(Third Person POV)
Kaori is just standing alone in his mind or dream, or whatever you wanna call this place. He just contemplated the influx of memories that were literally just shown to him with deep thoughts.
He didn't really disliked the starting ones, and as more and more of his life came to life, a single question came to his mind. "Did I really took the right choice by taking this guy's body?" Kaori questioned himself.
One thing was reincarnation, being reborn as a new being in another world, no stealing, no problems, nothing to worry about at all. But Kaori just realized that he didn't did that, he stole someone else's body.
"You didn't steal anything." A voice was heard behind Kaori.
He looked back and saw…himself? But unlike himself he was glowing in a hue of white light.
"W-what?!" Kaori asked baffled at the apparition in front of him.
"Sup' nice to 'meet' you." The other Kaori, who we'll refer to as P-Kaori, greeted.
"Who…who are you?" Kaori.
"I mean…I thought it was pretty clear who I am, you JUST saw my entire life like 2 minutes ago." P-Kaori answered.
"Oh…you're the Kaori of the Pokemon world, P-Kaori for short." Kaori connected the dots.
"A tad dumb the nickname but who am I to judge? Yeah, I'm the Kaori that was born and raised in the Star Region and whose body you're currently inhabiting, again, pleasure to meet you." P-Kaori.
"Are you going to curse me and haunt me for stealing your body?" Kaori asked with a hint of fear.
"What? No! Who do you take me for, that Evil King of Pokélantis that possessed Ash's body in the episode Battling the Enemy Within!, Japanese tittle: Battle Pyramid! VS Regirock!!, episode 177th of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, and the 455th episode of the Pokémon animated series?" P-Kaori questioned in an offended tone.
"Wait! How do you know that? That's from my..." Kaori.
"Your old world? Yeah, I've been inside your head for a good chunk of time, if I couldn't see much so I decided to browse the memories you have." P-Kaori.
"O-okay…if you're not here to be an inner demon or something like that, not that I'm complaining, what are you doing here?" Kaori asked his counterpart.
"I guess Wexof never told you, huh?" P-Kaori said amused.
"Tell me what?" Kaori.
"We're the same, two sides of the same coin. The one who loved Pokemon like fictional creatures and the one who loved them like family by knowing them throughout my life. We're exactly the same down to the very…last...detail..." P-Kaori pointed at his chest as he finished talking.
It took less than a second for Kaori to realize what his counterpart meant...his heart disease.
"So…when you cried yourself to sleep...you actually..." Kaori.
"Died, yes...the pain was so unbearable I couldn't help but to cry my eyes out, the only thing sadder than that was the fact that I would leave everything behind…" P-Kaori commented.
There was a silence in the space for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry for your loss." Kaori said.
"It's alright, I knew it was a matter of time before that happened, since I got the exam by myself no one else knows that I was fated to die." P-Kaori.
"Does this mean that Wexof planned for this?" Kaori.
"Honestly? I couldn't care less, my body's alive and the one piloting it is just a me that's a tad different. I just came here to tell you that you shouldn't mortify yourself for what happened to me, ok?" P-Kaori.
"But---" Kaori was cut off.
"No buts, ifs, or anything around that Mr. Bleeding heart. Look, I get it, you're kind and you never want to hurt those around you, which is the same as me, but you can't feel guilty by things that were literally out of your control." P-Kaori.
"Still…this entire thing feels kinda wrong now." Kaori admitted.
P-Kaori just smiled at his other self's antics and softened his gaze. "Then, how 'bout this? Just take my hand." P-Kaori extended his hand at Kaori.
"Why?" Kaori questioned.
"Just 'cause." P-Kaori smiled gently.
Kaori nodded and grabbed firmly his double's hand.
*SHING*
As they shook hands, P-Kaori's body started to disintegrate in several light particles.
"What the!" Kaori.
"I'll give you everything I have, so I want you to live just as well." P-Kaori said as his body disappeared.
Kaori couldn't help but to ask. "But why?"
"I lived my whole life surrounded by caring people, fun friends and the Pokemon we both love and cherish, you couldn't and when you entered that hospital room your entire life was over, I'm just making things even now." P-Kaori.
"I wish there could've been a better solution." Kaori commented in regret.
"It doesn't really matter, you are me and I am you. As One. No matter what I know you'll take the correct choices when it matters the most, don't doubt yourself." P-Kaori.
"Any last wish, even though you're giving me your thoughts and memories?" Kaori asked with a tear in his eye.
P-Kaori just snickered before responding. "I'd like to surf in the sky, as impossible as that would be." P-Kaori smiled happily as he answered Kaori.
*SHWOOSH*
With one final bolt of light...…Kaori became whole again.
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It was a nice morning on Pallet Town, the Pidgeys chirped, the Rattatas munched at their berries, and the sun shone brightly upon all of it.
Kaori woke up with his eyes in tears as he got up and brushed them away, he felt…odd...but not in a bad way. His conscience felt lighter about who he is and what he wanted to be, for the sake of himself and the him of this world he won't doubt himself any longer.
"Alright…let's do this!" Kaori said to himself before preparing himself for the day.
He jumped off bed and picked up his bag from the floor and decided to lay all the objects inside to organize them later. However, for some reason, there was a small box at the end of bag with a small note attached to it.
[Sorry for the missed lore, enjoy this for the tunes. -The Greatest in the world: Wexof.]
As soon as he read the letter, it dissipated, leaving Kaori with the black box. He opened it and found a small mp3 with headphones filled to the brim with several Pokemon songs, both official, fanmade and even some that a youtuber (whom I can't name lest Web novel axe me) makes.
Kaori smiled at it before a thought crossed his mind.
'Wait…how am I supposed to charge this?' Kaori.
(Three Months Later)
It's been three months, sorry for the redundancy, since Kaori arrived to this world and more importantly, he started working as an intern in Prof Oak's lab. You see, Kaori ONLY STUDIED Pokemon, and their correlated things.
So other than just a few theoretical knowledge he doesn't really KNOWS how to do any of that. Like, he knows how a Pokedex works, he DOESN'T know how to make one, there's a clear distinction between these two so that you understand why work at all.
Also money.
Yeah, in the Pokemon world is ILLEGAL to have unpaid interns. It's an actual international law, more about laws later on.
Anyway, yeah, Kaori had to learn from zero how to cook, clean, share some of his personal notes he gathered throughout his time in the library and more complicated, put into practice what he's been studying. You see, just because he's been chugging info about Pokemon nonstop for a whole year, doesn't mean what he studied is the default norm.
Pokemon are living beings, and like toddlers, they sometimes do stuff for no reason other than make your life a tad harder. For example, he had to brush a Growlithe's hair, but the little pup wouldn't stay still no matter how many time Kaori would try to calm him down with the "tricks" he learned studying.
In all fairness they're not at all useless, but there's cases in which they just don't work, like using tiple A batteries when you need double A's, or something like that.
Where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, what he's been doing.
Well, Kaori's been mostly running errands here and there, cleaning after Pokemon and feeding them, cleaning the lab and the rooms, except Oak's at his request, you know, normal intern things.
Oh, but there's been something that qualifies as 'extra credit'.
"Poli, Bubble Beam!" Red commanded his Poliwhirl.
He's currently battling Kaori with a borrowed Rattata while Blue acts as the Ref and Ash and Gary watch.
"Use Quick Attack to avoid it." Kaori.
Rattata swiftly ran away from the attack and even managed to tackle the blue Pokemon.
"Double Slap!" Red.
Poli's hands glowed white before he lunged at Rattata.
"Dig." Kaori.
Rattata immediately dug himself downwards, avoiding Poli's attack. Poli looked around for Rattata, but to no avail, he was deep underground.
"Don't lose focus Poli, wait for him to come out." Red.
Poli nods as he focuses on the ground.
"Rock Smash!" Kaori.
*BOOM*
From underneath, rocks were pushed towards Poliwhirl, startling him and Red.
"Counter with Ice Beam!" Red.
Poli started shooting Ice Beam over and over again in order to freeze everything, the rocks and the ground froze under his feet as he felt tired and stopped attacking.
"Alright Poli!" Red cheered on.
"You managed to make him learn Ice Beam…commendable. However, my young Padawan, you still haven't achieved what you wanted." Kaori.
"What do you mean?" Red didn't get what Kaori was saying, Rattata was-
"Finish things with a Headbutt!" Kaori triumphantly called the move.
Rattata emerged from the ground and lunged at Puli's back, delivering a STAB 70 Power Headbutt to him. Red gasped in surprise as Poli fell with swirls in his eyes.
Blue raised his hand and announced. "Poliwhirl can no longer battle, the winner is Kaori…again." Blue.
"Yeah! Great job Rattata!" Kaori went to congratulate Rattata.
Rattata smiled back and dashed towards Kaori, before suddenly stopping. "Rat! Ta?" Rattata started glowing.
His small body started to grow in size, his whiskers strand became three instead of one, his back paws grew larger than his frontal ones as they got sharper, his under fangs also grew up to the same size its upper fangs as the set grew larger, his purple tail lost its curled shape as it became a hairless long semi-sharp tail, finally, the purple fur around its body changed into a brown orange one.
Rattata had evolved into Raticate.
"Rat-Raticate!" Raticate squeaked happily as he snuzzled with Kaori's pants.
"Great job Raticate! I knew you could do it!" Kaori started showering Raticate with affection as this one enjoyed every single moment of it.
"With this one how many have evolved under Kaori?" Gary asked his brother.
"Including this one? Thirty six. Hard to imagine when he's just been here a few months." Blue.
"Bro, 3 months are quite a lot of time." Gary.
"No fair! I also want to fight Kaori in a battle!" Ash complained.
"Don't be a sore loser Ash, we all agreed that Kaori would just battle one of us every 2 days and the one who will battle will be decided with sticks." Blue.
This was something Kaori came up with since the group of friends would constantly try to make him battle them, even though only Red has a personal Pokemon and the rest had to use borrowed ones.
This whole thing happened when Kaori was taking care of the Kanto Starters and was attacked by a wild Fearow trying to feast on the easy prey, Kaori easily battled with the Starters and defeated him with a combination of Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Ember, Smokescreen, Rapid Spin and Water Gun, plus a newly learned Dragon Rage from Charmander.
Ever since then, Oak noticed Kaori's potential as a trainer and gave him the side-job of training and battling with some of the Pokemon of other trainers, which Oak requested their permission beforehand.
Ever since then its been a rollercoaster for Kaori, it was as if he was one of those guys in the Pokemon Day Care. He'd train the borrowed mons and then he'd be thanked by various trainers.
Like for example, last week someone thanked him for teaching his Spearow Steel Wing, imagine his surprise when he defeated a hiker's Graveler with that move. Or more recently 3 days ago when trained a Horsea evolve into Seadra, the trainer was this close to giving up due to how much he failed to help his Pokemon evolve.
Of course that means that some shitty trainers are getting upgrades even though they don't deserve it but Kaori is taking all this as a learning experience for when he finally starts his journey.
When will he start you ask? When the others do, after all, with such talented bunch (and Gary), the Leage will be at least 100 times more awesome to compete.
Oh, on a lower note, April passed and Kaori turned 13.
Gary took out a small notebook with their tracked victories. "With this the scoreboard goes:
Kaori 15, Red 0.
Kaori 14, Blue 0.
Kaori 15, Gary 0.
Kaori 17, Ash -0.
Yep, no one's beaten Kaori yet." Gary.
"Question, why does Ash has a negative cero as his score?" Kaori asked.
"Because if there's anyone here that could, and will, never beat you is him." Gary said with his trademarked sarcasm.
"What's that supposed to mean Gary?!" Ash questioned in anger.
"What? I'm just saying the truth~" Gary teased further.
"Why you…" Ash used Punch on the annoying Gary.
Gary has the ability Run Away and started escaping from the Taunted Ash.
The remaining three just watch the scene with a mix of tiredness and boredom as this happens at least once per week, all while Kaori fed Poli a Revive.
"It always amazes me how childish they can be." Blue commented.
"Why does Gary pick on Ash anyway? I mean, sure he's not as good as us battling but…you know." Red.
"Every time we battle Kaori we last over 10 minutes battling, Ash gets defeated before the minute." Blue.
"True..." Red commented, not really sure how to answer to that.
Kaori finished healing Poli and looked at the young trainers.
"Ash will find his own way, no matter how long it'll take." Kaori.
Blue looked skeptical but Red immediately nodded, as if he meant to say that.
Before long, Prof Oak opened the slide door and called out for Kaori.
"Kaori, it's time. The Egg is hatching!!" Oak announced excitedly.