Chapter 239: The Poor Child
The moment Will received the message, he felt a bone-chilling cold.
"Piplup!"
Lorelei's cry rang out, along with the sound of her rapid footsteps approaching.
Will subconsciously thought the Gate to the Spirit World had appeared next to Lorelei, and he whipped his head around.
All he saw was a dark, purple light.
The good news: The Gate hadn't appeared next to Lorelei, so she was probably fine.
The bad news: The Gate had appeared on his face!
Swish!
Before Will could even use Extreme Speed to retreat, the Gate unleashed a powerful suction and yanked him in.
The next moment, Will found himself in a chaotic space dominated by shades of purple. Thick, grayish-purple fog filled the air, so dense he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
"Oh... well. I don't know if this is lucky or unlucky..."
Will stood still, his eyes squeezed shut. In this place, his eyes were useless; looking at the fog would probably just mess with his head. The smart move was to use his Aura Power to sense his surroundings.
Thankfully, he had spent the last two years focusing on training his Aura. His sensory range was now fifteen meters.
Being in the Spirit World, Will was in a terrible position.
He had planned on entering the Spirit World to look for Meowscarada, but that was a plan for after he got strong.
The Gate to the Spirit World was an extremely rare phenomenon, maybe only appearing once every hundred years. The last time was probably when Will was in Parfum Palace Town, which was 130 years ago.
If he had waited until he was strong, who knows how long he would have had to wait for it to appear again. He had been so anxious about it back then.
And now, here it was.
But it had appeared before he was strong enough.
Forget finding Meowscarada; Will wasn't even sure if he could survive, let alone figure out how to get out of the Spirit World.
Will knew he couldn't just stand here. He began to slowly feel his way around.
It was his first time here, but for a living being to be in a place meant for the dead, standing still was definitely a bad idea. He was probably emitting some "aura of the living" that would attract the spirits.
'What is that...'
Will frowned, "looking" ahead with his Aura.
There was a faint, humanoid Aura signature.
'Don't tell me it's a spirit.'
Will swallowed and quietly started to back away. But he didn't get two steps before he froze.
Another Aura signature had appeared behind him. It looked like a Pikachu.
Then, more and more Aura signatures began to appear from all directions.
But their Auras were all incredibly strange. They were faint, and also... dead. They were completely still, like a stagnant pond. Any being with emotions would have fluctuations in their Aura. But these Auras were as inert as rocks or dirt, which meant they belonged to spirits who had lost their consciousness and were moving on pure instinct.
In the blink of an eye, Will realized he was surrounded.
'What do these things want? They're not going to try and make me a substitute, are they?'
Will gulped, "looking" around warily.
It wasn't a crazy thought. In the anime, a little ghost girl had tried to lure Ash and his friends into the Spirit World. What she wanted was unclear, but it definitely wasn't to invite them for tea.
Even though Will couldn't see their true forms, he could already imagine it: a crowd of pale, expressionless, walking corpses.
As Will was looking for an escape route, he suddenly noticed a more active Aura in the center of the spirits!
It looked like a child.
'Its Aura is fluctuating. Even if it's not a living person, it at least has a mind of its own.'
Will's spirits lifted. If it had a mind, it must know something.
Will flexed his leg muscles and shot forward. He seized the opportunity, grabbed the child's wrist, and kept running, putting distance between them.
The one good thing was that the Spirit World didn't seem to suppress his abilities. He could still use his moves here.
As he ran, Will risked opening his eyes for a second.
It was a little girl, maybe five or six years old, about a meter tall. She had black, shoulder-length hair and big, dark, curious eyes.
Those eyes alone were not something a mindless spirit would have.
Will breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he hadn't grabbed something... weird.
After running another few dozen meters, Will confirmed they weren't being followed and finally got a good look at the child.
But as he looked, he realized something was wrong.
This kid... she seemed alive!
"How did you get in here?!" Will's eyes widened, and he immediately asked using his Aura.
Don't tell me she came in after me?
Impossible. If that had happened, Lorelei would have charged in right after her. With her personality, she would have dived headfirst into the Gate to save Will. And since it was the middle of the night, there would have been no one around to stop her.
But Will had been in here for a while, and there was no sign of Lorelei.
That meant something had happened outside to stop her. The chance of her being in danger was small. Most likely, the Gate had only appeared for an instant and then closed.
'So... this kid couldn't have come in after me.'
"I don't know."
The little girl shook her head, her big eyes focused on Will. She didn't seem at all surprised that he could "talk."
Or maybe... the kid was just missing some common sense and didn't know that a talking Pokémon was a weird thing.
"You're so cute. Let's play." The little girl suddenly picked Will up.
"No, no, this isn't a place for playing! Put me down, and keep your voice down!"
"Oh."
The little girl was surprisingly obedient and put Will back on the ground.
He warily scanned their surroundings before speaking again.
"Do you remember anything... before you came to this world?"
"Umm... I was in bed and couldn't sleep. Daddy gave me a pill, and Mommy sang me a lullaby. I fell asleep... and when I woke up, I was here."
"..."
Will was stunned.
This kid... wasn't alive.
He had thought she was alive because her Aura was so similar to a living person's.
And... maybe it was just Will's imagination, but her death sounded suspicious. From what she said... it sounded like her parents had poisoned her.
But there was no point in speculating. No one was left to tell the truth.
Right now, he had to find a way out of this place.
"Play with me~ There's no one here to play with. The other people are all "dull." They don't answer when I talk to them. But you're different."
The little girl crouched down, staring at Will, and reached out to touch his tail.
"Shh! I just told you, this isn't a place for playing!" Will twitched his tail. He was in no mood to play in the Spirit World; he could die at any moment.
"Then I'll take you somewhere else. There are no "dull" people there."
"...How long have you been here?" Will's gaze fixed on her. From the way she spoke, she'd clearly been here for more than a day or two.
"Emmm... I don't know." The little girl looked up, thought for a moment, and then shook her head helplessly.
"Okay, that's not important. Just take me to the place you mentioned."
"Okay! I'll carry you! Can I?" The little girl's face lit up with a happy expression. She held out her arms, wanting to pick Will up.
"You can." Will nodded. This kid is surprisingly polite.
"My name is Yui."
"I'm Will."
"Will, can you be my friend?"
"I can."
Will nodded, but he felt a pang of pity. This child was destined to fade away in this Spirit World. He didn't know when, but it would happen one day. The spirits here would eventually be drawn into the vortex of reincarnation, one by one.
Yui's day would come, too.
Will didn't mind being her friend in this final period, making some good memories with her.
"Hehe~ You're Yui's first friend~"
"Is that so? Then I'm honored." Will smiled.
He kept his Aura flared, staying alert. A few other spirits drifted past, but they didn't react to him or Yui.
"Yui, is everyone in this world like them?"
"Hm? You mean the humans? Yes."
"What about other things? Non-humans." Will sensed there was more to her answer.
"Some of the Pokémon aren't." Yui shook her head. She pressed her nose against Will's head, rubbing it in his short, downy feathers.
"Like who?"
"Umm... some big guys. They all look the same, and they're kind of scary."
Dusknoir, Will thought, nodding. He'd guessed as much. The Spirit World was the Dusknoir line's main turf.
"And... some animals that come from outside. They're really mean and they attack me."
"Hmph." Will frowned.
Animals from outside... those must be Pokémon that had accidentally wandered into a Gate, or been sucked in.
In a place with no food, no water, and no sun... coming here was a death sentence.
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