[Lance: Wait a minute… Let me check… Sammy's drawing is in Professor Oak's possession. In other words, Professor Oak is Sammy?]
[Delia: Hmph, everyone in the world calls him Professor Oak. I'm afraid he's long forgotten that his real name is Samuel Oak. But old man… this happened to you when you were a child. Why didn't I ever hear you mention it?]
[Professor Oak: Hey~ These are just minor details, not worth mentioning, haha.]
[Ash: Ah!? Professor Oak is Sammy? Samuel Oak?! What the—! Professor Oak, you lied to me!!!]
[Professor Oak: Hey, kid, watch your language. Where did I lie to you?]
[Ash: Me...]
Ash thought for a moment and found… Professor Oak really hadn't lied to him. When he called Professor Oak back then,
the Professor had just said—"No matter how far apart you are in time, no matter if you're in the same space, you and Sammy will be friends forever."
Was there anything wrong with that?
Nothing at all!
Because he was Sammy himself!
That's why Professor Oak said he and Sammy would be friends forever!
Forty years had passed, but Professor Oak hadn't forgotten him!
Therefore… Professor Oak did not lie to him.
[Gary: Grandpa… you actually kept this from me?! That's too much!]
[Professor Oak: How is that 'keeping it from you'? You never even asked!]
[Gary: Me...]
[Diantha: Well, let me do the math… Ash and the young Professor Oak are buddies, which means he and the Professor are buddies. In other words, Gary should call Ash 'Uncle'?]
[Ash: ? ? ?]
[Gary: ? ? ?]
No… how in the world did you calculate that? Can you even calculate seniority like that?
But… Ash thought about Gary calling him 'Uncle'… hey, why did that feel so inexplicably satisfying?
[Ash: Gary, call me 'Uncle'! After all, I'm your elder now, so you have to respect your elders!]
[Gary: Bull! Get a grip, Ash! If you pull this 'uncle' crap, I won't even consider you a rival!]
Gary was a little confused.
I regard you as my brother and rival. Why do you want to be my uncle??
Dammit, if we meet at the Silver Conference, you're definitely not getting off easy!
[Lance: Hahaha, this is really interesting. But to be honest, since Ash and the young Professor Oak know each other, Professor Oak must have recognized Ash when he saw him in Pallet Town, right?]
[Professor Oak: Yes. Actually, Delia happens to be my student. When Ash was three or four years old, I could tell he looked very similar to my friend from back then.]
[Professor Oak: As I got older, I became more and more certain that Ash was the one I met back then, my forever friend.]
Professor Oak didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed.
Age didn't matter when it came to making friends. Even though he was now Ash's elder… everyone had their own path!
You could call him brother, and you could call his grandson brother. It didn't affect anything.
[Ash: Wait, wait… Mom is Professor Oak's student?! I didn't know that!]
[Delia: Ash, you need to be smart when you go out, otherwise you might get tricked.~]
[Misty: Don't worry, Mrs. Ketchum, with Brock and I watching, we won't let Ash get kidnapped.]
[Ash: What!! I won't be kidnapped… and what does this have to do with being smart! How could I have imagined my mom and Professor Oak had that kind of relationship…]
[Gary: Idiot, do you really think my grandfather runs a charity Pokémon shelter? Your Pokémon were basically raised by my grandpa until they were white and fat.]
[Gary: And not just in terms of care, but also in combat literacy, battle prowess, and level—they all grew steadily in my grandfather's backyard… You don't think everyone gets that kind of treatment, do you?]
[Gary: To get by, you need connections and background! Even if it's Black Ash, if you made him raise twenty or thirty Pokémon by himself… do you think he'd have that much energy? Do you have any idea how much effort my grandpa put in?]
[Gary: But when you get down to it… I thought grandpa was going all out for you because of my sake. Turns out… I thought too much.]
Gary rubbed his head speechlessly.
In fact, not only Ash was having trouble processing this; even he, a top trainer (self-proclaimed) known for his high IQ (self-proclaimed), was a little overwhelmed.
This information was a bit too much.
Ash and his grandfather were buddies when his grandfather was a kid.
Ash's mother, Delia, was his grandfather's student.
This was why his grandfather went above and beyond for Ash…
Back when he noticed his grandfather treating Ash differently, he'd thought it was because Ash was his fierce rival.
Now it seems… he may have thought too highly of himself.
At the same time, Ash was no exception… He was holding his head now, pondering the information he'd just received.
He had entered a state of… Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?
The information in the live broadcast room was too much for his brain—which had basically no IQ except for battling—to process.
After a while, Ash finally calmed down under Misty and Brock's analysis and persuasion.
[Ash: So… Professor Oak is so good to me entirely because of my mother and me, right?…]
[Professor Oak: Haha, that's probably most of it. I can't let my student and my friend raise Pokémon entirely at their own expense, right? And Ash, the Pokémon you send back are very interesting. I'm actually quite optimistic about you.]
[Professor Oak: Even if we set aside all the personal connections, you are definitely a trainer who can stand on your own!]
[Ash: Professor Oak...]
Ash was almost moved to tears.
The Professor was truly his forever friend!
This was proof of trusting friends!
But then again...
[Ash: Professor Oak, my Pikachu… you left it for me on purpose, right?]
[Professor Oak: Haha, that's not certain~]
Professor Oak didn't admit it, but it didn't matter anymore.
Regardless of whether he admitted it or not, Ash already had the answer in his heart.
He looked at Pikachu sitting in his arms, and Pikachu looked back at him.
He originally thought it was just a coincidence, but he hadn't expected… the bond between them was destined long ago… On that day, Ash believed that even if he hadn't been late, his starter would still have been Pikachu!
Was this… fate?
Just as everyone was discussing Professor Oak and the Celebi/Ash incident, the black screen image finally began to play.
Everyone in the world had almost forgotten about the live broadcast, mainly because they'd been discussing for so long while the black screen stayed dark, as if deliberately leaving them time to talk...
[Lance: Speaking of which… Team Rocket in the Black World has been disbanded. Both the Lugia incident and the Celebi incident would have involved Team Rocket, right?]
[Lance: Without them… how would those events have turned out in the end?]
[Cynthia: You're wrong, Lance… The world doesn't stop spinning just because one person is missing, and Team Rocket won't completely fall apart just because they're missing Giovanni.]
[Cynthia: Although Giovanni is in prison,… Dr. Namba and Vicious are clearly not the die-hard loyalist type. The former just needs funding for his research, and the latter is even scheming on how to compete with Giovanni for control of Team Rocket!]
[Cynthia: In the end, Giovanni passed the information to the one named Apollo, not the one named Vicious.]
[Cynthia: Giovanni must have noticed some of Vicious's movements… So, in the Black World, Team Rocket's activities might not stop!]
Lance fell silent.
The centipede dies but never stiffens. Giovanni's departure really couldn't destroy Team Rocket!
And that guy named Vicious…
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Without Giovanni's checks and balances, in the Black World, he might even take the initiative to seize power and replace Apollo as the new leader of Team Rocket.
Thinking of this, Lance involuntarily clenched his fists and looked at the screen.
Was there really no way to eradicate these criminal organizations?
...
In a Black World – The Clear Cliff incident was over. Ash and his team continued toward Ecruteak City.
However… the subsequent impact of Clear Cliff was far from over.
Because Ash was a person involved, Lance would also relay the general situation to Ash.
First of all, Team Rocket had indeed begun to fall apart because of Giovanni.
Lance didn't know how many people had joined because of Giovanni's charisma, but in short, Team Rocket had begun to disband on his orders. Countless people left Team Rocket, but compared to the entire organization, they weren't actually that many.
The final result—according to the League's estimates, about 40% of Team Rocket had left. And judging from Giovanni's continued contact with Team Rocket from prison, Team Rocket now seemed to have split into two factions!
The first faction was led by Apollo.
Since Giovanni had personally asked him to disband Team Rocket,
Apollo was also seen as the legitimate successor of Team Rocket!
He also didn't want his Team Rocket to be completely disbanded, so he worked hard to gather those willing to stay with Team Rocket.
Therefore, Apollo's faction was also called the orthodox Team Rocket!
Then there was a faction led by a man named Vicious.
This man named Vicious was a top executive of Team Rocket!
In terms of position, he was even higher than Apollo!
However, Giovanni didn't trust him and didn't even let him convey the order to disband Team Rocket.
As expected, Vicious rebelled.
In his words… this wasn't called rebellion, but a stern declaration that he had backed the wrong person!
A coward like Giovanni, who voluntarily surrendered to the police, wasn't worthy of being followed by him, nor by everyone in Team Rocket!
So… Vicious rose up and gathered those Team Rocket members who were wavering and even hated Giovanni!
He wanted to build a brand new Team Rocket.
From then on, his organization's name wouldn't be Team Rocket, but—Team Universe.
How to put it… In Lance's opinion, this name was really tacky.
The man named Vicious must have lived in Giovanni's shadow for too long, which was why he chose this name. After all, the focus of Team Rocket was on the universe. That's why he used 'Universe' as his name, hoping to escape from Team Rocket's image, but this approach undoubtedly seemed very naive…
In short, Team Rocket was now divided into two factions.
In this regard, Lance felt that Apollo's faction was pretty good.
They seemed to focus on recuperating and replenishing their combat power and had no intention of causing trouble for the time being.
However, Vicious's faction… just after they formed, Johto and Kanto were hit by a wave of criminal attacks!
What this referred to was that various cities in Johto and Kanto were attacked.
Although many attacks were stopped and many Team Rocket members were captured, there were also a few places where the attacks succeeded and Pokémon were stolen!
This made Lance grit his teeth in hatred for this bastard Vicious.
This bastard was even more unruly than Giovanni!
He was just causing chaos!
Lance stopped sending follow-up messages to Ash.
He said he had to go undercover in Team Rocket to find out where Vicious, that beast, was hiding, and then arrest him and bring him to justice.
At this point, the big Team Rocket incident ended, and Lance also lost contact with Ash.
After all, he was going undercover… was it possible to still keep in touch with Ash?
However, Lance's news didn't include what Ash wanted to hear most...
"I don't know what happened to the Team Rocket trio..."
Ash murmured as he walked on the way to Ecruteak City.
Not only Ash, but Misty, Brock, and even Sabrina were thinking about the Team Rocket trio.
Those three guys… weren't bad people, you had to admit.
Although they often came to cause trouble and even said they wanted to capture Pikachu, they were just three guys giving out experience points.
Rather than causing trouble, those three had helped them a lot and added a lot of fun to their somewhat quiet journey.
Now that Team Rocket was disbanded, what would happen to those three guys…?
"I thought I heard someone say Team Rocket trio!"
"Since you asked so sincerely!"
"We'll tell you with great mercy!"
"..."
Unexpectedly yet as expected, the Team Rocket trio appeared in front of Ash and the others.
Seeing the familiar trio, Ash and the other three were stunned for a moment, then looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh.
This time, they patiently listened to the Team Rocket trio's opening spiel, and then Ash asked with a smile.
"Why are you still here? Do you know your boss was arrested? Team Rocket's been disbanded!"
Hearing this, the Team Rocket trio fell silent for a moment, a somewhat lonely expression on their faces, but they soon cheered up and howled at Ash.
"So what does that matter!"
"That's right! Even if Team Rocket disbands, we'll still be Team Rocket!"
"That's right, meow!"
After howling, James stepped forward first and said to Ash and the others with a firm look on his face.
"At first, when we heard the order from Boss Giovanni to surrender and disband Team Rocket, we didn't believe it at all… But then the boss contacted us privately, and we had to accept it."
Hearing this, Ash raised his eyebrows slightly.
Giovanni had actually contacted these three privately… There must have been Lance's permission involved, but what surprised him even more was that these three, who seemed to be at the bottom of Team Rocket, were actually taken so seriously by Giovanni.
After James finished speaking, Jessie continued:
"Boss Giovanni told us Team Rocket was disbanded and we were free to find what we wanted to do. He told us that if we got arrested again, no one would bail us out."
"So he asked us to try to find something normal to do. He believed in our abilities..."
After saying that Giovanni believed in their abilities, Jessie's always-arrogant expression became a little desolate.
Only now did she know the boss had always believed in them.
God knows how they felt after hearing Giovanni say no one would bail them out in the future.
Anyway, the three of them cried their eyes out after that…
After Jessie finished speaking, Meowth took over. He jumped in front of the two of them, pointed at Pikachu, and said arrogantly,
"We thought about what we could do and what we wanted to do, and finally realized… we really still want to catch Pikachu!"
"Even if it's not for the boss, we still want to catch Pikachu!"
Hearing this, Pikachu on Ash's shoulder smiled helplessly, and Ash also smiled and said to them,
"Haha, are you too obsessed with Pikachu?"
At the same time, Ash had an indescribable feeling in his heart.
He suddenly understood why he identified so much with the Team Rocket trio.
Maybe it was because of their persistent… 'affection' for Pikachu!
Even if these three people's 'liking'… was a troublesome kind of liking!
PS:
Team Rocket Factions (Black World): Following Giovanni's arrest, Team Rocket splinters into two groups:
Orthodox Team Rocket (Apollo's Faction): Led by the executive Apollo, seen as the legitimate successor aiming to regroup and lay low.
Team Universe (Vicious's Faction): Led by the top executive Vicious, who rebels and forms a new, more aggressive criminal organization.
Dr. Namba: The Team Rocket scientist from the Lugia movie (The Power of One). Mentioned as still being active.
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