Chapter 1: A New Beginning
Ren woke up and right away that smell hit him, salt but not the fun kind from a beach trip or anything.
It was heavier like it was everywhere.
I think thats what made it feel so thick in his nose almost like it was scratching inside his throat a bit.
His heart was pounding like crazy against his chest. He did not want to open his eyes just yet.
Everything felt off. It was kind of scary actually.
The rain stuck in his mind from before. He was waiting at the bus stop.
Then out of nowhere, those bright headlights came rushing at him. It swallowed everything up fast.
There was this loud noise, like boom, and he felt his whole body just shake, almost like his spirit was getting pulled right out. It was terrifying.
After that, it all went black and he couldn't remember after that.
He woke up and forced his eyes open somehow. The ceiling above him looked old, all wooden with that swirling pattern in the beams.
There was this paper lantern hanging from one of the beams, moving just a little from some draft and light came through a sliding door made of paper.
That is not my room at all.
He sat up fast, but everything spun right away. His head hurt bad, this heavy throbbing that made him stop.
He took a big breath.
But those hands grabbing it, they did not look right. It was slimmer than what he remembered, pale skin too, and there was this scar, small and jagged right at the base of the thumb that he had never noticed before.
He felt confused like what was going on?
Then...
The truck crash came back to him. He died in it, he was sure of that much. He felt the whole thing happen, or at least it seems like he did.
He looked around the room with the gaze of an animal caught in a trap. There was a small desk, a heap of folded clothes, and an old laptop.
Then, in the sunbeam that streamed through the window, he saw it.
Something small and green.
Ren froze.
The creature looked back at him.
It was small creature curled up into a ball on the cushion as tightly as it could, as if it were trying to disappear.
Two red horns protruded from its head like a crown. Its eyes were a deep, haunting crimson.
As it looked at Ren, Ren felt a strange feeling, like it was reading his mind.
"That's a Ralts." He screamed in his mind as he was shocked.
Thenn it came to him from a memory that was not his own.
It was about Pokémons. Hoenn region and Slateport City.
The words hung in the air like echoes in a hollow cave. Neither of them made a move. The Ralts clutched the edge of its cushion, its breathing so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Ren, even not being psychic, could sense the aura of pure, unadulterated brokenness emanating from it.
The door slid open with a soft sound.
Ren flinched and hit his back against the wall. A man stood in the doorway, the hallway light behind him. He was large, with very broad shoulders. His hair was gray at the sides.
Ren could tell he was used to hard work, with big, rough hands like a fisherman or a farmer.
He held a wooden tray in his hands. His eyes moved from Ren to the quiet Ralts, then back to his son.
"You didn't sleep well, did you?" he said. His voice was calm and steady, like a boat engine humming far away on the water.
Ren tried to speak, but his throat felt dry. He couldn't get any words out. He just stared at the man.
The man placed the tray on the low desk. "Alright, eat first. Then come downstairs if you want."
He left as quietly as he had entered. The sliding door closed with a soft click that made Ren's chest ache.
Ren looked at the tray. Steam rose from a bowl of miso soup.
Beside it, a pear had been cut into neat curved slices.
His throat tightened.
Ren didn't know this man. He didn't know this house. But someone had stood in the kitchen that morning, carefully slicing a pear for a boy who was no longer there.
Ren picked up the chopsticks, but his hands shook so badly they tapped loudly against the tray.
Three days went by in a confusing blur.
Ren slowly began to understand his new life.
The man was his father or rather the original host's father.
His name was Takeshi. He owned a small gym and training center on the edge of Slateport City. It was not a famous League gym. It focused on basic training and mostly worked with Normal-type Pokémon.
His mother, Akari, who had a beautiful smile. She ran a small Pokémon daycare next door.
The original Ren had been empty inside. He wasn't rebellious, but he always lived in shadow.
He had moved through the house like a ghost. He avoided his parents' eyes and waited for a future he didn't believe would ever come.
'Now I'm the one living in that shadow huh', Ren thought.
Ren tried to make himself useful. He organized the daycare's supply closet until his back ached. He swept the stone yard.
Takeshi never asked why his once quiet son was suddenly helping so much. He only nodded and accepted it, as if it were just another slow change or was hoping something good.
And the Ralts was always there.
She followed him like a watchful shadow never making a sound yet always three feet away from him. She lingered in the sunny spot in the yard while he worked, and she sat in the kitchen corner while he ate.
He could sense her psychic presence behind him that felt both dependent on him and cautious, even though she never looked at him directly.
On the fourth morning, Ren sat on a worn bench in the training yard. The Ralts rested on her cushion nearby gazing intently at the treeline.
Takeshi approached Ren and stood beside him. They gazed out at the horizon in silence for a long time.
"Professor Birch called," Takeshi said.
Ren did not look up. "The researcher?"
'Professor Birch, huh… I remember him from the anime… and from playing Pokémon Emerald… the guy who gives out the starters Mudkip, Torchic, and Treecko', Ren thought.
"He's the one who found her, along with Officer Jenny, when poachers were trying to capture her," Takeshi said carefully. "He wanted to know how she's settling in."
Ren's chest felt tight. "What did you tell him?"
"I told her she eats and sleeps as usual and she stays near you." A slight sound of a sigh could be heard. "He said that was more than he hoped for."
Ren looked at the small, green Ralts. She looked so delicate, like porcelain broken and glued back together again. "Dad, why did he send her here? We are not experts."
"He wasn't asking for experts, Ren," Takeshi said, his eyes calm and steady. "He didn't send her for the battle or adventure."
He paused, listening to the soft ringing of harbor bells in the wind.
"He just wanted her to have a home and feel safe and find someone who will truly care for her".
Takeshi put a firm hand on Ren's shoulder and went back inside.
The night sky over Slateport was dark purple.
Ren lay in the dark, watching the Ralts. She was a shadow in the window, her red eyes closed, breathing slowly and evenly.
A memory from the original Ren surfaced. Professor Birch's heavy voice "The mother was a Gardevoir. She stayed to protect the baby's escape. We found the Ralts three days later. It was sitting in the same spot where the mother died. She hasn't made a peep since."
Ren felt a deep empathy, a soul-shattering feeling of connection to the little Pokémon.
'You watched your world burn to the ground', he thought, his chest hurting. 'Then you were taken by people you didn't know. And now you're here with me, another person you don't know. Just as lost as you are'.
'I'm sorry.'
He didn't say the words aloud. He just tried to radiate the feeling, to see if it was something that a Ralts could comprehend.
The next morning, something changed.
Ren sat with his textbook on his lap when he noticed it: faint, shimmering words floating above the Ralts, like reflections on a fogged-up window.
[ Ralts ] Type: Psychic/Fairy Growth State: Dormant Level: 5 Status: Sad Moves: Growl
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Pokemon Info:
[ Ralts ] Type: Psychic/Fairy Gender: Female Ability: Synchronize Growth State: Dormant Level: 5 Status: Sad/Shy Moves: Growl
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Ren blinked, his heart skipping a beat. He then looked at his father's Linoone, sleeping in the shade. [ Linoone ] Level: 34 | Status: Content He looked at a Wingull on the fence. [ Wingull ] Level: 7 | Status: Neutral The realization hit him like a punch. He wasn't just a transmigrator, he had brought something with him: the ability to see pokemon stats and hidden info. He looked back at the Ralts, its growth state was dormant. She was not only sad, she was stuck.
He began talking to her not about training, but about small things like the price of berries at the market, how the sunlight hit the harbor at noon, the little gossip from the daycare.
On the twelfth day, he dragged a worn training dummy into the yard. He didn't ask her to fight. He just sat ten feet away, tossing stones at the target.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
The Ralts's head tilted. Her red eyes followed the stones.
On the twentieth stone, the air in the yard seemed to vibrate. The humidity surged.
The training dummy suddenly wobbled, then tilted sharply to the left as if pushed by an unseen hand.
Confusion.
Ren stopped. The stone dropped from his hand.
The Ralts looked at Ren. Her eyes were sharp, focused and fully present for the first time.
"Good job," Ren said softly.
She immediately looked away, her ears slightly pink.
But her hands were no longer clenched on the cushion.
[ Ralts ] Moves: Growl, Confusion Status: Neutral (Curious)
That night, Ren sat on the porch. He felt something pressing against his side.
Looking down, he saw the Ralts had moved. She was now on the wooden slats, her small shoulder resting against him.
The Ralts did not glance at him, but the contact was constant.
Ren looked at the orange horizon and felt the first true breath of peace since the accident.
"I'm not going anywhere, Ralts." he murmured.
Ralts stood there, frozen in place but didn't move away.
Then, in his mind the word Dormant flashed for an instant and turned a soft, warm gold.
[ Ralts ] Growth State: Dormant → Emerging
'What…?' Ren thought. 'Maybe she just needed someone she could really trust, like she did with her mother'.