Now that the [Shadow Contract] had been established, Tetsuya and Gengar had already become an inseparable whole.
Of course, this was limited to situations where there were shadows.
When darkness shrouded everything and there were no human shadows around, Gengar could also move freely. However, since its mind was connected with his own, it still could not go too far away. All of this had been explained very clearly in the secret records of the Matsuba Family.
As for the Mega Gengar within the Matsuba mausoleum that he currently knew of, it had established [Shadow Contracts] with four different people. Why it was able to Mega Evolve, however, was something he did not know…
Hopefully, within the final possessions left behind by Matsuba IV in the Unova region, he would be able to find the answer.
After wandering within the forest for another half month, ten out of the twenty Poké Balls had already been used up.
The level of the ten Pokémon he had caught was fairly good, but their aptitude and potential were all very average, so he was still searching. If there truly was no other option, then he would have no choice but to select one from among those ten. At worst, he could still exchange them for supplies.
As Tetsuya walked along, without realizing it, he arrived at the original location of the poisonous miasma forest.
The forest that had originally been shrouded in poisonous miasma had already disappeared. The Poison-type Pokémon had lost their former habitat, and many had already left.
The deeper Tetsuya went, the more noisy voices he could hear.
Following the sound…
It was precisely the mountain hollow where the two Swalot had originally been located, and that cave entrance was still there.
There were six people at the mountain hollow, all feeding Antidotes to their Pokémon.
"Tcht, that Weezing is way too strong!"
"But it doesn't really look like a Weezing, right…? It looks more like a Koffing."
"Who cares what kind of monster it is! In any case, it's absurdly strong."
"It isn't exactly strong, it's just that the toxicity is too fierce. The moment you touch it, you get poisoned. How are we supposed to fight that!?"
"Un, and this poison is strange too. After Pokémon are poisoned, their entire bodies start turning cold."
"Are you guys still going in…?"
"No, no. If we end up poisoning ourselves, we're finished."
---◓---
After listening to the discussion of these six people, Tetsuya instead felt somewhat surprised.
First of all, he had no choice but to "admire" their courage. Even he did not dare casually enter such an unknown cave, yet they were actually so fearless. It seemed they were also very confident in their own strength.
Indeed, any one of the twenty people currently on Shadow Island could casually surpass people of the same age by several levels once they went outside.
Tetsuya had already left this place for several months. Back then, this cave had gathered together all the poisonous miasma of the forest. Even "Poison Kings" like Swalot had not dared to enter. If that poisonous miasma was still present, these few people would absolutely have been incapable to enter. If it was no longer there, then where had it gone?
Tetsuya walked over and asked, "Yo! There isn't any miasma inside the cave?"
The six people glanced at Tetsuya, still with a certain amount of reverence in their hearts, and said, "Miasma? There isn't any."
"…Then what is there?" Tetsuya pressed further.
"Oh? Just a Weezing!"
"No, it isn't a Weezing, absolutely not!"
The six Trainers started discussing again.
'…'
Tetsuya had already entered the cave. Houndoom led the way in front, while Beedrill followed behind. Both were Pokémon that did not fear poison, and with Gengar protecting him as well, there was nothing much to worry about.
Just after entering the cave, he discovered many corpses of Zubat, Golbat, Koffing, and Weezing. 'These Pokémon really like staying inside caves…'
A cave that even Swalot had not dared to enter. One could imagine just how concentrated the poisonous miasma had been. These Pokémon definitely had not managed to escape in time and had been poisoned to death inside.
Even Poison-type Pokémon could be poisoned to death!
The deeper he went, the more corpses there were. According to what those Trainers had said, there was still one Pokémon inside this cave.
The more he thought about it, the more anticipation he felt.
In his previous life, Tetsuya had always used extreme methods to carry out "survival of the fittest" among Pokémon, thereby selecting the single strongest Pokémon.
Breeding the [Badly Poisonous Drapion] and completing that entire series of inheritance had only been the first step of raising it. Naturally, the purpose was to increase the chances of successful raising and make its moves more diverse.
For the young Skorupi that had been raised, he would have them swallow the specially-made Toxic Orb he created himself.
The Toxic Orb was a terrifying Item that gathered together all kinds of poisons and toxins. Ordinary Pokémon would become poisoned from merely touching it once. Even ordinary Poison-type Pokémon that directly swallowed a Toxic Orb would have their organs burst and die. Only those capable of surviving were considered qualified Skorupi.
Now, being able to survive within a cave like this was equivalent to helping him conduct a free round of selection.
As he gradually went deeper into the cave, he only felt the temperature becoming lower and lower. Tetsuya also could not help curling up his body. Back then, Piloswine had blown Blizzard here for four entire months, all of it pouring into the cave, so the coldness was only natural.
Upon reaching the deeper part of the cave, there was still some thin miasma remaining. This amount of miasma was no longer enough to poison people, but just to be safe, Tetsuya still put on a gas mask.
Only after reaching the very deepest part did he discover the "Weezing" those six people had spoken of, currently "devouring" the poisonous miasma in the air.
'Could it be that all the miasma throughout the entire cave had been absorbed by this fellow?'
The moment it saw Tetsuya, that "creature" immediately revealed a cautious expression!
At this moment, Houndoom and Beedrill had already assumed battle stances.
Tetsuya could now clearly see the appearance of this creature. It was not a "Weezing"…
More specifically, it was a… conjoined Koffing?
In his previous life, while searching for ancient records regarding Poison-type Pokémon, Tetsuya had seen a creature like this before. Normally, "Weezing" evolved from two Koffing fusing together. After evolving, the poison sacs would exist at the connecting point between the two bodies.
However, there was also an extremely tiny chance that when a Koffing was born, due to a sudden environmental mutation, a conjoined Koffing like this would appear. This was equivalent to conjoined twins. The two heads did not have any obvious size difference, nor was there any connecting object between them, so there was a huge difference compared to Weezing.
Triplet Weezing have been discovered, although they are extremely rare¹[1].
If the records within that book had been correct, then a conjoined Koffing like this, its two toxic gases appear to be different. The intensity of its toxicity far surpassed ordinary Poison-type Pokémon, and also becomes more putrid.
All the Poison-types throughout the entire cave had died, yet it was capable of devouring all the poisonous miasma within the cave. One could clearly see how terrifying such an ability was.
A Koffing like this caused even the [Badly Poisonous] Drapion and Ariados variants he had raised in his previous life to pale in comparison before it.
In his previous life, Tetsuya had never encountered such a Pokémon even once throughout his entire life. He had never expected to encounter one here.
If he could catch this Koffing, then his trip to this Shadow Island would truly be worth it!
The only shortcoming was that it had already mutated. For a Koffing like this to evolve into Weezing, it would need to combine with another identical conjoined Koffing.
A single conjoined Koffing like this was already something encountered only once in a hundred years, let alone two of them…
If it evolved, it would effectively become a four-headed Weezing. Between every pair of heads, thin tubes with another sphere would form, which means it would possess four different toxins!
A quadruplet Weezing like this could completely be called the number one Poison-type in the world. Even the Poison-type Ultra Beasts that later appeared in the Alola region would not possess such terrifying toxicity.
However, all of this was merely fantasy. Right now, being able to catch this Koffing was the true priority. As for whether he would ever encounter such an opportunity again in the future… that could only depend on fate!
And Arceus…
"Prepare to move, subdue Koffing!"
•.
•.
¹. Canon. Also, read the "biology" section on bulbapedia about Weezing.
[1] Canon.