Chapter 198
Mike eventually woke with a dull ache at the back of his head.
He slowly sat up and found all of his Pokémon gathered around him.
"What... happened to me?"
Snivy didn’t answer and simply looked toward Gengar, who sat on the floor with his head lowered.
As Mike’s memory gradually returned, he stared at him.
"So... Gengar, you scared me unconscious?"
"Gar—"
[I didn’t know you were that easy to scare...]
Mike fell silent for a moment, then rubbed his temples.
"There’s something else I don’t understand. How were you behind me while your eyes were underneath my feet?"
Gengar immediately stuck his fingers into one of his eye socket and pulled the eyeball out.
Mike stared.
"Put that back!"
This was also the first time Mike had discovered that Gengar could apparently remove his own eyes whenever he wanted.
He closed his own eyes instead.
There were some things in life a person simply didn’t need to watch.
Mike then looked toward Gardenia, who was still unconscious nearby.
"How did she get in here, and why did she faint?"
Gengar immediately started removing his eyeball again.
"Put it back!"
Mike stopped him before the demonstration could continue.
"So you scared her too?"
Gengar nodded.
"Aren’t you supposed to be filming?"
"Gar—"
[I thought you guys were doing something fun, so I came over.]
Mike stared at him.
"...And the ketchup was your idea?"
Gengar nodded again.
Mike sighed.
"Fine. I understand."
Apparently satisfied that the matter was settled, Gengar floated over and gave Mike’s face an affectionate lick before leaving the room to continue filming the Ghost-type Pokémon.
Gardenia woke a little later. She sat up slowly and looked toward Mike with obvious confusion.
"What... happened? I heard you screaming, so I ran inside, and then I blacked out."
Looking at Gardenia, Mike suddenly felt extremely guilty.
She was terrified of Ghost-types, yet the moment she thought he was in danger, she had forced herself into the Old Chateau to save him, only to get scared unconscious by Gengar for her trouble.
𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
He would definitely have to treat her better during the rest of his stay in Eterna City.
"It’s fine. We just got scared and passed out."
Mike deliberately skipped most of the details.
Gardenia frowned.
"So that scream earlier was because you were trying to prank Rotom?"
Mike scratched his head awkwardly.
"Yeah."
"Then why were you unconscious when I came in?"
Mike fell silent.
Glameow looked at him.
Mike blinked once before answering with complete seriousness, "That was part of the plan. I needed Rotom to lower its guard."
Glameow’s expression immediately became disgusted.
Gardenia tilted her head.
"Huh? Really?"
"Absolutely."
Mike nodded solemnly enough that Gardenia almost believed him, although something about the explanation still felt deeply suspicious.
"Can we... leave now?"
Her voice became noticeably quieter as she looked around the gloomy room.
Mike nodded, got to his feet, and extended a hand to pull her up.
"Yeah. Let’s go."
The moment Gardenia stepped outside the Old Chateau, she pressed both hands against her chest and took a long breath.
"That was terrifying... I can’t believe I actually went inside."
Snivy carried the still-unconscious Rotom out with a Vine Whip and placed it on the grass.
In its normal form, Rotom’s body was primarily composed of plasma, with an orange core surrounded by translucent blue electrical energy that could solidify into arm-like appendages.
Mike looked down at it.
"Stop pretending. I know you woke up ages ago."
Rotom didn’t move.
Mike waited.
Still nothing.
"Huh. Maybe it really hasn’t woken up."
He sighed regretfully.
"Could we have scared it to death? Oh well. We should at least give it a proper burial. Snivy, let’s dig a hole."
Rotom’s eyes immediately flew open.
The instant it realized that every human and Pokémon present was staring directly at it—and that Mike wasn’t even holding a shovel—it went completely silent.
Rotom: "..."
"ROTO!"
[You lied!]
Mike looked offended.
"How did I lie?"
Rotom: "???"
"ROTO?!"
[You’re shameless!]
Mike smiled brightly.
"Rotom, I know you like playing pranks. How about leaving this place with me? Next time, I’ll let you and Gengar team up and prank someone together."
Rotom stared at the human who had frightened it unconscious.
It loved playing tricks on others, but this was the first time it had ever been completely turned around and scared by a human, which made Mike far more interesting than anyone it had met in a long time.
"Roto?"
[Leave here?]
"Yeah. Go see other places, meet more Pokémon, and find even more Pokémon to prank."
Mike waggled his eyebrows.
Rotom hesitated briefly before floating over and nodding.
Mike immediately took out a Poké Ball, but Rotom shook its head and drifted back.
Electricity began crackling across its plasma body.
"ROTO!"
[Battle me!]
Mike raised an eyebrow.
"You want to test whether I’m strong enough?"
Rotom nodded.
Mike smiled.
"Sure. Big Sis Snivy, I’m counting on you."
Snivy stepped forward without hesitation, while Gardenia quickly moved aside and stared at the two of them in disbelief.
A few minutes ago Mike and Rotom had been trying to scare each other unconscious, yet somehow they had now transitioned into a perfectly normal capture battle.
Rotom released a powerful Thunderbolt toward Snivy, but she swung herself aside with her Vine Whips and landed gracefully on a tree branch.
Without wasting a movement, she sent another Vine Whip cracking toward Rotom.
The whip struck cleanly.
Rotom slammed into the ground and stopped moving.
Snivy: "???"
Mike: "???"
Gardenia: "???"
Mike stared for several seconds.
"That’s... it?"
He had expected a difficult battle, yet Snivy had apparently knocked Rotom out with a single Vine Whip.
Mike enlarged the Poké Ball and threw it.
The ball struck Rotom, converted it into red light, and dropped onto the grass before rocking twice and giving a clear click.
Capture successful.
Snivy retrieved the Poké Ball with a Vine Whip and passed it to Mike.
Mike accepted it, immediately raised it into the air, and struck an embarrassingly dramatic pose.
"Rotom—caught!"
Gengar wasn’t there to cooperate this time, so Hatenna cheerfully filled the role.
"Haten~!"
Mike released Rotom again and gave it some bread.
Rotom took one bite and immediately began tearing up.
"Roto..."
[S-So good, Roto...]
Looking at his newly caught Rotom, Mike remembered the Pokédex description saying that it had once lived with Charon of Team Galactic.
That connection might prove useful if he ever encountered Team Galactic in the future.
Then he remembered Rotom’s ability to possess appliances and lifted his camera.
"Rotom, can you possess this?"
Rotom stared at him as though he were an idiot.
"Roto?"
[Are you stupid, or do you think I am? Is that camera an appliance?]
Mike fell silent.
"Fine. What about my phone?"
He pulled out his Phone.
Rotom nodded, transformed into a stream of electricity, and entered the device.
The phone remained dark in Mike’s palm for several seconds before the screen suddenly lit up by itself.
Rotom’s face flashed across the display, and the entire phone gently floated into the air.
"Ding! Possession successful. Systems normal, Roto! Hello! Please address me as your Rotom Phone, Roto!"
After entering the phone, Rotom had spent a little time learning how its functions worked and quickly figured out how to speak through the built-in speakers.
Gardenia pointed at the floating device in shock.
"It... it can talk?!"
Mike, on the other hand, looked extremely satisfied.
"Now that’s more like it. What kind of Rotom Phone doesn’t have a Rotom inside?"
He looked toward the hovering phone.
"So? Comfortable?"
"Much better than that television, Roto! This is the most comfortable machine I’ve ever lived in, Roto!"
"Then you can stay in there from now on. Help me with navigation and directions. If you feel like battling, you can fight; if you don’t, that’s fine too."
"No problem, Roto! Leave navigation to me!"
The Rotom Phone happily circled Mike several times while Snivy and the others watched it with varying degrees of interest.
Glameow stared at the floating phone in amazement.
’It can actually live inside a phone. That’s incredible...’
Snivy quietly evaluated Rotom. ’It would be better if it were stronger.’
Beedrill had only one thought.
’Noisy.’
Hatenna, meanwhile, simply watched with sparkling curiosity. ’Wow...’
Mike glanced back toward the Old Chateau.
They had explored almost everything worth seeing, he had obtained plenty of footage, and Rotom had been captured as well, so there was little reason to stay any longer.
He clapped his hands.
"All right. Everything’s settled. Let’s head back."
"Yes!"
Gardenia cheered with heartfelt relief.
Mike, Gardenia, and the others finally began leaving the Old Chateau behind.
Gengar, however, remained inside.
Still wearing the portable camera on his forehead, he had completely blended into the group of Ghost-type Pokémon and was continuing his great filming mission from within their ranks!