Master Craftsman of the Pokémon World

Chapter 569 - 569: 567

"Kitakami, here I am!"Riding Miraidon down from the sky, Hikaru did not arrive at Mossui Town in southern Kitakami, but at the Kitakami Center near the eastern side instead.

He had promised Ogerpon he would come here to bring her new masks and help her recover the ones she used to have. At Crystal Pool, he had met the person he wanted to see, and those masks were being kept at the shrine in the Kitakami Center.

"If history at a certain point in time gets changed through Crystal Pool, would history form a closed loop, or would it overwrite itself?"

"The five new masks are already finished. Actually, if I really let myself go wild with the designs, I could make even more bizarre masks."

"Love, hatred, shame, fear, dread. After embedding them with Tera crystals of the corresponding types and infusing them with those emotions, they've gained five brand-new attributes!"

[Secret Craftwork: Crystal Masks!]

[Wooden carved masks decorated with crystals. If Ogerpon holds one, that mask's special type will envelop her whole body in battle. Each mask also has the same hidden effect as the original four masks: it increases the power of moves of the corresponding type by 20%.]

[These are five masks that would fit right in even in a "chaotic war-torn region."]

[Fairy Mirror Mask (Love - Fairy): A mask inlaid with fairy feathers and fragments of a bronze mirror, reflecting true feelings like moonlit love. The edges are decorated with glass-like bamboo leaves and moonlight patterns. Ability: Magic Bounce.]

[Rashomon Mask (Hatred - Dark): A mask fitted with fangs of darkness, with a furious glaring face and protruding tusks, almost like a straw doll riddled with nails. It seems to be a physical embodiment of emotions where good and evil intertwine. Ability: Intimidate.]

[Iron Helm Mask (Shame - Steel): A mask mixed with a special alloy. Its shape resembles a shattered, melted steel helmet. It is said that the molten helmet embodies the burning pain of an ancient samurai consumed by shame. Ability: Heatproof.]

[Kagome Mask (Fear - Ghost): Covered with cloth from the spirit world and crystal fragments. It bears a kagome lattice pattern. It is said that at a certain moment, anyone who turns their back to the oni must take the caged bird's place as the sacrifice. Ability: Shadow Tag.]

[Dragon God Mask (Dread - Dragon): A mask embedded with dragon scales. Whoever wears it is regarded as a god guarding a sacred domain. It seems like it ought to be set into some ruined divine site at the bottom of a lake, or in the gate of some forbidden place. Ability: Multiscale.]

[After Ogerpon Terastallizes, her Ability becomes Embody Aspect. The mask shines with the memories reflected in her heart, raising her own power. The effects of the masks also change.]

[Fairy: each time she enters battle, her evasiveness rises by 1 stage.]

[Dark: each time she enters battle, her accuracy rises by 1 stage.]

[Steel: each time she enters battle, she copies the target's stat changes.]

[Ghost: each time she enters battle, the target's stat changes are reset to zero.]

[Dragon: each time she enters battle, she enters a heightened critical-hit state, increasing her critical-hit ratio by 2 stages.]

"Summer's already over, so the annual Festival of Masks ended long ago. The place looks a bit deserted right now. As for the person managing the shrine at the Kitakami Center..."

"Little Rotom, time to cause trouble."

"Shedinja, I'm counting on you."

In situations like this, psychic power was always more effective, especially Trick.

Rotom drifted out of the Capture Styler with a gleeful little laugh, and before anyone knew it, Shedinja had also appeared behind Hikaru, phasing in and out as it secretly observed everything.

It was still in a very good mood.

Hikaru took out three extra masks. These three were counterfeits. While he certainly could have simply remade the Fire, Water, and Rock masks with special powers, the original three masks kept at the Kitakami Center were special to Ogerpon.

So there was no need to recreate them. He only needed to make three fakes. With Trick to swap the items, it was easy.

"Returned to their rightful owner."

Shedinja and Little Rotom smoothly took out the three masks and floated back over with them swaying in their grasp.

"With that, she'll have eight masks on hand. Add Ogerpon's own Teal Mask, and the job's done."

"Besides, imitations of the Teal Mask are all over Kitakami anyway. As for the other three masks, barely anyone's seen them. Even if I switched them out, they could probably sit there for years before anyone noticed. My craftsmanship is top-tier."

"But why did the Loyal Three suddenly revive? Was there some kind of mechanism at work, or were they affected by Terastal energy or by Pecharunt?"

In the story, Kieran punched the statue and it made it look like the Loyal Three had literally been punched back to life, which was pretty funny. But considering that he had brought the Teal Mask here earlier, it probably really did have something to do with Tera energy.

"When I head to Mossui Town later, I should seal Pecharunt away first."

Hikaru put away the three masks. Just as he was about to ride Miraidon away from the Kitakami Center, a child suddenly rushed out in front of him.

She looked about ten years old, a young girl with an unhappy face.

"Hm? You're not from this village! Outsider, who do you think you are? Stop right there! Hey, wait!"

"Agah?" Miraidon looked over at the furious little girl running hard down from the other side of the mountain path.

Well, well. A girl I don't know!

You sprint pretty fast.

But the way you talk is way too different from that other girl. Pretty rude, honestly.

And I'm definitely not giving you a ride.

"That's Carmine?!"

Hikaru recognized the childish-looking girl. At this point in time, it obviously could not be Kieran. Although Kieran looked young, he actually seemed older than his appearance suggested. In the Blueberry Academy period, he was supposedly around fourteen.

At this point he was probably around the same age as Arven, maybe seven to nine, perhaps a little older, because Kieran was one of those characters whose personality and apparent age did not really match.

But Carmine should be a little older than him.

"Come to think of it, this whole group doesn't feel the same age as Nemona at all. Not even counting the Blueberry siblings, just among the Orange Academy group, if you go by enrollment timing, the shortest one, Penny, actually seems to be the oldest. What a contrast."

And she had actually come without Kieran.

Come to think of it, Carmine, who always loved messing with people, was surprisingly more rule-abiding, while the timid Kieran, as a child, had the whole setting of "he snuck into the mountain alone several times at night and got scolded by the adults every time."

That was one of the reasons Kieran later told Florian that he had never managed to meet the oni, and why he thought the oni was so cool for standing alone against so many enemies in the story.

But right now, not meeting the oni was completely normal.

Ogerpon would go off to the Reverse World to play whenever she had time, basically like a little kid going over to a friend's house to play games. If you actually ran into her, that would be the weird part.

Carmine, just like in canon, had no favorable opinion of outsiders. She had seen Hikaru heading toward Oni Mountain, and that was why she had run over to stop him.

Come to think of it, how had this person even gotten close to the shrine in the first place?!

Carmine said, "Stop right there! The mountain up ahead is off-limits, especially to outsiders. You can't go there without permission!"

Hikaru said, "Really? But isn't that supposed to be a tourist spot? Why would it need special permission, then? If that's the case, how do tourists ever go over there?"

"Uh..." Carmine froze, then scratched at her hair. "Well, that's... that's tradition. No, wait, it's the rules. Anyway, you just can't go!"

"If you insist on going, then battle me! If you win, I'll agree to it!"

Hikaru shook his head. "But you're not the one in charge here. Even if I beat you, it won't matter. You'd just run off and never actually help me apply for permission."

Carmine was stunned. "Ugh, y-you. How do you kno-"

Hikaru said, "A little girl like you is still too green. Everything you're thinking is written all over your face. And besides, I'm pretty familiar with this place."

Still, if he simply flew away, there was no guarantee Carmine would not run around shouting for help and head into Oni Mountain herself. If Ogerpon got discovered, that would be a little troublesome.

"I was planning to just leave. A little girl like you can't stop me anyway. But to avoid unnecessary complications, since you want a battle, I'll humor you. Of course, since it's a battle, we may as well wager something. Even girls have to put something on the line."

"Let's make a bet. The loser will be haunted by a curse. If either of us breaks the oath, they'll fall deathly ill. So if you don't want to be cursed, you'd better keep your mouth shut."

Spiritual power rose in Hikaru's hand. A grim, eerie aura instantly made Carmine snap upright.

Her expression changed violently, and she stared at him in horror. "Y-y-y-y-you... you're not human!"

Hikaru gave her a strange look, then deliberately leaned into it.

"Whatever I am, this Dark Game was the one you started."

"At this time of year, shouldn't you be at some academy? Even if Blueberry Academy hasn't been built yet, you should still be at some Trainer school. Or are you on break?"

"All right. Show me your Poltchageist. You have a Ghost-type Pokémon too, so why are you afraid of ghosts?"

"Gh-gh-ghost?!" Carmine went pale. "Y-you are a ghost!"

She screamed in terror.

"Waaah! It's the oni from the legend! Help! It came down from Oni Mountain!"

In Kitakami's legend, the oni had supposedly been driven away when the Loyal Three sacrificed themselves. But the oni was still said to dwell in Oni Mountain. Even though nobody had seen it in hundreds of years, Crystal Pool also carried a legend that you could see the souls of the dead there, so in the minds of quite a few Kitakami villagers, the oni was basically some kind of ghostly being.

People said you could see the oni in the Paradise Barrens, and there was even a place in Oni Mountain called the oni's cave, but her younger brother had snuck there several times and never found anything. At the end of the day, it was just a boring old story...

Except now the legend had come true!

And in the legend, one day the oni had flown into a great rage and stormed down the mountain, throwing the villagers into panic.

"Loyal companions, save me! Help!"

Carmine was so terrified she did not even dare battle anymore. She turned and ran, but Hikaru caught her with his spiritual power and held her in place. Carmine nearly fainted on the spot, though one thought still rose uncontrollably in her mind.

So the oni can even ride a motorcycle. No wonder no one could stop it when it charged down the mountain.

It's way too fast!

Hikaru looked at her face, already twisted in panic, and listened to her shouting. Little by little, he understood.

So that was it. She thought he was an oni.

"Hah! If that's how it is..." Hikaru deliberately scared the girl even further. "You people put up a pretty interesting sign in the Paradise Barrens, didn't you?"

"At dusk, if a shadow comes from outside the village, be careful and stay alert. Put a mask on your face at once. Hide your features. Do not reveal them."

"Whether the shadow is man or oni, bow with your face covered and you may pass. If you do not have a mask with you, then pray the shadow is human."

"If the shadow is human, you'll keep your life. Never again forget to bring a mask. If the shadow is oni, your life is over. Letting it see your true face brings tragedy."

"Once the oni steals your soul, you will never return to the village again."

"You dared to leave behind such a reckless legend. Do you really want your souls stolen that badly?"

"If something goes wrong in the future, someone will have to answer for it. And even if you run back to the village, no one will believe what you say. Meeting an oni sounds absurd, doesn't it?"

"You just walk up and start talking to strangers without ever considering they might be spirits? But if it really is a ghost, then of course you wouldn't be able to find any trace of it. That's how it should be, right?"

"People will just think maybe you were too tired and hallucinating."

Watching Hikaru pace around her on Miraidon, Carmine trembled and finally threw out a Poké Ball.

"S-s-Smstcha, battle! Use Mega Drain!"

Poltchageist. Its head was a cracked black-and-white tea caddy. The white portion formed its face, with black graffiti-like eyes and mouth. There were three black marks on the right side of its forehead, and a green crack ran along the left side. There were holes on both sides of the caddy, from which green matcha powder extended to form its arms.

"It's said to be the lingering regret of a tea master who failed to perfect the art of tea before death, possessing matcha and turning into a Pokémon. It sprinkles the powdered parts of its body onto food for others to eat, or directly onto opponents, absorbing their energy and turning it into its own."

"But what if the target doesn't eat food at all?"

Before Hikaru, Shedinja emerged like a ghost.

Its secret observation was over.

Mega Drain had no effect!

"Swords Dance."

Hikaru said, "Shadow Claw!"

Shedinja drifted forward, empty-headed as always. Swords Dance sharply raised its Attack. Ghostly energy gathered into claws, almost like the edge of a blade, and with a metallic slash it carved down through Poltchageist.

Super effective, with doubled effectiveness!

With a smack, Poltchageist's tea-caddy body dropped to the ground. Carmine, recalling the warning sign in the Paradise Barrens, rolled her eyes back and fainted from sheer terror.

The curse of the cursing oni! She could not tell anyone, or her soul would be taken!

Carmine's face had gone pale, and she lost consciousness completely.

"She fainted from fright? Carmine at this point really has less guts than Kieran."

Hikaru did not actually leave her there unattended. He healed Poltchageist a little first.

Then he glanced around and spotted some useful Pokémon nearby.

"Clefairy! Let the hunt begin!"

There were some Clefairy wandering around the mountain path, looking as though they had nothing better to do. Hikaru used the Capture Styler to assign them a task.

"Watch over this girl for a while. If she still hasn't woken up after some time, use Wake-Up Slap to smack her awake. Thanks."

"Pipi-pi!" Three Clefairy waved to show the matter was in their hands.

That was the handy part of the Capture Styler. When it came to situations you could not directly handle, or did not want to bother handling yourself, you could simply entrust them to Pokémon.

Smack!

"Ow! That hurts!"

Carmine had no idea how much time had passed when she woke up. Her face stung like someone had slapped her, and all she saw were Clefairy nodding to each other and running off, which immediately made her realize she had been "attacked" by wild Pokémon.

But why had she been sleeping on the ground?!

"I... I fell asleep...? No! The oni! Where is it? Where did it go?!"

Carmine hurriedly looked around, panic-stricken, but aside from a few wandering Pokémon at the roadside, there was nothing.

Right, this was the mountain path, not the Paradise Barrens!

Wait. Did that mean meeting the oni had all just been some kind of hallucination?

But she still remembered the curse...

"I lost a Pokémon battle! So the oni cursed me! Part of my soul was taken away!"

"Waaaah!"

Carmine trembled all over and stumbled at top speed back toward Mossui Town. Because of her fear, she was running even faster than usual. Along the way she kept asking people whether they had seen any ghosts, or any strange outsider riding around, but every answer was the same: no.

No one. There had been absolutely no one around?!

Cold sweat broke out all over Carmine's body.

By the time afternoon rolled around, she had finally made it back to the village. Fortunately, the Kitakami Center was not all that far from Mossui Town. But even once she was back in familiar surroundings, the fear in her heart did not fade at all.

"Oh! Carmine, what happened to you? You were gone near the Kitakami Center for so long."

Her grandfather, Yukito, was baffled. Seeing his granddaughter so distracted and pale, he could not help but ask, but Carmine only shook her head, too afraid to say anything, and hurried into the house.

"Huh? She wasn't like this before. How did one trip near the Kitakami Center leave her like this?"

Yukito was completely puzzled. After Carmine went inside, she still said nothing and only focused on eating, as if food were the only thing that could calm the fear in her heart.

Of course, the one most surprised by her strange behavior was actually her timid younger brother, Kieran.

"Sis... what happened to you today...?"

Kieran wanted to say that she was acting weirdly meek today, and had not even picked on him, but he could not quite bring himself to say it.

"N-none of your business." Carmine started to pressure her little brother like usual, but the moment she thought of the curse, she did not dare raise her voice.

"Big sis, you're really acting strange today."

"Ugh... I... I..." Hugging her knees, curled up in the corner of the tatami room, Carmine thought of how much her brother loved stories about the oni.

"I'm only telling you. Don't tell anyone else! If you do, I'll die! I've been cursed!"

"I ran into a ghost near the Kitakami Center... and when I woke up, it was gone. There were only wild Pokémon around. I asked the people nearby, and they all said they never saw any weirdo riding a bike. I... I saw something I was never supposed to see!"

Her expression started slipping completely out of control. "Kiki, what am I supposed to do?! I'm never going out to block outsiders again. Waaah, I really ran into the oni! I'm going to die!"

"How do I break this curse...? I'm going to get horribly sick and end up bedridden!"

Looking at his sister, who was now practically falling apart, Kieran's attention as her younger brother did not land on that part at all. Instead...

"Sis... what did you just say?! You met the oni?! Really?!"

". . . Like that, like that! Then there's only one way, right? We have to go straight to Oni Mountain and ask it to lift the curse!"

(End of Chapter)

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