Chapter 3: Reincarnation

His head pounded. The disorienting feeling of waking up in an unfamiliar place left him feeling nauseous.

'Where am I?' he wondered, his vision blurry and unfocused. He tried to push himself up, but something felt wrong. His limbs felt… different, smaller.

'What the…?'

He blinked a few times, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the dizziness. But no matter how hard he tried, his surroundings remained foreign—a dense forest with towering trees and the distant crackle of something burning.

'This can't be right… I'm supposed to be... Jason. Yeah, that's my name—Jason.'

As he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, he noticed a strange sensation. The air around him was unbearably hot, the heat seeping into his skin. His heart raced. The disorientation, the overwhelming heat—it all felt wrong.

"Why is it so hot?" Jason muttered under his breath, his voice sounding softer than usual.

'What happened to me? Am I dreaming? No, this feels too real.'

Suddenly, the crackling sound became louder, and Jason turned his head. His heart skipped a beat—he was surrounded by a raging fire, flames roaring through the forest, trapping him in a ring of heat.

'Fire?! I have to get out of here!'

Jason pushed himself up again, his movements clumsy. It wasn't just the environment that felt strange; his body did too. As he scrambled to his feet—or at least what he thought were his feet—he stumbled, feeling unnaturally small and off-balance.

'What's wrong with me?'

Instinctively, he glanced down at his hands... or what should have been his hands. Instead of fingers, he saw tiny, yellow paws.

'W-what the hell is this?!' His mind reeled, and he tried to move his fingers, but they weren't there. His heart pounded in his chest as panic started to set in.

Jason stumbled forward, desperately trying to escape the flames, but his body wasn't responding the way it should. He felt weaker, smaller—like everything about him had been downsized. As he tried to make sense of what was happening, his reflection caught his eye.

There, in the small pond just beyond the flames, he saw it—his reflection.

A small, yellow creature with large, pointed ears and round eyes stared back at him. His heart skipped another beat.

'That... that can't be me,' Jason thought, taking a shaky step closer to the water. He stared at the reflection in disbelief.

'No way... This is... this is a Pichu…?'

He blinked several times, hoping it was some kind of trick, but the reflection remained. The small, familiar Pokémon stared back at him from the water's surface.

'I've... I've been turned into a Pichu?!'

His mind raced, piecing together fragments of his memory. He had been running, there was a truck—Truck-kun—and then... nothing. His life, his body, everything had been stripped away from him.

And now, here he was, reborn into the body of a Pichu, trapped in a burning forest.

Jason—or rather, the Pichu that was once Jason—felt a surge of panic. This wasn't what he imagined the Pokémon world to be like at all. He remembered the games, the shows—Pokémon just fainted in battle, right? No one ever got hurt; they just fell over, and people threw Pokéballs at them.

But this… This was different.

He had felt pain—real pain. And there was blood, too, something he never thought about when watching the cartoonish battles from the safety of a screen.

'What kind of world is this? Pokémon aren't supposed to bleed… We're just supposed to faint...'

But no, this wasn't the cushy world of friendly battles and happy outcomes. Here, the stakes were real—life and death hung in the balance, and the rules Jason thought he knew were shattered.

'This world... it's dangerous. It's real.'

The heat of the fire surged closer, snapping him out of his thoughts. He had no time to process what had happened—he needed to survive.

'Okay, I've got to figure this out later. First, I need to get out of here.'

He turned and dashed toward the pond, the flames growing closer with each passing second. As he ran, he noticed something else ahead—something big, white, and still.

'What is that?'

As he got closer, he saw it—a large, white Ninetales, lying peacefully near the water's edge, its body surrounded by the encroaching flames. The sight of the majestic creature, completely still amidst the chaos, sent a shiver down Jason's—no, Pichu's—spine.

'Is it dead…?'

The sight of the Ninetales was unnerving, but there was no time to stop and investigate. He had to focus on surviving. The heat was unbearable now, the flames threatening to close in around him.

He dashed toward the water, hoping to find refuge, but just as he was about to leap, something whizzed through the air.

Thwip!

Jason yelped in pain as an arrow pierced his tiny leg, sending him tumbling backward.

"Ahhh! What the heck!?" he cried out, the voice that left his mouth sounding so much higher-pitched and unfamiliar, more like 'Pichuuuuu'.

He glanced back at the humans—no, trainers?—who were aiming their bows directly at him. His heart raced with fear. 'They're... they're trying to kill me!'

His leg throbbed in pain as blood oozed from the wound, but he didn't have time to focus on it. The humans were readying another arrow, this time aimed straight at his head.

'I'm gonna die... again?' Jason thought, terror gripping him.

But just as the arrow was released, a powerful roar shook the air.

ROOOOOOAAARRRR!

Jason's eyes flew open to see the Ninetales spring to life, leaping in front of him and taking the arrow meant for him. The arrow pierced its chest, and Jason watched in shock as blood began to stain its pristine white fur.

The Ninetales collapsed before him, its eyes meeting Jason's for just a moment. "Run..." it whispered, its voice soft and filled with pain.

Jason stared at the creature in disbelief. It had protected him. But why?

The humans shouted, preparing to strike again, but the Ninetales raised its head one last time and howled, "RUN!"

Instinct took over. Jason sprinted toward the water, his tiny legs barely able to carry him, but he managed to leap into the pond just as the flames closed in around him.

The cool water enveloped him, but the shock of it made him realize one very important thing.

'I can't swim!'

He thrashed about in the water, panic setting in once again. 'I'm going to drown... after all this, I'm going to drown!'

Just when he thought all hope was lost, a strange sensation washed over him. A ding echoed in his mind.

Ding

[SUPREME POKÉMON SYSTEM has been activated.

1. Collecting all information about the host.

2. Detecting irregular physical conditions.

3. Activating Emergency Safety Mode.]

Suddenly, the water around him began to churn, and before Jason could comprehend what was happening, a powerful vortex of water formed, lifting him into the air.

The humans stood frozen in shock as the water dragon-like vortex extinguished the flames, saving Jason from the fire.

"W-what in the world just happened?!" one of them exclaimed.

"Was that a special attack...? It can't be possible... right? A Pichu?"

"Or was it a gyarados?"

The humans fled, terrified of what they had just witnessed, leaving Jason floating in the water far far away, the pain in his leg numbed by the strange system that had just saved his life.

Little did they know, the tiny Pichu had just activated the Supreme Pokémon System, something far beyond anything the humans—or Jason—could understand.

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