The glow of the phone screen was the only light in the empty street.
Ren tightened his grip, his thumb swiping frantically as the little purple ball of mist wavered on his screen. Ghastly. Finally. He had chased the thing across three blocks already, weaving through alleys with the blind determination only a lifelong gamer could muster.
He was twenty-four, jobless, and in love with pixels more than people. If he was honest, his life wasn't much to brag about. But here, in the glow of Pokémon Go, he felt alive. Each catch, each rare spawn, it gave him something real to chase, even if the rest of his life felt hollow.
The wind picked up, cold for a summer night. The streetlights flickered like faint candles, barely holding back the darkness. He stood on the curb, phone raised, muttering to himself.
"Come on… curve ball, curve ball…"
The Poké Ball spun, arced perfectly, and smacked the Ghastly dead center. The misty ghost sucked into the ball, the screen flashing bright.
"Gotcha!" he shouted, fist pumping.
The ball wobbled. Once. Twice. Click.
Ren's grin stretched wide, triumphant. "Finally. My first Ghastly. Took you long enough, you little…"
The truck horn cut him off.
He turned his head just in time to see the blinding headlights. His body froze, his hand still clutching the phone, the screen still flashing "Ghastly was caught!"
Then everything went black.
He expected pain. Instead, there was silence.
Ren floated in an endless void, weightless, as though his body no longer existed. His phone was gone. The city was gone. There was only shadow, endless shadow, curling like smoke.
"…Ren Silen."
The voice was old, echoing, yet close to his ear.
Ren blinked, or at least he thought he blinked. "Huh? Who?"
"You have called us… with your obsession. With your hunger for the unseen."
The shadows thickened, taking shapes, faces, claws, glowing eyes, each familiar in a way that made his gamer heart hammer. Gastly. Haunter. Gengar. Spiritomb. Mismagius. Chandelure. Dragapult.
All of them. Ghost-types.
Ren's mouth went dry. He wanted to laugh, scream, or cry. "This… isn't real. I'm dead."
"You are chosen," the voices whispered together. "You chased one of us in your last breath. That bond shall not end."
The shadows pressed closer. A familiar round face with wicked eyes floated before him. Ghastly. The very one he caught.
It bobbed in the void, mist swirling around it. Its grin stretched wide.
"Ghasssst…"
Ren felt something warm in his chest, then cold, then nothing at all. The shadows folded over him, and he fell…
…onto soft grass.
Ren's eyes snapped open. The sun blazed overhead, too bright after the void. He gasped, sitting upright. His limbs felt shorter. His hands, small, childlike. His voice cracked higher than he remembered.
"No way."
He scrambled to his feet, spinning. Fields stretched into the distance, dotted with wildflowers. A dirt path cut across rolling hills. Wooden fences lined orchards. In the far distance, rooftops gleamed — a small town.
It was familiar. Too familiar.
"…That's… Pallet Town."
His chest tightened. He had seen it on TV, in games, on trading cards. But standing here, breathing the air, smelling the mix of fresh grass and Pokémon musk, this was different. This was real.
Ren stumbled forward, heart pounding. "I… I reincarnated… in the Pokémon world."
His shadow stretched at his feet. Except it didn't stretch right.
It bubbled. Shifted. A round face popped out of it, eyes gleaming, mouth stretched in a wicked grin.
"Ghaaaastly~."
Ren's breath caught. "You… you followed me."
The Ghastly chuckled, floating fully out of the shadow. It circled him playfully, leaving a faint chill in the air.
Ren reached out. His fingers brushed the mist. It was cold, yet solid in a strange, comforting way.
A laugh burst out of him, shaky but real. "I'm alive. You're real. Holy crap. I…"
He froze.
He wasn't alone.
From the path, a figure approached. A woman, tall and sharp-eyed, hair streaked with silver though her face was still young. Her clothes were dark, elegant, trimmed with faint purple. A necklace shaped like a skull hung from her neck.
Ren's heart skipped. He knew that face. He had seen it in the anime, in games, in old trainer manuals.
"Grandma… Agatha."
She stopped in front of him, eyes narrowing. For a moment, silence. Then she smirked.
"So. The shadows weren't lying. You've awakened."
Ren's mouth went dry. "A-awakened?"
Her eyes flicked to Ghastly, then back to him. "The bond. The power. It runs through our bloodline… and now, it has chosen you."
Ren staggered back. "Wait, what do you mean our bloodline?"
"You'll understand soon enough," she said, reaching forward to ruffle his hair. Her hand was cold, colder than it should have been. "You are my grandson, and you are mine, boy. One day, you will inherit my place among the Elite Four. You will be the master of ghosts after me."
Ren's stomach dropped. Elite Four? Ghost master? That wasn't what he wanted.
He looked at Ghastly. It winked back.
"No," Ren whispered. His fists clenched. His heart was still pounding with adrenaline, with the weight of his past life and this new one. "I don't care about titles. I don't care about leagues. I just… I just want…"
Agatha raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Ren's eyes burned. His lips curled into a grin. "I want to build the greatest haunted house this world has ever seen. A place filled with every Ghost Pokémon that exists. That's my dream."
Agatha blinked, then barked a laugh sharp and amused. "Hah! The shadows truly did give me a strange heir."
Ghastly cackled with her, swirling happily.
Ren Silen, once a lonely gamer, now stood in the Pokémon world with ghosts at his side. He had no interest in being a Champion, a Professor, or an Elite Four.
He only wanted one thing:
To make the world itself tremble with wonder and fear.
To build a home for shadows.
His haunted house.