"Paranormal investigating" was many things:

It was physically exhausting. It was mentally taxing. It was emotionally draining. It was spiritually ruinous. It was very intensive on phone battery. It was bad on the knees and worse on the back. It was troublesome to find and even more so to prove. It was a complete financial blackhole. It was, to cut a long story very short, hard.

But more than all of that, it was extremely popular, and so Mitsuru had no choice but to drag herself out to yet another spooky forest to bum around in the dark and the cold following vague tracks in pursuit of some kind of ghost or ghoul that may or may not exist.

Well, it could be worse. She could be... Um... Ah, no, actually, it couldn't get worse. This was about as bad as her life could possibly--

Bump. "Oof!"

As she bumped into the stranger, Mitsuru lost grip of her phone, and before she knew it, her state-of-the-art Oranberry was sent tumbling from her hand and landed down in the muddy footprint with a splotch. Oh. It did actually get worse, huh? Ah. Hm.

"Haaaaaah... It's fine, just... Be more careful next time... Please...? Pretty please...?"

---

robin coello

Taking back her phone, the first thing Mitsuru did was thorough wipe the camera with the sleeve of her kimono. Then, taking a deep breath, she glanced down at the screen. And it was still recording! Whew. Okay, good. At least it didn't break, because she definitely couldn't afford to replace it right now.

Once she was sure that her viral video-in-the-making wasn't jeopardised, she looked back to the stranger. Should she thank her? Hm. On one hand, she did help pick her phone out of the mud, which was very nice of her. But, on the other, it was her fault it ended up there in the first place... Then, her eye drifted over to the ranger armband, and she suddenly straightened up a little.

"Um, thank you very much, miss."

Heck! This wasn't good. If this ranger thought she was out here for suspicious reasons, she might end up getting arrested. Even worse, if she thought she was out here for stupid reasons, she might end up getting escorted back while being on the receiving end of a condescending lecture. Seeing as both of them meant she'd have no footage to work with, that meant neither of them were particularly tenable. Quick, think of a good lie, think of a good lie, think of a good lie...!

"Oh, me? Ha, well, I'm just, ha, I'm just here to catch a Hoothoot! I, like, totes can't get enough of those silly little guys! Aren't they, like, soooooooo cute~?"

---

robin coello

"What? No! What, what, why would I-- Why would you even say that?!"

Mitsuru was flabbergasted. Of all the things she was expecting to be accused of, "being a ghost" was not one of them. Just because she wanted to die all the time didn't meant she actually was dead! Her brain genuinely struggled to process it. Part of her wondered if she'd somehow hallucinated it. Was looking for Hoothoot seriously so suspicious? And why a ghost? She didn't even look like a ghost! She wasn't even white! N-not that you had to be white to be a ghost, but, y'know, ghosts were, well, they were usually...

...Did that Kleavor belong to her, or...?

"LOOK OUT!"

As the Stone Axe came crashing down, Mitsuru flung herself into the ranger, sending them both tumbling away from the impact and narrowly avoiding becoming an actual ghost in the process.

---

robin coello

Out of the frying pan, into the fire. As she scrambled away from the raging Kleavor, Mitsuru couldn't help but feel a tad nostalgic for ten seconds ago, when her biggest problem was a silly misunderstanding. Yet the monstrous insect in front of her was anything but silly, and that went doubly so for its axes.

Luckily, the ranger had created an opponent! In this moment, the Kleavor was stuck, its attack stalled by the Dhelmise's chains. This was her chance! All she had to do was send out one of her Pokemon, order them to attack, and knock it out.

But as her fingertips hovered over her Pokeballs, that sounded so much easier said than done. After all, what if the attack didn't actually finish it off? Or, what if it broke free of the Anchor Shot before the attack could connect? Or, or what if there was another Kleavor that was waiting to ambush whichever Pokemon came out? Or, or, or...

Or she'd wait too long and miss her chance. Breaking free from the tangling chain, the Kleavor immediately resumed its rampaging with renewed fervor, aiming yet another Stone Axe right at Mitsuru!

"Ww-wait! No! Stop! STOP!"

---

robin coello