Thirteen.

I sat there quietly after Professor Flint finished speaking.

Ultra Beasts.

Ultra Wormholes.

Even hearing the terms out loud felt strange.

Not because I didn’t recognize them—

but because I did.

Too well.

I leaned back slightly in the chair, staring toward the enormous glass windows beside the kitchen. The mountains outside blurred together as my thoughts drifted somewhere else entirely.

Ultra Wormholes were first discovered in the Alola region.

Generation Seven.

Pokémon Sun and Moon.

At least… that’s what the games called them.

Dimensional distortions connecting different worlds together.

Places where light bent strangely and reality stopped behaving correctly.

And the creatures living inside them—

Ultra Beasts.

I remembered the exact quote from the games almost word for word.

“Creatures from another world… they possess incomprehensible power and intentions.”

Back then, they were cool.

Mysterious postgame content.

Legendary-tier encounters people would shiny hunt for hundreds of hours.

Now?

Now I almost got folded by one in real life.

I stared blankly at the countertop for a second.

That was insane.

Actually insane.

I almost died to what used to be optional content.

And I’m only sixteen.

Part of me wanted to laugh.

Another part of me remembered the sound my leg made when it hit the ground.

Yeah.

Not thinking about that.

I rubbed the side of my face before finally speaking.

“…Thank you.”

Professor Flint blinked.

“For saving me,” I added.

That seemed to catch him more off guard than the Ultra Beast discussion itself.

He leaned back slightly in his chair, studying me for a moment before chuckling under his breath.

“Well,” he said, “most people need at least a day before they start politely thanking me after hearing about interdimensional murder monsters.”

I ignored that part.

Instead, I looked downward beneath the counter.

Toward my leg.

Still there.

Still attached.

I moved it slightly under the stool just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

“…My leg got cut off.”

Flint followed my gaze before nodding once.

“Yeah. That tends to happen when something sharp enough to slice steel hits a human body.”

His tone was way too casual for that sentence.

Then he smiled faintly.

“Technology’s amazing, huh?”

I looked back up at him.

“Medicine developed for Pokémon can be adapted for humans too,” he explained. “Though the effects aren’t nearly as dramatic.”

He grabbed his drink before continuing.

“I used a Full Restore on your leg.”

I nearly inhaled my sandwich.

“You WHAT?”

Flint looked amused now.

“A Full Restore.”

“Professor, those things are ridiculously expensive.”

“Correct.”

“How expensive are we talking?”

“About twenty-five thousand Pokédollars to manufacture one.”

I stared at him.

“…You used a luxury max-recovery item on my leg.”

“You say that like I had other options.”

I looked back down at my now fully functional leg.

Then back at him.

Then back at my leg again.

That was absurd.

Actually absurd.

In the games, Full Restores healed status conditions and HP.

They weren’t supposed to regenerate missing limbs.

Though honestly, the games probably just never had the rating to show dismemberment in the first place.

“Don’t worry about paying me back,” Flint said casually, waving a hand. “Manufacturing medicine is one of my side businesses.”

Then he smirked slightly.

“Though technically speaking, you are now severely indebted to me.”

“…That somehow made me MORE worried.”

“It should.”

For a moment, the room actually felt normal.

Then his expression shifted slightly.

“As for your Pokémon…”

My chest tightened immediately.

Right.

The phone call.

I already knew what happened.

Or at least I thought I did.

If I hadn’t gone back—

if I hadn’t been so obsessed with finding a shiny—

maybe none of this would’ve happened.

Maybe the Tinkatuff would still—

Flint reached beside him and placed something onto the counter between us.

A Poké Ball.

No.

Not a Poké Ball.

A Beast Ball.

I recognized it instantly.

The design was impossible to mistake.

Dark blue casing.

Sharp geometric yellow patterns running across the surface.

The center button emitted a faint glow that felt colder than normal Poké Ball technology.

In the games, Beast Balls were specifically designed to catch Ultra Beasts more effectively.

Though they absolutely sucked at catching regular Pokémon.

Like genuinely awful catch rates.

So why did he—

“It was badly injured,” Flint said. “I caught it before its condition worsened.”

I stared at the ball.

Confused.

Because that didn’t make sense.

On the phone he literally said—

His Pokémon didn’t survive.

So why was he handing me—

I looked up at him.

Flint only smiled.

Not smugly.

Just… patiently.

Like he was waiting for me to figure something out on my own.

Without another word, I picked up the Beast Ball.

It felt heavier than normal Poké Balls.

Colder too.

Almost metallic in a way standard Poké Balls weren’t.

I pressed the center button.

The ball unfolded with a mechanical snap—

and the air around it distorted.

Not dramatically.

Subtly.

Like space itself folded inward for half a second.

A streak of pale light burst outward, twisting strangely through the air before landing softly on the nearby couch.

The light collapsed.

And there it was.

“Zzzzz…”

Tinkatuff.

Sleeping peacefully against the cushions.

The small pink Pokémon clutched its oversized hammer tightly against its chest while curled into itself beneath a blanket. Its hammer—normally large enough to drag against the floor behind it—rested beside the couch at an awkward angle.

Bandages wrapped around part of its shoulder and torso.

But it was breathing.

Alive.

I didn’t even realize how tense my body was until that moment.

Tinkatuff shifted slightly in its sleep before hugging the hammer even tighter.

Like it was scared someone would take it away again.

I looked back toward Flint.

“…What happens now, Professor?”

He leaned back in his chair slowly.

“Well, Able Oxford…”

The ceiling fan continued spinning overhead.

Outside, the evening wind brushed against the massive glass windows surrounding the lab.

“We’re going to be working together for a very long time.”

Then he pointed lazily toward himself.

“And seriously—just call me Flint.”

I raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Why?”

A small smile crossed his face.

“Because your life’s about to become very, very complicated.”