Auron froze. What does Uncle Dax mean by this? He's not asking why someone from Team Aqua would appear at school, but instead asking how I discovered them?
Seeing the wariness in Auron's eyes, Dax immediately burst out laughing. "You little punk—you don't actually think I'm with Team Aqua, do you?"
Watching Dax's reaction, Auron scratched his head with an awkward smile. "I never said that."
"But that's exactly what you were thinking, wasn't it?" Dax laughed and gave Auron a light smack on the back of the head.
"Myu!"
Dax had barely touched Auron when—before Auron could even react—Dratini objected first.
Dratini let out a cry at Dax, then glared at him indignantly, cheeks puffed up.
Dax cooperatively raised both hands in surrender with a wry smile. "Alright, alright—I won't touch him, I won't touch him."
"Myu~"
Only then did Dratini turn her head away with a haughty air. She wrapped her tail protectively around the back of Auron's head and kept glancing back at Dax with vigilant eyes.
Dax smiled and lowered his hands before asking Auron: "You still haven't told me how you figured out he was with Team Aqua."
Auron looked at Dax with obvious suspicion. "Don't tell me you forgot I have waveguide powers? Of course I sensed it with my aura."
"Ah, right. That's how." Dax slapped his forehead, finally remembering that Auron possessed waveguide abilities.
"So—why is someone from Team Aqua at school?"
Dax smiled. Metagross, with perfect synchronization, used psychic powers to float a cup of Lady Huajie Sweet Tea over to him.
After taking a sip, Dax finally began to speak.
"Team Aqua... well, the leaders of both Team Aqua and Team Magma are actually from our country."
"From our country?"
Auron was genuinely shocked now. He truly hadn't expected that the leaders of the two largest villainous organizations in the island nations would be from the same country as himself.
Dax nodded. "Mm. Not only that—the two of them were sent there by our government."
Auron blinked. How did the government get involved in this? "Weren't Team Aqua and Team Magma formed because of—"
"Right—because of the Yamaguchi-gumi."
"Then how are they from our country?"
Dax reclined back on the sofa and proceeded to tell Auron about what had happened all those years ago.
Originally, the largest organization in the island nations had been the Yamaguchi-gumi. How powerful was the Yamaguchi-gumi? Powerful enough that most of the hawks in the island nation's parliament were members.
Later, due to their suppression of the doves—combined with the fact that Zhong Likong and the current leader of Team Magma both harbored deep grudges against the island nations—they volunteered to go and sow division within the Yamaguchi-gumi.
The Dragon Nation government hadn't really paid it much mind. Go if you want. After that brief exchange, the officials created fake identities and backgrounds for the two of them, and off they went to the island nations to join the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Initially, the government hadn't given it much thought. After all, there were only two of them. To put it bluntly, it was an offhand gesture—planting a tree without much expectation.
But no one had anticipated that these two would actually pull off something major in the island nations. They split the Yamaguchi-gumi.
Though their division of the Yamaguchi-gumi had secret assistance from the doves within the island nations, they still successfully fractured the hawk-dominated organization into two.
At that point, the Dragon Nation government was absolutely delighted. This is an unexpected windfall!
They'd been annoyed by the island nation hawks constantly stirring up trouble and being a general nuisance. Now—problem solved. Split in two.
The government immediately drew up plans for the pair: ideological reformation for both teams, foster opposition, and let them tear each other apart.
And so, the Yamaguchi-gumi was renamed. It became Team Aqua, which worshipped the ocean, and Team Magma, which worshipped the land. The doctrines of the two sides were based on Kyogre and Groudon respectively.
Both teams believed their own faith was correct, and so they constantly fought each other—which meant the hawks stopped antagonizing the Dragon Nation.
Not only that—while the two teams tore into each other, the island nation's doves sat on the sidelines eating popcorn and enjoying the show. Everyone was happy.
But then the government thought: This won't do. I'm stirring up trouble and you're just watching the show?
So they found an opportunity and dragged the island nation doves into the fray as well.
And that's when things got really interesting. The moment the two hawk factions saw the doves enter the field, they immediately turned their guns outward and united against them.
And so it went: the hawks would fight each other when the doves weren't around. But if the doves showed up, they'd gang up on them instead. Now there wasn't a peaceful corner anywhere in the island nations.
After tearing into each other for so long, some among both the hawks and doves started to realize something was off. But setting aside all the grudges and resentments built up over so many years of conflict—the Dragon Nation had genuinely become powerful during all that time.
As a result, trying to drag the Dragon Nation into the mess was no longer feasible.
It was like—originally, two kids were fighting while another kid watched from the sidelines. That kid could easily get dragged in.
But now? Three kids were fighting while a muscular adult stood on the sidelines watching. Could those three kids drag the adult in? Would they even dare?
They couldn't, and they wouldn't dare. So there was nothing to be done. They'd been fighting for so many years already—might as well keep at it.
"So? Team Aqua and Team Magma are people we sent over to cause chaos?"
"Hey now—how can you call it causing chaos? We went there to help them establish their faith. Look—aren't the young people of the island nations now proud to join Team Aqua and Team Magma?"
Watching Dax's completely serious expression, the corner of Auron's mouth twitched. If I hadn't seen your gleeful expression while telling this story just now, I might actually believe you.
"So then—why is his son coming back to study at Skyspire? Is he a hostage?" Auron suddenly remembered his original question. Watching Dax ramble on at length, he still hadn't explained why Team Aqua's young master would come to Skyspire University.
Dax froze. He'd been about to give Auron another smack on the back of the head when he spotted Dratini protectively guarding Auron's head, baring her teeth at him.
Dax could only sheepishly lower his hand and explain to Auron: "How could he be a hostage? We're not that kind of people. They requested it themselves—they wanted their children to receive the best education."
"Even though they've already told their kids about the Dragon Nation, they're genuinely afraid their children might get brainwashed by the rhetoric in island nation universities."
"They?"
"Exactly—blind student, you've discovered the key point." Dax grinned. "Of course it's because Team Magma's young master is also at our school."
Auron smacked his lips. "Tsk tsk... so if I beat them up at school, they won't send their people after me, will they?"
"Pfft!"
Dax immediately burst out laughing.
After patting Auron on the shoulder, Dax finally managed to suppress his laughter enough to speak. "Big bro—you're the Dragon Nation's youngest doctorate holder. Never mind your doctorate or your contributions—just the fact that you're the only grandson of Vice Director Lu of the Dragon Nation Research Institute, and the only son of Dr. Ashen—even villains have brains, you know."