Giratina left in an extremely unusual way of flying. Instead of simply flying through the sky like ordinary creatures, it opened a portal and dove into a special dimension that looked like pure nothingness.
"It's finally over. Zeraora, you sure were slow."
"Well, this is the underworld after all. The things I'm good at don't work on all these weird things. What was I supposed to do?"
Because of those ghost's characteristics, all of Zeraora's most powerful attacks were ineffective. Even though Dark-type moves allowed him to use some physical attacks, facing those countless souls made any progress painfully slow.
"Speaking of which, wasn't my mission supposed to be the tea party? It feels like I just got dragged into this."
Looking over at Darkrai, Zeraora realized something was off.
"It doesn't make a difference; it's not like it caused any impact anyway."
"That's true. I guess I should congratulate you on becoming unemployed."
"Unemployed?"
Darkrai found the phrase strange at first, but after thinking about it, it actually described his situation pretty well.
His original purpose for being created was to search for the underworld. Now, the underworld had been found, the lord of the underworld defeated, and the Spooky Plate had been taken by Giratina to give to Arceus.
This special mission assigned to Darkrai had officially come to an end.
He hadn't felt anything before, but now that Zeraora brought it up, Darkrai actually started to feel like he had nothing left to do.
"Do you have any new plans?"
"New plans… Tesoro, has there been any reaction from that thing inside Uta these years?"
Thinking it over, Darkrai realized he didn't really have any obsessions, except maybe for that Demon King of Songs.
"It's been very stable. It hasn't shown up again in all these years."
"That's a shame."
Once bitten, twice shy—the Demon King of Songs was thoroughly scared now. Plus, as Uta's mastery over her ability increased, the chances of the Demon King of Songs appearing became even lower.
But even if the chance came, the Demon King of Songs had no intention of trying again. It had made up its mind to wait until this host died and until Darkrai could no longer track it before making another appearance.
"Whatever, we'll deal with the future when it comes. Does anyone here know how to heal?"
For now, Darkrai gave up on any thoughts of "retirement plans." At least for the time being, it was impossible for him to retire just yet.
Out of all the Pokémon, Regice was probably the most idle. After the Summit War, with nothing to do, it went into hibernation, and now it was basically standing outside Zeraora's home, acting as a three-dimensional air conditioner.
He searched for the underworld for so many years, but his route kept shifting due to magnetic interference, visiting countless islands in the process, almost like a never-ending publicly funded vacation. Maybe, just maybe, he'd even been to Laugh Tale on one of those trips.
Once Arceus arrived, there was bound to be new work assigned.
Rather than worrying about the future, it was better to deal with the present.
Because he got lost again, Zoro, by sheer chance, had gone from wandering the periphery to heading toward the center. At this point, he had no idea how meaningful losing his way would turn out to be.
Because Kuina had been affected during the previous underworld disturbance. The suddenly erupting deep icy springs was a bone-piercing chill to the living, capable of freezing them to the core of their soul, and was even more terrifying for the dead.
For souls living in the underworld, it was like an incurable disease. Even a little contact could spell big trouble.
The icy spring that splashed onto Kuina's arm had already had an effect. Darkrai didn't know what sort of connection existed between this human and this spirit, but considering Zoro had just done a lot of hard labor for them, he figured he should step in.
"Uh, do you think spirits can take medicine?"
"Obviously not."
"Then there's nothing we can do."
For this group, fighting was never a problem. Whether alive or dead, anyone who dared provoke them would get taken down.
There's no problem when it comes to doing business, or even handling all sorts of everyday little troubles. The only thing they couldn't deal with is medical issues, especially when it comes to spirits, which are rare beings to begin with.
"Forget it, I'll handle it."
Seeing that their team didn't have a healer, Darkrai could only resort to the most straightforward method.
But that couldn't be helped. No normal person ever plans on how to treat a spirit before setting out. Usually, if anyone gets hurt, they have enough medicine on hand, Meowna can set bones if needed, and Zeraora can even act as a living defibrillator.
Whether it's restarting a heart or electrocuting something until it's well-done, he can do it all.
But when it comes to spirit-form Kuina, Darkrai could only take matters into his own hands.
"Green hair, step aside a bit. You can't help with her situation. Leave it to me."
With that, Darkrai directly enveloped Kuina in Dark Void, pulling her into a dream and then beginning to eat the dream.
For the living, eating dreams just drains their stamina and leaves them mentally fatigued.
But for souls, the part consumed during dream-eating is literally part of their body. This was Darkrai's rather rough form of treatment: he would devour the portion affected by the icy spring, then use the power of the underworld to reconstruct what was lost.
The land of the dead is a nation where souls can live freely. These souls don't need food or water; they rely on the sustenance of the underworld itself.
And that sustenance comes from deceased souls. When a soul disperses, what's left of it merges into the underworld, becoming its nourishment, thus becoming nourishment for new souls.
Now that the lord of the underworld was gone, Darkrai could use his own power to control these things.
While treating Kuina, Darkrai and Zoro were also sizing each other up.
Zoro was recalling memories, while Darkrai was communicating.
He wasn't a Ghost-type Pokémon, but he could travel through space, control dreams, and had a unique understanding of telepathic communication.
Rotom communication devices were an internal communication tool exclusive to the Beasts Pirates, and Rotom itself was a Ghost-type.
At this moment, the Rotom residing in the Rotom Phone carried by Zeraora was using its special signals to transmit information about Zoro to Darkrai.
"Sky Island. Bat-Man. Soul King Brook. So that's how it is."
Originally, Darkrai's impression of Zoro was just that he was someone who always got lost. But with the extra info from Rotom, he realized they actually had a fair number of connections.
"You—"
"You finally found the underworld, huh? Looks like it took you a long time. It must've been rough."
Before Darkrai could finish speaking, Zoro raised a question instead. Zoro had an issue with only one eye and hadn't gone blind, and could clearly see what Kuina's situation was.
Seeing Kuina's spirit gradually recovering, and noticing how close Darkrai was with Zeraora and the others from the Beasts Pirates, Zoro decided to casually chat a bit.
To him, searching endlessly for a place and never finding it was a painful thing; he knew that feeling well. If he'd found the way back to Shimotsuki Village a few years earlier, maybe there wouldn't even be a pirate hunter on this sea anymore.
But when Darkrai heard these words, it almost felt like Zoro was mocking him for being directionally challenged. After all, people care the most about what they lack, and Darkrai had always been sensitive about topics involving sense of direction.
"Kid, if you'd said that at another time, I'd have had a serious talk with you about it."
It wouldn't necessarily be a battle of strength. If Darkrai bore a grudge against someone, making them have nightmares for several years would be totally normal. Zoro, however, didn't catch the hidden meaning in Darkrai's words.
"I'd welcome that, actually. Even though you're not a swordsman, I bet you're a ridiculously strong monster, aren't you?"
From the moment he started sailing these seas, Zoro was ready to challenge the strong. Even if it meant dying, he would never back down.
"A guy with courage… You're a pirate too, aren't you? How about flying our flag? You've got the strength for it now."
"Why? Just because I moved that stone for you? Speaking of which, what was that dragon anyway? Was it born from the stone?"
"Originally, you would never have had this kind of chance in your life, but thanks to a twist of fate, you got lucky. This is an opportunity that most people wouldn't get in their entire lives.
It's still a long way from making a wish, but a reasonable request shouldn't be a problem.
You don't realize just how precious this opportunity is."
"You mean flying the pirate flag? Our captain is pretty stubborn. He'd never fly someone else's flag, and I can't make that decision for him."
Even if the captain acts like an idiot a lot of the time, he's still the one who calls the shots while sailing. That's Zoro's logic: since he acknowledges Luffy as captain, he's got to look out for Luffy's interests.
No matter how many dumb things Luffy does, he must stick with him to the end.
"A reasonable request, huh… I honestly can't think of anything I want. If I had to say, could you guys bring the dead back to life?"
"You're really in love with that little girl, aren't you?"
"Don't talk nonsense. She's just my rival. Without her, even if I became the world's greatest swordsman, it'd still feel like something was missing. If there's a chance, why not try? But something like that is basically impossible, right?"
"I've got your request. If there's a chance, maybe you'll meet her again."
Just as Darkrai finished speaking, there was a sudden change in the underworld—a strange wave swept across the entire place, and the living who had wandered in also sensed the shift. The underworld was now rejecting them.
Zoro had just seen Kuina's spirit fully restored when this force sent him out of the underworld. When he came to his senses, he found himself already back on the Sunny.
This didn't just happen to him. It happened to every living person who was still in the underworld.
"Looks like it's time, Brook. Keep sailing on with your new companions. Our journey ended a long time ago, but you are different!"
Aboard the Rumbar Pirates' ship, Yorki shouted his final words and watched Brook and the others depart.
Elsewhere in the underworld, because of the spatial chaos, the Room of Treasure that the Big Mom Pirates had heavily guarded was exposed, letting the lost Luffy get his hands on a Poneglyph rubbing.
Hiriluk sent Chopper off with a smile. Rosinante tried to shake Law's hand, but in the end it just passed right through. Like that, the living all left one by one.
And in front of Sora, the bodies of the Vinsmoke family also began to disappear. Sanji used his own strength to show Judge who the real "failure" was, but in front of Sora, they kept things to a limit.
Just as they were about to leave, Judge suddenly tossed two items at Sanji, a black canister and an armband appeared before him.
"Germa technology. Stealth Black. Use it or don't, it's up to you."
With the force pushing them out, the only living left in the underworld were the Beasts Pirates, all thanks to Giratina.
Not long before, after traveling through space, Giratina appeared before Arceus.
"Father God, the thing you sought has been found, and the life that dared to lay hands on your possession has been ended."
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