10 minutes or so of a trek later and I was met with an uncomfortable new conundrum.

It was a stressful time, (Shocker, I know), and I felt really quite bad over my shallow treatment of the creature. I'd just… assumed, for some reason, that I could shonen protagonist my way through the introduction- honestly my demeanour and mannerisms should've been a clear sign that I was not quite qualified for that role.

The one time I ignore my self deprecating semi-self awareness and it starts this mess.

That's how I got here… into this wonderful situation. Truly, I am ecstatic to be here. Thank you. Locked in a truly riveting staring contest with a squat, small seahorse- hurried away from prying eyes and ears in a small alcove of trees.

On the bright side, we worked out some of the base issues rather quickly. After a bit more interaction on the walk over I was met with a bizarre mix of emotions. It simultaneously felt like I'd kicked a puppy, this poor little seahorse almost literally wore its emotions on its non-existent sleeve… Yet also like I was talking to a ruthless, high functioning sociopath in chibi cartoon seahorse form. I'm not joking.

The fact that I thought it had currently had any concept of subterfuge, however, was a laughable suggestion. I realised the depths of its scheming potential after only a tiny bit more interaction. Which was to say- next to none. 'Unless this is all just a top tier act I've fallen for and in actuality this Pokemon is an acting god- no that's a dangerous line of thinking.'

This Pokemon was very simple. The Horsea was Clair's first Pokemon, given to her a year prior from now on her 12th Birthday. It was related to Lance's Kingdra, the smug git having shoved the fully grown Horsea into 'my' hands before spinning around and storming off dramatically. This is, strangely, something that I can remember fully- one of the few things. Alongside a not inconsiderable amount of jealousy towards the man.

If that isn't foreshadowing for something down the line, then I don't know what is.

He was also a huge battle maniac, apparently, fighting for both Trainer and self equally with each bout. He thinks like he fights- with boat loads of draconic pride and bull-headish vigour. Matching that with the strange, twisted sense of 'loyalty' I discovered combined all of these traits into a frankly gut wrenchingly baffling amalgamation.

Case in point; the entire preceding conversation that got me to this conclusion.

"Wait, wait, wait! Let me get this straight…" My arms were flung forward in the universal gesture to halt, an eye twitching as the now jittering Seahorse vigorously thrusted its head up and down in some gambit to convince me of the information it had conveyed in its roundabout charades moments prior.

"So, to recap, you are perfectly aware of the- exonerating circumstances of a certain relevant parties… retirement from the arrangement. And thus are here- talking to me of entirely your own volition, in an attempt to fulfil your own personal ambition. Nothing more?" I recount, fingers tented as I pin the seahorse Pokemon with what I hoped came across as a serious and unrelenting stare.

A nod.

"You somehow figured out the switch the first time I summoned you, and quickly came to the decision to continue under me- despite the… change in management… just like that?" I stated helplessly, suddenly entirely lost. What was up with this little guys' priorities?

Another nod, this time matched with a shrugging motion, slightly quizzical and impatient.

"...You're just going to abandon your old Trainer like that?" At the seahorses' suddenly incensed expression, I back-pedaled, waving my hands in protest. "Look, don't get me wrong- if you really got some kind of… supernatural cliff notes on the whole thing, I'm not going to try to question it at this point. I'm really new to all this, but... no offence- but you seemed pretty unaffected by the sudden 'pilot swap', so to speak… Which is why I'm kinda confused with your- your… chillness? Uh, composure- how you're acting!" I sputter out, tripping over my words before pausing and taking a breath. Continuing beyond that rather skeptically, quite unnerved with the twist this whole thing had taken.

The prideful seahorse spared me a single deadpan stare before rolling its eyes and huffing- as if what I had just said was completely obvious and that I was the stupid one for not getting it. Which was annoying considering that I really wasn't getting it.

So… yes, whatever this was I wasn't quite certain. I'd been easily reading and interpreting the Horsea's body language and intentions as if I had been doing it all my life. It was helpful- promising, this body had been doing it its whole life so it wasn't incredibly surprising at this point. Hope that I could get through this had grown back to respectable levels, I didn't like getting my hopes up in general- but it was needed for my mental health now.

Acting like a lost, paranoid criminal is going to fail me sooner rather than later- even the dregs of experience I can glean from the original Clair will boost my survivability rate immensely. Just another thing to throw on the pile- like how I'm effectively dead and will never see my parents or home ever again… and… and- holy shit- repress, repress!

Wearily, I scrutinised the incredibly self satisfied blob as it preened smugly on the ground before me. Idly, I wondered how that worked, I didn't remember Horsea ever being shown outside of water in the anime- to the point that there was even a little subplot with Misty returning home just to leave her own in an aquarium. Was this the result of some special training, or merely another difference in this reality?

An irrelevant distraction.

The seahorse Pokemon, still paying me its full attention, gestured in what might generously resemble a shrug. Looking for all the world as if it truly didn't care- no, that's wrong, it was acting as if it was all a foregone conclusion… It was entirely confident in this arrangement- that I would still be its best bet in achieving its goals, I don't know how I parsed those details, but it felt right.

Like something I already knew- yet was just revising.

"...Riiiight! That- yeah, that's… huh, ok." My eyes widened fully, mouth set in an incredulous facsimile of a smile at the creatures one track mind. It was fully confident in itself. Just bobbing there, cool as a cucumber- as if the answer to its questions are written on my face- 'Oh, that's what it's banking on! Of course I'd want to get out on a journey- the guilt must be as plain as day for someone in the know. Hmm… this guy is surprisingly callous, if not completely ruthless, can I trust him? Yet I still feel as if I'm looking at it from the wrong perspective… whatever.'

'I'm still blaming the Pokegods for this preternatural knowledge bullshit- I better get some answers eventually, I swear to… Arceus- fuck…'' Scowling up in the general direction of what I hoped was any untoward observers, it hadn't even occurred to me that I might already have been made- that they were waiting to hoist me with my own petard, when I call attention to the many spectacularly gaping holes in my story…

That really proved I wasn't paranoid - clearly the gods themselves are fucking with me for their amusement. Its not paranoia if the titanic movers and shakers of the system are really out to get yet. Thoroughly annoyed, I turned my eyes back down to the smug blue blob, glaring at it petulantly.

"Well, damn, you're in luck that my actual plans fit so well, eh? Imagine- imagine if you got someone who would be entirely at home with the whole alien-bag-and-tag routine? Huh?! What would you do then?" I challenged, still incensed at the lacklustre response, however inwardly starting to understand more of the Pokemon's mindset. The grimace deepened into a helpless scowl as my theory mongering led me deeper, and deeper down the rabbit hole.

Pride, that's what all of this boiled down to- make no mistake, this Horsea was incredibly saddened by the loss of its Trainer. Partner, friend do not misunderstand- but it isn't human. Literal divine intervention, most likely of the Pokegod variety was something I already knew was responsible for the shift. I keep thinking of the caves as a solitary trial, that I was all alone and that no one else had witnessed the… strangeness of my 'arrival'... That wasn't true, though, was it? I had literally used Horsea in a battle- but could that really be it? Did the little tyke get some kind of exclusive, personalised memo from the one responsible for this- just so it would remain with me instead of holding a grudge?

Pride… but not so much that it obscures the hierarchy of Power. The capital P is required when possible gods are involved- I know how that often ends… Yet still…

Was that too conceited of me? Surely I, too would've gotten some form of warning- had I? Could I have accepted this- my memories simply wiped… Did I pay some sort of price for this- no, I can't keep speculating like this- I believe this thing. When it says it knows- as it looks at me not in the blind adoration it had for Clair, but a new… cooler, more calculative but open expression. There is no doubt in my mind that he knows I am not Clair.

It simply doesn't matter to it.

Fuck, this communication thing is like magic, screw the super-tech. I don't even have any of the reality-warping superhuman abilities like Aura or Psychic powers, this is all in-built bodily reflexes of a lifetime not my own- It sounds dumb but I'm starting to realise there really might be something to all the 'open your heart to friendship' spiel...

Dammit! I'm not some shonen protagonist!

'No, seriously, I'm not remotely a shonen protagonist. I don't think I'm even cut out for being a Slice of Life protagonist now that I think about it...' Guess it was lucky my life wasn't a story, then, wasn't it?

Regardless, this was good news. Unequivocally brilliant news, actually, and if the order of events leading to this moment- to being accepted by a genuine Pokemon- had been rearranged even slightly I'd have been ecstatic. Over the moon. Jumping for joy. A detached, colder part of me even noting down a tick next to stage one of my budding plan. Perhaps even a few more steps now uncovered- I had gleaned ridiculous amounts of knowledge from the little seahorse intuitively- things I cannot even start to put into words.

"...Yeah, ok, you got me. Guess we're in this together for now- take care of me, ok? I'm not kidding, by the way, I have no idea what I'm doing." Swallowing my protests, the picture recontextualizes as it occurs to me that I don't have much of a choice here. I needed a Pokemon, and this one was willing to work with me despite our… positions. Perhaps I was projecting, if there was a third party involved here at some stage who gave out the clear facts- of course a rational being wouldn't blame me specifically.

Yet all this did was serve to highlight another issue.

I currently held no real control over my fate- I wasn't an independent actor. I wasn't even an adult anymore- oh shit- puberty, as the opposite gender… My horrified thousand yard stare was the thing of legends when that originally occurred to me.

It hadn't really fully sunk in due to how… hands off the woman's parenting style seemed, but now that I was replaying the conversation in my mind and comparing it with what I'd learned off the web… There might be a way to nip that… little problem in the bud. I'd already subconsciously decided I wanted to separate myself from this family- from whoever Clair was before. Ignoring all the hormones and weird alt-universe magic biology shit, anyway.

Sadly I wasn't quite ballsy enough to just flee into the night twirling a fake moustache and sporting a new name, Horsea strapped to my back with a red bandolier. The mental image brought a briefly amused smile to my face as I turned back to the Pokemon for the last time.

"Well, looks like we're stuck together for now at least. I'll figure out what your deal is later, not to be rude, but you're not making any sense to me right now." Forcing a snideness into my tone, I try to channel as much needless smug self-confidence as I can- purposefully taking cues from Gary Motherfucking Oak himself. That was my current mental image of Clair, Gary but with blue hair. It might not have been entirely accurate, but it was amusing. My smirk solidified slightly as the artificial confidence, as well as the picture that thought provided, boosted my completely soured mood into a new dimension.

Now shored up with bluster, I jabbed Horsea's Pokeball in the small creatures face. Before an afterthought occurred to me. "I'm guessing you don't have a nickname? Or probably want one…?" The Pokemon tilted its head slightly before shaking it in a negative.

Welp, whatever, I'm not very good at naming stuff anyway.

"Then I'll smell ya later, Horsea-boy- wait, no I didn't mean to say that- uhh whoops…" Heat rushed to my cheeks as the Seahorse shot me another deadpan look before vanishing in a scarlet flash, I fumbled with the ball for a moment.

Hissing to myself scoldingly, I scan the area with a cursory glance before stalking off. A myriad sea of conflicting emotions and thoughts battling it out inside me. One thing for sure, though.

This is going to be a goddamn nightmare.

My walk back was… discomforting, I'd kept a better lid over my emotional state at least outwardly, inside I was a tumultuous, chaotic bubbling mess. It felt like everything was out to get me, that interaction had brought up painful memories. Things that hadn't risen to the surface since I'd woken up in that cave- not properly, and as much as it pained me, neither could I let them now.

What made it worse was this facade, the lies. I'd always been the kind of person to scoff at characters in stories that dragged their morals too vaguely and became characterised with immense amounts of what I considered to be irrational guilt. But here I was- angsting it up in a fictional universe, lying to everyone yet not even a day back in civilisation and I'd already been made by someone. True, it was a Pokemon- my Pokemon now, one who had been with me since the start…

However, that really didn't take away from the fact that not only had I failed already- I had only talked to a single person for more than a few lines. The worthless background characters I'd interrogated for directions didn't count- no matter how much they wanted to be important. Can you tell I'm annoyed with the way this is already going?

Because I'm really annoyed at the way this has gone already.

It hadn't been long since returning to civilisation that I'd run into issues- mainly in the fact that people kept trying to talk to me. On the way over I'd gotten very little attention, a wave here- a greeting there. I had just awkwardly returned a nod with a smile, a token response that satisfied them. Apparently Clair was already a well known face around town- or at least in the clan because after my heart-to-heart with Horsea I'd discovered that they just wouldn't leave me alone.

Had it just been mundane conversation- or wishes of wellbeing for my health after my ordeal, (despite them having no reason to know about it), I'd probably have responded better. As it was, my interactions with my fellow youths were… weird. Picture yourself as a slightly awkward teen living in a socially structured society based around a concept, born to a family of professionals of this all encompassing concept.

Got it?

Now imagine that mental image if it was transformed into an anime- specifically an anime about small animals being forced to into gladiatorial slavery by their human overlords as a cultural staple in a modern setting. The culture was baffling. Also apparently Clair was about as popular within her clan as I had assumed- there was a lot of teenage drama going on that I wanted exactly zero part in.

It was like 90's Pokemania if Pokemon was real and the only thing on the planet- because it was real very much the centre of attention. No shit. It seemed like they'd all crawled out of the woodwork- a few brats had even charged right up to me with such a vicious glare that I was prepared to throw down each time.

Only for them to thrust a Pokeball in my face and demand a battle, crushing my expectations of physical violence. That was literally the only thing these people cared about. Nothing but their legal caged animal fights for money and bragging rights. It was surreal in a way that I didn't expect to affect me as much as it has. There was probably more to it than that, but it was what I took away from it, and that's what matters.

Well, at least it wasn't centered around a children's card game. Exclusively, anyway…

My refusals were mostly met with sour looks, insults- and generally annoying behaviour. Ironically, these turned out to serve as good distractions from my problems. I'd found myself responding with cutting words, sarcastic quips my annoyance bringing out a snide confidence that bolstered me to react somewhat petulant. If not accurately to my namesake, I hoped.

It wasn't even that I was afraid of battling with Horsea, even after our recent conversation, I felt… There was a certainty there- when I thought about the rules, my Pokemon. Like I knew exactly what I was doing. I didn't think too deeply about it, likely another 'benefit' from the merge. I just didn't have time for any of it.

The fact that some of the people waltzing up into my personal space looked at least 16 made the whole thing weirder- and at this point I couldn't muster the shame at ripping into a bunch of kids. It was just how it was here, something that I knew intellectually yet wasn't prepared to deal with when confronted with it in person.

It was honestly initially an incredibly disturbing sight to see such a one track mind dominating even a tiny percentile of the population. Was this the same the world over? That culture shock had waned as time went by, thankfully, eventually I'd gotten a map and by this point I was on my way to check off the rest of my to do list in aid of my budding scheme- prior guilt smothered in impotent frustrations alongside a more general pervading confusion.

Putting aside my fears- the culture shock and guilt, I'd started to properly enact my bare-bones plan, but off of my research and everything I could memorise in my perusal of Clair's belongings. Slowly throughout the day, a feeling of hope pervaded as a plot- a terrible scheme of truly the most diabolical proportions form within my frazzled mind.

My subsequent evil, (And not at all unhinged), laughter had reigned over the subdued din of the afternoon countryside with an iron fist for a few, scant but glorious moments.

I had naturally been very nervous this morning when I first started looking up information, this was a brand new world after all. The stress had only exacerbated when faced with the titanic amount of general knowledge alone I had to catch up on. However- no matter how hard I looked, the internet did not hold all the answers.

The Blackthorn clan was, to put it bluntly, very famous. It had honestly come as a shock at the time- in more ways than one. And while in retrospect or an outsider's perspective it made sense- that didn't automatically translate into my acceptance of the full breadth of that statement's connotations. They were the face of Dragon Trainers the world over- having almost a complete monopoly on the image of Dragon Masters, pumping out at least a handful of powerful Dragon Tamers, a generation that would go on to participate in many different areas of the Kanto-Johto League's governing body.

They made up a frankly ridiculous percentage of the defence forces, publicly shared statistics of the ACE Trainer Organisation, Silph Co and beyond- these people, Clair- the original Clair's family were heavily involved in worldly affairs. Mostly consisting of Pokemon battling, but still. A heavily extended, spread thin yet still solid family tree of connections that would have allowed Clair to do literally anything she wanted due to her position of influence and order of birth.

I shook my head in bemusement at thought- the sheer endless cascade of prospects laid out for a life now gone, all setup for someone else seamlessly taking the driver's seat. All that potential that had now fallen into my lap- and all I wanted to do was to run away. 'Not that I'm gonna ignore that side of it, I'm not that dumb but it doesn't really change how quick I'll be out of here when my own personal, legal 'go wherever the fuck you feel like', adventure kicks off. The Dratini will be enough for now…'

That being said despite or perhaps due to being such a massively famous name- they were also rather secretive- as I was apparently privy too. Sadly I wasn't able to look through every file, book and folder in that room alone- slurping up every drop of knowledge like a sponge to the best of my ability. That didn't stop me from gleaning some information from what I could find, however, like this whole Dratini business.

My apprehensive fretting slowly drained out over the hours eventually warping into hopeful, if wavering, confidence that further crystallised into determination. Building said confidence back up after the many hits it had taken over the day. There was only one person looking out for me, myself, the concept of this 'Dratini test' had ignited a fire in me. This was a way to take ahold of my own destiny- the next step in getting out here whilst stacking the deck in my favour.

To do what I want to do… and maybe figure out how I got here in the first place.

Uhhh, sorry if this comes across as stilted and a little repetitive... There are actual hints and bits of foreshadowing in the two parts of this chapter, a bit more than before but I get that there wasn't a tremendous amount of progress on the story-side. The pacing should pick up soon, I'm aware that the last few chapters have been somewhat wordier than they needed to be- whilst also not making enough of a story to justify the snails pacing. I'm new at this, it's really obvious and while the whole 'Drag on' pun/joke will still apply - I'm going to keep the words down a little bit more, to make them more digestible when we get through this proper first arc and onto the actual adventure part of this.

This was initially 6k words long - I cut it down a little and spread the important stuff over the next few chapters, this will hopefully not be as much of a blatant issue going forward- but I have written ahead slightly so it will probably take a while to get through. So it should only gain, hopefully, I'll just be speeding it up a bit. Mmm, this is a complete blind endeavour for me, and I've been using it as a test - honestly while there will be a plot to this, it's going to be lax. If you're looking for 'Teen Pokemon Trainer saves the world from Evil machinations story no. 9000' this isn't it. I've got a few ideas I have actually put more effort into, I may try finish some of them with a lot quicker pacing and see if I'm just naturally this needlessly wordy or not... so look out for that, or don't. It will be trash anyway.