A life without unexpected twists is nothing short of dull.
However, Kelvin had no idea what to think of his current situation. One moment, he was preparing himself for a potential attack from rogue Chimera Ants, and now he was questioning how the hell he found himself in another world... for a second time.
It had been a whole year since he had arrived in the world of Hunter x Hunter, and he had been biding his time to develop his own abilities to face any threats that may eventually come knocking on his door.
Actively avoiding contact with the main cast or events that could send his life spiralling into chaos, Kelvin had been living relatively peacefully. During that time, most of it was spent developing his Nen once he realised his own innate talent for its practice.
While he was no super talent like Gon or Killua, he'd personally rank himself pretty damn high on the talent roster. After all, a whole year to get to the point he was at was no doubt impressive, at least he liked to consider it so.
Having paid close attention to the news, he'd been able to keep a general track of the progression of events that had occurred over the next year. Although he had already been mentally preparing himself for the day, the idea of the arrival of Chimera Ants was nerve-wracking.
Yet all that concern and nervousness... felt so useless right now.
'Is this for real...?' With a blank look on his face, Kelvin stared up at the familiar tall figure of a certain creature he'd seen behind the computer screen numerous times. 'I mean, I'm glad to be out of that potential hellhole of a world. But, this is ridiculous, no?'
Could you blame him?
If being isekaied into a fictional world once was already crazy enough, what were the chances of being sent flying yet again into another? As ridiculous as it was, Kelvin had no intention of truly complaining.
Compared to living in Hunter x Hunter, he'd take the Pokemon world over it any day.
Speaking of Kelvin, after having spent an entire year in the HxH world, he had officially turned sixteen, so not quite an adult yet by his country's standards.
He was relatively tall in stature for his age, standing at a comfortable 5'8" or around 172 cm tall. Due to the training he'd been doing in preparing for that fateful day, he possessed a compact muscular physique that you normally wouldn't find on someone his age, along with a fair complexion.
Not too pale nor too tanned.
As for his clothing, there really wasn't much to comment on. His current attire was very casual, consisting of a simple light-blue t-shirt under an unzipped white-and-silver hooded jacket, black cargo pants, and black combat boots.
When it came to accessories, there didn't seem to be anything of note aside from the pair of white headphones he had around his neck. A black cord connected to it, running under his shirt and into something in his right pocket.
"So, any chance of you letting go of whatever grudge you have with these two?" Kelvin asked casually, though he quickly tilted his head when a rock came flying at him. "Is that your way of saying yes? Or is that a no?"
Kelvin easily recognised what pokemon stood in front of him, a ground and rock-type that comes from the very first generation of Pokemon. Its name has become a long-running joke in the 'gottem' category.
What else but a rhydon?
"Let me ask you agai- okay, never mind, guess that's a no."
Casually and easily twisting and shifting his body around a few times, he dodged every rocky projectile sent his way as the rhydon in front of him grew increasingly irritated by its failed attempts to hit its target.
"Since you attacked me first..." Kelvin's flat expression shifted slightly with his mouth now slightly frowning, and his eyes now having a faint shadow cast over them. "Then don't blame me for responding in kind."
Without waiting for a response, Kelvin kicked against the ground as his body shot forward at unprecedented speeds. Caught off guard, Rhydon could only widen its eyes as Kelvin soon appeared directly in front of it.
With a casual side kick, Rhydon soon found itself flying to the side, bouncing against the ground a few times and kicking up dust from the ground. It only stopped once its body made a full-on collision against the mountainside.
"Oops, did I put too much into that?" Kelvin blinked as he looked at the dust cloud that was beginning to fade away. Once it did, he saw Rhydon getting back up with a small stagger. "Never mind, you're a Pokemon."
If a kick of that magnitude was able to severely damage a rock-type like Rhydon, Kelvin would've had to put the power of Pokemon into question. He barely put any effort into that kick, so it shouldn't have done much damage to the rock-type.
Seeing Rhydon's current state proved that to be true.
"Still want to fight, huh?" Kelvin sighed upon seeing Rhydon recklessly charging forward towards him. Cracking his neck, Kelvin narrowed his eyes dangerously. "You should really learn to pick your fights better. Take this as a warning."
As Rhydon charged at full speed, it suddenly felt its body go cold as an ominous aura seemed to erupt from the human in front of it. That terrifying, purple, hazy aura seemed to emit a horrible feeling of bloodlust.
This momentary moment of fear caused Rhydon to stumble in its steps, soon tripping over its own feet as it crashed onto the ground face-first. Visible sweat seemed to form on Rhydon's rock-like exterior, and its eyes shook in fear as it looked up at Kelvin while still on the ground.
"Don't forget this feeling of fear, doing so will save you from making a decision that you won't even have time to regret. If you understand, then I'm sure you know what decision you need to make at this very moment."
With the ominous aura receding, Rhydon was able to finally regain a bit of composure as it shakingly stood back up onto its feet. Staring at Kelvin for a second and breathing heavily, Rhydon nodded its head before turning around and running away.
Seeing this, Kelvin sighed once again. "At least it wasn't stupid. I might've had to knock it out, or even worse."
Turning his head to look back behind his shoulder, Kelvin looked down at the two Pokemon that he had saved from the rhydon. A pair of two pikachu clones, more specifically, a duo consisting of a plusle and a minun.
However, upon looking at them, Kelvin immediately noticed their cautious stances.
While not having been the direct targets of Kelvin's aura, the two were obviously close enough for them to feel a certain sensation, albeit much less intense compared to what Rhydon had experienced.
'Can't really blame them for being wary. Should I try to comfort them?' Kelvin frowned to himself as he thought this. He never really was good at that kind of thing. "You two seem okay, just be careful from here on."
Without any real reason to escalate the situation, Kelvin chose the simplest course of action.
The two then watched with widened eyes as Kelvin bent his legs before jumping up multiple meters into the air towards one of the trees, landing on one of the thick branches before leaping up from one branch to the other, quickly making his way to the top.
"Alright, there's gotta be something like a landmark around here..."
Upon arriving at the top, Kelvin immediately began looking around for any signs of human influence. Be it a landmark, structure, or perhaps even a whole town in the distance. Anything like that would be much appreciated.
'Of course it isn't that simple...' Kelvin shook his head in slight disappointment at the lack of findings. All he could see were trees here and to the horizon. 'It's getting pretty late too, so maybe I should just set up camp and get moving in the morning.'
As pleasant as a night stroll sounded, he'd prefer to walk potential long distances in the daytime.
"Looks like there's a river over there. Guess I'll head on over there then... hyup!"
With a small jump, Kelvin dove down from the top of the tree towards the ground near the base of said tree. Before he landed, around halfway down, he grabbed onto one of the branches and used it as a pole to swing around to help slow his speed.
Letting go, he flipped through the air a few times before landing gracefully on the ground with barely any sound at all. Not need to be concerned for his legs either, a fall like that wouldn't be enough to cause him issues.
xXx
It didn't take long for Kelvin to arrive at the river, only a few seconds in fact, due to his incredible speed. Even compared to typical Nen users, he was much faster, though only due to the nature of his Nen ability.
"The sound of a rushing river, it's strangely euphoric..." Kelvin muttered to himself casually as he stood at the river's edge, looking down in the direction of the water flow. 'The sun is about to set, so I'd better be quick and get a fire started.'
Looking up towards the sky, it was a beautiful orange-yellow with the sun starting to set on the horizon.
'Berries should be safe to eat, right?' Kelvin wondered as he looked down at the oran berry he had picked while running through the forest. 'Although judging reality entirely off a game and a cartoon isn't the smartest thing, most of the information should hopefully be correct at least to some degree.'
What were the chances that eating an oran berry would poison him?
Or, ironically, a pecha berry.
Kelvin would never be naive enough to rely entirely on the knowledge about the Pokemon world that he possessed, especially as it came from games and anime. Even so, surely a majority of it had to be correctly reflected, right?
'Aside from berries, it should be legal to eat Pokemon as well.' Glancing down into the river, Kelvin could sense the presence of a number of Pokemon under the cover of the river's moving surface. 'If memory serves, people do eat Pokemon, whether it be in the game or the anime. Though the specifics are unknown.'
For all he knew, a majority of Pokemon may be considered illegal to hunt as food.
He was aware of several proven cases of Pokemon consumption, but anything truly specific about the laws regarding the consumption of Pokemon was unknown to him. That topic simply wasn't expanded on in the world's lore.
Was there a limit to how many could be eaten?
Were there size requirements like with fishing?
What Pokemon were considered protected species?
'Even if I'm clueless, it's not like anyone would be able to track that it was me. At most, they'd think another Pokemon ate them.'
Kelvin did feel somewhat conflicted.
Given how the creators of Pokemon portrayed them, fans were inclined to view Pokemon as companions instead of a food source. He had no doubt that many others from his world, if isekaied as he had been, would also hesitate to eat them.
It was that psychological barrier that a majority of humans had when faced with the idea of eating anything sentient, like themselves, or domesticated species like dogs and cats. It was just a line most couldn't get themselves to cross.
'A rather strange mental barrier. But, after everything I've already been through back in the Hunter world, if it means survival...' Kelvin tensed his fingers a few times as the thought crossed his mind. 'Then I guess I don't mind.'
He had noticed something about the Pokemon since arriving in this world, and it was that all of them, at least the ones that he had encountered so far, had their aura nodes unlocked. Well... not exactly.
More specifically, the aura nodes around the eyes seemed to have been opened in every Pokemon, be it the ones he encountered in the forest or the ones swimming in the river. In fact, the rhydon he defeated before was a small... test subject.
He had unleashed a slightly more powerful level of bloodlust than he'd use against normal humans and animals, mainly to see how intensely Rhydon would react. Unsurprisingly, the rock-type was rendered completely helpless.
Even if the aura nodes in its eyes were unlocked, that alone was far from enough to act as any kind of barrier against his aura. Even the most mentally strong individuals would suffer greatly if they didn't have Nen to help them.
True, those with powerful minds could resist the effects of malicious Nen, but whether or not they could resist enough to actually be capable of fighting back, let alone winning against the opponent, that was another story entirely.
Nen was simply unfair towards those without it.
They can complain as much as they want, but nothing will change.
Without Nen, you were 95% of the time screwed against a Nen user.
Staring silently down into the river, Kelvin pondered for a moment before giving a small sigh. He then took off his headphones and hung them back around his neck, cracking his neck as he did so, before turning around and walking away.
For now, he'd hold back on feasting on Pokemon for now.
Of course, if the berries he found happened to be inedible for whatever reason or if he began craving some flesh in his stomach, then the situation would change. Oh, if he saw any Pokemon meat being sold in a market in a town, assuming he finds one, then he wouldn't mind giving it a try.
If it were being publicly sold by legal vendors, then nothing would really be stopping him from giving Pokemon meat a try, aside from his own consciousness.
Though, as stated before, his acceptability for such a thing was much higher after spending time in the Hunter x Hunter world.
The issue was that he didn't have any of this world's currency...
"Alright, you two can come out now." Kelvin crossed his arms as he stared with narrowed eyes towards the dense forest. "You've been following me for some time, so I suggest you come out or I'll force you out."
He had felt not only the presence but also the lingering gazes of what he assumed were most likely Pokemon. Although he hadn't mastered it, his En could reach up to 10 meters.
As soon as whoever entered his range appeared, Kelvin was immediately made aware of their presence. Even if Nen users weren't sensitive to being watched, En alone had completely given away his stalkers' locations.
In fact, he had lost track of whoever was after him once he began making his way to the river. That obviously meant both he and they had left each other's range of observation, only now did they appear again.
However, Kelvin couldn't be certain that they were the same individuals from before arriving at the river. His En wasn't advanced enough to distinguish specific individuals, especially of similar size and aura. The only thing that made him confident they were the same ones was that the feeling of being watched felt the same.
As for who the stalkers were, he did have a good guess.
"Well, what will it be?"
A few seconds passed before a specific bush began to rustle, and slowly emerged a familiar duo that Kelvin had met not too long ago. Upon emerging, the two pokemon stared at Kelvin unblinking, the latter doing the same.
All that could be heard was the rushing of the river's waters behind Kelvin, along with a few cries from a few flying pokemon that happened to pass by above them. Aside from that, only silence remained as the two sides stared each other down.
"..."
"..."
*Growl~*
Hearing the soft rumbling of a stomach, Minun turned its head to look at its red-coloured counterpart, who simply stared forward without a change in expression. The only thing betraying Plusle's composed act was the red hue of embarrassment that formed on its face.
[Plusle & Minun] (o//ω//o) (o__o )
[Kelvin] "0_o
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A/N: Sorry if this chapter had quite a bit of waffling. I felt that a few things needed to be explained clearly. I'll try to tone it down for the future chapters, but if I do it again, I hope you won't mind too much as long as the waffling is justified.
However, do keep in mind that I'm expecting you to have come into this story as knowledgeable on both Pokemon and HxH, I won't be explaining basic common knowledge. At least not to an extremely detailed and fundamental degree.