Once everyone had finished drawing lots, June clapped her hands to get their attention and continued, “Group One, get ready. Leon and I are going to the arcade in a moment. If we don’t come back, Ray will be in charge of the camp for the time being.”
Ray’s brow furrowed deeply when he heard that, and he looked at June with concern written all over his face.
“June, why don’t I go in your place?” Ray volunteered.
June’s tone left no room for argument.
“It has to be me.”
“All right. Leon and I are heading out.” June waved to everyone, then resolutely left the camp with Leon.
Only after they had gone some distance did June lower her voice and ask, “Leon, are you really sure that Ghost monster won’t capture us if we go in?”
Leon nodded confidently, then explained, “First of all, you can’t be afraid. The more frightened you are, the more likely it is to capture you.”
“You’re really not scared at all?” June asked, puzzled as she looked at Leon’s completely fearless expression.
“No,” Leon answered firmly.
As far as he was concerned, the worst-case scenario was simply being held captive for a day.
Besides, he was eighty percent certain that Mimikyu wouldn’t attack them.
“I really envy your mindset. But… isn’t it kind of wrong for us to deceive everyone like this?” June’s conscience was still bothering her.
She felt as though she had betrayed everyone’s trust.
She wasn’t nearly as fearless about sacrificing herself as everyone imagined.
The only reason she had volunteered to go first with Leon was because he had repeatedly assured her that the Ghost monster wouldn’t attack them.
Leon wasn’t very good at comforting women, so he replied coldly, “What matters is what you do, not what you think. Whatever was going through your head, you’re still the person in charge, and you really were the first one to step forward and offer yourself as a sacrifice.”
“All right. I just hope your analysis is correct.” June nodded helplessly.
What June was actually afraid of wasn’t being captured by the Ghost monster.
She was afraid of losing her life.
After all, no matter how reasonable Leon’s analysis sounded, it was still only theory, not an established fact.
With June still filled with unease, the two of them entered the arcade once again.
As soon as they stepped inside, Leon, flashlight in hand, focused directly on the damaged claw machine.
“Wait for me by the entrance,” Leon told June, turning toward her.
June stared at him in surprise.
“You’re going alone?”
Leon nodded as though it were only natural.
June gave him a complicated look.
Before this, she had thought Leon was intelligent but rather selfish.
Otherwise, after coming up with the sacrifice plan, he wouldn’t have excluded himself from it.
Yet now Leon was telling her to stay outside while he entered the arcade alone to face the Ghost monster.
That didn’t fit at all with the selfish, death-fearing personality she had attributed to him.
Leon paid no attention to what June might be thinking.
He walked up to the damaged claw machine and gazed thoughtfully at Mimikyu, which was still disguised as a stuffed toy.
Leon recalled the Pokédex information about Mimikyu.
If he wanted to make contact with Mimikyu, he needed to keep several aspects of its personality in mind.
[1.
The reason Mimikyu made itself a Pikachu-like disguise was because it wanted to get along with humans.
In other words, Mimikyu was the kind of Pokémon that generally didn’t harbor much hostility toward humans.
Leon couldn’t be certain whether Mimikyu’s attitude toward humans would extend to the humans of this world, but given that they looked more or less the same, Mimikyu should retain that tendency.
However, considering that humans in the Pokémon world shared the same underlying genetic origins as Pokémon while the humans of this world did not, Leon was actually only seventy percent confident.
Still, seventy percent confidence that Mimikyu wouldn’t attack humans was enough.
[2.
Mimikyu was afraid of sunlight, had a calm temperament, and hated being lonely.
That was also why Leon dared to come meet Mimikyu and devise the sacrifice plan in the first place.
Its calm temperament meant Mimikyu was unlikely to kill the humans, while its loneliness was the key to the entire sacrifice plan.
Sending two people every day to keep Mimikyu company so it wouldn’t cause trouble was the solution Leon could think of that required the smallest price.
[3.
The disguise covering Mimikyu’s body was taboo.
Under no circumstances could it be touched.
So when interacting with Mimikyu, it was best to keep some distance and remain vigilant at all times.
Above all, he absolutely couldn’t see Mimikyu’s true body beneath its disguise.
That was why Leon stopped when he was just under a meter away from the damaged claw machine.
[4.
Mimikyu didn’t like others exposing the fact that it was disguising itself as Pikachu.
But since this was another world, Leon wasn’t sure whether that still applied.
Either way, he absolutely couldn’t expose it.
That was a prerequisite for negotiation.
Whether Mimikyu could understand him or not, Leon simply stood there and began speaking.
“Pikachu, I’ll send two people over every day to walk around here. If you’re hungry, you can keep them here, but don’t take their lives.”
“And if you get bored, once you’ve eaten your fill, tell them. I’ll come over and talk or play with you.”
“I’m not even sure whether you can understand me, but that’s everything I can do for you. So… would you like to be friends?”
After saying that, Leon extended his fist.
Mimikyu curiously studied the strange life-form before it—something that was human, yet somehow wasn’t.
This person looked exactly like a human on the outside, but on the inside, he wasn’t really like one.
Mimikyu thought of itself.
It looked like Pikachu on the outside, but it wasn’t Pikachu on the inside.
At that thought, the little creature even felt a tiny bit of kinship with him.
It could understand Leon’s words, or at least grasp their general meaning.
This seemingly weak fake human wanted to bring it “food,” and was even willing to keep it company.
Mimikyu found that somewhat surprising.
As for playing with humans who were really animals in disguise, Mimikyu thought about it for a moment before shaking its head.
It didn’t think it would be able to have much fun with those animals.
In the eyes of Pokémon, the humans of this world were essentially equivalent to ordinary animals in the Pokémon world.
They merely happened to look somewhat human.
Ordinary animals did exist in the Pokémon world, and they occupied the very bottom of the food chain.
To the overwhelming majority of Pokémon, the humans of this world were nothing more than animals wearing human skin.
Mimikyu’s fake head suddenly flopped to one side.
The abrupt movement startled Leon badly.
With his heart pounding from the fright, Leon hurriedly forced himself to calm down.
He continued speaking as though nothing had happened.
“If you’re not going to say anything, I’ll take that as a yes.”
Mimikyu didn’t particularly feel like dealing with this fake human, so it simply ignored him, though that could also be taken as tacit agreement.
After all, it still needed to keep these humans around in order to feed on their fear and despair.
That was why it tacitly accepted Leon’s proposal.
Unlike Pokémon that simply plundered life energy directly, the clever Mimikyu understood the value of harvesting its food sustainably.
‘My head fell over again.
I need to fix it quickly,’ Mimikyu thought, feeling a little aggrieved.
It looked like it would have to get rid of this annoying fake human first.
With that thought, a strange pink light suddenly shone.
Before Leon could even react, the attack struck him.
June, standing outside the entrance, was hit as well.