The Quest for the Legends

They don't know he is dead. The memory modification made them forget all about it.

No, you're misunderstanding it. See, people remember Mark, alive. They also remember that a guy was killed at the Pokémon Festival. It's the connection that is buried deeper - his parents don't really remember that it was Mark who died there, and the unconnected people who read about the death and meet him later don't realize that his name and appearance are the same as the guy who was killed, unless they see direct, undeniable evidence, such as in Crater Town where people could look at the newspaper article about his death and him alive side by side.

Alan: Huh?
May: …
Mark: Eh? That was a joke. o_O
May (again): What, should one have a problem with being named after a month?

Overenthusiastic Pichu kid: Of course! We can beat anyone!

Mark's parents don't technically know he's in the League. Molzapart's memory-messing makes them mentally explain his absence from their house with, 'Oh, he's out on his Pokémon journey,' but not think about it hard enough to realize things like, 'Oh, he's in the League right now; we can see him on TV!'

Molzapart: Memory modification takes effort; it can't be thrown around casually.

Chaletwo: I don't see any need to erase their memories. I'd trust them to keep quiet about it after all this.

The clones can't be caught. They're a worrying factor in the equation, yes, but we'll just have to hope that at the moment of truth they'll be in their Pokéballs. There aren't a lot of Gym battles going on except in the summer, so the chance they won't be is at least reasonably small.

May isn't in any state to be answering questions right now, but basically, seeing him made her remember that he died, even though she hadn't remembered it before. The same would happen with his parents and anyone else who knew him well; without specifically being reminded of him, they don't give him any real thought and just think "Yeah, he's out on a journey", but if their memories were jolted, they would connect it together. People who didn't know him well just don't make any connection between him and the kid who was killed at all, even if they see him, and need that connection to be evoked specifically, as with the inhabitants of Crater Town. Once that memory-jolt has happened, however, there is nothing left of the memory modification; all it does is file these things away where they aren't looked at.

It's much the same with Alan, though it's not like he actually knows all these details.

Chaletwo: Thing is, there is evidence that somebody was killed. There are records, photos, files. We can't just magically eliminate all that; even if we made everyone forget somebody was killed at all, there would be a great risk of people discovering the evidence, which would immediately bring all those memories back. Worse still, a death is something people remember - a much more extensive memory modification would be needed to completely eliminate that than just to prevent people from recognizing the face of the one who died, and the moment anyone remembered it, it wouldn't just slip away again the way the dead trainers' identities do. There is also evidence that Mark was the one who was killed, of course, but there is less of it and it is more periodical - the only reason those Crater Town people found out at all is that some crazy old woman was reading a two-week-old newspaper at exactly the time Mark came in. Otherwise it would never have happened.

Mark to ivymeleon: Umm, same as everyone's, I guess? o_O

May to ivymeleon: …That's a dumb question.

Sparky to Steele: Maybe electrical engineering. Electronics are fun to mess with. :3

Mitch to Steele: I'd stick with my antidote research, I suppose.

Sparky to elyvorg: Oh, I don't like to take sides. Why pick one over the other when you can have both? :o

Chaletwo to Joseph: It would hurt like hell but not do any lasting damage.

Chaletwo to Blue Shine: Molzapart can probably still do small-scale memory modification. I could do some mental prodding in other directions. We have plenty of options.

May to Blue Shine: …He was an idiot.

Dragonite to Blue Shine: It feels strange, but the instinct is there, you know? You have a feeling for what you're supposed to do, but it still takes a while to get used to your body all over again.

Mark to Rose: Well, I guess I'm starting to stick up for myself a bit more, maybe, and taking more responsibility? It's kind of hard to judge these things yourself.

Old lady to Rose: Lots of things! I love knitting. My grandchildren just can't get enough of my sweaters.

Chaletwo to Brock: Physically, we're genderless. We're immortal and don't reproduce, and therefore we don't have genitalia. Some have a grammatical gender preference.

Carl to Brock: The town is gone, but the former inhabitants still keep in touch. We hope to establish a new community somewhere else.

Spirit to Brock: I feel nothing while in spirit form.

Mark to Kevin: Well, technically they don't think I'm dead, per se, but they'd remember it if I walked in front of them or something. Anyway, I'm guessing… or hoping… that Chaletwo and Molzapart can fix that somehow when they're back at full power, so…