The sun shone into the window and onto Takuya's face. He yawned and got up, groaning. His whole body ached from sleeping on the couch, and his back was killing him.

He dragged himself to his room, wondering why he'd slept on the couch when he had a perfectly good bed in his room. Then he saw the Pokémon resting peacefully on the bed, and the events of yesterday came flooding back. He'd found a Pokémon. A real living, breathing Pokémon. He didn't know whether he was shocked that it wasn't all a dream, or wishing that it was.

Pokémon are made-up creatures, he thought. They're part of a video game. How could a Pokémon be in the real world?

He thought about calling someone, maybe a scientist. But then he shook his head. Something like this was bound to catch the media's attention. The last thing he needed was reporters camping outside his door, following him everywhere, never leaving him alone. He shuddered at the thought. No, it was definitely best to keep this a secret.

He looked at the sleeping Ralts, its body covered by bandages, and sighed. Pokémon or not, it was badly hurt and it looked like it hadn't eaten in days. He had to take care of it, at least until it was fully healed.

Of course, if I had a potion, that would only take a second, he thought.

Takuya brushed his teeth, had a bath, got dressed and went to the kitchen. He opened the fridge, found the fruit paste he'd fed the Ralts the night before, and poured some into a small bowl. It was easier to feed it now, because as soon as he entered the room, and its nose picked up the scent of the paste, the Ralts opened its mouth wide before he'd even gotten to the side of the bed. It also clamped its mouth down on every spoonful and didn't let it go until it'd licked it clean. In a few minutes the bowl was completely emptied. After opening its mouth for a few seconds and finding that nothing was going inside, the Ralts let out a sigh and went back to sleep.

Takuya checked its temperature – it was still 37ºC. Since it wasn't dead, he had to assume that that was its normal body temperature. Its wounds were also healing up nicely; the minor cuts were already fully healed.

Looks like Pokémon can be treated the same way humans can, he thought.

He got up and looked around in his cupboard until he found his old GameBoy Advance and his Pokémon Emerald cartridge. He slotted the cartridge in and put the GameBoy on. After booting up the game and loading his save file, he looked in the in-game Pokédex until he found it – the page on Ralts. He looked at the picture on the screen, then at the creature in the bed – they looked exactly the same. He wondered how on earth a video game creature could have gotten into the real world. Did a GameBoy or DS get zapped in a thunderstorm and throw it out? Was it some sort of genetic experiment? He could only imagine. Right now, though, he had to concentrate on taking care of it until it was better.

And so that's what he did, for about a week. He fed it three times a day, monitored its temperature and the state of its wounds. He still expected to wake up and find that it was a dream, but gave up on that idea after waking up and seeing the Pokémon in his bed on the third day. The Ralts slept most of the time, sometimes waking up for a few seconds but always drifting off soon after. Most of its wounds healed after the fourth day, although the gash on its right arm was turning into a scar. Takuya wondered what could have caused such a wound. In fact, Takuya wondered a lot of things: how exactly it came to this world, whether it was wild or already had a trainer, but mostly he was worried over its general welfare and health. This worry nagged at him constantly, all day, all the time.

And it was starting to show. For one thing, he couldn't sleep; his mind was too busy with all the thoughts running through it. He also started to find it hard to concentrate. This, combined with his newfound insomnia, meant that his grades were plummeting. His lack of concentration also meant that he started to become hard to talk to, because anyone who was talking to him often had to repeat what they were saying several times. He also spaced out much more often, and was constantly lost in thought, so that you could rattle on to him for hours, thinking he was listening, and got rewarded with an absentminded, "Sorry, what was that?" for your troubles.

Of course, these changes in him didn't go unnoticed.

"HEY!" Mori Ine, his close friend since childhood, yelled into his ear during their break period. The sudden loud shout made him jump.

"Who-wha-huh?" he exclaimed, then noticed Mori standing in front of him. "Oh, hi, Mori."

She was twelve, same age as him, and had curly, shoulder length platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, which were filled with concern as they looked into his own green ones. She was wearing the girl's version of the school uniform: a white blouse under a sleeveless yellow sweater and a brown skirt.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You've been acting weird lately."

"Huh?" Takuya said. "How so?"

"Well, you're always acting distant nowadays, like you're thinking about something else," Mori explained. "Like right now, you were just staring into space. Is… is something wrong?"

"What? No!" Takuya quickly replied. A small smile came across his face. "Don't worry about me, Mori. Everything's fine!"

"Okay, if you say so…" Mori said uncertainly.

Now you might be wondering exactly why Takuya only took care of the Ralts for one week. It wasn't because he got bored of it, don't worry. Takuya wasn't that kind of person. And it wasn't because the Ralts got kidnapped either, because it didn't. There was no danger involved. No, the reason why he took care of it for only a week was very different.

It was because the Ralts woke on the seventh day.

It was still very early in the morning – in fact, it was still dark out – when the Feeling Pokémon sat up in the bed, fully awake.

Ugh, my aching head…she thought, holding her head in her hands. She took a moment to look around her. Where am I?

She tried to figure it out for a moment. After sitting there for all of five seconds, she decided that she'd been still for too long and promptly jumped off the bed and made her way to the door. However, it was closed, and the handle was too high for her to reach.

Not a problem when you're psychic, she thought with a smirk, and began to concentrate. A soft blue glow surrounded the door handle, and it turned slowly. With a soft click, the door opened. The Ralts pushed it out a bit and exited the room.

Finding herself in a corridor, the Ralts made her way along it to the open end leading to the living room. Upon entering the living room, a low growl emanated from her stomach. She took it as a sign that she needed to eat. Sniffing the air, she found her way to the fridge, opened it, and saw the fruit paste that she'd been eating for the past few days.

Bingo.

She concentrated again, and a soft blue glow covered the container. With a bit of effort, she gently brought it down and set it in front of her. She peeled off the lid and, without further ado, quickly introduced the paste to her face, coming up for a quick breath of air.

Yum, she thought, savouring the taste. It tasted like a mixture of Oran, Pecha and Mago berries, with a slight hint of Razz. She licked her lips appreciatively before resuming her meal.

After about fifteen seconds, the container was literally licked clean. The Ralts sat back with a satisfied sigh and let out a small burp. She sat there contentedly for a few seconds, and then got up to continue her expedition around this strange place.

After a bit of wandering and bumping about, she eventually came across a couch on which was sleeping a young human boy. She climbed up onto the couch and looked at his sleeping face.

So this is the human who's been taking care of me, she thought. Well, he should know that his patient's all better now. A mischievous smirk crossed her face.

Heh heh, this should be fun…