[Ooooooo! Mission triggered: Become friends with the Gastly Trio and help them break free from their loneliness and boredom!]
Kazuki's face froze as the new mission notification popped up.
So the system had decided to match the spooky environment by tweaking the mission notification tone, huh?
Fine, fine, so that's how you wanna play it, System! I already activated my Aura Power!
Even my Giant Dragonite is ready to be summoned!
And I've got Talisman ready to burn!
And now you tell me all this was just for a creepy notification tone?
Alright then, let me take a look at the mission reward—
If it's just some candies to string me along, I swear, I'll teach you some new curse words.
[Mission Reward: Psychic Body ———— Grants the Psychic Body constitution, enabling the user to train in Extra-Dimensional Force!]
After reading the reward, Kazuki took a deep breath and nodded in satisfaction. Not bad, guess you're smarter than you look, System!
A Psychic Body! That means if I complete this mission, I'll be carrying two types of special powers!
If I train seriously afterwards, maybe I really could become a human-shaped Pokémon someday.
Who knows—maybe one day, I'll be punching Mewtwo and kicking Arceus in the face!
…Okay, maybe that's getting ahead of myself. I haven't even made it to Lavender Town yet!
Regaining his composure and with a fresh mission to push him forward, the eerie effects of the environment on Kazuki faded away.
Truthfully, with both the Old Gastly and the Ancient Dragonite as his backup, Kazuki had nothing to be nervous about.
That weird emotional state he'd just experienced was likely caused by the sheer number of Ghost-type Pokémon surrounding Lavender Town, creating a kind of emotional pressure field that subtly affected anyone who entered.
But thanks to his Hero's Soul Aura, Kazuki was mostly unaffected. The moment he got a little excited from the mission trigger, the negativity evaporated.
After walking the forest path on the town's outskirts and entering the village, the place didn't seem nearly as scary as the rumors suggested. There were people around, and it didn't feel that haunted.
Since Ghost-types are more active at night, Kazuki first took Pikachu to grab some food while casually gathering intel on where the Gastly Trio usually appeared.
When he first entered town, Kazuki tried using his Aura Power to probe around. Responses came flooding in from every dark corner—
There were simply too many "inhabitants" for him to pinpoint exactly where the trio were.
Night fell. After a solid rest, Kazuki and Pikachu made their way to the Pokémon Tower, the place where the Gastly Trio was known to hang out.
Standing before the Pokémon Tower, Pikachu began to tremble with fear again.
Which was understandable—if a few Ghost-types couldn't even create a spooky atmosphere, then how low would their potential have to be?
"Hey, Pikachu, maybe you can go in and give them a little ghostly performance from the net, scare 'em back?"
"Pika~ Pika~"
Pikachu shook his head, buried deep in Kazuki's backpack. He'd clearly entered a fearful mental state.
So much for Kazuki's plan to have Pikachu break the ice with the trio. It was temporarily off the table.
With no other choice, Kazuki entered the Pokémon Tower alone, planning to meet the Trio directly.
The moment he pushed open the door, a bone-chilling wind blew out from within.
Although the trio had no real intention to harm anyone—they just wanted someone to play with and ease their loneliness—
The setting, the sudden noises, the flickering lights… yeah, it could definitely scare someone to death!
But fear stems from the unknown.
Kazuki already knew the script and stayed unnervingly calm.
Just then, his Aura Power activated passively. He couldn't see them, but he could sense something drifting toward him.
Cackling laughter!
Sure enough, three seconds later, Gastly and Haunter popped up in front of Kazuki, pulling grotesque faces.
"Pikachuuu!!"
Pikachu screamed, diving fully into Kazuki's backpack.
Kazuki, on the other hand, remained calm as ever.
Gastly and Haunter exchanged confused glances—then immediately lost interest.
In the next instant, Gengar burst out from the floor, eyes bulging, tongue hanging out.
Kazuki simply exhaled softly.
Seeing that their scare tactics weren't working, the trio looked visibly disappointed, their smoky bodies fading into the air before Kazuki.
"Hey, Gastly! Wait—don't go yet!"
Kazuki hadn't even begun his plan yet, and the trio had already vanished.
He wanted to react—but couldn't decide whether to act scared or amused.
After all, he knew the script, had Aura Power, and knew the trio meant no harm.
It was like getting spooked by a clown walking toward you in broad daylight on a busy street.
As for being funny… it felt like watching a bad remake of a skit you've already seen a thousand times.
Not exactly laugh-out-loud material.
In fact, any real reaction would've been forced.
Still, Kazuki couldn't give up now—the Psychic Body reward depended on befriending them. He needed to keep trying.
He stood still, thinking for a moment, and recalled the Gastly from Maiden's Peak.
Without hesitation, he pulled out a piece of Paper from his Pokémon Inventory and lit it.
As the flame consumed the charm completely, a plume of black smoke rose up and drifted in the air—then floated back down into Kazuki's hand.
Moments later, Old Gastly floated out of the black smoke.
"Ahaha! Young master, long time no see!"
The Old Gastly looked delighted—it knew that when Kazuki summoned him, it meant money.
"It hasn't even been a month! Has it really been that long?" Kazuki smiled as they headed up to the second floor.
"A day without earning money feels like a year to me!"
"So, what do you need from me this time?"
Old Gastly hovered around before drifting back beside him.
"There are three little guys in this building—do you want me to educate them?"
"Oh? So you can sense them too?" Kazuki raised an eyebrow.
"I don't have your fancy Aura Power."
"It's just… since they're of the same evolutionary line as me, I can feel a bit of that shared spiritual frequency!"
"I see." Kazuki nodded, continuing upstairs toward the room where he'd sensed the trio.
"I don't need you to educate them—just cheer them up with your talents so I can make friends with them."
"What!"
"You want me to cheer them up?" Old Gastly exclaimed in disbelief.
"That's… that's a serious hit to my dignity!"
He immediately started using the self-important third person.
"If it's too much, you can just leave." Kazuki casually pulled out a stack of cash. "I do have backup plans."
The moment Old Gastly saw the cash, his eyes turned into glowing dollar signs.
"Ah! No problem, no problem!"
"I love children!"
"Cheering them up is easy!"
He lunged for the cash, but Kazuki sidestepped and pocketed it. "Job first, payment later."
Seeing that Gastly seemed slightly embarrassed about the job, Kazuki didn't pay him upfront this time.
"Cough, cough~ Come on, don't you trust me?"
"Alright then! Watch and be amazed!"
They reached the top floor, only to be blocked by a solid wall.
"Huh? It's just a wall? But I'm sure they're right behind it!"
"Hahaha! Just a basic haunted illusion!"
Old Gastly proudly showed off, exhaling lightly—The wall vanished, revealing a large door.
"Not bad! Your skills are impressive," Kazuki said, offering some well-deserved praise.
He stepped forward and pushed the door open.
Inside, the room was brightly lit and full of entertainment equipment.
The Gastly Trio were huddled around a tiny black-and-white TV, watching comedy shows and laughing out loud.
Kazuki's sudden entrance startled them.
They exchanged glances… and slowly floated toward him with mischievous grins.
Suddenly, Old Gastly darted out from behind Kazuki.
"Hahahaha! Kids! Gramps is here!"
The trio froze at the sight of his goofy faces—not reacting at all.
"Eh? Old Ghost, your material's not working," Kazuki shook his head.
Then he introduced himself: "Hi, I'm Kazuki. This is Pikachu and that's Old Ghost—we're here to be friends and play with you!"
As he spoke, he lifted Pikachu from the bag.
"Pika…"
Pikachu kept his eyes shut at first, but after feeling Kazuki's gentle touch, he opened one eye.
With the room lit up, he wasn't so scared anymore, and even began waving at the trio.
The Trio lit up with joy upon hearing Kazuki was here to play.
They floated over happily.
Because of Kazuki's earlier mission at Maiden's Peak, the Gastly species already had a high opinion of him.
They weren't upset—just a bit let down that their performance hadn't worked.
"How dare you underestimate my comedic talents! I was once the ultimate trickster in my youth!"
Old Gastly huffed, feeling ignored, and now launched his hypnotic gag attack.
His black mist turned fiery orange, and his shape morphed into a massive sun.
The trio screamed and clung to each other in fright.
"Hey, Old Ghost! What are you doing scaring them? I told you to make them laugh, not scare the stuffing out of them!"
"Ah? Oh! Sorry! Habit, you know! Okay, now watch this!"
Old Gastly hit the floor, morphing into a bouncing sun-shaped ball.
Cackling laughter!
The trio stared, wide-eyed.
"Here comes more!"
He turned into a balloon horse and bounced hilariously around the room.
Cackling laughter!!!
The Gastly Trio clapped and cheered, amazed by his tricks.
Once he was done, they floated up to him, begging to learn how to be funny like him.
Old Gastly winked smugly at Kazuki. "How's that, kid? Told you I was good."
After centuries of scaring people away, it was the first time he felt truly admired.
Kazuki grinned and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Ahem" After basking in the praise, Old Gastly got back to business and started buttering up the trio.
"Don't be jealous of me! All my talents were learned from that boss over there—Kazuki!"
"As long as you follow him, with your talent, you'll surpass me one day!"
The trio floated back over to Kazuki, clearly moved.
Kazuki's brain whirred into overdrive, scanning the room until his eyes landed on their tiny black-and-white TV.
"Alright then—if you stick with me…"
"I'll get you a new LCD TV!"
"Bigger screen!"
"Full color!"
"Way more comedy shows!"
Cackling laughter!
Kazuki's animated gestures cracked the trio up again.
Cackling laughter~!
Finally, they agreed—if Kazuki played with them for the whole night and they had fun, they'd go with him!
Kazuki turned and gave Old Gastly a wink: Your turn now, Old Ghost!
Old Gastly nodded.
Say what you will about his greed, he was reliable when it mattered.
That whole night, he dove wholeheartedly into playing with the younger ghosts.
From outside the Tower, the flashing lights made it look downright terrifying.
But no one would've guessed—inside, a bunch of big and little ghosts were having a dance party.
They played through the night until dawn, and in the end, Kazuki successfully captured the Gastly Trio.
[Pokémon: Gastly]
Base Stats: 310
Level: lvl 22 (Advanced Tier)
Potential: Elite Four Tier
Ability: Levitate — Immune to Ground-type moves by floating above ground
Moves: Mean Look, Curse, Hypnosis
[Pokémon: Haunter]
Base Stats: 405
Level: lvl 27 (Advanced Tier)
Potential: Quasi-Elite Four Tier
Ability: Levitate
[Pokémon: Gengar]
Base Stats: 500
Level: lvl 30 (Elite Tier)
Potential: Quasi-Elite Four Tier
Ability: Cursed Body — 30% chance to disable the move of a Pokémon that hits it
Moves: Night Shade, Curse, etc.
All three had excellent potential, especially Gastly, whose potential had already reached Elite Four tier.
Though Haunter and Gengar weren't very battle-hungry—they preferred comedy—
Their levels were similar, so Kazuki decided to focus on training the most promising: Gastly.
After all, he already had a Linking Cord. Once Gastly evolved into Haunter and gained enough battle experience, he could evolve into Gengar anytime.
As for the other two, he'd just send them to Professor Oak's lab so they could hang out.
If he ever needed a comedy act, they'd be perfect for the job.
After collecting his reward, Old Gastly waved happily and was ready to leave.
Kazuki glanced at his new Gastly and suddenly had an idea:
"Hey, Old Ghost, don't be in such a rush to leave!"