Pokemon: Spiritual Master

Re-Red?

When Johan saw who walked out from that passage, he was clearly frozen in place.

Honestly—

He had speculated about what might appear in the passage. Giovanni? Maxie? Archie? Or someone else?

Johan had even guessed that some legendary Pokémon might appear first, like Armored Mewtwo, Groudon, Kyogre, and such.

Even if a hostile "Ultra Necrozma" suddenly appeared, Johan would have accepted it.

But he absolutely never expected that the person walking out from that passage would be Red!

How did Red "crash" into this?

However, Johan wasn't the only one who recognized Red.

Lance beside them also clearly paused before tentatively calling out:

"Red?"

Hearing someone call his name, Red looked up questioningly, his eyes suddenly brightening.

"Mr. Lance?"

Hm?

Besides Johan, everyone looked puzzledly at Lance.

But actually, after getting a response, Lance wasn't enlightened—he became even more confused.

He did know Red—a trainer valued by Professor Oak, the rival of Professor Oak's grandson Blue.

He had recently won the championship at the "Silver Conference" and was one of the representatives of the younger generation in the Kanto and Johto regions.

But in his memory, that Red was clearly just an eleven or twelve-year-old kid, while this one—

He had to be at least in his twenties, right?

So Steven, Cynthia, and others didn't recognize him immediately. Only Lance, as a Kanto Elite Four and Johto Champion, saw Red's shadow in this twenty-something young man and tentatively called out.

But actually, Red on the opposite side was even more confused.

Upon walking out of the passage and seeing so many legendary Pokémon, honestly he was quite startled.

This formation... could steamroll the entire Pokémon world, right?

Hearing Lance's call, Red recognized Lance, but—

"Mr. Lance, how did you become so young?" Red asked somewhat awkwardly.

Young?

Lance was stunned again.

He wanted to ask how Red had grown so big.

At this moment—

Johan finally spoke: "So... Red, you're from another world?"

Another world?

Everyone was stunned.

But speaking of it, wasn't Ultra Space another world anyway?

Red seemed to understand something from Johan's words. He looked around in surprise: "This place... isn't the Pokémon world?"

Hearing this question, Johan was basically certain of his guess.

That guy Colress didn't summon Boss Giovanni, didn't bring Rainbow Rocket Team, but instead summoned Red from another world?

"This is the Pokémon world." Cynthia said, also seeming to understand something.

"You're... Miss Cynthia?" Red, looking at Cynthia, also recognized her—a "younger" Cynthia.

Then he recognized others too.

"Mr. Steven, Miss Diantha, Mr. Flint, Miss Caitlin... and you are—"

When looking at Johan, Red paused, clearly unable to recognize him.

Before Johan could speak, Flint beside them put his arm around Johan's neck and introduced:

"You don't recognize Teacher Johan? This is Teacher Johan—Tactical Master, Mind Master, Fighting Master... the 'Rule Changer' who just won the Master Tournament championship."

Hearing that string of titles from Flint, Red looked confused, but his eyes clearly brightened when he heard "Master Tournament champion."

He clearly understood the value of "Master Tournament champion."

That eager look made Johan's heart skip a beat.

Flint, can't you shut up?

Johan hurriedly interrupted: "Let me confirm something."

"You're Red."

Red nodded.

Johan continued: "The Lance you know should be someone who... once led the Elite Four wanting to destroy the world, or rather destroy all humanity..."

"Destroy the world and humanity, me?" Lance pointed at himself with complete bewilderment, his expression saying "you're joking."

But Red nodded quickly: "Yes!"

Lance: "?"

"Later he reformed, right?"

Lance never imagined the phrase "reformed" could apply to him.

But Red said again: "That's right."

Johan spread his hands: "Alright, verification complete. He's indeed Red from another world—adult Red."

Through those few questions, everyone naturally reached the same conclusion.

Flint's expression became serious as he gripped a Poké Ball: "So this guy is this time's enemy? The reason you prepared so much, Teacher Johan?"

Red swallowed hard.

How didn't he know he had such a big reputation?

So many legendary Pokémon were all here to deal with him?

At this moment, Red deeply missed Blue, Yellow, Crystal, even that dummy Gold and that guy Silver.

If they were all here, facing such a formation—

It would still be a bit overwhelming.

Johan glared at Flint irritably and waved at the legendary Pokémon waiting to fly out of Hoopa's golden rings.

Disperse!

Forget it.

"I'll treat everyone to a meal..."

Easy to summon gods, hard to send them away. Having finally called these guys over only to send them back without doing anything?

Next time might not be so easy to summon.

Just—

Thinking about each of these big eaters' appetites, Johan felt like his wallet had suffered some kind of blow.

"Roar~~"

Giratina called out happily and flew out from the "Distortion World."

The other legendary Pokémon weren't as obvious as Giratina, maintaining some "restraint" and legendary dignity.

"Mewtwo..."

Johan smiled awkwardly at Mewtwo beside him.

Mewtwo, who had just taken off its apron thinking there would finally be a big battle, clenched its fists and glanced coldly at Johan before snorting irritably.

"Mewtwo..." Red only now noticed Mewtwo beside Johan.

Seeing Mewtwo's cold expression, he even felt like super powerful psychic power was about to explode, but soon saw something that dropped his jaw.

Under Johan's awkward smile and Mewtwo's irritated gaze, Mewtwo magically produced a Gengar apron.

"A-apron?"

Red really couldn't reconcile this Mewtwo with the one in his memory.

"Gengar, take good care of everyone."

"Ka-kaah! ∠(°ゝ°)"

Gengar floated out from the shadows and saluted.

Mission will be completed!

Seeing Johan like this, everyone understood—

False alarm?

This wasn't the opponent Teacher Johan was waiting for?

"Have you eaten?" Johan looked at Red and asked with a smile.

"Um, no, I haven't." Red scratched his head embarrassedly.

"Pika..." Pikachu was even holding its belly making "gurgling" sounds.

Everyone smiled knowingly.

"Then let's eat together." Johan extended an invitation.

"I really am a good person..."

At the picnic table, Lance emphasized for the third time that he was a good person, because he felt people's looks at him were getting wrong.

"So Red, you really come from another world?" Cynthia asked confirmingly.

Red, stuffing his mouth full of food, looked at Johan then nodded seriously.

Because in his world, he didn't know any Teacher Johan at all.

Yet in this world, Teacher Johan was actually the Master Tournament champion!

Plus Lance and others becoming so "young"—it could only mean he had indeed come to a Pokémon world he didn't know.

Gulp—

After finally swallowing the food in his mouth, Red said:

"This is delicious! This is the best food I've ever eaten in my life!"

For training, he had been living deep in Silver Mountain. Forget gourmet food—even normal food was scarce.

He continued: "I was training with my partners deep in Silver Mountain when I heard sounds. I went to investigate and found they came from a cave. I walked in... and somehow ended up in Ultra Space—yes, they said it was called Ultra Space."

Johan interjected: "Did you meet Colress?"

He pulled out his phone and showed Colress's photo.

"Yes!" Red put down his spoon. "That's him!"

"But when this guy saw me, he kept saying things like... this shouldn't be right, something about evil thoughts."

Johan couldn't help but laugh.

He roughly understood the reason.

Colress had used Necrozma's power to open space-time tunnels. That's exactly how Faba had summoned Colress before.

But Colress never expected that fellow researcher Faba was so unreliable.

Previously he could summon Colress because Necrozma was filled with intense negative emotions then. But now Necrozma had fully recovered, so when Colress borrowed Necrozma's power again—

What he summoned was naturally the justice-filled Red!

Seeing everyone's gazes, Johan coughed: "Ahem, well, this world definitely isn't the Pokémon world you know. If you want to go back, you'll probably still need this person."

He pointed at Colress on the screen.

Red had actually figured this out too.

"I was thinking the same thing."

He looked back toward the Altar of the Sunne: "But how do I get back to... Ultra Space?"

"That's simple—we can help you." Johan waved dismissively.

With Solgaleo here, going to Ultra Space couldn't be simpler.

The trouble was finding Colress in Ultra Space.

Colress had probably realized his summoning method was flawed. If they didn't find him quickly, with Colress's abilities, he might really manage to create "Rainbow Rocket Team."

"Thank you." Red said seriously: "Thank you, Teacher Johan."

"So what about Colress?" Steven asked the key question.

Red scratched his head and smiled sheepishly: "I thought he wanted to battle me, so... Pikachu was a bit too serious."

"Pika!"

Pikachu on the table, trying to lift Tinkaton's hammer, heard this and put its hands on its hips, nodding repeatedly.

"By all accounts, he won't wake up for three days." Red added.

Johan: "..."

How brave was Colress to battle Red, and it looked like he treated it as no-rules combat, getting directly shocked unconscious by Red and his Pikachu.

Amazing.

According to Red, after Colress was shocked unconscious, a group calling themselves the Ultra Investigation Team controlled Colress.

Apparently he would be imprisoned in Ultra Megalopolis's prison.

Then they wouldn't need to search the whole world for him.

Afterward, everyone's atmosphere became relaxed.

Since they were all top trainers, their conversation gradually shifted to Pokémon training and battling.

"Hey!"

Flint stood up excitedly.

Johan immediately thought: Oh no!

"Red, want to have a battle?"

Hm?

Hearing this, Red and Lance's eyes immediately brightened.

A clash between trainers across space-time?

From their earlier conversation, everyone had more or less realized that Red's world differed somewhat from Johan's world in Pokémon training and battling.

These differences were exactly what both sides could learn from.

"A battle?"

The eager Red hesitated briefly—not battling would be disrespectful to the title "Fighter."

Red stood up, adjusting his cap.

"Alright!"

Honestly—

When several trainers met together, besides battling, what else could happen?

Johan lightly held his forehead.

Things were indeed developing toward battling...

Flint VS Red!

Poni Canyon was originally a wasteland with few wild Pokémon and rarely visited by people. The vast open space was the perfect battle arena, and it was a fairly neutral rocky terrain.

For Flint, who was passionate about battling, he was fired up, then—

There was no "then."

Flint suffered a "crushing defeat" to Red.

The reason for "crushing defeat" was that Flint's specialty "going berserk" happened to hit Red's strong point.

Although Red didn't need to go berserk against Flint—

Flint's berserk emotions, that passion and attitude, undoubtedly ignited Red.

So amid almost eardrum-piercing shouts, the battle ended.

"So strong!"

The defeated Flint said sincerely.

He felt like... facing a "hot-blooded version" of Teacher Johan.

"In your world, Red, you're at least one of the 'Eight Masters,' right?" Flint asked.

After the passion subsided and they gradually became familiar, Red had overcome his initial shock at seeing a group of legendary Pokémon and smiled:

"Well... I won a world championship."

Flint: "..."

"Well"?

Why did that tone sound more and more like Teacher Johan's?

But speaking of world champion, everyone involuntarily looked at Johan, who was trying to shake hands with Pikachu.

World champion and world champion...

"Pika?" Red's Pikachu looked at Johan crouching before it with a gentle smile wanting to touch its head. The seemingly well-behaved Pikachu's eyes flashed with mischief.

Red almost immediately realized what his Pikachu was planning.

He hurriedly called out:

"Pika, don't—"

Back when he was trying to catch Pikachu, he'd been shocked plenty.

His Pikachu had always disliked being touched by others.

Plus with Pikachu's current strength—

One shock was no joke. Colress would sleep for at least three days.

But before he could finish speaking, he saw a scene that bewildered him.

"Pi-Pika~(❀3)"

Pikachu directly lay down on the ground as Johan happily scratched its chin.

"Pika?" Red murmured.

This was the first time he'd seen his Pikachu act so docile in front of anyone besides Yellow.

No, it couldn't even be called "docile"—it could be described as "affectionate."

"Pika~chu~~" Pikachu looked blissful.

"Good boy." Johan rubbed with both hands.

Had to say—

The electric mouse felt quite nice, making his use of aura worthwhile.

Red watched this scene, not knowing what to say for a moment.

After a brief rest—

"Come on, Red!" Lance's cape fluttered.

For Lance, who knew this world's Red and thought highly of him, battling this "adult version" Red from another world felt somewhat strange.

But for Red, wasn't it the same?

"Mr. Lance, how about we use no-rules mode?" Red said somewhat eagerly.

In his original world, Lance was a master of no-rules combat. He wondered if this world's Mr. Lance was skilled at it.

"No-rules?" Lance was stunned.

"There are actually still rules—basically no limit on move count, can directly attack trainers, and no limit on Pokémon switching. It ends when one side's Pokémon all lose battle ability or the trainer faints or surrenders."

"I understand."

Lance waved dismissively. He was just surprised by Red's choice, not that he didn't understand wild battling.

In fact, as an investigator, Lance was definitely an expert at wild battling—arguably among the top few present.

"Then let's use wild battle rules." Lance said.

"Great!" Red grinned.

Johan beside them couldn't help but sigh.

Lance was still too "young."

But Johan had a second thought.

Under wild battle rules—

He turned to look at that group still depleting his "wallet," feasting heartily.

Under wild battle conditions, his side seemed a bit invincible.

Who's in favor, who's against?