The footsteps quickly drew near to Gimmighoul's hiding place.
With its sharp senses, Gimmighoul could tell that in addition to the barking Ghost-type, there was also a human walking alongside it.
Curling up tightly, Gimmighoul silently wished they would just walk past its hiding spot and leave.
Reality, of course, rarely grants such wishes. Just when Gimmighoul was so nervous it felt like it couldn't breathe, the footsteps stopped right in front of its shelf.
A woman's voice, carrying a peculiar rhythm, rang out.
"Oh? Did you find something, Houndstone?"
The Ghost-type Pokémon called Houndstone sniffed carefully along the side of the shelf, only to discover the ghostly scent it had been tracking extended off toward another area.
Houndstone shook its head, the tombstone-like structure on its head shedding a light sprinkle of dust.
"Woof woof!"
It barked a couple of times toward the historical section of the library, then padded off in that direction.
Ryme, who had been summoned by Geeta to investigate the rumors of haunting, had no choice but to follow Houndstone toward the history shelves.
As an accomplished Ghost-type Trainer, she had tremendous faith in Houndstone's nose. Even the most stealthy Ghost-type Pokémon couldn't escape its tracking.
Well—except for the one that was practically an urban legend across Paldea, a mythical creature almost no one had seen clearly, let alone caught: Gimmighoul.
Of course, if they really couldn't find anything no matter what, then she'd have to start suspecting that Gimmighoul was behind it.
As Ryme and Houndstone moved away, the Gimmighoul hidden behind the shelf finally let out a sigh of relief, collapsing bonelessly onto its little hoard as if it had just escaped death, and resumed waiting for nightfall.
A short while later.
Following the trail of ghostly energy to its densest point, Ryme and Houndstone found two people talking.
One was the Trainer who had defeated her, Lucas.
The other was a woman who looked just a little suspicious to Ryme—someone who, to her senses, carried a faintly bad vibe.
In the silent library, Houndstone suddenly started barking loudly at the shadows beneath the two people's feet, and Ryme's gaze locked straight onto the woman's shadow.
As everyone knew, aside from a few Ghost-types that had fully tangible bodies, most incorporeal Ghost-type Pokémon could slip into the shadows of living beings or objects.
In other words—there was a Ghost-type Pokémon hiding in that person's shadow!
Seeing Ryme barge over aggressively, Lucas stopped chatting with a very put-out-looking Raifort and turned a puzzled look toward the newcomer.
"Ryme, what brings you here?"
Ryme didn't answer his greeting. She simply brought the loudly barking Houndstone over to Raifort and asked bluntly,
"There's a Ghost-type Pokémon hiding in your shadow, isn't there?"
She phrased it as a question, but her tone was absolutely certain.
A flicker of surprise passed through Raifort's eyes, but she opened her hands generously and said,
"Yup. There's a Ghost-type in my shadow. My partner, Gengar."
As if to prove it, Raifort stomped her boot on the floor. Her shadow began to squirm as though it had come to life.
Within just a couple of breaths, a fat purple figure with a confident grin rose up from the darkness like something surfacing from water, revealing its round body.
The Shadow Pokémon—Gengar!
"Gen-gar~"
Gengar cheerfully greeted everyone, then hopped down, assumed a perfect diving pose, and plunged back into Raifort's shadow, vanishing again.
Raifort's blatant frankness made the rebuke Ryme had prepared die on her tongue. She frowned and turned to Lucas instead, asking,
"She is…?"
Lucas didn't mind that Ryme had ignored his hello. Rappers were all eccentric types anyway.
Shrugging, he pointed at the work badge half-covered by Raifort's bizarre assortment of legendary-themed accessories.
"History teacher at the academy—Raifort."
Ryme: "…"
Her brows knitted slightly. She trusted Chairwoman Geeta's judgment. If this woman had been personally selected as a teacher in the aftermath of the operation, then her character had already been thoroughly vetted. It was unlikely she'd be stealing from students.
Having read the look on Ryme's face, Raifort more or less understood why she was here. She smoothly put on a wrongly accused expression and protested,
"I was just complaining to Teacher Lucas about how my gold coins went missing on campus, too."
"Miss Ryme, you're not… suspecting me of being the thief, are you?"
Faced with Raifort's innocent eyes, Ryme didn't bat an eyelid.
"Houndstone tracked the ghostly trail. Mistakes happen."
The moment Ryme shifted the blame, Houndstone—still barking at Lucas's shadow—stopped abruptly and stared at its Trainer with disbelief.
If I wasn't famous for being loyal, I'd be cussing you out right now!!!
Lucas nearly burst out laughing. To hide it, he tapped his foot lightly on the floor and said,
"Mimikyu usually likes to hang around in my shadow too, but it's not here today. It's probably been in my shadow so long that its Ghost-type aura seeped in, making my shadow's ghostly energy stronger than normal."
"So Houndstone, which instinctively followed the densest Ghost-type aura, ended up coming to us two who just happened to be standing together."
With one sentence, Lucas neatly explained away Houndstone's mistake and made it sound completely reasonable—earning himself a grateful nuzzle from the Pokémon.
Ryme felt a little sour about that, but she couldn't argue. After all, she had just thrown Houndstone under the bus, so all she could do was ask Raifort seriously,
"Raifort, you said you lost gold coins. Could you describe where you lost them, how you got them, and how many there were?"
"I'll have my assistant log everything. Once we recover the missing items, we'll check and match them up one by one and return them in full."
Raifort: "…"
It was her turn to be tongue-tied, and her expression grew noticeably stiff.
She'd only just gotten her act together and gone legit again; there was no way she could explain the origin of those coins.
Lucas, who had just been chatting with Raifort earlier, already knew the whole story from her grumbling.
After their trip to the Asado Desert, Raifort had floored her beloved off-roader all the way back to Mesagoza.
When she parked at Naranja Academy's lot, she'd even double-checked the dozens of ancient Paldean gold coins she'd hidden under the seat—spoils from her working years in her less-lawful past—and confirmed that they were safe.
A few days ago, when she heard about the hauntings and missing valuables, Raifort had gone to check on them again, and discovered that the box of ancient coins had completely vanished.
But since the coins were acquired through… slightly less than legitimate means, she couldn't exactly file a report, so she'd just grabbed Lucas to complain.
With that in mind, Lucas stepped in to help her out.
"More importantly, I already know where the culprit is. Do you two want to come with me to find it?"
Raifort and Ryme both froze, and Houndstone cocked its head, obviously not understanding how Lucas could know that.
If Raifort was just relieved, Ryme's heart was in full upheaval.
She and Houndstone had been combing the campus for a long time, and now Lucas just casually said he knew where the culprit was?
Ryme fell silent, but she didn't question him. She simply followed behind Lucas with Houndstone in tow.
If some random Naranja Academy student had told her they'd found the ghostly thief, Ryme would never have believed them so easily.
But coming from Lucas, the weight and reliability of those words were on a completely different level.
After all, Lucas was one of the very few Trainers this proud rapper genuinely admired from the bottom of her heart.
Raifort paused just a moment, then gave Lucas a deep look and followed as well.
This guy… really is like he knows everything.
Lucas finally stopped in front of a shelf of children's picture books.
Raifort stayed quiet, but Ryme looked genuinely surprised.
She and Houndstone had just been here earlier and had even stayed for a bit before Houndstone was drawn away by the dense Ghost-type aura coming from Raifort and Lucas's shadows.
The culprit behind the hauntings and the gold theft… was here?
Staring at the perfectly ordinary-looking shelf, Lucas rubbed his chin and asked Raifort,
"Do you have your Grumpig with you?"
Raifort nodded and pulled out a Poké Ball.
"I do."
"Can it lift this shelf with Psychic?" Lucas asked. "My Dragonite could move it, but it'd probably damage the shelf. If it can't, I'll need to call in some backup."
Raifort carefully examined the size of the shelf, then mentally compared it to what she'd seen Grumpig lift before.
"It should be able to. Let's give it a try."
She sent out her Grumpig and had it attempt to move the shelf, which looked like it was solidly embedded in the wall.
Ryme knelt down to pet Houndstone's fur, soothing its bruised heart after being scapegoated, then looked up at Lucas curiously.
"The culprit is in there?"
"More or less," Lucas nodded. "Some of the stolen items should be piled in there too."
At some point, a Poké Ball had already appeared in his hand.
He pressed the button lightly, and in a flash of red light, Comfey appeared beside him.
"If something small tries to escape, grab it with Vine Whip. Go easy, though. It's probably pretty fragile."
"Fey~"
Comfey looked toward the shelf that Grumpig had begun inching out of its snug, built-in wall slot and tensed up in preparation for action. Her little face was full of serious focus.
Under the watchful eyes of the three humans and two Pokémon, the shelf was finally pulled clear, revealing the scene behind it.
The shelf had been fitted almost seamlessly into a recessed space in the wall. Honestly, neither Raifort nor Ryme had ever even considered that the culprit might be hiding in there.
But under the bright library lights, beyond the dancing motes of dust, an enormous pile of glittering objects almost blinded them.
Ryme's eyes went wide.
"Oh my god!"
With her sharp eye, Raifort immediately spotted her missing ancient Paldean gold coins in that golden mountain.
"Cling!"
A clear, coin-like chime suddenly rang out, tinged with obvious panic.
The next moment, a tiny Pokémon, seemingly startled out of its wits, bolted from the pile. The antenna-like protrusion on its head trembled wildly as it scurried toward the gap between another shelf and the wall.
As an expert on Paldea's ancient history, Raifort instantly recognized it.
"Gimmighoul!"
Ryme looked even more stunned.
The Gimmighoul—almost impossible for anyone to catch?
As if remembering something, Ryme quickly shouted,
"Careful! Gimmighoul can run really fast!"
But Comfey, who had been waiting for this moment, was faster than Ryme's warning.
With a sharp "swish," two emerald-green vines lashed out, overtaking the Gimmighoul just before it could slip into the gap, and wrapped it up tightly.
Now fully ensnared, Gimmighoul panicked even more, its tiny head whipping around frantically in all directions. But its struggles were feeble; it probably had less strength than a just-hatched Applin.
In its panic, it had even forgotten to grab its most precious coin. Yet even without that extra burden weighing down its escape, it had still been caught by Comfey.
Listening to its frantic "cling cling" calls as it wriggled in the Vine Whip, Raifort and Ryme exchanged a long look. They were staring at Gimmighoul like it was some extremely rare specimen, which only made it more anxious.
They both thought: today, they might actually be witnessing history.
The Gimmighoul that, according to rumor, no one had ever successfully caught… had just been nabbed, all according to Lucas's seemingly prophetic setup.
Lucas, for his part, hadn't really planned on taking in a Gimmighoul—at least, not until this incident was resolved and all the stolen items were returned.
After all, stealing was undeniably wrong.
But then a little line of text suddenly popped up in his vision, making him pause and look at the bound Gimmighoul in disbelief.
This is the same Gimmighoul from the toppled watchtower?
How had it come all the way from the far-off Asado Desert to Naranja Academy in Mesagoza?
Given how it could be blown away by a slightly stronger gust of wind, it was hard to imagine it had made that journey alone.
Just as Ryme and Raifort leaned in for a closer look, Lucas suddenly stepped between them and the trembling Gimmighoul.
He asked it,
"Why did you steal other people's things?"
Perhaps sensitive to the emotions directed at it, Gimmighoul sensed a faint warmth in Lucas's tone and stopped struggling. It tilted its head up to see who was speaking.
When it finally got a good look at his face, it froze.
It was the human who had driven off that Palossand and gently returned its coin!
Gimmighoul suddenly felt its wildly hammering heart begin to calm. It did its best to understand Lucas's question, then tilted its head and made a confused sound.
"Cling?" (What is 'steal'?)
Lucas couldn't understand the content of its cry, but he could hear the bewilderment in it.
Under Ryme's and Raifort's thoughtful gazes, he patiently asked again,
"You don't know what 'stealing' means?"
"Cling!"
Gimmighoul nodded.
Lucas fell silent for a moment, then pointed at the pile of glittering gold that had already attracted a crowd of curious Naranja students, and said seriously,
"All of that—those are other people's belongings that you took without permission. That's what 'stealing' is. And it's not a good thing to do."