Cynthia Shirona to Professor Oak
I thank you for the letter, Professor. While a lot of my time is of course taken up with Champion's duties, I must say that having a research question like this to occupy my time is going to be quite relaxing.
Unfortunately, I have to say, I don't think I'm likely to be successful any time soon. I pride myself on having an extremely comprehensive knowledge of many Pokémon, especially the Legendaries, and the photograph you have sent of your young student's current appearance is not more than the faintest bit familiar.
I can't really be sure that anything I do remember actually means something.
I'll let you know if I find anything, but, if you'll forgive me the indulgence, my little hobby isn't much like Pokémon research. While Pokémon research is about field work, and it's about documentation and observation of a very concrete thing one way or another, the really deep kinds of historical research are about looking for a needle that might not be there in a large haystack.
In essence, there's three kinds of places where historical data can be found. The first is where at least the thread you need in order to get started is common knowledge, and I think we can agree that based on the available information… if anything about the Pokémon your student has turned into was common knowledge, one of us would know about it already.
The problem is that the other two ways are much less reliable.
The second is oral history, which is when someone, somewhere, knows something that will start you on the right trail. Oral history is often corrupted by transmission, and of course you have to find the right person to speak to.
The third is when the exact information you are after is in some archive, somewhere, either as text or as an artefact or even as an engraving. I've run into all of these in my time researching ancient legends, and they're all hard to deal with… which is compounded by how often some or all of them are wrong, of course.
Regardless. I will certainly keep you updated if I find anything. And I'll have to get my Lucario and Garchomp to drag me out of the archives if I spend too long in there again.
AN:
Cynthia's on the case, but that's not the same as saying the truth will come out immediately – not in this version of the Pokémon World where the identity of the Creator is Extremely Rare Knowledge.
Her Garchomp and Lucario may or may not be called Aster and Rascal, depending on how closely I'm following HopeStoryteller's version of Cynthia.