I’m the Owner of the Pokémon Day Care In the World of Pokémon

The two passageways looked exactly the same, completely indistinguishable, so Yuga left the choice up to fate. He took out a coin and flipped it, thinking: heads for the left path, tails for the right.

Clink~

The coin landed—tails. So Yuga lifted his foot and stepped into the right passageway. It was still a long corridor, stretching out so far he couldn't see the end.

As he walked, Yuga suddenly felt the stone slab beneath his foot sink slightly. Before he could react, a rumbling sound echoed from the other end of the corridor.

Moments later, a massive round boulder came thundering toward him. The boulder's diameter matched the width of the corridor, leaving Yuga no room to dodge. Instinctively, he turned around and ran.

But after only two steps, the massive stone was halted in its place by Gengar and Mismagius, who used Psychic to hold it still. Then, with a Psycho Boost from Chimecho, the boulder shattered into pieces.

Seeing this, Yuga let out a breath of relief and thanked his three Pokémon. "I really owe it to you guys."

"Chimecho~"

Being relied upon by Yuga made Chimecho happy. It cheerfully flew over to Yuga's head and curled up in his hair.

"Looks like the dangers here don't just come from Pokémon. We need to be even more cautious."

After giving instructions to Gengar and Mismagius, Yuga continued forward.

From then on, Yuga became much more cautious. But the traps in this place were especially numerous and well-hidden, and in the end, he still triggered one.

As Yuga was walking, the stone slab beneath his feet suddenly vanished. If Chimecho hadn't reacted in time and carried him into the air, he would have fallen right into the trap below.

The pit beneath was lined with sharp, deadly spikes. If Yuga had fallen, he would have been skewered without a doubt.

What followed were a series of traps—hidden arrows, poison gas, quicksand—one after another, no less than a dozen in total. Fortunately, with Gengar, Mismagius, and Chimecho protecting him, Yuga made it through the corridor unscathed.

Having encountered so many traps, Yuga began to doubt whether he had chosen the right path. He wondered what the other passage might have held.

But since this was a tomb, the tomb's owner clearly wouldn't want anyone intruding. The other passage likely wasn't any safer than this one.

At the end of the corridor was a large stone chamber. As soon as Yuga stepped in, the wall sconces ignited one by one with bursts of flame.

Just like at the entrance, these flames were actually Litwicks, forcibly bound in place, with a few Lampents among them.

The flames from the Litwicks and Lampents were ghostly blue, casting an eerie gloom throughout the chamber. Their occasional hissing cries only added to the creepy atmosphere.

Litwicks and Lampents weren't making those sounds on purpose. When the trap mechanism binding them was triggered, they experienced intense pain, which caused them to wail uncontrollably—meant to scare off intruders.

Yuga casually glanced around the chamber and guessed that this place must have once been lavish and grand. There were many burial goods, though time had decayed most of the decorations, leaving behind a foul stench in the air.

In the center of the chamber stood a square high platform, covered in countless tiny black holes. It was unclear what it was used for.

Yuga thought for a moment and decided to free the Litwicks and Lampents first—their wails were just too unbearable.

However, just as he was about to act, a dark figure suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye. Before he could react, the figure had already launched an attack.

Luckily, Gengar and Mismagius were sticking close to him. At the moment of the attack, they intercepted the shadowy figure in time, allowing Yuga to see what it was clearly.

It was a Shedinja.

Shedinja moved like a ghost, so silently that not even a sound could be heard while it flew.

However, the Shedinja in front of Yuga wasn't the only one. From the black holes on the central high platform in the stone chamber, one Shedinja after another flew out, and in the blink of an eye, Yuga and his team were surrounded.

All the Shedinja simultaneously used Shadow Ball, attempting to hurl the fist-sized orbs of energy at Yuga, but in that instant, Yuga activated his King of Ghost ability.

Gengar and Mismagius's powers were enhanced, while the Shedinja's strength was suppressed.

The Shedinja were not high-level; they only relied on numbers to gain the upper hand, so the pressure from Yuga's special ability weighed particularly heavily on them.

In their panic, the Shedinja completely missed their targets with their Shadow Balls. The orbs flew chaotically in every direction, causing immense destruction in the stone chamber. The already-decayed burial items were now reduced to utter ruin.

Gengar and Mismagius seized the opportunity to launch an offensive. In no time at all, dozens of Shedinja were defeated. Shedinja were a kind of Pokémon that "died" with just a touch—it wasn't hard to take them down.

With the Shedinja no longer in the way, Yuga successfully freed the Litwick and Lampent, receiving their gratitude once more.

Yuga still didn't intend to capture them. He waved his hand and said, "You're all free now. Hurry and get out of here."

The Litwick wriggled their bodies and vanished along with the Lampent in the blink of an eye.

Just then, Yuga suddenly noticed there was still a Litwick at his feet. Curious, he asked, "Why aren't you leaving?"

The Litwick cried out twice, then started hopping toward the high platform. Yuga realized it was asking him to follow, so he lifted his foot and walked after it.

The Litwick approached the high platform, selected one of the black holes, and twisted its little body to crawl inside. After quite a while, it crawled back out.

It brought something out and, after walking up to Yuga, lifted the object high up.

"This is for me?" Yuga asked in surprise.

The Litwick nodded. Because the object it was holding was too heavy, it almost fell over. Yuga quickly reached out and took it.

What the Litwick gave Yuga was a yellow-green crystal roughly the size of a fist. It was irregularly shaped, but Yuga could faintly sense the powerful energy contained within it.

"System, do you know what this is?" Yuga silently asked in his mind.

"The Heart of Bug," the system's voice rang out in his head.

Yuga's eyes widened at the answer. This was actually a Heart of Bug?

Back then, his Vivillon needed a Heart of Bug to fully transform into a Butterfly King, but he hadn't found one. On the system's suggestion, he had used a Genesect fossil as a substitute. He never expected to actually obtain one now.

The Heart of Bug only forms under a very slim chance after the death of a powerful Bug King. It is an extremely rare treasure. Bug Kings are extraordinary individuals among Bug-type Pokémon, with the ability to command regular Bug-types.

This Heart of Bug was probably placed here by the tomb's owner to breed Shedinja.

Thinking of this, Yuga's expression changed. Since there were so many Shedinja here, there was no reason for there not to be Ninjask as well!

Both Ninjask and Shedinja evolve from Nincada. In such a closed environment, if there are Shedinja, there must also be Ninjask.

"Litwick…" Yuga lowered his head to warn the Litwick to be careful, but when he looked down, it was already gone—his feet were empty. Who knows where it had run off to.

At that moment, Yuga heard a faint buzzing sound. He looked up in the direction of the noise and saw that, at some unknown point, dozens of Ninjask had appeared above his head—roughly the same number as the Shedinja before.

Ninjask were incredibly fast. When Gengar and Mismagius hurled two Shadow Balls at them, the Ninjask easily dodged them.

Screeeee~

Several Ninjask flew out and used Bug Buzz. The piercing sound instantly echoed throughout the stone chamber. Yuga clutched his ears, feeling the blood in his entire body suddenly circulate faster. He became dizzy and nauseous, with a strong urge to vomit—it was incredibly uncomfortable.

Under the interference of the Bug Buzz, the other Ninjask began to launch a series of Fury Cutter attacks. Chimecho first raised a Reflect wall to bounce them back, then used Heal Bell.

The crisp and pleasant chime rang out, mixing with the piercing Bug Buzz, and the dizzy and disoriented feeling that Yuga had finally faded away.

Seeing how fast the Ninjask were, Mismagius, enraged, directly scattered large waves of mystical flames. In an instant, most of the stone chamber was turned into a sea of fire. The scorched Ninjask dropped down one after another, their whole bodies smoking, and an inexplicable aroma quickly spread through the air.

I wonder what roasted bugs taste like!

Yuga thought to himself and then took out Poké Balls, capturing all the Shedinja and Ninjask. Although their potential wasn't great, Yuga felt that Ninjask and Shedinja were both very suitable to be added to his patrol force.

These two kinds of Pokémon had excellent mobility and stealth abilities, and perhaps could serve as an unexpected supplement in the patrol force.

However, like the Cofagrigus before them, they were tomb-guarding Pokémon left by the tomb owner, so capturing them might not be so easy.

After dealing with the Ninjask and Shedinja, Yuga looked around the stone chamber. He didn't see any other exits and thought to himself: Could this really be the end of the tomb? That shouldn't be, this doesn't even look like the main chamber!

"Gengar, Mismagius, Chimecho, help me search together and see if there's an exit," Yuga said to the three Pokémon beside him.

"Gengar~"

"Mismagius~"

"Chimecho~"

The three Pokémon responded and began to search the stone chamber, but after quite a while, they still couldn't find anything special.

But Yuga was certain that this place was definitely not where the tomb owner's body was buried—at most, it was just a storage room for burial items. And most of those items had decayed over time and were of little value to Yuga, so he didn't bother with them.

Just as Yuga was about to leave and go back to explore another passage, Gengar suddenly cried out and began pounding on a wall with loud thumps.

"You're saying the passage is behind this wall?" Yuga asked.

"Gengar~ Gengar~"

Gengar nodded firmly.

"But we didn't find any mechanism!" Yuga said with a headache.

Hearing this, Gengar floated directly into the air and condensed a huge Shadow Ball, smashing it toward the wall. With a muffled bang, the wall remained completely intact.

"This… brute force probably won't work, right?" Yuga said hesitantly.

He had to admit, the material of this wall was extremely sturdy—Gengar's full-strength attack hadn't damaged it at all.

But Gengar didn't give up and continued to use Shadow Ball to strike the wall repeatedly. Mismagius and Chimecho quickly joined in to help.

With the combined efforts of the three Champion level Pokémon, cracks finally began to appear in the wall. After some more time passed, it finally collapsed with a loud crash, and a new passage appeared before Yuga.

Yuga: ...

What was he still looking for a mechanism for! Mechanisms were completely useless! Solving problems with brute force was still the most convenient.

Stepping over the rubble, Yuga and the three Pokémon entered another space. There, Yuga saw a pitch-black pool, with wisps of black mist slowly drifting up from it. Surrounding the pool were a number of coffins, arranged in a circle that perfectly enclosed the pool.

The coffins were stone coffins, so they hadn't rotted with the passage of time. However, their color had become rather odd due to the damp underground environment, and they were now covered in blackish-green moss.

By rights, an underground tomb of this scale should have excellent moisture-proofing measures. The coffins of the deceased should not have become like this, especially not when placed right beside a pool of water. Didn't they worry the bones inside would grow mold?

Yuga didn't dwell too long on this issue and instead turned his gaze to that pool. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with this black water pool.

"Come on, let's go take a look."

Yuga said to Gengar and Mismagius, then cautiously stepped forward.

Just as Yuga was about to approach the pool, five or six black shadows suddenly shot out from it, lunging straight at Gengar and Mismagius, clinging tightly to both of them.

The black shadows didn't have any defined shape; they were just clumps of dark mist. Yuga couldn't tell what they were from their appearance, but they didn't look like Pokémon.

"Gengar~!"

Gengar let out a cry, wrapping itself in Psychic power. All the black shadows clinging to it were swept away.

At the same time, Mystical Fire burst forth from Mismagius's body, and the black shadows wailed in pain, instinctively retreating from Mismagius.

Having shaken off the black shadows, Gengar and Mismagius quickly returned to Yuga's side to protect him from being attacked by the shadows.

"What the hell are these things?" Yuga asked with a frown.

"Gengar~ Gengar~"

They seem like spirits!

Gengar and Mismagius both originated from the Ghost World, and were very familiar with the aura of the dead. Although these black shadows looked somewhat different from ordinary spirits, they were undoubtedly spirits nonetheless.

Yuga exclaimed in surprise, "Spirits? Aren't spirits supposed to be automatically guided to the Ghost World? How could they be appearing here?"

"Mismagius~ Mismagius~ Mismagius~"

It's probably because of that pool!

Mismagius pointed toward the black water pool and explained.

Yuga looked again at the black pool, which was still quietly emitting black mist. It really did look extremely eerie.

The black shadows were still staring intently at Gengar and Mismagius, their eyes filled with hostility, but they didn't dare approach due to fear. On the other hand, they had almost no reaction to Yuga and Chimecho, which left Yuga confused.

However, Yuga could tell that these black shadows didn't retain any awareness of their former selves as "humans." They were muddled and disoriented, acting only on instinct.

But why were they targeting Gengar and Mismagius?

Yuga couldn't find an answer to this question, because Gengar and Mismagius had already blasted a few of the black shadows into "soul-scattered oblivion."