The book landed on the table with a heavy thump, and I rubbed my eyes.

“You know, I think every time I finish one book, somebody’s put two more into my “to-do” pile.” I told Venus, who was dozing on the chair next to me.

In response she yawned, revealing tiny, sharp teeth, and blinking up at me questioningly.

“I mean, who knew there were so many books written about Eevee?”

Venus whuffed happily from besides me, as if all of the books I had been reading in the past few days had been written about her specifically.

Basic Biology of Eevee and their Evolutions: Sixth Edition With Added Notes on Sylveon and the Reclassification of Fairy-Type Pokémon had been an incredibly dry read, if informative. It joined Dietary Needs of Small Mammalian Pokémon of the Field Group, Basic Battling Guide: Ninth Edition, A People’s History of Sinnoh, and Ancient Myths and Legends of the Hisui Region, along with a variety of more smaller books and pamphlets focused on how to raise and train Pokémon in general, and Eevee in particular.

Some of it had been fascinating, but most of it had been exhausting to try and get through. Two weeks had passed since I had gotten to Professor Rowan’s lab, and I’d spent most the time catching up on all of the information that people would normally know in this world. When I wasn’t reading or sleeping, I was normally watching the TV, trying to catch up on the more recent history.

As it turned out I entered into the Pokémon world on June 1st, having just missed the Sinnoh Grand Festival and Lily of the Valley Conference, and the Sinnoh Pokémon League was now in the off-season.

Apparently things ran a little differently than they did in the games or the anime, and the league season was technically nine months long. The last month was dedicated to the region’s Pokémon League Conference, so really it was more like eight months long except for those few who had been skilled or lucky enough to gather all the necessary badges to compete in the conference.

The other three or four months were used for rest, training, and catching more Pokémon to compete in the next year’s conference.

More importantly for me however, I found out that Ash Ketchum was a real person. Like, an actual figure, somebody who wasn’t just an anime icon. That had been a bit of a shock, and after a little bit I had finally managed to wrap my head around the fact that one of my childhood heroes was an actual person.

Also as it turns out, he was seventeen years old. Now that was a surprise, and challenged a lot of things I had thought I knew about Pokémon. After a flurry of research, it turned out that the starting age for Pokémon trainers was not ten years old like the anime said, instead it was fifteen, or fourteen with parental consent.

That made so much more sense. Pokémon was primarily a Japanese property after all, and students were allowed to quit school and join the work force at fifteen there. If they could join the work force in our boring world, they could become a Trainer here. Also, it removed a lot of my concerns about kids going out into the world at ten years old. Regardless of anime and young kids’ media, ten really was too young to risk life and limb. Even fifteen was pushing it, but it was more acceptable.

Another thing I learned was that most people didn’t really go on a Journey, or if they did, it was only to gather three or so badges. Going for the full eight badges and the Pokémon League Conference was something only serious trainers did, and they normally had sponsors or somebody to pay the training bills. Like I had seen myself, training a Pokémon was expensive, and if you weren’t working full time the costs would add up fast. Adding a full roster of six Pokémon, many of whom would have to be fully evolved in order to be competitive? It was a lot of money that most people didn’t have access to.

No, when most people turned fifteen they would spend a few months traveling the local area, maybe racking up a few gym badges, then went back to school. Their Pokémon would normally be a family pet, one of the region’s three starters if they had scored well enough on the qualifying exams, or if they were lucky a Pokémon they had caught themselves.

I was in a bit of a unique spot though. I had no school or life to keep me from going the distance, really it was the money that was holding me back. I was also significantly older than most people who went on Journeys, although there was a few who went on one as a mid-life crisis.

Regardless of whether or not I was going to try for the Championship, or just get a few badges then settle down, there was no way I was going to try and meet Ash. No way. Even if most of the things that surrounded him were exaggerated anime wackiness, there was simply way too many crazy events and coincidences to count, and I was going to stay away for my own health and safety.

Regardless, Ash and the rest of his merry band were nowhere to be seen in the Sinnoh conference season so far. After some subtle researching online, I found that he was currently in Hoenn, which to my embarrassment seemed obvious in hindsight. Jirachi, the Pokémon that had most likely brought me here, was native to that region after all, and from what I could remember of Pokémon: Jirachi, Wish Maker, that’s where Ash and the gang had saved it from being forced to create a Groudon knock-off.

Which was another thing I would have to deal with sooner rather than later. I was still trying to figure out how to broaching the fact that I had knowledge that nobody else had. So far it hadn’t come up yet, but it was starting to nag at me.

Of course I didn’t spend all of my time reading and watching TV, and Venus and I got out a lot more than I ever had back in my old world. We dedicated at least two hours each day to just walking around Sandgem Town, or exploring some of the local forest trails. We had been warned about wild Pokémon, but while I had seen plenty they didn’t want to seem to bother with us. Mostly because we left them alone instead of trying to attack them.

As well, we had figured out Venus’ move pool for when we would eventually begin battling. Much to my pleasant surprise, it turned out that only having four moves was something that was only in the video games. Of course there was a lot of debate in the battling community on whether it was better to have a lot of moves that weren’t perfect, or only a few moves that had been completely mastered by the Pokémon. I didn’t have an opinion since I had only been here for less than a month, but I was leaning towards the idea of fewer, but better moves.

So far Venus knew Covet, Tackle, Growl, Tail Whip, and Sand Attack. We hadn’t done much training yet, still listening to Professor Rowan’s and Nurse Joy’s orders, but I could tell that Eevee was starting to feel better as she ate more, and we had been going on longer and longer walks to try and burn off some of her playful energy.

“Professor!” A new voice called, and both Venus and I looked up from the stack of books towards the commotion. “Dad! Where are you guys?”

“Well, it’s more interesting than,” I peered at the next book on my list to read. “Comparative Evolutionary Strategies of Normal Type Pokémon with Special Emphasis on Evolutionary Stones.”

Venus nodded in agreement, and hopped off of her chair, and I eagerly followed her. Professor Rowan’s library in his lab didn’t have any actual librarians, so it was fine to just leave the books out for a little bit.

Making our way to the front of the lab, I was struck by yet another familiar sight. A young boy, perhaps fifteen years old, was standing next to younger girl. They were also both the player characters of the Diamond and Pearl games, Lucas and Dawn. There was an incredibly strange feeling of déjà vu as I stared at them, considering I had been both of them, or at least played them in their games. Sure I had known that they existed, George constantly talked up his son’s achievements, but seeing them was another thing.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Oh!” Lucas said as he noticed me. “Hello?”

“Er, hi.”

“Who are you? Are you one of the professor’s new assistants?”

“Not exactly. I’m just living with the professor until some bureaucratic things get taken care of. You’re Lucas, right? George’s son?”

The young man blushed, scratching the back of his head. “Ah ha yeah, that’s me. I hope he hasn’t been spreading too many stories about me. But that means you must be Alina!”

I blinked. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“This must be for you then!” Lucas pulled off his bag and rooted around in it for a second before pulling out a thick envelope, handing it to me. “On my way back through Jubilife I was picked up by the police! I thought I was in a lot of trouble, and that was before I was taken to see Commissioner Jenny! Luckily she just wanted to know if I was heading back home, and if I was she asked if I could deliver this to you.”

The boy shivered. “Boy, she can be scary!”

I took the envelope, turning it over in my hands. There was really only one thing it could be, my paperwork to help me actually exist in this world, but I wasn’t expecting it nearly so quickly. Judging by how long it took to get a replacement social security card, I had thought that I would be waiting for months, not weeks.

“Oh, and this is Dawn!” Lucas said, gesturing at the girl. ”We know each other, so she decided to tag along too since she was heading in the same direction.”

“Nice to meet you.” I said, inclining my head towards her.

“Nice to meet you too Ms. Alina.”

“Knighton is my last name, so please just call me Alina.”

“I gotta say, your Eevee is gorgeous!” Dawn said, looking at Venus, who preened under the compliment.

“Well thank you. Her name is Venus, she’s still pretty young.”

“So what’s in there?” Lucas cut in, pointing at the envelope.

“Lucas!” Dawn chided. “You can’t just go around asking people that kind of private information! We talked about this.”

“Well I didn’t open it! That should count for something shouldn’t it?”

“It’s fine.” I said, appeasing the young woman, I had to get used to my cover story anyways and Professor Rowan and I had worked on it over the past couple of weeks. “It’s just some paperwork. I’m originally from a small island off of Unova, but I got teleported here somehow.”

Two pairs of wide eyes stared up at me in amazement.

“That’s totally Alakazam!” Lucas said, and I blinked at him.

“I actually don’t think it was an Alakazam, but I don’t remember.”

“Don’t mind him.” Dawn sighed. “Alakazam is just slang for “really cool.” Personally, I think it’s terrifying to be teleported like that, I don’t know how Psychic type trainers do it.”

She shuddered, but I was suddenly feeling very old, and very out of place. I hadn’t been anywhere near caught up with the slang back home, and I realized that now I had absolutely no idea what any of the kids would be saying.

“So Alina, do you have any stories to tell? How many badges do you have? Is that Eevee your only Pokémon? And do you want to battle?”

The barrage of questions from Lucas took me by surprise, and I almost took a literal step back at how many there were.

“Uh, in reverse order, no thanks, yes she’s my only Pokémon, I don’t have any badges, and no stories really.”

Both Dawn and Lucas looked at me skeptically.

“But you’re old.” Lucas said, stabbing me in the heart with his words.

“Lucas!” George called, and the boy visibly recoiled as his father and Professor Rowan came striding into view. “What did I tell you about bothering innocent people? Keep this up and I’m going to think you’re one of those Team Rocket grunts from Kanto!”

“Dad!”

Lucas broke out into a massive smile and threw himself at his father, who caught him easily and lifted him up into the air, laughing the entire time. Dawn for her part smiled up at Professor Rowan, and he extended his hand for her to shake.

“Dawn, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Professor.”

“How’s your father?”

“Good, thank you for asking.”

I blinked, surprised at the mention of Dawn’s father. He had never been mentioned in the games or anime as far as I could recall. At my confused expression, Professor Rowan coughed while Dawn looked down, face red with clear embarrassment.

“My mom lives here.” She explained quietly. “But my dad helps tell the weather for Jubilife TV.”

“Oh.” I said, a bit embarrassed now myself, but I recovered quickly enough. “I get it. My own parents were… separated too.”

“Really?” She perked up a little bit, and I remembered that the more traditional elements of Japan tended to frown on divorce.

I guess a lot of things transferred over to this world.

“Yeah, it was hard, but if you want I can tell you about it some more later.”

A shy smile worked its way onto her face. “I would like that, thank you.”

“And you Lucas!” Professor Rowan called as the boy was put back on the ground. “Did you do any of what I told you, or did you laze about the entire time?”

“What, me? Never!”

Lucas dug into his bag and pulled out a very worn looking notebook, as well as a PokéDex. “Here are all of the notes I’ve taken over the past nine months! There’s a bunch of good stuff in there, especially regarding Eevee!"

“Oh?” The professor looked amused while he was took the offerings. “And what did you find?”

“I went around collecting the stories and legends like you told me to! I did a lot of interviews, but it seems like Eevee tend to evolve into Leafeon in the Eterna Forest, while Glaceon are most commonly found just south of Snowpoint City!”

“And did you find out what caused them to evolve so?”

“In Eterna Forest there was this very interesting rock that seemed to exude the same kind of Type Radiation found in Leaf Stones. I think that before Leaf Stones became more available, this rock was used as a pilgrimage of sorts for people who wanted Leafeon.”

“And the Glaceon?”

Lucas coughed, seeming embarrassed. “Well, uh, I thought I saw a similar rock but it was in somebody’s yard and they wouldn’t let me take a closer look.”

“You can get the same effect with an Ice Stone.” I said without thinking, remembering the Sun and Moon games. “They normally use them in Alola for Sandshrew, or more rarely for Vulpix.”

That drew considerable attention from the researchers.

“You know about that?” Lucas asked, stunned. “I mean, I had heard stories from an Alolan who moved here so I wrote them down, but I couldn’t be sure.”

“I thought you said you were Unovan?” Dawn asked curiously. “Not Alolan?”

I froze, trying to think of an answer that wouldn’t immediately contradict anything I had said before. That was made considerably harder because I didn’t remember what I had said earlier in the conversation.

“Alina here, despite what she may say, has traveled quite a bit.” Professor Rowan said, riding to my rescue. “As such she has a… varied array of knowledge. It is true though, Ice Stones can be used to evolve an Eevee into a Glaceon. People just don't know about it as much since Ice Stones are one of the more expensive evolutionary stones, and harder to find in the wild."

Lucas seemed to take that at face value, although Dawn gave me a speculative look that made shivers run down my back. Who could have thought that eleven year-old’s could be so scary?

“Dawn, are you going to stay for lunch?” Professor Rowan asked, and the girl hesitated, obviously torn.

“No.” She shook her head. “I should probably get going. I told my mom I was going to be home as soon as possible, and I’ve already delayed enough.”

She glared at Lucas, who shrugged.

“Hey, you didn’t have to look for that shiny Bidoof with me if you didn’t want to.”

“It wasn’t even shiny!” She said, stamping one foot on the ground. “It had just gotten into a Combee nest and was covered with honey! We nearly got stung to death because you insisted on checking to be sure!”

“But we didn’t.” Lucas said with the sing-song tone of a teenage boy who didn’t really understand his own mortality.

“Why you- Argh!” Dawn took a deep breath, then turned back to Professor Rowan who was clearly struggling to withhold a grin. “Thank you professor, but I’m going to have to refuse for now.”

“Alright Dawn, I hope you have a safe journey back. Be so kind as to let me know when you do get to your mother’s?”

“I can do that professor!” She gave a polite bow, then turned to me and smiled. “It was nice to meet you Alina! Can we exchange Pokétch numbers?”

She held up her arm, with a fancy pink watch on it. I coughed and showed my own wrist, completely bare.

“Sorry, I don’t have one. But maybe you can come and visit again soon so we can talk.”

“Of course! I’d like that a lot! Well, see you later then!”

“Professor?” George asked, looking at Rowan.

“Go on,” the older man said. “Coming home is just as important as leaving for a young Trainer like Lucas here, he deserves to be with his family.”

“C’mon kid.” George said, ruffling his son’s hair. “Let’s go home, your mom is eager to see you!”

“Okay! It was nice meeting you Alina!”

The two of them departed just as quickly as Dawn had, leaving me and Professor Rowan standing outside the lab and watching the forms disappear into the distance.

“They’re so young.” I said quietly, staring after them.

“And you’re not?”

“I’m twenty-three! I’m at least eight years older than they are.”

“And I’m nearly forty years older than you are. To me, you’re all children. Are things that different where you come from?”

I was silent for a long moment, thinking about home. “Yeah. Most kids don’t leave the house until they’re eighteen. Some of us leave a little bit sooner than that, but the Journey’s like you have here? It’s very rare to see a kid go out on their own so young.”

“I’m not sure whether that’s better or not. There’s a certain… independent spirit that’s fostered at that age. As well, it’s a good time in a person’s life to explore the world, to figure out who they are, and who they want to be. Being with Pokémon tends to help them in that regard. At the same time however, I do sometimes wonder if it’s too young. It can be a dangerous world out there, as you yourself know.”

We stood there in silence, until he gestured at the door back inside. “Come on, let’s get some food, and go over that paperwork.”