When Mu Li wanted to choose a Water-type Pokémon to accompany him, he suddenly realized that his family had very few Water-type Pokémon.
Perhaps it was because he lived on a mountain in Yangcheng, so, apart from some Water-type Pokémon that usually watered flowers, strictly speaking, there was only one truly combat-capable Water-type Pokémon.
"Why don't you go pick her up?" Mu Li asked Gardevoir, a little embarrassed.
As a Psychic-type Pokémon, Gardevoir could teleport humans over short distances, but the distance between Modu and Yangcheng was too great. Even Gardevoir could only create a spatial tunnel for Pokémon to pass through.
Pokémon have special physiques; they only consume a minimal amount of spatial energy when passing through a spatial tunnel.
"Do I have to go pick her up? She doesn't seem like she'd be easy to get along with," Gardevoir's voice echoed in Mu Li's mind.
"Don't be prejudiced against her. She lost her home, so it's normal for her to shut herself away every day," Mu Li tried to persuade him. "Imagine if one day I were gone..."
Before Mu Li could finish speaking, a blue light flashed in Gardevoir's eyes. Mu Li found himself unable to speak immediately, and Gardevoir's voice rang out again: "Don't say such things."
Even so, Gardevoir could actually understand that Pokémon's feelings quite well. Just as Mu Li said, if Mu Li were to die one day because of certain people, then she might go crazy, and even kill all the humans who caused Mu Li's death.
Mu Li quickly gestured, indicating that he wouldn't say it again, and only then did Gardevoir stop using her Psychic abilities.
Mu Li sighed, stroked Gardevoir's head, and gently said, "She has now emerged from the shadow of losing that home and has chosen to live with us. Let's give her some space and try to accept her."
Gardevoir said nothing more, only nodded heavily. The next second, her body appeared next to the farm in Yangcheng.
This was originally a large lake very close to the farm, and it was also within the scope of Mu Li's farm. Ever since that fellow came, this entire area belonged to her alone.
Ever since she moved in, a dense mist has always floated over the entire lake. Ordinary people cannot enter it at all, and even if some Pokémon enter the lake, they will get lost but somehow return to the shore.
In the center of the lake was a small piece of land, which was where that fellow lived.
Gardevoir had accompanied Mu Li here once before, and that was before that fellow arrived. Gardevoir quite liked that piece of land; there were flowers and plants everywhere, and no other Pokémon bothered her. In her free time, she could come here to Calm Mind.
One reason Gardevoir didn't particularly like that fellow was because that fellow had taken over the right to use this land, causing her to be unable to find other suitable places to Calm Mind.
As for the other reason, from the first moment Gardevoir saw that fellow, she felt extreme sadness from her.
That was an emotion she didn't particularly like, or rather, she didn't like this emotion appearing on herself, nor did she like it appearing on her companions.
That fellow had been here for more than four years, but Gardevoir had only seen her once, and it was the only time the two Pokémon had met.
During this period, apart from Mu Li, who often went to the middle of the lake, no other Pokémon had ever gone there.
Some newly arrived Pokémon even regarded that place as "Horror Island."
Gardevoir looked towards the center of the lake through the thick mist.
Before she could fly to the center of the lake, the dense mist actively dispersed, and a Pokémon that looked like a giant oval eggshell floated out of the mist.
That Pokémon was entirely purple, with black and white patterns on its shell, looking like a large open-mouthed clam. There was also a sharp horn on the clam's head.
And she sat in the center of that clam, entirely black, with long silver-white hair and a purple bow-like ornament on her chest, possessing a mermaid-like body. This was the legendary Pokémon—Tapu Fini.
"Are you looking for me?" a very pleasant female voice sounded in Gardevoir's ear.
Legend has it that Tapu Fini can perceive the wishes in the hearts of people and Pokémon, then give them a trial. Those who pass the trial will have the opportunity to meet Tapu Fini.
As a divine being, Tapu Fini can create realistic illusions through mist, allowing people to temporarily fulfill their heart's desires.
Facing Tapu Fini's question, Gardevoir directly replied, "Yes, A Li sent me to find you."
"Is something the matter?" Tapu Fini asked curiously.
"He asked me to ask you if you are ready to leave here?" Gardevoir relayed truthfully.
Tapu Fini's body trembled, and she remained silent for a long time.
Gardevoir did not urge her, but quietly waited for her answer.
Tapu Fini turned her head, staring at the center of the lake, as if there was something there she couldn't let go of.
After an unknown amount of time, Tapu Fini suddenly asked, "Do you know the story between me and A Li?"
Gardevoir hesitated. From Tapu Fini's tone, she could sense that the story was not a good one, but she eventually nodded in agreement, because she suddenly wanted to understand the past of this legendary Pokémon before her.
Unlike their meeting four years ago, Gardevoir could feel that the Tapu Fini before her had changed; her violent energy had become very peaceful.
This also made Gardevoir curious: what exactly happened four years ago that made a legendary Pokémon so violent, and what happened during these four years that brought Tapu Fini's violent state to peace?
"That was five years ago."
Tapu Fini, along with the other three legendary Pokémon, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu, guarded the four islands in the ocean. She didn't know how long she had been guarding this island, only that she had been on this island since birth.
And guarding this island was her innate duty.
She watched this island go from being empty to having humans enter, from having nothing to developing into a small island city.
During this time, she had always guarded these four neighboring islands with the other three guardian deities.
Until five years ago, the island's environment underwent a drastic change. The sea level rose rapidly, causing the island's area to become smaller and smaller.
The humans who originally lived on the island gradually moved away, and even the Pokémon living on the island did the same.
But for Tapu Fini, this was nothing.
In her eyes, Pokémon are born and die, and humans are the same; they move onto this island and leave it. All of this is just a fleeting cloud, destined to disappear one day, and the only constant existence is the island itself.
But she didn't expect that the departure of humans was just the prelude to tragedy.
After the last human left the island, the Pokémon also began to migrate.
At this time, a human appeared. He rode a Pokémon that Tapu Fini had never seen before, breaking through the wind and waves, and came to the Kapu Islands, telling them a terrible piece of news.
The sea level would rise, and soon, it would submerge the entire Kapu Islands.
The four guardian deities did not believe him, thinking he was merely coveting their islands, so they tried to jointly expel him and that Pokémon from the Kapu Islands.
But they failed. Their four legendary Pokémon, even united, could not withstand that one Pokémon.
But that human did nothing after defeating them. He merely told them that when the island was submerged, he would reappear, hoping that by then, they would be able to follow him to a new place and re-establish the Kapu Islands.
Just like that, that human disappeared.
Later events indeed unfolded as that human had predicted. As time passed, the sea level rose rapidly, and soon, the Kapu Islands were quickly submerged, leaving only a small piece of land.
That human arrived as promised, but the four guardian deities did not want to leave.
Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, and Tapu Bulu gave up on saving their islands, choosing to freeze themselves and sink to the bottom of the sea, continuously guarding their islands.
But Tapu Fini never gave up. She exhausted all her strength, wanting to prevent the sea from submerging her island, but it was all in vain.
Even though she was called the guardian deity who controlled water, and even though her power originated from the ocean, she still could not resist the ocean, and could only watch helplessly as her island was submerged by the sea.
She was utterly despondent and was about to freeze herself forever and sink to the bottom of the sea, just like the other three guardian deities, when that human stopped her and asked her a question.
"What does this island mean to her?"
Tapu Fini had never considered this question. It seemed that since she first became conscious, the island was her home, the entirety of her memories, a part of her being, and the meaning of her existence.
And what she had to do was to guard this island until the end of her life.
"Have you ever thought, if you were to leave the island first, what would the island do?"
"Would it, like you, choose to end its own life and depart with you?"
"No, it wouldn't. It would choose to stay, to preserve the traces of your life together, to display them to the whole world, to tell the whole world that it bears the marks you left behind. These are your memories with it, and proof that you once existed."
"But now it has disappeared. Soon, in this world, no one will know of its existence except for you. Once you also disappear, it will truly vanish from this world."
"So, to prevent it from simply disappearing, I want to ask you to continue living, until the day you are ready to tell these stories to the world, to future generations. By then, it won't be too late for you to disappear."
With each word Tapu Fini spoke, the mist on the island dispersed a bit, until finally, the mist completely cleared, and Gardevoir could clearly see the land in the center of the lake again.
What was originally one piece of land had become four, like four islands surrounded by the ocean, and above each island floated a Pokémon made of water.
One of those Pokémon was Tapu Fini.
Although Gardevoir had never seen the other three Pokémon, she knew that they were the remaining three guardian deities of the Kapu Islands.
"Later, I followed that human here."
"During these four years, he often came to accompany me and listen to me tell the story of me and the island."
"Until one day, he told me that I already had enough strength to tell the story of the island to the world, and that I could leave here."
"But I became afraid..."
Unbeknownst to her, Tapu Fini's face was already covered in tears.
"I worry that once I depart with the island, the island will one day disappear from this world, just as if no one would remember me except for that human."
"But I know these are just my excuses, because I no longer have the courage to freeze myself and accompany the island."
"I don't even remember the island's location..."
"I ultimately betrayed my island."
As Tapu Fini cried, the four Pokémon in the center of the lake transformed into a stream of water, submerging the entire piece of land. The water submerged the land, as if that land had never existed.
Gardevoir felt her heart seemingly twisting in pain. She knew this wasn't her heart aching; it was Tapu Fini's heart.
"No!" Gardevoir's voice directly interrupted Tapu Fini's crying. "I don't think you betrayed your island. The reason you are like this is because you love your island too much."
"Just as he said, you are the only trace the island left in this world. If you also disappear, the island's story will eventually disappear. As long as you are alive, whenever others see you, they will remember the island's story."
"This is what the island hopes to see."
As she spoke, faint blue light flashed in Gardevoir's eyes, and the land originally hidden by the lake also revealed its true appearance.
The water receded, and the land remained.
Just then, a Rotom Phone flew from a distance to Tapu Fini's front. The phone was playing a video that Mu Li had just forwarded.
In the center of an island somewhere abroad, four sculptures stood, guarding the four directions of the island, and these four sculptures represented four Pokémon—Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini.
"This is..." Tapu Fini could hardly believe what she was seeing. She watched the video repeatedly, as if trying to confirm whether she had seen it incorrectly.
After the video ended, Mu Li sent a message: "See, everyone still remembers the story between you and the islands."
The mist that seemed to forever shroud the lake dissipated, and the lake regained its vitality. A golden Magikarp leaped out of the water.
