As the vision faded into darkness, Felix found himself back inside the internet café.
His eyes immediately returned to the fragment lying on the counter.
The golden markings etched across its surface were identical to the ones he had just watched Arceus inscribe, and as he focused on them, their meaning flowed naturally into his mind.
[At the dawn of creation…
heaven and earth were divided.
Boundless power surged forth, and from it came the essence known as spirit.
Thus, wandering souls…]
The inscription ended there.
Felix drew a slow breath.
At this point, anyone familiar with Pokémon should have been able to recognize what he was holding.
One of Arceus’s Plates.
Judging by the purple coloration and the contents of the inscription, it was most likely connected to the Ghost type—essentially a fragment of the Spooky Plate.
And it really was only a fragment.
Compared with the complete Plate he had seen Arceus create in the vision, this piece was less than a fifth of the original size.
Even so, Felix needed a moment to process the fact that something of this caliber had simply been handed to him.
He looked over at Gengar.
“Where did you find this?”
“Gengar…
gar.”
Gengar answered as straightforwardly as ever.
[Very, very deep inside this mountain.
There was a strange cave, and I found it after I went inside.]
[There were lots of strange…
forces around it.
They kept trying to stop me from going farther.]
[It took me a really long time to get through…
but I managed to bring this out.]
Gengar looked up at him expectantly.
“Gengar!
Gengar!”
[This thing is really good.
When I keep it with me…
I feel comfortable.]
[You helped me, so I want you to have it.]
Felix looked at Gengar’s eager expression, then down at the Plate fragment resting on the counter.
After a brief silence, he pushed it back across the counter.
“I appreciate the thought, but I can’t take something this valuable.
Keep it.
You’ll get more use out of it than I will.”
“Gengar?!”
Gengar clearly had not expected him to refuse.
It immediately pushed the fragment back toward Felix.
[But it’s really, really good!]
“I know.
That’s exactly why I’m not taking it.”
Felix smiled.
“I only helped you out because I happened to be there.
You don’t owe me something like this.”
He thought for a moment before adding, “If you really want to repay me, how about working here at the café instead?”
“Gen…
gar?”
[Café?]
Gengar looked completely lost.
Right.
It had no idea what an internet café was.
Felix changed his explanation.
“Basically, this place is a shop.
I’ll have customers coming here more often from now on.”
“You’d just stay here most of the time.
Every now and then I might need you to help with something, but it shouldn’t be much work.”
He pointed toward the white can Gengar was still holding.
“In exchange, I’ll give you drinks like that every day, along with food and whatever else you need.”
Gengar had looked increasingly confused throughout the first half of the explanation, but the instant Felix mentioned the drinks, its eyes lit up.
“Gengar!
Gengar!”
[Okay!
Okay!
I like…
drinks!]
Felix laughed and held out his hand.
“Then it’s settled.”
“Starting today, we’re friends!”
Gengar went completely still.
This time, it remained dazed for much longer than before.
Eventually, it slowly reached out, wrapped one claw around Felix’s hand, and shook it enthusiastically.
“Gengar!
Gengar!”
[Friends!]
Its excited thoughts came through just as clearly.
[I..
i have…
a friend now!]
“Gengar!”
[Wait here!]
As soon as it released Felix’s hand, Gengar seemed to remember something.
It hurried toward the door and disappeared from sight within moments.
Felix watched it leave, then glanced back at the Plate fragment Gengar had left on the counter.
Of course he wanted it.
It was a fragment of one of Arceus’s Plates.
Pretending otherwise would have been ridiculous.
But if Felix thought about what he would actually do with it, the answer was fairly obvious: find some way to let a Ghost-type Pokémon benefit from it.
If Gengar was going to become his companion anyway, then whether Felix technically owned the fragment hardly mattered.
Gengar would be the one using it either way.
Still…
Felix shook his head as he looked toward the doorway.
‘Aren’t this guy a little too trusting?’
He had never met a ghost this honest in his life.
Then again, strictly speaking, he had never met a ghost at all before ending up in this world.
…
Five minutes later, Gengar reappeared at the café entrance.
This time, it was dragging an enormous suitcase behind it.
The battered old case was larger than Gengar itself and looked as though it had survived decades of abuse.
Gengar hauled it across the floor, stopped in front of Felix, and proudly opened it.
Felix raised his eyebrows.
The suitcase was crammed with an astonishing assortment of objects.
He immediately recognized several Evolution Stones—a Water Stone, Fire Stone, Leaf Stone, and even a Moon Stone.
There were also a few rarer-looking held items mixed among them.
Felix spotted what appeared to be a Spell Tag and a Toxic Orb, along with several other things he could not identify at a glance.
Not everything in the collection was valuable, of course.
There were pretty glass marbles, chunks of green stone, ordinary rocks in unusual shapes, bottle caps, old newspapers, and even a small red hat.
There was no apparent system to any of it.
The suitcase looked less like a treasure chest and more like the accumulated possessions of someone who picked up anything that happened to catch its eye.
“Is this your collection?”
Gengar nodded enthusiastically.
“Gengar!”
[Yes!
These are all my favorite things!]
“Gengar, gengar.”
[If you want anything, you can pick whatever you like!]
It immediately began digging through the suitcase, pulling out one object after another and presenting them to Felix as though each were a priceless treasure.
After rummaging for a while, Gengar seemed to remember something.
It plunged both arms into a pile of bottles and jars on the left side of the case and began digging deeper.
A few moments later, it pulled out another object.
This one was a roughly rectangular piece of stone with uneven, broken edges.
Because it had been stored safely inside the suitcase, it was much cleaner than the previous fragment and had no thick layer of dust covering it.
Felix’s attention immediately locked onto the markings engraved across its surface.
He knew that pattern.
The only difference was the color.
These markings were gold.
Felix stared at them, and a realization slowly formed in his mind.
Before he could finish the thought, his vision went dark once again.
When his sight returned, he was standing in that same familiar sea of stars.
Countless points of light drifted through the endless darkness, and not far away, Arceus stood before another newly formed Plate with one foreleg raised.
Felix stared at the scene in silence.
“…Seriously?”
Was Arceus mass-producing these things?
How had Gengar managed to find another one?