Pokemon: Farm Story

Once all the Pokémon had gathered, Natsume held the still-fuming and struggling Zorua in his arms and began explaining the current situation.

Simply put, a powerful Pokémon was making its way toward the farm.

If nothing unexpected happened, it would either pass by or cut straight through the farm.

And when that happened, things would likely become a complete mess.

Perhaps, just like that forest before, everything would be thrown into chaos.

At that point, everyone would end up like those poor Steenee and Absol—homeless (scratch that).

Surely, you, Persian/Ogerpon/Shiny Furret/Slowking/Zorua, wouldn't want your hard-earned home to be destroyed, right?

Ahem. Time to get serious.

"So, that's the situation."

After finishing his explanation, Natsume clapped his hands and stood up from the ground.

Speaking of which, he wasn't sure when it happened, but it seemed that the farm had completely cured his mild germophobia.

In the past, he definitely wouldn't have chosen to sit down on the grass like this.

For one, his pants might get covered in dirt and grass clippings.

And another thing—some wild grass could be really prickly.

Especially in autumn.

That sensation? Absolutely stimulating.

"Umma!"

Ogerpon was the first to respond, declaring with conviction that it would absolutely defeat that Pokémon and protect the farm.

I will defend everything on this farm—including the phone and the computer.

That was the declaration from Ogerpon, who had recently been following Corviknight in a rigorous anime marathon.

"Yadon."

Slowking clasped its hands behind its back, tilting its head in thought.

A massive Pokémon, with an ancient bronze cauldron on its head.

Seems like some kind of divine beast?

In the knowledge left behind by Uxie, there was indeed mention of this Pokémon—

But only in passing, so Slowking wasn't too sure.

Not that it mattered.

A divine beast or not, Slowking wasn't particularly concerned.

Scanning the odd bunch around it, Slowking had never felt such a profound sense of security.

A mythical Grass-type Pokémon—though far from its peak, still a formidable force.

A Persian with absurd physical prowess—so far, Slowking had never seen another Pokémon with a more ridiculous build.

Shiny Furret...

Hmm. Skip.

And then there was that one currently in Natsume's arms.

At first, Slowking just had a vague sense that something was off.

But it couldn't quite figure out what.

Lately, though, it had started to understand a bit.

Now it was just waiting for this one to reveal itself.

Slowking was quite looking forward to it.

Its seemingly vacant eyes locked onto Zorua, showing no intention of hiding its curiosity.

Sensing Slowking's gaze, Zorua turned its head to glance back, flashing a mischievous grin.

Slowking withdrew its gaze and looked toward the sky.

Hmm. Nice weather today.

As for Persian, it hadn't reacted much from the start.

The only noticeable change was that, upon hearing that the Pokémon might be a divine beast, its tail began swaying faster and with greater intensity.

Its long tail continuously smacked against the ground.

If they were indoors, the sound of its tail hitting the floor would be echoing throughout the house.

"Ah, the alert is here."

Just as Natsume was about to say something, a notification popped up on his phone.

It was an official alert from the Ranger Union, briefly outlining the current situation.

Attached were several images—one showing the Pokémon's predicted path, another showing the Pokémon itself.

And at the bottom, a warning:

"Trainers in the vicinity are strongly advised to evacuate immediately.

Do not approach.

Do not observe.

Do not approach.

Unless you genuinely believe yourself to be exceptionally powerful.

But if you die, we are not responsible."

Of course, the alert didn't phrase it quite so bluntly. But that was essentially the message.

After all, the trainer community was never short of thrill-seekers with a death wish.

Any sensible person would understand that reckless people inevitably meet bad ends.

But trainers? They must have an adventurous spirit!

Opening the map, Natsume's farm was, unsurprisingly, right in the path.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't just his farm—the whole town was in the way.

That probably meant a full-scale evacuation for the townspeople.

What a hassle.

Natsume then opened the second image—

And a very hefty-looking Pokémon filled his screen.

"So, it really is Ting-Lu."

Forgive Natsume for using hefty as the descriptor.

To be honest, none of the Four Treasures of Ruin were really his aesthetic.

Wo-Chien and Ting-Lu? Not even going to comment.

They had power, sure. But as for looks? They also had power.

Natsume had no words about their appearance.

And sometimes, saying nothing was the biggest statement of all.

The remaining two, Chien-Pao and Chi-Yu, were relatively okay.

At least they were within a reasonable aesthetic range.

But the enormous eyeballs of Chi-Yu and the sword-like fangs of Chien-Pao... both felt a bit off—as if their designs were forcibly emphasizing the artifact motif.

"Let me think... Ting-Lu specializes in physical defense, right?"

Natsume tried to recall its stats.

If memory served, Ting-Lu excelled in HP and physical defense.

Each of the Four Treasures of Ruin had two particularly strong attributes, and their abilities perfectly complemented their combat styles.

Ting-Lu had high HP and physical defense, but weaker special defense. Its ability, Vessel of Ruin, lowered the special attack of opposing Pokémon.

The same applied to the others.

For instance, Chi-Yu had high special attack and special defense, and its ability, Beads of Ruin, reduced the special defense of others.

So, against Ting-Lu, was it better to use special attackers or physical attackers?

Hard to say.

Its sheer defensive bulk made it hard to crack with physical moves, yet special attacks wouldn't hit as hard due to its ability.

Not that this was Natsume's problem to solve.

Glancing at his team, Natsume felt a bit helpless.

Aside from Slowking, everyone was a physical attacker.

Persian? Stat-wise, only its Speed was truly exceptional, and its movepool was mostly physical moves.

Ogerpon? A physical attacker, with barely any special moves to speak of.

The only proper special attacker here was Slowking.

Oh, and Gardevoir.

After all, she was the Psychic Queen.

As for frontline tanks, Corviknight was the only option.

With its current strength, Corviknight should be able to hold its own against Ting-Lu for a while.

But the issue was...

Ting-Lu wasn't a nimble Pokémon.

Its massive frame dictated a stand-your-ground fighting style.

Whereas Corviknight fought in the air.

Most of Ting-Lu's attacks probably wouldn't even be a real threat to Corviknight.

But Corviknight wasn't about to intentionally get hit just to deal damage.

That'd be highly unprofessional.

Still, even if it wasn't the perfect matchup—

As long as the fundamentals were solid, it would work.

Natsume had faith in Corviknight.

Personality flaws aside, when it came to battles, he never doubted Corviknight's capabilities.

From the very beginning, Corviknight had always been the serious and intelligent type.

Any agreed-upon strategy would be executed with precision, and when faced with unexpected situations, it could remain calm and handle them on its own.

Perhaps it was because the first anime protagonist it encountered was the cool and collected type.

So Corviknight had always demanded of itself to become a calm and mature Pokémon.

To battle with composure, analyze the situation, and then ruthlessly defeat its opponent.

Even though its true nature wasn't that cool-headed, at least during battle, Corviknight would do its best to suppress itself.

'Might as well call Corviknight over too.'

After thinking it over, Natsume turned to Slowking and said,

"Slowking, could you let Corviknight know to come here as well?"

"Yadon."

Hearing Natsume's words, Slowking, who had been counting clouds, snapped back to reality and nodded.

A faint blue glow flickered in its eyes.

With almost no effort, Slowking locked onto Corviknight, who was sunbathing on the rooftop.

Corviknight's daily routine was pretty fixed.

It was either sunbathing or holed up in its room binge-watching anime.

Lately, it had been coming to the training grounds before lunch for special practice.

...Which mostly involved spewing trash talk.

At first, Corviknight found it quite enjoyable.

But over time, it started feeling like being forced to turn in homework.

It had already exhausted all the trash talk it could come up with, its mind running dry.

Yet Serperior and the others kept dragging it in for more intense training,

As if determined to squeeze every last ounce of trash talk out of Corviknight's brain.

Because of this, Corviknight had been surfing various forums lately to study up on insults.

To better expand its arsenal, it even started a discussion thread on a certain forum.

Basically, it was debating which past Champion's winning team had carried dead weight, who had actually put in effort, whose playstyle lacked teamwork, and who was the biggest "CJB" (carry or just bait).

Unsurprisingly, the thread was so controversial that Corviknight got itself launched into the stratosphere that very night.

The replies kept piling up endlessly.

Corviknight took the opportunity to absorb as much as it could.

Back to the present—

"Yadon."

Natsume is looking for you.

Slowking's voice echoed directly in Corviknight's mind.

The once-lazy Corviknight, basking in the sun, suddenly flailed in shock and flipped over.

What the hell just spoke in my head?!

Still half-dazed from the sun, Corviknight felt like a student being forcefully yanked out of bed and shoved into school mode.

Its body was awake, but its mind was still lagging behind.

After a few seconds, it finally registered that it was Slowking speaking to it.

"Caw-caw!"

Perched on the rooftop, Corviknight took a few steps forward, flapped its wings, and soared into the sky.

In the blink of an eye, it had turned into a small black dot in the distance.

It didn't know what was going on, but since Boss Natsume had called, it had to get moving immediately.

On the farm, it didn't matter where you were from,

It didn't matter if you were a clan leader or a lone wanderer.

Here, there was only one boss—Boss Natsume.

This was an unspoken rule recognized by all the Pokémon on the farm.

And with certain Pokémon spreading the word, Natsume's reputation was no longer limited to just the farm.

Even some Pokémon in the surrounding areas had started to hear of Boss Natsume's "fame."

Basically—

He made amazing food, could understand Pokémon speech, and could fight even better than Pokémon.

At this point, who was the real Pokémon here?

"Caw-caw."

With Corviknight's speed, it took less than half a minute to reach the training grounds.

Its sharp eyes quickly scanned the area, found Natsume, and descended.

It seemed that most flying Pokémon had exceptional eyesight.

At least, those that could fly did.

"Caw-caw!"

Boss Natsume, I'm here!

After landing, Corviknight saluted in a serious manner.

"Even though I already explained, let's go over everything again."

Seeing Corviknight arrive, Natsume once again detailed the current situation.

He also added some intel—

Including information about Ting-Lu, its characteristics, and what to watch out for if a battle broke out.

Yes, unless something unexpected happened, it was almost certain that Natsume would end up fighting Ting-Lu.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the rangers or anything.

It was just that, given Ting-Lu's speed, by the time reliable reinforcements arrived, it would already be near the farm.

The destructive power of a Ground-type Legendary was undeniable. Even if it was just passing through, it was enough to give Natsume a headache.

Its very footsteps would cause the ground to tremble slightly.

And if Ting-Lu got too close, the town would likely suffer damage as well.

Natsume's farm was on the southwestern edge of town, while Ting-Lu was coming from the north.

It was almost inevitable that the town would be affected.

Despite being a small, relatively unknown town, Natsume had grown quite fond of it.

The people here were nice.

There weren't any of those cliché, obnoxious characters you'd see in certain stories.

Sure, there were probably some unpleasant people around, but that kind of person existed everywhere.

It wasn't like this town had a monopoly on jerks.

There were terrible people all over the world.

But that didn't mean you should hate the world just because of them.

That would be ridiculous.

"I wonder if I'd be overstepping."

"But I should still go check things out."

With that decision made, Natsume temporarily called off today's training.

"Persian, Slowking, Ogerpon, Corviknight, Gardevoir, and Gallade—you're all coming with me."

Like a general selecting warriors before battle, Natsume chose his team.

Originally, he wasn't sure whether to bring Gallade.

Strictly speaking, Gallade didn't have much of an advantage against Ting-Lu.

But then again, there weren't many better options.

So, might as well bring it along. An extra fighter wouldn't hurt.

"If things go south, I'll be counting on you."

After giving his instructions, Natsume turned to the Zorua in his arms.

This little guy was the ace of the farm.

"Suosuo."

Leave it to me.

With a mischievous grin, Zorua looked completely confident.

It was the kind of look that reminded people of a certain infamous "Warden" meme.

Will we win?

Maybe this was just the confidence of the strong.

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