I'm the Owner of the Pokémon Day Care In the World of Pokémon
Chapter 1434: Spiritomb and the Mutated Plants

Chapter 1434: Spiritomb and the Mutated Plants

After Spiritomb was surrounded by Gengar and Mismagius, Lokoko pleaded, "Mr. Shimizu, can you ask this Spiritomb if it knows where Gwen and her family are?"

Unable to find any trace of Gwen’s family, Lokoko was extremely anxious.

Yuga nodded, then looked at Spiritomb and asked, "Have you seen a young girl around ten years old and her parents?"

Originally, Spiritomb was cowering in fear, but upon hearing Yuga ask about Gwen, it suddenly became aggressive and launched a Dark Pulse sweeping toward Gengar and Mismagius.

Gengar and Mismagius reacted quickly and disappeared from their original positions in the blink of an eye. After dodging the Dark Pulse, they both used Dazzling Gleam from either side, striking at Spiritomb.

Fairy-type Dazzling Gleam was super effective against Spiritomb, so Spiritomb was startled, its head shrank back, and the next second, it vanished into thin air. Both Dazzling Gleams missed their target.

Where did it go?

Yuga was startled by the scene.

However, while Yuga was surprised, Gengar and Mismagius were not. They had already figured out Spiritomb’s hiding place when it first appeared.

Gengar and Mismagius simultaneously launched Shadow Balls at a nearby wall. With a loud boom, a huge hole blasted open in the wall, and chunks of brick and stone fell from the opening. Among them was one very different-looking stone.

At the moment it fell, that strange stone floated into the air, and from within, a shadow embedded with green glowing dots emerged — who else could it be but Spiritomb?

Crack~

However, Spiritomb, whose hiding place had just been discovered, didn’t seem disappointed. Instead, it shouted excitedly and floated happily around in the air.

Yuga understood the language of Pokémon and realized that Spiritomb was shouting, "Freedom! Freedom! I’m finally free!"

So it turned out that Spiritomb wasn’t staying in the abandoned mansion of its own free will.

Speaking of which, this Spiritomb was quite unlucky. A long, long time ago, it had been a carefree Pokémon. One day, while passing by a mountain village, it was noticed by a human who wanted to capture it.

That human was weak and malicious. Spiritomb looked down on him and gave him a beating. Unexpectedly, a passing monk saw the scene.

The monk, not quite right in the head, assumed that Spiritomb was committing evil since it had hurt someone. He stepped in, defeated it, and sealed it away in the mountain not far from the village.

Time flew by, and many years later, the village had vanished. The stone sealing Spiritomb gradually blended into the surrounding mountain rock.

Decades ago, a wealthy businessman wanted to build a mansion and went to the mountain to quarry stone. By accident, he brought back the stone that sealed Spiritomb.

That stone had an array carved into it by the monk. Spiritomb couldn’t break it by itself, so it was bricked right into the mansion wall like an ordinary stone.

Previously, Yuga had been unable to find any trace of Spiritomb because the array on the stone concealed its presence.

Spiritomb was powerful. The monk had worried it might be released by some evildoer and bring disaster upon the world again, so he carved an array capable of hiding its energy and aura.

However, when workers were building the wall, they accidentally scraped off part of the array. This allowed Spiritomb’s soul to seep out through the damaged section.

Some time later, strange occurrences began to happen in the mansion. Unable to endure Spiritomb’s terrorizing any longer, the wealthy businessman moved away from Verdanturf Town, and the mansion was abandoned.

As time passed, the Ghost-type energy Spiritomb leaked was continuously absorbed by the plants inside the abandoned mansion, causing them to mutate and giving Spiritomb the ability to control them freely.

Though the array sealing Spiritomb was damaged, and its soul could escape, it still couldn’t stray too far from the stone that held the seal, limiting its range to the mansion’s vicinity.

To make its days less boring, Spiritomb began mischievously tormenting those who came to the abandoned mansion in search of "paranormal events."

Before being sealed, Spiritomb’s strength was far greater than it is now. It could easily toy with ordinary Trainers without being discovered. It’s only because its energy had been drained too much by those plants in the past several dozen seconds that its level started to drop rapidly.

However, while it did play pranks, Spiritomb had never actually harmed anyone. That’s also why no one ever took this place too seriously.

This Spiritomb was really quite foolish. Only after it had its fill of rampaging did it start thinking about escaping. But how could Gengar and Mismagius, who had been eyeing it like a tiger watching its prey, possibly allow that? They immediately surrounded it again.

Seeing this, Spiritomb used Ominous Wind, trying to blow Gengar and Mismagius away. But Lokoko, who had been waiting to the side and was worried about Gwen’s family, couldn’t help but make a move. A flash of purple light flickered in its eyes, and Spiritomb’s Ominous Wind mysteriously died down.

As a Master level Pokémon far above Spiritomb’s level, it wasn’t surprising that Lokoko could do this. But its action shocked Spiritomb greatly—it felt like disaster was about to strike again and was instantly filled with despair.

It had just escaped the wolf’s den; was it about to enter the tiger’s lair?

Spiritomb was clearly aware that it was no match for Yuga and the others. Its mind raced as it tried to figure out how to escape from the current predicament. However, the difference in power was simply too great, and Gengar and Mismagius gave it no opportunity.

In the blink of an eye, Gengar flickered and appeared behind Spiritomb. It then reached out and grabbed the keystone hanging behind Spiritomb.

The keystone was Spiritomb’s weak point. With Gengar’s grab, it was momentarily dazed, and Mismagius’s Shadow Ball followed right after.

With a loud "boom," Spiritomb fell from the air, and Yuga quickly threw a Poké Ball and captured it.

After picking up the Poké Ball containing Spiritomb, Yuga said to Gengar and Mismagius, "Alright, tidy this place up!"

"Gengar~"

"Mismagius~"

Gengar and Mismagius responded and disappeared from where they were. Not long after, all the bandits were dragged over. There were eight people in total, including the ones Yuga had encountered earlier. The rest had been found elsewhere by Gengar and Mismagius. All of them had been tormented by Spiritomb and were unconscious, their faces still bearing expressions of terror.

While those people were still unconscious, Yuga released Spiritomb again.

Spiritomb wasn’t seriously injured, and Yuga performed a simple treatment. It soon regained consciousness, but having been captured by Yuga, it was clearly a bit deflated in spirit.

It had only just regained freedom after being sealed, and now it was captured again. No one could be more unlucky than that!

Perhaps because its emotions had just undergone intense highs and lows, Spiritomb began to give in to despair. It no longer tried to resist Yuga and answered whatever questions Yuga asked.

It turned out that Gwen’s family hadn’t gone missing—they had been hidden away by Spiritomb.

Spiritomb was, at its core, a kind Pokémon. When the bandits had tied up Gwen’s family, it had realized those people were no good. So it took action and rescued them, hiding them away.

Later, when it was tormenting the bandits, Yuga and the others arrived. Spiritomb heard that they were also looking for Gwen’s family and mistakenly believed they were just like the bandits—also bad people—so it attacked them.

Under Spiritomb’s lead, Yuga and the others arrived at the abandoned mansion’s back garden. This was the place where the largest mutated plant in the area had taken root. Most of the vines growing on the mansion’s roof and walls originated from this plant.

However, due to long-term neglect, the garden had become extremely desolate, overrun by all sorts of wild and chaotic plants.

The most numerous among them was a vine species Yuga couldn’t recognize. More accurately, all the vine-type plants in this garden had spread out from a single plant. Because it had grown so luxuriantly, it merely looked like there were many individual plants.

This plant had likely been transplanted by the mansion’s original owner. Due to mutation, its root system had grown exceptionally thick—about as thick as the trunk of a large tree—and was hidden within the dense layers of vines.

At the base of the plant was a small hut woven entirely out of vines. Gwen’s family was inside. Because of the mutated plant’s special properties, Lokoko’s psychic power had been unable to scan this place.

Upon seeing Lokoko, Gwen was overjoyed. She ran out from the vine-woven house and threw herself into Lokoko’s arms.

"Lokoko, you came to save me! I was so scared, wuwuwu..."

As she spoke, Gwen began to cry. There was nothing she could do—she was just an ordinary girl who had never experienced anything like this before. It was natural for her to be frightened in such a situation.

Although her family had been saved by Spiritomb, they couldn’t communicate with it. After being brought here, they thought Spiritomb might intend to harm them.

This garden truly was eerie, so it was no wonder Gwen’s family thought that way.

"All right, it’s okay now. I won’t let anything happen to you," Lokoko kept comforting Gwen.

Lokoko’s parents, after understanding what had happened, repeatedly expressed their gratitude to Yuga.

"Gym Leader Shimizu, if it weren’t for you this time, we really wouldn’t have known what to do," Gwen’s father said emotionally.

In fact, Gwen wasn’t the biological daughter of her parents—she had been adopted. That was also why Lokoko’s attitude toward Gwen and her parents differed: Gwen was the descendant of his master, but the adoptive parents were not.

"Actually, I didn’t do much. It’s my responsibility to maintain security in Verdanturf Town. If you want to thank someone, thank Lokoko and this Spiritomb.

If Lokoko hadn’t gone for help, I wouldn’t have arrived so quickly. And if this Spiritomb hadn’t hidden you away, you wouldn’t have escaped the bandits so easily."

Yuga didn’t take all the credit for himself. He explained everything to Gwen’s parents. When they learned that the Spiritomb hadn’t intended to harm them and had instead helped them, they were immensely grateful to it.

The Spiritomb, whose heart had grown cold and lifeless, showed a trace of emotion upon receiving the gratitude of Gwen’s family. At least it hadn’t saved them in vain—someone still knew how to be grateful.

After learning that Spiritomb had rescued Gwen and her family, Yuga gained a good impression of it. That’s why he had said a few words on its behalf—so that its good deeds wouldn’t go unrecognized.

After rescuing Gwen and her parents, Yuga returned to Verdanturf Town with the eight bandits and went straight to the police station to find Masato Shirai.

Afterward, interrogating the bandits and comforting Gwen’s family became Masato Shirai’s responsibility, while Yuga brought Spiritomb back to the YoYo Day Care.

On the way, through talking with Spiritomb, Yuga learned about its past and felt deep sympathy for this unlucky creature.

However, Yuga didn’t just let it go—after all, it was an Elite level Pokémon. Letting it go for nothing would’ve been too much of a waste.

After returning home, Yuga began introducing the YoYo Day Care to Spiritomb, including all the Pokémon here, how they lived, what benefits and rights they had, and so on.

After some communication with the other Pokémon at the YoYo Day Care, Spiritomb finally stopped being so lifeless. Life here wasn’t bad—while it didn’t have complete freedom, Yuga had already granted them the greatest possible freedom to move around in the outside world.

After agreeing to stay at the YoYo Day Care, Spiritomb made another request to Yuga: it hoped Yuga could transplant the vine plant from the abandoned mansion’s garden back here.

Although that plant had grown at the cost of Spiritomb’s dropped levels, after decades of companionship, it had developed a bond with the plant.

Such a small request, of course Yuga wouldn’t refuse. After all, the Ecopark was spacious, and planting a few plants wasn’t a problem at all.

So, the next day, Yuga brought Shuuya, Windy, and Beidou with him back to the abandoned mansion. That plant was huge, and it would’ve been a bit troublesome for Yuga to clean it up by himself.

Now that the plant was no longer being controlled by Spiritomb, it had lost its aggressiveness. So, the process of cleaning it up wasn’t too difficult. Only Windy, being a homebody who rarely went outside, lacked physical stamina. He was gasping for breath after doing only a little work.

Yuga had tried to get this guy to go out and exercise more, but it was always three days of fishing and two days of drying the net. The occasional outings simply didn’t help at all.

Because the plant had grown far too vigorously, Yuga cut off most of its vines, leaving only the main portion. That way, it would be easier to transport and also more convenient for future planting.

There was no other way—it was just too big. Digging it out alone had already taken quite a bit of effort.

Even though Beidou and the others didn’t know why Yuga was working so hard to dig up this thing, they didn’t ask much. After it was dug up, they helped Yuga transport the plant back home.

After having a discussion with Spiritomb, Yuga decided to plant the mutated plant next to the stone fortress in the Haunted House sub-ecopark.

On one hand, this was because Spiritomb would be settling in the Haunted House sub-ecopark from now on, and of course, it should take care of its own plant. On the other hand, the mutated plant could absorb Ghost-type energy to grow, and the special environment of the Haunted House sub-ecopark was just right for it.

After bringing the plant into the Haunted House sub-ecopark, Yuga started huffing and puffing as he dug a hole and planted it. This thing was so huge that planting it was actually quite troublesome.

While Yuga was busy planting, Mewtwo had just finished an experiment and was lying on the rooftop of the stone fortress to rest. Seeing Yuga so busy, it flew over and asked:

"What are you planting? I’ve never seen it before. Is it an energy plant?"

In the Pokémon world, plants are divided into ordinary plants and energy plants.

Ordinary plants are abundant—basically all the flowers and grasses in the wild. Energy plants, on the other hand, are those like Berry trees and Revival herbs, which contain various elemental or special energies.

The Ghost Vine that Yuga was planting had originally been just an ordinary plant, but due to Spiritomb, it had mutated into some kind of an energy plant.