"Gar~"
Gengar circled the boulder once, then shook its head at Sato.
Sato jumped down from Sharpedo's back and approached the boulder, running his right hand along its smooth cross-section.
"You guys saw it too, right? That stone was glowing just now… it flickered for a second."
"Yeah." x2 Joseph and Mark came closer, curiously examining the boulder, trying to find any clues.
"Ralts~"
At that moment, Sato's backpack rustled, and Ralts poked out halfway, holding the glowing Relic Bracelet in its hand.
Buzz~
The surface of the boulder lit up with white light once again, resonating with the Relic Bracelet, just like when the Relic Vase had approached the stone.
Then, Mark's right hand, which had lightly pressed against the stone, suddenly sank in, causing him to stumble in fright.
"It went soft!"
"Is it a passageway?" Joseph was puzzled, but his hand had already reached into the stone on its own.
"These Ancient Relics must be the so-called keys. If what Zillion said was true, then what's behind here should be the Reverse World."
Sato had seen such spatial entrances more than once before, so he wasn't surprised.
"The Reverse World really exists, huh? They say it's a place of exile, where the brutal Legendary Pokémon Giratina is imprisoned!" Mark exclaimed dramatically, pulling his fingers back.
"Well, since we're already here, we might as well go in. You can stay out here and keep watch if you don't want to come." Joseph gave Mark a glance, casually throwing him under the bus.
"No way! If you're going, I'm going too!" Mark clutched his collar, suddenly finding the mountaintop wind a bit too chilly.
"Then let's go," Sato said, and stepped inside first.
Joseph and Mark didn't say another word and followed closely. After them, Gengar, Gogoat, and Sharpedo all went in one after the other.
Perhaps because too many living beings entered at once, the boulder didn't even flicker when Sharpedo went through, it just returned to a calm, inert state.
"So beautiful!"
To everyone's surprise, the Reverse World was breathtaking. Under the azure sky, white clouds drifted slowly.
Floating islands hovered midair in a unique rhythm.
On the islands were grasslands, lakes, flower fields, mountains, deserts, shallows, caves, forests, and even cities… any environment seen in the real world could be found here.
But in the Reverse World, they appeared like scattered puzzle pieces, suspended in the air; truly bizarre.
"Eh? What's that?"
Mark suddenly pointed at a small patch of black mist, asking curiously.
"Trash from the Pokémon world. According to legend, the Reverse World exists to maintain the balance of the real world. When the real world can no longer handle certain pollution or waste, it gets transferred here, becoming black fog that's hard to eliminate," Sato explained based on what he'd learned in his past life.
"That's amazing!" Mark gasped and began searching around for more black fog.
"Doesn't look like there's much?"
"The fewer, the better. It means the our world is still relatively stable. Sato, has Gengar sensed anything?" Joseph brought the conversation back on track.
"Gar~"
Gengar sat cross-legged in place. Its golden eyes suddenly snapped open, and then it jumped directly onto a nearby vertical "island."
Then, Gengar's entire body rotated sideways, forming a perfect right angle with Sato and the others.
"Whoa, that's so cool!" Mark was as excited as ever, and without hesitation, he jumped across.
The Reverse World was indeed magical. The "island" seemed to catch Mark mid-jump and quickly but steadily straightened his body.
"Hey! Hurry up and come over." Mark waved sideways at Sato and the others from a few meters away.
Such a strange sensation…
"Gogoat, let's go!"
"Follow him, Sharpedo."
Even Sharpedo, floating in the air, was affected by the "island's" gravity, its body naturally rotating to match the angle.
After that, for quite a while, Gengar led the way, and Sato's group followed behind, hopping along like they were playing hopscotch.
Before long, the island they entered from was far behind them. When they looked back, it now hovered directly overhead.
"What's that?"
Mark once again spotted something he didn't understand and asked the question without a second thought.
After all, if he didn't have to think, why bother? He had two reliable guys beside him, why waste brainpower?
Better to just lean on them!
Joseph and Sato instinctively moved closer and found that Mark had come upon a massive blue stone, so polished it reflected all three of their images.
"Hey hey! Look, something's moving…"
Mark suddenly shouted. The blue stone did, in fact, reveal several shifting figures.
Upon closer inspection, the three realized it was a Pokémon battle taking place on the other side between two very common Kanto Pokémon: Beedrill and Butterfree.
Just then, Mark's mischievous side kicked in, and he tried to influence the outcome of the battle through the mirror-like surface.
He reached out with his left hand, slowly moving it toward the mirror.
Without expecting it, his finger passed right through!
In the Kanto Region, beside a small waterfall in Viridian Forest, two "seasoned" Bug Catchers were having an intense Pokémon battle.
Beedrill's Twineedle was just inches from Butterfree, which panicked and tried to flap its wings to escape… only to suddenly feel something block them.
That single interruption made Butterfree falter midair, and it was struck head-on by Twineedle, losing its ability to battle.
"Ouch! My finger!"
Back in the Reverse World, Mark yanked his left hand out and let out a pained yell. His finger had passed into the real world and was smacked by Butterfree's wing, now swollen.
"We can actually affect reality?" Sato was stunned. Ignoring Mark's howls, he reached his own hand into the surface.
By the waterfall, the two Bug Catchers were still complimenting each other, completely unaware that a strange hand had reached out from within the falls.
Sato retracted his right hand, droplets of water clinging to his fingers. His eyes flashed with deep thought.
"Gengar, speed up. We need to catch up to Zillion as fast as possible."
"Gar~"
"Boss, wait for me!" Mark trailed behind, shaking his reddened hand and scrambling to catch up.
"Sato, did you discover something?" Joseph rushed up to his side and asked quickly.
"I've got a theory. Zillion clearly wants to use the Reverse World to reach someplace… a place that he could never access in the real world."
"And then?"
"Be it for a person, or for a goal… in life, we all have desires and obsessions."