The Beginning of the Beginning

My rebirth into the world of pokemon was overall surprisingly uneventful. There was no God to greet me, nor Devil to banish me. There was no call to destiny from Arcerus nor random omnipotent being to send me off. Instead, I simply slowly came to inherit my memories as I grew up. At first, I thought they were simply imaginative dreams, and that's what the matrons and other staff at the orphanage told me whenever I brought something up to them when I was still young.

However, I soon came to realize something was different about me when I would walk around the town with the matrons and other kids and would know the names of things that I had never seen before and Pokemon that I had never met. It was soon after this that in those strange dreams, I had gotten the feeling to stop talking to the matrons and staff about those strange dreams.

This continued for a while, and people started to notice that I was a little different from the other kids in the orphanage. A little too quick to help, a little bit more clever than someone my age ought to be, a little less likely to get in trouble, a little bit less likely to complain, a little too quiet. Alone, one of these traits may not have been too abnormal, but altogether, it had marked me as somewhat of an outcast among my fellow children.

Of course, I hadn't realized that I was that different from everyone else, not at first, at least. I was simply acting as I felt I should, being a helpful child and trying to stay out of trouble. If that had led to me being ostracized from the people who were supposed to be my closest friends, I didn't seem to care. I didn't know why I didn't seem to care, but it just hadn't seemed important to me.

The matrons and other caretakers, of course, tried to help me get close to the other kids but didn't seem to understand that I was perfectly content in not playing with them outside and perfered to help around the orphanage instead, when I wasn't attending kindergarten. They had tried a few things to get me closer to the other children, from having me room with only the nicest of children to arranging playdates of sorts with other children.

None of it worked, I hadn't grown closer to any of the children and, in fact, only seemed to be growing more distant. I certainly didn't mind staying with the least mean children, but I hadn't grown any closer to them. The teachers at kindergarten were much the same, but they had eventually left me alone to focus on the other kids, after one too many attempts resulted in failure. Something about that had felt wrong to me, but I hadn't exactly been able to put my finger on it.

When I wasn't in school or helping out the orphanage, I spent my time thinking about pokemon. Something inside of me seemed to leap out in excitement whenever I caught sight of one around the town and my brain filled with knowledge I shouldn't have about them.

When I was young this was more simple, I would see a rock with two arms and know it in my soul to be a Geodude, I would see a short blue humanoid and know it to be a Machop. However, as I grew older, this seemingly magical ability seemed to grow with me. I would see a pokemon and see not just what it was, but what it could be. I would know the types of its very essence even though I should have no knowledge of it.

Eventually, I was even able to get a vague sense of where a certain species of pokemon's strong suit in battle laid, although that always seemed to be the most iffy of my abilities.

It was as I was approaching five years of age that everything had changed. I was laying in bed, simply thinking about the wonders of pokemon. Some unknown part of me wished that I could be doing further research about them either in a book or something I knew to be the internet but had never heard about. Yet I didn't know how to read, and I had never seen anything similar to the internet in this life.

It was those two words 'this life' that changed everything for me. I felt everything I had experienced in those strange dreams click into place and felt a rush as my memories that seemed to join together and I gained true clarity on who I was for the first time in my life.

I felt what was like a rush of cool air tingle throughout my blood, a jolt of electricity run down my spine and and a bucket of cold water splash over my head, all at once. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, both just a touch of pain and exctasy mixed into one and all of a sudden I realized that there had been a 'before', and I gained true awareness.

I wasn't just some overly smart kid who enjoyed helping others. Nor was I an antisocial loner who couldn't get along with others. Instead, I had been reborn into the world of pokemon and have had my past life's memories slowly influencing my every action as I grew in age, until finally I had regained my memories in a sudden rush.

It took me a while to sort out not just my memories but also how I was feeling about this experience altogether. In my past life, I seemed to be a fairly average person. Not some lifesaving doctor or peaceful humanitarian. I was just an average person going to college and trying to live my best life. Part of that life seemed to include enjoying Pokemon.

I was by no means an expert on Pokemon, I couldn't battle competitively for the life of me and had fallen off of playing the games as much as I used to, only buying the latest one and then playing through it once before returning to other things. Still, that didn't mean I wasn't happy to be reborn in the pokemon world. In fact, I was ecstatic. A world of mystical creatures that you can command in battle and will also probably be the best friends you'll ever have? Sign me right up! It was probably one of the safest worlds you could be put into, only beat by shows for literal toddlers. Much better than some crazy shit like Worm or DC.

My main issue with the whole reincarnation thing is that I don't know why it happened in the first place. I don't have a specific last date in my memory or a way that I could have died. I remember a general time period of going to college classes and preparing for finals, but as I try to focus on more recent memories, everything seems to get blurry, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

Eventually, I just have to decide not to concern myself with it. The mystery about why I was reborn into the world of Pokemon, will have to stay as just that, a mystery. It seems like there isn't anything I can do about it, and worrying about it endlessly won't help anyone.

The reactions of the adults and children around me made a lot more sense now that I had reawakened my memories. I was now able to look back on my last few years in this world and realise how odd I had been acting. After all, never complaining nor crying, and being a helpful child was definitely not a normal thing for a four year old.

However, I now realized it wasn't just those things that were odd about me during the time from before I regained my memories. It seems that I wasn't just a strangely well-behaved child. It was much more than that. Before, whenever someone would talk to me, I would rarely ever respond. Instead, I would simply sit there and stare at them with a face devoid of emotions. Those questions I had thought I had asked about my strange dreams had simply never left my mouth and I was almost effectively mute in this life.

It seems like I had still understood whatever somebody may have been trying to communicate to me, and I was able to follow orders and help around fairly easy. But that whole action of creepily staring at anybody who tried to talk to me definitely unnervered some people. I don't think the reason I had no friends among the children in the orphanage was due to me being a genuinely well behaved child, it probably had more to do with the fact that anybody that tried to become my friend would simply recieve a creepy stare in return and among 2-4 year olds that was liable to send them off crying and to never try speaking to me again.

If I had to guess on why this whole phonemonon had happened, it wasn't hard to think it had something to do with me recovering my memories. It seemed that in the time of me recovering my memories, not everybody was present in the house that was my brain, and this led to me being absent from most reactions typical to a 4 year old.

Now, it seemed that I would have to deal with the consequences that this lack of reactions have left me stuck with in regard to my peers and the orphanage staff. I was hoping that I could just use the excuse of still being young to get around any concern of a sudden change in personality, even if it would be for the better. It was with these thoughts and many more swirling through my head that I eventually fell asleep after the rush of emotions and thoughts after reawakening my memories.

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Waking up the next morning was a weird afair. It was incredible to me how much had changed in just a single night, and I had so many thoughts running through my head that it was hard to focus on just one thing. I had always been an early riser, in my last life and apparently this one too, so it seemed as if I was up before the other kids in my room, even with my young age.

I quickly went through my morning ablutions before I caught sight of myself in the mirror. It was just one of the many things that I had yet to really think about, including what I even looked like.

First off, I was... well... I was a child. I know it should be obvious, I was only 4 after all, but it seemed there was still some type of discontent between the me before the reawakening and the me after. Other than that, I thought I was quite a cute child, if I do say so myself. I had short brown hair and bright blue eyes. I was dressed in a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt even if they were a little scratchy. I imagine I would look quite good if I dressed up a little though.

One other thing I noticed while looking in the mirror was that everything was realistic. This may not seem like a big deal, but it still struck me as a little odd. Whenever you think of the world of pokemon, you always think of anime, but that wasn't the case for this world. Part of me was glad for that as it would probably be a little weird living in a more flat texture less world, but it did mean that everything about pokemon themselves was hyper realistic

Looking back on my memories confirmed this to be the case, geodudes were quite literally made of rock and stone, and you could see each individual feather on a pidgey. It was definitely very interesting and brought a whole new level of enjoyment to the world of pokemon. I wasn't just in a generic anime world, I was in the world of pokemon!

Sadly, I had to move on from these thoughts as I was getting quite hungry as n ever growing boy. I soon made my way down to the kitchens where it seemed that only the head matron was up and getting food prepared for the soon to be many hungry mouths. Luckily, today was a Saturday giving Patricia, the head matron, more time to prepare the food as the children slept in.

As I approach she soon turns her head, no doubt hearing me walk up behind her, even with the light footsteps of a child, ears no doubt trained by years of having to deal with children thinking sneaking up on the matron was a good idea of a prank.

After noticing me, she simply turns back to her task of chopping vegetables for breakfast before she lets out a hum and starts talking, "Up early again, huh Grant. I know you naturally wake up early, but do try to get some sleep when you get the chance. It's a necessity for a growing boy like yourself."

Grant... that's my name in this world. Grant Rock for a full name. A weird name I know, but it is apparently a tradition of the orphanage to name children after stones that hadn't already gotten names from their parents. A tradition that made a little more sense when I realized I was in the town or Oreburgh in the Sinnoh region, a big mining town.

It's going to take some while getting used to my name, considering in my last life my name was Jackson, but it hopefully wouldn't be too bad. And if I'm a little late in reacting to my name at first, it probably wouldn't change anything considering that everybody else has basically seen me as an emotionless husk for the past four years. Getting out of my head, I see the matron starting to move.

Pausing in her chopping of the vegetables, she turns her head over her shoulder to look at me, "There's some porridge set on the table for you early risers, if you want to get started on breakfast. After that, feel free to help around the garden, I'm sure Jenny would appreciate it. Of course, if you wanted to take some time to relax and enjoy yourself, feel free too. After everything you do to help out around here, you definitely deserve it."

I actually wasn't that much of a help around the orphanage considering I was only 4, almost five, but the staff still appreciated what little I could give and found it cute when they weren't being scared off by my dead eyes. Still, the head matrons whole plan of letting me take some time off had never seemed to work in the past, considering I was almost like a mindless drone for the past few years, but this time I think I would take her up on her offer.

The only question was how exactly I would go about taking that break. I know the matron had said I could just not help out. However, at this point, it was practically expected that I always would, and I would feel a little bad about not showing up out of the blue. However, randomly speaking in response to let the matron know I won't be showing up would be pretty out of character for me, considering for all of this life I had pretty much only spoken when it was absolutely necessary, and even then it was often only a few words.

Eventually, I just decided it would be best to break the ice immediately rather than wait any longer to show any changes to my personality. So, with a clearing of my throat, I respond, "Thanks, Patricia, I think I'll actually take you up on that offer for a break. Tell Jenny I'm sorry."

And with those words, I hurriedly scurry off to the dining room. I know the matron would be pretty shocked at how much I had just spoken, and I wasn't keen to stick around to see her reaction. For how amazing of person Patricia was for running an orphanage, she could be quite scary when she was worried and she had been trying to get me to come out of my "shell" for years with no success. With such a sudden change in personality, I was afraid of being interrogated for hours if I didn't get out of their quick enough.

Luckily, I didn't have to worry about her following me. After all, breakfast doesn't prepare itself, and it often took Patricia hours to get not just breakfast but everything else ready for many children's often busy days.

I quickly grab a bowl of porridge and return back to my room. Even though I have roommates, I know I won't be disturbed, if only for the reason that the children around me would be too scarred to do so.

And so as I sat there and ate my porridge, I quickly got to reviewing my known information. My name was Grant Rock, I was four, almost five, years old, and I currently resided in an orphanage in the town of Oreburgh in the Sinnoh region of the world of pokemon.

Those were the broad strokes, but I soon realized that I needed more information. It was as I was starting to think of the future and my goals that I finished my porridge and went to lay back in my bed. Looking at the ceiling, I soon noticed something. Up in the top left corner of my vision was a barely noticeable flashing exclamation point. 'Ah', I thought to myself, 'That shouldn't be there'.