The south of the island didn't feel like a place meant for humans.
It felt like the island's lungs had rotted and decided to breathe anyway.
The air turned yellow the deeper Enzo walked, thick with heat and a stench that clawed up his throat—sulfur and something worse. Rotten eggs left in the sun. Wet stone sweating poison. Even the wind felt heavy, like it was dragging itself.
Enzo wrapped a damp cloth over his mouth and nose. The fabric helped, barely. His eyes still burned.
On his shoulder, the baby Rookidee—no longer trembling as it had on the mountain—shifted its talons and stared into the haze without blinking. It showed no discomfort at all. No flinch, no coughing, no hesitation.
Enzo glanced up at it. "You okay?"
The answer wasn't words. Not yet. But the feeling that pushed back through Enzo's new senses was simple and steady:
Fine.
If anything, the bird looked… curious.
Enzo exhaled through the cloth.
"Good."
Then he clicked another ball.
Light spilled out, and Koffing formed with a happy wobble—like it had been waiting for this exact place its whole life.
The purple sphere inhaled dramatically.
Deep.
Greedy.
Like it was drinking the cave air.
A telepathic sigh rolled into Enzo's skull, thick and satisfied.
"Haaappy…"
Enzo's eyes narrowed.
Koffing spun once, then twice, basking in the toxic fog like it was perfume.
Then the voice returned, eager and stupid.
"Mas… ter… time… to go… bum?"
"No," Enzo said immediately.
Koffing froze mid-spin.
It drooped.
"…Sad."
Enzo ignored it and kept walking.
The strangest part wasn't the smell.
It was the silence.
They passed wild Pokémon—shapes moving in the yellow air, eyes glinting from behind rocks—Zubat silhouettes clinging to ceilings, Geodude lumps half-buried in warm stone, something like Grimer oozing in a shallow crack.
None came close.
None challenged him.
None even tested him.
They sensed the unstable bomb floating beside him. They moved away.
Enzo smiled behind the cloth.
Good.
After an hour of careful movement, he found what he wanted: a small side cave branching off the main tunnels, more ventilated, with a thin spring of water bubbling out of a crack in the rock. The air here was still sour, but breathable. The ceiling was low enough to trap warmth, but open enough to keep the gas from pooling.
A hiding place.
Enzo stepped in and let his shoulders drop for the first time since leaving the base.
No one would follow him here.
Not unless they had a death wish.
"Perfect," he murmured.
Koffing bobbed happily like it agreed, when actually he was just thinking of his future self-destruct.
He turned the cave into a home in under an hour.
Ultraviolet (UV) lanterns went up first—two at the entrance, angled outward. The harsh light washed the tunnel mouth in a pale glow that made the shadows look sick.
Zubat hated it.
They'd stay away.
Next came the incubator, still empty, but Enzo powered it up anyway. The little device hummed, steady, testing its voltage like a heartbeat in the dark.
He set it aside where it wouldn't tip.
Then the "kitchen": a flat stone, a battered mixing bowl, berry paste containers, mineral binders, and a little pile of carefully measured ingredients. Nothing fancy.
But with the System?
Enough.
And after all that he could start the training.
Rookidee hopped down from Enzo's shoulder the moment the space was cleared, wings flicking, eyes bright. It didn't hide like a baby anymore.
It wanted to fight.
It puffed up, stomped twice, and stared at the cave mouth like it was daring the whole island to come in.
Enzo crouched beside it. "Easy."
The bird stared at him like easy was a foreign concept.
Enzo's lips twitched. "Fine. You want work? You'll get work."
He didn't drag it into a death match.
He didn't throw it into something it couldn't handle.
He built a routine.
A regimen.
Simple. Repeating. Cruel in the right way.
Day Training Regime (Cave Circuit):
Warm-up: short sprints between rocks, wing flaps against the wind tunnel, repeated jumps from stone to stone.
Precision: pecking small pebbles out of the air as Enzo tossed them, training timing and control.
Core move: Hone Claws before engagement, every fight starts with it.
Finisher: Peck when close, Power Trip when the opponent is already weakened or intimidated.Cooldown: one medium-grade Pokéblock piece as a reward, and water from the spring.
It worked because Enzo didn't just train moves.
He trained habits.
He trained discipline.
And, because he didn't want constant battles, he did something smarter:
He paid for sparring.
When a low-level wild Pokémon wandered too close, Enzo didn't always chase it off. Sometimes he offered a Pokéblock piece like a coin.
A deal.
A controlled fight.
A chance to learn without the risk of being hunted by everything in the caves.
The wilds weren't kind, but hunger was universal.
So they came.
Zubat would swoop in, taste the air, and circle.
Geodude would roll out of the dark, fists clenched.
A small Sandshrew once showed up, sniffing the ground, looking confused by the smell.
Rookidee met them all with the same hungry aggression.
It fought like it hated losing more than it loved winning.
And Enzo… kept praising.
Not softly.
Not warmly.
But often.
"Good angle."
"Good timing."
"Again."
"You're going to be a monster."
Rookidee puffed up every time, proud to the bone. The mental feeling it pushed back was sharper now, more distinct.
Happy.
By the third day down here, the baby phase was gone. The bird was still small compared to adults, but it had the posture of something that thought it owned the cave.
It started to form actual words in Enzo's mind. Broken. Simple. But real.
"Train… more."
Enzo smirked. "You'll get it."
Koffing, unfortunately, also wanted to "train."
Which meant chaos.
At one point, Enzo arranged a spar with a Zubat—low level, cautious, willing to trade a fight for food.
Enzo pointed. "Koffing. Use Smog."
Koffing inhaled.
Then turned—
And blasted Smog directly into the empty tunnel wall.
The Zubat stared.
Enzo stared.
The fog rolled away harmlessly, poisoning absolutely nothing.
Koffing vibrated with pride as it had just accomplished a brilliant tactical maneuver.
Koffing grinned. "Did... I... win?"
Enzo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Wrong direction."
Koffing spun slowly, confused.
"Bum?" it asked hopefully.
"No."
Koffing drooped.
The Zubat—still hovering there like it didn't know whether to laugh or flee—got an awkward little piece of Pokéblock anyway.
Enzo tossed it with a sigh. "Sorry."
The Zubat ate it, then left as fast as it could.
Koffing floated closer, sulking telepathically.
"Mas… ter… why… no bum?"
"Because I'm trying to train, not die!" Enzo said.
"Bum… is… training."
" We're inside a cave, you idiot!"
Enzo stared at it.
Then he looked at Rookidee, who looked back with bright, eager eyes.
The contrast was almost funny.
Almost.
By the end of the week, the progress was undeniable.
Rookidee wasn't just stronger.
It was bigger—noticeably larger than normal Rookidee of its age, with tighter muscles, denser frame, and wings that didn't tremble in the gas-heavy air.
Enzo ran his hand along its feathers—contact—and the System answered.
[ POKÉMON PROFILE — ]
Specimen: Rookidee (VIRUS ACTIVE)
Level: 11
Potential: LIGHT BLUE
Moves: Peck (Flying) | Power Trip (Dark) | Hone Claws (Dark) | Leer (Normal)
Enzo's gaze lingered on the level.
Eleven.
He exhaled, satisfied.
"Soon," he murmured. "You'll evolve. And then we'll see what kind of monster you really are."
Rookidee puffed up and shoved a thought into him like a punch.
"Bigger?"
Enzo's smile sharpened. "Yeah. Bigger."
Koffing floated in from the side, vibrating.
"Bum?"
Enzo didn't even look at it. "No."
"Oh…"
That night, Enzo tried to rest.
Not sleep exactly.
Not properly.
More like… forcing his body to lie still while his new brain attempted to understand itself.
Junior Psychic...
He could feel minds now, simple ones like Koffing, instinctive ones like wild Pokémon.
He could hear emotion.
Intent.
Hunger.
Fear.
He lay on his back, eyes half-closed, listening to the cave breathe.
Koffing floated nearby, humming softly to itself.
Rookidee slept with its head tucked, surprisingly calm, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Enzo's thoughts slowed.
Then—
Something touched the edge of his telepathy.
It wasn't Koffing's eager stupidity.
It wasn't Rookidee's proud hunger.
It was… playful.
And wrong.
A mind that didn't feel like survival.
A mind that felt like entertainment.
Enzo didn't move.
He kept his breathing steady.
He closed his eyes fully and reached for the other skill.
Remote Scan.
The System didn't need contact for that.
It simply… opened a slit in the dark.
And Enzo saw.
A silhouette of gas, hovering near the cave mouth.
A face of white eyes and a grin that didn't belong to anything alive.
And worse—
His knife.
Floating in the air.
Held by nothing.
Just a slow, careful lift, like someone was raising it only to watch it fall.
Enzo's pulse stayed calm.
The System delivered the data in a cold blink.
[ REMOTE SCAN — TARGET LOCKED ]
Specimen: Gastly
Level: 12
Potential: GREEN (Excellent)
Obs: "Target displays sadistic curiosity while levitating the host's knife, intending to startle. This Gastly has been curiously spying on you since you reached the mountains."
Enzo opened his eyes.
Still didn't move.
He spoke inside his head—sharp, clear, aimed like a blade.
"If you drop that, I'll put you in a Poké Ball and bury you in the volcano."
The gas silhouette froze.
The knife stopped mid-air.
For a heartbeat, the cave was silent.
Then the shadow drifted forward, slow and amused, like it couldn't believe what it had just heard.
The Gastly emerged into the UV spill at the cave mouth—grinning wide, eyes bright.
Its voice slid into Enzo's skull like cold smoke.
"Human… talk?"
Enzo sat up slowly, keeping his hands visible.
"Human talks," he answered mentally. "And human sees you."
The grin widened.
"See… me?"
Enzo's eyes narrowed. "You've been following us since the mountain."
Gastly hovered in place, delighted.
"…Maybe."
Enzo let the silence stretch.
Then he pushed again, calm and direct.
"You've had enough time watching. Why not join us?"
Gastly drifted closer, curious now, eyes flicking from Enzo to the sleeping Rookidee… to the floating Koffing.
Koffing woke up instantly, happy to sense "new thing."
"Bum?" it asked in Enzo's head, hopeful.
Enzo didn't answer it.
He answered Gastly.
"Staying here is boring," Enzo thought. "You're stronger than the Zubat and the Geodude. You're wasting your time down here."
Gastly's grin twitched.
Enzo lifted one hand and revealed a small cube, a Pokéblock prepared for ghost-types.
"With me," Enzo continued, "you will see the world. We explode things. And you eat like a king."
Koffing got excited at the mention of explosions.
Gastly floated closer.
It didn't bite.
It licked.
Cold washed over Enzo's fingers instantly—numbing, paralyzing for a second.
He didn't flinch.
Gastly's eyes gleamed.
"Fun."
Enzo's gaze sharpened.
"Good."
He took a normal Poké Ball, stepped forward, and tapped it gently against Gastly's forehead.
No struggle.
No fight.
Gastly let it happen while laughing inside Enzo's skull.
Light swallowed the ghost.
The ball hit the ground.
One shake.
Two.
Click.
Captured.
The System blinked immediately, as if it had been waiting.
[ VIRUS SYSTEM PROMPT ]
Compatible target detected.
Transmit VIRUS to Pokémon?
YES / NO
Enzo stared at the word YES.
Then he looked at the three balls in his hand.
Koffing: a bomb with a brain made of fog.
Rookidee is already light blue and is a true training addict.
Gastly: Green… and smart.
Enzo's mouth tightened.
He answered without hesitation.
"No."
The prompt vanished.
Enzo exhaled slowly.
He didn't need to force it.
Not yet.
He believed in something else, something more ambitious.
With the right Pokéblocks.
With the right training.
With the right pressure—
He could push Gastly to Deep Green.
And once it was Deep Green…
Then the System could "nudge" it.
To Light Blue.
A second prodigy.
Something he'd never even dreamed of in his last life—even as a Squad Leader.
Enzo looked down at the three Poké Balls.
A real beginning.
He checked the mission clock in the corner of his vision.
Thirty-two days left until the Day 50 exam.
Enzo's eyes hardened into something almost eager.
He whispered, more to himself than to them:
"We're going to turn this island inside out."
And somewhere in the darkness, Koffing vibrated happily.
"Bum…?"
Enzo sighed.
"…Later."