"Answer… incorrect."
The four words fell like a judge's gavel.
Diantha's elegant, confident smile froze on her face.
"…Huh?"
The Kalos Champion—renowned actress, beloved icon of beauty and intellect—stared ahead as if she'd just heard something utterly impossible. Her eyes widened slightly, disbelief written all over her face.
She wasn't the only one.
Countless Trainers around the world who had silently agreed with her analysis were stunned into silence.
[Penalty confirmed: Playing one Diantha 'black history' video.]
Before Diantha could even react, the white light curtain flickered and the scene changed.
The sacred battlefield vanished, replaced by a movie set.
On screen, a much younger, greener Diantha stood in an ornate historical costume, solemnly performing an emotional farewell scene.
"Oliver, actually I… actually I've always… ACHOO!"
A thunderous sneeze—complete with a very unglamorous snot bubble—instantly shattered all the carefully built atmosphere.
Then came Scene Two: Diantha stepping on her own skirt and faceplanting.
Scene Three: Diantha forgetting her lines entirely, staring into empty space for a full minute.
"Ahhh—stop it! Stop it right now!!!"
In the real world, Diantha's face turned beet red. She covered her face with both hands, wishing with all her heart she could crawl into a hole and disappear. For a top-tier superstar, this kind of public execution was worse than death.
[Giovanni (Team Rocket): Hmph. Overthinking it… Still, so it wasn't even Zapdos?]
In the depths beneath Viridian Gym, Giovanni's mocking smile faded. His brows knitted together tightly.
Not A.
Not B.
That left only the most absurd, most unbelievable answer.
[Correct answer: C. The Legendary Pokémon of Life—Ho-Oh.]
The moment the answer was revealed, the world fell into an even deeper silence than before.
And then—
An uproar.
"Ho-Oh?! How could it be Ho-Oh?!"
"That's a Pokémon that hasn't appeared in hundreds of years!"
"You're kidding, right?! A rookie Trainer meets Ho-Oh on his first day out?! Is that even remotely reasonable?!"
Outside Pallet Town.
"Uh… um…"
Misty stared at the answer on the light curtain. Overwhelmed, she even let out a loud hiccup.
"Hic! A-Ash? That… that was really Ho-Oh?!"
She suddenly rushed up to Ash, circling him and looking him up and down, as if trying to find something extraordinary hidden beneath the mud and scrapes.
"What's so special about you anyway? Why would something that legendary come see you?"
Ash scratched his head, utterly confused.
"Ho-Oh? That golden bird is called Ho-Oh?" he said. "I dunno. I just saw it fly past, and then…"
As he spoke, he reached into the torn pocket of his jacket and pulled something out.
"It dropped this for me."
A feather.
Even smeared with mud, it radiated a gentle, sacred seven-colored light. In the forest after the rain, it looked like a rainbow held in his hand.
"Th-That is…!" Brock's usually squinted eyes flew wide open.
The light curtain replayed the scene in crystal clarity.
The massive divine bird with rainbow wings swept across the sky. As it passed over the boy's head, it tilted slightly, golden eyes filled with wisdom and compassion locking onto Ash for a long, meaningful moment.
Then—
A Rainbow Wing drifted down, landing perfectly in Ash's open palm.
The scene shifted to sunset.
Ash clenched the feather tightly, staring in the direction Ho-Oh had vanished. There was no fear in his eyes, no sense of inferiority before a godlike being.
Instead, he raised the Rainbow Wing high and shouted toward the sky:
"One day! I'll come see you again!"
Perched on his shoulder, Pikachu cried out just as firmly:
"Pika!"
In that instant, all doubt vanished.
Ho-Oh hadn't merely passed by.
It had come—for him.
[Chairman Goodshow (Pokémon League): My god… my god!! Professor Oak, do you see that?! That's a Rainbow Wing! A real Rainbow Wing!!]
Goodshow's voice trembled with excitement in the global chat.
[Chairman Goodshow]: In Johto legend, Ho-Oh once roosted atop the Bell Tower in Ecruteak City. But centuries ago, human greed led to war. The flames consumed the tower, and three nameless Pokémon perished in the fire.
[Chairman Goodshow]: Ho-Oh descended from the heavens and performed a miracle of rebirth, resurrecting them as Raikou, Entei, and Suicune—to watch over humanity. And then, disappointed in humans, Ho-Oh departed.
[Chairman Goodshow]: For hundreds of years, no matter how people prayed, the Bell Tower's chime never rang again.
[Chairman Goodshow]: But now… it has appeared. Not only that—it willingly bestowed its feather upon a human boy! What does this mean? It means that an era of harmony between humans and Pokémon may return—because of this boy's existence!]
With that explanation alone, Ash's status was elevated straight to that of a "chosen one."
[Professor Oak (Pallet Town): Uh… well… Ash did tell me he saw a golden bird when he got back. I just thought he'd mistaken a Fearow for something else… ahem. Looks like my eyes really are getting old.]
Professor Oak wiped his brow awkwardly. Who could have imagined that the neighborhood kid would pull something like this on his very first day?
Johto Region, Ecruteak City.
At the scorched remains of the Bell Tower, Morty—the Gym Leader clad in purple, gifted with foresight—stood silently.
He gazed at a rainbow that wasn't really there, feeling that long-lost, soul-shaking presence lingering in the air. His eyes slowly grew moist.
"…So you're finally willing to believe in humans again?"
He murmured softly.
Then he looked toward the light curtain, at the grinning boy shown within it. Envy and reverence filled his gaze.
"Ash… I suppose I'll have to meet the one chosen by Ho-Oh myself."