Through the rest of the afternoon, Gastly stretched its long tongue out and licked Arbok from head to tail. Officially, this was just Lick — though Luke had a growing suspicion Gastly was less interested in the paralysis effect and more interested in the venom itself.
Sure enough, paralysis kicked in, and Arbok stiffened and collapsed to the ground, the poison glands along its jaw visibly shrinking. Luke opened his mouth to call a stop several times and hesitated each time. Eh — interrupting someone mid-meal feels rude, honestly.
Across the field, Vera — an Elite-tier Poison specialist in her own right — looked completely at a loss. Sure, Gastly had quadruple resistance, but there was no reasonable explanation for Arbok getting dominated this badly.
Who exactly trained this thing?!
"Hey, kid." Vera's jaw tightened. "What does your family even do for a living?"
"Because a family that can raise a Gastly like THIS has no business paying for a training club."
Luke sighed. "Honestly, I'd love to know that myself."
This shouldn't be happening. How is Gastly this dominant against Arbok? Did something go wrong somewhere down the line?
Whatever Vera saw in his genuinely baffled expression took the edge off her frustration. She recalled Arbok with a resigned sigh.
"Don't come back to this club," she said.
Luke blinked. "Wait, why?"
"Have you SEEN my Arbok? It's basically bled dry."
Its toxin reserves were badly drained and wouldn't recover any time soon. Luke left the facility feeling genuinely guilty, muttering to himself.
"I never realized Koga's dirty tactics extended all the way into his training methods too."
"Guy is clearly not someone I want to owe any more favors."
______________________________
Even without fully mastering Toxic yet, Gastly's overall handling of Poison-type matchups had clearly leveled up over the afternoon — and Arbok's venom, absorbed into the mix, promised to make its eventual Toxic even nastier down the line. Luke had mostly just stood there watching, sure, but he was fairly confident he'd still contributed something essential.
"Could it be," Luke mused, "that I'm just naturally gifted at this training thing?"
"Kojie!"
Then he actually looked at Gastly and paused. Something was off. After soaking up Arbok's venom, the mist around it had shifted a sickly dark green, small bubbles popping intermittently along its surface. As it floated, a faint sloshing sound came from somewhere inside its body. A few drops of something leaked out and hit the pavement, hissing and eating small pits into the stone.
Gastly grinned, a little sheepish.
Luke's face changed instantly. "We're going to the Pokémon Center. Now."
"Kojie?"
Before it could react, a burst of red light pulled it back into its ball.
______________________________
The Pokémon Center wasn't far. Luke burst through the lobby doors, handed Gastly's ball to the nurse on duty, and bowed deeply.
"Please, take care of it!"
She smiled warmly. "Don't worry, the exam should take about half an hour. Have a seat."
Luke sat down on a bench, a chill running down his spine, wiping sweat off his forehead, gnawing anxiously at his fingernail.
Thirty minutes later, the red light above the exam room flicked to green. A grim-faced doctor pulled off his mask, watching Luke practically sprint over.
"In a situation like this..."
"Doctor, is it serious?!"
"In a situation like this..."
"DOCTOR. Just tell me."
The doctor shot him a flat look.
"Your Gastly just ate too much. I'll write up something for indigestion."
"...Huh?"
A distinctly glossy, well-fed Gastly floated out of the exam room a moment later, surrounded by a cluster of amused nurses, shaking its head.
"Kojie!" It shot Luke a distinctly annoyed look. Why did you send me to the ER over nothing?!
Luke, relief flooding through him, glared right back. "You scared the LIFE out of me!"
Gastly had been resting for over half an hour — the dark green tint had faded some, though a faint blue still lingered underneath.
The doctor explained: "This was just a mild rejection response from absorbing another Pokémon's toxins directly. Shouldn't cause any lasting issues on its own." He paused, smiling. "Also, your Gastly's got quite the appetite on it."
He reached out and poked Gastly playfully — then froze mid-motion and dropped straight to the floor.
"DOCTOR?! Are you okay?! DOCTOR!"
"Ha, ha, just kidding — I used to be a Trainer myself, back in the day..."
"Doctor, you're foaming at the mouth—"
"Minor stuff, nothing to worry about, ha ha ha!"
The doctor finished writing up Luke's report with visibly trembling hands. It left Luke with a renewed, deep respect for the medical professionals of the Orient region.
The rejection response wasn't expected to last more than a day at most — a documented reaction, in fact, already noted with a full explanation in Koga's Toxic Experience. Still, Luke couldn't help hovering anxiously the whole way home, terrified something worse might surface without warning.
______________________________
The sun dipped low as Luke trudged down the street, exhausted, Gastly drifting beside him, subdued.
"No more pushing yourself like that," Luke said, unusually serious. "Whether it's a new move or becoming some big-shot Trainer — none of it matters more to me than you do."
"Kojie..." Gastly's mood stayed low, floating along quietly at his side.
Luke's original reluctance about the Trainer life had always been personal — fear for his own safety, dread of watching his money evaporate. Somewhere along the way, though, that fear had quietly shifted. Now it was Gastly's safety keeping him up at night.
Ever since the world had shifted around him, Luke kept circling back to the same question: did Pokémon genuinely want this — the training, the battles — or were they simply swept along by whatever their Trainer demanded of them?
He didn't judge the profession itself. But for himself personally, neither Champion nor Trainer held any real pull. All he really wanted was to quietly enjoy sharing this world with Gastly, nothing more.
"Hey." Luke smiled. "Don't look so down."
He reached into Gastly's Haze and gently pried the corners of its mouth upward with his fingers. A faint tingle ran up his hand.
"Smile."
"Kojie kojie~!!" Tears splattered everywhere, but Gastly forced the grin through anyway.
Because if there was one thing Gastly wanted more than anything, it was this: to pay Luke back. To stand beside him at the very top of this world, whatever that took. Covered in scars if it had to be — it would make good on that, no matter what.
Master never seemed to have time for it himself, but Gastly had quietly connected the dots. Why else would he spend all that time on strategy games if not to keep sharpening himself for the Trainer path?
This has to be his dream. He's just been working toward it quietly this whole time.
I have to work just as hard.
As the sun sank lower, their shadows stretched long across the road.
Luke murmured, mostly to himself, "I really, genuinely never wanted to be a Trainer..."
Gastly's eyes lit up, and it floated proudly into the middle of the street, utterly certain of its new mission.
"Kojie kojie!" — I WILL make Master a Trainer!