Arun woke early, staring at an unfamiliar orange ceiling. For a second, he lay there confused, before the events of the past day came rushing back into him.
“Oh yea,” He thought, amused “Pokémon world.”
Having been used to waking up at the first rays of dawn, Arun began his daily routine. A quick shower instantly removed the weariness from his bones, though it was a bit difficult to call it quick, especially after the first 30 minutes of just letting the hot water run over him. He stared at himself in the mirror, he’d been too exhausted the other day to shave, and in the before there were a lot more pressing issues than facial hair, but he had the time now, may as well.
The razor glided across his face, swaths of unkempt hair drifted slowly downwards into the sink. He opened the tap once his razor had too much hair to do anymore cutting, letting the water run over the blades. Gently, he moved his own thumb down the blade, releasing the hairs that were too stubborn to fall, once cleared, he began again. He kept at it over the course of 15 minutes, shave, clean, shave, clean. When he was done he looked at himself, now free of facial hair. He looked haggard, still. There were bags under his eyes, and a sort of gauntness he couldn’t quite place, but it was still…better. He figured after a week he’d have a nice stubble, so his chronic case of baby-face wouldn’t last too long.
Changing into the spare clothes Joy had left out for them, he let out a content sigh, this was the cleanest he’d ever been in weeks, his brother really had the gist of it, civilization was beautiful. After admiring his cleanliness for another moment, he stepped back into his room, laying out a blanket on the floor, and began to pray.
Arun didn’t know anymore if his God was watching over him, or if there was a new force in charge of his life now, but whatever the case, he prayed. It helped him focus, having a singular task he knew how to do through memory, and it also helped him plan out his next move. While he spoke ancient surahs from ages past, his mind worked furiously on their next move. For the most part, they needed information on how the world actually worked, he also wanted to understand the rules of a Pokémon battle. For information, he figured he may as well ask Joy, but for the battles…he could watch videos of league tournaments, that could help. No, a live demonstration would be better, he could analyze people better that way…Scott! He was a new trainer, friendly, and would probably be open to demonstrating. If not, well, he could always stick Pranav to him, his brother had the strange ability of getting on people’s good side.
He finished his prayer, refolding the blanket he lay out onto his bed before leaving the room. He could see the lights of the Pokémon Center peaking glaring through the doorway, a Chansey helming the front desk. Being a medical facility, especially for trainers, it was open 24 hours, though the Nurse had a whole team of Pokémon certified to run the building so the Nurse could get some rest. The Chansey spotted Arun, beaming at him with a wave, he waved back, returning its smile with a grin of his own.
“Pokémon World.” He thought, shaking his head in amusement
He stepped into his brother’s room, surprised to find him already awake. Pranav stood in the bathroom, his gaze sharp despite the easily seen weariness that coated his features. He had shaved as well, and had combed his mullet back to make it appear less of a mess, now he stood, staring at the mirror.
“Yo.” He said “Your door’s unlocked.”
Pranav jumped, his head snapping towards Arun’s direction. After seeing his brother though, relaxed his gaze.
“Don’t sneak up on me man,” He grouched “Fuckin’ scared me.”
“Wasn’t sneaking,” Arun replied with a smile.
He went over to the bed, sitting down while Pranav went back to staring at himself. He did that a lot, in the Before. It was his way of silently talking to himself, to focus. While Arun used familiar activities to get his brain working, his brother normally just needed quiet, and time to sort out whatever was going on in his head.
“You’re up early.” Arun noted to his brother, as he finally turned away from the mirror.
“Had a nightmare.” Pranav replied, putting on the white tee the Nurse had left out for him.
“Yea?”
“It was nothing, don’t worry.”
Arun didn’t press the issue, ‘it was nothing’ was their code phrase, used whenever one of them didn’t want to talk about a subject yet. He knew that there were a lot of things his brother hadn’t told him, and it was the same for him, they needed time to sort out their thoughts, for the most part.
“So,” He said, changing the subject “There’s a few things we need to figure out if we’re going to live here.”
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“I’m listening.”
“We need to first figure out how the world works. Joy said something about a “league circuit”, still don’t know what that means.”
“Might be like FIFA, or the NBA, every four years.”
“Might be, but the NBA is every year.”
“Oh, shit really?”
“Not important but yea. Anyways, we also need to figure out how to get valid ID’s, if the league doesn’t approve of just sending us something. We’ll need that to work, put some money on the table so we can rent out a place of our own.”
“Our end goal is to be trainers though, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Ok good. If it turns out that I got isekai’d here just to work a 9-5, I’ll kill myself again and hope I get teleported to Bakugan World.”
Arun snorted, a grin stretching across his face, “If we’re talking choices, I pick Yu-gi-oh.”
“Really? With the Shadow games and everything? People die in that anime, you know.”
“And then I’ll be teleported right back here.” He said solemnly, “Truly, we are blessed.”
It was Pranav’s turn to smile “All right then, so what’s the plan?”
“I’ll probably talk to Joy first, get clarification on how the world works and all that. See if I can get some video recordings of battles as well, I’d like to know how they do those over here.”
“Probably just like the anime, yea?”
“Maybe, but then again, maybe different. You saw how this city is three times larger than the game makes it seem right?”
“Oh…huh I guess I did notice that.”
“So finding out what else is different would be useful.”
“So, what about me then?”
“See if you can find Scott, maybe have him show you how he battles, first hand viewing would also be good.”
Pranav nodded, adding “It’ll be a good chance for me to explore the city, maybe I can find us some odd jobs, something where we won’t need ID’s.”
“Might work too, but don’t let it slip that we don’t have ID to anybody else. I’ve read stories of illegal immigrants back home. Keeping workers hostage, threatening to turn them over to the government if they don’t work to expectations, underpaying, it’ll be tough.”
“They…will they do that?” His brother asked, his face paling
“Maybe, though probably not, it’s Pokémon world, it’s gotta be better.”
“Happy fuckin’ days, I guess.”
Arun stood, stretching as light began to creep into their room “Well, no time like the present.”
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Pranav wandered the street with a relaxed gait, as if everything was completely normal, though internally his heart hammered with excitement at the sights around him. It was so beautiful, so surreal to see a city built like this. He explored districts he saw earlier, the game corner was had its own sector in the city, filled to the brim with tourist shops, casinos, bars and other night-life establishments. He looked on in amusement as a few confused drunks still stumbled their way home after a late night out.
He visited them all, of course, calmly perusing through every shop, making sure to never stay too long to cause suspicion, but stay enough so that his face would be recognized. Every movement was precise, from his casual walk, his relaxed posture, and the lazy smile on his face, it was to project that he was comfortable in this place, and not just another tourist. He still got questions, of course, some friendly locals who wanted to know where he was from, what he was doing here, and he answered all the same.
“Unova!” Pranav said, with a smile and cheer that wasn’t too over the top.
“Well I’ll be! My sister moved out there a couple decades back.” An elderly man said “Married some bigwig who came through here for a vacation.”
Pranav had zero idea if that was a good or bad thing, so he shot the man a quizzical look, “Really?”
“Yep. Not that I’m complaining though, sent us so much money I retired at 45!”
Ok. Good thing. He let his face relax, grinning “You’re a lucky bastard then, eh?”
“Damn right! Life is good.” The man said merrily.
“You know I’ve been exploring a bit, and I know there’s a gym around here. But I haven’t exactly seen a lot of Pokémon battles going on around here.”
“Son, you want battles? Still a bit early for that, but later down in the afternoon I know my grandkids head down to the docks usually to battle.”
“The docks?” He said frowning, “Isn’t that usually private property?”
“Usually, yea. But Galactic research set up a little arena spot for the kids to have their fun.”
Pranav froze in shock, quickly schooling his features as his mind whirled. Galactic, Team Galactic, space terrorists that had the goofiest uniforms he’d ever seen. He mentally chided himself, how could he forget about the first videogame villain he’d ever gone up against?
“You know what,” He said after a few moments, his smile returning “ I think I’ll have a quick look myself, I appreciate it sir.”
“Anyday kid, nice to have a talk with some respectful folk, you know?”
“Always, take care eh?”
He turned, heading north towards where the Galactic building was supposed to be, humming to himself merrily. It was around this time when more of the city-folk were up and about, kids going to school, adults heading to work. What was strange was the lack of cars using the road, instead the lanes were mostly taken up by cyclists or those using Pokémon as mounts.
He watched in wonder as a trio of Onyx rumbled past him, their heads saddled to allow their riders (3 adults in fantastically tailored business suits) to sit comfortably, chatting amongst themselves and their Pokémon. He saw a young girl riding atop a Ponyta, its flames somehow leaving her unaffected. Another kid, a younger teen, was playing a sort of telepathic catch with his Abra, and appeared to be engaged in a silent discussion with his partner. All around him, people and Pokémon walked side by side as equals, in harmony, it was just so…perfect.
He withdrew his attention from the city around him, instead focusing up on the looming building ahead of him. Surrounded by four pillars, it was a massive dome structure that had the signature “G” fixated at the very top. Exactly how he remembered it looking in the game…just a lot bigger.
He stood and thought for a little while. They were broke, no money whatsoever. If they did get a job, they’d have to work enough to get a ball, which gave them a chance at catching a mon. They also needed money for clothes, food, possible rent, battles…they’d have to stock up a lot before even considering the costs of Pokeballs and the like.
Or, and this idea Pranav was really proud of, they could just simply steal from Galactic.