Time Travel

Team Rocket Johto Special Training Facility.

Inside a closed gymnasium.

Heiduro stood among hundreds of people in a neat square formation, feeling somewhat out of place in his heart.

He couldn't imagine for the life of him that he would have a day of time travel, and that he would actually travel into the world of Pokémon.

What made it even harder for him to accept was that he had somehow turned into a Team Rocket grunt.

And a reserve new member of the Johto branch at that.

His knowledge of the Pokémon world could be said to be very little; his biggest childhood memory of it was the forever-ageless boy—"Foolish Ash" Ash, along with a Pokémon Adventures manga serialized in a comic magazine called Longman Youth Sunday.

As for his most recent impression, it was the game [Pokémon Let's Go] seen on various live-streaming platforms.

This game could be said to have been popular for a long time, and its presence could be seen on the homepage of almost every platform.

Heiduro had also had his interest piqued, but unfortunately, conditions did not permit it; he didn't even have the money to change his phone, so how could he buy a Switch and games costing hundreds of yuan?

Therefore, Heiduro actually didn't understand this world all that much.

He was neither a gamer nor an anime fan; at most, he was just a casual viewer.

He had watched the anime here and there, and played modified and pirated versions of the games, and after the 3DS era, he had never played again. The only thing he had read completely was the Pokémon Adventures manga.

However, why did the heavens have to tease him like this, letting him travel into the world of Pokémon and become a member of the villainous Team Rocket?

Just as he was wearing a troubled expression, a sturdy, bearded man standing at the very front of the square formation spoke up: "After two weeks of basic training, you all must have a certain understanding of us... Here, I announce one thing—congratulations to all of you for passing our trust test. The current you have already gained Team Rocket's trust and are our official members!"

As soon as his voice fell, thunderous applause erupted in the venue. Heiduro glanced around; the people beside him basically had fanatical expressions and excited spirits.

Heiduro secretly clicked his tongue in wonder—were the people in the Pokémon world all so naive?

The so-called two-week training he had also attended was actually just a commonplace brainwashing and cramming-style knowledge storm. Someone who had experienced all kinds of health products and walking shoes in his past life would have long been unfazed by it.

He didn't expect these guys to actually take it in; surely they didn't treat it as a spiritual belief, did they?

Tsk tsk tsk, terrifying, terrifying.

Thinking of this, Heiduro's hands began to clap. He was currently in a den of thieves and didn't dare to stand out.

Otherwise, that burly man—the Team Rocket squad leader—could strangle him to death with one hand!

Thus, amid the continuous applause, the big man pressed his hands downward, nodded in satisfaction, and said, "I'm a person who dislikes nonsense. Since everyone is now a member of us, let's get straight to the point!"

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and someone on the side pushed over a three-tier small cart.

On the small cart were Poké Balls neatly stacked up.

Heiduro's interest was piqued.

To be honest, having arrived in this world for almost a week, besides various image materials, he had truly seen very few small Pokémon.

"Everyone, come up in order to claim your own Pokémon and blank Poké Ball. This is the sincerity given to you by Team Rocket, and I hope you can all work together with us to create a beautiful homeland!" The squad leader smiled slightly. With his full face of flesh, his smile looked exceptionally terrifying. Holding a piece of white paper in his hand, he began to call out numbers one by one.

What the hell a beautiful homeland.

Heiduro rolled his eyes. Team Rocket was never considered a good organization, and just the act of snatching other people's Pokémon alone was wicked enough.

What difference was there from dog thieves?

However, getting a free Pokémon was a good thing; it would be foolish not to take it.

Before long, the squad leader called Heiduro. Heiduro stepped forward, outwardly putting on a fanatical expression. After taking the Poké Ball and blank Poké Ball, he even gave the squad leader a salute with the look of a die-hard loyalist.

...Actually, he didn't know how to act, but following the pattern was quite simple.

Returning to the square formation, Heiduro stood obediently, his right hand rubbing the Poké Ball that contained a Pokémon inside.

"I won't say any more nonsense! For the next ten days, your task is to get along well with the Pokémon in your hands! Ten days from now, I will come to inspect your results. Dismissed! You have two hours to tame the Pokémon here! Two hours later, return to the dorms for free time!"

The squad leader really didn't talk much nonsense; having made things clear, he turned and left on his own.

As soon as he left, the few Team Rocket grunts who had distributed the Poké Balls also left, leaving immediately just the newly promoted members in the venue.

They began to whisper to each other.

"Heiduro! What kind of Pokémon did you get?"

A boy with light purple short hair approached Heiduro, holding a Poké Ball, tossing it, catching it, tossing it, and catching it.

This was Yujiro, whom Heiduro had gotten to know during the first five days of training. Their relationship was lukewarm, barely making them acquaintances.

"I don't know!" Heiduro was stunned for a moment, then picked up the Poké Ball to examine it closely.

Sure enough, a string of strange characters was carved on the red-topped, white-bottomed Poké Ball. It was neither Chinese nor English, but Heiduro could understand its meaning.

[Ekans]

It was marked like this on top.

Wasn't this Jessie's Pokémon! Ken instantly recalled that poor villain whose hair looked like it was set with an entire bottle of hairspray—the true protagonist.

"Oh, it's an Ekans, I just saw it. What about yours?" Kurozawa looked at the Poké Ball in Yujiro's hand.

Yujiro gave a heh-heh chuckle and pressed his thumb against the circular button in the middle of the Poké Ball.

Bang!

A flash of light revealed a blue balloon with a dazed expression and grey mist leaking from the holes on its body.

It had a white cross and circle painted on its chest. Seeing Yujiro and the Poké Ball in his hand, its expression changed.

A puff of dust sprayed into Yujiro's face.

Cough, cough, cough!

Caught off guard, Yujiro started coughing.

Kurozawa walked off to the side. Why on earth was this guy casually letting out a Pokémon? Did he think he was the chosen one and the Pokémon would just bow and surrender?

Although Team Rocket wouldn't hand out anything extremely vicious, when a Pokémon wasn't captured by the trainer himself, it took time to communicate and build rapport.

As he retreated, Kurozawa was surprised to find that there were plenty of hotheaded fools like Yujiro who rashly released the Pokémon inside their Poké Balls, yet had absolutely no idea what to do afterward.

For a moment, the gymnasium was chaotic and extremely noisy. Most of the people who had released their Pokémon were at a complete loss and had no idea how they should handle the situation. They chased after their Pokémon in a frantic panic, and some even grabbed the wrong ones due to the species being identical, getting into massive brawls over a single monster.

Kurozawa retreated to a corner, looking on coldly from the sidelines.

He glanced roughly at all the Pokémon released on the field. There were roughly seven or eight different kinds in total.

A grumpy little bird covered in mottled fur and with fiery red wings: Spearow.

A thick, robust python with deep purple skin and a rattle-like appearance: Ekans.

Koffing, spewing poisonous gas everywhere.

A giant-fanged rat with light purple fur: Rattata.

A pig-nosed monkey with white fur and limbs growing straight out of its head: Mankey.

Large chunks of rock with human faces and hands: Geodude.

Blue bats with no eyes, cavernous mouths, and two sharp fangs: Zubat.

Why were they all Kanto Pokémon?

Well, it didn't matter. Since there were blank Poké Balls, it meant the squad leader had granted them the authority to catch wild Pokémon.

If he wanted Johto Pokémon, he could just go catch them himself.

The only pity was that the Pokémon Kurozawa received wasn't a Zubat. Among these seven types of Pokémon, in terms of growth potential—meaning base stat totals—the Zubat line, which featured a three-stage Evolution, definitely ranked first, followed probably by Geodude.

Beyond that, Kurozawa wasn't quite sure. After all, he wasn't a veteran player, but he felt the others should be roughly similar.

Right, what was that famous saying in the Pokémon community again?

There are only bad trainers, no bad Pokémon.

He hoped reality was the same.

Kurozawa leaned against the wall, his thoughts in disarray.

A figure approached Kurozawa and stopped beside him.

Kurozawa turned his head and discovered it was a silver-haired girl wearing a black beret with a cold and stunning appearance. He was shocked.

Of course, the reason for his shock wasn't the girl's beauty, but rather that on her shoulder, he spotted a Zubat acting all coy and affectionate.

He really hadn't expected that Pokémon could make such human expressions. There were simps in the Pokémon world too; just look at that Zubat acting all slutty—it was exactly the same as one of his friends, cut from the exact same mold!

"What are you... looking at?"

The silver-haired girl frowned and reached out to stroke the Zubat's belly.

The Zubat immediately put on an expression of pure bliss, and that wretched, obnoxious look gave Kurozawa a wave of chills.

Kurozawa shook his head and said, "Nothing."

If an Ekans had a personality similar to this guy's, Kurozawa imagined he would have a massive headache.

"Oh!" The silver-haired girl leaned against the wall.

Kurozawa couldn't stand the sight of that Zubat and intended to leave.

The silver-haired girl called out to him, "Wait a minute, Kurozawa!"

This girl actually called out Kurozawa's name right off the bat, and she even got it right. People who didn't know him usually called him Kurozawa.

Kurozawa stopped in his tracks, perplexed. "Do we know each other?"

He had no memories of the past five days, but during these five days, he and this silver-haired girl definitely hadn't crossed paths. In fact, he barely had any contact with the people around him; there were only two or three whose names he could actually recall.

Upon hearing this, the silver-haired girl reached her hand out to Kurozawa and said, "Hello, my name is Serea."

That name!

Kurozawa extended his hand and shook Serea's fingertips. She was most likely not from Johto; she probably came from Hoenn or Kalos.

"My name is Kurozawa. Nice to meet you. Is there something you need?"

"I want to team up with you," Serea said straight to the point. "Ten days from now, the squad leader will have us pair up in twos for tag battles. When that time comes, I hope to be in a group with you."

Inside information? Connected person? This girl had people backing her up from above?

Kurozawa glanced at her and asked, "Why do you want to team up with me? You and I should be complete strangers."

Serea saw the utter disbelief on Heiduo's face and said, "Because out of all the people present, you're the relatively normal one."

Relatively normal...

The corners of Heiduo's mouth twitched slightly. He looked toward the center of the field at those fellows chasing after their own Pokémon, and realized she was indeed right—those people were a bunch of weirdos.

No wonder a massive villainous organization like that had been driven out of business by three early-ten-year-old brats.

"Let's talk about it later. If ten days from now it really is as you say, I can consider it." Heiduo hadn't been working for long, but he wasn't about to blindly trust someone just because she looked pretty.