The Ralts sat beside me as I continued telling her the story.

“All the other knights were arguing, getting louder and louder and none of them were paying attention to him. So Arthur decided to step up to the sword and he reached out and took a hold of its handle. Still, nobody was paying attention to come and tell him off, so Arthur tried giving the sword a strong tug. Unlike with everyone else, the sword slid out of the stone immediately and Arthur fell back, completely taken by surprise!”

There wasn’t anything quite like the King Arthur myth in this world, but this Ralts certainly seemed to appreciate it.

Her eyes grew wider as I told her the climax to that part of the story.

“Arthur stared at the sword in shock and as he did so the people around him saw him and realised what must have happened. One by one, all the other knights in attendance stopped arguing and shouting and then when the whole area was silent they knelt down at the same time and shouted: All hail King Arthur!”

Her eyes grew wider as I told her the climax to that part of the mythical king’s story. Ralts seemed completely caught up in the tale and it took her a few moments to seem to come back to the real world and she clapped happily.

“Raaalts!” She cheered, making me smile in return.

It made me wonder if there were any other stories I could remember from my last life that hadn’t found their own version being told here. There were some clear examples I had found already. Brer Rabbit for instance had become a story about a Pikachu facing off and outwitting a Zangoose and a Seviper. Little Miss Muffett and the Spinarak was an odd one, especially given the rhyme had chosen to swap the spider sitting beside her to the Spinarak deciding to attack her.

I sighed and leaned back against the tree behind me.

It had been a couple of months since I’d met the skittish Ralts on the edge of the playground for the first time. Nobody had figured out what I was doing. Or at least nobody had come to bother me about it when I snuck out again to come and find her.

She came by most days to wait for me now. I was concerned someone might spot her, but again we’d been okay, so I wasn’t so worried anymore.

It was nice to have a friend I could be honest with and tell about my otherworldly origins. I’d been dropped off seemingly without warning with nothing to tell where I’d come from. The adults had, as best I could guess, figured I was an unwanted baby that had been left by its parents. I wouldn’t be telling them the truth, obviously.

The Pokemon world was a kind one, but it had its darker underbelly. The gangs, or teams, depending on what you wanted to call them. It was scary that eco terrorists like Team Aqua or Magma might be making their appearance in the future, scarier still to think that some of the more outlandish myths that were barely touched on in the wider materials that I remembered might be true too.

Myths like the idea that a Charmander dies if its tail goes out, or an Alakazam having a measurable IQ of 5,000 I would take with a grain of salt. Those ones seemed more like urban legends and old wives tales. In the opposite direction, the more mythical side of the snippets I remembered had an uncomfortable ring of truth to them.

Jirachi was straight up magic, no pretense about that. It was a Steel/Psychic type, although given its domains it sounded like it would be better classified as a Fairy type too.

The creation trio would undoubtedly actually exist in this world, or at least had powers associated with creation and that obviously brought up a number of major religious concerns.

Going back down to earth, a Ninetails for example was a Pokemon I would do my best to avoid. There was a myth that touching their tails could lead to someone being cursed and I had no reason to suspect that they couldn’t, given what I remembered of Pokemon in my past life. There was supposedly a 1,000 year old Ninetails somewhere in Kanto that had spent the last several centuries lamenting its dead trainer. The anime episode hadn’t done much to dissuade the idea that it’s abilities weren’t steeped in mythology and magic rather than anything else.

I was distracted from my thoughts when the Ralts nudged me. She’d come over and sat against my side when I wasn't paying attention. She’d never done that before, this was the first time either of us had actually touched each other deliberately.

She was small, even for a kid like me she could only be a bit over a foot high. She slotted under my arm easily, only her too large head making it slightly awkward. Still, she snuggled up against my side, eyes covered by her bob of hair and getting herself comfortable.

The only myth about a Gardevoir I knew was that they cared for their trainers to a great degree. It was certainly one of the less scary things a Pokemon could be associated with.

I wrapped my arm around her and hugged the little Pokemon back and she responded by nuzzling my side again before settling with a sigh and seemingly dropping off to sleep immediately. Truly a skill to be envied.

It was getting a bit late actually, I realised. But I wasn’t particularly concerned. It was Summer and I felt pretty comfortable.

I suddenly yawned and realised how tired I had gotten.

It wouldn’t hurt to spend one night outside.

***

As we walked through the Gym we passed by a few Gym trainers, sometimes with their Pokemon and sometimes on their own. We also passed by one of what I assumed were multiple battle arenas and saw a pair of Gym trainers having a practice battle against each other.

Kirlia was fascinated, especially at seeing the Pokemon battle. I chuckled at seeing her blatant interest. I doubted many of the Ralts and Kirlia in the enclave did a lot of battling, it was probably handled by the stronger Pokemon.

“There’ll be time to see more of that later,” I told her as she craned her neck.

We headed out of the first building and out of the back of the Gym. There were lots of trees and nature around here. I quite liked it.

There was a paved path leading out towards more buildings, some streetlights framing the way although they were obviously unlit right now.

Kirlia, once more on my shoulder, was less interested in our surroundings now they were more familiar to her. But Alexia’s Eevee and Kira were chatting together as they walked and kept her attention.

“So to give you the full rundown,” Norman began. “We got the Jigglypuff in just under three weeks ago. Things were alright at first, they found a few spaces to sleep in our habitat building and they were eating fine, not getting into many fights with the other Pokemon. Then they suddenly started singing all the time.”

“Which is what Jigglypuff are known for, to be fair,” Alexia said humorously. Norman nodded.

“We didn’t do anything at first,” the Gym Leader told me. “Jigglypuff do do a lot of singing and there are a few papers that say they sing to assert dominance over each other in the wild, but they haven’t settled down at all since coming here.”

“I see,” I said as we approached the habitat. “And it’s probably causing problems for the other Pokemon too.” Norman nodded.

“At this rate all the Eevee are gonna get super fat,” Alexia said, clearly joking but sounding a bit worried for the Pokemon in question.

“You have a population of Eevee here?” I asked, surprised. Eevee were found in the wild here and there but the majority of their population, at least the ones you saw in the hands of trainers, were from breeding farms. Eevee were considered one of the number one pet Pokemon on top of having good battling potential and the ability to evolve to suit almost any trainer’s type needs. They had registered pedigrees and everything that were tracked meticulously like they were racing horses.

“Eevee, Zigagoon, Meowth, Lickitung, to name a few. They’ve been living in relative harmony here for a long time with no problems but now they’re constantly being put to sleep which is interrupting their normal day to day activities. When they are awake they’re restless and confrontational because of it.”

“We’ve also got a few Kecleon too, but nobody can find the blasted things,” Alexia commented.

Norman shot the woman a slightly annoyed look and Alexia made a zipping motion over her lips.

“Haven’t the other Pokemon tried battling them and forcing them to stop?” I asked.

“A few have, but the Jigglypuff are decently strong and either run away, gang up on their attackers or start singing and put an end to their attempts that way. The Slaking are usually the ones to keep the overall peace around here and a few of them could manage it because I teach them all Sleep Talk. But most of them are just lazy to begin with and all the Jigglypuff are doing is putting them to sleep, which they want to do anyway so they really don’t care,” Norman told me.

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It was clear that the man was frustrated by the whole situation. Having his personal specialty Pokemon not willing to help out had to sting a bit too.

“And your other Pokemon?” I asked. “You’re obviously strong enough they wouldn’t be able to stop you putting your foot down yourself.”

“I could force things, yes,” Norman agreed. “But we aren’t allowed to battle them, that was one of the League’s requirements on letting us take them. The whole point of this habitat is that we try to minimise our involvement in what goes on here so we’re not supposed to involve ourselves directly. At least unless it would result in Pokemon coming to permanent harm but that’s not happening here. We get research grants because of what we do here so it’s a big deal that we stay as hands off as possible.”

“And obviously they aren’t willing to stop singing because you just ask them to,” I continued, trying to put together everything I could.

“We did try talking to them at first, but they kept brushing us off or ignoring us,” Norman revealed.

We had reached the entrance to the habitat building.

“We’ve been using these to go around the habitat without the Jigglypuff affecting us,” Norman told me as we reached the entrance door. He gestured to a small table with a bunch of slightly battered looking headphones.

“If you don’t mind, I have another idea,” I immediately suggested and pulled out another Pokeball.

“Come on out Robin,” I said, releasing my Ribombee.

“I’ve never seen a Ribombee before,” Alexia said with interest while Robin said hello to the other Pokemon present. He saw Kirlia though and looked confused for a moment.

Speaking to Kira, my Sylveon must have explained Kirlia’s presence on my shoulder as Robin relaxed and greeted the middle stage Ralts evolution. Kirlia in seemed very excited to meet Robin.

“They’re a Bug/Fairy type usually found in places like Galar or Unova,” I told the two trainers. “It took a bit of practice, but my Ribombee can use a special ability called Sweet Veil to stop people falling asleep, including us.”

“Ribbom?” Robin asked.

“There’s Jigglypuff in this building that’ll try putting us to sleep with their singing,” I told him. “Do you think you can you cover all of us with Sweet Veil so they can’t affect us?”

Robin looked around at all of us present. I knew he found that ability difficult to use. It was one he’d had to be taught that took some effort. Many of the abilities on the games I remembered weren’t just there, they needed to be trained or actively used by the Pokemon in question. Coming to a decision, Robin nodded to indicate he could manage to do us all.

“That’s an interesting ability,” Norman said, finally putting the headphones he was holding away. “If that’ll work then let’s do it. We’ll be able to properly speak to each other while we’re inside, which will help me explain everything properly.”

“Go on then, Robin,” I instructed.

Robin floated up above us and beating his wings rapidly, released sweet smelling dust like he was using Stun Spore. The powder fell all over us, becoming more and more powerful as it built up. My nose began to itch with the powerful scent and I deliberately chose to start breathing through my mouth. It was almost like having a smellingsalt pressed up my nose.

“Achoo!” Alexia’s Eevee sneezed, drawing everyone’s attention. It covered it’s head with its paws, looking embarrassed.

“Oh you poor thing. Let’s put you away for now,” Alexia said apologetically and she withdrew her Pokemon before the feeling could get any worse for it.

“Done?” I asked Robin, who looked us all over before nodding his head in the affirmative.

Myself, two other Pokemon trainers and three Pokemon entered the Petalburg Pokemon habitat.

It was lush, with lots of tall trees and felt just a bit warmer and humid than the air outside.

“This place is really impressive,” I said to the Gym Leader.

“Thank you,” Norman said, clearly proud of his work. “Come on, let’s walk around and I’ll show you a bit of what’s going on.”

There were a few winding paths leading around the habitat and as Norman guided us through. I was treated to the sight of a bunch of different Pokemon.

Although Norman’s description proved to be accurate. Most of the Pokemon I saw were either asleep or looking very grumpy, either moving about restlessly with some confusion, or actually battling each other.

Things became more interesting as we came upon one scene.

A pair of Meowth had been circling each other and it seemed they'd reached the end of their patience. They both leapt at each other and began biting and scratching at each other, mewls and growls coming out of the dust cloud they were producing as the cats fought. But that stopped when from out of the bushes a new figure strode.

She was large for her species and I could see a few signs of scars here and there. The Kangaskhan towered over the two Meowth and they were too busy flailing at each other to notice her before they were both picked up by the scruff of their necks.

This had to be Norman’s personal Kangaskhan, on his main team. There was no way this Pokemon could be anything else.

Kirlia’s arms suddenly wrapped around my head, I could feel her tremble slightly in fear at the admittedly quite scary Pokemon.

It took a couple of seconds of wild swinging claws on both Pokemon’s part before they realised what had happened and froze in surprise.

“Khaaan,” the Kangaskhan said, or more like growled with a tone that sounded equal parts exasperation and condemnation at the Meowth and it left them both looking equal parts afraid and contrite.

“Kangaskhan doesn’t struggle to stay awake like some of my other Pokemon,” Norman told us softly as his Pokemon gave the two smaller Pokemon what was clearly a dressing down. “She’s also one of my most level headed Pokemon so she’s always good at keeping the peace when things like this crop up.”

“She looks strong,” I complimented. Although there was something about the scene that seemed odd. I couldn’t place it though.

The Kangaskhan put the two Meowth down, who said something apologetic to her and then each other under the stern Pokemon’s gaze. Then they started to walk away, heading in opposite directions with tails raised high. Two cats that were both trying to present the image of nonchalance, and failing.

Her work done, the Kangaskhan looked up and spotted us.

“Kang?” The Kangaskhan asked as she approached, looking over myself and my Pokemon with interest.

“Veon!” my Sylveon said cheerfully. Kirlia didn’t respond from her position on my shoulder. By the way her other hand still clung to my hair I could tell she felt a bit intimidated after what she’d seen.

Robin said hello too, giving a bow in midair as he spoke. The Kangaskhan took on a coy expression, batting her hand in the Ribombee’s direction.

It was then that I noticed what it was that had left me confused at first. This particular Kangaskhan did not have a baby in her pouch.

I was left to consider what the absence of a child probably meant for the Pokemon most famous for it’s attitude towards its offspring while Norman introduced us. The Kangaskhan looked confused that we weren’t wearing hearing protection. She mimed putting something on her head, referring to the headphones from outside.

“These guys are here to help out with the Jigglypuff problem,” Norman told her as Kira and then Robin said hello. “Harry’s Ribombee has an ability that makes it so we won’t fall asleep.”

That elicited a noise that sounded an awful lot like an impressed “oh,” from the Kangaskhan. She said something to Robin who nodded, looking a bit pleased at the Kangaskhan’s words.

“Kangaskhan, we’re looking for some of the Jigglypuff so Harry can get a look at them and hopefully give me some advice about how to stop them bothering the other Pokemon. Do you know where any of them are?”

“Kang!” The Kangaskhan nodded, growling slightly at being reminded of the Jigglypuff and making Kirlia tense up again on my shoulder. I reached up and patted her leg and in response the Kirlia grabbed my hand tightly.

“It’s okay, she’s not going to hurt anyone,” I said softly to the Pokemon. Apparently feeling my concern, Kira came around to my other side and reached up with a ribbon to wrap around the nervous Pokemon.

The Kangaskhan did know where we needed to go and she led us through the habitat. It didn’t take long before we found ourselves in a clearing, but we were already hearing the sound of singing before then.

“-ggly puuuuff, jigglyyyy puuuuuf…”

The sound washed over us and it was definitely Sing the move, rather than simply the Pokemon singing. Robin’s Sweet Veil protected us, but the sound still caused me to tense up. An attack like that in the wild could obviously put someone in a great deal of danger if the victim was in the wrong location, or if it was simply used at the wrong moment.

“Stay here,” Norman said to his Kangaskhan, who nodded. I set Kirlia down beside Kira and then me and Norman approached closer, peeking out through the bushes.

It was just one Jigglypuff singing, surrounded by a small group of Zigzagoon and Linoone.

As I watched, the last of the awake Pokemon, a Linoone was put to sleep, unable to resist the Jigglypuff’s singing, despite having been lethargically trying to approach it and probably fight back.

Seeing the final Pokemon put to rest, the Jigglypuff looked around at them and pouted.

For a moment I expected it to pull out a permanent marker from somewhere like the infamous Jigglypuff in the anime, but instead the Jigglypuff just left. I realised quickly that it wasn’t even into the Pokemon’s now undefended nest and it left. It just walked away, looking only a bit annoyed.

“As best we can tell they want an audience that will listen to them,” Norman said. “But obviously you know the problem with that.”

Over the next half an hour or so we found two more groups of asleep Pokemon and one more example of a Jigglypuff using Sing against the locals. Like before as soon as the other Pokemon were gone, the Jigglypuff seemed annoyed but left without doing anything else. Honestly I was surprised because I knew Jigglypuff could be pretty prideful about their singing. I’d have expected them to at least pull a prank on the Pokemon or maybe steal something in retaliation.

“Do they have a nest?” I asked.

“They do,” Norman said and he led us towards that part of the enclosure.

It was when we reached the nest that I got my next clue to indicate what might be happening.

I, Norman and Alexia were sneakily watching them from afar on top of a big boulder.

There were five Jigglypuff here right now and their leader seemed to be a single Wigglytuff.

“Wig, tuff wiggly,” the Wigglytuff said. It gestured to one of the Jigglypuff, who had been speaking and the Jigglypuff puffed itself up with pride. I couldn’t be entirely sure but it looked like this was the first Jigglypuff we’d seen before and I figured it was probably being praised.

“This is all of them?” I asked.

“That’s all of them,” Norman said, nodding.

I was privately impressed that a handful of Pokemon like this had caused such a nuisance for the Gym. I watched them silently for another minute or two. The Wigglytuff said something to the other Pokemon and after that the Jigglypuff all left, leading out in separate directions. They looked tired, in my opinion. Which was somewhat ironic to be sure.

“Weird,” I muttered. They were all heading out again to go find more Pokemon straight away without even taking much of a break. Jigglypuff were obsessive about singing, but this seemed to be too much even for them.

I had seen enough though. Now I needed to put the pieces together and see if I couldn’t figure out exactly what was happening.