Under the bright moonlight, a topless, still oil-painted teenager looked at the adult resting by the tree with curiosity and wariness in his eyes.
The Skwovet that followed him, on the other hand, was nibbling on a tree fruit in his hand, then looking at the man with a bit of wariness.
It was a human. A human that gave him a sense of danger.
So he tugged on Koko's hair, then led Koko away from here.
And just then, a high-pitched roar came from the depths of the forest.
"Sasa, Zarude!"
In the forest, many of the weaker Pokémon couldn't help but shrink at the sound of the roar. And some of the powerful Pokémon couldn't help but make a stance ready to attack.
And underneath the big tree, Malkin's eyes steeply glazed over, and one of his hands immobilized at his waist. Then he looked around vigilantly.
The sound of 'rustling' reached his ears. He fiercely followed the sound and then all he could see was the swaying grass. But it was also no longer moving at this point.
He watched warily, then removed a Pokéball.
With a flash of white light, a Honchkrow appeared at his side.
"Honchkrow, please keep watch tonight."
While saying that, he took out another Pokéball and released the elf inside.
An Absol appeared at his side.
The Absol looked at Malkin for a moment, then silently, plopped down. Malkin also leaned on Absol's soft body then closed his eyes and slept.
With Absol by his side he really didn't worry much about anyone suddenly attacking him.
After all, Absol's perception ability or some kind of precognitive ability was indeed very strong.
Although this ability tended to be in natural disasters, it did have the ability to foresee something about its own danger after specialized training.
Of course, is had to have such a basic talent to do so. And Malkin's luck was pretty good, this Absol he had taken in had such a talent, and he happened to know some of the operations involved.
Feeling Absol's even breathing, Malkin also let go of his heart. Then fell into a shallow sleep. It happened to be just enough to relieve the boredom without falling into a deep sleep.
I have to say that sleeping is a learned skill.
———————————
Deep in the Forest
A large monkey-like Pokémon with dark fur, white stripes on his body, and wrist-guard-like vines wrapped around his wrists, while a piece of purple cloth was tied around his neck stood on his hut and looked around, searching for any sign of his child.
And within a few moments, a bronze-skinned teenager with white oil paint on his body appeared in his line of sight.
Just as the teenager approached the large monkey, the teenager cupped Skwovet on his shoulder with one hand and took him out.
Skwovet doesn't panic at all and waves goodbye to the teenager, as well. Then he took control of his body, flipped over and landed firmly on the branch of a tree, not forgetting to smile and wave at the surroundings. It was as if there was some kind of audience watching.
And just when he was fooling around, he suddenly felt a sharp, knife-like eye piercing straight towards him.
The smile on Skwovet's face instantly froze. Then he quietly took two steps, and then instantly ran out of sight.
This was already Zarude's territory, although this Zarude was a loner who had left the pack and had raised a human child. But that didn't stop everyone from harboring an almost instinctive resistance to the members of the long-established Zarude clan.
Zarude? The guardian of the forest? (x)
Zarude! Rascals of the forest! Scum! Nasty exploiters! (√)
And as the teenager let go of the vines in his hand and swung straight old towards here, Zarude was taken aback.
The teenager was still a large distance away from the hut, the height of the swing and the length of the vines were obviously not enough for him to reach the hut
And then he just fell towards the ground below.
Zarude, anxious and annoyed, hurriedly shot out the vines on his wrist, and then yanked the teenager to his side in a flash.
The teenager seemed unfazed, and immediately hugged Zarude tightly when he was about to have an angry fit.
"Abba! I saw a guy who looks a lot like me today! Is he Zarude too!"
Zarude froze at first when he heard the teenager's words with excitement, then he fell silent.
"Yes... yes... Koko is great! But Abba doesn't know if he's Zarude or not, so can you take take dad to see him tomorrow?"
Zarude forced a smile. Then in the back of his mind he was already thinking about how he could get that human out of the forest.
Koko was still young now. It wouldn't do any good to expose him to human society all of a sudden.
As for when Koko would grow up?
It had to wait until he, Zarude, was old!
Although waiting for Zarude to grow old would probably take another two hundred years or so, he was only in his fifties this year after all, he was still a youngster!
"Enn! I'll take Abba to see it tomorrow!"
Koko smiles and nods, looking very happy.
"Well, go to sleep first! It's already late!"
Zarude gently stroked Koko's head, then smiled.
And late at night, both Zarude and Koko who were lying in the hut were not asleep.
Koko looked at the forest outside and listened to the insects chirping in his ears with complicated eyes.
Of course he knew he wasn't actually Zarude at all.
Abba always lied to himself that his vines would grow later.
But when was later? He couldn't use a single skill himself. Let alone Evil Wave. Koko couldn't even use a simple Flying Leaf Rapid Blade.
He couldn't even feel the elemental power in Abba's mouth.
He looked at the rope wrapped around his hand and wanted to say something, but then he finally closed his mouth.
There were some things that it was probably better not to ask anymore. At least until the opportunity arrives, keeping silent is the best choice.
On the other hand, Zarude on the other side was similarly not asleep.
He looked at the forest outside and listened to the insects chirping in his ears with complicated eyes.
Koko was certainly not Zarude.
Koko was a child he had picked up. A trigger to get himself away from the pack. But a Koko he definitely never regretted adopting.
Or rather, Koko fills the most important part of his life.
As Zarude, who also doesn't know where he came from or who his parents are, he feels his father's love while playing the role of a father.
Koko redeems him too.
But now, Koko sees his gusto Kanto kind. The one that is no longer a race that a certain Pokémon pack can fight.
Should he let Koko be reunited with his own kind? Should he let Koko know his true origins?
Thinking so, Zarude eventually fell asleep...and Koko went into a dream just the same.
We'll talk about tomorrow's business tomorrow. There's no need to be too careful between father and son...
Going with the flow is sometimes a good choice.
———————————
As dawn broke, Malkin looked at Honchkrow, who was still standing vigilantly at the top of the tree, and Absol, who had woken up but remained as he was to get a better rest, and a smile appeared on his face.
"Come back Honchkrow!"
He shouted all over Honchkrow before removing a Pokéball from his belt, but instead of returning to him immediately, Honchkrow took a few tree fruits from the tree before flying to his side and placing the tree fruits at Absol's mouth and Malkin's hand.
Malkin reaches out and fruits the tree fruit before retrieving the Honchkrow back into the ball.
He smiles and says to Pokéball, "Thank you Honchkrow."
Pokéball wiggled gently, as if to say you're welcome.
Then he made it to the ground and nibbled on the tree fruit.
After a few minutes, Malkin finished the tree fruit and got up again, and Absol, a not-so-talkative creature at his side, kind of got up and followed.
Absol was always quiet. So Malkin didn't say much either. It just so happened that the two mufflers were teamed up, which was a good combination in a place like the forest where one needed to keep quiet.
But after not more than a few steps, the 'thud', rhythmic sound of drums rang in his ears.
Malkin and Absol looked at each other, and then walked over there one after the other.
Absol was in the front, Malkin in the back, while the other Pokéball was being held tightly in Malkin's hand, ready to release the Pokémon inside at any time.
Together, they gradually approached the spot where the drumbeat was.
Then, through the gaps between the trees, they saw a group of Pokémon gathered around the Aguav Berry tree, looking around them warily. The Pokémon in front of them looked very cautious, and they seemed to have some fear of the sound of the drums.
Malkin was a bit puzzled. He had only come to this forest to look for Meadow Plate, who was said to be in the forest. Of course if he wasn't there it wasn't a failure of his mission. Rather, the rest of the mission was in the hands of the electric guy.
But he had always just assumed that this was just a normal forest.
Until he saw the big black monkey-like Pokémon.
Malkin's instincts as a hunter awakened almost instantly.
This kind of Pokémon that looked mighty, not weak, and not known to anyone at all was designated to fetch a good price!
But he quickly came to his senses. Although his own strength was definitely stronger than this group of Pokémon. But this group of Pokémon was definitely not easy to deal with. And for the time being, there didn't seem to be any single Pokémon.
Before completing the mission, it would be best if he didn't make too much noise, or else if he was caught by others in advance, and if he collaborated with these Pokémon and the Meadow Plate, he could not be trusted to turn the car over. This kind of risk was obviously not to be taken.
So he just watched there, carefully evaluating the strength of this kind of Pokémon he hadn't seen before, as well as their prices.
Not weak, good looking, and the key was that they had never appeared before.
The value of such a Pokémon was just too high, not to say that he had caught this one colony, but just catching one would be enough to truly clothe and feed himself for the rest of his life.
Though he had been clothed, fed, and even financially free for a long time. But the feeling of catching a Pokémon and exchanging it for money was simply too good to be true.
He aspired to become a detective. But that was what he thought about after being exhausted. In times of exuberance, he was still the same combative hunter, ready to take down everything in front of him. And then exchange it for enough tickets.
Like selling it to Gilruta, that guy must have harbored a great interest in this newly appeared Pokémon!
Of course this exuberance didn't wash over him, instead it was allowing him to think about these issues more calmly. That's why he wasn't even planning to clash with these Pokémon right now.
Or even if there were no such Pokémon, there would be no harm. Completing the mission came first. If the mission wasn't completed this time, I don't think Mr. Arceus would let himself off easily.
The Zarude swarm, after wreaking havoc for a while, left behind a large group of ordinary Pokémon and a mess on the ground.
The faces of the crowd of Pokémon were not looking good, daring to speak out in anger they only felt suffocated inside.
"Zarude! (What happened!)"
Koko's voice came over, and all the Pokémon looked towards Koko.
And naturally, Malkin on one side recognized that it was a human. Even though Koko didn't speak like a human, and didn't walk or anything much like a human.
But humans were humans.
And humans weren't really worth much.
But someone who could actually understand Pokémon's language...that was really worth something...
And the scene afterward was a surprise to Malkin.
Zarude sighed softly as he looked at the mess in front of him. Of course he knew what it was like. Back when he hadn't adopted Koko yet, he had also participated in this so-called proving his Forest Blood status many, many times.
But after living with Koko, he felt more and more that this kind of thing was not correct. It could even be described as ridiculous.
A forest blood's status had to be gained by oppressing the weak? This was a Forest Blood? Wasn't this a forest beetle?
But even though he thought so, he couldn't, much less was in a position to organize such an activity for his companions.
The Pokémon on the other side, however, began to glare at Zarude at the first sight of him.
Given that Koko was still around, as well as Zarude's residual power, they weren't in direct conflict with Zarude at the moment, just snarling angrily at him.
Zarude raised an eyebrow and was about to teach these guys a lesson, but after seeing the look Koko gave him, Zarude sighed softly and then silently retracted his vines that were poised to strike.
Zarude shook his head and said, "There is no way Koko, this is a Zarude tradition, if you and I didn't live outside of the pack you and I would have to get involved in this kind of activity."
Then he pointed at the Pokémon in front of him and said, "As you can see, the Zarude's results are still very good, at least none of these guys in front of us dared to actually stand up against the Zarude!"
With these words, those ordinary Pokémon naturally became even more exasperated.
But Zarude had a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth, clasping his hands to his chest as he looked at these Pokémon as if he was saying 'everyone here is trash' again.
Koko's head grew big as she watched, so she hurriedly apologized towards the Pokémon, and then pushed her dad's back, pushing him out a long way.
Malkin, on the other hand, who was watching the scene from the other corner, was overjoyed. He didn't expect that apart from a human with considerable business potential, there was actually a Zarude that had fallen out of favor, this was really God's gift to him!
He didn't expect that he was all set to retire, but the heavens and actually gave him such a big gift, it really was just enough for the rest of his life after retirement, even if he didn't work as a detective, he could still live a good life and eat well.
"Abba can you not be like this, everyone actually wouldn't have been okay originally, but why do you just have to be so angry with them?"
Koko led Zarude out a long way before complaining rather helplessly.
Zarude snorted coldly and said, "These guys aren't weak, especially that desert dragonfly and that rogue panda. Their strength is all right, but they just don't even have the thought of resisting when facing Zarude's swarm. It's really too cowardly."
After saying that, he looked at Koko, wanting to tell him 'You don't want to be as cowardly as them.'
But on second thought, if Koko didn't hide or dodge in the face of a strong enemy, and all he was thinking about was to tough it out with the opponent. That's not giving away his life to others!
No way! His son was determined not to do such a thing.
So he simply stopped talking.
A lot of things are like this, when this thing on others when you can always easily find out the other side of the fault.
But once this matter turns to their own body, you will often choose to pretend to be deaf and dumb.
And this monkey one person does not know is. Behind them, there is a pair of eyes full of malice that are staring at them closely.
Everyone is complicated, just like Hunter J was also harboring trust and tenderness when dealing with his Tyrannosaurus Rex. And Malkin was certainly not the same when it came to his own Pokémon as he was with the others.
He can go to great lengths to prepare food for his Pokémon. But when it comes to other Pokémon, it's probably a toss-up between selling and not catching.
As he watched the father and son return to their hut, Malkin didn't know what kind of relationship there was between the Pokémon and the teenager, but he somehow felt that the teenager had a relationship with the Pokémon. But he inexplicably felt a sense of happiness in that teenager that he had never experienced before.
The more his heart reached this point, the more Malkin Jedi felt that there was something not quite right with his mind. It was vaguely a bit acidic.
It was obviously just a human and a Pokémon, but it felt like a father and son to him.
And Malkin wouldn't have thought that his guess or cure actually happened to perfectly match the current world situation.
———————————
The entrance to the forest
Rope and Leon looked at the large jungle in front of them with some emotion.
"Do we have to find someone from such a big forest?"
Leon lamented. This was really too unfriendly for him, a roadie. What if he got lost and ran back?
Rope wasn't a wayfarer. But he also thought it was too big. This forest certainly couldn't be compared to Tokiwa Forest. But to look for someone in a forest of this size, it was entirely a matter of whether or not the heavens rewarded him with food.
Shaking his head helplessly, he said, "Look for them, after I analyzed their last action, I suddenly felt that their goal might not be this feeling of taking Plate away."
"No take away...you mean your block last time didn't count as a success?"
Leon said so as he frowned at Rope.
Rope nodded and said, "It sure doesn't feel like it. It's complicated and I haven't figured it out yet, so I'll let you know when I do."
"Okay," Leon nodded, then looked at the forest and said, "Don't worry too much, I don't think Plate of Arceus is going to be so easy to catch. With a little time, the two of us should be able to get there quickly as well."
Rope also nodded rather approvingly, it really wasn't much of a problem.
"Then the two of us will head to the center. Go to the center of the forest, that way we're closer no matter what."
Leon sniffed and nodded as well. Then the two of them headed to the center of the forest.
"Say... why don't you ask Arceus? He should be able to sense the location of his Plate."
Leon suddenly asked. After all, it was always easier to keep a lookout as long as you had a specific location.
Rope, on the other hand, shook his head helplessly after hearing this question, "Of course I know..."
"But... Arceus, lost contact..."
Leon just felt a shrug...
"What do you mean, Arceus is out of contact? No, Arceus' essence you mentioned. It was lost a long time ago. That means..."
Leon's face grimaced, "The Plates are also out of touch?"
Although Leon didn't have any Plate or Arceus that he'd met directly himself, there was no doubt that the video of that battle between Rope and Cynthia in Snowpoint City at the time had also been circulated amongst the higher echelons of the League.
And Rope was undoubtedly sufficiently self-protective now that he wasn't wary of someone finding out what made him special and then capturing him and taking him away to be studied.
"I'm also wondering. Normally, although I haven't actively contacted Plate, a large part of my comprehension of life energy comes from the bodies of the Plates made by Arceus."
"So I have some contact with Plate as well. But right after I came back from Tree of Beginning, all those connections disappeared."
Rope said with some bitterness.
"So my other purpose in taking the initiative to come after Malkin this time was to see if I could get a face to face with Plate. At least get things cleared up."
"Preferably another chance to meet that sleeping essence of Arceus. Otherwise, going against someone directly without knowing anything is always missing the point..."
So it's not a big deal to go against someone directly?
Leon thought that the point Rope was struggling with was really not the same as their thinking at all...
"Come on, I'm actually quite curious about this forest."
"Like is there...really an egg hidden in that tree?"