188 Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare

Kai walked into the museum with Latias on his back.

The entire museum had been turned into a fortress with hair everywhere. Kai could see some that were not meant to be invisible, but the deadliest hid from his vision, sprouting from places where one least expected them.

'My recollection is foggy,' Item M had told him. 'In the anime series, Yura of the Demon Hair was a main-storyline Character. She could manipulate hair and use it in many strange ways. She could control humans, like puppets using hair, and she could combine many hairs to make pillars, but they remained flexible. Once caught by them, there was almost no escaping. But the strangest fact was that her human form was just a shell. Her soul was in a red comb in a skull, hidden within a thick tower of hair.'

This was enough for Kai. He was sure that this Contestant must have surrounded the DMA with her hair and put the Item containing her soul within it. It didn't matter to her whether Kai had caught a legendary Pokemon. Unless Kai got to the machine, he couldn't do anything. It was an irrefutable fact.

Kai had to get to the DMA, though.

The Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare was a machine from the movie through which Kai could control the entire city and the water in its canals, using Soul Dew and one of the Eon Pokemon. This was Phase 3 of his plan.

Use the Soul Dew and Latias to take control of the city and bring out the egg from the depths of the museum.

Yes. By the end of Phase 3, Kai would be ready to leave the World of Pokemon.

There was just one thing keeping him from carrying out his plan. And she was staring right at him.

"I've been waiting for you," her voice boomed off the high walls of the museum. "Have you also seen the movie?"

Kai looked around, not replying immediately.

Unlike outside, there was light in the main hall. He could see millions of long strands of hair running from one wall to the other, like an endless web. And as he had predicted, in front of him, there was a towering cylindrical formation made of hair covering the entire DMA machine.

She was standing at its top.

Kai still didn't reply. He looked down and saw the two images that looked like bones embedded on the floor. These were the fossils of Pokemon, Aerodactyl and Kabutops, who were resurrected in the movie by the two Team Rocket members using DMA. Both Pokemon once belonged to an evil Pokemon Trainer who had terrorized the town (-It was mentioned in the movie setting-). The original Latios then had come to the city and using his powers, it had drowned the evil Pokemon and turned the streets into canals. That's how the first Soul Dew had formed, which was destroyed in the movie.

The current Soul Dew in Kai's possession was a product of the sacrifice of the original Latios' son.

Kai then looked for the circle where he needed to put Latias' body to start the machine. But strands of hair also guarded it heavily.

"I let you come in because I was getting bored," her voice again found him. "Your appearance has fascinated me. What are you? Some kind of fishman from One Piece? Come on, let's chat a little. You can call me Nyra."

Kai finally lifted his head to give Nyra a hard look. She was still wearing the same clothes from the morning. The Pikachu-ears headband stood out with all that black background. Now that he focused on her, he could see that she wasn't exactly standing at the top of the tower, but hovering above it. Kai seriously doubted that she could levitate.

'Using hair as footing?' Kai guessed, squinting his eyes. Unlike what Nyra had thought, there was only one reason for Kai to not answer her.

She was too far away for his Telepathy.

'Sigh!' Kai let out a breath. 'No point in talking when we have only murder in our minds.'

Kai dropped Latias' body on the floor, who let out a whimpering coo, her entire body trembling now and then as Selene varied the output of Soul Chill within her. His hand flicked, and he took out the saber. Kai looked at his poison smeared saber and frowned, knowing that the poison was useless in this case.

'And I miss my armor,' he thought bitterly. Kai wasn't among them who depended on external things too much. But the world had forced him to depend on a fighting style that needed him to have absurd armor on him.

Take wounds, snatch lives.

That was his motto.

The death bout started with no bells. Kai Agility now bordered 20, and that meant he was as much faster as physic-based avg. 4th-floor Contestants. Combined with Slither-Steps, he was the worst opponent for someone who depended on numbers to outmatch others.

Numbers, like a sea of hair. Numbers, like people hovering above the ground with hair attached to the back of their neck.

From all directions, they came at him holding one weapon or other. Nyra laughed demonically, controlling her puppets from afar. "The weapons won't damage you much, as they are from the 1st Set," she said, laughing. "But I have enough of them."

'She thinks I am a 4th-floor Contestant too,' Kai realized, slithering away from dozens of swords hacking at him at once.

'Twin-Saber Style!' Words echoed in Kai's mind. 'Dance of the Giant Serpent!'

Without the second saber, Kai couldn't dance nearly as gracefully, but his opponents weren't elite, either.

Kai slithered into them, his saber passing through their necks like a knife through butter.

"Ararara…" Nyra snickered, her hands flickering like that of a puppeteer's. "You just killed them like that. Well, what else could I expect from a filthy Chaos' abomination?"

As headless bodies rained down around him, Kai saw Nyra jumping off the tower of hair. A dense mass of hair came from all around, becoming pillars as thick as Kai's waist. Nyra took out a short sword and controlled the hair to trap Kai.

Thick bundles of hair came from Kai's right and left, and mixed within them, were thin strands, trying to trip him, making him lose his footing. Kai again had to use Advance Cold Suppression and his instincts to slither out of them. From above, Nyra descended over him, brandishing her short sword.

Steel clanked against steel, Kai's saber kissing Nyra's short sword.

And the Black-steel saber shattered.

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AN: Now you can access up to Chapter 199 (end of Pokemon Arc) on P*treon. Enjoy!