Michi loved this shrine. The salty ocean breeze which flowed through Petalburg had stripped away the bright red color of the temple gate, so it had been painted white instead. It felt pure and clean, the perfect place to start a fresh new year.

Despite the fortune slips tied on either side of the stairs, the shrine was almost empty. With so many people leaving Hoenn, the little shrine had fallen out of use in the last year. There were no food stands or shrine maidens selling arrows of protection: only a simple donation box.

“Oh Mickey, did you bring the charms?” Michi asked, rummaging in her bag. Her husband seemed preoccupied talking to Zac. “Never mind, I found them!” She produced a handful of hand-embroidered little charms, which she returned to the shrine box. Even though she wouldn’t be able to buy new ones this year, it was still good to return them to their origin. It marked the closing of an old year, and the start of a new one.

“It is so quiet,” she murmured to herself, wandering away from where Mickey was animatedly telling Zac his full given name (Michales Theodoropolous).

“That’s just for the journals,” the mustached man was explaining, “Michi can’t say half of it and I was already pretty well-known under it in certain academic circles before we got married. I’m a professor, by the way! I don’t know if Michi’s mentioned.”

“Of course!” Michi’s voice carried across the empty shrine. She was standing before the offering box, gazing up at the carved figure of the legendary Pokemon there. Her mother had told her what it was when she was a child, but she’d forgotten. I will have to ask her, she thought, too embarrassed to ask her husband.

“Right,” Mickey said, gesturing Zac towards the bell at the temple where his wife was standing. “So you know all about my work! Nowadays I’m mostly studying features and structures left by past societies, but to tell the truth, I got my start studying Pokemon ecofacts like everyone else.” He scratched his head sheepishly. “Speaking of fossils, we’ve got that Aurorus in the backyard Michi’s been looking after for you, when do you—”

“Oh!” Michi cried, betrayed. She hurried up to her husband, tugging on his arm. “That was a surprise!”

“Surprise?” he asked, startled. “What do you mean? Didn’t he—”

“Let’s pray at the shrine!” Michi said brightly, turning away. The man cast Zac a baffled look and then shrugged, grinning. “Well, that’s my Michi. I hope you brought your shiniest coins, Zac!”

Clap, clap. Michi bowed elegantly, then tossed a handful of glittering gold coins into the prayer box. They landed with a satisfying clatter, which she hoped would get the god’s attention. Then she closed her eyes, focusing on her prayer.

I wish to find the courage to tell Mickey about my Pokemon.

It was a strange time to start training Pokemon, but it wasn’t a strange time to pick up a new hobby. Most women her age picked up tennis, or baking, or flower arranging— Michi just wanted to collect round Pokemon and put them on her Instagram. It was not so dramatic...

And after Zac had shown her how easy it was, she couldn’t stop!

Finishing her wish, realizing she’d been standing there for a long time, the older woman quickly straightened up and clapped again, then rang the bell. It was so old it didn’t make much of a sound anymore, but it still felt good. It was like a weight had been released from her shoulders.

Now she just had to tell Mickey. The mustached man had come up right behind his wife, still flanked by Zac, and copied Michi’s process. “Can never remember how many times to clap,” he admitted to his fellow academic, clapping once, then bowing, then clapping two more times.

“Oh, you can make your own style,” Michi assured him, hoping the god would still hear his prayer. She was sure it would not be offended as long as Mickey still made an offering. 

But disaster (or fate) struck as Mickey rang the bell and turned his back, walking towards the box of rolled paper fortune slips while still chatting to Zac. “I wonder what my luck will be like this year. I could really use a little good luck— so far my research in Galar has been exciting, but nothing concrete enough to write home about. I’m getting worried it’s a little bit of a wild Zangoose chase...”

Mickey didn’t see, but Michiko did— a MEOWTH popped out from behind the shrine box, eyes bright and greedy. It stuffed both hands through the slats into the box and withdrew two handfuls of gleaming coins. Stuffing them into its cheeks, it scampered up the steps to the main shrine and perched at the top, looking satisfied with itself.

Michi made a strangled sound of protest and looked around, but she was alone. Her husband and Zac were getting along so well, she hated to interrupt them— especially after Zac had praised him so much. She loved seeing Mickey get the recognition he deserved. 

While she was hesitating, the lid to the prayer box rattled, and FOUR MORE MEOWTH KITTENS jumped out, each holding another five-piece-coin. It wasn’t much money, but seeing it stolen from the shrine felt like the cats were stealing the wishes and good intentions from all the people who’d come here to start the New Year.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Michi whispered indignantly, making two fists with her hands. She could take care of this... all on her own!

Michi hurried up the stone steps two at a time, carrying her skirts. Her eyes were fixed on the brown-tipped tails of the cat Pokemon scampering ahead of her, just out of reach. I am out of shape, she realized as she gasped for air, reflecting on all the times she’d had Matchan carry her while hiking, and unconsciously made her New Year’s Resolution. I must exercise more this year! 

Torii gate after torii gate passed above her, marking the route to a little-used Harvest Shrine further up the mountain. It was for people like her friend Jun-Jun who came to pray for good weather and a bountiful rice crop—she couldn’t let the Meowth take those offerings, too!

She reached the top filled with determination, hands balled into fists. One Meowth kitten had climbed up a moss-covered Ninetales statue and was perching on its head—another was working its way up a cedar post towards the roof of the shrine, where a third kitten crouched.

It was the Meowth she couldn’t see that worried her. Her eyes went unconsciously to the offering box.

She hesitated.

If there was one inside, what would she do?

> FIGHT
   CAPTURE
   RUN AWAY

As was the way of this world, Pokemon saved the day.

“Doree, Meriru, I choose you!”

Two capsules sailed forwards, fountaining light into the heart of the harvest shrine. “Meriru, bring the Meowth down!” Michiko cried, pointing at the two on the roof, “Doree, check inside the box!”

Water sprayed the roofline, sending soaking kittens flying and mewling from the high place. They dropped their five-piece coins, which clattered on the roof-tiles. The Marill turned its Water Gun on the Meowth on the statue next, who fled with its back arched and its tail puffed up. 

The Dreepy which had appeared zoomed inside the shrine box, passing through the exterior with ease. There was a sudden explosion of yowling and clattering from inside before the lid flew off and the big Meowth came tearing out with its ears laid back flat to its head, covered in an Infestation of more tiny Dreepy.

Michi clapped her hands in delight. “Oh! Doree! Your friends come quickly!” she exclaimed, a little worried that she hadn’t seen them beforehand. Was she losing her Dreepy vision?

Shedding Dreepy like a cloud of insects, the Meowth and its kittens took off towards the forest empty-handed, clearly having had enough. 

Looking at the tiny ghosts still zipping around the shrine, Michi hoped they would stay to protect its offerings from thieves in the future. It was a nice ending to their arc at Jun-Jun farm! 

Hoping the Harvest God would forgive her, Michi peeked inside the offering box to see the Meowth had left the coins here. It seemed nice to leave them alone—there was nothing wrong with a little redistribution of wealth, she thought privately, setting the lid back over the coins. 

Back at the main shrine, Mickey was utterly baffled when the tree began to move mid-tie of his fortune slip. While he was usually careful about cursed or ghost-possessed objects on a ruin crawl (they were quite common) he hadn’t been expecting one during his yearly shrine visit with his wife. He hadn’t even brought his Machamp.

“Ah!” He exclaimed in surprise as the branches seized him and ripped him off the ground, dangling him upside-down. His long hair flopped back from his face, brushing the gravel of the courtyard. “This is a bit of a surprise! There must be a lot of bad luck trapped in this old plum tree after the years— it’s brought in a Trevenant! Wonder what I did to catch its eye...”

A knot at the heart of the tree rolled like a ball bearing, revealing a single round, accusatory eye. Aged bark seemed to crack and warp, twisting into a jagged wooden mouth. The splinters peeled back like teeth, and the branch holding Mickey began to move him towards it.

“Ah! Zac! Mind helping me out? I didn’t bring any Pokemon,” Mickey gasped, realizing he was actually in danger a little too late. “No no no, Trevenant... let’s try not to feed into harmful stereotypes...” 

Like a trapped gnat he began to struggle, but it was too late to break the branches’ hold.

Mickey found himself snatched out of the air like a damsel in distressed, rescued by no other than Zac's famous (well-vlogged, at least) Heliolisk. "Zappa!" he cried, hanging onto the lizard's neck as the Parabolic Charge rocketed them back to solid ground away from the crackling Trevenant. "Marvelous! Just marvelous-- such speed and agility!"

The last of the bad-luck fortunes knotted around the branches fell into ash, and a shudder swept through the old plum tree. A wave of what Mickey could describe as peace flowed through it, setting its branches budding with new growth. Or so he imagined-- maybe, freed of its burden, the tree was simply free to grow in a way it couldn't do before.

Michiko returned down the stone steps two at a time, Doree floating beside her and a fat, sleepy Meriru in her arms. She waved enthusiastically at Zac and Mickey, who looked up, dazed.

"I have saved the shrine offerings!" she announced, abandoning the main path and hurrying over across the well-groomed gravel. "Oh, the tree! It is so beautiful-- it was not blooming before!"

"Maybe it's a sign," Mickey said, frowning at the familiarity with which his wife was handling the mouse Pokemon. "Sweetheart, did you just find that Marill at the shrine?"

"Oh!" Michi cried, flustered, and cast a pleading look at Zac as if to ask him what she should do. But she could never lie to her husband directly, and her shoulders slumped as she admitted the truth. "This Meriru... actually, it is a Pokemon I catch at the beach. I was surprised because it is so easy. Also," she burst out, "--it is... fun!"

"I never thought you were interested in Pokemon!" Mickey exclaimed, incredulous. "I thought you just liked the character designs in manga, and keychains and things!"

"They are very similar," Michi exclaimed.

"But... but you never want to walk Thor!" Mickey was grasping at straws, stroking his mustache as he tried to rationalize this New Michiko. Michi choked and began to cough. Mickey moved to pat her back, laying one hand reassuringly on her shoulder.

"You know I love Pokemon," he explained gently, "And I love you, Michi. If you want to bring some more little ones into our lives... well, you know I'll support you."

My wish came true...

Michi turned and hugged her husband tightly, beaming at Zac over his shoulder. I did it! I finally found the courage to tell him, she thought-- and she was so relieved! "I love you too," she choked as they broke apart, and Mickey laughed.

Some time later, after they'd returned from the shrine visit and were enjoying hot green tea in Michi's courtyard, Michi approached Zac again with a gift.

"It is not so special," she confessed, "But I think you and Mickey, you are a little bit alike... I think maybe you will enjoy this Pokemon. It is very cute, but big, and it comes from a fossil."

"So that Aurorus was for Zac!" Mickey exclaimed as Michi held it out, carefully cradled in a soft, Cinccinamoroll-print handkerchief. "Lucky man! Hope you've got the space to keep it!"

"Happy New Year, Zac!" Michi bowed her head. "Thank you for everything--  especially, teaching me to catch Pokemon!"