Chapter 133: Gastly: The moment I entered...
"Ack!"
The moment it peeked out, Gastly was utterly terrified by the scene before it.
What did it see?
An evil human was commanding his minions to beat up a helpless Mismagius!
An aggressive Eevee was clamping down on the little ghostly girl's arm, and from the looks of it, she was in serious pain.
This was too horrifying!
Gastly shivered in fear and was about to slip away when the human with the sinister smile suddenly turned his head to look straight at it…
In an instant, Gastly felt its entire body freeze.
---
Asahi had already noticed the Gastly following him for a while.
But since it didn't seem hostile, he had ignored it. He hadn't expected it to trail him all the way to the seventh floor.
Though he didn't know its intentions, he couldn't let it interfere now.
Casually, he tossed a Poké Ball.
A massive Salamence and Gyarados appeared, flanking Gastly from both sides.
"Keep an eye on it," Asahi ordered before turning back to command Gardevoir against Mismagius.
Gyarados let out a menacing roar, while Salamence fixed its predator-like gaze on Gastly, as if evaluating whether it was edible.
Trapped between them, Gastly was incredibly nervous.
Still, it hadn't given up on escaping yet. Just as it prepared to slip into the shadows—
Gyarados and Salamence simultaneously locked their threatening gazes on it, pinning it in place.
Seeing this, Gastly instantly deflated, its body visibly shrinking in fear. It didn't dare move anymore.
---
Mismagius was no match for Gardevoir. Despite having a type advantage, the gap in their strength was simply too vast.
With the power of the Psychic Plate boosting it, Gardevoir completely dominated Mismagius throughout the fight.
Especially since Mismagius was distracted by the ghostly girl's predicament, its already inferior strength left it barely hanging on.
The ghostly girl grew desperate. She had the ability to create illusions, but they were completely ineffective against Eevee.
Seeing Mismagius struggling because of her, she anxiously called out, telling it not to worry about her.
Hearing her words, Mismagius instinctively glanced her way.
Such an obvious opening—Asahi didn't even need to think twice before giving the command:
"Gardevoir, finish it off!"
"Garde~!"
Gardevoir raised its arm, its eyes glowing blue. An invisible force of psychic energy instantly struck the distracted Mismagius.
Mismagius tried to counter with Shadow Ball, but it barely finished half of its incantation before Gardevoir's attack struck it head-on.
Already battered and bruised, Mismagius spiraled down from the sky, crashing to the ground unconscious.
"Mismagius!"
Seeing her partner defeated, the ghostly girl seemed to lose all her strength. She collapsed to the floor, glaring hatefully at Asahi and Green.
Asahi never cared about the wails of the defeated.
He stepped in front of the ghostly girl and gestured for Eevee to let go. Then, squatting down, he said, "I ask, you answer. OK?"
The girl only glared at him before turning her head away, refusing to cooperate.
"If you don't cooperate, that'll be troublesome for me."
Asahi then shifted his gaze upward to the Dusknoir hovering above them and smiled at the ghostly girl.
"If you don't want to talk, I'll have to let Dusknoir go."
"Dusknoir is known as the messenger of the Spirit World, right? Considering that you sneaked out of the Spirit World, what do you think it will do to you?"
Hearing Asahi's words, fear flashed through the girl's eyes.
Under the pressure of his threat, she unwillingly nodded.
After questioning her, Asahi roughly pieced together the truth behind the incident.
Simply put, half a month ago, Team Rocket had used the unique environment of the Pokémon Tower to conduct an experiment to communicate with the Spirit World. But they messed up, accidentally opening a rift that let numerous Ghost-type Pokémon and the ghostly girl with Mismagius slip through.
Realizing their mistake, some Team Rocket members fled while others were captured. Then, Agatha sealed off the Pokémon Tower, waiting for Dusknoir to repair the Spirit World rift.
But what even Agatha didn't expect was that among the entities that had escaped, a ghostly girl had actually used Mismagius' power to defeat Dusknoir, planning to permanently stabilize the rift and drag the entire Pokémon Tower into the Spirit World.
"Just a little more... Just a little more!" The ghostly girl muttered resentfully.
She had been so close. If she had just a little more time, she could have solidified the Spirit World gate and made Pokémon Tower her home.
Asahi's expression turned complicated.
He had thought she was plotting something massive—like wiping out all of Lavender Town—but it turned out she only wanted to take the Pokémon Tower into the Spirit World.
Thinking about it, it made sense. If she had truly meant to harm the town, she wouldn't have stayed holed up in Pokémon Tower for half a month.
Green, however, had a different concern. "Are real estate prices high in the Spirit World too?"
She knew property prices in Saffron City were outrageous, but did ghosts need to buy houses too?
Asahi looked at the ghostly girl curiously.
The girl turned away, refusing to answer.
But her expression was answer enough.
Good grief... Was the Spirit World dealing with a housing crisis too?
Had he just crushed a little girl's dream of having a home?
A sudden, inexplicable guilt crept into Asahi's heart.
But he quickly shook it off.
Regardless, the Pokémon Tower wasn't her personal property. It held the memories of many trainers and their Pokémon. It couldn't just be taken away.
"You are guilty of illegally occupying public property belonging to the Pokémon League. However, since the League currently has no legal provisions regarding ghost-related crimes, as the Head of the International Police Kanto Division, I now decide to deport you back to the Spirit World. Do you have any objections?" Asahi said to the ghostly girl.
The ghostly girl remained silent, only looking at the unconscious Mismagius in the distance.
Mismagius?
Recalling how anxious Mismagius had been when the ghostly girl was attacked earlier, Asahi guessed that the two must have been inseparable in the Spirit World.
Since the ghostly girl hadn't actually harmed many humans, Asahi decided not to make things difficult for her. He signaled for Gardevoir to bring Mismagius over.
The ghostly girl took Mismagius without a word, struggling to carry her unconscious companion as she slowly made her way toward the Spirit World gate.
Watching her retreating figure, Green hesitated for a moment before calling out to her.
The ghostly girl looked back in confusion as Green rummaged through her backpack and took out a camping kit she had obtained from Team Rocket's Game Corner. "Take this!"
"Live well with Mismagius, and don't try anything like this again."
The ghostly girl stared at the camping kit Green had shoved into her hands, momentarily stunned.
"...Thank you."
With a barely audible whisper of gratitude, the ghostly girl and Mismagius disappeared into the Spirit World gate.
"I didn't expect you to be so compassionate," Asahi remarked.
"I just thought of my childhood..." Green replied, a nostalgic look in her eyes.
Back when she had been kidnapped by the Masked Man's army, Jigglypuff had been her only companion.
Fortunately, she had later escaped and met Asahi, who had given her a new life.
"Thank you, Asahi," Green said earnestly, looking at him.
Asahi was taken aback by her sudden sincerity and waved his hand dismissively. "Why are you getting all serious out of nowhere...?"
Green chuckled.
Meanwhile, the Dusknoir still hanging on the wall: "....."
"Can you at least put me down before you start chatting?"
Gastly: "Forget that! I'm still being stared at by two terrifying monsters! I didn't even do anything—do I really deserve this?"
---
It took Asahi quite a while to remember that Dusknoir was still hanging on the wall.
This was the key Pokémon responsible for closing the Spirit World gate—it couldn't be neglected.
He signaled for Gardevoir to break the chains and release Dusknoir.
Once freed, Dusknoir silently stared at Asahi for a long moment, then glanced at Gardevoir and the stone slab in its hands. Finally, it lowered its body and vanished into the ground.
Then, Asahi watched as it methodically retrieved every defeated Ghost-type Pokémon and tossed them one by one back into the Spirit World gate.
Interestingly, the Gengar and Haunter from the first-floor hall weren't included.
Considering how those Ghost Pokémon had been unresponsive to communication, Asahi speculated that the ones from the Spirit World might be different from ordinary Ghost-types.
Dusknoir repeated the process over a dozen times before finally stopping.
Before leaving, its gaze lingered on Gastly for a moment.
However, upon seeing the Gyarados and Salamence flanking Gastly—and Asahi and Gardevoir standing nearby—it ultimately turned and entered the Spirit World gate.
With Dusknoir gone, the gate lost its support and closed shut.
Although the atmosphere in the hall remained eerie, the situation had mostly returned to normal.
"How rude. We saved it and even helped clean up such a big mess, and it didn't even say thank you," Asahi muttered, staring at the spot where Dusknoir disappeared.
Then he turned around. "Don't you think so, Gastly?"
At that moment, Gastly was still basking in relief. Hearing Asahi's question, it instinctively nodded—only to realize a second later that Asahi was the one asking.
Its body immediately tensed.
Looking up at Asahi's half-smiling expression, Gastly began to sweat.
Asahi walked up to Gastly and smiled. "So, let's talk about you. Why have you been following me this whole time? And why did Dusknoir give you that look before leaving?"
"I'm really curious. Care to explain?"
Gastly froze in place.
Right now, it just wanted to go back in time and hit itself with a Shadow Ball. It had already escaped the Pokémon Tower—so why, out of sheer curiosity, did it follow along?
Curiosity killed the Gastly.
---
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