Chapter 195
Early the next morning, Mike arrived at Eterna Gym and called Gardenia from outside.
She appeared at the entrance not long afterward, although the nervous way she kept pinching the hem of her clothes made it obvious that she had spent the night reconsidering every decision that had led her here.
"Ready, Gardenia?"
Mike smiled.
Gardenia swallowed.
"Do we really have to go?"
"Relax. I’ll be there. Nothing’s going to happen to you."
Their destination was the Old Chateau, a place Mike remembered from the games.
There really were ghosts inside, but as far as he knew, they had never shown any desire to hurt people.
If anything became endangered during this investigation, Mike suspected it would be some unfortunate Ghost-type Pokémon that chose the wrong person to prank.
Gardenia sighed in resignation.
"...Fine."
She took the lead.
...
They soon entered Eterna Forest and began heading deeper into the trees.
Mike watched Gardenia navigate the forest without any hesitation and gradually became curious.
"Aren’t you terrified of ghosts? Why do you know this route so well?"
Gardenia slowed down.
"Because I’m the Leader of Eterna Gym. There have been more and more ghost stories spreading around Eterna City lately, so I need to figure out what’s causing them."
She looked slightly embarrassed.
"I’ve come into the forest several times recently and made it as far as the house... I just never went inside."
"So that’s why."
Mike nodded in understanding.
No wonder Gardenia had been standing outside the Old Chateau when he encountered her in the games.
Before long, she led him to an old, sinister-looking building buried deep within the forest.
Gardenia stopped.
"This is it."
She looked toward the chateau, then nervously back at Mike.
"You’re seriously going inside?"
"No."
Gardenia’s face immediately lit up!
Mike smiled.
"We’re going inside."
Gardenia: "..."
"I can wait outside."
She offered that alternative immediately.
"We came all this way. Wouldn’t it be a waste not to go in?"
"No, no, absolutely not. Nothing would be wasted."
Gardenia shook her head so quickly it was almost a blur.
Mike studied her.
"You really won’t come?"
Gardenia nodded vigorously.
Mike sighed.
"All right. I’m not going to force you. I’ll go inside and find out what’s really behind the haunting rumors."
"Thank you so much!"
Gardenia bowed almost ninety degrees.
Then, summoning what little courage she had left, she clenched both of her fists.
"I’ll stay right outside! If anything happens, call my name and I’ll rush in to save you!"
Mike stared at her.
His eyelid twitched.
"You? Rush inside?"
Gardenia fell silent.
After a moment, she forced a smile.
"Then... if you run out, I’ll catch you?"
Mike laughed.
"Just don’t secretly run all the way back to Eterna City while I’m inside."
"I won’t!"
Gardenia thumped her chest.
"I’ll stay here until you come out."
Mike nodded and released the rest of his Pokémon.
He checked his main camera, then brought out the portable cameras that had recently been delivered.
One went onto Gengar’s forehead, while another was secured near Beedrill’s tail stinger so the two of them could record from completely different angles.
Once everything was ready, Mike looked down at Glameow.
"Want me to carry you?"
Glameow sat neatly on the ground and looked up at him with her crystal-blue eyes.
Then she shook her head.
She rose and, without any hesitation, walked toward the house first.
Mike glanced back at Gardenia.
"See? Glameow’s braver than you."
Gardenia: "..."
Glameow leaped into the air, her tail flashing with metallic light before smashing into the two trees obstructing the approach to the building.
Both trunks snapped under the force.
She calmly crossed over them.
Mike followed with his camera raised.
Gengar and Beedrill moved on either side of him, while Hatenna and Snivy followed close behind.
It was nearly noon, yet a strange gray mist hung around the Old Chateau.
If Mike had encountered somewhere like this in his previous world, the atmosphere alone probably would have made him uneasy.
But this was the Pokémon world.
Ghosts genuinely existed here, and some Ghost-type Pokémon were even said to form from lingering spirits or powerful emotions left behind by the dead.
Once ghosts were an established part of the ecosystem, they somehow became less terrifying.
Besides, if something had enough of an existence to count as a creature, there was always the possibility that somebody somewhere could stuff it into a Poké Ball.
That took some of the mystery out of it.
Standing before the Old Chateau, Mike raised his camera and slowly recorded the exterior.
The ancient building’s gray-blue walls were streaked with years of rain and mold.
Fog clouded the glass windows, weeds had overrun the courtyard, and dead leaves lay thick across the ground.
Wind slipped through rotting window frames and produced a long, mournful whistle.
Gengar suddenly raised his head.
Several pairs of crimson eyes had appeared behind a second-floor window.
They vanished almost instantly.
Gengar turned toward Mike and Mike gave him a small nod.
Gengar’s body faded into a spectral state and slipped directly through the outer wall.
Without making a sound, he began floating toward the second floor.
Mike stayed at the entrance.
He lifted his hand and politely knocked.
"Excuse me. Is anyone home?"
He even cleared his throat before asking.
Gardenia, watching from behind the outer fence, stared in disbelief.
’He... knocked?’
Was Mike seriously observing proper manners while entering a haunted house?
Gardenia had been about to tell him nobody lived there anymore.
Then the front door slowly opened by itself.
Gardenia: Σ(°∀°ﾉ)ﾉ
’Is it too late to go home?’
"Thank you. I’ll come in, then."
Mike politely addressed the open doorway before stepping inside.
The moment he crossed the threshold, cold, damp air carrying the smell of decay washed over him.
Nobody had properly entered or maintained the building in years.
Mike and his Pokémon disturbed layers of dust with every step, and the particles drifted visibly through shafts of midday sunlight leaking in from outside.
The entrance hall opened before them.
Two symmetrical wooden staircases curved toward the second floor, while the central doorway led into a broad dining room, with the kitchen situated off to one side.
Inside the dining room, an enormous wooden table stretched almost from one end of the room to the other.
Chairs lay overturned at odd angles, dust coated every surface, and so little light penetrated the windows that the entire room remained gloomy despite the hour.
Outside, Gardenia shivered as she watched Mike disappear into the Old Chateau.
She immediately released several of her Pokémon, found herself a stone near the entrance, and sat down to wait.
...
Mike slowly panned the camera around the dining room.
He had heard stories that cameras could sometimes capture ghosts invisible to the naked eye.
He had no idea whether that was actually true, so there was only one way to find out.
If he remembered correctly, the Old Chateau was associated with two human apparitions—a little girl and an elderly butler.
As Mike moved through the room, he noticed an unsettling stone statue standing in one corner.
The moment he looked at it, an unpleasant prickling sensation crept across his scalp.
No matter where he moved, he had the distinct impression that the statue’s gaze followed him.
Mike stopped in front of the statue and stared at it, unable to shake the unsettling impression that it was staring right back at him.
Before the atmosphere could become any more unnerving, Hatenna happily bounced over, her body flaring with light and forcing whatever had been hiding inside the statue to flee with a shriek.
A dark shape shot out and vanished into the room before Mike could get a proper look at it.
"Haten~"
[All done~]
Hatenna returned to Mike and looked up at him proudly.
Mike quietly let out the breath he had been holding, smiled, and rubbed her head.
"Good work, Hatenna. Thanks."
"Haten~"
"So something really was possessing it." Mike looked back at the now completely ordinary statue and shook his head.
Whatever had escaped was definitely a Pokémon, perhaps a Gastly, but it had moved too quickly for him to tell; even his camera had captured little more than a black blur vanishing from the statue.
Mike resumed filming, only for another figure to suddenly appear in the camera frame.
Every hair on his body stood on end as an elderly man in an old-fashioned butler’s uniform materialized in front of him, his hair completely white and his wrinkled face eerily expressionless.
Knowing ghosts existed was one thing, but having a dead butler suddenly appear directly in front of his camera was something else entirely!
And Mike could feel his scalp prickling despite everything he had told himself earlier.
Snivy immediately wrapped a Vine Whip around Mike’s waist while keeping a wary eye on the apparition.
Hatenna merely stared at the ghost with open curiosity, while Glameow crouched low with every strand of fur standing on end and a warning growl rumbling from her throat.
Beedrill’s expression never changed, he simply raised both of his stingers and aimed them at the ghost.
The old butler looked at Mike for a moment, then turned around, walked directly through the wall, and disappeared.
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