Iono Cried in the Haunted House

Bzzzt—

Iono couldn't tell whether it was an effect she had added to the stream or whether the signal was simply bad.

Ever since she had entered the Haunted House, the stream had occasionally filled with static. Viewers had complained in the comments, but she didn't seem to notice.

Iono slowly closed the door behind her. Remembering to shut doors in a Haunted House was a good habit. It kept all sorts of strange things from getting out.

She used the light on her Rotom Phone to look around. The corridor was spotless. "It didn't look that big from outside," she murmured. "Why does it feel so spacious in here...?"

She also noticed how clean the Haunted House was. Even the furniture was arranged normally, with hardly anywhere for something to hide.

It was almost like coming home. Everything was so normal that it was... a little eerie.

"Why does this feel kind of familiar...?"

Iono looked around, something stirring memories of her childhood. It took her a while to remember she was still streaming. She glanced down at the screen on her chest and greeted her viewers.

"Hehe~ We're inside now, and I haven't brought a single Pokémon. The owner told me it'd be really scary and that I should brace myself, but so far it seems pretty ordinary."

"The challenge is to escape. Find the exit and leave the Haunted House, and you win. There's a prize, too: a fruit-and-vegetable gift pack, apparently. It includes those Move-Learning Fruits everyone's been talking about lately."

She chatted with her viewers as she began exploring the house...

Meanwhile, viewers watching from elsewhere in the world were all running into the same problem. At Blueberry Academy, students watching the stream over lunch in the cafeteria began voicing their confusion.

"That's weird. Why