Flutter Mane

Roy, lying in the hammock, knew nothing about this. Without a communicator to scroll through videos, he could only idly knead his Duskull.

While checking the Popularity Points in the system, which were still slowly rising.

Duskull protested during this time as well.

Hadn't they agreed that if it went to investigate the figure at the gate, Roy would not knead it today?

Roy said this was a Trainer's affection for his Pokémon and could not be lumped together. Having fallen for the trick again, Duskull lay there in despair as Roy kneaded it into all sorts of shapes.

As he looked at his shop, the Popularity Points had somehow risen to 15,000 without his noticing, and they were still climbing.

They had already been rising continuously for an hour.

What was going on?

[Detected that the host's actions have increased public discussion of Ghost-type Pokémon. The host is additionally awarded 1,000 Popularity Points.]

As the system's mechanical voice faded,

the system's Popularity Points directly reached 16,000.

Though Roy did not understand why, he would never turn down free Popularity Points. He immediately exchanged the Eviolite and the Technical Machine for Rest from the shop.

[Item has been delivered to the host's Spatial Bracelet.]

Just like Giratina's Scale last time, the two items were sent directly into Roy's Spatial Bracelet.

Roy took a purple, diamond-shaped stone from his Spatial Bracelet.

Was this the Eviolite?

Holding the stone in his hand, Roy held it up to Litwick's flame, but he could not see anything unusual about it.

If the system had not scanned it as an Eviolite, Roy would have thought it was just a stone picked up from the roadside.

Next came equipping an item on a Pokémon. Last time, when he equipped Litwick, he had simply stuck the Spell Tag onto Litwick's forehead, and it had entered Litwick's body.

But what was he supposed to do with this stone? Make Duskull eat it?

After thinking for a long time, Roy decided to use the most primitive method and stuffed the Eviolite directly into Duskull's skull mask.

A flash of purple light passed by, and the Eviolite completely fused into Duskull's body.

On the system interface, Duskull's information changed from Held Item: None to Held Item: Eviolite.

Okay, done!

During this time, Duskull felt as though something had changed in its body. It seemed to have become tougher?

There was still a Technical Machine in the Spatial Bracelet that he had not checked. Roy had never even seen what a Technical Machine looked like.

Before Roy could inspect the Technical Machine,

"Ah!!!!"

Another scream came from the direction of the back mountain. This one was even more miserable than the previous screams.

Roy looked up through the window and saw a ghostly purple light shining on the back mountain. At its brightest, it turned into an enormous pillar of light, seemingly connecting heaven and earth.

Under the moonlight, the ghostly purple pillar looked especially strange.

Roy was instantly drawn to the sight.

He sensed that the Ghost-type aura on the back mountain was extraordinarily dense, even denser than Mt. Pyre, which connected to the Spirit World.

So what exactly had happened on the back mountain?

On the bedside table, the flame above Litwick's head flared up, though it had turned into a purple flame.

"You felt it too, Litwick?"

"Lit!"

Roy suddenly felt as though something on the back mountain was drawing him in. The Ghost Power within his body was even spilling outward.

And a voice echoed in his mind. I have to get it! I have to get it!

Like a cat catching the scent of fish, it made Roy's heart itch.

Seeing that he was about to lose his mind because of those voices, Roy hurriedly slapped himself to clear his head.

The more that voice attracted him, the more Roy felt there was danger on the back mountain. He knew perfectly well that attraction was often accompanied by danger.

It was not just Roy. Even Duskull stared blankly at the pillar of light, its body unconsciously drifting toward it. Roy grabbed it back and gave it two sharp slaps.

Wake up!

Ordinary human attacks could not hit a Ghost type like it.

But as long as Roy coated his hand with Ghost Power, coupled with the strength enhanced by the system, he could smack Duskull straight to the ground.

Seeing that Roy was about to give it two more hard slaps, Duskull hurriedly indicated that it was awake now.

Only then did Roy lower his hand.

So what exactly was that pillar of light?

Roy's Spatial Bracelet suddenly began spinning nonstop around his wrist. When he opened it, he discovered that Giratina's Scale had undergone a mutation.

The scale flew straight out of the Spatial Bracelet and headed toward the back mountain.

"Wait, what is going on? How did Giratina's Scale run out of the Spatial Bracelet by itself?"

Not bothering to think about the danger, Roy gritted his teeth and chased after it. Giratina's Scale was the first big jackpot he had drawn.

The scale hovered above the wire fence as though it were waiting for Roy. Once he caught up, it slowly drifted over the fence and toward the foot of the back mountain.

Was it guiding him?

Roy climbed directly over the fence and entered the territory of the back mountain from the campus legend.

Seeing Roy climb over, the scale flew onward again. Roy realized that it was heading toward the mountainside where the ghostly purple pillar stood.

And the closer he got to the purple pillar, the denser the Ghost-type energy in the air became.

Roy chased after the scale along the steep mountain path.

At last, the scale stopped.

Roy leaped forward and grabbed it, stuffing it back into his Spatial Bracelet.

"Now you can't run away!"

However, Roy discovered that he was now only ten meters from the ghostly purple pillar. He could even clearly see what was inside it.

At the very center of the pillar was a Pokémon floating in the air, with a string of Red Orbs hanging around its neck.

That was—

Someone unfamiliar with it might mistake the Pokémon within the ghostly purple pillar for a Misdreavus.

But Roy knew it was no Misdreavus. It was Flutter Mane!

Your big sis Flutter Mane!

Did they understand the value of Protosynthesis?

Did they understand what it meant to have only Ghost type and Steel type weaknesses?

Whenever your team was always one member short, finding big sis Flutter Mane was the right choice. Data did not lie. Her being first in usage rate last season proved everything.

It could be said that big sis Flutter Mane's appearance had caused the usage rates of all other Ghost-type Pokémon to plummet.

Of course, the condition was not trying to take Scizor's Bullet Punch head-on.

During his two years at Mt. Pyre, Roy had seen Misdreavus before, but this was his first time seeing Flutter Mane.

One of the ancient Paradox species Pokémon recorded in the Scarlet Book.

Wasn't Flutter Mane a Paradox species Pokémon?

Why had it appeared here?

System scan.

Pokémon: Flutter Mane (Unstable Form)

Level: 59

Gender: Female

Ability: Levitate (Floats above the ground, thus avoiding attacks from Ground-type moves.)

Moves: Astonish, Confuse Ray, Astonish, Psybeam, Mean Look, Memento, Wish, Shadow Ball

Held Item: None

Egg Moves: Screech, Sucker Punch, Imprison

Individual Values: ???

Technical Machine/Move Tutor: None

Other than its appearance, this was completely different from the Flutter Mane Roy had used in the games.

First of all, Levitate was wrong. Shouldn't Flutter Mane's Ability be Protosynthesis?

(When holding Booster Energy or under harsh sunlight, its highest stat is boosted.)

This Flutter Mane's move pool was somewhat shallow. It was already level 59, yet it did not have moves such as Dazzling Gleam, Power Gem, or Mystical Fire.

And it even had Egg Moves. Flutter Mane in the games, being a Paradox species, did not have Egg Moves, yet this Flutter Mane had three of them.

And what was with "Unstable" in the brackets after its name and the three question marks for its Individual Values? This was the first time the system had shown such a situation.