Chapter 66: The Nightmare Pokemon and the Crescent Pokemon

Although it was a good thing that Snorlax was willing to help, the mere thought of having to trade folk songs with an Exploud later on made Health's scalp tingle slightly. After all, he had never heard folk songs from the Pokémon world before, and even if he had, figuring out how to trade verses back and forth was a problem in itself.

"Never mind, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning, so I might as well get some sleep early tonight," Health yawned, refusing to dwell on the issue any further. He was already very tired today and needed to rest.

With that thought, Health turned off the bedroom light, slumped onto the large Arcanine-shaped bed he had bought, and drifted off to sleep shortly after. What Health failed to notice was that, just before falling asleep, the reluctant Zorua was still clutching a rather familiar black crystal in its arms...

...

"Ah, what pure nightmare aura! Such a magnificent nightmare is a rare sight indeed..." In the dead of night over the Indigo Plateau, a pitch-black Pokémon with white adornments on its head flew rapidly from afar, stopping right in front of a luxury apartment building. It looked down with curiosity, peering through the structure to see Health frowning as he slept on the bed below.

A thick, black aura of nightmares was emanating from Health's body, looking so utterly tempting that Darkrai couldn't help letting a little saliva pool at the corner of its mouth. It was deeply curious about what kind of nightmare Health was having that could produce such a wonderful nightmare aura.

Darkrai slowly reached out a hand. As the embodiment of nightmares, Darkrai possessed certain special abilities, such as entering the dreams of others and freely observing the contents within. This was one of Darkrai's little habits; good nightmares would be recorded by Darkrai and later used as templates to make others suffer nightmares.

Therefore, upon seeing such high-quality nightmare material, Darkrai could no longer restrain itself. Its hand drew closer and closer to Health. Influenced by Darkrai's presence, Zorua, sleeping beside Health, also began to have a nightmare. With a slight twitch of its hand, Darkrai accidentally thrust its hand right into Zorua's dreamscape.

It was a pure white dreamscape. Inside was a lavish-looking grand castle featuring an amusement park, beautiful maid servants, and handsome butlers. A frail man with Zorua's head was cowering shyly on the back of a Tauros, while a muscular man who looked identical to Health stood behind him with an evil grin, holding a leather whip in his hand.

"Cry out! Zorua! No one will come to save you even if you scream until the heavens break! You shall only ever be my plaything!" the man who looked just like Health laughed wildly, swinging the leather whip in his hand.

"No, please don't, Master Health! I, Zo-Efei-Rainbow-Glaze-Eternal-Tears-Rua, will never surrender to you! If you don't believe me, punish me with your giant hot-dog sausage~" Zorua wore an expression of unyielding defiance.

Darkrai spat in disgust, then silently withdrew from this cursed dream. Darkrai looked sideways at the little fox beside it, a mixture of bewilderment and shock in its eyes. It suddenly wondered what on earth could have caused this little fox to turn out this way. Besides, was this even a nightmare? Why did the fox seem even more excited, for goodness' sake!

Darkrai shook its head. It must have been an illusion; this was the first time it had ever seen such an abnormal Pokémon. The nightmares Darkrai usually witnessed among Pokémon were caused by being tormented or abandoned by trainers, making this kind of dream truly rare.

Darkrai took a deep breath and reached out its hand once more. This time, it had aimed carefully and would definitely not make a mistake. Darkrai certainly didn't want to catch a glimpse of Zorua's dreams ever again; the little fox's nightmare was simply too terrifying.

"Darkrai, what have you done to these innocent humans again!" Accompanied by an angry voice, Darkrai raised its head and spotted a familiar old rival, the Crescent Pokémon, Cresselia.

"Naturally, I was just enjoying a fine nightmare. The nightmare this human is having wasn't caused by me, you know," Darkrai rolled its eyes, then opened its mouth and inhaled the nightmare aura emanating from Health, lest Cresselia interfere and ruin the harvest.

"You still say it wasn't you? Then what is this?" Cresselia angrily pointed at the object clutched in Zorua's arms. Curious, Darkrai leaned in to take a look, and was immediately stunned. It was actually its own Nightmare Crystal? But how on earth did this human get hold of it?

"I swear I definitely didn't give this thing to him," Darkrai hurriedly raised its hands. While it was true that Darkrai was the Pokémon of nightmares, it wouldn't dare to act recklessly within the Indigo Plateau. After all, this was the headquarters of the human Pokémon League. The moment Darkrai had entered, several powerful Pokémon had opened their eyes and turned their gazes toward its direction.

Even the mighty Darkrai needed to exercise caution when facing so many powerful beings. While feeding on nightmares was permitted, intentionally causing the humans here to suffer nightmares was strictly forbidden.

Though Cresselia remained somewhat skeptical, it knew Darkrai's personality well. If Darkrai had actually done it, it would only flash an irritating, punchable grin and say something like, "Yes, I did it. What are you going to do about it?"

"Let me take a look. Just a look and I'll leave," Darkrai extended its hand, touching the dreamscape. Cresselia stood by and waited, intending to grant this nightmare-tormented human a pleasant dream the moment Darkrai departed.

The instant Darkrai stepped into Health's dream, however, its entire being went into despair. No sooner had it entered than it was grabbed by a stern-faced headmaster and tossed straight into a classroom. Health sat right beside it, staring at a book with a look of utter agony. Darkrai lowered its head to look—it was a textbook titled *Advanced Mathematics*.

Darkrai immediately wanted nothing to do with this dreamscape. It had seen dreams like this before; they were excruciatingly boring and utterly meaningless.

Just as Darkrai attempted to slip away, however, a hand pressed down firmly on its shoulder. Turning around, it saw that stern-faced teacher staring back.

"Dear student, you are not allowed to leave until you finish studying this material. Since you're already here, you might as well be a good guest," the grim-faced teacher smiled amiably as he wheeled out a cart stacked densely with study materials—Chinese, mathematics, English, chemistry, biology, and even bizarre titles such as *Postpartum Care of Sows* and *Mastering the C Language: From Beginner to Grave*.

Darkrai's face turned completely pale. It actually couldn't get out! Who on earth was this stern-faced teacher?!