Trekking through the thick jungle.
Zweilous led the way as the scout—one head looking around while the other sniffed the ground, letting out a bark every now and then.
The fellow was currently searching for herbs used to make incense.
While its innate sense of smell wasn't sharp enough to learn Odor Sleuth, it was, after all, a Pokémon that had once relied entirely on scent and touch to perceive its enemies. Finding herbs with specific scents in a complex forest environment shouldn't be too difficult.
Besides, it had two heads!
Double the olfactory input had to count for something, right?
As it turned out, Zweilous actually had quite a knack for this. Within half an hour, it had sniffed out several batches of medicinal plants.
Kashiwagi followed the foraging guide he'd purchased, carefully harvesting the herbs without damaging the roots to preserve their efficacy to the greatest extent possible.
It couldn't be helped.
The memories of the "Aroma Lady" didn't include the actual foraging process. To save money on raw materials and master an extra skill, he was trying to figure it out himself through books.
He didn't have her gifted nose, but he had Pokémon!
On the occasion he encountered an herb he truly couldn't identify, he could have Porygon help with the search.
After entering the phone, Porygon could act like a Rotom Phone, using the camera to snap pictures of the herb's appearance and search for keywords or image pages on the internet.
The internet in the Pokémon world was quite big on the spirit of sharing; almost any knowledge could be found with a quick search.
However, there was one disappointment...
Perhaps because Zweilous looked too intimidating, they hadn't encountered a single wild Pokémon for a long time.
The only exception was a swarm of Beedrill that flew in, buzzing aggressively, to defend their territory, in a massive, murderous formation, looking ready to give the intruder a piece of their mind.
But after a single Hyper Voice roar from Zweilous, they left just as grandly as they had arrived.
They came in like bombers and left like supersonic fighter jets.
Being the "friendly" neighbor he was, Kashiwagi followed them back to their nest. Zweilous and Aggron worked together to suppress the unruly swarm.
After some "friendly negotiations", they traded several Energy Root cubes for the pollen the Beedrill had painstakingly collected.
This pollen, when mixed with certain Berries, could create a honey that Teddiursa and Ursaring found irresistible—a key ingredient for "Vigor-Fixing Incense". Because Beedrill were somewhat dangerous and usually appeared in swarms, the market price for their pollen wasn't low.
"Zwei-lous!" "Zwei-lous!"
A sharp cry rang out ahead.
Kashiwagi hurried to Zweilous's side, thinking it had found something new, only to see both of its heads with tongues lolling out, collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Strange rumbling noises were coming from its stomach.
"...Fine then."
He checked the time. "It's about time for lunch anyway."
"Zwe-ii!"
Hearing the word "lunch," Zweilous instantly regained its spirit, looking at its trainer with sparkling eyes.
Nothing in the world was more exciting than a meal.
To a dragon, eating was the ultimate purpose of life!
...
...
After a lunch that could be described as "a whirlwind sweeping away fallen leaves".
Kashiwagi and Zweilous resumed their trek. Soon, they arrived at the foot of the mountain the fisherman had mentioned.
"It's closer than I expected."
He looked up at the mist-shrouded peak and checked his phone.
Full bars.
The signal infrastructure in the Pokémon world was truly impressive; even in a remote forest like this, he had a perfect connection. This was the only reason he felt comfortable enough to climb.
Otherwise, no sane person would go up a mountain with such low visibility.
Wait.
Hold on.
Maybe a Ghost would!
Kashiwagi knew very well that Ghost-type Pokémon loved appearing in these strange, eerie places; the more deserted the area, the more of them there were.
Of course, some Ghost-types liked to do the opposite and occasionally appeared in places with frequent human activity.
As for Ghost-types in the Hoenn region, the most common were Shuppet and Duskull, along with the classics like Haunter and Gengar...
"Zwei-lous~"
Having eaten and drunk its fill, Zweilous continued to lead the way.
As its control over its two heads improved, this fellow was trying a peculiar trick: letting one head nap while the other scouted.
It actually managed to pull it off, much like a dolphin that lets its left and right brain rest alternately. The only issue was that its walk was a bit lopsided due to the shifted center of gravity.
For now, it was just an experiment.
Zweilous didn't want Kashiwagi to be ambushed by some blind fool just because it was being lazy. According to the trainer, there were many strong wild Pokémon in this mountain.
If they're powerful,..
Then they must have a strong scent, the dragon thought.
It knew well that many powerful wild Pokémon liked to leave their scent in their territory to announce ownership to others.
Pack-dwelling Pokémon wouldn't have that kind of smell...
But... I don't smell anything.
Is it because this white stuff called 'mist' is too thick?
Zweilous's two heads sneezed repeatedly, trying to force its nose to work harder, but no matter how much it sniffed, it couldn't find the expected territorial markers.
This made it wonder if its nose had stopped working.
"They might be a different type, or very stealthy Pokémon. Keep using both pairs of eyes and noses," Kashiwagi said, patting one of its heads.
"Zwee-lous~!"
Zweilous replied with a happy cry.
However, for the rest of the journey, no matter how thick the mist became, they failed to find any so-called "powerful wild Pokémon", even the mountain remained eerily silent.
It was as if every wild Pokémon had been captured or driven away.
"An environment like this... it might really be a Ghost-type nest," Kashiwagi couldn't help but mutter.
He had read many traveler's journals online, and the most popular ones were often "ghost" stories. Many travelers claimed that mysterious mountains where no wild Pokémon could be seen were the primary habitats for Ghost-types.
These prank-loving creatures would torment passing travelers, making them run in exhaustion, creating traps and "ghost walls" (loops) to drain their mental energy. Once they had absorbed enough spiritual nourishment, they would toss the traveler out—
Well, that was in the anime world.
If you went strictly by the Pokédex descriptions, there would probably be quite a few skeletons buried in these woods.
They continued upward.
Before long.
As they neared the summit, a blurry figure appeared at the edge of Kashiwagi's vision.
The figure looked quite hazy in the white mist.
Through the white mist, the silhouette looked small—distinctly feminine—and it was standing in a strange, slightly twisted posture.
"You finally... came..."
A cold breeze blew, and a sinister, echoing voice whispered right in Kashiwagi's ear.
He and Zweilous locked eyes for a split second. Without hesitation, Kashiwagi reached into his pocket and hurled a Flashbang (Flash) toward the figure.
BANG!
"AAAH!"
A sharp, very human scream pierced the mist.
Holy crap?
It was a person?
Kashiwagi's heart skipped a beat.