This was the pokemon world. The world of pokemon.

It was something Cashe was just starting to realize as he watched Annie play in the streets with a group of small children and someone’s friendly Whismur. The thing was insanely cute and hopped back and forth between the children as they threw a ball around, like a confused puppy. Every once in a while the Whismur would get a hold of the ball and all the children would celebrate by giving it a hug. The Chansey watched a short ways away, keeping a close eye on things in case anything went wrong.

It made him feel even more alone.

Cashe wrenched his eyes away from the scene in front of him. Pallet Town was a picturesque little village. Oak’s home and lab sat on a small hill, overlooking the town below. They were modest buildings, the home a single story laid out behind a small porch; the lab a larger, two-story building with plenty of windows. A few people could be seen moving around behind them. Probably the Oaks, since Cashe had yet to see any others enter it.

A narrow dirt road ran away from the front step of the lab, joining with a cobblestone road that led into the town proper. Vibrant green shrubs lined one side of the hill, while the other had only grass, but led to a familiar tree-dotted field below.

The town itself was only about fifty buildings, lined up along three or four of the same cobblestone roads. A shallow river ran alongside the town, and Cashe could see people fishing in it. The river flowed at a sedate pace, draining into the ocean, just visible in the distance.

Cashe turned his attention back to the notebook in his hands. It was new, and empty. So far it only held the basic outline of his plan.

The first thing he needed was pokemon. That was why his first step was ‘Get Pokemon’. It was a good plan so far. Now, if only he could figure out a second step.

Find out where Jirachi might be

That was a good second step if Cashe ever saw one. So far the plan was looking good. Catch Jirachi? He wasn’t sure if it was necessary, but it would make befriending Jirachi a lot easier.

Ask Jirachi to please send me home

There. A three step plan. Nice and simple. No need to overcomplicate the thing. Now all he needed was to work out the details.

He had spent the entire previous day in the professor’s study, trying to figure out where Jirachi might be. It was a fruitless attempt, the answers he was looking for could never be found in a tiny lab’s library, but he did learn a few key things.

First, the internet existed. It was called the pokenet.

Second, the internet sucked. Not just because of the name.

Whoever was in charge of today’s youth needed to let them know the internet could be used for more than videos of pokemon battles and forums discussing said battles. It was probably entertaining, but Cashe wasn’t looking for entertainment. The entire thing was a disgrace. If they had the infrastructure to host videos, then they could do so many other things. But every site he visited felt like it was designed in the 90’s. Cashe was a bit too young to actually know what that was like, but he had a few guesses.

The largest problem was there was no true search function. He couldn’t just type in where to find Jirachi and be directed to a thousand different threads and academic papers. He needed to know the site’s address in order to access it.

With the internet a failure, Cashe had turned his attention to the books already present in the study. Most were encyclopedic in nature, and dealt almost exclusively with pokemon. It was an incredible insight into what biology and biological sciences looked like in this world, but he found nothing pertaining to Jirachi whatsoever.

He had learned something he felt was going to be important going forward, however. Pokemon were scary.

Out of curiosity he looked up Weedle, just to see how dangerous those poison stings were. He was relieved to find out Weedle was categorized as ‘safe’. There was a nice green box next to a picture of a Weedle with the word ‘safe’ written in it in black and everything. The book only warned to avoid the stingers because death would occur in a matter of hours if stung and left untreated. Right below that warning was a line recommending Weedle as a starter for children ten and up.

Because of how safe the pokemon was. He didn’t even want to imagine what some of the more intimidating pokemon could do.

Cashe shivered at the memory of Annie handing him the Weedle. The pokemon hadn’t been agitated, but its wiggling had surprising strength. One unknowing misstep could have killed him. Or Annie.

Cashe turned his attention back to his plan with a shake of his head. Why was he finding it so hard to focus? He put pen to paper and tapped ‘Get Pokemon’ a few times. He should probably figure out how that worked in this world.

A shadow fell over his notepad. Cashe looked up. A young woman was climbing the hill to Oak’s lab, the morning sun casting a long shadow as she climbed.

She drew near, and Cashe was able to see her more clearly.

She was a pretty woman, perhaps a decade his junior at most, putting her around the age of twenty. She wore a red cap and matching hoodie with a pair of worn jeans, dusty from travel. Under her cap was a head of thick brown hair and around her waist was a belt lined with bright red spheres. Cashe’s eyes widened as he realized they were pokeballs.

The woman walked up and greeted him with a smile. “You look miserable.”

Cashe blinked. “Thanks.”

She laughed, “Did you come all this way just to get rejected by Dad? I’ll talk to him. He really does need another assistant, even if he refuses to admit it. Annie just isn't going to cut it.”

“Dad?” Cashe said.

“Professor Oak. Blue. You have heard of him, right? I’m his youngest daughter, Emilia. I’ll go talk to him, see if he won't give you another chance.”

“Cashe. And thanks.” Cashe didn’t bother correcting the misunderstanding. It didn’t matter. Not much did.

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“No problem, Cashe.” Emilia walked away and a minute later Cashe heard shouts of excitement and greeting. He ignored it, instead focusing on his plan.

He would need pokemon just strong enough to get to the Jirachi. If this world was anything like the games, which it seemed to be, the strongest wild pokemon would be fully evolved, but much weaker than trained pokemon. In the games, the rare and legendary pokemon were always found in areas with high level pokemon, which meant that he would need pokemon who could compete with that.

He grumbled to himself. Usually it took most of a game to level a pokemon that high, and that was after battling every single available trainer. He didn’t have time for that, which meant he would need strong pokemon out of the gate. He began making a list of every pseudo-legendary he could remember. Maybe Oak would loan him a few if he had them. Did pokemon professors even need the pokemon they owned?

He added a few generally powerful pokemon as well and any weird standouts from the games that he could remember, like the Ultra Beasts and Paradox pokemon. Those were usually powerful, right? Cashe doubted he could get his hands on pokemon like that, he wasn’t even sure they were real, but may as well try, right?

Cashe was halfway through struggling to remember how to spell any of the Ultra Beasts not named Buzzwole when Emilia returned. She plopped down beside him and glanced over her shoulder.

“Dad says you're not a potential assistant.”

“No.”

“He said you’re lost. A pokemon incident.”

“Apparently.”

“Sorry I said you looked like shit. I probably would, too, if…” Emilia trailed off awkwardly, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Cashe waved away her apology. He was trying to remember the name of the Poison/Rock jellyfish thing. Nil something. Nil something he wrote down. The actual name didn’t matter. He knew what he meant.

“So, uh, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you from, exactly?” Emilia said.

“Blue didn’t tell you?” Cashe looked up from his notes for the first time. Emilia had changed from her traveling clothes into a loose tee-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. She was hunched beside him trying to get an eye on his notes without looking like she was trying to get an eye on his notes. Cashe handed the notebook to her. He didn’t care if she saw, she might be able to help him.

“Ah, sorry,” Emilia smiled in embarrassment at being caught in the act, but took the notes anyway, “He doesn’t know. Dad said you were from a place he had never heard of, and not to press you about it.” A shadow of guilt flashed across her face, “Sorry for pressing, I guess.”

“I’m from Vancouver, Canada,” Cashe eyed her closely looking for signs of recognition. Part of him thought, hoped, that this was still all a big joke. That someone was playing a giant awful prank on him.

Emilia just nodded, showing no indication that was the case. “Was it nice?”

“Most beautiful place on Earth,” Cashe sighed. He contemplated telling her more. That it was a world without pokemon, that they made children’s games featuring this world, but decided against it. He needed a better understanding of this place before he started revealing too much. Who knew what secrets he knew, or if any of his information was even accurate.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Emilia said, looking down at the notes, “I really am. I can’t imagine - what is this list?” Emilia had an amused look on her face, “Are these the pokemon you’re trying to catch?”

“Why?”

“You’re joking right? You’re playing some sort of trick on me?” Emilia looked at him, an incredulous grin on her face.

Cashe snatched the notebook away from her, growling, “My situation is not a joke.”

He got to his feet and walked away.

“Hey! I’m sorry,” Emilia scrambled to keep up with him, “I didn’t mean to make light of your situation. It’s just that you have some of the most dangerous and rare pokemon in the world on that list.”

Cashe stumped into the kitchen heading for Oak’s study. He needed to be alone right now.

“Hey wait up,” Emilia grabbed him by the arm, “Stop. Please. I can help.”

Cashe stopped and turned to face her. “You know where Jirachi is?”

“No,” Emilia said. She gestured to the empty kitchen table and sat down, waiting for Cashe to join her before continuing. Reluctantly, Cashe slid into the seat across from her, “I can tell you are lost in more ways than one. I can help.”

“How?”

“Well to start, I can help you choose some pokemon that you might actually be able to train,” Emilia said with a small grin, “I take it you are planning on challenging the third circuit?”

“I don’t know what that is,” Cashe said, shaking his head, “But probably not. I don’t have time for anything like battles or training. I just want to find Jirachi and get home.”

“Cashe, you’re going after a mythical pokemon,” Emilia bit her lip, hesitating on what to say, “People, professionals, spend their entire lives searching for pokemon like Jirachi. This isn’t a short term endeavor. This will take years. Maybe even decades. That means a team of pokemon, probably more than one. It means years of training so you can traverse the world safely. It probably even means competing in professional circuits, to gain access to areas where only the most experienced trainers are allowed to go. Cashe, this will be your life’s work.”

Decades.

Cashe felt his heart fall in his chest. Decades away from Jen, at the very least. They were supposed to spend their lives together. What would she even think happened? Would she think he abandoned her?

What would anyone think? Did he just disappear in the middle of that park? Did anyone see it happen? Would anyone say anything if they did, and would anyone believe them?

“Cashe?”

Cashe glanced over at Emilia. She looked worried. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“Are you okay? Do you want to do this later?”

“It’s fine,” Cashe refocused on Emilia. She was playing with her thumbs in a nervous habit, probably due to the uncomfortable situation he was creating. “It’s just a lot. This whole situation,” he gestured to the room and beyond, “Everything is a bit overwhelming.”

“We’ll do this later, then. We can talk about something lighter.” Emilia said. She got up from the table and walked over to a backpack resting on the floor. She pulled out a small device and returned to the table, handing it to Cashe. “Do you know what this is?”

Cashe took it. It looked like one of the new foldable phones that folded like a hotdog bun vertically instead of horizontally like a flip phone. He flipped it open and the device blinked to life, white words blinking across a black screen.

Oak Labs Pokedex [Kanto]

Despite everything, Cashe feels the corner of his mouth twitch in excitement. A pokedex. A real life pokedex.

Emilia grinned at him from across the table, mirroring his growing excitement. “You can change it to the National Dex if you want. Go through all the pokemon.”

“No way,” Cashe breathed, a beautiful, life-like Bulbasaur flared with color on the small screen. He pressed it with his thumb.

Bulbasaur, 0001

Seed Pokemon

Text populated the screen, providing an overwhelming amount of information, describing everything from the natural characteristics of a Bulbasaur, including its standard size and weights, to its feeding habits and preferred environments. There was an option to see where in the world the pokemon could be found in the wild, as well as recommendations regarding raising and training a Bulbasaur. There was even a section on moves it could learn, how it evolved, and viable battle strategies. It even noted that the line had a Mega Evolution.

“It’s cool, right?” Emilia giggled at Cashe’s enthralled expression, “You can go through that and write down every pokemon you think is interesting or cool. Then we can see about putting together a couple of teams for you.”

He took the pokedex in his hand and did just that.

For the first time since coming to this place, Cashe felt something other than lost.

*****