(This book follows the anime approach. Readers who enjoy seeing levels, please consider carefully.)
The first few chapters mainly establish the general background and are fairly uneventful. Feel free to skip them if they aren't your thing.
Friendly reminder: high-end readers often need only the simplest reading method. Dear readers, please leave your esteemed "brains" here for safekeeping for a better reading experience.
Brain storage: ...
Jinling, China.
"What a garbage company. There's no way I'm doing this job." A young man who had just come out of a job interview stood at the entrance, cursing.
Yun Fan was a fresh university graduate that year. His height and looks could only be called unremarkable, the sort who probably wouldn't make a ripple in a crowd... or perhaps a tiny one? (So he thought.)
What kind of ridiculous nonsense was this? They wanted fresh graduates with five years of work experience.
Even all four years of university put together wouldn't cover it. Was he supposed to steal that extra year for them?!
"Forget it. I'll take the subway home first."
After lamenting the coldhearted ruthlessness of capitalists, Yun Fan felt a little defeated. Then, as he crossed the crosswalk, planning to buy some dinner-
Bang!!!
A sharp screech of brakes rang out!
The next second, Yun Fan felt his entire body go flying!
That was right, flying!!
One super Thomas flare, followed by two and a half midair twists, then several more rolls, and finally he collapsed on the ground, half-dead.
That level of excitement was guaranteed to finish you off!
Enduring the intense pain, Yun Fan forced his eyes open a crack in a final rally and looked at the helmeted motorcycle rider before him, his mouth opening and closing as he uttered a few words.
"Fuck, are you in a goddamn hurry to reincarnate?"
"I'm done for. I really want to sleep."
Then his consciousness gradually began to fade, and the memories of his life so far seemed to play at super speed.
They flashed past.
Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh Region.
As a baby's cry rang out, a woman in a hospital ward had already fallen asleep on the bed.
"Nurse Joy, how are my wife and baby?!" Outside the ward, a man in his twenties anxiously questioned the young nurse before him.
"Mr. Hanyu, I know you're anxious, but please don't be anxious just yet."
The man: ...
"Mother and son are healthy. The mother was just too tired and fell asleep."
Noticing the man's increasingly dark expression, Nurse Joy spoke as quickly as possible before he could unleash a stream of profanity.
"Lucky, Lucky~"
Beside Nurse Joy, a pink, egg-shaped creature waved her little hands to comfort the man, then picked up a cup of water and handed it to him.
The message was to stay calm, have a Chunghwa cig... have some water and take a moment.
"No, thank you."
The man politely declined Chansey's offer and finally breathed a sigh of relief. Really, the little one didn't matter, as long as the grown one was fine.
Still, since both of them were all right, naturally everyone was happy.
Inside the room, moonlight streamed through the window and fell across the woman's pale cheeks.
The woman's name was Lina, and she was Hanyu Qing'an's wife.
After Nurse Joy left, he quietly walked to his wife's side, wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, brushed her disheveled hair behind her ear, and held her hand, keeping her company in silence.
Morning.
"Starly, Starly."
On a branch outside the window sat a little gray bird with a pale gray belly and a white spot. It was Starly, the Sinnoh Region's regional bird.
Starly's cries also happened to wake Lina in her hospital bed.
"Where am I?"
"No, my body's so tired. I can't muster any strength."
"Wait, where's my baby? I remember giving birth!"
Lina slowly opened her eyes and looked around at the white ceiling. She tried to sit up but couldn't find the strength, so she could only scan her surroundings, trying to find a whimpering, four-legged money pit.
"Honey, you're awake. Here, here, lie down first."
Just then, Hanyu Qing'an pushed the door open, carrying an insulated food container. Seeing Lina trying to get up, he hurried forward to support her.
"Qing'an, where's our baby? I remember he was right beside me."
Lina raised her head from the hospital bed, her cheeks pale, and asked quietly.
As expected of a mother who had just given birth, her first concern was her child. Perhaps worrying about their children was something every mother did.
"The baby isn't missing. Nurse Joy just took him for a routine examination."
Hanyu Qing'an explained with a smile, then opened the insulated container, scooped up a spoonful of soup, and brought it to Lina's lips after checking that it wasn't too hot.
"That's good. As long as he's all right."
Only then did Lina relax and sip the soup from the spoon. After all, her memories ended with Nurse Joy placing the baby beside her pillow; she had lost consciousness afterward.
For a moment, she had nearly thought she'd kicked the baby into the trash can in her sleep. If her husband hadn't come in just then, she would have wanted to rummage through it to see whether he really was inside.
Hanyu Qing'an kept Lina company and chatted with her, watching her finish the soup spoonful by spoonful. Having just given birth, Lina was so weak that even her voice lacked strength.
Besides, mothers who had just given birth were prone to drowsiness because their vitality had been depleted.
Then, after watching Lina fall asleep again, Hanyu Qing'an packed up the food container, carefully closed the door, and prepared to go see Nurse Joy first to check whether his dear son was still alive.
Meanwhile...
Yun Fan lay in an incubator, utterly bewildered.
Fuck, what was going on? Hadn't he died?
And why were his hands so small? Then he lowered his head for a look.
Phew, still there.
Just a little miniature.
Had he... been reborn??
Uh... no, the thing was...
Even if he'd died, shouldn't there have been a process? He'd lived this long without ever seeing what the Grim Reaper looked like. How had they hauled him straight over here without even letting them meet?!!
And also... where the hell was this?!!
He looked around, then at the pink-haired woman outside, and tried slapping the glass door in front of him, hoping to catch Nurse Joy's attention and get her to take him out first.
But to the people outside, it looked like this.
"Abba, abba!!"
"This baby is so energetic. Blinking his little eyes, pouting his little lips, and patting the glass door nonstop-he's so adorable. I really want to hold him!"
Nurse Joy watched the baby inside from the ward, her eyes seeming to sparkle as though she had spotted some entertaining toy.
"What's with this woman? Why do I feel like she has some weird ideas about me? No way. I'm just a baby right now."
Yun Fan suddenly felt a little uneasy and stopped slapping the glass door. Then he tried his best to look harmless, hoping to get through this on cuteness alone.
"Nurse Joy, how is my baby doing now? Is he in good physical condition? It took so long for him to be born yesterday-there won't be any lasting effects, will there?"
Hanyu Qing'an pushed the door open and fired off questions like a machine gun. It was his own child, after all, so he did care a tiny bit.
"Oh, Mr. Qing'an. Your baby is in excellent physical condition. You can see from here that he's healthy right now."
Nurse Joy spoke with a smile.
"Lucky, Lucky~"
Just then, Chansey opened the door, pushing a little cart, and waved to Nurse Joy. The cart held an assortment of supplies prepared for the baby: towels, diapers, little blankets, and the like.
"Sorry, Mr. Hanyu, would you mind stepping outside for a moment?"
Nurse Joy maintained her professional smile and spoke gently.
"Of course, of course. Sorry for all the trouble, Nurse Joy."
Professional matters should be left to professionals. After hearing that his dear son was fine, Hanyu Qing'an decided to leave first on the principle of not getting in the way.
Meanwhile, Yun Fan was still utterly bewildered inside the incubator. It was a feeling words couldn't describe...
[Arceus's new book, "Pokémon: Knocked Out in the First Round of the League, Back to Sinnoh to Start a Farm," is now available. Interested readers can check it out and show some support~(￣▽￣~)~]