Leon wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Feebas’s eyes seemed noticeably brighter again.
He’d had the same impression before.
To be thorough, Leon took out his phone and snapped several photos of Feebas from different angles.
He decided he would take a few pictures every day so he could compare them over time.
After applying some more skincare products to Feebas, Leon noticed that the water in the tank seemed to have grown considerably cloudier.
Although water this cloudy wasn’t a problem for Feebas, Leon decided to play it safe.
He made another trip to the aquarium and found a larger fish tank, along with some fresh water.
The aquarium had its own independent water supply.
Although the city’s tap water had stopped running, the aquarium still had water.
But with so many Water-type Pokémon living there, no one in the camp dared come over to collect any, which worked out perfectly for Leon.
Of course, that convenience came with a price.
If any of the Pokémon in the aquarium ever got out, he’d be the first one in trouble.
That was why no one in the camp envied Leon.
Some even complained behind his back that he was still being ridiculously particular about his living conditions in the middle of the apocalypse.
After all, aside from June, Leon was the only person in the entire camp who had a private room to himself.
Once he’d moved Feebas into the larger tank, Leon dragged several bags of fish food out of the aquarium and piled them up in his room.
Water-type Pokémon would obviously eat fish food, and Leon was worried that one of them might eventually discover the stockpile.
Knock, knock, knock.
June lightly knocked on the glass door.
Hearing the sound, Leon hurried over and invited her inside.
After offering June a seat, Leon asked somewhat awkwardly, “June, did you need something from me?”
Looking exhausted, June said softly, “There’s something I’d like your opinion on.”
Leon straightened in his seat, giving her his full attention.
“Go ahead.”
“I’m considering relocating the camp,” June said.
“Moving everyone into the apartment buildings across the street.”
Leon thought for a moment before giving his opinion.
“There aren’t many supplies in those buildings. I don’t think they’d be any safer than the mall.”
Leon knew June was worried about Mimikyu.
To the people of this world, Ghost-type Pokémon were the ultimate nightmare.
There was practically no one who wasn’t afraid of them.
Mimikyu’s presence weighed heavily on June, like a massive stone pressing down on her heart.
Ultimately, it was because she knew absolutely nothing about Mimikyu.
If she knew that Mimikyu didn’t feed on life energy, she might feel considerably more at ease.
After thinking it over for a moment, Leon decided to give her some reassurance.
For one thing, he owed her for saving his life.
If June hadn’t intervened back then, he probably would have died between Raticate’s incisors.
More importantly, humans were social creatures.
Leon wanted this camp to survive too.
At least for now, there wasn’t much wrong with the camp.
Under June’s management, none of the ugly things so common in apocalyptic settings had emerged.
“June, I’ve studied Ghost-type monsters,” Leon said, looking at her seriously.
And he really had studied Ghost-type Pokémon.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that, as a walking, talking Pokédex, if he were transported to the Pokémon world, he’d qualify as a Pokémon Professor at the very least.
June trusted Leon.
After all, he was a graduate student and the most highly educated “intellectual” in the entire camp.
“I’m listening,” June said, clearly taking his words seriously.
“Ghost-type monsters actually aren’t as dangerous as you think.”
June opened her mouth to respond.
She wanted to warn Leon not to underestimate how dangerous Ghost-type monsters were.
They were responsible for at least seventy percent of the collapse of the entire Federation.
But knowing Leon wasn’t the sort of person to make baseless claims, she swallowed the words that had already reached her lips.
“Based on my research, I’ve found that Ghost-type monsters generally fall into three categories. The first feeds on the life energy of others. This kind of Ghost-type monster is the most dangerous, and it’s also the type that has caused the greatest damage to the Federation.”
June nodded, acknowledging his point.
Leon continued, “The second type feeds on souls. To these monsters, souls genuinely exist. They can devour a human soul, and once someone loses their soul, they die immediately.”
“On the first night after the monsters appeared, there was an investigation report on our law enforcement internal network. It said that everyone in a small town suddenly died under mysterious circumstances.”
“But there weren’t any wounds on their bodies, and there were no signs of poisoning. Could that have been what you’re talking about—their souls being eaten?”
People whose life energy had been consumed turned ashen gray, so June immediately thought of that bizarre case from the first day the Pokémon appeared.
Leon nodded.
“Human technology hasn’t reached the point where we can study souls, so I don’t know exactly what happened. But what you described was probably a case of people’s souls being eaten.”
“Ghost-type monsters really are bizarre. A lot of them can even shrug off physical attacks. That’s one of the reasons they were able to bring down the Federation so quickly,” June said with a sigh.
“The third type of Ghost-type monster should feed on human emotions—fear, happiness, things like that.” Leon paused there.
Seeing June sink into thought, he pressed on while he had the chance.
“I suspect the monster we encountered in the arcade belongs to that third category.”
June’s eyes lit up.
She asked excitedly, “If that monster really feeds on emotions, doesn’t that mean it wouldn’t kill people? Wouldn’t it actually keep humans alive instead?”
Leon nodded.
“Then what happened to Blondie and the others?” June asked, raising another point that didn’t add up.
“Maybe they angered that monster. But even then, something about this is strange. No matter what kind of monster kills someone, it leaves a body behind.” Leon frowned as he voiced the question that had been troubling him all along.
June agreed.
“It really is strange. Ghost-type monsters usually leave bodies behind when they kill people. They don’t eat flesh, after all.”
A major reason she’d decided to move away from this place was precisely because Blondie and the others had disappeared under such bizarre circumstances.
Leon actually had another theory: perhaps Blondie and the others hadn’t been killed by Mimikyu at all.
But if Mimikyu hadn’t done it, what other Pokémon could make a person disappear without a trace, without even leaving behind any blood?
Leon could think of quite a few Pokémon capable of something like that, such as Gengar, Dusclops, or even some of the larger Pokémon.
But the camp was so close to the arcade that if a large Pokémon had appeared, there was no way the people patrolling the camp wouldn’t have heard something.
And if it had been Gengar or Dusclops, Blondie and his companion wouldn’t have been the only ones dead.
The entire camp would have been wiped out.
“Maybe Blondie and the others aren’t dead,” Leon speculated.
“Maybe they’re simply missing.”
Psychic-type Pokémon suddenly came to mind.
In this world, if there was anything that could rival Ghost-type Pokémon when it came to sheer strangeness, it was Psychic types.