After glancing at each other, the left and right heads of Zweilous both looked at the Poké Ball in Sato's hand. The left head leaned forward and lightly tapped the Poké Ball.
A flash of red light later, the figure of Zweilous disappeared from the cave. The six heavy chains crashed to the ground, kicking up clouds of dust, their weight evident.
The Poké Ball in Sato's hand didn't shake at all. It immediately emitted a "ding."
Zweilous…
Caught!
Sato held the brand-new Poké Ball tightly, overwhelmed with excitement, almost wanting to shout aloud.
'…Zoroark, Pupitar, Umbreon, and now Zweilous.'
Scenes from his previous life that had nearly faded were now rushing vividly back into his mind.
A flood of emotions surged.
"I'm still very curious, you're just a child, yet your accumulation and control of Dark Energy is so advanced, even mastering memory sharing?"
"Wilma!" Sato quickly stood up.
He had been lost in thought due to his chaotic emotions and had forgotten that there was someone else present.
As for "memory sharing," that was likely what he himself had called Soul Connection.
"Forget it." Seeing Sato's reluctance to explain, Wilma didn't press further. She turned and pointed to the Poké Ball containing Zweilous in Sato's hand.
"This child was always fated to meet you and become your partner. That's why I brought you here directly."
"Thank you, Wilma." Sato offered sincere gratitude. Zweilous was a pseudo-legendary second-stage Pokémon, forget ten million Pokédollars, even ten times that wouldn't be enough to buy one.
"Don't get too excited yet. The way you caught it was far too convenient and fast. I didn't even have the chance to tell you. This child's potential is undeniable, but it carries a massive risk within its body."
"Risk?" Sato looked visibly tense, though inwardly he was perfectly calm.
And as expected, what Wilma said next matched what Sato had already anticipated: Zweilous had conflicting attributes within its body. Because the two minds shared one body, there were often internal energy clashes that led to frenzied outbursts.
Moreover, the higher a Zweilous's potential, the more likely it was to go berserk. Once it lost control, its destructive power would increase dramatically, indiscriminately attacking everything around it.
Even more critical, Zweilous must find its true self amid those outbursts, its two minds must ultimately unify. That was the necessary condition for evolution.
If Dragonair and Pupitar required repeated painful shedding and long-term accumulation to finally evolve into the genuine pseudo-legendaries Dragonite and Tyranitar…
Then what Zweilous needed, in addition to long accumulation, was to allow the two minds within its body to fully unify amid chaos and madness, to merge into one.
The truly dangerous part was that with each frenzy, Zweilous's destructive power increased because it burned through large amounts of its potential.
In other words, if Zweilous couldn't achieve unification within a limited number of berserk episodes, once its innate potential was exhausted, it would be unable to evolve… ever.
In comparison, for Zweilous to become a true pseudo-legendary, it was perhaps even more difficult than for Pupitar.
"So, whenever Zweilous goes berserk, I need to channel Dark Energy to help it stabilize its rampaging inner energy?"
Sato acted like he understood nothing and asked Wilma for "guidance", but inside, he was bursting with joy.
As if he didn't know that going berserk would consume potential; Sato "once again" acted completely unaware.
In his past life, when he captured Zweilous, it already possessed Elite Four-level Dark-type potential. Its Dragon-type potential had been unknown.
Now, at the very least, it couldn't be worse than that, right? Thinking of this, Sato could only sigh to himself, 'Ah, youth really is wonderful!'
"Yes, and this is exactly what I meant when I said you and it were bound by fate," Wilma said with a tinge of emotion.
"Mhm, I understand," Sato replied aloud, though internally he was thinking of something else entirely.
In his previous life, it had been 20 years before Sato met Zweilous.
During that time, Zweilous had endured repeated episodes of frenzied agony, and its potential had been greatly diminished as a result.
'But Wilma also possessed Dark Energy. Couldn't she have helped Zweilous?'
Sato hadn't thought of this before due to his excitement, but now that he had calmed down, the memory returned to him.
Zweilous had clearly been chained up in that cave… why? As Sato realized this, he could barely suppress his rage, though he could only lower his head, doing so to avoid letting Wilma notice anything was off.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking… becoming strong has never been easy," Sato rasped out, disguising his voice.
Inside, the joy had already been completely repressed, replaced only by deep caution.
"When we return, I'll teach you how to train your Dark Energy. Naturally, that will also include how to help Zweilous stabilize its energy."
"Alright… thank you," Sato replied hoarsely.
Wilma nodded, unconcerned, then turned and walked out of the cave, heading back to the Village of Dragons.
Sato carefully secured Zweilous's Poké Ball onto his battle belt, then silently followed her.
Half an hour later, both Sato and Wilma had returned to the village. During that time, Sato had fully calmed down and thought through the entire situation.
Wilma had known about Zweilous's unique nature. She also knew its Trainer would become the next wielder of Dark Energy.
And according to what Wilma had said, the wielder following Sato would eventually return to the Village of Dragons.
So, imprisoning Zweilous for some "reason" and keeping it away from Sato…
Was that a way of weakening Sato indirectly, in order to accelerate the rise of the next wielder?
But now, Sato had arrived at the Village of Dragons as a "prodigy", showing clear intent, which had drawn Wilma's attention. She had mistakenly assumed that Sato already knew he would receive Zweilous.
Combined with Sato's immense talent, and the fact that aside from Ryoko, everyone in his group possessed special abilities; such a lineup clearly alarmed Wilma, making her wary of acting rashly for fear of provoking the unknown powers behind them.
So she simply went with the flow and handed Zweilous over to Sato directly.
She even offered Dark Energy training methods as a bonus, hoping to increase Sato's goodwill toward the village -and toward her- shifting from suppression to cooperation and recruitment.
That was how the adult world played its games, and clearly, Wilma -whose age was unknown- was very familiar with these tactics. Sato had nearly been moved by it.
But no matter how much she schemed, Wilma would never guess that Sato had returned from a previous life and had once personally witnessed the look of sorrow and helplessness in Zweilous's eyes after being imprisoned for 20 years.