The video continued playing.

Elaria tilted her head.

"What’s Kyogre?"

"It’s a really big Pokémon."

Lana used her hands to roughly indicate its size.

"It lives deep in the ocean and usually doesn’t come out very often."

Elaria became completely absorbed in the explanation, blinking unconsciously.

"I really want to see what Kyogre looks like with my own eyes..."

Hoopa floated up from Elaria’s head.

Its two little hands were already rubbing together excitedly.

"Elaria wants to see Kyogre?"

"That’s easy!"

The next second—

A golden ring tore open in midair directly above the waterfall.

On the other side was an endless expanse of dark blue.

It was the deep sea, thousands of meters beneath the surface.

A gigantic blue, whale-like Pokémon, so enormous that it nearly filled the entire portal, slowly swam past.

Kyogre.

It seemed to sense something.

Kyogre stopped swimming.

Its enormous head slowly turned toward the golden ring.

Elaria looked up at the Pokémon, which was even larger than the entire waterfall.

She placed one index finger against her lips.

"A... chubby fish?"

Kyogre visibly froze.

One of its enormous pectoral fins shifted slightly through the water—

And the entire surrounding sea seemed to sway along with it.

Clearly—

It was not particularly pleased with the nickname "Chubby Fish."

"Can it come out?"

Elaria tugged on Hoopa’s little hand.

"I can’t see it clearly while it’s underwater."

"No problem!"

Hoopa rubbed its hands together.

"Hoopa will make the ring—"

Lillie immediately grabbed Hoopa in both arms.

"No!"

"Why not?!"

Hoopa struggled.

"Elaria wants to see it!"

"Because it’ll crush the entire mountain!!!"

Lillie looked utterly frantic.

"Lana, don’t just stand there watching! Hurry up and help me!"

Lana, however, didn’t seem particularly alarmed.

She simply looked up at Kyogre swimming on the other side of the portal and spoke thoughtfully.

"This one is way bigger than the one I caught."

Lillie despairingly realized—

She was the only person on the entire mountaintop who was actually nervous.

And Hoopa had already wriggled free of her arms and flown into the air.

Hoopa thrust both little hands toward the golden ring.

"Bigger!"

The portal abruptly expanded.

Its diameter grew from roughly one meter to nearly ten.

Kyogre seemed to realize that the ring was some kind of passageway.

It slowly turned its body—

Then pushed its enormous head toward the portal.

And got stuck.

Not metaphorically.

It was physically stuck.

Kyogre’s head was an entire size larger than the portal.

Its forehead pressed against the golden ring’s edge while both fins flailed wildly outside.

A deeply dissatisfied growl rumbled from its mouth.

"Uh..."

Hoopa scratched its head.

"Looks like it’s still not big enough."

Elaria looked up at the God of the Sea, whose head was currently wedged inside a portal.

Then she tugged gently on Hoopa’s hand.

"Hoopa, maybe we should let it go back."

"Oh. Okay!"

Looking deeply disappointed, Hoopa clapped its hands.

The golden ring immediately vanished.

Kyogre’s enormous head finally retreated into the deep sea.

Before leaving, however—

It flicked its tail.

The wave it created surged through the spot where the portal had been a moment earlier—

Splash!

And drenched Hoopa directly in the face.

Hoopa shook the water off its head.

"Achoo!"

"This Chubby Fish has such a bad temper."

Elaria pulled a small handkerchief from her pocket.

Standing on her tiptoes, she carefully wiped Hoopa’s face.

"Next time, we won’t ask it to play."

"We’ll find the Green Dragon instead."

"The Green Dragon has a good temper."

"So..."

Lana stared intently at Hoopa, her eyes practically overflowing with curiosity.

"What kind of Pokémon are you, exactly?"

"I’ve never even heard of an ability like this."

"Hoopa is Hoopa!"

Hoopa puffed out its chest and planted both little hands on its hips.

"Hoopa’s rings can go anywhere!"

"The deep sea, the sky, the mouth of a volcano, even the other side of the galaxy!"

"As long as Hoopa wants to go there—"

"Hoopa can reach it!"

"Really?!"

Lana’s eyes instantly lit up.

"If I put my fishing rod directly through one of your rings, wouldn’t that give me access to completely different fishing spots whenever I wanted?"

"This could be the greatest invention in the history of fishing!"

Lillie hurriedly waved her hands.

"Lana, calm down!"

"Hoopa almost summoned a Kyogre that could have knocked down the entire mountain just now!"

"Don’t worry, Lillie."

Lana didn’t even turn around.

"I’ve already calculated it."

"As long as I get a fishing rod strong enough..."

"I can definitely reel in that Kyogre!"

"That is not something you can solve with a stronger fishing rod!"

Once Elaria finished wiping Hoopa’s face, she obediently placed it back on top of her head.

Then her attention was drawn toward the white bracelet around Lana’s wrist.

"Big Sister Lana."

Elaria stood on her tiptoes and pointed toward it.

"What’s that?"

"It’s really pretty."

"This?"

Lana raised her wrist.

"It’s called a Z-Ring."

"When you use it together with one of Alola’s special Z-Crystals, and the Trainer and Pokémon perform the corresponding pose together..."

"You can unleash an incredibly powerful Z-Move."

"Z-Move?"

Elaria tilted her head.

"What’s that?"

"Basically, it’s a super-powerful combination move where the Trainer and Pokémon combine their strength and then—"

Lana made an exaggerated motion.

"Pew!"

"Fire it all out at once."

She crouched until she was at eye level with Elaria.

"Want to see?"

Elaria nodded so rapidly that she looked like a little Torchic pecking at grain.

Lana stood up.

Then she threw a Poké Ball.

"Come out, Primarina!"

A flash of red light appeared.

Primarina landed gracefully in the middle of the field.

Its elegant body gleamed with a pearl-like luster beneath the sunlight.

With a gentle flick of its tailfin, a fine veil of water mist spread through the air.

"Elaria, watch closely."

Lana raised her right hand high, pressing her fingers together and pointing toward the sky.

Then—

She began to dance.

"In the embrace of Mother Sea—"

Her arms swept through an exceptionally fluid arc, tracing the shape of rolling waves through the air.

"Let your song resound!"

"Far beyond the horizon!!"

"OCEANIC OPERETTA!!!"

Primarina raised its head and cried out.

A gigantic sphere of water nearly three meters across formed above its head.

Then—

It blasted toward the mountainside opposite the waterfall with overwhelming force.

BOOOOM—!!!

The entire mountain trembled.

The waterfall itself was blasted backward nearly five meters by the shock wave.

Even several chunks of loose rock were ripped from the cliffside and sent flying by the violent air pressure.

[VIP Chat Group]

[Volkner]: So this is an Alolan Z-Move?! Is there an Electric-type one? If there is, I want to learn it too! That power is insane!

[Flint]: It’s definitely powerful, but isn’t the startup way too long? By the time you finish using one move, I could finish an entire round of battling and brew myself a pot of tea afterward!

[Raihan]: Isn’t the important part the activation requirement? What exactly did I just watch?

[Raihan]: Was she dancing?

[Professor Kukui]: Ahem! Allow me to explain. That’s called a Z-Pose! It isn’t dancing! It’s proof that the Trainer and Pokémon are united as one!

[Raihan]: That sounds an awful lot like dancing to me! Just imagine it. Leon is standing in the middle of the stadium. Across from him is an opponent fighting with everything they have. The entire audience is holding its breath—

[Raihan]: Then Leon suddenly raises his arms, starts drawing circles, twists his waist, and shouts, "Beneath the glory of Galar—!"

[Leon]: I DON’T HAVE A MOVE LIKE THAT! Galar doesn’t even have Z-Moves!

[Raihan]: What if it gets them someday? Just go to Alola and learn one!

[Leon]: No.

[Skyla]: If that’s how it works, could there be Z-Moves with even more... dramatic and over-the-top poses?

[Valerie]: After hearing all of you describe it like that, I’m suddenly not sure I want to learn Z-Moves anymore...

[Iris]: I think they’re fine! Z-Poses look super cool!

[Dawn]: I think Z-Poses are really charming too! Trainers with a Pokémon Contest background have absolutely no resistance to techniques with this much performance value!

[Dawn]: Miss Lana’s pose just now combined with Primarina’s giant sphere of water made the whole scene both beautiful and incredibly explosive!

[Wallace]: Mm. Judging it by Pokémon Contest standards, Z-Moves have excellent presentation and visual appeal. If they were incorporated into a performance, I imagine the audience would respond very favorably.

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