Galarian Corsola had listened to Kashiwagi's incessant rambling for the entire morning.
It wasn't until he finally talked himself out to dry throat that the poor ghost escaped its plight.
This guy can really talk!
Why hadn't she noticed his chatterbox tendencies before? If it weren't for her inherent laziness—and the fact that Kashiwagi's cooking was actually top-tier—Corsola would have ditched him long ago!
Meanwhile, Kashiwagi, his throat parched and dry, was wondering why Galarian Corsola was so thick-skinned. With that much talking, he could have cracked a literal stone, yet this coral remained unmoved.
One human and one ghost, both harboring very different thoughts, were completely failing to get on the same page.
"Sigh."
Kashiwagi sighed. Just as he was about to head to the restroom to relieve himself, he stood up and noticed the other few passengers and their Pokémon in the distance. For some reason, they were all sitting exceptionally upright.
How to describe it? It was the kind of posture a primary school teacher would give a gold star—backs rod-straight, eyes fixed forward.
He felt a bit creeped out. An empty ferry cabin, stiff-as-a-board people and Pokémon, and the deep, endless ocean outside...
It was a total horror movie setup!
Luckily, he had Galarian Corsola with him. Even if they ran into a real ghost, he wasn't afraid. Besides, these people were clearly alive; they had shadows, they were sweating, and their bodies were visibly trembling. Kashiwagi scrutinized them for a moment and confirmed: yep, human.
What kind of weird game are they playing?
He shook his head in confusion and ducked into the restroom.
The moment the restroom door clicked shut, the rigid passengers and their Pokémon suddenly deflated in relief.
"Phew, that madman finally left."
"The way he looked at us just now was terrifying! I'm going to the deck..."
"Aren't you afraid he'll tackle you into the sea?"
"I'm honestly curious how he can talk to a rock for a whole morning. Is he even human? I think I've heard legends about sea phantoms."
"Eek! Why are you so mean!"
The passengers began chatting animatedly, their voices occasionally mixed with the cries of their Pokémon.
Inside the restroom, Kashiwagi was washing his eyes with a face full of black lines. His hearing had always been sharp, and the conversation outside wasn't exactly quiet. It was a mutual misunderstanding: he had taken them for ghosts, and they had taken him for a lunatic.
"You've made my life difficult," he muttered, splashing a bit of water onto Galarian Corsola.
Corsola gave him a look of utter disdain, as if saying, "Don't pin this on me."
-----
As he stepped out of the restroom, the lively chatters instantly froze. They scattered like startled Pidgey and resumed their perfectly upright, motionless poses.
Kashiwagi had planned not to care, but seeing them pull that stunt again made him decide to just stare at them without saying a word.
Feeling his intense gaze, the passengers sat even straighter. Unfortunately, maintaining that posture isn't easy. Before long, they were visibly fidgeting.
Kashiwagi didn't actually intend to torment them. He glanced out the window and saw the island of Dewford Town clearly in the distance. He stood up and began walking toward the exit.
As he passed the group, he turned abruptly toward the startled humans and Pokémon.
"First of all, I'm not a madman. I was communicating with my Pokémon."
"Secondly, this isn't a rock. It's a Galarian Form Corsola. You can scan it with your Pokédex. I think that explains the misunderstanding, right?"
Kashiwagi pulled out his phone and pointed it at their Pokémon one by one, lighting up the silhouettes in his own Dex. The passengers were left dazed. By the time he turned and walked out of the cabin, they were staring at each other in speechless embarrassment.
"Galarian... Corsola?"
"I think I have heard of those..."
"Did he hear everything we said from the restroom? Oh! How humiliating!"
The group felt that universal sense of shame you get when you're caught acting weird at home alone by a family member.
-----
On the Deck.
Kashiwagi gripped the railing, gazing at Dewford Island.
The Pokémon world is always broader than one imagines. In the games, Dewford is just a town and a cave whereas in the anime, it spanned over a dozen episodes, each featuring a different landscape—mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and even abandoned gold mines, you name it.
But he was particularly interested in the Mudkip breeding ground located here, where Mudkip are raised to be given to rookie trainers across Hoenn.
Unfortunately, it was usually off-limits. Ash and his friends had only stumbled in by accident while rock climbing, which led to Brock finding a wild Mudkip.
Talk about protagonist luck, Kashiwagi thought.
However, compared to a Mudkip, Kashiwagi was hoping to find a Feebas—ideally a Shiny one.
"Social Pokémon, living in rivers and seabeds with heavy vegetation..." He looked at the online statistics for Feebas distribution. It seemed like they had been spotted in almost every waterway in Hoenn. They were practically the Magikarp of the region. (Unlike the games, where they were notoriously rare and limited to specific tiles.)
"Lucky Prism Scale, do your thing," he muttered, touching the box in his pocket, though he doubted the item worked on a "wish-granting" level.
Suddenly, the ship's intercom crackled to life.
"We are approaching the dock—Dewford Town pier. Passengers departing, please prepare to disembark. Do not lean against the railings, please stand behind the yellow line..."
They had arrived.
Kashiwagi took a deep breath of the salty, briny air. The fresh sea breeze brushed against his face. Summer in Hoenn was a bit more bearable than in Pyrite Town, but only slightly. The midday heat was a punishment for any creature sensitive to UV rays.
Galarian Corsola was finding it impossible to sleep in this heat. It felt like it was inside an oven that was being preheated.
"Sola..."
"You got that right. That thing is called the sun." Kashiwagi fanned himself with his hand and talked jokingly. Seeing Corsola's extremely resentful gaze, he sighed and tucked her into his bag. "There, no more heat."
He felt like if he let her stay in the sun any longer, he'd end up cursed.
At the exit, he ran into the passengers who had thought he was crazy. They looked awkward. He didn't say a word to them just gave a slight nod and walked off the boat.
"First priority: lunch..."
He scanned his surroundings and opened his phone to search for famous restaurants in Dewford. Coastal town restaurants usually excelled at seafood, and since he had learned the "Secret of Freshness" back in Cyllage City, he was eager to see what Dewford had to offer.
Conveniently, the Pokémon world had a Michelin-like rating system for restaurants.
"Octazooka Cannon: Two-Star Restaurant. Offering a flavor impact as powerful as an Octazooka blast... What kind of tagline is that?" Kashiwagi twitched his lips, but he was genuinely curious.