章 49: Chapter 49: The Mystery of Ditto’s Serious Injury
As Kane walked out of Burned Tower, his face was expressionless, his thoughts churning beneath the surface.
"Ditto... if I ever see you again, I'll make sure you understand the consequences of betraying me," Kane muttered to himself, his voice low and cold, barely audible in the quiet air. He had just managed to suppress his turbulent emotions when suddenly, a familiar voice reached his ears.
"Kane!"
The voice was filled with urgency. Kane looked up to see Ryuki hurrying toward him, his face marked by concern.
"What are you doing here? I've been looking for you everywhere. Your Ditto... it's been seriously injured. If I hadn't gone to clean the cobblestone path today, it might've been too late to save it," Ryuki explained hurriedly, his breath slightly uneven from rushing.
"What?" Kane's heart skipped a beat, his usually composed demeanor momentarily breaking as he absorbed Ryuki's words.
Injured? On the cobblestone path? How could this be possible?
A flood of questions immediately surged in Kane's mind, his thoughts racing. None of it made sense.
"Don't just stand there. Come with me—quickly!" Ryuki's voice broke through Kane's reverie, and without waiting for a response, he grabbed Kane's arm and began pulling him toward the gym's main hall.
Once they reached the hall, they were greeted by the sight of two doctors—professionals that Chiyama had personally hired—working with swift, deliberate motions. They were frantically treating Ditto, who lay unconscious, his body still.
"Kane, where have you been all morning? We couldn't find you anywhere! Were you also searching for Ditto?" Komatsu asked, concern etched across his face. Melissa stood nearby, looking just as worried, her eyes fixated on Ditto's lifeless form.
Kane simply nodded in response, his mind too occupied with the scene before him to offer much in the way of explanation. He then turned his attention to the doctors, his tone sharp with urgency. "How is it?"
But the doctors, deep in their work, didn't bother responding to Kane's question. They were entirely focused on administering various medicines and treatments, doing everything they could to stabilize Ditto.
With no answers from the medical staff, Kane's eyes narrowed as he examined Ditto's condition for himself. Despite the doctors' best efforts, Kane's own knowledge of superficial medical skills allowed him to discern what was happening.
The burns on Ditto's body were unmistakably caused by Will-o'-the-Wisp, and the other injuries were consistent with damage from Dark Pulse. But it was Ditto's mental state that concerned Kane the most. The coma suggested that Ditto had been struck by severe mental trauma, something beyond physical wounds.
Could Ditto have gotten into a conflict with a powerful ghost-type Pokémon from the Butned Tower? Was it possible that the conflict had escalated to the point of a full-blown fight?
But then, a thought struck Kane. Ditto had been found injured on the bluestone path, not in Burned Tower where it had been training. Furthermore, Kane had visited the Burned Tower enough times to know that none of the Pokémon there possessed the kind of power that could inflict such severe damage. The situation was perplexing, and the answers wouldn't come until Ditto regained consciousness and could recount what had happened.
After what seemed like an eternity of tense silence, one of the doctors finally spoke up. "We've done what we can. Ditto should pull through. It'll likely wake up by evening, but it will need at least a week of rest before it can even think about training again let alone fighting. For now you need to put your, special training on hold."
Kane nodded, his mind still swirling with questions. "Understood."
With that, he gently lifted Ditto's limp body and carried it back to his dormitory. The weight of the Pokémon in his arms was light, but the burden of uncertainty weighed heavily on his mind.
Nightfall came, and Ditto finally stirred from its unconscious state, though its recovery was far from complete. Its eyes were dull, its movements sluggish. Kane had to feed it Moo Moo milk bit by bit, patiently coaxing each small sip to ensure it would swallow.
"Consider this my way of apologizing for doubting you," Kane muttered as he carefully nursed Ditto back to health. Yet even as he spoke, his mind remained fixated on one thing: the identity of the pokemon who had caused Ditto such harm. What could have inflicted these injuries?
For days, Ditto remained in a dazed state, occasionally spiking a fever that left Kane scrambling to keep up with its medication. Despite the setback, Kane's training regimen for Gastly didn't waver. Each day, he continued the special training, honing his team's skills and even accepting challenges from various people who came to challenge the Gym Leader. Unfortunately, none of these challengers brought the poison-type Pokémon Kane had been seeking.
Komatsu, too, had been affected by Ditto's injury. The ordeal had shaken him, forcing him to delay his plans to challenge the fifth floor of the Bell Tower. But with a month left until the deadline, he remained confident that he'd make his attempt when the time was right.
A full week passed, and while Ditto's external wounds had mostly healed, it still seemed somewhat out of sorts. Its usual vitality was missing, replaced by a subdued and listless demeanor.
In the days that followed, Kane took Ditto to the training grounds daily, letting it watch the others train. The lively atmosphere, especially Melissa's bright energy, seemed to lift Ditto's spirits. Little by little, the spark in its eyes began to return.
Finally, after two weeks, Ditto made a full recovery. To ensure there were no lingering effects, Kane took it to the Pokémon Center for a complete checkup. The relief Kane felt when the doctors confirmed that Ditto was fully healed was palpable.
All that training hadn't been in vain. If Ditto had succumbed to its injuries, all of Kane's efforts would have amounted to nothing. But as Ditto gazed at Kane with eyes full of gratitude, Kane's expression remained indifferent.
"Pokémon can be so sentimental," Kane thought to himself with a sneer. "But I'm not the same boy I used to be."
That night, back in his dormitory, Kane decided it was time to uncover the truth.
"What happened that night, Ditto? Transform and show me what you saw."
Ditto, though still a little hesitant, closed its eyes and began the transformation process, its body shifting and molding into the shape of the Pokémon it had encountered during the fateful night. Suddenly, fear flashed across Ditto's face, its body trembling violently.
Kane's voice turned cold. "What are you afraid of? Is death really that terrifying?"
The harshness of Kane's words seemed to pull Ditto out of its panic, and it blinked, looking at Kane in confusion.
"Fear is useless. As a Pokémon, your duty is to fight. If you're afraid before you even enter the battle, you've already lost. No matter how strong your opponent is, you fight. Maybe you'll survive or Maybe you'll die, but if you give in to fear, you're death will be certain." Kane's tone was merciless, the lessons of survival burned into his soul.
Slowly, Ditto's trembling subsided, replaced by a look of determination. It focused hard, recalling the events of that terrifying night. Then, with a final effort, Ditto completed its transformation.
Before Kane stood Gengar—its body unmistakable, though not quite perfect. There were more horns on its head than usual, but Kane didn't need perfection to understand what Ditto was showing him.
"That's enough," Kane said, his voice calm. "You can rest now."
Ditto, still a little shaken, reverted to its original form and curled up, the fear from that night not entirely banished.
Mega Gengar.
The transformation hadn't been flawless, but it was enough for Kane to piece together the truth. The pokemon that attacked Ditto was undoubtedly a Mega Gengar. Kane had encountered it once before in Burning Tower, back when Chiyama had traveled to Sinnoh.
He remembered that day clearly. Mega Gengar had used Hypnosis to take several ghost-type Pokémon away from Burned Tower. Ditto must have transformed into a ghost-type Pokémon during training and been caught in the hypnosis. When Ditto was discovered on the cobblestone path, it had likely been attacked by Mega Gengar before it could escape. The injuries from Will-o'-Wisp, Dark Pulse, and the mental trauma all pointed to the same conclusion.
And now, Kane realized that Chiyama had been absent the night Ditto was attacked. It was possible that even Chiyama was unaware of Mega Gengar's existence. And even if he did know, Kane doubted Chiyama had the strength to confront such a powerful Pokémon.
This was the second time Kane had crossed paths with Mega Gengar. The first was when it vanished into the shadows of Burned Tower, and the second was the attack on Ditto along the cobblestone path. Both incidents pointed in the same direction: Crestmont Cemetery.
Mega Gengar was likely hiding there, in the same tomb that Kane had been so curious about. The mystery of the tomb, the presence of Mega Gengar, and the ancient secrets tied to the Chiyama family were all converging, and Kane's interest in the tomb was growing with every new piece of the puzzle.
In his previous life, he recalled, Komatsu's son had eventually unlocked the tomb and obtained an ancient ghost-type Pokémon training manual. Kane knew he could do the same, but moving the stone pavilion and the bronze cauldron ...moving the stone pavilion and the bronze cauldron didn't seem like something that could be done by human strength alone.
Had I overlooked something?
Kane's thoughts circled around the Crestmont Cemetery, analyzing every detail he could remember from his previous visits. Yet, nothing stood out—nothing obvious that he had missed. It seemed that the answers would only come if he had the chance to investigate once more. Perhaps, if Chiyama left the gym for any length of time again, Kane would have the perfect opportunity to search for the hidden secrets himself.
And then there was Thunderstorm.
Kane knew that Thunderstorm had his eyes on the tomb as well. Although Kane's power had now surpassed Thunderstorm's, and Thunderstorm appeared respectful and subservient on the surface, Kane could not shake the feeling of unease. Thunderstorm was like a ticking time bomb—unpredictable and dangerous. Trusting him was out of the question.
That realization only made Kane more determined to act quickly. If Thunderstorm had any plans to pursue the secrets of the tomb, Kane needed to be ahead of him. There was too much at stake to leave things to chance.
As Kane's thoughts settled, his gaze drifted to the resting form of Ditto. In the quiet of the night, his mind brimmed with strategies and possibilities, all connected to the mysteries that lay within Crestmont Cemetery.
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