For 3 days or so, I had the best days of my life. We were on a cruise ship, not a transport one. We had to go slower but there was a lot to do on the ship. Eating, playing and of course, battling. They had a rental system and arenas. I almost forgot to eat more than once trying to keep my winning streak. I don’t even remember the pokemon I used as I traded them very often to keep things fresh.

After those days, we were more or less at the midpoint of our journey to Kanto. Suddenly a really heavy storm appeared. It was normal, Rain Dance was a thing so maybe some pokemon the captain didn’t were fighting in the area. We were told to go inside the ship until it either passed or they resolved the situation but before anything could be done a very loud explosion happened in the middle of the ship. I have a really hazy memory about that but I would say it was like a missile being shot at the ship. Not that I know what happened to me at the time. The ship broke in two parts and began to sink very fast. Before anyone could do anything a giant whirlpool appeared and began to suck everyone in. Plenty of people tried to use pokemon to save themselves but they along with the pokemon were all killed by something. As I was being dragged into the water, trying to help or be helped by my family, I began to really panic, to feel a primordial fear of something and then all I remember is black.

Next time I woke up I was in a hospital in Viridian City surrounded by doctors. Somehow I was rescued and brought there but for a time I really wished I just died.

I was the only survivor and my body showed it. I had various marks of pokemon attacks on me and had to stay in bed for over a month before I could even think straight. Nobody knew what happened, me included.

The first thing the government had me do after I was good enough to leave the hospital was to identify the bodies I could. A lot of people weren’t recognizable and anything I said might help them be identified. One would think that we could have pokemon help with that, pokeballs tend to survive the stupidest things, but not even the pokemon survived.

When I identified the remains of my parents I really wanted to cry but I kept myself together. I knew this world was dangerous and that something like this could happen. I was alive, I could still live a fulfilling life that would at least make my parents proud.

Once I finished with that I was told that the people of Pallet Town would take care of me. I had no family that could take me in anywhere, either dead or not economically fit, so I would go live in the house my parents brought there.

People were nice enough to help me unpack, I was still a 8 year old kid and even if I was stronger than what I expected, I couldn’t do everything I had to.

It was around that time I noticed something strange. It has been more than a month since everything happened and I didn’t see a single pokemon near me. I saw at a distance but not once a pokemon got near me. The next morning I went out and tried to find what was going on. The city looked like what you would see in the anime, very rural, just with a few more houses now. I went to the lab since this might be a pokemon problem. I also wanted to see Professor Oak. I learned that it was him that asked that I be moved here so I wouldn’t be put in an orphanage.

The lab was open so I walked right in. There were various people going around, helping or doing something else with pokemon but the moment any of them saw me they just froze in fear. I tried to ask what was going on. Nobody knew. I accidentally touched a pokemon and he just fainted. After that pokemon just ran away from me, no matter what. Red’s pokemon that he battled legendary pokemon? They ran. Almost wild rattata kept there? They too fled. I don’t know exactly why, but knowing that I could get close to pokemon, the one saving grace from all the bad things that happened to me, broke me. I don’t even remember how I got back home. I just went into my room and began to cry and cry. I really wished that I just died so I at least could have been with my family. I never felt so alone.

It was already night when I heard someone busting my door. I didn’t really care at the time. Oak Himself along with someone I now know was Daisy, Green’s older sister(Blue if you read the adventures manga official localization. I am going to use the Jap names as it was the version I read) along with a farmer that lived near me.

They somewhat knew what happened, asked for my side of the story and Daisy almost started a storm when she heard nobody checked on me the entire day. Few people knew about me in the town but someone should have come to check on me. At least it was what she said.

She cooked me food and Oak guaranteed that if something was wrong, he would help me deal with it. He was one of the people that asked me to be allowed to live here in the first place. He didn’t like the idea of orphanages very much, even if they aren’t exactly bad.

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After I was given food I managed to actually sleep once I heard again that Oak himself would help me. I wasn’t afraid to admit that the science in the pokemon world eluded me. It might as well be magic. But if Oak, the professor pokemon himself, was going to help me, I could have some hope.

The next two months were frustrating and depressing. I couldn’t go out to play with other kids because everyone had a pokemon in some way or form. I couldn’t buy food because the places that sold food always used pokemon too. School was also out of the question. Being with pokemon at all times was part of the identity of the place so I couldn’t be there without disrupting classes. I had to study from home.

The worst part was Oak trying to figure out what was happening. After he explained to everyone what was happening, he tried everything to make a pokemon comfortable with me. So many things that I can’t even list them, but he tried everything that was possible and I know it. Near the end of those two months things took a turn for the worse. Any pokemon that was forced, even a little, to interact with me, began to attack their own trainer in frustration or fear, I still don’t know.

For a little while he managed to bring some more people to try to figure out what was happening but nobody in the two wanted to risk it, could risk it. Then the bullying started.

If anything wrong happened between a trainer and its pokemon, especially the kids, it was my fault and they began to ‘punish’ me. Kids threw stones at my house and some of the adults let it happen. Oak was old and Daisy had a life so they couldn’t take care of me every day, all day. The town as a whole was supposed to support me but I couldn’t do anything. Even the cops didn’t want anything with me because if their pokemon started to rage around there would be a lot more problems than letting things happen to me.

One day Oak was at my door with a trainer from out of town when I heard some of the people in two confront the two. They said that if he tried anything his pokemon would turn against him. They said a lot of bad things about me but I let it slide. The trainer got angry with Oak and left because he wasn’t told about any of it. The town’s people also became somewhat angry with Oak for nor telling what could happen. They simply said I should just be left to die, that I somehow deserved it. Oak became mute with shock. At that moment I hit the lowest point in my life.

Professor Oak was never someone I thought I would like but what he tried to do for me the last few months made me like and respect the man very much and he was throwing everything he earned in his life to help me. If I was just a kid I probably wouldn’t feel that way but I couldn’t allow someone like him to be dragged down by me.

I ran as fast as I could. I didn’t care where as long as there wasn't anybody nearby. I heard Oak calling me back but the only thing I could say was ‘sorry’ as I can out of the town.

I went into the forest, then climbed a cliff and continued up until I was high enough to see the town. I still remember what I shouted from up there.

“Pokemon and people of Pallet! All I wanted was to make friends with you! Professor Oak is a great man and he doesn’t deserve to be dragged down by a cursed kid like me! I’m sorry I exist, goodbye!”

I then jumped out of the cliff. Nothing worked so far I was pretty sure nothing would. Machines couldn’t detect anything wrong with me. People couldn’t identify anything wrong with me and pokemon, the only creatures that knew what was wrong with me, couldn’t do anything about it. I thought that I didn’t have anything to live for so I might as well just die. At least Oak wouldn’t have to deal with me.

Everyone in my old world used to say that just before you die while trying to commit suicide you regret what you are doing but I truly didn’t want to live. I was at peace. That is why when someone suddenly grabbed me and shielded me from the fall I was more than a little angry. I shouted how I didn’t deserve to live, how Oak’s reputation was going down to the dirt because he was trying to help me.

The man that saved me just punched me after I shouted all that. I was so angry that I began to fight him. He didn’t hold back, he overpowered me completely. When he pinned me to the ground I just began to cry because I couldn’t even die. I thought I was a failure. Then he said something to me that took me out of my own mind for a moment.

“If anyone does anything wrong to my gramps I will destroy them!”

This man was Green Oak. The Green Oak. The second strongest, sometimes strongest, trainer in the world. He was holding me on the ground with only one arm as the other one was clearly broken. I cried that I made someone so great get hurt because of me but I still could see the conviction of his words as well as all the fury that would be unleashed should he need to. After he saw that I calmed down a little he knocked me out.

I woke up on my bed, surrounded by a few people I knew. The Oak family and an officer Jenny. Contrary to what most people in my old world would like to think. Joys and Jennies weren’t clones. They were kind of a symbol. If you became one, they would paint your hair. They didn’t look equal if you saw two, one besides the other.

I was asked what happened and Green made sure that I would tell everything in my mind. Once the officer left I got scolded by Daisy, a lot. Oak apologized that he didn’t saw what I was going through but also scolded me for trying to kill myself. Once both of them left, Green talked to me.

He explained to me that what happened to me was being looked at and had an idea on what was happening but it was better I didn’t know what was happening. This wasn’t a case of an adult bullshiting a kid. This was something that even he didn’t want to know, I could tell.

He assured me that something to deal with the entire situation would be found. Once again I couldn’t deny the conviction of his words.