Chapter Text
Akari groaned, head swimming as she slowly came to. What the heck had happened? She’d been on her way to the Guild to report the completion of her latest mission (getting a Kakuna out of the Foreboding Forest), when she was suddenly falling and…
Why was she in the water? She was still on the path when she fell, so there was no way she’d fallen off one of Lively Town’s cliffs. Grunting, the Dewott heaved herself out of the water, looking around.
OK. This wasn’t Lively Town. Lively Town didn’t have a beach like this where you couldn’t see any buildings. Did she fall through one of those Mag-gate things? No, those hadn’t been around for years. So how did she…
“E-excuse me!? Ma’am? Are you alright?” Akari’s ears swiveled a bit as she looked upwards towards the source of the voice… a rather lanky-looking Dartrix. On closer inspection, there were some odd pink patches bare of feathers - almost like someone had tried using a weird replacement for bandages. That, and he was fumbling in the air, looking like he was about to crash (which, let’s be real, is why she could see those patches).
The avian landed in the sand with an undignified *squawk*, and the rookie Explorer sprung up, heading over. “S-sir? Are you…”
There was a small groan as the Dartrix righted himself, shaking his head. “Yes, yes, I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m just…not used to flying, that’s all.”
“...not used to flying? But…you would’ve even as a Rowlet…” She tilted her head, bandana shifting slightly as the avian blinked.
“As a - Ma’am, you…oh. I guess you wouldn’t know, but…” A sad sigh. “I - and the rest of the people here - were originally human…”
“What.”
----
The Dartrix - or Professor Laventon, as he called himself - explained how the rifts in the sky (not unlike the one above them right now, she noted dryly) was - for some reason - causing people to transform slowly - and painfully - into a Pokemon. Apparently, lightning was striking every so often, and if it hit someone then they’d start turning into whatever ‘mon was closest to them at the time. Or whichever they contacted next. As she took this all in, Akari could safely say...
She was incredulous. Humans had been extinct for hundreds of years, so clearly this Dartrix hit his head badly upon crashing. Wait, no, her first aid training said he’d be showing other symptoms from that level of head trauma, so...oh Arceus, was this ‘mon insane?
As she tried to work out how to handle ‘mon of mental instability outside of Dungeons, the Prof. suddenly fell, hacking and wheezing. “OH! Oh jeez, are you alright? Here, let me...” Her words of aid trailed off as she saw one of the pink patches shrink via feathers pushing through it . Pops and cracks echoed from the Professor’s form as he visibly shrunk, falling closer to a normal Dartrix’s size as - OH SWEET GIRATINA!
No-one could blame her for jumping back upon seeing the *Blur* that came out of the Dartrix’s beak. Even the most seasoned Explorers would have to hold down their lunch upon seeing *Blur*, although this was the first time Akari knew of that *Blur* was found by puking . Usually it took grievous bodily injury to make *Blur* visible... oh Arceus, this was all chopped up and it was even wors-
Dry heaves. She couldn’t hold them back, and instead used whatever energy she could divert from those heaves into looking away from the *Blur*. Thankfully she hadn’t ate recently, otherwise she’d have had no time to react before giving the apparently ex-human a new coat of...well, green . Yeah, seeing someone grow feathers, shrink, and puke up *Blur* was reason enough to believe they were probably once human.
As she tried to calm herself (and fish out a couple Berries from her bag), Akari steered her thoughts away from the nausea and towards confusion…and concern. What sort of thing could turn humans into Pokémon… and what could have sent her to a world with humans at all?