Zoroark went off to take care of the arrangements, while Edward began preparing for the first scene of A Wicked Ghost.
This opening scene introduced a spirit-summoning game. A group of supporting characters—brave (or foolish) souls eager to tempt fate—decided to play the game. Only the protagonist, Xiao Ming, was spared because of his innate spiritual sensitivity and chose not to participate, thus narrowly avoiding death.
Meanwhile, Chu Renmei began her killing spree.
She instantly swept the field and claimed MVP.
But there was a small twist: at first, everyone believed the spirit-summoning game was to blame. Only later, after encountering Chu Renmei and learning her story, did they realize the true cause wasn't the game—it was the water they drank, tainted by Chu Renmei's vengeful aura.
As long as you didn't drink the water, you wouldn't draw Chu Renmei's attention.
(The old man was an exception.)
"Miss Diantha, in this scene, you'll need to stand here with your hair down, then have your Pokémon use Smokescreen to obscure your form," Edward instructed as he walked her through the filming details.
Chu Renmei's hazy, fleeting appearances perfectly matched the image of a malevolent spirit. But to create that effect with Diantha, other techniques were required.
Normally, this involved props, green screens, post-production editing—or simply filming one shot with Chu Renmei present, another without, and then stitching them together. It was a classic trick from old horror films: overused but still highly effective. Even in the age of advanced special effects, this method remained popular.
"Understood," Diantha nodded. Her position was by the door of a dark, unlit room, so the Smokescreen wouldn't even be seen on camera. Instead, it would help with the concealment, allowing the shot to be done in one take.
With Diantha's full cooperation, the first scene wrapped up smoothly, much to Edward's satisfaction.
Only the background actor who died in that first scene seemed disappointed. After all, just appearing in one of Director Edward's films boosted your resume—and made landing future roles easier.
"Next up…"
The first scene was simple—a throwaway character gets killed by Chu Renmei, establishing her terrifying presence. But the second scene was where Edward's real vision began to shine.
In it, a side character attempts to use a Pokémon to defend against Chu Renmei. The result? Useless. Despite having his Pokémon by his side, it can only watch helplessly as Chu Renmei drowns him in a toilet.
This was the moment that truly set Edward's horror film apart from the usual fare.
For the first time, Pokémon appeared in a horror movie—but they, like normal humans, were powerless in the face of these evil spirits.
The horror of helplessness—that was the deepest fear of all.
It's like in horror games: whether the protagonist has a gun or not makes a huge difference. Whether the gun actually works or not is another thing entirely.
Outlast was terrifying because the protagonist was completely powerless—able only to run and hide from maniacs. In contrast, although Resident Evil scared players, they could still shoot their way through enemies, and many later entries in the franchise lost that feeling of terror entirely.
So, even though Pokémon were now part of the horror movie, they were powerless—at best, they resisted, but ultimately they just became playthings for the evil spirits. Only through this kind of setup could true fear be created.
"How's the Gengar from the Pokémon Actors' Guild doing?" Edward asked with a smile as he glanced at Zoroark.
Zoroark's expression turned slightly odd. Sometimes, it genuinely believed its boss was a little petty.
All because someone online made a fan comic of Gengar beating up Mary Shaw—so now the boss had decided to include a scene where Gengar helplessly watches its Trainer get drowned by an evil spirit. And next up? A Blissey getting ripped apart.
Just… wow.
"He's ready," Zoroark replied honestly.
This time, Zoroark had to step in to help. Gengar was supposed to attack Chu Renmei, only for all of its moves to have no effect. But getting that effect across on screen was tricky. Gengar couldn't precisely control its power, and Diantha could get hurt. So, Edward assigned Zoroark to handle the special effects—using illusions to simulate the attacks, which wouldn't cause any real damage and thus kept everyone safe.
"Great. Make sure the scene turns out well. I'll give you a bonus. Isn't the anniversary event coming up in that game you play?" Edward grinned, patting Zoroark on the shoulder.
Zoroark instantly perked up with renewed energy.
Boss was right!
The game it was playing was about to hit its anniversary—everyone knew that meant tons of goodies and also tons of cash-grab banners. If it wanted the exclusive characters and weapon skins, it'd need money. So yes—Zoroark was very motivated.
Seeing Zoroark fired up, Edward felt reassured. Despite its chaotic nature and love of pranks, Zoroark could be quite reliable when it put its mind to something.
Edward's phone buzzed. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen.
[Shocking Discovery! An ancient Pokémon burial site found in Sinnoh!]
He didn't think much of the notification.
These days, regions were constantly unearthing strange ruins and relics. The people of Sinnoh even claimed their region was the first to use the Pokédex, insisting it was their invention—prompting some snide back-and-forth among Pokémon professors from other regions.
Of course, being academics, they were sharp-tongued without ever using foul language—yet their insults still hit hard.
Because of this, other regions were also ramping up excavation efforts, hoping to uncover long-lost artifacts. Sinnoh did hold the upper hand here, though—they'd already confirmed their ancient era as the Hisui period and were actively excavating related items.
"I wonder how that other investigator is doing…" Edward muttered as he rubbed his hands together.
After the exposure of the Team Magma's base, they'd taken a huge hit. Now, their presence in the Hoenn Region was almost nonexistent. Even Team Aqua had gone into hiding.
But what Edward really cared about was whether the Team Aqua base outside of Slateport had been found. If they could strike a major blow to Team Aqua, Hoenn wouldn't have to worry about Groudon or Kyogre waking up any time soon.
"Director! The Gengar actor is here!" someone called out, snapping Edward out of his thoughts.
Right. Time to get back to filming A Wicked Ghost.
"Roll camera!" Edward shouted.
(End of Chapter)