Aaron had expected trouble.
He had not expected a Champion-level Trainer to personally come after him—and open with a Champion-level Pokémon before Aaron even had a chance to react.
So much for fighting fair.
Aaron did not waste a second. He spun around and rushed back into the hotel room.
At the same time, one of the Poké Balls at his waist opened on its own.
Greninja appeared beside him in a flash of red light.
"Grenin..."
Its eyes narrowed as it stared at the Chandelure gliding rapidly toward them.
The red-haired man laughed from the hallway.
"Running already?"
His mocking voice followed Aaron into the room.
"Where exactly do you think you're going?"
Before Aaron could reach the window, violet flames flickered beyond the glass.
A second Chandelure phased through the outer wall and blocked his only other escape route.
One in front.
One behind.
Aaron and Greninja were trapped.
The stranger stepped into the room at an unhurried pace.
"What happened? I thought you were going to run."
His smile widened.
"I've heard quite a bit about you. Hualis's top scorer on the national entrance exam... first place on that little Hidden Dragon Ranking of yours..."
He gave a dismissive laugh.
"And now you're cornered in a hotel room by the Flame Knight."
The title immediately caught Aaron's attention.
The Flame Knight of the Primal Order.
So that was who he was dealing with.
The man's expression hardened.
"Hand over the method your Infernape used to revert to its primal form during the Fighting Tournament."
"Do that, and perhaps I'll let you leave here in one piece."
His eyes turned cold.
"Refuse, and I'll make you regret it."
With Greninja beside him, Aaron felt considerably calmer.
Defeating a Champion-level opponent was another matter, but escaping was still possible.
And if things became truly desperate, he still had other options.
He could call upon the Nightmare Pokémon.
Or release Zeraora.
Either way, this man would quickly discover that Aaron was not nearly as helpless as he appeared.
Still, the Flame Knight's demand left him genuinely confused.
"My Infernape underwent Primal Reversion?"
Aaron frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
The Flame Knight's expression darkened.
"Don't play dumb."
"I'm talking about the colossal ape it transformed into beneath the full moon."
That cleared things up.
He meant Infernape's Great Ape transformation during the Fighting Tournament.
Aaron's confusion only deepened.
"But that wasn't Primal Reversion."
Wasn't that a phenomenon associated specifically with Kyogre and Groudon?
"You've misunderstood what happened," Aaron said. "Infernape experienced an ancestral awakening. It has nothing to do with Primal Reversion."
The Flame Knight laughed.
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"
He looked at Aaron as though the explanation did not matter in the slightest.
"You don't get to decide what happened. I do."
"Right now, you're my prisoner. I suggest you start acting like one."
Aaron stared at him for a moment.
"You do realize you're standing in the middle of Crown City, right?"
His tone remained calm, but the warning beneath it was clear.
"This is the capital of Hualis. Making a scene here is a good way to get yourself killed."
The Flame Knight threw back his head and laughed.
"Hualis?"
"I enter this country whenever I please, and I leave whenever I please."
His contemptuous gaze swept across Aaron.
"No one here has ever been able to stop me."
Aaron's expression cooled.
The man had not merely come to abduct him.
He was openly insulting the entire country while standing in its capital.
The Flame Knight waved one hand.
"I'm done talking."
His eyes narrowed.
"Chandelure, seize him."
Both Chandelure moved at once.
Violet flames surged around their bodies as they closed in from opposite directions.
Aaron remained still.
Greninja, prepare Flying Thunder God.
"Grenin."
Greninja gave the slightest nod.
Space around it began to distort as it prepared to teleport Aaron away.
Before either Chandelure could reach them, however, the room was suddenly flooded with prismatic light.
HUM—
The walls, floor, and ceiling vanished.
Aaron felt his surroundings twist before he could even react.
One moment, he had been standing inside his hotel room.
The next, he found himself in a vast, star-filled expanse.
Bands of colored light drifted through the darkness like an aurora, while countless distant stars shimmered overhead.
Even the two Chandelure had been dragged into this strange space.
Then an elderly voice rolled through the void.
"You claimed you could enter Hualis whenever you wished..."
The calm words carried more weight than any shout.
"And leave whenever you pleased."
The voice hardened.
"Then go ahead."
"Leave."
The Flame Knight's confidence vanished.
Above them, moonlight gathered into the shape of an enormous crescent.
A majestic Pokémon slowly emerged from the radiance, its body glowing with a soft, ethereal light.
Cresselia.
Standing above her was an elderly man, his robes stirring despite the absence of wind.
His aged face was calm, but the power in his gaze made the entire space feel as though it had fallen under his control.
The Flame Knight spun around, visibly shaken.
"What is this place?"
He glared upward.
"And who the hell are you?"
Aaron, however, immediately recognized them.
"Cresselia..."
The Lunar Pokémon, guardian of pleasant dreams.
And the elderly man standing with her—
"The Protector of Hualis."
Relief and surprise surged through Aaron at once.
The Protector looked down at the Flame Knight.
"Who am I?"
A faint, humorless smile crossed his wrinkled face.
"Just an old man who has lived a little too long."
...