I am not a lucid dreamer.

I would go as far as to say that I’m the furthest from that label; I’m on the complete opposite end of the dreamer spectrum.

If I saw a T-rex named Yveon juggling 17 monkeys that seamlessly transformed into a polar bear reading the newspaper, I would assume everything in front of me to be true. The very notion of it being a dream simply never crosses my mind.

Which is why I knew that this was all real.

I didn’t need to try to feel the remnants of the Caterpie string that clung to my eyes. I didn’t need to try to wipe the dog slobber off my face. I didn’t need to pinch my arm to test for pain. I still did. But I didn’t need to.

And with the possibility of this all being a sleepy hallucination shot down before it even took flight, I said aloud to no one in particular:

“So, I’ve been Isekai’d to the Pokémon world, huh?"

----------------------------------------

I looked to my left. I saw trees and shrubbery.

I looked to my right. I saw shrubbery and trees.

I looked up. I saw a blue sky with the occasional fluffy cloud.

I looked down. I saw my slightly worn down clothes and the mystery Pokéball in my hand.

No signs of human civilization in sight.

“... What now?”

The Lillipup from earlier had run off while I’d been flailing around with the Caterpie string, so I was now stuck in a random woodland clearing with no clue of where to go. I was all alone in a strange new world.

Maybe it was because I was in shock and the direness of my situation hadn’t truly set in yet, but I was kind of surprised by my lack of panic. Then again, I had been constantly dreaming about this happening ever since I was 10. Fantasizing about alternate worlds filled with magic and technology beyond the scope of our reality was just something that everyone’s gone through at least twice in their lives. So I guess I had been prepared for this, at least mentally. I would’ve been happy with being Isekai’d to any supernatural world, but I am glad I got sent to one where I was quite familiar with all 1,025 of its unique residents.

“Right, what’s already happened, happened. No point in crying over spilt beans- I mean milk, right? So, with the only way to go being forward-”

I hopped onto a nearby fallen tree log and took a deep breath. Cupping my hands around my open mouth, I-

“‘JUST GOTTA DO WHAT I GOTTA DO!’” I yelled out to the forest trees. Even if there was no one else around, a new adventure always begins with a greeting and introduction. “HELLO WORLD OF POKÉMON! I’M THE SOON-TO-BE ACE TRAINER WHO CAME FROM ANOTHER WORLD, AND I’M READY TO USE MY CHEAT-LIKE KNOWLEDGE TO GET A HEADSTART AND MAKE A NAME FOR MYSELF! AND THAT NAME IS- uh- that name… my name…is… my… eh-? Why can’t I…?”

I can’t remember my name.

Everytime I tried to conjure up the mental image of the label given to me at birth, my brain suddenly became unfocused and wobbly. When I tried to grab at the solid “information”, it suddenly turned to liquid and melted through my grasp. I couldn’t-

I can’t remember my own name.

And it wasn’t just the “knowledge” of my name that had disappeared. All my recollections concerning the word seemed to be tampered with as well.

My name…

Whether it was a memory of someone calling out to me, writing it down on paper for a test, or saying it for introductions, whenever I tried to focus on it, everything suddenly became distorted. Both the image and audio of the moment slip out from my mind, and I’m left gripping nothing but an empty void and dazed feeling, instead of the word meant to identify and define me.

No name.

…

“Oh well, the plan doesn’t change!”

Come on now, I know I may seem a bit gloomy, but I know how to remain positive when I want to! Looking at things logically, this is probably just some form of temporary amnesia that came with arriving here. Sorta like jet lag or sea sickness. I’m sure that once my body gets more accustomed to this world, I’ll be back in tip-top shape!

Yeah. It’ll all go back to normal.

Besides, it looks like the only part of my memory that’s missing is my name. I still remember my childhood, my hobbies, my family, my past friends, my…

Actually, it's probably better not to try and dig through my brain right now. Getting caught up in another amnesia landmine would do me no good.

I did one last scan of my surroundings. Nothing had seemed to react to my boisterous announcement and the sun hadn’t moved enough to tell me which way was east and west, not that those directions would help me in any way. In short; I had no leads.

“Well, there’s also this to consider…” I muttered, raising up the metal ball nestled in my hand.

I eyeballed it. The design was odd, obviously not like that of the iconic red and white Pokéball. Instead of red, it possessed a yellow top, and the line separating its two halves was not the usual black, but rather a bright blue. I recognized this variant, but only vaguely.

It was a Park ball.

The reason I say vaguely is because, well- even I didn’t know much about it. As embarrassed as I was to admit it after boasting about being a massive Pokémon nerd, the only thing that I knew about this item was that it functioned similarly to the famed Master ball. As in, without fail, it would catch any Pokémon it ensnared.

However, I was pretty sure that there was more to it. After all, why bother making a Master ball reskin if the original was iconic enough on its own? There’s no reasoning I can think of that would excuse having two Pokéballs function the exact same way.

Also, why did I wake up with one? If this was meant to be some sort of Isekai starter pack, it was certainly an odd choice. One that cost me my can o’ beans. If I was gonna already start with a Pokéball, why not just give me the classic original? Or, if it needed to be an insta-catch type, why not a Master ball? Hell, even a GS ball would’ve been less confusing.

Why an obscure choice like the Park ball of all things?

Frowning to myself, I considered the metallic orb. It was bigger than I thought it’d be. It took up my entire palm and then some, requiring me to grip with all five fingers so it wouldn’t roll away. I would be hard pressed to fit six of these around my waist.

“Oh yeah, can’t Pokéballs shrink and grow whenever you press the middle button? At least, that’s how it was in the T.V show.”

Unfortunately, when I pressed the yellow circle, the only thing that happened was a dull click that could be heard from whatever mechanisms were inside.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Inside…

“Oh, duh!” I exclaimed. “There’s probably a Pokémon inside this thing!”

Okay, I might be having more than just memory issues if it took me this long to think of that. Although, why would I just spawn in with a Pokémon ready to go?

I asked that question in my head, but it did make sense in more ways than one. A big cliche with Isekai was starting out with some sort of OP weapon or skill. In this case, my starting partner would function as my cheat in this world. And from the fact that it was in a Park ball, a 100% guaranteed capture device, it was practically sure to be at least on par with pseudo legendaries.

“Alright,” I breathed. “So all I have to do is pop this open to see my first partner in this new world, is that it?”

I stared at the ball. It (seemed to) stare back. A small clunking noise could be heard emanating from it, but it wasn’t because of the ball; I was shaking. From excitement or nerves? I didn’t really know myself.

Everything felt oddly heavy all of a sudden.

“...Ah, what the heck am I getting so jumpy for?” I muttered, a small crooked smile breaking out across my face. “Even if it did get a bit botched, I introduced myself to this world. This is just taking the first step through the doorway. The first step to becoming- well, becoming a Pokémon trainer. Just like I always dreamed…”

Taking deep breaths, hopping up and down, doing some light stretches… some would call this “stalling”. I prefer “hyping one’s self up”.

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” I yelled, smacking my cheek with my free hand. Raising the Park ball up to eye level, I spoke directly to it in as clear a voice I could muster. “I don’t know how much you can see or hear in there, but I should apologize anyway. Sorry. Sorry for, well, all that embarrassing stuff earlier. I probably didn’t leave the greatest impression of my character, huh? As your future- no, your new partner, I should do my best not to let you down. I promise that- that from now on, I’ll do better. I’ll learn. And you won’t have to feel worried about me.”

Yeah, I still don’t know if these jitters are coming from excitement or nerves. Either way, I really hoped it didn’t make my “confident” grin seem awkward. I’m trying to have an epic moment over here!

“I can’t tell you my exact name yet, but anyway I think that’s enough about me. It’s time-”

I arched my arm back.

“-for you to take center stage!”

Shutting my eyes, I put all my power into throwing the Pokéball as high into the air as possible.

Only- I was still on top of the tree trunk. Which evidently wasn’t a very good stable ground. I lost my balance. I fell. I hit the grassy ground. Painfully. Epic moment: ruined.

“Welp, my landing sucked,” I groaned face first into the dry dirt. “What about yours-?”

*TCHAK*

“!?”

Upon hearing a violent crack, I sprang upwards in a panic.

Crap, did I injure it? Maybe I threw the ball up too high and the Pokémon ended up falling to the ground?

However, upon scanning the area, I didn’t see any Pokémon around, injured or healthy. The only thing I saw was a particularly smug looking Park ball resting on the ground, surrounded by bits of tree bark.

The sound had come from it making a particularly violent impact with a redwood tree, smashing it hard enough to break off chips.

“... What’s going on here?”

Dusting myself off, I walked over and picked up the slightly dirtied Pokéball. Although, “dirtied” may be a bit of an exaggeration, as it was still clean enough to gleam in a mischievous manner.

“D-did I not do something correctly? Maybe I need to press the button before I- no, that didn’t do anything. Should I throw it a little slower? Or perhaps-”

No matter how I threw, pressed, commanded or pulled, whatever resident was in the ball refused to make an appearance.

“OH, COME ON!” I exploded. “AFTER ALL MY YAPPING, YOU STILL WON’T COME OUT?!”

In desperation, I had resorted to gnawing at the thing, but all that accomplished was making my teeth hurt and having my tongue assaulted by wood chips.

After giving up on that endeavor, I truly no longer had a single clue about my situation. Counting off my fingers, I tried to summarize all the available information.

“One, I don’t know where I am. Two, I don’t know my own name. Three, I don’t know why I have a Park ball, especially one that four, refuses to open… maybe I was wrong and it really doesn’t have any occupants inside.”

I regarded the ball again before-

“RAH!”

-chucking the thing as hard as I could at a nearby rock.

“So I’m stranded with an empty Pokéball that I don’t even know how to work!? How is this an Iseka- MMPH!?”

The Park ball that I had tossed in my fit of rage ricocheted off the giant slab of stone and rebounded right back into my nose, allowing no room for my complaints. The force caused it to stick to my face for a second before slowly dripping off, revealing my unamused expression.

Catching the half-yellow orb before it fell to the floor, I sighed to myself, considering my current options.

“I guess I could just try to wander around. I’ve gone camping before, so maybe I could forage for some fruit or something. The real problem is the wild animals. Or rather, wild Pokémon. I have to be careful not to run into one with an aggression toward humans, or else my goose is cooked-”

“SCCCREEEEEE!!!”

A shrill screech shook the forest, causing me to jump in startlement. However, while the sudden noise had been unexpected, the new arrival that appeared with it from under the rock was downright terrifying.

It was a Bug type. One that was only slightly longer than the Caterpie from before, but nearly twice as wide. Sporting a dark red carapace with black markings and green spiracles, it eyed with angry orange eyes. It was a-

“VENIPEDE!” It screeched as it suddenly charged me.

“Wah!” I cried, barely dodging to the right in panic. I scarcely managed to avoid its lunge, but ended up tripping from the sudden movement and falling onto my back.

Not keen on being hit by a follow up, I desperately tried to continue my momentum and roll away from my attacker to gain distance. It was sloppy movement and I didn’t even get 5 meters away before coming to a stop.

Venipede. A Poison-Bug type. Its first appearance was in the Unova region and was one of the first bugs obtainable in the Gen 5 games alongside Sewaddle in Pinwheel Forest.

Of course, location information didn’t do me squat as I clearly wasn’t in Pinwheel Forest, but knowing my assailant was Poison type did let me know of one thing: don’t get hit. Not even once. I didn’t know how poison would affect me in this world, but I didn’t want to find out, especially without any Antidotes on hand to cure it.

“Ghk-?”

Rapidly flickering my head around to look for where the Venipede was, I assumed a crouching position in preparation to leap away from incoming attacks. Fortunately however, it seemed that my opponent wasn’t currently attacking; in fact it hadn’t moved much from where it had landed after pouncing at me, only groggily following my movements while its two antennae twitched on its head.

“Groggy… oh, uh, did I happen to wake you up?” I nervously asked it, suddenly piecing everything together. “Sorry, I guess I was a bit loud, and me banging my Park ball against your home probably didn’t help, haha…”

I silently cursed to myself.

Goddammit, today is so not my day! Accidently waking up a hidden venomous bug? Are you kidding me?!?

“Where I’m from, centipedes are mostly nocturnal animals, so it's probably the same for you, right? You want to go back to sleep, I don’t want to be poisoned, so how about we let bygones be bygones?”

The Venipede seemed to consider me for a moment, its antenna continuing to twitch in my direction. I held my breath in anticipation. I didn't know if it could understand my words or not, but it was most likely considering if I was a threat to it or not. If it continued its assault, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to keep dodging as I just had. Frankly, the earlier interaction had been a fluke on my part; I wasn’t confident in my reaction time at all. I could only hope that it took up my offer and went back to snooze town.

It felt like an eternity before Venipede made up its mind. Relaxing from its tense stance, it shook its body, clearing off the leaves that stuck to it, and began to turn back toward its rock.

I remained as still as a statue, cautiously observing its movements, but it truly seemed that the Venipede had stopped perceiving me as a threat and valued its sleep more over starting a fight. In fact, since it had turned at a slightly off angle from me, I was able to spot faint tired bags below its insectoid eyes.

It was a comical sight. Normally, the only animals that would be able to have bags under their eyes would be certain mammals. For an insect to have them… well frankly, it looked straight out of a cartoon.

The absurdity of the sight in this tense situation caught me off guard and I ended up scoffing in amusement. I quickly covered my mouth with my hand to stifle any further snickers, but that ended up being a mistake.

Due to me prioritizing that movement, I failed to realize that the Venipede suddenly turned back toward me.

Because of that, I was half a second too late to react to its body arching back.

It was only when the glowing purple shot of acid was merely 10 centimeters away from my face did I have a clear understanding of what was going on.

Oh, I thought. I’m screwed.