The Inheritance

Mingyou pushed open the front door, and a damp, musty smell hit him. Dust hung throughout the house.

The Villa's living room was spacious but desolate. The furniture stood neatly arranged, untouched for a long time, and brown curtains covered every window.

Stairs ran up to the second floor along both walls. Beneath them sat shovels, wooden buckets, and piles of odds and ends like tables and chairs.

Otherwise, the living room had little decoration—not even a vase or a photograph. Perhaps his grandfather hadn't wanted to spend money on things that were merely pretty.

Mingyou opened every window to air out the house and clear the musty smell. That was when he noticed none of the windows were locked. One was even half-open.

Had his grandfather really been that careless?

Puzzled, he wandered through the rooms on the first floor: the kitchen, the bathroom, and the back door leading to the vegetable garden and fishpond...

After a while, the air inside finally grew fresher. Once he confirmed the Villa still had running water and electricity, he found an outlet and plugged in his Rotom Phone to charge. Then he dug out an apron, put it on, and started cleaning.

Only then did he notice faint footprints in the dust covering the floor. They weren't his. Yet no one should have lived here for months before his grandfather passed away.

"Those look like Pokémon footprints... Did one climb through a window looking for food?"

With that guess in mind, Mingyou kept working. But as he cleaned, he couldn't shake the feeling that something inside the house was secretly watching him.

Following the feeling, he looked toward a wooden cabinet in the corner of the living room. Books sat on top, cobwebs clinging to their edges. Among them, a damaged tea caddy patterned in black and white stood out.

The white part of the caddy looked like a face, with eyes and a mouth resembling black doodles. Three black marks dotted the right side of its forehead, while a green crack ran through the left.

Sinistcha (premium): A Matcha Pokémon that hates people who waste food. Bring it a damaged or broken piece of handicraft, and it should be delighted—but don't let it know you broke it.

"Grandpa's Pokémon?"

Seeing Sinistcha here, that was Mingyou's first thought. Sinistcha gave no response.

Broom in hand, he walked over.

Just as he was about to ask another question, he spotted a letter beside Sinistcha. Judging by the dust on it, it had been there for a long time.

Curious, he picked it up, unfolded it, and began to read.

His grandfather had left the letter behind, apparently forgetting to mail it with the front-door key.

In it, his grandfather wrote that he had been a researcher in his youth. After hearing that the Terastal phenomenon also existed in Kitakami, he had come from Paldea to investigate.

But the village had distrusted outsiders back then and obstructed him at every turn. Left with no choice, he bought a plot of land at Wavy Riverbank, far from the village, to use as a research station. He often traveled between Kitakami and Paldea.

The research station stood in the wild, though, and Wild Pokémon in those days had little contact with humans. Most were unfriendly, and they often fought one another when hunger drove them to search for food.

For his own safety, his grandfather brought some farming techniques from Paldea and began growing fruit trees and vegetables. His thinking was simple: if food was plentiful, he wouldn't have to worry so much about hungry Wild Pokémon attacking him.

Instead, the food attracted quite a few Wild Pokémon to settle there. It should have been dangerous, but rather than attack him, they treated him as one of their own...

Over time, they grew close. For a man who had always been absorbed in research, it gave his grandfather a new understanding of Pokémon.

Then the investor funding his Terastal research went bankrupt, ending the project. By then, his grandfather had grown fond of Pokémon, so he left the team and stayed to live among them. As a Pokémon Ranger, he used the Manor to shelter Pokémon he had rescued.

His family understood and supported his decision. Decades passed, but as he aged, his energy waned and his memory began to fail.

His wife and children passed away one after another. The blows left him seriously ill, and that illness had lasting effects. He knew he did not have much time left.

When he felt his health worsening, all he could do was make arrangements and write this letter in advance.

He wanted to leave everything to his grandson to manage, hoping that one day Mingyou would come to take over and carry on his work.

"..."

Mingyou finished reading, folded the letter, and put it away with a soft sigh.

He hadn't expected his grandfather to spend decades here alone, working as a Ranger and caring for the Pokémon nearby.

Was it stubbornness, or had he simply grown attached to them? Perhaps only his late grandfather knew the answer.

His grandfather must have known how little time he had left. But with Mingyou as his only remaining family, all he could do was hold on to that sliver of hope and trust him to manage it all...

"He left this burden to me..."

Mingyou felt helpless. If he accepted the inheritance, he would take on the debt. If he refused, his grandfather's decades of work would become a tourist attraction.

Every Pokémon he had seen since entering the Manor might have been cared for by his grandfather. They might all consider this place home.

If the Manor was demolished, the best-case scenario was that they found new homes. The worst was that they became homeless and returned to their old lives.

What should I do?

Mingyou couldn't easily decide. He wanted to accept the inheritance, but he was afraid he couldn't pay off the debt. He had no one to rely on and was here alone. It would be hard to earn much in Kitakami...

After thinking for a long time, he came back to himself and looked ahead. He tried talking to Sinistcha again, but it still ignored him. So he went back to cleaning and tidying the house...

Before he knew it, the sky was growing dark.

Night fell. The light from the Villa lent the quiet Manor a warmth it had not known in a long time.

In the dim Orchard, a figure suddenly flashed past, startling an Ariados resting in a tree. Before it could react, the figure was gone.

Inside the living room, Mingyou finally finished cleaning the Villa after a busy afternoon. Doing it alone was exhausting, but he had enjoyed it.

All his life, others had looked after him. Now that his memories had returned, it was time to become independent—to take care of himself instead of relying on anyone else!

He checked the time on his phone.

8:20 p.m.

It was already late, and he still hadn't eaten. He planned to rest on the sofa after dinner.

He hadn't rested once since leaving Levincia. Kitakami and the Paldea Region had a twelve-hour time difference, and he was struggling to stay awake.

He looked around the kitchen. The only edible things he found were an unopened bundle of noodles and some garlic. Plain noodles boiled in water sounded too dull, so he took his phone to the vegetable garden out back to pick some vegetables for toppings.

The garden was fairly large, but without anyone tending it for so long, it had become overgrown with weeds.

He used his phone to look around and came away with a decent harvest: jicama, tomatoes, Cabbage, and scallions. That was plenty for a meal.

On his way back inside, he studied the jicama he had just dug up, also known as Mexican turnip.

Jicama (D-): The soil is excellent, but without anyone caring for it, this is the best quality it can reach. Rather than eating it raw, slice it thinly and make jicama soup.

The information reminded Mingyou of that strange card from earlier. It seemed it could change the variety of a Jicama Seed.

The letter after Jicama indicated its quality, and higher was obviously better. If altered crops could reach a higher quality, their novelty might fetch a good price...

Perhaps too much had happened today. Somehow, Mingyou's thoughts had turned to making money.

He carried the vegetables into the kitchen and washed them. He chopped the scallions and garlic, then sliced the tomatoes. Half would become Sugar-Tossed Tomatoes, while he diced the rest for the noodles. He peeled the jicama, cut it into pieces, and put it on a plate to eat like fruit.

Once the pan was hot, he poured in oil and fried the minced scallions and garlic until fragrant. He added the diced tomatoes and cooked them until they released their juices, then poured in water, added a little seasoning, and dropped in the noodles and Cabbage. A delicious aroma rose at once.

In his previous life, Mingyou had worked at an orphanage, so he knew the basics of looking after himself. His cooking wasn't outstanding, but it was good enough for the children to enjoy.

He liked children. He thought that if he worked at a Pokémon Day Care, he could take good care of the baby Pokémon there, too.

Unfortunately, he didn't even have a Pokémon of his own right now. It would be nice to have a Pokémon as a companion, Mingyou thought, letting himself imagine it...