Why Is My Pokémon Daughter a Little Strange? Author: Misty Rain Night
"Why did this world seem a little strange...?"
On his first day in this world, Qiao Ran had already realized there was a problem.
He had actually—seen a passing yellow electric mouse on the street.
So this was the Pokémon world?
No, this was not the Pokémon world.
This world was not actually the Pokémon world he remembered. If he had to describe it, it was more like a group of Pokémon had suddenly intruded upon the world he originally came from.
His family, his friends, and his classmates all existed perfectly well in this world.
Section 1: 001 Why Is My Pokémon So Strange?
"Why did this world seem a little strange...?"
On his first day in this world, Qiao Ran had already realized there was a problem.
He had actually—seen a passing yellow electric mouse on the street.
So this was the Pokémon world?
No, this was not the Pokémon world.
This world was not actually the Pokémon world he remembered. If he had to describe it, it was more like a group of Pokémon had suddenly intruded upon the world he originally came from.
His family, his friends, and his classmates all existed perfectly well in this world.
His country, the map of this world, and its original history had not changed much either.
Even he himself was the same as before: a normal high school student who had just entered high school. The only difference was that this world now had many more Pokémon—yes, creatures that should have existed only in games, anime, movies, and fantasies now appeared perfectly well in reality.
There were Pokémon on the streets, Pokémon in the sky... Pokémon everywhere.
"Fine, it's a shame about all the shiny legendary Pokémon in my game boxes... but getting to a world like this still counts as pretty lucky, right?"
Before Qiao Ran had transmigrated, he had happened to be playing a Pokémon game. As a devoted player, he had reset who knew how many times, then traded with game cartridges from his other versions to collect every shiny legendary. Of course, beyond shiny legendaries, he had also collected plenty of shiny Pokémon that were either powerful or good-looking.
Unfortunately, because he had arrived in a new world, all those old friends had vanished.
Qiao Ran only found it regrettable, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Qiao Ran went to the living room and turned on the television. The first thing he heard was all sorts of Pokémon-related news.
"Welcome to today's weather report. Today's weather forecaster is Castform... Oh! It's in Sunny Form! Does that mean tomorrow will be sunny?"
Qiao Ran watched for a while before changing the channel. Though Castform was cute, as a Trainer who cared about both looks and battle strength, Qiao Ran would not pay too much attention to relatively weak Pokémon like that.
If he decided to raise one, he had to devote all his energy to it.
"Pokémon battles are highly complex affairs. All young Trainers are welcome to register at the Longjiang City Gym to learn! The Longjiang Gym's fiftieth anniversary special—registration for the Pokémon elementary-to-middle-school training class is thirty percent off! Original price
, now only 7,777!"
"Elementary-to-middle-school training, my ass." Qiao Ran could not help but complain, then opened the backpack he had placed on the sofa.
Inside were not entirely subjects like Chinese and mathematics. There were also many baffling textbooks such as Pokémon Biology and Pokémon Raising.
Qiao Ran opened one of them.
"Pokémon reproduce by laying eggs with other Pokémon... Yet confusingly, most Pokémon seem to have reproductive isolation from one another. Furthermore, some Pokémon can lay eggs larger than their own bodies. Scientists speculate this phenomenon is related to quantum mechanics... What the hell?"
"There are 424 Pokémon species in total... 424??? Isn't there something wrong with that number? Did they all get snapped?"
After reading a few pages, Qiao Ran could not help lying back on the sofa and rolling his eyes.
Had this world's version of him been studying this strange stuff all along?
And from Qiao Ran's examination of the class schedule, these Pokémon-related subjects were actually more important than Chinese and mathematics. Calling them the true core subjects would not be an exaggeration. Yet much of what was written there was absurdly wrong in the eyes of an experienced player like Qiao Ran.
Especially the number of Pokémon species.
"Xiao Ran, haven't you gone to study yet? If you have time, go play with your Pokémon too. The first-year adventure tournament is in a week. You two still aren't close enough, so you won't qualify to set out on an adventure."
"Okay—"
Qiao Ran's mother poked her head out from the kitchen, where she was cooking, and reminded him.
Qiao Ran responded casually. As for this so-called "adventure tournament," it was actually a class-based Pokémon elimination tournament that would soon be held at his school.
The winners of the elimination tournament could set out on adventures.
Unlike the true Pokémon world, only high school students and above could qualify to adventure alone in this world. And they had to pass the "adventure tournament."
The adventure tournament was held only twice a year, and only the last four standing each time could pass.
As for those who could never make it through, they could only obediently wait until graduating high school before deciding whether to venture out and accumulate real combat experience or continue their studies at university.
"No wonder everyone cares so much about it... If you can pass on your first attempt in freshman year, you'd count as quite a genius, right? After all, only four people in a class can make it."
Qiao Ran patted his cheeks and stood up from the sofa.
At that thought, his fighting spirit burned more fiercely than ever. As an experienced player who had arrived in a world with real Pokémon, of course he had to show what he could do.
He had gone all out in the games, and in a real Pokémon world, he would go all out too.
"I need to work hard!"
Qiao Ran returned to his room, because he remembered that his starter Pokémon—his partner—had always been on the desk in there.
He opened his bedroom door and walked to the desk. Looking at the red-and-white sphere, Qiao Ran's heart began pounding furiously.
What exactly was inside?
Qiao Ran picked up the Poké Ball. It was not especially heavy, making it hard to imagine that it held a living creature.
"Come out! My Pokémon!"
Perhaps because it was his first time doing this, Qiao Ran even shouted it out in an embarrassingly dramatic way.
"Wuuuh—"
A beam of light emerged from the ball and finally condensed before Qiao Ran.
"So cold."
Qiao Ran could clearly feel the temperature in the room dropping as the figure appeared. This one was probably an Ice-type Pokémon.
Yet the next scene made Qiao Ran's eyes widen in utter shock.
Qiao Ran seemed to see the light take on a humanoid form.
"My... Poké... mon????"
And once the light dispersed, what appeared before him... seemed very different from what he had imagined.
"What... the hell?! What... is this??????"
What appeared before Qiao Ran was not some familiar Pokémon figure, but—a girl with long white hair, blue eyes, and six little tails behind her.
"????????"
Qiao Ran's eyes were practically as wide as Psyduck's as he stood there dumbfounded.
The girl opposite him sat on the floor in a duck-sitting pose, gazing at Qiao Ran with innocent, puzzled eyes.
Most importantly, she was not wearing anything at all...
"Pfft."
Qiao Ran covered his mouth. He felt as though his nosebleed was flowing backward.
What the hell was this????
Why was the Pokémon in his ball so strange???
And was this thing really a Pokémon?? If not, why was she inside the ball???
Judging by her fur color and typing, was this Vulpix???
"Xiao Ran, did something happen?"
Qiao Ran's mother called from outside the door. Qiao Ran hurriedly flashed over, scooped up the duck-sitting girl at Quick Attack speed, threw her onto the bed with the posture of an Earth throw, and covered her with a blanket at Extreme Speed.
In moments of crisis, people could always unleash tremendous potential.
"No... no, nothing happened!"
Qiao Ran stared nervously at the door. If his mother came in now, he would be socially dead on the spot.
Why was there a girl like this in his room? Why??
Qiao Ran felt this question was impossible to explain. It was simply an unsolvable knot.
And right at that incredibly tense moment, another voice suddenly sounded inside Qiao Ran's mind.
"Contact with a Pokémon achieved. Ta-da-da! The Pokémon Raising System has been unlocked, Rotom!"
It sounded like a lively electronic female voice, yet Qiao Ran felt as though the voice had begun circling around him.
"Rotom?"
Sure enough, not far from him, the sweating Qiao Ran saw a phone-like object floating in the air.
However, the phone had two large eyes and two tiny arms.
Qiao Ran had seen something similar in the games. Without a doubt, this was an "appliance" possessed by the Ghost-type Pokémon Rotom.
"That's right! I'm Rotom Phone, and you can call me Rotom Phone too!"
Rotom Phone spun excitedly, but it clearly had not noticed that the shouts outside the door were growing louder too.
"Xiao Ran? Xiao Ran? Why is there a woman's voice in your room?? You're not doing something strange in there, are you?"
"...!"
Qiao Ran's expression froze instantly.
Why had things suddenly become so chaotic?
Section 2: 002 Why Can My Pokémon Talk?
"No... there really is nothing! Nothing happened, I was just startled by my Pokémon."
Qiao Ran began explaining.
"But what I heard was a woman..."
"That was me screaming! It's just that my voice sounds a little strange because of puberty. Nothing suspicious!"
Qiao Ran threw caution to the wind. Even if he had to sell his dignity, he would resolve this crisis.
"O-Okay... Well, Xiao Ran, you are a high school student now. You need to take good care of yourself... and don't overdo it..."
Qiao Ran's mother's voice seemed full of hidden meaning, but as he listened to her footsteps gradually recede, Qiao Ran finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew—"
He had not even cleaned up the mess in his room yet. He really could not face anyone.
"So what exactly is going on?"
Qiao Ran looked at the Rotom Phone floating nearby, hoping this sudden uninvited guest could give him some information.
Rotom was a Ghost-type Pokémon capable of possessing appliances. Its very existence was incredibly mysterious.
Then Rotom spoke.
"That's only because the affection between Master and that Pokémon reached the threshold, triggering the system's anthropomorphization ability, Rotom. It was just a coincidence, Rotom. And the affection level has to be above 80 to trigger this ability, which means Master is a very gentle person—"
"And Master, why are you so nervous? Would it be bad if someone found out? Would it be bad? Why did you even get a nosebleed?"
The lively Rotom Phone flew over to the blanket and yanked the bedsheet aside. The girl with icy blue hair lying on the bed... no, the Pokémon, also poked her head out. She curiously fiddled with her own body and even did something as absurd as scratching her face with her leg.
"Ahh... huh?"
She still did not seem to understand the situation, and even her speech was slurred.
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