Chapter 109: The Eccentric

"Clefairy, your task today is to play with the children alongside this... Abra," Amu reminded, then looked toward Nana and asked, "Does this Abra have a name?"

"No," Nana replied, not even looking up from her book.

Psychic-types really are all neurotic!

As Amu thought this, he suddenly noticed Nana look up at him. The gaze felt almost tangible, making Amu shiver involuntarily.

Clefairy had just opened its mouth to speak, but Amu shot it a look that made it clam up immediately—since the goal was to play with the children and help them get used to Pokémon, it was better to act like an "ordinary Clefairy"!

Still, Clefairy sent a telepathic message one-on-one to the seemingly sleepy Abra, and even reached out to drape an arm over its shoulder...

[Listen kid, you're the Abra? From now on, you'll be with me, the grea...] Clefairy was just about to establish its leadership.

However, it suddenly felt a chill in its heart. In a daze, it felt as though the Abra's eyes, which should have been shut tight, had opened just a sliver.

The words that were on the tip of its "tongue" took a sharp turn: [Just... just stay with me, Clefairy, and play with these little ones.]

Amu didn't sense anything amiss. Seeing Clefairy pretending to be polite and greeting the Abra, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'll help you clean up, Lara. You go attend to other things... there's still quite a bit to do, right?" Amu knew full well the workload of one and a half people caring for over thirty children, the oldest of whom was only five, so he took the initiative to help clear the table.

In truth, the children were helping to clean up as well; Amu was merely assisting from the sidelines.

"Ah! Thank you," Lara replied gratefully... originally, it had only been agreed that one Clefairy would be provided.

The headmistress was currently leading a large group of children to learn how to identify the Pokédex and, incidentally, teaching them some related vocabulary—it was no wonder the old woman was so stubborn. If she had gone to the official orphanage in Saffron City, the conditions might have been better, but there certainly wouldn't have been any preschool curriculum.

Not to mention her habit of "extorting" trainers into volunteering for a few days for the sake of the children's future.

Clefairy and Abra followed the others to the "classroom," leaving only Amu and Nana in the dining hall.

Apart from the sounds of Amu cleaning, everything else was silent.

Suddenly, the sound of a book closing made Amu pause in curiosity. He looked over at Nana and found her staring at him, expressionless...

"You acting like that makes me look like I'm doing nothing at all," Nana said in a calm tone.

"Huh?" Amu was stunned—is your character setting one that cares so much about what others think? Doesn't seem like it...

Nevertheless, Amu explained, "Not at all, we're different... I'm an orphan too, I just didn't grow up in this orphanage."

"Stop what you're doing," Nana said bluntly.

Amu felt a bit annoyed by this. "If you don't want to watch, you can change rooms..."

No wonder everyone says Psychic-types are hard to get along with!

"Sit down," Nana interrupted Amu’s words with a commanding tone.

*Clang—*

Amu suddenly felt a weight on his body, and then, to his own surprise, he couldn't help but sit down.

Wait!

It wasn't that his body felt heavy; rather than being pressed by some force, it was as if... Amu had been hypnotized. Suddenly, his willpower could no longer command his body, and he couldn't speak either.

Just then, Amu's shadow began to writhe abnormally. It not only stretched out but became demonic, lunging with bared fangs and claws toward the mysterious Nana.

However...

After being glared at by Nana, it recoiled in fear.

In his daze, Gengar felt as if it had seen a flash of red light in her eyes!

Feeling Amu's disdainful glare, Gengar felt a bit embarrassed. Thus... Amu's shadow stood up and continued to clear the table.

Amu: ...

Seeing Amu sitting there obediently, Nana went back to her book.

Ignoring his contempt for Gengar’s cowardice, Amu, while unable to move, felt his competitive spirit ignited.

For a long time, Amu had focused primarily on raising and training Pokémon.

After all, Amu's physical constitution, even after being enhanced by the "Path of God," was only a mere Sequence 8. In terms of physical resilience, he was about the same as an ordinary person in this world; other stats might be slightly stronger, but he was no match for Fighting-type trainers.

Even looking to the future, Amu wasn't sure how high he could eventually ascend in the sequences, but... this was the Pokémon world, where even the "God of Creation" existed!

No matter how you looked at it, training Pokémon was more promising.

But now, being inexplicably "trapped," Amu tried for the first time to concentrate on triggering the power of the Path of God!

[Apothecary] and [Beast Tamer] didn't have much combat power, and his seemed to be a "castrated version" as well, seemingly lacking any ability to handle the current situation.

However...

Was there really no ability beyond the "labels"?

Ever since he discovered he possessed "Night Vision," Amu had suspected this—theoretically, "Night Vision" wasn't a "label" either.

At first, Amu wanted to try and utilize his spiritual power...

Previously, Amu couldn't be counted as a psychic, and while his spiritual power might not be weak due to the "Path of God," he couldn't actually call upon it; he could only use it for abilities like [Animal Senses].

But now, this state, similar to being hypnotized, made Amu no longer constrained by his body, making it easier to focus his mind. After repeated attempts...

Suddenly, Amu "saw" that everything around him had changed!

It was no longer the colorful world it had been; instead, it was instilling information that transcended the concept of "color."

If one were to view these as "colors" as well, everything else appeared gray and white to Amu; only he and Nana were "vibrant and colorful"!

Some food scraps also carried traces of color.

"Hmm?" Nana suddenly furrowed her brows and looked up at Amu again.

She saw that Amu had his eyes closed, but his eye movements were clearly visible.

After his initial surprise, Amu realized what this was—it was... Spirit Vision!

A standard ability of the divine sequences; simply put... it was "the ability to see things that ordinary people cannot."

It wasn't unheard of in the Pokémon world, but it was usually an ability that Ghost-type trainers paid attention to.

Amu's previous ability to instantly identify various medicinal herbs was actually a form of instinctive "Spirit Vision," but only now had he truly mastered it and could voluntarily enter this state.

[Apothecary] and [Beast Tamer] caused Amu's Spirit Vision to lean more toward "seeing" the state of life.

This included living things like himself and Nana, as well as... the corpses of animals or plants, which were the state of "pharmaceutical ingredients"!

Observe... myself?

Amu suddenly had a thought!

The opponent's method seemed to prevent his consciousness from forming a response when controlling his body, so he should just need to strengthen the feedback between his consciousness and his body...