II: Guardian of the Dead
9:18 PM: I just had a long phone conversation with my editor. Apparently my last article, one that I had spent five days working, wasn’t long enough. I swear that woman is going to drive me up the wall one of these days. Of course since I’m writing this I’m probably half way there. In a way I welcomed the call from my editor because it gave me an excuse to take a break from this little recounting. This is where things start to get unbelievable.
The evening of that day seven years ago was fairly uneventful. I returned to my new home and had a modest dinner with my parents. Then a little later we went to bed. But I did not get any sleep that night. I think it was a little after 11:30 when I snuck out through the window. I recall wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans to blend into the night. The countryside was silent as I walked down that old dirt road. The only light was from the moon and stars above. The rest of the Peak had turned in for the night.
It was another twenty minutes before I had gotten to town. The whole place had a completely different appearance at night. I felt as if I was walking through a ghost town. Looking back I guess I was partly right considering what happened next. When I came close to the shrine I stopped and waited for Dusk to show up. Though I didn’t think I would be waiting long.
“Hi.” Her voice greeted from behind me, causing me to jump and turn around.
“Dang it! You startled me.” I told her.
“I know. I couldn’t resist.” She giggled. “You’re such an easy target Ben.”
“Why are we out here anyway?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” She replied with a rather mischievous smile. “Follow me.”
I did as she said and followed her to the shrine. We then hid behind some bushes that were a few feet away from the door. Then we waited, for what I didn’t know. But Dusk seemed to know. The whole time we waited she kept her haunted eyes on the doors to the shrine. Then after what seemed like half an hour I heard footsteps coming towards the shrine. I peeked over the bushes and saw that it was a young man who looked to be in his late teens to early twenties. And he seemed like he was in a trance.
Suddenly the doors to the shrine blew open as if by a strong gust of wind. Then I saw it, the spirit of the fabled maiden. She floated out of the shrine, completely white and transparent. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. In fact I think I might’ve pinched myself to see if I was dreaming. But I was definitely awake.
“Come to me.” The maiden beckoned to the young man. Mindlessly he obeyed and began to walk towards her.
“Ah ha! Gotcha!” Dusk said triumphantly as she suddenly stood up from behind the bushes.
I could not believe Dusk’s boldness. There before us was specter from the afterlife and she confronted it like a normal person would confront a kid stealing from the cookie jar. A normal person would’ve been paralyzed with fear. I know I was. But then again Dusk wasn’t normal. The spirit of the maiden turned to face her.
“Don’t interfere!” the spirit warned with a voice full of wrath.
“Or what?” Dusk asked unafraid.
In answer to her question the maiden’s form withered and decayed, becoming a skeleton with long hair and a dress. It cried out in an unearthly bone-chilling moan and flailed its arms. Then waves of flying skulls began to fly out of the open shrine. I remained behind the bushes the whole time, my eyes frozen open in terror. But Dusk simply laughed at the sight. I can still hear that laugh clear as a bell when I think about that night. There was a sort of madness to it.
“Wow! You’re really good.” Dusk complimented to the ghost as she clapped her hands. “My turn.” She reached behind her back and pulled out a sparkling Pokeball that was orange on top and white on the bottom. “Let’s play… Giratina!”
The Pokemon that burst out of that ball was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. It was an immense dragon with the body of a serpent. It was predominantly grey in color and had a red and black-stripped belly. On its upper half were six gold blades that were like ribs while the lower half had six grey spikes with gold tips that were almost like legs. It had six wings that were like tattered black streamers, and each wing had a single red spike on the end. Golden plates covered its face and its eyes glowed red like those of a demon. The ghost of the maiden too seemed terrified by this beast.
“Dragonbreath.” Dusk commanded.
The plates on Giratina’s mouth opened and it breathed out a stream of purple flames at the specter. The next thing I knew there was some sort of explosion and everything was obscured by smoke. When it cleared the ghost and the malevolent spirits it had summoned had vanished. In their place was another Pokemon, much smaller than Giratina. It looked like a black ball surrounded by a purple cloud of gas. It had a large pair of eyes and a mouth with two small fangs like a vampire. This was a Pokemon that I was slightly more familiar with.
“A Gastly?” I asked as I finally stood up from behind the bushes.
The young man who had earlier been in a trance suddenly came to his senses. He screamed at the sight before him and ran off into the night. I didn’t blame him a bit.
“Blast! How did you know?” the Gastly demanded.
I was startled when that Pokemon spoke in human language. I’ve never been an expert on Pokemon. In fact I was one of those rare kids who didn’t want to become a Pokemon Trainer at the age of ten. But one thing I knew for sure was that Pokemon could not speak in human tongue, only the syllables of their species name. Yet before me was a Pokemon clearly capable of saying much more.
“Nadeshiko told me about you.” Dusk explained in response to Gastly’s question.
“Hold on!” I interrupted. “That Pokemon can talk?”
“You know it’s rude to talk about people as if their not there!” an offended Gastly pointed out. “And for the record, I learned how to speak your language thousands of years ago.”
“Mr. Gastly comes to this town every year to pose as Nadeshiko.” Dusk explained. “He’s also that old woman you saw at the shrine earlier.”
“Why would you do that?” I asked the talking Pokemon.
“To help keep her legend alive.” Gastly explained. “And to make a few bucks.”
“Why would you need money?” I inquired.
“That is none of your business, boy.” Gastly told me.
“Some ghost Pokemon like Mr. Gastly here like to act as guardians of the dead.” Dusk informed me. “They watch over graves and scare people off. And in cases like these they make sure that the dead person they’re protecting is remembered.”
“You’re certainly quite knowledgeable.” Gastly commented. “Obviously you’re not a normal human. How did you get the great Giratina?”
“Someone gave it to me.” Dusk answered. “But I have some questions for you, Mr. Gastly.”
“I figured there was a reason for spoiling my fun.” Gastly replied. “What is it?”
“Well, Nadeshiko and I were talking earlier and she seemed to think that you knew something about her boyfriend that you weren’t telling her.” Dusk began. “Do you?”
At this question Gastly was silent for a moment. He looked from Dusk to Giratina, then to Dusk again. I could tell that the old Ghost Pokemon was afraid of Giratina, and probably of Dusk too.
“Oh, alright. I’ll tell you what I know.” Gastly finally relented. “But you’re not going to like what I have to tell you. I did run into the poor maiden’s lover about a year and a half ago. He and his fellow soldiers still haunt an old battlefield in the Unova Region. The poor fools still think they’re alive. The fight the same battle again and again each night.”
“Oh dear.” Dusk said sadly. “I was afraid it’d be something like that.”
“Why would they be fighting the same battle over and over?” I asked, though I was surprised that the question escaped my mouth. I still wasn’t sure I fully believed what they were talking about.
“Well they don’t realize that they are.” Dusk explained to me. “My guess is that something’s keeping those soldiers there.”
“I tried to get through to the maiden’s lost love, but he wouldn’t listen to me.” Gastly continued. “There was nothing I could do. And I just didn’t have the heart to tell the poor maiden.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to try and take care of it myself.” Dusk decided.
“Whoa, just hold on!” I cut in. “What is it you think you can do?”
“Don’t know. But I have to try.” Dusk told me.
“Okay, but Gastly just said that this battlefield is all the way over in the Unova Region.” I pointed out. “That’s a long way away.”
“Don’t worry, there’s a way we can get there really quick.” Dusk assured me with a somewhat eerie smile. “Oh Giratina.”
The ghostly dragon came lower to the ground and pulled up next to us. Dusk climbed up onto Giratina’s back.
“C’mon Ben.” Dusk called down.
At that point I could’ve just left, just run off screaming into the night like that young man Gastly had lured. I had already gotten in over my head. But for some reason I didn’t run away. Instead I climbed onto Giratina’s back and got behind Dusk.
“My, it seems that the poor maiden isn’t the only bewitching beauty around here.” Gastly commented to me as he floated up next to my head. “I’m coming with incidentally. The two of you could use a guide.”
“So are we flying to Unova?” I asked.
“Something like that.” Dusk said with a mischievous grin. “Hold on tight.”
I held on tighter to Dusk’s midsection, trying my best to keep my hands away from her chest. Giratina took off into the air like a rocket. But instead of flying out over the night ocean the ghost dragon began to dive right for its surface. I screamed just as we were about to hit the water.
