What's one to do when they find themselves reincarnated as the rival? Clearly, train their butt off to become the ultimate challenge for any would-be protagonist! Get ready for a Champion Journey! Updates Mondays and Thursdays.
The beginning was surreal, like a lucid dream. Or maybe she was the one dreaming, and I was the one dreamed of. It was hard to comprehend, or really focus when I was that young. As such, I skipped through most of my childhood without a care, seeing 'me' doing things, but not connecting that with myself. It wasn't until I was running outside one day that things really clicked for me. That I remembered who I was - or had been.
"Young Miss, please stop running around! You'll get dirty and catch a cold!" One of the maids called out to me, and I stopped, more in puzzlement. Catch a cold in this weather? Hardly, it's the middle of summer. Hot sun with a cool breeze is my favorite weather anyways. I opened my mouth to retort, reply that I'd stay clean, she should know that I hated getting dirty anyways but-
It felt like the world tilted sideways, and it did in a way as I reeled and fell over, suddenly losing control of my bodies as the memories hit me. That's what they are, memories. Not a dream. I'm… I'm someone else.
I tried to bite back my tears and stop myself from hyperventilating as the maid rushed over, fretting over me. She's massive. Why do I have a giant maid? I thought for about one second before the obvious clicked into place. Right, I'm a child now.
"Are you ok Miss Nemona? Oh please be alright, I'd hate for your parents to come back and see you hurt." She said, more to herself than me. Still in a daze, I let myself be led back inside, barely noticing some of the strange animals outside.
On the way, I caught a glimpse of my house. Even taking into account my smaller size, it was massive. A sprawling estate with an excellently tended garden, beautifully kept. There were paths set to walk between the greenery and admire the flower beds and the trees, large enough that one really could take a stroll through it, especially with the stairs that led down the other side around the mansion. The elegant tiles right at the front and antique stained glass all around the front door and set within the wooden door to make a small window served as the cherry on top to this very rich pie.
It's not right. My home has a beautiful garden, but the space is limited. My mother kept everything together and took care of it. It might not have been as precise and orderly as this, but it didn't feel as artificial either. I wasn't truly confused anymore about that. I knew the difference, but just felt the need to grumble to myself. Not quite ready to mourn what I had lost.
The front hall was quite a grand thing, a large open space living room. Ridiculously large, really, since it was big enough to go to the back end of the mansion. It definitely wasn't crowded, but had enough to not feel empty, rugs and lamps placed strategically by paintings hung on the walls. The largest of them was of a very strange pale blue swan captured head on to make its eyes look odd, sticking out at the sides. Cabinets filled with a modest amount of books on either end of the living room itself, with hallways branching off to doors on either side to the rest of the manor. Chairs, a large L-shaped couch and table were set up in the center of the room to relax, and there was even a small kitchenette in there to grab snacks, but what really caught anyone's attention was the window.
It took up most of the back wall, the curtains pulled fully open to reveal a breathtaking sight. Just off the small hill the mansion was situated on was a vast beach leading to a glittering ocean as far as the eye could see. Off to the side, I could make out a few palm trees poking from below. A real beachside mansion. Wow.
Butlers and maids set about their chores here and there, tidying up in places. Or maybe just trying to look like they were working at my sudden appearance. I distantly noted all this as the maid quickly led me through to the left side of the building. What was her name again? Nemona's memories, or, I guess mine, make me think it's Leah?
She took me into the true kitchen, where she rummaged in the cupboards for first aid supplies before inspecting. You probably could have just asked me if I was hurt first, before getting that out. I didn't say that, however, and decided to throw her a bone. "I'm fine Leah, not hurt, so don't worry."
My voice sounded odd. It was an odd thing to fixate on, but it just threw me off a bit, to hear my voice and not see it as my own. Leah didn't seem to believe me, quickly inspecting me, ruffling through my hair to make sure I didn't have any scrapes. Eventually though, she accepted that if she couldn't see anything, I probably wasn't actually hurt.
"Alright, fine, I believe you. But no more time outside, ok? I know you just moved here, but it's dangerous to go wandering off by yourself," She said sternly.
We just moved here? Right, we did. Details on the rest of my history and family were still a bit vague and blurry for the moment, but I did recall moving here a few months ago. Wherever 'here' is. "Ok. Can I look stuff up on the computer?" Even trying really hard to pronounce the words well, I found I was talking with a bit of childish lisp. Leah looked suspicious instantly.
"You just want to stay inside?" Then, as if realizing that might give me the chance to go back on what I asked for, she turned around and said "That's fine, young miss! Stay in the den, I'll see where your phone has run off to."
If I didn't have vague memories of how much 'I' like to run about places I'd wonder about how wise it is to try and 'distract' a child with electronics. Then again, she's probably doing her best while my parents are off with their jobs. The pieces were hard to put together, but given how lavish the estate was, I was pretty sure both my parents had very high paying jobs.
The kitchen proper had marble counters and stainless steel for the center island where much of the prep work was done, further selling the opulence of my new life. I could hear the television on in the den, one of the rooms just past the kitchen, but for the moment decided to get a better look at myself.
Climbing up on a stool, I stood on it and looked down at my reflection. It wasn't the best mirror, but given how well the staff kept things clean, it was good enough. I was small, obviously, being five or so years old. My age also meant I had a bit of that 'baby pudginess' left on my cheeks. I was wearing a dress that was frilly and pink enough to make me want to tear it off. Freckles were a new thing, just a few of them dusting the bridge of my nose. I had always thought freckles were cute, so I didn't mind that change, unlike the rest of it (i.e. being five years old again). The short black hair wasn't very noteworthy, but the two small locks of green hair that struck out from it along with my vibrant amber eyes, were.
With the time I had to settle down, I started trying to puzzle things out logically. I don't think they would have dyed one lock of hair for me, so this is probably natural. Definitely a different world I've been reborn in. I've got a wealthy family at least, which is nice… hopefully. Still can't remember too much of dear old 'mom' or 'dad' here, but not sure if that's just the memories being fuzzy still or they really aren't around that much.
That thought had me instantly thinking of The Realm in Exalted. Hands off, but incredibly wealthy nobles that can afford tons of servants to look after and basically raise their kids? Check. Anime hair colors? Check again, with special thanks to the Dragonblooded and how their elemental features could change stuff like hair even more as time goes on.
I did my best not to panic, but I was really hoping that it wasn't the case that I was reborn in Creation. The Dragonblooded might seem like the top dogs, but there were beavies of threats waiting in the shadows to tear them, and the entire world, down. Solar and Lunar exalts might kill me just for being a Dynast (if I was one), to say nothing of the other monsters, all of which could likely manage even if I did get chosen to become an elemental demi-god.
Okay, step 1: Exalt. Step 2: Get five pairs of artifact short daiklaives. Step 3: Heavy artifact armor and that one hearthstone to treat it as medium, or more likely, medium artifact armor. Step 4: Find teacher to learn Thousand Blades Style and Fire Dragon Style. Step 5: Profit. Step 6: Don't die to assassins in my sleep, or poison, or other rivals in the Realm, or just Celestial exalts that can kill me anyways-
My totally reasonable plans were derailed by a small fragment I heard from the television in the other room. "-what an impressive use of Aura! His opponent is on the backfoot now. Luc-" I didn't catch the rest, but it had me thinking again.
Right, a television, no way I'm in Creation. Unless it's a Modern Shard? - No, I don't think it's quite right.. Aura… is this RWBY? Or rather, Remnant? I thought about that for a minute and tried not to freak out even more. Crud, Remnant is even worse than Creation. Both are besieged by horrors trying to kill all mortals and end the world, but at least people are (generally) winning in Creation. How would I beat an insane immortal witch? Trick her into the Never After (which itself needs Ambrosius to make a portal), something something, big tree make her not my problem?
Things were surprisingly peaceful, however, which had me thinking that this might not be Remnant, even with the mention of Aura. A manor like this would definitely have a security system to deal with the Grimm. Also there weren't any Faunus among the staff, which traditionally they were kinda given those jobs.Hmm, no Faunus at all might mean I'm in pre-Salem times Remnant. In which case, genocidal brother gods to worry about, but on the plus side, magic! I waved my hands out trying to conjure a lightning bolt, before thinking about where I was or the damage it would cause. Thankfully, nothing happened, beyond me nearly losing balance on the stool.
My antics were interrupted by Leah coming back into the room. "Oh, there you are. Please get down from there," She lightly scolded, taking me off the stool. "I found your phone, you can play in the den. Kevin will be using the kitchen shortly to prepare dinner." I was a bit distracted from her words as the red 'phone' flew out from behind her and hovered in front of me. The back had a smiling face with large blue eyes and a grin.
"Bzzt - greetings Nemona. I was just charging on one of the docks since I thought you would be outside. What do you wish to look up, bzzt?" The Rotom Phone asked me as it flipped over to show the screen.
I blinked as the pieces finally slid into place. "I'm… I'm in Pokemon."
And so begins the first step on my journey to become a Pokemon Master! Well, less like first step, more like opening my eyes to see the track is there, haha. I really enjoyed Scarlet & Violet, they reinvigorated my interest in the franchise. After reading a bunch of great Pokemon isekai stories, and some great non-isekai Pokemon stories, I was inspired to share some of my own ideas as well. The title is a bit of a play on both the opening theme song that captivated me as a child, but also a bit of a joke at how many stories there are like this. Still, I hope to bring some new ideas to this and that you'll all enjoy.
Leah had obviously misheard me and said "Yes young miss, this is a Pokemon known as Rotom. It's-"
"Really strong! It can possess things and have different forms. Wash Rotom has the least weaknesses, only to Grass I think. Heat Rotom has only two, but it has a ton of resistances!" I exclaimed exuberantly. Rotom is so cool a Pokemon, I always loved having one on my teams in the… games.
"That's… correct." She was a bit surprised but rallied back quickly and settled her face back to a neutral smile. "Your father will be happy to hear you know so much. Why don't you go wait in the den as you look up whatever you want to look up." It was less a suggestion and more an order I numbly followed as I was dealing with this new information.
Inside the den, I saw the television showing a tournament, where a Lucario was fighting against a Tinkaton. Or maybe a Tinka…tuff? The hammer looks kinda small. Unbidden, a fan image of a 'dynamax' Tinkaton popped into my mind, a meme of where only the hammer grew larger. The humor of that mixed with my own sadness as I really tried to deal with the fact that I was stuck in a not-so-fictional feeling world and started to cry.
"Oh no! Bzzt. You seem to be upset. Shall I grab the staff-" Rotom said, reminding me of their presence.
"N-no!" I quickly said, reaching out as if to grab him before he stopped drifting towards the door. I'm glad that no one else heard my outburst. I also guess that's why they were fine with me searching up whatever - Rotom is sorta the perfect child lock, able to both redirect, block, and report on anything I search, or even anything that happens to me.
It was creepy, in a way, but seeing the back of the phone case and the obvious worry in its eyes, I couldn't be upset with it for wanting to help me. I need to find out more about this world, just- figure things out.
"I think I heard about a trainer, Ash Ketchum-"
Rotom answered immediately "Bzzt, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, the champion of Alola and reigning champion of the Master's Eight tournament."
It looks like I'm out of anime town at least. It was a relief in many ways - I hadn't watched the anime in years and while I'd be tempted to get involved in the craziness and help 'save the world' a bunch, I wasn't sure I wanted to leap into that. Out of curiosity, I decided to look up 'Who is the current Paldean champion?'
That turned up a couple of different results, as I was reminded that Paldea had multiple trainers with the 'champion rank', rather than one champion. Skimming over some of their battles and team compositions, they seemed decent, but very few of them seemed 'champion' material, at least in my eyes. The 'El Primero' did seem slightly better, with a pseudo legendaries in Baxcalibur as his ace.
Blake Hogan. Never heard of this guy before. A bit more digging revealed why. Paldea hadn't had a great run with champions in tournaments abroad the past few years. Oh sure, our 'champion ranks' did really well as elites in the other tournaments, but the bigger events, like the conferences and Masters Eight, they didn't rank highly.
When I went to play some of the videos, Rotom pleasantly surprised me again by sending the video straight to the television, casting it without my input. "Thanks, Rotom." Then I set about watching. There were other things I could be doing, panicking about my situation chief among them, but I decided to push that away for the moment and just enjoy myself.
These battles are fun. I enjoyed the games enough but… they were just games. So cool to see how they're done for real. Terrain was employed quite well in these high level battles, using even little things like ground types breaking up the ground just to interrupt movement and reposition. There were still very flashy destructive attacks too, of course.
"What Move was that?" I wondered aloud as I saw a Zangoose move like she was going for a Slash, but then just sorta grab and squeeze the Mighteyena with her claws only.
"That was 'Crush Claw', I believe." Rotom said. "Though I'm afraid I don't know all the specifics of the move, I'm a Rotom Phone, not a Rotom Dex." I blinked. But don't they all have the app?
"What moves do you know?"
"Oh Bzzt, I have a decent knowledge. Absorb, Accelerock-"
"No no no," I laughed. "What moves do you know?" That seemed to flummox the phone for a moment.
"I am capable of Astonish, Double Team,… and I can probably do Thunder Shock." It eventually said, the matches still ongoing as we spoke. Ouch, not a lot there. Rotom automatically gets a really strong attack in any form, but there's only so much that one Move can do in a fight.
"Have you ever thought about battling? I bet with some training you could even wipe the floor with guys like that," I said, pointing to the screen. Admittedly, I had waited until it showed a Grass Type that I felt fairly confident Rotom could beat with most of their different forms. Honestly, kinda surprised someone used an Arboliva to a tournament this high. I mean, clearly, this world is not the games. Pokemon aren't limited to four Moves at a time and a small cliff isn't an impenetrable barrier. Even a Pikachu can be worthy of World Champion, but… this trainer doesn't look like she knows what she's doing.
Her Pokemon was getting blasted around by the Turtonator her Alolan opponent had out, not able to mount a proper defense let alone offense. Arboliva's ability was at least triggering to set up the field, but that was when the other trainer started dancing…
"… Ohh! It looks like Arboliva has been hit by a powerful blast and is out!!" The announcer said after Inferno Overdrive wiped out not only the olive pokemon, but also the field, burning down the Grassy Terrain she had tried to set up.
Rotom looked at me dubiously. "Thank you for the support young miss, but I don't think I'd ever do something like that."
"Well, that's just cause you don't know any Z-moves." My own words gave me a sudden realization. That's why we aren't doing well in the high level tournaments - we don't have the Terra Orbs! Just like the Pokedex App, they haven't been invented yet.
It was hardly the only reason, admittedly. Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh didn't have an abundance of Mega Stones or any Z-Crystals and I assumed they were doing alright. It does mean I can't rely on my knowledge of the world perfectly though. My knowledge in… Nemona's body.
Nemona was a canon character in the latest mainline console Pokemon games, and arguably one of the most important. As you play the game, she's your Rival, one of the first other characters you're introduced to. She teaches the player the ropes of how to play the game, and brings you to the school and encourages you to fight gym battles and go against the Elite Four… so that in the end you can fight her, the Champion. Her battle tendency was legendary, much meme'd upon on the internet, but she's definitely no slouch in a fight, constantly pushing the player until they can become a champion too.
What does it mean to be a major character? I'll be involved in helping shut off the Time Machine, going down to Area Zero with the 'player character', Arven, and Penny. Should I change things? Can I change things?
My curiosity piqued, I researched the topic, curious to see what would be said about the mythical 'Great Crater of Paldea' in this world. To do that I grabbed toward my phone, before stopping as it hovered in front of me. "What can I help you with, bzzt?" Right, my phone is sentient now, that's something I have to deal with.
"Uhh, just wanted to look some things up on the inter- on the PokeNet." I hastily corrected myself. "Umm, I'll just type them in myself, if you don't mind." They didn't object, easily allowing me to hold their case and begin typing. I was just too used to doing so in my past life to try just asking Rotom to search everything up. In many ways, the PokeNet was similar to the Internet, though from a quick glance there were less search engines and social media. Many videos were available, mostly on Pokemon and I saw that Rotom was streaming such highlights from Pokevid, the videos uninterrupted as I trawled through the online world for information about the most dangerous place in Paldea.
A plethora of warnings, restrictions, and recommendations to avoid were the first thing that hit me, popping up on the first search. After acknowledging that I knew all the risks, what I got was a League site saying how any exploration to the Great Crater had to be League approved, and it didn't sound like they approved of missions often or easily. The last time they had approved of a mission to the bottom, Area Zero, had been Heath's expedition, 200 years ago.
On the other hand, considering how often historically any trips to Area Zero, trying to claim its 'treasures' have ended up just pouring money and lives down the drain, I do see where they're coming from. Still, potential revocation of trainer license? That's harsh. Then again, the price of failure there is usually death, so they have to hit you with something scary like potentially losing all your Pokemon to try and keep you out.
"Surely you aren't considering going to the Great Crater, Nemona?" Rotom asked nervously, reminding me of his presence from the back of the very screen I was typing into. "If you're looking for any rare Pokemon, I'm sure your parents can buy them for you.
I frowned. "No, I'm not going there. At least, not for a long time, till I'm grown up." Or however old I'd be by the time Arven decides to go down there… again. Maybe I can at least pre-empt the first trip that would end up hurting Mabostiff?
That was still a lot to deal with so I elected to not do so. Which meant having to deal with the other thing I was trying to avoid. I'm in a different world. Different (plot relevant!) body. How did this happen? What should I do? More than just future plans, I had to think about how to blend in. I would probably get put in an asylum if I tried telling Nemona's parents I was a thirty year old who ended up inside their daughter's body. If they don't think I'm some Psychic or Ghost type possessing her at least.
That worrying thought had me quickly scrambling to look up how likely such things were, as well as discreetly try and see how much of a 'deathworld' vs. 'anime world' this version of Pokemon was. Rotom will keep track of what I search at least, so I can try and search around for info on types of Pokemon in the wild, statistics, and stuff like that.
Despite Ash existing and all, it wasn't a perfect anime world. There were certainly disappearances every year from young, inexperienced trainers out on their journeys. The numbers overall weren't bad, however. Only a dozen or so every year from the Great Treasure Hunt. That's pretty impressive considering just how big Uva Academy is, and how many people of all ages are considered students. The school, unsurprisingly, had some of the best records for such things. I knew it wasn't a perfect picture, especially since they hardly advertised 'people die here every year'.
Further investigation muddied the waters, however. So, a lot of the students, especially the older ones who act more as researchers, might not even leave the school library. One guy mentioned his 'treasure', a dusty old research scroll from the age of Paldean Kings and Queens found buried in a part of the library, and no sign he went anywhere else during that time. But also, some of the records show students disappearing off the records after the Hunt… but only because they went and found their treasure, which turned out to be like, a desire to be a baker or something and dropped out.
Still, I thought I had pretty good chances of surviving in this world, provided I kept my wits about me. There's not a lot about specific types or regions to avoid either. Basic generalizations existed, Ghost types being 'spooky' and often seen as pranksters, for instance. Grass types having a tendency for nurturing personalities, etc.
'Gimmieghoul's are such pests. One of them confused me for a moment, forcing me to empty out my purse looking for a coin, then ignored all of my Poke Coins! I had to spend so long picking them back up.' One blogger angrily posted. Huh, I guess no one has managed to evolve one into a Gholdengo then. Understandable - in the game you'd need to farm the specific coins off nearly every chest in Paldea to make enough. If all the Gimmie's hoard part of the gold, no one could see what they evolve into.
The fact that the possession wore off, seemingly naturally, was also surprising to me. I investigated further and saw that most types of mind control or subversion were either ignored by people or quickly broken. Maybe humans developed natural defenses against such things? Like they did to other attacks? Changing tracks, I started looking at more wilderness videos than battle ones. It was still very Pokemon centric, but outside of the professional arena's they demonstrated that people could survive a stray attack or two.
"Wow, that Magnezone is pretty strong," I idly commented, having watched some nature documentary-esque videos as I researched. This one showed a Magnezone near the top of the ridge to the Great Crater scaring off some Braviary that flew by with some type of electrical attack I couldn't name. That was about as close as any official videos got to the Great Crater, and even that one repeatedly warned the dangers and that they had a team of Rangers standing close by off camera. All this and Arven still snuck into the Great Crater. How desperate was he to see his parent?
"They can release powerful discharges of lightning, bzzt!" Rotom helpfully supplied. "Do you want a Magnemite when you're older?" A pattern was already forming as I looked up the different Pokemon, especially any I stopped on or seemed interested in. Rotom would ask me if I wanted that Pokemon. I figured it was the equivalent of asking a kid 'what (job) they wanted to be when they grew up.'
"Nah. They're pretty tough and strong, but the double weakness to ground is killer- It's rough. I really like Electric types that can eliminate their only weakness, like Eelektross or Rotom." I think that Magnezone can use Magnet Rise as well to do that? But they're pretty slow from what I remember, and time wasted in a battle is killer. "If those Braviary's were better trained they could have hit it with a few Fighting moves and taken it out."
On that note, I looked up how much a Life Orb cost and if it was a thing here, recalling that Braviary had Sheer Force which could combo well with it. Immediately after reading the price tag, I closed the tab. That is a lot of zeroes. I know I'm maybe rich now, but I'd feel guilty buying that… Even if Life Orbs are pretty cool.
"Dinner time!" Leah's call came out, and I blinked, realizing that hours had passed in my research.
"Coming!" I yelled back and started scrambling for dinner. The sudden reminder made my belly growl and I was quite aware of how hungry I was all of a sudden. Washing up in the kitchen, I made my way through the house, running to where I recalled the Dining Hall to be. By the time I got there, I was puffed from the running. Okay, I know this house is big and I'm a kid now, but that's kinda ridiculous. I have got to work on my stamina.
When I looked up, I took in the Dining Hall, getting the full picture of it beyond my blurry baby memories for the first time. A long table, capable of seating a dozen on each side was in the center of the room, an elegant tablecloth draped on top of it that looked fancier than some tapestries hanging on castle walls. Above it hung an elegant crystal chandelier that I could now recognize was in the shape of a Dragonair. Off to the sides stood a few butlers and maids, ready to take care of any request and bring out the food and plates to and from the kitchen. At the very end of the table three people were sitting down.
The two adults were dressed in some of the most garish outfits I'd ever seen. The woman was wearing a shoulderless dress suit, held up by a thin circular strap around her neck and had her white and dark yellow hair up in a bun. The man beside her had something close to some of the martial arts gi's I'd worn in my previous life, but too fancy and flimsy for any combat sport. The cut of the robes wasn't right for it either, and the shimmery gold quality to it and the belt didn't work. His darker yellowish hair is put in a bob cut. Both of their outfits were made of a silky, eye-catching gold material with black diamond trim and patterns. Wait, there's only one set of characters that can be this flashy. They're…
"Surprise! We caught a quick flight back and made it in time for dinner." O'Nare, my mother in this life, said, clapping her hands together.
"Yeah, and I had to wait for you and now Nims,'' the third, much younger person at the table said. I turned to look at her. She was about nine or ten years old, wearing a dark blue skirt and white blouse with lace trim that weren't anywhere near as gaudy as our parents, but still screamed 'incredibly wealthy'. She had long white hair, like O'Nare, but it hung loose down to her shoulders, with a single lock of red, much like my green ones, though on the opposite side.
It took me a moment to realize she was talking about me, at which point Billy - our father - said "Such stoicism, Cyan! That's the Glitterati way, pushing through the hardships! But your sister is here now and the chef has cooked up some delicious lobster for us, so we don't have to wait any longer." He motioned to the chair on the other side of him and I rushed up, sitting down.
The meal was delicious, cooked to absolute perfection and I was ravenous. Enough so that I was nearly distracted from the fact that I'm a member of the Glitterati family. Oh boy. This is gonna be a wild trip.
As we ate, Billy and O'Nare, or rather 'mother' and 'father', regaled us with their trip to Johto. "The dancers put on a splendid show. And the use of special effects, to mimic the 'burning of the sacred tower'. Incredible!" Billy said.
"Indeed. The girls were so in-synch with their eeveelutions." O'Nare commented. Okay, so that is a term here, good to know. Then she turned to us. "What have you girls been up to?"
Cyan sat up straighter. "I've been studying the economics books you gave me. I'm already on chapter five. I think Nims has just been rolling around in the dirt."
"Hey!" I said, affronted by what she said. I don't think even the original was that bad, just overly focused on battles. "I've been looking up tons of stuff." My childish lisp snuck in once again as I wasn't paying enough attention, unfortunately undercutting my words. Billy and O'Nare didn't seem to mind, but Cyan looked a bit disbelieving.
"Oh yeah? What's the relationship between supply and demand then?" She asked. Our parents - Still so weird to think of them like that - tried to explain that I was too young, but I cleared my throat.
"I was mostly looking up Pokemon stuff, but the amount you have, or supply available, determines how much can be charged for it, or the demand, and vice versa, right?" Really not the best at Economics, but I think that sounds about right.
Billy clapped his hands together. "Well done, dear. Our daughter, the little genius. As expected of a Glitterati scion." I blushed at the weird praise, while Cyan looked a bit shocked. Both him and O'Nare then launched into a lecture, explaining the reciprocal nature of both in much greater detail. They just seemed like ditzy tourists in the DLC, but I guess they don't each run a massive national company by being dumb… at least when it comes to the details of those jobs.
'Mother' was the president of Paldea Realty, while 'Father' ran the Rotom Phone Company. When he brought up an example using his company and the phones they made, Leah chimed in from the side. "Nemona is actually quite interested in Rotoms. She mentioned some facts that even I didn't know about earlier today." The adults all turned to me, curiosity piqued, and even Cyan was looking at me questioningly.
Guess there's no way to squirm out of this. "Uh, yeah. I just think they're really cool in how they can change types based on what machine they possess. And they can also enhance the machine to use really powerful attacks based off of some appliances. That plus their Ability, Levitate, covers any weaknesses from the Electric side they always have, which makes them great battlers!" Was that too much? I hope it wasn't.
Billy practically had stars in his eyes, holding a hand up to his face as if awed by my 'brilliance.' "That's… correct! Rotom can do so much for us, it's incredible! We designed the Rotom Phone to make best use of all of their incredible abilities - a regular machine would be burnt out in just a day being possessed by them. We actually make the Rotom Battle Catalog as well, and a number of other appliances for them to use. Not many Rotom's like battling, however."
I wonder why? From what I looked up most Pokemon enjoy fighting, in the wild or with trainers helping lead them. They say that all Pokemon have that drive to grow stronger, though few actually seek out to permanently hurt other people or Pokemon. Though that's almost always followed by a warning on how territorial some Pokemon can be and to be cautious when traveling in the wilderness.
Dinner was finished and I was soon sent off to bed. It felt early, but given how crazy everything had been so far, I was happy to take the excuse.
The bedroom was almost castle-like to my memories from my old life. . A bed that reminded me of royalty took up the center back end of the room. It was adorned with silky curtains that gleamed almost marble-like as I could see the burl wood frame inviting me to sleep. There was an open box of toys on one side, with a mess of plastic Pokemon scattered nearby. Adorning another corner was a small table fit for a child's tea parties with matching chairs. The closet (if you could call it one) was bigger than your old apartment. Clothes both fancy and functional lined the walls, and I wondered how much money went into the entire furnishings of the room. Thousands of dollars, or whatever the equivalent was the minimum cost for the extravagance in front of my eyes.
Leah quickly ushered me to bed, closing the curtains and cutting out the moonlight that had been streaming in. I didn't resist, flopping down into the bed, too overwhelmed to even resist her unnecessarily tucking me in. Think that's enough for tonight. Let's see if I can wake up and find it was all a crazy dream tomorrow.
And so we get to see a bit more of Nemona's situation. I decided to go with the fan theory of her being a Glitterati - we already know she's from a rich family and I think these two are really fun characters, so why not have them instead of a couple of OCs? I hope you all enjoy.
It was not a dream, I found as I woke with a start, sweating and gasping for breath. It was hard to recall, the details slipping like water between my hands, but I remembered being out of place.
I was in an exam, for some university course that I had, somehow, missed half the classes for. I couldn't understand the questions, and I'd have to tell my parents, but I hadn't been in university for years now. I told my family about it, but they asked why I looked so weird. Then I walked up to a full-length mirror (a mirror we'd thrown out and remodeled the room years ago) and I saw-
Then I woke up here and - It's all wrong. My room, my body, my home… It's all gone.
The tears started flowing and I was crying, trying to hold back sobs that might wake up anyone else. It was still fairly dark, only a sliver of moonlight through the window illuminating my room, so I assumed they would all still be asleep. Not that my attempts managed much… but no one came anyway.
One upside to an enormous house I guess. I thought, in between remembered flashes of friends and family that I'd never see again. I managed to quiet myself down, but did not get back to sleep by the morning.
***
"All right, time for your lessons today, Young Miss." Leah said with a smile plastered on her face. I understood why - it was hard to get me to focus on these things. Before, it might have been because I was an average, hyperactive young child. Now…
"If two Pawmi are charging a battery with ten volts of electricity each, and then another Pawmi starts charging it too, how many volts of electricity are they charging the battery with?"
"Thirty." Now I'm just bored. Still, it shouldn't be too much longer- Rotom made an alarm sound, hovering up in the air. "Ah, lesson's over, thank you Leah!" I said, scrambling up, halfway out the door before I felt her hand on my shoulder.
"Where do you think you're going, Young Miss?" She asked in a deceptively sweet tone.
"Outside? The lesson's done so I was just going to run a bit-"
"Excellent, I'll let the majordomo know and we can head out together."
The staff took care of us very seriously, so I was under constant surveillance when I went outside. We walked off the estate and up the path to a nearby hill. The grassy plain rolled gently out before us and there was a long stretch of smooth ground that made for a decent running track, a few trees serving as makeshift markers to help me measure distance. Beyond that was another house, currently being renovated, and in about a decade? Would serve as the home of one the greatest trainers to grace this land, the player character.
"Could we go a bit further-" I began before she interrupted me.
"No, Young Miss," she said firmly. "I don't think we should wander farther away from home than this." I bit back a groan and all the counterarguments sprang to the tip of my tongue. They won't do any good. I've tried before, but she's adamant on making sure I don't get into trouble.
With a small sigh, I dedicated that frustrated energy to running. My new body was strong, and part of me wanted to practice martial arts, and split trees apart with my newfound strength!... The other, more sensible part of me recognized that I was only super strong by the standards of a five-year-old in my world, so I'd still need to grow a bit before I could do anything like that (and that Leah would freak out if I tried in front of her). The trainer part of me was analyzing my weaknesses and knew what I needed to work on.
After a few minutes of stretching, I began running, doing suicide runs, (approximately) 100 meter dashes, and laps around the hill. These runs were often interspersed by rest breaks, as my stamina was, frankly, terrible. Is this just part of being a kid again? No, I feel like even a normal child's body wouldn't get dead tired from a minute of running. At least the view is nice.
From where I sat, I could see the hill, sloping down towards my house and branching off on different routes towards the major cities of Paldea. Other hills rose up, blocking my view from here of the nearby Los Platos or Mesagoza, but I saw the top of the giant Pokeball tower from the pinnacle school off in the distance. On the other side, I was treated to an endless expanse of blue, the sea stretching out seemingly forever, sparkling in the sunlight. Saying it was nice, was probably an understatement, the view was spectacular, here and down at the beachside home.
Something else I found catching my eye even more than the gorgeous natural terrain around me were Pokemon. This location was supposedly quiet and calm compared to others (likely another draw and why my parents moved here), but there were still Pokemon all around me. In the skies, Wingulls sang freely and soared through the air, drifting lazily by, while Fletchings swooped around them, racing each other. On the ground, Lechonks milled about nibbling on grass, tiny Scatterbugs (yet still gigantic by my still adjusting standards of 'bug') tried to avoid being underfoot of the pig-like Pokemon or chased off by the more territorial Tarountula hanging down from tree branches. Out on the ocean, Buizel drifted on the surface, frolicking playfully with Finizen's leaping out above the waves.
I can't believe I missed all of this, even while I was disoriented remembering… everything. Those thoughts still haunted me at times, especially at night, keeping me up and asking questions I had no answers to. 'How did I get here?' 'Why am I here?' 'Am I even myself still, or Nemona? Is she dead, or does she just have my memories? Is there a difference?' However it had happened, no one was showing up to give me the answers, so I just had to keep on moving forward every day. Admittedly, an easier thing to do when you live a life as blessed as mine.
After an hour of exercise, I was marched back inside, as none of the maids or butlers wanted to spend hours on end just watching me run around, get tired, rest, and do it all again, over and over. Of course, while my body was busy, I was thinking and planning. I went straight online once I was done with my bath and no longer so sweaty.
Politics (international and local), technology, business, geography, history, and of course the factor that tied them all together and more: Pokemon. I had so much I wanted to learn about this wonderful world and began voraciously devouring every scrap of information I could get.
Some things were easy, a quick search on the Luugle (one of the main search engines the 'Pokenet' had) found the answer easily, for things like 'Results of X or Y tournament'. Others I had to look through a few more articles. If I wanted to find 'common migratory patterns of Girafarig in Paldea', I'd have to look up a few different posts on forums and other sites and cross reference that with the Map App to get a clearer picture. And even then, that's only because Girafarig is fairly common. Locations of Dragons like my beloved Axew are much closer kept secrets, with information on them scant.
I suspected there was some group intentionally obscuring this knowledge since I knew from the games that there was a lake in the north that had tons of Dragons roaming about, and plenty of Dragon trainers too. I suspected the latter was obscuring the former. Wasn't Hassel part of a clan about that too?
Unfortunately, as much as I liked the game, I was pretty casual and thus did not seem to be blessed with the perfect knowledge that other self-inserts gained. Isn't that why the genre exists in the first place? Future/meta-knowledge is the biggest cheat anyway, and I don't even get all of that or the random superpowers everyone else gets? Unfair!
Aura was something I looked up extensively too, but to little avail. Most references about it were oblique, hidden things. Mentioning great trainers doing great things through 'physical and mental focus' or 'bringing out their hidden potential to save the day.' Hardly anything that would give me a place to begin. Honestly, I'm not too upset about it. Even at its best, it doesn't feel like it lets you do much that a Pokemon wouldn't be able to do better. Still, if I can find a teacher, I would like to learn it. Just seems cool to have, and every trick or skill or edge I can get, I want to aim for.
Anise, another of the maids looking after me and the house, came in to tuck me in for my nap. She was a bit older and a bit less enthusiastic about looking after me, unlike Leah, so when I said "Ok, I'll go to bed now," as I sat on the bed, I knew I didn't even have to pull the covers over me before she had closed the door again and I could go back to my online explorations. To be fair, sometimes I do actually nap. Never really liked napping in my old life, but a child's body works differently, and sometimes with the nightmares I don't get as much rest as I'd like at night.
Today however I was feeling fine, and so I motioned for Rotom to come back to me. "Bzzt, are you sure you should keep on searching online? If I knew what you wanted I could compile some search results for you, Young Miss, bzzt."
So weird to be referred to as 'Young Miss' here. Feels… like nobility or something, very much not what the majority of my memories are like. But I know Rotom means well and is just trying to help. "No thanks, I'm not even sure what I'll want to look up next. There were some forums I wanted to respond to as well." Rotom gave out a digital sigh but allowed me to peruse the sites. I knew if they actually wanted me to stop, they would just tell Leah or my parents.
My current search had to do with them, actually. My 'parents' had been so enamored by the performance they saw in Johto that they decided to buy nine Eevees after their trip, wanting to get their own set with the eight known evolutions and one base for their own little troupe. Not terrible in theory, but they're not home often enough to see their daughter… uh, daughters I guess (still weird to think that about myself, but getting less). Let alone form the close bonds needed to evolve three of them into an Umbreon, Espeon, and Sylveon.
Besides, I'd hung out with the Eeevees. While it was hard for me to communicate exactly with Pokemon, with a bit of trial and error, I got the impression that the Eevee's in question had different goals. Two of them were happy as they were, a third ambivalent. The fourth, fifth, and sixth were all hell demons 'energetic', and wanted to become Jolteons to be the fastest things around (and would often race each other to that end). The seventh wanted to be a Leafeon, and the eighth and ninth might have wanted to be Flareons, given how closely they huddled to the fireplace or oven.
I brought up my concerns with Leah at lunch today, and she just waved me off. "Oh yes. I imagine the Master and Mistress of the house will get bored of them soon and offer them to their friends or have Hamber sell them to someone else. Perhaps they'll even offer some to the staff; I think Anise has been eyeing one of them. I raised an eyebrow at that. Anise has been eyeing the Leafeon wannabe not because she wants an Eevee or Leafeon, but because he has the fluffiest tail of the group and wants to use him as a duster. I was more perturbed by how easily they talked about buying or selling Pokemon.
In practice, buying or selling a Pokemon was seen as 'acceptable' because you were paying the person for 'facilitating a good match'. Akin to how you'd pay a matchmaker, but on a more platonic level. Or at least I will always hope so and take great pains to avoid any parts of the Pokenet that go further than that. My worry came from the fact that the regulations I looked up to ensure these laws were upheld were… lax, to say the least.
Both human parties have to sign an official document and send it into the League for any official sale. But there's nothing from there that guarantees any investigation of the matter! You could easily be putting a Pokemon where it doesn't want to be, giving it to someone abusive. And there are clearly people who capture Pokemon, fellow sentient creatures, solely to sell them off! I tried posting some of my concerns online, to see if there was something I was missing or if others agreed with me that we needed better protections, but got a bunch of people shouting me down instead.
Things like: 'Pokemon are way stronger than humans, wtf are you worried about?'
I'd answer: 'A lot of Pokemon in their first stages are weaker or easily trapped, especially if the people catching them use other Pokemon to keep the newly caught ones in line.' Which is kinda horrible to think about, but Pokemon are fully capable of thinking for themselves, which means they're just as capable of being bastards to each other as people are.
They'd counter: 'If the Pokemon doesn't want to be there, they can just break out of the ball whenever they want.'
I'd respond: 'They could be hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their homes with no way to get back.' Master Balls exist too, and while those are supposed to be highly regulated by the League, I wouldn't be surprised if people with enough wealth and connections could get some. When I asked Leah about them, she just said they "were very fancy", which makes me think she's seen them before.
Also, I'd be accused of things like: 'Are you just a Team Plasma wannabe? We won't give up our Pokemon again for some mad scheme, loser.'
I'd say: 'I do not agree with anything Ghestis or his cult at the top tried to do, but the base idea of trying to make sure Pokemon are protected is a good one, and one we should take steps to achieve.' At least that maniac is gone. Most of the really evil teams have been dealt with already in this world. Pretty sure Rainbow Rocket never showed up in Alola this timeline though, so I should keep an eye out if they pop in with a bunch of failed other evil team bosses (and Ghestis).
Some more moderate posters said: 'Don't they track how Pokemon are traded? You can't trade more than a couple dozen every year, so why would anyone try and get involved in that?'
I'd argue: 'Some rare Pokemon are traded for vast sums each. Also, there's no limits on how Pokemon are gifted to others, which means you could 'give' them to people working with you, letting you catch and trade hundreds through proxies.' I understand not wanting to limit how Pokemon that are passed on within families as people would get quite upset if they had a beloved Pokemon in their family they grew up with and wanted to take on their journey. But some of the 'top rated' traders seem suspiciously like there's one barely legal poacher and a bunch of cousins and close friends working with them.
One interesting reply: 'Pokemon are to be protected from abuse. If you see someone hurting a Pokemon or other suspicious activities, then please report them to the League right away, and we'll do our best to investigate.
Edit: and thank you for the information on traders that might be looking to skirt the rules, I'll look into that.'
Gratefully, I said back: 'Thank you for the hotline number, I appreciate it.' At least someone is taking my claims seriously. Ah, this user is tagged as an Official Member of the Pokemon League, username… League_Official_Geeta, that makes sense. Huh, guess she isn't a Champion rank or Chairwoman yet. I wonder when that'll happen?
Eventually, I gave up on trying to scream into the void and stopped posting on the forums, though I did keep a bit of an eye on them… by which I meant I had Rotom look into it. I felt guilty, but Rotom quickly tried to reassure me. "Bzzt, it's no problem young Miss. I can automatically alert you if anything comes up. I often scroll these forums anyways- ahem. I mean bzzt, that I…"
I waved him off. "It's fine if you want to spend some time online. I know I do plenty of that too. What do you tend to look up anyways?"
Rotom blushed, which I was not aware was something they could do, possessing a phone and all. "Just some stuff looking into artificially created Pokemon bzzt. Porygon can also inhabit machines like I can bzzt, but in an entirely different way. Bzzt, I also like listening to Ryhme's raps." They admitted.
"Cool." Rap wasn't my favorite genre of music, but I did like some of the Youtube ciphers back in my old world that had some Pokemon-based raps and Rhyme was pretty good at what she did. "She's a Ghost type gym leader too, right? Makes sense you'd like her."
"Actually, you're mistaken, bzzt." I blanched as I realized that was a bit of future knowledge I'd mixed up again. "It's her sister, Tyme, that's the Rock-type Gym Leader though, so that's an easy mistake to make, bzzt."
Hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching the door, I quickly assumed the position of a good, sleeping girl for Anise to 'wake' me up for dinner.
Dinner was an interesting affair, to say the least. While I was getting used to the extravagance of our home, and I could definitely appreciate the delectable food, my family was a different story…
"And earlier today, I think I saw… a commoner," Billy said in tones one might use to say they had encountered a Legendary, to a level of shock from his wife which matched that, who gasped out loud.
"No! Really?"
"Yes! It was just for a moment, I think they mumbled something about getting lost from the touring group, and by the time I had rubbed my eyes in disbelief, they were gone!" Despite being in an anime-esque world, somehow a giant drop of sweat did not appear on my forehead at the ridiculousness of this all. They do know they're surrounded by commoners right now, don't they? The staff counts too.
I looked over at Leah, who caught my glance and slowly but firmly shook her head and raised a finger to her lips, warning me to keep quiet. Laughing, I took a quick sip of water, to hide my reaction, and my new 'sister' rolled her eyes. Either at me or our parents, it was hard to tell.
The topic moved on, and they addressed us. "Girls, why don't you tell us about your days?" O'Nare brightly asked myself and Cyan.
Cyan spoke up first, eagerly puffing up with pride. "My tutors taught me algebra. They said I was very advanced for being able to solve for 'X' right away."
Billy clapped his hands together. "Yes, bravo! Truly you're a shining star of the Glitterati family."
"Those lessons will do you well in calculating the values needed, for income tax or phone shipments." O'Nare added. "Have you decided which business you want to pursue?" Jeez, isn't that a bit much? She's only eleven.
"Uhh…" The white-haired girl said, frozen like a deer in the headlights. Yes, I'm still going to call them 'deer', regular animals exist in this world too you know! They're rare, and we can only eat meals like this rib-eye steak because our parents are so rich, but still. A lot of the phrases wouldn't even translate well - 'sheepish' works because sheep are often a little nervous and can't conjure lightning to electrocute you! And also don't grow up to become a kangaroo dragon thing. Man, the Mareep line is pretty weird, though kinda cool.
Seeing that my sister was still floundering, I decided to step in. "I had a good day today," I announced loudly. "I ran a lot and lasted a bit longer than yesterday, and then I looked up a bunch about Pokemon battling."
I knew Cyan looked up to our parents a lot, which is why she never wanted to disappoint either one of them. They were also busy enough with work that we basically only saw them at dinner time.
Despite that, she didn't seem to appreciate my save, sneering in a manner that would be subtle… for an eleven-year-old. "What good is looking up Pokemon battles?"
"Plenty, considering I'm gonna be the Champion." I fired back. You can have both of our parents' companies, battling is all I need. Well, not all I need, but, I mean who could get reborn into Pokemon and not want to 'be the best?' We all gotta want that, at least a little bit. Part of that desire might also be coming from the original Nemona, I didn't know. I doubted I would be quite as crazed about battling as her (or at least, would probably conceal it better if I was), but this was definitely what I wanted.
"I think you mean 'champion ranked trainer'," Cyan tried correcting, though she was still a bit off-balanced by my declaration.
"No, not just Champion ranked, the strongest Champion. I'll be the next La Primera!" The title Nemona always should have had in the games, being a far greater challenge than Geeta was. Honestly, I felt like the only reason she wasn't declared as such was because Geeta didn't want there to be that much pressure placed on a teenager's shoulders. But I'm not really a kid, am I? I'll be able to take it all on when the time comes.
"Oh how magnificent! With your drive you'll make for an excellent champion!"
"How spectacular! Aim for the top to always push past your limits!"
Billy and O'Nare exclaimed and I could practically see the stars in their eyes. Isn't this a bit much for a child just randomly saying they want to be a Champion? I mean, they aren't wrong here, I have the drive and the skill to do so, especially if I get started now - did they see all of that instantly from just a few words? I eyed them suspiciously for a moment before shaking the thought away as silly.
Abruptly, Cyan pushed her chair back. "I'm not hungry any more," she mumbled, her eyes growing wet. Before she could break out into tears she rushed off, practically running from the room.
"Hmm, well it is good not to overeat when you're at your limit," O'Nare said. I (barely) resisted the urge to face-palm. Yeah, they love us but they aren't the most perceptive. Not that noticing the problem helps me solve it. How do I live up to Nemona's potential while not stifling her sister's?
It was a question I couldn't figure out the answer to over dinner, or before I went to bed that night. Despite that and other things weighing me down, I was happy with the day. Every day I'll grow and learn a little more, until I become… me, whoever that is.
***
That was the average day I'd settled into in the first few months of having my restored memories, but it couldn't stay that way forever.
With a grunt, I managed to shove the last toy into the box, the container practically bursting at the seems(but all the toys placed in such a way that wouldn't damage any of them, of course), before closing the lid shut. Then I began pushing it over to the corner of the room where my little kiddie table was.
"Bzzt, are you sure about this?" Rotom asked hovering concernedly over me. Grunting, I pushed the box over to the corner.
"Whew." I know my stamina still isn't great, but I can understand being tired at pushing that thing around. It was like a treasure chest full of toys! An adventuring party could easily find 100 gold pieces worth of children's toys in there. I chuckled to myself before waving off Rotom. "Nevermind just thought of something funny. As to what you were saying, it's fine. I need to make some space for the new desk that's coming in today, and it's not like I'm throwing the toys out or anything."
That statement was half true; realistically, I could have easily fit the desk into my room and had a corner full of plushies, spin tops, action figures, and more. I'd been hesitant to move, even touch any of them at first. As days passed, I grew to accept my situation, at least enough to start living and interacting with the pieces of Nemona's life before I remembered everything. Treating everything like a mausoleum had been depressing.
I even tried playing with them. Unfortunately, children's toys just weren't that interesting to me anymore. Many were probably just bought on a whim and made of cheap material. I had fleeting memories of her, or maybe better said would be my past self, seeing an add of t.v. or a toy in a stand and asking for it immediately. This is why my room is so full of junk!! Even the better ones just weren't that fun to play with. Nothing like Lego existed in this world, which was the first time I was actually disappointed with it compared to my previous world.
Grabbing a pen and paper from the small table, I wrote down: 'Note to self - make Lego'. It joined a pile of other papers I had there. Several other half-formed ideas and plans were there. Stories, some 'original' and others adapted from my world were being plotted out. It was difficult as many themes didn't fit this world or needed adjustment to fit and hopefully one day achieve the same success they had in my world.
Rotom had offered to help, and I did take them up on it a lot, transcribing some of my ideas, but I liked writing. The act of putting pen to paper, or keystrokes to keyboard, helped me better envision what I wanted and was thinking of. This was part of why I was getting a desk, I was writing so much that I needed a place to properly sit down and work.
Looking at my messy table, I started gathering and organizing the different papers into their piles. Mostly it was based on how far developed they were and the like, but there were some personal papers like a journal I'd taken to writing. I never really wrote in journals before outside of school assignments, but I figured this would be good, to look back at once I'd been here for many years (and all signs pointed to me being in this for the long run). It also helped remind me in oblique ways about my future/past meta-knowledge. Of course, I had more direct notes on those things, legends, and myths that I knew to be oh too true, but those papers were hidden away.
Like the locations of the four Treasures of Ruin. The Beads, Tablets, Vessel, and Sword. While I know that others can research them and theoretically find the seals, I don't believe anyone has yet, much less know where all the stakes are. Admittedly, my memories on the stakes locations are vague, but I also know the requirements for how one could pull them out. You could just take a child to them and have the innocent kid release powerful Darkness on the land. Not that they don't have an effect already.
I had previously theorized that humans had developed resistance to Psychic powers or Ghostly possession over time, but I have since revised that. While it was likely somewhat true, it was only to the same degree that people in this world were naturally a bit tougher. There were much greater signs of such danger and more stringent laws and countermeasures in other countries. Some professors had theorized that Paldeans were simply more 'naturally' resistant to such things, but I had other ideas on the matter. Historical accounts list the old Kings and Queens of often being despots and make allusions to them using Psychic Pokemon to coerce their rivals. But that all ended a thousand years ago. The same time the Treasures were sealed.
It was all conjecture on my part, but Legendary Pokemon had a significant effect on the world around them. Who was to say that even sealed, the four Legendary Dark type Pokemon didn't have a similar effect on Paldea? Their energies were diffuse, so not enough to stop or even weaken such attacks in battle, but slowly would break down any mental hold a Ghost or Psychic type might establish over a few hours or days.
"What's 'Lego'?" Rotom asked, peering down at what I just wrote.
"Oh, It's an idea I had for some toys. They're designed in interconnecting colorful plastic bricks of different shapes and sizes so you build them together to make all sorts of structures. Ideally, they'd be sold in pre-designed sets, with instructions on how to make a certain or a couple of different designs. But you could also buy bulk pieces and mix and match pieces from sets to make anything you want!"
"Why are they called 'Lego' though, bzzt?" They asked. Ah, right, can't say it's knowledge from a toy company from another world.
"Uhh, because they need to be sturdy to connect well, but that also means that the bricks will sometimes get stuck together when you're trying to disassemble them. So you might yell 'let go' alot."
"I see," they said in a tone that indicated they very much did not. Still, they added "bzzt, this seems like quite an inventive idea. I look forward to seeing you develop this." It's just an idle thought, not sure if I'll have the time to start a big company like that or anything. But I could ensure that Bioncle lasts longer- no, I have to focus on becoming the Champion!
"Right. Thanks, Rotom." Then a message sound interrupted both of us. "What was that?" It was unusual for anyone to send me a message, at least beyond Billy or O'Nare occasionally letting me know directly that they wouldn't be able to make it back home in time for dinner/before my bedtime. If they even remembered to send that. They try to see us every couple of days or so, and I get how their jobs would keep them busy. Still not sure it's the best for raising kids, no matter how pampered we are. At least they aren't forcing me to wear the same gaudy outfits they do. Even outside of vacation wear, Billy and O'Nare's outfits had way too much gold for my tastes.
"Bzzt, it looks like they're planning on changing your schedule. You've been doing so well and flying ahead in your studies that they're planning on teaching you the same curriculum as the Young Master." Rotom was beaming while I was internally despairing.
No no no, this is bad. It means I'll have less time to write in my own notes and plans. Sure, it means I can avoid the dreaded 'finger painting', but I was pretty much able to do that already, just asking for a brush whenever given that as part of my 'studies'. It just caused my tutors to 'ooh' and 'aww' over how smart I was… which is probably part of why I'm stuck with this! More importantly though, Cyan… My new sister, Cyan, was the one any of the staff referred to as 'Young Master.' She was nice enough, but had been getting more and more upset recently, and directly proportional to how much people had begun praising my 'brilliance'.
She's quite intelligent and diligent for a ten-year-old. I can totally see how she'd end up taking over for her parents - our parents - in the future. It's hardly fair for anyone to compare her to me though. But how do I avoid that?
"Hey, Rotom, can we go see Cyan?"
"Hmm bzzt. She is in the middle of her studies right now…"
"Which means it's perfect for me to see what it'll be like! C'mon," I said, quickly moving past any of their concerns and to Cyan's room. Knocking once, I entered.
Her room was fairly similar to mine. Way too big, a light fixture far too fancy to be in a child's bedroom, and with a massive bed and walk-in closet. Where it differed was the fact that it had a bunch of bookshelves about three feet high, filled with a variety of books, and on top of which sat her toys. The walls were also painted a light blue, which I thought looked better than the orange in my room. It also had a desk where Cyan was sitting at, having turned to glare at me.
"Nims, what do you want?" She asked, seeming annoyed by my intrusion. She had been hunched over a set of books on mathematics. In my best 'little sibling' attitude, I hopped up onto her desk (which was large enough that even with her books spread out it had space and the structural integrity for me to sit on it).
"I wanted to see what you're doing. Rotom said I'm gonna be studying the same stuff as you are, so I wanted to see it." Rotom diligently floated up, a look on their 'face' that tried to show how they had tried to stop this and how discomforted they were by it all. For just a set of eyes and a mouth, they do a surprisingly good job of it.
"What!?" Cyan shrieked. "How could they think- you're five!" She said, as if that explained everything. In a way it kinda does, but I just need you to play along a bit.
"Yeah! Ooh, what's this stuff?" I asked, looking at one of the sheets she'd been working on. It was mostly multiplication or division, but there were a few algebra questions on it too at the bottom.
She snatched the paper out of my hands. "This is far too advanced for you. Do you even know your multiplication tables?"
"Uhh, Rotom, bring up multiplication tables." I said, doing my best to sound innocent.
"Yes young mis-"
"No! Rotom, stop that!" Cyan yelled, stomping her feet. I noticed she was wearing little white shoes to go with her white sundress today. "That's cheating."
Rotom looked torn between the two of us, before eventually something in my expression caused them to turn to Cyan. "Yes, Young Master. I'm sorry Young Miss, but you'll need to solve these problems on your own."
"Aww," I faux pouted for about half a second before perking up again. "Alright, what are the questions?"
Cyan looked a bit dazed at the quick turnabout but quickly recovered. "Fine, if you have seven great balls, and you sell them for seven hundred Pokedollars each, how much will you make? Ah, going for a word question right away to trip me up. 4900 is the answer, but I don't want to get it right. 7700? 770? Those seem like answers a child would get and be completely wrong… but that might be a bit too suspicious, given they're only thinking of moving me up so far in the first place because of how smart I'd shown myself to be.
My attempts at 'disguising' my intelligence had thus far not gone well… mostly because I gave up trying less than a week in. There was just way too much to learn to hold myself back that much! But I needed to, here. After a minute of seeming deep in thought about the question, I said: "Four hundred and twen- no, four thousand two hundred."
Rotom looked surprised, while Cyan was gleeful. "Nope! It's four thousand nine hundred," she proudly declared. She gave me a few more questions of lesser difficulty. I got some right, but plenty wrong before my sister said "I think this might be a bit much for you. Now quit bothering me so I can get back to work." Then in a softer tone, she added "We can hang out after, ok?"
"Okie dokie," I responded cheerfully before heading out. Alright, that's one problem dealt with-
Rotom waited until outside the hallway to cut into my thoughts. "That was very kind of you, Nemona."
"H-huh?" I stuttered turning to face the Plasma Pokemon.
"Don't worry, bzzt. I won't tell your parents about this." 'About the fact that I purposefully failed at answering those questions'. I'm surprised that Rotom saw right through me. "I still think you'll be moved up to some more advanced material though, if not surpassing Young Master quite yet," They continued.
Part of me felt bad that I hadn't been nearly sneaky enough. I knew I'd be different with all these memories in my head, but had hoped that some things would just be brushed off as growing up, or like my working out, be seen as close enough to Nemona's usual hyperactivity to be waved off. Mostly though, I was just glad to have an ally by my side.
"Thanks, Rotom."
"Ahem." We both whipped around to see Cyan glaring at us.
"Ah, Cyan. Uhh, how much of that did you hear-"
"All of it!" She snapped walking angrily towards me. I took a step back, caught between fight-or-flight instincts. "You barely left my room before you started bragging about how you tricked me!"
Tears were starting to well in her eyes and I needed to deflect her anger fast before it spiraled out of control. "You were out of my line of sight! That meant you stopped existing!"
"Wha- No! You have object permanence, I know it!" Sticking out my tongue a bit might have helped her deductions along there. Her rage evaporated (for the moment) and was replaced with exasperation and annoyance, she grabbed me and we wrestled for a moment, as siblings are wont to do.
She was much taller and stronger than me, but I had grappling experience from over two decades of martial arts practice. I didn't try to use any serious moves (she was just trying to noogie me after all), but even with a better understanding of weight, force, and joint motions, I was just able to avoid getting pinned down too long, not turn the tables on her.
After a minute of that, we were both panting, tired. Damn, I guess low stamina runs in the family. "Hah, hah. How can you be better at this too? It's not fair." She whined, and I heard a small sniffle too.
Well, she's not angry now, but sad isn't much better. Maybe I can clear things up… without revealing too much of myself. I don't think she could handle it if she found out I was someone else reincarnated as her sister. Or her sister given all these other memories, or whatever. A part of me also wondered if I was just using that as an excuse because I didn't want to see how they would react, but I shut that part of me up.
"Can we talk in your room?" I asked. She frowned but nodded, and we walked back inside.
She sat down on her massive four-corner bed, making it clear that despite the vast amount of space on it, there was no room for me. "What do you want? To rub it in my face how much smarter than me you are?" Sullen, but not back to angry, yet at least.
"No, I just… wanted to explain. You're intelligent too, and you don't need to compare yourself to me."
"I don't know all those stupid little facts that you know!"
"If they're stupid, why does it matter if I know them?" I countered.
"Argh! Because everyone else thinks that you're so great, and they're all looking at you and talking about you. They don't look at me that way." Close, but we aren't at the heart of the issue. I think I need to push a bit to get her to bring them up first though.
"People are dumb. They think that knowing some things are 'worth' more than other things." A nuclear physicist might say that knowledge of Pokemon was frivolous, but how would they fair if they then ended up in this world? "Besides, they're only acting that way because it's new. Give it a bit, and they'll all just take it as fact, be disappointed when I don't live up to the new expectations they set for me."
That was something I was actually worried about, and part of why I still wanted to learn so much. I liked living up to expectations, doing the right thing. This was all fake, though. A bit of extra experience and maturity didn't intrinsically make one a genius, so I have to keep on studying and learning to try and present myself as the genuine article. Though, to be fair, I enjoy learning too. It's an incredible world here.
"So you say. Mom and Dad are still paying attention to you and not me!" Cyan spat out.
"They're… honestly they aren't paying great attention to either of us. They don't see me any more often than they do you. And they care about you and what you do too! They'd be thrilled to have you running the Rotom Company and the Paldean Realty Group!"
"But what if I don't want that?! I just want them to, to notice me." That got her to curl in on herself, tucking her legs up and wrapping her arms around her knees.
I took it as an invitation to sit with her on the bed. "That's a tough one. They do care for us, but they aren't the best at noticing… things." Understatement of the century. "Just try to be yourself and talk to them when you can. I'm sure they'll appreciate anything you do."
"Stop showing off then." My sister grumbled and I huffed in response.
"It's not like I'm trying to. Honestly didn't want this in the first place, happier just to try and discover things at my own pace, hoping from topic to topic as I could find them online." It was hard to just focus on one thing, and I'd find my mind would drift to something else if given a moment. I'd had that problem somewhat in my old life, but it was amped up now, in Nemona's child-body.
"Try harder," was Cyan's unhelpful 'advice'. She blew the few red strands of hair that had fallen down out of her face and added "I wish I had something super cool that I could show off too. What happened to make you so smart and, and… self-assured."
"Hey, none of that. You're plenty smart too." Not many other 11-year-olds would use 'self assured'. "As for seeming confident, that's all it is." Lowering my voice as if letting her in on a big secret I added "It's that way for everyone else too. No one really knows it all, some people are just better at pretending than others."
"What about mom and dad?" She shot back, able to argue back even while feeling down on herself.
"They don't know everything either, they just… are so good at pretending they fool themselves." Hope that was a polite enough way to say 'your parents are kinda idiots.' Our parents. Shit. When that did not cheer her up, I added "Look, we just have to show them something cool you can do too. I'm sure they'll appreciate that." Of that, I had no doubt. The Glitterati's weren't malicious, just a bit oblivious.
"I can't do anything better than you, so what's the point?" She said, her words muffled as she found a pillow on her bed, and was lying face-down on it.
You're better at guilt tripping than me, I thought but didn't say. With a sigh, I calmed down and tried to think of something that would help. Getting up, I marched over to her desk, and after a moment of cursing my currently tiny body, climbed up on top of the chair to look at her work.
"You won't find anything special there," she moaned. In one way, she was correct - her work was quite good but hardly 'special'. I could spot a few tiny errors in some of her math here and there. But in the margins on her pages, I saw something quite interesting.
"Wait right there, I've got something I need to show you." Without waiting for a response, I rushed into my room, grabbed some of the papers I had sorted, and then ran back. "So, I had this idea for a comic, about a guy who was-"
"Is this just you doing more bragging?" She interrupted me.
"No, I was getting to it. So I had this idea for a superhero comic and- well look at my drawing." I held out two pages to her. One was her studies with an intricately drawn flower in the corner, while mine was…
"That looks like a fine Magmar to me," Cyan cocked her head to the side, trying to figure out what the problem was.
"Uhh, that's supposed to be a man in an Ariados themed costume."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. So, I'm not the greatest artist, at all. But I have visions, ideas of stories I want to tell. They could use your help to make them come to life. Can we… can we work together on this?" Can we stop being enemies? Please?
The white-haired girl sat still for a minute before she got up and shook her head. Not in disagreement, but more like she was shaking out all the bad thoughts from before. "Alright, tell me what you want to see. Your 'vision'."
"Awesome!" I pumped my fist in the air. "Ok, so Petey Parkour is bitten by a mystical Spinnarak one day, and after feeling sick for a bite, he suddenly finds himself imbued with incredible powers…"
***
"Hey, mom, dad, we have something to show you." I said before we sat down for dinner. Cyan was standing by my side, looking pretty nervous, but there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"Oh? What do you have for us?" O'Nare asked.
Pulling out the comic from behind my back I presented it to them. "Ta da!" It was only a dozen pages long, and she hadn't had time to color any more than the front page of our first issue of the 'Amazing Fantasy' comic, but there were the fruits of our labor.
Billy joined her as they took the papers and started reading through them. They were for one of the first times I'd seen them, completely silent. Cyan's grip on my hand tightened and she looked about to say something, probably to apologize, but I shook my head. Don't worry that it's bad. You did a great job with Spider-Man.
"This. Is. Incredible!!!" Billy and O'Nare exclaimed together.
"We need to put this in a glass case so it never gets damaged!" O'Nare said.
"We need to start a magazine company and start selling this to the world right away!" Billy declared.
They grabbed us both in a big hug as they each made ever prouder declarations, though with different ideas from them. Are they just coming up with a bunch of stuff and bouncing off each other or arguing? Hard to tell, they're too happy about it.
"No, no, it's just a first try, we haven't even got any villains or anything in there yet- it's not even fully colored!" Cyan rambled. From the way her face was as red as the one non-white lock of hair she had, I could tell she was embarrassed. The wide grin she couldn't help but keep on her face showed how happy she was, though, and I couldn't be happier either. Maybe it's not so bad, being reborn into this family.
Having decades of life experience and dealing with a younger sister helps to defuse things, even if it was a bit bumpy at first. Spider-Man is my favorite hero, so I would definitely want to introduce him into the Pokeworld. As mentioned though, some of the ideas Nemona has will be difficult to carry over, and she'll have other things keeping her busy...
My schedule did change a bit with my tutors giving me more advanced assignments. Occasionally they'd come in person, but most just held the sessions over video call. I wasn't sure if it had to do with the Ghost (Type) within the machine or some other technical advancement in this world, but such video calls went very smoothly and never had lag or connectivity issues.
More things than just my study curriculum changed. Honestly, doing the work of a third grader wasn't all that different for me than that of a kindergartener. Especially with Rotom helping cover for me, I can still spend tons of time looking up battles and stuff!
As one would expect, battling was not like it was in the games. One glance at competitive matches showed that. "Look at Champion Iris go! This is her Hydregion's fifth Draco Meteor!" Despite that, the three-headed monster gave a mighty cry, the attack rained down as strong as the first attack had, only looking a bit more winded than before. Stat changes aren't as permanent or strictly defined as they are in the games. Some boosts only last a little while, some debuffs can with the right training, just tire out the Pokemon a bit more instead.
No turn order or Move set limitations like that meant that people fought in very different ways. Oftentimes I'd see someone give an order to do an attack that wasn't super effective, or even was not very effective, just because it was faster, or had better range than an attack that in a turn-based game, wouldn't have been the right choice. Of course, sometimes even in professional battles, mistakes are made, or adapted around.
It was a subject of much debate in online communities, looking back on big matches to see what strategies were good, the best for the time, or actually incorrect, all viewed through the lens of hindsight. I decided to try and watch a lot of these famous battles before researching what people thought of them after the fact, comparing my insights at the moment to those of the wider world later.
"Bzzt, that's the third Iris video you've watched in the last hour. Do you really like her?" Rotom inquired. I'd gotten more used to the device I was watching, asking me questions and occasionally commenting on what I was doing. It was actually quite nice, having a friend constantly around and interested in what I was into.
"Hmm? Oh, she's fine. Her Pokemon are what are truly impressive though." Admittedly, I really liked Dragon Types - hardly an uncommon sentiment from kids my age… but I wasn't exactly 'my age', was I?
Oh well, they're cool as heck. Maybe I'm 'basic' for liking Dragon Types, for Charizard being my favorite starter, but they're popular for a reason.
"Her Hydergion is quite, uh, something, bzzt. Do you like it?" They had an odd lilt to their voice as they asked the question as if they were nervous or something.
"Oh, it's pretty cool." Hydregion was definitely up there on my list of favorite Pokemon. Almost all of the pseudo-legendaries are awesome. "A shame that it's got that double weakness to Fairy though. But, to be fair, most dragons have one double weakness."
"They do, bzzt?"
"Yeah, Dragons are naturally weak to Ice, and a ton of them are dual Flying Typed, which also has that weakness- oh, it's here!" I interrupted my train of thought to focus on the main star of this video. Gleaming in greenish-yellow scaled plating, a black underbelly, and crimson-tipped claws and tusks, Haxorus gave a mighty roar as he entered the field.
"Dragon Dance, then use Dragon Claw!" The Unovan champion shouted, and her dragon followed the command with grace. It managed to make the sinuous movements of dragon dance align with dodging the opposing Gengar's Shadow Balls, and then rush ahead at lightning speed with its glowing claws, rending into the ghost and knocking it out in seconds.
"Woohoo!" I cheered, watching her Haxorus sweep the rest of the team. I already knew how this battle was going to end, having seen the results online before, but it was fun to watch, and informative. The end results didn't let me see the techniques and tricks used to achieve those results.
"You really like Haxorus, don't you." It wasn't so much a question as it was an observation from Rotom, but I explained a bit more anyway.
"Oh yeah, they're probably my favorite Type of Pokemon. So fast and strong, a physical powerhouse! Here, he's using Outrage, one of the strongest Moves a Dragon Type can learn…" I rambled on as the match continued, extolling the virtues of Haxorus. The one reason I didn't mention loving them for was probably the most relevant, however.
Haxorus was one of my most memorable team members from the games. I trained up an Axew in Pokemon White on my first playthrough. The XP balance was wack in that game, so it took forever to train him, but I wanted a Haxorus for the Elite Four. Then came N with his giant castle summoning trick, and I fought through Plasma and captured Zekrom. I thought I had to put Zekrom on my team, but when I tried to refuse, I found out I could! So I boxed Zekrom, and kept my original team up against N. Haxorus was up first, against Reshiram, and when he managed to just barely beat a Legendary on his own… It was incredible. One of the greatest moments I've ever had in a game. And now I get to live it for real!
As the video ended, Rotom reminded me "Bzzt, you've got some more work planned with Cyan, don't you? You should probably get changed out of your pajamas." They not-quite reprimanded. On the one hand, it was past noon, but on the other, my new pajamas were super comfy. On the third hand, so were my other clothes. On the fourth hand, to round out the Machamp dilemma-based metaphor, I hadn't had to go out yet today as I just had some online assignments I completed early on, but could probably change now.
Dismissing Rotom who had some 'things to discuss with Leah', I got changed. My caretakers had taken note of my sudden changes (mostly just chalked to 'growing up') and made sure to start buying fewer dresses, thankfully. These days I wore pretty much just cargo pants and t-shirts. Hoodies when it was a little chilly. It was colder when I first remembered my past life, but as summer was coming and it got warmer, I started wearing shorts more often. It's funny, I didn't like shorts at all in my old life, at least not on me. I don't mind them here. Might change as I grow up though. A prospect I was still dreading, but there wasn't anything I could do to avoid it.
Getting changed, I walked over to my sister's room and found her in there watching a stream. Not wanting to interrupt her and knowing it was about five minutes from the end, I just settled in beside her, pulling up the other chair in the room. She loved streamers, as I found out and with our much-improved relationship, she would invite me to watch some with her.
Iono was already around, and had a sizeable following but wasn't super popular yet, still a little too early for her to hit the 'big leagues'. Likewise, she wasn't a Gym Leader either, but I knew much could change in ten years.
I wasn't too keen on any of them, but there were plenty of streamers Cyan adored on the Pokenet. She liked this one streamer called 'Garbinator'. His gimmick seemed to be reviewing things and either calling them 'Spicy' or 'Garbodor', and would toss whatever the product or CD was of the bad stuff to his Garbodor, who would happily chew it up. I get the idea of listening to someone else review the thing, but these are pretty much just reaction videos that cover 90% of the show, spoil everything, and somehow get more views than the original content! I don't even like watching sports that much since it means I'm not there, doing the cool thing. Watching Pokemon battles was fine though, since it could give me more ideas on how I'd train up my future team.
I invited her to train and go on runs with me a few times, but she gave up after one outing. She barely even did as much as I did, and that's like, half of what I could manage working out back in my first world! Admittedly, half of what a fit adult could do is probably pretty impressive by most standards. Something in me churned every time I'd see a video of the massive destructive powers a truly experienced Pokemon could manage. I might not be able to do that, but I know there's so much further that I can go than where I am now.
After the stream was done, Cyan turned to me and said "Why do you have to wear stuff like that?" She said glaring down at my cargo pants. "It's so unfashionable!" She didn't sound as scandalized as the first time she had seen me in them, but this was clearly a battle she wasn't going to give up right away.
"They have pockets! So many pockets." I countered eloquently, showing her the many pockets I had. I didn't have anything to hold in them right now, but it was the principle of the matter.
"I need to show you real fashion sometime. Whatever," she sighed before pulling out some of the comics we had been working on, and the story-boarding ideas I had given her. "I had some issues with this."
"Yeah? With what?" Does she not like the constant alliteration? It might be a bit much, but I have to be true to the source material!
"Doc Octillery betraying Petey. I really don't like it. She was a good person and a mentor to Petey, it feels like the betrayal comes out of nowhere!" Cyan crossed her arms, pouting.
"Well, it is meant to be a shocking swerve. Gotta keep the readers hooked for the next issue." I argued.
"Isn't it just a rehash of what happened with Curtis Corners before he becomes Lizardon?"
I stopped at her argument, realizing she did have a pretty solid point there. "I mean, I didn't have Curtis as much of a mentor to Petey as Octavia was, but you're right. I do kinda need Doc Octillery to make the Savage Six, hmmm… oh! I know, Doc Octillery will seem like she's turned against Petey, but actually she was being controlled by the Green Grimmsnarl!"
She smiled, mollified by my suggestion. "Good idea, you said the Green Grimmsnarl was gonna be his archneme-nem- enemy, right? That can help, umm foreshadow their rivalry. And then Octavia and Petey can fight him together."
"Yeah!" I cheered and we got down to writing. It was a fair bit of actual work, figuring out the art, panel layouts, speech bubble placement, colors, and everything else to fit with the plot. I didn't mind though, it was a lot of fun, to hang out with my new sister and our parents adored our work.
Later that day, Leah asked me what my favorite Pokemon was. I'd often get asked which ones I liked and had opinions (to the point that people usually stopped asking me that), but she insisted, even when I tried saying I liked all of them.
"Well, Rotom might have already told you, but I like Haxorus a bunch." Can't exactly mention Legendaries or Mythicals as my 'favorite' then, and I'm guessing Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokemon fit into those same categories. Legendaries definitely fit the name in this world, and were often revered as such. You wouldn't just throw out the name of a being in some lands worshiped as deities as your 'favorite'. Oh sure, there were some people that could fight Legendaries with their whole teams, or even their ace Pokemon. Of course, those people were Champions or World Champions. Even then, it's never a guaranteed thing.
She blinked, suddenly sweating a bit. Is the heat getting to her in that maid uniform? "Ah, yes, Rotom did mention that. Just… wanted to confirm"
I started rattling off their strong points, explaining just why they were so great to her. "... Dragon Dance can boost their speed and attack, or Swords Dance for even more power. Usually you need a few Technical Machines or ways to teach them Moves to have coverage against Ice or Fairy Types, but that's not hard. There's a bunch of other strong Moves they can learn from TMs like Earthquake-"
"Ah, yes. Thank you, Young Miss. By the way, did you finish that test I gave you?"
I frowned, trying to remember her giving me any test and not recalling it at first until I figured out what she meant. "Oh, you mean the Pokemon quiz thing you gave me? Yeah, I finished it a while ago." Searching through my desk I found it and passed it back to her. "It was fun but really easy." The questions were pretty basic things, like asking what conditions like Poison and Burn did to your Pokemon, if Berries could help a Pokemon recover, and the most basic of Type match-ups. "Let me know if you find any tougher ones."
She had a weirdly strained smile on her face. "I should have expected it was too easy to challenge you, Young Miss. Excuse me, I have some arrangements to make. Perhaps Hamber can help…" She muttered to herself. Weird, wonder what that was about? I thought about it before putting the discussion out of my mind. It was only later that I realized the significance of it.
***
My birthday was something I had to be told about the week before it would pass and marked the sixth month since my 'memories' had come back. Some days, I wondered if my 'past life' had all just been a dream. Other days, the nightmares of everything I'd lost were in full force and I had no such doubts. 'My' birthday was one of those days, and I woke up grumpily from such a fitful night. I tried to conceal it and act like nothing was wrong, but Leah saw through me pretty easily, remarking on it at breakfast.
"Someone's a Grumpig today." She said as she poured syrup over my pancakes. Perhaps I was just getting spoiled, but that hardly even felt like a special 'birthday breakfast' at this point. "But don't be upset, it's your birthday today! And we have an extra special surprise for you today."
"Will B- Mother and Father be coming home early?" I hated how desperate I sounded there. It's still hard for me to even call them 'mother' and 'father', but a part of me hopes they'll be here for a birthday that doesn't even feel like it's mine. God, I'm such a mess. Or should I say 'Arceus' now?
No divine intervention came to correct me on the proper ways to address them, so Leah continued, her smile dipping for just a second. "Sorry, it looks like work is keeping them busy, honey. But they really wanted to be here." I already knew Cyan would be busy, she was away on a trip to the Sevi Islands but had spent a day hanging out with me before she left and gave me a fancy notebook.
"I know, thank you, Leah." I tried to sound thankful, and I was! I knew I could have things a heck of a lot worse than being reborn into an incredibly wealthy family in a near-utopic world of adventure and discovery. But my thoughts still plagued me.
After I finished the meal, I sat at the table and on a piece of paper from my new notebook, started idly writing a poem.
'Once, there was a Maiden…
… who was always looking forward to the way things would be.
She said, 'Someday, I'm getting out of this place.'
'Someday, I'll kill the boy that put me here.'
'And while I wait, I don't much mind,.'
'Cause it's better to dream tomorrow than be there.'
'I'm holding at bay,' she said, 'what I know to be true.'
'That I'll never get out. I won't let my dreams die!'
'I'll hang on to hope,' she said, 'until time itself ends. But-'
'There's always an ending,' said Time."
Leah peeked over at what I was writing, and I let her. I had taken to writing tons, as well as my training and studying. A desire to keep a hold of the knowledge I held from the other world before I forgot or it got muddied. Everything from books to TV. shows, and songs, I tried to write down as many ideas and reminders as I could. The songs were often only half-remembered, maybe only the chorus written down, but I hoped to be able to find someone with the musical talent to recreate some of my favorites someday. Others, I wonder why there's any point holding on to scraps of a world far gone.
She seemed fascinated and a bit disturbed by what I had written. I wonder what she'd think of the stuff I actually keep hidden? Information about Pokemon, mostly Legendaries, that would qualify as state secrets at least. It was an amusing idea, but not one I would ever do. I wrote any of the more important stuff in a code and hid it in a shoebox in my closet. I hardly had perfect knowledge of this world, or even Pokemon media in general, but I'd played through most mainline games and there was a lot of dangerous stuff you could pick up there.
Honestly though, what I was most worried about if she, or anyone else ever found out those notes would be the notes about myself. Or rather, the girl Nemona would have been without me. Would they see me as just an imposter, masquerading as their daughter, sister, or friend? Hate me for lying to them about who I was, call me a fraud for relying on my knowledge and maturity, passing it off as fake brilliance? Despise themselves for not noticing, as if anyone could suspect something like this? Or maybe - well, best to just leave that Pandora's Box shut.
"This is quite a… vivid poem, young Miss." Leah eventually said, bringing me back to the present. "Quite imaginative." Her smile was brittle like she didn't know how to respond here… so she changed the topic, quietly pocketing the paper. "Do you want to see your gift?"
That perked me up a bit, and I nodded, washing up and following her to the living room. In the time I had been eating and writing, the other staff had set up party decorations. Others were shaking their heads, checking the furniture and walls. Are they planning on doing renovations? What really caught my eye however were the two gift boxes sitting on the table in the middle of the room. One was a square box, the other rectangular.
"I know it's a bit early, we wanted to keep the surprise, but go ahead, open it." Curious, I sat down on the couch and opened the box. Within it was a gleaming white orb. A red line runs almost all around it with a white dot in the center.
"A… that's a…" I was speechless. A Pokeball. I'm getting a Pokemon already?!
"It's a Pokeball! Happy Birthday!" Leah said, and the other butlers and maids cheered as well. "That's a Premier Ball, so it's extra special." I wonder what actually makes a Premier Ball special compared to a regular Pokeball? I took the ball in question and held it reverently. As I did so, I noticed a small card in there as well. It said on it 'Nemona Glitterati: Junior Trainer License' with a bunch of different information, like my birthday, eye color, identification number, etc. as you'd expect from a government-issued ID.
"What?" I asked, still a bit shocked by it all.
"That's a Junior License. For gifted young kids like yourself, you can own a Pokemon! Only one though, until you upgrade to get a full license." Leah said.
"Wow, that's incredible. But shouldn't I have to like, pass a test or something to get this?" I thought I remembered something about that online. Anise just waved me off as she passed by, hefting of all things, a heavy dog bed. If the dog was nine feet tall and needed a bed made of titanium mesh.
"You already did, Leah and Rotom had you take it," the plump maid said as she dropped the bed in the corner. I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it, remembering a conversation I had with Leah a while back, where she asked me a bunch of general questions about Pokemon and what to do in the wild. That was it?! I mean, a lot of it was just common sense stuff and I have been looking into it, but still. I guess Rotom recorded it all and they had it sent into the League.
Leah chimed in too. "You already know so much about Haxorus, I'm sure this will be a breeze for you." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself there, more than me.
I puffed out my cheeks. I mean, I probably would pass any test set for a kid, but still! There's a bunch you need to know for actually caring for a Pokemon. Even among Type specialists, there are huge variances for each Pokemon from dietary needs to- wait Haxorus?
I must have said the last part out loud because Leah nodded. "Yup! You said it's your favorite Pokemon. So your parents decided to get you a Haxorus for your birthday." She had a big grin on her face, but her left eyelid twitched a little as she said that, I distantly noted.
"A Haxorus," I repeated. "Not an Axew?" She just nodded her head.
"The other box even has a couple of the Technical Machines you mentioned, and a carrying case for when you get more." I opened it up numbly, still trying to process that, and saw that it indeed had many of the moves I'd mentioned to her. Earthquake, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Body Slam, Shadow Claw, etc. were all in there.
"So there's a Haxorus in here?" I asked again, holding up the Premier Ball. Outwardly I was remaining calm, inwardly, I was screaming. A freaking Haxorus?! I mean yeah, I love them, they're really cool, but I never expected to just be given one!! Let alone my whole feelings on the matter of gifting/trading Pokemon, I always thought I'd catch like an Axew and raise them up! Maybe earn the respect of a rowdy but well-meaning Fraxure and form a close bond through battle? I don't know, just not that I'd have a fully evolved Dragon as my first Pokemon! Ahhhh!!!
"Oh, no. The Haxorus is being shipped over for tomorrow when your parents can see you catch it." Leah then turned to address some of the other staff. "No, we should probably move the bed over here so the Haxorus can lie in the sun in the afternoon, most Dragons are cold-blooded after all…" A part of me was touched that she had put that much thought into this. That all of them were working so hard to try and get me an incredible birthday gift. The other part of me… This wasn't what I wanted. It's not how I hoped any of this, my Birthday, or my first Pokemon catch would go.
With all the adults busy, I slipped out of the room, and then out of the house. Finally free. Huzzah. I wandered down the path to where the cliff was. I wasn't a hundred percent sure if this was the cliff from the start of the games, where the Player would meet the box Legendary, but it could have been.
Looking out I saw the vast, glittering blue ocean, stretching out to the horizon before me. Behind me were lush fields, trees filled with berries, and flowers well in bloom. It was springtime and you could feel how alive the world felt. Pokemon scampering about in the fields, or flying ones letting out their cries as they flew over the ocean, the sounds of the waves splashing in drifting up.
"What's wrong, bzzt?" Rotom asked, having followed me. They are an insightful one. I wonder what they know, or at least suspect about me? I've always sorta wondered what other people are actually like, but I don't think you could ever get a perfect picture of who someone else is. Not even if you were a Psychic.
"Nothing. Nothing is really wrong. I mean, I guess I'm worried about a lot of things, but that's not new."
Rotom looked upset. "Bzzt. Did- did you not want a Haxorus? We were so sure-" I waved them off.
"It's not that. I appreciate the effort. I just- I want to make sure that any Pokemon that is going to follow me on my journey wants to be with me, you know? Someone prepared to battle by my side, be my companion, help me through thick and thin, and be willing to let me do the same for them. I don't know what this Haxorus will be like. If they'll respect me or even if they wanted to be here for this."
"I see bzzt…" We sat there for a moment in silence, simply taking the world and our thoughts in. "Would-" I interrupted Rotom as something down below caught my attention at the same time. Slithering about on the sand, I saw a yellow snake-like Pokemon shifting back and forth. It seemed confused and lost.
"Hey, I think they're in trouble. Let's help!" I ran to the edge and Rotom nervously followed me.
"What are you, bzzt, doing?!" It cried out as I approached the edge.
"Help me down!" I called out and jumped down. There was a screaming in my ear that I'd later recognize to be Rotom's as it raced ahead of me. I caught on to the phone case with my free hand and suddenly my momentum was greatly decreased as I drifted down the rest of the way, Rotom still screaming and panicking as I did so. That was awesome. I feel so alive!
Of course, before those screams died down and Rotom recomposed themself, we garnered the attention of the Dunsparce I had seen down below. Immediately the winged snake turned and faced us, shocked and afraid, but from the angry set of its eyes, not unwilling to defend itself if need be.
Holding my hands up in a placating gesture I said: "Easy there. We just saw you and thought you might be in trouble. Do you live around here?" I don't think Dunsparces lived here in the games, but I could easily be mistaken. Even if I wasn't, Pokemon here hardly stick to so closely defined areas and routes in absolute fact.
Dunsparce shifted a bit, looking around. Is he… embarrassed? I think he might be looking for a home here. But why? "I don't think this is the best place for you to make a home." His head slumped down at that and I thought I might have seen a tear fall from one of his eyes, though it could have just been the salty spray. I hastily amended "I just meant that any tunnels you made would be hard to make into a proper nest in the sand and the water might wash them away. I could help you try and find somewhere better, if you want?"
Offering a hand out to the Dunsparce, he slithered closer, a hopeful expression on his face. One that I unfortunately soured with my next words. "Do you have any family nearby?" I had just been thinking that he might have fallen off the cliffs or taken a path down and gotten a bit confused.
He instead thrashed about angrily, kicking up sand with his tail and moving back and forth taking different postures. It took me a moment to realize that he was acting out others from his family, or whatever group of Dunsparces he had been in before. They were glaring at 'him' or dismissing 'him' with sweeps of their tails before eventually a group of 'bigger' ones (he puffed himself up to represent that, and I noticed that he was actually a bit on the smaller end for Dunsparces) drove him off. He then rolled over and flopped around a bit, which I hoped was just him being lost and confused and not that they had actually pushed him off a cliff! That's super mean, even if Dunsparces are very tanky.
"That sucks," I said bluntly. "But I think I could help you, if you're willing to let me." He looked curious at that. "We can help you get out of here and find a proper home."
There was a soft flutter of his tiny wings. I got the impression of a 'sure, nowhere better to be.' Seems like telling me his story tanked his mood huh?
"There's better places than the beach for you to lie on. The sand is coarse and rough, and it gets everywhere. We'll get you fixed up in a great home. And I'm sure one day you'll show those jerks that pushed you out what you're really made of."
"Dunnn…" the Dunsparce mournfully said, clearly disagreeing with me on that point. But I refused his denial!
"No way, you could be really great one day. Dunsparce are incredible, and I can already tell you have the traits to be strong one day."
"Really? Bzzt." Rotom said, hovering in between us. "How can you tell? What- Bzzt. What makes someone strong?"
"A desire to be strong. More than a desire really, a drive. And I can tell Dunsparce has that! When we first landed, most Dunsparce would try to run away, but this guy here, he got ready to defend himself!" I turned to the Pokemon in question. "I'm pretty weak too right now, but I want to be the best, like no one ever was. And I'm going to be. I'm gonna work hard and become the best Champion this world has ever seen!"
At that moment, something crystallized for me. I've been feeling morose about what I've lost or what didn't work out, but honestly, I have a great life. Dunsparce's tale illustrates that well. So, I'm done worrying about the past. I loved the people in my first life, and I'll do my best to never forget them. Remember everything my friends and family have taught me then… but I won't be weighed down by that regret either. If I want to be the best, I gotta give it my all. And I honestly do want that. I want to see how far I can go.
Turning down to Dunsparce I said, "Actually, if you want, you could have a home with me." I held the Premier Ball down for him to inspect. "This is a type of Pokeball. They serve as stasis pods for Pokemon and a way to easily carry you around and let you relax while I travel. But it won't be all relaxing! I've got a ton of training to do if I'm to reach the top, so that means you'll have tons too."
Rotom looked on in shock. Dunsparce just tilted his head to the side and said "Dun." The meaning was pretty clear this time. 'Why? Why me?'
"Like I said, I think you can do great things. Any Pokemon can, if they have that desire. They're all blessed with near-limitless potential." Even a small electric rodent could fight Gods and win. "So if you want to, I'd like you to be my Pokemon, and I'll be your Trainer. Of course, if you don't want, I'll still help you out of here and find a good home, I totally understand-"
"Dun! Sparce Sparce!!" A big smile burst on his face, tears definitely flowing down his eyes this time as he raced ahead. He moved faster than I thought a Dunsparce could go, ramming into the Premier Ball. I wasn't sure he actually knew how Pokeballs worked, but by chance, he hit the trigger and in a flash of red light, was sucked in.
"That's- you caught a Dunsparce?" Rotom said, a little disbelieving at the same time as I held my hands up in the air.
"I caught a Pokemon! Woohoo!" I turned around, beginning to run back up, barely noticing what looked like a tunnel off to the side by the cliffs. "C'mon, let's go tell everyone!" Rotom sighed but floated after me as I burned through the energy only a child can have, running back home.
Bursting through the door was a bit of a shock to everyone, and even more so when I opened the ball and revealed my Pokemon. "I caught my first Pokemon!"
Dunsparce gave a loud cry as he was released, then looked around, taking in the strange surroundings and bunch of new people. He seemed a bit frightened at first, slinking back half a foot before shaking it off and slithering in front of me. Aww, so brave! Unnecessary, but still a nice gesture.
The staff were whispering amongst themselves, but Leah was the first to approach me. "That's wonderful dear, but you can only have one Pokemon with a junior trainer's license. You'll have to release him to get your Haxorus." I could swear at that moment the other staff suddenly glared daggers at her, for some reason.
"No! I wanna keep Dun!" I picked him up and hugged him close to my chest as if someone was going to try and take him away from me. Leah, if anything, seemed relieved.
"Welp, if that's your choice then. Ok, let's take all the Haxorus stuff back everyone!" The staff was in a surprisingly good mood, not a word of complaint at having to take back the stuff they spent the morning bringing in. I did stop them when they went to take back the Technical Machines, however.
"Wait, I can still use those! I think Dunsparce can learn a lot of those moves actually." Earthquake at least, and I think Poison Jab too? His tail can definitely be used for jabbing, even if Poison-Type energy wouldn't come too naturally.
Leah was surprised. "Really? You still want to battle with…"
"Dun will be a great battler! Dunsparce and Dundunsparce are super tanky, so they're great at powering through attacks, and as a Normal Type can learn a lot of different moves. Hyper Drill is a super powerful attack of their Type that can pierce the heavens!… Or at least break through any Protect, which is still very impressive given the power it boasts. Oh, you don't mind if I call you 'Dun' for short, right?" I asked the Pokemon in my arms and it nuzzled closer to me. It might not be the most imaginative of names, but if he likes it, that's good enough for me.
"Dun! Dun Dun!" I laughed at his enthusiastic response.
"I'll take that as a yes, then." You know, I think today is a pretty awesome birthday.
And so we hit a couple of milestones. First birthday in her Nemona's new life and her first Pokemon! I really like Dunsparce as a Pokemon. It's design can be a bit derpy, but in an adorable way, and they learn a bunch of different Moves and are quite durable. The stat total of the evolution is also pretty close to what a fully evolved starter has, which is why I headcanon it as Nemona's first Pokemon in the games. It's one of the few that she doesn't use before facing the player as a champion, and it very much fits her 'self-made woman' vibes to have a Pokemon that isn't super rare or hard to get, but can be deceptively powerful.
Surprisingly, that wasn't the only uncomfortable party I attended that year that ended with me getting a lifelong friend I didn't expect. Which isn't that much, but it is weird that it happened twice.
My first notice of the party was the day of the event when I saw we had twice as many staff, as usual, running about.
"What's going on?" I asked as I saw it, coming back inside from a training session with Dun. Right now I was just working on the basics; dodging, closing distance, and how quickly he could burrow and resurface. It was pretty easy for him to drill through the sand, but still took two seconds to get fully submerged. Once we got that time down to half a second I'd get him started on soft dirt.
The technical machines had gone great, he'd been able to learn a lot of them. Body Slam, Poison Jab, and Earthquake all gave him amazing coverage and power. Unfortunately, he was still pretty young and I could tell he couldn't use them to his full potential (though he was showing exceptionally close results for the first one; the matching Type energy went a long way in his Moves), so I decided to focus on the basics to start.
Build up a solid foundation and work on the more advanced stuff from there. I think that sounds right. Surprisingly, there wasn't a ton of information online about how to begin training a young Pokemon. Or rather, there was, but little professional and verified, beyond the generic tips of things like 'trust in your partner', and 'make sure to care for their well-being.' Perhaps there is no 'best way' and the Professors and the like don't wish to guide potential trainers down limited paths.
Mom smiled as she turned from directing the staff to look at me. "Nemona hunny, we're hosting a little house party today. Some very famous and important people will be coming." I questioned the 'little' part, as I saw the giant Swanna ice sculpture being carried behind her. Even more shocking was the fact that Mom was wearing an elegant and tasteful red dress. Wow, this must be important if she isn't wearing her usual tacky gold stuff. And apparently, she has some inkling that such clothing wouldn't be appropriate for such an event.
"Oh, ok. Should I just stay in my room then?" She blinked at my question.
"Whyever would you do that? Stay and enjoy the fabulous party." She swung a handout, waving it around the room at the decorations about. One of the regular staff would have been hit by her arm, but expertly ducked under the blow without tipping the tray he was carrying and went on as if nothing had happened. Nice professionalism.
I bit back a frown. I really don't like interacting with large crowds. "I just- I thought you might want to talk adult stuff and wouldn't want me bugging the guests." I tried to weedle my way out of it, but to no avail.
"I'm sure you won't be a bug at all, so well behaved my dear. As expected of my daughter." She gave me a soft, encouraging smile that made it hard for me to hold the forced interaction against her (especially when O'Nare and her had been quite understanding about me canceling the Haxorus order and missing out on seeing me catch Dun). Then her grin broadened. "Besides, there will be another kid your age too. One professor is bringing his child along."
"Yay," I said with as much false enthusiasm as I could inject into my voice. A kid is even worse than an adult. I might have a reasonable conversation with adults if they overlook how young I look. With another kid, it's just going to be awkward.
***
As I expected, the party was quite boring. All the adults were far too quick to 'coo' and 'aww' over me, and pretty much no one actually bothered to try to interact with me on anything approaching an intelligent level. In spite of the fact that my parents are busy bragging over how 'smart' I am!
I let out a sigh and tried to not let it bother me. Probably for the best anyways. I doubt even if one of them would be willing to talk to me on their level that I'd actually have anything I'd want to do with them.
The party was an event for the famous and wealthy to come and mingle. Most of them were important business people like my parents and were more than happy to talk about stocks or 'funny' anecdotes that only (to me) showed how out of touch they were with the common folk. Admittedly my only view of how the average person lives their life in this world is through the Pokenet and what I can glean from T.V., but I still think I have a better view of things than most of this lot.
One face that had me do a double take was that of a young man with delicate features and long blue-hair. Outside of his parka and over a decade younger, I didn't recognize the man until I heard someone call his name. "Grusha! So glad you could make it. I heard you placed second in the Glassedo Slope Grind."
He smiled and greeted the Galarian man in a business suit who walked over to talk to him. So this is what he's like before he was a Gym Leader. Before the accident that cut his snowboarding career short. He looks happy. He was far more open than the Icy gym leader I remembered from the games.
Before I had the chance to introduce myself and ask him about his Pokemon and/or snowboarding, another guest arrived, and this one I recognized instantly. His coat was in a slightly different pattern than the one the AI wore in the games, but it had the same color scheme as his body suit, black, purple and some lighter purple highlights. He didn't have a 5 o'clock shadow but his hair and face for the most part were the same from the games.
Professor Turo. The Real one, not an Artificial Intelligence made in a fit of paranoia down in Area Zero. By his side, holding on to his hand was a young boy that could only be Arven. His hair didn't fall down to cover one of his eyes yet, but he was just as recognizable to me as his father.
My parents went up to warmly greet him. "Ah, the esteemed Pokemon Professor. It's a pleasure to have you here," my mother said.
"Ah, the pleasure is all mine. And thank you for allowing me to bring my son along as well. Finding a sitter on short notice would be difficult and well..." He trailed off before giving a small gesture for the young boy to introduce himself.
"That's O'Nare for you; her generosity knows no bounds!" Billy declared loudly. Geez, can you simp any harder? Still, it was nice to see that they loved each other so much. More interesting to me though was the way Turo's gaze intensified at the mention of O'Nare's 'generosity.' My musings on that matter were cut off as I turned to watch the nervous boy stumbling over his words introduce himself to my parents.
"I-I'm Arven, nice to meet you," he practically whispered. I noticed him clutching something for comfort and saw that he had a Pokeball in his hand. Turo frowned slightly at his son's shy behavior, which is when I decided to step in, pushing through the crowd to approach them.
"Hello, I'm Nemona." I offered my hand for Arven to shake. He took it, hesitantly, but still looked a little overwhelmed. Okay, think. What did Arven like in the games? Mabostiff? Probably shouldn't release him in here though. Sandwiches? "If you're hungry, we have some appetizers over there." I pointed at where one of the butlers was carrying a tray of cucumber sandwiches. He perked up right away and started walking over.
"You must tell us all about your research." My father faux-whispered. Turo chuckled good naturedly.
"Well, I can hardly say everything or else I'll have nothing to write my papers on. But I do think this will be quite a revolutionary discovery. It has to do with the phenomena of Terastalization-"
"That's where some Pokemon are randomly found to be a different Type than they'd usually be in the wild." I interrupted. He blinked, eyeing me a bit more closely.
"Yes, that's correct. The effect will often wear off with time, or when captured in a Pokeball." I did my best not to grit my teeth at 'captured'. Right, this is the guy with 7 Master Balls at least to capture all the Paradox Pokemon. Hmm, I wonder why he just used a regular Pokeball for the other Miraidon? "I've been studying Terastalization and believe I'm close to a breakthrough that will allow us to utilize this in a more controlled fashion."
"Wow. How long have you been studying this?" O'Nare placed a hand on my shoulder at that question.
"Our daughter is quite the little genius; her Glitterati intelligence shining like the brightest star in the land." My mother praised me, and I cringed a little in embarrassment. "Still, you probably don't need such questions at a party, Professor."
"Nonsense. An inquisitive mind is the sign of a budding scientist; I'd never reject such curiosity." He gave a winning smile to my parents, which seemed just a bit too unreal. Not that they noticed. He's up to something. To me he said "I've been studying this for almost eight years now, along with my team and my wi- my ex-wife." A bit of real strain showed on his face at that, but he quickly pushed it aside. "I've heard how smart you are, young lady. I'm sure if you keep up your studies and stay sharp, you might become a Professor someday too."
"Nah." I answered instantly, much to the surprise of the adults. "I mean, I might want to, way off in the future. But I want to be Champion first. That means I have to study as much as possible; knowledge is power afterall."
He blinked, taking in my statement. "Knowledge is power… a fascinating idea, and one that may be more correct than you know. Especially if I complete my research."
"If?"
"I'm hoping to get a bit more funding to complete my project and unveil it to all of Paldea." He gave a significant glance at my parents. They caught it and began walking further into the living room, settling by the couch and table.
I wasn't directly told off, so I sat down on a chair opposite the professor. "So, you want their money. Why should they give it to you?"
O'Nare considered it for a moment before agreeing. "That's a wonderful idea, my dear! We'll host a little interview right now."
Billy blinked before raising a hand up to cover his face. "Why, from the mouths of babes! Such wisdom from our youngest daughter! And so great of you to notice it as well, my dear wife." He said to O'Nare before turning to Turo. "We could do this at a later date though, if you'd rather enjoy the party."
"It's fine. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves afterwards." I doubt that, or rather, doubt that you care about that. No, this is the only reason why you came to the party in the first place, to get more funding for your research.
"As for why you should sponsor me? You'd be able to put the Glitterati name on the biggest scientific discovery of the century." Bold, especially since Mega Evolution was widely announced only about a decade and a half ago. Still, if this is the Tera Orbs, it's not that big an overstatement. I felt he was probably also overselling how much their - our - name would be put on this discovery. Glitterati might be mentioned as one of the sponsors on a couple of papers he wrote while he would get all the public acclaim.
"What do you plan to do with the sponsorship money, exactly? The methodology you plan to use in your research and the like?" My knowledge meant I knew what he was going after already, but I wanted to find out more about what he was like as a person. The game only showed you an AI that had definitely diverged from his base personality, and a glitchy protocol.
"I plan on touring a number of dangerous and exotic locales within Paldea. The study is on Terastalization, so me and my team will set up in areas where such Pokemon undergoing the phenomena have been commonly noted to study and compare them. These findings may be the last piece we need to finish the project."
"I see. Are you planning on going to the Great Crater?" I steepled my fingertips together, staring him in the eye. Billy, who had been looking on amused at my efforts, started coughing on his drink at that.
"No, I don't believe I'll need to delve that deep. However, I do confess that I think there is much to be explored within the Crater. Using records from previous attempts I'd like to make an expedition within at some point… but that's far off. Another project to look forward to."
Right, he's all about the 'future' stuff. "You've already started this project. Why do you need more money now?"
The smile he'd kept in place this entire time dimmed a notch. "There have been complications within the project structure. My… former wife, Professor Sada, has left. Without her aid we aren't as far along as we could have been. It's sad, but we have to move on. Always looking forward." Darn it. I don't really have anything else to probe with or try and undermine things here. I really don't want Arven to grow up without a father for most of his life though… like he will entirely with his mom…
"Do you wish you could go back to when you were with your wife." I asked suddenly. Turo's face darkened immensely, his hand suddenly clenched in a fist.
"Nemona!" Billy shouted. Apparently, even for the Glitterati, that was a breach of decorum too far. Which was my point, but I was hardly going to admit to that, so I just turned to him and gave him my most innocent face. Kids say dumb stuff without realizing it all the time, so it's totally believable that I did that here and not at all me trying to get Turo to publically lose his cool and not get his funding, right?
The gambit failed, however, as a second later Turo let out a deep sigh and waved down my father. "It's fine. All questions are legitimate searches for knowledge, I can approve of that." To me, he kneeled down to look me in the eye and said: "No. I loved her, and the times we shared, our memories, and our son, have been some of the greatest treasures in my life. But science marches ever onward. You never know what new treasures will await in the future, which is why even though I'll always love what we had, I can't stop striving forward."
I was stunned into silence. That was really well said… and proof that I'm never going to be able to turn Turo away from his dream. No way to keep Arven's father around.
Billy started clapping in response, and other guests followed my father's suit. "Wonderful! That's simply a splendid way to look at things! Why, my dear O'Nare often says similarly when closing a deal. Speaking of, there's a great construction team she hires for specialty jobs that I think would be perfect for the 'waypoint stations' you were talking about…" Their voices blended in with the rest of the crowd as they started chatting again. I'll never forget the victorious gleam in Turo's eyes as he walked away with my father, though.
I definitely need to make apricorn Pokeballs or something like that off the system whenever I go to the Great Crater.
I wasn't the only one sighing sadly, as I noticed out of the corner of my eye young Arven was doing the same. He was also lightly touching the Pokeball he had at his hip, likely seeking a small measure of comfort.
"Hey. You uh, have a Pokemon too?" I said, holding up my own Pokeball. Establish a point of commonality and most kids open up pretty fast. I was proven correct when that immediately caused him to brighten up.
"Yeah! Maschiff is my best bud. We run around and play all the time and he helps me make food and stuff when dad's busy." Seriously? Already letting things go at home, I see. It didn't improve my opinion of Paldea's foremost Professor any more, but I let it go for the moment.
"Wanna go play outside then?" He looked eager, but hesitant, glancing over at our parents. "It's fine, I think they're busy." Considering they're busy unwittingly helping make your life miserable, playing with you now is the least I can do. "Rotom can let us know if they need us anyways."
The phone in question hovered, smiling at us. "Oh wow, you have a Rotom Phone? That's so cool!" Arven cheered.
"Be careful - you'll give them a swollen head. And that's bad, because they're pretty much all head already!" Rotom pouted at my joke and I stuck my tongue out to let them know I wasn't serious. "C'mon, let's go." I led the three of us out of the stuffy house party to the beach where Arven could play and actually be happy. I hope you'll get to keep on to that joy for a while longer. And that I haven't somehow made this situation worse.
Here's our first look at some of the other main characters! Nemona wants to make changes, but it's difficult given her current position. Still, at least she made her first human friend and Arven is really fun.
A feeling of fullness encompassed my artificial body, and I formed my spectral eyes as I exited sleep mode. "Charge at 100% bzzt," I announced as I floated off the charging dock. There were a couple of docks all over the house for any of the Rotoms that needed a quick charge, but the one I was currently resting in was in Nemona's room, currently bereft of my owner.
Not her newest companion, however, Dunsparce. The bulbous Normal Type was looking up at me from the ground where he slithered. His large head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed. "Ar?"
I roughly translated that as 'What are you doing?'. "Bzzt, I need to recharge and take electrical charge, much like you need to eat food." Or whatever it is you call when you messily shove your face in a bowl of pate.
Dunsparce glared at me harder, clearly sensing the disdain I felt for him. Some of the staff called Nemona's starter 'sleepy', but they didn't see the training he went through. When she said he could be strong it awakened some killer instinct inside the land snake. That, or the Technical Machines helping bring out newfound power.
"Un, dun dun, arce." That disdain was clearly returned by him. What was not crystal clear was exactly what he was saying there. I got the gist though.
"Bzzt, I don't just 'sit around all day,' my duties are quite important to the Young Miss." I said primly. Dun simply snorted before turning tail and slithering off to explore the rest of the house.
Why that little-! I fumed for a moment before going out to find Nemona. She was downstairs having breakfast, talking animatedly with her sister about some of the fantastical story ideas she had.
Leah, one of the maids most often in charge of the Young Miss while her parents were out, glanced over at me as I waited nearby. "Rotom, is something wrong?"
"Why would you think something was the matter, bzzt?" That was a trick I had learned from humans - deflect answering a question by asking one of your own.
I didn't have long to feel proud of myself however as she had a follow-up. "Well, you're discharging a bit of electricity." Immediately I shut that down, embarrassed at that lack of control. Dammit! I hope I haven't damaged my case. No matter how I felt about Dun, that didn't justify my lack of control.
"Is the case fine?" I asked, nervously. None of the sensors I was connected to read any damage, but I couldn't be sure. Not without leaving the phone.
The maid peered over the case. "No, it's fine. You seem stressed, is it anything to do with the Young Miss?" Leah inquired.
Blinking, I asked, "No, why would it be?"
"Just- she's been acting different as of late, hasn't she?" It was true, over the last few months she had been behaving differently. Nemona was demonstrating intelligence and forethought, which seemed astounding. I could hardly deny that. I'd heard plenty of praise directed toward her, and even about her when she wasn't around (even when the gossipers in question didn't know I was listening in), so I assumed the praise was genuine, not over-inflated for one reason or another.
Humans in the outside world were complicated, with many different unstated rules for their social conduct. I understood why most other Rotoms didn't bother trying to interact with their owners so much. Or maybe it's just that the owners don't really reach out to them. Nemona is always dragging me into conversations, talking with me about battles we're watching or what people are saying on forums.
It was incredible to see the change that had overtaken her, so much so that I started looking into the concept of 'human Evolution'. I know that every book listed humans as a species without an Evolutionary line, but it really feels like they do, but maybe more of a mental component? What I'd searched said that they didn't, it was just a gradual process in body and mind, through puberty. People are weird. They take so long to Evolve, and they call it something else instead. But young girls and boys look barely any different, but if you pay close attention, once they're finished 'puberty', they actually look fairly different, like Lechonk.
As it became more apparent, I observed a few flashes of worry or confusion among others at her development. Nemona was taking the same classes as her sister now, but generally doing them faster than even her older sibling. Maybe it's not like an evolution, but more a 'mutation'? Some Pokemon, like ugh, Dundunsparce can rarely develop that trait. I disliked the comparison to that boor, but I was proud of my owner. This was just more proof that she was special, like I knew she was going to be, even before I met her.
She didn't seem to feel the same way, and when just with me revealed her thoughts to be far more self-critical. She would say that she was no 'true' genius, and other disparaging comments. Conversely, if she made even a tiny mistake on her homework, she'd say things like 'How did I fu- screw this up?! I should be better than this.' And then there were her occasional nightmares…
"Bzzt, I feel she's doing fine," I lied. Nemona might have her own issues, but I knew she wouldn't appreciate me airing them out to someone else. In addition to her newfound intellect and wit came a sense of caution. Occasionally she'd cut herself off when talking about some topic, some Pokemon, or location that she felt needed to be kept secret. Nemona trusts me, but there are some things she won't let even me see. A few notebooks she writes in she keeps more hidden than the others. I could probably snoop around and find them in her room if I tried but… I didn't want to do that. For multiple reasons.
Before she could press, Nemona came up to us having finished her breakfast. "Hey, whatcha talking about?"
"Rotom was just making sure that their phone case was alright." Leah said. I glanced over at her quickly and saw she was trying not to worry Nemona. I wasn't going to reveal her secrets, but she probably didn't need to worry about Leah worrying about her either.
"Yes, bzzt. I discharged a bit of electricity and wanted to be sure my casing was fine." Nemona gave me a once over as well before sticking her thumb up.
"Looks good! We can double check the internals if you think you have any issues, but the outside looks fine. Let me know if you ever want a new phone case or anything."
"Shouldn't that be your choice, bzzt? If you want a different color phone-"
"I don't really care," She interrupted me. "And even if you picked something I didn't like," her eyes darted over to glance at a family photo, her parents wearing their usual bright gold outfits. "It's your body. It should be your choice what you want to look like." She smiled at me and I smiled back. I knew it, she really is the best.
The phone was my shell, my connection to the world. I was raised on a nice enough farm but was told alongside my siblings how important it was to be good. To do what your owner asked and if you were well-behaved you could be chosen to get a phone. An electronic device, just for you to possess!
We had been trained a bit on lesser phones and old 'junk' electronics, which had still felt like the best thing ever since breaking out of our eggs, so the idea of something better? A device that wouldn't break down as we controlled it, could connect us to the entire world? It drove almost all of us on the farm to be on our best behavior. Which was good, because our handlers always warned us of how naturally mischievous we Rotom could be, and we'd have to be very careful to not let those tendencies upset our owners.
I, of course, was the most proper and well-behaved of all of our 'batch'. A few others chafed at the rules we were given, but not me. I was going to get a specialized phone, no matter what. But even I hadn't imagined that I'd be chosen by the President himself. For his youngest daughter no less! The joy of that was only eclipsed by how good it felt to be in a proper Rotom Phone.
It was… like living blind all your life and then suddenly being given eyes. It was surprisingly durable in the casing (even if I was still very careful with it), my natural electricity flowed through it perfectly, and even floating with it felt just as easy when outside a device. It was perfect! It also gave me access to things well beyond itself.
The world was so, so, so much vaster than I had ever realized. The farm we had been raised on? A square kilometer inside an even larger building, inside a city much bigger than that. The outside world was incredible! So many different Pokemon in this world, not just the other Rotoms and Dittos they had on the farm or the occasional Greavard the Rotoms could spot-guard it.
As part of her 'not-an-evolution' changes, it seemed like my owner, the Young Miss, had begun feeling the same way. She would eagerly go over videos looking at the wilderness of Paldea, explorations of different Pokemon habitats, and especially battles. She once spent ten hours in a day just going over a battle forum, looking up the pros and cons of different battle items! Nemona (and myself for letting her) did get mildly scolded for going that far down the Buneary hole and forgetting other things like lunch that day.
"Hey, can you call Arven?" Nemona asked me out of the blue. Perhaps not 'out of the blue'. Lost in thought as I had been, I had missed Leah leaving and Nemona planning out the rest of her day.
"The boy from the party?" I asked. I remembered her getting his phone number - only a regular phone, not a Rotom Phone, I noted with some disdain, though recognizing that most children were not like Nemona.
"Yeah! I wanted to see if he could come over and hang out. Do- do you think that's fine?" She suddenly asked, appearing nervous.
"I think it's fine, bzzt." I replied, a small slip of electricity leaving the end of my voice. While it had been unintentional in the first designs of the phone, it was now built into our devices. Apparently, it helped humans to differentiate our voices/selves from the rest of the audio we could create. It also had a 'cute' charm to it, supposedly. "I don't see why Arven would have a problem with you asking, at least."
"Oh, yeah, it's not Arven I'm worried about, it's his dad. He might have been upset by something I said at the party. Also I don't know how long it would take for Arven to get here." She said, frowning lightly as she often did when deep in thought.
Someone disliking Nemona? Feels quite unusual. In addition to her intelligence, she had an uncanny insight to her that let her understand most people she dealt with. Many times she would explain in a show how others would interpret and respond to someone's actions or words, and was often proven right as the plot unfolded. "It probably doesn't hurt to ask, bzzt. A flying cab could carry him over fairly quickly in any case."
She blinked, snapping her fingers as if suddenly realizing: 'Oh right, I'm rich, I can easily get a flying cab to pick him up quickly." Flying cabs don't cost that much. But Nemona can be weirdly miserly considering the family she was born into. Not that I would tell her that, and if I did, she'd probably just say she was being practical. "Right, thanks Rotom! Let's call Arven."
I put the call through for the young miss, thinking through my own thoughts while letting her talk to the Professor's son.
"Sounds good, see you later Arven! Can't wait to see how Maschiff battles!"
"Wait, wh-" Nemona hung up on him, not noticing the sudden panic in his voice. She was smiling brightly.
"Alright, looks like he'll be heading over right now. I can get all my studies for today done and might even have some time to look up some more battle videos before me and Dun spar against Arven and Maschiff."
"Bzzt, you're planning on having your first battle? How exciting, bzzt." I said, trying to inject an enthusiasm I couldn't quite feel into my digital voice.
Nemona shrugged, surprisingly. "I mean, I doubt it'll be a real battle, just us practicing some Moves in the sand. It's good experience but… it's not the same. I'll have proper matches someday though. Where Dunsparce can shine and show the whole world what he's made of." She had a faraway look in her eyes like she could already envision what that future would be like.
"What made you choose Dunsparce, bzzt?" I had to ask. She could have had her pick of any Pokemon in the world. Said her favorite was Haxorus, but then turned it down in favor of, well, a worm. I tried not to look down on Dunsparce, but he was a fairly common 'mon. Rough around the edges, to say the least.
Nemona looked curiously at me. "I said before, didn't I? It's all about his drive."
"Is 'drive' really everything, bzzt? Certain things like type-matchups can't be overcome. You can't use electricity on a Ground type, after all." Nemona is not a normal child. It was something I had thought about privately several times, but I was reminded of it again when she lit up with the biggest smile on her face at my denial.
"There are all sorts of Abilities and techniques that go into a Pokemon Battle - strategy is hugely important. But more than that,- wait, come 'ere." She made grabby motions with her hands and I obliged, floating over. Sometimes she liked searching things up on her own rather than just asking me. Apparently, that was just part of what made her quite 'independent', according to the adults in the house. Independence is supposedly a good thing, spoken of well for her and the people, but we were always told on the farm that it wasn't good. Could lead to us acting erratically, and that was bad.
"Brock vs. Ash, bzzt?" I questioned aloud as she continued to type, searching for something to no avail as she groaned. "What are you looking up?"
"I wanted to show you a video, but I guess they didn't record all the gym matches then. But I can just tell you the tale. It's about Ash Ketchum, and his first gym battle."
I turned around to better 'look' at the young miss as she told her tale (I could see through the camera on the screen side, but that wasn't as accurate as the plasma eyes I could project off of the back case). "Ash Ketchum was just a boy at the time, facing off against his first gym leader at eleven years old. Well, technically his second gym leader, but Misty wasn't acting in capacity as a leader at that time, whatever." She waved her hands wildly as if to push away the distracting thoughts and I had to hold back a snort at her display.
"So, Ash is facing off against Brock, but all he has are his Pidgeotto and his starter Pikachu. Wait, I think he had Butterfree too? Or maybe it was Metapod at this point, but I don't think he used it in their fight, either one."
"Bzzt, either one? Did Ash challenge him again to a higher level battle later on?" I had studied gyms and the like as well, and learned that it was something Gym Leaders would occasionally offer to 'ace' trainers. To fight against the teams they reserved for 8 badge holders, or even beyond sometimes.
"Haha, nope. The first match, Ash lost, badly."
"Really?" It was hard to imagine the World Champion losing so badly. I'd seen some of his matches alongside Nemona, he was incredible.
"Yup. It's like you said, the type matchup was too much. Brock was the Rock type Gym Leader, and a lot of Rock types in Kanto are Ground type as well. The perfect counter for his team. But he didn't let that get him down!" She raised a finger up in the sky. "He trained Pikachu, and in their rematch, managed to win, zapping Onix with a powerful Thunderbolt!"
"What? Bzzt, that makes no sense? How could that have hurt such a sturdy Ground type?" I spun around in the air, trying to make sense of this all.
"No idea!" Nemona cheerfully exclaimed. "Well, there was something about a sprinkler system 'weakening' the Onix first. But whatever it was, it was their determination, Ash's and Pikachu's that pushed them through that day. Every Pokemon has great potential in them, the capability to change the world, reshape it to their whim even. You just have to bring that out." She let out her last words like they were a whisper and I could practically see the stars in her eyes. I see. This is why people call it 'childlike' wonder. Now I'm left wondering…
"Oh shoot! I've gotta go study before Arven gets here." She raced off and I drifted after her.
…If I had been brave enough, and had enough drive to say that I wanted to be her first Pokemon, would she have picked me? In the end, I still said nothing, smiling on as she cheerfully greeted her 'new friend'. I just hope that she doesn't evolve past me someday.
This is the first interlude I had planned. They won't take over the story but I wanted to give a bit of insight into how other people view SI!Nemona and sprinkle some more background details for the world.
Rotoms are very cool Pokemon in general, and this one has been a close companion of Nemona for a while now so I thought it would be good to take a look at them. It's also interesting how Rotom phones are presented in the games vs. the lore surrounding Rotom as a type of Pokemon, so this was my headcanon for why the ones inhabiting people's phones might be different from their dex entries and the like.
"Maschiff, bite that snake!" Arven called out. There wasn't any anger however, but more desperation. Dunsparce practically scoffed as the scared dog approached, a little bruised from the previous efforts of our training.
"Barrel roll away, then give him a hard stare and Bite yourself!" Dun, my clever little land snake, rolled around Maschiff's lunge, kicking up a spray of sand where he moved before using Glare that caused the Dark type to freeze up. That moment of paralysis gave Dunsparce time to Bite into Maschiff, causing the dog to howl out in pain. I rolled my eyes, knowing from experience that it wasn't that bad, and that the dog would definitely play the drama card if he needed to.
True to the point, he turned around and tried biting back at Dun a moment later. Hmm, doesn't look like he's doing nearly as much damage as Dunsparce did. Is it Dunsparce outpowering him that much? No, or at least not to explain all of it. I don't think Maschiff is actually even using the Dark type energy - not the Move Bite, but just a regular bite. That would explain the lack of power.
These things weren't perfectly guaranteed, but there were signs, things you could look for in battles to get a good 'feel' for how strong a Pokemon was, how good they were with a move, etc. I still counted myself as a bare beginner in that regard, but the lack of dark energy surrounding Maschiff's teeth before it moved in to bite was an indicator even I could pick up on.
"Throw him off with a Flail!" I shouted out, and Dunsparce followed the command, thrashing about until Maschiff let go. Likely due to a combination of both the Paralysis lingering from Glare and from the pain. The dog whimpered, slumping down a bit. Hmm, probably not too faked this time. Might as well call it.
"That's enough." I called out at the same time as Arven shouted it out, rushing over to Maschiff's side. The dog Pokemon whimpered into him as he held the Dark type protectively. "Why do you gotta beat us up so much?" He cried.
"To give us good training," I responded easily, pulling some Potions out of my pocket. I gave Dunsparce a few sprays from one before scratching the top of his head, reward for a job well done, which he preened at. Arven still looked worried, even as I walked over and gave him a Potion to use on Maschiff. "He'll be fine, don't worry."
"What if it's not enough for him to get better? What if he's hurt permanently? Say something, bud!" Maschiff was not saying anything, however I wasn't nearly as worried as Arven. Partly because I had a better angle and could see the dog sneaking a few of the treats out from Arven's back pocket. Yeah, definitely mischievous enough for a Dark type.
His words did remind me of some of my worries for the future, not that he could know any of that. Don't worry, I'll do my best to ensure you and Maschiff never get hurt like that. Arven noticed what his sneaky puppy was doing then, and changed his expression from worry to anger. Maschiff just gave him a big grin, mouth full of treats while I laughed out loud.
"I think he'll be fine. But you gotta be prepared for your partner to get hurt in a battle," I added more seriously. That's one of the hardest parts of being a trainer, I think. You love your Pokemon, help raise them as much as they teach you, and then you have to watch them get hurt as they fight others. Sure, there were as many guidelines as possible to keep things safe, and Pokemon, even moreso than the humans of this world, were incredibly durable. It didn't mean invincible, however, and just the idea of seeing their friends in pain or struggling was probably enough to cause some people to quit the gym challenge.
Arven grumbled a bit "I- yeah I guess. I still don't think I'll ever be as good as you though."
"You totally could!" I shook my head vigorously. "That's what training is all about, getting better and constantly improving." Arven admittedly wasn't as strong as Nemona in the games, but that doesn't mean he's bad. Just was focused on other stuff there. "You were right to call the fight there though; Maschiff was pretty much beat by that point."
"Oh. So we're done now? Yay!" He exclaimed, the boy and dog happily jumping around.
"Hey! If you've got that much energy we could totally go for another round." They both immediately wilted, and I sighed. "Fine, we'll call it here. Let's go inside and get cleaned up." I recalled Dunsparce to his Pokeball, and Arven did the same with Maschiff.
When I first caught Dunsparce, I'd been worried that he wouldn't like being 'stuck' in a ball, so I had him out pretty much all the time. While fun for me, I actually found he doesn't seem to mind being in his ball much, generally enjoying the rest state the Pokeball brings. It also has the side benefit of immediately clearing off all the dust and sand that was sticking on to him.
"Why?" Arven asked about the 'getting cleaned up', uncaring of the sand that was now covering his clothes, nor of the sweat he had from the exercise we did earlier. Not that he didn't complain plenty about it at the time, even when doing half of my sets. Like I told him though, it's important to train our bodies alongside our Pokemon. You never know when you'll need to rely on your own power in the sudden life-or-death moments that can happen when exploring.
Rotom mentioned that I'd been focusing too much on such possibilities whenever I searched those statistics up, but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to be as prepared as possible! I also couldn't deny the desire to go out and explore everything this world had to offer. It all seemed so incredible!
Rather than answering his question, I gave Arven a hand up and we walked back to the house from the beach where we had been training. Anise had been assigned to watch over us, but was just waiting at the top of the stairs, not too worried about us. I'd like to say that I'd built up a level of trust among the staff in the year since I'd regained my memories, but given how easily they trusted Arven ever since I started inviting him over, I felt there was another factor.
Owning a Pokemon. It was a huge cultural and societal symbol here. In the eyes of many, once you had a Pokemon, you were an adult. Or close enough, even if you were young. The Junior License that we had definitely did not make us legal adults or anything like that, but there was just a higher level of recognition from the adults once you had a Pokeball, I noticed.
That wasn't to say that they trusted us completely. They still made sure to watch over us when Arven came over, especially when our Pokemon 'battled'. We'd sparred a few times, but I couldn't really consider it a real 'battle', not compared to what I'd seen from the videos. A lot of them watched our first battle, the majordomo even recording it for mom and dad. Now, the staff would only leave one person watching over us when we battled now, possibly after seeing that I wouldn't use any of the more advanced moves against Maschiff.
"Why do we have to battle every time I come over? We musta' fought a hundred times and I'm still no closer to beating you." I winced a little at Arven's words as we started trudging up the stairs.
"We haven't battled that many times; you've only been over like a dozen times." Arven immediately screwed his face up in concentration, holding his fingers out to start 'counting' that out, trying to see if 'a dozen' came close to 'a hundred'. I reached a hand back to grab him as he started to overbalance, pulling him back before he could fall down the stairs.
Oww. He's not that heavy, but that twinged my wrist a bit. Hope that I don't have those issues with my wrists in this life. "Ahh! Thanks Nims!" Arven cried out, all grumpiness from before forgotten.
"No problem." Not sure how I feel about him picking up my sister's new nickname for me though, or about the nickname in general. I elected not to say anything about that though as we walked back to the house, instead focusing on the battle. "Look, I won't make you battle any more if you don't want to, but I think it's good. You've improved a bunch already."
"Really?" He sounded skeptical, but I could hear a hint of hope poorly hidden in his tone well.
"Definitely. Remember the first time we fought? You and Maschiff just cringed so much Dun was pretty much able to just flop on top of him." His face grew a bit red as he remembered that. "But you did so much better this time! You gave proper commands and fought for about as long as your partner could. That's a lot of improvement. It's just…" I paused for a moment as we reached the door to my house, searching for the right way to convey my message. "I'm constantly working on improving too, you know?"
"Do… do you think dad'll be proud of how much better I've gotten?" Arven asked nervously as we got inside and I resisted the urge to sigh. He'd get the wrong idea if I did, that I was sighing at him rather than his father.
"I think he's plenty proud of you anyways. But you shouldn't train to try and get praise from him, or even to surpass me or whatever." Turning to look back at him I said. "Whatever you want to do, do so for yourself. Put your all into it, and don't worry so much about comparing yourself to anyone else. So long as you try your best, that's all that matters."
An easier thing to say than to do. I know I find myself looking at professional matches and wondering if I'll match up, how I could possibly reach those heights, etc. But the lesson is a good one. Even if I never manage to make it as far as the original Nemona… I want to try. To become strong and see everything this world has to offer. If I've got a second life, might as well make the most of it, right?
Arven was looking a little dazed. I wonder if I pushed him too hard today? Nah, he's a kid, he'll spring back just fine. "Alright, I'll take the upstairs shower, you can use the guest one." I said, and Anise moved to direct him there. Arven had some spare clothes since he said he might be sleeping over anyways. The boy claimed it was just because '[we] had such good food,' but I felt it had far more to do with how lonely he got.
There was still no word yet on the Tera Orb, but I felt it could only be a matter of weeks at this point, assuming we were anywhere close to the canon timeline of when they'd be invented. Hopefully, Turo will be finished soon and can spend some more time with his son. At least before he tries to make his time machine. I was surprised that he let Arven come over so often. Thought it might have just been neglect, not caring about where Arven went, but apparently he encouraged Arven to come over. I guess the Professor isn't as upset about what I said at the party as I thought he might be?
I washed quickly; I had always preferred fast showers and being in a different body just increased my desire to get done with that fast. I wonder when I'll feel comfortable with that? I've started calling my family 'mom' and 'dad' even internally more often. I guess you can get used to anything with enough time.
After getting clean and getting dressed I went down to the dinner table to wait for Arven but he didn't show up. After a few minutes I started looking around to see if he'd gotten lost (the house was fairly big after all) and found him in the kitchen, intently eyeing all the work the cooks were doing.
I couldn't help but let out a laugh after that. Looks like Arven is still gonna be a sandwich obsessed kid, despite any changes I make. Arven whirled around, panicking a bit.
"Ah, I was just-"
"It's fine." I waved him off, but the head chef was looking a little disapproving at the ruckus I made. Ouch, guess Arven is more trustworthy than me. Or at least less of a disturbance to their work. Not wanting to make a scene, I said "C'mon, let's go. I've got a few videos to show you before dinner."
As we left, I called Rotom up. "Hey Rotom, do you remember the videos I mentioned?" The Rotom phone floated up dutifully.
"Of course, Young Miss." I bit back a frown. Hmm, Rotom's felt a bit odd recently, but I don't know why. I've asked a few times, and they've said 'it's nothing' or things to that effect, but still. Maybe they're feeling overworked or underappreciated? I'll try to give them a break in the future.
"Ok, so in this video we get a comparison of two 1st badge level trainers fighting. I think you'll get to see some huge benefits from- hey wait, don't groan! Just one battle video to sum up today's training! Then we can watch some meme videos and that cooking show you like." He gave a cheer, echoed by Maschiff, who popped out of his ball to do the same. I sighed, but wasn't actually upset.
I'm glad I can reach out to Arven. Even if I can't change much, I'd like to be able to give that kid a better childhood.
Do you want to see the Pokemon's Moves beside the team lists? I imagine the list will get pretty long with time, and I don't really want to go into a nitty gritty measurement on how 'mastered' each Move is, even though that will impact battle choices... let me know what you think. As for now, this is just a nice bit of fluff to enjoy.
Nemona's Team:
- 'Dun', Dunsparce
Did you hear?" Cyan asked me out of the blue one morning while we were having breakfast.
"Hmm? What?" I asked, still a little confused and waking up.
"About Tera Orbs! They're the-"
"Turo finished it?!" My sister blinked at my abruptness. "Ah sorry, you were saying?"
She let out an exasperated huff of air at my interruption while I just shrugged. "Probably should have realized you would already know about it. Got your little boyfriend to tell you all about it, huh?" Her teasing tone made me retch internally at the insinuation. Eww. Not my age, not my type.
"He's not my boyfriend." My tone was as deadpan as it could be.
"Whatever you say," she taunted again, before giving up when I didn't respond to her prodding. I think she's just looking for something, anything, to tease me about.
Things have gotten better with us hanging out more and working on comics together, but that just means I have to deal with the standard big sibling teasing inherent in having a big sister..
It was certainly a different dynamic to deal with. Back in my first life, I was the one with the younger sister. My situation being reversed meant I didn't fit into the role well and was still trying to figure out how my new dynamic sometimes worked.
"Hello?" Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Ah, sorry about that." I said, scratching the back of my head. Hmm, my hair's getting long, should probably get it cut soon. "You were saying?"
She shook her head, her white bangs falling around her face. "Arceus above, I swear your head seems stuck in the clouds sometimes. Yes, the Tera Orb! Professor Turo just unveiled it as his newest invention. The news said it was going to revolutionize battles or whatever, but I guess you know all about that already."
"No, I really don't. Turo told Arven barely anything." Technically true, and that's really stretching 'barely' from the pretty much nothing he told Arven. Still, I don't need Cyan questioning Arven about that at some point when she sees him. "Please, tell me about it."
"Fiiiiiine." She groaned and acted like it was a big deal but quickly scooted beside me, directing her own Rotom Phone to show us the news. A quick glance at the time showed it really was recent. This happened fifteen minutes ago?! Of course I hadn't heard of it yet!
In the video, Turo looked a little bit more haggard than I'd seen him before, but that was mostly concealed by the sheer exuberance and energy he had, unveiling his new device.
"The Tera Orb is my team's creation to harness the natural power of Terastalization! The ability to change a Pokemon's type at will, a marvelous new advancement in battling! All in the palm of your hand." He lifted his hand out of his pocket at that moment, revealing the shiny black orb.
With his free hand, he held a Pokeball and released a Porygon Z from it. Then, taking the Tera Orb, he threw it above the Porygon where it burst into light and the Pokemon was transformed. Crystal energy surrounded it and on its head, in the shape of a large gem with a few smaller gems sticking out, was a crystalline crown. "The future is here, and I can't wait to share it with all of you." His speech dramatically concluded, the reporters burst into a stream of furious questions.
"Wow, that's pretty incredible." I said, half-tuning out the rest of the interview.
Cyan frowned. "You don't sound like you think it's incredible."
"No no, don't get me wrong, this is huge. In terms of battling it adds a whole new dimension onto how you fight. A couple of dimensions, really. Defensively you can change your typing to completely flip the script on incoming attacks, and offensively everyone knows how much of a boost Terastalized Pokemon can have in the wild. There's also the question of duration, how long it lasts, when will be the best time to use it-"
"Ok ok, no need to nerd out on me you Pokefreak." I puffed my cheeks out at that. "So you think it's big news you just… weren't surprised by it." I'll have to be careful with the things I let slip, Cyan's actually quite intelligent herself.
"I guessed about as much when I met Turo. The rest I just studied up a bit on my own, but there's still too little information to say how this will affect things," I hedged. I had some theories of my own, like how it might lead to increased trade and tourism with Kitikami, the only other region that had Terastalization naturally, but that was mostly due to my unique knowledge.
Our attention was suddenly caught by something Turo said as the press conference was wrapping up. "... I'd like to give a big thanks to my team for their tireless work on this project, I couldn't have done it without them. We also could not have achieved this without the work from generous sponsors, like Billy & O'Nare Glitterati." Mom, Dad, just how much did you give him? Am I going to have to worry about him getting his 'time machine' up and running ahead of schedule?
"Wow, that's our parents for you, always knowing the best projects to invest in! That's their Glitterati brilliance." I cringed for a moment before I saw Cyan giggling, revealing she was just doing a bit, not actually trying to copy our parents like that.
"Geez, don't worry me like that! You were acting so cringey," I said, now laughing as well. We both fell into hysterics for a bit, just laughing at their mannerisms. If it had been anyone else, I might have been upset by them making fun of my (admittedly goofy) parents, but it was something we could share as sisters.
I wonder how my real- first life family is doing? I don't remember death or the like, so it could just be my memories and mind implanted in Nemona's head, but maybe I did die. If I did, I hope they managed to move past it. It wasn't the first time I'd had such thoughts, but it intruded like an ice cold knife cutting through my cheer in the moment.
"C'mon, do you really think I'd be that bad?" Cyan asked, and I did my best to pretend like everything was still fine, and that I wasn't for reasons utterly unexplainable to her, terribly sad.
"No, no, you just did a really good job in your impression." I quickly changed the topic, trying to use forced enthusiasm to cover up my sudden melancholy. "Hey, want to see what Dun can do? He's gotten really strong, and I can't wait to see him battle."
My sister rolled her eyes. "Don't you battle with Arven tons? I saw those fights."
"You saw one fight- not even! You left halfway through!"
She looked sheepish at that. I will not call it Mareepish! Sheep actually exist here! And Mareep are much tougher than them. Wool is pretty tough, and an even greater deterrent when electrically charged too, something wild Mareep knew. Plus,such packs often had more experienced Flaffys or even Ampharos leading them.
"Alright fine, I'll watch you and Dunsparce train a bit."
"Excellent!" I cheered, scarfing down the rest of my breakfast. We raced outside and down the stairs, my sister outpacing me with her longer legs. The shore was as gorgeous a sight as ever. Sparkling blue ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see, soft golden sand beneath our feet. Chatots chattering away above us.
"Haha, I win!" Cyan said. I opened my mouth to argue that we hadn't 'officially' declared a race, before thinking better of it.
"All right, here's your prize. Let's go, Dunsparce!" I declared dramatically as I clicked open his Pokeball.
"Aren't you supposed to throw it?" My sister (un)helpfully added as Dunsparce reared up and… yawned lightly. I was excited for a split second before realizing that wasn't the Move, he was just a little sleepy.
"Hush you." I said to her before bringing up Rotom to record this. "Can you help us? I want to show off what we've been practicing." My sister kneeled down and scratched the top of his head, something Dun leaned into a bit. He hadn't been as big a fan of hers at first, but I realized that was because she tried to hug him, and he only accepted hugs from me. Anyone else trying to hold him like that got him agitated. Once I told her that, she made sure to respect his boundaries and appreciated the head scratches.
"... Of course, bzzt. You two have been working really hard." Rotom replied hollowly. Hmm, something is definitely up with them. I'll talk to them about it after.
"Thanks! Now, Dunsparce, time to really show Cyan here what you're made of. You ready?"
"Sparce!" He affirmed, instantly shaking off the sleepiness, a fire in his eyes. Cyan took a few steps back to give him room to show off the fruits of his labors.
"Alright, let's start off with a Poison Jab on that tree." I pointed at one of the palm trees standing about three times my height. Dunsparce eagerly slithered ahead, spinning around and jabbing it deep with the point of his tail. The purple ooze that coated his tail right before the impact spread quickly through the tree, giving it a withered look as it started to turn gray.
"It's weakened, follow it up with a Body Slam!" Sure, Dunsparce already knows it's weakened from the attack, but the commentary helps when showing off.
He wrenched his tail out, then threw himself into an all-out slam into the poisoned tree, smashing it to bits. I raised a hand up to shield myself from the splinters as it cracked and broke into a thousand pieces.
"God job, now finish things off with your biggest move. Earthquake!" I made sure to point at a boulder that was sitting on the beach (and may have been there from our efforts training days beforehand, breaking off a chunk of the cliffs nearby).
Giving a small trill of victory, Dunsparce raised himself up into the air on the tip of his tail before flopping down. The impact was much heavier than one would think was physically possible however, the Ground energy was infusing the blow. The sand rippled violently beneath our feet, sending Cyan stumbling, and then falling as the aftershocks hit. I was a bit more prepared for it, managing to ride it out by lowering my center of gravity moving with, not against the waves. We weren't too close to take any major impact from it though. The boulder on the other hand? It was right beside Dunsparce, the waves spreading from the sand straight up through the rock, breaking it apart with ease.
"Th-that was…" Cyan said, shakily getting up.
"That was awesome! Great job Dun!" I ran over to give him a big hug, ignoring the sand that had been kicked up.
"Dun dun!" He wiggled gladly in my arms, puffing himself up a bit with pride. He should be proud, it took a lot of work to get to that point. We've been training for months now, getting him used to different terrains like earth and rock vs sand. He could do more damage to the ground/anything on solid ground at first, but could spread the effects further and faster with the sand. Now he's about on par with both and I think I can say he's entirely proficient with the Move. Same for Poison Jab, and while it isn't as 'flashy' as the other two, I think he's mastered Body Slam.
I turned around to Cyan to show off how great my Pokemon was some more, maybe demonstrate some of the more finicky maneuvers we were working on, but I saw a look of shock in her eyes at something behind me. She raised her hand to point at it as I was already whirling back around. There was movement and an angry screech from the rubble, then a burst of rock and water sliced through it and towards me.
My vision spun around me, the impact leaving me dazed and confused. I could barely tell that I was laying on the ground. A pained yell from Dunsparce caught my focus, ignoring the aches and what felt like a scrape above my eyes.
Wrenching myself up from the me-shaped divot in the sand, I saw the battle at hand. Sand and water were kicked around as Dunsparce interposed himself between me and three red squiggly worms poking out of a rock. What? Wait, that's Wugtrio!
My starter wasn't doing well, not using Moves beyond the occasional Flail as it panicked. My head was still spinning, Cyan screaming her head off in the background didn't help but I pushed that aside as I rose on shaky legs. I was still trying to put the situation together, but one fact was clear to me was that Dun would be in trouble if I didn't give an order to my Pokemon immediately. "Body Slam!"
Dunsparce stopped thrashing about in confusion and launched itself at the wormy trio, slamming hard into them. Wugtrio recoiled, shifting back and I used the opportunity to steady myself. What the heck is going on here?! We were just training and suddenly this wiggling menace appeared. It- it hit me. I wiped away a small trickle of blood dripping down towards my eyes. I'll deal with how this happened later, I can't let Dun lose!
Wugtrio approached again, rearing back to slam its heads onto Dunsparce. "Roll away!" I called out and Dun avoided the blow. One Wugtrio head turned to glare at me, recognizing me as a potential problem, while the other two were focused firmly on my Pokemon.
"Follow it up, Body Slam again." I shouted, and Dun tried to do so, but Wugtrio easily circled around him, firing off rings of water. The problem made itself apparent, clumps of sand sticking to his scales and slowing him down. Some of the thin mucus surrounding the Wugtrio had stuck onto Dun from his contact and dragged him down, more sand sticking to him. The frequent water blasts didn't help either, making him flinch and making more space between the two.
What do I do? My mind froze, for some reason stuck on the screams Cyan was making. Tearing my eyes away from the scene for a second, I yelled out to Cyan. "Go inside, get help!" Cyan cast one fearful glance back at me and bolted, running up the stairs. Good, that'll keep her safe and I can focus. And if I fail, we might need an adult here.
"I- I'll go help the Young Master!!" Rotom said, floating after my sister.
"Right, good," I called back, distractedly, turning my attention to the fight. At least they'll be safe I thought as I saw the beatdown that was taking place. Dunsparce was still valiantly trying to get close, but Wugtrio was running literal circles around him, blasting him each time as he went. Dammit, he can't take much more of this! I instinctually moved towards him, causing two things to happen.
First, Wugtrio immediately stopped, trying to backpedal at my approach. Right, it still sees me as a threat! Better not get close though, it hit me pretty hard last time. The second was that getting a better look at Dun, I could see that he was actually doing a lot better than I thought. It still wasn't great, he was bruised in more than a few places, but I could tell he could still take a few shots. The Water Pulses aren't hurting him much! Wugtrio must not be a great special attacker.
My brave land snake used the opportunity Wugtrio's sudden stop had given him to try and close the distance. I could already tell it wouldn't be enough though, Wugtrio was still too fast and Dun too slow. "Jump up and drift!" We haven't perfected that yet, but he's already close. Just need the Wugtrio to back up and not try anything tricky.
Dunsparce launched itself through the air, leaping towards Wugtrio. Off the ground, the mucus didn't have anything to catch on to and slow Dunsparce down. It also meant his move was very telegraphed, the three heads of Wugtrio giving something near a scoffing sound as it backed up and to the side slightly. Which is when Dunsparce flapped his little wings as hard as he could! Gliding and curving through the air, he fell on Wugtrio with a heavy Body Slam.
The aquatic Pokemon gave an enraged screech, suddenly changing tactics. Instead of backing up, it charged ahead, a jet of water propelling it past Dunsparce, knocking him on his side. He easily rolled back, but Wugtrio was on him again in an instant.
Rocketing around, Wugtrio kept on striking at Dunsparce, much faster than he could react to, circling around and striking him from a new angle each time he tried to get back up. Damn, is that a Priority Move? I can barely keep track of him with my eyes… Eyes that's it!
"Glare then jab when he closes!" I shouted as quickly as I could. We'd practiced the maneuver enough that Dun knew what to do even while getting battered. He opened his eyes fully, staring with all his hatred at all three pairs of eyes atop its wobbly heads. The Wugtrio involuntarily halted its approach, its muscles seizing in fear as its momentum carried it closer to Dunsparce without any of the usual power behind its Moves. Spinning around, Dunsparce tried to Poison Jab it with his tail, purple energy surrounding the appendage.
Wugtrio managed to still pull off a speedy reversal - of direction and speed, not the Move, but still ended up grazed by Dunsparce's tail. Not Poisoned though, it still looks too hearty for that.
"Wugtrio!!!" All three heads shouted angrily as it renewed its assault. This time it was keeping a close eye on the tail, which meant it would sometimes abort its attacks early or only strike grazing blows. It was still enough though, Dunsparce was heavily panting between taking blows, and Wugtrio's speed was too great even with the Paralysis.
Sand sprayed near my eyes a few times, but otherwise the battle was kept away from me, letting me think and evaluate the conditions. That mucus keeps on slowing him down too…Wait I've got it! There was one surefire way to get rid of a debuff like that. It's risky, but I can't let him keep on getting hit like this!
Holding up my Pokeball, I recalled Dunsparce. His opponent disappearing in a red beam of light confused Wugtrio for a second, which was all I needed to release Dunsparce again, right beside Wugtrio, free of any mucus.
"EARTHQUAKE!" I yelled as loudly as I could, as if that would enhance the move, then jumping into the air. I think he's resistant to it, but there's no dodging this one. Dunsparce performed the move without question, slamming into the ground multiple times and kicking up massive waves of sand, like miniature tsunamis radiating out through the beach.
Wugtrio was already moving away, but caught off guard so close to Dun, it wasn't able to escape the wide-ranged attack. The Move bashed it around, causing the three heads to smack into each other repeatedly. It swayed around as the Move subsided, one head dropping limp, then the second, and finally the last, draping over its rocky body? Shell? In any case, we had defeated it.
Despite the fact that I hadn't been involved in the fighting, I was panting nearly as hard as Dun was. I can't believe that just happened! It was moving so fast and we barely- that Earthquake was amazing, I can't believe it did that much damage to a Water Type. Wait, are Water Types not resistant to Ground? Damn it, they aren't! To forget something so simple… I had panicked so much I forgot basic facts like that. Definitely something I have to improve on.
Shaking aside those thoughts for later I rushed over to Dunsparce. "Buddy, you ok?"
"Spar! Un." Dunsparce responded, still warily eyeing his fallen foe. He still placed himself between me and the fainted Wugtrio, breathing heavily and seemed pretty bruised up. Nothing worse than that though, nothing permanent, I think. Pokemon are really tough, he should be fine with some time to rest and some Potions. The Wugtrio too.
"I think he's beaten." Sure, I couldn't see swirly eyes like in the anime, but it looked pretty thoroughly defeated. Dun nodded, slithering back to my side. He glanced up at his Pokeball but made no other moves towards it, desiring to remain on-guard while the Wugtrio was still near, even if it wasn't conscious.
A few seconds later, others arrived. Staff members and Cyan were rushing down the stairs to us, my sister giving out a cry for joy when she saw that Dun and I were alright.
"You're ok?!" My sister cried out, running over to hug me, eliciting a small 'oof' from me.
"Yeah, we won!" I gave a weak cheer. I'm really happy, but boy was that stressful and painful. I hope we don't have to do anything like that again soon. Leah and the others soon surrounded me too, fretting over my wounds. They pulled out handkerchiefs to dab at my cuts, poked and prodded to check for other injuries and generally ignored my attempts to wave them off. I know I look like a mess but I'm fine now!
"I can't believe that monster attacked you!" Cyan said, stomping over to the downed Wugtrio. If it wasn't for two of the staff accompanying her, Pokeballs at the ready, I might have been a bit worried about the Wugtrio possibly getting back up while she was too close. "We need to have it-"
"Safely relocated!" I interrupted her.
"Why? That thing attacked you for no reason!" She demanded and I blinked, caught off guard by her anger before seeing the worry behind her anger, biting her lip and hands clenched into fists. She saw her little sister just get hurt and couldn't do anything about it, of course she's upset.
Recognizing that, I discarded any high minded, philosophical arguments on why not to hurt a downed foe. "I don't think they did attack us for 'no reason'." Very rarely was a Pokemon so aggressive, and even the ones that were more violent tended to be more on the highly territorial side than actively malicious. So why would it have jumped out from- oh.
"They were probably living in that boulder there." We had knocked it down several days ago, so it wasn't hard to believe that another Pokemon could have taken up residence in some nook inside the big rock. "When we destroyed it, they saw us as attacking them and destroying their home."
"I- fine," she crossed her arms. "But let's make sure it's placed far away from here."
"No disagreements here." She was still frowning, but there wasn't anything I could do about that. Her and the others were worked up into a frenzy worrying about me and it would take a few minutes to calm down. I was helped by the fact that I saw the battle end, but I'd still probably have the jitters for a few hours.
So close to serious injury over an accident. I wonder if I might have been able to communicate with them, if we could have worked this out without a full fight… but then again, if I'd tried to hold off on fighting back, Dunsparce might have lost too.
I resolved to worry about could-have-beens later, and for the moment just be grateful that everyone was alive and well.
Tera Orbs enter the scene and Nemona has her first wild Pokemon battle! It'll hardly be her last one, but it was definitely a bit of a wake-up call.
