"A fake body?"
Shan Ren and Pheobe both looked over.
"Yeah. It doesn't match what I saw in the Spirit Dream."
Baimu nodded. He didn't know what Banette, which had arrived later, had seen. But for some reason, he'd watched the scene clearly from a third-person perspective—
The explosion had been far too close. From that moment on, Long He's flesh had been torn apart beyond recognition, and he'd barely had a breath left in him.
That was nothing like the relatively intact remains in the coffin.
Of course.
Someone could argue that Banette had later found a way to gather Long He's remains. But the kinship report was enough to prove Baimu's judgment correct—and that everything he had seen was real.
It was horrific.
Even now, recalling the dream made Baimu's heart tremble. He instinctively reached for the Poké Balls holding his Pokémon, and the tension in him eased a little.
He took a deep breath and told Shan Ren and Pheobe what had happened in the dream.
As he went over it all again, he couldn't help feeling that Grandfather Long He had been plagued by rotten luck, disrespectful as the thought might be.
Things had gone badly for him from the moment he reached the Arena.
After barely surviving the explosion, he'd lost track of his Pokémon, been spotted by enemies, seen all his dragon Pokémon lose the ability to fight, been spotted by enemy reinforcements, suffered grave injuries, and run into people who still hadn't escaped.
Take away even one of those misfortunes, and Grandfather Long He might have made it out from underground and back into the light. Instead, every last one had struck him, leaving a great Dragon Tamer to die deep beneath Pyrite Town.
When Baimu finished.
Pheobe, who had seen plenty of