Divine Plan? But I'm a Pokémon trainer.

Chapter 362 May Day Special: "The Great Fox Thief Under the Moonlight" - The Phantom Thief's Announcement
Watching the celebrations aside, the meetings with the Queen and the banquets were rather boring.

Link considered whether to breed a Ditto to solve the problem, but quickly realized that the best way was to simply refuse in the first place.

Thus, amidst the festive atmosphere of the celebration, the day for the tournament soon arrived.

Tourists from the Kanto region and from around the world (though not many) dressed up and signed up for the competition, beginning their quest for the title of Aura Hero.

Link, as a special guest, met Queen Irene, who had inherited the throne of Ordron.

Queen Irene welcomed trainers like him to settle down and made things easy for them in many ways.

Eileen was especially curious about the other person, who had traveled all over the world.

“I heard that the Harmonian royal family of the United States withdrew from the scene a long time ago. It’s strange that Kanto still retains the privileges and status of a king in this era.”

Actually, they've been trying to restore the monarchy over there lately, Link thought to himself.

However, this was not something that could be made public. With his mind completely focused on the tournament, he simply echoed, "Hmm, it is indeed unbelievable that places like Rota Street and Orudron City, which are not much bigger than rural areas, can be considered countries, and the rulers even call themselves queens."

The conversation died down in an instant.

Upon hearing this, Queen Eileen was speechless and could only smile silently.

Judging from the actual situation, this seems to be the case.

The maid standing to the side hesitated, but ultimately said nothing more.

Monini, who was beside the Queen, also imitated the two of them, looking rather complicated.

As the mask changed and a pink coat appeared on Ergui Peng, he blinked. Wait a minute, when did Monini split in two...?

……

Meanwhile, in the Hoenn region.

More than a month later, many viewers and trainers are still unable to get over those two battles.

The battle between the ancient Pokémon and an even more incredible being was truly breathtaking, making one wonder just how powerful the legendary being that defeated the prime Groudon and Kyogre single-handedly must have been.

It is said that four years ago, researchers from Larus City were caught up in a battle between Rayquaza and a certain Pokémon during a scientific expedition to the Icefield. They were also affected by the aftermath of their battle and nearly met with misfortune.

Fortunately, Dr. Lundo's expedition team survived and later recovered the body of a Pokémon that had been killed by Rayquaza.

In recent years, scholars have been studying the remains of that elf and are almost at the point of a major breakthrough.

However, at this critical juncture, an unbelievable accident occurred.

A phantom thief's notice was sent to the research institute, claiming he would exchange the jade branch of Penglai for Dr. Lundo's treasured possession—

"When the jade mirror hangs perfectly high to the west of the Purple Palace, the moon's radiance will flow from the seventh eaves."

"When the midnight dew soaks through the third drumbeat, the other shore flowers will naturally form a rainbow bridge beneath the Shadowless Palace."

"I will keep my promise when the reunited ones raise their heads to sip the fine wine, and exchange the jade branch plucked from Penglai for the moon's tear that sleeps in the crystal niche."

The abrupt and unsubstantiated announcement was quickly dismissed as a prank by the researchers, but the PhD student, whose research had recently made progress, couldn't help but notice it... What if it was real?

To be honest, as a science student, he couldn't quite understand this "preliminary notice." But "that thing" was a secret of the Hoenn League, and absolutely no mistakes could be tolerated.

Therefore, Dr. Lundo promptly contacted the Alliance and reported the matter.

Perhaps due to the league's excessive attention to it, or perhaps for some personal reasons, it was actually Steven, the champion of the Hoenn League, who specially returned from the Kanto region to take over this matter...

"Dr. Lundo, it's been a long time. I've heard about what happened at the research institute. May I take a look at that phantom thief's notice?"

Daigo, who flew in from the Kanto region in a flurry of activity, arrived at the scene without even having time to change his clothes.

Seeing this, Dr. Lundo couldn't help but admire the dedication of the Hoenn League champion, who was so conscientious in helping their researchers solve such trivial matters.

Overwhelmed with emotion, the doctor quickly retrieved the document: "The notice is here. This is utterly absurd."

As Daigo received the notice and was about to browse the code on it, he noticed a simple drawing next to the text on the card—a cartoonish fox thief.

The Great Fox Thief...

Upon seeing this simple line drawing, Daigo's face immediately darkened, and he subconsciously recalled someone's fox that was exceptionally good at "borrowing" things.

Compared to the fox thief in front of me, that one is the real fox thief.

Could this be related to someone?
Daigo shook his head. That person was probably too lazy to go through such fancy procedures, so he looked at the code on the notice.

"When the jade mirror hangs perfectly high to the west of the Purple Palace Enclosure, the moon's radiance will flow from the seventh eaves of the mortal realm..."

As a result, he was completely stumped right from the start: "What is Ziwei Yuan? What does 'west of Ziwei Yuan' mean? And what's the deal with the seven-tiered eaves?"

Upon hearing this, Dr. Lundo helplessly shrugged; he had no idea about this.

Daigo shook his head with a wry smile: "It seems he really is a 'phantom' thief..."

In any case, these less common texts can be set aside for now; they can try to decipher the simpler parts first.

First of all, the "jade mirror" clearly refers to the moon, and the phrase "the jade mirror is perfectly round and high in the sky" naturally refers to a night with a full moon.

And when "the dew of midnight soaks through the third drumbeat" and "the reunion is when the people look up and sip their fine wine," it is naturally the time when the phantom thief will steal the treasure.

As for "fulfilling the promise," "the jade branch of Penglai," and "the moon's tears in the crystal shrine," they seem to be hinting at characters from a story in the Sinnoh region.

"Hmm... Even without reasoning, we can get the answer. The person who sent the notice is probably going to take away the legendary 'Princess Kaguya' from the moon palace on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Princess Kaguya does not exist in reality, but Dr. Rondo's research institute contains another object from space: the Deoxys remains, which shine as brightly as the legendary girl (at least in Daigo's eyes).

Upon hearing from Daigo that the Phantom Thief's target was indeed the remains of Deoxys, Dr. Rondo was immediately glad that he had reported the matter to the League.

"Now that we know their target, I'll immediately order people to strengthen security. We absolutely cannot let them steal Deoxys!"

Watching the departing professor, Daigo felt that this matter was somewhat difficult.

After all, current human technology cannot lock or anchor space to prevent techniques such as "teleportation" and "magic tricks" from taking effect; at most, it can only interfere by generating evil energy.

(End of this chapter)