Stonefield Town.
Ever since the Pokémon Researchers' Guild established its experimental laboratory here, the entire Stonefield Town had visibly become much more lively. In addition to building a Pokémon research institute outside the town, the guild also repaired and improved the town's roads.
"We're finally close."
From afar, Ethan saw the massive Pokémon research institute located at the entrance of the town and smiled faintly.
Fiuuu!
Just as Charizard approached the town, clouds of dust suddenly began to rise from the ground.
Looking more closely, one could see a robust-bodied Sandslash running at full speed; the dust was kicked up by its charge.
"Sha!"
"Charrzz!"
Seeing Sandslash coming from afar to greet them, Charizard let out an excited cry and dove downward.
"All right, all right—can't you see I came to see you?"
Ethan laughed as Sandslash threw itself into his arms in an affectionate manner.
Ever since Sandslash was still a Sandshrew, it had been by his side. For so long they had been inseparable, and this was the first time they had been apart for such a long period.
With Sandslash by his side, Ethan arrived at the Pokémon research institute.
At that moment, Victor Black and Clara Whitmore, who had already received the news in advance, were waiting for him at the entrance.
"Ethan, you're back."
Seeing him, his parents' faces filled with warm smiles.
During this time, with the construction of the Pokémon research institute, news about Ethan had also spread throughout the town.
Now Ethan was a true local celebrity; even people from nearby towns had heard that the Black family's son had gone far.
"Dad, Mom, I'm back."
Ethan smiled gently and obediently walked up to his parents.
"Good, good—what matters is that you're back."
Victor and Clara nodded repeatedly, smiles appearing instantly on their faces.
At that moment, villagers who had seen Charizard's figure also gathered one after another.
Gazing at Charizard's powerful and majestic body, everyone was filled with envy and lavished it with praise, which made Victor and Clara feel especially pleased, pride clearly written on their faces.
After a while of greetings and chatting, Ethan returned home with his parents.
Because of Charizard and Rhydon—those two enormous Pokémon—the lunch table was moved to the backyard garden.
Eating surrounded by flowers in full bloom gave a special and very pleasant feeling.
"This is... Gracidea flowers!"
In one corner of the flower field, Ethan saw a small patch of Gracidea flowers and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.
"Don't the Gracidea flowers look like they grew very well?"
"I cultivated them following the method you sent along with the seeds."
Noticing Ethan looking at the Gracidea flowers, his mother smiled proudly.
"They really are doing very well."
Ethan was also surprised. His mother truly had a talent for growing plants and flowers.
They were Gracidea flowers! And yet she had successfully cultivated them.
Of course, that small amount was still not enough to attract Shaymin, but at least it gave him a ray of hope.
After praising his mother so much that she couldn't stop smiling, Ethan changed the topic and began talking about how his parents' lives had been during that time.
...
After enjoying a delicious lunch, Ethan took Meltan and Litwick for a walk around Stonefield Town.
In particular, he carefully inspected the old abandoned mine from before; naturally, he was doing this to look for the possible existence of an entrance to the Spirit World in the town.
However, after a thorough search, he found nothing and could only give up helplessly.
"It seems I can only leave this to President Beckett."
Ethan frowned slightly, feeling that the whole matter was truly too strange.
Logically speaking, that Dusknoir had entered the real world from the Spirit World at that location, yet there was no entrance to the Spirit World there.
After failing to obtain any results, Ethan returned to investigate again at night without giving up, but neither Litwick nor Meltan was able to detect any entrance to the Spirit World.
After spending one night at home, Ethan bade farewell to his parents, took Sandslash with him, and began his new journey.
...
Two days later.
Ethan, riding on Charizard, arrived at the Tarkaan Desert.
This time, he had come to the Tarkaan Desert with a clear goal: to enter the mobile Secret Kingdom.
Standing before a vast expanse of sand, an endless sea of yellow dunes filled his entire field of vision. Without hesitation, Ethan mounted Charizard and headed straight into the desert.
"Charrzz!"
Even in the middle of the desert, Charizard was not affected at all.
From time to time, it even raised its head and roared toward the sky; in such a dry environment, it seemed especially excited.
On Charizard's back, Meltan and Vibrava stayed on either side of Ethan, protecting his safety.
"Meltan, sense the spatial coordinates of the point where we exited the mobile Secret Kingdom last time."
Ethan spoke to Meltan, which was floating beside him, asking it to help guide the way.
"Zzzt!"
Meltan nodded repeatedly and began to perceive carefully.
Then, under Meltan's guidance, Charizard flew rapidly toward a specific area of the desert.
"I found it, it's over here. Not far ahead there's a sandstorm area."
Ethan took out the map to compare and smiled faintly.
What he needed to do next was to mark on the map the probable range where the desert's mobile Secret Kingdom might be located, based on the movement patterns he had observed before, and then let Meltan detect that location.
After successfully determining the approximate area where the desert's mobile Secret Kingdom was located, he continued flying on Charizard while searching within that range.
Because of the time that had passed, the desert's mobile Secret Kingdom had moved a great distance, but thanks to Ethan's meticulous search, he soon found the entrance.
"Meltan, open it."
Ethan smiled gently. Under the effect of Meltan's spatial magnetic field, the passage to the Secret Kingdom slowly opened.
"We did it—the desert's mobile Secret Kingdom!"
"Now it's time to go look for those desert ruins."
Very soon, Ethan entered the desert's mobile Secret Kingdom and flew on Charizard toward the direction of the ruins.
Huuu huuu huuu~
As they approached the desert ruins, a violent sandstorm suddenly rose in the distance.
"Hm? Are you coming to welcome me?"
Seeing the sandstorm advancing toward him, Ethan smiled faintly.
Suddenly, just as the sandstorm was about to reach him, it came to an abrupt halt.
This clearly showed that the sandstorm was being controlled by someone, and that controller could manipulate the sand almost at will.
Huuu huuu huuu~
Slowly, the sandstorm began to dissipate, revealing within it a green figure, with an appearance similar to that of Godzilla.
(End of chapter)