As Tanya stumbled onto the train, she took a few moments to slouch and relax as much as she could while standing. Her whole body heaved as she tried to regain her energy. She wouldn't – experience told her it wouldn't – but her body did anyway. Even now, after a month, it did it, and rather than allow even her mind to rest, Tanya retained a tight grip on her mental faculties.

Tanya's ingrained response to her body's needs was to enhance it with magic, after all. To use her formulas to calculate the precise amount of mana to use in the spells that could, at the very least, turn off Tanya's perception of her body's aches. Consequently, she had to keep a tight lid on that response, tiring her mind as her body recovered naturally. Slowly.

After nearly a month of working at the docks, Tanya had come to at least consider the idea that she had been leaning on those spells quite a bit more than she realized.

Still, she refused every attempt by her coworkers to come with them to decompress. She held nothing against them, really, but she had far too much to do to want to spend time relaxing in a bar with people that wouldn't have any impact on her life in the long term, if everything went well.

Plus, the decrease in the minimum age of employment hadn't correlated to a drop in how old you needed to be to drink.

Just as it had been in the Empire.

The train slowed slightly as it hit a turn, and Tanya winced as she was jostled. No one made any attempt to apologize – it was expected that this would happen, so as long as no accidents happen, you just had to accept that things would be very tight.

Tanya's winces went unnoticed by those around her even if the sores had started screaming at her again. She wanted to do something about them, but magic was out, and she didn't have the money to spend on ointment or cream.

The work that had caused the sores was not exactly what she had been expecting when she'd shown up at the docks of the south Lightning Ward for her 'interview' with the dockmaster. She had expected to be guiding ships into port or ensuring the cargo aboard was offloaded safely.

Instead, Tanya had been hired on the basis that she was small and lightweight enough to climb up ropes or scaffolding, could be tasked with running up and down the port delivering parcels between buildings and divisions, could generally act as everyone's gopher, and, most importantly, wasn't a part of a union.

Despite it being exhausting, menial work, it was work. More importantly, it was work that didn't ask for anything concrete from her beyond her name, her email, and her current place of residence – a homeless shelter in the Sleet Ward. In a day and age where digital analogues existed for almost every document a government might issue and it only took a few clicks to send those documents to a potential employer, exceedingly few did not ask for some kind of documentation.

Tanya resisted the urge to pat her pocket and feel her bulging wallet. The work wouldn't have paid enough for her current needs if she hadn't been putting in four hours of overtime a day. Even then, she'd barely been able to save any of the money she made.

Between having to purchase a cellphone – an ancient thing that did not come with one of the dozen Pokemon that could act as security for a computer – the need to buy lunch every day, having her clothes cleaned occasionally, and all of the other small, constant expenses, she had managed to save up enough money to start getting some documentation.

She allowed herself a small smile. Despite how tired she was, she was not idle, never idle. In her downtime, she spent her time at the library or on her phone, learning.

She had learned the names of the places around her. Vermillion Bay was the name of the body of water she had landed in upon her arrival. She was now staying in a homeless shelter in the Sleet Ward of 'Ochre,' one of the five subsections of Japan's megacity, Autumna. Seventy years ago, the place had been three cities, connected but distinct. Fifty years ago, it had become five cities whose distinction was fading. Now, it was one giant conglomerate, a vast quilt of urbanism divided into thirteen wards.

She researched what little she already knew of the world around her. She hadn't found anything suggesting Ash Ketchum existed here, but a child named Red had apparently played a role in destroying a criminal organization known as Team Rocket. Nintendo and Game Freak existed in this world and had made video games called Pokemon Red and Blue, though she didn't really remember enough about her world's versions of the games to determine if they were carbon copies.

She had learned about history. About culture. Language. Economics. War. Just about the only thing she hadn't learned much about were Pokemon.

She had learned that the cultural, political, and economic structures of this world were fairly similar to her original one. Food security seemed better, technology was more advanced and people were more connected because of it, automation was everywhere, and Pokemon were ever-present – in branding, out on the streets, and even in things like infrastructure, it seemed some thought was always given to how it would affect Pokemon – but it was, in essence, the same.

She had learned the questions that would be asked for the tests she would need to take. Looked into how well others had done and how they had answered, where they had failed, and was even now working on crafting the perfect answers to ensure her success.

The train turned once more, slowed down, and then stopped. People streamed off and on. Tanya took a deep breath and steadied herself, having to fight the urge to gawk at some of the Pokemon that people were returning or letting out on the platform.

She'd stop at her 'home' to change into clothes that were less stained with sweat and grime and grease than the ones she had on, and then head for the Sleet Ward's single Pokemon Center. There, she would take her first test and undergo an interview to obtain her license. After which, the world would open to her… to a degree. Even if employing a child was legal, there was social stigma against the practice.

Tanya shook her head as the train started up again. No, she was not despairing. It was a simple assessment of the facts.

The rules were the rules, and Tanya had always used them to her benefit. She had done so in her first two lives. It would not be different here.

-OxOxO-

Tanya looked up at the red roof of the building. It wasn't like the two that the train ran next to on its way to the docks in the early morning. The roof of this one couldn't have been described even as clean, let alone shiny. Tanya assumed that, beneath the grime and street art and time, the walls of this place had once been as white as the ones she rode past. This one had a lawn, but it was unkempt. The only road that wasn't cracked was the one leading from the street to the side of the building, where 'Emergency' was painted in red and white above a sliding door.

All in all, it matched the images she had found online to a tee.

She grinned. Perfect.

Coming to this Pokemon Center, which barely took up more room than four family residences, rather than the equally sized, much cleaner one in the north of the Lightning Ward or the expansive, multi-storied goliath in the Land Ward, was a calculated decision.

Those ones were better staffed, had more resources, and were even known to help new trainers with the basics beyond just obtaining a basic license – they handed out Pokeballs, Potions, and even gave away 'Starters.'

This place, on the other hand, only had a few people on hand at any time who probably had much better things to do than bother with some brat. As long as Tanya's answers were satisfactory, she should be in and out in less than an hour at most, one step closer to having an official identity.

Tanya walked up to the door and smiled as it jumped automatically from her touch. It was a novelty she hadn't realized she'd been missing in her second life.

The inside wasn't as dilapidated as the outside; she supposed, being part-hospital, there was a minimum standard of cleanliness that had to be maintained, even if it was in a seedier part of Autumna. There was a line for the counter, a small bookshelf in one corner, a set of stairs off to one side, and a line of five ahead of Tanya.

She stood, despite her aching feet, and found herself talking to the woman behind the counter after twenty minutes.

Nurse Joy – or, this Nurse Joy, anyway – was exactly as had been described. Her hair was bright pink, her nurse uniform was crisp and newly ironed. The monster to her left was a rotund, pink-and-white creature with tall, rabbit-like ears and covered in fur. Most of all, however, the woman's eyes had bags under them and her expression was carefully neutral.

Tanya smiled. After the past month, she perfectly understood how the woman was probably feeling. "Welcome to the Sleet Ward, Ochre City Pokemon Center. What can I help you with today?"

Her usage of 'Ochre City' didn't phase Tanya – some vestiges of the cities that had preceded Autumna remained. "Yes, I was wondering if you could help me in obtaining a Basic License for Practicing Pocket Monster Training in Kanto?" Tanya asked, not tripping over even a syllable as she recited what she had memorized.

The woman's neutral expression broke into a frown. However, she remained consummately professional, even as she asked her to go away, cloaked in the guise of a helpful tip. "Are you sure you'd like to do that here? The larger Pokemon Centers give out prizes to top scorers, and the one in Central Saffron has a class for prep if you fail."

Tanya shook her head, keeping her smile fixed in place. "I am quite certain. I've just gotten off work, and this place is closest to home."

The nurse stared at Tanya for a long moment, and Tanya stared back, unperturbed. Tanya felt a modicum of sympathy for the woman, but Tanya was going to be doing this here.

The woman finally broke and pointed to her left. "Of course!" she said with the fake enthusiasm her frown had promised. "If you direct your attention to the right, there's a QR code on a poster on the board. It'll take you to the test. Come back when you finish."

Tanya thanked the woman and did as instructed. The other fliers on the board were mostly uninteresting, with the only ones standing out from the various posters advertising local Pokemon competitions being job offers. Tanya snapped a picture of them just in case, scanned the QR code, and then got to work.

After entering her personal information and acknowledging that leaving the website she was submitting her answers into would see her test canceled, she began to fill out her answers.

-OxOxO-

Tanya nodded to herself. Her answers were probably all fine…

Though it wouldn't hurt to check them over a third time, right? Nodding to herself, she went back down the list.

What do you use to train a Pokemon? A Pokeball.

Tanya resisted the urge to roll her eyes a second time. Still, even Tanya would have known that much before getting here.

Generally, how do you take care of Pokemon? Provide them with food, water, shelter, and enrichment, which includes battles.

Again, something Tanya could have answered before getting here, minus the part about battling.

Who makes laws regarding human interaction with Pokemon? The International Pokemon League Federation, often abbreviated to the IPLF, the State of Japan, and the Regional Government of Kanto pass laws regarding all human interaction with Pokemon within their respective borders. Prefectures, cities, wards, and other weaker governmental entities may only pass resolutions or temporary ordinances regarding human interaction with Pokemon that can be reviewed and nullified by higher governmental authorities.

During her preparation for the test, Tanya had anticipated Japan and Kanto's role when she'd first seen the question. However, she had been very surprised that what appeared to be a sports league for all intents and purposes had political influence in a country at all, much less in Japan of all places. She supposed that being the international authority on Pokemon gave them quite a bit of pull in an industry as expansive as theirs, but… still.

Name an act outlawed by your above answer(s). The spontaneous creation of money, funds, or high-value goods using Pokemon, including but not limited to moves such as Pay Day, without first registering as an official mint or business with the goal of introducing the above mentioned items to the market at fair prices, is a crime punishable by severe fines in excess of the value of the items created, possible jail time, and the revocation of the offending trainer's license.

Tanya nodded as she looked back over her answer – she'd applaud any ten-year-old that gave as thorough a response to an eight letter question – and shook her head again at how odd this world was. She had been thrown for quite the loop when she'd first heard of this specific law, and she hadn't been sure it wasn't just an elaborate prank. However, it was on the books of every national and regional government's laws she could access (and read). For now, she was quite sure this world's magic was much less grounded than her own, if a Pokemon could spontaneously manifest money by 'using a move.'

What kind of Pokemon does the Basic License for Practicing Pocket Monster Training in Kanto entitle you to train? This license would entitle her to train and carry up to three Pokemon species that matched the following criteria:

- Unevolved

- Native to Kanto

- Smaller than four feet tall on average

- Do not require more than nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine yen to feed on average each day according to the IPLF's Nutrition and Health Department's most recent publication of 'The Trainer's Basic Guide to Pokemon Nutrition' webbook and physical manual

- Do not have a base stat total higher than three hundred and fifty as outlined in the IPLF's Notation and Analytics Department's most recent publication of 'Basic Statistics and Notations of Pocket Monster Characteristic Analysis' webbook and physical manual

- Are not dragon, ice, poison, or fire type

Furthermore, the specific Pokemon she trains:

- Do not and cannot access any moves with a larger power than eighty before its first evolution or level twenty

- Cannot be stronger than level twenty-five

Tanya nodded again. This was one of the harder questions to memorize the answer to due to the unfamiliar terminology, but even then it wasn't that hard, especially considering how much legalistic minutia she had needed to parse for her job in human resources.

What resources can you refer to if you need help with a Pokemon? The IPLF's Trainer App contains many resources that can provide help with a Pokemon, including a Pokedex function and access to the IPLF's curated Trainer Forums. Numerous websites cater to helping trainers, such as Pokebase and Bulbapedia. If a trainer is in danger due to a violent Pokemon, Rangers can be contacted by calling 191.

Tanya resisted the urge to sigh at the question – it was one of the ones that was most inconsistent in all of the resources she had found, with seemingly identical answers given around the same time period being counted right in one place and wrong in another. Still, she expected to get at least partial credit for this one.

If you suspect a Pokemon is being abused, where can you report it? The Pokemon Fan Club, the Society for the Prevention of Pokemon Abuse, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare all have phone numbers, emails, and physical offices that can be contacted to report suspected instances of Pokemon abuse, while the Rangers can be contacted in the event that a Pokemon's life may be in imminent danger.

If you see a crime or emergency in progress, what should you do? Assuming the action will not put me in danger, I should contact the relevant authorities as soon as possible. After that, I should act to render aid in the protection of the greatest amount of life and property possible, whether that be fleeing to safety in cases where I can render no aid or helping those affected by the crime or emergency as best as possible.

Tanya couldn't not have answered these two correctly if she wanted to – every train, Pokemon center, coffee shop, and street corner seemed to have a reminder on it of the places you could report Pokemon abuse to. The suggestions that you had a duty to your fellow citizen were not quite that ever-present, but it seemed to be expected that if you were involved in an emergency, you were either helping directly or finding someone who could.

Explain the following terms:

Type: Types are the properties of Pokemon, products made from Pokemon, and the moves that Pokemon use. Pokemon can have up to two types, while the vast majority of moves only have a single type. Most scholars currently believe there are eighteen types.

Move: A move is an action that a Pokemon can perform to have an effect. Most trainers and trainer organizations, including the IPLF, currently divide moves into Physical, Special, and Status moves. While the theoretical number of moves that could be created is incredibly large or even functionally infinite, the IPLF publishes and curates various lists of moves for the myriad regulations, rulesets, and formats that trainers compete in, as well as ruling on the legality of the usage of certain moves in competitions.

Power: The damage that a Physical or Special move does to an opposing Pokemon is chiefly determined by the Power of that move. The current Standard IPLF Notation ranks the power of all moves on a scale from ten to two hundred and fifty, with very few moves having a Power that isn't a multiple of five.

Power Point: The energy any Pokemon has to use any given move a certain number of times at 100% power is known as the Power Points, often abbreviated PP, for that move. The number of PP any given move has is static across species, unless a Pokemon has been given performance enhancing vitamins.

Base Stats and Base Stat Total: Also referred to as Species Strengths, the Base Stats of a Pokemon refer to the measured potential of any given Pokemon species, which is separate from the additional stats that a pokemon may either be born with or gain over their lifetime. Standard IPLF Notation currently measures Base Stats on a scale from 1 to 255. A Pokemon Species's Base Stat Total is the addition of the six Base Stat categories into a total, which is generally, but not always, useful for determining how strong or dangerous a Pokemon species may be in general.

Tanya nodded one last time. Yes, those answers for the terminology would certainly suffice. They were more complex than the average answer she had found, but they didn't get into the finer details because the mechanics behind a lot of this were still poorly understood. Everyone had their own theory, but just like the magic in Tanya's last world, it was a black box.

People knew how to apply what they had learned through trial and error, but no one knew the fundamental principles of it.

Tanya got back in line – despite the late hour, it was now longer, which made Tanya think the people in front of her had gotten back from a group battle or something – and waited for a full half hour before arriving back at the desk.

The Nurse Joy looked down on her, looking even more tired.

Tanya still felt sympathy, and she still didn't care enough to go somewhere better staffed.

Tanya smiled.

The woman looked at the monitor on her desk – not anymore sleek than the ones in the library, but undoubtedly more advanced. "Alright. Go… in the hall to my left and then take the first right. I'll be in after I review your answers and take a break," she said, muttering the last part under her breath as her animal tugged on her skirt for something.

Tanya thanked her and did as instructed, sitting patiently in the waiting room while rehearsing her answers to the Nurse's interview questions and looking around. These too were well known and standardized across Kanto.

Tanya eyed the water cooler and decided to have a cup. It had been a while since she'd had any. Her answers on the written portion were guaranteed to get her a license, and the interview was meant more to gauge her temperament and personality than determine if she knew her stuff or to trip her up.

She couldn't be barred from getting a license just because the Nurse Joy was upset with her, and going to another Pokemon center and finding someone less downtrodden was an option…

Unless this Nurse decided to declare her unfit to be a trainer, at which point she'd have to contest that assessment before a panel. She could be barred from being a trainer for a period of five years without going to a remedial school, while the Nurse might have her own certification reviewed if Tanya was fit.

Overall, there was pretty much no chance any of that happened.

A part of her, however, was still skeptical. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This life wasn't great, but she wasn't about to die or get into danger anytime soon. What if Arceus and Being X had already made a deal, and she was to face trials to 'increase her faith' in the Pokemon world?

The door opened, and Tanya put her smile back in place. The Nurse wasn't even attempting to fake not being disgruntled, though her decision to smoke a cigarette made Tanya's eye twitch.

"Are you supposed to be smoking inside a Pokemon Center?"

The woman raised a very unimpressed eyebrow at her, and Tanya held up her hands. She had to try.

She hated the smoke.

Her gaze flicked down to the woman's pet – it's large, blue eyes were staring intently at Tanya, it was making some kind of rodent-like noise, and she-

"What're you lookin' at Tuffy like that for?"

Tanya chuckled as if she were nervous. "Ah, I am not… familiar with its species." It wasn't a total lie – she wasn't-

The raised eyebrow was back, more confused than angry. "You're not familiar with Wigglytuff?"

"No." Tanya answered honestly.

The woman muttered something else under her breath, but Tanya remained outwardly cheerful as the woman took out a phone. "Alright. You passed with flying colors. Congrats. How are you feeling?"

"Good." Tanya answered, again choosing to be honest. She was confident in her answers and couldn't wait to get out of here.

Nurse Joy looked up from her phone, both of her eyebrows raised, but Tanya didn't say anything else.

More muttering, and then she asked, "Were you nervous about your test?"

"Not particularly. I practiced." The terminology hadn't been particularly tricky – considering who the game was marketed to in her first life, she wouldn't have expected it to be beyond her.

Nurse Joy narrowed her eyes, and though Tanya didn't react, she wondered if coming here was the best idea after all. At least at the other centers, someone else would probably be looking over the Nurse's shoulder to make sure she wouldn't mess up.

"Where did you get the idea to become a Pokemon Trainer?" Tanya kept her growing nervousness off of her face. The Nurse's tone had gone from frustrated to curious to carefully neutral.

The truth was that undocumented immigration to Japan, carried out by stowaways on boats, trainers with Pokemon capable of surfing across the ocean, or even refugees fleeing from north to south Sakhalin on the Siberian border, was a topic that was not discussed openly. It was alluded to and talked around, but never spoken about directly.

Thus, the lax rules surrounding people's ability to acquire trainer cards was close to the center of the unspoken conversation. Tanya was more than happy to take a path well-trodden, especially since her skills should facilitate her obtaining more permanent documents shortly.

Tanya decided to tell the woman her original answer. "I got the idea from my coworkers." It wasn't even close to a lie, considering Pokemon battling was one of the many ways her coworkers tried to entice her to stick around after work.

Her eyes narrowed. "Why do you want to become a Pokemon Trainer?"

What was wrong with her answers? They were so short that there shouldn't be anything factually or grammatically incorrect. It-

Wait.

"It's preparation for the future."

The Nurse Joy stood up straight, no longer leaning on the wall. "Alright. "I'm… going to take a quick break. I'll be back."

Tanya watched her go, her smile much less genuine than it had been.

Of course. The woman had expected excitement! Tanya was a thirteen-year-old girl, so obviously she should be going crazy with excitement for finally getting to participate in the competitions, pageantry, and societal norms that were barred to those under ten. Like finally becoming old enough to drive or to drink, Tanya should be acting a fair bit more nervous and excited.

This wasn't supposed to be a routine acquisition of a bit of paperwork. She'd spent so long acting like an adult she'd forgotten that most looked at her and saw a child, even if the law said she could own magical monsters and run around the country using them to fight other people.

The door rocketed back open, causing Tanya to look back up. There was a dead sort of look in the woman's eyes, while her pet was tugging on her skirt again. "Alright. Last question. Should you utilize the rights granted to you by your license, do you promise to adhere to and uphold the rules, regulations, and by-laws of the IPLF, the State of Japan, and the Regional Government of Kanto in regards to the capture, care, and treatment of Pokemon?"

Tanya dared to blink owlishly once before putting her facade back in place. "To the letter," she replied, cursing at the relief that had leaked into her voice.

Nurse Joy clicked a button on her phone. "Alright. You checked the box, so you'll get a copy of your responses emailed to you, as well as your digital license. If you follow the link in the email, you can download the IPLF Trainer App. You…"

The woman sighed. "According to this, you're coming back to pick up your physical copy in a week instead of having it delivered?"

Tanya nodded – the shelter she was staying at had a mail address, but she didn't want to risk someone else getting nosy with her maid.

The woman shrugged and gestured to the door. "Alright. You know what you can and can't do with it – knew it better than I did at your age."

As Tanya passed, the Nurse said one more thing. "I'm sure I don't need to, but I'll remind you anyway: your license can and will be suspended or revoked if you fail to uphold laws of IPLF, including on charges of failing to render appropriate assistance or mistreatment of Pokemon, after which a note will be made in your record."

Tanya turned her head and thanked the woman for the reminder – it wasn't needed in the slightest, because Tanya wouldn't be getting a Pokemon after all, but it was only polite.

Now that she had her license, however, she would be getting a whole host of other documents.

-OxOxO-

"Be safe."

Hakimo Joy merely hummed at her relative however-many-times-removed as she walked out of the building. Sarumi was still bright eyed, and Hakimo almost envied her.

Her Pokemon bounded after her, occasionally warbling out a cry or two as she hopped along.

After the fifth thing she said, Hakimo could only sigh and smile ruefully. "I suppose even if this place is a dump, you make it all worth it, Tufty."

The Wigglytuff puffed up, and Hakimo turned and continued walking back to her shitty apartment. Despite the many trials of the day – the occasional domestic trainer that came in the morning, the wave of casual trainers that had come in that evening, and even an emergency with a Growlithe that had extended her damn shift by an hour, there was exactly one event of the day that hung over her head.

"Tuff?" Tufty asked, and Hakimo just sighed. "I guess you're thinking about that… girl, right?"

Her partner nodded, and Hakimo crossed her arms as she took out a cigarette from her purse. She resolutely ignored the frown on her friend's face. She knew it was hurting her, she couldn't not know as a Nurse Joy, but she did it anyway because it took the edge off of the shit fucking life she was trapped-

She talked, to distract herself more than keep up the conversation. "I mean, it's a little weird that she's European, but otherwise, she's just another poor orphan refugee girl who wants to make it big training Pokemon," she mused. Tufty chittered back, and Hakimo let out a puff of smoke. "Yeah, yeah, you have trouble telling people apart. You can't deny it, though. Most of the other poor saps we deal with aren't like… her."

If she'd just copied the responses you could find anywhere online, that would have been one thing. Her answers weren't… that, though. They were fairly complex, especially for someone who looked as young as her, and Hakimo got the feeling that she knew more than she'd written down.

And sure, she didn't seem excited, but considering how well she'd prepared, it was obvious she knew she was going to get her license. With as much detail as she'd gone into, Hakimo was sure the kid could have gone straight for the Intermediate license.

She might actually make it out of this place.

She hadn't gone for that license, though. Hakimo glanced down at Wigglytuff as they turned a corner-

One of the big, bright blue eyes bore into her own, and Hakimo cursed internally. "I don't have anything against the kid. That would be incredibly petty. Besides, you saw how she treated you."

Tufty waved one of her arms, as if it weren't a big deal, but Hakimo grumbled. "Don't play it off. She acted like you weren't even there!"

"Tuff."

Hakimo looked away from the pink-white rabbit. "No, being cold towards your Pokemon isn't illegal, but-"

"Wig."

"Yeah, well, not everyone learns their lesson on their Journey," Hakimo snapped. Silence persisted for a moment, and they sighed in unison.

She took another drag of her cigarette. Well, even if she made it out of here in the short term, she'd falter like every other person who treated their teammates as tools, and she'd either realize the error of her ways or languish in mediocrity.

She nearly flinched as she finished the thought and tossed her cigarette onto the ground and stomped it out. Who needed more than mediocrity? Not her.

Not a Joy mediocre enough to be handed an Igglybuff egg instead of an increasingly rare Happiny egg, certainly not.

The vast majority of people never became superstar trainers, and that girl would be no different.

-OxOxO-

Tanya pushed into the doors and growled as they barely budged. They needed just a modicum of strength to open, so even if she were tired, Tanya should be able to open them.

She just couldn't. They weren't locked, of course, they were almost never locked.

No, Tanya was just too weak.

Violently shaking her head, she pushed harder and flew through the doors, stumbling to the ground. She groaned and managed to pull herself back up as she stumbled down the hall.

At least no one had seen her.

It had been a week since she'd gotten her digital license, and she'd picked up the physical one from the same center just fifteen minutes earlier – Nurse Joy had been decidedly more peppy today, and had even made some small talk. With that and the different animal at her side, Tanya assumed that it was a different Nurse Joy, even if she looked the same.

She continued trudging forward, fighting the urge to frown and pull on her magic. Even if all of her aches and pains would fade into oblivion with just the smallest bit, she couldn't. She wouldn't give that bastard the satisfaction of knowing she couldn't make it without the burden he placed on her shoulders.

The last week had been hell – she'd worked double shifts without overtime to get both her shift manager and the dockmaster to promise to vouch for her if she wrote their numbers down as contacts for the paperwork she was filling out.

The little old lady at the library had promised to do it for a promise to talk with her a bit every time she came by the library.

She turned down another hall. She was almost there.

In two days, she would take all ten of the tests she needed to earn her Secondary School Proficiency Certificate. She'd studied madly for it in the month before this week, and would be doing revision on the train to the testing center in the North Saffron Ward. She'd probably even study for an hour before she fell asleep.

The rest of her week – because she hadn't pulled double shifts just for that promise – would be full of traveling around Autumna submitting what few physical documents she couldn't submit online. Once she was done…

She frowned as she walked by the desk outside of the communal sleeping room she and the other impoverished homeless slept in. No one was there.

Her frown deepened as she heard the sounds of subdued but still enthusiastic cheering echoing in the room. Great.

Once she was done with submitting her documentation, she would be able to receive some meager benefits – food assistance, chiefly. It was dependent on her keeping her job, but she could manage that, no matter how much her body complained.

Studiously ignoring the event occurring on the other side of the room, where the various bunks and tables had been pushed aside, Tanya collapsed into her bed and covered her eyes with her arm, attempting to block out the noise.

She wouldn't get any revising done with that going on, so she was better off planning for what happened after she got her educational certificate.

Her physical possessions were meager. She had a total of only 330,000 Yen, which was worth even less than it would have been in her first world due to inflation. She had a phone, an email, a digital and physical trainer card, two changes of clothes, a small knapsack, the clothes she'd arrived in Kanto in, an old plastic bottle she drank from, and a ratty wallet she'd gotten for cheap.

With how little her physical possessions were worth, it was only logical that she would need to leverage her skills if she wanted to achieve a modicum of peace for herself in which she could use accrued time and resources to obtain skills that would help her wherever Being X sent her next, assuming he didn't just wipe her memories or send her to Hell.

She had two diverging skill sets. The first was from her time as an human resources manager. Her communication, negotiation, interpersonal, and conflict resolution skills were not nearly as rusty as a thirteen year gap in her resume might suggest. Those skills had been useful, to varying degrees, in her command roles during the war. Her skill with heaps of data had also served her well, and all of those skills would be helpful for her eventual career.

Her knowledge of laws and regulations was much more out of date and much less useful, in a world where several decades had passed since the equivalent point from her first world. Throw in magical monsters, and it was likely that, although Tanya had a decent frame of reference, she would have to learn the laws of the land from front to back all over again.

"GO, GO, GO, GO!"

Even covered by her arm, Tanya felt an eye twitch.

Her second skill set were her skills as an Aerial Mage. She was an excellent shot, had superb spatial awareness, a high tolerance for pain, a 1930's college level understanding of math, and the ability to do highschool level math very quickly, even without access to a Computation Orb.

Tanya was not looking to utilize her martial abilities in this new world. The high pain tolerance was useful for now, and her understanding of math would help in any career that dealt with the logistics of a business.

Speaking of logistics, she had gotten very good with those as well during her time leading the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion and the Salamander Kampfgruppe.

All of that was excellent. If she had paperwork proving her skills, she didn't doubt she'd be snapped up as a middle manager in an instant.

She didn't however, which meant she'd need to build up her resume. Fortunately, she had one more useful skill to help set her apart.

Tanya was fluent in three languages, and she spoke many more, something that few in Japan could honestly claim.

Her German and Japanese had obviously been what she knew best, but she'd studied 'Anglish' in Imperial War College for her foreign language credit. She had been fluent in all three of them before her second death.

The Empire, however, was not a monolith. There were three dialects of German in use across the vast state, as well as a dozen minority languages. The Empire was a meritocracy and recruited from its semi-disparate parts equitably, which meant Tanya had gotten plenty of exposure to the various minority languages of the Empire.

"C'MON, DON'T JUST TAKE IT! HIT HIM BACK!"

Choosing not to acknowledge the severe frown that had broken her face, Tanya jammed her head into her pillow and grabbed the side closest to the noise, rolling onto her side and covering both ears with her pillow.

She'd picked up some Polish, Nordish, Dutch, Czech, French, Hungarian, and Serbian during her time in the army. Her French had been reinforced during her time spent in France devising the Empire's Kampfgruppe doctrine, while she'd even managed to pick up a smattering of Romanian, Arabic, and Russian from the territories she'd fought in.

Of course, arriving in a new world with a vastly altered history decades in the future from either of her own times meant that most of what she knew about her weaker languages was next to useless.

Tanya was nothing if not persistent, however. She'd picked up the differences in Japanese fairly quickly, and she was working on strengthening her English and German skills. After that, perhaps she would work on relearning what she'd known in the others.

Overall, her outlook was slowly but steadily improving. German and English would be useful for business in the European Union and on the international stage respectively. She had a high affinity for math, numbers, and data. She was experienced with logistics.

Most of all, she was willing to do jobs that other people weren't. Other men may have balked at firing others without feeling the slightest bit of pity, but Tanya reveled in the job.

No other child may have dared to dream of fighting grown men or planning the invasion of another country, but Tanya barely batted an eye.

Whatever needed to be done, Tanya would do it to obtain her peace.

Thumpthumpthumpthump

Stomping on the urge to growl, Tanya uncovered an ear and her eyes and glanced towards where the knocking was coming from. Noise assaulted her – more shouting, cheering, calling for fighting for fighting's sake.

The weathered face of a forty-year-old man stared down at her, the smile portrayed by the eyes hidden by a bushy, unkempt black-and-green beard. "Not going to participate in the festivities?"

"What festivities?" Tanya grit out. "All I see is a bunch of hooligans violating the rules."

Ichigo, the man who slept above her bunk, let out a hearty laugh. "Well, I do remember it being a scrawny kid telling us that the rules specifically bar trainers from conducting any Pokemon battles, and that as long as trainers did not do that, we were technically doing nothing wrong. You know them?"

"No, actually, though I'm sure whoever they are, they deeply regret their decision to do that."

Ichigo sighed dramatically as Tanya turned away from him. "Come on, just one? I heard from Shasarma that she spotted you at the Pokemon Center. I thought you weren't a trainer?" he teased.

Tanya groaned and made sure not to dignify his question with anything other than that – she didn't want him to think she was one, because the first thing anyone she met asked was what Pokemon she had.

She sat up. It was clear where this was going. "Fine. One battle."

Ichigo beamed at her and hollered at the group, who let out a cheer of their own. She studied the group as she walked over. No new faces among the sea of unkempt bodies.

Japan hadn't had an official poverty line in her first life, and it didn't have one here. Despite that, numerous organizations unaffiliated with the government had calculated their own lines, which usually placed around seven to ten percent of the population below the line.

Some of the people in the crowd had been in accidents, suffered from robberies, or had crossed the wrong person. Others were too prideful to show just how badly their lives were going and beg for assistance to their friends or family. Tanya tried not to judge them, but she was working with an even heavier disadvantage – she was a thirteen-year-old who hadn't existed here a month and two weeks ago – and things were looking up for her.

The crowd parted as she approached and Tanya tried not to grimace at the sight before her.

She supposed her skills were an advantage they all lacked, and she also didn't have a Pokemon she had to feed and bathe, which certainly helped.

In the loose circle formed by the onlookers, two animals, monsters, were sizing each other up. One was a small, mammalian animal with long ears, a longer tail, and a tan circle on its chest. Overall, it seemed vaguely racoon-like. Its ears twitched as it skittered about, chittering and keeping a bead on its opponent.

The other was a jellyfish she recognized from her first night in Kanto. Mostly blue with red, crystalline structures indented into its head, it was much more intimidating than the other animal.

The layman from her last world might have wondered how a jellyfish looked intimidating either confined to a glass bowl or laying on the floor, dying, but this jellyfish was, in fact, floating in the air, occasionally using its two tentacles to keep itself airborne, as if it were swimming in the water.

Apparently, aquatic Pokemon could all swim through the air. Tanya was more than familiar with what they were doing theoretically, but the fact that an animal had evolved to somehow be able to do this boggled the mind.

When she'd frantically searched through the internet upon first seeing a koi-like Pokemon swimming through the air next to its trainer, wondering if she was going insane, she hadn't believed it. The explanation for her next question, why Pokemon didn't do it more often if they could, was that swimming through the water doubled the power of their water-type attacks.

As she got into position, the circle closed around them, and they circled around each other. Everyone shouted out moves and strategies for the pair of Pokemon – her suggested way of circumventing the rules – and Ichigo pushed against her shoulder. "C'mon, shout a few."

She decided not to use her excuse – she didn't know what moves they knew or what words they'd been taught to respond to – and just copied the crowd around her. "Poison Sting. Quick Attack."

Ichigo smiled at her and joined in. "Use wrap, immobilize your opponent! Defense Curl, don't let it grab you!"

The pair of animals glanced around, probably confused by all of the noise, and Tanya hid her disdain with a smile. "Use wrap, immobilize your opponent. Defense Curl, don't let it grab you," she said emotionlessly.

She didn't have to look back up at her bunkmate to know he was fixing her with that soulful frown of admonition. "Tanya. That's hardly-"

The racoon-thing acted first and became enveloped in a white silhouette of energy as it sped towards the jellyfish. It reeled back from the hit for a moment, crying out, and then wrapped its tentacles around the furry creature, which cried out in return.

Now, Tanya was frowning openly. She could understand the occasional desire to compete with others – the men of the 203rd loved arm wrestling, and Viktoriya could fleece anyone in any card game. It allowed for one to bond with others and showcase prowess in a certain field.

As the blue jellyfish continued to constrict its opponent, Tanya couldn't help but feel that this was just… cruel. She supposed it was just her different cultural background, but making animals fight for people's amusement, no matter if they were evolved to enjoy battling according to Arceus, felt needlessly cruel.

Tanya knew cruelty. Employed it. Even relished in it.

She never did it to entertain herself, just for its own sake. Doing so would have been the height of wastefulness.

It always had a purpose. It was meant to accomplish a goal.

The mammal broke out of the grasp of its captor and scratched at the small eyes of the thing with glowing white claws.

Glowing purple needles protruded from the tentacles of the jellyfish and pierced the hide of the mammal, which curled into a ball.

It blinked rapidly at the jellyfish, tears glistening in its eyes, and Tanya finally bowed out.

She had better things to do with her time.

She ignored the calls of Ichigo as she crawled back into bed and continued to plan for the future. She ignored the shouting and cheering that echoed when one of the animals emerged victorious.

Tanya hated conflict. She was putting it behind her. If that meant abstaining from the cultural touchstone that seemed to unite everyone in this world, then she'd do so as much as she could.

-OxOxO-

A/N 1: Another chapter for you all. Lots of worldbuilding in this one, but I think I incorporated it in a fairly interesting way. I hope you all enjoyed.

A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.

Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, and UNSC_Kawakaze for supporting this story and everything else I write.