She had a certain intuition, a vague feeling that something about Kairos was different, though she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
The feeling was too hazy to pin down.
Caitlin, on the other hand, was far less ambiguous about it. She raised a finger and began ticking off points one by one, as if running through a checklist.
"First, he's clearly very young, yet he has a Champion-tier Pokemon. And there's absolutely no word of him anywhere."
"That doesn't add up. By any normal logic, a talent like that would already be under the League's wing. How could there be zero information about him?" Cynthia nodded. That part was genuinely strange.
"Second, the method he used to evade us just now had nothing to do with that Gengar of his."
Caitlin said this with certainty.
"That Gengar is strong, no question, but not strong enough for that. A disguise capable of completely blocking all perception is absolutely beyond what that Gengar could pull off."
Cynthia frowned slightly. She had sensed the same thing, though she hadn't been quite as sure of it as Caitlin was.
"Third..."
Caitlin paused, and when she continued, her tone carried a trace of amusement.
"His name is Kairos. And the person who made those games goes by 'Wind,' doesn't he?"
Cynthia blinked.
Was she suggesting he was the one behind the games?
The moment the thought surfaced, Cynthia was startled by it.
If this Kairos really was that mysterious "Wind"...
It would explain why he could appear in the Ghost World, why Will had been so respectful toward him, and why he had those strange hidden abilities.
But...
Cynthia gave a slight shake of her head and dismissed the idea.
It was too unlikely.
The games that "Wind" had created demonstrated a grasp of the world's underlying rules and a command of Pokemon ecology so complete, so precise, it was almost godlike.
If Kairos was "Wind," how could his strength be limited to the beginning stages of Champion rank?
Someone capable of making games at that level... merely a Champion?
A being like that... their power should already be beyond anything ordinary logic could account for.
Not someone who still needed to show up in person to run missions.
Caitlin pursed her lips, clearly sensing that her own theory didn't quite hold together.
"Fair point. When you look at it that way, the more likely explanation is still that he's the Ghost World Master's illegitimate son, and Will taught him whatever hidden techniques he has. That actually makes sense."
Besides, there was something about the way Kairos carried himself that genuinely resembled Will.
"Come on, let's go do our mission."
With her curiosity spent, Caitlin turned and headed deeper into the Ghost World.
Cynthia nodded and followed.
But before she left, she glanced back one more time in the direction Kairos had gone.
That odd feeling still wouldn't leave her.
She kept thinking she had missed something.
Still, if the person in question didn't want to say anything, it wasn't her place to push.
In this world, everyone was entitled to their secrets.
Let it go.
Cynthia smiled softly, turned her gaze forward, and kept walking.
By that point, Kairos had long since disappeared without a trace.
He had sprinted the entire way with Marshadow, and only once he was certain Cynthia and Caitlin had no hope of catching up did he finally slow down.
Kairos let out a long breath and wiped at the nonexistent cold sweat on his forehead.
"Was all that really necessary?"
Marshadow drifted in the air beside him, looking at him with undisguised contempt.
"They were just two women. Did you really have to run faster than a Buneary?"
Kairos rolled his eyes.
"You don't get it. Those two... I'd rather not deal with them right now."
Marshadow made a dismissive sound and clearly found this logic unconvincing.
But it didn't push the point. After all, it was just here to do a job. As long as Kairos could get his hands on the faith energy, nothing else was its concern.
And Kairos didn't linger where he was for long. He turned to look at Marshadow floating beside him, his voice calm and even as he spoke.
"I need to head back out and take care of the faith energy situation. If everything goes according to plan, Ho-Oh should be able to receive faith energy before the day is out."
The moment those words landed, Marshadow's small face twisted into an expression of pure disbelief, and it shook its head back and forth like a rattle drum.
It hovered in the air with its arms crossed, staring at Kairos with barely concealed skepticism.
Was this guy... joking?
Marshadow turned the thought over in its mind. It seemed like Kairos genuinely underestimated just how difficult obtaining faith energy actually was.
But whatever. At least he had the intention and was willing to try. That alone was more than most could say.
If he actually pulled it off, all the better.
And if he couldn't, the two of them would just have to think of something else afterward. There was no desperate rush.
With that settled in its mind, Marshadow said nothing more, simply shrugged to signal that Kairos was free to do as he pleased.
Seeing that, Kairos didn't bother explaining himself further.
He knew what Marshadow was thinking. But he felt confident about what he was about to do.
After all, what else in this world could stir up a person's emotions quite like a game?
With a brief farewell to Marshadow, Kairos moved and stepped out of the Ghost World.
Back in Saffron City, guided by memory, he quickly found the internet cafe he had visited before.
He rented a private room with practiced ease, pushed the door open, and locked it behind him.
The room was dim, lit only by the faint glow of the computer screen, but that was exactly the atmosphere Kairos needed.
He settled into the slightly worn gaming chair, drew a slow breath, and let the restlessness in his mind settle.
He rested his hands on the keyboard but didn't start typing right away. Instead, he closed his eyes and began organizing his thoughts.
According to what Marshadow had told him, people needed to feel a powerful emotional response toward Ho-Oh in order for it to receive faith energy.
That emotion could be awe, gratitude, or reverence.
Ever since meeting Marshadow, Kairos had been turning over the same question: how could he weave Ho-Oh seamlessly into the game and guide players into developing that kind of deep, intense feeling toward this legendary Pokemon without them even realizing it was happening?
Now, after all this time thinking it through, a rough plan had begun to take shape.
The logic of making players feel reverence and gratitude toward Ho-Oh was actually quite simple.
All it took was having Ho-Oh appear in the game and lend a hand at the exact moment when the player felt most helpless and most desperate. That was it.
When was a person most likely to feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward someone who helped them?
When they were on the verge of total failure.
And for that emotion to be powerful enough, certain conditions had to be met.
When did a person feel most crushed while playing a game? Without a doubt, it was when they lost.
And not just any loss. The worst kind was the kind that came after enormous effort, after pouring in countless hours and pushing to the absolute limit, only to fall apart right at the end. That combination of defeat and helplessness hit the hardest.
If at precisely that moment, a beam of golden light descended from above and pulled the player back from the edge, and the sheer contrast of falling from hell to heaven in an instant would leave a mark on them that no amount of time could erase. The feeling toward whoever saved them would be nothing short of profound.
Kairos's fingers tapped lightly against the desk, his gaze distant and focused.
In his first two games, Ultimate Emerald and Dark Phantom, players experienced emotional lows too, mostly from losing battles.
But clearly, those weren't the right venues for Ho-Oh to step in.
That would be wrong in every way, and deeply strange.
Ho-Oh suddenly showing up when a player was about to lose a battle and intervening on their behalf, or even obliterating the opponent's Pokemon outright?
There was no logic to that.
Ultimate Emerald and Dark Phantom were games built around competitive battles. If a legendary Pokemon could just wander in and interfere with a fight on a whim, the entire balance of the game would collapse.
If he were the player, he wouldn't feel moved. He'd feel confused, maybe even insulted, like the developer was messing with him.
With that reasoning, both Dark Phantom and Ultimate Emerald were crossed off the list. That left only one game.
The one he had released earlier: Rescue Team of Time.
That game was built around story and exploration. Its heart was the bond between companions and the spirit of reaching out to help others.
And as it happened, there was a moment in Rescue Team of Time that was genuinely well-suited for exactly this kind of "Ho-Oh intervention."
Kairos's eyes snapped open, a sharp glint flashing through them.
Right. There actually was a perfect spot.
That particular section had been designed from the start to push players into a state of intense pressure and despair. If Ho-Oh's appearance were placed right there, it would feel less like an addition and more like it had been made for exactly that purpose.
With his mind made up, Kairos didn't hesitate any longer. His hands flew across the keyboard.
Lines of code streamed down the screen in a rushing torrent as he worked with sharp, focused intensity.
It was just one story sequence being added, but to make that single moment truly land with impact, every detail had to be right: the lighting, the sound design, even the posture and movement of Ho-Oh as it appeared. All of it had to be perfect.
This was about whether Ho-Oh would get to eat. There was no room for cutting corners.
Two hours later.
Inside a top-three streaming room on the Psyduck Live platform, the moment Yancy's sweet voice came through, the viewer count spiked instantly.
A flood of comments poured in like a wave, covering the screen entirely.
"Yancy looks so cute today as always! Are we playing Rescue Team again?"
"Cheers to Yancy's face!"
"Streamer, have you tried Emerald yet? It's been blowing up lately!"
"Don't bother asking. Yancy is completely devoted to Rescue Team now. She won't even glance at the other two games."
"Haha, true. She's literally the number one ranked player on the Rescue Team leaderboard."
"Exactly! The top spots on the other two games' leaderboards are held by Elite Four members and Champions. So by that logic, Yancy is basically a Champion too!"
"Basically a Champion. Go off, streamer!"
Faced with the stream of jokes and compliments in the comments, Yancy didn't respond the way she usually would.
She simply pressed her lips together, eyes fixed on the screen, and quietly clicked the Rescue Team icon to launch the game.
Over the past few days, she had genuinely been absorbed in Rescue Team to the point of losing track of meals and sleep.
But the progress she had made in that time was remarkable.
Not only had Squirtle finally evolved into Wartortle after fulfilling the right conditions, but her Rescue Team rank had climbed all the way to Gold, and every member of her squad was now at level forty.
She had also cleared several high-difficulty dungeon stages from the early game, and every time she did, the rush of satisfaction was overwhelming.
Looking back, she really had been through a lot in the game lately.
Whether it was the excitement of Squirtle's evolution, the heart-pounding tension of those grueling dungeon runs, or the new characters that had been added to Rescue Team, all of it had left a lasting impression on her.
Especially that villainous group the "Shadow Squad." Every time they showed up, they gave her a headache.
And speaking of which, that Dragonair that had suddenly appeared in her house that one evening — Yancy had since learned more about its background through the story's progression.
It carried some kind of special power — one that had drawn certain Pokemon to hunt it down. But once it joined Yancy, its pursuers seemed to have vanished.
Dragonair had naturally fallen in with her group and become one of her team members.
Now, as Yancy launched the game and loaded her save, the familiar game screen appeared in front of her streaming audience.
On screen, Yancy's three-Pokemon squad stood at the entrance to a massive dungeon.
She had taken on a quest the night before but had been too exhausted to see it through, so she'd gone to bed and planned to log back in today to finish it off.
But just as she moved to guide her team into the dungeon, something unexpected happened at the entrance.
What had been a calm, unremarkable threshold suddenly began to glow with a strange and eerie light.
Swirling patterns shaped like clock faces began spreading across the surface, spreading outward in slow, continuous waves.
The unusual visual effect brought the comment stream to a brief, stunned halt.
"Has that effect always been there? I don't think it has..."
"Wait, is this a new dungeon?"
"This looks really high-level."
At that moment, Wartortle in Yancy's party suddenly had a dialogue box pop up, and it spoke with a startled expression.
"Huh?! This... this is..."
Wartortle stared at the scene before it, voice layered with surprise and a barely suppressed thrill. It was clearly recognizing this place.
"I remember now! This is a special dungeon! The... Temporal Wheel Dungeon, yes, that's it!"
"They say it's filled with rare and high-tier resources and treasures. It's the kind of special dungeon that countless Rescue Teams dream of stumbling across. It's completely unlike any ordinary dungeon."
After everything it had been through alongside Yancy, Wartortle had matured quite a bit. It no longer tripped over its words the way it used to, and there was a steadier, more grounded quality to it now.
But in this moment, a little of the excitement got the better of it, and the words came out slightly jumbled. That endearing, earnest quality was still very much there.
"Inside there... there must be... a lot of good things... Yancy, should we... should we go in?"
Wartortle blinked up at her, waiting for her call.
Beside it, Dragonair gave a quiet nod.
Its pale blue eyes carried a cool, composed light, and its low voice came through steady and measured. Both suggested it too had heard of this place. "That is a special space. A distinct region."
Dragonair's voice was flat and brief, carrying a distant, unapproachable edge.
"Be careful."
It said nothing more after that.
۞۞۞۞
~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones