In Darkrai's relatively long life, it had seen its fair share of events—big and small.
All those so-called "grand occasions"? They were nothing special.
And truth be told, it had always been rather lucky.
Take the legendary Pokémon battles, for instance—it had co out of them unscathed.
Aside from being hunted down by a certain lunatic for a while, things had actually been going pretty well.
It had just found a new hideout when a bunch of fools voluntarily showed up to work for it.
To be fair, Darkrai had considered luring so Pokémon to help spread nightmares, aiding in its recovery.
But that was just a thought. Before it even made a move, these idiots had already gotten to work on their own.
Ah, how fortunate.
Its life had certainly seen many obstacles, yet it had always managed to get through them unscathed.
This ti would surely be no different.
Darkrai thought so.
Sure, there had been a little unexpected twist—so human had found its hiding place.
But no matter. A problem easily solved.
Just a small show of force, and a swift resolution.
Sure, that lunatic would notice if it used too much power.
But as long as it changed locations imdiately, it wouldn't be an issue.
Then, Natsu pulled out a Lunar Feather.
The situation took an unexpected turn, but it was still manageable.
After all, it had been secretly accumulating power for a while now.
It might not win, but it could at least put on a show before making its escape.
Darkrai thought so.
It had been chased by that damned Cresselia for so long.
A little venting was only fair, right?!
And then, a big guy descended from the sky.
At that mont, Darkrai realized sothing terrifying.
Right in front of it stood Cresselia and that little grass-type pest.
Behind it lood the mighty Ting-Lu and Manaphy.
As for Zorua?
Darkrai outright ignored it.
Just a little fox. Without these other Pokémon around, it could crush that thing with one hand.
At least, that's what Darkrai thought.
"....."
Staring at the absolute nightmare of a scene before it, Darkrai fell silent.
In its long and mostly fortunate life, it had never been truly cornered before.
And this ti, surely—
Surely what?!
To be honest, Darkrai was a little shaken.
But at this point, what else could it do?
Lifting its gaze slightly, Darkrai's eyes locked onto Natsu, who was shielded by Ting-Lu.
That burning stare was intense enough that even Serperior beside him could feel it.
Right now, that human was its only way out.
If it could just take him hostage, it might still have a chance...
Darkrai wasted no ti. It gathered its power in secret, waiting for the perfect mont—
Then, suddenly, it erupted.
A tidal wave of shadowy energy surged, like a raging sea threatening to swallow everything.
And with that, Darkrai transford into a shadow and—
Ran for its life.
Only an idiot would try to take that human hostage.
Forget that strange Slowking standing beside him.
It wouldn’t even make it past Ting-Lu.
Darkrai, a master of nightmares, had at least heard of those cursed treasures.
If it were the strongest Darkrai, maybe it could win. But it certainly wasn't, and it definitely wouldn't.
If not now, then when?
This was its true escape route!
Darkrai was practically laughing internally as it planned its next steps.
I hear Neon has a lot of overworked office workers, full of stress and negative energy.
And that forest of death or whatever? Sounds like the perfect place for an evil villain like .
Set up shop there, gather so power, maybe even create a Hyakki Yagyō—a parade of a hundred demons.
While those other big-na legendaries were still recovering, it could finally build itself up.
Darkrai had its future planned out.
And then, inevitably—sothing unexpected happened.
"Woo!"
A sacred moonlight burst forth, forming a crescent high in the sky.
Countless beams rained down, bombarding the fleeing Darkrai from above.
"Woo!"
Don’t let it get away! Attack together!
There’s no need to hold back against sothing like this!
Cresselia’s gaze was ice-cold—clearly intent on taking this bastard out.
It knew exactly what kind of Pokémon this Darkrai was.
So Pokémon, when cornered, would choose to fight to the bitter end.
But not this one.
'You damned lunatic, why do you love barking and biting at so much?!'
Darkrai was this close to losing its temper completely.
Did it have so deep grudge against it or sothing?!
Cresselia: Do you need a reason? I can make one up right now.
"Woomah!"
Holding its thorny club, Ogerpon dashed forward.
Small-bodied Pokémon had a clear advantage in agility during battles like this.
And Ogerpon's goal was very clear.
Today, I am opening that third eye.
Don't ask which eye.
'This little runt is so annoying!'
A Shadow Ball gathered in Darkrai’s palm, which it imdiately flung forward.
With that, it could—
Freeze.
A strange, suffocating pressure descended upon Darkrai.
For a split second, its entire world turned black.
A pair of massive, blood-red eyes stared at it, utterly still.
From where Natsu stood, Ting-Lu's eyes shimred with black mist.
The sa move, in the hands of different Pokémon, could have vastly different effects.
A regular Pokémon learning Precipice Blades might not be much stronger than a simple Hyper Beam.
Just another strong attack.
But in Groudon’s hands? Precipice Blades beca an apocalyptic force.
And under Ting-Lu's command, an Look didn’t just paralyze Darkrai’s body—
It froze its very power, locking it in place.
"BOOM!"
Frozen mid-motion, Darkrai could do nothing as Ogerpon's club smashed into it—
A full ho run straight into Cresselia’s path.
Floating high above, Cresselia’s eyes lit up.
Fairy-type energy surged around it.
Then, without hesitation—
It bulldozed straight into Darkrai like a runaway dump truck.
Cresselia may have been primarily Psychic-type, making it weak against Darkrai—
But no worries.
It had plenty of Fairy-type moves.
After all, it was adorable.
And adorable Pokémon always had a little Fairy in them.
Fairy-type Pokémon are, for the most part, quite adorable.
Well, Granbull and Impidimp are exceptions.
Maybe so people who aren't all about appearances would find them cute, though.
"Woo!"
The cool, silvery moonlight seed to take on a tangible form, enveloping Cresselia as it dove toward the ground.
Darkrai, still unable to fully recover, could only watch helplessly as Cresselia charged straight at it.
Just before impact, it barely managed to cast Protect.
A faint green glow flickered to life—
But before it could even stabilize, Cresselia was already upon it.
In that instant, Darkrai could clearly see the exhilaration on its opponent’s face.
And then…
"——"
A mushroom cloud slowly rose into the sky, an earth-shattering explosion engulfing the entire wasteland.
The shockwave nearly sent Natsu and i flying.
Fortunately, Serperior reacted in ti, using Vine Whip to anchor them down.
The surrounding Pokémon felt as if their ears had suddenly gone deaf.
Everything before their eyes turned into a blinding white void, their hearing completely drowned out.
It took a long while before their senses gradually returned.
Natsu was no exception.
Even though he had prepared by shutting his eyes beforehand, all he could see now was pure white.
The brightness of that explosion was far beyond what simply closing his eyes could protect him from.
His vision was like an old, flickering television screen—static snowstorming across it, making everything impossible to discern.
On the ground, the unconscious Darkrai lay beneath Ting-Lu's heavy hoof.
anwhile, Zorua and Manaphy had sohow managed to find two sticks and were poking Darkrai’s face with them.
The mont the explosion erupted, Darkrai had barely managed to buy itself a second of breathing room with Protect before turning into a shadow and trying to escape underground.
And then it got slapped right out of the ground by Zorua.
Followed imdiately by Ting-Lu's big foot.
Seeing Darkrai in this pitiful state, Ting-Lu couldn’t help but feel relieved.
There’s an old saying in Jadeleaf—“He who laughs last…”
Ahem.
If it hadn’t wised up after a tily wake-up call, if it hadn’t abandoned its past and turned toward a better path—
It might have ended up exactly like this.
Sotis, choosing the right path matters more than sheer ability.
Ting-Lu understood that now.
Then again, at this point, choices didn’t really matter for Darkrai anymore.
Glancing at Cresselia, who had landed beside Natsu, Ting-Lu figured that Natsu would surely choose to take in this friendly Pokémon.
And when that happened?
Well, Darkrai—who had been hunted worldwide by Cresselia—was definitely in for a bad ti.
It would probably end up sealed away sowhere.
Just like Ting-Lu and those other three unfortunate souls had been.
Being sealed away was not a fun experience.
And that thought alone infuriated Ting-Lu.
They were born from human emotions—pure, unfiltered reflections of humanity’s true nature.
In a way, weren’t they more representative of humans than those lofty, “righteous” legendary Pokémon?
And yet…
They were labeled calamities and sealed away?
That part, Ting-Lu just couldn’t accept.
Though, in hindsight, maybe it wasn’t all bad.
At the very least, it did manage to sit out that last war of the gods thanks to being sealed.
Guess luck plays a role, too.
"Suo."
Once Ting-Lu finally lifted its foot, Zorua leaped down from the bronze cauldron.
It executed a perfect aerial sorsault, followed by a 360-degree spin, before landing squarely on Darkrai’s head.
After stepping on Darkrai’s face a few tis to test for the most comfortable spot, Zorua plopped down and got cozy.
Darkrai—sealed.
Manaphy, watching from the side, decided to jump down too.
Today’s entertainnt had been satisfactory.
To be honest, life under the sea was too boring.
If it wasn’t staring at seaweed, it was watching fish bare their teeth at each other.
Not interesting at all.
Most of the ti, it just spaced out, contemplating life.
This whole going-on-land thing?
Pretty refreshing.
Huh?
Oh, you’re asking if Manaphy sneaking away from its Sea Temple was a problem?
At this point, who even rembered it existed?
It could slip away for so fun, no problem at all.
And even if sothing did happen—
Wasn’t that what all those Phione were for?
You raise kids so that they can handle responsibilities when you don’t want to.
Sure, Manaphy had never actually raised those Phione.
But that wasn’t going to stop it from shoving all its responsibilities onto them.
My dear children, you must work hard.
So that I can keep goofing off.
"Cresselia, what do you plan to do now?"
After releasing Absol from its Poké Ball and smacking it awake a couple of tis, Natsu turned to Cresselia, who seed deep in thought.
Hearing the question, Cresselia turned its pink eyes toward him.
Just now, while everyone was focused on Darkrai, Ting-Lu had whispered sothing to it.
To be honest, it hadn’t really understood much.
A lot of it sounded vague and cryptic.
Part of it was that there wasn’t enough ti to explain properly.
And part of it was that even Ting-Lu itself wasn’t entirely sure—it had only learned these things from Zorua.
As a result, Cresselia only understood the ssage in the most cryptic way possible:
"If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, well… I can’t explain it to you either. But just know—this is how things are."
Completely useless.
Still, Cresselia grasped the general idea.
Basically, this human nad Natsu was no ordinary human.
And sticking with him might lead to sothing good.
On this point, Cresselia remained skeptical.
It had always believed that as long as one kept living, good things would happen eventually.
Especially for long-lived legendary Pokémon like itself.
If you live long enough, you see a lot.
And eventually, you grow indifferent to most things.
Perhaps that’s why gods, after witnessing too much, beco cold and distant.
But that was a concern for the distant future.
Right now, Cresselia was still young and full of energy.
It had no intention of turning into so old, jaded deity.
That being said—
This human, Natsu, did feel rather nice to be around.
Being near him was comforting, like soaking in a hot spring.
Not that Cresselia had ever been in a hot spring.
It had just heard that hot springs were relaxing.
So maybe this was what it felt like?
"Woo!"
Is there space on your farm?
After so brief consideration, Cresselia made its decision.
It had already visited Natsu’s farm months ago.
And it had left behind a Lunar Feather simply because of the good impression it had.
Given everything that had happened, staying there for a while didn’t seem like a bad idea.
Besides, it had been planning to rest for a bit anyway.
And if it was going to rest, why not pick a beautiful place with free food and board?
Rather than hide away in so dark, damp forest, constantly worrying about trainers popping up from nowhere—
Why wouldn’t it choose the better option?
"Of course. Would you like to co, Cresselia?"
Natsu extended a hand, his voice sincere.
"Woo."
Absolutely.
Extending its tiny, pink hands—yes, Cresselia had hands—
It placed them lightly on Natsu’s palm.
"Suo!"
Yay! A new friend!
Seeing Cresselia accept Natsu’s invitation, Zorua was thrilled.
Now I finally have soone to play mahjong with!
Zorua had been longing to find a partner for mahjong.
However, most Pokémon on the farm didn’t seem interested in the ga.
Take a certain steel-plated bird, for example—Corviknight.
That guy was obsessed with electronic devices, but mahjong?
Corviknight outright admitted it didn’t have the brainpower for that.
After several failed attempts, Zorua decided to target the "young and naive" Pokémon.
Like the newly born Phione, the visiting Manaphy, and now, Cresselia.
At last, a legendary-tier mahjong session could begin!
If you want a seat at this table, there’s only one requirent:
No legendary status, no entry!
This was Zorua’s way of getting back at all the Pokémon who had refused to play mahjong before!
As for whether Cresselia would be interested?
Zorua wasn’t too worried.
It had absolute confidence in its ability to trick—ahem—convince others.
Though technically, Cresselia wasn’t a child,
its lack of frequent interaction with humans ant it had a rather pure mindset.
Simply put, it was easy to deceive.
Like a fresh college graduate entering the most complex workplace environnt,
believing everything they hear,
and ending up suffering more losses than they’ve eaten als.
“Yadon?”
Natsu, what do we do with all these Pokémon?
Slowking, who had been standing with its hands behind its back, spoke up.
At first, it hadn’t fully grasped the situation,
but now, it had more or less pieced everything together.
It was hard to say whether these Ghost-type Pokémon were truly deceived by Darkrai,
or if they had willingly dragged others into nightmares.
If it was the forr, they could at least argue:
"Sure, I committed so cris, but deep down, I'm still a good kid!"
If it was the latter… Slowking had no words.
It had never been through a phase where it chased power at all costs.
Back when it was just a Slowpoke, such concepts never even crossed its mind.
Life was simple—eat, sleep, bask in the sun,
then find a new spot and repeat.
Then it t Uxie and had a great ti for a while.
After that, it evolved.
And the mont it beca a Slowking, the Psychic energy it had accumulated exploded.
That one evolution launched it straight into the farm’s top-tier power rankings.
Yes, the sa ranking that included Ogerpon.
If anything, there was a brief period where Slowking actually trained hard.
But calling it "training to grow stronger" wasn’t quite right—
it was more like physical therapy after an energy overload.
And unlike those Pokémon tornted by nightmares,
Slowking wasn’t about to just forgive these guys out of nowhere.
Shaking its head, Slowking decided not to dwell on the philosophical questions.
Any problem tied to philosophy would inevitably spiral into a headache.
You could think about it forever and still get nowhere.
So instead, Slowking did the simplest thing.
It lifted Shellder off its head.
Hugging the Shellder in its arms, Slowking felt its IQ instantly drop to its forr Slowpoke state.
Ahh… the bliss of an empty mind.
No worries, no burdens.
It could almost feel its intelligence leaking out from the corners of its mouth.
A tiny bit of drool even trickled down.
A true picture of blissful idiocy.
“These Ghost-types really are a problem.”
Looking at the unconscious, visibly drained Ghost Pokémon before him,
Natsu couldn’t help but feel troubled.
Sure, his farm was big, capable of housing many Pokémon.
But that didn’t an he wanted to bring in a bunch of unstable elents.
These Ghost-types had already gotten a taste of shortcuts and power.
Even if they were allowed into the farm,
they probably wouldn’t settle down peacefully.
And while Natsu wasn’t too worried about major incidents breaking out—
after all, Persian and the others were there—
he had no intention of letting his peaceful farm descend into chaos.
"Woo."
I’ll handle it.
Just as Natsu was feeling stuck,
Cresselia stepped forward on her own.
In her eyes, the fact that these Pokémon were tempted into this situation
was partly her own responsibility.
If she had discovered Darkrai’s presence here sooner,
maybe none of this would have happened.
Of course, many of these Ghost-types had acted out of their own desires,
not just Darkrai’s influence.
But most beings were like that.
Neither entirely good nor entirely evil.
Under good influences, they could beco kind.
But if they strayed even slightly, they could quickly fall into corruption.
"Mm."
The ones who were coerced or reluctant can stay.
But those whose hearts are full of greed… I will send them elsewhere.
Since she had already decided to stay at the farm for a while,
Cresselia figured she should start considering things from the farm’s perspective.
She certainly didn’t want neighbors who were greedy troublemakers constantly eyeing the place.
That would be disgusting.
“Mana! Mana!”
I want in! Count in too!
From the sidelines, where it had been lazily watching the drama unfold,
Manaphy’s eyes suddenly lit up.
It eagerly shot up its little arms and yelled out.
As the Prince of the Sea,
Manaphy naturally had the ability to communicate telepathically with humans and Pokémon.
Reading another Pokémon’s true thoughts?
Telling whether they were lying?
Child’s play!
No one could deceive Manaphy!
It was the master detective!
“All right, I’ll leave it to you two.”
"Woo."
"Mana!"
Cresselia remained calm and composed,
while Manaphy was visibly excited.
Despite being older than Cresselia,
Manaphy truly had the energy of an overgrown child.
After a thorough screening—
Natsu found himself staring at the two remaining Ghost Pokémon, deep in thought.
The ones left were a Misdreavus and a Duskull.
Misdreavus was a mischievous little Pokémon.
It had a dark green body, ghostly fla-like hair, and red pearl-like ornants around its neck—quite a cute appearance overall.
It loved to startle people, often showing up at night to let out eerie cries and watch travelers panic.
It also had a habit of tugging on people’s hair or nipping at them,
just to see their startled reactions for fun.
Duskull, on the other hand, looked like a hunchbacked little old man.
It wore a skull-like mask, but had only one eye.
Yes, from the side, it seed like it had two eye sockets with one eye in each.
But in truth, Duskull only had a single, centered eye.
Compared to Misdreavus, Duskull’s descriptions were far less friendly:
It is incredibly persistent and will endlessly chase its target.
A chill runs down your spine when its glowing red eye locks onto you.
Yet, the Duskull before Natsu was a special case.
According to Manaphy’s telepathic scan,
most of the Ghost-types had initially been hesitant about Darkrai’s offer.
But once they saw others rapidly growing stronger, they chose to join in.
Only this Misdreavus and Duskull had refused to use Darkrai’s power to tornt others.
Misdreavus had held back, worried about possible negative consequences.
As for Duskull?
Its reasoning was much simpler—
It was just lazy.
Why bother?
There were no real threats around here anyway.
A life of coasting along and doing nothing sounded way better.
Others could handle the fighting while it relaxed in the back.
It had no craving for energy, no hunger for fear.
Life was already comfortable enough.
All it really wanted…
was a good nap.
Then, as usual, it found a place to take a nap.
That last energy drain from Darkrai had nearly turned it into a dried-up husk.
So, after seeing the miserable state Darkrai was in, it didn't hesitate to follow Natsu.
A certain drifting wanderer…
Cough.
Compared to that, Misdreavus was having a bit of a dilemma.
On one hand, it felt that Natsu was a good person, and his presence was incredibly soothing—sothing it wanted to be near.
But on the other hand, it rembered sothing it had once seen in a human TV drama: "n don’t cherish things once they have them, so make it a little challenging for him."
That sounded reasonable, but… how exactly was it supposed to increase the difficulty?
A battle?
Misdreavus glanced at the fallen Ogerpon and Ting-Lu.
…Forget it. It didn’t want to beco Misdreavus-chan.
That would be way too ugly.
Food?
The pokéblocks Natsu gave it (chomp chomp) were actually pretty tasty (chomp chomp).
Other trials?
Wouldn’t that be a bit too much?
What if Natsu thought it was a bad kid? What then?
Caught in its own overthinking, Misdreavus eventually gave up and let itself be captured.
Whatever. Future problems could be dealt with in the future.
It wasn’t about lacking foresight.
It was just… the pokéblocks in its mouth were too good.
There was no way it could stop eating now!
As for Duskull?
Sa logic as before—why not slack off sowhere else?
It was just changing locations, after all.
And Natsu had said he wouldn’t force them to do anything they didn’t want to do.
What was there to hesitate about?
Only an idiot would hesitate.
Without a word, Duskull cast a sidelong glance of disdain at the struggling Misdreavus, already planning how to butter up the seniors at the farm—including Natsu himself.
After all, the more favor it earned, the easier it would be to keep slacking off.
"Woo"
Then I’ll take care of sending them away.
After tossing the now-conscious ghost Pokémon aside, Cresselia turned her gaze toward Darkrai.
That guy was definitely a headache.
Should she just… finish him off?
It wasn’t like she couldn’t.
But she'd never done that kind of thing before.
So, she turned to the others for input.
Natsu? Looked like a sunny, wholeso boy—definitely no experience in this area. Pass.
Ogerpon? A cheerful, simple-minded little thing—probably clueless.
Slowking?
Cresselia glanced over at him, drooling in a vacant daze.
…Yeah, no. Instant pass.
i? Sa deal.
Such clear, innocent eyes. Definitely a newbie.
That left three candidates: Ting-Lu, Zorua, and Manaphy.
Manaphy didn’t even need ntioning. It had lived a long ti—surely it had encountered these situations before.
At least, that’s what Cresselia assud.
Zorua?
It seed a little tricky.
Worth considering.
And Ting-Lu…
"Roar!"
This is my specialty!
For Ting-Lu, this was practically a professional gig.
Who was it?
A calamity Pokémon born from human fear itself!
Executing soone? Child’s play.
But just then, Zorua spoke up with its own suggestion.
"Suosuo!"
Natsu! Have you considered becoming Darkrai’s jinchūriki?
Recently, after stumbling across a certain "X-Shadow Ninja" series, Zorua had developed a keen interest in trying it out.
Unfortunately, Natsu imdiately rejected the idea.
There was absolutely no way he was going to let another conscious being live inside his body.
"Suo."
Fine, then let’s just seal it away.
Zorua, slightly deflated after its proposal was shot down, went straight for the simplest solution.
If killing wasn’t an option, then just lock it up and let it cool off for a while.
Ting-Lu had been sealed before, so Darkrai would just have to deal with it.
"Suo!"
With that, Zorua looked down at the now-awake Darkrai from above.
Darkrai, your power is far too dangerous. I will seal you away.
…?
Darkrai slowly typed out a question mark in its mind.
Kid, do you even hear the nonsense coming out of your mouth?
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