01 ✦ Video

[mightdoriya]

[It could have all been a dream, given the way Izuku wakes up in a bed that isn't his own. It could also very well be the hospital- a fact that wouldn't have been surprising- but the stark lack of a sterile atmosphere leads him to believe otherwise even as he sits up with a start. His heart is hammering in his chest and between his ears with such ferocity that believing this is anything but reality would be difficult...

He isn't afforded much time to collect himself, because someone has noticed he's awake and immediately lept up onto his chest to greet him, his fluffy tail wagging excitedly.

Okay, maybe this is a dream after all.

Everything happens pretty quickly after that. Your usual fair of arrival: Izuku's "mom" comes in the room upon hearing his Eevee chirp at him, ushering him up-and-at'em even as he's stammering questions and trying (and failing) to get her to give him a straight answer. She is in fact not even remotely his mother but she doesn't seem to know that or care, and before he's able to get a word in edgewise he's out the door with a bag over his shoulders. Eevee had taken advantage of the chaos to climb up Izuku's back, sitting pretty on his shoulder as if he belongs there. So what does Izuku do? Well...

He starts to walk, hoping he'll be able to come into a town and maybe someplace more familiar than the route ahead of him. ...only for a Pineco to drop from a tree and attack both him and his Eevee pretty much immediately. It's a pretty sudden and surprising introduction to Pokemon battling before he's even finished reading up on it, leaving him to find a tree to sit down under for a while before anything else can happen. He has the PokeGear, so let's just try to contact someone. Anyone.]

Hello? I don't know if anyone can hear me on this, but it's worth a try...

[He pauses as Eevee pushes his head into the screen's view, hello he's here too.]

My name is Midoriya Izuku. I'm not sure what's happened, but I'm really not where I'm supposed to be right now. My only guess is this all is due to the effects of a Quirk, but I don't remember anything that could have lead to that.

[Unless Shigaraki had some tricks up his sleeve he really wasn't prepared for. Doesn't explain how his injuries have ceased to exist, either.]

I've been reading the guidebook, but it's really just giving me more questions than answers. Not only that, the pet the lady had in her house where I woke up followed me outside and I can't get it to go back home to her. She won't answer the door now so I'm not really sure what to do about that.

Comments

[ohmylord]

Mostly when he first got here, but he was like that with everybody so I wasn't as bothered once I realized that.

[She shrugs.]

Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Midoriya. Welcome to Johto. Is that an Eevee you've got with you?

[mightdoriya]

[Yep, that tracks for normal Katsuki behavior. At least nothing has changed.

Izuku nods, his Eevee yipping softly in greeting from his shoulder.]

Yeah. He's my starter? That's what everyone keeps calling it.

[ohmylord]

That's the first Pokemon they give you! The rest you have to either catch or befriend on your own. Eevees are really cool pokemon, though, because they can turn into a bunch of different kinds of pokemon later on, all of which look different. Some of my friends are even collecting them.

[mightdoriya]

[Who is "they" he wants to ask, but nobody so far seems to know. That may not be getting an answer for some time, or maybe never.]

Jinx-san did mention earlier they could evolve into a lot of different types...so that isn't a common thing, then?

[ohmylord]

Nope! Most pokemon only have one, maybe two versions of their final evolution, but eevees have eight! There's, um, water, fire, electricity, psychic, dark, ice, grass, and fairy eevees.

[mightdoriya]

[Don't mind his Eevee just looking mildly overwhelmed over there until Izuku gives the side of his face a reassuring scratch.]

That's pretty amazing. I guess that means this little guy here is pretty special.

[To that, of course, Eevee preens a bit. He won't turn down a compliment.]

Did you get an Eevee too?

[ohmylord]

Nope! I got a smeargle! Gimme a sec, I'll go get Ashley so you can see 'em.

[And Claudia will pop off for about twenty seconds and come back with a paintbrush dog.]

Smeargles are pretty cool and special in their own way. They don't actually evolve but they're able to learn basically any pokemon move by copying it--though they can only do that ten times, so you've gotta be careful and plan stuff. But Ashley's really smart and they learned how to transform into other pokemon from a Ditto. Show him, Ashley!

[And then the paintbrush dog turns into another eevee like Izuku's for about five seconds before going back to being a smeargle.]

[mightdoriya]

Wah-!

[Okay, that is not at all what Izuku was expecting to happen, and neither was Eevee apparently with the way he jumps and ducks behind Izuku's curls briefly. He'll return in a moment, peeking his eyes around the edge of his head with his ears canted backwards.]

Wow...that's incredible. Is Smeargle the only Pokemon that can do that? Copying moves, I mean.

[ohmylord]

Copying moves like that, yeah! I think Dittos can when they're transformed, maybe, but I'm not entirely sure because I don't battle much and never with a Ditto. The thing with Dittos is that they're always turning into other pokemon, but that's about all they can do on their own and they're not great at getting the faces right. But if you're like me and you breed pokemon, they're great to have around, because they can turn into the other species of pokemon when it's time to make eggs.

[mightdoriya]

[That's very interesting. If Izuku ends up being here a while, that might be something he tries to study...it sounds a lot like a Quirk he knows and has definitely been tripped up by before.]

Wait- ...eggs? ...huh?

[Izuku looks from Eevee back to the screen.]

[ohmylord]

... I know, I know. It sounds really weird. But most creatures in this world come from eggs. And all Pokemon do. It's just how stuff works here.

I dunno about humans. But everything else.

[mightdoriya]

[Really weird...]

I-I guess I should have expected things not to work the same, since Pokemon are so different from the animals I'm used to, but...it's a little hard for me to wrap my head around...

[ohmylord]

I know, it was really hard for me to get too at first. But it's how things work here.

[mightdoriya]

Yeah...you seem to be pretty used to it all by now yourself.

[He hopes he can reach that point...eventually.]

[ohmylord]

It did take me a while. But I've been here more than half a year. It's funny--I thought I'd be in high school by now and I would have been if I'd stayed home, but instead I'm doing pokemon stuff.

[mightdoriya]

Oh yeah...I can imagine that's probably been weird-

[...]

Wait, is there no school here?

[ohmylord]

There is, but it's not mandatory once you turn ten. So there's not as many middle schools and high schools as there are elementary schools?

I was never any good at school, so when I had the option to skip it here, I did. There's a lot of things people here can do with just a middle school education.

[mightdoriya]

["It's not mandatory once you turn ten"

It's clear by Izuku's expression alone that he 1) can't comprehend that being a thing and 2) doesn't think it's right

But this is Pokemon world so there's not much he can do about that...for now.]

I see...I hope that hasn't deterred you from learning entirely, at least. There's still a lot about this world to discover I think, even if you're not getting an official education for it.

[ohmylord]

Well no, but now I can just learn about the things I care about and not dumb stuff that I'll never use, like Algebra.