A sharp intake of breath was heard across the room. Kobeni made a soft, horrified squeak and grabbed Arai's sleeve. Arai himself felt his stomach churn – it was one thing reading hints of this in stolen documents, another to see even a hint of the reality. Denji's eyes went huge. "They're trying to make… what, like Pokémon people?!" he blurted, unable to contain his shock. The idea was so fantastical and grotesque that it almost didn't register.
Angel frowned, his usual apathy cracking to reveal disgust beneath. "Tch. Trying to play God… how original," he muttered, recalling warzones where he'd seen human cruelty in many forms. This might top them all.
Hiroshi's fists clenched at his sides as the images scrolled: he recognized one as a screenshot from Daisy's memory of the Shanghai lab, and other labs, a worm ringmaster left behind, he briefly looked at his own deep scars on his arm, healed and covered by skin graft, but still visible. It took conscious effort for him to relax his hands. Makima was revealing everything now to the group; nothing held back. The mood in the room had shifted to somber outrage.
Makima glanced around, carefully reading each agent's reaction. Her voice dropped a register, becoming heavier, colder—bearing a weight that pressed down on everyone in the room.
"This is what we're truly facing," she said, pausing briefly to let the grim truth settle. "These aren't just localized crimes—these are stains on the very soul of our nation. And yet, the situation is even darker."
She clicked the remote again, and the projector screen changed. Harsh images filled the room: surveillance photos of international terrorists, extremist propaganda featuring Pokémon, crates of smuggled weapons labeled with foreign alphabets. Each slide seemed to sap oxygen from the room.
"Make no mistake: we are far behind in a biological arms race that began fifteen years ago," Makima stated, her voice quiet yet razor-sharp. "As you know, Ringmaster introduced the first biotech device capable of synthesizing new lifeforms by combining DNA sequences. With this device, one could theoretically recreate or engineer an organism by brute-forcing genome combinations—trillions upon quadrillions of possibilities. Imagine: a device so powerful it could generate life from raw genetic data alone. Initially, countries around the world paid astronomical sums for access to this groundbreaking machine."
She paused, letting the enormity of this sink in. Everyone's eyes remained glued to her, their expressions ranging from horrified fascination to quiet dread.
"For two frantic years, every major nation desperately raced to weaponize this technology. Each country tried brute-forcing genomes, hoping to create biological weapons. Yet every single attempt ended in catastrophic failure. The computational power required was astronomical, and the biological complexity simply too great. Instead of new species, they created monstrosities—twisted abominations that could barely survive birth. Each experiment ended in disaster. The global community realized the dream of bioengineering weapons was a dangerous, costly fantasy."
She clicked forward, her voice steady but grim. "Then, when hope had nearly faded, Ringmaster—out of nowhere—revealed the world's first fully engineered organism. They didn't brute-force it; they simply provided a complete genome sequence, one impossibly detailed—something that would've taken humanity thousands of years to decode using brute-force. They called this creature the first 'Pokémon,' naming it a completely new biological category. The first specimen Ringmaster revealed to the world was designated 'Pichu.'"
Denji muttered incredulously, "Wait…they created Pokémon out of thin air? Just like that?"
Makima nodded. "Exactly. Pokémon did not exist before this. No one had even considered creatures with these abilities possible. Ringmaster changed the rules of biology overnight. Pokémon were new, unprecedented organisms—living weapons, powerful companions, beings with extraordinary potential. And Ringmaster sold the device and its technology to every major country, at exorbitant prices, igniting a global scramble to replicate and control Pokémon."
She paused, meeting Hiroshi's eyes briefly before continuing. "Japan received our device fifteen years ago, the same as every major nation. But during the recent betrayal—the same betrayal that emptied our Kanto lab—the director-general himself destroyed Japan's only biotech device, rendering us unable to produce new Pokémon at scale. Even worse, Ringmaster is no longer selling these devices. Their entire original leadership was wiped out during Hiroshi's operations in Iraq; the new Ringmaster command structure is weak, disorganized, oblivious to their own assets. Other nations still possess their original devices or have managed to reverse-engineer replicas. Japan is dangerously behind."
Kishibe exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing. "So, you're saying…we have nothing left? No means of creating or sustaining our own Pokémon population? And every other country does?"
Makima shook her head slightly, a rare flicker of pride crossing her usually stoic expression. "We would be in exactly that situation if not for Hiroshi's efforts." She turned to Hiroshi, who stood quietly at her side, and nodded for him to take over.
Hiroshi stepped forward, meeting the team's eyes one by one, his tone calm and resolute. "During my infiltration missions abroad, I managed to secure critical intelligence—including the original blueprints for Ringmaster's Pokémon biotech device." A low murmur rippled through the room, shock and awe flickering across faces. Hiroshi held up a hand, continuing firmly, "Specifically, in Moscow, I infiltrated the Russian government's most secure facility and recovered the complete schematics—right under their noses. Without that, we'd have been permanently locked out of the Pokémon race."
Denji's eyes went wide, mouth hanging open. "You broke into the Kremlin or something?!"
Hiroshi allowed himself a tiny smile. "Something like that."
Power punched the air triumphantly. "Magnificent! Truly worthy of Power's praise!" Even Aki, usually reserved, shook his head in quiet astonishment, a newfound respect gleaming in his eyes.
Makima resumed smoothly, building off Hiroshi's revelation. "This means, for Japan, the Pokémon arms race is not entirely lost—thanks solely to Hiroshi's bravery and skill. But we are still at a severe disadvantage. Other nations have had years of Pokémon development. Russia, China, America, Europe—all have thriving Pokémon programs, laboratories, even military-grade teams of trained Pokémon operatives. Japan has been stalled, weakened, betrayed from within."