"It's time, human"

Still too weak to get up, Gastly latches him to his body and floats him down like before.

.

"We have an exciting match today folks, Jared the dark horse of the competition, and Akoni will be going head to head in our semi-final match!!!"

The general sentiment in the audience favored Akoni, and such things as this could be heard, "I Really hope Akoni beats his ass, if that screaming lunatic becomes an official trainer it will make a mockery of the profession!"

.

Akoni & Vaporeon

Vs

Jared & Gastly

.

Two and a half hours ago, Jared had exited the arena, and now he was finally back.

"Just my luck... it had to be Akoni..."

Gastly just scoffs

"Gastly, from what I can tell, Akoni's Vaporeon is not normal, please... just be careful okay?"

.

Same as before, nearly halfway into the arena, Gastly sets Jared down behind cover, then he vanishes.

.

Vaporeon and Akoni were now close,

Akoni commands, "Vaporeon veil yourself in an aqua ring to negate his spites and hypnosis"

Vaporeon just glares at him.

Akoni scratches his nose then looks away with a whisper, "Er... or just do whatever"

.

While dispersed, Gastly soon finds the vaporeon sitting in a slow-moving river nearby.

(So there you are, how confident of you to just sit there... such a foolish catfish, how dare you underestimate me?)

Gastly then turns himself visible, and fires off a hypnosis from twenty meters away, but, the sitting Vaporeon is suddenly nowhere to be seen.

Confused, he looks around for half a second, then, feeling a bad premonition tries to go invisible.

Before he can, he screams, as he feels his body burning.

"DAMN YOU!!!" Gastly turns around to get a lick off, but there was nothing there, then from his other side he feels himself burn again, "AHHHHHHHHHHH"

Giving up, he tries to disperse as fast as he can, but as if it was planned, a powerful cone of water engulfs his entire form.

Gastlys screams stop, and he continues to fade until he's gone.

"Ohh, it's the one-two combo of Akoni's vaporeon, Gastly must be reeling now!"

"Too soon to say, you've seen the beating that Gastly can take!"

No longer feeling the cold tendril of Gastly in his chest, Jared begins panicking, so he shouts, "GASTLY, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

With wide-open eyes and deep unease, Jared looks around but he finds nothing, not even a wisp of smoke, he felt helpless. All he could think to do now was pray for Gastly to reemerge.

.

Twenty-eight minutes pass, and now the match is over.

Vaporeon was declared the winner!

A referee tries to bring Jared out, but he refuses, "GASTLY PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE ALIVE, JUST SAY SOMETHING!"

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"Well folks, stay tuned, in an hour and a half, it will be Akoni vs Kekoa, and that will be a grand finale to see!"

.

Shaking, Jared is forced out by a few guards, but he wasn't much trouble, still too weak to walk more than a few yards.

Once he was brought back to the repurposed medical ward, he had now slightly calmed down.

(They said Gastlys are unkillable, I'm sure he's just fainted, yes, he will come back, I refuse to believe he could die like that!)

Staying overnight to recover, Jared slowly makes his way home.

The whole building was mostly empty, Jared felt empty too. Exiting the building without his partner made him feel somewhat... hollow, but he keeps up hope,

(I know you are alive... Gastly)

With nine hundred dollars deposited in his bank account for tying third, he was now much richer, but it didn't lift his mood.

Jared struggled home, which took him four hours. It was now mid-day and the streets were busy. People recognized him, but didn't stop to talk, and they only whispered among themselves.

In the alley, he finds an angry Kai leaning against his door.

Before Kai can open his mouth, Jared speaks up, "Kai, I'm so sorry, I was injured and couldn't come back until now."

Seeing his injuries, Kai swallows what he was going to say, and keeps quiet.

Opening the door the two walk inside, "Kai, I need to rest for a while, please make yourself at home."

With that, Jared dropped on the hard bed, and he was instantly asleep despite the bright sun lighting up the room like a torch.

The next day, Jared called the school, and he let them know he's recovering, and he will only be able to return tomorrow.

Lying in bed and resting, Kai cooks him some food, "How did you get so injured?"

Putting down his bowl, Jared sighs, "Sorry Kai, It's a long story, I'll tell you later okay?"

.

In the middle of the night, Jared startles himself awake, and he looks around. He whispers, "Gastly?" but the familiar voice does not appear in his mind.

.

Finding Kai still asleep in the morning, Jared gets ready and struggles out the door, not forgetting to leave a note. The note read, *I will return in three hours to unlock it*

Slowly walking past the familiar pidgey, Jared's mood drops further, the sight of pokemon used to bring him joy, but now only reminds him of Gastly.

The bell rings.

Jared's tutor clears his throat, "I saw your match Jared, and if I didn't know you any better, I would have thought you were an experienced trainer"

"Er yeah..."

"Now, this isn't any of my business, but could you tell me why you were screaming in pain during your matches?"

"I...have my reasons... Do you remember... You told me that Gastlys can't die... do you think it's really true?"

"There's no way to really know."

.

Returning home in low spirits, Jared continues the same routine for the rest of the week. He had decided to fully heal before resuming his painful memorization method.

Using some of the money he gained from the tournament, he had purchased a better bed, along with a desk and a few pillows, so the living conditions improved somewhat.

.

During the sixth night, Jared was awoken by a voice in his head, "Human I'm back, however, we need to go!"

Startled awake, but happy to hear Gastlys voice, Jared replies with confusion, "Go... why?"

"To tell you the truth, before I became your partner, I was a minion under a haunter, all gastlys are. I fled from him all the way from Seafolk village, far over the ocean, but tonight, when I reformed and made my way home, I was found by a gastly by chance. I managed to kill him because he was weak, but they will come looking."

Opening his eyes wide, the sleep is fully shaken off, "How can you be sure? and why did you run?"

"Because the haunters steal the negative energy from all the Gastlys under them. I was originally only going to stay here for a day and would have moved farther away, but your negative energy brought me here. It's not the same haunter, but most of them are more than a thousand years old... Don't underestimate their cunning, the local haunter will definitely search for the missing Gastly, and will not leave a rock unturned."

"Wait, this is too sudden, I need time to think!"

"Jared, you need to understand, I need to leave now, with or without you."

Jared replies with some small hope, "Wait wait, I have money, what if I hid you in a pokeball?"

Gastly mentally shakes his head, "Yes, it would hide me, but not you, the haunter will send his gastlys out and gather information. If he learns a Gastly participated in the tournament, and searches for you... then, unless you can change your face then he WILL find you, he won't leave the region, but it would be best we leave the entirely of Alola."

"Wait, wait, wait, he has no evidence you did it, even if he finds you why would it be an issue?"

"It is an issue human, there's a reason why you almost never see a human with a Gastly, and that's because the haunters won't allow it. They will probably kill the trainer... as well as the gastly. This is to keep the others from attempting the same... Human, we gastlys live in a different world than you, and our society has rules."

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?!"

Still exasperated, Jared shakes his head, "If Gastlys are going around the city collecting negative energy, then they would hear about our match if the humans talk about it wouldn't they?!"

"No, human, normal gastlys can't understand human language, they are so drained of energy by the haunters that most of them are simple and stupid. Many of them lose their memories along with their mass during the extraction... even I was the same before I met you... but if the haunter leads the search that's different."

"Wait... then where do I go? you know I'm from a different world! I memorized the layout of Alola, but I've never even seen a map of the other regions..."

"Get one of your slave devices and hide me, that will buy us time."

Seeing Jared hesitate, Gastly snorts, "You are from a different world, what attachment do you have to this region? You tied for third place, do you not have enough money?"

(Tsk, if Jared was in a weakened state, then I could make him obey with hypnosis... just like before.)

During this one-way conversation, Kai was stirred by the noise but kept silent.