The legend (please bookmark)

"I'm no ghost."

The old woman said expressionlessly, "I came to warn you about something. Go back, quickly. The girl has awakened."

"I don't believe you!"

Disbelief written all over her face, Ailan reached straight for the old woman. She was going to find out whether this was a person or a ghost.

But her hand closed on empty air. The old woman had vanished into thin air, as though she had never appeared at all.

Ailan blinked, then looked down at her hand and began trembling all over.

"Yee."

Carnivine watched its Trainer with concern, wondering whether it should take her back first. Before it left, its parents had told it over and over that it had to take good care of this girl.

Dark, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. It seemed his companion merely had some questionable interests; at least she was mentally sound.

He didn't dare ask for much. All he wanted was a safe, uneventful journey.

Damn it, if our families weren't old friends, why would I put myself through this? Traveling alone would be so much freer. So what if I stayed single forever? At least I could live peacefully with my Pokémon.

Unfortunately, the heavens mercilessly crushed his tiny hope.

"This is amazing!!!!"

Ailan jumped for joy. "A ghost! There really are ghosts, and this one can even talk! This is amazing!"

Behind her, Carnivine immediately blinked, unable to wrap its head around this. It was as unimaginable as a Carnivine falling in love with an Arbok.

It rubbed its head with its large, triangular leaf hands, wondering whether something was wrong with it. In the end, it reached a conclusion: it wasn't sick, but the days ahead would probably be even more turbulent than it had imagined.

"Yee!"

It let out a frustrated cry. No wonder its companions had given it such strange looks when it left. It had thought they were jealous, but now it seemed they had been showing outright "concern."

At that moment, Dark's mind became exceptionally clear. He no longer cared whether their families were old friends. All he knew was that if he didn't run now, he would never get another chance.

He didn't send out his Pokémon, because he knew his Sewaddle definitely couldn't beat Carnivine. Better to retreat first. A gentleman could wait ten years for revenge—he would settle this score later!

Unfortunately, Carnivine wasn't about to let him get away just like that. After all, having someone suffer alongside it was better than suffering alone.

Two vines swiftly stretched toward him and bound Dark again, even more tightly and securely than before. They paid special attention to his Poké Ball, sealing it off completely.

"I'm doomed..."

A horrifying scene seemed to rise before Dark's eyes.

He was being roasted over a fire while Ailan stood beside him, adding pepper and other seasonings, preparing to turn him into a delicious meal to offer to an evil spirit.

Worse still, a heartless Carnivine was helping Ailan carry out her cruelty, scattering flowers beside him and occasionally turning him over so the seasoning would spread more evenly.

His gaze wandered. He had completely lost his senses.

Once Dark had sunk into a deep sleep, Carnivine nodded in satisfaction and tightened its Vine Whip a little more.

It felt a sense of fulfillment in its young heart. Perhaps following Ailan didn't mean its future was entirely bleak after all.

Sure enough, without a comparison, there was no sense of superiority.

Having talked itself around with its now master-level psychological self-regulation, Carnivine suddenly felt that the sky was bluer, the grass greener, and the flowers more fragrant. And Ailan was more... more terrifying.

"Carnivine."

Ailan turned and glanced at Carnivine. "Keep an eye on Dark. Understood?"

"Yee!!"

Startled, Carnivine hurriedly raised both hands, signaling that it would carry out its mission without fail.

Only then did Ailan nod and lead the way deeper into the forest.

What a joke! Who leaves right after seeing a ghost? I have to at least get a photo with it. Otherwise, people will laugh at me for being a ghost fanatic who's never even seen a ghost. Absolutely unacceptable!

When Dian saw more elderly people making memorial offerings up ahead, he frowned. It seemed the kappa had told the truth. A girl really had gone missing here once, and it had caused quite a few incidents.

That was why, at this time every year, people from Antler Town who believed the story came to make offerings, hoping to let the departed spirit rest in peace and be reborn.

"Grandma, is this really necessary?"

A girl trailed behind her with an indifferent, listless air. "Ghosts and all that can't possibly exist anyway."

"Shh!"

The elderly woman in a black kimono wore a stern expression. "You can say that once we're home, but you must never say it on Antler Mountain, especially at this time of year."

She sighed and shook her head, feeling that young people these days had no respect for tradition and knew nothing about their culture.

Left with no choice, the elderly woman began telling the story she had already told countless times. "Around two hundred years ago, there weren't so many Stantler in this forest, so children often went up there to play hide-and-seek.

"But once, a girl went missing during a game. Everyone searched for a long time, but no one found her. As time passed, the matter eventually faded away."

As she burned paper money and paper clothes, she continued, "But many years later, when some young people from town went up Antler Mountain to play again, they discovered an extra person among them—a girl whose face they couldn't make out."

The elderly woman's expression grew even more solemn. Looking closely, one could see a hint of deeply buried fear.

"The young people were terrified. Fortunately, one young man thought quickly. Not only did he suppress his fear, he even took the initiative to invite the girl to join their game.

"But he had one condition: he had to be the seeker, and the counting time had to be two minutes."

The elderly woman's hands trembled slightly, but she took a deep breath and quickly steadied herself. "Then, when the girl in white floated into the forest to hide, the young man immediately led his companions down the mountain as fast as they could."

She pressed her palms together and murmured a few words too softly to make out. "After that, an unusual-looking old woman came to Antler Town.

"She said that if someone remembered the girl and came to make offerings at this time every year, she would no longer be lonely or cause trouble."

"Oh, oh, so that's why you come here to make offerings every year, Grandma."

Bored, the listless girl used a blade of grass to trace a Pikachu on the ground. "You only heard this story from someone else, right?"

When her grandmother didn't answer for a long time, she looked up and found her wearing an extremely solemn expression. "No. I was one of the people playing hide-and-seek that day."