I dropped my bag off to my bed and groaned as I massaged my shoulders. The pain from carrying the knapsack around for the entire day thanks to a "small" school trip around the Ilex Forest had given me more thoughts on buying the cheapest of the trainer bags for sale than any other day ever since I got here. a small pop came out of my shoulders and I felt myself relax from the sense of relief that came from popping a tense joint.

I rolled both of my arms around for a bit more and heard a few more pops before stopping. Changing out of my sweat-laden clothes and into new ones, I ran around my room and cleaned the place for a bit before grabbing the knapsack on my bed and emptying it of everything inside. The things inside of the bag went over and got placed on top of the desk in the far left corner of my room, placed directly next to the place's only window.

With everything sorted out, I sat down on the wheeled chair and spun myself for a bit before grabbing a dull grey notebook from the stack to my right. Opening it, I leafed through the pages until I reached the latest piece that was written.

I stared at the homework in contemplation. Dubbed- "Picking One's Pokemon" on top, I let my thoughts go silent and simply stared at the notebook in a dazed state as my mind started to drift, the silence got replaced by my thoughts as I continued to stare and my mind graciously remembered all the interesting things I had seen on the field trip earlier this morning.

At the start of it all, I couldn't even remember, no matter how hard I tried. The bus ride that my class had with our teacher as we went over to the nearest ranger station so that we can get our guides for the day was a blur that quickly passed and was even quicker to get replaced by a more active field trip.

When I hopped off the bus, all the boredom that I felt from riding it disappeared when I stared at the massive trees that showed the start of the even larger Ilex Forest. Before I could stare even longer, I was quickly pushed into line as my class waited for the two ranger guides that we had to get off the bus- That particular memory was only memorable only because of the last part, the frustration that I felt when I was waiting and staring into the forest passed by quickly but it was enough for me to remember the scene.

Entering the forest with the two rangers in tow was also pretty boring and most of the trip became even more of a blur. And it was only when our class saw a Metapod hanging from a branch 10 minutes after we entered the forest that I felt a little bit more energy for the trip. Seeing an actual wild Pokemon for the first time in its natural environment felt surreal to me, even if it was nothing other than a metapod.

After living in this world for 8 years now, I wasn't exactly a stranger to seeing pokemon but living in GoldenRod city gave me a very calm first impression. Pokemon were, for the lack of a better term, really smart. And thanks to that, all of the Pokemon that were in the city could only be described as kind thanks to them having trainers. None of them were aggressive and I can even say that almost all of them were approachable.

Of course, there were the occasional biker gang and their pokemon but even then, the Machop, Grimer, Koffing, and sometimes the evolved forms of the aforementioned three were outright docile when I compare them to, let's say, the "domesticated" street dogs back on my earth.

Thanks to them being smart, Pokemon were easy to train and it was even easier for them to understand how the concept of society works.

The writing in front of me became understandable again as I cut off my train of thought by focusing on them. I looked at the title again. Pokemon were smart, and that's exactly why I can't just say that I can pick any starter that I wanted. For one, picking a good starter was seen as a sign of competence in this world, and two, I didn't just want to end up with something that I didn't like and throw it away because-

I sighed and closed my notebook.

Again, being in the Pokemon world felt surreal. And the fact that this is now my reality meant that I can't just grab a Pokemon from the wild and then throw it into the PC (storing Pokemon on PCs doesn't exist in this reality but, items are fair game) and then leave it alone until I grew old.

No, Pokemon were real, emotional beings, and trainers needed to take responsibility for catching them if you can't provide, then, you can either release your Pokemon and hope that your attachment to one another wasn't strong enough to leave any of you bitter. Well, that, or you abandon them without saying a word but again, Pokemon were smart, scarily so, and doing that would make you look like an asshole.

I stood up and decided to leave the notebook there on the desk so that I didn't have to pull it out of the stack again when I come back later.

Opening the door to my room, I walked out into the silent hallway of the second floor. I made sure that I didn't make any other sound as I passed by my parent's room before breaking into a small sprint when I was sure that it wouldn't be heard. At this time, my Mom would be sleeping and she wouldn't be waking up until maybe an hour or two from now. Breaking that cycle - no matter how elastic it is, with her waking up between 4 to 5 and everything in between - would get me a light scolding and if I was unlucky, lowered lunch money for a month because clearly, I don't value money since I "wake her up even if she's tired from her shift last night".

Her words, not mine.

When I saw the stairs, I slowed down and continued that pace until my feet touched the floor of the house's first story. I hopped down the last set of stairs and walked over to our kitchen where I was greeted by a Persian taller than me. I gave the fully evolved pokemon a wave as I went over to the fridge to get something to eat. And, the cat, being smart and all that went over to me and rubbed its head on my shoulders.

I winced when I felt the orb on his forehead rub against the bone of my shoulder girdle. He purred slightly at that and a part of me told me that the orb hitting that spot probably wasn't accidental.

I pushed him away for all his efforts and took out a small chocolate bar.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Even after that though, the guy, as always, was persistent and I felt sharp whiskers prickle against my cheek as his head leaned closer. He eyed the chocolate bar and then met my own, "Persian?"

"nope." I replied courtly as I pushed his head away, "you can't have this, we both know Dad already feeds you with enough food on the daily." my eyes went over to his stomach and I tried to spot some flab but as always, he's fit. My old cat would've been jealous of him if she were here. "even if it isn't obvious." I murmured.

I closed the fridge and moved away from the cat before walking over to the back of our house. Persian, as always, followed me knowing that I would eventually fold the two of us walked to the back of the kitchen and I waited for him to go through the glass door before closing it.

Despite living in GoldenRod city, my parents picked the suburbs for a home, and to be honest, even with it having a fair distance from my school and their offices, I was glad that this was the place the two of them decided to settle down in. Sure, there were rumors that places like these can sometimes get attacked by wandering wild Pokemon, and sure, the utilities like a Pokemon Center and a Pokemart that would usually be easily accessible if you were living in the city were pretty far- But the silence that the place offered more or less made it all worth it.

Somewhat.

But I'm probably just viewing it all through a nostalgic lens given that a small part of the time I spent recovering mentally was spent in the suburbs back in my original life but the since I was pretty comfortable here, I also chalked it up to the place just being generally great.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt Persian's head bump into my shoulder, barely missing the bone of my girdle with his orb. I looked at him and frowned, "I didn't miss your warning but-" the chocolate bar I was holding started to move towards my pocket, "-we both know that I don't like it when my thoughts get interrupted-"

Before I knew it, and before the chocolate was hidden, I was tackled to the ground and I felt something prickly and wet graze my cheek. I heard that tigers were capable of tearing flesh apart just from licking with their tongue back in my original earth but something like that would be considered weird in the same manner that the people back there would also wonder why the humans here in this world can run across large distances without tiring, survive falling from massive heights, and even stand in front of blasts of energy, fire, and other supernatural things without getting scratched.

So, as things are, the fact that Persian's tongue, even with it being practically filled with barbs, doesn't even scratch me is relatively normal to the point that my Dad, walking into the scene, would consider it as Persian just "playing" with me. Not that Pokemon can't harm humans of course but, point is, I was in the same region as the guy that survived a hyper beam from Lance's Dragonite point blank.

After a while of this "playing", I was let go and I wiped my face as I stood up. Dusting myself off, I glared at the Persian and checked to see if he took my chocolate bar when we were playing but checking my pockets made me realize that the Pokemon did something far worse-

"goddamnit." I lifted my chocolate-covered hand, "you happy?" I asked.

"Per Per Per!" he jubilantly said as he walked over and started licking my hands.

It didn't take him long to remove all of the chocolate from my hand and when he was done, he gave me a grin and disappeared off to the house's rooftop, nowhere to be seen.

I reached into my now chocolate covered pocket one last time and sighed. "goddamnit."

...

I hated playing with Persian. No, if Mom fuming in front of me wasn't enough then the big cat grinning right next to her would have sold the deal to me if it hadn't already. Enough times of that though and I was kind of used to it and as things stand, I was just staying silent, like I always was when getting scolded. No need to waste extra energy fighting something you can't go against, "right, and tell me why did you let Persian tackle you like that again?" Mom says as she took a clean pair of shorts from the basket right next to the dryer/washing machine.

I gave her an odd look and she met my eyes, "and no, you can't reason that he's larger than you. Persian is smart and can be told to get called off."

"not for me," I murmured, hopefully, too low for her to hear.

If she did hear it, she didn't show as I felt two hands on my armpits and I was lifted, placed on top of a clean table, and got my shorts taken off and then replaced by a new, cleaner pair. Mom threw away the sanitary napkins that she used to clean my legs of chocolate and sighed, "next time, don't just let him do you in like that. That's not a good thing to do when you're finally a trainer." she scolded.

And then she was off Persian following diligently behind her. Presumably waiting for food. I hopped off of the table, my short legs taking the fall without any strain.

Getting out of the basement, I walked over to the living room and waved at Dad, who just got off his shift. He gave me a wave back and I stood around for a bit and watched the news; there, a young man, or maybe a woman? I couldn't tell with the jacket she was wearing- in their early twenties was talking in front of a microphone under heavy rain and loud gusts of wind that made her jacket flutter around. Right behind her was a ship, one that I recognized was meant for the transport of Goods rather than people.

"-as of right now, no one knows what exactly happened that caused the ship to sink but investigations are currently underway." she paused for a second as a harsh wind swept by, "along with that, Gym Leader Giovanni has even stated to take full responsibility on the matters at hand and is flying straight to Olivine city as we speak-"

I walked away after that, drowning out the noise instead of going back up to my room to answer my homework. A few words still entered my ears here and there, such as the ship had been attacked by Team Rocket. And proof of that is when the coast guard that went over the sinking ship first saw a few people swim away from the sinking ship as fast as they could on their Pokemon. As for why they attacked? I wasn't able to hear the reporter because I was already too far away to hear.

And, even if I did I would've just snorted and let it be. Thanks to Giovanni going as far as flying there as fast as he could, it was clear that the ship was Rocket owned and the Rocket members that they caught were probably from the ship and were crew members themselves. - I didn't let any of my thoughts out unless I wanted Dad talking about it back in his office, even if he meant no harm and would say that my saying the ship was Rocket owned, to begin with, was nothing but a kid's musings, the criminal organization would still send a few people my way if only because Giovanni is meticulous to the point of being capable of taking over the Silph Co. building.

That hasn't happened yet, or at least I think so. News from Kanto sort of have a hard time getting to Johto and I don't blame them, there was a war a few years back after all.

Still, what was inside of that ship that caused Giovanni himself to go there personally? The water where that ship sunk is west from Goldenrod and a small part of me is telling me that I should go to the beach there to see if something washes up from the boat but I let that thought go and then just as it went out, it quickly came back and my eyes subconsciously moved towards the end of the hallway. There, a GoodRod sat, and below that GoodRod are three pokeballs, all of them empty.

Going to the beach and catching a starter from the waters didn't seem that bad and- I rubbed my head just as the reason to go and check out the beach formed.

"I'd rather really not," I softly said as I closed the door to my room.