The Vermilion City Gym, once a site of chaos, fell into a heavy silence. Mina and Surge stood at opposite ends of the battlefield—on the precipice between life and death.

  Thud, thud, thud.

  The sound of military boots, reeking of gunpowder, tore through the silence of the gym. Dozens of armed soldiers formed a formation with mechanical precision, creating a massive human wall that separated Ash and Mina.

  “Mina!”

  Just as Ash instinctively tried to take a step forward...

  Zzzzt.

  Dozens of red laser points densely dotted Ash's forehead and heart. The leader of the rifle unit warned him in an emotionless voice.

  “World Champion, sir. You must mind your manners as a spectator. Those are Commander Surge's orders.”

  Ash clenched his fists. It felt like watching a comrade head off to a battlefield, utterly helpless to stop them. Swallowing the surge of emotion, he looked at Mina.

  “Ash Ketchum!”

  Mina shouted without turning back. From behind her back, a grotesque, pink, slime-like arm burst through her clothes and stretched out. The boneless, jointless, wobbling hand gave a trembling thumbs-up toward Ash.

  ‘Don't worry. I've got this.’

  It was a bluff, but also the only signal of survival meant to keep Ash alive. Ash bit his lip and stepped back behind the barricade.

  “......Okay. I believe in you.”

  All preparations were complete. A soldier acting as the referee pulled out a pistol instead of a flag and aimed it at the ceiling.

  “The official Vermilion City Gym Battle for the Badge will now commence! The Gym Leader uses two Pokémon, the challenger uses one! Handicap match, begin!”

  Bang-!

  With the gunshot, Surge threw two Speed Balls with a manic grin.

  “Come out! My killing machines! Raichu!”

  With a flash of light, two monsters appeared. ‘Rai’, looking like a thug with scars on its face and grotesquely swollen muscles. And ‘Chu’, floating in the air, cackling as it sparked with neurotic electricity.

  Crackle!

  An electric dart shot by Chu grazed Mina’s cheek. Instead of red blood, sticky pink slime from a Ditto flowed from the cut. Yet no one in the gym, not even Surge, showed disgust at the grotesque sight. Here, she wasn't a human, but merely a ‘target.’

  “...Tch. Quite a brutal greeting, Jarhead.”

  Over the Sunglasses where data should have appeared, broken pixels flashed red along with ear-splitting static noise. It was as if the machine itself was screaming, unable to handle the aura of those monsters. Analysis? Identifying weaknesses? Impossible. Those weren't Pokémon that could be defined by data.

  "......Damn it."

  Mina spat out a curse and roughly shoved her useless sunglasses into her pocket. Now, all she could trust was her ‘instinct’ and that stupidly brave Pikachu.

  Mina hid her trembling hand and looked down at Pikachu. “Pikachu... Go!”

  Ash's Pikachu shot onto the field like a bullet. High-voltage electricity burst from his red cheeks, but Surge just flicked his finger as if yawning.

  “Rai! Fake Out! Chu! Nasty Plot!”

  As soon as the order fell, Rai's form blurred. Boom-! Breaking the sound barrier, Rai appeared right in front of Pikachu’s nose. It wasn't a simple clap. Rai’s hands met right next to Pikachu’s ears, creating a small shockwave.

  boom!

  “Pika...?!”

  Pikachu was flung into the air without even a scream and rolled across the ground.

  Meanwhile, Chu lay down comfortably in the corner of the battlefield. Watching the agonizing Pikachu, it smirked and began to emit a dark red aura above its head. Its cerebral blood vessels bulged hideously. It wasn't a simple stat boost. The thing was feeling euphoria, envisioning the cruelest way to kill.

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  ‘The first Nasty Plot... I have to stop it!’

  Mina shouted urgently. “Pikachu! Knock Rai away with Iron Tail!”

  Pikachu swung his tail, hardened like steel, and struck Rai’s jaw. With a heavy impact sound, Rai was pushed back.

  “Get up, Boy! Rai! Drain Punch!”

  But Rai rose again like a zombie. Its fist transformed into a grotesque syringe-like shape and struck Pikachu’s abdomen. Pikachu’s stamina was drained into Rai, and the monster’s wounds healed instantly.

  That was when it happened.

  “Chu! Second Nasty Plot!”

  Chu, still in the corner, cackled again and amplified the black aura. The murderous intent thickened enough to weigh down the air.

  ‘It’s dangerous. If that stacks up, it’s over!’ Mina shouted reflexively.

  “Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt at Chu!”

  A massive golden electric blast erupted from Pikachu’s body and rushed toward Chu. But Surge didn't dodge. Instead, he grinned, baring his gums.

  “Retarded!”

  Zing-

  Just before Pikachu’s Thunderbolt hit Chu, Chu’s tail glowed like a lightning rod and absorbed every bit of the electricity.

  ‘… Lightning Rod ability?!’ Tension began to creep onto Mina’s face.

  Whether she aimed at Rai or Chu, every electric attack on this field would become fodder for ‘Chu.’ Pikachu’s main weapon, his Electric-type moves, had been completely sealed.

  “Chu! Last Nasty Plot!”

  By now, Chu’s body was wrapped in bursting electric energy as it floated into the air. Three Nasty Plots. That thing’s Special Attack was now at a catastrophic level.

  ‘I have to stop it!’

  “Pikachu! Use Quick Attack toward ‘Chu’!”

  Pikachu accelerated desperately. But Rai blocked Pikachu’s path with its massive muscular body.

  “Too late, You little Rat!”

  Surge adjusted his sunglasses and delivered the death sentence.

  “Chu! Discharge!”

  KRRR-ACK-BOOOOM-!!!

  The entire gym turned white. The STAB Discharge, boosted by +6 Special Attack stages, swallowed not only Pikachu but also his trainer, Mina.

  Amidst the agony of the Discharge, Mina’s life flashed before her eyes.

  The stench of blood in the underground Colosseum. The laughter of the Masked Madame. And... the cold floor of the laboratory where she wailed, clutching the lifeless body of Bulbasaur.

  ‘Finally... I can be with you... Bulbasaur...’

  “Aaaaaagh!!”

  Mina’s scream was buried under the roar of the current. No, it sounded less like a scream and more like the grinding rupture of machinery.

  ‘I'll be with you... soon…’

  The barricade set up by the soldiers was blown away by the shockwave, and the concrete floor of the battlefield melted. Hit directly by the immense heat and voltage, Mina’s body couldn't maintain its human form and began to collapse hideously into pink slime.

  “Mina!!!”

  Ash screamed and tried to run to her, but the wall of high-voltage electricity surrounding Mina blocked him. Inside, Mina lay prone on the floor, convulsing like a melting candle.

  “Hehehe... Bwahahahaha!”

  Surge clutched his stomach and laughed maniacally. “Serves you right, Rubbish Girl! How does my Chu’s Discharge taste? Shockingly good, huh? Bwahahahaha!”

  Something hot poured from Ash's eyes. It wasn't sadness. It was the helplessness of being unable to stop the massacre unfolding before him, and a boiling rage.

  Ash roughly wiped away his tears and roared.

  “Surge!!! Stop it right now! This isn't a Pokemon battle!!”

  But instead of answering, Surge just flicked a finger.

  Click.

  Dozens of red laser points targeted Ash's glabella and heart like a honeycomb. While the murderous red dots constricted Ash, Surge patted Ash's head as if he were a cute puppy.

  “Whoa, whoa~ Baby Champion. Cool your head!”

  Surge’s voice was chillingly soft. “No third parties in a war zone. Don't you know that basic Rule?”

  “Don't be ridiculous!” Ash roughly slapped Surge’s hand away.

  “Forget the rules, that’s murder! Your Pokémon attacked Mina! She’s going to die at this rate!”

  For a moment, Surge’s brow twitched. He pulled a cold revolver from his jacket and pressed it hard against Ash’s temple.

  “Pfft... Hahahahaha!”

  Surge burst into laughter like a madman, gun still aimed. Then, he jutted his chin toward the corner of the battlefield. There, ‘something’ unrecognizable, mashed like pink jelly burnt by electricity, was writhing.

  “Hey, Baby Champion! If you have eyes, look closely.”

  Surge’s voice dropped low and cold.

  “Does that look like a ‘Human’ to you?”

  “...What?”

  “Pink jelly flows instead of blood, and it melts away after getting shocked a bit... Do you think a monster like that is human?”

  Surge lowered his gun and looked down at Mina with contempt, as if looking at gum stuck to the floor.

  “For a defective product that crawled out of a trash heap... No Mercy, No Hope.”

  He whispered like a devil into the ear of the despairing Ash.

  “No matter if you're the World Champion... you can't save trash destined for disposal. GAME OVER!”

  Thank you for reading today as well.

  Vermilion City Gym Battle begins.

  "Chris" from my spin-off work, Broken Dream, which I wrote a few months ago. It is a story written to connect the narrative with Surge, who briefly appeared in that spin-off.

  "shelter" for the character Mina.

  no one else in the Pokémon world has a more painful story than hers.

  "pseudo-father-daughter" relationship—a bond that is happy yet tragic—through the side story and this Vermilion City episode.

  "Isn't this just justifying a villain in the end?" You are right to feel that way.

  However, I have consistently stated through my writing: "She is an existence that can never be justified." And I intend to continue writing her that way in the future.