Chapter 275: The Grass Gym Leader Afraid of Ghosts
After spending the night in the abandoned house, Ryan and Lillie looked at Rotom, still huddled in the corner, and shook their heads helplessly the next morning. It seemed that Lillie's words from the night before had deeply hurt it.
Lillie walked over, squatted down, and looked at the dejected Rotom, saying, "What I said yesterday was a bit too much, Rotom. Are you alright?"
Rotom turned its head like a robot, looking at Lillie with a resentful expression, practically screaming "I'm so hurt!" It weakly made a few sounds at Lillie, meaning, "I'm just a failed Rotom, don't bother me, let me reflect on my Pokémon life."
Looking at the somewhat dejected Rotom, Ryan said calmly, "Want to come along, Rotom? I've noticed you've been all alone here for quite a while, haven't you? Going on a journey with a trainer, or finding your companions, wouldn't that be much better than being all alone here?"
Rotom instantly perked up, rapidly flying up and down in the air, emitting a series of beeping sounds. It was expressing its excitement, and also telling Ryan something.
"Hmm. So, you want to say goodbye to a girl? That girl is terrified of ghosts, but she often comes here to practice her courage, and you often scare her, right? If you're leaving, you still need to say goodbye to her."
After listening to Rotom's story, Ryan smiled slightly. He liked this kind of Pokémon with its own emotions. Lillie was also curious about the girl Rotom mentioned. Although Rotom's farewell wasn't on their itinerary, Ryan and Lillie didn't mind letting Rotom say goodbye.
But for some reason, Ryan had a feeling that if Rotom were to say goodbye, something would definitely happen that it would regret. Was it just his imagination? Ryan stroked his chin, thinking to himself. Seeing Rotom's excited expression, he didn't want to discourage it. Ryan took out a tablet from his backpack and said, "Come in here first. If you can keep up with our pace, I'll officially capture you."
Rotom circled twice in the air and then dove directly into the tablet in Ryan's hand. The tablet automatically lit up, and Rotom's image appeared on it. Then the tablet spoke, "I'm in this machine now. I can speak through the speaker. Thank you for taking me away. Before I leave, I still want to say goodbye to that girl. She's a very skilled Grass-type Pokémon trainer. She looks something like this."
Rotom activated the drawing function on the tablet and used it to sketch. Soon, the image of a short-haired girl appeared on the tablet.
Lillie looked at the girl's image, tilted her head, thought for a moment, and said, "Isn't this Gardenia, the Gym Leader of Eterna City? She's actually afraid of ghosts?"
With a snap, Ryan turned off his tablet and said, "We don't need to mock what others are afraid of. Let's go find Gardenia first."
Lillie rolled her eyes at Ryan and said, "Was that mockery? I was just curious. I remember Gardenia is a tomboy who's fearless. I'm curious why she's afraid of ghosts. Eterna City isn't far from here; it won't take too long to get to the Eterna Gym."
Ryan and Lillie freshened up, then headed to Eterna City with Rotom.
Inside the Eterna City Gym, Gardenia always felt uneasy. Even during the gym battle with the trainer earlier, she hadn't performed well, losing to the challenger's Infernape in succession. She figured her reputation was taking a hit now.
"Sigh." Sitting in her chair, Gardenia couldn't help but slump onto the table, burying her face in her arms. The unease made her feel listless, and she could only lie there, content to be unmotivated.
"Excuse me, is Gardenia, the Gym Leader of Eterna Gym, here?"
A voice echoed in the air. Gardenia lifted herself from the table, slapping her cheeks hard to clear her head and suppress her anxiety. After calming herself, she stood up and quickly ran into the gym.
"I'm Gym Leader Gardenia. Who's challenging me...? Hmm, are you Ryan?"
Gardenia pushed open the back door of the gym and entered, seeing a man and a woman. She was about to ask who the challenger was when she suddenly realized she seemed to recognize the man. It was someone the League had sent photos of to gym leaders across the country some time ago, making them aware of him.
Of course, Gardenia knew Ryan; after all, she occasionally followed major news. Curious that the leader of the Mercenary Guild would come to her gym, Gardenia still showed Ryan respect: "You're Ryan, right? What brings the guild leader of the Mercenary Guild to my gym? Or are you going to challenge the Sinnoh League?"
Ryan shook his head and said, "No, my fiancée Lillie and I are here in Sinnoh for tourism. We just stayed overnight in that abandoned house in Eterna Forest. A little guy was planning to come with us, but he still cares about you and wanted to say goodbye."
When she heard Ryan say that they had stayed in that house overnight, Gardenia already felt uneasy. Her intuition kept urging her to leave immediately. She was almost crying inside: Sure enough, the reason she had felt uneasy all morning was this!
But it was too late. Ryan had already taken out his tablet and pointed it at Gardenia. Just as Gardenia was in a state of utter despair, the tablet suddenly activated itself, and Rotom's tiny figure appeared on it: "Hi, Gardenia. I am..."
"Ah!!! A Ghost Pokémon!!! Don't come any closer!!!"
Gardenia retreated in terror, as if the tablet in Ryan's hands was some kind of monstrous beast. Terrified, Gardenia couldn't control her movements and stumbled, landing hard on her bottom. The pain temporarily dispelled her fear of Rotom's appearance. Gardenia stood up sheepishly, dusted herself off, and said, "Sorry, I'm completely helpless against Ghost-type Pokémon. My childhood trauma was too severe, which makes me very resistant to Ghost-type Pokémon now."
Rotom, who had only recovered from Lillie's rejection that morning, was now completely dejected again, a Pokémon hiding in the tablet, sulking: What did it do to deserve this? Why does everyone dislike it so much?!
(End of Chapter)
Chapter 276: Modifying Memories
After temporarily turning off the tablet, Ryan and Lillie exchanged a glance: Gardenia's current situation was somewhat similar to Lillie's back then. She was extremely resistant to Ghost-type Pokémon, afraid to approach them... No, Gardenia's situation was even worse; she overreacted even to the sight of Ghost-type Pokémon.
"Gardenia, don't you like Grass-type Pokémon? So what if it's a Grass-Ghost type Pokémon, like Trevenant, Gourgeist..." Lillie said.
"Please stop talking," Gardenia interrupted Lillie. "I'm most afraid of Pokémon with these two type combinations. Should I like them or be afraid? It's so frustrating."
Seeing Gardenia's almost tearful expression, Ryan pulled Lillie back at the right moment, shaking his head to stop her from saying anything more. Then, Ryan walked up to Gardenia. An invisible Psychic aura emanated from his mind. He gently touched Gardenia's forehead with his finger, and a gentle stream of Psychic power entered Gardenia's consciousness, gradually soothing her fear.
"Thank you." The now-calm Gardenia expressed her gratitude to Ryan.
Seeing Gardenia still clutching her chest, Ryan and Lillie knew that Gardenia was in a very bad mood. If she couldn't overcome that childhood trauma, her strength would be stagnant. Her inability to remain calm in the face of Ghost-type Pokémon was a serious problem; if her opponents knew, her battles would be a complete disaster.
"Do you need me to take a look? If possible, I can use my Psychic to seal that memory away. That way, Gardenia won't be afraid of Ghost-type Pokémon anymore."
Ryan's calm words startled Gardenia from her reverie. Looking into Ryan's serious eyes, after a long while, Gardenia said somewhat hesitantly, "Can I trust you?"
Lillie walked over and hugged Gardenia tightly. In Gardenia, she saw her former self—afraid of Pokémon touch. Although she had an immense love for Pokémon, that barrier had always stood in her way, impossible for her to overcome. Lillie gently comforted Gardenia, "It's alright, trust Ryan. I used to be like you, Gardenia. I couldn't touch any Pokémon. Even though I loved them so much, I just couldn't touch them. That was the saddest period of my life. I recovered with the help of Ryan and Sabrina, and Ryan now has Psychic powers too, and his strength is no less than Sabrina's. He can definitely help you."
Looking at Lillie, Gardenia felt a sense of shared suffering and chose to believe her. Then, looking at Ryan, she said earnestly, "Ryan, I hope you can help me. I want to get out of here; I don't want to stay stuck in the same place anymore."
A finger touched Gardenia's forehead, and a vast, gentle stream of Psychic power flowed from Ryan's finger into Gardenia's mind.
"Don't resist my Psychic. I will slowly search through your memories. After finding that memory, I will try my best to modify it. If it's too difficult to modify, I will seal those fragments directly, thus completely eliminating your future troubles."
Ryan's voice entered Gardenia's ears, making her feel a little more at ease. Closing her eyes, Gardenia gradually relaxed her mind, and memory images were transmitted to Ryan's consciousness. Ryan didn't look through them unnecessarily, but started directly from Gardenia's childhood memories.
The memory images flashed before Ryan's eyes like a film reel, and soon he discovered why Gardenia was afraid of Ghost-type Pokémon.
In Gardenia's childhood memories, she ran alone to a dilapidated house. Ryan sighed at Gardenia's reckless behavior, noting that Gardenia's tomboyish personality was evident even from a young age. As expected, the young Gardenia was pranked by Ghost-type Pokémon as soon as she entered the house. However, those Ghost-type Pokémon didn't have any bad intentions; they were just playing pranks. Nevertheless, they scared the young Gardenia half to death, leaving a deep psychological scar on her.
After understanding the whole story, Ryan knew how to modify it. Given Gardenia's carefree personality, the normal course of events would have been for her to either challenge those Ghost-type Pokémon or play together with them. He used his Psychic to modify this part of the memory, but only then did Ryan realize that the Psychic power consumed by this process was simply enormous.
He barely managed to modify a portion of the memory; although he didn't revert it all, he only eliminated Gardenia's fear of Ghost-type Pokémon. The other scenes remained unchanged. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but he was completely exhausted and couldn't continue.
Panting, he released his finger from Gardenia's forehead, rubbing his temples with a headache. He had underestimated the cost of modifying memories. When Sabrina helped Lillie, she only broke the seal on the memory, while Ryan directly modified Gardenia's fear of Ghost-type Pokémon; the consumption of the two was on completely different levels. Ryan, doing this for the first time, suffered a few setbacks, but the results were still quite good. At least Gardenia wouldn't be afraid of Ghost-type Pokémon anymore, which would be a great help for her future growth.
Gardenia opened her eyes and asked in confusion, "Is that all?"
"What do you think?" Ryan said, exhausted.
"I thought I'd experience some kind of severe headache, like being pricked all over with needles or something. Why don't I feel anything? You're not kidding me, are you?" Gardenia looked herself up and down, stretched her arms and kicked her legs, but it seemed like nothing had changed.
Taking out his tablet, Ryan was too lazy to say anything to Gardenia, and directly opened the tablet, revealing Rotom. When Gardenia saw Rotom, she subconsciously took a step back, but immediately realized: she didn't seem to be afraid of Ghost-type Pokémon anymore!
Gardenia approached the tablet, looked at Rotom, who was turned away and appeared utterly dejected, and smiled, saying, "Hello, Rotom. I'm Gardenia. You're the ghost from that abandoned house in Eterna Forest, right?"
Hearing Gardenia's words, Rotom turned around. Seeing Gardenia so close on the screen, it excitedly flew off the tablet and circled Gardenia, seemingly having recovered from its dejection.
Gardenia watched Rotom circling, then lowered her head in thought. After a while, she looked up earnestly at Ryan and Lillie, saying, "Ryan, Lillie, I'd like to ask you to leave Rotom here. I want to take good care of it, is that alright?"
Ryan and Lillie exchanged a smile and nodded.
(End of Chapter)
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