"I can let you stay," Zane said to the Gengar, "but we're going to have to agree on a few ground rules."
The moment he'd realized the Gengar's threats were nothing but a bluff, their entire dynamic had flipped. Now, he wasn't the one walking on eggshells around the Gengar; the Gengar was the one who had to watch its step around him.
The ghost looked nervous. "What do you want me to do?"
"First," Zane said, "no more pranks. No messing with people. Second, no more giving me nightmares. Can you do that?"
Now that it was the one seeking shelter, the Gengar answered honestly. "I can do that." Although it was a curse, the Gengar was the source, and it could control it.
Zane nodded. "Third, if you can do both of those things, then I might be able to help you fulfill your wish."
"Really?" The Gengar looked genuinely surprised.
"So," Zane asked, "what is it you want me to do for you?"
The Gengar was practically vibrating with excitement. "Take me back to that ruin!"
"Didn't you just come from there?" Zane asked, confused.
The Gengar looked lost. "I don't know. But I can feel... something there is drawing me in. If you take me there, I can tell you where the treasure hidden in the ruin is located."
Zane raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't lying about the treasure?"
The Gengar had never intended to lie. It had only just regained consciousness when Zane bought the orb. Its past experiences had left it with a deep, instinctual distrust of humans, so it had decided to use threats to get what it wanted. It just hadn't expected its bluff to be called so quickly.
"But you're not strong enough to go there yet," the Gengar added, glancing at Budew. "That ruin is very dangerous for you."
Zane nodded, accepting the assessment. After the Gengar had said its piece, he got up to deal with the fish Cramorant had brought back. He heated up a pan, added some oil, and tossed in some green onions, ginger, and garlic until the kitchen was filled with a fragrant aroma. Then, he dropped in the fish balls he had prepared, one by one.
Soon, the whole room was filled with a mouth-watering scent. Cramorant was already standing by, waiting to be fed. Budew, as a Grass-type, had no interest in meat, so Zane hadn't made any for it. The Gengar, while unable to touch anything, could certainly smell. When Zane turned around, he saw the purple figure floating in the air, its eyes glued to the bowl of fish balls. It looked like it was about to start drooling a waterfall.
Zane deadpanned, "...You can't eat that."
Having not eaten in thousands of years, the Gengar looked like it was about to cry. Seeing how desperately it wanted some, Zane paused and thought seriously. The Gengar was currently an incorporeal spirit. In simple terms, it was a ghost.
So how does a ghost eat?
He thought back to the ghost movies from his past life and the traditions he'd seen, like leaving marigolds and favorite foods on altars to guide and honor the spirits of the departed
Maybe...
An idea struck him. He took a piece of paper from a drawer and lit it with a lighter. As the paper turned to ash and fell to the floor, he said to the Gengar, "Try touching that. Can you feel it?"
The Gengar looked confused, but it did as he said. It reached out a hand toward the pile of ash, and its hand passed straight through the floorboards.
Zane stared. "..."
Well, so much for that theory. "Never mind."
He turned back to feed Cramorant. The Gengar, looking utterly devastated, retreated back into its orb and disappeared from sight.
—
That night, just as promised, Zane didn't have any nightmares.
The Gengar had kept its end of the bargain, so Zane began to keep his. In order to help the Gengar get back to the ruin (and to get his hands on the ancient treasure he could sell for cash), he started a special training regimen for Budew.
After class, he once again took it to the hill behind the school. While Cramorant played in the river, torturing the local fish population, he and Budew began practicing its moves.
The battles from the games couldn't be perfectly applied to reality. Moves that had a guaranteed hit rate in the games could still miss here. Real-time battle command was far more difficult. It was like target practice, except the target was constantly moving and actively trying to dodge. Under these conditions, hitting an opponent with certain moves became incredibly difficult.
The trainers of this world were well aware of this. From what Zane had observed, they all put their Pokémon through related special training. On top of accuracy drills, there was speed training, strength training, and more, usually accomplished through simple methods like running and weightlifting.
Zane reviewed the three moves Budew knew: Absorb, Stun Spore, and Seed Bomb.
There were no such things as TMs in this world. A Pokémon could only learn a new move in one of three ways: first, by being taught by another Pokémon; second, by learning it naturally through growth or evolution; and third, through the creative development of its trainer.
Don't bite off more than you can chew. For now, Zane had no intention of teaching Budew any new moves. It was far better to master the three it already had, to train their proficiency to the absolute max.
Stun Spore is a status move, he analyzed. If the opponent's resistance is low enough, inhaling the powder will cause immediate paralysis.
He had Budew use Stun Spore at full power.
"NINI!"
With a cry of effort, a large cloud of pale yellow powder spread out from the bud on its head. It covered an area directly in front of Budew, extending out to a distance of about ten feet. The move's weakness was obvious. If an enemy simply stayed out of that range and used long-distance attacks, Stun Spore was useless.
Next, he had Budew use Seed Bomb. Again, a seed the size of a grown man's fist shot out from its head. The seed was brown and glowed with a faint green light. It was big, it was hard, and it looked like it could crack a skull open. But that was just the "seed" part of the attack. It was called Seed Bomb for a reason. The real damage didn't come from the impact, but from the explosion that followed. It was worth noting that Seed Bomb wasn't a multi-hit move like Bullet Seed, even though the game's animation showed it firing lots of small seeds. In reality, it was just one big seed.
Was that due to Game Freak's technical limitations? Zane wondered. Or were they just being lazy?
The Seed Bomb's flight speed wasn't very fast, either. Hitting a quick opponent would be difficult.
So, was there a way to make it a guaranteed hit?
Zane looked back at the cloud of Stun Spore. Both moves had obvious flaws.
But... what if he combined them?
What if he coated the Seed Bomb in Stun Spore? That way, even if the Seed Bomb itself missed, the force of the explosion would disperse the powder hidden on its surface. As long as the enemy breathed it in, they would be paralyzed.
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