BXBX NOVEL Chapter 372: Identity
Chapter 372: Identity
At this moment, Aunt and Suzuki Koen had already tidied up the table and were chatting with Uncle and Beidou.
"Welcome back! Tired from playing, I bet!" Aunt said with a smile when she saw Yuga and the others enter.
"Not too bad, just that these little ones can\'t keep up anymore," Yuga replied, looking at Dian, who was already dozing off in Windy\'s arms.
Suzuki Koen took Dian from Windy, found a blanket to cover him, and then sat back down, joining the New Year\'s celebration with everyone.
Time passed quietly amid the joyful conversation.
When the clock struck midnight, everyone spontaneously wished each other a "Happy New Year!"
It was very late by the time they all dispersed. Dian and Luna had long since fallen asleep, soundly so.
Therefore, Yuga asked Beidou to take Suzuki Koen and Dian back home, while he carried Luna and walked Aunt and Uncle home.
Originally, Yuga\'s uncle didn\'t want him to accompany them; Luna could ride on his back. But Aunt said, "Can\'t we have some alone time as a family at the end of the year?"
Uncle readily accepted his nephew\'s kind offer.
Yuga carried Luna on his back and chatted with Aunt and Uncle along the way. He walked them all the way to their home.
As he was returning, Yuga saw that Muya was still sitting on the roof of his house. Curiously, he asked, "You\'ve been sitting on the rooftop all night. Aren\'t you cold?"
"Cold?" Muya chuckled softly. "I\'m not human; what do I have to fear from the cold?"
What?! Not human?
Yuga was startled by Muya\'s words. Did I not cross into the Pokémon world but rather into a fantasy realm? Are there shape-shifting creatures here?
Just then, a Gengar suddenly appeared by Muya\'s side. However, because the night was too dark, Yuga didn\'t notice.
Then, Gengar\'s psychic power suddenly carried Yuga into the air, eye-level with Muya.
"Are you curious about my identity?" Muya asked Yuga.
"Are you willing to tell me?" Yuga didn\'t feel afraid despite being under Gengar\'s psychic influence. His intuition told him that Muya had no intention of harming him.
"Why not?" Muya countered.
Under Gengar\'s control, Yuga slowly floated up to the rooftop and landed beside Muya.
"My true name is Cecilia," Muya said softly, gazing at the sparsely scattered stars in the sky.
"Cecilia?" Yuga exclaimed. "That\'s impossible!"
He had seen Cecilia before, and he was very familiar with the aura surrounding her. It was entirely different from the Muya before him. Furthermore, Cecilia was a Specter, while the Muya beside him, Yuga had confirmed countless times, was a flesh-and-blood human, with a physical presence!
However, deep down, Yuga had a vague feeling that what Muya was saying might be true, which would explain why she had come to find him.
"Do you know me?" Muya suddenly turned her head, squinting at Yuga.
"I\'ve met Acerola!" Yuga blurted out.
"Oh, I see!" Muya suddenly realized. "Acerola said that as long as you returned to the Ghost World, you would never come out again."
After hearing Yuga\'s words, Muya fell silent for a moment and then said, "Yes, under normal circumstances, I should not be able to come out. My consciousness should have been erased."
"Then..." Why...
Yuga hesitated to speak further. He suddenly felt that Muya was very sad.
"Do you think there\'s anything different about me now compared to the Cecilia you saw before?" Muya suddenly turned her head and smiled as she asked Yuga.
Anything different? Everything seems different, right?
Seeing that Yuga remained silent, Muya continued, "Because I am no longer the complete Cecilia."
Yuga felt very puzzled by her words but didn\'t speak up.
Muya absentmindedly took out a Poké Ball and released a Dusknoir.
Yuga recognized this Dusknoir. It had once assisted him and Officer Jenny, and it was the one that had brought Cecilia back to the Ghost World.
However, this Dusknoir now looked extremely strange. It floated there silently, showing no signs of reaction, as if... as if it had no soul!
"Now, I am it, and it is me!" Muya pointed to the Dusknoir.
Looking at Yuga\'s perplexed expression, Muya raised her right hand and pinched Yuga\'s face. Instantly, Yuga felt a bone-chilling cold.
Even in winter, a person\'s hand shouldn\'t be this cold.
"What you see is just a corpse. I found it in the forest and borrowed it for my use."
Hearing her words, Yuga finally understood why there were those dried-up corpses in the town.
"So, do you absorb the life energy of those people to maintain the vitality of this corpse?"
"It\'s the only way. Otherwise, I would rot!" Muya said with a smile, but her smile sent shivers down Yuga\'s spine.
He was conversing with a corpse!
"Why does it do this?" Muya suddenly whispered.
"Who?" Yuga was puzzled.
"It, right there!"
Muya pointed to the Dusknoir floating beside her, or more precisely, her true body.
Now, Muya\'s true identity was no longer a Specter but an actual Dusknoir.
After Cecilia was brought back to the Ghost World, her consciousness was immediately seized by the Ghost World\'s consciousness, and the only outcome waiting for her was to have her consciousness erased and become an ordinary Specter.
But how could she, who was determined to leave the Ghost World, sit idly by? So, she used a forbidden technique of the Ghost World to let all her Gengars and Mismagius take the place of her death.
Cecilia originally had many Gengars and Mismagius around her; Yuga had seen some of them the first time he met her.
In the Ghost World, there was a forbidden technique that allowed other ghost-type Pokémon who shared a life with the deceased Specter to take on the punishment of the Ghost World\'s consciousness while avoiding its detection.
Everything was going smoothly with her plan. However, Cecilia had overlooked the Dusknoir that had always accompanied her.
When Cecilia performed the forbidden technique, the Dusknoir secretly released all of her Gengars and Mismagius, taking their place.
Cecilia, although ruthless toward everyone and every Pokémon, never thought of harming the Dusknoir that had always been by her side.
By the time she realized what had happened, it was already too late.
In the haste of the moment, the forbidden technique went awry, succeeding only halfway.
Half of the consciousness of the Dusknoir and Cecilia was erased by the Ghost World\'s consciousness, and the remaining halves merged into the body of Dusknoir.
However, Cecilia\'s soul dominated the majority, with the remaining memories in her mind, which is how the current Muya came to be.
And Muya originally used to be the name of the Former Dusknoir.
So, the present Muya is both Cecilia and Dusknoir!
The personality of Muya, The Dusknoir, sometimes invisibly influenced Cecilia\'s actions, which is why she didn\'t harm Yuga for a long time. The people she killed were only those two members of the Team Aqua and the four thugs.
Otherwise, with Cecilia\'s originally twisted character, who knows how many more people would have died.