Spirit World

Hu Yang had come this time hoping to use his Appraisal ability to strike gold at these stalls.

However, after browsing for half the day, he had not found a single useful item.

Left with no choice, he could only return to school first and come back another time when he had the chance.

By the time he returned to school, department store employees were having Machoke unload the goods from the truck.

"Everything you purchased is here," said a staff member wearing a cap.

Hu Yang gave everything a glance. After confirming there were no issues, he carried it all back to his room.

First, he replaced the bedroom light with the Charizard chandelier Axew liked. Then he laid Roserade's favorite rug beside the desk—when he was reading, the little Pokémon could roll around and play on it.

Then, on an empty patch of floor, he arranged their sleeping nests in order:

Cramorant—Roserade—Gengar's orb—Axew

Finally, he placed the plush toys they had chosen inside, so they could hug them while sleeping.

Hu Yang could not sleep with Roserade and Axew because, if he fell asleep and touched the thorns on Roserade's head, he would enter a poisoned state.

He might even die from poison like Wu Dalang in his sleep.

And Axew's teeth were far too sharp. One careless move, and they could pierce his body and cause severe bleeding.

There was nothing to be done about that.

Therefore, Hu Yang could only avoid their teeth and poisonous thorns when hugging and petting them while awake.

He already had it pretty good.

Trainers who had caught Slugma could not even touch them, since a single touch would leave them burned.

In the anime, Slugma and Regice were also the only two Pokémon humans could not touch.

Still, he could sleep while hugging Cramorant. Of course, if Gengar came back to life, he could hug Gengar too.

Especially in summer, Ghost-type Pokémon came with their own air-conditioning effect. Sleeping pressed against them would probably feel very comfortable.

Hu Yang stared at Gengar, looking him up and down.

Gengar noticed the strange gaze and turned to ask, "...What are you trying to do?"

Hu Yang replied, "I'm thinking about how to bring you back to life."

Less than six hours had passed since Erika told him not to go near the forest, yet he had already thrown her warning to the back of his mind.

Under the cover of the dark, windy night, Hu Yang brought the invincible Cramorant and several Pokémon as he quietly slipped into Petalburg Woods.

Led by Gengar, they quickly arrived at the place where they had fought that group of Litwick last time.

"Can you break that Gengar's illusion?" Hu Yang asked.

Gengar shook his head, a rare solemn look appearing on his face. "It's very strong."

Hu Yang was speechless.

He furrowed his brow in thought.

He recalled what had happened when he encountered that Totem Gengar.

Though he did not know exactly how terrifyingly powerful it was,

he could be certain that it could sense what was happening throughout the forest and possessed a special ability similar to Psychic-type Pokémon, allowing it to Teleport people.

Finding the mansion through his own power was almost impossible.

Furthermore, judging by Pheobe's experience, that Gengar would not open the mansion to humans.

That left only one method.

"Mr. Gengar, I have a way to completely resolve the problem of those Ghost-type Pokémon in the mansion. Could we meet?"

"Gengar-sama, Lord Gengar, can you hear me?"

Hu Yang began shouting at the top of his lungs in the forest.

Gengar was speechless.

Cramorant tilted her head. "Caw?"

It did not work?

The second that thought arose, Hu Yang felt as if his soul had been ripped out of his body, and everything before his eyes blurred.

But the sensation quickly vanished.

When he turned around, he saw a gloomy, dilapidated mansion behind him, along with the Totem Gengar, several sizes larger than before.

Totem Gengar's eyes were blood-red. Though its appearance had not changed much since their last meeting, Hu Yang somehow felt that its aura had weakened somewhat.

"What method?" Its eyes remained fixed on Hu Yang as it communicated through Telepathy.

Hu Yang said, "Send them into the Spirit World."

The Spirit World was the final destination of human souls and Ghost-type Pokémon.

According to the lore, Dusknoir were the gatekeepers of the Spirit World. They would suck wandering souls with nowhere to go into their elastic bodies and take them to the Spirit World.

Afraid that Gengar would not understand, Hu Yang continued, "Dusknoir have the ability to open an entrance to the Spirit World."

Though he said that, Hu Yang knew very well that not every Dusknoir possessed that ability.

This Totem Gengar seemed to know something about Dusknoir as well, so it immediately pointed out that issue.

Hu Yang said, "I can find someone to help handle this. You should have seen her too."

The person he meant was Pheobe of the Ghost-type Elite Four.

Pheobe wanted to resolve the mansion incident, but because she had not made her intentions clear, she had been turned away.

Gengar wanted to send these Ghost-type Pokémon into the Spirit World, but it could not leave this place.

And Hu Yang only wanted to learn about his Gengar's condition, so he did not mind acting as an intermediary and introducing Gengar and Pheobe to each other.

Hearing that, Totem Gengar immediately thought of the girl who had been wandering around the forest not long ago.

It fell silent for a moment before saying, "What do you want?"

Hu Yang shook his head and looked at Gengar. "I only want to know what condition he is in right now. Is he dead?"

Totem Gengar glanced at Gengar and said, "He is not dead. What is here is only his 'spirit.'"

Hu Yang froze. "Spirit?"

Totem Gengar said, "The Gengar species does not possess the kind of physical body ordinary Pokémon have. Their bodies consist of two parts: the 'spirit' and the 'form.'"

"In human terms, that would be the soul and the body. When the soul leaves the body, it cannot touch the real world. When the body leaves the soul, it cannot pass through ordinary matter."

"As long as his soul is brought beside his body, he can return to normal."

Unlike humans, however, Gengar could freely merge and switch between these two states.

Therefore, they could pass through walls whenever they wanted, and whenever they wanted others to see or touch them, they could make it happen.

Hu Yang and Gengar looked at each other.

"So what drew you into that ruin was your body?!"

Totem Gengar's three sentences sent Hu Yang into a burst of unexpected ecstasy.

"I... I don't know..." Gengar was stunned. Only then did he realize that there seemed to be something he could not remember.

Hu Yang was thrilled. This matter had been bothering him constantly lately. Even on the way back from Lavaridge Town, he had spent the whole trip thinking about how to find Ho-Oh and pluck its feathers.

Then the next task was figuring out how to retrieve Gengar's body.

But before that, he had to inform Pheobe about what had happened here.