The Dark World of Pokemon Chapter 1

I don't want to die. That's all I seem to be able to think in my final moments.

The toxic gas around me seeped through my cracked gas mask and turned the once clean air that would be safe for me to breathe in into foul poison that would soon fill my lungs and cause me to suffocate to death. If the flames don't do the job that is.

I couldn't feel my legs from under the pile of debris that fell on top of my body, and presumably crushed my legs, and with my cracked gas mask it was only a matter of time until the fumes and smoke from the fire kills me.

My name is Asher, I am a firefighter, I've been doing this job for only a few years yet it somehow feels like I've been on the job for decades. Most would think of someone tall, charming and handsome when they think of the people who take up my occupation, and that might be true to an extent, but me? No.

I am short, not even five foot five, I have horrible social skills and my face likely would be handsome if it weren't covered in scars. My parents are at fault for that, and arguably my short stature. And my social skills.

But back to the topic at hand you might be wondering why I'm stuck under a chunk of rubble surrounded by flames and burnt wood that caused poisonous smoke to cloud the room. Me and my fellow firefighters were called to help save the people inside this burning down building, the fire was so bad that many of my colleagues simply refused to put themselves in so much danger for the sake of other. I chose to be different.

It was just me and my friend Max, a family of five was trapped in one of the top floors of the apartment building and we were the only ones who decided to try and save them, Max and me managed to guide them outside of their apartment however the daughter of the family was in the direct path of falling piece of debris. So I saved her, didn't turn out too well for me though.

I really don't know why I did it. My body just... moved by itself and I was rooted the the floor with my legs crushed. The pain was immense at first however, for whatever reason, it began to numb after after a while. Max wanted to save me, I might not be a doctor but even I knew that I was just gonna bleed out even if he managed to get me out. I'm a goner, and even if I wasn't who'd want to spend the rest of their lives as a cripple?

Overall... I was unsatisfied. I was in the prime of my life, I wasn't even twenty five yet! I just don't want to die!

My senses all dulled at once and even thinking became a taxing ability. Personally I welcomed it, the pain of feeling your own crushed pegs was a burden that I hated carrying and having that relieved was a big weight off my shoulders.

Was this what death felt like? It was... not really anything special. The world seemed to get dimmer and dimmer as time went on and my senses all seemed to leave me. The sound of the growing flames faded and so did the crumbling ceiling fade from my sight, which left me alone in a blank headspace.

The experience of death is so alien that it simply existing in such a state was was foreign and I should have been terrified.
Instead I was completely calm.

Death wasn't good or bad it was just that. Death. My senses were loose and nonexistent to the point that as soon as any thoughts would managed to form in my head they would slip out from my grasp like rain water.

I was a bit disappointed at how fast my life had ended. It was hard, miserable and very lonely but that didn't mean that it had to be forever! I might have lost a lot but I had the potential to gain it all back and then some and for that I never wanted to die. Not even once.

I wanted to live more than anything. I couldn't stay there. I couldn't sit still.

I couldn't stay dead. More than anything I wanted to live again.

A blinding light pierced the darkness and usurped me away from the serenity of death as my ability to think was reclaimed and I would have become confused however whatever this was didn't give me so much as an instant to be surprised as a tunnel of light and rainbows flashed in my vision.

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Huh, this is weird.

My muscles all feel extremely lax and drowsy, as though I hadn't woken up in in years, with just opening my eyes being extremely taxing on what little energy I could muster in my half asleep state. I managed to fully open my blurry eyes with extreme difficulty and used all the minimal mental strength that I could muster to shift my muscles around however the effect was not as much as desired and so instead of wasting my energy on my sense of sight I chose to focus on my sense of hearing to get a reading on my surroundings and get a fucking grip on what's going on.

I was supposed to be dead, my life was meant to be over, I should be floating around in... wait what was death like again? I vaguely remember... nothing. Literally nothing, I was floating around in an endless void of nothing.

I didn't know how to feel about the knowledge that after death was just... that. I suppose it could be worst, I certainly don't recall anything unpleasant, though the same could be said for the opposite, however it's disappointing that there isn't really a heaven or hell just... nothing but peace.

It's clean at least. I'll give the universe that.

After several minutes of allowing my body to wake up I once again tried to wake up and surprisingly succeeded in forcing my body to budge and shift from a sleeping position to a sitting position, with me dragging along the cover that was draped over me like a blanket along with me.

However just that act alone was enough to make my low amounts of energy drop and dwindle into nearly nothing as I dragged my... that's not what my hand looks like.

Taking my palm away from my face and looking at it I could clearly see that my scars were... different. They were still there but had weirdly changed properties, instead of my usual shiny white, that revealed tiny red dots under light, my skins texture was mixed in with a series of light pink trails that resembled cracks and tracing my fingers over the lines instead of the usual bumps that a scar would leave, my skin felt smooth and arguably completely unblemished, if you ignore the lines of pink that contrasted with fair white along my hands that were, definitely not coincidentally, in the same locations as my previous scars.

This was a strange development but not entirely unwelcome. I was never insecure or ashamed of my scars, if anything I was proud of them, given that they represent the challenges and hardships I've had to overcome, however this new change was a welcome development.

I was clearly sleeping on a bed, the only question is, where precisely-

"Ah, good your awake."

With my extremely low amounts of energy I couldn't even muster up the power to be surprised at the female voice which called out to me in my half awake state.

Looking the voices way, with my vision finally steady, I found someone who very clearly looked like a bespectacled young girl who couldn't be older than maybe sixteen with honest to god mint green hair and seemed to be extremely tired, if the eyebags that layed under her sockets were any indication, and carried a clipboard that she was filling in upon entering this room.

In contrast to her tired appearance she immediately put on a cheery attitude when she saw that I was awake." Hey good morning, how are you doing Mr pink face?"

Mr Pink face? 

"I don't mean to be rude Mrs but can you tell me where exactly I am?" I speak and I'm somewhat disturbed by how my voice sounds. It's both dry and raspy, as though I haven't had much water for a really long time.

This unknown nurse responded to my concerns by giving away our location." Your in the Pewter City hospital, anyway I still haven't gotten your name yet."

The word Pewter City made alarms go off in my head however I ignored the fact that she said the name of a City from a video game and merely responded.

"Asher, what's yours?" I might not be the most polite of folks but I do have my manners and she seems nice enough.

Her smile seemed to widen for some reason and she immediately walked over to my bedside and sat just a little too close to me for her to be considered giving me my personal space. Not that I minded, I've never been a stickler for those kind of things.

"I'm Ray, it's really nice to meet you, I've just gotta ask a few questions about who you are, is that alright?" 

She seems really excited just to talk to me, is that just me having terrible social skills or is this girl just genuinely happy to simply talk to anyone? 

I just nodded, with my body lacking the energy to do anything more than a slight up and down motion that many people would likely miss.

"Alright then, so what region are you from?"

Region? Doesn't she mean country? Seriously this isn't pokemon game.

"What do you mean by region?" 

At my question she pulled a slight head tilt that was honestly kind of adorable before responding." Well I mean where your from, Kanto? Johto? Hoenn? It's not really a difficult question."

Is she really messing with me? 

Looking at her face I could see that she fidm't seem to be messing with me. 

Well I was reborn again so- oh. Oooooh. 

Well this is just kind of cliche isn't it? I mean seriously? A guy being reborn in a fictional world after he died in his first life? What is this some shitty isekai anime or self insert fanfic?

So I'm in the pokemon universe? All in all it could be a whole lot worst, I could have been put into Tokyo Ghoul or, god forbid, Attack on Titan- oh wait they have giant pokemon in Galar. Shit.

Is Dynamax exclusive to Galar?! I think it is but I'm not too sure.

Now what should I answer? If I say that I'm from Kanto that could seriously backfire, if for example they have records in place about every citizen in the region and when they were born and I say I'm from for example Viridian City and they come up empty then I'd be under suspicion. I can play it out a couple of ways, first I could claim that I am indeed from this region and hope that they don't have a system in place to identify people, it could work since I have no idea how this society works, how advanced it is and whether or not they're smart enough to have something like that in place-

Or I could do this.

I intentionally rubbed my head a little to look as though I were thinking really hard but in the end, after a few moments I just looked up at her and said." I don't remember."

The mint haired girl, Ray, looked at me as though I'd just said the earth was flat.

"You don't remember the region you're from?"

I couldn't shake my head at the question, due to a lack of energy, so I just spoke another statement as dots appeared in my vision.

I leaned sideways slightly and fell with my head landing on a rather soft pillow." Can't... remember... anything."

My thoughts ceased to appear as the last thing I saw before my world was completely blocked out by stars was a door opening.