When it all began
season 1 episode 0
I wake up in a fantastic sunny day, late in the morning. It's been about 2 weeks after the end of the school. I feel incredibly good. I don't have much time: just a quick breakfast (I used to do it in very strange times) and after 20 minutes I go to my grandmother's for lunch. However, before it, down the stairs, I am "intercepted" by my cousin, who lives downstairs:
«Where are you going to?»
«To Grandmother to eat. Wanna come with me?»
«Mmmhh… ok, my mom is not there, so I don't have anything to do»
We go down, we go to our grandmother house and we note that it is setting the table. We decided to help her. She fills the dishes and we bring them to the table. We start to eat lavishly. My grandmother has always had the habit of exaggerating; so much the better, I usually am a glutton. For the second, she brings us a whole industry of French fries and the soft flesh that over the years we have learned to call "red flesh", because she makes it with liters of blood (sometimes even too much blood!). We eat, we eat… I think I should take some weight! I end up with a nice banana and I go outside in the garden. I try shooting some ball to relax (as long as I can, because they are all flat! 20-30 balls, not a good one!), Then I come back again and my cousin stopped me, who had risen to change her clothes:
«I have to go to the post office, let me know if you're available for the RiminiComix»
«Ok, I'll try, but I shouldn't miss. Now I go out, I do a walk on the seafront here»
Then she leaves. I come back to my home to change my clothes, it doesn't seem appropriate to run in slippers. In the dining room, on the fireplace, stands a beautiful painting of Lucario (one of my favorite Pokémon) that a friend of mine made me last year. In my room, a poster of the game "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky", for me the best game on the planet. I pick up from the closet a short-sleeved orange shirt and a pair of jeans shortened by my mother just above the knee, I get off and leave my home. Lucky, my childhood friends Ylenia and James's dog, draws my attention by jumping on the gate of their house (and it's a nice big dog, a half-breed between a Labrador and another I cannot remember, I don't know how does the gate resist). I give him two pats and it licks me, and then I go on. On reaching the seafront, I stop at the newsstand sited in front of the bathhouse "Othello 9" to take the "Gazzetta dello Sport" (an Italian sport newspaper), and a pack of Pokémon cards (as they say… gotta catch 'em all!) and I walk in the direction of the river (on the other direction, to Viserba, there isn't nothing). I also buy a packet of cigarettes and a strawberry milkshake. I keep walking past the trampolines and golf camps. There are a lot of restaurants and hotels. It's normal, this is a tourist area. Then, when I look at the sky to see if there are any clouds, it seems to me, for a moment, to see Dialga and Palkia, the Time and Space Pokémon. I didn't pay much attention, there is an absurd light and so I thought maybe it was an effect created by it. After a quarter of an hour, I decide to go back, at 2:20 PM there are the news on TV and I want to see them. Once returned to my home, I put the journal on the couch, I drink a glass of water and I lay on the couch. I turn on the TV and pick up the newspaper in my hand. The titles are the same every day: Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad, Mubaraq and their wars, the collapse of stock exchanges, the murders and other stuff.
«Ugh… they never have anything else to do, I see…»
Immediately after the titles, I get a slight pain in the head. My intention would be to go to take an Aspirin, but before I could get up, I hear a deep voice in my head:
"You, who have always wanted more than anything to train Pokémon… your wish has been accepted… are you ready?"
I look around terrified.
«But who… oh shit!»
I stand up convinced that there is someone in the house. I check all the rooms of the house, but I don't find anyone. I come be back in the living room scratching my head; I'm about to sit down again when I hear that powerful voice one another time:
"Hang on, Mirkho"
«But who the fuck are y…»
I don't have time to finish the sentence that I see the space become distorted, until I see a huge black hole. Before I could get away, it starts sucking air and pushes me inside. I scream terrified, until I see a white light.
«What the fuck is going on?!»
I was trying to figure it out when I receive a big hit in the head, and then I think I must have fainted. I don't know how much time has passed. When I wake up, I feel someone touches me repeatedly. Then I hear a verse:
«Pika-pika! Pika!»
I move my arm to get up, and I hear begin to speak:
«Well! It's waking up!»
«Thank to Arceus!»
Slowly I turn, and when I look at who was talking, I don't believe my eyes: in front of me were Ash, Brock and Dawn! I no longer feel my heart… oh God… someone give me a defibrillator and wake me up! Near Ash's feet there is Pikachu, who looks at me smiling. Ash says:
«Are you okay?»
I can barely get out a few words from my mouth:
«Y-Yes… I think… wh-where am I?»
«You're on a path that leads to Sunyshore City» says Dawn.
«W-What…?! Sunyshore City?! But… I am… I am in the world… of Pokémon?»
«What do you mean by "you are in the world of Pokémon"? Is there another world?» asks Brock, surprised.
«At this point… I don't know… I'm from another world!»
«Of course! I think I have an idea! – says Ash – Do you come from the real world?»
I was still dazed:
«If… if you call it this way…» I put my hand on my head.
«Real world?»
«Yes, Brock, I've heard it from prof. Oak. It's a world where there are no Pokémon, but other creatures»
«Wow… incredible…»
Incredible?! I should say it!
Ash gives me a hand and help me get up. Then they tell me their names: I knew them already, but I was too incredulous to make them notice it. I pat Pikachu, who rubs. His fur is so soft!
«My name is Mirkho… nice to meet you»
«What will you do now, Mirkho? Do you have a place to go to?»
«Ah… I don't know… if you don't mind, can I stay with you, at least until I start to understand something?»
«Sure, no problem, come with us. Wait, this newspaper is yours…»
«Oh, thank you very much»
«It's a pleasure. We're headed to Sunyshore City, I have to challenge that gym»
«All right, I'll be happy to watch your battle»
I pat Piplup too. Now I'm a bit quieter, the moment of astonishment has passed, I have already started the acclimatization period. I still have a thought in my head: I wonder what will say my cousin coming back and not finding me at home… when and if I return to my world I'll have to invent an excuse, and… yeah, this world really exists, and I'm happy, because I have always believed in its existence.
I finally have the opportunity to change my life, but I would wait a moment longer, I just got here. As soon as I figured out the "basics" (if we can call them this way) of this world, I will begin my adventure… why not, perhaps involving James, that friend of mine mentioned above, a fan of Pokémon. He will certainly be happy to know that Pokémon exist for real. After a quarter of an hour of walk (I literally had blisters on my feet, I had just returned home after a 20-minute walk on the seafront of Rivabella!) We stop for lunch at a Pokémon Center along the way. I eat a couple of sandwiches with those famous berries that we learned about in video games, and I must say they're very good. They explain things about their world I knew already (obviously Pokémon are famous in my world, they marked a whole generation): is divided into regions, they tell me the list of cities, all the Pokémon are divided into types, how to win medals, the leagues, etc., but I didn't want to disappoint them, after all, make me explain things directly from an inhabitant of the place makes all much more interesting, who knows, I might even know something new. I look at my phone to know the time: 3:05 PM. Excellent, news and sports gone. However, I'm happy anyway: I already imagine my life with my Pokémon, our adventures, the possible encounters with legendary Pokémon… phenomenal! We leave excited the Pokémon Center, but… I think my legs don't want to walk anymore. Nevertheless, we're on our way to reach Sunyshore City!
THE END
*= Rivabella and Viserba are two districts of Rimini. Rivabella is where I live! (I love it!)