Away from the noise of the festival, one narrow alley remained dark and almost completely empty.
Snow drifted in from the street beyond, covering the ground in a thin white layer while the sounds of people and Kangaskhan celebrating seemed strangely distant.
The poacher stumbled through it with one hand against the wall.
Blood ran from his forehead, mouth, and fingertips, leaving an uneven trail behind him as he dragged himself forward.
The stadium uniform he’d used as a disguise was torn and filthy, and every breath sent another wave of pain through his chest.
Ralts’s Fire Punch had done far more damage than he’d expected.
A human body simply wasn’t built to take something like that.
Trapinch stayed close beside him, while Nickit limped along on shaking legs.
Of the three, Trapinch was in the best condition.
Nickit had taken two Fire Punches directly to the stomach, and every few steps it had to stop and fight against the pain before continuing.
“Tra…?” Trapinch suddenly snapped its head toward the mouth of the alley.
Something red flashed through the snow.
It jumped in front of its Trainer just as a metallic fist slammed into its body, driving the small Pokémon into the brick wall hard enough to spread cracks around the point of impact.
The poacher lunged forward on instinct and caught Trapinch as it fell.
Without the wall to support him, his legs immediately gave out and he collapsed into the snow with it.
“Kii!” Nickit forced itself between them and the attacker.
Its dislocated jaw left its tongue hanging awkwardly from one side of its mouth, but it lowered its body anyway, tail pressed against the snow as a warning growl struggled from its throat.
A mocking laugh answered it.
“Well, look at that.
Didn’t expect a poacher like you to have Pokémon this loyal.” The man looked up.
A black-robed figure was walking toward them, accompanied by a red, armored Pokémon with enormous pincers.
Scizor.
One attack had already knocked Trapinch unconscious.
The poacher recalled it with a trembling hand, the small motion leaving him gasping through clenched teeth.
By the time he managed to put the Poké Ball away, the black-robed man had stopped only a few steps in front of him.
“You know why I’m here.” His tone was almost bored.
“Give me the Wishing Star.” So they’d found him after all.
The poacher remained on his knees in the snow, staring up from beneath blood-matted hair.
Maybe handing it over would make them leave.
Maybe it wouldn’t.
At this point, the distinction barely mattered.
He knew his own body well enough to understand what was happening.
He’d spent years watching people die from wounds like these, sometimes because he’d been the one who gave them those wounds.
There wasn’t much road left ahead of him.
That didn’t mean he intended to spend his final minutes begging.
The poacher grabbed a fistful of snow and hurled it toward Scizor and its Trainer.
“Nickit!
Quick Attack!” The black-robed man didn’t even bother moving.
“Pathetic.” A badly injured Nickit wasn’t going to threaten Scizor.
It wasn’t supposed to.
Something red glimmered inside the cloud of snow.
The Wishing Star.
Nickit slammed into it instead of the enemy, launching the stone high above the alley.
Before either man could react, a small black shape streaked across the sky and snatched it in its claws.
A Rookidee.
The bird didn’t hesitate.
It beat its wings hard and disappeared between the rooftops with the Wishing Star.
For several seconds, everyone simply stared after it.
Then the poacher started laughing.
“So that kid did teach me something useful after all.” The trick was almost embarrassingly familiar: hide what mattered inside a handful of snow and make the other side look in the wrong place.
His laughter dissolved into a wet cough, but the grin remained.
The black-robed man’s patience finally broke.
“Bullet Punch.” Scizor vanished forward.
Its fist struck Nickit before the injured Pokémon could move, sending it through the air in a spray of blood.
Nickit crashed into its Trainer’s back, and the combined impact drove him face-first into the snow.
Something cracked in his spine.
The pain lasted only an instant before everything went black.
The black-robed man stared down at them with disgust, but finishing the job wasn’t worth wasting more time.
The Wishing Star mattered far more than a half-dead poacher.
He turned and followed the direction Rookidee had flown.
Once his footsteps faded, the alley became quiet again.
Nickit lay motionless for several seconds before its paws began to tremble.
It tried to stand, collapsed, then dragged itself upright once more and limped toward its Trainer.
“Kii…” It licked the side of his face.
Just as he had after the avalanche, the poacher woke beneath Nickit’s tongue.
This time, however, his legs wouldn’t respond at all.
He tried to breathe and tasted blood.
After a moment, he stopped pretending he didn’t understand.
The man pulled Trapinch’s Poké Ball from his pocket and placed it carefully in the snow.
“Nickit…
take this to An.” Nickit stared at him.
“I was going to sell that Shiny Ralts and buy her a good Ralts of her own.” His voice had become little more than a rasp.
“Didn’t work out.” A weak laugh escaped him, immediately turning into another cough.
“Guess Joltik and Trapinch will have to look after her instead.” “Kii…” Nickit lowered its head and carefully took Trapinch’s Poké Ball between its teeth.
“Wait.” The poacher reached into his backpack one last time.
His fingers found the gift box he’d bought earlier that day.
Inside was a green ribbon.
He held it for a moment before looking at Nickit’s bare tail.
“I know you liked the one An tied for you.
I wanted to bring this home and let her do it properly.” His hand shook badly as he reached for Nickit’s tail.
“Can I do it instead?” Nickit stood perfectly still.
The knot came out crooked.
One end hung much lower than the other, and the whole thing looked as though it might fall apart if Nickit ran too quickly.
The poacher stared at his work and gave a tired smile.
Nickit’s eyes filled with tears.
It had always loved being groomed by the little girl at home, and it had been miserable ever since losing the ribbon she’d tied around its tail.
This one was nowhere near as neat.
Nickit pressed its face against the man’s hand anyway.
“Kii…” After licking his cheek once more, it turned away with Trapinch’s Poké Ball in its mouth and began limping toward the hospital.
The poacher watched until it disappeared from sight.
Then he let his head sink into the snow.
If he’d had one final wish, it would’ve been something much smaller than a Wishing Star.
A drink would’ve been nice.
At Frostleaf Public Hospital, Joltik was resting on the windowsill when something tapped against the glass.
Its eyes opened.
Nickit stood outside, covered in blood.
Joltik rushed toward the window as Nickit dropped Trapinch’s Poké Ball onto the sill and pushed it forward with its nose.
“Jol…?” Where’s your Trainer?
Nickit answered quietly.
It told Joltik that Trapinch was its responsibility now.
The two of them would have to protect the woman and the little girl.
Joltik knew where the Trainer had hidden the money he’d earned over the years, and the family would need it.
Especially An.
Her treatment wasn’t cheap.
Joltik stared at Nickit without moving.
Nickit looked past it into the hospital room.
The little girl was asleep in bed.
It forced itself through the window and climbed onto the bedside table, then leaned over and gently licked her cheek.
“Mmm…
Nickit…” An shifted beneath the blankets without waking.
“That tickles…” Nickit stayed there for a while, memorizing her face.
Then it climbed back onto the windowsill.
Joltik understood before Nickit said anything else.
The two Pokémon looked at each other one final time.
Nickit jumped down into the snow.
By the time it returned to the alley, walking had become almost impossible.
Its paws slipped beneath it again and again, but it kept moving until the poacher came into view.
He hadn’t moved.
Nickit crawled the last few steps and licked his cheek.
“Kii…” There was no response.
It tried again, weaker this time, then lowered its head onto the man’s cold hand and rubbed against his palm.
Nickit could have gone back to the hospital.
There were doctors there.
A Pokémon Center wasn’t far away either.
Instead, it curled against its Trainer and closed its eyes.
The snow continued falling.
By the time the alley disappeared beneath a fresh white layer, the footprints and bloodstains were almost gone.
Only the faint green of the ribbon around Nickit’s tail remained visible beneath the snow.
Night arrived early in Frostleaf Town.
Streetlights glowed against the snowfall while the festival crowd kept a wide circle around Nurse Joy and the young Kangaskhan.
Humans and Pokémon alike had gathered to watch, but nobody spoke above a whisper.
Then Nurse Joy finally lifted something from beside Kangaskhan.
A large Pokémon Egg, patterned in brown.
“It’s out!” Someone in the crowd began to cheer, only to fall silent when they noticed the expressions of the surrounding Kangaskhan.
Nurse Joy was exhausted, sweat dampening her forehead despite the winter air.
The young mother lay almost motionless in the snow.
One of the older Kangaskhan approached and placed several Berries beside her.
Another followed, then another, until small gifts began accumulating in the snow around the exhausted Pokémon.
Jun watched them before turning toward Nurse Joy.
“She’s not going to make it, is she?” The question felt absurd even as he asked it.
Pokémon could throw fire, bend steel, survive attacks that would’ve killed a human outright—and yet this young Kangaskhan might die simply bringing her child into the world.
Nurse Joy’s hands tightened around the Egg.
“Wild Pokémon don’t always get the chance to rest properly while they’re carrying an Egg.
She was already exhausted from the migration, and there’s something else wrong.” Her eyes moved toward the young mother.
“The Galar particles affected her during the pregnancy.
I don’t know exactly what they did, but her condition is deteriorating too quickly.” There was anger beneath Nurse Joy’s exhaustion.
She had treated Pokémon hurt by uncontrolled Dynamax incidents before.
Whatever benefits Galar had learned to draw from those particles, nature didn’t always use them gently.
Kangaskhan herself seemed strangely calm.
“Kan…” She looked toward Jun and pointed weakly at the Egg in Nurse Joy’s arms.
Jun understood.
If she couldn’t raise her baby herself, she wanted someone she trusted to do it.
Someone she’d met only hours ago.
Jun’s jaw tightened, but before he could answer, a sharp crack came from the Egg.
Everyone froze.
Another crack spread across the shell.
Nurse Joy’s expression changed instantly.
“It’s hatching already?” The Egg had only just been laid.
Whatever the Galar particles had done, the baby was emerging far too early.
Normally, that would’ve been another disaster.
The shell split wider.
A tiny pair of hands appeared first, followed by a light-blue head and enormous dark eyes.
The newborn Kangaskhan pushed itself weakly upward, still half buried inside its Egg, with a large piece of shell resting crookedly over its head.
“Kan…” Its first cry was quiet.
Its mother heard it.
Kangaskhan forced herself upright.
Nurse Joy reached out instinctively, but stopped when the mother began crawling toward her baby under her own power.
The newborn stretched out one tiny hand.
Kangaskhan raised the claw wrapped in Jun’s green ribbon.
Their fingertips touched.
The young mother’s expression changed.
She had carried Berries for a child who wasn’t born yet.
She’d imagined feeding her, carrying her, traveling with her, and returning to Frostleaf Town next year with a baby in her pouch.
Now she wouldn’t get to do any of it.
She lowered her forehead toward the Egg.
“Kan…” I’m sorry.
I didn’t get to do anything for you.
A green light appeared between their hands.
Jun’s breath caught.
The glow spread rapidly over both Pokémon, bright enough to tint the surrounding snow green.
It looked like evolution at first—the same strange radiance that could transform one Pokémon into another.
But this wasn’t evolution.
The two silhouettes inside the light began to overlap.
Kangaskhan’s large body faded into the newborn’s smaller one as the green glow drew them together.
The shape continued shrinking until there was only a single figure left standing where mother and child had been.
Then the light disappeared.
A tiny Pokémon stood alone in the snow.
Its body was no longer blue.
A bone club rested in one hand, and an oversized skull covered its head, so large that the newborn had to hold the edge up just to see properly.
Jun recognized the shape immediately.
Cubone.
Except it wasn’t.
“Cuu…?” The little Pokémon looked around, confused.
Where was her mother?
The green ribbon drifted down through the air and landed across the skull covering her head.
Jun slowly walked over and crouched in front of her.
He took the ribbon and tied it around the bone club instead.
The newborn watched him curiously while holding up the oversized skull with her free hand.
Jun tried to smile.
He couldn’t quite manage it.
The little Pokémon looked down at the ribbon, then back at Jun.
A bright grin spread across her face.
The same open, cheerful smile her mother had given him earlier that day.
She liked the ribbon too.
Behind Jun, Nurse Joy covered her mouth and finally broke down crying.
Marnie stood several steps away with Morpeko in her arms, saying nothing as she watched Jun and the strange newborn Pokémon in the snow.
For generations, nobody in Frostleaf Town had remembered exactly why the town carried that name.
Jun had assumed it was simply another place that never appeared in the games.
Now, surrounded by white snow washed in the fading traces of green light, he wondered if the answer had always been right there.
Life beginning in winter.
One life continuing through another.
Green against snow.
Frostleaf.
Jun’s Pokémon Research Notes Evolution Evolution can completely change a Pokémon.
It’s one of the first things anyone learns about them, and somehow still one of the least understood.
What happened tonight looked like evolution.
I don’t think it was.
The newborn isn’t quite a Kangaskhan anymore, but she isn’t an ordinary Cubone either.
Whatever her mother did changed her and seems to have repaired the damage caused by hatching too early.
Maybe she’s the only Pokémon like her in the world.
I doubt she’d consider that lucky.
[End of chapter]