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

  A vast shadow stretched across the ground, growing rger by the sed as a massive figure desded gracefully from the sky.

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

  Perhaps this was simply a natural gift of its species—an ialent as an airboraxi.

  Just like how some people are born with a knack for flipping woks, some excel at smoothing pster, 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 fs, it g tightly to Mei’s shin, ung into an impassioirade against the alleged "atrocities" itted by the shiny Furret.

  Watg her indignant Tepig, Mei found herself in a bit of a predit.

  I have no idea what you’re saying.

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

  To uand their thoughts with just a g their gestures and seemingly nonsensical cries, even dising their exact desires.

  But for now…

  She was nowhere hat level.

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

  "I really ’t uand 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 pints 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 hahem out like dy.

  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 fes but never mao lose a.

  But back to the point.

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

  He could actually uand 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 unicate with Pokémon without barriers.

  “I see, I think I got it,” Natsume nodded after listening to Tepig’s pints.

  Theuro 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 wasly 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 experie 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 expnation.

  It had noticed that Tepig’s motivation to get stronger seemed weaker thaher Pokémon.

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

  Letting Tepig remember the feeling of gettien.

  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 g about defense, aiming straight for the oppo’s ot.

  A rather simple and direct way of uanding it.

  “I see.”

  Gng at the somewhat guilty-looking Tepig, Mei decisively turo the shiny Furret.

  “In that case, I’ll be ting on you to take care of him from now on.”

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

  Mei was well aware of her Pokémon’s personalities.

  The ohat gave her the biggest headache was undoubtedly Tepig.

  Servine a? o eveion them.

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

  Steenee, who joier, yful and curious about everything, but with a little encement, she would train seriously.

  Only Tepig was the problem.

  He was zy, pyful, and even scked 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 retively rexed state.

  If he were tent 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 beotivated.

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

  He would get really upset aer a short-lived “determiraining” phase.

  But it ed.

  To put it simply, he wasn’t tent being zy, but he also didn’t want to work too hard.

  Caught between ay and sg off, he ultimately chose anxious sg.

  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 s.

  So, Mei decided she o 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!

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

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

  “Boooor—!!”

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

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

  Nice. Someone finally put that zy, e pig in his pce.

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

  They just hadn’t said anything out of respeei.

  Now, they had even more respect for Natsume.

  As expected of the human they aowledged.

  Not bad at all.

  For now, Dewott was very satisfied with farm life.

  And more importantly—

  Gng over at Galde, who was leisurely fishing by the ke, Dewott’s eyes burned with admiration.

  Ever sinessing Galde in battle, Dewott had bee pletely captivated.

  The fluid movements, the and effit attacks—

  And the way Galde 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 ba the farm, the training routine had returo normal.

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

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

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

  Enough to st her Pokémon a whole month.

  Don’t ask. It was necessary.

  At the very least, Mei had full fiden 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 ugh 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 watg—had joined.

  The training grounds were buzzing with energy.

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

  He hadn’t rested much since m.

  inally, he po make more Pokéblocks for the Pokémon.

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

  And, well, the rest was history.

  Mei, oher hand, didn’t follow him back.

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

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

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

  Like putting a game on auto-mode.

  “Mhmm?”

  At the end of the sed-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 te again st night?”

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

  “Mhmm.”

  led 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 tris it had inally po throw away.

  They were treasures from the past, after all.

  Then came the process of adjusting to the new enviro.

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

  ly friendly, but at least they coexisted peacefully uhe 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 eveed the other Pokémon occasionally.

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

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

  As for Corviknight, well—

  It was just aroverted otaku.

  Yes, that sounded odd.

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

  It loved reending ao everyone.

  And occasionally, it even acted out dramatic ses.

  Unfortunately, most of the farm’s Pokémon weren’t ied in anime.

  But Ogerpon was.

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

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

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

  And the hooked.

  "Staying up te 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 gy.

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

  Sprigatito, being one of the highly popur starter Pokémon, was aremely 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—det 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 inally sidered 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 sigs uanding.

  It would definitely be staying up te again.

  A cssic case of aowledging a mistake but having zero iion of ging.

  Lately, Ogerpon had been obsessed with a new anime, and it had already made pns 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 rexed.

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

  "Wooma."

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

  From this a happeo catch a glimpse of the s on Natsume’s phone.

  "Wooma?"

  Was Natsume signing up for that tour?

  Looking at the registration page on the s, 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 ty-level petition.

  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. Ied, Ogerpon?"

  "Wooma."

  Not really.

  Feeling the warmth of the hand on its head, Ogerpon answered, sounding thhly disied.

  What would it even do in a petition like this?

  Speedrun the whole thing and grab the prize?

  "Alright then, if you’re not ied, I’ll have someone else enter."

  Natsume smiled as he finished filling out his registratioails.

  Gcell