Chapter 163Revelations

"Come on! You've got this...!" Jason shouted, his expression serious as his hands hovered under the bar that Lana, lying atop a padded black bench, was lifting. Despite her stature and deceptively slender arms, each side of the silvery bar supported an impressive 90kg, which, when combined with the bar's weight, came to an even 200kg.

"Hmmmgh...!"

Refusing to give up, Lana strained virtually every muscle in her body to get the bar back onto its supports.

*CLNK*

With her arms free of their burden, Lana exhaled a relieved sigh, rested her hands atop her exposed abdomen, and remarked, "Do you really train like this every day? It's no wonder you're so beefy..."

Shaking his head, Jason clarified, "My physique is more the result of my diet and the effects of my hot spring than training. I like to think I put my all into growing stronger. But, considering I'm only able to bench around half of what you just benched, it's not an exaggeration to say my muscles are for show..."

"Mmmmn...well, either way, you look good..." Lana asserted, her cheeks tinting red from more than just exertion as she unabashedly eyed Jason's defined abs.

Feeling compelled to return Lana's compliment, Jason's eyes shifted to the former's body. In place of her usual airy clothes and sukumizu-style swimsuit, Lana was wearing a blue-and-white sports bra with a matching pair of spat-like shorts.

Noticing the shift in Jason's gaze, Lana preempted his compliment by exhaling through her nose and stating, "It's fine. Lillie already revealed to us that you prefer girls with large breasts and big butts. You don't have to force yourself to compliment me..."

"..."

Though Lana's words momentarily left him at a loss, Jason recovered quickly, his expression and tone sincere as he shook his head and asked, "While it's true that I have a fondness for large breasts, have I ever said or done anything that gave you the impression I didn't find you attractive in your own way? There are instances when your curiosity and boldness leave me at a loss. But, more than their physical appearance, the thing I most appreciate in a partner is them knowing what they want and being able to convey it clearly..."

"Ren wants Jason to hug her and massage her boobs...!" Ren interjected rather abruptly, having been paying close attention to Jason's and Lana's exchange while rowing a short distance away. Jason often referred to her as his partner, so when she heard his words, her ears immediately perked up.

"..."

With Ren abandoning her rowing machine to run over and stand before him expectantly, Jason found himself at even more of a loss, his mouth opening but no words coming out. Fortunately, though her words put him on the spot, he wasn't alone. Lana was there with them, and in response to Ren's demand, she sat up and asked, "Does Ren like having her boobs massaged?"

"Nn! Ren really likes it~!" Ren chimed, pumping her paws, beaming from ear to ear, and wagging her tail excitedly.

"Then, do you mind if I try...?" Lana asked, raising her hands and making grasping gestures.

"...?"

Instead of approving of or denying Lana's request, Ren promptly directed her gaze to Jason, habitually seeking his approval.

Shaking his head, Jason contended, "You really shouldn't be doing things like that with humans..." before looking to Lana and explaining, "I'm trying to avoid Ren getting in the habit of being intimate with humans. So please don't encourage her..."

While Ren promptly sank to the ground, overplaying her deflatedness for sympathy and dramatic effect, Lana, like many before her, tilted her head and questioned, "Is there something wrong with Pokémon being intimate with humans? If anything, isn't that the norm...?"

"There are levels to everything..." Jason sighed, looking down at Ren and feeling more than a little guilty as he explained, "I already feel as though I have irreversibly profaned this world by introducing the concept of sex. If the line isn't drawn somewhere, I'm afraid of what I and those around me might become..."

Hitting the proverbial nail on the head, Lana questioned, "But if you're the only one who feels that way, aren't you placing a huge burden on yourself for no reason...?"

"You're not wrong..." Jason conceded, closing his eyes and exhaling with a mix of exasperation and defeat. Lana was far from the first to point out that he was burdening himself one-sidedly. And now that they knew there were others from his world present in the setting, his actions were akin to trying to plug a leaky dam with a rubber stopper...

Shaking his head, Jason opened his eyes and looked down to find Ren staring up at him. He imagined she could sense confusion, but that was far from the only emotion he was feeling. He genuinely wanted what was best for her, so with a weary smile, he pleaded, "Please don't continue to ask this of me..."

"Nn...Ren understands..." Ren muttered, her expression turning serious as she gave a solemn nod. Then, rising to her feet, she gave Jason a firm but non-suffocating hug.

Witnessing Jason's and Ren's warm embrace, more than a few questions formed in Lana's mind. She still didn't understand his apprehensions, but she could see that he and Ren cared deeply for one another. With that in mind, she decided not to press Jason further. Instead, she waited for the embrace to conclude before asking, "Are we finished exercising? If so, do you want to have a Pokémon battle?"

"Battle...?"

Hearing her second-favorite word, Ren immediately perked up, her ears angling backward and her pupils noticeably dilating as she looked up at Jason with wide, hopeful eyes. As usual, Jason's resistance immediately collapsed, a wry smile adorning his face as he exhaled through his nose, cupped the sides of her face, and affirmed, "Battle..." while scratching the back of her head and neck, just the way she liked...

...

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With Lillie engrossed in her father's research and Lana, Mallow, and Selene returning to their respective homes to be ready for school the following day, Jason found himself staring thoughtfully at a tablet. His brows were beaded with sweat due to Ren choosing to take a nap while lying across his lap, but he didn't ask her to remove herself. Instead, he periodically scratched under her chin or ran his fingers through the thin and surprisingly velvety fur coating her stomach...

'This is surprisingly transparent...' Jason noted, his brows rising as he stumbled across a recent headline and article that informed readers of the rising threat of Team Rainbow Rocket—including the fact that they were invading from another world. The existence of parallel worlds had already become common knowledge as a result of the Pasio Incident. So while the article didn't go into detail concerning the measures the League was taking to combat Team Rainbow Rocket, it included several photos of Ultra Wormholes, as well as several otherworldly Pokémon...

"..."

Staring at the photo of an otherworldly Pokémon that resembled a bipedal fox with yellow fur, a white stomach, thick chest fluff, dark purple sleeves, wide, feminine hips, and a long, fluffy tail, the gears in Jason's mind came to a full stop. He had never gotten into the series, but no one who got into Pokémon wasn't aware of the fandom regarded as its darker, considerably less popular counterpart—Digimon. More specifically, the image depicted a Renamon standing cross-armed and staring at whomever had taken the photo with narrowed, sapphire-blue, black-sclera eyes...

"Jason...?"

Sensing the abrupt shift in Jason's Aura, Ren awoke and rose sleepily to a seated position, rubbing her left eye with her clenched paw as she asked, "What's wrong...?" before staring at him with her head tilted confusedly to the side.

"I'm just coming to terms with the fact that our situation is infinitely more complicated than any of us realized..." Jason responded, his gaze fixed on the tablet's screen with growing solemnity. The Renamon wasn't the only anomaly among the gallery of otherworldly Pokémon. He didn't recognize many of them, possibly due to their more realistic appearance. But he was roughly ninety percent certain that at least one of the would-be Pokémon was from a creature-collecting franchise called Palworld...

Noticing that Jason was focused on his tablet's display, Ren deliberated briefly before scooting closer, forcing him to pay attention to her as she leaned into him and asked, "What are you looking at...?" while deliberately obstructing his view with her head and ears.

Fixing her gaze on the image of the Renamon, which looked surprisingly like herself, Ren raised her brows and noted, "A yellow Lucario? It looks different from the one in Jason's book..."

"Right...shiny Lucario are yellow..." Jason recalled aloud, his thoughts habitually producing the image that Ren was referencing. He had never correlated the two, but Ren wasn't mistaken when she pointed out that the Renamon in question resembled a shiny Lucario. Their anatomy and proportions were uncannily similar, with the most substantial differences being that the Renamon had more vulpine features while lacking sensory antennae and metal spikes on its chest and the backs of its hands...

'They even both have boobs...' Jason noted, his gaze zeroing in on the Renamon's chest. There were no visible nipples, but with the Renamon standing cross-armed, it was impossible not to notice that it possessed small but shapely breasts beneath its chest fluff...

"Ren wants to battle this Lucario..." Ren muttered, touching the tablet's screen with her middle left digit. She couldn't clearly interpret what Jason was feeling, but she got the distinct impression she was being compared to the Lucario on-screen. And for reasons she wouldn't be able to put into words, that thought made her want to unleash her strongest attack on her would-be rival...

"Unless I'm mistaken, it should be called a Renamon..." Jason corrected, sensing Ren's mild antagonism but choosing not to read further into it as he explained, "And, rather than a Pokémon, it should be a Digital Monster from a world called Digimon..."

"Ren doesn't like that word...Digimon..." Ren stated, her eyes narrowing and her tone suffused with a surprising amount of venom.

"...?"

'That's new. Could the real-world rivalry between Pokémon and Digimon translate to a natural animosity between the species...?' Jason wondered, surprised by Ren's declaration. She didn't normally show hostility toward anything, so her expressing that she didn't like Digimon stood out to him a great deal.

'For now, I need to make a call...' Jason concluded, putting off confirming the source of Ren's hostility until after he had informed Lusamine and the League of his revelations. As far as he was aware, he was the only person from his world they were actively cooperating with. And since there were bound to be differences between Pokémon, Digimon, Pals, and whatever types of monsters that appeared, he would be saving their researchers a lot of time by simply making them aware of their differing origins...

With such thoughts in his mind, Jason had Ren remove herself from his lap, allowing him to stand up while she stretched like a cat and eventually followed him out of the room. He had tried to reassure her and tell her to go back to sleep. But since she could sense his suppressed urgency and wanted to know the reason for it, she insisted on accompanying him as he roused Dex from his slumber and eventually got pulled into a conference call with more than a few corporate and League bigshots...

...

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