Chapter 425: Three Dorladoruto

It turned invisible!

Recalling the hostility in Dorladoruto's triangular slit eyes, Baimu sensed trouble and hurriedly turned to hide beside the door.

Just as he expected.

The moment he moved, a stream of cyan-blue energy materialized out of thin air and rushed toward him!

But before it could shoot past the doorframe, a semicircular shield of countless hexagons blocked the doorway, taking the full brunt of the dragon breath inside. No matter how fiercely it battered the barrier, the shield didn't budge.

A frustrated shriek rang out in the air.

Baimu leaned out to look and immediately saw Dorladoruto's figure, hidden in the water, retract once more.

As a Pokémon classified as invisible, this one's cloaking ability was far superior to Dorumeshia's — so perfect that even a direct beam of light left no trace.

Truly a handful.

But it seemed he hadn't seen this one's "little brothers."

He keenly noticed that none of the four holes on top of Dorladoruto's head contained any Dorumeshia, and two possibilities formed in his mind.

One: those two Dorumeshia had hidden themselves.

Two: this one was a complete loner, and the Dorumeshia brothers had probably been abducted by it.

While he was thinking, Furong beside him paid no attention to Dorumeshia whatsoever — her focus was entirely on Sunanoran.

"Not bad!"

Furong's face was full of approval. As someone who adored Ghost-type Pokémon, she had actually had her eye on this shoulder-perching freeloader for a while now; she just hadn't spoken up first. She also remembered how it had used Night Shade to block the Gastly earlier.

Sunanoran didn't reply — it didn't even glance at her.

This social terror was the bane of anyone with lazy-bone syndrome. It could barely handle even Baimu, so it certainly didn't dare engage Furong, and simply pretended it couldn't understand her.

It only hoped everyone was like Queen Boni.

Few words.

Being ignored didn't bother Furong at all; she even misinterpreted its meaning, giggling: "What a proud little thing!"

Baimu kept staring into the doorway, sweeping his flashlight around in search of the vanished Dorladoruto. Hearing her words, he couldn't help feeling that Elite Four trainers had remarkably big hearts.

A Dorladoruto that huge had disappeared and even attacked them!

Was this the confidence that came with Elite Four-level strength?

He recalled how, back in Iron Town, Champion Dawu riding atop a Mega Metagross had also commanded his many Pokémon against the Dark-types with unhurried ease.

Fair enough.

The man returned to the spirit world as if he were coming home, saw through Kas's schemes without breaking a sweat — naturally he wouldn't care about a single little Dorladoruto.

"Hiyah!"

After reuniting with its brother, the Dorumeshia belatedly noticed the strange atmosphere around it. When it turned back to look at Baimu and saw him sweeping his flashlight around wildly, it was infected by his mood and grew anxious. It hurriedly hooked its little claws around its brother's little claws, trying to fly back.

But the brother, who looked nine-tenths like it, didn't move.

"Hiyah?"

The Dorumeshia wore a puzzled expression, then watched as its brother wrenched free from its claws and abruptly vanished into the air.

It froze for a moment, then anxiously began searching all around.

"Hiyah!"

The instant the cry faded, an explosion suddenly rang out in the air.

Bang!

A streak of azure-blue afterimage, accompanied by a sudden burst of flame, shrieked like a supersonic missile and shot toward the brazenly unguarded Furong outside the door at a speed the naked eye could barely follow!

But at the very moment of impact, a broad hand shot out like a flash of lightning, snatching the "cannonball" at top speed.

With a peng, Dragon-type energy exploded in Peng De's palm. His expression didn't change in the slightest, and his other fist drove forward into the surging waves!

Whoosh!

Vast dark energy coalesced into a fist visible to the naked eye and slammed into the churning water with a terrifying blast!

Spray shot skyward!

Seeing this, Baimu's eyes sharpened. As the spray fell, he saw drops strike the invisible Dorladoruto, revealing its rough outline.

"Shadow Ball!"

A ball of chaotic purple-black energy shot from the mouth of Sunanoran on his shoulder. Only when the energy blast came streaking toward it did Dorladoruto realize it had been exposed. It tried to dodge, but a sudden sharp pain struck its lower back, as though something had crashed into it.

Now it couldn't dodge the Shadow Ball head-on either.

Boom!

Purple-black energy flames exploded amid a cloud of smoke, and Dorladoruto screamed as it tumbled toward the water's surface.

"Perfect timing! Throw the ball!"

Furong's excited shout made Baimu instinctively pull off an empty Luxury Ball and hurl it, striking the floating Dorladoruto with fair accuracy.

Thump~

The Luxury Ball opened, sucked Dorladoruto inside, then dropped onto the water and rocked violently.

Furong gave a thumbs-up. "Nice aim, kid!"

"I'm not exactly a 'kid' anymore… Why did you have me catch Dorladoruto?" Baimu hadn't actually been planning to capture the thing — he'd intended to knock it out and bring it out for a proper talk.

With her shouting right in his ear, he'd reflexively pulled the empty Poké Ball off his waist and thrown it.

He'd trained his throwing motion hard, though he'd barely used it — his Pokémon at home were either bought or gifts from others; only Sunanoran counted as one he'd actually caught.

But even that capture had been pretty comical.

True, the finishing blow just now had come from Sunanoran, but without Peng De using Shadow Punch to splash the water up and reveal Dorladoruto, catching it would have been nearly impossible.

So Furong had just as much right to capture Dorladoruto — her contribution was arguably greater, and her priority higher.

She said casually: "Of course it's because you looked like you wanted to catch it. You don't want to?"

"I do."

All Baimu replied crisply.

"Then it's settled — a Trainer capturing the Pokémon they want is only natural. Raise it well, and one day have it battle me in a scorching-hot showdown!"

Furong gave his shoulder a hearty slap.

Queen Boni beside them was deeply gratified. Her colleague might lack common sense and love stirring up trouble, but when it came to nurturing Trainers, she had never been careless.

A major part of the Four Heavenly Kings' purpose was to cultivate talented rookie Trainers.

Whether accepting challenges from Trainers or offering them guidance, both fell under their duty.

Inside the room.

The Luxury Ball barely wobbled twice before the red light at the button vanished. Star effects shimmered around it, signifying a successful capture.

Not far away, the ambush-attacker Dragapult Meshia clutched its head and winced — without a doubt, the back-strike that had prevented Dragapult Baruddo from dodging had been its doing.

Fortunately, the pain faded as quickly as it came. It watched the Luxury Ball being swept away by the waves, hurriedly flew over to cradle it in its arms, then turned and flew out the door, hovering before Dusknoir's palm. It flew anxiously back and forth, letting out shrill cries, "Hiiya! Hiiya!"

Dusknoir said nothing, silently opening its palm to reveal the younger Dragapult curled up inside, trembling.

"Hiiya!"

Dragapult Meshia let out a long sigh. After setting down the Luxury Ball, it smacked its younger brother squarely on the forehead, its vicious expression making it clear it was furious.

It knew perfectly well its brother had willingly let Dragapult Baruddo launch it. Pokémon of their kind were usually gregarious, staying close to their evolved and final-evolved forms; only a rare few ended up "living alone" like it and its brother.

For them, lodging inside Dragapult Baruddo's launch cavity held a natural allure — a special habit determined by genetics.

"Woooo…"

The younger Dragapult let out a cry uglier than a ghost's wail, not daring to resist at all.

Dusknoir silently used a finger to flick out that Luxury Ball and handed it to All Baimu, who was closing the door while chatting with Queen Boni and Furong.

"Ah, thanks."

The latter thanked him, then looked again at Furong, who had proposed staying to continue exploring the Ghost Hotel.

To be honest.

If it weren't already past three in the morning, and if the Dragapult Baruddo the clues pointed to hadn't been successfully obtained, he would probably have been more than happy to keep messing around in this afterlife world with her.

Queen Boni also said: "Don't forget you left a bunch of Ghost-type Pokémon back at the park. If they start causing trouble, it could easily lead to no small amount of hassle."

"Fine, fine."

Furong, who had been brimming with enthusiasm just moments ago, raised both hands in surrender and gazed longingly at the Ghost Hotel's dilapidated corridor… once they left this time, it would likely be very hard to come back in legitimately.

At present.

The group headed home.

After finishing its scolding, Dragapult Meshia returned to the top of All Baimu's head — along with its brother, of course. Two Dragapult Meshia squeezed onto one head, and space was a little tight.

But they didn't seem to mind, stacking themselves up like acrobats.

Furong saw this and her eyes lit up with stars, insisting on taking a commemorative photo. Then, from who-knows-where, she pulled out a phone and absolutely had to hug Lileep.

Who would have thought Lileep would disdainfully dodge into the backpack.

It felt this person would take a mile if given an inch — definitely a hassle.

Furong, whose plan fell through, wasn't disappointed either. Grinning, she threw an arm around All Baimu's shoulder and stubbornly took a group photo right there in the Spirit World, of all spooky places—

And naturally reaped a haunted photo, plus a Ghost-type Pokémon that Dusknoir had unfortunately caught — the latter stuffed it straight into its belly.

"Why bother…"

All Baimu felt it had been hiding perfectly well — why pop out all of a sudden?

Is a photo really that attractive?

——

Back in Room 1608.

The three people and their Pokémon stared at the bathtub.

The bathtub extended four pitch-black, elongated palms and, in an eerie posture, crawled to one side, revealing a pitch-black crack.

"Don't come again!"

Cofagrigus roared, its voice amplified right beside All Baimu's ear, "Especially you! You little punk who somehow got in here!"

Normally, to enter the Spirit World one had to go through the entrance — that is, right under its rear. But just now it had suddenly realized this little brat didn't seem to have crawled out from under its rear!

That was strange.

"Uh…"

All Baimu scratched his head, wanting only to say he was just as baffled — he'd merely copied down the ancient inscription, and normal inscriptions had no power to let someone slip into the Spirit World.

He wanted to say something more, but was shoved straight into the crack by Cofagrigus's hand.

His feet went light.

When he stepped down firmly again, the new hotel's bathroom had already appeared before his eyes.

Furong and Queen Boni had both already gone out, and from outside came the delighted cries of the manager and Officer Jenny. He looked up, and a pitch-black crack came into view.

All Baimu couldn't help reaching out a hand; reaching inside, he touched something hard.

It was blocked…

He didn't dare disturb Cofagrigus's rest any further, and stepped out of the bathroom.

Outside, Queen Boni and Officer Jenny were saying something. Furong was nowhere to be seen — she had probably gone to disperse those Ghost-type Pokémon.

The manager standing nearby, upon seeing him, immediately came over and said with considerable agitation: "Young man, you scared me half to death! Suddenly I couldn't reach you! And you just happened to be staying in this room…"

"Sorry — was that stone slab found?"

After nodding, he asked.

The manager replied: "The logistics people told me the stone slab got accidentally broken by someone during the move, and it's already been dealt with."

【Honestly, I've been using the source-switching app to read and catch up on updates lately — easy source switching, lots of voice options, works on both Android and iOS.. huanyuanapp】

"It shattered?!"

All Baimu hadn't expected that something so miraculous — capable of opening a door to the Spirit World — would just break apart like that.

He went to the spot where he'd dropped the notebook; the ancient inscription on it was still shrouded by a thin layer of light. He picked it up and studied it closely for two seconds, and the thin light abruptly dimmed.

Huh?

He froze for a moment, and when he ran back to the bathroom, he was stunned to see that the dark crack above had vanished.

According to Furong's explanation, the Spirit World entrance had been stimulated into appearing by the special magnetic field brought by the massive swarm of Ghost-type Pokémon — so had the ancient inscription also been affected by that same special magnetic field?

"Writing that only works under special conditions…"

All Baimu thought of the Unown stone slab from the movie that had created a fake Entei, and figured ancient inscriptions probably had all sorts of uses in the anime.

He hadn't realized it before, but the reward of being able to read and remember ancient script was simply fantastic!

Afterwards.

At the supervisor's suggestion, he switched rooms. Furong and Queen Boni left with Officer Jenny as well — they still needed to give a thorough explanation regarding Room 1608.

When a bunch of League employees like them stir up a big mess, they have to clean up after themselves… at the very least, they have to hand the cleanup method over to the local police or management to prevent any future accidents.

Regarding the stone slab and the ancient inscription.

All Baimu had wanted to go along and report as well, but Queen Boni refused, urging him to take Dragapult and the Dreepy to the Pokémon Hospital instead.

He had no choice but to relay the situation to Queen Boni, who would then inform Officer Jenny.

After fussing around until around four o'clock.

He was finally free. He cooked a meal for the two Dreepy on his head — who were so hungry their stomachs were growling even in their dreams — before he could lie down on the bed and rest for a bit.

And the two Dreepy dove into the food bowl like starving ghosts and never pulled their heads back out.

They only flipped onto their backs after finishing, burping like big-bellied Poliwag.

After digesting their food for a while.

The two Dreepy, getting sleepy again, flew to All Baimu's side and fell asleep next to him, who had long since drifted off.

Nothing more that night.

Around noon the next day.

All Baimu finally woke up. When he opened his eyes, he didn't see Dragapult's big head — what he saw was a Dreepy sprawled all over his face, fast asleep.

After plucking it off his face, he turned his head and saw the other one sprawled atop a Corsola's head, snoring away.

"I actually slept almost all the way to the afternoon…"

He felt a little guilty — ever since coming over on the ship, he rarely had days where he said goodbye to the morning.

The ones back home must all be starving by now.

All Baimu hurriedly released all his Pokémon and apologized to them.

The Pokémon, led by Bastiodon, naturally and understandingly forgave him — it wasn't as if they didn't know what had happened yesterday; they'd all discussed it together before preparing to enter the Spirit World.

Before long.

The room became lively.

The two Dreepy also slowly woke up amid the commotion.