Chapter Text
On a beautiful morning before school, the sun rose over the cityscape. The air was cool and fresh. A boy named Satoshi sat alone on a park bench playing cards. He shouted, "Pikachu, Thundershock!"
Satoshi sighed and looked out at the park.
Three boys around Satoshi's age played with Digimon cards under a plastic play hut. They were laughing and teasing each other. Satoshi called out, "Hey, can I join?" as he ran under the hut and sat down.
A young boy with brown hair crossed his arms. "Is this about tricking us into playing that dumb Digimon rip-off again?" he asked, unimpressed.
Satoshi's face fell at the comment. "Hey, Pokemon isn't dumb!" he protested.
Another boy with brown hair and a friendly smile spoke up. "Come on, Kazu," he said, "Give Satoshi a chance."
Satoshi shrugged. "Never-mind." He said and walked away. Why even try to play with them? They were Digimon fans anyway. Digimon fans were nothing like Pokemon fans. There just wasn't anything they had in common.
Satoshi walked back to his bench and started packing up his cards. He wished Pokemon were real.
He opened his backpack and placed his card tin inside. The wind picked up, and he felt something brush up against his leg. Satoshi twisted his leg and looked down to get a better view. It was a blue foil card. He picked up the card and examined it closely. When he turned the card in a certain direction, it depicted a monster jumping out of a yellow portal. 'I wonder if this is one of their cards,' he thought. A glance at the hut revealed that nobody was inside. The Digimon card players were gone. Satoshi put the card in his pocket and headed to school.
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"Mr. Nakano, you're later than usual today," His teacher, Ms. Asaji commented as Satoshi walked to his desk. Satoshi smiled a thin smile as he sat in his chair. "Sorry Ms Asaji." he said. His seat was next to that boy with brown hair. Takato was his name according to his nameplate.
Takato turned in his seat and looked at Satoshi with a smile that wasn't quite there. "I'm sorry about Kazu this morning," he said. Satoshi nodded. Takato seemed nice, but deep down, all he cared about was Digimon... Satoshi sighed.
Focusing on something new would be easier, Satoshi decided. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out his supplies. As he fished out his blue notebook and pencil, he was reminded of the blue card in his pocket. He hesitated, considering whether to show it to Takato, but no, it was probably just a silly card.
Takato smiled at Satoshi. "How about we play cards later, just you and me?" he suggested.
Satoshi blinked. Takato was offering to play?
"I think I'll pass," Satoshi said.
Takato's smile faded slightly, but it refused to leave entirely. "No problem, maybe another time," he said.
Satoshi couldn't help the way he felt. Digimon are dumb.
Ms. Asaji coughed pointedly from the front of the classroom. "Mr. Matsuki," she chided Takato gently. "Please keep talking to a minimum."
Takato straightened up in his seat. "Yes, Ms. Asaji," he replied.
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It was the afternoon in the city, and school had finished for the day. Students like Satoshi were heading home. Satoshi had to run an errand for his family's business on his way home. His parents ran a pet-sitting business and raised any litter of animals sold to them to be house-trained as pets. The building Satoshi was heading to was three stories high, with an office on the first floor, the animals lived on the second floor, and Satoshi's family lived on the third floor.
Satoshi had already purchased the cat food from the supermarket. The walk home was simple. He climbed the stairs out behind the building and opened the door to the pet floor. He set the box down inside, and rushed out of the room. The animals would-- That card, he remembered the card in his pocket. Where did it come from? What could he do with it? He could use the printer scanner to add it to his digital binder. With his mind made up, Satoshi went back out the door, climbed down the stairs, the metal clanked with each step. Waited for the front door to slide open, and walked inside.
His father was sitting at a desktop computer at the front desk. "Hey, Satoshi! How was your day?" His father greeted him.
"Same old same old. I found this card," Satoshi said and paused.
His father nodded. "Did you steal again?" he asked.
Satoshi's hand jumped out of his pocket. "Nope, just found it somewhere."
"Well you'd better find the owner." His dad said, stupid dad.
He dug the blue card out of his pocket. "It's super awesome though! Dad, can I use the scanner to add it to my collection?" Satoshi asked. Satoshi turned the card in the light to make the foil shine.
Satoshi's father frowned, "Go ahead, are you sure it'll look good? " He asked.
Satoshi nodded. "Of course. Thanks, dad!" Satoshi said and left the office. He hurried to the printer, which he quickly turned on. A couple of months ago, he was allowed to have an account on the family PC. He had been very excited. A week into that, he had the idea to scan all his cards into a digital binder. He knew the process by heart now.
First, he set the destination folder to 'Satoshi_Account/Documents/Cards'. The collection of Pokemon card images shone on the screen. Second, he opened the scanner and laid the blue card on the corner. Satoshi pressed the 'Scan' button and rushed upstairs. After a few seconds, he heard a sparking noise.
'Oh no no no!' Satoshi quickly opened the hood of the scanner and saw that the card wasn't anywhere he could see. 'Did it just... disappear?' Satoshi wondered as he checked the other compartments of the printer. The card was nowhere to be found. The scanner beeped, Satoshi flinched. The printer didn't beep when it failed, it beeped when a scan or a print was successful. After rushing upstairs, and saying hi to the animals, Satoshi checked the family computer and logged back in. Unfortunately, there was no new file in the destination he had set for the card. He frowned.
"Dad, something's wrong with the printer!" He said.
"I'll get you gran to check it out later." Dad called. The animals started making noise too, joining in on the ruckus.
Satoshi shrugged, he shouldn't worry about what he couldn't fix.
Satoshi sighed and went to his room to relax with his notebook. He sat on the edge of his bed sketching the card. Maybe he could make a replica.
That night, Satoshi slept peacefully.
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The living room was dark and quiet, the only sound the quiet hum of the computer. The computer's screen flickered to life. A thick fog began to creep out of the screen, billowing before suddenly receding into the computer leaving behind a brown animal with long ears, and a device on the desk. The animal had a choppy white mane.
The animal peered curiously around the unfamiliar living room. The door was open, and from down the hall came the faint sound of snoring animals.
The creature jumped down from the desk. The creature approached the sound, it was coming from up the stairs.
The creature tiptoed up, climbing step by step. And came face to face with a great fluffy dog.
The creature's survival instincts kicked in, they ran clean across the room and up another flight of stairs.
They were exhausted. Stumbling, and not cognizant of where they were, they stumbled into a room. Inside, A sleeping boy on something soft. The exhausted fox curled up next to the boy and fell asleep. This would do.
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The following morning, Satoshi woke up feeling groggy from his restless sleep. As he rubbed his tired eyes and slowly sat up, he saw a Eevee curled up beside him. He stared at it in disbelief. This looked like an Eevee, but different, Eevees were never that dark shade of brown, their fur was never choppy, and they were not real.
Satoshi poked it.
All at once, the Eevee came uncurled, "Hey." it said. Extra weird. Neither Pokemon nor real animals could speak.
"What are you doing in my room?" Satoshi asked.
The Eevee tilted his head to the side. "You're right. What am I doing in your room? What in the world is going on?" The Eevee said. The Eevee was looking this way and that, before looking at the closed window.
'Pokemon definitely can't talk'. Satoshi thought. His second thought was 'Are Pokemon real?'. Satoshi gasped, The Eevee had run out of the room. Satoshi scrambled after it. The Eevee, was quick, but it ran into a wall by the stairs to the animals.
"Oh no!" Satoshi gasped. He knelt down and picked up Eevee. Eevee's choppy squarish fur was soft to the touch.
The Eevee's ears perked up at Satoshi's gasp. "Let me go! Let me go!" he demanded.
Satoshi shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. "You can talk," he said. Satoshi's mind was racing. He had so many questions, but the one that came out of his mouth was, "How did you get here?"
The Eevee struggled. "I dunno, I dunno let me go, please!" he said.
Satoshi scratched the struggling Eevee behind the ear.
The Eevee grunted,"... There was a screen, I think it's one of you human's "lectronics"' A screen, an ‘lectronic... that would be the family computer
Eevee had come out of the computer... which meant...
Satoshi ran for the family computer room, through the animal floor. He saw the Pokedex on the desk. "YES!" he pumped his fist into the air. He flipped it open and started pressing all of the buttons.
First, there was a beep, and then a whirring noise, the Pokedex spoke. "Eevee, the evolution Pokemon. It has the ability to alter the composition of its body to suit its surrounding environment."
Satoshi pressed the second button on his Pokedex which caused the device to stop speaking. The Pokedex emitted a sphere of light, which faded into a Pokeball. He tried to capture Eevee by tapping it with the button, but it didn't work.
The third button opened a window on the computer screen. It had a phone logo. Despite feeling scared at first, Satoshi watched as the call answered itself.
"Hello this is Professor Rowan, what's the emergency?" Professor Rowan in all of his Pokemon anime style glory was on the other end. Satoshi's mind reeled as he tried to process what was happening in front of him.
"This can't be real, I must still be dreaming," Satoshi said, his voice tight with disbelief. He squinted at the screen in front of him.
Professor Rowan's brow furrowed. "Can't be real? Is this a prank call?" he asked, his voice hardening with suspicion as he sat up in his seat.
Satoshi shook his head. "No, it's not a prank call. It's just that...I dunno. An Eevee was in my room, I'm not sure if Pokemon real or not. I could be dreaming." he said, his voice trailing off at the end.
There was a moment of silence from Professor Rowan's end. "Hold on a moment, let me get this straight. You had an Eevee in your room, and you're not sure whether Pokemon are real or not?" he asked, his tone incredulous.
Satoshi nodded, even though he knew Professor Rowan couldn't see him. "Yeah I 'woke' up this morning and it was just...there," he said, gesturing to the Eevee in his arms with air quotes.
Eevee yawned. " Stooop it, it's loud!" Eevee sounded frustrated and exasperated. Satoshi adjusted the volume of the PC.
Rowan jumped, clearly spooked by the talking Eevee. "If this caller ID is correct, you're Satoshi, where are you?" Rowan kept his hands together, he was shaking. He didn't mention Eevee.
"Japan, the Shinjuku part." Professor Rowan blinked as if the words meant nothing to him. "You're a Pokemon character so you probably don't know where that is," Satoshi said.
Professor Rowan's eyes widened in shock at the mention of being fictional. "Character? What do you mean?" he asked, panic creeping into his voice. "I assure you, Satoshi, I am quite real."
Satoshi hesitated for a moment before deciding to explain further. "I mean, you're a character in a video game and an anime. I've played your video game, seen your show. You shouldn't be real," he said, Satoshi fished a game cartridge from a drawer. "You see this, this is Palkia." Satoshi said.
Rowan nodded. He couldn't take the existential dread. "Well, If you're not a figment of my failing old mind, call me back later." Satoshi nodded, hoping this wasn't some awfully good dream, and Rowan hung up.
Satoshi waited a few minutes for something to happen, the family clock was ticking, no sudden volcanoes, no teachers appearing out of nowhere and giving him a math test consisting entirely of Digimon attacks.
So, Satoshi concluded, he wasn't dreaming. Satoshi smiled at Eevee. "Well, we're gonna start MY Pokemon journey by showing you around my school!" Satoshi said.
Eevee's head perked up. "School, what's that?" Satoshi grinned at Eevee's response.