Chapter 150: The Truth of a Thousand Years Ago

"I... also thought it was the Art of Spiritization! Hahaha..." Amu gave an awkward chuckle.

However, once the Art of Spiritization was mentioned, Amu actually had an impression of it.

Wasn't this the secret technique used by Kato Dan in Naruto?

Except for him, it seemed no one else knew how to use it...

It appeared that the Kato clan had simply died out during the era of shinobi villages following Kato Dan's death. There might still be descendants with their bloodline, but the heritage itself was gone.

Lin glanced at him twice, instinctively feeling that this fellow was up to no good, but... right now, he had no choice but to rely on him!

"The Art of Spiritization... can turn you into Gastly?" Amu asked in surprise.

"That's right. This is the special ability of our clan, allowing our souls to transform into Ghost-type Pokémon. However, only an extremely small number of the strongest... or in your terms, at least Elite-level Trainers, can possibly succeed... Follow me first!" Lin said, taking the lead for Amu.

"So you really have existed for a thousand years?" Amu asked the question he cared about the most.

A thousand years...

Aside from Legendary Pokémon, surely only certain special Pokémon could achieve that through long periods of hibernation?

"You could say that... But out of the whole year, I am only awake for these three days." Lin's voice sounded cold and aloof.

"Awake? Then when you're not awake..." Amu inexplicably recalled the two lackeys from earlier.

"Because of... certain events, we have remained trapped within these three days from a thousand years ago. In reality, we have long since died," Lin said very calmly.

Amu hadn't traveled back a thousand years; instead, he had entered the interstice of time ripples.

"What on earth did you do? Was it... Celebi that trapped you here?" Amu asked in confusion.

Lin fell silent for a moment before saying, "No, it was our own greed."

At that moment, Lin led Amu to the entrance of a cave, brushing away the surrounding vegetation so the two of them could squeeze inside.

"It's safe here for now. Let's... wait for dawn! There's still one day left," Lin said calmly.

Seeing that Amu still looked at him with questioning eyes after entering, Lin understood that unless he explained things clearly, Amu likely wouldn't cooperate so easily.

Furthermore... there was nothing left that couldn't be said.

A thousand years ago, the Kato clan, who had a special affinity with Ghost-type Pokémon, possessed undeniable strength despite being feared and ostracized by other clans due to the unique nature of Ghost types.

Around that time, a baby girl was born into the clan who was naturally able to perceive the presence of time ripples—time ripples being a special "force field" where Celebi replenished its energy. Any stray travelers affected by them would gain the ability to foresee the future!

That baby girl gradually grew up and became the later Kato Ao, the prototype of the "Millennium Girl."

Kato Ao's ability caused the Kato clan to harbor ambitions regarding Celebi...

Coupled with the death of the clan's old patriarch in battle, the new patriarch, Kato Feng, was young, hot-blooded, and eager for revenge. Finally, when Kato Ao perceived that the next time ripple would appear very close to the Kato clan's territory, he made up his mind to make a desperate gamble!

Because if a time ripple was not absorbed by Celebi, it would fail to release its transformed life energy, often causing vitality to wither in the local area...

Therefore, both Kato Ao and the vast majority of the Kato clan's warriors believed that the patriarch intended to find Celebi, beseech it for power, and make Kato Ao the wielder of the Legendary Pokémon's power. Kato Ao herself had even been left behind at the port to wait.

In reality, however, Kato Feng intended to ambush Celebi while it was absorbing the time ripple, forcibly capturing Celebi and usurping the power of the time ripple!

Kato Feng had only shared this plan with Kato Rin and Kato Hou... Even Kato Shan—one of the four Elite-level Trainers of the Kato clan who could also use the Art of Spiritization at the time—knew nothing of it.

The power of a Legendary Pokémon is immense...

It can almost be considered a "god" in the broad sense.

Yet even in modern times, there are many "mysterious organizations" that operate with "Legendary Pokémon" as their targets—humanity never lacks individuals who dare to dream and dare to act!

However, the fate of the Kato clan was just like that of the vast majority of people who dared to mess with Legendary Pokémon...

Clearly, Kato Feng's plan did not go as desired, suffering a severe setback right at the first step—even though Celebi looked cute and seemed easy to bully in the movies, in this world... it was not so easily ambushed, not even while it was in the middle of absorbing time ripples!

Kato Shan, who had discovered their plan, swapped the "sacrifice" they had prepared to ambush Celebi with something unknown.

Thinking back on it now, it was thanks to Kato Shan's swap; otherwise, given Celebi's power, their chances of success would still have been slim, and it would merely have caused the vitality of the entire Kato clan's homeland to wither away.

Even when remembering the circumstances of those years, Kato Rin suspected that they had been deceived as well, and that the sacrifice used to "ambush" Celebi, borrowed from another Ghost-type clan, likely had some contingency trap left behind in it!

The result of their ambush merely threw the time ripples into disorder...

This not only prevented Celebi from absorbing the complete time ripple, causing this sea area to remain dead and desolate for a long time, but also... trapped every single warrior of the Kato clan in disordered time.

However, it seemed that the "sacrifice" swapped by Kato Shan had appeased Celebi, which was why it hadn't completely exterminated them.

Yet for a full thousand years thereafter, they were unable to break free from the chaotic time, endlessly repeating these three days.

They were either ambushing Celebi or preparing to ambush Celebi...

Initially, everyone's memories were reset over and over again with the disordered time. Even when their Pokémon had grown old and died of old age within the flow of time, they remained unaware of it, only reshaping their memories—I only have two Pokémon partners, I only have one Pokémon partner... I... have no partners, I came here by myself!

Only those with an exceptionally high bond with their Pokémon gradually discovered the existence of the loop as they recalled, "Where did my partner go?"

Kato Rin was one of them...

When he prepared to fight alone, he "accidentally" shouted the name of his Gengar, and then... slowly began to understand what was happening.

At that point, as long as he left this island, he would obtain "eternal rest"—his physical body only existed within this interstice of time, and the moment he stepped outside, he would turn to ashes.

However, the Ghost-type "Gastly" would not!

The time ripples here appeared once every thousand years, though there were minor fluctuations every year—and when he used the Art of Spiritization to transform into a "Gastly" and slipped out during one of these minor fluctuations...

Only then did Kato Rin realize that hundreds of years had already passed.

As it turned out, back when the time ripples experienced abnormal fluctuations, Kato Ao had discovered the truth and appeased Celebi's anger—after all, Celebi was naturally a Legendary Pokémon with a very good temper.

Kato Ao assisted Celebi in re-collecting the power of the time ripples, restoring vitality to this place...

However, this island plunged into the time interstice and failed to "recover."

Afterward, in order to guide them back, Kato Ao ignored Celebi's warnings, unleashed her full power to resonate with the time ripples until she suffered a backlash... and turned into stone.

Kato Ao did not know the Art of Spiritization, but Kato Rin could sense that her soul was still present...

To sustain her existence, Kato Rin did not choose "eternal rest" alone. Instead, he would appear at Maiden's Peak every year, continually deepening people's impression of the "Millennium Girl," as this was the best nourishment for the "soul."

Because of his initial concealment, Kato Rin felt he had let Kato Ao down, so he never revealed his true identity, acting as if he were merely an ordinary "Gastly." Yet he had a vague feeling... that Kato Ao probably knew everything, she simply chose not to say it.