Chapter 21:*spoiler*

"Welcome, to the Pokemon pet store." Zeke greeted his very first ever customer, while letting Siesta who is outside know of it as well.

"Hi...I saw the sign, it says its a pet store, but I dont see a single pet anywhere"Andre, Inquired as he walked towards Zeke, passing by the world tree.

"Ah! about that, this store doesn't just sell any ordinary animals,  we sell a more unique and never before seen creatures that I like to call Pokemon."Zeke replied.

Andre, hearing this white haired guy's word thought that he must be a deranged person, as he never even heard of these so called Pokemon, but then again, the strange man also said it has never been seen so it checks out.

Still! Andre became more doubtful by the second, as he looked at Zeke with doubt and scrutiny.

Of course Zeke noticed how he looked, so he hurriedly said. "Now, now, don't be that doubtful, why dont we make a bet? you try to pick one of these babies and then let us hatch it,

and if it hatches into a normal animal that you have seen before then I'll give it to you free of charge, and if whatever hatches surprise you, then you will buy it, and buy another product of mine?

Of course you're free to refuse and walk away, forget that you ever entered this place and met me

So, what do you say?."

'Yeah, totally not suspicious at all' Andre thought, after hearing what Zeke just said, he was planning on refusing and just getting out of here, but he felt that tug once more.

and due to him being curious, as well as he has nothing to do as well, sighed before he agreed.

And after hearing him agree, Zeke happily exclaimed.

"Perfect! then choose one of the eggs in the shelves!"  before he pointed at the eggs thats displayed at the shelves.

Andre, followed what Zeke asked, and turned his head towards the shelves, and for some reason, the tugging feeling became more frequent, even more so as he walked step by step, closer and closer towards the shelves.

And after he arrived in front, the tugging relaxed somewhat, Andre was about to choose the closest one to him to finish things off fast, but the tugging came back, as if its sayings that its not the one he should pick, and after he he decided to not pick it, the tugging stopped.

This happened repeatedly everytime he wanted to choose an egg, which made him really impatient

so after it happened again when he decided to choose an egg, he wanted to ignore it and say his pick, but suddenly he felt something,

like he was gonna loose something important to him if he proceeded with his choice, and it made him rethink his decisions before not long after,he decided to just follow whatever the Tug wants, as he isnt losing anything either way, only money.

so he, continued walking to see more of the egg's, and suddenly after passing one egg, the tug came back again, this time, more powerful than ever, and it seemed to lead him to the egg he just passed by so he looked at it.

And when he did, the tugging become stronger and stronger, his heartbeat followed as well, so deciding to trust his guts on this one, he pointed at the egg and called to Zeke.

"I'll pick this one."

Zeke looked at the egg that he was pointing and was surprised, since the one he picked is actually one of the 4 rare eggs displayed.

Still, Zeke did not say anything, instead he walked towards Andre and the egg before lifting the glass covering it.

"Go on, pick it up."Zeke instructed

Andre followed Zekes words and slowly reqched out towards the egg before attempting to lift it, but as he touched the egg, he was stunned as memories of him with his now passed dog just came gushing out of nowhere.

And when he woke up, he was already carrying the egg the same as he carried his dog when it was just a pup.

"Tears?" He questioned himself as he felt a moist sensation on his eyes and face.

Zeke meanwhile was at lost for words, seeing this previously gloomy fully mature man suddenly shed tears as he touched the egg.

"Uhh, what? Siesta explain?"Zeke asked Siesta who was standing besides him, carrying Ditto who transformed into a hedgehog in her head.

Siesta, took a while before replying "Its simple, reincarnation"

"Eh? whats the connection with that and this Grown man crying?"Zeke questions.

"Simple, everytime you buy an egg from the shop, the system randomly stores in the souls of the recently deceased in each eggs, reincarnating them into Pokemon.

and seeing how this acted till now, he must have lost a very close companion or family of his, and the soul of that companion must have been really reluctant with their parting and wants to meet him again in its next life,

so it most likely tugged its karma string with that man to lead him towards his passed companion, and that companion must be this egg" Siesta explained, before lifting ditto from her head and passing it to Zeke before continuing

"Of course, their memories will be wiped clean before they reincarnate, but it still leaves some imprint of their previous lives."

Hearing Siesta's explanation, Zeke stayed quiet for a few seconds before replying

"I see" as he stared at Andre who is carrying the egg gently; while scratching Ditto's belly.

"So, will we be seeing more of this scene from today onwards?" Zeke asked again.

Siesta shakes her haid and replied.

"Of course not, the system uses the soul of evry living creature around the world, from humans to animals, and even trees, this is actually an extremely lucky coincidence for him, since its like 1 in trillion or even quadrillion chance of this happening, even more probably."

"I see...."Zeke replied, his tone sadder this time.

Siesta turned her head towards Zeke after hearing his sad tone, and saw his somewhat crestfallen face.

Siesta sighed, and thought 'This guy..I guess its about time to tell him, as a congratulatory gift.'

smiling in resignation Siesta said.

"They're alive you know."

Zeke, hearing her words turned his head towards her and asked. "What?" as his heart suddenly beat faster.

Of course Zeke heard siesta's word loud and clearly, but he didn't want to get his hopes up so he asked for her to clarify.

Seeing Zekes expectant face, Siesta smiled gently and patted his head and said "Honestly, you're quite deaf Zeke. I said that they're alive, your parents"

When Zeke heard her say those words, his already quickly beating heart even became quicker and louder, as he asked Siesta for more clarification.

"Why?, How?, Where?!-"

"Slow down Zeke, one question at a time.." Siesta said, asking him to relax.

And relax he did, Zeke took a deep breath before exhaling all the air which relaxed him before asking the two most important question.

"How are they? and how did you know?"

"I'm guessing you want me to answer the first one firstly, so I'll answer that ; Your parents are not in danger they are doing fine for what I've seen, and as for the second question; You know how I explained about the karmic string right?"

"Mhm, I remember"Zeke replied.

"Well thats the reason, there are different states of a Karmic strings, if the color is faded or near transparent, it means that either one of the two that it's connected into are dead,

and the opposite, the color is bright and clear, means that both connected to the strings are alive and well, do you know where im getting at?" Siesta explained.

Zeke nodded enthusiastically, still happy about the fact that his parents are still alive, and asked "But how did you know that my karmic srings with them are still not faded?"

Siesta palmed her face and sighed.

"You're quite slow aren't you?; Its because I can see Karmic strings"she explains.

"Sorry.."Zeke apologized before he asked with hopeful eyes.

"Do you know where they are?!?"

"Sadly, I cannot tell, sorry."Siesta sadly replied dousing Zeke's happiness for a split second before he shook his head and replied.

"No matter! as long as they're safe and alive, I can find them even if it takes years!"

Zeke replied, before suddenly hugging Siesta.

"Thank you Siesta! I owe you one!" He said, full of sincerity.

Siesta was of course surprised by the hug, but she didnt mind, and instead patted Zekes hair slowly, smiling gently at him and replied.

"Of course, we're partners afterall, right?"

*Cough* Suddenly the two of them heard a coughing, which made the two stunned as they looked towards the source and found Andre staring at them, awkwardly.

"Sorry, to interrupt your happy moment but.. what now?" He asked with a very soft voice.

"Ah, right!" Zeke replied, quickly undoing the hug before coughing and said "Forget about what you saw.." with a slightly threatening voice.

"Ri-right.."Andre replied, as In reality, Andre is actually quite introverted, especially to those he just met, that one of the reason why he was so devastated once his dog passed away as his dog was one of his very few close person.

Zeke nodded at Andre's confirmation "With that out of the way, let us introduce ourselves, you can call me Shop Keeper or Z, and this is my sister, Siesta" he said, introducing both himself and Siest, who waved her hand greeted Andre as well.

"And this little guy here is my very own Pokemon partner, Ditto" Zeke Introduced, pointing at Ditto who's back in Zeke's head.

"Ditto~!" Ditto greeted.

Hearing the word Pokemon, Aka the "never before seen" creature, Andre was really curious and looked towards Zekes head where he pointed and saw a Very normal looking hedgehog.

"A hedgehog?" He asked, full of doubt.

Zeke of course understood his confusion and said

"Ditto! show this gentleman your true form"

Ditto nodded before he jumped, doing a backflip as he turned back into his true blobby form.

The sight of a hedgehog jumping and doing a backflip was comical at the very least, but thats only before the said hedgehog transformed into a light blue slime like creature!

"It transformed?!?" Andre asked, surprised, seeing that small hedgehog transform into what seems to be a blue slime-like creature.

Zeke laughed, seeing Andre's stunned and surprised face after seeing Ditto turn back into his real form, even Siesta chuckled after seeing it.

Zeke then picked up Ditto and carried him like a child and said, "This is Ditto, one of the creatures called Pokemon that I mentioned before, this little guy can transform into any animal or pokemon of any size.

Other than Ditto, there are many more species of Pokemon that you can potentially hatch from that egg, over a thousand at the very least, you might hatch a bug or heck even a dragon if your lucky, with that egg.

So? do you still have any lingering doubts?"

Andre just shook his head instinctively, as he was still amazed by what Zeke just said, then he remembered those painting hanging in the hallway walls, making his eyes constrict as he asked .

"Those paintings... they're pokemon?"

It took no time for Zeke to realize what Andre was talking about and said,

"Mhm, they're pokemon, by the way, its your turn to introduce yourself Mr."

"Oh!, I apologize for my rude behavior, my name is Andre, It's nice meeting you Shop Keeper"Andre introduced himself politely.

""Nice to meet you./Ditto!""Siesta, Ditto and Zeke replied

"So, umm...What should I do with this egg?"Andre asked once more.

"ah, about your egg, there are two ways that you can hatch it, the first one, although its cheap, it takes very long, and the other one is vice versa of the first one.

But since you are my first customer, whichever method you prefer, It's on the house, but you still gotta pay for whatever hatches from it, if not, I'll get to keep whatever hatches from that egg.

So, which one will you choose?" Zeke stated.

Andre nodded as Zeke talked, but his very soul shook when he mentioned the consequences of not paying.

"A-alright... I'll pay, and I choose the second option"

"Good choice! now follow me."Zeke replied, before he beckoned Andre to follow him, of course after he handed Ditto back to Siesta.

The two men walked towards the daycare area, leaving Siesta and Ditto alone, sitting on the sofa.

And as they walked, the two passed by the world tree, making Andre finally notice this stfange but beautiful tree, that amazed him.

Still, Andre held back asking and much rather prefered to hurry so he can finally hatch the egg that he picked.

The two didn't walk that far, so they arrived at the door leading to the daycare with no sweat at all.

And once inside, Andre couldn't help but be amazed at how large it is inside compared to when he looked through the window.

"We're here"Zeke announced which got Andre's attention as he looked towards the place they stopped, which is the light brown area with 10 nests residing in it, that he saw before.

"Welcome to the daycare! the area where we can hatch Pokemon eggs!" Zeke announced.

"Hand me the egg for a sec."Zeke instructed, and Andre complied albeit with reluctance as he handed Zeke the egg.

"Here..."

After receiving the egg, Zeke walked towards one of the nest before placing the egg in it, and afterwards going out.

"Now, we wait for 5 minutes!"

Zeke stated, before he walked towards one of the sofa inside the room before sitting, and afterwards beckoning Andre to do the same.

"Sit, while we are waiting for the egg to hatch, I will explain to you what are your responsibilities as an owner of a Pokemon, what to feed it and how to raise it right."

Andre did as he was told and sat down in the sofa in front of Zeke.

"Now then, I guess we should start with explaining what are Pokemon....."

....

And so, Zeke used those 5 minutes to explain things about the pokemon, the different professions he could take as an owner of one, all of which, greatly surprised Andre.

At the end of their talk, Andre promised that he would be a responsible partner for his future partner and would do anything he can to raise, and keept it safe.

"Im glad you understand what position you are in, as In the future, Pokemon would most likely be appearing all around the world and I would like to see human kind and pokemon get along, living by each other's side in harmony.

Alas, I know it would be hard as humanity are pretty averse to changes, especially as big as this."

Andre, hearing Zeke's word's was in awe, as he imagined these mystical creatures roaming around, its pretty much a dream come true.

And as he was about to say something in return, the two heard a sound of cracking and both looked at the only possible source, the egg.

"Go on, meet your partner, I'll wait here as you guys introduce yourself to each other." Zeke instructed with a soft voice.

Andre, hearing his words, nodded before he walked back towards the netral hatching area, each step he took his heart beat quickens.

and after reaching there, he stood straight as he looked at the swaying egg with anticipation, and nervousness.

A few seconds later, the egg was full of cracks and it stopped swaying as well.

The egg stood there for a good while, not doing anything which made Andre worried something might have happened, but all his worries disappeared, as he saw the shell slowly starting to fall off, revealing the creature hidden beneath.

*"zyuuu~"*

Title: They're Alive?!?

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A/N:Hello! How are y'all!! I hope y'all are doing fine.

I am here once again, I have finally completed writing 6 Chapters after Sooo long.

I hope you enjoyed the Chapter! And I also hope that I improved, even a miniscule amount of improvement is welcomed lol.

College is quite challenging for me...and I dun have a laptop to use for fast writing so I hope y'all understand.

That's all for me! Cya next chapter!

Stone and Comments are greatly appreciated!

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