“Audience, please take your seats and make yourself comfortable! The show is about to begin!”

Celeste, the Misdreavus, chuckled as the sizeable auditorium quickly filled up with sitting faces. Though her voice was normally whispered and calm, even approaching sultry at times, she was also able to summon up a very commanding tone when she needed to. This contrast was something she played with masterfully, allowing her to take charge of situations and command crowds with ease.

Within mere seconds, every seat in the house was filled with the excited faces of thousands of Pokémon from across every species. With its free audience tickets, loose participation rules, and reputation for crazy games and anything-goes antics, there’s rarely an empty seat for Jinji’s Ghoulish Games – even though no-one ever seems to know exactly where the studio is. In fact, it’s not uncommon for some of the audience not to recall how they got here at all…

Before the audience gets too caught up in chatter, however, the show’s signature music starts to play in. A brief introductory beat plays to give everyone time to quieten down, before the music swells as the show’s signature theme kicks in:

🎶 If you’re feeling kind of kooky
and you’re craving something spooky… 🎶

Within moments of the tune’s final beat, the sound is replaced with the booming voice of Jinji’s Spiritomb friend and occasional rival in wits, Enigma.

“Please welcome to the stage, tonight’s players!”

A set of five podiums slides out to the left of the stage, while to the right, five very different Pokémon emerge from a dividing wall and wave to the excited crowd, before making their way to a podium each.

“And now, put your hands together for our incorporeal compère – and the devisor of the Ghoulish Games – the gooey, explosive, trickster Gengar himself, Jinji!”

With a flash, Jinji emerges onto the stage in a spiral of ethereal magic, donning an elaborate and over-the-top outfit whose very nature seems to mix the worst excesses of gold lamé, medieval court jester, and Victorian-era Englishman all into one exquisite package, complete with expertly-tailored Reaper Cloth cape. His eyes flash brightly as he bows to the audience, and his gleeful smile and boundless energy are instantly infectious to all. He holds in his left hand a wand microphone, which he gesticulates with as he speaks to further command attention.

“Good evening, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Ghoulish Games – the show where dreams are made, nightmares are realised, and absolutely anything can and will happen, especially if it’s gooey, spooky, or just plain kooky! Tonight, we have five people all competing to take on our random, unpredictable challenges – so without further ado, let’s meet tonight’s stars!”

A small jingle plays as Jinji makes his way to the first podium.

“Our first player is this very shiny example of a Grimer from Celadon City, Kanto. Tell us about yourself, please!”

“I’m so excited to be here!”, the Shiny Grimer responds in an enthusiastic, gloopy-sounding voice. “My name is Casey! Getting myself gooey is a bit of a rite of passion for us Grimer – in fact, with my green, gelatinous body, you might argue I’ve been ‘slimed’ before the show’s even begun!”

“Gahaha, I guess I can’t argue with that!”, Jinji replies with an amused laugh. He loves when players bring a real sense of personality onto his show. “You’re clearly someone who knew what they wanted when you chose to join us here. It’s true – I do indeed have quite a penchant for slime. But will we see any in tonight’s games? Well… you’ll find out soon enough!” A knowing grin spreads across Jinji’s face.

“Next, we have a Tauros straight from the Kanto Safari Zone!”

“Listen up, folks! I’m Blaze, aka ‘The Stampede’. My opponents might think they’re in control, but I have speed, agility, and the raw power to take down anyone. You see, I have a bit of a confession to make: I was once part of a wild herd that stampeded into a nearby town – whoops. Guess I won’t be getting any invites to the ‘Town of the Year’ awards anytime soon!”

Blaze’s speech elicits a good laugh from the audience and Jinji alike.

“Well, Blaze by name and blaze by nature! Seems my Ghostly magic will be getting a workout to make sure the games stay intact with this sort of boundless energy – not that a bit of controlled destruction can’t also be fun. Guess we’ll wait and see what sort of events come up tonight!”

“Next, our third player! No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, folks! This Zorua comes all the way from Driftveil City, Unova, and yes, she really does have blue fur!”, Jinji exclaims, referring to the blue tips of the Shiny Zorua’s head, feet and eye markings, unlike the usual red of a standard Zorua. From the beginning of the show, the Zorua had pridefully walked in on two legs, going against the usual quadruped movement of her species in a defiant display of balance and grace. Having briefly rested back on all four feet, she again returns to her two-legged pose, in order to better angle herself to speak into the podium’s integrated microphone.

“I’m Amity, the Shiny Zorua! As you can probably tell, I’m very unique among my kind – not just because I’m Shiny, but also because I can balance and pose to rival the most gracious Gardevoir! I may not yet be as mature or imposing as my Zoroark cousins, but I’m just as powerful, so don’t be under any illusions around me – after all, that’s our job!” Her tone is a mix of tongue-in-cheek humour and sassy defiance as she concludes her introduction.

“Ha-ha, I love having a fellow ‘master of illusion’ on the show! But remember, you can’t pull the wool over me! While my games might occasionally feature a little bit of trickery, they’re always fair and above board – and I expect all of you to be as well!” For once, Jinji’s usual joyful tone takes on a slight tone of seriousness, making it clear that his message here is as much a bit of fun as it is a warning to anyone not to use their attacks and abilities to cheat.

“Next up, we have a Riolu from my personal favourite town, Ecruteak City in Johto! Yes folks, we really do get players from all over the globe – this energetic youngster has been terrorising the Kanto and Johto regions for some time now! Ah, but don’t let me speak on your behalf – please do go ahead and tell us for yourself.”

“Yo, what’s up, everyone? I’m Ryker ‘The Whirlwind’ Riolu, the most unpredictable player this side of the Indigo League. My opponents say I’m like a tornado – I’ll just blow away the competition in a flash. In reality, I’m just really, really fast… and also really, really hungry. Fun fact: I was once kicked out of a Pokémon training school for ‘excessive chasing of trainers’ – guess you could say I’m a bit of a wild card.”

“See what I mean, folks? Fast, ambitious, and possessing a mischievous side – hmmm, remind you of anyone?”, Jinji jests, to some chuckling from the watching audience.

“Well, I hope you’re just as fast a thinker as you are on your feet! And our final player tonight is this rather delightful Swirlix, all the way from the Rolling Fields of Galar!”

The Swirlix is a bundle of nervous yet hyper energy, and it takes her a moment to stop giggling long enough to speak. “Heehee! Bubblegum is my name, and like any Swirlix, I’m sugary sweet and light on my feet! I’m always on the look out for sweet treats to fuel my spun-sugar body, and I’ll spin my way through anyone to get it! Though, being made of cotton candy does sometimes lead to sticky situations… let’s just say, a couple of the make-up crew backstage might need haircuts!”

“Ha-ha, such a cheek!”, Jinji laughs along with the audience. In truth, much of Jinji’s show is staffed and operated by the various Ghostly residents who he looks after back at his mansion in the Spirit Realm, each of whom contributes their own bit of magic and expertise to ensure Jinji’s crazy ideas can be perfectly executed every time. So Jinji knows Bubblegum’s quip is a silly joke, as few if any of them have any “hair” to speak of – but Jinji knows never to kill a joke, and he’s just as happy for his players to play up the crowd as he does.

With the introductions finally out of the way, Jinji returns to centre stage.

“Welcome to the show, all of you! Now, my Ghoulish Games are designed to be the ultimate test of your improvisation, skill, wit and nerve. Every show consists of a number of scary, spooky, silly or gooey games, each one a complete change from the last. No two shows are ever the same, and only I know what’s coming up next! You might face your greatest fears, or be placed into embarrassing situations. Or you might just end up having a good-old belly laugh. Absolutely anything’s possible here, thanks to a little bit of Ghostly ingenuity and magic!”

The audience chuckles in unison, and Jinji can’t help but give a little joyful chuckle himself.

“Now, I may be known for my mischievous nature and skilfulness at causing a fright, but I’m also somewhat of a Jinn, able to make anyone’s wishes come true. And that’s what the Ghoulish Games are all about! If you can’t keep up with the madness, you risk getting eliminated and will have to go back to the player pool to try again in a future show – and let me tell you, these games can be tough sometimes. Any number of you could leave at any time – there’s no limits! But, if you can keep up and make a good go of my challenges, you’ll get to keep playing; and if you’re the last player standing at the end of the show, you’ll get the ultimate prize: Your greatest wish, fulfilled!”

As if on cue, the audience loudly breaks out into sounds of awe and admiration.

“So, let’s get right down to the action! For our first game tonight, I’m handing over the reigns to a special guest. Please give a big hand to… the Queen of Ariados, Silken!”

Right on cue, a giant Ariados scuttles onto the stage, wearing a large crown. It speaks in a feminine, but slightly authoritative voice.

“Good evening!”, Silken greets everyone. “For tonight’s first game, I want to see if any of you have the skills to weave with the skill of a Spinarak. Jinji regularly loves to call in the services of myself and my Spinarak subjects to help decorate areas with lots of webs for a true Halloween vibe, but a Royal like myself never likes to have their time wasted…”

Silken’s voice changes to a half-taunting, half-teasing tone, as she proceeds to set the challenge in the form of a question.

“And that got me thinking, are there other… lesser Pokémon out there that can do just as good a job as my loyal Spinarak and Ariados subjects?”, she asks, with a deliberate, snobbish emphasis on “lesser”.

“Kekekeh, such a great question!”, Jinji chimes in with a genuine sense of amusement. “So here’s the challenge, players! Each of you has a board with a template of a traditional spider web; and some spools of super-fine Spinarak Silk. All you have to do is cut, tie and place the silk onto your template to create your own spiderweb!”

For the next part, Jinji adds a slight note of caution to his tone, while still keeping up his infectious energy.

“But be careful! Spinarak silk is a very fine material, and must be handled extremely gently. And Queen Silken here is not one to accept shoddy workmanship! You have three minutes to create your webs for our Majesty here to judge. Correctly placed lines on your web score points, but you’ll lose points if Silken sees any broken threads or improperly-placed knots!”

“Well, best not keep a Queen waiting!”, Silken commands. “Ready… Start!”

At the Ariados Queen’s order, the five players turn to face their own individual canvas, upon which a template of a typical spider’s web, around a metre in diameter, hangs. On the edge of the canvas stand, each player has their own ball of finely-spun Spinarak silk. The players begin to unravel strands of the silk, but…

“Ack! It’s tearing apart in my hands!”

For Blaze, the Tauros, this challenge is nothing worse than a nightmare. Being used to thrashing about and bashing through any obstacle, he finds his patience tested by such a fiddly, fine-fingered task. Ryker, who usually spends much of his time dreaming about growing up to become a powerful Lucario, now finds himself pleased he hasn’t yet evolved, as he thinks about how much more difficult this task would’ve been with spikes on his hands.

On the other side of the stage, Bubblegum laughs as she sets to the task with relish. Being such a delicate and light being herself, handling such fine thread is child’s play to her. Her main challenge is getting parts of the webbing stuck to her sticky body, and the audience can’t help but chuckle as she slowly becomes dusted with webbing all over. Despite her clumsy nature, however, she very quickly manages to complete one edge of the web…

“One minute left!”, Jinji loudly announces.

Next to Bubblegum, Amity works with a grin on her face. The bipedal Zorua exudes a cocky arrogance as she places several strands on her template. Finally, centred between the five contestants is Casey, whose goopy, sludgy body proves to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because her smooth, oily skin helps to keep the strands intact and supple, and provides her with a convenient adhesive to stick together broken threads in hopes Silken won’t notice the breaks. A curse, because her thick, gelatinous hands make separating out the strands difficult, forcing her to work with multiple strands at once in complete disregard for the template.

“Five, four, three, two, one!”, the audience loudly counts down alongside Jinji and Silken. As the final second elapses, a loud gong sound rings through the studio, and the buckets of Spinarak silk suddenly disappear as if by magic. In a sign of her royal impatience, the ringing has barely faded before Silken scuttles over to the players, ready to inspect and cast judgement on each canvas, and Jinji hands over to her with a slightly embarrassed laugh, as he realises any sense of control he had over this particular game has been swiftly taken from his hands.

“Hmmm… Blaze, was it? Jinji really does get every walk of life playing his games. A Tauros isn’t exactly my first idea of graceful and elegant…”

Blaze seethes at Silken’s snobbish comments, but he knows better than to attack royalty.

“However… I must say, I’m impressed. In spite of your obvious handicap, you’ve not only managed to place three threads on the canvas correctly, but I see no breakages either. Three points!”

A spattering of applause fills the room as Silken moves on to the next player.

“Ryker… Oh dear…”, Silken sighs. “Quite a mess you’ve made here, haven’t you? One must understand, to weave such delicate threads correctly is a matter of patience, not speed. While you got twelve threads onto the canvas, some of the placements are incorrect, and you’ve tried to tie together threads you’ve broken apart, creating unseeming knots all around.” Silken shakes her head in disappointment, and the audience gasps as she delivers her final score: “Minus five points!”

As Ryker hangs his head in shame, Silken moves on.

“Casey… I will try to overlook the obvious sludge stains and general messiness of the web on account of your form. I suppose being so sticky can come in handy when it comes to sticking the web together, but don’t think I can’t see any breakages underneath all that goop!”

“That having said… while I do count three blatant attempts to use sludge to stick together threads instead of properly knotting them, you have managed to place five threads correctly. Under Jinji’s rules, that means I must award you… two points!”

Amity retains a cocky smile as Silken approaches her canvas, only for Silken to send her down a few pegs.

“Don’t think just because you’re a Zorua, you can deceive me with your illusions, young lady! I’m fully aware of your kind’s deceitful nature, but that’s by-the-by in this game. What I can say is… what an absolute shamble!” Silken speaks with an annoyed tone. “Not a single one of these knots is in the correct place! 7 threads would have been a good score, but it’s immediately negated if you don’t tie them up correctly! Since you have 8 knots in the wrong place, you score… minus one point!”

Finally, Silken approaches Bubblegum, who trembles somewhat nervously after hearing her harshness.

“And lastly… Bubblegum.” Silken watches over carefully. “Hmmm… maybe I have found someone worthy of joining our court of web-spinners! I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that a creature as light and delicate as you would have the soft touch such a fragile thread needs! Ten threads, all expertly placed and tied. Ten points!”

“And there we go, folks! Harsh but fair, as should be expected from any Queen worth her salt!”, Jinji says as the audience applauds. Then, addressing Silken with a bow, “Your majesty, thank you for joining the show and helping with our first game tonight. It would be an honour if you returned in the future, but I’m sure you have a court to return to, so I’ll not trouble you any longer. But do please accept this round of applause as you depart!”

Silken leaves to thunderous applause from the audience, as Jinji returns to the stage to address the contestants.

“Well folks, here on Jinji’s Ghoulish Games, negative scores are negative news! Ryker and Amity, since you both scored below zero, I must ask you both to leave the show. But as I said earlier, we’ll return you both to the contestant pool, so you might get called up to play again in the future – if you’re up for more, that is! As for our remaining three, please can you also head backstage, where my Ghostly friends will get you all prepared for our next game tonight!”

The audience applaud enthusiastically as all five players depart behind the curtains, the two departing players waving goodbye as they do so.

“We have three players left, and my games don’t end until we have just one winner! So let’s get straight into game two – and this one is called, Blind Memory Maze!”, Jinji announces proudly, as the curtains pull back to reveal a gigantic maze.

“Now folks, our three players currently find themselves waiting in three randomly-assigned checkpoints within this huge, enclosed maze you see before you. Prior to them entering the maze, all three were provided with a map of the maze, with their individual start points marked. But don’t think they’ll be able to rely on reading those maps once the game begins…”

Jinji chuckles and flashes a slightly malicious grin before continuing his explanation.

“…because they’ll be navigating the maze in total darkness! At the sound of the klaxon, our players will be able to leave their checkpoints, but we’ll also be turning out all the lights. The maze layout and our player’s positions will be shown on our large video wall for our audience and shown on-screen for our viewers at home, but as for our players, they’ll have only their memory and sense of spatial awareness to work out where they are – and where they need to go! And if being lost in the dark wasn’t scary enough, should the players accidentally end up down a blind alley, some spooky surprises might just be waiting for them…”

Jinji pauses to soak in the audience’s gasps and murmurs.

“There’s just one way out of the maze, and each player starts out equidistant from it, but each has a different path to take to get there. So the players cannot collaborate to find their way out, or have any idea how anyone else is doing!”, Jinji finishes. “There’s a total of ten minutes on the clock. Get out of the maze in time, and you safely progress to the next game! Should everyone fail to get out, the winner will be the player who got closest to the end.”

“Oh, I almost forgot! Bubblegum, can you hear me?”

From inside the maze, Bubblegum squeaks a nervous “Yes”.

“Since you won the last game, one of my Ghosts will also be roaming your path. They’ll appear for a short while if they notice you getting lost, and their glow will help you get back on track. Of course, they may not be the only spirit in the maze… And now, on your marks, everyone!”

And with that, a klaxon loudly blasts, and the maze plunges into total darkness. In spite of Jinji’s clearly explained warnings, the darkness causes Casey and Bubblegum to both yelp in surprise, eliciting chuckles from Jinji and a few members of the audience.

For Blaze, however, this challenge is like a red rag to a bull. The moment the klaxon rings out, he begins a rapid charge, rushing through the maze like a demon possessed. His thinking is twofold – he knows he’s unlikely to remember the maze’s layout for long especially if he mistakes a path for another, so running fast lets him cover more ground before he gets totally lost. Then when he finally does lose his way, he can just keep rushing forward until he bashes into something, make a turn, and keep running, wasting as little time as he can. With his hard head and horns, the Tauros has no fear of running straight into walls.

Casey, meanwhile, slides through her side of the maze with a deliberate slowness, dragging her sludgy body along the ground and any walls she feels, leaving a trail over every surface she can feel. Her thinking is more straightforward: Mark her path, so she knows where she’s been if she has to backtrack. But her progress is slow, hindered further by the realisation that without the sense of sight, she has to keep bending to touch the ground to feel her way around instead…

As for Bubblegum, fear and nerves put paid to any semblance of a plan, as she finds herself shaking uncontrollably, afraid of the darkness and what may lurk within, and also intimidated by the cavernous size of the maze when compared to herself. Only the lure of the possible prize helps to keep her composed; and after some time, she bravely pushes forward through the darkness, still quaking with each step.

“Ack!” Casey soon finds herself taking a wrong turn, and is soon hit with one of the maze’s traps as she is confronted by Gaspar the Gastly. His gaseous form begins to envelop Casey, causing her to feel rather tired. Being the least experienced of the Ghosts from Jinji’s mansion, Gaspar chuckles as he sees Casey struggle to remain conscious as she flees back down the blind alley from which she came.

Blaze very soon finds himself facing a spook of his own, as Phantisserie the Haunter pops out of a wall directly in front of him. “Shesheshee,” she laughs sinisterly, but her laughter is soon replaced with incredulity, as Blaze completely ignores her presence and continues to rush his way through the maze. Less than a minute later, light comes into view, and Blaze comes bounding straight out of the maze, almost bashing into Jinji as he continues to slide forward on the stage.

“Woah, there! This almost became like the Pamplona Bull Run! Well, Blaze, you made it out first, and in double-quick time! We’ve still got five minutes left of this challenge, so why don’t you go take it easy, and let’s wait to see if anyone else will be joining you for another game…”

Back in the maze, Bubblegum turns a corner and jumps, as she spies a glowing, orange creature patrolling the passage in front of her. She tries to hide behind the wall, but her yelp is heard, and soon, the creature is heading towards her…

“Yay, you found me!” A slightly electronic, yet child-like voice speaks to Bubblegum. The creature is actually Alessandro, Jinji’s eternally energetic and chipper Rotom housemate. “Follow me, Bubblegum!”

Bubblegum realises Alessandro must be the “help” Jinji promised her, and her fear starts to subside as he helps guide her down a different branch of a corridor to where she had been before. Alessandro’s electrical glow provides a warming comfort, but all too soon, the bright spark soon disappears from view, and Bubblegum finds herself alone again…

“One minute remaining!”

Back on the other side of the maze, Casey’s slow and steady approach has proven to be her undoing. The Shiny Grimer finds herself hopelessly lost, making little progress as she finds herself retreading her paths, frustrated as she keeps feeling her own sludgy trails, all the while trying to combat her fuzzy head.

As the audience begins to count down the final seconds, the timid Bubblegum suddenly spies a shaft of light in the distance. Fear gives way to determination as she bravely rushes forward…

“Three, Two, One…!”

At the very last second, Bubblegum bursts through the entrance, narrowly beating the gong signalling the end of the challenge. She pants heavily as Jinji heads over to congratulate her.

“Right in the nick of time! Bubblegum, you’ve made it!”

It takes a moment for the Swirlix to catch her breath and regain her composure, and longer still before the reality of her achievement sets in. But soon, she’s once again jumping for joy, and is quickly pouncing next to Blaze, to the Tauros’ consternation.

In the meanwhile, Jinji and the Ghosts manage to escort the defeated Casey out of the maze, and deliver her the bad news.

“Sorry Casey, but it looks like you got yourself pretty lost there. You didn’t escape the maze in time, so you won’t be qualifying for the next game.”

Disappointed at her performance, but not wanting to call it quits, the Shiny Grimer suddenly thinks up a plan. “Sneaky Gengar… I should’ve known you’d hide a slime trap in the maze! Look at how green I am!”

Jinji chuckles, realising exactly what Casey’s up to. “Kekekeh, you’re persistent, I’ll give you that! While it’s true that players who get slimed in the Ghoulish Games get to return the following day, I think I can tell the difference between my slime and Grimer sludge! But I tell you what, if you’re so eager to get messy, I’ll let the audience decide! You see, I just happen to have a large vat of slime so precariously dangling right above us all. If the audience make enough noise, perhaps it might fall and splatter you…”

The audience quickly swells into loud chants, cries of “Slime her!” and various other noises. Within seconds, a cascade of slime falls down upon Casey, who laughs joyfully.

“Yay! I’m even gooier now!”

“Kekekeh! Something tells me you probably just got your wish even as a loser! Well Casey, it’s goodbye to you for now, but it’s my tradition here at the Ghoulish Games that anyone who gets covered in slime automatically qualifies to return on the very next edition, so we’ll be seeing you again next time!”

And with that, a happy Casey slithers off the stage, dripping slime and sludge with every step. A delightful burst of music accompanies her, before Jinji returns to centre stage to set up the finale.

“Well dear audience, we’re down to two players, so it’s time for our sudden-death endgame! Bring on the isolation chambers!”

At that moment, two large, round, perspex enclosures slide out from behind the curtain and along the back half of the stage, coming to rest at opposite ends of the stage.

“Our two lucky players are being guided to separate isolation chambers, to ensure they don’t peek at each other’s answers – and audience, shout your own guesses as much as you like, because they won’t be able to hear you either!”, Jinji states with tongue in cheek. “Their fates will be determined by a single, sudden-death guesstimation question; and the player with the closest answer will be tonight’s winner!”

With that, Celeste and Phantisserie close the chambers, sealing away the players for the moment.

“Well players, it all comes down to this! Tonight’s make-or break question is…”

With a flourish, Jinji brings out a question card that had been concealed inside his own Ghostly body the entire time. The movement is carefully choreographed, a stylistic piece of flair to command attention. Even the card is essentially a mere prop, as Jinji had already prepared, rehearsed and memorised the question and answer long before the show went on air, and he pauses just long enough before ‘reading’ the question to create dramatic tension.

“Ecruteak City may be famous for its sizeable population of Ghosts, but it’s also where many Trainers call home! According to the 2018 Census, how many Trainers are thought to live among its walls?”

Bubblegum and Blaze frown at hearing the question. Wild Pokémon usually don’t tread near cities, since they’re always filled with people who may well be Trainers out to find them – and unlike the many forests with their tall grass, the paved and open nature of a city usually means there’s nowhere for them to hide. So for them, Ecruteak City is something they’ve only really had passing glances of. With little to go on, both of them can only make wild guesses; and after a moment’s thought, each of them locks in an answer on a touchpad screen within their booth.

“You’re both locked in, so let’s see your answers… Bubblegum, you put fifty. Blaze, you put seventy-five.”

A tense, thudding beat fills the stage, bringing the tension to a crescendo.

“The number you were looking for is… forty-four!”

All at once, a torrent of slime is unleashed above Blaze’s chamber, covering the unlucky Tauros head to toe in a loose, sticky goo. Bubblegum jumps for joy as she realises she’s the winner, and after a moment, the two booths unlock and the two emerge back onto the show floor.

“I win, I win!” Bubblegum bounces up and down with joy, causing Jinji to giggle gleefully himself. Though he wouldn’t admit it, since he wouldn’t want to cast the integrity of his own show into question, secretly Jinji thinks this was the perfect result: Not only did he get a winner who encapsulates the same infectious energy he possesses within himself – and which he tries to bring into his show – but he’s also secretly relieved, as getting slime on a Pokémon which is essentially a huge ball of cotton candy would not be an easy job to clean up!

“Gehehe! It’s been a while since I had a champion who’s so bouncy! Congratulations, Bubblegum!”, Jinji announces triumphantly. “As the winner, you now get to claim your prize – so, what is the one thing you wish for the most?”

Bubblegum blurts out her answer without even a moment’s hesitation. “I want tons of candy!”

“Gahaha! Well, your wish is my command! You know, for once, I don’t even need to use magic!” Jinji chuckles. “Celeste, Phantisserie?”

“Yes, Jinji?”

“You know my secret candy stash back at my mansion? Distribute half of it into as many large crates as you need, all to be delivered to our winner!”

As Celeste and Phantisserie immediately go off to fulfil Jinji’s instructions, he quickly turns back to Bubblegum.

“That should be more than enough candy to last even the most sugar-crazed Swirlix for at least three years, Bubblegum! And if, after that time, you still have a craving for more, you’re always welcome to come back and play again for more – or anything else you might wish for! I’d love to have such an excitable player try more of my games! And speaking of returning players…”

Jinji turns to Blaze, who by this point has managed to slowly shimmy to the front of the stage, still absolutely coated in the sticky, drippy goo.

“Hard luck missing out at the final hurdle, Blaze, but the good news is, you get another shot! As the runner up, I couldn’t let you go without getting slimed too, so you’ve also earned the right to return for our next set of games! Sadly,” he adds while turning back to the audience, “that’ll have to wait to the next show, ‘cos we’re all outta time tonight!”

A loud cry of “Awwwww…” rings out from the audience.

“You’re such a great audience”, Jinji responds in his usual cheeky-yet-kind style, immediately turning the sadness into joyful chuckles. As he begins to bring tonight’s show to a close, he gestures towards backstage – the signal to have all of tonight’s players return to the stage behind him.

“Let’s give a big hand to all of our stars tonight, and hopefully we’ll see some of you again some day! And if you think you’d like to take on the Ghoulish Games yourself, my Ghosts are always on the lookout for our next victims– I mean, players!” Jinji pretends to have misspoke, but in fact, his mistake was entirely deliberate, a subtle joke for the audience to pick up on for one last laugh.

“So don’t forget, if you’re feeling kind of kooky and you’re craving something spooky, the next edition of my Ghoulish Games is always just around the corner and waiting for you! ‘Til next time, this has been Jinji the Gengar, saying: Good night, and good fright!”

As the credits roll to the show’s signature theme, Jinji, his various Ghostly friends, Silken, and all five of tonight’s players line up front of stage, together taking one final bow before the curtains close.

Backstage, Jinji meets up with his fellow spirits once again.

“Great show tonight, Jinji!” Gaspar and Alessandro both greet their master with gleeful joy.

“Heh, I wasn’t expecting anything less!”, adds Enigma. “Jinji truly is a master of ceremonies, bringing fun to every event!”

Jinji blushes. As a master of puzzles and secrets himself, Enigma’s comments are particularly meaningful to him.

“That Silken, though…”, Celeste frowns. “Such an elitist snob! Ripping into the contestants so harshly… I had half a mind to rush out there and give her a piece of my own!”

“Well, I’m glad you held back, Celeste”, Jinji replies with complete seriousness. “Much as I admire your ability to put people in their place, a shouting match in the middle of the show would not have been a good look for me. Nor would I want to start a royal feud! Besides, I like to think I have the measure of everyone I invite to the show.”

Phantisserie speaks with awe. “I’m amazed how personal you manage to make every edition, Jinji. You really think about every single detail.”

“Heh. Let’s just say, when we go out haunting people and seeking out dreams, I’m not just out for food! You can learn so much about people by reading into what their unconscious minds think about…” Jinji replies mysteriously.

“Speaking of which, we’ve got time to kill before the next edition. What say we all go out for another round of haunts?”

A series of spooky laughs echoes through the now-empty studio, as the joyful spirits depart into the night.