"Let's leave this place for now," Logan muttered as he turned away. "From what that Team Rocket grunt said, there are at least thirty to forty of them stationed in Viridian Forest. Even if their leader's dead, they have no idea who did it. Picking a fight in the forest would be incredibly foolish."
After weighing his options, Logan decided to leave the scene of the killing with Gible. Those Team Rocket members weren't complete pushovers. With just Gible alone, taking down one or two wouldn't be too hard—but if they were ambushed by a squad, Gible wouldn't stand a chance. And using Mewtwo on small fry like them? Even Logan felt that was beneath him.
"Your mind experienced fluctuations just now."
They found a relatively safe spot near a water source, where Logan and Gible sat down to rest. But the depths of Viridian Forest held no real safety; even during rest, one had to stay vigilant.
"Fluctuations? Was it when that guy screamed while Gible's Dragon Rush hit him?"
Leaning against a tree trunk, Logan spoke to Mewtwo telepathically.
"Yes, it was at that moment."
"You're surprised?" Logan asked.
"I don't understand why your emotional state changed so dramatically. Is this… something unique to humans?"
Mewtwo's melodic voice was tinged with confusion.
"It's just fear from having taken a life," Logan replied.
He never considered himself ruthless or cold-blooded. But growing up in modern society, bombarded with all kinds of moral frameworks, neither did he think himself a hypocrite. He was, at his core, an ordinary person. And for a law-abiding citizen, feeling fear after causing a death was normal. The difference now was the world—and the laws—had changed. His fear had simply dulled.
"But why fear? Back on that island, more people died by your hand."
Mewtwo tilted his head inside the Pokéball. While it was technically Mewtwo who had done the killing back then, Logan had given the command. There was no moral distinction between pulling the trigger and ordering someone else to do it.
"It's because I didn't see the aftermath," Logan explained. "Humans are like that. If they don't witness it with their own eyes, no matter how cruel the act, they can stay emotionally detached. I didn't look too closely just now either. But Gible's Dragon Rush hit him dead-on, with no Pokémon or object to absorb the impact. I imagine the result was… gruesome."
A blow strong enough to leave a half-meter crater in the ground—if that had landed on a human, it meant crushed bones, ruptured organs. The body probably looked less like a person and more like a twisted lump of meat.
In this world, no matter how fit or tough humans were, they were fragile. Without a Pokémon protecting them, a single move could be fatal. For Trainers, the first lesson wasn't how to attack—but how to survive. Keeping a Pokémon close at all times was essential. In two-on-two battles, one Pokémon fought while the other protected or supported. That was the only sensible way to live.
"Don't worry about me, Mewtwo. I think I'll get used to it soon. I can look death in a Pokémon's eyes without flinching, but a human's still makes me hesitate. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite. But that's just how humans are—cruel by nature. When our lives are on the line, we're capable of anything. And if it comes down to it, I won't hesitate to kill again. Besides—"
Logan touched his chest, his brow furrowed. When he'd killed that man, he'd felt a thrill—not the twisted pleasure of a serial killer, but a wild, liberating joy. A feeling of absolute freedom. A desire to do whatever he pleased, with no one to stop him.
He didn't know whether that came from this body's blood or his transmigrated soul—maybe both.
He had the Dragonforce, the power to command terrifyingly brutal dragon-type Pokémon. Someone like that was unlikely to have a peaceful personality. Maybe those born with Dragonforce shared the same savage instincts as the dragons themselves. Meanwhile, his soul had come from a world bound by rules, laws, and moral codes. There, all human cruelty had been suppressed. Now, in this freer world, those instincts were exploding forth like a dam broken.
When those two forces combined, breaking the rules triggered euphoria. Every time he fought, beneath his calm surface, there throbbed a wild, violent desire—to gamble everything on the edge of death.
This instinct was a powerful weapon. It made him stronger. But in his quieter moments, Logan couldn't help but worry—would that same instinct fracture his personality? Would it make him unfit to live among others?
Forget it. There's no point overthinking it. Even if I understand it, it changes nothing.
He glanced at Gible beside him. The little dragon had no such burdens. It didn't distinguish between targeting humans or Pokémon. In its worldview, both were simply enemies. If this had been ancient times, the man it just killed might have even been tonight's dinner.
But today's trained Pokémon had grown used to the luxury of human-made food. They no longer relished the taste of raw flesh. That, at least, was progress.
"Mewtwo, do you want to meet Mew?" Logan asked suddenly. "It did, after all, contribute half of your DNA. Do you have any feelings about it?"
"I don't feel anything specific. But I do want to see it—this mix of familiarity and revulsion is… strange."
A glint flashed in Mewtwo's eyes as he clenched his fists.
"Can you sense where it is?"
"Not while I'm inside the Pokéball and far away. But if we get close enough, I'll be able to detect it."
"Good!" Logan stood up, resolved. "Then our next mission is to find Mew!"
Before leaving Viridian Forest, Logan would begin the search. It wasn't just about curiosity—it was also about thwarting Team Rocket.
He didn't care much for the grunts wandering the forest; they had no hope of capturing Mew. But the fact they even detected Mew's presence meant one thing—they had created a device capable of locating it, probably using genetic remnants from an earlier experiment. If they found Mew again, and Team Rocket's true elites were deployed—not to capture it, perhaps, but to wound it—then they could easily harvest enough tissue to launch another Mewtwo Project.
And while Logan didn't believe they could recreate a miracle…
He wasn't about to give them the chance to try.
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A/N:
"Apologies for the confusion. From now on, this Pokémon universe features Red instead of Ash. Gary Oak does not exist here; his counterpart is Blue Oak, along with his sister, Daisy Oak."
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