The Cursed Gengar Plushie

"..."

Xingye wore a puzzled expression as he suddenly stopped behind Lillie. Though he did not interact much with his classmates at school...

Over this long period, whenever he got tired of sleeping and looked at the scenery, he had seen other people let out their Pokémon. But Lillie was the only exception.

"Wait, could she be..."

Xingye thought of a possibility. Especially after seeing how desperately she wanted to win the Clefairy plushie, he became even more certain of his guess.

Wasn't this the feeling of wanting to catch a Pokémon? But since she could not catch a real one, she could only use a fake plushie as a substitute.

With that in mind, he stood behind her and watched for a while longer without being noticed.

Then he watched as Lillie's mentality gradually crumbled, yet she kept gritting her teeth and refusing to give up...

"Move the claw a little farther to the right."

"Hm?"

Hearing a somewhat familiar voice behind her, Lillie froze slightly. But she did not have time to see who it was.

Still, she instinctively did as she was told. This time, the claw merely caught the bow on the back of the Clefairy plushie, making it look like she was about to fail again.

"Mm-hm, when it's five centimeters from the top, swing it hard!"

"..."

Lillie really wanted to know who was guiding her. Selene and the others, whose skills were about as good as hers, had all gone out to buy things.

But she made her decision in an instant. The Clefairy plushie hooked by the claw kept swaying, at risk of falling at any moment.

She judged the distance and decisively swung the joystick. The Clefairy plushie was flung out, falling right over the edge of the prize chute.

"That worked?!"

"Wait... I got it!"

Lillie took out the Shiny Clefairy plushie and hugged it to her chest. Then she excitedly turned around, only to find no one behind her.

She looked around, and finally her gaze landed on Xingye and Cyclizar's retreating backs. Her expression briefly froze before she pursed her lips and smiled softly...

Xingye had not really wanted to help her. He just did not want to owe anyone a favor. Lillie had rescued him at the beach and brought him home before, so helping her this time was only right.

"Alright, back to slacking off... I mean, work!"

"Cyclizar~"

The day ended amid slacking off. After getting off work at ten that night, Xingye returned to that claw machine and looked at the Gengar inside.

Although it had been restocked at noon, quite a few plushies had already been taken. The only one that remained unchanged was the Gengar plushie wearing that mischievous grin.

"So where exactly is the problem? My skills definitely aren't the issue..."

Xingye got hold of several coins and returned to try again. But the result was still the same. The Gengar plushie could never be grabbed, as if it were under some curse that prevented anyone from winning it.

"Cyclizar!"

"You want to try too? Here."

"Cyclizar~"

Cyclizar inserted a coin and started operating the machine, but the outcome was no surprise.

Seeing that, Xingye stopped trying. He had worked all day and should head back to rest early. Besides, the plushie was not going anywhere.

Not long after they left, the shop gradually emptied. The owner turned off all the lights and went home. As the front door shut, the darkness seemed to swallow the store whole, leaving it deep and silent.

Yet within that darkness, a pair of red eyes suddenly lit up inside one claw machine!

"Gengar~"

The next day was Monday again. After paying back everything he owed Boss Slowking on credit, Xingye had made it through safely. There was no rush to pay the rent; he could wait until the end of the month.

He arrived at school as usual, thinking everything would be the same, but there was still a slight change.

As he took out a book for some unknown class and placed it on the desk as a pillow, Lillie, sitting in front of him, turned sideways. Her pale fingers tucked aside her hair as she smiled and softly said, "About yesterday... thank you!"

"There's nothing to thank me for. Go attend your class and stop disturbing my Rest..."

"..."

That one sentence left Lillie completely speechless. The little bit of favorable impression she had finally recovered nearly vanished again.

She puffed out her cheeks, her delicate brows knitting slightly. She glared at him with an adorably angry expression, turned back around, and ignored him after that...

After school that afternoon, Xingye and Cyclizar hurried to the shop at once. Luckily, the Gengar plushie had not been won yet. It still lay smiling among a group of Ghost-type Pokémon plushies.

After work, he and Cyclizar exchanged some money for coins and specifically came to catch the Gengar plushie.

As for why, it was simply that stubborn refusal to give up. It was like fighting a boss in a Soulslike game—skipping class was impossible.

Whenever he watched the Gengar plushie slip from the claw, Xingye's expression gradually became calm. He no longer looked like he was about to get depressed over it like before.

Keeping a good mentality was the key to gaming. And as a skilled professional in this field, all he needed was to treat winning the Gengar plushie as a breakthrough goal.

"Half my wages are gone again. Let's go home."

"Cyclizar~"

"Gengar~"

"Hm?"

Hearing that laugh again, Xingye stopped in his tracks and instinctively looked toward the Gengar plushie in the claw machine, but he found nothing unusual.

If it did not currently need help, the map would not display the Pokémon's presence.

Besides, Gengar were generally around 1.5 meters tall. Did a Gengar under 0.3 meters really exist in this world? Even Gastly was bigger than that.

"It's clearly just a plushie. Impossible. But if a Gengar is secretly hiding somewhere and playing pranks, I'd believe that."

With his hands in his pockets, Xingye headed back with Cyclizar for dinner. Soon, the shop was dark again. All the plushies lay quietly inside their claw machines, but those red eyes lit up once more.

"Gengar~"

The Gengar plushie swayed slightly and struggled for a long time before finally managing to roll over. But it ended up buried among the other plushies, and the red glow disappeared...

From that day onward, Xingye and Cyclizar came here after work every day to play a round. He had already made winning the Gengar plushie into a goal.

Wasn't that much like Lillie before? The only difference was his mentality. He was not venting his emotions through the game. Rather, he was playing together with a Pokémon.

And as the days passed, the "Gengar~" cries coming from nowhere clearly changed from mockery at first to something happier later on.

Xingye's understanding of Pokémon cries was still improving, so he could clearly tell that this was a Pokémon laughing...

Before long, it was already mid-December. In about a week, school would begin winter break.

As winter arrived, the temperature on Melemele Island had completely dropped. It was said that in a few more days, snow might fall here, a rare occurrence.

There was no snow to be seen, but it really did rain. A sudden downpour caught Xingye on his way to work over the weekend. Meowth and the others chased him until he crashed again, and even his pants got torn off.

Helpless, he could only take the day off. Now that he had money and had gotten a phone plan, he was no longer a solo player and could conveniently contact others.

Although it was the weekend, the oppressive atmosphere of the torrential rain meant far fewer people had come out shopping. Business at the claw machine shop was sluggish too, so whether he was there or not made no difference. The owner was probably even happy to pay two fewer wages.

The Gengar plushie lay quietly inside the claw machine. Halloween had long passed, and Ghost-type Pokémon plushies were no longer popular. Few people came here each day to try catching it now.

It still held its belly and wore that mischievous smile, motionless as it gazed through the glass at the outside world. But today, it seemed it had not seen the human who played with it every day.

Still, this was common enough. It only needed to wait until nighttime... Yet even as evening arrived, it still did not see him.

There were fewer and fewer people walking around in the world beyond the glass. It could only keep that expression and stare outside.

At last, several people came up to its claw machine. But everyone had already heard the rumors about the Gengar plushie. Aside from those stubborn types, no one wanted to waste money trying to win it.

Time continued to pass. Although it was still far from closing time, there were no other customers in the shop. Half the lights had already been turned off.

In the dim light, a trace of loneliness and desolation seemed to flash across the Gengar plushie's face, which could only keep smiling. Even though other plushies surrounded it, every day had always been like this...

But soon, it heard footsteps approaching its machine. It immediately pulled itself together and cried out as usual.

"Gengar~"

Suddenly, the footsteps stopped in front of the machine. Yet in the dim reflection overhead, the figure that appeared was someone holding a screwdriver. Then that person revealed a sinister grin...