Chapter 5 - Reality Check

A beam of sunlight shone through the grated window, right onto my face. The sounds of birds squawking in unison with one another filtered down with it, drawing out an earnest yawn. A chilly draft filtered through as well—one of the spring season's final sighs before it passed away for nine months. I rolled over, still feeling the soreness from my excursion the day before. Blinking my eyes open, I glanced around, and then at my outstretched hands. Green. Tiny.

Quick reality check.

My name is Sage, and I'm a human.

I gave myself a quick glance-over. Nothing had changed. I have turned into a Snivy.

I began to think. Just as I could call back memories from the previous day, I tried to do the same with memories that should've happened prior to waking up in the forest. Same result as before; there was simply nothing to remember. Blank. Empty.

Was I going insane? How did I even know if I was a human to begin with? It felt like an unquestionable truth about myself, but that didn't actually make it true. All I knew was that I didn't like it. I didn't like how I didn't have some sort of explanation for whatever happened to me, and I certainly wasn't prepared to happily submit to being a Pokemon forever.

Had Nuzleaf not summoned me for my first day of school, I would've sat there for much longer, mentally clawing towards some unreachable truth. I remembered now—last night he'd told me that in order to have me recognized as a student, it was necessary to leave a bit early in order to meet the staff.

"I'll walk there with you this one time, you hear?" he told me as we left the house. "But after today I reckon you can find your own way just fine. You've likely proven you're capable of handlin' yourself well enough as a Snivy."

Have I? I'd been walking just fine ever since getting up, I suddenly realized. My tail pitched back and forth, ever so gently, providing a balance that simply wasn't there when I'd first woken up as a Snivy. I really was getting used to this body. Even if I couldn't figure out what had happened to me, some visceral side of me had already begun to grow accustomed to this new anatomy.

Nuzleaf and I headed the same direction that I had been dragged to the day before: towards the plaza. Instead of heading out the gate to the west, he led me down a wide path cutting north between Kecleon's shop and the Cafe. The road took about ten minutes to walk down, making me momentarily question why there would be a school this far from any other establishments in the village.

My question was answered when we reached the front. A fence was built between trees that were roughly fifty feet apart, with an opening at the center for people to cross through. On the other side the path opened into a massive clearing, featuring an outdoor classroom. An open area behind the chalkboard led to the entrance to a forest. To the side of the classroom area stood a steep plateau jutting up slightly from the ground, featuring a staircase carved into it leading up. Three small buildings sat atop the platform.

To my surprise, I saw Espurr from the day before already sitting at one of the wooden desks facing the chalkboard. I waved at her, and she waved back, her deep blue eyes sporting the same blank stare from yesterday. But there was at least some semblance of recognition there now, and that filled me with relief. I knew someone here. This would not be so bad. Maybe.

Nuzleaf led me up the stairs and into the central building, labeled 'Principal's office'. The aesthetics of the interior crowded my vision as I entered, the bright colors of the decoration inside largely contrasting the simplicity of the outside. A large window behind the central desk allowed sunlight to blanket the entire room and illuminate the smiling figure waiting for us to arrive, as well as the tall brown Pokemon at his side.

"Nuzleaf!" principal Simipour greeted with enthusiasm. "I see you have the child you mentioned accompanying you." He walked out from behind the desk and put a hand on my shoulder. "It is wonderful to have you with us, Sage!"

"Sir, are you sure this is a good idea?" whispered the brown Pokemon just loud enough for me to hear, crossing his arms. "We already have enough troublemakers here, we don't need the potential for another one."

Simipour turned his head and acknowledged him with the same smile he gave me when I walked in. "Now now, vice principal Watchog, how could you assume we have any troublemakers in our lovely school? All of our students are just marvelous."

"You know all too well who I'm referring to," the unconvinced vice principal retorted.

"Hush," the principal quickly silenced him. "Take our new student Sage down to his class. It should be starting right about now."

Watchog huffed at the order, but he obeyed without another word. "Listen here," he told me. "As long as you don't cause any trouble, we'll be good as gold. Capeesh?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, but nodded before turning to wave goodbye to Nuzleaf. I didn't plan on being a rambunctious nuisance like this guy seemed to assume most children were by default, so I was unaware what he was going on about. His prejudice really made me question how and why he got a job at a school of all places.

We walked outside to find that the rest of the class had already shown up. It consisted of Deerling and Goomy sitting in the middle row with Espurr, and Pancham and Shelmet sitting in the back. A Farfetch'd stood at the front, holding his leek across his shoulder with a bit of chalk sprinkled on the end.

With no seats left in the middle row, I plopped myself down at one of the front desks. I suppose I could've sat in the back with Pancham and Shelmet, but I had enough foresight to assume that wouldn't end up being very productive. My first impression of them left a lot to be desired.

"Humph," Watchog grunted, checking his wrist for a watch that wasn't there. "She's late as usual."

"To nobody's surprise," mumbled Pancham from the back.

"Who, uh…" I turned around in my seat to glance around. Nobody new was in sight. "Who's late?"

The atmosphere of the room (if the outdoor area was to be considered as such) shifted in a heartbeat. Everyone fidgeted in their seat, frowned, sighed, or in Watchog's case, a combination of the three.

Shelmet's forehead armor clanked against that of his chin. "You really don't want t—"

"Wait for meeee!" a voice called from the direction of the road.

Popping into view, to my complete surprise, was the same ball of orange and yellow fur that had popped out of a bush and dragged me to the plaza the day prior. The Fennekin was leaping and bounding toward us, clearing the entrance while Watchog glared daggers at her.

Unfortunately for her, it wasn't really her morning, and she came to regret barreling through so fast as she lost her balance trying to slow herself. Unfortunately for me, her trip-up was carried by her momentum and led to her skidding right into me.

All I'd managed to do in time was turn, so that at least the collision didn't translate straight into my front. Any soreness from yesterday that was numbed by the still morning dynamically shot back into focus, accompanying a new pulsing pain in my skull as I stumbled back into the grass.

Realizing who she had tumbled into, she immediately panicked. "Aaah—! Shoot, I am so sorry!"

Pancham and Shelmet couldn't contain their laughter laughing, while Deerling and Goomy simply shook their heads in unison. Espurr simply stared with her eyebrows raised. Watchog had decided he had had enough and walked back up to his work residence, mumbling something about his wages.

"Oh my! Shall I get Nurse Audino?" Farfetch'd said..

"Ugh—no, I'm good." I grunted. Leah offered me a paw, and I reached up to grab it with my vine. She pulled me up off the ground with a grunt of her own, and brushed some dust off of my shoulder.

The rest of the class came over to see if I was alright.

Leah's ears drooped. "I totally didn't mean to ram into you like that."

"Are you okay?" Deerling said.

"Yeah, you got bodied hard," I heard Pancham remark.

"Yeah, I-I'm fine," I told everyone, adding a chuckle at the end. They were all staring at Leah, but also at me. These Pokemon I still barely knew…

Farfetch'd came to my rescue by tapping his leek on his desk and pointing at us all. "If you're alright, then we shall begin class. To your desks, everyone."

After some basic math lessons, Farfetch'd continued class by reading a story about a famous group that was involved in some kind of worldwide event. They were called a 'rescue team', and they went around saving Pokemon in need and exploring uncharted areas. It claimed one of their leaders was a mythical Pokemon. I was barely paying enough attention to catch what he was rambling about until one word stood out among them all.

"Human."

The protagonist of the story was some human who, from what I collected, did something relevant enough to get their ancient actions recorded in a school textbook. I listened in a bit closer, and although most of it was rhetoric targeting a younger audience than what this class had to offer, I tried to pick up as much as I could. As far as my amnesia was concerned, anything I could learn was a positive.

Another human, though! This information gave me hope that perhaps my situation wasn't as random as I had thought it to be. Then again, this was just a story, and I hadn't gathered any information that I could actually put to use, so perhaps I was overreacting a bit. Oh well, at least I knew that being a human in this world wasn't a total anomaly. Maybe from a modern standpoint it was, but not from a historical one.

After another hour of Farfetch'd's lesson, Watchog revealed himself again and began a lesson of his own about Pokemon techniques. In spite of his brash mannerism, everything he had to say we all knew already, including myself thanks to Espurr's makeshift field lesson the day before. By the frivolous way he doped up his "illustrious" teachings, none of us were going to tell him this and ruin the irony. It would probably ruin his whole day.

Meanwhile, Farfetch'd had set up a few stumps that were tall and skinny, and shaved down to the bare wood. As a class activity following Watchog's lesson, the bird pointed at them with his stick and told us that the first student to split their respective log in half with an attack would be rewarded with something called a sitrus berry. A fun game after a simple day of seated boredom.

He signaled us to start. I didn't really care about the food, I really just wanted to practice my vine whip. Carefully deploying both vines, I swung the left one at the center of my log, striking it about six inches higher than I'd aimed. I brought the right one across the log directly after the right, and struck home.

Just like I thought. I'm already getting used to using these.

I could see a gash in the wood as I admired my perfect streak across the center. It looked like it would only take a few more to...

"Good job Espurr!" I heard the teacher say.

While everyone had dashed (or in Goomy's case, dragged himself) over to their logs to hit it with their attacks, Espurr had casually strolled over to hers before concentrating until the wood exploded from the inside out, scattering splinters across the yard.

Why couldn't I have turned into a psychic type? That kind of mind-explosion power just isn't fair.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed Shelmet trying to unwedge the nose of his armor from his target.

…I suppose it could've turned out worse.

With the conclusion of the competition, the large bell at the top of Simipour's building rang, indicating the end of the school day. I said goodbye to Deerling and Goomy, who thanked me again for yesterday, and then waved goodbye to Espurr before heading back down the path.

"Hey! Wait up Sage!"

I turned around and saw Leah jog over to me. I hadn't gotten far down the road, so I guessed she had seen me leave and followed me out.

"Want to walk back together?" she asked with a bright smile.

"Sure," I answered, and added with a laugh, "Just don't tackle me again."

She returned the laugh, and fell into a walk beside me. "I really am sorry about that. You know how it is being late—you just kinda panic and rush things. Totally my fault and stuff."

"It's no big deal," I reassured with a shrug. And the more I thought about it, the more I supposed it really wasn't. I couldn't even make a proper judgement about my own identity, so I wasn't sure I had any right to judge her for what was only an accident. She seemed like a nice Pokemon. Bearable at worst.

"Come on, I didn't drag you that hard into the plaza," she joked.

I shook my head. "Not from that. I went to Foreboding Forest to find Goomy."

Leah froze and stared at me with wide eyes. "You went into Foreboding Forest? That's so crazy! All of the adults say it's forbidden... Were you scared?"

I shook my head. "Not really. Espurr was there to teach me a few things, and the Pokemon there weren't very challenging even though I'm not—"

I immediately caught myself. Without even thinking, I'd nearly revealed being a human.

She looked at me sideways. A curious innocence filled her eyes. "You're not what?"

"Not… used to fighting."

I left it at that. Technically it wasn't a lie. Fortunately, she didn't push my minced words any further, never deviating from a carefree stroll. Now that I knew humans were an immeasurably rare occurrence, I needed to be careful who I told.

The daydream I'd fallen into afterward would not last thanks to Pancham's loud voice. "Yo, Sage!" he called from the side of the road.

I raised my eyes and caught sight of the two loitering by the treeline, waiting for us.

"Hello," I responded curtly, giving him a quick glance before turning to walk off.

I'd hoped that they'd take the hint and leave me be, but they weren't having it. "Wait," Pancham called. "I wanted to commend you for saving that crybaby Goomy."

I twitched my nose. "Acknowledged."

"But the truth is..." he continued with an innocent shrug. "Foreboding Forest isn't even that scary, you know? Anyone could make it in there. I mean even Goomy managed to locate that tarp."

"Even if his handwriting was basically gibberish," Shelmet added.

"I'll tell you what," Pancham said, crossing his arms and sticking up his chin. "We know a much more challenging place where a wonderful treasure lies, that only those with real guts can handle. Are you picking up what I'm putting down, new guy?"

What?

…Seriously?

I laughed in his face. "You think I'm just gonna fall for the same trick that you used on Goomy? I'm smarter than that."

Leah blinked. "Treasure?"

Pancham's gaze shifted over to her slowly, and he adopted an almost confused expression, as if he hadn't noticed she was here until just now. "We weren't talking to you. Run home and doodle about exploring or something. We have important business to attend to here."

"But, I—"

"Didn't I just say we weren't talking to you? Like, this isn't complicated," Pancham snapped at her, making her fold her ears back and lower her head.

I bit my lip. How quickly he'd put her down. She barely got three words in among his snarling. My vines twitched inside my shoulders, itching for release; only my better judgement prevented me from starting an after-school fight right there.

"Aaaaanyway," Pancham started again after rolling his eyes. "There's this mineshaft built into a cliffside a couple miles from the village that leads a ways down to a treasure chamber. Rumor has it there are a ton of red stones stored away there. It's a restricted area, however, obviously because the adults don't want the rubies to all get stolen."

My eyes widened. A cave? Even if I was interested in appeasing them, I wasn't equipped to handle a cave. Yet as I opened my mouth to tell them off, I halted in place.

I had an idea.

It wasn't the smartest idea, and I knew right away that following through with it could cost me in more ways than one. But I felt like a bit of selflessness couldn't hurt, even if it meant taking a bit of a risk. It wasn't like I had many friends in this world anyway, so what did I have to lose other than a day's effort and a bit of my physical well-being? I certainly had a lot to gain—namely getting these clowns off my back before this became a recurrent theme.

"Fine," I told the panda. "I'll go. But. Leah is coming too."

Pancham appeared surprised at first, but his grin quickly grew even wider than before. "By all means."

I turned to face Leah, and her expression lit up upon realizing what I said.

"Ah, yyyes! Come on!" she said excitedly, grabbing my hand and dragging me back to the plaza with a new spring in her step. "Let's get ready!"