Curiosity Killed The Human (Pokémon SI)

[HungDaddyG]

"You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream." – C.S. Lewis.​

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I had decided to go for a casual walk on a nature trail near where I live. Exams had just ended, which meant plenty of time to unwind the stress that had built up over the weeks. Since I had just recently graduated (pre-med), I figured that I would enjoy my free time while it lasted. Before I inevitably had to go through the tedious experience of job searching (in this economy?!).

The weather was perfect as well since I went during the evening, plenty of sun with just the right amount of wind to counter it. At first, my walk proceeded like normal. I went through the familiar sights, from the rivers and the crop fields, to the power lines and the lakes.

However, as I walked deeper and deeper into the trail, I noticed something was…off. I couldn't hear any of the local bird calls, nor the usually ever present cicadas during the summer. Once the adrenaline of successfully completing my exams wore off, I started to get increasingly unnerved from the odd silence around me. Hell, there weren't even any other people around like normal! Joggers, bikers, old couples going on walks to decrease their blood pressure, all gone. The only sounds being made around me were the trees lightly blowing in the wind and the soft crunches of my shoes on the earthy trail.

Though the weather was perfect, I started getting chills down my back. Even more so when I realized that it was starting to get dark. At this point, I definitely felt something was up, as even during the night when plenty of bugs became more active, there were still no sounds being made whatsoever.

Seeing the time on my phone, I pushed my unease at the back of my head and hurriedly trekked back the trail. Maybe it was nothing, and that the lingering stress of the exams just got under my skin. Yeah, that was probably it.

I sardonically laughed to myself. It was ironic; I originally came here to destress, but I only seemed to have stressed myself further. The relief I felt once I finally got to my car was honestly immeasurable.

Unlocking my car, I decided to text my friends in the group chat about my spoils of war.

Goda: Phew, just finished my finals. Fcking pain in the ass, btw.
8:03 PM

Among: Congrats bro, still have an extra year to go for me
8:05 PM

Pad: Lol look at this fucking nerd, going to school and shit
Pad: Kidding, but yeah that's awesome. I'm guessing you're just job searching now? Or are you continuing Med school?
8:06 PM

Goda: I mean yeah ideally I want a job, an internship is only really a last resort if they say I "lack experience" or whatever bs
8:08 PM

Satisfied with my response, I took a deep breath and sighed. To be perfectly honest, if it weren't for my friends' emotional and physical support throughout my college years, I likely wouldn't have been able to graduate. They kept me sane, especially during my low points. College was hard, man.

Lately, it really felt like we just don't get together as often as we did in the past. I mean, not that I didn't understand, we were just at that age where we started to really build up our careers. But man, I can't lie and say it isn't disappointing as all hell whenever we have to cancel plans to meet up.

Shaking my head from those thoughts, I backed out of the trail's driveway and got on the road. It was now fairly dark out, so I turned the headlights on. My car was just a cheap-ass Nissan Leaf, so I had to set them on full-blast to even get results.

Humming some tunes to myself, I noticed that the only other vehicle on the road at this time was a truck right behind me in the other lane. I relaxed and took it easy after seeing this, thankful that I at least wouldn't get stuck in traffic. The sooner I got home, the better.

But just as I was starting to relax again, what looked like a little kid just shot across the road like a missle to chase after a ball.

Eyes widening, I quickly swerved onto the left lane, my mind racing a mile a minute. What the hell, didn't the brat know to look both ways before crossing?!

Unfortunately, the truck on the other lane wasn't given any warning of my sudden switch, leaving them to blare their truck horn repeatedly before crashing into my car from behind.

'Motherfucker!' I swore in my head, trying to step on the brakes, but to no avail. My car was now forcibly skidding across the road, sending sparks flying everywhere. Looking up from the brakes, I saw that I was about to crash into a tree!

Instinctively holding my hands in front of my face, I yelled out in fear, "NO-" Before I was interrupted by a large crash, my world turning to darkness.

-0-​

Cough, cough

'Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick…how long was I out for?'

After coughing some more, I eventually came to and opened my eyes. My face was plopped all over the now deflated airbag. Surprisingly, my glasses were mostly fine, although the hinges were a bit crooked, as well as still being a bit blurry when I wore them. Gonna chalk that up to car damages, I suppose.

From what I could tell from my surroundings looking out the windshield, I had crashed into a forested area. Did I somehow stumble back into the trail? I didn't recognize this area, but I suppose it could just be an area of the nature trail I hadn't yet explored.

I tried to call 911 on my phone, but strangely enough, it didn't go through no matter how many times I tried. Odd.

Speaking of car damages though, it wasn't looking good for my trusty Nissan. After slipping out of the car, I winced at the damage. The front of the car was smashed against a tree as far as mechanically as possible.

But that was small potatoes compared to the backside.

For one, the back of the car looked like it had completely exploded. The back tires had burst out, leaving rubber chunks splayed all over the grass. And the trunk cover looked like it flew straight off the car, slicing through the windshield of the truck who was behind me.

Speaking of which, the truck was actually fine for the most part, infuriatingly enough. I mean, other than the driver seat's door being ripped open, as well as the goddamn trunk slicing through the windshield, hitting…

My eyes widened. Oh shit, the truck driver! He's still probably in there!

Rushing over quickly, I leaped over the truck's door entry gap, hoping to help him with the medical knowledge that I had.

Only to be met face first with a truck driver, whose throat was completely punctured by a sharp part of my trunk, and whose eyes were completely glazed over.

My eyes froze at the sight; the blood that was still gushing out of his throat was dry yet, so it couldn't have been that long ago. Although, if my car's trunk pierced his common carotid arteries (and from the positioning of the trunk in his neck, it most assuredly did), then there was likely nothing I could do at this point.

The 2 common carotid arteries on each side of the neck bifurcated (separated) into 2 branches: the internal and external carotid arteries. The external carotid artery supplied the face, neck, and the meninges with oxygenated blood, which was bad enough to go without. But the internal carotid artery supplied the goddamn brain.

And considering that both branches were cut off due to their origin arteries being sliced clean through…

With shaky hands, I checked his pulse, just to make sure. And just as I thought, I detected nothing, wiping the blood on the driver's shirt.

"I-I'm so fucking sorry, you're dead because of me," I squeaked out, my voice coming out high-pitched. Most likely from fear.

Fucking hell, if only that damn brat didn't run on the goddamn street! Then we wouldn't have been in this situation to begin with!

Getting out of the truck, I saw what the truck was carrying. Doritos. Something tells me that nobody's gonna be getting those chips anytime soon.

But when I went to check the damage to my side-view mirrors on my car, I paused.

There was a young boy staring back at me in the mirror. Me, specifically. From the looks of it, I looked to be somewhere around 10-12 years old.

My brain froze, somehow having more trouble processing this new info. more than seeing someone recently dead.

I pinched myself, then winced. So, not a dream then. Interesting. Was I just hallucinating, in that case?

After a moment of quiet contemplation, I decided to go behind the Doritos truck and opened the back door to grab a couple bags of chips for myself. To my surprise, a box was already opened. I'm guessing some workers got greedy.

Okay, look. I know it seems just a tad bit disrespectful, but I was stuck in the goddamn forest, I was hallucinating out my ass, and my emergency calls weren't even fucking working for some reason. Cut me some slack.

After stuffing as many Doritos packs as I could from the opened box in my now comically oversized school bag, I made my way towards civilization, hoping to get some help.

-0-​

I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Whatever sparse boy scout lessons I had gleaned over the years stuck about as well as dirty tape.

Luckily for me though, I didn't need those skills! Because I eventually managed to find a trash can near a bridge, indicating that I was somewhat close to civilization. And…is that a waterfall? What the hell?! Now, I'm no geography expert by any means, but I'm pretty sure waterfalls don't exist in my state!

Well, whatever, it's probably man-made or something. Does my state even use hydroelectric power? Questions for later.

I was about to walk over the bridge, when I saw something glinting in the sunlight from the trash can. Curiosity piqued, I hunched over the can and found…

A Poké Ball model.

Well, I could always sell it on Ebay for a couple easy bucks.

After grabbing the incredibly realistic looking model (but not before giving it a good rub) and pocketing it, I made my way across the bridge. I ended up walking for several more minutes before I found what looked to be a road ahead.

But more importantly, people! Fucking finally, now I could ask someone where the hell I was. And to also get some closure for the poor trucker.

Sprinting on up to what looked to be a hiker, I waved up to a resting jogger to catch their attention.

"Hi, yeah, do you mind telling me where I am exactly? I think I got lost in that forest back there." I pointed to where I came from.

The jogger's eyes widened with excitement when I spoke to them. I guess it would get pretty lonely around these parts. He took a moment to catch his breath before replying, "Sure kid, you're on Route 16, right next to Nimbasa City," he jabbed a finger in the direction of said city.

…

What?

"Ohhh Nimbasa City, of course! How could I forget, stupid me," I laughed awkwardly to myself, desperately hoping to hide my rapidly growing realizations of my situation, despite trying to suppress them. I then tried to act normal as I asked, "Say uh, you wouldn't happen to have any Pokemon, would you?"

The jogger's eyes lightened up, "Of course! Up for a Pokémon battle?" He went to reach for his pockets, but I shook my head, eyes downcast as his answer confirmed what I was now thinking.

"No, I…don't have any Pokemon at the moment. I was kind of hoping for some assistance." The jogger looked at me quizzically.

"Assistance? For what?"

I scratched my head, "Well…I found a dead trucker in the forest. His neck was fully cut through when I found him." I decided to just casually drop that bombshell on the jogger with no tact whatsoever. "I wasn't really able to call for help."

The poor guy's eyes widened, which would be comical in any other situation. "Oh damn, for real?!" He looked at my battered appearance with new eyes.

"Wait right here, I'll go get a couple rangers!" The guy sprinted off down the street. Well, I guess I chose the right guy for the job then!

Since I was now alone with my thoughts, I took the time to fully digest what actually just happened to me.

This wasn't a dream. Me constantly feeling a low-level of throbbing pain from the crash proved that. No, I was actually isekaied into one of my all-time favorite fictional series, like some shitty bootleg Subaru.

Although unlike the Japanese NEET, I was a young child…for some reason. I didn't know my exact new age, but I was pretty sure I was nowhere near my 20s.

But why though? Why have me isekaied as a child?

Wait…I could be a famous trainer! I found a Poke Ball, after all. Oh yeah, it's all coming together baby. Watch out Ash Ketchum, I'm coming for your ass!

I was soon snapped out of my delusions of grandeur by the jogger returning, accompanied by a man and a woman, both dressed in red and black clothing.

The woman approached me, and quickly introduced herself and her companion, "Hey kid, I'm Ranger Yor and my buddy there is Ranger Ded. I've been told that there's a truck with a dead body inside in the forest, is that right?

I verified my claim, "Yes offic-er, ranger. I don't remember exactly where it was since I got lost, but it was definitely way past the bridge."

Yor nodded, "Thank you, I'll have to inform the police then," she said, taking a Poke Ball out of her pocket and throwing it up.

"Come on out, Mysterio!"

A green jello monster suddenly appeared in a great big flash of light. I couldn't help it, my jaw dropped. There's no mistaking it; that is definitely a Reuniclus in the flesh.

Ranger Yor immediately gave it orders, "Mysterio, I'm going to need you to contact the police please." The Reuniclus followed through after affirming with a simple, "Reee", its eyes glowing as I'm assuming it telepathically contacted the police.

After a couple seconds, Mysterio stopped, its eyes returning back to normal.

"Thank you Mysterio." Yor then turned to me and the jogger, "We'll be able to take it from here, although I suggest you two stay here for further questioning when the police arrive." She and Ranger Ded then proceeded to make their way into the forest, leaving me alone with the jogger.

After a couple seconds of awkward silence, the jogger asked me, "So kid, what do you plan on doing now?"

I kicked some pebbles on the ground, "Shit man, I guess I'm just gonna try and be a trainer." The jogger raised an eyebrow at my language. Whoops, forgot that I was a kid now. I'm not even old enough to legally drive anymore, which seriously sucks.

…Wait a minute…they're gonna confiscate my car, aren't they?

Shit.

 

[HungDaddyG]

This. Fucking. Sucked!

It's been a week since my fateful encounter with good ol' Truck-kun isekaied me into this place, the Pokemon world. Or at least, some version of it. The police asked me some basic questions (What was your relation to the trucker? How long was it until you found help?). Thank the stars that they didn't try to contact my parents and just let me go. I can't even imagine how I would try to explain my absence from any birth records whatsoever.

Since then, I've wasted no time in spending my days trying to catch Pokemon in Lostlorn Forest and Route 16 with the single Poke Ball that I acquired. I guess I must have missed all of them last time, being the distracted guy I was. But my fantasies of being like Ash Ketchum (maybe even better) could finally be achieved, and I didn't intend on letting this opportunity go to waste.

For being a homeless kid with no connections whatsoever, my food situation was…manageable, although not really ideal. I had asked a couple of backpackers around the area if they knew how to find edible berries and other such foraging foods. Because I was outside in a forest and regularly coming into contact with grass, I figured that a diet composed solely of Doritos wouldn't cut it.

Thankfully, they were happy to help, teaching me where and how to find various different berries and mushrooms. I almost cried in relief at the explosion of various flavors in my mouth the first time I ate a collection of wildberries, putting a smile on the backpackers' faces.

I guess being a little kid again has its perks after all.

But that's where the positives end. Simply put, I'm struggling to catch a single Pokemon. To be perfectly fair though, it's a lot harder than it looks like in the games. Because I didn't have any Pokemon of mine to start out with, I was essentially forced to either: sneak up on an unsuspecting Pokemon and throw my one Poke Ball at them, or to just try and approach them directly to convince them to come with me.

Both options consistently led to said wild Pokemon getting annoyed and throwing various attacks at me, forcing me to flee. At least I'm getting good cardio in the process.

Which leads us to the present, where I was currently fresh off a failed attempt at catching a Petilil, leftover leaves stuck in my hair. I thought I was clever leaving a leftover berry to use as bait, but the little shit had swallowed it in one sitting instead of chewing it like I intended. Leading to it seeing me trying to approach it.

My one saving grace was that I at least still had my Poke Ball. After all, I'm not in a game where I arbitrarily have to buy more Poke Balls if I don't catch a Pokemon in it.

Slumping down against a tree to relax for a bit, I took a deep breath and unzipped my bag to take stock of my inventory. I had about 15 more bags of Doritos. For a brief moment, I considered trying to go back to the truck to get some more, but I quickly squashed the thought down. The police had to have confiscated both the truck and my car by now. Luckily, I had the apparent foresight to bring my wallet and phone with me from the car, as well as leaving the key inside. So they likely won't be able to trace the car back to me at all.

Why did I even want to be a trainer in the first place? I can't even remember, it was just something I haphazardly decided to do since I was mysteriously transported here. But at this point, I was in too deep to quit.

Sighing to myself, I grabbed a bag and opened it, resigning myself to the sunk-cost fallacy of catching a single Pokemon.

But just as I was about to bite into a chip, I heard a bush in front of me rustle. My body was instantly sent into fight or flight mode, eyes widening slightly.

"H-Hey," I called out, my voice initially hoarse from largely being unused for about a week, "is someone there? I have hands, and I ain't afraid to use 'em!"

The bush rustled a couple more times in response. I tensed, instinctively grabbing my Poke Ball, even though I logically knew it wouldn't do anything against an attacker, Pokemon or Human.

After a couple more seconds, a Pokemon walked through, its long tail standing straight up. It was a…a Patrat? It had the same beady little eyes as one from the games, as well as the outer red and yellow eye markings. Its large, peary white bucktooth at the front of its mouth was instantly recognizable as well, clear as day.

However, there was just one characteristic it had that made it different from the Patrats that I remembered.

And that was that its normally brown fur…was completely white.

Was this a shiny Patrat? I wasn't sure, it's not like it was exactly the most memorable Pokemon back home.

My thoughts were interrupted as said discolored Patrat hesitantly walked forward, pointing to my chips.

"Pa?" it spoke in a questioning tone. I furrowed my brows.

"You…want my chips or something?" Patrat nodded enthusiastically. I smiled at the Pokemon's eagerness.

"Here," I handed the whole bag to Patrat since I had way more to spare, "I think you'll really enjoy it. It's really out of this world." I smirked conspiratorially.

Patrat snatched the bag from my hand, grabbing multiple chips and consuming them damn near instantly, its little eyes lighting up from the taste. In no time flat, it had emptied the entire bag.

"Well shit, you damn near inhaled the whole thing," I commented incredulously, "don't you have a family to help you get food? Like a pack, something like that?"

The chipmunk-like creature looked downcast at my questions, shaking its head negative.

"Patat, tata tapat," it repeatedly pointed to its pure white fur. I cocked my head to the side in contemplation.

"So…you don't have a family…because of your fur color?" I was initially considering it to be an albino if it wasn't shiny, but the fact that their eyes still have their normal coloration, and thus melanin, indicated that it was a different condition, although I was drawing a blank on the actual term.

Vigorously nodding, Patrat angrily gestured around itself, ranting in Poke Speech.

While I wasn't one of the lucky few who could understand the Pokemon language, I could hazard a guess that it wasn't all too pleased about its family (pack?) basically abandoning it.

I licked my lips, "Well, if you really don't have anywhere else to go, you could-" I gulped, suddenly nervous, "you could come with me. If you want." My heart was pounding like crazy.

The Pokemon merely stared into my eyes, its red and yellow eye markings making it feel like it was staring into my soul. After what seemed like an eternity, Patrat finally smiled and gave me an adorable thumbs up.

I returned the smile, my black mood from my previous failed catch instantly vanishing. "Perfect!" I said, pulling out my one Poke Ball and holding it out for Patrat, "you know how these work, right?"

Patrat nodded, and tapped on the Poke Ball. In a great flash of light, it was suddenly sucked inside.

It wiggled once.

Then twice.

Then three times.

And then stopped.

"That…" I breathed out, "took way too fucking long."

Without warning, the Poke Ball wiggled again, and out came Patrat in a burst of light. It pointed to my backpack, then to itself.

"You want to travel in my backpack?" Patrat nodded in confirmation. "Should be fine, but no eating my chips without my permission, got it? Believe it or not, they're a very rare commodity as of right now." Patrat pouted, but relented.

"Oh, and one more thing…do you mind if I called you by a nickname? I was thinking 'Furn' cause you…er, have fur?" Patrat just stared at me with a deadpan expression. In my defense, I would normally come up with something infinitely more creative, but I was fucking exhausted at this point. Give me a break.

Fortunately, Furn just sighed and shrugged its shoulders, settling in my bag. I took that to mean he didn't care either way.

"Alright!" I slang my bag over my shoulders. "First stop: Nimbasa City! I'm getting real sick of living and shitting in this goddamn forest."

We proceeded onwards onto the path to Route 16, Furn chirping excitedly all the way.

-0-​

When I suddenly stepped into the vibrant, bustling city of entertainment, my senses were initially overwhelmed, having been used to the fairly quiet Lostlorn Forest for so long. Judging by Furn's head swiveling around all over the place, I could guess that he was feeling much the same way. Apparently Furn had never actually been to a city before, being entirely raised in the forest.

And my god, the Pokemon! I was instantly reminded of all the realistic looking Pokemon in the Detective Pikachu movie I watched a while back home. The place was absolutely filled to the brim with Pokemon going on various amusement park rides and eating snacks that smelled heavenly.

Unfortunately for us, my bitch ass was broke as hell, so we couldn't experience any of that. The way Furn's face fell upon me breaking the news to him made me feel pretty bad, so I tried to think of a place to go to that didn't require any money to enjoy.

"Hey, why don't we…go to a library?" I elaborated on Furn's puzzled expression, "It's basically a place where humans have a bunch of books and computers to read off of."

Furn's eyes widened at the mention of computers, "Chip, chip!" I laughed at his sudden excitement. Looks like the little guy was eager to see modern tech in action. Not exactly a lot of computers to use in the forest, I imagine.

"Alright then, let's go see where a library is around here. Oh and before I forget, make sure to not be loud in the library, it's proper etiquette." Furn gave a salute as confirmation.

I went up to an older-looking man resting on a bench to ask for directions to the nearest library. He seemed a bit bemused when I spoke to him, but gave me the directions nonetheless.

We soon found our way there. The library looked just like how the man described it, but the labels were in a completely indecipherable language that I didn't recognize. I guess it would be a bit presumptuous to assume that everything would be in written English in an entirely different world.

But then why did everybody I speak to so far respond in perfect English…?

I shook my head. Well, hopefully the library would have some answers!

Stepping inside, I was immediately greeted by the distinctive "library scent" filling my nostrils. There were people bustling around quietly, librarians sorting books and a couple of older kids who looked like they were studying.

After a couple minutes of searching, I finally found a couple of computers. The keys looked to be absolutely indecipherable, just like the labels I've seen. Furn came out of my bag, watching the screen expectedly.

Eventually though, I gave up on trying to search up specific things by guessing the key meanings, and decided to just view what the homepage showed. Furn's eyes widened as it saw the screen change. "Pat…" it said in awe.

I clicked on various different links, leading me to various videos. Battles. Educational videos. People seemingly just chilling with their Pokemon. It was honestly kind of cute, doubly so when the Pokemon wasn't a conventionally cute one.

I was so enraptured by exploring the internet of this new, exciting world that I didn't even notice when someone approached me from behind.

"Excuse me." I jumped a little in my seat, startled. Turning around, I saw a woman with teal-colored hair in a police outfit. In an instant, my blood turned to cold ice. Had they figured out my connection to the car in the forest? I willed myself to calm down, they couldn't have found me out. No way.

The woman smiled at me, "Hi, I'm Officer Jenny; well, one of them anyway. I'm here because several reports have been made of a young, suspicious boy with a huge backpack lurking around in the nearby forest. And from the looks of it, you seem to match the general description. There was recently a Zoroark living there who impersonated a human woman, so people living here are a little on edge." My eyes slightly widened in recognition of her familiar name.

The policewoman casually placed a hand on her hip, "Do you mind coming with me to the station? I'd like to remind you that you're well within your rights to refuse questioning, but it would still clear up any confusion."

I stared at her for a moment before registering all that she said, "I…no, I'm not a Pokemon…but I guess I could come along and sort some things out." It'd be pretty annoying if everyone thought I was a Pokemon in disguise.

Officer Jenny nodded, gesturing to me to follow her, "Perfect! Don't worry kid, we'll be able to sort this out in no time!" As Furn dived back into my bag, I followed her to the police station with no small amount of unease.

-0-​

The room that Officer Jenny led me into was…not at all what I was expecting from a police interrogation room. Instead of a bleak white and gray room with a single chair and desk in the corner, the room was a colorful mixture of blue and green, with smatterings of flower paintings here and there. It was quite soothing to my rather frazzled mood. Furn popped out of my bag, admiring the artwork.

My provided lawyer was already sitting there when I entered, a tired but otherwise young-looking man with short, cropped hair. Awesome. The sooner I could sort this bs out the better.

I introduced myself, "Hi, I'm Goda. I'm guessing you're my lawyer?"

The lawyer stood up, shaking my hand, "Hey there Goda, and yes, I'm going to be your lawyer for this interview; but you can just call me Harden. Are you aware of what a lawyer does?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, "Yeah, I do." Harden nodded, then opened his briefcase.

Officer Jenny turned away, "Mauresh efron seugun dan," then shut the door behind her. My eyes widened a bit in interest. Woah, what kind of language was that? I've never even heard of it before.

Harden took out a notebook and pen and started the interview, "Alright Goda, to start off, do you know why you're here today?"

I nodded, "Yeah, cause a bunch of busybodies think I'm a Zoroark in disguise or something." I thought I saw Harden smirk a little, but I couldn't tell.

He then shifted to asking me language-related questions, "Okay, for the sake of this interview, do you prefer speaking in Quron? My Quron is a bit rusty, but we can certainly continue the conversation in it if that is what you prefer."

I furrowed my eyebrows, now thoroughly lost, "What are you talking about? We're speaking English right now. I have no clue what in the world 'Quron' is supposed to be. Is that related to what Officer Jenny was saying before she left?"

The lawyer looked at me like I was the one speaking a completely foreign language to him, "...The language we're speaking right now is Quron, one of Unova's secondary languages. Officer Jenny was briefly speaking in Pokeron. The main language of the entire world?" He looked at me expectantly, but was met with a blank stare, "Have your parents really never sent you to school to learn Pokeron? If so, that could very well be grounds for child abuse. May I speak with your parents directly?"

'Well I guess that explains the language Officer Jenny was speaking in,' I thought to myself. But then his last question hit me, and I knew I had to deflect. Fortunately, I cooked up a backstory for myself before I came here. "Well, me and my family are from Nuvema Town. But my parents died when I was young. Got attacked by wild Pokemon. So contacting them isn't really possible." Harden lowered his head in sympathy at my story.

"I'm very sorry to hear that. In that case, could I speak to whoever your current guardian is?" But I shook my head again.

"Nah, I don't have a guardian, I've been on my own ever since then, nomad style. Been thinking about being a Pokemon trainer, ya know," I smirked and nodded towards Furn, who waved at Harden.

Unfortunately for me, this was not the right thing to say, "Are you saying…that you've been living on your own without any guardian raising you whatsoever?"

I was caught off guard, not expecting this reaction, "Well-I mean-I figured since trainers are like, super independent and stuff, that I could maybe do the same thing," I stammered out. Harden pinched his nose.

"Kid…I don't know where you got that misconception from, but even the most independent trainers still require guardians to take care of and check after them from time to time. We'd end up with way too many emotionally traumatized children otherwise."

Harden huffed in mild frustration, "I suppose I'll have to contact the authorities in Nuvema Town and see what they have on you. This was supposed to be a simple public defense case against slander…"

My eyes widened, "Ahh, I don't think that'll work, honestly."

The lawyer raised an eyebrow, "And why wouldn't it?" he asked, now clearly a bit suspicious of me.

Thinking quickly, I fabricated some more details regarding my backstory, "Well, my parents…were complete religious nutcases. I mean, they didn't even trust modern hospitals because they thought the government would like, implant demons inside our souls to control us. Sooo, my mom gave birth to me in secret without going to a hospital," I clasped my hands together as I finished.

"I…see, so you don't have a birth record," Harden said, clearly taken aback by the direction this conversation had taken, "but what religious sect were your parents a part of exactly? Perhaps we can contact their place of worship and get some answers."

Fuck! I didn't expect him to actually follow that line of thought. I racked my brain desperately, trying to think of what I could say.

Unfortunately, both the anime and manga hardly had any details about what religions existed in the Pokemon world. I mean, there were several clans that worshiped different gods in Legends Arceus, but that was in Sinnoh, not Unova.

Wait a minute, I'm in Unova, which means…

Praying that this would work, I answered in a nonchalant tone, "Oh, they said it was called Team Plasma. Something like that."

Harden looked absolutely gobsmacked, his jaw comically dropping. If I was in any other situation, I would probably laugh at the face he was making right now.

"That-That's absolutely unbelievable! I don't know how else to describe all of this! I just knew my career was going a little too smoothly." He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Please excuse me, I have to make a few calls."

Lawyer Harden got up and walked out the room, leaving me to ruminate in my thoughts. I had no idea what I was expecting when I came here, but it certainly wasn't this. I guess not everyone speaks English-sorry, "Quron", over here. Hell, from what that Harden guy implied, there's a good chance that most people in other regions won't even understand me! That seriously sucks ass. Don't get me wrong, I love Unova from the bottom of my heart. But I sure as hell don't want to be confined to only one region!

For the first time since I was isekaied into this world, I was at a complete loss on how to proceed with my life.

As I was busy stewing in my own shortcomings, my trusty lawyer returned, sitting across from me once more.

"Alright Goda, I've made some calls with the government, and they're sending in some social workers right now to have your situation sorted out." I was indignant at this news.

"Wait, but-I'm independent, I can take care of myself just fine!" I desperately tried to convince him of my inherent maturity, but he just shook his head.

"I'm sorry kid, but this is for the best. Don't worry though, I made sure to tell them about your little language problem, so the ones they send will understand Quron just like us." He sighed, suddenly looking way older, "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea how you managed to even survive this long without picking up the main global language at least a little bit."

"Just dumb luck I guess, haha…" I weakly laughed as I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. I suppose there wasn't really any way to prove that I was an adult in a child's body without completely outing myself.

-0-​

Time passed by in a blur for me after I was introduced to my assigned social workers, Amanda and Marick. Amanda, a young and pretty woman with purple hair, took me to the nearest hospital to update my medical history. Marick, an older and shorter brown-haired man, stayed back and discussed matters with Harden to find out where I would ultimately stay.

When we got to the hospital, Amanda informed the nurses of my situation. They all made sure I got up to date with my vaccinations more or less immediately. Thank god, the last thing I needed right now was to get infected by some super obscure Poke-virus and cause a Poke-pandemic.

One really cool thing I found out after they ran some DNA tests to make sure I wasn't secretly a Zoroark was that I was apparently exactly 10 years old, chronologically speaking. I suspected that I was young, but I didn't expect to be that young.

Shit, they even managed to find out exactly what day I was born on, which is just insane! I guess I should at least count myself lucky that this planet's year lengths are apparently very similar to Earth's, from what I subtly gathered.

After that, Amanda and I met back up with Marick, where he informed us that his higher ups determined that housing me in Nuvema Town would likely cause unnecessary emotional distress to me. So we instead got on a flight straight to Striaton City. I was to be placed in a group home with a couple other kids, with the further possibility of being adopted in the future. Not really sure how I felt about that last part, but I figured I would just deal with that when the time came.

But at least it shows that they took the Team Plasma part of my "backstory" pretty seriously. Ideally, it should prevent any more prying into my previous life. After all, who would dare call a poor, poor terrorist victim a liar?

I was also going to be put under a strict accelerated learning program to learn both spoken and written Pokeron, since I was extremely behind. Thank god for that, the sooner I learn it, the sooner I can properly interact with the entire world.

During the flight, Amanda turned to me to strike up a conversation, "So Goda, what do you plan on being when you grow up? Harden told me you wanted to be a trainer; is that still something you're interested in?"

I sighed, "Mmm, I'm not really sure now. I feel like I wanted to be a trainer just because it seemed cool at the time. But I'm honestly not very good at it."

"Well, you have plenty of time to decide, there's really no rush," Amanda smiled reassuringly. We settled into a comfortable silence after that.

I looked out the window, onto the vast and limitless sky. And as I ruthlessly suppressed the bout of dread I felt from likely not being able to see my friends again, I pondered to myself:

'What do I want to be?'

 

[HungDaddyG]

13 Years Later…​

"-and with that…classes are officially over for the semester. Congratulations for graduating, Castelia University alumni! Please, let us know if you have any more questions during our office hours!" President Halberd added as all of the students and their Pokemon on the campus ground clapped and cheered in celebration, myself included. The students got up and gradually started dispersing after the noise had died down.

Checking the Xtransceiver on my wrist, I saw that I had around half an hour to spare before I had to go to my meeting. Good, hopefully the company would be more generous this time around, but I wasn't feeling particularly confident about my last ditch effort to appeal to them.

I kneeled down and nudged Furn, still on the ground, "Come on bud, let's get going; we gotta see if we can make our little trip tomorrow worth it or not." The white-furred Patrat nodded, climbing up my graduation gown and settling on my shoulder. Scanning the campus grounds for a tree with suitable enough shade, I eventually found one, then discreetly looked around to see if anyone was nearby.

Satisfied with my level of privacy, I picked a familiar bookmarked tab titled "Crystal Onix Orange Islands". After a few milliseconds of my screen loading, I saw the same thing I've always seen when searching for this exact result for the past 12 years; nothing but a scant few articles about Sunburst Island's famous specialty in glassmaking, followed by a couple internet rumors here and there about the supposed "Crystal Onix".

I grinned at the lack of news regarding the niche Pokemon. Perfect. The lack of media coverage makes my job a hundred times easier.

After making a quick stop to my dorm room to change out of my graduation clothes and into my lab coat, I got on a bus to go to one of the many business offices present in Castelia City.

I quickly paid the driver and hopped off the bus when it reached my desired stop. Walking into the receptionist office, I bustled up to the receptionist at the desk, catching her attention.

"Hi, I'm Goda, I have a meeting with RKS Laboratories." The receptionist nodded, typing into her computer. Any other day, I probably would have made some inane and slightly awkward small talk, but I was in a hurry.

"Alright sir, I've just informed them that you're here. Your meeting is on the 33rd floor, please enjoy your stay!" Quickly muttering my thanks to her, I rushed to the elevator and pressed the necessary button combination.

After a painful couple minutes of the elevator stopping to let others inside and out, as well as me anxiously checking my Xtransceiver, I finally reached the 33rd floor.

I was spotted by two RKS Lab. employees as soon as I stepped into the office space, stopping their current conversation and standing up to greet me.

"Mr. Roe, cutting it awfully close today, aren't we? We were starting to think you didn't want to see us!" A green-haired portly man in a striped business suit chortled to himself as he shook my hand.

I gave a small chuckle in return, "Just graduated Dorven, you know how it is. And Travis, how's it going man?" I asked the lankier redhead in a lab coat.

"Good, good. Please Goda, take a seat. I see you've brought your Patrat along? Such a rare specimen, you don't get to see leucistic Pokemon everyday," Travis commented as he eyed Furn with a hint of fascination, just as I had planned, "but anywho, why don't we get to the real matter of why you chose to meet with us today?"

I grimly nodded, "Yes, of course." Clasping my hands together, I chose my words carefully, "While I do very much appreciate your company's willingness to finance my initial foray as a research scientist…I don't believe the grant amount you've suggested is nearly enough to cover the costs of the operation."

Dorven raised an eyebrow, "Oh? P25,000 should be enough to cover your little trip to the Orange Islands, no? You seemed very eager to study the local legend of this supposed Crystal Onix. "

I internally sighed; assuming that staying in an affordable hotel room over in the islands still costs around P11,000 per night, I would only be able to stay for a whopping two nights. If I decided to rough it out and camp outside in the wilderness (which I was extremely hesitant to do, due to my past experiences in Lostlorn Forest), I could plausibly extend that to around four or five days. But it still may not be enough time to properly meet the damn Pokemon.

Because even though I knew the general location of where the Crystal Onix lives, there's no guarantee that it'll be there when I specifically arrive. We're talking about a completely unique Onix variant with presumably different typing altogether, after all. For all I know, it could have insanely intricate migration patterns that would cause it to be temporarily absent from the island for quite a bit of time.

That's why I had to awkwardly time my trip to the Orange Islands right after my graduation. By combing through the dates of Ash's recorded fights in the Indigo, Orange, and Johto Leagues, as well as what little he's revealed about his journey in that timeframe from, I could roughly map out a general timeline of when Ash and his buddies must have met that Crystal Onix. By going to the same area at roughly the same time, I've drastically decreased my chances of missing it due to possible migration patterns it may have.

Of course, it's entirely possible that there's some other factor that I'm not considering. But I truly believe that this is the best strategy I can come up with, with the info I have on hand.

The issue here is that RKS Labs. isn't actually expecting me to accomplish anything of note on my first "outing" as a research scientist. Maybe a decent paper about theoretical environmental adaptation of Pokemon, but not actually discovering entire new variants. Ironically enough, they were likely only eager to fund me specifically because I was a newbie; that was how this company operated, build a lot of trust early on in a person's career and they'd be willing to tank a bullet for you. I'd bet my entire life savings that was how they got Travis to work for them.

Shaking my head, I decided to present my on-the-spot reasoning, "Island hopping in the Orange Islands is an expensive effort in of itself. Transportation alone would eat into anyone's funds pretty quickly."

As Dorven was about to respond, Travis beat him to the punch, tilting his head in confusion, "Goda, I know that this is a small grant program, but you still have two years to complete your project. You'll get more funding throughout that timeframe, what's the rush?"

Dorven merely sighed in mild exasperation at my stubbornness, "I suppose we could extend our initial amount to P35,000 if you really want to get a nice head start on your research. Would that be acceptable?"

Biting my lip, I contemplated his offer. While I would have preferred my proposed amount of P50,000…P35,000 would likely be enough to stay for an extra day, at the very least.

"Alright, P35,000 it is," I nodded in agreement to Dorven, to which both employees smiled in return. When they stood up to finalize the agreed upon amount to be sent to my account, I followed suit, shaking their hands.

"It's been a pleasure working with you Goda!" Travis said as he leaned in a bit, "And hey, don't get discouraged if this project doesn't work out like you intended; there's always next time."

I pursed my lips, "Duly noted." Dorven merely laughed good-naturedly as he clapped my back.

"Ha! Well Goda, I suppose it's better to be too hardworking, rather than not hardworking enough!"

"Great minds think alike Dorven," I said as I casually waved back, making my way towards the elevator.

Thank god this painful meeting was finally over with: I wanted to finish off this semester on a high note.

-0-​

I saw a girl casually sprawled on her bed when I got back to my dorm room, watching something on her laptop. While I was by no means a clean freak, my bed having a few trinkets strewn around it, her side of the room was damn near spotless. Hell, the books she owned were even sorted in alphabetical order on top of her desk.

Hearing the door close, she cocked her head to the side and saw me in my sharp lab coat as I exhaustingly flopped onto my bed, "Well, don't you look professional, Prof. Goda," making me smile and roll my eyes good-naturedly.

"Fuck off Nana."

The woman in front of me currently giving me sass was Nana Calagera, a Kalosian native whose family moved to Unova years back. Her long, sky blue hair combined with her bright green eyes often made people think of the planet when they saw her. The first time I met her was in middle school, back when I was still in that awkward stage of transitioning to daily life in the Pokemon world. While most of the kids ignored me for being "related" to terrorists (something that didn't bother me too much, since I was mentally an adult and didn't give a rat's ass about what dumb brats thought of me), Nana more or less instantly tried to befriend me when she transferred to our school. At first I thought she was annoying and brushed her off, but she eventually grew on me. Like a fungus.

And as the years passed by, she slowly but surely became one of my closest confidants. Our relationship was at the point where I could honestly say she was one of the few that I trusted on the same level as my friends from my old world.

Really, our friendship was probably the only reason why I wasn't the least bit jealous of the fact that she ranks first out of our university's General Pokemon Research program, one of the most competitive programs out there. I, meanwhile, was 'only' ranked third. But considering that we were competing against literally tens of thousands of students, as well as having an advantage thanks to knowledge from my old world, I didn't think I had much room to complain.

What can I say; she inspires me. And in turn, I inspired her, to the point where her main ambition in her research work currently is to rediscover ancient Kalosian variants of certain Pokemon. Something that I was originally gobsmacked by even existing, although in reality I probably shouldn't have been.

Smirking at my vulgar response, Nana sat up and laughed as Furn jumped off of me to hug her, patting him on the head. "You going to the party tonight? I know you have a flight tomorrow morning, but you might as well have a bit of fun before you start your work."

Ugh, please don't remind me how early I have to wake up tomorrow. "I'll…consider it. If only because it's funny to watch people awkwardly hit on you," to which Nana giggled. Her beauty, combined with her intellect and outgoing personality, made her extremely popular amongst men, as well as the women who swung that way.

"You're evil," Nana shook her head while smiling, "but think about it, alright?" Before I could respond, she went to the bathroom to freshen up for the upcoming grad party, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

After a couple quiet moments lost in thought, I decided to check my Xtransceiver. Seeing that Francis and Kiera had congratulated me on my successful graduation made me smile. We may have gone our separate ways after growing out of the group home, but we still kept in touch every now and then.

They were infinitely more preferable to my original family, that's for sure.

But while I didn't much miss the absolute cunts that made up my birth family, I still very much missed my friends from my old world. Friends who were probably worried sick about me. I couldn't help it, the mere mental reminder of my previous life flooded my mind. Ever since being reincarnated into this world, I hadn't really tried to find a way back to my old world in any meaningful way.

Nor did I feel like doing so, as I noted guiltily.

The allure of living out my childhood fantasy was far too strong to pass up. Does that make me a bad friend? Selfishly pursuing my own desires while disregarding how my absence made my friends feel? How it's likely making them feel right now?

"Pat?"

Snapping out of my trance, I looked down to see Furn grabbing my hand, looking slightly concerned.

Feeling guilty for making Furn worry, I squeezed his hand while forcing a smirk, "It's nothing Furn, I'm just tired. Finals were a fucking slog, ya know?" Furn didn't look entirely convinced, but thankfully seemed to drop the subject.

Sighing, I got up and went to my bed drawer, rummaging through various pieces of clothing. Hmm, now what exactly should I pick?

-0-​

Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten to grab my laundry from the dryers, what with all of the end of semester hecticness. In the end, I had to settle on wearing a simple black T-shirt with a NSFW anime girl and blue jeans. I made a mental note to myself to grab my clean clothes later tonight.

After around half an hour of walking from my campus, I finally managed to find the right house out of Castelia City's many neighborhoods. As evidenced by the many party goers in the front yard, both human and Pokemon.

Dryon, the owner of this fine establishment, sauntered up to me with a shit-eating grin on his face when he saw what I was wearing. "Yo, G-Money, you finally came! Heard you're a fancy-shmancy scientist now." He clapped me on the back. Dryon was, to put it bluntly, the perfect stereotype of a lazy trust fund kid with a silver spoon. He mostly spent his days dicking around with his equally lackadaisical friends and getting high on Amoongus shrooms.

I sighed, "Not to bring down the mood too much, but I can't be here too long; gotta catch a flight tomorrow, you know?" Dryon nodded in understanding.

"No worries man, I get it. Make sure to take it easy from time to time, yeah?" This made me snort in disbelief.

"I think there's a healthy balance between being a workaholic and being you." Dryon punched me in the arm good-naturedly at my retort. "But I'll take it into account."

The stoner nodded, "All that I needed to hear, G-Money." As he sauntered off to the back of his yard to do god knows what, I decided to blow off some steam to get rid of my nerves for tomorrow.

And what better way to do so than to battle?

From what I could see, several low-stakes battles had already started in the front yard. A few had even spilled out onto the streets. Peering around the area, I searched for possible opponents.

I eventually settled on a lone guy wearing a leather jacket leaning on a truck, eating red-striped Basculin *vatmeat chips out of a bag. "Yo man, you up for a battle?" The guy's eyes widened a fraction, before wiping his fingers on his shirt.

"Sure, I've been dying of boredom over here," he said as he fished out a Poke Ball from his pocket, "wanna settle for a short 1v1?"

I nodded, slowly feeling excited as I peered into the tops of my Poke Balls to choose from, "How 'bout we make things interesting? Winner gets to have the rest of your chips."

"Shit, I'm game. Come on out Lulu!"

"You too, Kacchan!"

As we both threw our Poke Balls, two Pokemon appeared before our eyes. On the dude's side was a Simisear, its red fur and long ears twitching in preparation for the upcoming fight.

And on my side was a Darmanitan, the ape-like creature with arms the size of tree trunks making for an intimidating sight.

'Looks like it's the battle of the fire monkeys tonight,' I mused to myself. "Alright Kacchan, let's start off strong with a Fire Punch!" The Darmanitan nodded before barrelling forward using its strong front arms, while also lighting up its right fist in a flaming aura. The street rumbled as he shot towards his target.

My opponent was quick to respond, "Lulu, intercept it with Iron Tail!" Lulu cried out "Siiim!" before engulfing her tail in a thick sheen of solid steel, leaping into the air to intercept Kacchan's Fire Punch.

The two attacks collided with each other in a brilliant display of sparks, with both Pokemon gritting their teeth as they both tried to overpower each other. Come on Kacchan, I know you can pull through…

Unfortunately for us, we would never get to see the true outcome of that clash. The second Kacchan looked as though he might overpower the Simisear, the guy ordered Lulu to swiftly escape backwards using Acrobatics, the action making the Pokemon move in blurs.

I swore. So close.

Once Lulu got herself a safe distance away, my opponent immediately gave her another order, "Now use Flame Burst!" Lulu took a deep breath, then fired a single orange ball from its mouth, rapidly shooting towards Kacchan.

Smirking to myself, I decided that this was a prime opportunity to show off a little. "Kacchan, swat it away."

Kacchan mimicked my smirk, and winded up its fist. As soon as the Flame Burst reached him, he punched the orb of fire into the air, forcing the attack to scatter into multiple pieces in the night sky.

It made for a brilliant sight, if nothing else.

As I predicted, the guy's eyes widened in disbelief. After a couple seconds, he recovered and shook his head. "Whatever, Lulu close in on him with Acrobatics!" Lulu started to move at unperceivable speeds again, this time towards Kacchan instead of away from him.

"Kacchan, prepare a Hammer Arm and wait!" As the Darmanitan dutifully prepared said attack, its left fist growing pure white, it stood still as the Simisear rapidly approached him.

Lulu ran around him several times, the movement reminding me of a snake coiling around its prey. Eventually, it moved in for the kill.

"Behind you!" My warning proved correct, as when Kacchan slammed its fist downwards, I heard a sharp cry of pain. When the dust settled, Lulu was laying on the street, utterly exhausted.

The guy sighed, "You did great Lulu, get some rest. I'll get you chocolate later." As Lulu was returned to her Poke Ball, her trainer walked up to me and gave me his bag of chips.

"A deal's a deal man, here you go. I have to say, your Darmanitan's insanely strong. Didn't expect it to just no-sell my Lulu's Flame Burst attack. You planning on doing the League challenge?"

I grinned, taking the bag and giving it to Kacchan, much to his glee. "Thanks, but no I'm not a registered trainer or anything. I just battle for fun."

The guy nodded in understanding, now eyeing Kacchan with mild disgust as the ape messily scarfed down the meat chips, "That's cool, the challenge definitely ain't for everyone, that's for damn sure," he then smirked as his gaze shifted to me, "nice shirt by the way."

I sighed in mild exasperation, "I didn't have anything else left to wear tonight, sue me." The guy merely laughed at my expense.

As the night went on and I let myself soak in the positive atmosphere of everyone around me, I couldn't help but feel content with how my life ended up.

Author's Note​

*Vatmeat is common slang for meat products grown in labs. I've based this on what context clues we are given about the general culture of the modern Pokemon world, both in and out of universe. So yes, most humans here would either be eating lab-grown meat or meat from Pokemon that can regrow certain body parts ala Slowpoke tails.

That being said however, this HC only applies to humans and Pokemon who live with humans. Pokemon who live in the wild will likely not have this same luxury.

So yes, this story will have mentions of Pokemon eating other Pokemon in the wild. Especially since my SI is a Pokemon researcher, and as such will be exploring the diet of various different Pokemon. If that is something that you think will make you uncomfortable, I'm letting you know ahead of time.