Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 278: Gengar’s Three-Tier Reward (Part 1)

[Level: 84 (Level cap reached.)]

[Talent: Champion]

[Friendship: 100]

[Ability: Cursed Body]

[Gender: Male]

[Moves: Hypnosis (128%), Confuse Ray (128%), Mean Look (128%), Reflect Type (128%), Payback (128%), Grudge (128%), Skill Swap (128%), Curse (128%), Night Shade (128%), Dark Pulse (128%), Shadow Ball (128%), Destiny Bond (--), and more...]

[Description: This is a Pokémon that has traveled through time. After accompanying its former trainer through the remainder of his life, it spent nearly a century alone—just to see the trainer who rescued it from the sunken ship.]

Reading the description in the level info, Rio was deeply moved. He hadn’t expected that after returning to the past and spending Gus’s remaining years with him, Gengar had spent all that time waiting and longing for him. He’d thought the old ghost only had eyes for its former trainer—that even after returning to Gus, it wouldn’t necessarily come back to him. After all, a hundred years was a long time; many things could happen.

Gengar cackled. "Rio—long time no see! Are you happy to see me? Did you miss me?"

"Ah, wait—from your perspective, I’ve only been gone a short while. Damn it—I should have waited longer to come out, let you feel what it’s like to live without Old Ghost."

Halfway through its laugh, it started to regret it. It felt like it had lost out—it had waited a hundred years to see Rio again, but from Rio’s perspective, it had never really left. No sense of loss at all. It should have held off for another month or two to surprise him.

But while Gengar was grumbling, Rio stepped forward and embraced the plump ghost. "Welcome back, Gengar. I’m so happy to see you—so, so happy. I was afraid I’d never see you again," Rio said softly.

Hearing that, Gengar’s heart melted. It felt like a hundred years of waiting hadn’t been in vain—that its efforts were worth it.

"You’re so cheesy—you’re giving Old Ghost goosebumps. Get off, get off," Gengar said, pushing Rio away with reddened eyes.

But in Rio’s mind, a notification appeared:

[Gengar’s friendship increased.]

[Friendship: 100 (from -30 to 100)]

Seeing Gengar’s actions contradicting its words, Rio smiled.

"Eevee~" — Old Ghost, I thought I’d never see you again!

Eevee leaped out of Greninja’s arms and bounced into Gengar’s, snuggling against it.

"Gengar~" — Of course not, little Eevee! I missed you all so much.

Gengar lifted Eevee up high—it was one of its favorite games with the little one.

"Roaar~"

"Ka~"

"Annih~"

Charizard, Munchlax, and the others crowded around. They had thought Gengar was gone for good, and their sadness had been at its peak—only to turn around and see the old ghost floating out from behind Rio.

"So—you’ve been watching me all along? When Team Rocket first attacked Lavender Town, when I went to Pewter City, when I caught the Red Gyarados, when I went to Blaze Island—you were always there, secretly watching."

After Gengar had caught up with everyone, Rio asked about its experiences over the years. When he learned that Gengar had been waiting in Lavender Town since Mr. Fuji founded the Pokémon House, he was stunned.

"On the day I caught Mewtwo—the Pokémon that stopped Mewtwo’s Psychic attack and saved me—that was you, wasn’t it?"

"And yesterday—the one who knocked away my Poké Ball and used Lance’s dark Poké Ball to catch Celebi first—that was also you?"

"That’s right—all of it was me." Gengar cackled. "Rio, aren’t you grateful? Without me, you’d have been done for a long time."

"Thank you—I really appreciate it." Rio chuckled, but his mind was spinning as he processed Gengar’s story.

After hearing it all, he came to the same conclusion as Gengar: when you try to change history, it was already set in stone. You can’t change it. Lance and Gengar had both proven that.

First, Lance—he desperately wanted to stop Rio’s rise and keep Team Rocket dominant. So he traveled back two years to kill Rio when he was still a nobody. But he never expected that his actions would allow Rio to possess the boy named Nico. If Lance hadn’t done that, Rio might never have come to this world at all. How ironic.

Then Gengar—it wanted to change its separation from Gus. But every time it tried, some inexplicable accident would happen to stop it. In the end, it was still trapped in the sunken ship for a hundred years. After repeated failures, it came to accept that history cannot be changed. It adapted, stopped fighting the flow of time. And it was precisely that acceptance that led it to save Rio from Mewtwo at a critical moment—and to help Lance capture Celebi, which sent him back to kill the original owner of Rio’s body. Otherwise, none of it would have happened.

In the end, history is a circle that no one can escape. Every "change" you make was already part of the timeline.

"By the way, Rio—there’s one thing I’ve never understood," Gengar suddenly asked, voicing its deepest curiosity. "When Lance killed you, how did you change so completely? You were like a different person—your name, your personality, everything."

Hearing the question, Rio’s eyelid twitched. Being a transmigrator—that’s my biggest secret.

After three seconds of thought, Rio made a bold decision.