Pokémon Court

 “I understand. You come back first.”

After Mismagius quickly relayed everything it saw and heard to Terrance through an illusion, Terrance nodded and recalled Mismagius to avoid being detected by Gengar.

“Poachers? Or just a Trainer trying to make money by selling Pokémon…”

Terrance shook his head. He didn’t really care which it was, but if it implicated him, that would be a problem. He hoped these people had some sense.

Tap, tap, tap.

Before long, two figures following two Pokémon arrived at his location.

The first thing they saw was a boy with a Beautifly by his side. “Excuse me, have you seen a Mismagius?”

Terrance “accidentally” discovered them, and asked in confusion, “Mismagius? What’s that?”

“Tch, a Trainer who hasn’t been outside Hoenn, huh…” Shinji cursed silently in his mind, then said, “Never mind. You’re a Trainer, right? What are you doing here? This desert is quite dangerous.”

“I heard there were Psychic-type Pokémon like Baltoy here, so I came to catch one,” Terrance randomly made up an excuse.

“Baltoy?” Shinji and Shugo exchanged glances and shook their heads. Such an unpopular Pokémon wasn’t easy to train and didn’t have much value.

It wasn’t nearly as intriguing as the Mismagius that had used a special move earlier.

“It seems there are no Baltoy in these ruins. I think I’ll leave,” Terrance said, glancing at the time.

Shinji and Shugo gave a perfunctory response to Terrance before saying, “Alright, take care.”

Once out of their sight and certain no Pokémon was watching, Terrance shrugged and chuckled to himself. Was he seriously expecting some dramatic “murder for treasure” situation to unfold? He was clearly overthinking things.

“Or maybe they just think Beautifly isn’t worth much.” Looking at the innocent-faced Beautifly, Terrance grinned. “Three days have passed; the sandstorm should have cleared by now, right?”

But as Terrance approached the entrance to the ruins, a wave of yellowish sand swept toward him from the distance, causing his expression to darken instantly.

“Again?”

Could he really be this unlucky?

Staring at the incoming sandstorm, Terrance took a deep breath and retreated back into the ruins. After a while, Shinji and Shugo also confirmed that this place wasn’t the “Mirage Ruins” and, unable to find the Ghost-type Pokémon they were looking for, prepared to leave.

“Uh, why are you still here?” Shugo asked, surprised to see Terrance.

“Just go outside and see for yourself…..”

“The sandstorm is too severe; we can’t walk through it.” Terrance pointed and said.

Shinji and Shugo were shocked. They hurried outside, only to find that the ruins were completely surrounded by a sea of swirling sand, making it impossible to leave.

Shinji cursed under his breath, unsure of how long they’d be trapped here.

“We have enough food, but we’re running low on water. Luckily, we have Water-type Pokémon,” Shugo said.

…

…

Three hours later.

Terrance found himself stuck in the same place with the two of them, waiting for the sandstorm to pass.

Although he didn’t particularly enjoy their company, the situation left him no choice.

“The storm has cleared.”

After a long time, Shugo, who had gone out to check, shouted, “It’s finally over!”

The sandstorm, which had raged for hours around the ruins, had finally dissipated. The three of them were overjoyed, relieved that the wait hadn’t been too long—it was the best outcome they could’ve hoped for.

The trio made their way to the outskirts of the ruins, but instead of seeing the endless desert, what met their eyes was a stone tower-shaped structure.

“This is…?”

Terrance was stunned. The tower looked similar in material to the other ruins, but its shape was slightly different. But the main question was—why had a ruin suddenly appeared here?!

He clearly remembered that there was nothing here when he first came!

After the sandstorm passed, leaving a mess in its wake, a tower-like structure suddenly appeared. A four-story, yellowish-brown tower stood in the endless sea of sand.

“It’s… it’s the Mirage Ruins!”

Shinji suddenly shouted in excitement, “Lucky! Looks like this sandstorm wasn’t totally useless after all. We got so lucky!”

Mirage Ruins?

Upon hearing Shinji’s exclamation, Terrance immediately recalled Mismagius’ warning, and became alert, “Is this the place they mentioned, where a large number of Trapinch reside?”

At this moment, Shinji and Shugo noticed that there was a stranger with them, and their moods couldn’t help but sink: “Damn it, there’s a hindrance.”

They hadn’t thought of Terrance as a problem earlier, but now that their own interests were at stake, both of them feared that Terrance might also become curious about the Mirage Ruins.

“Mirage Ruins? Do you know anything about this tower that suddenly appeared?” Terrance asked, pretending to be unaware.

“Heh… Yeah, I happen to know a bit. It’s not much different from other ruins, but it randomly appears in different parts of the desert, which is why its name has ‘Mirage’ in it,” Shinji explained.

“Is that so? Then there could be Baltoy inside too!” Terrance said, feigning excitement.

“Well… there’s that possibility, but…” Shinji’s lips twitched slightly.

“In that case, we’re curious about this ruin too. Why don’t we go in together?” In the end, Shinji, not wanting to raise any suspicion, let out a frustrated sigh and said.

Terrance gazed at the stone tower named “Mirage” in shock. Though he didn’t care about Trapinch or was truly after Baltoy, the sudden appearance of this stone tower had deeply piqued his curiosity.

What kind of power allowed this tower to move freely through the desert?

And what sort of ancient civilization was so magnificent that it could build such a magical structure…?

“There’s something strange here, something secret, something valuable…”

Convinced by this belief, Terrance glanced at the two people with unnatural expressions but didn’t pay them much attention. He had already made up his mind—he was going into this Mirage Ruins.

…

…

A bright beam of light swept through the ruins as Terrance shone his flashlight around. Though this place was much brighter than other ruins, it was still not very friendly to human eyes.

If he didn’t use the flashlight, he could still see the path, but it wouldn’t be as clear.

Beautifly, unaffected by the lighting conditions, hovered gently beside Terrance, protecting him. After a while, they came across a fork in the path. Terrance suggested, “Why don’t we split up? There are two paths here.”

“Fine,” Shinji nodded. He didn’t want too much interaction with Terrance anyway. They weren’t on the same side, and their goals differed. Parting ways early would be beneficial for everyone.

“I’ve never seen a ruin like this before. Interesting…” Terrance muttered as he walked down one of the side paths. Now that he was alone, he continued through the dim ruins. He didn’t know how long he had been walking when he suddenly cried out—he had hurt his foot. It seemed he’d been careless and hadn’t watched his step, accidentally kicking a stone.

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