The Pokémon of February 23rd, 2024 is…
#793 Nihilego
“Nihilego (Japanese: ウツロイド Uturoid) is a dual-type Rock/Poison Ultra Beast introduced in Generation VII.
It is not known to evolve into or from any other Pokémon.
It is code-named UB-01 Symbiont (Japanese: ＵＢ０１ Ｐａｒａｓｉｔｅ).
Nihilego is an Ultra Beast that resembles a jellyfish. The bell is semi-translucent and encircled with several white, star-shaped markings. The wavy rim of the bell flares outward and is bright blue. Its tentacles appear gelatinous and give it a vaguely humanoid shape. Several tentacles mesh together forming the appearance of a cape or long hair, while four shorter tentacles resemble shorter hair and arms. Two long tentacles make up the legs of the human shape. In addition to its shape, it is sometimes seen acting like a young girl. According to its concept art, Nihilego’s body is made of various types of glass.
Nihilego was the first Ultra Beast to be discovered by Mohn of Aether Foundation. Mohn was the one who conned Nihilego’s name. Nihilego live in another world named Ultra Deep Sea. Although its exact levels of intelligence are unknown, it is believed to act upon a self-preservation instinct. Wicke from the Aether Foundation describes Nihilego’s capabilities as such:
Its most distinctive feature is its parasitic capability. When Nihilego latches on to a host, it does not manipulate its actions directly. Rather it awakens the host’s own capabilities and boosts them to an extreme extent in order to protect itself.
It injects the host with a sort of neurotoxin to achieve this effect. This neurotoxin of Nihilego’s is incredibly stimulating and inspires feelings of extreme excitement and a lack of inhibition in its host. In other words, anything or anyone that Nihilego latches on to will have its native skills forcibly activated to their fullest extent and will then act as it naturally desires to.
Wicke further claims that Nihilego, like all Ultra Beasts, stores an energy within its body similar to the aura seen around Totem Pokémon. This energy is called Z-Power. In the anime, Nihilego are capable of creating illusions and seeing the memories of humans. The anime also showed that Nihilego can demonstrate emotions other than self-preservation and the ability to heal people.
As shown with Lusamine, Nihilego is capable of physically merging with a host. In this “merged” state, the bell loses its stars, developing several iridescent spots across its surface. The host’s body is visible within the bell with their legs dangling beneath it. Its eight tentacles become long and flattened and have numerous deep black spots with various colored diamond-shapes inside. Four of the tentacles are connected to the bell via frilly white structures; these tentacles have four spines protruding from them that can be used similarly to hands. The remaining four tentacles each terminate in a single larger spine that, in the anime, injects its toxins into the ground while sharp rocks grow below. While the anime shows that Nihilego can willingly end this merger and it may be disrupted in other ways as well, the lingering toxins and the shock of the separation can leave the host in critical condition, both physically and psychologically.
The toxins produced by Nihilego may remain in the host’s body, even after Nihilego has left their body. This can leave the former host to remain ill for unspecified amounts of time and treatment may be necessary. Nihilego leaving a host’s body can also cause unconsciousness, as is the case with Lusamine, however it unknown whether or not this is because of Nihilego’s toxins, the stress of fusion or the overwhelming amount of Z-Power within her body.”-Bulbapedia.
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