Pokemon: Farm Story

A sudden gust of wind swirled through the open space of the farm.

A vast shadow stretched across the ground, growing larger by the second as a massive figure descended gracefully from the sky.

Strange as it might sound, despite its enormous size, Corviknight landed with remarkable lightness.

Perhaps this was simply a natural gift of its species—an innate talent as an airborne taxi.

Just like how some people are born with a knack for flipping woks, some excel at smoothing plaster, and others are just naturally introverted.

"Boof boof!"

The moment Mei dismounted from Corviknight, she saw her Tepig rushing toward her, its little face full of grievances.

With its short, stubby forelegs, it clung tightly to Mei's shin, launching into an impassioned tirade against the alleged "atrocities" committed by the shiny Furret.

Watching her indignant Tepig, Mei found herself in a bit of a predicament.

I have no idea what you're saying.

Perhaps, in some distant future, Mei would achieve the legendary ability to communicate with Pokémon on a deeper level.

To understand their thoughts with just a glance at their gestures and seemingly nonsensical cries, even discerning their exact desires.

But for now…

She was nowhere near that level.

So she could only stare at Tepig's righteous indignation with a helpless look.

"I really can't understand you!"

Somebody save me! Natsume!

With no other options, Mei turned her pleading gaze toward Natsume.

Right now, all she could do was hope that he could help.

"What's wrong, Tepig?"

Natsume, who had followed Mei off the Caw Caw Express, crouched beside her, temporarily assuming the role of interpreter.

"Boof boof!"

The moment Tepig saw Natsume, it immediately abandoned Mei and directed its complaints toward him instead.

Not that it necessarily preferred Natsume over Mei—

I mean, sure, Tepig liked Natsume a lot, but not that much more than Mei… right?

It's just that—well, Natsume was way too generous.

Pokeblocks? He handed them out like candy.

Every Pokémon on the farm was well-fed and chubby.

There was even a rumor that one of the farm's Furret had been trying to go on a diet for ages but never managed to lose any weight.

But back to the point.

The real reason Tepig got so worked up upon seeing Natsume was simply that…

He could actually understand what it was saying.

And that was incredibly rare.

At least, in Tepig's short Pokémon life, Natsume was the only human it had ever met who could communicate with Pokémon without barriers.

"I see, I think I got it," Natsume nodded after listening to Tepig's complaints.

Then he turned to Mei and summarized,

"In short… it got mentally broken by Shiny Furret."

"Boof?!"

Tepig gasped in horror.

Oi, oi, did you really have to spell it out like that?!

Sure, it wasn't exactly wrong, but—

I still have my dignity, you know!

"Huh?"

Hearing Natsume's words, Mei was momentarily stunned.

What the heck does "breaking through defenses" even mean?

"It seems that Shiny Furret was trying to teach Tepig a move, so it made Tepig experience it firsthand. If he couldn't learn it, he just kept getting hit."

"Furret!"

At some point, the shiny Furret had appeared beside Natsume and added its own explanation.

It had noticed that Tepig's motivation to get stronger seemed weaker than the other Pokémon.

So, it opted for a simple and direct teaching method—

Letting Tepig remember the feeling of getting beaten.

That should help him learn, right?

After all, Take Down is just a straightforward charge attack.

At least, that's how Furret saw it.

Tackle? Just ramming into something.

Take Down? Ramming even harder.

And Take Down with full force? That means charging in without caring about defense, aiming straight for the opponent's weak spot.

A rather simple and direct way of understanding it.

"I see."

Glancing at the somewhat guilty-looking Tepig, Mei decisively turned to the shiny Furret.

"In that case, I'll be counting on you to take care of him from now on."

Without hesitation, she grabbed Tepig by the scruff of his neck and shoved him toward Furret.

Mei was well aware of her Pokémon's personalities.

The one that gave her the biggest headache was undoubtedly Tepig.

Servine and Dewott? No need to even mention them.

They were both diligent and hardworking. Even if Mei didn't push them, they would train on their own.

Steenee, who joined later, was playful and curious about everything, but with a little encouragement, she would train seriously.

Only Tepig was the problem.

He was lazy, playful, and even slacked off during training.

Scolding him didn't really work. If she was too harsh, she would feel guilty herself.

So, Tepig had been living in a relatively relaxed state.

If he were content with staying like that forever, Mei wouldn't mind. She could just let him be the team's mascot, cheering everyone on from the sidelines.

As long as it didn't affect the team's overall atmosphere, it was fine.

But sometimes, Tepig would suddenly become motivated.

Like after a battle loss—especially when Mei lost a match.

He would get really upset and enter a short-lived "determined training" phase.

But it never lasted.

To put it simply, he wasn't content being lazy, but he also didn't want to work too hard.

Caught between anxiety and slacking off, he ultimately chose anxious slacking.

He would stand up and train for a bit—only to start looking for excuses to rest again.

Just like you in front of the screen.

So, Mei decided she needed to put some pressure on him.

Since she couldn't bring herself to be strict, she might as well let someone else do it.

"Furret!"

Leave it to me! No problem at all!

Catching the tossed Tepig, Furret threw him over its shoulder and gave Mei a thumbs-up.

Ignoring Tepig's frantic struggles, Furret adjusted its posture, standing upright on its hind legs, and carried Tepig off for more training.

"Boooor—!!"

A heart-wrenching wail echoed across the farm, carrying far into the distance.

Servine and Dewott, who were in the middle of training, nodded approvingly.

Nice. Someone finally put that lazy, orange pig in his place.

In fact, both of them had been annoyed by Tepig for a while now.

They just hadn't said anything out of respect for Mei.

Now, they had even more respect for Natsume.

As expected of the human they acknowledged.

Not bad at all.

For now, Dewott was very satisfied with farm life.

And more importantly—

Glancing over at Gallade, who was leisurely fishing by the lake, Dewott's eyes burned with admiration.

Ever since witnessing Gallade in battle, Dewott had become completely captivated.

The fluid movements, the clean and efficient attacks—

And the way Gallade casually turned away after the fight to chat with the others.

It was exactly the kind of battle style Dewott dreamed of.

With Slowking, the coach, and the ever-durable training partner Corviknight back on the farm, the training routine had returned to normal.

By the way, when Mei first requested special training, she didn't think too much about it.

But later, she felt like she might have been taking advantage of the situation.

So, in classic university-student fashion—never haggling when shopping—she bought a massive supply of Pokéblocks.

Enough to last her Pokémon a whole month.

Don't ask. It was necessary.

At the very least, Mei had full confidence in Tepig's appetite.

So, all she could do was entrust everything to her team's biggest eater.

If Natsume knew what Mei was thinking, he would probably just laugh and say it wasn't necessary.

At first, sure, the special training was just for Mei's Pokémon.

But now, it had evolved into a full-fledged farm-wide boot camp.

Since he was already training his Pokémon, adding a few more didn't make a difference.

Might as well get everyone involved to make the atmosphere even livelier.

That was how Slowking, the stand-in coach, saw it.

At this point, most of the Pokémon who were close to Natsume had joined in.

Even the ones who usually kept their distance—like Charjabug, the shiny Pidgeotto, and the Hisuian Zorua who always lurked in the shadows watching—had joined.

The training grounds were buzzing with energy.

After a quick scan of the training site, Natsume headed back to his room for a break.

He hadn't rested much since morning.

Originally, he planned to make more Pokéblocks for the Pokémon.

But before he could, Slowking dragged him off to check on Absol.

And, well, the rest was history.

Mei, on the other hand, didn't follow him back.

She decided to stay and cheer on Servine and the others.

At least this way, she could contribute in some way.

Otherwise, it felt like leaving them to train while she went off to relax—

Like putting a game on auto-mode.

"Mhmm?"

At the end of the second-floor hallway, a small head peeked out from a room, sensing Natsume's presence.

When it saw him, its eyes lit up, and it immediately dashed toward him, leaping into his arms.

"Good afternoon, Ogerpon."

"Did you stay up late again last night?"

Catching the airborne Ogerpon, Natsume chuckled and gave its head a gentle rub.

"Mhmm."

Nestled in his arms, Ogerpon's eyes darted around evasively.

Ever since arriving at the farm, it had spent a few days setting up its room.

At Natsume's suggestion, Ogerpon decided to keep the trinkets it had originally planned to throw away.

They were treasures from the past, after all.

Then came the process of adjusting to the new environment.

Overall, it had been getting along with the other Pokémon well enough.

Not exactly friendly, but at least they coexisted peacefully under the same roof.

Not that Ogerpon cared too much about them.

As long as Natsume was there, that was enough.

At first, that's what it thought.

Then Corviknight dragged it into an all-night anime binge.

And just like that, it got sucked in.

Now, Ogerpon even greeted the other Pokémon occasionally.

Among its closest friends on the farm were Shiny Furret and Corviknight.

With Shiny Furret, it was a natural connection—they were both cute, so they clicked.

As for Corviknight, well—

It was just an extroverted otaku.

Yes, that sounded odd.

But somehow, Corviknight balanced being a hardcore anime nerd with an incredibly outgoing personality.

It loved recommending anime to everyone.

And occasionally, it even acted out dramatic scenes.

Unfortunately, most of the farm's Pokémon weren't interested in anime.

But Ogerpon was.

Because it had once seen Natsume watching anime while lounging on a bean bag after a bath—

And figured this was a great way to get closer to him.

Since there was nothing else to do, might as well pass the time—so, together with Corviknight, he started watching an anime.

And then he got hooked.

"Staying up late is fine, but remember to show some restraint."

After giving it a firm rub, Natsume set Ogerpon down on the floor.

This little one had always been quite clingy.

Good thing he was raising a Ogerpon and not a Grass Cat.

Sprigatito, being one of the highly popular starter Pokémon, was an extremely rare feline species and a textbook example of an adorable cat Pokémon.

Not the fancy-pants, gas-tank-looking kind of cat, though.

Its final evolution was a graceful, humanoid big cat—decent stats all around.

But the downside? Grass Cats were incredibly jealous creatures.

If you got too close to other Pokémon, Sprigatito would get really jealous.

Natsume had originally considered raising one, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

Still, having a Grass-type Ogerpon now wasn't much different.

Just as cute, just as strong, and without that over-the-top jealousy issue.

"Wooma wooma."

Nodding firmly, Ogerpon signaled its understanding.

It would definitely be staying up late again.

A classic case of acknowledging a mistake but having zero intention of changing.

Lately, Ogerpon had been obsessed with a new anime, and it had already made plans with Corviknight to marathon the remaining episodes tonight.

"Ahh, finally lying down."

Sinking into the beanbag chair, Natsume let out a long breath as his body relaxed.

That feeling of finally having solid support from the waist to the shoulder blades—no matter how many times he experienced it, it was always satisfying.

"Wooma."

Taking advantage of the moment, Ogerpon handed Natsume a glass of water it had just fetched, then climbed onto the backrest of the beanbag chair, gently tapping his shoulders.

From this angle, it happened to catch a glimpse of the screen on Natsume's phone.

"Wooma?"

Was Natsume signing up for that tournament?

Looking at the registration page on the screen, Ogerpon tilted its head in curiosity.

It had overheard some Pokémon at the farm mentioning that Natsume was thinking about entering a town-level or county-level competition.

Just for fun.

So naturally, Ogerpon was a little curious.

But only a little.

It knew full well that Natsume wouldn't sign it up for something like this.

"More or less. Interested, Ogerpon?"

"Wooma."

Not really.

Feeling the warmth of the hand on its head, Ogerpon answered, sounding thoroughly disinterested.

What would it even do in a competition like this?

Speedrun the whole thing and grab the prize?

"Alright then, if you're not interested, I'll have someone else enter."

Natsume smiled as he finished filling out his registration details.

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