Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, all rights to the owners.

So, this was planned to be a story about Kirlia saving and then teaching a random human she found how to survive on the streets, and then it went off the rails a bit… or a lot. As in the story ended up being about something else entirely.

For the record: I knew it was a bad idea, but my weeping horns didn't let me walk away.

Stupid telepathy letting me feel the emotions of others.

I guess I should explain. See, every morning after the first daily human migration, I take whatever I managed to steal to the marketplace on the south side of the city. There I usually barter with the Murkrow, who are more than willing to trade some berries or fabric or food for coins. Murkrow really like shiny things.

Today is a bit different. The marketplace, an abandoned school, is in chaos. As I approach I can see Purrloin sprinting away from the building, holding a small pouch in her mouth. I can also see a pair Starley flying out of the roof, also carrying their wares.

"What's going on!?" I shout up at them.

"Human!" One of the Starley shouts back. "Murkrow! Fight!"

"Run!" The other Starley shouts. "Human!"

"Are they-!" I try to ask more, but the Starley have flown out of earshot. "Well thanks." I grumble. "That tells me basically nothing."

It's not the first time a human has wandered into the market. Heck, there are a few that drop by regularly to trade. I don't know if the Starley are telling me there's a new human, or if it's a regular, or if the Murkrow initiated the fight or the human did.

I guess I'm going to have to investigate myself. I can always teleport away if I need to.

I can hear the fight before I see it. Murkrow are not quiet, so I can hear them squawking from outside the building. Notably, I don't hear any squawks of pain. I can however, as I run into the building, feel pain. My horns throb with the feeling of fear, panic, confusion, and pain as I get closer to the fight.

It can't be the Murkrow. Murkrow are Dark, I can't sense anything from Darks.

I stop myself around the last corner and peek into the main room of the market. Within I can see four Murkrow flying around the spacious room, and on the floor, on his back and trying to scoot away, is a human man… boy… it's hard to tell. He's wearing unseasonably long clothing and boots, some of which is torn and bloodied. It's not hard to see where that blood has come from, judging by the similar red blotches on the Murkrow's beaks.

Stupid Murkrow, always causing trouble. This is why I only trade with them at the market in the first place. Without the watchful eyes of everyone else, they'd just mob me and take my stuff. I guess they thought this human was easy pickings and that no one would come to his defense.

To their credit, the Murkrow were right. Aside from them, I'm the only other Pokemon here. Everyone else has fled. This human isn't putting up much of a fight. He's free meat, and all his shiny things will be theirs.

I pity the man of course. He must be new to street life judging by his relatively tidy clothes and hair (now messed up by Murkrow, but still visibly clean in other areas). Maybe he broke an unspoken rule, or walked into the wrong spot. I'm also rather angry at the consequences this is going to have. You can't get away with killing a human so easily.

Still, I turn my back and walk away. Even if I wanted to do something, I can't fight four Murkrow at once. This is just an unfortunate truth of wild living.

Another round of pain and fear reaches my horns, and I grit my teeth. I just have to ignore it until I'm out of the school. If I'd actually been taught properly maybe I would have control of my powers by now and could just block out the human's emotions, but nooo, I didn't get that luxury, so I have to feel his pain all the way out.

It really is unfair. What did the human do wrong? When I was thrown out on my own as a Ralts, I got some help from a sympathetic Starley who showed me the basics. Did this human even get that luxury?

I stop at the school's exit. I can still hear squawking, and my horns still throb with the human's emotions. I just need to step away, this is how the wild works.

Yeah, I'm not convincing myself with a flimsy argument like that. Against my better judgement, I turn back around and run into the school again.

I'm going to regret this in about five minutes. I can just tell.

I don't announce my presence as I dash back into the main room, and I don't give a warning before charging up a Shock Wave and firing the wide burst at the closest Murkrow.

I've always had some electric potential. Before I was thrown out, I remember watching my mother channel electricity for Thunderbolt; sometimes in person, sometimes on recordings. I was too young to use the attack myself, but over time I got the basics down and could channel small sparks.

Eventually, years later, I refined that electric potential into Shockwave after finding some videos through a computer library to teach me.

Anyhow, Shockwave is a useful tool, especially against Murkrow who I can't directly affect with Confusion. The one I targeted tumbles out of the sky and crashes to the floor, muscles twitching. The three others quickly round on me and yell in a cacophony of brief phrases.

"What doing!?"

"Stealing food!"

"Stay out! Stay out!"

"Consequence!"

"Ours! Our shiny!"

"Not your problem!"

I'm not shy about shouting back. "You're going to get us all in trouble! The humans will punish all of us because of you!"

"Not our problem!"

"We fly away! Humans no problem!

"Stay out! Stay out!"

I guess I should have known better than to expect reason from Murkrow. "I can't do that."

"Fight!"

"Die!"

"Your mistake!"

"I can't say you're wrong." I mutter under my breath, and channel another Shock Wave as the Murkrow dive at me with a dark flare around their beaks signifying Pursuit. However, the Murkrow are stupid. Shock Wave is not a single bolt, it's more of an area blast. It's reliable at the expense of power. However, that also means when enemies are crowded as close together as the Murkrow, Shock Wave can hit all of them at once.

And so I do. The staticy blast envelops all the Murkrow at once, and they all tumble to the floor in a heap. I take the opportunity and run to the human. Hitting three foes at once means a reduction in power. Those Murkrow will be up again soon.

"Come on!" I say to the human as I grab his arm. He's only going to hear "Kirlia Kir!", but hopefully the message gets across.

If I was more powerful I might be able to teleport us. You know, if I hadn't been thrown out and was actually trained properly, but at the moment I can only teleport myself.

Me and the human run out the back of the building, through the abandoned playground, and over a fence. Or, well, he goes over the fence. I do a short-range teleport.

Now, this may shock you, but Kirlia are not the most physically adept Pokemon ever. We're not exactly suited to running. Even though he's injured and rather scrawny, the human's endurance is far better than mine and he's starting to outpace me.

My worry is unfounded because the human notices me lagging behind and, without prompting, scoops me up into his arms so we can keep running.

Not that it's really necessary. By this point I'm fairly sure the Murkrow aren't after us but I let him run for a few more minutes before tapping him on the arm a few times to get him to stop. He stumbles to a stop a moment later and puts me down.

Thankfully it's after midday and most humans are out at their jobs, so there's no one around the houses to yell at us to go away and stop bleeding on their sidewalk.

Speaking of bleeding, I need to stop the human from bleeding. His injuries don't look severe, but open wounds need tending regardless.

My first thought, of course, is a Pokemon Center. That's where I go when I'm hurt. The nurses there will treat anyone. I don't know if they can treat people, but it's worth a try.

With his adrenaline wearing off, the human's emotions become a lot more muddled and less straight-forward. Confusion is still at the forefront, but panic, shock, hysteria, and a bit of wonder are all there, swirled together in an emotional stew that my horns struggled to properly sort through.

And then, just to add to this crazy situation, the human speaks, and I don't understand him.

To be clear: I know the local human language. I can't speak it, my vocal chords aren't structured for human words, but I've been around humans long enough to understand their language. This human, however, doesn't speak the same language at all.

Great. Just fantastic.

"Come on, let's go." I sigh, even though he won't understand me. Even if he was a local human, human ears can't hear all the thousands of subtle fluctuations of tone Pokemon use. That's why Pokemon can understand humans (we can understand words), but humans can't understand us. "I won't have someone I just saved bleeding out on me."

For once, I stick to the main roads. Usually I'd stay in the back-alleys to avoid capture by humans, but with this human boy next to me there's little risk of that. I'm assumed to be his Pokemon.

We get some strange looks, being two, scruffy, slightly injured individuals walking down a main road, but as terrible as humans can be they generally won't abuse their own out in the open like this, so I can pull the human to the closest Pokemon Center without being stopped.

"Kirlia? Are you alright?" The nurse on duty asks as soon as I step inside the building. "Who's this? Hello there sir! Do you need help? Please, sit over here, I'll fetch the bandages."

The boy blinks uncomprehendingly, but I lead him over to the chair and he sits without prompting. He looks up when the nurse returns with a roll of bandages, disinfectant, water, and some tweezers. She also has a Chansey egg in a bowl, which she sets aside for the moment.

"Would you please roll up your sleeves?" The nurse asks. "Oh, and if you'd please give me your health card."

The boy blinks again, then says something to the nurse in his weird language. The nurse's brow furrows upon hearing that.

"I…" She says slowly, and glances at me. "Is that Unovan?"

I shrug. I know less than she does. Still, I pat the boy's pockets, hoping he gets the idea.

Some level of understanding seems to go through him, as a moment later he digs into his right pocket and pulls out a blue wallet, and removes a green and white card from it which he hands to the nurse. The nurse in turn takes the card and slides it into a small hand-held machine… and then starts frowning again.

"What… an error?" The nurse mutters. "That can't be right. Maybe it's a fake?"

She quickly writes a message to someone, and turns back to the boy. Fake card or not, he's injured, and she's going to fix him. This is why even we wild Pokemon hold Pokemon Center nurses in high regard.

The boy grimaces as the nurse cleans out his wounds and goes through the process of disinfecting and bandaging them. I can feel his pain and severe nausea as this goes on, and I instinctively rub my horns, trying to distract myself.

The curse of uncontrollable telepathic empathy.

Once his injuries are all bandaged, the nurse gives the boy the Chansey egg, which he stares at uncomprehendingly. Sighing, the nurse gestures for him to eat it, which he does after a moment of consideration.

"And you, are you alright?" The Nurse finally asks me. "Do you need healing?"

I shake my head. I'm tired, not injured.

"Alright. Make sure he stays here." The nurse instructs. "I need to make a call."

In other words, he might be in trouble because he doesn't have a recognizable health card. Great. Either way, at least he'll be out of my hands, so when he tries to stand I nudge him back into the seat.

This little rescue has already been more trouble than it's worth. If I just let him walk out he might find me later, and I don't want to be responsible for this guy. Nothing against him, but I've got my own problems. I did my good deed for the day.

So me and the human sit around for about half an hour as the nurse talks on the phone. From the snippets I can hear, she's trying to figure out where the boy is from using the language on his card, and she's having no luck. The language on his card isn't recognizable to anyone.

"What do you mean it doesn't exist?" The Nurse whispers. "Are you saying he made up an alphabet? Sinnoh doesn't have any known uncontacted tribes, and he's wearing modern clothes anyhow."

"...!"

"Yes, I can keep him here." The nurse says. "I can put him up in a room, but I can only do so much without being able to talk to him."

"...?"

"Kirlia isn't his. She's a wild."

"...!"

"Well…" The nurse covers the mouthpiece of the phone with her hand. "Kirlia can you sense his emotions?"

Feeling wary, I nonetheless nod.

"Would you mind terribly if I asked you to stay here for a few days? We could use your assistance."

I can sense a hint of desperation from her, and I know what's going on. I'm an easy solution to multiple of her problems. I can sort of translate for the boy because I can feel his emotions, I can make him easier to handle because he probably trusts me, and I can explain how I found him and what I know when a proper translation Pokemon is brought in.

Of course, that means I'm not able to go out and about, but it does mean free food and a nice place to sleep…

"Sure." I say, and nod to the nurse. Her relief washes over me and she nods in return, and goes back to talking on the phone.

We don't have to stay stuck at the chair for much longer. The nurse takes a moment to give us a room, leaving me in the company of this random human boy for an unspecified amount of time. Yay.

It's not as bad as it sounds actually. The boy is very quiet, and we have a television in the room that I can watch. Usually I don't have time to watch television because I'm busy looking for food or something, but now I've got nothing but free time.

I eventually settle on some drama show about a Machoke and a Delphox. Everything is horribly contrived and not at all realistic to how most Pokemon think, but it's entertaining in the same way listening to a toddler trying to play the piano is entertaining: it's awful, and therefore funny.

The boy's interest tickles my horns for a few minutes as he watches the show before it fades into disinterest. Instead I'm left with his low-level anxiety itching the top of my horns for hours on end.

So that's fun. I really wish I could turn off my powers right now. The only way to stop his anxiety from bothering me at the moment would be to reduce his anxiety, and I have no idea how to do that, so I guess I'm stuck putting up with it.

He becomes less anxious when I eventually change to a channel showing Pokemon battles, so I leave the channel there.

The day goes by without much happening. We get dinner delivered to the room at the time you'd expect, and the nurse (a different one than the one we talked to before) explains to me that someone will be coming tomorrow to try and figure out exactly what the boy is saying and check if he's an illegal immigrant or something.

"Considering the language on his health card isn't in any database, I really don't know what's going to be done about him." The nurse says tiredly. "Nothing about him makes sense. If the psychic confirms he's not from anywhere we know of, the government will have to get involved and that might be a mess. Thank you for your help Kirlia."

Oh joy, the government. Humans hate the government. I've heard basically nothing good about it ever because humans never have anything good to say about it. It makes you wonder why the government is even in charge if no one likes it.

Just another human thing that makes no sense I suppose.

The next day is interesting. The person the nurse said would come by does so fairly early, and they bring a Gardevoir with them.

I mean, sure Arceus, why not rub in my lack of learning by flaunting an actually competent member of my own species in front of me. Screw you too.

"Hello there you two, I'm Officer Jayden from the Sinnoh branch of the international police." The tall, blond-haired man says as he enters the room. He flashes his badge, and then nods his head to both of us. "And this is Gardevoir."

"Hello." Gardevoir says in a calm, serene voice, and does a full bow from the waist. To be clear, she's not speaking Human. She's speaking Pokemon. The only thing the humans hear is "Gardevoir."

(I mean, technically that's what I hear too, but I can understand what it means)

"International police huh?" I say. I was expecting local police, or some sort of officer who deals with immigrants, not something as high-up as international police. They're the sort of people you see in spy movies. "I'm Kirlia, obviously. No idea what his name is. Not to sound rude, but why are you guys here? Unless you're telling me he's some sort of supercriminal, the international police seems a bit of an extreme measure."

Gardevoir must be telepathically translating this to Jayden, because he responds as if he heard me perfectly. "Oh no, nothing of the sort. It's simply that your… trainer?"

"I just found him. I'm not his."

"Your friend then. There's a chance that your friend here may be something very unusual, if not necessarily dangerous." Jayden explains. "So the International Police took over, as we're more well-versed in dealing with his kind."

"And what kind is that?"

"An outworlder." Gardevoir murmurs. "An individual from a dimension other than ours. Truly a one in a billion occurrence, if he does in fact turn out to be such."

I twist my head to look at the boy, who's listening to all this uncomprehendingly. That would explain why no one can understand him and why his language doesn't seem to exist; which is to say his language doesn't exist, at least, not in this world.

"Well, that would a lot." I say. "Also, his anxiety is starting to make my horns throb, so can we get him in on this?"

"You can't block him? Have you mentally communicated with him?" Gardevoir asks, frowning slightly.

"Don't know how to do either of those." I reply flatly. I don't want to talk about this. "I never learned."

"I see." Gardevoir says. Her brow is furrowed in what I presume is disappointment; to which I think screw you I didn't ask for your judgement.

Anyways.

"Let's bring your friend in on this conversation, then, yes? Gardevoir can translate." Jayden offers. "Gardevoir?"

"Of course." Gardevoir says. "I'll connect to him."

I can tell the instant she connects to him, because the boy flinches and Gardevoir grimaces slightly. I hope he swore at her. Judgy bitch.

"Okay, calm down Kirlia…"

"He… uh…" Gardevoir pauses. "It would seem psychic powers don't exist where he's from… or Pokemon… except as a video game."

Oh, great. An outworlder who's never actually dealt with Pokemon before, as if being an outworlder wasn't already weird enough. Thanks Arceus, I wanted my life to be more complicated than it already was.

I say that like I'm somehow bound to him. I only promised to stay here to keep him relatively calm and explain how I found him. I could just leave once this is resolved… but that feels wrong.

Gah, when did I become protective of this random human? We've barely interacted! This is why you don't rescue people: you end up feeling responsible for them.

"His name is… erm…" Gardevoir frowns, thinking. "Sorry, I'm translating."

"Caleb!" The boy speaks.

"That's what it sounds like." Gardevoir says. "And to write it in our language, it would be…"

Gardevoir uses her psychic powers to create glowing blue letters in the air. I stare at the letters, frowning. The name doesn't actually sound that unusual. Actually, most of his speech has sounded vaguely Unovan, but entirely made of words that don't exist.

"He also apologies if his anxiety has been causing you problems, because he's aware you 'may have psychic empathy if the Ralts entry applies to Kirlia as well'." Gardevoir says, addressing me.

So he's aware that I can feel his emotions? Huh. I thought he didn't know.

Jayden claps his hands. "Well, with that out of the way, let's get down to business, shall we? I have some simple questions for both of you…"

The next hour or so is spent answering questions. For my part they're mostly minor ones. Where did I find him, in what condition, was there a visible portal? I recount everything I know, and then listen to Gardevoir voice Caleb's much more detailed account.

Caleb's explanation of what happened between the abandoned school and now is more-or-less the same as mine, but the story of how he got here makes no sense… in that he doesn't have a story.

"I don't know what to tell you. I can't remember the exact moment I got here. My memory goes fuzzy around midday one day, and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the bushes near the abandoned school." Gardevoir translates. "I don't remember falling unconscious or anything, I think I have a blank spot in my memory."

"And is he correct?" Jayden asks.

Gardevoir nods hesitantly. "As far as he knows, and I can't find anything that suggests otherwise."

"Curious…" Jayden mutters, and scribbles in his notepad.

By the end of the conversation, not much more has been learned that I care about. Yeah, it's mildly interesting to hear about "Earth" and "Canada", but it's not really important to our situation.

"Well." Jayden says when the conversation is almost over. "Thank you for your cooperation Caleb, Kirlia. You've both been quite helpful."

"He wants to know what's going to happen to him." Gardevoir murmurs.

"Considering Gardevoir did not alert me to any lies, as of this moment you are under the protection of the International Police." Jayden says. "Until such a time as you are accepted as a citizen of a country, upon mutual agreement between yourself and said country, you are to be considered a 'citizen of the world'. You are entitled to all basic human rights and may remain in any country that accepts citizens of the world so long as you follow their laws. Sinnoh is one of them, mind you, so you don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to."

"The Pokemon Center will let me stay?" Gardevoir translates when Caleb speaks.

"The International Police will pay for you to stay." Jayden corrects. "Actually, now that we know you are in fact an outworlder, I suspect the International Police will give you an allowance of some sort to help you get started in an entirely new world. Don't quote me on that, but we'll help you establish yourself somehow."

Caleb nods his understanding as Gardevoir translates, and I can feel his relief.

"And Kirlia-" Jayden starts.

"Let me guess, you want me to stay with him." I interrupt flatly.

"Well yes." Jayden says. "After all, you'd share in that protection if you help him, which means no more living on the streets."

I hate that he makes a good point.

"Also, I'm sure I can find someone to teach you to control your powers. Having a translator constantly on-hand for Caleb would be quite useful." Jayden offers.

I can hardly turn that down, but that doesn't mean I'm not annoyed about the blatant bribery and how I'm only being offered this because Caleb needs help. If I was in trouble on my own, Jayden wouldn't have looked at me twice, just like all the other humans. "Fine. I'll help."

"Our thanks." Jayden says. "Oh, and before I forget. Caleb, your health card please."

Caleb passes it to Jayden, and the man slides it into a machine.

"Just run me through the information if you would…" Jayden requests.

After a minute, Caleb's health card comes back out, but with a shiny metal chip attached to part of it that will apparently allow it to be read by the relevant machines, and will function as his identification until they can get some proper documents made.

Humans have so much paperwork attached to their existence. I might have a record of my birth somewhere at the daycare, and it's highly doubtful anyone actually cares about it.

Eventually, thank Arceus, Jayden and Gardevoir leave and I don't have to deal with them anymore. I guess I have to deal with Caleb, but… well he hasn't been as annoying in two days as those two were in two hours. Besides, it's obvious Caleb likes me. I could feel his relief when I said I would stay. I don't think I have anything to worry about from him for now.

My first thought when I got to bed that night, however, is: "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

So, this one-shot ended up being entirely different than I expected. It feels like an odd start to your standard Pokemon Isekai story rather than "Kirlia teaches human how to not die" like I planned it to be.

Whatever. I'm content with it.