[Painful memories? What's the streamer talking about?]
[No idea. Haunter looks terrified.]
[Did he just make a ghost cry?]
[This is so messed up.]
Watching Haunter tremble and whimper, Su Feng glanced at the chat and lowered his voice.
"Do you know... how Ghost-type Pokémon come to be?"
[Uh… from their parents, right?]
[No way. Ghosts must be Pokémon formed after death.]
[Do specific Pokémon turn into ghosts when they die?]
"Good guesses. You're partly right."
"Ghost-type Pokémon can be born through normal reproduction. But some also form when Pokémon with strong ghostly energy die. However… humans who die with unresolved resentment can also become Ghost-type Pokémon."
His calm explanation sent shockwaves through the chat.
[No way! You're saying humans can turn into Pokémon!?]
[Only those who die with deep grudges! Didn't you hear?]
[If true, seeing deceased family as Pokémon sounds bittersweet…]
[But they'd be born from suffering. Who'd want that for their loved ones?]
"Exactly. A Haunter's birth isn't a happy tale. They'd never choose this fate."
Su Feng gazed at the sobbing Haunter with pity.
The audience pieced it together.
[That "female ghost" Haunter mimicked… was that her human form before death?]
[This is heartbreaking…]
[No wonder the streamer stopped joking around.]
Gently patting Haunter's head—his hand phasing into its gaseous body, cool and soothing—Su Feng continued.
"Ghosts born from humans often linger where they died. Normal Haunters scare people simply—jump scares, chasing folks. But this Haunter recreated a detailed tragedy. The illusions… they were real."
"The 'woman' she became? That was her in life. The fire, the screams—she relived her final moments while trying to scare me. Maybe she didn't even know why she did it."
The villa had been renovated once but abandoned after "hauntings," leaving it derelict.
[God, I feel awful for Haunter…]
[That poor girl… burned, trapped, dying in flames… How绝望 must she have been?]
"Worse." Su Feng slumped beside Haunter, drained. "Her pleas for help—'I'm on fire! Take me out!'—were real. Someone abandoned her to escape alone."
"Dying in despair is terrible. Worse is clinging to hope… only to watch it vanish."
"I don't know if that person survived, or if they were right or wrong. But I'd carry her out. Every time."
[I'm crying… Haunter isn't scary anymore.]
[Streamer, you're actually kinda heroic here.]
[New fan alert!]
Haunter, sensing Su Feng's resolve, stopped crying and peered up timidly.
She didn't understand her own tears. As Su Feng said, her actions felt controlled by a forgotten self.
"Gast… (I wish I'd met someone like you back then.)"
Maybe her repeated haunting as the "woman" was a subconscious cry for salvation—a cry finally answered today.
"Gast."
Wiping her eyes, Haunter floated into Su Feng's arms, ignoring Torchic's side-eye. His warmth felt foreign yet comforting.
Torchic: "…Chirp."
Fine. You can have one arm.
"Come with me, if you'd like."
"Gast~"
Haunter nodded into his chest, hiding her face.
Su Feng smiled. "Then… welcome aboard, Haunter."
"Gast!"
As they exited the room, a group of Gastly and Gengar waited solemnly.
"These must be your family."
Haunter turned, blushing purple as her spectral relatives giggled like elders catching a daughter mid-date.
The largest Gengar—a patriarch—stepped forward, placing a clawed hand on Su Feng's shoulder.
"Gengar. (Take care of her.)"
No translation needed.
"I will."
The Gengar nodded, retreating into the shadows. Entrusting Haunter to Su Feng was best. They didn't want her trapped here for decades like them. The world awaited her.
And this man? He'd risk his life to protect her. They knew it.