Mark clung to Lucario like an octopus, terrified it would launch into the air and fling him off at any second.

Just moments ago, while lost deep in the forest, Mark and Lucario had suddenly encountered the Totem Pokémon of the area.

A Tangrowth over ten meters tall!

Can you imagine what it feels like to be attacked by massive vines as thick as your thighs, coming at you from every direction?

Mark was mentally falling apart. He had thought that with Lucario's protection, this solo trip wouldn't be too difficult.

What he hadn't accounted for was: while Lucario could tell north from south… it couldn't read a map!

Sometimes the direction was right, but that didn't mean they'd reach their destination, some mountains and cliffs had to be bypassed.

And that detour had turned into a disaster. Unsurprisingly, they got lost. And stayed lost… for over a month.

Fortunately, Mark hadn't gone off with just one or two Pokémon. With the combined efforts of him and his full team of six, surviving wasn't too hard.

Maybe he was just too favored by Arceus.

…But this wasn't the first time Mark had been in such a predicament. He had even become quite skilled at hopping onto Lucario's back.

Finally, Lucario stopped, panting, and lightly smacked Mark on the head.

"Lucar!"

"A-Are we safe now?" Mark cautiously peeked his head out and scanned the area, only then slowly sliding off Lucario's back.

"Lucario… have you lost weight lately~? Your back felt way harder than a few days ago. It was killing me."

Lucario shot him a side glance, as if to say, 'You seriously don't know if I've lost weight? You're my Trainer!'

"Haha… I just have a feeling we're almost out of this forest. Today that feeling is super strong!"

Mark kept rambling, but Lucario was completely ignoring him.

Lucario calmly began pressing the buttons on the other Poké Balls and released the rest of the team.

Flashes of red light lit up the forest as Arbok and Togekiss and the others all appeared.

"Luca! Lucar-luca! Lucarcar..."

Mark kept chattering off to the side, while Lucario continued to calmly assign tasks to the team.

Togekiss flew high into the sky to look for nearby berries.

Reuniclus used its psychic powers to gather nearby stones and skillfully build a cooking hearth.

Phione pulled out a large canteen from the backpack, then condensed water molecules from the air and filled it to the brim.

Spiritomb darted back and forth through the woods, quickly collecting a large pile of dry twigs and stacked them neatly next to Reuniclus's newly built stove.

Finally, Arbok lazily slithered over, grabbed a small stick in its mouth, and used Fire Fang on it.

Poof!

The twig caught fire, and before the flame could scorch it, Arbok flung the burning stick straight into the stove.

Reuniclus immediately began adding firewood, and before long, a perfectly sized cooking flame had been kindled, just right for meal prep.

"Kiss!"

Up in the sky, Togekiss had already returned, talons holding a basket filled with all kinds of berries, clearly a good haul.

By then, Lucario had already put on an apron, set the table and chairs, and pulled out the last few raw ingredients left in the backpack.

Clang clang clang...

Clatter, hiss, crackle, splash, clink clank boom...

Half an hour later, each of the six Pokémon and one "human" had a simple yet satisfying meal in front of them: curry-berry bowls.

"I'm digging in~ -various cry versions-" ×7

Mark held his cheeks in delight, happily chewing the dinner Lucario had prepared for him. In this moment, things like being lost or going on an adventure had all vanished from his mind.

"So gooood!"

--- --- ---

Sato's university life continued. After going through a large number of references, he had finally found a few that might help Zweilous evolve.

[Mystery of Dodrio Evolution: Three Heads, Three Emotions, One Mind]

[Exeggcute's Simulated Form: A Multi-Consciousness Hypothesis?]

[Is Dugtrio Really Three Digletts? Unified Consciousness or Not?]

[Trio Evolution Theories: Magneton, Klinklang, Metagross]

[Weezing Has Three Heads Now? Why Exactly?]

Basically, if the Pokémon had multiple heads, Sato had pulled them all into his research and studied them thoroughly.

As expected from the prestigious Celadon University, there were already so many books just focused on multi-headed Pokémon alone!

After reading through them, Sato had indeed gained quite a few new ideas, ones that might be worth trying.

Of course, to ensure success, those books alone weren't enough. Sato followed up on them and tracked down the professors who authored those works for direct consultation.

---

"I'm not too familiar with Zweilous's case. But if you're willing, you can leave it here with us. Preserving both minds through evolution has great research value."

The professor who published the paper on Dodrio was staring at Zweilous with glowing eyes. The look was so intense that Sato couldn't bring himself to trust him at all.

---

"Sorry, I don't know much about Pokémon from Unova. As for Exeggcute, my research mainly focused on its simulated biological form. Also, Zweilous is too rare. Without enough samples, even if a breakthrough was made, it could still end up as an outlier. Besides, I have other ongoing projects..."

---

"Hahaha, so you're that Trainer everyone on campus has been talking about? You look pretty good, but what's with this scatterbrained thinking? Dugtrio clearly has just one consciousness. Evolving into three faces is more about scaring enemies than anything complex. Nothing high-level about that..."

---

"The concept of fusion evolution does exist, but so far, it's only been observed in Steel-types. They also all belong to the Mineral Egg Group, and technically aren't even biological Pokémon. For Pokémon capable of fusion evolution, the pre- and post-evolution body structure must be highly similar to allow fusion to occur at all..."

---

"Zweilous is the only known Pokémon with two completely separate minds in one body. Other multi-headed Pokémon are mostly mimics. From an evolutionary biology perspective, Zweilous was never intended to be the final form of its species.

The final evolution, Hydreigon, has only one mind, which proves that two minds sharing one body is inherently unstable..."

---

The more Sato listened to the professors and PhDs explain, the colder his heart grew.

And that last explanation, while directly answering the question of Zweilous's evolution, outright denied the possibility of preserving both minds.

"Zweee…"

"…Louuus."

Seeing Lefty and Righty's visibly dejected mood, Sato crouched down and gently stroked both their heads.

"Let's… take a trip to Unova."