The Surprises of the Umbrella Left Alone

Wes approached the next door. He'd noticed several umbrellas and beach chairs lining this hallway. "So odd to see so many of these inside a ship." he remarked.

"My bets are on whichever person likes the beach being behind the door." Wes saw the next door. It was decorated with a picture of a giant mouth. As he watched, the door split down the middle, with half the door rising up and away and the other half sinking down and towards him/ Behind it, the room was painted red, purple, and the effect was like he was stepping into the jaws of a giant creature.

"Lovely interior decoration we have here. Who makes a room like this?" he nervously commented to Marisa.

"I don't know, ze. But why don't you go in first?" she asked.

Again realizing it wasn't really a request, he went in. The door slammed shut behind him. The floor gave a lurch, sending him toppling towards it in the pitch black. He hit it, noticing as he did it seemed to be squishy and wet! "HEEELP!" Then a light turned on, revealing that Kogasa was there, laughing it up at his reaction.

"I scared you, didn't I? BOOOOOO... You actually thought you were going to be eaten! Hee hee!" Kogasa was ecstatic. "All it took was a dark room painted red and me, as well as that special door. Now then, let's put that LITTLE scare behind us and get down to business, shall we? We have a battle to do. Also, Nue said you were to have this."

Wes received 30 Ultra Balls!

"Huh? Why did she give me these?" Wes asked.

Kogasa shrugged. "She said you'd know when to use them. I should have you know, the Miko Orb is slightly more advanced than a Poke Ball. Therefore, don't even THINK of chucking any of those at my Boneka. You'll regret it if you do..."

Outside "The Mouth"

"...I would have paid to see whatever just happened, ze." Marisa said, having heard the scream and Kogasa's resulting laughter.

"Well, good. I'll send you a tape afterward. If he somehow wins, I'll send him a movie of this adventure. It's the least I owe him." came a voice over the ship's intercom. It was garbled, and she couldn't quite place it. But it didn't sound like Nue.

"You're behind this, aren't you? If so, tell me, who are you? I can't quite figure it out, ze." Marisa responded.

"Oh no, no revealing my name to the person who's helping the dashing hero. You can't keep a secret. You'll just have to wait in agony for the reveal." came the voice.

"Isn't that kind of cliche?" Marisa asked.

"Very. But telling you and you NOT telling Wes would make no sense! So we have to do it this way." ? responded. "By the way, I appreciate you coming along for this. It makes things SO much more interesting."

"...Just shut up, ze."

"The Mouth"

"OK, Wes! You know the rules! 4 on 4. Substitutions permitted, maximum of 3. Ready, begin!"

Palanquin Four Kogasa:

ARumia, Zombie Fairy, Kogasa, SKogasa

VS.

Shady Guy Wes:

Mantine, Umbreon, Foretress, Misdreavus

"Alright, let's start! ARumia, I choose you!" Kogasa called, throwing a Miko Orb into the battle.

A girl with a black dress, blonde hair, and a red ribbon on her dress came out. She held aloft a sword that was 2 times as big as her head.

CWes came over to Wes, shivering. "Th-That's... EX-Rumia! Rumia is a c-cute youkai who c-can barely control her own darkness, and has a s-s-slight tendency to nom on a human when she finds them alone. Her EX form though... It's too horrible, I can't describe it! A-Anyway, what you n-need to know. This thing pours all of its power into Attack. 130 b-base attack. At L-Level 1, it has SuperPower. It's a D-Dark/P-P-Poison Type... G-good luck..." It ran to its Miko Orb and pressed the button.

"Huh. Didn't know he was scared of anything. But it's just a Boneka, how bad could it be?"

The ARumia suddenly ran its finger across its throat, scowling. "On second thought, given that they made Michael's team into Shadow Pokemon, maybe I should be worried."

"You should be very worried!" Kogasa practically singsonged. "If you lose here, I'm gonna feed you to this adorable little thing! It'd be only too easy!"

She's nuts! I can't lose here! I CAN'T! There's too much at stake!

"You're crazy!" Wes shouted. "You can't do this!"

"Oh? How will you stop me? Because last I checked, you're far from home, you're alone, and you've no way off our ship! Heehee! Seems to me like we can do whatever we want! BOOOOOOOOO! Hee! Heehee!" Kogasa was getting a bigger and bigger grin.

"Go! Misdreavus!" Wes called out Misdreavus to the battle, desperate now because Kogasa looked two seconds from attacking.

"Oh, boo. You had to actually call out a Pokemon. Now I can't play any more mind games with you. Oh well! ARumia! SuperPower!"

ARumia charged Misdreavus at a rapid speed!

"Eh?! Um, shoot! Confuse Ray! Quick!" Misdreavus fired a Confuse Ray, striking Rumia dead on. But she shook her head and continued charging... passing right through Misdreavus.

"Huh?" Wes asked

"Huh?!" Kogasa screamed.

Wes's PDA suddenly sounded an alert tone.

He pulled it out, as it lit up with a message. "This is CWes. SuperPower is a Dream type move. That has no effect on Ghost Types. Just giving you a heads up, since you seem confused. By the way, I'd say kudos to you for confusing Rumia, but she's very easily confused."

"ARumia! Heart Break! Wipe Misdreavus out, booooo!" Kogasa shouted.

"Misdreavus, use Thunder! That sword should make a wonderful target!" Wes shouted.

ARumia suddenly whacked itself in the face with the flat of its sword, as Thunder came down and struck it, causing ARumia to go into shock and faint.

"...You win this round, Wes. But I have 3 more Boneka! Come forth, Zombie Fairy!" Kogasa called.

She sent out a fairy with a halo. It seemed frail.

"That thing looks like it's on it's last legs! And you think I'm scared of it? Misdreavus! Shadow Ball!"

"Zombie Fairy. Perish Song. Hee hee hee..."

The zombie began to sing, a beautiful, haunting melody. As it sang, Wes saw a ghost girl. She wore blue ribbons and a hat with a spiral. She extended her arm, smiling. He could see a peaceful tree in the distance, all covered with cherry blossoms. All he had to do was take her hand...

Why shouldn't I take her hand? She'd take me away from all of this.

As Wes began to extend his hand to meet hers, he felt a huge pain in his side. CWes had burst out of the ball and started repeatedly driving everything it could find into his side. "Damnit, Wes. Look at me. Not at her! ME! You've got a battle to win! Come on! LOOK AT ME! DON'T GO! DAMNIT, Wes! Michael! Rui! You've got to save them! Fight it! Fight the Song!

Wes snapped back to reality as he realized that the Zombie Fairy's song hadn't just affected his Pokemon! It was affecting him too! As he realized that, he became aware that SOMEONE had been taking additional turns while he was dealing with the Song. Of all the cheap tactics to fall for! Misdreavus was now burned from Will-O-Wisp, and looked exhausted. The music was growing louder, and from the looks of things, that Shadow Ball had been absorbed. As he watched, the place seemed to fade, the pristine garden becoming clearer, the ghost girl smiling kindly at him.

"I... can't... DIE HERE! Misdreavus! [Last Stand: Thunder!]" He struck lucky. The Zombie Fairy was indeed as frail as it looked, having ONE hit point. But it had blocked Shadow Ball with Play Ghost, an ability which nullified anything not super effective. Misdreavus nailed it with Thunder, hurting the Flying/Grass type, bringing it down.

"You're starting to get on my nerves! Come on, Kogasa! Win this for us!"

The Kogasa came out of its Orb onto the field, and promptly started spinning its umbrella around. A tongue came out and started making rather rude gestures.

"...Your Boneka just don't play by the rules, do they?" Wes resignedly asked.

"NOPE!" Kogasa cheerfully rejoined. "Now where's those sunglasses? Here they are!"

She put them on and said: "Deal with it."

Wes smacked his face down into his palms. "If someone had told me last week that I would be getting lip from an umbrella, I would have said they were crazy." he groaned.

"I'm a karakasa! Use Curse, Kogasa!" Kogasa glared at him.

"Misdreavus! Confuse Ray!"

Misdreavus buckled at the same time the Kogasa did. The effect KO'd his Misdreavus. "Misdreavus, no!"

"Who's next? Who shall fall next?"

"Mantine! I choose you! Quickly, use Confuse Ray!"

"Kogasa! Use Curse!" Kogasa made an error in judgement, which she realized too late. "No! Cancel that!"

The Kogasa Cursed Mantine, before fainting away.

"Quite the unusual move you made there." Wes remarked.

"Oh yeah? SKogasa, win for me!" Kogasa threw out her last Boneka.

"SKogasa! Destiny Bond!" Kogasa yelled.

That's an odd move choice... This is her last Boneka. Why would she attempt to take one of my Pokemon with it?

Shrugging his shoulders, he ordered Mantine to attack. "Mantine! Use Blizzard on SKogasa!"

SKogasa took the Blizzard to the face, and was slammed down hard by it. It was instantly KO'd.

"UUuuuuuuu... You beat me... Go on, go on to the next room!"

Wes was halfway to the door when he noticed two things.

1. Kogasa was flying above the ground, and

2. She was wearing a smirk on her face.

It's a trap! He realized just as the floor opened under him, sending him falling down...

He landed in an area of pitch dark. Wisps of spirit surrounded him, and cherry blossoms blew by in a wind that almost certainly wasn't there before. Kogasa slowly floated down, laughing.

"Well, Wes... I must say, you've done much better than I expected. But this will be your grave, hee hee hee..."

She produced another belt from her pocket. This one had Poke Balls lined up on it, instead of the Miko Orbs. "Nue put that contraption to more use than just window decoration. Prepare for round 2!"

Kogasa had 3 surprises this match! She almost killed Wes, and she's still not beaten!

Next time: Scarefest! Shady Guy Wes vs. Umbrella Ghost Kogasa!

Character Introductions:

Kogasa Tatara: Kogasa is the spirit of an umbrella abandoned for 100 years. She is fond of surprising and scaring people, and she put that fondness to full use on Wes. Apparently, she feeds off the emotions generated by surprise. The Stage 2 boss of Touhou 12, Kogasa TECHNICALLY shouldn't be on the Palanquin, but she's here for completeness' sake.