"You can take me to my master?" Lokoko stared at the stranger in a daze.
He had known she was Ninetales the moment he arrived. How did he know so much about her?
"His name is Brock. You can go find him yourself, or I can take you there. Either way is fine." Reiji pointed at the people who had entered the old mansion and collapsed under the eaves, still trapped in the illusion. "But can you let those people go first? I still need to get to Mahogany Town."
If Lokoko did not need his help and wanted to search on her own, that was fine by him. It would save him trouble.
"You still haven't answered me. How did you know about my true body?"
"Tch. What a hassle. Gengar."
Gengar rose from Reiji's shadow and passed straight through Lokoko.
"Don't be rude," Lokoko snapped, glaring at the grinning Gengar.
"Gen, gar." Gengar did not care. In its senses, Lokoko's mental power was strong, but not strong enough to take it down. That meant there was nothing to be afraid of.
"All right, Gengar. Come back." Reiji crossed his arms and rubbed them. It was nearly dark, and the air was getting cold.
"Fine. I'll go with you." Lokoko thought it over, then looked toward the passengers in the mansion. She controlled them one by one and guided them back into the bus. Once that was done, she turned to Reiji. "I can't leave the mansion. Can you fix that?"
"It should be the Poké Ball." Reiji remembered the anime. Lokoko had been bound by her master's Poké Ball. Who would have thought a Poké Ball could restrict a Pokémon's movement like that? No wonder Suicune had crushed Celebi's Poké Ball. That old tech was scary.
"Follow me." Lokoko finally saw a chance to find her master again, and that was enough for her to trust Reiji.
A Pokémon that had spent two hundred years deep in the mountains, away from the human world, could not have that many twisted thoughts. Convincing her was surprisingly easy.
She led them to her master's study. It was old and decayed, lined with bookshelves full of books that had mostly rotted away. Only the photograph on the wall was still clear enough to show Lokoko and her master together.
"He really does look like Brock." Reiji could not help muttering. The production team had been ruthless with that resemblance.
On the desk were an old red-and-blue patterned Poké Ball and the diary Lokoko's master had left behind.
The man had gone out without his closest Pokémon, and he had not even taken his diary. Was he not worried someone would read it?
Leaving his most trusted Pokémon behind made no sense unless he had expected danger. More likely, he had done it to protect her.
Judging by the mansion, the man had probably been a wealthy young master. Maybe he noticed someone was after his family fortune, maybe even his life, and decided not to take Ninetales with him.
A remote mountain mansion would not be worth much. The family business outside would be the real prize.
From the small details in the anime, Reiji could already imagine the family infighting two hundred years ago. Whatever happened back then, Lokoko's master never came home.
Of course, two hundred years had passed. The people involved were long dead. Only their descendants remained.
And yes, that meant Brock.
"Is there anything you want to keep?" Reiji looked around the ruined study. "Anything you want to take with you?"
If not for Lokoko protecting this place, even the photograph, diary, and Poké Ball would never have lasted two hundred years.
"Only these three."
Lokoko used Psychic to bring the photograph, diary, and Poké Ball over to Reiji.
Reiji packed the photograph and diary into clear plastic bags and put them in his backpack. Then he held the Poké Ball toward Lokoko.
"Come in."
"All right."
Ninetales, Lokoko's true body, touched the button with its head and entered the Poké Ball.
"You're not disappearing?" Reiji looked at Lokoko's illusion in surprise. Ninetales had returned to the ball, but Lokoko was still there.
"This old Poké Ball can't contain my mental power. I can still speak to you through this illusion," Lokoko explained with a small nod.
"Convenient." Reiji put the Poké Ball away and left the mansion.
Before getting back on the bus, he looked at the old building and asked, "Do you want to burn it down?"
"No." Lokoko looked at the mansion and shook her head. "There's nothing here I'm attached to anymore."
She had been trapped here for two hundred years. She had seen every part of this place more times than she could count. If she could have left earlier, she would have.
"Up to you. Wake the driver, then. We're going down the mountain."
Reiji returned to his seat. Lokoko sat beside him, though only as an illusion. No one could touch her, and only the people she wanted to see her could see her.
The driver woke from the dream and found himself staring at a dark, ruined mansion. Green eyes gleamed from the forest around them.
Then he remembered.
They were on Mt. Mortar.
They had found the legendary mansion.
The fox-spirit legend.
Panic hit all at once. He fumbled with the ignition, started the bus, and slammed the gas before he could even wipe the sweat off his forehead.
It was time for his inner downhill racer to come out.
Reiji sat in the bus, half afraid the driver would send them flying off the mountain road. He had to remind Lokoko and Gengar to catch the bus with Psychic if anything went wrong.
With two Elite Four-tier Pokémon on board, holding up one bus would not be hard.
Then he checked Lokoko's panel.
[Ninetales]
[Type: Fire]
[Gender: Female]
[Potential: 71.99%]
[Level: 71.98%]
[Ability: Flash Fire/68.13%][Hidden Ability: Drought/66.33%]
"As expected. Elite Four-tier Ninetales." Reiji looked over Lokoko's panel. "If not for its potential holding it back, after two hundred years it might have reached Champion tier already."
He had a feeling Lokoko had not started with potential this high.
A normal Ninetales had been trapped in one place for two centuries, growing slowly through nothing but time. Reaching this level was already impressive.
Its move list was even more interesting. Its Psychic move proficiencies were extremely high, far above its actual level, reaching quasi-Champion tier.
Then there were its special talents: telepathy and illusion creation. Those two alone made this Ninetales rare.
Maybe two hundred years of solitude had raised the upper limit of its mental power. Its psychic strength grew faster than its overall potential, and that was why it had awakened those special abilities.
That was similar to the Pokémon Reiji had raised through forced resource stacking. When a Pokémon took in too much energy too quickly and could not turn all of it into potential, the excess often shifted into moves or levels.
Lokoko had been stuck in the mansion, so it could only grow little by little over the years. With no good resources to eat, its potential rose slowly.
But mental strength was different. That came from meditation. A Ninetales meditating alone in the mountains for two hundred years had managed to push its mental power to quasi-Champion tier. No wonder its Psychic abilities were strong enough to create illusions and speak with humans.
Now that he had an Elite Four-tier Ninetales, should he make a move on Pryce's Piloswine too?
That Piloswine should also be Elite Four tier.
If he got it, he would have three Elite Four-tier Pokémon in hand. Traveling through Johto would be much safer. Once he returned to the Orange Archipelago, he could give Piloswine back to Pryce.
If he waited for Ash, Ash would have to finish the Orange Archipelago first, then travel to Johto before Piloswine could reunite with Pryce. Reiji could make that happen much earlier.
And it was worth doing.
This was an Elite Four-tier Pokémon.
With that decision made, Reiji watched the scenery rush by. Thanks to the driver's mad dash down the mountain, they finally reached Mahogany Town before evening. Pryce's Mahogany Gym was here.
If not for the delay on Mt. Mortar, they could have arrived around one or two in the afternoon instead of six or seven.
The driver had pushed himself all the way here in one breath. The moment he got out, his legs almost gave out.
Reiji did not bother the shaken passengers. He got off alone and walked into town, with Lokoko following behind him.
Officer Jenny arrived at the town entrance right after he left. A burst of frightened voices rose from the bus, and even from inside town, Reiji could hear the passengers talking about the fox-spirit legend.
"So this is the human world?" Lokoko looked around the town curiously. "It's different from two hundred years ago."
"Two hundred years is a long time. Of course it changed." Reiji thought of her master again and asked, "Do you want to check the library and find out why he never came back?"
"I…" Lokoko hesitated.
She had never asked the hikers for information about her master because she had wanted to keep a little hope alive.
But deep down, she knew the truth. Humans lived less than a hundred years. It had been two hundred years. Even if her master had not returned, he was long gone by now.
"It's been two hundred years," Reiji said, walking toward the library. "You deserve to know what happened."
Since she could not make the choice herself, he would help her make it.
By the time they reached the town library, it was almost closing. The librarian told them to come back tomorrow.
That was not a problem.
Lokoko hypnotized the librarian and had him open the door. Once they entered, she locked it behind them and released him from the hypnosis. Just like that, they had the library to themselves, with no one to disturb them.
Reiji headed straight for the local history section.
"Do you know your master's name?"
"I don't remember my master's name anymore," Lokoko said after a long pause. "There was a plaque in his room with one old family mark on it. That's all I remember."
"Then it was probably tied to his family, not his personal name," Reiji said. "And if Brock looks that much like him, there's a good chance they come from the same bloodline."
He started with the local history records, but found nothing useful.
That was strange.
He checked several more books and still came up empty. The only matching name he found belonged to a general from over a thousand years ago, which obviously had nothing to do with Lokoko's master.
In the end, he found the answer in a small family chronicle.
Two hundred years ago, the eldest son of a local family left home on a journey and never returned. Later, word came back that he had been killed by bandits on the road. Twenty years after his disappearance, the League wiped out that bandit group and recovered his belongings. They were returned to his family, and he was buried in the family cemetery.
"So they only found out twenty years later," Reiji murmured.
There was no way to know how much of the record was true. The person who wrote it had been dead for more than a century, and the later entries had been added by different descendants. Either way, it was a family record passed down over generations.
The last entry was from fifty years ago. After that, no one had kept it updated. Maybe that branch of the family had moved to Pewter City. The timing roughly matched Brock's grandfather's generation.
"Lokoko, I found it. Do you want to see?"
"Tell me," Lokoko said, still looking out at the town lights. "I only want the answer."
"Your master was the eldest son of a local family. He left home on a journey two hundred years ago and was killed by bandits. Twenty years later, the League found his belongings and returned them to his family. He was buried in the family cemetery."
Lokoko fell silent for a moment.
"Let's go."
She did not look back.
She knew where the family cemetery was. It was just too far from the mansion. In two hundred years, she had never once been able to visit.
"Okay."
Reiji put the book back, opened a library window, and had Pelipper carry him outside. After closing the window behind him, he took Lokoko to find a room in town.
That answered the question Lokoko had carried for two hundred years. What she did next was up to her.
Reiji still had his own work to do. Tomorrow, he needed to head into the mountains and look for Piloswine.
He remembered the anime well enough. Pryce's frozen Piloswine had been somewhere near the waterfall Pryce used for training, sealed inside a cave at the bottom of a large ravine. The entrance had been blocked, which was why no one had found it for so many years.
If he could find the ravine near Mahogany Town, then search the hollow spaces at the bottom, he should be able to find Piloswine.
The real problem was how to take it with him.
If Piloswine was Elite Four tier, forcing it was out of the question. If it was not Elite Four tier, then taking it would not mean much.
If it was Elite Four tier, he could try catching it with a Poké Ball. But if Pryce still had its original ball, that would not work. Then Reiji would have to convince it another way.
If it was not Elite Four tier, he might as well go straight to Pryce. A weaker Piloswine would only earn him a favor from the man. It would not help him in battle.
He would decide after seeing Piloswine's condition tomorrow.
After showering, Reiji came out and found Lokoko still staring at the lights beyond the window. People moved along the commercial street below, but she looked like a fox with too much on her mind.
"You probably haven't eaten anything different in a long time. Try this."
Reiji took out some Pokéblocks and released Ninetales. Then he brought out his own Pokémon in batches so they could eat dinner in the room.
"What is this?" Lokoko asked, watching Ninetales nudge the red cube with its paw. "It looks like a ripe apple."
"Pokémon food. You can try human food too, if you want. I've got rice porridge, rice balls, and instant noodles."
Reiji took out his own dinner. Nothing fancy, just enough to get by.
Ninetales sniffed his food, then decided the Pokéblock was more tempting. It ate one, and a warm Fire-type heat spread through its mouth.
"It's spicy," Lokoko translated.
"Fire-type Pokéblocks have Fire energy in them, so yeah, they've got a little kick. Try Water-type ones if you want something gentler."
Reiji took out Water-type Pokéblocks, then a few other types, letting Lokoko try them one by one.
"The Water-type ones taste good," Lokoko said as Ninetales chewed.
That ability was way too convenient.
"Can you teach other Pokémon to do that?" Reiji asked.
Ever since losing Darkrai, he had wanted a translator at his side. He would have Slowpoke later, but right now he still could not understand most of what his Pokémon were saying.
"I can't," Lokoko said regretfully. "I don't even really understand why I can do it."
She had accepted Reiji's food, but she could not help him in return. And he was still helping her search for her master's descendants.
"No big deal. Eat first. Sleep after."
Reiji waved it off. Once his Pokémon finished dinner, he recalled them, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep holding Umbreon.
Ninetales would have been perfect for warming the bed, but it was not his Ninetales. Those nine fluffy tails had to be amazing to hug.
Reiji stroked Umbreon's back, thought about Ninetales' tails, and slowly drifted off.
Lokoko did not disturb him. She watched his sleeping face for a while and murmured softly, "You really are like my master. Kind in the same way."
Then she sat by the bed and looked out the window.
Her real body was resting inside the Poké Ball, so the illusion did not need to sleep. She kept watching the night outside until she finally grew tired and disappeared.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]