When the Sun Shines Brightly

"So, Professor Sorans had nightmares and couldn't sleep well every day because of you?"

A slightly yellowed desk lamp cast a wavering shadow on the wall. Sitting at the desk, Jing He toyed with a pitch-black, oddly shaped, uneven stone in his hand.

Though he did not know much about stones, let alone fossils, he could tell that this one seemed quite old.

Most likely, it was the "nice stone" Professor Sorans had mentioned digging up.

What Professor Sorans did not know was that a Gastly was sleeping inside this stone.

"Koujie~~"

Gastly seemed to be in a very good mood. It nodded as it happily circled Jing He, occasionally making all sorts of bizarre faces.

"So that means... you might be a Pokémon from decades, centuries, or even thousands of years ago?"

"Koujie?"

That long ago?

Gastly had no idea.

After all, it had been asleep the entire time. If Professor Sorans had not dug it up, it might have continued sleeping.

As for why it had been sleeping inside the stone, and its memories from before its slumber, it had forgotten them completely.

That was also why it had never eaten instant noodles and was so curious about everything in the room.

"Amnesia?"

He could barely claim to have some authority on that subject.

Jing He pulled the neatly folded blanket off the sofa and draped it over himself.

For some reason, he felt a little cold.

Maybe it was because a Ghost-type Pokémon like Gastly was in the room.

"Wait!"

Jing He suddenly realized something, and his expression turned strange—or rather, stiff.

He slowly raised his head mechanically and wiped his already dry cheek.

"Doesn't that mean you might not have brushed your teeth for thousands of years?"

"Koujie..."

Gastly: (ˊo oˋ)

Jing He: "..."

The next second.

A faint purplish tinge suddenly passed over his face.

"Koujie!"

Gastly cried out in alarm, staring at him in shock.

Jing He had clearly noticed that something was wrong. Smacking his lips, he muttered, "Just as I thought... poisoned?"

Its saliva was poisonous?

Although Gastly was a Ghost-type Pokémon, it was not only Ghost-type. It was a dual Ghost-type and Poison-type Pokémon.

Still, Jing He had not expected to be poisoned by just one lick. After all, Gastly did not know many Poison-type moves at this stage.

"Looks like you're rather gifted with Poison-type moves..." Jing He's lips had gone slightly pale.

"Koujie, koujie! Koujie, koujie!"

Gastly rapidly circled him, looking anxious yet completely at a loss.

What should it do? What should it do?

"Don't panic."

Jing He was surprisingly calm. "Since it's your poison, you should be able to control it. Try taking it back."

"Koujie?"

Take it back? How? It did not know!

Would he die? He was going to die, wasn't he? Die? Although Jing He did not have the physique of a Super Rookie, he could tell that he merely felt unwell and was nowhere near dying. Even if Gastly could not control the poison, he could go to the Pokémon Center for treatment.

So he remained fairly calm.

"Think about how it felt when you licked me just now," Jing He said again.

"Koujie..."

Perhaps because of Jing He's calmness, and because there was not the slightest hint of blame in his gaze or tone, Gastly gradually calmed down.

"Good. Stay calm, then you can—"

"Slurp—"

Before Jing He could finish, he saw a scarlet tongue lick him again.

"...Well, that was... pretty good."

Wiping off the saliva, Jing He forced a smile as though comforting himself.

But he quickly realized that the discomfort from earlier seemed to have eased quite a bit.

His eyes lit up slightly.

Under Gastly's hopeful yet uneasy gaze, he nodded firmly. "It worked."

"Koujie!!"

Gastly let out an excited cry.

Then it narrowed its eyes, smacked its lips, licked its tongue, and slowly approached Jing He.

It even gave a "jie jie jie" laugh.

"That's en-enough! Don't—don't wipe your saliva on my clothes, you bastard!"

A few minutes later.

Bare-chested, Jing He sat on a small stool on the balcony with a washbasin in front of him, scrubbing vigorously with a speechless expression.

Gastly hovered nearby with an innocent look, exactly like a child who had done something wrong.

"Koujie..."

It obediently apologized, both for getting too excited and failing to control its saliva just now, and for accidentally poisoning Jing He earlier.

Jing He stopped scrubbing, raised a palm covered in white foam, patted the black mist around Gastly, and smiled.

"It's okay. From now on, we're friends, partners..."

Friends? Partners? Gastly looked at him, and its large white eyes shimmered with a brilliance like stars.

"...Family," Jing He finished.

"Koujie..." Gastly murmured, as if savoring those words.

Raise a Gastly?

Watching the black mist around Gastly sway violently, Jing He thought to himself from the bottom of his heart.

Actually, that sounds pretty nice.

His smile widened, and a rare trace of mischief flashed in his eyes as he flicked his finger.

Pfft—

White foam immediately splattered onto Gastly's face, finally snapping it out of its daze.

"Koujie!!"

It let out a strange cry and charged at Jing He.

"Stop! Stop, stop, stop! We're going to fall!"

Bang!!

No matter how light Gastly was, it could not overcome the slippery combination of balcony tiles and foam.

In the end, one man and one Pokémon crashed solidly onto the floor.

The washbasin beside them was knocked over as well.

White foam scattered through the air.

At that moment.

The first faint ray of dawn pierced the night sky, spreading like a drop of ink on rice paper and painting the world with joy.

The glistening foam reflected dazzling colors, mirroring two smiling faces.

Yawning nonstop with dark circles under his eyes, Jing He returned to the school's Pokémon Psychology Consulting Room to slack off—cough, to work.

Professor Sorans was nowhere to be seen, and the blanket had been neatly folded and placed to one side.

Taking a nap as soon as he arrived was not a wise choice. Though hardly anyone ever visited the consulting room and school had not started yet, it would still leave a bad impression if someone saw him.

Catching up on sleep at noon under the excuse of "oversleeping during a nap" was clearly the better choice. He had plenty of experience in that regard.

The coffee grinder whirred as Jing He prepared to make himself a cup of coffee first.

At that moment, Gastly floated out from inside his clothes.

"Koujie?"

It curiously looked at the Onix Coffee Grinder.

Jing He smiled slightly and asked, "Want a cup?"

"Koujie, koujie!"

After a brief hesitation, Gastly nodded vigorously.

Soon, two cups of aromatic espresso sat on the desk.

Jing He opened his computer and took a small sip. The bitterness stimulated his taste buds, and the lingering sweetness that followed gave him a slight jolt of energy.

Gastly, meanwhile, stared hesitantly at the pitch-black liquid before it. It sniffed it, circled it a few times, yet could not bring itself to take a sip.

It looked at Jing He.

"Koujie?"

Could this thing really be drunk? It smelled pretty good, but why did it look so unreliable?

Jing He did not answer. He merely demonstrated by taking another sip.

Only then did Gastly finally make up its mind. It stretched out its long tongue and cautiously licked the coffee.

It was thinking of the bowl of instant noodles from last night.

But the next second—

"Koujie!!"

The moment Gastly tasted the coffee, the gas making up its entire body trembled and quivered as though shocked by electricity.

It stared at the utterly unruffled Jing He in horror, as though it had seen a ghost.

How could he drink something so bitter?

Jing He smiled. "You don't like it? That was quite a reaction. Looks like you don't like bitter things."

Gastly's gaseous body churned as it kept pawing at its tongue, as though trying to wipe away the bitter taste.

Its voice took on a tearful edge.

"Koujie—"

It did not want this tongue anymore!

Jing He was amused. With a hint of teasing, he said, "Drink it a few more times, and you'll get used to it."

Gastly was not falling for it this time. It shook its head furiously.

It avoided that cup of coffee as though it were a natural enemy.

Jing He shook his head and stopped teasing it.

He opened a document on the computer, made a simple table, and said to the Gastly that had gradually recovered, "Gastly, let me get a sense of your abilities. What moves do you know?"

If he wanted to raise a Pokémon, the first step was understanding it well enough. Only then could he make more detailed plans.

"Koujie..."

As long as it did not have to drink coffee, anything was fine.

The black mist around it rose and fell.

Just then, the rhythmic click-clack of high heels echoed through the hallway.

It was very steady, and getting closer.

After Jing He and Gastly exchanged a glance, he recalled it into its Poké Ball.

Not long after, there was a knock on the door.

"Jing He, have you seen Professor Sorans?"

A tall, beautiful woman with long black hair pushed the door open and entered.

She was Ayako, an instructor from the Breeding Department.

"Uh, no, I haven't," Jing He answered truthfully.

"Strange. I saw him in the cafeteria earlier. How did he disappear again so quickly?" Ayako puffed out her cheeks and muttered.

"What's wrong?" Jing He asked, rubbing his temples twice.

"Isn't today the new student registration day? Professor Sorans had promised to come help, but then he suddenly vanished. Every other teacher has already been assigned a task, so where am I supposed to find someone to take his place...?"

New student registration day? Today?

Jing He froze.

No wonder there had seemed to be so many more cars at the school gate this morning.

Suddenly.

A bad feeling rose within him.

Sure enough, when he looked up, Ayako was staring at him with bright eyes.

"Jing He, could you fill in for him?"