frankieu: yeah, I find it weird that the Pokémon universe seems to be either oblivious to Team Rocket's nasty shits or didn't care about it. So, I made some changes like bounty systems to keep people safely distanced away from them or made strong trainers to help deal with them whenever they encounter them.

.upg: Here ya go.

Viridian Forest, Kanto

"Ee-VOI!" Gintama yells as he slams his tail into a thick tree trunk, creating a dent in the wood. As he lands, he slams his tail once more and creates more dents.

"I don't understand, why do you keep asking him to use Iron Tail?" Yuuki asks.

"The System points out that he didn't fully master Iron Tail, so I was hoping that continuing to use the move would help him to master the move," Tai explains as he turns on the social media function on his system. As he fears, there is tons of news regarding him in Poke-Pals and it makes him grimace. To be fair, he has been lax since he had managed to avoid being flatly broke and given a chance to visit a city without acting like a poor homeless brat.

But in hindsight, he should have thought about every possibility that could happen in this world. So many things are completely different than what he expects from Pokémon World. First of all, Team Rockets have bounties, 5,000 Poke-Dollars for a grunt, 10,000 for Agents, 30,000 and 40,000 for Sergeants and Commanders, 100,000 for executives, and 1,000,000 if anyone could catch the boss himself.

This made Tai a bit nervous when he found out. One thing he doesn't expect is that Rocket Sergeants and Executives exist in this universe, which means that it follows the elements of manga. Does that mean the Dex holder exists in this world? What does this universe even follow? Anime, Game, Manga, or some trashy fanfics about Self-inserts in a darker, edgier universe? The last one made him a bit horrified as he looked at Yuuki, Gintama, and Scyther, his face turned even more horrified.

'Fuck, is it the latter!? Please, Arceus no, I don't want slowly turn into scumbags who think being morally ambiguous made them the 'cool' main character who decides flipping the entire plot upside down is a good fucking idea, or killing people because they think they don't deserve to live! I'm a chef, a motherfucking chef who hates Self Inserts! Please, Arceus, show me the sign that I'm not in one of those universes!' Tai wept internally as he looked at the sky, and to no one's surprise, no sign from Arceus. Tai mentally sighs before focusing on the current situation, and he grimaces again.

He didn't mind some attention, as his dream is to be a chef with very good skills. And usually, he will need to deal with media, good or bad ones. So, no, he didn't mind some attention, but when it's something as grand as his current situation, he can't help but feel overwhelmed. Especially when this kind of attention attracts a lot of bad people.

The news seems to be the only viral one, which didn't help to ease Tai's worries. Hell, somehow, it became a hot topic in Kanto Broadcasts, and tons of social media influencers reacted and commented on this moment, either calling him the luckiest trainer in existence or calling him a fraud who was desperately seeking attention.

The last ones seem to make him a bit annoyed, especially since it reminds him about that bitch, who's a sorry excuse of a trainer who can only suck his daddy's dick (something that made Tai shudders at his thought, unable to get rid of the images from his head), who tortured poor Gintama.

Speaking of Gintama, he gives his undivided attention to him and sees Gintama successfully tear off a chunk of tree trunk, causing the tree to collapse. Gintama pants before looking at Tai with a happy yip. Tai smiles as he pats his head before looking at his tail, grabs a bottle of potion he bought in case of emergency, and sprays it on his tail. Gintama wince before he lets out a shudder of relief, the pain on his tail slowly disappearing.

"Let's practice a few more times before we go for harder material, okay?" Tai suggests as Gintama yips in agreement, stars spark out of him as he wags his tail. He sometimes wondered if it was either due to this world following the rule of anime or it was just the shiny sparkles activated out of control, but he didn't care, as it made Gintama more special.

"So, are there any reasons to keep asking him to bash trees with Iron Tail? Not cut?" Yuuki asks.

"Yuuki, tell me right to my face and says that this fluffy, thick, and blunt tail is perfect to cut the shit. Please, I dare you." Tai says in a deadpan manner as Yuuki turns a bit flustered.

"W-well….it does work when I was a Vaporeon….my tail was thick…." Yuuki mutters as his cheek slowly grows red.

"It's less blunt than Eevee's thanks to the fin, and he has none." Tai deadpan, causing Yuuki to turn even redder.

"I…..may have seen too many Pokémon treat it as a cutting or slicing move…." Yuuki admits.

"I guess that explains a bit, but you should know, that a steel weapon doesn't have to be sharp to be deadly." Tai points out. "Like a mallet or mortal and pester, you can see how it easily crushed thick meats or pounds any hard shits."

"… You ever use it to beat people?" Yuuki seems a bit horrified, which makes Tai give him a dry stare.

"You don't need your brain cells to figure out how deadly those shits can be when used as a self-defense weapon," Tai says before looking away.

"You didn't deny my accusation!" Yuuki says, a hint of horror in his tone.

"No, I never did," Tai exclaims as Yuuki lets out a sigh of relief. "But, I do imagine the meat I'm beating or any garlic I'm pounding as some prick's heads."

"….You have issues, Tai," Yuuki admits.

"Oh, you have no idea." Tai deadpanned as Yuuki stared at Tai with a sweatdrop. "But, trust me, since murder is illegal and I hate doing it, doing what I did is the second next best thing. I mean, it's technically not a murder."

"…." Yuuki gives Tai a judging stare before sitting down and taking a nap. Tai sighs before looking at the Scyther, who seems to turn pale, staring at Tai in disbelief.

"What?" Tai asks as Scyther stutters before looking away, looking at the tree like it's something that could distract him. Tai sweatdrops at his reaction before shrugging and looking at Gintama.

"Well, Gin, how about we practice Trailblaze? It seems to compliment your preference for speed." Gintama perks up and starts to wag his tail violently, causing Tai to chuckle lightly and pat his head. Tai has a feeling this little guy will spam the moves like there's no tomorrow, but it's something he didn't mind. Tai turns on his System and searches through the internet with the 'How to teach Pokémon Trailblaze for dummies' on the search menu.

"…..has no one ever bothered to try and teach their Eevee Trailblaze other than that idiot?" Tai kept scrolling around the search options for a while and he didn't find any guide that helps, especially since it's a new move discovered a month ago and the majority of trainers providing the information teach low-speed Pokémon, so it won't work for Gintama since they have different physical size.

Tai can't help but sigh in frustration, for the lack of information the internet provides and him being helpless when training his Pokémon. He can't rely on Fanfics as a guide, mostly due to most of the fanfics he read are too brutal and Gintama didn't need a brutal training method since it would regress every little progress he made.

"I guess I need to simply use the info about the move provided by the internet….." Tai mutters. "It says that with nimble feet, the user pounces their target like how Pokémon leaps out of grass attacking its prey while making as little sound as possible….hmm…."

Tai mused as he looked at Gintama, who was staring at him with an expectant look. Tai decided to try a stupid idea, but before he could say anything, he noticed Yuuki got up and nudged Tai.

"You know that I learned that move, you could just ask me to help with it," Yuuki says, a bit annoyed by Tai's constant rambles. Tai flustered a bit before meekly nods.

"Sorry, Yuuki," Tai says in a sheepish tone.

"Don't be. Like I said before, it's logical to ask someone who's an expert to do it for you." Yuuki says as he picks Gintama up. "And not to mention, this move will also help with his hunting, something I'm trying to teach."

"Oh…that's convenient…I guess…" Tai mutters unsurely. He looks at Scyther who seems to flinch from his stare. "So….how're you doing?" This causes the Scyther to flinch hard before looking away. Tai is trying to figure out what made Scyther flinch like that before he slowly remembers all of his previous conversations, which undoubtedly unnerved everyone and even freaked some of them out. This becomes so awkward that you can even cut the tension in the air with a knife.

'This is by far the most awkward moment in my life….' Tai thought to himself, and it speaks a lot since he's been in a lot of awkward situations thanks to his lack of social skills.

"Look, I know it's been….a lot ever since I gave you that porridge….but I can assure you, I'm not gonna do anything to you…I just want to help…." Tai explains as Scyther seems to hesitate. Tai sighs as he places his hand on his forehead. "Gosh, why is it so hard….It was easier to talk to Yuuki and Gintama…."

As Tai mutters to himself, Scyther stares at Tai in confusion, unable to understand the trainer in front of him at all. Tai is a rookie, but he shows that he's much more than a measly rookie. He has a good head on his shoulders, but he has flaws, and unlike others, he recognizes them very well and always admits it, unlike others who continue to sweep those flaws under some fake personas. Then the stories he continues to tell everyone, it's so bizarre but he can't sense any lies. It unnerves him, especially with how he casually admits he eats his fellow bugs raw and imagines any food he tries to beat or pound as someone's head.

Then, there's this conversation, something that shows how socially inept Tai is and makes him unable to get Tai at all. Whenever he thinks he has figured out Tai, he seems to shatter all of his belief in the trainer and smack him with another layer of unknowns. His former trainer and every opponent he faced has always been straightforward, but Tai is a complete mess of a rubric cube he's unable to solve no matter what. Then again, Scyther wasn't exactly good at this kind of stuff, so he would find this kind of thing hard to figure out.

'Gosh….how do most trainers pull this off….or even Ash Ketchum? I have no power of friendship to bullshit through this….' Tai thought, unable to think of any ideas on how to connect with Scyther, like at all.

BZZZZZZZ!

"KYA!"

Both Tai and Scyther were startled by the sudden scream and decided to rush towards where it was. Thankfully, it wasn't far from where Tai was resting. Unfortunately, Tai face a trouble he didn't expect to face here.

Right in front of him is a horde of Beedrill swarming a girl, who looks a year younger than him, shielding a female Pikachu with her own body. Tai wasn't expecting this situation at all, but he decided to focus on the current predicament.

"Scyther, I know we're not a close ally, like at all. But, right now, I need your help. We gotta save that girl." Tai says as Scyther gives him an 'Are you crazy!?' expression. "If you do, I give you a bonus for dinner!" This seems to change Scyther's mind as his wings glow white and unleashes a torrent of Air Slashes from his wings toward the horde of Beedrill. To both the humans' and Pokemons' surprises, the Air Slash was enough to defeat the horde of Beedrill. Tai was gaping like a Magikarp, wondering what kind of Pokemon he had just saved. He shakes off the thought before rushing towards the girl, who is as baffled as him.

"Hey, you're okay?!" Tai asks in worry as the girl snaps out of her stupor before looking at Tai.

"Y-yes, thank you…" The girl replies before looking at the Pikachu on her arm. "I guess Chuchu and I owe you one, stranger."

"Nah, I don't think you owe me anything. Also, my name is Tai, Tai Yasuno." Tai says as he points a thumb at himself. It took him a brief second before he recalled what she called the Pikachu's name. "Wait, Chuchu?"

"Oh, yeah. Chuchu's my Pikachu partner." The girl says as she shows her Pikachu, who lets out a happy chirp. "O-oh, right. How rude of me, my name is Amarillo del Bosque Verde. You can just call me Yellow." As he hears the name, Tai's mind seems to be bluescreened, a look of surprise on his face.

'Amarillo del Bosque Verde!? That's the manga Yellow's full name! She exists in this world and she's in front of me!? WHAT!? If that's true, shouldn't Ratty be her starter instead!? What the fuck!?' Tai was trying to process the whole thing before suddenly, they heard a rustle from the bushes. When Tai saw a familiar crystal pop out of the bush, he started to panic.

"Tai, I would appreciate it if you didn't run off like that when you hear a commotion, especially when all you have is-!" Yuuki's ramble was stopped when he saw Yellow, who seemed to be frozen in shock at his appearance. "So…who's the guest?"

"A Suicune… a real life Suicune…." Yellow mutters out of shock before staring at Tai in utter disbelief. "And you two know each other!?" Chuchu let out a shocked 'Chu!?' as well.

"Of course, I'm Tai's first partner!" This fact seems to be the nail in a coffin as Yellow and Chuchu faint out of shock. Tai stares at Yellow's unconscious form before giving his partner a deadpan look. "What!?"

Tai could only do one thing he can come up in his mind, facepalm HARD!

To be continued