CHAPTER 1502: THE GUARDIANS DEEP WITHIN THE FOREST

After learning of Alex’s death, Professor Pedro felt extremely conflicted. Among all his students, Alex was the one he shared the deepest bond with—so it was only natural that he felt deeply hurt when Alex betrayed him.

Other than the hardships Professor Pedro suffered when Alex forcibly brought him to Team Rocket, Alex had always treated him with the utmost respect.

Even though his multiple attempts to persuade Professor Pedro to join Team Rocket had failed, Alex still ensured that Professor Pedro had good food and proper accommodations and never allowed anyone to treat him disrespectfully.

During their arguments, it was usually Professor Pedro doing all the scolding, while Alex simply took it.

If Alex had never encountered Giovanni, then without a doubt, he would have been Professor Pedro’s most outstanding and most cherished student.

What a pity...

In the end, Alex’s body was entrusted to Professor Pedro. The dead are gone like extinguished lamps. Professor Pedro decided he would personally take him home. Let the past be buried with him.

Alex was an orphan. It was only with Professor Pedro’s financial support that he had been able to complete his studies and achieve what he did. Now that he was dead, besides Professor Pedro, there was no one else to take care of his final matters.

From here, the League’s work became much simpler. Thanks to Yuga’s meticulous planning, the League had managed to capture every single Team Rocket member lurking in Camphrier Town. With the whole net gathered up, the follow-up was naturally much easier to handle.

And in accordance with the promise he had made with Azao, Yuga decided to offer Itō a chance at leniency, so he decided to meet with him.

Itō was currently being held in Camphrier Town’s prison. When Yuga arrived, Azao was also there. He wanted to see his father, but Itō refused to meet him.

As Yuga passed by, he patted Azao on the shoulder and said, "Don’t worry, I will keep my end of the promise." As for whether Itō would seize the opportunity—that was up to him.

"Thank you..." Azao said gratefully.

Yuga soon saw Itō, but Itō did not recognize him. He looked at Yuga in confusion and asked, "I’ve already confessed everything I know. What more do you want from me?"

"Mayor Itō, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Shimizu Yuga," Yuga said with a smile, "and I’m also the one mainly responsible for working with your son to arrest you."

When he heard this, Itō’s eyes widened in disbelief. The expression on his previously calm face instantly turned cold. He was about to speak, but Yuga interrupted him.

"I know you hate Azao right now."

Itō furiously opened his mouth, but Yuga raised a hand to stop him.

"Let me finish. In fact, you should be grateful to him. Even if it wasn’t for him, we already had enough evidence to arrest you. The only difference is, with Azao’s help, we were able to completely wipe out the entire Team Rocket operation in Verdanturf Town. As for you, you were just a bonus catch."

Hearing Yuga’s words, Itō’s anger turned to shock.

Yuga continued, "Azao has managed to secure a chance for you. If you’re willing to share everything you know about Team Rocket, I can petition the League on your behalf and help you get your sentence reduced by half.

As for what you said earlier about ’having confessed everything,’ don’t try to fool us with that. I know there’s still a lot you haven’t said."

After hearing Yuga’s words, Itō fell silent. Of course, he hadn’t confessed everything.

With the crimes he had committed, life imprisonment was inevitable. Even if he did confess everything he knew, it wouldn’t necessarily reduce his sentence—and he might even risk retaliation from Team Rocket.

He was about to go to prison. Team Rocket couldn’t do anything to him now—but what if they went after Azao?

Even though he resented Azao for getting him arrested, that was still his only child. If something happened to Azao, it wouldn’t benefit him in any way, and of course, he didn’t want anything to happen to him.

But now things were different. If giving a full confession could reduce his sentence this much, then of course he would confess.

As for Azao’s safety... of course, reducing his own sentence was more important.

It had to be said—Itō was frighteningly rational.

Itō and Alex were completely different.

Alex had joined Team Rocket because he admired Giovanni, treating Team Rocket and Giovanni like a kind of faith, so naturally, he was incredibly loyal.

But Itō had originally been a member of Team Flare. Although he later joined Team Rocket under orders from higher up, he never had a strong sense of belonging to Team Rocket.

It was just a pity that Team Flare was now gone, and its leader Lysandre was imprisoned by the League—no one even knew where he was being held.

Now that he could trade Team Rocket’s information for benefits, of course Itō would put his own interests first.

"Is it really possible?" Itō asked uncertainly.

"Of course. I have no reason to lie to you," Yuga replied.

The reason he was so determined to dig up the information Itō had was because he hoped to find the whereabouts of Amina, who had been taken.

Although he didn’t yet know why Giovanni had taken Amina away alone, his instincts told him that this matter wasn’t simple—Giovanni must be brewing a massive conspiracy.

Yuga had reported his suspicions to the League. It was only because he had received the League’s approval that he could make such a bold promise and secure this rare opportunity for Itō.

"Fine, I’ll tell you everything," said Itō.

By the time Yuga came out of the prison, it was already evening, and Azao was still waiting at the prison gate.

"Your father said he wants to see you," Yuga said as he walked over.

"Really?"

Azao’s face lit up with joy. Without waiting for Yuga to answer, he ran inside. The guards had already been informed in advance, so they didn’t stop him.

Back in his room at the Pokémon Center, Yuga lay on the bed, thinking about everything Itō had confessed.

It turned out that Itō knew far more than Yuga had expected. Only now did Yuga realize that Team Rocket had inherited such an enormous amount of influence from Team Flare—no wonder they had been acting more and more brazenly over the past two years.

After pondering for a while, Yuga suddenly sat up, pulled out his computer, and decided to write a report for both the Kalos League and the Hoenn League, reporting all the intelligence he had obtained from Itō.

It turned out that without the League even noticing, Team Rocket had already silently infiltrated the Kalos region.

Team Flare’s Lysandre had once been one of the wealthiest tycoons in the Kalos region, possessing immense wealth and influence. After Team Flare was wiped out, although a large portion of this power was dismantled by the League, a considerable part had gone into hiding.

Later, that hidden portion was taken over by Giovanni. With his exceptional abilities, this segment of Team Flare’s influence was once again expanded, and it was now quietly eroding the Kalos region’s economy.

The Kalos region was the most economically developed area in the Pokémon world. If the influence controlled by Team Rocket was allowed to continue expanding, it would eventually cause major problems not just for Kalos, but for the entire League.

Itō couldn’t possibly know all of Team Rocket’s deployments in Kalos, but as for the part that originally belonged to Team Flare—even if he didn’t know every detail, he could still reveal fifty or sixty percent of it.

If the League followed that lead to investigate further, even if they couldn’t completely eliminate Team Rocket’s forces in Kalos, they could certainly wipe out seventy or eighty percent of them.

The information Itō confessed was extremely useful to the League, but unfortunately, he didn’t know much about anything related to Amina. All he knew was that Amina had been taken by Giovanni to the Johto region.

That night, Yuga stayed up all night to finish the report and sent it out. Early the next morning, he decided to leave Camphrier Town.

The remaining affairs in Camphrier Town would be handled properly by the investigators from the Investigation Bureau and the Supervision Bureau. Yuga’s next task was to escort Celebi, the Forest God of Sinnoh, back home.

Accompanying him was also Professor Pedro. Professor Pedro was originally from Sinnoh, so Yuga could conveniently escort him home as well. There was no safer place to be than by Yuga’s side.

When Yuga came to say goodbye to Nurse Joy that morning, he found that Azao was also there. It turned out he had also come to bid farewell to Nurse Joy.

Although Yuga had fought for a chance to reduce Itō’s sentence, Itō still had to be taken to the Kalos League headquarters to stand trial. Azao had decided to accompany him.

But Azao would definitely return eventually. He had no intention of giving up the black market he had worked so hard to manage. Although without his father’s protection, his circumstances would become more difficult in the future, Azao was still determined to keep running the black market.

After saying farewell to Nurse Joy and Azao, Yuga boarded the aircraft to Sinnoh along with Celebi and Professor Pedro.

Thanks to Professor Pedro’s status as a major figure, the League had specially arranged a small aircraft just for Yuga and his group, to transport them directly to Sinnoh.

Throughout the journey, Professor Pedro held onto Alex’s urn of ashes. He appeared extremely downcast, his energy low. It was clear that Alex’s death had dealt him a heavy blow.

To help the Professor temporarily forget his sorrow, Yuga took the initiative to talk with him. As expected, the doctor was a very knowledgeable man. No matter what Yuga brought up, the doctor could explain it clearly and in great detail, even having his own insights when it came to Pokémon training.

Yuga and Professor Pedro had different professions, so although Yuga couldn’t say the conversation benefited him immensely, it definitely broadened his horizons.

Naturally, the two of them eventually talked about Amina.

Amina was still missing, and Professor Pedro was very worried about her.

He was a very kind old man. When Amina had been imprisoned, they had gotten along quite well. After they were both captured by Team Rocket, Amina, out of gratitude for how Professor Pedro had taken care of her before, looked after the elderly doctor with even greater care. So it was only natural that Professor Pedro would be very concerned about Amina’s situation.

In reality, Amina’s life was not in danger. On the contrary, she was living quite comfortably within Team Rocket.

After Giovanni brought her back to Johto, she had been sent to a specialized laboratory—one that Giovanni had organized specifically for her.

Many strange experiments were conducted on her in Team Rocket’s lab, but these experiments were not harmful to Amina. As the most precious test subject in the lab, Amina was treated extremely well. Apart from not being allowed to leave the lab, Giovanni basically granted her every request.

Giovanni did not have a hobby of mistreating prisoners. On the contrary, he always treated talented people very generously.

In private, Giovanni often came to visit Amina. Gradually, Amina came to understand Giovanni’s plans and the reason why he had brought her into Team Rocket.

Just like Alex, Amina decided to join Team Rocket and actively cooperated with their experiments.

On the other side, Yuga and Professor Pedro had now arrived in Sinnoh. The aircraft landed in Eterna City, and the person who had come to receive them was Elite Four member Gardenia.

It had been a long time since Yuga and Gardenia had seen each other. After exchanging greetings with Professor Pedro, she immediately gave Yuga a big bear hug.

"Good brother, I missed you so much! Let me take you out for a drink!"

Yuga pushed him away and said, "You better settle the professor first. If anything goes wrong, you won’t be able to take responsibility for it."

The main reason Gardenia had come this time was to receive Professor Pedro, while Yuga had to send Celebi to another location, so he wouldn’t be staying long in Eterna City.

"Then go get settled first. Once I’ve taken care of the doctor, I’ll come find you."

As he said this, Gardenia called over a subordinate to take Yuga to a hotel to rest, while he hurriedly left with Professor Pedro.

Even by the next day, Gardenia still hadn’t come to invite Yuga for a drink. He only made a phone call to say that something had come up at the last minute. Yuga didn’t mind—it was understandable that Professor Pedro’s matter took priority. Besides, he was about to leave Eterna City anyway.

After breakfast, a vehicle stopped in front of the hotel where Yuga was temporarily staying, and a young forest ranger stepped down from it.

"Mr. Shimizu, my name is Akai. I’m the forest ranger responsible for guiding you on this journey," the visitor introduced himself.

Yuga, holding Celebi in his arms, smiled and said, "Thank you. Let’s get going."

"Of course. Please get in the car." Akai respectfully opened the car door for Yuga.

The car drove away from Eterna City and gradually entered the wilderness. After passing through grasslands, mountains, and forests, they entered an endless expanse of dense forest.

Sinnoh had already entered the autumn season by this time, yet the forest remained vibrant and full of life. There was hardly a single withered leaf on the trees.

Once they entered the forest, Celebi’s mood noticeably became more lively. It was clear that this was the place where the Forest God of Sinnoh resided.

The car continued deeper into the forest, and along the way, Starly, Staravia, Staraptor, and other Pokémon flew over the car roof, secretly observing Yuga and his companions. When they saw Celebi inside the vehicle, they all became incredibly excited.

These Pokémon all recognized Celebi. Celebi had long resided here, and after having been missing for so long this time, the Pokémon in the forest had naturally been worried sick.

No one knew how long had passed, but eventually the vehicle stopped outside a village deep within the forest.

Upon hearing the sound of the car, dozens of villagers, young and old, rushed out from the village.

When Akai got out of the car, an elderly man with a cane tremblingly stepped forward from the crowd and anxiously asked, "Akai, has the Forest God returned?"

Akai nodded and said, "Yes, it has returned. It’s in the car."

Upon hearing those words, everyone immediately burst into cheers.

At this moment, Yuga stepped out of the car holding Celebi, and everyone’s eyes instantly turned toward him. Before long, they had surrounded Yuga so tightly that not even a breeze could pass through.

Yuga had already learned from Akai that this group of people were the guardians of the forest, and also protectors of the Forest God, Celebi. Akai himself had been born in this village.

The entire village had no more than twenty to thirty households, but it had carried on the tradition for generations without interruption.