Chapter 13: Snowpoint City

The flight to Sinnoh touched down in Eterna City beneath a sky bruised with winter clouds. The engines still hummed in Ace’s bones long after he stepped onto the tarmac, but it wasn’t the journey that weighed on him.

He was mostly recovered now. It had taken over ten days but he could finally walk, move normally again, and his hand no longer shook when holding and throwing a Poké Ball. He did still feel a lingering tingling sensation in his shoulder but it was slowly going away.

There was also a noticeable branching scar going from the back of his shoulder all the way to the top of his pectoral.

Ace’s mind kept circling the same thought though, like a wound he couldn’t stop prodding. That Pokémon was still out there stalking him. Yellow fur, black stripes, the growl, and the blow that left him helpless.

He should have felt relief leaving Galar’s frozen tundra behind, but instead, guilt gnawed at him. He’d walked away without finishing it. Without facing it.

Could it possibly have tracked him all the way here? It seemed preposterous given that they just flew thousands of miles away from Galar, but Ace couldn’t be sure.

Still, Regigigas loomed larger. Every hour wasted was another chance for Team Plasma, or someone worse, to move first.

The three champions rented a large room with three bedrooms in a hotel tucked along Eterna City’s narrow streets.

Lanterns glowed warmly in the windows, the air inside thick with the smell of pinewood and roasted chestnuts. It was a sharp contrast to the Crown Tundra’s howling emptiness.

Phoebe, however, couldn’t enjoy it. She lingered by the fire in the common room, her hands stretched to the flames though she was already sweating beneath her scarf.

Her memories dragged her back to Regice, the biting cold, ice burrowing into her lungs, and her breath frosting in front of her face. The thought of trekking through snow again made her stomach knot.

“I don’t care how strong it is,” she muttered under her breath. “If I never see another blizzard, it’ll be too soon.”

Phillip dropped into the chair opposite her, balancing a cup of steaming tea in one hand, his smile as irreverent as ever.

“Don’t worry, Phoebs. I’ll buy you a thicker coat this time. Maybe even mittens.”

She shot him a glare, but her silence said enough.

Upstairs, Ace sat by his window, staring out at Eterna Forest where the treeline loomed like black teeth against the horizon. His hand hovered over Shocker’s Poké Ball on the nightstand. Every flicker of light from the streetlamps below made him tense, searching for sparks in the dark.

He told himself to focus on Regigigas, but no matter how hard he tried, the truth pressed down on him like ice.

He wasn’t done with that stalker Pokémon, and it sure as hell wasn’t done with him.

The road north from Eterna to Snowpoint City was a long one, threading through valleys that grew colder with every step.

The lantern glow of the city faded quickly behind them, swallowed by the rising walls of pine and granite. The crunch of snow beneath their boots was steady, almost rhythmic, but to Ace, it sounded broken.

Each step was split by a noise just at the edge of hearing. A growl that was low and feral. He stopped in his tracks, scanning the tree line.

Nothing moved.

“You hear that?” he asked sharply, one hand drifting toward his belt.

Phillip snorted without slowing. “What, snow creaking? Relax. You’re wound tighter than a damn Ariados web.”

Phoebe tugged her scarf higher, her breath curling into the cold. “He’s just jumpy. We left it behind in Galar, Ace. It can’t follow us across an ocean.”

Ace didn’t move though. His eyes raked the shadows between the pines. His skin prickled with the same electric pressure he’d felt in the Tundra.

He wanted to argue, but the words stuck. Finally, he shoved his hands back into his coat pockets and trudged on. The snow seemed louder than ever.

By the time they reached Route 216, the weather turned brutal. The mountain pass funneled the wind into a shrieking gale, snowflakes lashing sideways like knives. Within minutes, the world narrowed to white. The path blurred, and even the nearest trees were ghosts in the storm.