What floated out of the statue was the girl's ghost.
For certain particular reasons, after her death she had been able to exist inside the statue in the form of a ghost.
Perhaps her existence had something to do with the Gastly; when an ordinary human dies, the soul does not remain in the world.
By common report the souls of the dead go on to the underworld, and that she could linger here was a wonder in itself.
"The one it's all about is here."
Vance said it to himself, standing there silently, looking straight at the girl's ghost without fear.
There were plenty of great powers in this Pokémon world; he was not about to be frightened by a single ghost.
The girl's ghost floated there, but could not come over; it hung about the statue.
"Young Trainer, I am very sorry. I apologise to you on Mister Gastly's behalf."
The girl's ghost said it apologetically, and bowed towards them from that distance.
"Mm. There's no need. Just have it stop troubling me."
Vance said quietly.
Going by the original, the girl's ghost had a wretched enough time of it: all this while and still waiting, and the man had never come. And once the festival was over the Gastly too would leave this place, and she would not have a single companion left, with nothing likely to remain to her but loneliness.
To wait so long and still hold on — Vance asked himself and knew he could not do it, and he admired her very much for it.
"Thank you."
The girl's ghost answered softly.
"Mister Gastly, thank you for your company. And you needn't trouble other people on my account any longer."
"Hss-kek—. Your presence has grown weaker again. Go on like this and you will disappear."
the Gastly answered. It was precisely because her presence was fading that the Gastly grew anxious and went about frightening people, drawing their attention.
With people paying attention, she seemed able to exist rather longer.
It had to do with the strange magnetic field of that stretch of country.
"Disappear? That I am not afraid of. What I am afraid of is that he will never come."
The girl said it sorrowfully and timidly, and something like tears ran down her face.
Vance went on watching quietly. He had sympathy for what had happened to her; as for bringing her back to life and the rest of it, there was nothing he could do.
Devotion like this girl's was a rare thing to see.
Was it because he had come across from the Blue Planet? Having seen so much that was shallow, so much that twisted a man's whole view of the world, Vance had lost any notion of what love meant.
Seeing her like this here moved him, unaccountably, to some feeling.
"You may wait, and he may still never come."
Vance said it, his tone level.
"Why... why is that?"
the ghost asked back.
"After all these years, have you no answer of your own?"
"The people in this world are all new individuals. Even if he exists, it is only after being reborn, and whether he is still him is another matter; and besides, a man who has been reborn has a life of his own now, and new ties to other people. There are not two leaves in this world exactly alike, let alone two people. And then there is the question of fate."
Vance said it mildly. The words were realistic, and bare, and unsparing. Even granting rebirth, two thousand years and more had gone by; he would have been reborn at some point in them. And if even so he had never met this girl, then there was too little fate between the two of them, and that was all there was to it.
Hearing it, the girl's ghost shook to its very frame.
"No. I believe he will come to me. He will. He will love me as he did before, and we shall love each other more than ever."
the girl's ghost said firmly.
When she had finished, Vance said, "I admire your persistence, and I wish you well in meeting him — impossible as it is."
"Why is it impossible?"
"Reasons of reality. That is how I understand it. A man like me will never reach the pitch of love the two of you had, but I respect it, and I wish that you may see the one you love before you fade away."
Vance gave her his blessing. Because he could not do it himself, he had great respect for those who could. Two thousand years — how many dynasties had risen and fallen in that time?
Two thousand years. Far too long.
Holding to some principle of respecting another's destiny and not interfering, Vance did not go on trying to persuade her.
"Then... then what do you think I should do? What should I do to meet him sooner?"
The girl's eyes went empty, looking at the dark sky.
Perhaps it was that she had so few to talk to, and today she had happened on Vance, had come at last upon a human being; and some strange prompting had made her ask that question — a question the Gastly could not answer.
"That depends on fate."
"Fate?"
"Yes, fate. Everything turns on fate. What is yours will be yours in the end. As the saying goes, what is in your lot will come to you in time, and what is not in your lot you must not force. Rather than holding your post like this, better to let the obsession go and enter the wheel of rebirth again; when fate comes round, you will meet him sooner."
Vance thought it over and gave her an answer, and a piece of advice with it: holding on like this, with obsession so deep in it, was worse than going back into the wheel of rebirth; when fate came round, in a new life they could be together again.
In a certain sense, that too would be "waiting until" her husband came.
Fate is a wonderful thing beyond words, and not to be guessed at.
And precisely because it cannot be guessed at, there is such a thing as the impossible.
Today, for instance — that he should appear here and talk with her was fate as well.
"If I go back into the wheel of rebirth, will I still be able to meet him?"
"That brings us back to where we started. It is a question of fate again. If the fate between you and him comes round, and the bond between you is deep, then of course you will meet."
Vance answered.
"No. If I enter the wheel of rebirth, I shall forget this life, and forget everything I have been through in it."
the girl objected.
"You know yourself that you would forget this life. Well then — hasn't he??"
"That..."
The girl was struck silent and fell to thinking. Talking with Vance today had given her another way of seeing it.
What Vance said was not without sense.
"And even if we met, without the memories of this life..."
"This life may be where your obsession lies, but in truth every new beginning need not be a worse one. If the fate is truly there, you will meet him, and there will be a new beginning."
"And if the fate is not there?"
The girl had asked a very important question.
"If the fate is not there — isn't that obvious enough?"
Seeing her ask it, Vance almost laughed.
"If there truly is no fate, then this is all it can be — just as it is now: wait another two thousand years and it will come to nothing. Whereas once you enter the wheel of rebirth, even with no fate there can still be a new life."
That was Vance's view of it.
She had waited in the one place for two thousand years and he had not come. That was enough.
It is not only the living who must learn to bend; ghosts must too.
"Enter the wheel of rebirth..."
The girl floated beside the statue, her eyes full of confusion, looking at the sky. This sky — in two thousand years it had not changed.
Was there any meaning in going on like this?
"Hss-kek—"
Seeing her at a loss, the Gastly called out beside her, cheering her on.
"This is only my own poor opinion, and I have said it off the top of my head. I have said all I have to say. I'll take my leave."
"Mm. Thank you. And I am sorry about this. Mister Gastly will not trouble you again."
"That would be best."
He looked at the Gastly, floating there beside the girl's ghost, making no other move and looking perfectly calm.
For no reason at all, Vance had no wish to be set against the Gastly; there was genuinely no need for it.