Chapter Twenty-Eight: King for a Day, Renowned for a Hundred Generations

“No, this net is too small, and the force points seem off.”
The feeling in his hands grew stranger and stranger—it wasn’t so much lifting as it was prying!
Zhuyuehan spoke up: “Does anyone have a Psychic-type Pokémon? Or, Abi, can you send Scizor and the others into the water? Otherwise, I’m going to have Lapras blast the entire area!”
One heavy-duty Surf and it’ll be pulled out—I want to see just what weighs so much!
Abi didn’t hesitate; he raised a hand. “Go, Pinsir! Heracross! Scizor! Get in there and help!”
Officer Junsha and her squad stood off to the side, at a loss. Their partners, after all, weren’t suited for this environment—Growlithe couldn’t do much here.
“Woo!”
Lapras’s eyes glowed with a dazzling blue, and under her influence, the water parted to create a calm zone, allowing the three new helpers to enter safely.
Rumble!
The entire lake shook violently, and Zhuyuehan instantly felt the pressure in his hands lighten.
“Well done, everyone.”
Come on, lift!
Zhuyuehan and Chansey exerted themselves together. With a stumble, the bug-catching net shot skyward, sending both man and egg tumbling backwards.
“Chansey!”
“Go, Growlithe!”
Joy caught her partner, while Growlithe barked and dashed over, bracing Zhuyuehan and giving him a moment to recover.
“Wow, we really are prying something up.”
Zhuyuehan patted Growlithe’s head. “Thanks. I’d rather not have to do laundry.”
Growlithe wagged its tail. “Woof.”
“Woo-woo.”
Lapras slid closer, craning her neck to inspect Zhuyuehan from head to toe.
“I’m fine.”
Zhuyuehan glanced over the explosive chaos. “Abi, you told me to do this, so you’re taking the blame.”
Abi’s mouth twitched. “How could I set you up? Don’t worry.”
The surface of the water churned again as the three Bug-types swam back to shore, faces twisted in exasperation—they looked utterly overwhelmed by the weight of the massive gray object they were dragging.
“Let us handle it.”
Officer Junsha and her arrest team rushed forward to help, but the moment their hands touched the object, their expressions matched those of the Bug-types—the urge to shout encouragement abandoned them.
It really was heavy!
“What is this thing? The weight is just absurd.”
Leaning against Lapras, Zhuyuehan fished a few translucent energy cubes from his incense burner to restore himself.
“These are for you, Lapras.”
Too lazy to move, he tossed them up from where he sat, and Lapras caught them with flawless coordination, swallowing them and closing her eyes in satisfaction.
Abi was feeding his own Pokémon energy cubes as well, while he and the others looked to Zhuyuehan.
“See? I told you—once my friend gets involved, there will be results.”
Zhuyuehan nodded lazily. “Yes, yes, you’re always right.”
“If anything like this happens again, I’d suggest you bring a Machamp along to anchor the team. Otherwise, there’s no telling what could happen.”
The Slowpoke Well was small enough, but if this was the Snowpeak Temple or Mount Coronet ruins, no single person could hope to move such artifacts without a squad of muscle-bound Pokémon.
“What is this, does anyone know?”
At Junsha’s question, Abi circled the giant stone, hand at his chin, then shook his head.
“Other than the shape being a bit off, I can’t see anything unusual.”
You couldn’t just have a Pokémon use a move on it to see what happened—that would amount to destroying a relic.
“You really don’t recognize it?”

Zhuyuehan poured a handful of crystal-clear energy beads into his palm—his own handiwork, a reminder to bring ample supplies next time he traveled.
Abi’s eyes lit up. “Just tell us, what is it?”
He was a living relic himself; it was hardly surprising he knew some ancient secrets.
“That’s the shell from a Slowking’s head. If you can’t tell, step back and look at the whole thing from my perspective.”
Abi: ?
Everyone immediately stepped back, with Abi crouching to gaze upward.
Sure enough, the shape was just like the shell atop a Slowking’s head!
“But a shell this size… that can’t be right.”
Abi was stunned. “By proportion, that Slowking—counting the shell—would be as tall as a two-story house! You must be joking!”
“That’s not even big. Not really.”
Zhuyuehan explained, “There used to be a mysterious technique—maybe some sort of strange radiation or magnetic field. Pokémon exposed to it would grow to incredible sizes—mountainous, even.”
A classic ancient Pokémon trope.
When in doubt, blame ancient technology. Or a mysterious virus. Or a meteorite—though that usually means a brand new Pokémon.
Oh, and mad scientists—never mind how they did it, the villains always manage to weaponize a scientist’s work.
Wilder still, there are Pokémon from space, with Deoxys as the prime example.
Or Necrozma, from an alternate dimension.
In any case, these so-called “visitors” are always ready to throw a punch.
A two-story Slowking is nothing—wait until Ash sets out on his travels and you see Gengar and Alakazam as tall as mountains.
So, having an elder in the party really is a treasure, even if this one doesn’t look old.
Abi pondered, “Reasoning by standard logic, this must be an ancient relic—what’s left of a Slowking after its life ended?”
“Doesn’t seem so.”
Zhuyuehan and Joy shook their heads in unison. “It’s probably not a relic.”
Junsha’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you say that?”
“If it were a relic, Slowpoke Well wouldn’t just be a place for Slowpoke to drink—it would be a site of worship, an ancient tribal tradition.”
Zhuyuehan continued, “Just as wild Pokémon gather to see who’s fastest or strongest, communities show respect for the departed.”
Joy added, “So, I’m more inclined to believe this is a spiritual symbol. If that legendary downpour really happened, this shell would be the ‘miracle’ left by Slowking.”
Abi touched the shell. “So the question is: how do we prove this is a true historical artifact and not some modern craftwork? The Dark Team won’t accept it without evidence.”
“Just bring a Slowpoke over and test it. See if they have a special reaction to the shell—and, of course, set aside the King’s Rock I pulled up.”
That was indeed a solution.
Time had already passed; once it was certain the Dark Team wouldn’t show, Junsha and her squad took the minor players back, leaving Joy and Abi on standby.
Zhuyuehan—strictly speaking—had no business here, but it was only because of his involvement that these odd developments had unfolded.
So Junsha let him be. If this young man could discover something even more valuable, that would be a huge win.
“That’s it, nothing left, not a drop more.”
Zhuyuehan refused flatly. “Rather than asking me, you’d be better off studying your own research notes and thinking about how not to embarrass your mentor and Azalea Gym.”
“It’s already late. If I weren’t so curious, I wouldn’t be here playing night owl with you.”
Fortunately, Junsha was efficient; soon, one of her subordinates carried in a drowsy Slowpoke, its white tail swaying with each step.
“Yaa, dong?”
The Slowpoke blinked at the pace of a slothful civil servant, baffled as to why it had been woken and carried over.
“Put Slowpoke down and let’s step back.”
The living relic and Joy began directing, one ready with an energy cube, the other clutching a healing spray.
“Yaa, dong?”

Slowpoke glanced at the shell, shuffled over, tilted its head, and—breaking from its usual sluggishness—promptly lay down, soon snoring softly, a bubble inflating at its nostril.
Zhuyuehan: ?
So this “snoring bubble” really was a thing.
But then, the shell began to glow with a gentle blue light. Lapras, face serious, moved to shield Zhuyuehan, while Scizor positioned itself before Abi like a loyal knight.
Bzzzzz—
Waves of light rippled outward in all directions, and everywhere the glow touched, the scenery changed—the water even dried and cracked as though in a drought.
Zhuyuehan raised an eyebrow. As a traveler from the information age, his mind was quick to adapt.
So, it required a Slowpoke to trigger this special mechanism—a “scene replay.”
The Slowpoke came here to drink, but given their nature, they had no idea this was anything like a pilgrimage!
“Yaa, dong.”
In the vision, the massive shell had become a protruding stone. A Slowpoke wearing the King’s Rock surveyed its surroundings, flanked by exhausted Pokémon of all types.
Slowpoke descended from the stone and entered the midst of a group of Shellder, its eyes fixed on the largest of them.
“Yadong.”
“Gulu.”
Resolute, the Shellder blew a bubble at its kin, then crawled atop Slowpoke’s head, biting down to envelop the King’s Rock and Slowpoke’s crown in its shell.
The light of evolution shone forth. The four-legged Slowpoke rose upright, transformed into a Slowking, and gazed up at the sky.
A bubble floated from Slowking’s mouth. The sage of the sea closed its eyes as psychic and water energies surged, gathering into the bubble overhead.
Abi was astonished. “So, using Rest to recover while summoning Rain Dance… Psychic-types really are outrageous.”
Crash!
Clouds gathered, thunder boomed, and torrents of rain hammered down like a wall of water upon the world.
The Pokémon around were jubilant; the revived Grass-types emitted pure energy, spreading a lush Grassy Terrain that, together with the rain, repaired the land.
As the rain and grass spread, the Slowking’s body swelled ever larger, only stopping when the downpour eased.
“Yadong.”
Slowking surveyed its work and watched as the Shellder clan, now in the river, prepared to depart, wearing a simple, contented smile.
The Shellder, reluctant to leave their king, circled for a last look.
“Yadong.”
Both those inside the vision and those observing were stunned by what followed.
Slowking removed its crown shell. A glow enveloped it as a tiny bivalve Pokémon emerged from the large crown shell, still dazed by the change.
Save for the unchanged crown shell, Slowking’s body shrank, returning gradually to its standard size.
“It devolved—willingly! Self-induced de-evolution!”
Joy was dumbfounded; this defied everything she’d learned.
Pokémon could resist evolution, but de-evolution by choice—she’d never seen it!
“Yadong.”
Slowking raised its right hand and, with its last psychic power, sent the Shellder back to its clan. Unable to remain upright, it resumed the behavior of a typical Slowpoke.
The enormous crown shell fell with a thud into the depths, and the Slowpoke, now king again, tilted its head, only reacting five seconds later as if startled by the shell’s splash.
The Shellder circled the Slowpoke a few times, then departed with the current.
Slowpoke watched the Shellder and other Pokémon leave, then leisurely found a stone, climbed atop, let its tail dangle into the water, and began snoring again, the bubble at its nose reappearing.
“Yaa, dong~”