“Come on, don’t you die on me, don’t you dare die on me!” Arun begged, his hands repeatedly pumping Pranav’s chest. He had been performing CPR for the last 20 minutes, not knowing what else to do, decided his best option was to simply keep his brother’s heart pumping.

It didn’t seem to work, the only result being whatever blood was in his lungs being forced out through his mouth. Pranav still stared dead ahead, lifeless and unmoving, though oddly at peace. It was as if a great burden had finally been taken off his shoulders, and that had made him worried.

“Please,” he cried, his hands finally slowing down “Don’t…don’t leave me alone. I’m….I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when it mattered, but please, please, don’t leave me alone. There’s nobody else.”

He raised his head, staring into the dead eyes of his brother “There’s nobody else.” He sat back, reality washing over him like a cold wave. He was alone, his Father and Mother, dead. His sisters, who had taken a boat to ferry them south to South America, had drowned after their ship was destroyed by the coast guard stopping the mass immigration. He only had Pranav, he only had his brother.

"It’s my fault." He thought, feeling numb to his core. "I should’ve been better. I should have searched more hospitals, read more books." Absent-mindedly, he noticed there was a knife in his left hand, his knuckles gripped tightly around the handle. "Wonder how that got there."

He turned it, back and forth, examining the blade, examining the choice. They…no, he only had enemies left. He could make a case, explain himself, be a part of a group again. He doubted he could ever get himself to forgive them. Hell, he doubted they would ever forgive him. What was the point? Even if he continued to survive, what was the point of living day by day, with nothing on his mind except the question of whether or not he’d live the next day?

The blade faced his chest.

He made his choice.

It was a strange out of body experience, he had command over his body, but it didn’t actually feel like he was doing anything. It was sort of like giving orders to a robot, you gave the command, and it did what was asked, except he was both commander and robot. He barely felt the knife slip between his ribs, and slide into his heart. The blood that flowed and filled his lungs seemed nonexistent, all he really felt was lightheaded, and maybe a little tired.

He collapsed next to Pranav, leaning into his side. "I wonder if you hate me." He thought as the blood pooled around him. "I wonder if you can forgive me." In the back of his mind, he wondered if he’d meet Pranav in the afterlife. He wondered if they were going to the same place, suicide was, after all, supposedly a one way ticket to hell. But he was just so tired, he didn’t want to play the game of life anymore. He hoped whoever judged him would understand, he really did. Arun finally allowed his eyes to close, the cold hands of death finally taking him.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As he stared at the collection of Pokémon surrounding him, Arun wondered what exactly he did to deserve such a paradise. He felt the soft fur of the Bidoof around him, caressed the chubby little faces of the Budew, and scritched the heads of the Starly’s perched on his shoulders. What he enjoyed the most was the feelings he caught from the Pokémon, he couldn’t exactly explain it, but he felt the waves of their affection, worry, sympathy, love…it was strange, but very much enjoyed.

When he first woke up Arun was confused. When he was suddenly approached by a bird that he recognized as Starly, he was even more so. When a whole herd of Pokémon swamped him he was insanely confused, but he had never been so adored in his life.

What’s wrong? He could feel pulses of intent wash over him. Why sad? Hurt? Love. Safe. Happy? A string of feelings and words he somehow put together, vague but understandable. He simply smiled at them, and at their concern, reciprocating feelings of safety and happiness. Apparently the Pokémon quite liked this, and more gathered around him until he was eventually a pile of Pokémon, sharing waves of feelings and thoughts that Arun had honestly no idea how he was doing.

“Arun?”

His gaze instantly shot up to the familiar voice, seeing his brother walking, alongside a troupe of Bidoof, led by a wary-looking Bibarel. He stood rather abruptly, causing the Pokémon around him to scatter in surprise. He sent a small apologetic pulse, before refocusing on his brother.

For a while, the two stood facing each other, neither saying a word. Arun thought back to before, in the ruins of their old home "I wonder if you hate me." Did he? Would Pranav hate him for failing to save him? "I wonder if you’ll forgive me” He wondered if he really could be forgiven.

The thoughts were dashed away when Pranav’s face broke into a grin, and strode towards him, arms open in a ‘look at me’ type gesture’. “Ah, would you look at that!” He announced to no one, “If it isn’t the second most handsome member of the family!”

Arun couldn’t help but smile, he knew what he was doing. “Second most-handsome but can still kick your skinny ass.” He replied, crossing his arms to flex the muscles just a tad.

“So you admit it!” Pranav exclaimed, his grin even wider “I am the better looking one!”

“Think whatever you want man.” He said, embracing his brother in a tight hug as he got close.

Pranav reciprocated the hug “Man I’m glad I can feel things again.” He whispered, Arun hummed in response.

“Thought I lost you.”

“Oh you definitely did, pretty sure I died.”

“Pran.”

“But you found me!”

Arun pulled away, inspecting his brother. He was the same as before, his hair had long outgrown itself, turning into more of a giant mullet that their parents always hated. His chinstrap was now rough and overgrown, as Arun had given up on maintaining it (Unless Pranav explicitly asked). The one biggest outlier was the strange mark on his head. It resembled a bruise on the upper left part of his head, reaching down and surrounding the eye just a little bit.

“What happened there?” He asked, his smile immediately turning into a frown.

“Where?”

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“Your head, it’s like a weird…bruise thing.”

Pranav instantly pulled back, feeling around his face. “I don’t really feel anything.” He took a quick look around his surroundings. “It’s whatever man, we can worry about that later.”

Arun raised an eyebrow “You sure? I still have our phones in my pocket, could use it as a mirror.”

“Oh god please.” His brother replied, hands out while Arun fished his various pockets for Pranav’s old phone. “Wait, am I supposed to say ‘oh Arceus’ now?”

“We are not having that discussion this early in the day.” Arun grimaced, handing Pranav his phone.

Honestly…what did it mean to be living in this world? Would being here disprove the existence of his god? Or was it their power that sent the two here? But why? And if it wasn’t him, then Arceus? But the idea of another being as powerful as their god was heresy in itself….so what exactly was he supposed to believe?

“Yea.” He thought wearily “Way too early for this shit.”

“Are you fucking with me right now?”

Arun was forced out of his thoughts by his brother’s sudden outburst, Pranav staring at this reflection through the blank phone screen, prodding the bruise on his face.

“My face…Arun they’ve ruined my handsome face!” He whined “How am I supposed to charm anybody looking like this?”

“Could always put a bag over your head.” Arun grinned.

“I’m being serious.”

“Poke two little eye-holes…”

“You’re not even remotely funny.”

“I’ve got a marker, I could doodle a little smile for you.”

“Starting to regret ever finding your dumbass.”

For the first time in a long time, Arun laughed, a proper unrestrained laugh that echoed through the forest around them. Pranav couldn’t help but smile, forgetting about his face to enjoy the sight of his brother actually laughing.

All good? Happy? Fun?

Waves of intent gently rolled into him and Arun almost forgot the small audience around them. He sheepishly smiled at the group of Pokémon by him, noting the position of the Bidoof that had formed a small semi-circle around the feet of his brother.

‘All good’ he sent back, reciprocating a wave of contentment. This apparently satisfied his little gathering, and they slowly dispersed, melting back into the forest around them.

“Well, there goes my little entourage.” He turned to face his brother, “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

“You got it.” Pranav spun to the Bibarel that sat stationed at the edge of the forest, watching them with a disinterested gaze. “Big mama! To civilization!”

The Bibarel known as Big Mama let out a long, exhausted sigh.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hurry up man, you’re taking forever.”

“In case…you haven’t noticed.” Pranav took a few deep breaths “I haven’t walked in months!”

Arun chuckled at his brother from atop one of the many hills they had climbed thus far, he had a point. Between the poor meals and extreme lack of exercise back in their world, Pranav had lost a lot of the muscle he had accumulated before the blast. Arun on the other hand, was probably in the best shape of his life, being in charge of all the heavy lifting and movement throughout their tenure as survivalists.

This, of course, led to no end of complaints about the unfairness of it all, and he could hear Pranav’s mutterings as he climbed.

“4 Years of lifting and cardio, lost all my shit in 7 months…used to run a mile in 8 minutes, now what? Man fuck radiation, fuck comas, hate this shit…”

Arun glanced down at Big Mama, who eyed him as they both watched Pranav’s progress up the hill.

‘Noisy’ she intoned in annoyance.

“Noisy.” He agreed

She huffed, and turned around as Pranav crested the top, heaving as he attempted to catch his breath.

“So…” He wheezed “What’s up with the ah…the Disney princess thing you had going on back there?”

“Oh that?” He fell in step behind his brother (He also was hit with a water gun when he tried to walk beside him) “I dunno, it’s kinda hard to explain.”

“Ok well try, I need something to take my mind off walking.”

“I guess it’s kinda like…intention? I get waves of feelings and emotion, and I can sort of…translate the meaning behind it, sorta. Like somebody sends me the feeling of Happiness, but it can translate to the reason it’s happy…oh that’s actually a better way to explain it. I can somewhat translate the reason why they feel an emotion, and in turn I can send back emotions and they do the same thing.”

Pranav pondered the statement for a few minutes, finally looking up and saying “Ok that’s actually pretty cool, but that doesn’t really explain how you somehow gathered an entire squad of Pokémon.”

“Mmm, about that.” He said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “I guess I was subconsciously releasing negative emotions.”

“How come?”

“Well I mean.” He fumbled “I died.”

“Oh…oh shit that completely slipped my mind.” Pranav said softly, his tone turning sympathetic “How did you…how did it happen?”

Arun was silent for a moment, considering whether or not he would tell the truth. It wasn’t something light, to end one’s own life, and he had always been the more religious of the two. And to say that he killed himself, because of Pranav, well, that would be off putting a lot of emotional baggage that Arun thought his brother simply did not need.

“Al’s group.” He lied, deciding he would tell him the truth another time, when they had less pressing matters to attend to.

“Them!?” Pranav hissed “Those assholes never knew when to quit. I mean I’m kinda grateful cause’ hey, Pokémon world with my bro, but damn, I did not want to give them the satisfaction of catching us.”

“Yea.” He whispered “Me neither. So what about you? Anything you got going for you or am I the special one?”

“Something similar to the intent thing, notice how the only thing they say is their name?” He asked, Arun giving a grunt in response, “Obviously, it’s a dumb language, no individual words, just sounds, Best Girl keep walking, you know I’m right. Anyways they put intentions behind the sounds that I can discern, but so far the only one I can really understand is Best Girl at the front.”

“Huh, do you know why?”

“I mean…I’ve got theories, but nothing concrete. I’m guessing it’s cause’ I spent time with her the most.”

They trudged on in silence for a few moments before Pranav spoke up again.

“What do you think about this?” He asked

“Our entirely unexplainable psychic abilities? Or the fact we essentially got isekai’d together to live out a Pokémon fantasy?”

“Both.” Pranav grinned

“It’s…hard to wrap my head around I guess.” Arun started “First of all, there’s a whole set of religious questions that pop up that I don’t want to begin to unravel, that’s a mess for when we get ourselves situated. There’s also the question of…why us? What did we do?”

“We’re badass wasteland survivalists.” His brother pointed out.

Arun ignored him, continuing, “There’s also the question of others. Can we expect to meet other people from Earth? If so, is there a common characteristic or factor that determines who gets sent? As for our abilities…we don’t know if they’re unique to us or if everyone here has them. I mean, the anime literally everybody could talk to Pokémon.”

“I always imagined it sort of like people talking to their dog or cat, they could recognize behavioural patterns and all that, but couldn’t actually understand them.”

“Right but we’ve seen Ash hold full conversations with his Pikachu. And I’m pretty sure there were others with Brock, Misty, Dawn, Max, all of them.”

“Ah but you’re forgetting something, those were all main characters.”

Arun paused, thinking for a moment, before a smile spread across his face “Guess that means we’re also MC’s huh?”

“Dude we have the entire checklist down, mysterious and tragic backstory? Check. Handsome individuals with a side of charm, therefore being relatable? Obviously. We’re the best damn character’s this world will ever have” His brother said dramatically, waving his hand in a flamboyant manner.

“Amen to that.” Arun replied, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

It was at this point where they reached the end of the forest, Big Mama Bibarel stopping the whole troop and turning to face them. Arun wasn’t surprised at the simmering annoyance she exuded, but was honestly a little happy when he felt the touch of sorrow underneath it all.

‘Time to go.’ She sent. Arun gave her a smile, sending a wave of gratitude back, noticing the gesture caused her to relax just a little bit.

Pranav seemed to get the message after spotting the exit, and knelt beside Best Girl, running his fingers through her fur. “I’m gonna miss you, you know that?”

‘Of course you are,’ she replied, preening at his touch ‘I am Best Girl’

“You’re spoiled is what you are.” He scoffed, though he did not reduce the current attention he was giving her, “You were also my first friend here, so thanks.”

Best girl looked up at him, silent for a moment. Then, she simply nuzzled into him, and Pranav resisted the urge to just up and run away with her. No, he was better than that, eventually pulling away after enjoying her company for a few moments.

“Thank you all,” He said to the gathered family “Dunno what we did to deserve that kindness, but we swear we won’t forget what you did for us.”

The brothers got a series of “Oofs” and “Bidoo’s” in response, causing the two to smile at the cheery farewells. Then finally, with a nod of respect to Big Mama, the two finally departed, heading past the clearing and out into open space.

Finally, their journey would begin.