Chapter 160

Chapter 160: Chapter 160

Underwater, Mike adjusted his body with slow, controlled movements and continued descending toward the seafloor while watching his surroundings carefully.

Near the surface, most of what he had seen were ordinary Magikarp, but the deeper he went, the more varied the marine Pokémon became.

He glanced back at Manryo and found him following without the slightest difficulty, so Mike stopped worrying about whether his companion could keep up and pointed ahead.

Manryo nodded.

Mike led Gengar, Snivy, and the others farther forward until his feet finally touched the sandy bottom.

The area around them was far richer than the shallow waters he had explored the previous day.

Aquatic plants swayed between rocks and coral, while Pokémon of all shapes and sizes moved through the surrounding water.

Gengar immediately found something interesting.

He pulled out his thin bamboo staff and poked at a shell that had been shifting suspiciously on the seabed.

A moment later, an Octillery emerged from inside.

Gengar’s eyes widened.

Σ(°▽°)/

’That is one HUGE octopus!’

Octillery stared at the strange purple Pokémon that had just disturbed its sleep.

It had no idea what a Gengar was, but that did nothing to improve its mood.

A Water Gun shot directly toward him.

Gengar twisted his waist underwater with surprising agility, slipped around the attack, closed the distance, and planted a Shadow Ball directly against Octillery’s forehead.

BOOM—

Bubbles erupted everywhere.

Octillery was launched backward and landed motionless on the seabed.

Mike quietly pulled out his camera.

Rather than getting involved in Gengar’s latest dispute, he began photographing the underwater Pokémon around them.

After collecting some basic footage, Mike started searching for rarer or more interesting subjects.

Filming underwater placed far greater demands on his body than shooting on land.

He couldn’t spend hours tracking every species he encountered, so his plan was to personally record the more unusual Pokémon and behaviors while leaving the common species to the imitation drones once he returned to shore.

"Blub blub..."

Manryo tried to say something through his mouthpiece while gesturing with his hands.

Mike could more or less guess that he was asking what Mike wanted to film.

Mike shook his head and continued forward.

After searching for a while, he finally found a promising target.

A Qwilfish was sleeping against a rocky outcrop.

’Worth filming.’

Mike kicked his fins gently and approached, stopping well outside the Pokémon’s defensive range before raising his camera.

What began as a few photographs quickly became more than half an hour of continuous observation.

He recorded Qwilfish waking up, searching for food, moving through the water, and interacting with its surroundings.

At first, Manryo had stayed beside him out of curiosity, interested in seeing how Mike actually created The Wide World of Pokémon.

After several minutes of watching Mike do absolutely nothing except quietly follow one Pokémon with a camera, however, Manryo decided that professional wildlife photography was far less exciting than it looked.

He went off exploring with Gengar instead.

In a strange way, the two of them got along remarkably well.

Gengar possessed endless curiosity and loved sticking his nose into anything unusual.

Manryo, meanwhile, was apparently so exhausted by work that simple exploration felt like a vacation.

Once Mike finished with Qwilfish, he moved on to Krabby and Kingler, then Corphish and Crawdaunt.

Later, he followed a Lumineon through a patch of aquatic plants, but it disappeared before he could collect much useful footage.

Mike looked down at his camera.

Twenty seconds.

That was all he had managed to get.

He hesitated, then kicked forward and carefully parted the sea grass.

A dark shape suddenly shot out toward his face.

Before Mike could even react, a powerful Vine Whip cracked across the water and sent the attacker flying into a nearby rock.

Mike jerked backward.

’What the hell was that?!’

He looked over.

A Seadra had collapsed against the rock, already unconscious.

Manryo swam back after hearing the disturbance and gestured a question toward Mike.

Mike shook his head, then pointed toward the dense sea grass ahead.

Manryo tilted his head.

Mike gestured again.

After a short exchange of incomprehensible underwater hand signals, he looked toward Snivy and nodded.

Snivy carefully used Vine Whip to separate the vegetation.

Gengar immediately took point, bamboo staff in hand, and swam into the passage.

Snivy followed closely behind him, while Mike and Manryo came next.

Gardevoir remained at the rear.

Her psychic power was already poised to activate Teleport the instant something went seriously wrong.

The sea grass hid far more Pokémon than Mike had expected.

During the short journey through it, the group was attacked repeatedly by territorial or predatory species lurking in the vegetation.

By the time they finally emerged from the dense plants, however, the scenery changed completely.

A broader, warmer stretch of ocean opened before them.

The environment was richer, the water clearer, and Pokémon were everywhere.

Mike approached a rocky area and found several Luvdisc swimming in lazy circles around one another.

He blinked.

’No wonder couples love these things.’

He immediately raised the camera.

Manryo saw Mike settle into photography mode again and promptly left with Gengar to explore somewhere more interesting.

Mike spent a while recording the Luvdisc before moving on.

With Snivy’s help, he parted another patch of sea grass and found several Clamperl hiding inside.

While Mike filmed them, Gengar was having a considerably less peaceful adventure elsewhere.

A cluster of Tentacool blocked his path.

Gengar responded by throwing a Shadow Ball into the middle of the group.

The startled Tentacool scattered in every direction.

Gengar continued forward.

Then he poked his head around a large rock.

And froze.

A shipwreck lay beyond it.

Gengar: "!!!"

He immediately grabbed Manryo, who had been digging around in the sand nearby looking for interesting objects, and dragged him over.

Manryo swam closer in confusion.

Then he followed Gengar’s pointing finger.

Manryo: "!!!"

The two exchanged a look.

A silent agreement was reached.

They turned around together, swam back to Mike, and physically dragged him away from the Clamperl he was trying to film.

Mike struggled uselessly between them.

’What are you doing?!’

’I’m not finished yet!’

Unfortunately, neither Gengar nor Manryo cared.

A moment later, Mike finally saw what they had found.

His eyes widened.

’A shipwreck?’

For some reason, the sight immediately awakened the same dangerous curiosity that had gotten him into trouble countless times before.

Should they investigate?

Mike licked his lips behind the mouthpiece and looked toward Manryo.

Manryo was already staring back with open excitement.

The two grinned.

Then they swam toward the wreck.

Several small fish and Pokémon moved in and out of holes in the damaged hull, but most fled as the group approached.

Mike landed carefully on the ruined deck.

The wood groaned beneath him.

Seaweed and moss had swallowed large parts of the structure, and small marine Pokémon hid between the wreckage, watching the intruders warily.

Manryo pointed toward the entrance to the lower deck.

Mike nodded.

Then Manryo looked toward Gardevoir.

Psychic energy quietly gathered around her.

Gengar took the lead again and entered the cabin.

A dark shape moved toward him from the shadows.

Gengar reacted instantly and knocked it away.

He spun around.

’Scared the hell out of me!’

The group continued deeper into the wreck.

Near the bottom, the floor was covered in sand, scattered objects—and bones.

Mike’s excitement dimmed.

He stared at the remains for a moment, then quietly knelt and covered them with sand.

Whatever had happened here, those people had been dead for a long time.

Manryo treated the wreck with somewhat more adventurous enthusiasm.

He discovered an old chest buried partly beneath the sediment and pulled it open.

Gold and silver objects inside reflected what little light reached the wreck.

Manryo’s eyes immediately brightened.

Before he could reach for anything, Gardevoir’s voice suddenly sounded inside his mind.

He turned.

Countless pairs of eyes were glowing in the surrounding darkness.

Manryo: "!!!!"

He immediately abandoned the treasure and grabbed Mike and the Pokémon, pulling everyone back.

Mike looked toward the eyes—then instinctively grabbed Gengar and held him in front of himself.

Gengar: "???"

Gengar slowly put away his bamboo staff as Shadow Ball formed in each of his hand.

Leaves began circling around Snivy.

Gardevoir’s psychic power expanded around the entire group.

Mike suddenly felt something hard digging uncomfortably into his back.

He reached behind himself and grabbed it.

A sharp, cold object came free from the sand.

Before he could examine it, the creatures hiding in the wreck finally charged.

Carvanha.

Sharpedo.

A whole school of them.

Mike’s face went pale when he saw the rows of razor-sharp teeth.

Gardevoir immediately activated Teleport.

Their bodies began flickering.

Before disappearing, Gengar hurled both Shadow Balls into the oncoming school, while Snivy released Leaf Storm straight behind them.

Mike, meanwhile—

bent down at the last possible moment and snatched up a golden object that had been partially buried in the sand.

The lead Sharpedo charged.

Its jaws opened wide enough to swallow Mike’s upper body.

Then—CRACK!

A horrible grinding sound rang through the water.

The Sharpedo leader recoiled violently as pain tore through its entire mouth.

Several teeth had snapped clean off against whatever Mike had just grabbed.

WHOOSH—

The group vanished.

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