Divine Plan? But I'm a Pokémon trainer.

Chapter 237: Acquaintance in Beishang Township

Sinnoh region, Kitakami Township.

Three months later, Link once again came to this land with pleasant scenery and climate.

When he revisited the old place, he looked out at the Ghost Mountain in the distance in the center of Beishang Township, and he no longer had the entanglement he had at the Cattleya Villa.

Instead of dwelling on the past, it is better to spend your time and energy on the present and the future.

If you like something, then you like it. It's good enough as long as you can do it with a clear conscience.

How can we allow such a lonely and empty-nest elf like the Ponkan Spirit to continue to be so lonely?
Link can't wait to go to Haunted Mountain to fight against the four-form switching Uruk-O that has stepped out of the shadows!
"Fu~"

Fire Fox sighed, knowing at a glance what the trainer was thinking again.

So it decisively patted the other's head with its tail.

Take a vacation with all your heart!

"That's right. Let's talk about the troublesome things later. Dragonite, let's go."

After all these years, this day won't be a big deal...

Not long after, they landed outside Cuilv Town, somewhat unexpectedly due to the large crowds in the town, attracting a group of children who were playing (not performing moves) at the entrance of the village to come over and watch.

"Wow, it's Dragonite!"

"It's so cute!"

“I want to hug it so much!”

Dragonite looked unhappy when someone approached him. It was really troublesome to be the center of attention wherever he went.

"Intimidation".jpg
"Ahahaha, Dragonite is going to hit someone!"

The children dispersed in a hurry.

Seeing this, Link sighed helplessly: "Can't you be more frank and stop making trouble?"

Dragonite turned its head and ran back into the Poké Ball.

A strong and aloof person does not need this kind of attention.

"Fu~"

Although the number of people in Emerald Town was much higher than expected at this time, Link had already booked a homestay in advance.

Therefore, before going on vacation, he took the Fire Fox to a house on the edge of the town, which was the home of Xue Zhong, a descendant of the former mask craftsman.

To put it simply...it is the home of the grandfather of Wu Li and Dan Yu who were not yet born at that time.

"Xiaolin, long time no see."

When the man and the fox arrived at Xue Zhong's house, they saw Shuzi wearing reading glasses and sitting in a rocking chair in the yard knitting a sweater.

The old couple's children work far away in Feiyun City and rarely come back home, so they are happy to have the house livelier during the celebration.

"Excuse me, Granny Shuzi."

Link put his few luggage into the room, and when he came out, he saw the old man putting away half of his sweater and placing a lot of tree fruits on the table in the living room.

"Don't bother. I can take care of myself and the elves."

Shuzi smiled, obviously not taking this remark to heart.

He didn't say anything more, but asked why there were suddenly so many more people in the town.

After asking, I found out that this is actually the norm.

Due to the ancient customs of Beishang Township, the Ghost Festival is an important festival with lively and festive atmosphere for the locals, and it lasts longer than that in the game.

Most of the extra people are not outsiders, but local workers returning from various places.

The festival, collectively known as the "Kimono Festival," actually lasts for two weeks and is divided into several different phases.

The three days starting from the eve of the festival are the warm-up for the festival. According to the orthodox way, people should go to the Jingguang Pond of Oniyama to worship... However, for some reason, Oniyama has become a forbidden area, and people will go outing on the confluence river beach. This tradition is called "welcoming the ghost."

This is followed by a four-day masking festival, during which rituals and temple fairs officially begin, with a custom of wearing masks and bathrobes to celebrate the festival.

The next four days are the Oni Festival.

People will put the four-color fruits harvested locally into four-color balloons, and then burst the balloons to collect the fruits, celebrating the harvest while driving away evil spirits.

This process is called "fighting ghosts".

Incidentally.

The little Kirby who was kidnapped by Link last time is a frequent visitor to the Demon Festival. He often takes this opportunity to come here with other elves to steal food openly.

This time it was also brought on vacation...but its body stopped growing after it grew to the size of Snorlax, so it is not suitable to be released in the B&B.

Finally, during the three days starting from the Houya Festival, people will place their thoughts of the year on paper boats and let them float away with the water to commemorate the three treasures who were killed by the ghosts for protecting the people of Kitakami Township.

This last step is called "sending away the ghosts".

"Fu?"

Fire Fox was a little confused. Since it was to commemorate the Three Treasure Companions, shouldn’t it be “sending treasure companions” instead of “sending ghosts”?

After Link raised his doubts, Shuzi explained: "After taking away the three masks of the ghost, the treasure companions have been sleeping forever in the treasure companion square, while the ghost has only lost most of its power and is still wandering in the ghost mountain waiting for an opportunity to take revenge..."

...There is such a saying.

"but……"

According to the history passed down by her husband Xue Zhong, the truth is quite different.

Times have changed, the original intentions of welcoming ghosts and sending off ghosts have changed, and fighting ghosts is an additional step added later.

This is also an inevitable part of folk history, myths and legends.

Faced with an expression that clearly indicated a hidden secret, Link did not ask any further questions. Instead, he said goodbye and returned to the outskirts of town with Fire Fox, riding on Arcanine to the bus stop on Kitakami Street.

If we look at it from the perspective of "after the duel we are all friends (card players)", he and a few other people who could barely be considered acquaintances or friends had also made appointments in advance to play together.

Soon, the bus arrived on time and several familiar faces appeared one after another.

After learning that there were crystal flowers and strange crystals in the Crystal Pool, Dujuan, the leader of the Kanaz Gym, chose this as the location for the summer camp.

Chisato, the leader of the Orange Flower Gym, comes on a trip with his wife because his schoolmate Xiaosheng is attending a summer camp.

Misty, the leader of the Cerulean Gym, came here on vacation after hearing that a mysterious Milotic was lurking in the Crystal Pool.

Link didn't see Zhulan among them, so he thought she would probably fly over on the Garchomp.

"Xiao Lin! Wang-chan! Fire Fox!"

After seeing the person who came to greet her, Xiaoxia immediately waved and ran over: "Your Battle Factory's matching system is too much. How can it be that eight out of ten times you will be randomly matched with an opponent who restrains the player!"

"It's probably because there are too many Pokémon and teams that can restrain you, big sister." Xiaosheng, who had come up at some point, pushed his glasses and boasted proudly, "I've won 20 games in a row~"

Xiaoxia put her hands on her hips proudly: "What? I've won 27 games in a row."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing this, Xiaosheng was stunned. He had originally planned to show off his achievements in front of Link, but it turned out that even a passerby’s winning streak was higher than his?
"After all, she's an expert in water." Link shrugged, "Long time no see, Xiaoxia, Xiaosheng."

"Fufu!"

Just as he was about to say hello to several other acquaintances, he spotted two other familiar yet unfamiliar foreign figures on the bus.

There is a man and a woman, who look rigorous and wise and wild and casual respectively.

Futu and Dr. Olin, how did they get here?

(End of this chapter)