“Pon-ne~ Pon-ne~ Pon-ne-um!” A Pokémon that looked like a young human girl was sitting on a grassy slope, basking in the sunlight, her two little feet swinging back and forth, looking exceptionally cute.
Her face was obscured by a teal-colored ogre mask, making it impossible to see her features.
But the gaze of those eyes never left the human town in the distance.
“Pon-ne…” Inexplicably, the Pokémon’s cheerful mood began to sink, no longer as happy as before.
She was called Ogerpon, a Pokémon living in the Oni Mountain of Kitakami.
A long time ago, a man brought Ogerpon and fled from overseas, intending to settle in Kitakami.
However, due to the man’s unusual appearance, the local residents felt fear; they ostracized the man and drove him away.
The man had a kind heart, so to avoid the villagers’ hatred, he and Ogerpon lived in a cave far away from people, leading a secluded life.
Humans are social creatures, so even with the company of a Pokémon, they could not avoid loneliness and solitude.
At this time, an artisan appeared in the village and used the gems the man brought from his hometown to craft four masks.
With the masks covering them, the man and Ogerpon could occasionally go down the mountain to attend the village festivals.
“Pon-ne-um…” Ogerpon could no longer remember how long she had lived alone in the mountains.
One hundred years?
Or two hundred years?
Perhaps even longer.
The man was Ogerpon’s only family; more than a Trainer, he was more like her father.
And that gentle and kind person was killed one day by several evil Pokémon that appeared from nowhere.
Just for those few masks!
To Ogerpon, the masks were undoubtedly extremely precious treasures.
But this preciousness had nothing to do with the masks themselves.
They were things left behind by the man, carrying their memories and the past.
Ogerpon didn’t feel she had done anything wrong.
Even if it happened again, facing those bad guys, Ogerpon would not hesitate to swing her Ivy Cudgel again and smash them to pieces!
But….
‘Demon, it’s a demon!’ ‘Get out, you monster!’ ‘Run, hurry, the demon has gone mad…’ ‘I knew these two outsiders were harbingers of disaster; they are so brutal.’ ‘…’ The villagers’ insults, fear, and disgust seemed to take physical form, jolting Ogerpon, who had been avenging her father, back to reality.
She didn’t know why they wanted to drive her away.
It was clearly, clearly those three guys who hurt her family first!
With low intelligence and a simple personality, Ogerpon could only leave, and then, in the long years that followed, she avoided human sight, only quietly gazing at the bustling lights of the town in the dead of night, recalling the wonderful time she spent living with her family.
“Pon-ne~~” Inexplicably, Ogerpon felt her eyes stinging.
Logically speaking, her days in Kitakami could be considered leisurely and carefree for Ogerpon.
She was a Grass-type Pokémon.
There was no need to run around for three meals a day like weak Pokémon.
As long as there was water and sunlight, Ogerpon could survive.
‘But…’ ‘It’s really so boring.’ There weren’t many things Ogerpon feared, and being alone was one of them.
The little one was very afraid of loneliness.
But even so, she still never went down to the town.
Because Ogerpon knew that the people there hated her, hated the creature called an ogre.
As for why she was hated?
It must be that Pon-Pon looked too ugly, which made those people run away in fear the moment they saw her.
‘No.’ Standing up, Ogerpon shook her head vigorously, driving the bustle of the town out of her mind: ‘Pon-Pon cannot appear in front of them, cannot scare people again!’ You might say, if there are no humans, you can go find Pokémon to play with.
Ogerpon had naturally done so before.
The forests around Kitakami were dense and lush, and a large number of Pokémon lived inside.
However, Pokémon had their own lives.
They needed to hunt, store food for the winter, and occasionally fight over territory.
Ogerpon didn’t like fighting.
She didn’t have any territory or anything like that either.
These hundreds of years of life had taught Ogerpon how to get along with the Pokémon in the Kitakami region.
If she encountered vicious ones, she had to avoid their territory.
And she could go and interact with the weak, gentle Pokémon.
It’s just that the lives of Pokémon are really very monotonous.
Pokémon that had experienced human society found it difficult to adapt when returning to the wild.
This was why Ogerpon couldn’t stop thinking about the town.
The human world was very lively, with many new and interesting things, and it could better remind her of the wonderful times of the past.
Rather than saying Ogerpon liked the town and humans, it was better to say she was fixated on that day from hundreds of years ago.
“Pon-ne-um…” Taking one last look in the direction of the village, Ogerpon sighed slightly, and then prepared to leave this place and return to the ogre cave where she lived.
“Found her, I found her.” “Hey hey!
Here, here!” Suddenly, a familiar voice came from afar.
Ogerpon turned to look and saw the Pokémon she had met in the forest not long ago.
“Pon-ne!” Ogerpon changed from her previous hesitation; her kind, starry eyes squinted into slits, clearly feeling heartfelt joy that a Pokémon had come to find her.
Oddish and Ogerpon didn’t have much of a relationship.
Their meeting was just Ogerpon accidentally saving the Oddish that had been caught in the crossfire during a Pokémon conflict.
However, Ogerpon was very happy that a Pokémon was willing to be friends with her.
There is really no need to ask for more.
“Hello there, did you come to play with me?” Ogerpon hopped over to the side of the Oddish.
In human legends, she is a terrifying demon.
But in this mountain forest, Ogerpon is actually quite a gentle Pokémon.
Anyone can play with her.
Occasionally, they might even receive berries picked from the forest from her hands.
Every Pokémon that knows Ogerpon feels affection for her and loves spending time with her.
Of course, those things happened a very, very long time ago.
The lifespan of ordinary Pokémon cannot compare to an existence like Ogerpon.
Take the Oddish, for example; Grass-type Pokémon are considered relatively long-lived, but they still don’t exceed a hundred years.
After sending off several of her little friends, Ogerpon has rarely taken the initiative to make new Pokémon friends, fearing the pain of parting.
She didn’t expect that the little one she had saved last time would suddenly come to find her.
“I brought you a new friend.” The Oddish had no guard up; it had accepted favors from Victini, so it naturally had to do its best.
And would this bring danger to Ogerpon?
Sorry, the Oddish didn’t have such a concept.
Wasn’t a Pokémon coming to find Ogerpon?
If they know Ogerpon, then they must be friends, right?
Otherwise, why would Victini know what Ogerpon looks like?
“A new friend?” Ogerpon tilted her head in confusion, and the next moment, Victini’s figure appeared out of thin air.
“Victini!” This sudden scene really gave Ogerpon a fright.
It was its first time encountering a Pokémon that could turn invisible in broad daylight.
And it wasn’t even night.
How can one encounter a ghost (Ghost-type Pokémon) in broad daylight?