Project 'Pokémon Picture Shiritori 2' and the Childhood Memory of 'The Tragedy of 151'

Pokémon is inseparable from my childhood memories. By the way, I am from the generation of the original Game Boy (and later the Game Boy Pocket) and the original Pokémon (Red/Green) games.

I will talk about the bitter childhood memory of 'The Tragedy of 151' later. First of all!! I am participating in Aruron-san's project, 'Pokémon Picture Shiritori 2'.

I have received the baton from the first runner, 'Hasoyam'-san, whose articles are popular for always providing laughter and healing.

Hmm, hmm.
It must be that Pokémon.

Well then!!
The Pokémon I am following up with is this one.

↓↓↓
Please get it right! ✨✨

It has a bit of a kangaroo vibe, but I believe it will get across. Lol

Now, the next runner is 'Mikumayutan'-san, whose posts with their unique perspective and creative ideas become addictive once you read them. In the first 'Picture Shiritori', they also entertained us with the sudden appearance of a mascot character.

Miku-san, please take over as the next runner☆

Now, I'll digress a little here to talk about my bitter childhood memory, 'The Tragedy of 151'.

🎮️🎮️🎮️

Back then, I was obsessed with the original Pokémon (Red). My cousin, who was a year younger than me, lived in the neighborhood and owned Green.

We poured our energy into completing the Pokédex of all 151 species at the time by working together, moving my Pokémon to my cousin's software (Green) using a link cable.

Sometimes, we would apply by postcard to CoroCoro Comic to get Pokémon. It took time, but the Pokédex was steadily filling up. And finally, only one was left. We had finally made it this far.

To celebrate our success the next day, I stayed over at my cousin's house the night before. Even though we hadn't achieved it yet, it was a pre-celebration. Being in the lower grades of elementary school, we couldn't fall asleep easily due to the sense of accomplishment and the excitement for tomorrow.

And then the morning arrived. Since we had stayed up late the night before, we both overslept.

“It's finally time.”
“I'm so excited.”

We turned on the Game Boy, and the opening sequence played.

However... For some reason, it was a start from zero. The very beginning. The screen showing Professor Oak giving us our Pokémon was displayed.

"My save file... it's gone?"

It was a shock. Why??
Hearing our commotion, my aunt immediately questioned my younger cousin (who was in middle-year kindergarten at the time). "Did you mess with the game?" she asked.

My younger cousin wouldn't talk at first, but after being told, "You can't become a police officer if you don't tell the truth" (he dreamed of being a police officer back then), he finally started to explain what happened.

"I wanted to help my big brother."

That was it. In an attempt to help his brother complete the Pokedex, he had turned on the Pokemon game and, while trying to operate it by imitating what he had seen, he had accidentally deleted the save file.

The cousins were crying their eyes out, my aunt was trying to soothe them, and I just stood there with an indescribable expression on my face. The excitement had completely turned into a tragedy.

Now that we are adults, whenever we gather as relatives, we fondly look back on this bittersweet 'Tragedy of the 151'.