"Hello there."
"I'm not a ghost."
Victini covered her mouth and giggled. She flew up to the startled Ogerpon and circled around her twice.
"I'm Victini, and I ca to be your friend."
"Friend?"
The mont she heard that word, Ogerpon imdiately stopped worrying about Victini's origins. A bright smile blood across her face.
Ponpon, who feared loneliness above all else, simply couldn't resist the promise of friendship.
If soone was willing to play with her, then they were a good Pokémon.
"Not just —there's also Sora Kenji."
Victini didn't hide Sora Kenji's existence. She directly shared everything she had heard from her trainer about Ogerpon.
"To find you, Sora Kenji crossed the ocean and traveled a very long way. It was super hard work."
"Huh?"
Ogerpon looked confused.
She didn't know anyone nad Sora Kenji.
"Sora Kenji? Who's that?"
She searched her mories carefully, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find any connection to that na.
That was only natural.
Ogerpon feared loneliness—
but she feared strangers even more.
After being frightened and rejected by the hostile villagers of Kitakami for hundreds of years, the idea that she was frightening—that she must never approach humans—had beco a ntal imprint carved into her very bones.
Over the years, whenever she encountered humans, she would imdiately flee.
So she truly couldn't recall ever eting soone nad Sora Kenji.
"Sora Kenji has special powers. He can know things happening far away."
When explaining how he knew about Ogerpon, Sora Kenji had told Victini that he possessed a special ability.
In the Pokémon world, unusual powers were everywhere.
Blaming knowledge from gas and ani on supernatural abilities wouldn't raise suspicion.
After all—
people far more outrageous than Sora Kenji existed all over this world.
Compared to them, a modest "seer" like him was nothing special.
"Sora Kenji… knows about ?"
"Mhm."
Victini spoke plainly:
"He wants to invite you to leave this place and travel the outside world with us."
As she said this, Victini shared her own story—her thousand years of confinent in Eindoak.
In a way, the two of them were kindred spirits.
One had been trapped physically.
The other had been trapped ntally.
Truthfully, it wasn't that Ogerpon loved Kitakami all that much.
Otherwise, in the original story, she wouldn't have been so easily moved by a trainer from Paldea—abandoning her cave and following them without hesitation.
After that, the two little Pokémon talked for a long ti on the hillside.
From strangers to acquaintances—
friendship between Pokémon was simple.
There were none of the complicated twists and hidden motives found in human relationships.
"Leave… go outside..."
Ogerpon had never seriously considered such an idea before.
To be honest—
she was tempted.
"But…"
She lowered her head, still afraid.
"Ponpon is so ugly… Won't Sora Kenji be scared too?"
"Bini?"
Floating in midair, Victini froze.
She wanted to say:
Girl, are you serious?
Ugly?
Even Victini—who proudly considered herself irresistibly adorable—thought Ogerpon was incredibly cute, like a human girl.
That face, that design—
how could the word "ugly" possibly apply?
"Isn't it true?"
Ogerpon worried that Sora Kenji would feel disappointed upon seeing her.
After so many years, soone had finally shown willingness to approach her.
She didn't want to scare him away too.
"…I don't understand."
Victini admitted defeat.
This problem was beyond her comprehension.
Before coming here, the clever little Pokémon had puffed out her chest and promised Sora Kenji she would definitely bring Ogerpon back.
But now, Ogerpon's reason for hesitating left her completely baffled.
One of us has to be wrong here, she thought.
"Wait!"
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration lit up in Victini's mind.
"Sora Kenji would never be scared of you. Look at this."
She pulled out a drawing Sora Kenji had prepared.
"Poné!"
Ogerpon looked at the paper—and saw herself.
Both versions:
wearing the mask
without the mask
Even though they had never t, Sora Kenji had known her appearance from thousands of miles away.
After all, even the people of Kitakami didn't truly know what she looked like.
Whenever they saw her, they only scread in terror and ran.
If anything, they might recognize her masked form.
But her unmasked face—
that had never been revealed to outsiders.
"Sora Kenji drew this," Victini said.
"So you don't need to worry."
"And he knows your story. He said you did nothing wrong. The ones who were wrong were those bad Pokémon who stole your masks and hurt your family."
"Poné!!"
Hearing those words, Ogerpon felt her eyes grow wet.
This ti, the tears weren't from grief or nostalgia—
but from being understood.
From being believed.
"He… Sora Kenji… really said that?"
There was no need to doubt.
Aside from her, was there anyone else in the world who knew the truth of what had happened back then?
Drip… drip…
Tears stread down Ogerpon's cheeks.
The heartbreaking sight made even Victini feel a pang of sympathy.
Compared to Ogerpon—who had been treated like a cursed monster and driven away—Victini's own confinent had been far gentler.
At least she had never been abused or slandered.
Every legend about her in Eindoak had been positive.
It was hard to imagine the tornt of a simple-hearted Pokémon—
falsely accused and vilified for centuries, carrying that pain in silence with no outlet.
Honestly, the fact that Ogerpon hadn't snapped, stord down the mountain, and smashed those rumor-spreading villagers to pieces—
was proof of how kind she truly was.
Such a good child.
Pushed to this point.
Even approaching the village now made her tremble, like a deep-rooted trauma response.
No wonder Sora Kenji despised the people of this place and called them troublemakers.
"The people here are really an."
Victini clenched her tiny fists.
"Let's leave. We won't stay with them."
Of course, Victini was also a good child.
Revenge never crossed her mind.
In her world, the worst mischief imaginable was quietly stealing soone's food—
and then watching them stand there, utterly confused about what had just happened.
—------------------------------
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