"Not bad," I murmur, walking through the busy streets of the city. Taking one long glance at my cafe, which was doing better for itself since I first inherited it, a smile crept up on my face.
It was my late mother who ran it, with its location being near a university and in the city. This place was already a prime spot on top of him, making some small changes using my experience as a marketing major.
The noise of distant voices, busy streets, and a slight smell of roasted beans made my mood more damp. It's been three years since the death of my parents, but as life has shown. It always moves whether you like it or not.
Somewhere along the line, the cafe didn't need me physically inside anymore.
I should've felt proud. Instead, it left me weirdly somber.
I felt like I was in a trance. Taking my sweet time to casually walk to the train. Looking up, there were two minutes till it left. A multitude of teens ran past, which reminded me of myself back in my first few years commuting to the city.
'It doesn't matter which train I take…' I off-handedly thought. Either way, I'm going home; any delay was just more time spent scrolling reels.
I felt weirdly empty.
Despite starting to make friends and be more out going in university, compared to high school me. Every time I think of the cafe, the image of my mother working there hurts.
Still ignoring these few instances of sadness, I've been recovering pretty well. I started to develop deeper friendships through sports despite my initial avoidance of any physical related activities, and started to converse with that one special girl. Everything seemed to be falling into place.
Forty minutes passed as the train arrived at my stop, and I took a ten-minute walk home.
Hearing my PC hummed awake. I immediately open discord, and the group server lit up. There were eight people in voice chat already. I stared at the channel list, cursor hovering over, as if contemplating.
'I can't be bothered joining such a big call… Maybe I'll just play by myself for a bit. I just don't feel like talking today.'
The thought of any attempt to talk, either interrupting or being interrupted, didn't sound too nice.
Nope.
The limit was 1-3.
I immediately backed out of the voice chat and booted up Pokémon Shield instead on my old Nintendo Switch
It could be said I was a BIG Pokémon fan. While not as adept in one specific area, I've dabbled in every section of the games. Competitive, lore, shiny hunting, and boss raids. With my first ever video game being Pokémon Heart Gold, having played every main line Pokémon game at one point.
'Oh yeah, I needed a Urshifu anyway.'
Opening up the save file I made a few weeks ago, its purpose was just to get another Urshifu for my Violet save file. With Urshifu's broken ability of ignoring the move [Protect], called [Unseen Fist]. It was a nice pick in any team that is able to have it. I originally picked Grookey as a starter, already planning to put it away for breeding later in Pokémon Home.
This experience was familiar, low-energy comfort, something the brain could float through.
I felt a sense of peace playing Pokemon, not because of the game itself, but the lack of pressure. As time went on, the competitive nature of only playing games with a rank system, against other players, faded.
Although I lost the will to get mad at video games after queuing one-on-ones in rocket league until the highest rank.
Because of these accumulated experiences, the single player experiences and enjoying stories became more enticing.
'Generation five and eight really fleshed out their gym leaders… It's so cool that there is a major and minor division in the Galar region. Plus, each leader having some sort of past job, or occupation other than standing in a gym doing nothing. The Galar league was sort of like a football league, but instead of teams, it's separate trainers with Pokémon.'
On my screen was a reddit thread explaining how the canon explanation to Bea/Allister swapping in different versions is like different timelines.
In the Shield timeline, Allister beat out Bea in the minor division to get the major division spot. Which, in all things considered, is impressive, knowing Allister's age.
A few Dynamix battles, a few routes wandered through, and a few hours later, the time of night made my eyelids grow heavy. I let my tired eyes drift a little. The cycle of how hand-holdy the games were didn't annoy as much as the shit story that was unfolding.
Summoning a fucking world-ending dragon to fix a problem that's 1000 years in the future?
Alright man…
'At least add some spice like saying that Dynamax is the only thing keeping Galar relevant, and the energy is running out in the next decade. Even then, Leon is canonically the strongest Pokémon trainer.'
'I can't help but think of Chairman Rose and Leon as some sort of metaphor. Rose/Nintendo is forcing Leon/Game Freak to rush in some sort of way for a stupid deadline that they made themselves for no reason at all.
The only explanation would be trying to release the games, anime, and merch at the same time. But that still wouldn't be a good enough reason to just rush a whole game that will sell millions of copies.
Does it really kill them to extend the development time? Maybe the player is meant to signify the public, that they should do something about it.'
With these thoughts in my head, I went to sleep. Ready for another normal day…
…
"I can't believe this boy. I told him to clean his room before going to sleep… Oh well, my baby seemed tired today." Like a distant noise trying to reach me from the top of the pool. A voice slowly made me groggily wake up in confusion.
I slightly cracked open my eyes.
In the corner of my shaky vision, a person was in the room, rummaging through some clothes. Every alarm bell was blaring at once in complete and utter confusion about what to do in that exact moment.
I was frozen in shock.
Taking a better look at the woman, the lights were open, and the surroundings were blurry at best. Completely zoned in trying to identify who was breaking into the house.
After a few seconds and some movement, a slight peek of the face could be seen, making my heart beat drop. Her green eyes and blonde hair, with a face similar to someone very familiar.
'This shouldn't be possible. Mum? Am I in heaven or something?!'
For a moment, I couldn't speak, stuck between sleep and a panic I couldn't name. After a few minutes, the lady left with the door being softly shut.
I sat upright slowly, staring around "My" room.
'Wait, this isn't even my house.' The thought struck me like a ball to the face. Instead of the normal sage green walls, I painted them with some mates, and it was blue.
The little mini hoop, computer, consoles, figures, and basketball shoes were all gone.
Replaced with a laptop, a small electric piano, and posters of some weirdo doing a pose. This didn't take up most of my thoughts, though.
'Not the Kyrie's…' I thought in utter disbelief and a little devastation.
A few moments later, a rush of pain came over me all at once. A little more than a small migraine occurs as I groan out in pain, clutching my head. It took a bit before my situation started to sink in as reality set in.
'What the hell?' It wasn't like a whole heap of memory hit my head; it was like trying unravel memories myself. Every time I try to associate something like my parents, information of a different life would fill it in.My parents were alive…
Daichi Mitsusada and Elena Mitsusada.
That woman with blonde hair and green eyes was actually my mother.
I was in the Pokémon world. As Kenji Mitsusada. Me. It was definitely a weird outcome considering some of the fanfics I've read in my life, being that every transmigrator was either an orphan or was directly transferred to the Pokémon world in their own body.
This seems to have been some sort of parallel of myself. Does that mean some of my cousins and uncles exist to some extent?
'I can't seem to remember anything about relatives… Other than dad being from Hoenn, he later moved to Galar due to an opportunity. While mum was from Unova, but later moved to Galar for some reason. Guess this parallel me was definitely me, I barely asked about my parents' lives and who they were before you know… Becoming my parents. It's on brand.' My thoughts are making me a bit speechless.
I'm fourteen now, but I work as a barista at my mum's cafe. At least that didn't change much… Dad, instead of being an ex-Navy, is now an active forest ranger. The sheer thought of him having Pokémon made my scalp tingle.
This situation felt surreal, as if a dream come true.
But my mind was still in denial, not moving a single step from the bedroom. Not even trying to think about the new information I received, I just sat there in silence. How does one even try to talk to their parents after their "death"?
'Maybe I'm lucid dreaming? The pain was a little too real, though. Let's test it out then.' In an instant, my mind started to think of spawning in some goth girls, maybe a Latina… But alas, I ended up empty-handed with no goth girls in sight.
Maybe I really did transmigrate.
Hours passed as I just stared at a blue wall.
Eventually, all I could do was whisper to myself, trembling a little.
"…What am I supposed to do now?"
It seemed obvious, but my mind felt clouded due to the stress of meeting my parents again. All of a sudden, another pain hit my brain, as I'm forced to clutch my head for the second time.
'What the hell!'
The feeling of 1000 needles sinking into my head didn't help the situation at all. This went from small prickling all the way into the feeling of deep stabs, unable to take it anymore, I couldn't hold in the screams.
"ARGGHH!"
All sorts of items in the room started to tremble. I looked at the mirror right across from me.
In that moment, I felt fine. I felt… free. My head didn't feel shackled and hurt. It was almost like unlocking a sixth sense.
The reflection showed my eyes covered in a mix of silver and pink hues. Small items such as pencils, pens, books, and some Pokémon cards were floating in the air. Taking in my surroundings with my mind free, I realised all of this was my doing.
'Is this what being a psychic feels like?' I thought, staring at the mirror in awe of my glowing eyes. Soon after this, light, frantic steps were approaching my room. It didn't take too long before something entered.
*Creak*
…
[A/N: How would you power scale Pokémon characters? I'd say from my thoughts in order by the games. Gold, Red, Leon, Blue, Lance, Cynthia, Mustard, Steven Stone, Diantha, Wallace, Raihan, Peony, Nemona, Geeta.
Based on how the games go and said feats, obviously, it's my opinion, and I'm shafting some feats like Red not using Mewtwo or any legendary birds. Or Leon in-game having no feats against other champions. I'm not fully knowledge of everything. I want chaos in the comments.
Based on the anime: Ash, Leon, Cynthia, Steven Stone, Iris, Diantha, Lance, Alain, Raihan (Technically Kanto went into the coronation series without a champion. Lance went into the tournament as the Champion of Johto)]