The void was not silent. It hummed with the mechanical, mocking tone of a celestial bookkeeper—a sound that had become the soundtrack to Leo's recurring nightmares.
[System: Ding! Alert! A true Hero must possess the iron-clad courage to stare into the abyss without blinking!]
Leo Ashford, formerly known in a life he could barely remember as a cynical office worker, groaned in the darkness of his subconscious. Here we go again, he thought. The morning briefing from hell.
[Catastrophe Level: Apocalyptic! Due to the hubris of mortal fools, the Legendary Birds—Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres—have been roused into a primordial rage! The sky bleeds fire, the seas freeze, and the air crackles with enough electricity to vaporize the continent! Host, please utilize your burning passion to quell their divine wrath!]
Leo felt a phantom tear prick his eye. Passion? My passion for what? Not dying? System, I'm ten years old. I'm pretty sure Moltres would mistake my 'passion' for a mildly spicy appetizer.
The System, indifferent to his mental breakdown, surged forward with another notification, the text glowing in a searing, neon gold.
[Catastrophe Level: World-Ending! The ancient titans Groudon and Kyogre have resumed their prehistoric feud! The Hoenn region is currently being torn asunder by tectonic shifts and tsunamis the size of mountains! Host, please utilize your robust physique to physically restrain the titans and prevent the world from becoming a watery grave or a scorched wasteland!]
Leo wanted to scream into the digital ether. Robust physique?! I have the muscle mass of a Magikarp and the height of a middle-schooler! I wouldn't be 'restraining' Groudon; I'd be a decorative smudge on its toenail!
[Final Warning: God-Tier Threat! Arceus, the Alpha Creator, has been led to believe that humanity is a plague of deception! It has begun the judgment of the world! Host, please utilize your pure, unadulterated soul to influence the Creator and stay its hand of destruction!]
Leo felt the last remnants of his will to live evaporate into the void. This wasn't a "Big Hero System." This was a "Creative Ways to Commit Suicide System." It was a fast track to a tombstone that read: "Here lies Leo Ashford. He tried to hug a god. It didn't go well."
"This isn't a hero's path," Leo broadcasted into the emptiness, his mental voice cracking. "It's a death sentence! Why would anyone want this?!"
[System: Does the Host not understand the ancient proverb? Heroes always live fast and die young. It is the pinnacle of the aesthetic.]
"That makes so much sense that I'm actually speechless," Leo muttered, his heart heavy with a bitterness no amount of sugar could mask. "I hate it here. I really, really hate it here."
The smell of sea salt and old parchment finally pulled Leo from the clutches of the System's terrifying "daily motivational" visions. He blinked, his eyelashes brushing against a soft, silk pillow. Sun-dappled light filtered through the heavy curtains of the bedroom, illuminating dust motes dancing in the cool air of Four Island.
He was home—or at least, the place he had called home for the last five years.
Leo Ashford wasn't a native of the Sevii Islands. Five years ago, he had woken up in the deepest, frost-slicked bowels of Icefall Cave, his mind adult and confused, but his body reverted to that of a shivering five-year-old. He had no memory of how he'd crossed the dimensional gap from Earth to the Pokémon World, but he remembered the cold. It was a cold that felt like it was trying to claim his soul.
Then, there was the light.
Lorelei, a rising star of the Elite Four at only fourteen years old, had found him while training her Lapras. She hadn't seen a monster or a burden; she'd seen a lost child with hair the color of midnight and eyes that looked far too tired for his age. She had taken him in, given him her family name—Ashford—and raised him as a younger brother in her family's villa on the outskirts of the port town.
To the rest of the world, she was the "Ice Queen" of the Kanto League, a formidable tactician with a heart as cold as her Pokémon. To Leo, she was the person who snored occasionally and insisted on eating breakfast at 6:00 AM sharp.
And then there was his "Golden Finger." The Big Hero System.
For five years, it had been a constant thorn in his side, masquerading as a grand destiny while mostly just forcing him into awkward social situations or impossible physical feats. He called it the "Prankster God System" in his head.
Case in point: the screen that currently hovered inches from his nose as he lay in bed.
[System: Ding! Today is another glorious dawn! As a devoted younger brother, it is your sacred duty to rouse your elder sister from her slumber! Choose your path, Young Hero!]
[A: Deliver two firm slaps to your sister's face to ensure she is fully alert!]
[B: Like a prince out of a fairy tale, wake the sleeping beauty with a gentle kiss on the lips!]
[C: Refuse the call of duty. Penalty: The Host shall be forced to wear a frilly, pink maid's dress and walk through the town square for twenty-four hours!]
Leo stared at the translucent blue screen, his jaw tightening. Option A was essentially a death warrant. Lorelei's reaction speed was legendary; he'd be frozen into an ice sculpture before his hand even connected with her cheek. Option C was a social death sentence. He had a reputation to maintain among the local trainers!
His eyes drifted to the woman sleeping beside him. Lorelei was curled under the heavy duvets, her signature crimson hair splayed across the pillow like a silk fan. Even in sleep, she looked elegant, though her glasses were perched precariously on the nightstand. The white silk of her nightgown shifted as she breathed, revealing the poised, powerful trainer beneath the soft exterior.
Leo, possessing the mind of a grown man trapped in a ten-year-old's skin, felt his face heat up.
"This is extortion," he whispered to the ceiling. "Pure, unadulterated extortion. I'm being forced to be a protagonist in a cheesy romance novel just to avoid wearing a tutu in public."
With a heavy sigh, Leo decided that his dignity was worth more than a momentary bout of extreme awkwardness. He leaned over, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped Wingull. He closed his eyes, leaned down, and pressed a light, fleeting kiss to Lorelei's lips.
It was soft, smelling faintly of mint and the cold mountain air.
He pulled back instantly, ready to bolt out of the room and pretend he was a sleepwalker. But, as luck—or the System's malice—would have it, Lorelei's eyes snapped open at that exact moment.
The silence that followed was deafening.
The "Ice Queen" blinked, her violet eyes clouded with sleep before they sharpened into lethal focus. She looked at Leo, then at the proximity of his face to hers, then back at his reddening cheeks.
For a long moment, the only sound was the distant crashing of waves against the cliffs of Floe Island.
Then, with the precision of a Primeape using Cross Chop, Lorelei's hand shot out.
WHACK!
"Ow! Mother of—!" Leo yelped, clutching his forehead as he tumbled backward off the bed and onto the hardwood floor with a dull thud.
"Leo!" Lorelei sat up, her face a mix of irritation and a suspicious flush that reached the tips of her ears. She grabbed her glasses and shoved them onto her face, glaring down at him. "What on earth has gotten into you? Playing pranks first thing in the morning? Honestly, I'm starting to think I've been too lenient with your training!"
Leo sat on the floor, rubbing the massive bump already forming on his head. He looked up at her, putting on his best 'innocent puppy' eyes—a survival tactic he had perfected over the half-decade. "I... I just thought you looked like you were having a nightmare! I was trying to wake you up gently!"
"By kissing me?" Lorelei crossed her arms, her white nightgown fluttering as she stood up. She looked like a goddess of winter, even with messy bed-head. "You've been watching too many of those soap operas from the mainland. If you have that much energy to waste on nonsense, you can spend it doing fifty laps around the villa before breakfast."
I hate my life, Leo screamed internally. It's the System! It's the stupid, glowing box in my peripheral vision! I'm a victim here!
But he knew better than to argue. To Lorelei, he was just a precocious, slightly strange boy who occasionally did inexplicable things. He couldn't tell her about the transmigrations, the past life, or the digital voice that threatened him with dresses.
[System: Ding! Mission Accomplished! The Hero has displayed gallantry and survived the 'wrath of the maiden.' Reward: 200 Hero Points and one portion of High-Grade 'Apex' Pokémon Nutrient Paste.]
Leo groaned, pulling himself to his feet. At least the rewards were tangible. 200 points was a decent haul, and the nutrient paste would be invaluable once he finally got his first partner. In this world, Pokémon weren't just pets; they were living weapons and companions. If he was going to survive the "suicide missions" the System kept teasing, he needed his team to be monsters among monsters.
"Well?" Lorelei prodded, tapping her foot. "Are you going to stand there and pout, or are you going to start those laps? Or perhaps you'd prefer I let my Cloyster help 'cool' you down?"
At the mention of her Cloyster—a Pokémon known for its literal shell-smashing power—Leo's survival instincts kicked into overdrive.
"Laps! Fifty laps! Starting right now!" he shouted, spinning on his heel and sprinting toward the door.
As he burst out of the room and into the hallway, leaving a huffing Lorelei behind, Leo glanced at the System screen one last time.
"One day," he vowed, dodging a vase in the hall, "I'm going to find the settings menu for this thing and delete the 'Hero' part. I just want to be a normal trainer who doesn't get hit in the head by Elite Four members before 7:00 AM."
But deep down, as he felt the crisp morning air of the Pokémon world fill his lungs, a small, adventurous part of him—the part that had grown up playing the games and dreaming of the League—couldn't help but feel a spark of excitement.
The journey was just beginning, and if he had to kiss a few Ice Queens and dodge a few gods to reach the top, so be it.