Sometimes, people tend to overestimate their tolerance for surprises.
Natsume had always sidered himself someone hard to faze. After all, as a transmigrator who had entered a woolly lma deity firsthand, he thought there wasn’t much left to shock him in the world of Pokémon.
Even if one day he woke up to find Groudon flying in the sky...
Okay, fihat would still be pretty shog.
Let’s rephrase.
If one day he woke up and found a Gardevoir lyio him in bed, Natsume believed he wouldn’t be too surprised. He’d just sigh and refle how his ever-evolving XP preferences—refihrough years of updates—had finally e into py.
Sure, his tastes were probably a bit old-fashioned pared to treers, but his “good ballpark” did extend to humanoid, aesthetically pleasing non-humaures.
That said, Natsume firmly believed he wasn’t a furry. Sure, fluffy things were cute, and he did have a thing for humanoid forms, but he wasn’t a furry. e about it.
Natsume simply appreciated beauty in all its forms.
Ahem, moving on.
What Actually Surprised Natsume
“Hello, Natsume-san.”
Standing before Natsume was a teenage girl with twin buns tied atop her head and a sun visor perched jauntily. Her youthful energy practically radiated off her.
If it were just another random traiopping by his farm, it wouldn’t have been anything unusual—there had beey of visitors ing for photo ops and battles tely.
What really surprised Natsume, however, was…
“My name is Mei. I’m a trainer who just started her jourhis year.”
Natsume’s brain momentarily short-circuited.
Wait, what? Where am I?
Is this Ash’s world?
I thought I transmigrated into a modern Pokémoing!
And these hey aren’t from the Pokémon Adventures manga, are they?
Although momentarily startled, Natsume quickly posed himself. After all, zoning out during someone else’s introdu would be incredibly rude.
“o meet you, Mei.”
Looking at the girl’s familiar features and the smug-looking Snivy by her feet, Natsume was certain this was ihat Mei from the Pokémon world.
Yep, Pokémon’s Mei—not Mei-nee, I don’t want to die! Mei from elsewhere.
“I’m here today to challenge you!”
Bowing slightly, Mei’s voice carried a serious tohough polite, the burniermination in her eyes made her resolve crystal clear.
To Battle
Bringing his thoughts bader trol, Natsume led Mei to the battle arena he had set up on his farm.
Standing otlefield, Mei’s expression turned deadly serious. She raised a hand dramatically and called out, “Alright, my first choice is you—go, Snivy!”
The Snivy that had been swaggering by her feet raised its head fidently and sauntered onto the field. The pride in its gaze made it clear this Pokémon was used to winning its battles.
If a Pokémon stantly lost, no matter how strong it was, traces of nervousness aation would iably show in its demeanor during battles. This Snivy, however, radiated self-assuredness—a testament to its frequent victories.
Ahis fidence wasn’t something deliberately cultivated.
Both Mei and her Snivy carried a fiery, unstoppable aura. For such a petite and adorable girl, Mei exuded an uedly intense, hot-blooded energy.
“Alright, in that case…”
Just as Natsume whion to choose, a Corvisquire suddenly dashed out from behind him.
Its sharp gaze carried a glint of wisdom, as if to say, Leave this battle to me.
“Well, I’ll leave it to you then, Corvisquire.”
Seeing the eagerness in its eyes, Natsume couldn’t bring himself to turn it down. Among all his panions, Corvisquire had the stro craving for battles.
Partly, this was its natural fighting spirit—few bird Pokémoruly mild-mannered.
But mostly…
It was because Corvisquire loved showing off.
The Audience
The farm’s Pokémon had gathered around the battlefield to watch the match.
Ever sihe battle arena had operainers had frequently e by to challesume. Whether they won or lost didn’t matter much—it was all about gaining experience. Watg battles had even bee a daily pastime for the Pokémon living on the farm.
A special shoutout to the Zigzagoon squad, habitual audience members who always attempted to rummage through challengers’ bags when they weren’t looking. They’d already been scolded multiple times by Ursaring for this, but bad habits die hard.
Like calculus.
“Caw! Caw!”
Cirg in the air, Corvisquire basked iention from the audience, feeling exhirated.
Ah, this is what battles are about.
Without an audience, battles lose their meaning.
Corvisquire wasn’t ied in fighting over resources or territory. It fought purely for the sake of showing off.
Because why else? Style, of course.
Natsume was well aware of Corvisquire’s little motives. In fact, he’d been sidering taking Corvisquire and a few other Pokémon to nearby small-scale petitions—perhaps ones hosted by shopping districts. After all, several Pokémon on the farm had started training themselves, and Natsume couldn’t just igheir efforts.
“Caw!”
The winds of destiny are especially wild today.
On the ground, Corvisquire mimicked Snivy’s haughty stailting its head upward to g others disdainfully.
This bird definitely had the potential to join the Uchiha —its mastery of desding stares was almost perfect.
Snivy, arms crossed, snorted in respo said nothing.
Idiot.
Its expression said it all.
“Caw!”
Corvisquire remained unbothered, tinuing its trash talk. Most of it was dramatic phrases it had picked up online—lines se-indug even Natsume struggled to trahem into something intelligible.
But as Natsume listened, an uling realization dawned on him.
Wait a sed…
Why does this sound so familiar?
Holy crap, isn’t this from the diary I wrote in middle school?!
Where the heck did this bird find that?!
pletely oblivious to the increasingly murderous aura emanating from behind it, Corvisquire grew even more animated with its theatrics.
Someone was about to get into serious trouble.
Standing silently beside Natsume, Lopunny shot Corvisquire a pitying gnce.
Poor thing. Your doom approaches.
Gcell
