Pokémon: My Titles Know No Limits! [391]

Faba was getting desperate.

The only reason he’d sided with Team Rocket in the first place was that he saw no future for himself within the Aether Foundation. He wanted to use Team Rocket’s power to summon Ultra Beasts and realize his own ambitions.

But things had turned out nothing like he’d expected.

Before Team Rocket showed up, he’d been the branch chief of the Aether Foundation—second in rank only to President Lusamine herself.

Then, after Team Rocket arrived, he stabbed the Foundation in the back. Instead of seizing greater power, he’d been thrown out, left scrambling like a stray.

So yes, Faba was desperate. He wished Giovanni would just storm the Foundation right now and reclaim everything he’d lost.

But Giovanni wasn’t nearly as impatient as Faba had hoped. In fact, ever since he’d learned his opponent was August, Giovanni was exceedingly calm.

His previous encounters with August had taught him one thing:

The more you rush against August, the easier it is to fall into his traps.

At that moment, Giovanni’s phone rang.

He answered, “Doctor Zipp, do you have any good news?”

A prickly voice shot back, “It’s Nanba...”

But he still answered Giovanni’s question: “I’ve studied the properties of this energy. The good news is, with our current tech, we should be able to simulate this energy and activate an Ultra Wormhole.”

“And the bad news?”

Doctor Nanba didn’t mince words. “The conversion efficiency is abysmal. We’ll probably need a Legendary Pokémon to provide the necessary power!”

It went without saying which Legendary Pokémon Team Rocket currently possessed.

“Deoxys, then?” Giovanni glanced over his shoulder at the loyal Deoxys hovering behind him, then nodded. “Fine. Do it.”

Letting Deoxys handle a task like this was almost a waste of its talents, but Giovanni urgently needed the power of the Ultra Beasts.

Once the Ultra Wormhole was open, and they’d captured a batch of Ultra Beasts, he could use them to lead Team Rocket in a counterattack on Aether Paradise—and erase his humiliation once and for all.

“I’ll leave it to you, Doctor West,” Giovanni said.

“.....”

At this point, Doctor Nanba had given up trying to correct him.

Meanwhile, listening in on Giovanni’s conversation with “Doctor North,” Faba came to a startling realization.

Now that he’d lost his subordinates at Aether Paradise—and handed all the research over to Giovanni—his value within Team Rocket had plummeted.

He wasn’t as important as he’d thought.

...

Team Rocket weren’t the only ones researching Ultra Beasts; the Aether Paradise team already had some preliminary results as well.

Wicke was reporting the Research Division’s latest findings to August:

“After studying UB01, we’ve discovered that it emits a neurotoxin—a toxin that heavily interferes with the memory centers of the human brain.”

She glanced nervously toward Lusamine, who was standing at a distance. “According to what you said, Mr. August, the president’s memory issues seem to be related to this.”

August’s eyes lit up. “Then, do you have any treatment plan?”

He hadn’t expected the Foundation to come up with something so quickly.

Wicke’s face fell with embarrassment. “This neurotoxin is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It may even be connected to Ultra Energy itself. I’m afraid we won’t be able to find a suitable treatment in the short term.”

Seeing the disappointment on August’s face, Wicke quickly added, “But we’ll do everything we can to help President Lusamine return to normal!”

“Normal? What’s normal?”

Lusamine turned to look at them, curiosity in her eyes.

August and Wicke replied in unison, “It’s nothing...”

Lusamine’s gaze lingered on the two of them, suspicious, but she soon tossed it from her mind and waved August over.

“August, darling, come look at the Lapras pods! This is the result of all our years of Lapras conservation at the Foundation!”

August followed Lusamine to the window.

Through the enormous floor-to-ceiling glass, he could see a vast stretch of ocean outside Aether Paradise, teeming with Lapras traveling in pods.

Hundreds of Lapras glided in formation across the waves—a truly breathtaking sight.

Foundation staff, using small drones, were tossing food out to the Lapras as they passed.

August watched the crowd of Lapras, and the employees busily feeding them.

So that’s why Lapras are everywhere in Alola... This is all the Foundation’s doing!

"Ooooh~"

A melodious chorus rose up across the water, drawing Cynthia and the others over to watch.

Especially Little Lugia.

The moment it spotted so many Lapras, its eyes went wide.

With August’s permission, it quickly grabbed Glacier and soared straight into the middle of the Lapras pod.

Watching Little Lugia frolic among the Lapras, August couldn’t help but smile.

Just then, his phone buzzed with a new message.

[LordRayquazaistheTrueStrongest]: Help! August, we’re about to get kicked out of Jubilife Village!

August blinked at the message.

It took him a while to process.

[GardevoirSupremacy]: ...What did you do this time?

---

Hisui
Jubilife Village

Zinnia was pacing in circles around the room, clutching her phone, glancing outside every so often, the very picture of a Hisuian Meowth chasing its own tail. She kept muttering anxiously to herself:

“What do we do, what do we do...”

Sapphire, watching Zinnia spin herself into a knot, could only sigh in resignation.

After spending this much time with Zinnia, Sapphire had come to understand her personality well. Zinnia was undeniably strong—usually a little rough around the edges—but when it came to something important, she’d get all flustered and lose her cool.

“Don’t worry, Zinnia-senpai,” Sapphire said gently. “Mr. August will definitely figure something out.”

“Right! August will know what to do!”

Like she’d just grabbed onto a lifeline, Zinnia frantically typed out a message to August.

It wasn’t long before August replied.

[GardevoirSupremacy]: ...What did you do this time?

And then, a video call request popped up from August.

She answered.

August’s puzzled face filled the screen. “What happened? Why are you about to get thrown out of Jubilife Village?”

“Don’t tell me you got up to something again...”

He looked at Zinnia, suspicious.

Zinnia bristled at his words. “What do you mean again? I’ve been working hard lately, okay?!”

August couldn’t help but laugh.

Zinnia? Working hard? He could hardly imagine it.

But seeing her genuinely indignant expression, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and asked, “Alright then, so what exactly happened?”

Zinnia launched into her explanation right away: “Lately, the Noble Pokémon of the Diamond and Pearl Clans have been going on a rampage. Someone in the village started spreading rumors that we’re to blame. Kamado, that fool, actually believed them! Now he wants to kick us out of Jubilife Village!”

August: “That’s it?”

Zinnia: “Isn’t that enough? August, all your Origin Rocket assets are here—if we get thrown out, it’s all over!”

“Well, when you put it like that...”

August fell silent, thinking it over. He’d worked hard to establish the Origin Rocket Team here—he couldn’t just let it go to waste.

As for the rampaging Nobles...

First thing that comes to mind is that Volo’s stirring up trouble again.

But then August hesitated. He and Volo had already reached an agreement—there was no reason for Volo to set him up.

After another moment’s thought, August got the uneasy feeling that, just maybe, this really did have something to do with him.

Everyone knew: lately, he’d been using the Friendship Pass to let a whole crowd come and go from Hisui, which caused a ton of temporal disturbances. Could those disturbances have driven the Nobles berserk?

No way! August immediately shoved that dangerous thought out of his head.

Impossible! This has absolutely nothing to do with me! Someone’s framing the Origin Rocket Team, that’s all!

August said to Zinnia, “Go find Kamado—I’ll explain everything to him myself.”

“No need, I’m already here!”

A new voice sounded in the video call.

Zinnia swung her camera to the door, where Kamado entered the room, flanked by Professor Laventon and Cyllene.

Kamado peered curiously at August on the phone screen. For someone seeing a smartphone for the first time, he was clearly intrigued, but soon enough, he got down to business. “You underestimate me, August. I’m not so easily swayed by rumors...”

“But the reason I’ve come today is indeed related to the rampaging Nobles.”

“The Nobles’ rampages are causing major trouble all over Hisui. Right now, the Galaxy Team is stretched thin. So I was hoping you and your Origin Rocket Team could help us calm them down.”

Kamado’s voice was deep and steady, carrying the kind of gravitas that made people want to believe him.

Truthfully, Kamado had considered the possibility that August’s group was behind the chaos.

On the way here, he’d planned to confront August directly.

But after passing the ranch and seeing all the Alpha Pokémon Origin Rocket Team had stabled there, Kamado calmed down.

Not that he was afraid of Team Rocket, exactly, but—if they really meant harm, they wouldn’t need to bother with schemes. They could just let all those Alpha Pokémon loose and level Jubilife Village in no time.

So Kamado had decided to change his approach.

With Kamado in such a reasonable mood, Zinnia, who’d been tense this whole time, finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, so you just want our help? That’s all?”

If only you’d said so sooner—I wouldn’t have spent all morning in a panic!

Kamado nodded, then turned to August on the screen. “As thanks, I’ll grant your Origin Rocket Team a much larger plot of land—an area set aside just for your Alpha Pokémon. What do you think, August?”

He was a little nervous as he made the offer.

After all, subduing the Nobles was no easy—or safe—task.

But—

“No problem!” August agreed so readily it caught Kamado off guard.

Kamado was stunned.

“You... don’t want to think it over first?”

August waved it off. “They’re just Nobles, right? Let’s go!”

For some reason, even though August sounded like he was underestimating the Nobles, Kamado felt oddly reassured.

“When can you start?” Kamado pressed.

The rampaging Nobles were already causing serious trouble for the Galaxy, Diamond, and Pearl Clans alike.

Then, on the screen, he saw August glance at his watch, say something to someone off-camera, and turn back.

“Right now.”

As the words left his mouth—

A golden light flared.

In the blink of an eye, the once-empty room was filled with people.

Besides August, Silver, and that blood-pressure-raising kid Gold, Kamado spotted quite a few unfamiliar faces.

“This...”

August gestured over his shoulder at Blue and the others. “Oh, those? They’re just friends I brought along to help out!”

Kamado: “.....”

That’s not what I was asking. I want to know how you just popped into my house out of thin air!

...

Once he’d gotten the list of rampaging Nobles from Kamado, August sent him on his way.

“So this is Hisui, huh?” Cynthia gazed around at the rustic furnishings, touching this, inspecting that, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Blue and Sabrina weren’t much interested in archaeology, and mostly trailed along in silence, but Cynthia was enthralled.

Lillie, clutching Cosmog, was equally curious about their sudden arrival in this strange place.

But Lusamine, after traveling through time and space, seemed to have had some rather unsettling memories stirred up. “Darling, where are we...?”

“...Hisui. This is the ancient Sinnoh region!”

That’s right—this time, August had brought Lusamine and Lillie along as well.

Partly, it was so he could train Lillie; after all, there was no better place for hands-on teaching than Hisui.

But there was another reason: he wanted to make sure Team Rocket couldn’t exploit his absence to snatch Lusamine or Lillie away again.

He knew Giovanni well. Having just lost Aether Paradise, Giovanni was unlikely to attack again right away—but August was playing it safe.

Even if Team Rocket managed to retake Aether Paradise, well, the place wasn’t going anywhere—he could always win it back later.

After August’s quick explanation of how time travel worked, Lusamine beamed at him: “Darling, you’re amazing!”

“...Darling!?”

Zinnia, who’d thought she’d misheard the first time, gawked at Lusamine’s choice of address. Her reaction was almost identical to Gary’s when he found out.

“August, August, what’s going on here?” Zinnia pressed, eyes gleaming with gossip.

She was quickly shooed aside by August: “Shoo! Shoo! Are you done with your work yet? Why are you so nosy?”

He’s embarrassed! Zinnia realized at once.

Past experience had taught her: now is the time to retreat and lay low.

So she sidled up to Sabrina instead, curiosity still burning. “Sabrina, Sabrina—what’s up with all this?”

Sabrina, a faint smile on her lips, leaned in and whispered quietly in Zinnia’s ear.

Zinnia’s eyes grew wider and wider, flickering from August, to Lusamine, to Lillie, and back again.

Every so often, she let out an awed, “Wow...”

---

T/N: wow....

This is a fan translation of 我，宝可梦称号大师！ by 落唯 白良. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!