“…Miss Lorelei…
don’t touch me there…”
“Cynthia…
don’t…
don’t stop…”
“Aunt Delia…
you wouldn’t want Ash to know…”
“Hehehehehe…
hehehehehe…”
Slurp…
“Haaa…”
A handsome young boy with sharp eyebrows, a straight buzz cut, and refined features mumbled shamelessly in his sleep while drool trickled down the corner of his mouth.
Standing beside him was a bronze-skinned little girl.
The look on her face was one of complete disgust.
“Lazybones Roy!
Wake up already!
The sun’s practically burning your butt!”
Without hesitation, she yanked away his blanket and kicked toward him.
As if expecting the attack, Roy rolled aside at the last second.
The kick missed.
“Hmph.”
The girl simply stepped forward and planted both feet directly onto his backside.
“I’m awake…
I’m awake…”
“You little lump of charcoal…
I spent all day digging graves yesterday.
Let me sleep a little longer…”
Still half asleep, Roy lazily waved her off, rolled over, and pulled his pillow over his head.
He fully intended to return to his wonderful dream…
Especially the part with the gorgeous, well-endowed Lorelei.
Unfortunately…
The girl known as “Little Charcoal” had no intention of letting him enjoy himself.
She glanced toward the Haunter floating nearby.
Haunter instantly understood.
Moments later, Roy felt someone snatch away his pillow.
Tiny hands forced his eyelids open.
Hovering inches from his face was a horrifying headless ghost.
Its neck had been cleanly severed.
Fresh blood poured endlessly from the wound.
An ordinary person would have screamed themselves unconscious.
Roy merely blinked.
“…”
Then calmly pushed away the girl’s hands, yawned, and accepted the painful truth.
His romantic reunion with Lorelei was officially over.
“…Sigh.”
With a resigned sigh, Roy slowly sat up…
From inside a massive, dark-purple coffin nearly eight feet long.
Stretching lazily, he climbed out.
Back when he’d first arrived at Mt.
Pyre, sleeping inside a coffin had felt incredibly strange.
Now?
He couldn’t sleep anywhere else.
Maybe this was what people meant by…
“Sleeping like the dead.”
Phoebe pouted.
She had spent an entire night preparing that prank.
She’d even frightened herself while practicing it.
Yet Roy didn’t react in the slightest.
How infuriating!
The headless ghost instantly reverted to its true form.
Haunter floated closer with an evil grin.
Its oversized crimson tongue shot out.
Lick!
Electric sparks crackled across Roy’s body.
His muscles convulsed.
Every trace of sleep vanished instantly.
Fortunately, he kept his hair cut short.
Otherwise, it would have been standing straight up by now.
Feeling pleasantly numb from head to toe, Roy welcomed another new day.
“You idiot!”
“You don’t even pretend to be scared anymore!”
Roy pulled on his clothes while shrugging.
“Can you blame me?”
“You’ve used the same tricks every single day.”
“Headless ghost.”
“Twisted neck.”
“Crawling corpse.”
“Come on, can’t you think of something original?”
Phoebe puffed out her cheeks.
“Oh?”
“Then tell me.”
“What actually scares people?”
Roy smiled knowingly.
“If you really want to terrify someone…”
“Prepare a pair of embroidered red shoes.”
“Place a paper effigy at the end of a dark hallway…”
“Light incense…”
“Then leave the room completely silent…”
As he spoke, Roy casually introduced one classic piece of East Asian ghost folklore after another.
Unlike the sudden jump scares popular in the West…
This kind of horror crept into your bones.
It was the sort of fear that lingered in your heart…
The kind that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up while walking home alone at night.
Phoebe listened with sparkling eyes, completely fascinated.
Neither of them noticed…
A small blue ghostly flame quietly appeared above Roy’s head.
At this point…
It should already be obvious.
Roy was a transmigrator.
In his previous life, he’d worked endless overtime on Earth.
One night…
He simply collapsed.
The next time he opened his eyes, he found himself inside a mysterious forest blanketed in pale white mist.
The woods were unnaturally quiet.
Then something descended from the branches overhead.
A tiny green caterpillar with a Y-shaped antenna dangled in front of his face on a strand of silk.
It swayed gently in the breeze.
What shocked Roy wasn’t its appearance…
But its size.
The Caterpie was nearly half a meter long.
The little Pokémon didn’t seem hostile.
It simply watched him calmly, wriggling from side to side.
Only then did Roy realize…
He had arrived in the world of Pokémon.
The Caterpie before him was the same Pokémon every Trainer knew.
Suppressing his excitement, Roy hurried to a nearby stream.
Using the water as a mirror…
He discovered his own body had become that of a ten-year-old boy.
Before he could think about what to do next…
A shrill cry pierced the forest.
A Spearow swooped down from the sky.
Its black back, cream-colored chest, messy brown crest, and pink wings made it instantly recognizable.
The wild Pokémon locked onto Roy.
Its eyes were filled with hostility.
The memories left behind by this body’s previous owner immediately surfaced.
This wasn’t the cheerful Pokémon world shown in the anime.
Wild Pokémon attacked people.
People died.
This wasn’t a game where a Professor conveniently handed every newcomer a starter Pokémon.
Roy had unknowingly wandered into Spearow’s territory.
And Spearow protected their territory with terrifying aggression.
Roy had no illusion that he possessed the superhuman durability of certain anime protagonists.
One strike from that razor-sharp beak…
Would leave a hole clean through his body.
Just as Spearow folded its wings and dived toward him…
The Caterpie fired a perfectly aimed String Shot.
Sticky silk wrapped around Spearow and slammed it into the ground.
Roy turned to thank his unexpected savior.
Only to discover…
Caterpie had already attached another silk thread to a distant tree.
Swinging gracefully through the forest like a tiny green superhero.
“…Holy crap.”
“Pokémon Spider-Man?!”
In truth…
Caterpie hadn’t been trying to save Roy.
It had simply been escaping for its own life.
Saving Roy happened to be a convenient side effect.
Unfortunately…
The danger wasn’t over.
Caterpie gave Roy one final sympathetic glance before swinging even deeper into the forest.
“Spear!!”
The trapped Spearow released a furious cry.
The bright blue sky suddenly darkened.
The thick white mist vanished.
Roy looked up…
His face immediately went pale.
The clouds weren’t clouds at all.
They were thousands…
No.
Tens of thousands…
Of Spearow.
Leading them was an enormous Fearow.
The entire flock charged directly toward him.
Roy could already see the cold gleam of countless razor-sharp beaks.
Running was impossible.
This frail body barely had enough strength to stand.
Just as despair consumed him…
A gigantic purple figure suddenly appeared between him and the flock.
Gengar.
A massive Shadow Ball exploded into the sky.
The flock scattered instantly.
Roy had been saved.
His weakened body, combined with the overwhelming fear, finally reached its limit.
Everything went black.
The last thing he remembered…
Was the enormous Gengar standing protectively in front of him.
When Roy opened his eyes again…
He found himself lying inside a coffin.
Standing nearby were an elderly couple…
A little girl…
And the same Gengar who had saved his life.
From their conversation, Roy finally learned where he was.
The forest surrounding Mt.
Pyre in the Hoenn Region.
The elderly couple were none other than the mysterious guardians of Mt.
Pyre, the keepers of the Blue Orb and the Red Orb.
The little girl beside them…
Was their granddaughter.
Phoebe.
The future Ghost-type member of Hoenn’s Elite Four.
Roy couldn’t believe it.
Out of everyone in the Pokémon world…
He had been rescued by one of its most mysterious families.
After learning that Roy had no home and no family…
The old couple exchanged a glance.
Then they made him an offer.
He could stay.
On one condition.
He had to work at Mt.
Pyre five days a week.
Six hours every day.
Monthly salary…
6,000 Pokédollars.
Twenty days of paid vacation every year.
After hearing the terms…
Roy froze.
In his previous life, he’d spent years being overworked and underpaid.
This…
This was paradise!
Without another word, he hugged the old man’s leg.
“I’ll work here for the rest of my life!”
The old man gently patted Roy’s head.
“…Just what kind of life did this poor child live before?”
And so…
For the next two and a half years…
Mt.
Pyre became Roy’s home.
His new life…
Had officially begun.