This was a dark, cramped little room.
Inside, a skinny figure sat before a messy table, his pale face illuminated by the glow of an old computer screen.
This was a disheveled young man surrounded by old clothes, discarded boxes, and piles of miscellaneous clutter.
The room was so cramped that there was barely enough space to move around.
“Creak, creak…”
The wooden stool beneath him groaned under his weight.
On the computer screen were page after page of images and information related to the Pokémon world.
Cynthia, Lorelei, Lusamine, Sonia, and many other familiar characters appeared among them.
Jay had always been fascinated by that world.
He spent countless hours reading about its regions, Pokémon, trainers, battles, and characters.
Whenever he was stressed or lonely, immersing himself in that fictional world was enough to make him forget about reality for a while.
“Huff…”
Jay leaned closer to the screen, completely absorbed in what he was reading.
Just as he reached the most interesting part, however—
“Pop!”
A faint electrical crackle sounded.
The entire room plunged into darkness.
Jay froze.
He slowly raised his head.
“Fatty Sis!!! Why is the power out again?!”
“Crack!”
The next moment, the decaying wooden door was violently kicked open.
“You never pay rent and you still have so many complaints! The cable’s broken again. Come out and fix it!”
Sunlight poured through the doorway, revealing the large figure standing outside.
“Hey, hey, hey! Could you at least knock next time before coming in?!”
Jay frowned and grabbed his clothes, quickly putting himself back together.
The woman glanced at him before rolling her eyes.
“How about you become our live-in son-in-law? You wouldn’t have to live in this godforsaken place anymore.”
Jay squeezed through the narrow doorway.
“Don’t even think about it.”
He glanced back at her.
“I’d rather starve than become your live-in son-in-law.”
“Bah! I’m more afraid you’ll spend your whole life buried in that computer!”
Ignoring her complaints, Jay continued climbing toward the roof, where the old electrical cable was located.
Jay was twenty-five years old and an orphan.
He had scraped by in the city for as long as he could remember, taking whatever work came his way while never becoming particularly ambitious about anything.
He was the kind of person who could survive with very little.
As long as he had enough food, a place to sleep, and his old computer, he was satisfied.
That was why he had chosen to live in Fatty Sis’s dilapidated house, which was already scheduled for demolition.
Yet despite his simple material needs, Jay had an unusually strong attachment to the fictional worlds he loved.
Of all of them, the Pokémon world was by far his favorite.
He had followed Ash’s journey for years, memorizing regions, Pokémon, battles, and countless stories along the way.
For Jay, Pokémon was more than just a game or an anime.
It was a world he had dreamed of visiting ever since he was a child.
He had even spent two years saving enough money to buy his second-hand computer.
It was old and slow, but to Jay, it was precious.
It allowed him to revisit the world he loved whenever he wanted.
The moment Jay reconnected the cable, the television downstairs flickered back to life.
The sound of the old 1982 television soon drifted through the house.
“In today’s broadcast of Pokémon Journeys, episode 132, Ash successfully defeated Leon to win the Pokémon World Coronation Series. From April 1, 1997, when Ash set off, to November 11, 2022, when he won the World Championship, twenty-five years have passed…”
Although the old television’s sound was noisy, Jay could hear the report clearly.
His usually calm expression changed slightly.
April 1, 1997.
That was his birthday.
And throughout his life, he had followed Ash’s journey, experiencing the Pokémon world through the screen and imagining what it would be like to stand there himself.
“The defeat in Sinnoh, the regret in Kalos, the doubts in Alola—all were shattered at this moment…”
Jay sighed and stretched.
“After all these years, Ash finally made it.”
He turned around, intending to return to his room and continue studying his favorite Pokémon material.
He wondered whether the power outage had damaged his old computer.
“Crack…”
Just as he took a step, a strange sound came from beneath his feet.
Jay froze.
The old tiles above the small room had begun to crack.
A sense of unease suddenly rose in his heart.
“What the—?”
Before he could react, the floor gave way.
“Crash! Bang!”
The second floor of the small building suddenly collapsed.
Jay lost his footing and fell with the broken debris.
“Jay!”
Fatty Sis rushed forward in panic.
But before she could reach him, something strange happened.
For a brief moment, the entire world seemed to stop.
A soft, milky-white light appeared beside the unconscious Jay.
The air around him distorted.
“Bang…”
Then came a sound like glass breaking.
The white light suddenly surrounded Jay.
A strange sensation swept through his body, as though he were being pulled apart and carried somewhere beyond the limits of the world.
His consciousness faded beneath the overwhelming sensation.
Then—
Everything went silent.
The strange light disappeared.
The distorted space returned to normal.
And the mysterious tunnel that had appeared around Jay vanished completely.
“Jay…?”
Fatty Sis stared at the ruins in disbelief.
There was no sign of him.
Pain.
That was the first thing Jay became aware of.
A deep, overwhelming pain ran through his entire body.
He couldn’t see.
He couldn’t move.
He didn’t know where he was or how much time had passed.
His consciousness remained strangely clear despite the pain.
He could only endure it.
Little by little, the sensation became distant.
His body felt weaker and weaker.
His thoughts began to fade.
Was this death?
Jay had no answer.
His consciousness slowly drifted toward darkness.
Then, in the distance, a pure white light appeared.
Within that light, Jay seemed to hear a voice.
“Farewell, Arceus…”
The voice carried a strange mixture of triumph and madness.
“Say goodbye to your world. It’s mine now!”
Pokémon World.
Mt.
Coronet.
Spear Pillar.
A black figure stood beneath the sky.
Beside him, Dialga and Palkia remained silent as the fragmented form of Arceus slowly dissipated into the air.
Something about the two legendary Pokémon seemed unnatural.
Their movements were strangely stiff, and their forms appeared distorted, almost as though they had been crudely recreated from memory.
More than half of Arceus’s remaining form had already disappeared.
The black figure looked toward the fading remnants impatiently.
“Let’s go.”
He raised his head and laughed.
“It’s time to receive this perfect world.”
“Heheheh…”
“Whoosh!”
The three figures vanished from Spear Pillar.
And somewhere beyond that world, Jay’s consciousness continued drifting through the endless darkness.