08:00 AM

"Ralts - Female - Lv. 5. Type: Psychic/Fairy No. 280. The Feeling Pokémon. Height: 0.40m. Weight: 6.6kg. Ralts senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head. This Pokémon rarely appears before people. But when it does, it draws closer if it senses that the person has a positive disposition. If its trainer is in a cheerful mood, this Pokémon grows cheerful and joyous in the same way. If its horns capture the warm feelings of people or Pokémon, its body warms up slightly. It takes cover if it senses any hostility. Capture is required for more information on this specific Pokémon."

I had decided to not capture the Ralts yet, they - no, she - just had a big scare and asking her such a massive question could have been too much for the little thing to handle all of a sudden. So, I began our walk to Twinleaf Town where we could possibly rest, recuperate and maybe get to know each other. I would have preferred Sandgem Town, but from what I remember from the games, there's tall grass in the way, meaning we could run the risk of encountering wild Pokémon. I was walking instead of riding my bicycle, so I could read some information on my Pokédex without the risk of crashing.

The Pokédex was able to provide more information than it would in the games, which was just a sentence or two. It made me wonder how much information about Pokémon there was in this new world. Back home, everything about this world had been analysed to the finest detail, several times over.

From the information the Pokédex had, I was able to figure out a few things. First that the Ralts that was standing in my bag was a girl, so she couldn't become a Gallade, as that was exclusive to male Ralts. Second, the fact that Ralts was a fairy type meant that the sixth-generation type chart was in effect and that possibly Mega Evolution existed. Third, this Pokédex had seven hundred and twenty Pokémon registered, which meant Pokémon from Alola existed and that possibly Z-Moves also existed. Then lastly, that this Pokédex could possibly give me information such as moves and stats when a Pokémon is caught, like in the menus of your Pokémon in the games, though that was just a theory. A game theo - nope. That was bad and should ashamed of yourself.

Though, there was one thing missing from my understanding of this interpretation of the Pokémon World. How do battles work? Are they turn-based, like the games? Are they more fluid and improvised like the anime? Is it a hybrid of sorts? Will my knowledge of game mechanics even be useful in a battle? Gah… Hopefully, I can watch a battle at some point to figure it out. Either way, I should get to Twinleaf, I'm still bloody cold and wet, I can get a dry place to rest there.

As I walked, my shoes squelched against the dirt road. It was hard to walk with the soaked uniform being far heavier than usual. The bag wasn't as bad in comparison, years of heavy backpack hauling as a student seemed to have some benefits. I strongly smelt of saltwater, it reminded me of my times at the beaches near my grandmother's place. Yet despite the prompts for misery, I don't think I would have been happier anywhere else than right there, the first minutes of being with a real Pokémon.

The Ralts in my bag was half outside of it, leaning against my left shoulder. She was bunching up my thick jumper and squeezing it, trying to wring out the water from the looks of it. Luckily, she was physically unharmed from the Starly attack, though it must have been frightening.

"Aww…" I exclaimed as I watched the Ralts bunching up some of the woollen material and twisting it. "You don't have to do that but thank you."

I pet her head, she cooed in response, "Vaa." Her hair felt more like a plastic helmet than actual hair, yet you could still feel a pleasant warmth underneath. She seemed to push against my hand, sort of like she was rubbing back. I made a mental note that it seemed that Pokémon made more animalistic cries, similar to the games over saying their own name like in the anime as a form of rudimentary language.

"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?" I said to the Ralts. "My name is Jack."

The Ralts replied, "Vah… Ah… Vack… Sha…"

That seems… a lot less animalistic than I thought… Those sound like an attempt at English syllables… wait.

"Are you trying to say my name?"

Her face reddened slightly as she slowly nodded in response.

I couldn't help but "Naw!" at the cute antics. "Okay, here's how you say it; Jack… J… a… ck… J~a~ck~."

"Vash…?" she exclaimed.

I corrected her, "Jack…"

"Shach…"

"Jack…"

"Shack… Shack!"

"Almost there, it's just the "jay" sound. J~ack."

"Sh…"

"J~"

"Ch… Sh- Ch… Ch, J, Ch…"

"You almost got it! J~."

"Ch, J, Ch, Ch, J, J, J… J~ack… Jack!"

"You got it!"

"Jack! Jack!"

"Yep, that's my name." I cupped the Ralts' head in my hand and lightly rested my head against hers, in a really awkwardly shaped hug. So, Pokémon can understand and comprehend human language, well at least this Ralts can. "What about you, do you have a name?"

She looked at me and sadly shook her head.

"Then," I asked, "should I call you Ralts? Or would you like me to give you a name or nickname?"

She didn't respond for a moment, then she held up two fingers up to my face.

"Two? Does that mean the second option? That you want me to name you?"

She nodded.

Okay, what should I name you? I could name you after Chiaki. No, I want to be able to separate the two of them in my head. I could name her after what I name most my Gardevoir when playing Pokémon… Yeah, let's go with that. "How about… Elaine?" I discovered the name 'Elaine' years ago when I was looking through a bunch of girl's names online, and I really liked how it sounded. It had an elegance that stemmed from its lack of harsh sounding consonants.

She pondered the name for a moment as she stared at the sky ahead, the sun began to shine on her face as we turn to the east. Suddenly she pointed towards the direction we were walking. "Vu!"

I turn to see two, what looked to be, children shouting happily at each other over something. I recognised them. "Oh, hey. Other people. I'm going to go meet them. You can hide in the bag if you want. If that's okay with you?"

The Ralts shook her head, "Vuhu." and continued to keep perched on my shoulder.

I moved towards the children, they each threw something at each other simultaneously, then from each object, a flash of yellow light emerged and out came… something. It was hard to see what it was at that distance.

I quickened my pace as I heard the kids shout again.

The one on the left said, "Chimchar, use Scratch!"

The one on the right replied; "Withdraw!"

It was a Pokémon battle. Perfect! The two Pokémon were a green-tortoise like creature and a monkey whose butt was on fire. Turtwig and Chimchar, two of the Sinnoh starter Pokémon.

The Chimchar's Trainer was an energetic kid, he had messy blonde hair that stuck up at both sides of his head, his stance was wide and lanky, not that unlike a monkey. He wore a white and orange short sleeve shirt and a green scarf. I recognised him as the rival character in the Sinnoh games.

The other trainer controlling the Turtwig was a far more quiet and reserved kid. He wore a red hunting cap over short hair that looked like it could have been blue in colour. His shirt was black with white sleeves, the colour separated by the beige of his backpack straps, and a red knitted scarf wrapped around his neck. He was the player character of the Sinnoh games, wearing his Diamond & Pearl outfit.

The Chimchar lashed out towards the Turtwig, who took the hit like a champ after positioning itself so that its bulkier shell would take the hit.

"Tackle!" The player character commanded.

The rival character replied, "Use Leer!"

The Turtwig began charging towards its opponent, who began to twist their face into a menacing grimace at the oncoming opponent. It didn't stop the other Pokémon as the Chimchar was sent flying. The rival character's Pokémon was on the floor, the fire burning from its rear end had gone out.

The player character sighed, "We won!"

His opponent responded, "What are you saying?! We ended up losing?"

"Yep."

"Ohh…" The rival exclaimed as he withdrew his Chimchar into its Pokéball. The Poke Ball shot out a red laser at the Pokémon, turning it into red light before absorbing it into the red and white sphere in his hand. "Whew! Let's go home. I'm beat after that battle. My Chimchar needs a rest, too. See ya, Lucas." Then he ran off in a southern direction.

Crap, I thought, I missed out on meeting the rival. Say "hi" before it's too late. "Hey!" I called out; I ran towards the kid. "Congrats on your win."

He looked up at me as I came closer. "Oh, uh… thank you. It was my first Pokémon Battle." He responded politely; his accent sounded American, though it might be called something else here. Unovan, possibly?

"Your first one, huh?" The rival battle only happened in the beginning at Platinum, but he's wearing his Diamond and Pearl get up. Is it a mixture of the two? "Well I only started watching towards the end, but from what I could tell you were really good."

"Ah- Thank you, sir." I'm not old enough to be a "sir" am I? "May I ask, how come you're all wet?"

Oh… right… That would be weird. "I uh… fell into Lake Verity." I laughed as I felt my face heat up. "Speaking of which, could you possibly take me to Twinleaf town? I uh…" What do I say now? Do I tell the truth? Should I make up a reason? No making up a reason could possibly get me in a bad situation. Say the truth, but not the whole truth. "We need a place to stay…" I point to the Ralts on my shoulder.

"Sure, I live in Twinleaf. It's right this way." He pointed towards the direction his rival ran. "You could stay at our place if you wanted." He smiled at me.

Aw, why is he so kind? "You sure? Shouldn't you ask your parents first?"

"I can ask mom when we get there." He said. "I'm Lucas by the way, and this is my new Pokémon, Turtwig." He points to the Sapling Pokémon by his feet, who was pawing curiously at a patch of dirt. "What are your names?"

Names? Plural? We haven't decided a name for Ralts yet. "I'm Jack, and this is…" I whispered to the Ralts as I point to her, "is 'Elaine' okay?"

She nodded.

"Elaine, she's a Ralts."