"So Dr. Solance's nightmares and sleepless nights were all because of you?"
A slightly yellowed desk lamp cast a wavering shadow on the wall as Jinghe sat at his desk, playing with a dark, oddly-shaped, and uneven stone in his hands.
While he didn't know much about rocks, let alone fossils, he could tell this particular stone had some age to it.
Most likely, this was the "nice stone" Dr. Solance had mentioned finding during his excavation.
What Dr. Solance didn't know, however, was that a Gastly had been sleeping within this very stone.
"Kou jie~~"
Gastly seemed to be in quite a good mood, nodding its head while cheerfully circling around Jinghe, occasionally making bizarre and amusing faces.
"So you might be a Pokemon from decades, centuries, or even thousands of years ago?"
"Kou jie?"
Had it really been that long?
Gastly was completely bewildered by this revelation. After all, it had been asleep the entire time, and if Dr. Solance hadn't dug it up, it might have continued sleeping indefinitely.
As for why it had been slumbering inside the stone and any memories from before its sleep, those had long been forgotten completely.
This explained why it had never tasted instant ramen before and found everything in the room so fascinating.
"Amnesia, huh?"
In this regard, Jinghe had at least some authority to speak on the matter.
He pulled the neatly folded blanket from the sofa and draped it over himself. For some reason, he felt a bit cold.
It was probably due to having a Ghost-type Pokemon like Gastly in the room.
"Wait a minute!"
Jinghe suddenly realized something, and his expression became somewhat strange, or rather, rigid. He mechanically raised his head slowly and wiped his already-dry cheek.
"Doesn't that mean you might not have brushed your teeth for a thousand years?"
"Kou jie..."
Gastly: (ˊ°°ˋ)
Jinghe: "..."
The next second, a faint purple tinge suddenly appeared on his face.
"Kou jie!"
Gastly cried out in alarm, staring at him in shock.
Jinghe obviously noticed something was wrong with himself as well, smacking his lips and muttering: "As expected... poisoned?"
Poisonous saliva?
While Gastly was a Ghost-type Pokemon, it wasn't purely Ghost-type—it was a dual Ghost and Poison-type Pokemon.
He just hadn't expected that a single lick would cause poisoning. After all, at the Gastly stage, there weren't many Poison-type moves it could master.
"Looks like you have quite a talent for Poison-type abilities..." Jinghe's lips were slightly pale.
"Kou jie kou jie! Kou jie kou jie!"
Gastly spun rapidly around him, looking anxious but at a complete loss for what to do.
What to do! What to do!
"Don't panic."
Jinghe remained surprisingly calm. "Since it's your poison, you should be able to control it. Try to withdraw it and see what happens."
"Kou jie?"
Withdraw it? How?
I don't know!
Will he die? He's going to die, isn't he!
Death?
While Jinghe didn't possess superhuman constitution like a certain protagonist from Pallet Town, he could feel that his body was merely uncomfortable—it hadn't reached a life-threatening level. Even if Gastly couldn't control the toxin, he could always go to a Pokemon Center for treatment.
So he remained relatively calm.
"Think about how it felt when you licked me just now," Jinghe said again.
"Kou jie..."
Perhaps because of Jinghe's composure and his gaze and tone that held no blame whatsoever, Gastly actually began to calm down slowly.
"Good, stay calm, you can—"
"Slurp—"
Before Jinghe could finish speaking, he saw another crimson tongue lick him again.
"...That's actually pretty good."
Wiping off the saliva, Jinghe said with what seemed like self-consolation as he forced a smile.
But he quickly noticed that the uncomfortable feeling from before had eased considerably.
His eyes brightened slightly.
Under Gastly's hopeful yet anxious gaze, he nodded with certainty. "It worked."
"Kou jie!!"
Gastly let out an excited cry.
Then it squinted its eyes, smacked its lips, licked its tongue, and slowly approached Jinghe while making "jie jie jie" laughing sounds.
"That's enough! Stop it! Don't wipe your saliva on my clothes, you little pest!"
A few minutes later, a shirtless Jinghe sat on a small stool on the balcony with a washbasin in front of him, scrubbing vigorously with an expression of complete exasperation.
Gastly floated nearby with an innocent expression, looking exactly like a child who had done something wrong.
"Kou jie."
It honestly apologized, both for getting too excited earlier and not controlling itself, and for accidentally poisoning Jinghe before.
Jinghe stopped scrubbing, raised his palm covered in white foam, and patted the black mist surrounding Gastly while smiling:
"It's okay. From now on, we're friends, partners..."
Friends? Partners?
Gastly looked at him, its large white eyes sparkling like brilliant stars.
"...Family." Jinghe finished with the final word.
"Kou jie..." Gastly murmured softly, as if savoring these words.
'Raising a Gastly, huh?'
Watching Gastly's violently swirling black mist, Jinghe thought to himself from the bottom of his heart.
'Actually, it's not bad at all.'
His smile grew broader, and a rare glint of mischief flashed in his eyes as he flicked his finger.
Poof—
White foam immediately splattered onto Gastly's face, finally snapping it out of its reverie.
"Kou jie!!"
It let out a startled cry and lunged toward Jinghe.
"Stop! Stop, stop, stop! We're going to fall!"
Bang!!
No matter how light Gastly was as it pounced on Jinghe, it couldn't overcome the slippery combination of balcony tiles and soapy foam.
Human and Pokemon ended up tumbling solidly to the ground, overturning the washbasin in the process.
White foam scattered everywhere through the air.
At that moment, the first rays of dawn pierced through the night sky like a drop of ink spreading across rice paper, painting everything with joy.
The crystalline bubbles refracted rainbow colors, reflecting two smiling faces.
Yawning continuously and sporting dark circles under his eyes, Jinghe returned to the Pokemon Psychology Counseling Room at school to slack off—ahem, to work.
Dr. Solance was long gone, with the blanket neatly folded and placed to one side.
Taking a nap right after arriving at work wasn't a wise choice. While the counseling room rarely had visitors and school hadn't started yet, being seen would still leave a poor impression.
Waiting until noon to nap under the guise of "oversleeping during lunch break" was obviously a better choice—he had considerable experience in this area.
The grinding sound of the coffee machine started up as Jinghe prepared to brew himself a cup of coffee.
At that moment, Gastly floated out from his clothes.
"Kou jie?"
It gazed curiously at the Onix coffee grinder.
Jinghe smiled slightly and asked: "Want to try a cup?"
"Kou jie kou jie!"
After a brief hesitation, Gastly nodded vigorously.
Soon, two cups of fragrant espresso were placed on the office desk.
Jinghe opened his computer while taking a small sip. The bitter, stimulating taste hit his taste buds, followed by a pleasant aftertaste that gave him a slight mental boost.
Gastly, however, stared at the dark liquid before it with hesitation. It sniffed it, circled around it several times, but never quite worked up the courage to taste it.
It looked at Jinghe.
"Kou jie?"
Is this stuff actually drinkable?
It smells decent enough, but it looks so suspicious.
Jinghe didn't respond, simply demonstrating by taking another sip.
Seeing this, Gastly finally made up its mind and carefully extended its long tongue for a tentative lick.
In its mind, it was thinking about that bowl of instant ramen from the previous night.
But the next second:
"Kou jie!!"
Upon tasting the coffee, Gastly's entire gaseous form began trembling and shaking as if it had been electrocuted.
It stared at the perfectly composed Jinghe with ghostly horror.
How could he possibly swallow something so bitter?
Jinghe laughed. "Don't like it? Such a strong reaction—looks like you don't enjoy bitter things."
Gastly's gaseous form undulated as it kept pawing at its tongue, as if trying to scrape away the bitter taste.
Its voice took on a crying tone.
"Kou jie—"
I don't want this tongue anymore!
Jinghe was amused by its antics and said with a hint of teasing: "Drink it a few more times and you'll get used to it."
Gastly wasn't falling for that trick this time and shook its head repeatedly.
It treated that cup of coffee like a natural enemy, giving it a wide berth.
Jinghe shook his head and stopped teasing it.
He opened a file on his computer and created a simple spreadsheet, then said to the gradually recovering Gastly:
"Gastly, let me learn about your abilities and what moves you've mastered."
Understanding a Pokemon thoroughly was the first step in training it, after which more detailed planning could be done.
"Kou jie..."
As long as it didn't have to drink coffee, anything else was fine.
Its black mist began to undulate.
At that moment, the rhythmic "tap-tap" sound of high heels on the hallway floor grew closer and closer.
After Jinghe and Gastly exchanged a glance, he recalled it into its Pokeball.
Soon, there was a knock at the door.
"Jinghe, have you seen Dr. Solance?"
A tall, beautiful woman with long black hair pushed open the door and entered.
She was Ayako, an instructor from the Pokemon Breeding department.
"Uh, no, I haven't seen him," Jinghe answered honestly.
"Strange, I saw him in the cafeteria earlier. How could he just disappear like that?" Ayako puffed out her cheeks and muttered.
"What's wrong?" Jinghe rubbed his temples and asked.
"Today is new student registration day. Dr. Solance was supposed to help out, but now he's nowhere to be found. Every other teacher has already been assigned tasks, and now I have no idea where to find a replacement..."
New student registration day?
Today?
Jinghe was stunned.
No wonder there seemed to be more cars at the school entrance this morning.
Suddenly, he felt an ominous premonition rising within him.
Sure enough, when he looked up, he saw Ayako's bright eyes fixed on him with growing interest.
"Jinghe, could you please help fill in for him?"