By the time Milolovide was nearly ten years old, Gillruta's violent tendencies had become increasingly severe. Hurting the servants around him no longer satisfied him, so he set his sights on Milolovide, who had always been by his side.
Milolovide had been brought into the Rite family under the pretense of being a companion for Gillruta, as Gillruta was genuinely in poor health. At first, they were inseparable, spending nearly every day together.
After discovering Gillruta's habit of torturing small Pokémon, Milolovide was constantly on edge whenever they were alone together.
But every time, his adoptive parents would tearfully tell him that his brother was actually very kind, and that the reason for his behavior was because he was ill. They would plead with him not to distance himself from his brother and not to speak of what Gillruta was doing.
Young Milolovide agreed.
One time, Gillruta was thirsty, and a servant brought him a cup of tea. Displeased that it was too hot, he threw the scalding tea directly onto the servant's face, causing the servant to scream in agony.
After that day, Milolovide never saw that servant again, but Gillruta's violent tendencies only grew worse. The servants attending to him were replaced almost every one or two weeks.
Young Milolovide witnessed someone being carried out, covered in blood. He often heard his adoptive parents crying in secret over these events, yet they never stopped their son's behavior. Instead, they grew increasingly indulgent.
Eventually, Gillruta turned his violence toward Milolovide.
The first time it happened, Gillruta had been whipping a servant when he accidentally struck Milolovide. At that moment, Gillruta even apologized to him, his face full of guilt, putting on the appearance of a good brother.
But after that incident, Gillruta seemed to find pleasure in it. He shifted his focus from the servants to his younger brother. For the first time, Milolovide was left with scars all over his body from being whipped.
At the time, Milolovide was only eight years old.
He cried and told his adoptive parents what had happened, hoping they would stop his brother. But they only hugged him tightly, crying, and then reminded him to "endure." His brother was just sick and didn't mean it.
Little Milolovide was chilled to the bone at that moment. He suddenly realized that in this house, he was no different from the servants.
From then on, Milolovide was regularly injured—sometimes from being cut with a knife, sometimes from being burned, and other times from "accidentally" hitting himself. Every time he was hurt, his adoptive parents would tearfully apologize to him, but his situation never improved.
In this way, Milolovide grew up, reaching the age of ten.
Over the years, people on the outside would constantly say how lucky he was to have been adopted by the Rite family, to be treated as their own child by the Rite couple.
On his tenth birthday, Milolovide received a birthday gift from the Rite couple—a Cyndaquil. Now that he was ten, he was eligible to become a Pokémon Trainer.
When he became a Trainer, he would leave this house and live on his own in the outside world.
At the time, that was Milolovide's biggest dream.
He was thrilled and loved the Cyndaquil dearly, feeling like he finally had his first true companion.
With Cyndaquil by his side, Milolovide felt like a light had entered his dark life, and he started to smile more. Even on days when Gillruta beat him, he would still face Cyndaquil with a bright smile.
He would tell Cyndaquil all the happy and unhappy things in his life.
Cyndaquil was his most important and closest companion.
However, Gillruta's health was worsening, and doctors even predicted that he wouldn't live for many more years.
When Milolovide heard this diagnosis, he felt a slight sense of joy deep inside. At that time, he was so young that he even felt guilty for having such a thought.
Because of Gillruta's condition, the Rite family sent him to a secluded manor outside Celadon City to rest. The only ones who accompanied him were Milolovide and an old butler. The Rite couple, busy with family affairs, did not go with them.
On the first day at the manor, Milolovide suddenly realized that his Cyndaquil was missing. He anxiously searched the entire manor, only to find the bloody corpse of his beloved Cyndaquil in Gillruta's room.
Later, he found out that on that day, Gillruta had learned that he didn't have much time left to live, and in a fit of rage, Cyndaquil became his target to vent his anger.
For the first time, Milolovide had the thought, "It would be better if my brother died soon."
Holding Cyndaquil's lifeless body, Milolovide sorrowfully went to the forest outside the manor, wanting to bury it there.
It was also there that he encountered Togekiss.
At the time, Togekiss was gravely injured, as it was being hunted by Team Rocket.
After Togekiss left the Mirage Kingdom, it was soon captured by others. However, due to its overly proud and unruly nature, it was sold several times. After many changes of ownership, it was eventually sold to Team Rocket, becoming one of the test subjects in their laboratory.
At that point, Togekiss was already at a very high level; otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to defeat the old Togekiss and seize the last perfect Shiny Stone of the Togepi tribe.
However, no one could become its trainer. As a result, the laboratory used it as a breeding tool, constantly forcing it to lay eggs with other Pokémon in the hopes of producing an outstanding offspring.
From being the pride of its tribe to becoming a heartless breeding tool, Togekiss's sharp edges were gradually worn away, and it came to understand the harsh realities of the world. It even regretted not heeding the advice of the old tribe leader back then.
One day, while the lab staff wasn't paying attention, it managed to escape. But due to its weakened state from being overused as a breeder, and the relentless pursuit by Team Rocket, it crash-landed, severely injured, in the forest near the Rite family's manor.
Milolovide saved it.
After rescuing Togekiss, Milolovide secretly hid it in the manor's warehouse, but within a few days, Team Rocket found them.
Because of this incident, Milolovide met Giovanni's mother for the first time. Both he and Togekiss were secretly brought before the woman.
She was incredibly beautiful. Milolovide thought he had never seen such a beautiful woman, but she was also ruthless, single-handedly controlling all of Team Rocket.
At that time, Team Rocket wasn't as powerful as it is now, but it was still a major organization in Kanto. Back then, there were several dark organizations like Team Rocket in Kanto, not like now, where Team Rocket dominates.
Upon seeing Milolovide, the woman's first words were, "Kid, do you want to join us?"
Milolovide inexplicably agreed.
Afterward, Milolovide was quietly returned to the manor, but from that point on, people would secretly come to the manor every day to teach him.
Later, the woman asked Milolovide what he wanted his first Pokémon to be. After thinking for a moment, he said Togekiss's name, and thus, Togekiss became his first true Pokémon as a trainer.
At a very young age, Milolovide easily gained the recognition of Togekiss, which was already a high-level Pokémon at the time.
He told Togekiss that he could give it a better life, and in return, it would need to become his enforcer.
It was a deal, and Togekiss, already tormented by its past, agreed!
Later, the secret murder of Gillruta and the replacement with a clone were all taught to him by that woman.
At the time, Team Rocket was secretly working on a very important experiment—cloning Mew. Although progress in cloning Pokémon was slow, the technology for cloning humans was highly advanced. It seemed that the mysteries hidden within Pokémon bodies were far more complex than those of humans.
This created favorable conditions for replacing the real Gillruta with the clone.
However, before the Mew clone experiment could succeed, that woman suddenly disappeared. No one knew where she went, or whether she was dead or alive.
After the woman vanished, a twenty-year-old Giovanni took over Team Rocket, and Milolovide naturally became one of his people.
When the young Giovanni took control of Team Rocket, Milolovide became his most trusted aide. Milolovide played a crucial role in helping Team Rocket unify the dark forces of Kanto.
Everyone in Team Rocket knew that there were four Executive Officers: Archer, Ariana, Proton, and Petrel. But what they didn't know was that there was actually a fifth officer, hidden in the shadows—Milolovide!
This fifth person had entered Team Rocket even earlier than the others and was Giovanni's most trusted confidant.
Even Archer and the others only knew that there was such a person in the organization, but they didn't know who it was, and they had never met him.
From the time Milolovide joined Team Rocket to the present, more than twenty years had passed.
As the personnel within Team Rocket continued to change, and with Milolovide and Giovanni deliberately downplaying his presence, fewer and fewer people in Team Rocket knew about Milolovide's existence.
After withdrawing from Team Rocket, Milolovide shifted all his focus to the Rite family.
Not only did he use the clone of Gillruta to create the illusion that he had found a way to heal the family heir, but he also secretly killed the Rite couple, making it appear to outsiders that they had died from illness.
Compared to Gillruta, Milolovide hated the Rite couple, who had indulged him, even more!
Thanks to his remarkable talents and the clone of Gillruta, who had inherited the position of the family head, Milolovide gradually took control of the real power within the Rite family and built an image of himself as the family's guardian to the outside world.
The Rite family was far from a clean entity—after all, they had secretly fostered the Heaven Organization as their pawns.
The Rite family's base was in Kanto, but the dark organization they had supported had always operated in Hoenn. Who would have thought there was a connection between the two!
Over the years, Milolovide had quietly inserted his people into the Heaven Organization. Most of his former confidants from Team Rocket had been placed within the organization, gradually creating a situation where they took over the Heaven Organization from within.
When Milolovide and the clone of Gillruta attacked the Seven Seas Trio, it was his first move to eliminate dissenters. By intentionally drawing the attention of the League and secretly feeding them information, the League had consecutively wiped out many members of the Heaven Organization.
And these people were originally members of the Rite family. Once they were gone, Milolovide gained full control of the Heaven Organization.
The pathetic members of the Rite family still thought the League targeting the Heaven Organization was just a coincidence. Once a glorious and prestigious family, the Rite family had now been toppled by Milolovide. All that was left were some worthless nobodies.
Team Rocket's ability to easily subdue Hoenn's native force, Team Aqua, wasn't just due to Ariana's outstanding personal abilities—Milolovide and the Heaven Organization's covert assistance were also crucial.
After sitting quietly in the room for an unknown amount of time, Milolovide finally pulled himself out of his memories.
When Archie came back to the room to bring him some food, Milolovide was already gone.
"Damn that bad temper guy! I've taken care of him all this time, and I don't even get a thank you!" Archie threw the food onto the table and then kicked the table over in frustration.
But he only dared to grumble quietly—after all, Milolovide was his boss now!
Originally, it was Ariana who was responsible for the joint affairs between Team Aqua and Team Rocket, but she had been reassigned, supposedly for an important mission. So now, all of Team Rocket's operations in Hoenn were under Milolovide's control.
If the Heaven Organization hadn't been fully subdued, Milolovide wouldn't have been able to appear so casually, and Archie would never have known that such a person like Milolovide even existed within Team Rocket.
On the other side, Yuga learned from Gon and May that the main goal of the White Leader this time was to retrieve the Black Leader's corpse, which led him to fall into deep thought, just like Gon.
There was something off about this body!
"Dusknoir, could you please help me take a closer look at what's going on with this corpse?"
After searching Gillruta's body and finding nothing suspicious, Yuga asked Dusknoir. Being a master-level Ghost-type Pokémon, it had a much keener sensitivity to corpses than humans.
"Dusknoir!"
Dusknoir used its psychic powers to scan Gillruta's body, repeatedly examining its condition.
Looking at Gillruta's body, Yuga couldn't help but sink into contemplation. Since the Black Leader was Gillruta, then who was the White Leader?
He couldn't help but think of Milolovide, the second son of the Rite family.
Could it be him?
Yuga glanced at Marlin sitting in one corner of the ghost ship and then at Gillruta's corpse. Suddenly, a realization seemed to dawn on him.
Cloning!
Having dealt with Team Rocket many times, Yuga was no stranger to the technology of cloning.
If both the Gillruta in front of him and Marlin were clones, then could there be a connection between the Heaven Organization and Team Rocket? Team Rocket's gene research was highly advanced, capable of creating an artificial legendary Pokémon like Mewtwo. Cloning a person would be a mere trifle for them.
Thinking about the Black Leader's endless stream of cloned Pokémon, Yuga became more and more convinced of this idea.
It had to be said—Yuga's intuition was sharp!
"Dusknoir!"
At that moment, Dusknoir's voice interrupted Yuga's thoughts.
It had just pulled out a small black object, about the size of a fingernail, from the back of Gillruta's head. It was covered in blood, looking quite disgusting!