The Beginning of a New Fate
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Hiroshi Takeda blinked as he came to consciousness, feeling an odd sense of disorientation. The last thing he remembered was sitting in his room, playing the old 'Pokémon Red' game on his emulator, wondering what it would be like to live in Ash Ketchum's world. But now, everything felt different. The smells were vivid, the sounds sharp, and his body felt… wrong, but familiar in a strange way.
He stood in front of a large, familiar building Professor Oak's lab. His heart raced as the realization hit him. 'No way… this is Pallet Town?' Hiroshi stared down at his hands, now much smaller, with a red jacket draped over his shoulders. He didn't need a mirror to figure it out he was in Ash Ketchum's body.
"What the… How is this possible?" Hiroshi whispered, taking a moment to process the impossible. This wasn't a dream. It was too real.
Before he could fully grasp his situation, a voice called out from behind him. "Ash! There you are! You're almost late for your first Pokémon!"
Hiroshi turned to see Ash's mom, Delia Ketchum, smiling warmly at him, urging him forward. First Pokémon? Hiroshi's eyes widened as it clicked This is the day Ash gets Pikachu.
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Moments later, Hiroshi still reeling from the shock found himself inside Professor Oak's lab. Professor Oak was rummaging around, looking for something. Hiroshi's brain was still trying to keep up with the fact that he was Ash Ketchum in the flesh.
"Ah, Ash! You've made it just in time!" Professor Oak said with his usual chuckle. Hiroshi felt his heart race. This was it the iconic moment from the anime he had watched a million times.
"Now, I assume you're ready for your first Pokémon?" Professor Oak asked, gesturing to the table where three Poké Balls once lay, all now empty.
Hiroshi stammered for a moment, trying to find his voice. "Uh, yeah! But aren't there supposed to be—"
Before he could finish, Professor Oak interrupted, "Yes, yes, all the starters have been taken by the other trainers. But don't worry, I have one more special Pokémon left."
"Pikachu." Hiroshi couldn't help but smile a little, already knowing what was coming. This was the start of Ash's journey, but now it was his journey too. A familiar yellow electric mouse emerged from a Poké Ball, glaring up at him with suspicion.
"Pika!" it huffed, sparks flying from its cheeks.
Hiroshi crouched down, grinning. "Hey there, Pikachu. I'm your new partner." He hesitated, wondering if Pikachu would warm up to him faster, now that he wasn't exactly Ash. But the sparks told him otherwise some things never change.
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Far away, in a dimension that stretched beyond time and space, a presence stirred. Arceus, the god of all Pokémon, felt a ripple, a disturbance unlike anything it had sensed before. It peered across dimensions, searching for the source of the anomaly.
Something… unnatural… has occurred, Arceus thought, its glowing form radiating through the ethereal space. But what is it?
The feeling was faint yet unmistakable a shift in the natural order. Arceus reached out, searching deeper into the fabric of reality, scanning the worlds it had crafted. It found the young boy known as Ash Ketchum, or so it seemed. But something was wrong. The soul inside the boy did not match the one it had been watching since his birth.
Who… are you?Arceus wondered, its divine presence unable to pierce through the veil fully. The soul within Ash had been replaced, but the change was subtle, too subtle for Arceus to directly intervene. It would watch, wait, and see how this new force would affect the balance of the world.
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Hiroshi, now fully realizing that he was stuck as Ash Ketchum, took a deep breath as he left Professor Oak's lab with Pikachu in tow. The weight of this new reality started to settle in. He was no longer just Hiroshi Takeda, an ordinary kid from Earth. He was Ash Ketchum, and everything about the world he knew had just shifted.
But something lingered in the back of his mind an uneasy feeling, as if he wasn't alone. Little did he know that his sudden arrival into this world had caught the attention of forces far beyond anything Ash had ever encountered.
Pikachu tugged at his pant leg, jolting him from his thoughts. "Pika?"
Hiroshi smiled down at the little Pokémon. "Don't worry, Pikachu. We're going to do great things together."
And so, the journey began not just to become a Pokémon Master, but to understand the forces at play, the reason why Hiroshi had been brought into this world. And as Arceus watched from the heavens, it knew that this journey would not be an ordinary one.
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End of Chapter 1
In this first chapter, Hiroshi Takeda is transmigrated into Ash Ketchum's body just as Ash is about to begin his journey. Unbeknownst to him, his presence has attracted the attention of Arceus, who senses an unnatural shift in the balance of the world but cannot fully comprehend what has occurred. This sets up a mysterious, higher-stakes adventure for Hiroshi as he embarks on his journey as Ash.