Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 333: It’s All Team Rocket’s Fault (Two-in-One)

Lucario showed no fear toward Mewtwo. Of course, the root reason was that it had no idea what kind of Pokémon Mewtwo was. So after Mewtwo spoke, Lucario gathered another Aura Sphere and fired it at Mewtwo.

"Annoying. What does Mew even matter to you?!"

Mewtwo was irritated by Lucario’s defense of Mew. With its left hand, it formed an Aura Sphere aimed at Lucario; with its right, another aimed at Mew. The result: the sphere aimed at Lucario nearly one-shot it, while the one aimed at Mew was evenly matched.

"Lucario!"

Seeing Lucario fall from the roof, Rio rushed forward and fed it an Energy Root.

"Mew~" — This is between you and me! Why drag others into it?!

Mew, who had easily blocked Mewtwo’s Aura Sphere, looked at Lucario, injured because of it, and spoke angrily.

"You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do! If you’ve got the guts, fight me somewhere farther away!" Mewtwo sneered.

It fired another Aura Sphere. If it weren’t for avoiding collateral damage to Rio, it would have used Psystrike. But today, its only goal was to destroy Mew.

"That Pokémon belongs to you, right?! Hurry—stop them!" Queen Irene, seeing the tension between Mewtwo and Mew, urged Rio to intervene.

"Mew is a Mythical Pokémon bound to the World’s Beginning Tree! If it’s severely wounded, the Tree will also suffer—and if the Tree suffers, the world will be destroyed!"

Rio, who had been feeding Energy Root to Lucario, froze. He hadn’t intervened earlier because he hadn’t figured out how to handle the situation—he’d thought he’d let them fight for a while, and if Mew was badly hurt, he’d find a chance to throw a Poké Ball and build a relationship later.

But now, hearing Queen Irene’s words, he realized how wrong he was. This Mew was bound to the World Tree. If it was severely injured, the world could end. So it had to stay in good condition—it couldn’t be critically wounded.

With that realization, Rio looked up. Mew was about to follow Mewtwo to a new battlefield.

"Hold on!!!" He shouted urgently.

"Let’s talk this out calmly."

Mewtwo was capable of Mega Evolution. If Mew followed it, the outcome could be fatal. His shout made both Mewtwo and Mew look down. They might ignore others, but Rio’s words mattered to them.

"You’re stopping me, Rio?" Mewtwo said coldly. Its friendship dropped by two points.

In Mewtwo’s view, Rio should know how deeply it resented Mew. Although thanks to Rio, it no longer dwelled on being a clone, it still wanted to fight Mew—to prove it was stronger. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be satisfied.

"Not stopping you—I just think there’s some misunderstanding between you two, Mewtwo and Mew."

"If you absolutely have to fight, could we have a long talk first?"

Mewtwo stared at Rio. For some reason, it now felt that Rio had known all along that Pichu was Mew. But the next second, it dismissed the thought. Even it—so obsessed with Mew—hadn’t recognized Pichu. How could Rio, a human, have known?

"Fine." Mewtwo eventually agreed.

Mew floated over to Rio. "You should discipline your Pokémon better. I’ve done nothing to offend it—yet it keeps talking about ’original’ and ’clone.’" Mew’s telepathy echoed in Rio’s mind.

Rio smiled.

Half an hour later, Mewtwo, Mew, and Rio sat together on the castle roof. Before them were bottles of wine and plenty of food.

"Rio, say what you need to say." Mewtwo urged, drinking wine.

They had been sitting there for ten minutes, but Rio had kept saying things were missing—first not enough wine, then not enough sunflower seeds to snack on. Mewtwo had used its psychic power to fetch everything. Just now, when Rio said he needed some flatbread because he hadn’t eaten dinner, Mewtwo grew impatient.

Rio, chewing on a sesame flatbread, had actually been stalling to think of a way to ease the tension between Mewtwo and Mew—at the very least, to stop them from fighting.

"Alright, I’ll speak." Rio swallowed the flatbread and cleared his throat. "Mew, you must be wondering why Mewtwo resents you so much."

"Yes." Mew floated midair, responding telepathically while using Psychic to feed itself a piece of flatbread.

"Then let me tell you—in a sense, you could be considered Mewtwo’s father. Or mother." Rio dropped a bombshell right at the start.

Clatter. The flatbread Mew had been feeding itself fell onto the roof. Its cute little face was filled with shock as it looked at Rio, then at Mewtwo.

"I’m its... dad?! Kid, don’t make stuff up!" Mew’s telepathic voice was equally shocked. This was the most shocking thing it had heard in all its long life. As a pure-hearted being, it had never had any romantic involvement with any Pokémon. And now someone was saying it had a child?!

Why? Mew actually had a child? Although, now that it looked closely, this child did kind of resemble it... but it absolutely couldn’t be its child. Because it was still a child itself! A child that had lived for countless years.

"Rio, what nonsense are you talking about?! How could it be my parent?!" Mewtwo was equally agitated.

"Don’t rush to argue." Rio took a swig of wine to steady himself. "Looking at it from a biological perspective—wouldn’t you say Mew qualifies as your parent?"

Mewtwo’s expression darkened. Biologically speaking, Mew could indeed be considered its parent.

"Rio, don’t talk nonsense! How could I be its parent?!" Mew was also hopping mad.

"Calm down—let me explain." Rio turned to Mew patiently. "Because Mewtwo is a Pokémon created by humans using your genes."

That explanation stopped Mew in its tracks.

"A Pokémon created from my genes?" Mew stared at Mewtwo in shock.

Rio continued: "That’s right—a Pokémon created from your genes. Do you remember meeting a human on a small island? His name was Fuji. After you left, he found one of your hairs and kept it."

Mew froze again. The name "Fuji" brought back a memory—decades ago, it had wandered away from here to a small island near the Kanto region. There, it had met a man who called himself Fuji, a Pokémon researcher. Mew had found him interesting and spent some time with him. But it never expected him to have kept a strand of its hair.

Rio kept explaining, though from this point on, he began to embellish the story slightly:

"Later, news of Fuji’s possession of your hair reached an organization called Team Rocket."

"This organization is evil, committing all kinds of crimes. When they learned Fuji had your hair, they threatened his family and Pokémon to force him into a project—the Artificial Pokémon Project."

"Under duress, Fuji carried out the plan."

"Ultimately, using your hair, he created this artificial Pokémon."

Mew listened and looked at Mewtwo.

"This Pokémon was incredibly powerful—seen by many as a perfect battle weapon. But this weapon never knew the meaning of life, because from the moment it was born, it was kept in a containment chamber."

"When it was finally released, it was controlled by that evil Team Rocket."

"Life in Team Rocket was miserable. Many people mocked it as a clone created from your hair."

"That made Mewtwo furious. It wanted to find you and fight you fair and square—to prove it was stronger than you. It’s not that it hates you out of spite. Mew—can you understand? Its existence was never its own choice."

Rio stopped there. Mew stared blankly at Mewtwo. Now it understood—everything. It could understand why Mewtwo resented it. It could also understand why Rio said Mew was, in a sense, its parent. Without Mew, Mewtwo wouldn’t exist.

Mewtwo also looked at Mew. Strangely, after hearing Rio’s words, the urge to fight had faded. It felt like the grievance it had buried deep inside had been voiced—by someone else—to the very being it had always wanted to confront.

[Mewtwo’s friendship has increased]

[Friendship: 27 (-40 → 27) ]

Hearing that, Rio breathed a sigh of relief. He had guessed right. He had been wondering why Mewtwo was so determined to fight Mew. Part of it was likely due to deep-seated resentment—its existence had never been its choice, and after it was born, Team Rocket members constantly compared it to Mew. So Mew had become an obsession—a way to prove itself.

But he couldn’t celebrate too soon. The next moment, Mewtwo’s voice returned:

"Now that you know the reason, Mew—come fight me somewhere. Let me find out who’s stronger."

Though the urge had lessened, it still wanted to fight—especially since it had already said so.

"Fine. If you want to fight, we’ll fight. I accept." Mew agreed. After all, Mewtwo’s resentment was understandable.

"Wait—hold on. I have one more thing to say. In my opinion, this fight is completely unnecessary." Rio quickly interjected.

"Why?"

"Why?"

Both Mewtwo and Mew responded telepathically at the same time.

"Simple: Mewtwo, you’re not at fault—you were forcibly created by humans. And Mew, you’re also not at fault—neither of you chose this situation. As the saying goes, ignorance is not a crime. You’re both ignorant, so you’re both innocent. The only guilty party is Team Rocket."

"It was all their doing. You should be taking it out on them."

"And..."

"And what?" Mewtwo asked.

Rio walked over and whispered in Mewtwo’s ear: "I can guarantee that you would win against Mew—you have Mega Evolution, and Mew is at best on par with Ho-Oh and Lugia. You’re already stronger than them. So you would definitely win. But even if you win, you’d still lose."

Mewtwo agreed with the first half, but the last sentence confused it.

"Why? Why would winning still be losing?"

"Because Mew is bound to the World’s Beginning Tree. If you defeat it and bring it to the brink of death, the World Tree will react—and the world will show signs of destruction. Do you want that to happen?"

"Bound to the world... hurting it would affect the Tree..." Mewtwo was swayed. If that was the case, there was indeed no need to fight.

Meanwhile, Mew looked at Rio and Mewtwo whispering suspiciously. "What are you two whispering about behind my back?"

Rio, having just finished with Mewtwo, walked over to Mew. "Nothing—Mewtwo just felt there was no need to fight after all, since you’re innocent too. But it didn’t know how to say it, so it was just toughing it out." Rio began his spinning.

"Mew, I was thinking—maybe you could give it a way out. You’ve lived for so long, while Mewtwo has only been around for twenty-something years. Compared to you, it’s an infant. Fighting it would be bullying the weak—not very dignified for an elder. Do you want that reputation?"

"You have a point." Mew nodded repeatedly. "I can’t be seen as a bully. So how should I give it an out?"

"Simple—just tell it you admit defeat, that you think it’s stronger than you. It’s straightforward—it’ll believe it."

So Mew conceded to Mewtwo: "I admit defeat. Rio just told me about your strength—I think you’re stronger than me."