8: Chapter 7: You Look Very Much Like Him…
8: Chapter 7: You Look Very Much Like Him…
Chapter 7: You Look Very Much Like Him…
Gengar’s voice grew deep and low.
A story long buried in dust was slowly unveiled at that moment.
…
A thousand years ago, it was just a carefree Gengar that loved playing pranks.
One day, it wandered into a human tribe and took great pleasure in scaring the local residents.
Every time it saw people panicking and fleeing in a chaotic rush, it would let out a smug, eerie “Ke-hehe” cackle.
The people of the tribe both feared and detested it.
However, there was a boy in the tribe who was never afraid of it.
No matter how Gengar changed its strategies or what kind of terrifying faces it made, it could never scare him.
The boy would always open his clear, bright eyes, flash a smile, and sometimes even spring forward to hug it, sharing sweet Berries with it.
As time passed, Gengar stopped scaring the boy.
Instead, it grew to enjoy staying by his side and living with him.
Until one quiet night, calamity struck…
A Chandelure, looking like an ancient crystal chandelier and burning with eerie purple flames, quietly appeared alongside an old man draped in a black robe.
A Pokémon like Chandelure drains the life force of living beings to make the flames on its own body burn brighter.
When dawn arrived, the people of the tribe discovered to their horror that their relatives and neighbors had gone almost entirely white-haired overnight!
They had become frail and ancient, looking as though decades of their lifespan had been stripped away in an instant!
However.
Within the entire tribe, only the boy who stayed with Gengar remained completely unharmed, unchanged, and still bursting with vitality.
The night before, Chandelure had actually set its sights on the boy as well, but Gengar had stepped forward and thoroughly defeated it.
It even sealed Chandelure’s shadow inside its own body to prevent it from causing havoc ever again.
Yet, fear and ignorance caused the people to direct all of their hostility toward the only anomalous existence left—that very Gengar that was always playing pranks and causing annoyance!
They believed Gengar had brought the misfortune and sucked away everyone’s life force.
Using a massive stash of provisions, the tribal elder invited the old man in the black robe, who possessed the ability to commune with a mysterious power.
He could command those bizarre, alphabet-like Pokémon known as “Unown,” and he intended to seal Gengar away forever!
Gengar desperately wanted to explain that the true culprit was this very old man in the black robe, that he was the one who had commanded Chandelure to drain their life force the previous night and had used a deceptive scheme to swindle their provisions!
But it could not speak a language that humans understood.
Its defense could only manifest as those terrifying “Ke-giah!
Ke-giah!” cries…
Facing the onslaught of several Unown, Gengar fought back for its life.
The fierce battle spilled into the surrounding structures, destroying its home.
Until Gengar locked eyes with the boy.
The boy it regarded as its only friend, the one it could never scare no matter what, was currently staring at it with an expression of pure terror, and had even raised a spear against it!
At that exact microsecond, Gengar’s heart shattered.
The instant its focus slipped, the Unown seized the opening, binding it, dragging it down, and ultimately sealing it away inside a specially constructed stone chamber within the Ruins of Alph!
Four Unown resided inside the stone walls of this specialized chamber.
Their power generated an invisible barrier, ensuring that even with Gengar’s ability to phase through walls, it could not leave the chamber by even half a meter.
Furthermore, the Unown would continuously sap its strength, rendering it weaker and weaker until it finally faded into nothingness…
…
Sean listened quietly until the entire story concluded, his heart a chaotic tangle of emotions.
Gengar had only attacked him because he looked so much like that boy from its past.
Gengar’s desperate desire to explain and pour its heart out over those long eons had allowed it to gradually develop a weak form of telepathy.
This was precisely why Sean could understand what Gengar was saying.
Looking at this translucent Gengar that was recounting its grievances, any hint of hostility vanished from his mind, replaced entirely by profound sympathy.
“So, you’ve been locked in here all this time, just waiting for the day you disappear?” Gengar nodded, its eyes hollow and numb.
“Then, do you want to get out?” Gengar stared at Sean in sheer disbelief.
Those words were like a pebble tossed into a still lake, sending ripples crashing through its heart.
“Ke-giah!” Without a shred of hesitation, Gengar nodded vigorously.
It wanted to get out so badly.
Having been trapped inside this stone chamber for a thousand years, saying it wasn’t lonely would be an absolute lie.
But Sean immediately picked up on the core issue: “If you can’t leave this chamber by even half a meter, how am I supposed to take you with me?” “…” He pondered for a moment, then pulled a red-and-white Poké Ball from his backpack and aimed it at Gengar.
“How about I try using a Poké Ball to see if it can take you out of here?” “Ke-hehe.
(Yeah.)” Gengar showed no resistance whatsoever, its hand gently tapping against the Poké Ball.
*Ping!* The Poké Ball popped open, and Gengar dissolved into a stream of red light as it was pulled inside.
The Poké Ball didn’t shake even once, immediately popping out the stars that signaled a successful capture.
Sean slid the Poké Ball containing Gengar into his pocket and began cautiously scrambling back up the rocks.
But just as his upper body cleared the opening of the hole…
The Poké Ball was suddenly yanked right back down into the stone chamber by a surge of raw, mysterious energy!
“What!” Sean gasped in shock.
The Poké Ball hit the stone floor of the chamber with a sharp *clack*.
A flash of red light followed, and Gengar popped right back out of the ball.
The tears inside its eyes began to spin frantically.
Sean leaped down from the rocky wall immediately.
He patted Gengar’s body to comfort it, but his palm nearly passed right through it!
Frustrated and anxious, Sean muttered to himself: “Cheating our way out doesn’t work, so our only option is to destroy the stone walls.
But if we attack them directly, the impact will just be completely absorbed like Geodude’s Explosion earlier.
What should we do?
If a hard approach fails, do we try a soft one?
How do we do a soft approach?
Do we negotiate with the Unown inside the walls?” Wait a minute!
Right in the middle of this dead end, an utterly outrageous, wicked idea struck his brain like a bolt of lightning.
“Hehehehe…” Sean couldn’t help but let out a low, sinister chuckle.
Cyndaquil looked completely bewildered by his bizarre laughing face, while Gengar blinked its large red eyes, as if spotting a kindred spirit in him.
Sean stopped laughing.
With a thoroughly sketchy expression on his face and his back turned to Gengar and Cyndaquil, he walked slowly toward a stone wall carved with Unown patterns.
Immediately after, he performed an action that left both Pokémon completely dumbfounded!
He actually unbuckled his belt!
The next second.
A stream of warm liquid accurately poured onto that “ancient and sacred” stone wall.
Realizing what Sean was doing in an instant, Cyndaquil froze completely in place, covering its eyes with its little paws, unable to look.
Its small face turned bright red as its inner voice screamed frantically: *I don’t know him!
I don’t know this human at all!* “Ke-giah?!
(Holy crap?!)” Gengar stared at Sean in sheer astonishment.
In its thousands of years of existence as a ghost, this was the absolute first time it had ever witnessed such an unhinged human being.
However, this seemingly absurd action produced immediate results!
*HUMMM!!!* The stone wall doused by the stream began to vibrate violently, the patterns on it flaring with a bright blue light.
Immediately following that.
A soaking wet, grey little Pokémon shaped like a capital letter “A” stormed out of the stone wall in a towering rage!
It floated in mid-air, the large eye in the center of its letter-shaped body bloodshot with pure fury as it locked its gaze onto Sean.
The psychic energy surrounding the Unown began to gather at a frantic pace…
It wanted to right now!
This instant!
Teach this brat who dared to pee on its head a lesson he would never forget for the rest of his life!!!
“Now’s our chance, Flamethrower!” Sean, who was fully prepared, roared.
Although it had been completely mortified by its Trainer’s unhinged behavior a moment ago, Cyndaquil’s battle instincts remained fully online.
It reacted instantly, unleashing a pillar of blazing fire from its mouth that accurately struck the Unown, which was completely defenseless due to its blind rage.
“Gyaaa!!!” The Unown was instantly swallowed by the flames, letting out a sharp wail before dropping from mid-air completely charred, knocked out cold.
“Hehehe!
Looks like no matter how ancient something is, it can’t withstand a combination of physical and psychological damage!” Sean gloated proudly.
The moment the Unown was defeated, Gengar’s body beside him shuddered violently, and its translucent form visibly solidified a fraction more to the naked eye.
Sean was absolutely ecstatic!
Three more walls to go.