"Why do you have to keep chasing me?!" Dylan shouted at the Misdreavus, his face full of frustration.
"Misdreavus~"
The Misdreavus took a deep breath, its red gem glowing faintly on its chest.
This scent! This human's fear was absolutely delicious!
It hadn't even tried very hard to scare him, yet it was already absorbing such high-quality fear.
If it actually put in some effort, wouldn't it be able to feast on even more delicious fear?
Thinking this, the Misdreavus began gathering a dazzling, multicolored beam of light in its red gem.
"Again with this move?"
Dylan was all too familiar with this attack—it was the one that had made him hallucinate earlier.
"I won't be defeated by the same move twice!"
He suddenly yelled loudly, startling the Misdreavus, and then turned and sprinted toward the castle.
By the time the Misdreavus realized what had happened, Dylan was already far away.
"Misdreavus!"
The Misdreavus puffed out its cheeks, turning into an angry little puffball.
How annoying! Normally, it was the one scaring others, but this time, it had actually been startled by a mere human. It had to get its revenge!
Fuming, it chased after Dylan.
"Guys, help me!" Dylan screamed for backup.
"Huh? Did I just hear someone shouting for help?"
A player near the window spoke up.
"You must be hearing things. It's the middle of the night, don't scare me like that."
Another player said they hadn't heard anything.
"HELP ME!!"
"No, seriously, someone's shouting for help! It sounds like Wind!"
The player looked out the window.
"Holy crap! It really is Wind! He's being chased by that Misdreavus!"
"Seriously? Oh damn, you're right. That Misdreavus has some nerve, coming right to our doorstep."
"What are we waiting for? Let's go help him!"
The other players rushed to assist.
The ever-loyal ChickenStewMushroom was the first to charge out, ordering his Munchlax to attack the Misdreavus.
"Munchlax, Tackle it head-on!"
"Munch!"
The Munchlax charged fiercely toward the Misdreavus, but instead of hitting it, the Munchlax passed right through.
"Munch?"
The Munchlax wobbled, barely keeping its balance, and scratched its head in confusion. What just happened?
ChickenStewMushroom was stunned too. He didn't understand why Munchlax's attack couldn't land.
Could it be that Ghost-type Pokémon were literally like ghosts, immune to physical moves? That was way too unfair!
"It probably just dodged Tackle. Try another move!"
"Oddish, use Absorb!"
Ethan Carter quickly figured it out and commanded his Oddish to attack.
Oddish fired a green beam, but the Misdreavus didn't take it head-on this time—it twisted away to dodge.
"See? Other moves can hit it. Otherwise, it wouldn't have dodged. Everyone, try using moves with type energy!" Ethan reminded them.
"Got it! Spinarak, use Poison Sting!"
"Skiploom, you use Absorb too!"
"Bellsprout, Vine Whip!"
After Ethan's reminder, the other players also ordered their Pokémon to use moves with type energy.
But some players' Pokémon were still low-level and hadn't learned any type-based moves yet, so they could only watch from the sidelines.
Even the attacks from Ethan and the others couldn't land on the nimble Misdreavus, which dodged every single one.
"Misdreavus~" (≧≦)
The Misdreavus was having a blast, treating the players' attacks like a game of tag.
"This isn't working. We can't hit it at all."
"This thing is just toying with us!"
"I give up. No point wasting energy."
Seeing their attacks fail, the players stopped trying.
"Misdreavus?"
The Misdreavus looked at them curiously, as if asking why they'd stopped attacking.
If you're not attacking, then it's my turn!
It gathered another eerie beam of light and chased after Dylan again.
"Goddammit, why me again?! Out of all these people, you're only targeting me?! You piece of &#@!"
Dylan sprinted back toward the castle, cursing up a storm.
He was on the verge of a breakdown. He had no idea what he'd done to offend this Misdreavus so much that it had such a "grudge" against him.
"Gastly, use Lick!"
Just as the Misdreavus was about to catch Dylan, Gastly appeared in front of him and stretched out its tongue to lick the Misdreavus.
The Misdreavus immediately stopped chasing, looking at Gastly in confusion.
Big bro, why are you attacking me?
Dylan was so touched by Gastly's intervention that he nearly cried. For the first time, he thought that big black ball was actually kind of adorable!
"Gastly, try talking to the Misdreavus yourself."
Leon leaned out from a third-floor window of the castle.
He had been focused on researching Beast Control Devices when he suddenly heard shouts for help outside.
Looking out, he saw Dylan being chased by the Misdreavus. He was about to step in when the other players rushed out to fight it.
Leon figured this was a good chance for the players to gain experience battling Ghost-types, so he held back.
Once the players lost and the Misdreavus was about to catch Dylan, he finally sent out Gastly to see if he could recruit the Misdreavus too.
"Gastly!"
After blocking the Misdreavus, Gastly started talking to it.
"Misdreavus?"
"Gastly Gastly!"
"Misdreavus Misdreavus!"
"..."
"Ahem, Roto, could you translate for me?"
While Leon could generally guess what Pokémon were saying based on their cries and gestures, rapid back-and-forth conversations like this were beyond him.
"Understood. The Misdreavus asked Gastly why it attacked, asking if it had betrayed them. Gastly replied that it had already been caught by you, Leon, and was now your ally, so of course it would follow your commands..."
"Misdreavus said: And here I was coming to save you, but you went and became a human's lackey."
"Gastly responded: Don't act like I don't know you, kid. You weren't here to save me—you just wanted to feed on this human's fear. Misdreavus fell silent."
Oh? So it admitted it? That made things interesting.
Leon glanced at the trembling Dylan, then called Gastly over and whispered a few words to it.
Gastly nodded and returned to the Misdreavus.
"Gastly Gastly!"
"Gastly says: Our boss has a proposal. Since you like feeding on that human's fear so much, why not just become his partner? That way, you can enjoy delicious fear every day, and we can keep hanging out together."
The Rotom Drone faithfully translated.
The Misdreavus considered Gastly's words and found them very reasonable.
If it became that human's partner, not only could it keep playing with Gastly, but also...
The Misdreavus sneakily glanced at Dylan, who had already retreated into the crowd, and nearly drooled at the thought.
It could feast on delicious fear every single day!
Imagining this future, the Misdreavus agreed to become Dylan's partner.
Seeing the Misdreavus nod, Leon called out to Dylan:
"Wind, congratulations! This Misdreavus is willing to become your partner."
"What? You... you're not joking, are you?"
Dylan couldn't believe it. This Misdreavus had been hunting him all night—why would it suddenly agree to be his partner?
"No joke. Chasing you was just its way of showing affection. It really likes the fear you give off."
Hearing this, and recalling Leon's earlier explanation about Misdreavus, Dylan finally understood why it had been chasing him nonstop.
It just wanted to feed on his fear? He could have said so earlier! Fear was something Dylan had in spades!
"So... does this mean I've caught the Misdreavus?"
"Of course. Can't you see it's already behind you?"
Behind him? Dylan turned around and saw the Misdreavus giggling mischievously right behind him.
"Holy crap! You scared me!"
"Misdreavus~"
Just a little scare had produced so much fear. The Misdreavus felt it had made the right choice and happily circled around Dylan.
Dylan was thrilled too. Even though he'd been scared half to death all night, it had turned out to be a blessing in disguise, he'd caught a strong and adorable Pokémon.
Finally, he had a Pokémon of his own!
"Hahahaha, I caught a Misdreavus!"
"Hey hey! Stop chewing on my hair..."