Between Mina's white fingers, a piece of cold metal spun precariously. The sharp metal, shaped like a gear, shone like the sun, reflecting the dim light of the cave. It was the Thunder Badge, won after defeating Vermilion City's Gym Leader, Surge.

  The metal gleamed as if the remnants of the arrogant and loud electricity that the war maniac Surge exuded still lingered on the badge. But Mina's eyes, even while looking at this token of glory, were dry as dust.

  "No matter how much I think about it... it was really amazing."

  Ash, walking beside her, spoke cautiously, but Mina tossed the badge into her pocket without answering.

  "…."

  It was at that moment. As soon as the badge disappeared into the darkness of her pocket, the colors of the world began to change as if it were a lie.

  The scenery they faced as soon as they exited the rugged Rock Tunnel was entirely gray, as if mocking their victory just moments ago.

  At the same time, a damp, heavy fog—something completely absent in the cave—began to rise from their ankles. Ash instinctively covered his nose due to a burning smell that assaulted his senses.

  "This smell..."

  "It's incense."

  Mina muttered in a low voice. The fog that started from the ground soon covered their waists and faces, eventually blurring their vision so much that they couldn't even distinguish the path right in front of them. And beyond that fog, the shadow of a faint yet massive tower revealed itself like a ghost. It was a town that gave Ash a shock, but gave Mina a strange sense of comfort.

  This town's name is Lavender Town.

  Even though it was broad daylight, the sky wore a gloomy, bruised purple hue, and not even the footsteps of people walking on the streets could be heard. It didn't seem like an ordinary town at all.

  "I feel... weird, Pikachu."

  Ash shrank back. Pikachu, sitting on his shoulder, was also tense with his ears flattened back. His instincts kept ringing sirens, warning him.

  On the other hand, Mina looked more comfortable than usual. Her unstable Dittos seemed to find stability instead.

  "It's certainly nice that it's peaceful here."

  Ash, unable to understand Mina, grabbed his trembling body and urged her on.

  "Let's go quickly, I want to rest at the Pokémon Center..."

  As they entered the center of the town, the fog made it impossible to see an inch ahead. Since it was daylight, he could see Mina's body right in front of him, but if it were evening, it felt like he would have to be nose-to-nose to see a person.

  'Bulbasaur... I'm here.'

  Mina took a deep breath of the incense-filled air in the fog, then looked wordlessly at the massive Pokémon Tower soaring endlessly into the sky, and opened her mouth with difficulty.

  "Ash Ketchum, I have a place to go for a moment. Whether you come with me or not... is your choice."

  Just then, a girl blocked Ash's path. It was a girl with pale skin where no vitality could be found.

  "Hello, Mister."

  The girl looked up at Ash intently and opened her mouth.

  "You care for your Pokémon very much, don't you?"

  She said, looking at Pikachu, who was quite tense just like Ash.

  "Huh? Y-Yeah, he's my best partner."

  Ash tried to smile while petting Pikachu, but his expression froze at the girl's next words.

  "But aren't your shoulders heavy?"

  Ash had carried Pikachu on his shoulder for a long time, but he had never felt that it was heavy.

  "...Heavy?"

  The girl smiled innocently and pointed her finger at Ash's empty shoulder.

  "Not Pikachu. There's a white hand resting on your other shoulder."

  “…?”

  In an instant, Ash felt a cold sensation of something resting on his left shoulder.

  "Hiiiek?!"

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Ash's face turned white. Screaming, he hurriedly brushed off his left shoulder, but there was nothing there. Unlike the terrified Ash, Mina just looked down at him indifferently, as if she could actually see that 'white hand.'

  The girl clapped her hands and laughed, finding Ash's reaction amusing.

  "Just kidding. Your reaction was so funny, Mister."

  The girl giggled and ran into the fog. Her laughter faded, and the fog lifted slightly. And Ash saw that in the direction the girl disappeared, there was no road or door. Only the cold wall of the Pokémon Tower blocked his way.

  “Ugh..."

  Ash got goosebumps all over his body and stepped back. But Mina let out a hollow chuckle and looked down at the terrified Ash as if he were pathetic.

  "Seriously, Ash Ketchum. You're scared of just that?"

  As soon as she finished speaking, Mina's face distorted grotesquely. Only two bean-sized pupils and a mouth tore upwards in a twisted grin.

  "Aren't you more scared of standing right next to you?"

  "A, Aaaaaagh!!"

  The string of reason in Ash's mind snapped. There was definitely a monster more terrifying than a ghost right next to him. Screaming, Ash started running blindly. It was just a survival instinct to escape this suffocating fear and Mina somehow.

  "Huff, huff...!"

  Ash was so out of breath his lungs felt like they would tear. The fog showed no sign of lifting, and he was losing his sense of direction. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining; he saw the faint but familiar red light of a Poké Ball blinking.

  "T-That is...!"

  A building with a red roof. It was a Pokémon Center. Normally, it would be a common building, but in this hellish Lavender Town right now, it looked like the only lighthouse of salvation.

  "I-I'm saved...!"

  Ash ran into the automatic doors of the center without looking back. It was a desperate movement, like someone being chased by a ghost.

  Behind him, Mina, who had been walking through the fog slowly but familiarly, revealed herself. Returning to her human face, she giggled at how ridiculous Ash's desperate back looked and slid into the center.

  Of course, Mina already knew that even the Pokémon Center wasn't the 'sanctuary' Ash thought it was.

  The place revealed as the automatic doors opened was not the cozy shelter Ash knew.

  Lavender Town's Pokémon Center. The cheerful music or the bustling noise of trainers that would usually be heard in other cities' centers had long been castrated. Instead, only a low, mechanical whirring noise, like a giant refrigerator running, filled the empty lobby.

  Behind the counter stood Nurse Joy. But her smile was grotesque, fixed like a wax figure in a museum.

  "Welcome. Trainers."

  As Mina followed in, Nurse Joy bowed her head again, her voice and lips moving out of sync, flapping separately.

  "Are you here... to find 'rest' today?"

  "...Rest?"

  Ash was flustered by the momentary sense of incongruity Nurse Joy showed, but his physical fatigue swallowed his suspicion.

  "Yes... please lend us a room where we can rest. We're too tired."

  Nurse Joy nodded slightly, then turned her body toward the dark corridor where the lights were off.

  Click, clack.

  The sound of Nurse Joy's high heels piercing the silence rang out unusually sharply. Ash felt as if he had walked into a horror movie on his own two feet, but Mina beside him walked into the darkness with big strides ahead of Ash, expressionless, as if she were used to it.

  Passing through the corridor, Ash glanced into the open rooms. In some rooms, trainers and Pokémon were sitting. They were facing each other and moving their mouths, but no voices could be heard at all. It was like watching a broken television screen through thick soundproof glass.

  Then, Nurse Joy, who was walking ahead, stopped.

  "I apologize. This room already... had a guest."

  Looking at a seemingly empty room, Nurse Joy bowed to Ash and Mina. Then she turned around and walked toward Ash again.

  Click, clack.

  Nurse Joy's footsteps were getting closer, but the corridor was narrow, lacking space to step aside. Just as Ash was about to hurriedly press his body against the wall.

  Whoosh.

  "Uh...?"

  Only a cold chill assumed to be Nurse Joy's swept through Ash's entire body; there was no collision. Literally, Nurse Joy passed right through Ash's body.

  "......!!"

  Ash's pupils shook as if an earthquake had occurred. Looking back, Nurse Joy was walking to the opposite corridor as if nothing had happened. Only the creeping sound of click, clack high heels continued to be heard.

  "M-Mina... Just now, don't tell me..?"

  Ash tried to scream but covered his mouth. Cold sweat poured down like rain due to a fear he had never experienced before. But Mina, looking at the frozen Ash, opened her mouth too calmly.

  "Ah, did I not tell you?"

  Mina giggled.

  "Lavender Town is... different?"

  Just then, before the clicking sound even faded, Nurse Joy, who was already standing at the end of the corridor, opened the door to the room where the two would stay wide and waited.

  "Please use this place."

  As if the two's conversation hadn't been audible in the first place, Nurse Joy bowed mechanically and opened the door. Having finished her words, she turned her body without looking back.

  Click, clack, click.

  The sound of high heels faded into the darkness of the corridor. Only the footsteps remained like an echo, then were swallowed into the silence.

  "What are you doing, get in quickly!"

  Mina roughly pushed the dazed Ash's back into the room. Creeeak. The door closed with the screaming of old, rusty hinges.

  "......"

  Instantly, a perfect silence, as if cut off from the world, arrived. However, when Mina turned on the room's switch, the inside was shockingly... normal.

  Accommodation in a Pokémon Center that could be seen in any city. White bed sheets tidied without a speck of dust, a neat square window, even an old table. Everything was excessively perfect.

  But Ash felt suffocated precisely because of that 'ordinariness'. separated by a single door, this place was too comfortable and clean. It felt too "strange," like a space from another dimension had been cut and pasted here. This heterogeneous contradiction felt like a white coffin tempting a corpse.

  "Mina…? Is it really okay here?"

  Ash's voice trembled minutely in the empty room. But the fear of this space was already tightening around Ash's neck, making the question pointless.

  Mina, who followed in, looked around the room, smiled with satisfaction, and then continued speaking while staring into the darkness outside the window with eyes that had settled down for a moment.

  "This town itself is a massive graveyard. The buildings we see, the passing people, Pokémon... perhaps more than half of them might be afterimages of the past."

  Mina's voice was low. Ash gulped. The cold sensation of Nurse Joy passing through his body seemed to revive.

  Mina slowly turned her head to look at Ash. Her eyes, rather full of playfulness, shone coolly in the dark.

  "No, perhaps..."

  The corners of Mina's smiling mouth twisted slightly.

  "Everything we see right now... might be ghosts pretending to be living people?"

  "......!!"

  A chill ran down Ash's spine. That meant not only Nurse Joy they just met, but everything they encountered in this town could be 'fake'.

  "Just kidding. haha."

  Mina giggled as if finding Ash's pale face funny, then took over one bed and flopped down.

  "Turn off the lights and sleep. If you don't want to fall for ghosts' pranks."

  At Mina's threat-not-threat, Ash pressed the switch with trembling hands.

  Click.

  Just as Mina yawned long to relieve her fatigue, darkness swallowed the room. But Mina, Pikachu, and Ash all felt it. Taking advantage of this darkness, something were coming to this town...