บท 12: Something Only I Can Do
Mulling over the conclusion of the story, Gunne couldn't help but ask, "So, kid... You then became a spirit?"
"Well, basically, yes. And please, can you not call me kid? I know I'm just a spirit now, but my name is Timothy!" the kid—Timothy—said begrudgingly.
Jenny looked at the two in befuddlement and exclaimed, "Gunne, how are you acting so calm? This kid is a spirit! No offense, kid—"
"Timothy! Tim-o-thy! Not kid! Aside from that, no offense taken." he said, his forehead wrinkling into a frown.
"It's not that unusual, perhaps I'll tell you about my own story one day," Gunne flashed a mysterious smile and continued, "Anyway, we need to find a way out of this mess. Timmy, any thoughts? You've been around here long enough to come up with some sort of plan, right?"
"Um. Maybe I could try talking with Banette and plead for it to stop...."
"..."
Gunne and Jenny turned to look at each other speechlessly, before looking back at Timothy.
Could this ghost, Banette, really be reasoned with? It slaughtered an entire village without a single fluctuation in emotion.
This pokémon was like the incarnation of a devil, seeking only to sate its grudge by inflicting pain on all other living beings.
"Hey! You two! Don't look at me like that! Don't forget, I'm already dead; what's the worst that can happen?"
Gunne shrugged his shoulders at a loss for words.
Timothy's point wasn't exactly wrong, but there had to be some more secure methods.
"Fair enough, but are you really prepared to talk with Banette? Don't you hate it, or like, have a grudge against it? I mean... it killed your family, friends—everyone you knew!"
Jenny facepalmed, feeling irked as she shot Gunne a fierce glare, "You're a bit too nonchalant with his situation! Don't you think you could ask in a gentler way?"
Timothy chuckled at their bickering, pleased with his newfound company. Even so, there was a melancholic look present in his eyes, taking away from his otherwise brilliant smile.
"I don't mind. It's been a long time since that day and my anger has long since faded. You know, I've spent so much time in this mansion that I have kind of grown numb to the passing of time. It just sucks that I've been stuck here alone for so long... unable to grow and experience the outside world!"
Gunne looked at Timothy, feeling bad for him despite his earlier casual attitude. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it felt like being trapped in such a pitiful state.
'Nobody should have to experience such horrible things!' he thought to himself, wondering if he could find a possible solution.
As Gunne continued chatting, he opened the system window unbeknownst to those around him in search of items that may be of assistance to these current predicaments.
'I could really use another typing genetic modification right now.' he winked, thinking to the system.
[Genetic Modifications: None available to purchase]
'I can't just purchase them?' he frowned, a look of contemplation on his face, 'There has to be something that can help me deal with ghost pokémon, right?'
Ding!
The system notification sounded out, and Gunne looked on in anticipation.
[No items found.]
'...'
'You're kidding me, right? There has to be something!'
Ding!
[Once again, no items found.]
A voice suddenly bellowed into Gunne's mind before he continued to attempt again in vain, its aura suffocating.
'Gunne, you've found yourself in an interesting situation. I wish to see you overcome it on your own. Depending on the results, you may find yourself handsomely rewarded.'
Gunne froze, recognizing the voice as none other than Arceus'.
Arceus continued, 'I won't be monitoring you constantly, I just thought I'd see how your first few days in this new world went. And you seem to be having a good time. Three partners, one a shiny, and two new friends. One perhaps a bit closer than a friend, hm?'
Gunne's face reddened under Arceus' teasing, but he couldn't put together any thoughts in refutation.
'Alright, I'm going to let you go for now. Remember, you are a normal type now and there are things that only you can do. Work hard! A special reward awaits you!'
Before Gunne could give his thanks, the aura vanished without a trace, leaving him flabbergasted. Arceus, a god, wasn't going to intrude into his mind constantly, right?
No! That was the least of his worries right now!
"There are some things that only I can do," he repeated in a soft whisper, startling Timothy and Jenny. "Things that only I can do...."
Gunne's eyes abruptly lit up with a newfound brilliance.
Banette is a ghost type pokémon.
According to the information he learned from the system, specifically a piece of information known as the Pokémon Type Calculator, normal types were immune to ghost types and vice versa.
Theoretically speaking, he could work as the perfect bait, luring Banette into a trap.
Hopefully, that cursed energy around Banette which seemed to drain vitality, was of the ghost element.
'If that energy is of a different typing, I might be done for. There's no other plausible solutions though, except for Timothy's. Maybe he can talk Banette down first?'
'But how do I explain my backup plan? I can't just tell them about my... abilities... right now. They're too unbelievable! I'll just hide that part of the plan for now....'
Clarifying his thoughts, Gunne turned towards all of his friends, "I have a plan. Well, a backup plan?"
Jenny and Timothy looked at him in interest, waiting for him to continue.
"If anything goes wrong, I'll act as a distraction and lure Banette into a—"
"Are you out of your mind!"
"No way! That's insane!!"
Jenny and Timothy stood at once, looking at him with petrifying glares.
"I—look—just hear me out, okay? I have a method, but it's just really hard to explain. You gotta trust me here, okay?"
Seeing their doubtful looks, Gunne let out a soft sigh before continuing.
"Look, no matter how dangerous my backup plan may sound, it's better than no backup plan, okay?!" Gunne's tone shifted with more authority as he resumed, "We can defeat Banette. It's a ghost type, and we have all the right cards."
Gunne wasn't blindly spouting his faith that they could defeat Banette; he was genuinely sure of it. Why else would Arceus not only contact him, but also prevent him from relying on the system shop?
Jenny clenched her fists but relented, "Fine. Tell me the full plan before I agree."
"Banette is a ghost type. My Zubat knows the ghost type move, astonish. Ghost type pokémon happen to be vulnerable to both ghost and dark type moves."
Jenny hurriedly replied, "My Growlithe knows crunch, it's a dark type move."
"That's good. While I distract Banette, Zubat will take the lead and hopefully cause Banette to flinch. Then Aron and Growlithe will join in, laying down a siege of attacks."
Shaking her head, Jenny still firmly declined his plan.
"That sounds good written on paper, but what if Banette gets to you first? You'll die!"
Timothy cried out with teary eyes, "Yeah, you're not thinking this through! Back then, my parents tried something of the sorts, but they didn't last a second! I don't want to see the same thing happen again!"
Gunne sighed, closing his eyes as he knew his proposal wasn't going to work at this rate.
Timothy was already scarred from long ago and couldn't bear to see any mishappenings occur to him. Likewise, Jenny wasn't budging.
'I didn't want to expose this, but I have no choice. They're going to find out somethings wrong soon enough, so I might as well be honest now'
Gunne's eyes snapped open, "Look, I don't know how to explain this in a decent way, but just... just look."
He raised his arm, suddenly transforming it into a purple blob before reverting it back to a normal arm.
Then, he suddenly created a substitute in front of him and used double team, creating two look-alike images that followed his movements.
Timothy looked on in amazement and couldn't hold himself back any longer.
"Gunne! You and I! The two of us are so alike!" his cheers hollered out loudly while his smile beamed.
"You..." Jenny looked on, her gaze much more complicated.
It made sense to her now.
Gunne and Timothy, she could see why neither were surprised by the other.
But she was just a normal human while both Gunne and Timothy were... what even were they?!
More importantly, her thoughts towards Gunne were far more erratic. She had developed some feelings for him in their shared moments of fear, but what was she to say now?
From her eyes, Gunne easily saw through her thoughts, biting the bullet as he came clean... for the most part.
"I'm sorry for not mentioning this earlier, but I don't know how to explain it. I'm a human, and I, uh, kind of died before being brought here. And now, I'm kind of, like, transcending the boundaries of both human and pokémon?"
He looked at her dim gaze, coughing as he scrambled to explain himself.
"Well, okay. I was a human, then a ditto, but by now I'm far from an ordinary ditto. More of a demigod? On my path to becoming a god? But yeah, you know, I heard a quote which came from a very reliable source: Long ago, people and Pokémon were the same."
Jenny tilted her head with an incredulous expression on her face, "Demigod? God? People and Pokémon were the same? Who told you that quote? Who told you any of this?"
Gunne paused but ultimately refrained from answering.
There were two things he couldn't speak of: Arceus and the system.
The system was created by Arceus, and the last thing he wanted was to cause any major problems if one day he accidentally mentioned something about it.
Now was the best time to get used to keeping it a secret. And one day should he have the sufficient ability, then he could come clean with everything.
"Jenny, please just give me a chance. The more I try to explain everything, the more complex everything is becoming."
Jenny gave a light sigh, relenting.
"Okay. Let's just take care of this awful mess first," she continued softly, "Maybe we can talk about this another time? In a less stressful situation?"
Gunne nodded, feeling that would be for the best.
Silence descended onto the room, with the exception of the exchanging of gazes.
"Awkward!" Timothy whooped out, "It's up to me to break this dreadful silence, huh? Come on, friends, we must get this plan into action! Maybe you can take me away with you afterwards, how about it?!"
To Timothy's relief, his attempt succeeded in getting a few smiles and easing the gathering tensions.
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