later on. Its members spread all across the world!

[Raihan]: ...Are they planning to form an All-Duck Alliance or something?

[Sidney]: An All-Duck Alliance... Now I kind of want to see what it’d look like if a whole group of them entered a Pokémon Contest.

[Lorelei]: Probably nothing but sunglasses. They all seem to treat those things like part of their bodies.

The scene changed again.

Lake Acuity.

Hina crouched on a moss-covered rock beside the lake, holding her communicator in one hand.

The Connecting... icon on the screen spun around and around.

Shaymin lay across Hina’s lap and gently poked the screen.

"Hina, still nothing?"

"No."

Hina shook her head.

"Dad might be busy."

"I’ll wait a little longer."

Hina had already been at Lake Acuity for three days.

After investigating the area over the past few days, she was certain that something was beneath the lake.

And there was a very high chance it was Uxie.

"Ducky, I’ve decided to go down and take a look first."

Hina put the communicator back into her backpack, stood up, and brushed the dust from her skirt.

Quaxwell pushed up its sunglasses with one wing.

"Quax, quax?" (You’re not going to keep waiting?)

"Dad might be busy."

Hina showed the faint blue mark on the back of her hand.

"We can’t keep waiting forever."

"Azelf said that some kind of force is interfering with the connection between it and the other two."

"The longer we wait, the worse things might become."

Shaymin nodded firmly.

"Shaymin supports Hina!"

"Besides, we have Azelf’s mark. If anything dangerous happens, we can call Azelf for help whenever we want!"

"Mm."

Hina gently stroked Shaymin’s head.

"And Shaymin is here too."

"So we should be okay."