A warm breeze stirred the dark clouds overhead, while a fine drizzle slipped gently from the eaves.
Small puddles had formed in the narrow alleyways, reflecting the gray-white night sky.
A plume of steam accompanied by a sizzling sound drifted from a small window, adding a touch of warmth and life to the chilly night.
Nathan Hale lived in an old apartment building not far from the school.
It took barely more than ten minutes to walk there.
After returning home and taking a short break, he made himself a simple dinner that, while nothing fancy, tasted pretty good.
The slightly worn-out sofa had one thing going for it: it was soft and clean enough to let a person sink lazily into it.
He wrapped himself in a blanket, brought over an old secondhand laptop, and started browsing the web.
As a seasoned Pokémon fan, Nathan Hale knew Pokémon inside and out.
But when it came to the Pokémon world itself, there was still a lot he didn’t know.
For example, modern Poké Balls had first been developed in 1925 of the League calendar by Professor Nishinomori of Celadon University.
A thousand years ago, a massive meteorite had struck the Hoenn region, eventually forming the city of Sootopolis.
It was also the first time the people of Hoenn had encountered the legendary Super-ancient Pokémon Rayquaza.
And moving closer to the present—
A few years ago, the Devon Corporation went bankrupt after the New Mauville project was terminated.
Sea Mauville was subsequently shut down as well, while Wattson, the person in charge of the New Mauville project, stepped down from his position as a member of the Elite Four and became the Gym Leader of Mauville City.
“Devon Corporation…
I remember Dr.
Solans’s father, Solans Raizo, used to work there too, didn’t he?”
Nathan Hale also looked into the League’s current policies regarding Pokémon Trainers.
For example, how to register as an official League Trainer, what benefits registered Trainers could receive, and what responsibilities they were expected to shoulder.
He also looked into the benefits available to researchers, independent research institute staff, and even Pokémon professors.
After putting everything together, he came to a simple conclusion.
The benefits for ordinary researchers were roughly comparable to those of ordinary Trainers.
But researchers with their own independent institutes, not to mention Pokémon professors, enjoyed privileges and resources that ordinary Trainers simply couldn’t compare with.
“It’s really cold tonight…”
Halfway through browsing, Nathan Hale began to feel that the temperature had dropped far more than he’d expected.
He burrowed deeper into his blanket.
At the same time, a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him.
He let out a long yawn, placed the laptop on the table beside him, and fell asleep right there without even bothering to move to his bed.
The moment he was asleep, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became strange.
The ceiling light flickered erratically with a faint electrical buzz.
There was no wind, yet the curtains by the window began to sway, as did the leaves of the potted plants.
Bang!
The light suddenly went out.
All movement seemed to cease at once.
“Ko-gee…”
A strange voice abruptly echoed through the small room, its source seeming distant and ethereal.
Then—
Countless strands of black mist gathered from every direction, eventually condensing into a black, spherical mass that looked like smoke or fog.
Two large white eyes bulged from its surface, with the whites taking up most of their area.
A wide, grinning mouth stretched beneath them, two sharp fangs clearly visible.
A faintly sweet scent accompanied it.
It stared ominously at Nathan Hale, who was sleeping soundly on the sofa, and let out a sinister chuckle.
If Nathan Hale had been awake, he would have immediately recognized the strange creature.
It was a Ghost-type Pokémon—
Gastly.
Buzz—
A red glow flickered in Gastly’s eyes.
A strange energy suddenly surged from its body, spreading toward the sleeping Nathan Hale and enveloping him.
The peaceful expression on Nathan Hale’s sleeping face slowly changed.
His brows gradually furrowed.
What is this…
a dream?
For some reason, his instincts told him that this was a dream.
The sky was dark and oppressive, with the clouds seemingly hanging only a few meters overhead.
All around him stood dilapidated, low-roofed buildings that clearly didn’t belong to the modern era.
Weeds grew wildly between piles of rubble and stones.
But what made Nathan Hale truly uneasy was the endless plain stretching out in front of the buildings.
It was covered with countless small mounds, each about half a person’s height.
Graves.
For the first time, Nathan Hale truly understood what it meant for a landscape to be covered in tombs, with burial mounds stretching on like an endless range of hills.
Woooo—
Suddenly.
A low, drawn-out sound drifted through the air from somewhere he couldn’t identify, accompanied by a bone-chilling gust of wind.
Nathan Hale shuddered.
He’d never experienced a dream this realistic before.
“Pfft!”
Suddenly!
One of the mounds not far in front of Nathan Hale burst open.
A pale hand shot out from the earth.
Then—
As if that sound had triggered some kind of mechanism, mound after mound began to stir.
Hands, branches, even heads broke through the soil one after another.
And every single one of them was a Ghost-type Pokémon.
Dusknoir.
Banette.
Cofagrigus.
Haunter.
Sableye.
With the surroundings and atmosphere taken into account, the scene was more than enough to scare the living daylights out of anyone.
“Ko-gee…”
Behind a bare, withered tree in the corner, Gastly watched Nathan Hale standing there with a stern expression and couldn’t help laughing smugly.
This same trick had scared Solans so badly that he hadn’t dared sleep for several days.
Gastly had become intensely curious about Nathan Hale after witnessing him put Solans to sleep without using any move, Ability, or even visible energy.
It stretched out its long tongue, covered in a reddish surface, and licked its lips.
Then it smacked them expectantly.
The taste of this person’s dream—and the fear within it—should be pretty good, right?
But the next moment, Gastly froze.
Although Nathan Hale still wore a stern expression, the fear in his eyes had only lasted for the first few moments.
It had already been replaced by thoughtfulness.
“So many Ghost-type Pokémon…”
To be honest, Nathan Hale had been startled at first.
Sure, plenty of Ghost-type Pokémon he’d seen in the games looked fairly cute or even downright adorable.
But actually encountering them in person was an entirely different matter.
The bone-deep chill radiating from them had made every hair on his body stand on end.
Yet after that initial shock, he quickly calmed down.
For one thing, he could tell that this was a dream.
And if it was a dream, what was there to be afraid of?
For another, seeing so many Ghost-type Pokémon had instinctively brought another thought to mind.
“…Why isn’t Giratina here?”
Giratina?
“Ko-gee?”
Gastly could hear Nathan Hale’s muttering.
It froze in bewilderment.
Its head shook rapidly from side to side like a rattle drum.
An illusion.
Yeah, it had to be an illusion.
Gastly figured the Ghost-type Pokémon around them simply weren’t intimidating or frightening enough.
“Ko-gee.”
Looks like I’ll have to do it myself.
It licked its lips, took a deep breath, and its body began visibly swelling.
Meanwhile, Nathan Hale stared at the “terrifying” Ghost-type Pokémon around him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Is this really a dream?
It’s so realistic…”
Everything before his eyes, even the sensations coming through his five senses—the smells, the textures, the sounds—was incredibly vivid.
“If it’s a dream, then…
let’s test it.”
Nathan Hale began recalling something in his mind.
At the same time—
Within the dark, oppressive clouds overhead, a gigantic silhouette slowly began to take shape.
It was enormous, with the form of a dragon and a gray-white body.
A golden half-ring wrapped around its neck from behind.
Two ghostly wings spread from its back, their tips ending in red, claw-like structures.
Six thick legs supported its massive body, each ending in a claw.
“Ko-gee!”
Full of confidence, Gastly drifted toward Nathan Hale, its long tongue swaying as it emitted a low, ominous sound.
But—
The moment it reached Nathan Hale, it suddenly looked up.
The next second—
Its expression froze.
“Ko…
Ko-gee…”
“Gastly?”
Nathan Hale noticed Gastly’s presence as well.
Following its gaze, he looked upward.
A gigantic creature stood proudly above the clouds.
“Giratina?”
Nathan Hale blinked.
It actually appeared?
So it really was a dream.
“GRAAAAH—!!”
A tremendous roar rang out, like a hurricane crashing down from the heavens.
The force of the roar swept through the area, causing all the Ghost-type Pokémon around them to scatter like bubbles.
Even the enormous Gastly rapidly shrank, the black mist surrounding its body seeming to be blown away by the sheer force.
“Ko-gee!!!”
Gastly jolted violently.
Crack—
Suddenly.
The scene before Nathan Hale developed a massive crack, just like a mirror.
The crack spread outward like a spiderweb.
Then—
Everything shattered.
Far away, in another world—
A gigantic dragon Pokémon that had been lying intently against a pane of glass, secretly “peeking” at something, suddenly raised its head.
“Grr?”
It blinked its fierce, crimson eyes in confusion.
Logged in from somewhere else?
It closed its eyes and carefully sensed its surroundings for a while.
Apparently, it had just been an illusion.
It shook its head.
Then it went right back to peeking at—or, ahem, monitoring—whatever lay beyond the glass.
“Mm…”
Back on the sofa, Nathan Hale slowly woke up.
He rubbed his temples, feeling a little groggy.
As his vision gradually cleared, he noticed something nearby.
A Gastly was floating there, completely frozen, its eyes filled with terror.
“Gastly?”
Perhaps hearing his voice snapped it out of its daze.
The human and the Pokémon stared at each other from less than a meter apart.
Several seconds passed.
“KO-GEEEEE!!!”
Gastly suddenly shrieked like a cat whose fur had been blown up.
It shot backward at top speed, looking as though Nathan Hale—not the Ghost-type Pokémon—was the truly terrifying creature.