The easiest way to acquire one is to let Charizard or Electivire have children and then pick one of them, but again, Anthony's memories of how his parents have the tough love philosophy, this will probably not fly out of their radar as "false sense of independence".
_By that logic, my parents will not see me nurturing an Elekid or a Charmander given by their Pokémon as my own efforts... in the end, I have to do things myself..._
Anthony doesn't resent these kinds of parents, as he grew up in his previous life with tough love parents, too. This led him to have a very good sense of independence and land a company that cares about their employees and is also on the rise, so there are a lot of clients he can handle. The most probable help his parents can give him is popping his cherry in Pokémon battles, though one of their Pokémon is at Professor Oak's lab.
According to the original Anthony's memories, too, Pokémon can't be sold to the public, no matter who that public is, meaning Steven Stone, future Hoenn champion, and Anthony, a random character not even known to exist by Gamefreak, both can't procure Pokémon through markets.
Of course, institutes that have permits can buy and sell, and everyone who doesn't have a permit yet still buys and sells is considered poachers.
_In our small berry farm, there might be Zubats and Pidgeys... no, there's Venusaur, Kangaskhan, and Scizor over there, so at most. Only night dwellers like Zubat will have the gall to eat berries in their watch... wait, according the the original's memories, these guardians of the mini-farm are quite lenient, so bug types and some Spearows and Pidgeys are in there too..._
Anthony then snapped from these thoughts, first of all, he can't force Pokémon to be his companions as these creatures are officially deemed as sentient, emotionally sensitive creatures and protected by any kind of dignity-lowering endeavors against them. If Anthony used a cheap trick like throwing rocks into a Zubat and then someone saw him, the consequences would be dire.
There is a reason why wild Pokémon battles exist, and that's to maintain the dignity of the two Pokémon.
_I'll be able to somehow manage that with 3 years before I become an official trainer. For now, I need an initial plan on how to have a steady inflow of money while travelling._
This is a problem that every single person in any kind of world has to face: money during travel. Perhaps, the world of Pokémon has it harder because not only does the trainer have to take care of himself, but he also has to take care of his Pokémon, their food, as well as their transportation and training.
This is not to mention the dangers of going to different Pokémon habitats and the possible injuries that they might sustain.
Without a good backing, all of these will hold back a trainer and will cause them to become mediocre with only a Charizard, Blastoise, or Venusaur to brag about. Pokémon are pre-bred to be strong.
Anthony looked at the multitudes of shelves in his room. All of these are volumes upon volumes of in-depth knowledge about Pokémon. From types in general to specific information on every Pokémon, like usual move sets and the most notable Pokémon trainers that wield them, if necessary.
This knowledge is for a specific profession, one that's not explored in games. Pokémon Breeders.
_Shall I become one?_
One of the prerequisites of becoming a strong, cutting-edge Pokémon trainer like Anthony's mom and dad is having basic Pokémon breeder knowledge, which includes giving nutrition to the Pokémon in the most optimal way while on the road, because the mass-produced Pokémon foods are for the general public and not necessarily for battle-hardened Pokémon. This is the reason why Anthony has a lot of books about Pokémon and their traits.
According to what his parents explained to him, if Anthony became a full-fledged Breeder, there would be an aptitude test where he would be given a Pokémon. Depending on the consent of both parties, this Pokémon would then be his Pokémon Breeder partner and a kind of long-term project to showcase his progress as a breeder over time.
_But the problem here is that the first decade in the least of this job is stationary as according to mother, after passing the Breeder I licensure exams, a Breeder I pokemon breeder needs to apply for an internship on a day care for pokemons and later on, have the owner/head of the daycare recommend the Breeder I pokemon breeder to the next rank's qualifying exam... that's not something I want._
Like Anthony have said, he wanted to travel and become a Pokemon trainer, thus this path is the opposite of what he wanted, he might able to transition from a breeder to a pokemon trainer later on, however, his pokemon, who will he have to just let battle to evolve or to assess the progress of the other pokemons he raises will not be able to adjust immediately as battles against trainers are meant to be faster paced than impromptu battle against pokemons without someone commanding them at the back.
_I have to be an associate of a Doctor Breeder, about Master Breeder 1 and 2, so that I can travel freely to gather data for the Doctor Breeder._
Again, Anthony doesn't want that, for his vanity and for the sake of carving his own path that seem to be one of the mantra of his parents that they pounded to him, so even as the original Anthony, he wanted to become a trainer and was gunning for a bunch of Miltank that are being reared by a ranch that provides Moo Moo Milk for the whole city.
Unfortunately, according to the book the original Anthony has read, Miltank has evolved to be docile and ranch animals; thus, it's rare for a Miltank like Whitney's to appear, though Whitney's name has yet to appear in the most notable trainer for Miltanks.
_Well, it seems like there's no solution for this pro-_
Just as Anthony was about to give up, he suddenly remembered a memory buried deep within his memory, specifically because he was still a child when he had this conversation with his mom.
_Apparently, to have a job that gives a regular salary that lets mom afford all of her expenses when she's still a trainer, she became an Associate Field Researcher of Professor Oak, specifically for exploring Pokémon habitats, and apparently, three annual population updates for Pokémon are co-authored by her..._
Anthony suddenly had the urge to smirk. For upon thinking of this, he remembered that he is now in a real world of Pokémon and a lot of things unexplained by the anime and games that Anthony thought were too many to even enumerate right here, left unexplored or undiscovered, can now be seen by him if he gun for this job.
He wanted to research all of these.
_But I still want to become a trainer._
Well, let's just say a human's vanity is something that can't be extinguished, and it's not like there don't exist people who have multiple professions. The hottest... one of the most famous examples of such instances is the electric-type gym leader of the Unova Region, Elesa, who is a gym leader and a fashion model at the same time.
And even though being a researcher is a much more grueling job (not to throw shade at fashion models), as he needs to learn statistics as well as go to dangerous parts of Kanto that he might otherwise prevent if he were just a trainer, just for the sake of data. Anthony still wanted to become one.
At least, the current one, because the previous owner of Anthony's body said that being an Associate Field researcher sounds like "A pain".
_It's a good thing that I'm still a kid and I just got into an accident, this can justify my easily swinging interest..._
Anthony, however, has to find another time to discuss this matter and get the help of some of his parents' connections because the two couples, Hana and Ben, are in a heated private battle inside their room as they haven't seen each other for a long time.
Who knows, Anthony might have another sibling after the week-long break of his father from all his tournaments.
___________
One week later, Ben Dover went and said his goodbye as he went back to Hoenn. During that span, Anthony either played with the giant Pokémon who didn't go back to Pallet Town for a week to bond with their old friends and rivals, as well as to make sure that Anthony never gets to have another accident where he will get hospitalized. In this span, Charizard went back and apologized once again. Anthony said it was okay, though in his mind, he really wanted to ride the back of Charizard, to act like he was guilty of making Charizard sad; he didn't do it.
While playing around with Pokémon, he also made hints of his interest in researching, like sneaking outside and peeking at the flower atop Venusaur's back or trying to sleep in the child pouch of Kangaskhan alongside the baby Kangaskhan and all that.
He also finds reading the unexplained lore books, especially the laws and regulations of the Pokémon world, to be enjoyable. As a Pokémon gamer, he always thought that the existence of poachers who capture pokemons all over the world was weird because trainers also catch pokemons all over the world, and they are not poachers.
Even though this knowledge is already known by the original Anthony, it's still fascinating for him.
Finally, he also found making homemade Pokémon food to be enjoyable, and if only he doesn't want to become a trainer or even if his family's socioeconomic status is just a little bit lower than what they have, then he would surely become a breeder.
Right now, Anthony is sitting silently in front of a big dehydrator, looking at the slowly puffing up Pokémon foods for Scizor, Venusaur, and Kangaskhan. Beside him is Kangaskhan's child, who's also shouting 'Kangaskhan, Kangaskhan', also silently watching the Pokémon food. Even though the two kids are watching the food for two different reasons, they still bonded silently.
_This homemade Pokémon food... is like how you make homemade dog food. You crush some berries, properly proportion them, mix them up, add egg and flour, maybe some beef jerky, and then give them shapes and then bake them..._
Over the past week, Anthony was able to experience helping his mom prepare Pokémon food every morning, at these moments, he will silently fester her and his dad about things related to their Pokémon. He really showed curiosity like he was a kid, and Anthony, a former adult, seemed not to be able to find shame in this. Everything is for his future income for his Pokémon trainer career.
_I still need a Pokémon, though..._
As Anthony thought, the dehydrator made a "ting!" sound, indicating that the Pokémon foods inside it were done dehydrating.
"Kang!"
The child Kangaskhan cried out cheerfully while Anthony nodded at it with a slight smile, the two then ran towards the Pokémon kitchen area by where Anthony's mom is resting from all the food she has to make.
The stock has been depleted faster because all Pokémon of Ben and Hana are present, and they have to eat.
"Mom, the last batch is ready."
Hana, who has been looking at the window of the kitchen that has a hungry Charizard and Scizor peaking out while making faces to annoy them, was jolted by this. he looked at the two kids, squinting her eyes for a little before sighing and patting their heads.
"Alright then, I'll pick them up."
Hana picked up a bamboo basket and went to the dehydrator in the other room. After a while, Hana came back with half a basket of brown colored Pokémon foods. Anthony looked at it, thinking that it really looked like dog food.
"Alright, let's go feed them."
Anthony nodded at this rather enthusiastically while baby Kangaskhan also cried out happily. Anthony is not much of a lifter, nor is he tall, so his strong mom was the one who cradled two baskets full of Pokémon food, making her muscular back get fully flexed while Anthony used a trolley to push big water buckets that would serve as the plate of the Pokémon.
_My dad has a taste, it seems._
Anthony looked at the back of his mom, though he wiped out these thoughts in his mind, silently, the mother and son duo gave food to the Pokémon who gave them pats in the head or a happy cry.
After the work, Anthony sighed as he realized that the perfect timing of what he wanted to proclaim to his mother all this while is now. While standing, watching the Pokémon of his mom, alongside Hana herself, eat in silence, Anthony tugged on the shorts of his mom.
"Mom, I want to be a Trainer and a Researcher."