This Is Definitely Pokémon

Elle pulled out a familiar object from under her skirt and showed it to Gabriel.

A Poké Ball! It was definitely a Poké Ball!

As expected, Elle pressed the button at the center of the ball. The previously thumb-sized Poké Ball expanded to the size of a fist. With a crisp sound, a flash of light burst forth, landing on the ground nearby. From the light emerged a black Pokémon.

"Wow, it's a Garchomp! So cool!"

Before Elle could react, the excited Gabriel had already leapt onto Garchomp's wing. The newly-released Garchomp, caught off guard, glared at Gabriel menacingly.

┗|｀O′|┛ "Grrr~~" (Kid, what do you think you're doing?)

Huh? What was going on? How could Gabriel understand what Garchomp was saying? Did he just unlock some kind of golden finger ability?

"Garchomp, quiet down! This is our young master," Elle commanded.

Though surprised at his newfound ability to understand Garchomp, Gabriel immediately stepped in to defend the Pokémon.

"It's okay, Elle. I was just playing with Garchomp."

Hearing Elle's scolding, the mighty pseudo-legendary Pokémon actually shivered. Noticing Gabriel standing up for it, Garchomp quickly grinned and hugged Gabriel.

"Grroow! Grr!" (Of course, of course! How could I ever bully the young master?)

With Gabriel and Garchomp putting on such a convincing act, Elle dismissed her doubts. It seemed her Pokémon and the young master were getting along just fine.

However, Gabriel, now nestled in Garchomp's arms, couldn't help but feel unsettled.

He could really understand Garchomp's words! It was unbelievable that such deferential words came out of the mouth of a pseudo-legendary like Garchomp!

But why was he focusing on that? Shouldn't he be more surprised that he could understand Pokémon at all?

According to the Pokémon world's established lore, humans and Pokémon couldn't communicate directly. This was part of the original Pokémon canon—though, of course, later "retconned" by the creators, since how could a trainer truly connect with their Pokémon if they didn't understand them?

Even so, the ability for trainers to understand their Pokémon typically came from spending a lot of time together, like how someone might understand their pet cat's needs from its meows. True direct communication, however, was rare—unless the trainer possessed psychic powers like telepathy.

Could he really have some sort of psychic power?

After all, as a transmigrator, having no special ability would just be embarrassing. Now it seemed he'd finally found his golden finger!

Excited as he was, Gabriel couldn't take his eyes off Garchomp. But Elle soon recalled the Pokémon.

"Monsters like these are dangerous. They're usually only released during battles, so it's better not to let Garchomp stay out too long," Elle explained.

Garchomp was truly impressive—far superior to his Dratini. But as his first Pokémon, Gabriel still cherished it. Having one was better than none!

"Elle, when do you think my Pokémon egg will hatch? I can't wait any longer!"

"Young master, that's not a Pokémon egg—it's a monster egg," Elle corrected him with a sigh.

But the excited Gabriel clearly wasn't paying attention.

Fine, she thought. Whatever the young master wants to call it.

Elle sighed again, taking the egg from Gabriel's hands.

"The villa has an incubator. With its help, the monster egg should hatch faster. But I can't say for sure how long it'll take."

An incubator? That would make things much easier!

"Then use it now! I really want to know what my Pokémon will turn out to be!"

Though Gabriel avoided mentioning Pokémon in front of his parents for fear of being misunderstood, he felt no such restraint with Elle.

Unable to argue, Elle could only watch helplessly as the young master carried on.

Pokémon… What does that even mean? she wondered.

After Elle placed the egg in the incubator, Gabriel finally had some free time to learn more about this world.

He went to the villa's library to look up relevant materials.

As it turned out, this world did have Pokémon. However, since there was no Pokémon League, the relationship between humans and Pokémon was still largely adversarial. People referred to Pokémon as "monsters," and those who trained them for battle were known as "Monster Trainers."

From his research, Gabriel concluded that this was indeed a Pokémon world, but more like a parallel universe with significant differences from the original Pokémon canon.

Oh well, he thought. Just being a trainer was enough to make him happy. What more could he ask for?

Besides learning about this world, Gabriel also delved into special abilities.

In the Pokémon world, humans with psychic powers weren't unheard of. The most memorable example was Sabrina, the Saffron City Gym Leader. In addition to being a powerful trainer, she was a formidable psychic who could defeat weaker Pokémon using just her abilities.

Naturally, Gabriel's first thought upon realizing he could understand Pokémon was that he might have psychic powers. But after extensive research, he ruled it out.

It seemed his ability was limited to understanding Pokémon's speech. No telekinesis, no bending spoons—not even close.

Oh well. He didn't need psychic powers to become an outstanding trainer. Psychic abilities were just tools on the path to becoming a Champion. Even without them, he could achieve greatness!

In this world, Champions existed too. Although there was no Pokémon League to unite the regions, individual nations still held competitions to crown their strongest Monster Trainers. The country Gabriel was in was called the Eastern Empire, a nation that felt both familiar and dear to him.

No wonder everyone here spoke Mandarin—they were all his people! Good thing he hadn't transmigrated to another country; with his language skills, he'd have been mute for years.

The Eastern Empire had produced four Champions so far, each crowned through a tournament akin to the Pokémon League. Each Champion was the strongest in their region, an inspiration to all Monster Trainers—including Gabriel.

A trainer who doesn't aspire to be Champion isn't a good trainer, Gabriel thought. His first goal? Win this year's championship!

-----------------

Join my Patreon for more advanced chapters: patreon.com / Enelym