My name is Himura, I am 10 years old and today I will finally be a pokemon trainer. At least I hope so. Life has not been easy the last few years.

A lot of people would be happy in my situation, I was, but life has a way of fucking with you that you just can’t do anything about it.

About 8 years ago I reincarnated into this body. I think I was from a world where pokemon was just another piece of media. I don’t remember how I died or much of my life for the matter, at least in the way of details. Almost everything not related to pokemon is really foggy to me. Like, I can remember that there was a show about people in colored costumes, giant robots and monsters, what happened and when but I can’t really remember all the details, much less record it somewhere. Doing so makes it even harder to remember details.

I am pretty sure I was single and didn’t have kids but I don’t remember my actual age before dying. I was a kid or a teenager but I don’t think I was older than 30. I remember I had a very good friend and out of everything, even if I don’t really remember how he looked or what we actually did together, I really miss him, especially for the last 2 years.

As for what I actually remember, anything related to pokemon, like names, moves, abilities, where I could find them. I don’t know everything, I am pretty sure I wasn’t what someone would call a hardcore fan, just someone that liked it more than others. I also remembered somewhat about all the stories related to it. Things from manga, comics, anime and the games itself. It is kind of funny that I remember everything about these things but I can’t 100% confirm that pokemon was just a piece of media in my old world when I think about it in my mind.

When I found myself in this new body I learned two shocking things. First, pokemon are not as strange as you would imagine them would be in real life, or creepy for that matter, and that pokemon were way more dangerous than most people would like to admit.

I don’t exactly know how, I just suddenly knew it when I got conscious of myself, but a ghost pokemon accidentally got into the house, got spooked by the kid I was now and kind of killed it with a move before running away. Someone, probably Arceus, it had to be him, put my soul or the equivalent in his place and that is how my life here started. I wanted to say to the kid’s parents what happened but I can’t say anything about it to anyone, even now. I just become unable to talk, write or even think about it if someone is reading my mind so I just went with the flow.

It didn’t take much time for me to know exactly where I was. Rustboro or Kanazumi City depending on where you were from in my old world. I remember that some things changed based on language when it came to pokemon media and for some strange reason I can remember stuff in both languages. None of those two languages is the actual language of this world, I don’t even remember what those languages were but everytime someone is talking to me I can select with one I will be hearing. I tried to actually learn this world language, as it seems that everyone, everywhere, speaks it but once again something just stops me from doing so. It is also somewhat strange that people's names change when I make the shift from one language to the other.

As for my new family? My father was some kind of teacher that worked for the Devon Corporation and my Mother was some sort of trainer/stylist/contest helper.

My father was a person that would fully teach about some of the things the corporation was doing or making that related to pokemon and humans working together along with nature to prosper. Things like using certain pokemon along with machines to reinforce ground in places where it rained too much or putting some life in places where food was scarce. He also worked as a normal teacher in various places around the city when he didn’t have to do his primary job. The corporation saw it as good PR so they even started to pay him to just go out there from time to time and teach kids.

My mother was the woman you would go to if you needed help in a pokemon contest or just wanted your pokemon to have a beauty treatment of some sort. She did contests in various regions in her youth but what she really liked was just to make pokemon pretty. Can’t say she was famous or anything. She was good, people paid good money for her help, but she didn’t have a saloon or anything, she kinda just did what she could where she was called. I saw a lot of pokemon because of her taking me everywhere.

As for pokemon themselves. My father had three pokemon and my mother two. First was my father’s partner, a Magnezone that liked to teach just as much as my father did. He loved being around young kids and pokemon. He wasn’t particularly powerful but he also wasn’t weak. All I know about him is that my father got him when he went to Mauville City when he was a kid and they kind of stuck together ever since. His second pokemon was a Torkoal. It was one of my grandpa’s and he received it when he died. The old turtle was not a battler but could maintain the house warm to perfection when it was cold. His last pokemon was an Armaldo. It was a company pokemon given to him for protection as he had to leave the city from time to time. Big guy was always serious and always alert, even if he was used about 3 times as far as I Know.

My mother had a Swellow and a Delcatty. She technically had other pokemons but they were all given to the region’s professor either for study or so they could find a new trainer. She didn’t abandon any of them mind you, this was a mutual thing. They wanted to fight and/or participate in contests and my mother wanted to settle down, having a kid and all.

Swellow was a mail bird, no other way to describe him. Mother loved to write and receive letters from old friends or people she worked with and Swellow loved to go around the world taking those letters. If he knew how to talk, I would have heard every word of his adventures. As for Delcatty, she was a lady, a noble lady at that. Yes, she was a pampered cat, but her attitude alone would make you respect her, add her manners and even pokemon way stronger than her showed some respect to her. I never saw a single rodent around my house.

Until I was around 5 years old my life consisted of staying in the house, going out of the house with my mother as she did what she had to do, be it work work or housework, or the occasional play session with other families and their pokemon.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I wasn’t some kind of genius or anything. Even learning how to talk at a young age, as well as reading and writing wasn’t really seen as much of an achievement so I didn’t make any waves in that aspect. But you can’t use the internet without being at least that young so it took a while for me to understand exactly how the world worked.

First thing I discovered was that I was in some kind of chimera timeline, at least as far as my knowledge about pokemon media in my old world was aware. It was like a fusion of the mangas with the games with parts of what would have been from the anime.

Ash or Satoshi didn’t exist in this world. Red was the Pallet/Masara Town super trainer. Strangely enough his name was listed as Satoshi Red when I looked for it but he wasn’t Ash.

Red’s journey, at least in this world, started 10 years after the last Kanto and Johto War and 15 years before I was born. This war was a big deal in this world as it was the war that pretty much made the entire world come to their senses and start to play nice. That also explained the reason why so many kids could just roam free around the world. War tended to take a lot more lives in this world than you would imagine.

Everything that happened in the games and the manga, happened in a spawn of ten years after Red started his adventure. The last thing in world history that was somewhat relevant was about Paldea, with Paradox pokemon suddenly popping there. These ten years of chaos around the world were seen almost as divine punishment for the war between Kanto and Johto by a good amount of people now that they could see it from far away. I looked at some things about it and pretty much every region had some stake in that war.

The 5 years before I was born were some of the most peaceful in recent history. Not a single evil team trying to use a legendary pokemon to conquer the world. Some legendaries even started to show up more because of it. Ho-oh could be seen annually all around Johto, Rayquaza showed itself around Hoenn a lot more. You get the point.

All that meant that I could go on a journey without having to double check for evil teams trying to destroy the world every five minutes. Not that it mattered much. The world was way more dangerous than I could imagine.

It came as a shock to me that most people didn’t really want to be professional pokemon trainers. It was common for kids to go alone around the region they are born into, maybe a city or two away, to challenge a gym or two, but that was about that. Battling for money was normal but to do that as your main job you had to be good or a little crazy. Normal people would maybe be able to earn 3 badges from any given region in their lives if they tried. Anyone who can complete the gym circuit was really respected for their power even if they didn’t win the conference, the tournament that crowds the year’s champion of the region and allows him to challenge the elite four of said region to an official match.

As for why I thought that it was a good idea for me to become a trainer when I could easily be a researcher or some other high paying job? It was because I had a special ability and I was really good at pokemon battles.

I could and still can tell how strong a pokemon is and not in only a single manner. I can tell how strong a pokemon is in any of its stats in relation to the pinnacle of power a pokemon can reach or how high his actual stats are at the moment. I can’t quantify their levels though.

Pokemon still have IVs even in real life. The difference is that a pokemon could train and increase them naturally. As for EVs, as far as I can tell, they don’t exist in the same way as in the games and that is related heavily with pokemon stats, natures and predispositions. Let’s take a common Zigzagoon for exemple. They are frail pokemon, a little fast with some defenses but pitiful attack and special attack. A Zigzagoon, at least in games, would never be stronger than a Linoone, but here, in what was now real life? If he trained enough, he could be as strong as a legendary pokemon. If I had to put numbers on it, every single pokemon could reach a maximum of 300 in any of its base stats. The EVs were for that. They increased your base stats and worked like some sort of experience. A pokemon would gain them from battle and training but not based on who he was fighting but what he was doing. They could also lose the power they gained if they didn’t try to at least maintain it with training. I saw plenty of pokemon that were actually weaker than a normal variant of it would be because they didn’t train.

Another thing I was very shocked about was the lifespan of living things. Stronger pokemon would live longer and trainers with lots of stronger pokemon would live just as long. I also found something strange. The war that created the mega stones in this world happened differently. AZ’s weapon was actually a super healing ray that made him immortal along with his revived partner and bathed the world in a strange energy that made mega stones pop all around the world. The war didn’t end because he fired on both sides but because he simply stopped them with his partner. He was a recluse until the crisis in Kalos happened but looks like plenty of people knew about him and just left him alone. AZ is actually the one that gave that knowledge to the world.

Continuing on why I wanted to be a trainer. When you reach the good age of five, the adults let you use pokemon a little and the little shits we all were, the first thing we usually did was try to battle. The problem was that I actually knew how to battle. It was completely different from the games, more like the earlier season of the anime. Pokemon weren’t constricted by only having 4 moves or a single ability for the matter. Some did but plenty of pokemon had two or more. Most kids just called moves but I could direct any pokemon given to me to use the terrain, their bodies or whatever I could see was useful. I also knew most of what any pokemon could do so I could easily counter them. It wasn't like I never lost, I didn’t have a choice in any of the pokemon the adults let me use. More than once a parent would give a super strong pokemon for their kid only for me to have to use my dad’s Torkoal.

Until I was around 8 I went to the pokemon school. The same one Roxanne went when she was younger. There I learned a lot about pokemon as well as survival. Pokemon, for the most part, would leave you alone if you left them alone, but plenty of pokemon could and would hurt anyone mortally. This was hammered into kids' heads more than anything. I made sure to engrave that warning in my heart.

Sadly, I didn’t manage to make many friends there. For some reason, me being good at battling scared the other kids, even the ones that wanted to be trainers like me.

Barely a week after I was 8 years old, my dad said we were moving to Pallet Town of all places. Oak had retired a few years back. The new professor, a guy I didn’t recognize from anywhere, wanted to open a school/university in the town. My dad was chosen as one of the people that would work there. It was mostly for PR, he wasn’t the best for the job academically, but he was the type of guy you couldn’t help but become friends with.

I was kind of sad that I had to leave my home behind. I wasn’t friends with anyone in the school but I had friends outside of it. Plenty of pokemon I made friends with too but that was life. We packed everything and sent it before us and went to take the boat. It was kind of like a vocation, but that was when everything went to shit.