Chapter 144 Isn't This In the Bag

As soon as Shin-chan returned to the inn, he skillfully scrambled up onto the counter and asked, "Big sis! Is there a pretty big sis here with long, pinkish-purple hair?"

True to someone from the Pokémon world, that climbing ability was no joke...

"Sorry, little one, big sister didn't notice," the receptionist at the front desk coaxed Shin-chan.

"Shin-chan! You're being so impolite!" Shin-chan's father pulled him down by the collar.

Come to think of it, it was rather strange. Children of this age usually started listening if you kept a tight leash on them, but... Hiroshi and Misae weren't spoiling him at all. They always believed in disciplining their child right on the spot, yet Shin-chan remained... just as full of personality!

Besides, if Amu remembered correctly, Shin-chan...

Also possessed a strong "spiritual constitution"!

Not only did he frequently encounter urban legends, but his "hit rate" was even higher when he was traveling!

He basically belonged to the type who would "encounter a Kappa during a creek picnic, and a Yuki-onna while skiing on a snowy mountain"...

"Ah! Is it a girl wearing a flower on her head and a headband across her forehead?" Brock spoke up immediately.

"Eh? The perverted big brother saw her too?" Shin-chan asked in surprise.

"Perverted..."

"Big brother?"

Ash and Goh looked at Brock simultaneously—how did even a kid know about that?

"I am not perverted!" Brock corrected him at once.

"So you saw the pretty big sister too..." Shin-chan said with a look of utter contempt.

"Why are you making that disappointed face? Am I not allowed to see her?" Brock cried out in exasperation.

"I thought only destined people could see her..."

"I can be a destined person too!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Ash asked in confusion.

"It's about that girl I told you guys about when we first arrived here..." Brock explained to Ash.

"So you weren't just having a fit of madness?" Goh muttered bluntly, giving him zero face.

Ash and Goh had arrived on a passenger ship. Right as they disembarked, Brock had claimed he saw a "gorgeous, gorgeous" young lady standing by the shoreline.

However, at that very moment, other passengers disembarked and knocked him over while he was still dazed, and by the time he got back up, she was nowhere to be found.

Ash and Goh had assumed at the time that he was just having another one of his romantic delusions, so they hadn't paid it much mind.

Even now, everyone simply thought that the big one and the small one... no, the small one and the even smaller one, two little perverts, had simply caught sight of a very pretty woman.

Only Amu wore a pensive expression.

Noticing the surrounding people snickering secretly, Misae quickly pulled Shin-chan away. "Honestly! What nonsense are you spouting..."

"Let's head to our rooms first as well," Amu said, heading upstairs alongside Misty.

"Huh? The second-floor rooms are full?" Hiroshi asked in confusion, watching several Machoke carrying things in and out.

"Yeah, looks like they're storing some items for the festival," Amu replied—as for the first-floor rooms, they had been fully booked long ago.

The main day of the Millennium Festival was May 28th, but the temple fair would run for three consecutive days.

Right at that moment...

"Machop!" Suddenly, one of the Machoke accidentally dropped a framed painting, and the paper wrapping on the outside ripped open.

"Careful..." Seeing this, Amu quickly stepped forward and lent a hand, preventing the frame from hitting the floor.

"Machoke, Machoke." The Machoke gestured as if hastily thanking Amu.

"Ah! Thank you..." Another person who was also helping with the transport hurried over to express their gratitude as well...

Amu helped the person right the painting back up, and at the same time, saw that the painting depicted... a young lady with long, pinkish-purple hair, posing in a prayer-like stance!

"Huh? This painting is..." Amu thought of something upon seeing it.

Ahead of them, upon hearing the commotion, Shin-chan and Brock turned their heads just in time. Upon seeing the painting, both of them wore enamored, soul-captured expressions.

"Ah... pretty big sister..."

"Beautiful lady..."

"Shin-chan!"

"Hey! Brock!"

Misae and Ash immediately pulled their embarrassing son and companion back.

Hiroshi chimed in from the side, "Oh? Is this the beauty Shin-chan said he just saw? No wonder this kid's been talking about her the whole way, she really is..."

Sensing Misae's piercing glare stabbing into him, Hiroshi quickly corrected himself, "She really is... just so-so... hahaha..."

"Just saw her? Hahaha, you guests sure know how to joke! This is a copy painted after the young lady from a thousand years ago, you can buy them at the temple fair tonight!" the moving staff member said with a smile.

Indeed!

Amu suspected that the "fish bait" for both spiritual constitutions had taken effect.

At that moment, Amu suddenly felt a heavy weight on his back, as if something... well, there was no need for "as if," it was Misty nervously clutching the fabric at his back!

Clearly, the worker's words just now had made Misty's imagination run wild as well.

"It's fine, a situation like this... it's definitely cosplay!" Amu offered a word of reassurance first, even if he didn't quite believe it himself.

Instead, Goh lacked all situational awareness as he remarked, "So the thing you guys saw couldn't be the ghost of the young lady, could it?"

With him blurting that out, the faces of Ash, Hiroshi, and Misae instantly turned a bit grim.

However, as the head of the household, Hiroshi forced himself to act unfazed upon seeing his wife and child grow frightened. "Oh please, there's no such thing as ghosts or monsters, you young folks just love these kinds of things, hahaha..."

"If the big sister is a ghost, I wouldn't mind... going on a date with a ghost!" Shinchan said something very mature... yet not mature enough.

"I've always felt I had a talent for Ghost-types..." Brock was already progressing toward betraying the Rock-type.

"You probably just feel like you belong in the Amorphous egg group," Amu retorted internally with an eye-roll.

"Hey!" Misty whispered a warning to Amu—there were still children present.

Amu didn't mind, though; after all, the child in question was far more "R-rated" than that.

"It looks like there are only the three groups of us on the second floor tonight. Ah... the rooms are connected too, so if anything comes up, feel free to come find me! My name is Amu..." Amu took the initiative to strike up a conversation with the Hiroshi family.

At first, the two of them only exchanged polite pleasantries, but when Amu continued, "And... I'm an actual Ghost-type Trainer, not just someone who imagines it. If you notice any traces of Ghost-type Pokémon haunting the area, remember to let me know!"

At that, the trust level of the Hiroshi couple shot up significantly. As they introduced themselves to one another, Amu realized... sure enough, it really was Hiroshi and Misae!

However, what drew a brief moment of surprise from Amu was that Shin-chan... was only four years old?

Right after, Amu realized that although Shin-chan was forever five years old in the original work, this was the real Pokémon world, and being four years old... probably meant Himawari hadn't been born yet.

With Brock and Shin-chan, those two "spiritual generals" around, Amu had already set the trap for tonight, and now all that was left was to wait for the "ghost" to take the bait...