CCTnovel Chapter 561 - 559
Chapter 561 - 559
So today, she still hadn't beaten a Pokémon with a Pokémon in battle. Ah, no, wait. This wasn't a Pokémon battle at all. It was a battle between a human and a ghost. In that case, maybe it was fine.How could some measly ghost possibly beat a body that had been trained to perfection?
"There is nothing fine about this!"
"There is something deeply wrong here!"
Gardenia was convinced she must have been hypnotized. Otherwise, there was no way she would be seeing something like this.
And it wasn't just the humans.
The ghosts felt exactly the same way.
The elderly ghost stared in dumbfounded silence at his granddaughter, who had been taken out in one hit by a single ball.
"I admit that suddenly jumping out and scaring you was rude on our part, but directly attacking a ghost is just too..."
"I was going to say rude, but that's not even the real issue here. The real issue is: how did that even hit her?! What kind of ball is that?!"
He wanted to step out of the room, but he was too afraid Hikaru would send him straight to the afterlife on the spot, so he could only stand there at the dining room entrance like he was being punished.
Which meant...
Even though that was his granddaughter, all he could do was watch!
"...If you're going to take that television ghost away, then hurry up and go! Stop hanging around here!"
The old ghost immediately urged the three of them deeper into the house. He had seen enough of their strength already. It was absolutely terrifying, even for a ghost.
"This house isn't haunted by ghosts. It's haunted by people! First time in my life I've seen a place this terrifying because of the living!"
"It's way too lively. It's making my whole body uncomfortable!"
Only then did the stiff, frozen Dawn finally realize what she had just done. She hurriedly waved her hands.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was just so scared that I threw it on instinct! She should be okay, right?"
"The Heavy Ball is really heavy... is her head all right?"
The old ghost stood there with his hands behind his back, clearly annoyed.
"Does she look all right to you?! If she were alive, this would be the Old Chateau Murder Case! But someone who's already dead can't die twice! Now hurry up and get inside! I'm begging you!"
And on top of that, the old man could sense something nearby, still invisible, staring at him with obvious amusement.
Come on now. He was a ghost himself. Was it really fair that something else could still make him feel watched?
The original horror atmosphere had been completely wiped away, and Hikaru could only spread his hands helplessly.
Every region had its own haunted houses and its own ghosts, and each one had different regrets and different behaviors. But the ghosts in the Old Chateau were among the rare few with almost no actual plot attached to them. Their story was expanded a little in Pokémon Generations, where the old man and the little girl were shown welcoming passing travelers and scaring the wild Yamask wandering through the forest, creating a wonderfully eerie atmosphere.
But now, with the white-dressed ghost girl lying unconscious on the floor, the whole thing just looked ridiculous.
Worth mentioning: the ghost girl in the white dress had actually been voiced by Rie Kugimiya.
In the Pokémon world, ghosts were scary, but because the setting included the spirit world, mediums, Ghost-type Pokémon, and the fact that actual spirits could communicate, they weren't really like the purely malicious entities in traditional ghost stories. Most ghosts were basically no different from living people.
Some of them even told bad jokes.
Aside from the evil ghost girl who escaped from the spirit world in the DP series, there were very few records of ghosts actually harming people.
"So, Gardenia, what do you think? Ghosts really aren't that scary, right? They're basically the same as they were when they were alive. They just like scaring people."
Hikaru pushed the dazed Gardenia forward while the grumpy old ghost glared at him.
"We're heading into the inner room now. If your granddaughter wants to become a ghost Trainer, let me know. I actually have experience in that field."
"You mean a ghost Trainer? You're talking about a dead human traveling around with a Gengar or something? Don't be ridiculous! What happens if she runs into a medium on the road and gets sent on her way as a side job?"
The elderly ghost gave a vague shrug. "Life here is pretty good. Quiet. Peaceful. No one bothers us... well. I can't say that entirely."
"Before you people came, there were other living humans who entered this place."
"Other living humans?" Dawn repeated.
The old ghost had the appearance of a butler, so he looked very much like a classic British gentleman. Even when he was annoyed, he still carried the elegant air of an old aristocrat.
"Yes. A boastful man came here with his guards and subordinates. He searched through the records and books in this mansion, and he also took away a stone statue."
"You see that beautiful statue by the dining room entrance? There should actually be two of them."
"I didn't appreciate him taking things from the house without permission, so my granddaughter and I scared him off. But what you said earlier was also true. This wasn't originally our home in the first place. Ahem. In short, there were no inheritance procedures or anything like that. Still, I'm surprised the manor's owner was apparently alive at the time. I had assumed this place had been abandoned completely."
"But if he's a criminal, then I suppose it doesn't matter if we stay here."
Hikaru narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "I see. So that person was Mr. Backlot."
This was one of the classic little side stories connected to the Old Chateau.
The missing statue from the manor later appeared in Mr. Backlot's Trophy Garden, inside his mansion, still stained with grime that had never been cleaned off. During the daytime, his butler stopped the player from examining it, but at night the guard disappeared.
Because of that, there had long been a theory that Mr. Backlot had stolen items from the manor. He was even considered one of the potential murder suspects in fan speculation. And there was another important reason for that too: Mr. Backlot's mansion and the Old Chateau had exactly the same design. The only real difference was the color. Mr. Backlot and Trophy Garden are the official English names used in the games. (Bulbapedia)
So if you put everything together, it formed a neat little triangle.
Just like the ghostly old man had said: the Old Chateau Murder Case in Eterna Forest.
A classic detective setup with three possible culprits!
Was the culprit Gardenia, Charon, or Mr. Backlot?
But this wasn't Beika City. There weren't that many people around here killing others over bizarre motives.
Otherwise, using Detective Conan logic, the two old men who looked the most suspicious would definitely turn out to be innocent, which would leave Gardenia as the culprit.
At that point she'd probably drop to her knees in tears and confess in one smooth sequence, saying something like, "I just wanted to grow vegetables, and that jerk insulted my garden and said it wasn't pretty!"
Seen it too many times. Next case.
As for the original owner of the manor, it might not even have been Charon. He might just have been one of its later occupants.
Anyway, based on the official little backstory, the old man and the girl definitely weren't the manor's owners. There might not have been any murder case at all.
Only after they entered the inner room did Gardenia suddenly snap back to herself. She immediately grabbed Hikaru and started shaking him.
"Hey, what happened to you? Ever since you came back from Sinjoh, you can beat even ghosts now?!"
"This is way too weird! Since when did you become this incredible?!"
Hikaru replied, "Do you know about Shugendo from Johto? Morty, the Gym Leader of Ecruteak City, trained as a medium and gained an extraordinary kind of clairvoyance. Spiritual power, basically. Because of certain circumstances, I ended up mastering spiritual power too, so I became a medium."
"That's a bit of a secret. People who come back from another world tend to gain unusual abilities. Just pretend I got reincarnated in another world."
"Phoebe of the Hoenn Elite Four also has the power to see ghosts and lay them to rest, though her spiritual gifts are innate."
"A medium... a medium..." Gardenia's expression became extremely complicated. Since she was terrified of ghosts, seeing her childhood friend turn into this kind of deeply unsettling professional had nearly stopped her heart.
"S-so you've basically turned into one of those Trainers and old ladies near the Lost Tower..."
"T-that's horrifying. How did you turn into someone this scary? The last time you mailed me something, you never mentioned anything like this."
Hikaru gave her a strange look. "Why would I tell someone who's scared of ghosts something like that?"
Gardenia: "..."
She lowered her head and had no rebuttal. All she could do was mutter, "Looks like you really did go through a lot after moving away."
"But at least... your mental state is a lot better than before. If that's true, then that's enough."
"The treatment... went really well."
Hikaru froze for just a moment, then smiled from the heart and nodded at her.
"Sinjoh is a good place. And going back to your hometown always changes you a little."
"This room..." Dawn looked around at the interior. An old television set sat inside, and somehow it had already switched itself on.
"This model looks really old."
She stepped closer to inspect it. When she noticed Piplup acting nervous and hesitant, she couldn't help laughing.
"Right. Piplup, you're a Water-type Pokémon, so of course you'd be scared of Electricity."
"So the place where that 'friend' is hiding, just like the old ghost said, is inside this old television, right?"
Gardenia found the atmosphere increasingly strange. She still had more questions she wanted to ask, but Dawn's side of the room drew her attention and conveniently changed the subject too.
"What friend? What exactly are you two investigating here? And earlier you said something about a crime. What did you even come back to Sinnoh for?"
Hikaru followed up on her question. "It's something very important. It has to do with Team Galactic. Eterna City has a Team Galactic building, right?"
Gardenia immediately remembered. "Ah, that. They run ads on TV all the time, and they're always recruiting Pokémon related to stars."
Hikaru said, "Gardenia, isn't a Gym Leader's job supposed to be protecting the peace of the city? What would you say if I told you Team Galactic are actually bomb-crazy terrorists?"
Gardenia blanked. "What? How could that be possible? Though now that you mention it... I think I did hear somewhere that their boss had been accused of being a criminal. But I thought that was just slander and rumors."
Hikaru looked rather helpless.
"Maylene in Veilstone is the same. Because you two only recently became Gym Leaders, you have no real grasp of the internal problems in your cities."
Maylene's case was the most serious.
Probably more than half the local GDP was propped up by Team Galactic-related companies. On top of that, Veilstone itself had a cold, hard atmosphere, and Maylene was the sort of person who focused entirely on her training. That was true in the anime, the manga, and the games. She even left the city regularly to go to Snowpoint.
Her father spent every day at the Game Corner too.
A young Gym Leader like that, one who paid little attention to city affairs, obviously wouldn't know what Team Galactic was really doing.
And Eterna City was pretty similar.
Setting-wise, Gardenia was around sixteen, about six years older than Maylene, but when it came to city development plans and internal civic problems, she was just as clueless.
Thinking about it carefully, quite a few Sinnoh Gym Leaders were young. At least three of them were newly appointed, while only two were genuinely older veterans.
Hikaru continued, "Young people naturally have less control over a city than older people do. In terms of battle strength, they may be fully qualified, but for villainous organizations, it's much harder to operate in cities guarded by older leaders. Cities protected by younger leaders are much easier targets."
Gardenia looked annoyed. "What's with that old-man lecture? Are you saying I've made no contribution to Eterna City at all?"
Hikaru shook his head. "I went to Unova before this. Over there, Gym Leaders can plan and make decisions about all kinds of city development and local activities. They can even coordinate and issue final directives."
Gardenia pursed her lips. "Ugh... sure, we don't really do that here, but that doesn't mean I'm useless. It just means Eterna City doesn't actually need me to manage those things!"
"Look, Roark over in Oreburgh is a new Gym Leader too, and he has plenty of say over coal mining because that city is still developing. But Eterna City has a very long history. Its economy ranks among the best in Sinnoh. There's no room for me to interfere in the first place!"
She argued her case forcefully, and to be fair, she wasn't wrong.
After all, Gardenia's ancestors were just farmers. Ask her how to raise Grass-type Pokémon and she could go on forever. Ask her to handle city construction and economic development in a prosperous city like Eterna, where maybe a third of the GDP was supported by Team Galactic, and she'd be completely lost.
"Um, what he said about Team Galactic is true. Did you watch the Jubilife City news earlier? And the Valley Windworks incident too?"
Dawn stepped in to back Hikaru up and explained the whole thing to Gardenia, including the fact that Sinnoh Champion Cynthia had personally shown up and that Jupiter had been arrested.
Gardenia's face changed dramatically once she heard the full story.
"You're saying terrorists like that have just been strutting around the streets of Eterna City this whole time?!"
"B-but there's still no confirmation that their boss is the mastermind behind it all, right?"
"Oh no. How could this happen? Galactic Appliances is a really famous home electronics company here in Eterna! The city's GDP is doomed! Eterna City's future and one of its pillar industries are gone! At this rate we'll all have to go dig for gemstones in the Underground!"
Dawn's expression turned serious too. "I still can't believe that blue-haired man I once met near Lake Verity turned out to be Team Galactic's boss."
Hikaru, meanwhile, seemed thoughtful. "So some of Galactic's appliances are being sold through Eterna City, huh... In that case, I should add this: the home appliances shipped to the R9 Shopping Mall in Unova were all defective substandard goods, and formal complaints have already been filed."
"Team Galactic was probably trying to gather funds quickly by illegally dumping defective electrical products into the market. That's already a very serious commercial offense on its own... And the person handling those defective appliance sales was probably Charon."
"When you get back, remember to shut down the Team Galactic Eterna building."
This time, Jupiter probably wouldn't be inside the building, and maybe there wouldn't be an incident involving the kidnapped bicycle shop owner either. Then again... maybe not. Cyrus himself might even come in person.
After all, Eterna's statue held special appeal for Cyrus, and the Team Galactic base also contained research on the Eterna statue, including analysis and restoration of its inscriptions.
Which only made one question stranger.
Why didn't Eterna City exist in Hisui?
As the three of them talked, the snowy static on the television screen began to grow unsettling. A strange laugh echoed through the room, and Hikaru, Dawn, and Gardenia all stopped their conversation at the same time and turned toward the TV.
"That should be enough. We've drawn it out."
"Dawn, there's also a Plate in the next room. Remember the little note I gave you earlier? I wrote that part down too. The Dread Plate is here."
"But first, let's invite this friend out."
Hikaru pointed toward the television as he instructed Dawn.
"When an old television turns to static, what are you supposed to do to get the signal back? Do you know?"
Dawn thought about it for a moment. "I do!"
"At a time like this, you're supposed to smack the TV!"
She really was a fast learner. She had already grasped the correct way to lure that Plasma Pokémon out, and she raised her hand sharply.
The television seems to have some kind of Pokémon inside it. Maybe it'll come out if you hit the TV. Want to try smacking it?
At that moment, the Rotom inside the television still had no idea what was about to happen.
It was only curiously watching the three humans who had entered the room, wondering which electrical appliance it should possess later to scare them!
And then -
Bang!
Dawn slapped the television with all her strength, producing an explosive crack!
How do you become a Pokémon Master?
First, put all your stat points into HP and Strength until they hit 40!
Rotom's expression twisted instantly, and with a loud crack it was blasted right out of the television set!
This was Cyrus's old friend, the original Rotom, and its face was pure stunned disbelief.
Wait a second. What kind of strength was that?!
I'm a non-corporeal plasma ghost! How is "slap the TV so hard it explodes and knocks me out of it" even a real thing?!
Hikaru read Rotom's thoughts and answered flatly, "Not at all. You haven't battled in at least seventeen years, so your level is seriously lacking. Getting slapped out by a Super Sinnohian is perfectly normal."
"Rotom!" Dawn pointed at the electric ghost after seeing its true form. "It really is a Rotom! It looks just like Mr. Hikaru's Rotom... W-what is it trying to do?!"
Hikaru said, "Probably possess some appliance. But there aren't any cheap, unsold electronics here, so it has no way to change forms."
And that was exactly what Rotom had been thinking.
The moment it was forced out, it realized these people were not normal, so its first instinct was to find an appliance to possess.
But then it immediately remembered.
Ever since it had hidden here and stolen the special motor, it had never been able to find another proper machine for form-changing.
So after more than ten years - maybe much longer - it still couldn't use Forme Change!
The room containing the prototype machines wasn't in this manor at all!
Well, it couldn't exactly turn back into its old robot form, could it? That wouldn't be useful in battle!
But Hikaru wasn't so sure.
After all, in the manga Rotom had genuinely gone out declaring, "I'm launching in Gundam form," and Charon had even complained, "Has that robot awakened a sense of justice or something?!"
So maybe robot-form Rotom really could have changed its Ability from Levitate to Justified.
Though honestly, that would be a massive nerf.
"To deal with an Electric-type Pokémon, you normally use a Ground-type Pokémon," Hikaru explained. "But Rotom's Ability is Levitate, so Ground-type moves won't hit it. That means the remaining types that can deal effective damage are Ghost and Dark!"
Dawn murmured to herself, but since her team was basically a rain team, she didn't have any Pokémon of those two types on hand. Then again, if all she needed was a Dark-type move...
"Piplup, take this!"
Without hesitation, Dawn handed the Heavy Ball to Piplup. Rotom was still cackling to itself. It could tell Dawn didn't have any Pokémon that directly countered it, so it gave a taunting little laugh.
Heh! You really scared me for a second! I thought some real monster had shown up, but this is all you've got -
"Piplup, use Fling!"
"Pipla!"
The extreme training they had done in the forest, along with the repeated drills in throwing the Heavy Ball, now paid off in full. Piplup hurled the Heavy Ball with perfect precision!
After the Hyper Training, both its Attack IV and Special Attack IV had reached their maximum values!
Of course, Hyper Training didn't actually change a Pokémon's real IVs. It only raised a stat to the highest value it could have under perfect IV conditions. But honestly, the practical result was basically the same!
So once its strength increased, Piplup could lift much heavier objects too!
As for the power of throwing a Heavy Ball, that wasn't listed anywhere on official move charts, but considering the thing could directly knock out Pokémon, it was probably somewhere in the same terrifying category as an Iron Ball or a Big Nugget to the face!
When the Heavy Ball smashed into the wall and left a crater in it, Rotom's smug grin froze instantly.
Good grief! Is your muscle freak of a Pokémon seriously throwing Poké Balls as a weapon?! Is that legal?!
And what even is that thing? Is that still considered a throwing item?! The power behind it is insane!
"Rotom!" Dawn called out. "Do you want to see your old friend again? You were with a boy once, weren't you? The two of you promised you'd always stay together!"
"Rotoh?" Rotom looked at Dawn suspiciously. The girl's expression was serious and determined.
But how did she know about that?
Rotom let out a questioning cry, and Dawn turned in confusion toward Hikaru.
"Rotom says that before, someone else came looking for it using that same reason. Those people wanted to study and investigate it, and that was when it ran away. It never showed itself to anyone after that."
"Humans wanted to research it, and it hated that. All it wanted was to stay with that boy."
That detail came from Platinum. Once you opened the secret room, Professor Rowan would enter and explain that backstory to the player.
"I'll take you to meet that person," Dawn said. "Come with me, Rotom!"
Dawn still didn't really feel she deserved to be called some kind of hero, but the story of the boy and Rotom genuinely saddened her.
And right now, they also had no choice but to fight Team Galactic.
She had goals of her own. Or maybe she was just wandering forward without any clear destination. Or maybe she had chosen this path simply because she admired the qualities of a hero.
Perhaps her ancestor really had once shared some kind of bond with the unseen leader of Team Galactic. If that was true, then she would bring that bond to an end in her own generation.
"Rotom, battle me! If I win, you'll come with me! I'll take you across all of Sinnoh, and together we'll find your old friend again!"
Looking at Dawn's earnest expression, Rotom calmed down. It studied her for a moment, then let out a low, strange murmur.
In Sunyshore City long ago, that had been a place full of sunlight.
If it could meet that person again, would he be in Sunyshore?
Sunyshore had abundant electricity and sunlight. Your Water-type Pokémon can't beat me. But if you really can win against me despite the type disadvantage...
Then I'll trust your words. For now.
"Rotom!"
Rotom stopped trying to look for appliances and finally got serious.
At that moment, Gardenia hurriedly took out a Poké Ball and offered Dawn a suggestion. "Ah, an Electric-type Pokémon! I've never seen one before, but do you want to borrow a Grass-type Pokémon? Grass resists Electric too!"
Dawn shook her head. "Thank you, Gardenia-san! But I want to beat it with the partner I already have by my side!"
"A battle under the rain... against an Electric-type..." Dawn took out a bottle of soil and tossed it to Piplup.
"This is soil from Eterna Forest," Hikaru explained to Gardenia. "Before fighting this Pokémon, we made all the necessary preparations. That's why we cut wood in the forest and did a little training first."
"What do you get when you combine soil and water?"
Gardenia blinked. "Uh... wood?"
Hikaru laughed.
This wasn't the world of Naruto. The equation of Earth Style plus Water Style equals Wood Style absolutely did not apply here!
"The answer is mud!"
Piplup coated itself in mud, then flung the wet soil everywhere!
"Pipla!"
Rotom released a blast of electricity with unusual force. Thunder Shock came firing straight at them!
But it wasn't very effective!
"Rotom?!"
Rotom was stunned. How could a Water-type Pokémon reduce the power of an Electric-type move?
"It's not resistance!" Dawn smiled confidently in the middle of battle. "I learned an important piece of knowledge from Mr. Hikaru!"
"Mud Sport! Once you use it, mud gets scattered all around the field. For a while afterward, Electric-type moves become weaker!"
"In other words, the power of Electric-type attacks drops to one-third of what it originally was!"
Technically, Mud Sport is the official move name, and Thunder Shock, Shock Wave, Discharge, Thunderbolt, and Blizzard are the official English move names. Current game references list Mud Sport as reducing the power of Electric-type moves rather than making Water resist Electricity directly.
Even though Mud Sport was an Egg Move, thanks to the existence of Mirror Herb, it was easy to pass down and learn!
That was the benefit of later-generation mechanics!
Hikaru nodded at Dawn. "Rotom learns different moves in different forms. When it changes forms, it automatically learns those moves, while its old ones get replaced."
"And base-form Rotom is known as the Light Bulb form. In that state, its default core Electric move is Thunder Shock!"
"But after being reduced to one-third power, a 40-base-power Thunder Shock can't deal any meaningful damage, even against a Water-type. Exactly. Just like a certain boy your age: even a bad type matchup doesn't mean victory is impossible!"
"That means the stronger moves Rotom has left are only Shock Wave, Discharge, and Thunderbolt!"
And as for Thunder, they were indoors. With the level of power this Rotom had under Cyrus, there was no way it could casually throw around a move that big! Its original level was only 20!
Without changing form, Light Bulb Rotom's stats weren't as high as its alternate forms, so at such a low level, even a Water-type Pokémon could still defeat it!
Though to be fair, Rotom did have one cool point in its favor.
Back in the early days, its battle theme had been the same as a Legendary Pokémon's.
Rotom looked completely shocked.
Wait, what? You can use ordinary mud lying around on the ground to weaken electricity and cancel out the Water-type weakness?!
What kind of underhanded move is that?!
W-wait just a second -
"In a cramped room like this, even moves that are usually hard to land become much easier to hit."
"Even if a Pokémon isn't weak to a certain type, sometimes that doesn't mean it won't hate being hit by a move of that type."
Dawn gave the next order.
"You were born in a city full of sunlight, so the thing you hate most should be the cold!"
"Piplup, use Blizzard!"
In the middle of the battle, the Manaphy Egg stored inside Dawn's backpack and container suddenly began to glow.
The Egg of the Prince of the Sea was about to hatch! In English Pokémon material, Manaphy is commonly associated with the title "Prince of the Sea," though usage has varied between releases.
(End of Chapter)
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