Scaring are Ghosts' Job... Right?

Indigo Arena, Waiting Room B.

I stared at the screen in front of me, my finger's tapping the desk in a rhythm.

Displayed on the monitor is my roster and their registered moves.

What moves should I pick?

Which pokemon should I pick first?

I pondered and pondered.

"You should look at your next opponent's first, I think."

Her voice broke my concentration... Can it even be called as concentration?

I turn towards Al and she waves her hand lightly as a greeting.

"Yo." She said.

"Deussel said the next member of the Elite Four is Agatha's grandchild."

I touched a circlular icon by the screen's corner and a new display popped up.

... my next opponent, huh.

...

"Say," I paused from what I was doing, "Are you even allowed to enter here?"

She replies with a half-hearted giggle...

It's... not cute at all...

... really.

***

"The arena's very excited today, don't you agree mr. John?" the announcer said with a gleeful voice, "It looks like the challenger winning against a member of the Elite Four brought them at the edge of their seats!"

The audience was cheering and shouting.

"Well, I must say, that was not a bad performance." John Doe grins.

"What do you mean, mr. John?"

"The Elite Four must have felt the stagnant air of the arena and thought it would be best for a burning match!"

"O-oh! As expected of the journalist dedicated for the Elite Four! i guess?"

Fake. That announcer was faking his smile! Too bad, John Doe.

"Anyways," the announcer cleared his throat, "Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome back this year's challenger, Nathaniel Crowne!"

I walked towards my side of the field.

"Now on the other side! The second of the Elite Four!" suspense filled the air as the announcer spoke with energy, "She was a student of former Saffron Gym Leader Sabrina, trained under Ecruteak's former Gym Leader Morty, and the proud granddaughter of former Elite Four of the Indigo League, Agatha!"

"Ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer continued, "The gifted prodigy! The phantom! The woman beloved by a mysterious force! The sorceress!"

My next opponent appeared from the opposite side, she walked timidly. A smile was tapered on her face, and she was hugging a teddiursa stuffed toy... A thing I find weird as it's not fitting for her age. As the wind blew, her silky violet hair glittered.

At last, her heterochromic eyes, one violet one blue, met mine.

What's with her? A creepy feeling crept into me.

I felt gengar's presence weakened for a second.

This woman scared a ghost?

"What a lovely day we have today, don't you agree," her smile was straight-up ominous, "Mr. Challenger?"

The announcer's voice echoed throughout the arena, "Christie!"

***

"The second trial! Challenger Nathaniel Crowne versus Elite Four's Christie!"

"Agatha was once a part of the Elite Four together with my cousin, Lance. She used her wisdom in fighting, an expert at ghost-type pokemon," Clair calmly reminisced, "Though I remember her roster leaning more on the poison-type side."

"Several rumors say that her granddaughter, Christie, was blessed with a gift to attract ghost-type pokemon! Wanting her to make use of it, Agatha asked for Kanto's Sabrina and Johto's Morty to help her master her gift!"

John Doe, you're overly excited... Your eyes are telling that I have no chances of winning...

"Gift? Blessing? All my life, it has been nothing like that. For me, it was a curse." Her voice reached my ears.

OI JOHN DOE! Don't be insensitive you talkative reporter! She's clearly not taking it in a positive way you know?!

"Your first pokemons please." The referee was a bit troubled.

I apologize.

"Ninee!"

"Sabby."

I chose arcanine, while she let out a dark and ghost type pokemon sableye.

Kuh. Crunch won't deal much damage as I hoped.

"Ninee, fire fang!"

Arcanine growled, baring its fangs.

It gritted its teeth and like flint to a steel, flames burst and engulfed its fangs.

Arcanine is proud of its speed, it would surely be a direct hit!

For some reason, I felt weird... Like something's not right. I glanced at Christie and the corner of her lips curls into a smile.

What?!

Arcanine crashed into the ground face first. After recovering from the blunder, it started to shake its head.

"Ninee, are you alright?"

What happened?

He looked unstable, wavy. Could it be?

"Prankster is Sableye's ability. It makes certain moves go first," she held the teddiursa plushie's arms upwards, her eyes gleamed, "Moves just like confuse ray in particular."

Arcanine's confused!

... eh?

"Ninee?"

He's barking and growling at the empty air... This is bad, is he hallucinating from dizziness?

"Shadow claw."

Christie's sableye slowly peeked out from the ground. It melded into shadows, it's similar to what gengar does!

It smirked and giggled before it clawed towards arcanine. The blow tossed him away from sableye.

"Ninee, can you stand?"

It seems that arcanine can still hear me fine... It's just that it can't perform its moves correctly.

If this continues, arcanine would become sableye's plaything! Thus,

"Tch. Ninee, return!"

...

"Don't tell me," I forced the words to spill out from my mouth, my eyes met the Elite Four's, "Mean look?!"

She replied with a grin.

This woman... is one crazy person!

Sableye's gemstone eyes glimmered beneath arcanine's shadow.

"Ninee, dodge to your right!"

If he can hear things fine, then I should just order him with precise commands.

But things never did go well, arcanine jumped to the left and sableye's claws hit arcanine's body.

"Arcanine is unable to battle!"

"I'm sorry."

I apologized to arcanine who was defeated twice without any results.

In the next match, surely, you'll win.

My grip on the pokeball tightened.

Her style of battling is knocking out confused enemies...

Confusion, huh.

"Garfield."

Gengar slowly appeared from the ground.

"Hm. You're using the same line-up from earlier," the lady yawned, "How boring."

It's not like I have any other choice. I need to keep my cards hidden.

"Sabby."

Sableye vanished and returned to its pokeball... She's switching pokemon? Even though it's an advantageous typing?

Ghost-types are weak against fellow ghost-types. However, sableye is part dark-type and ghost-type moves deal normal damage.

In the match-up between gengar and sableye, the former is clearly in a disadvantage in terms of typing. I wanted her to feel that confidence and build a plan against her feeling of dominance or something... So why?

"Well, not that I'm against it," she smiled, "Your gengar seemed so skilled exorcising it may be fun."

... eh? Exorcising?

She let out her next pokemon...

"Hm? Oh, I'm sorry, you seem to be mistaken. Ghost-type pokemons are indeed attracted to me. But I was against using ghost-type pokemon I detest," her cold voice sent a chill to my spine, "As such, I use dark-type pokemon to instill fear to those phantoms."

I saw gengar's face paled, a face filled with terror.

In front of him, a liepard purrs, glaring down at him.

... scaring was supposed to be a ghost's job, don't you agree gengar?