Pokémon are strange creatures that seem to exist somewhere between reality and fantasy.
In this world, Pokémon came in countless shapes and had all kinds of different habits.
Beneath the endless blue sky, they could be found in mountains, plains, deserts, forests, and even deep beneath the sea.
Countless Pokémon also lived alongside humans in busy cities.
Stories between Pokémon and humans could be found in every corner of this vast world.
…
Pallet Town, Kanto Region.
The morning mist had yet to fade, and the town was wrapped in a pale golden glow.
At Professor Oak’s summer camp, tiny beads of dew still clung to the green grass.
A boy wearing a red baseball cap lay flat on his back in the grass.
His cap was tilted to one side, revealing his messy black hair.
He wore a hoodie with the Pokémon League emblem on the chest, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers.
A few blades of grass were stuck to the cuffs of his pants.
He narrowed his eyes at the clouds drifting overhead, one hand absently rubbing the League emblem on his chest.
A Pichu poked its head out from beside him.
Its tiny tail brushed against his cheek, making him burst out laughing.
“Six years,” Ash thought as he watched the clouds drift by.
He sighed.
“It’s already been six years since I became Ash.”
The dew-damp grass brushed against his wrist, cool against his skin.
Pichu was curled up in his arms, dozing off.
Its little paws twitched every so often as it let out faint purring sounds.
But Ash’s thoughts drifted back to a distant time and place—to a world known as Earth.
As a Pokémon fan, he had followed Ash’s adventures countless times through the anime, from Pallet Town to the Hoenn League.
He had even kept up with the newest Pokémon series, Pokémon Horizons.
In real life, what he loved most were Pokémon games.
His fingers were more familiar with entering cheat codes than reciting multiplication tables.
A complete Pokédex, perfect IVs, all shiny Pokémon…
Who could have imagined that his life would end one night while he was messing around with cheat codes?
When his consciousness returned, he found himself wrapped in swaddling clothes, with a gentle woman’s voice beside him.
“Let’s call you Ash.”
…
Looking at the Pichu in his arms, Ash laughed softly.
Fate had fulfilled his wildest dream in the most absurd way possible.
“Ah, found you, Ash.”
A clear, playful voice came from behind him.
A brown-haired girl ran over and stopped beside him.
She braced her hands on her knees as she caught her breath, her black suspender dress fluttering in the breeze.
“Ash, you snuck out to slack off again!”
Then another girl’s gentle voice followed.
Another brown-haired girl approached with a helpless smile.
She pushed her hat farther back on her head and said, “Ash, why are you lying here all by yourself?
Why are you sleeping in broad daylight?
This is Professor Oak’s Pokémon ecology lecture.
It’d be such a waste to miss it.”
“Green, Leaf, please spare me,” Ash said, pulling his cap down over his face.
His muffled protest came from beneath the brim.
“I stayed up late writing reports last night, and today I still had to come to summer camp with you two.
Let me rest for a bit.”
Under his outstretched arm, Pichu rolled over.
Its tiny paw rested on Ash’s wrist, its tail drooping onto the grass.
That was right.
The youngest professor.
Using the knowledge from his previous life, he had published major research on Eevee’s eight evolutions.
Aside from Flareon, Vaporeon, and Jolteon, which were already known in Kanto, he had also revealed the evolution methods for Leafeon, Glaceon, Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon—forms that had yet to be discovered.
On top of that, he had identified Sylveon as a Fairy type.
Thanks to those achievements, Ash’s reputation as a “child prodigy” had quickly spread throughout the Pokémon League.
He had even been granted the title of professor as a special exception.
The rustling grass drew closer.
Green held the struggling Pichu with one hand while using the other to tug backward on the brim of Ash’s cap.
“You’re using reports as an excuse again!
You research freak.”
Leaf knelt beside him, her skirt brushing against the dew-covered clover.
She lightly poked the crease between his brows.
“Ash is still the same as ever.
Always pushing himself too hard.”
Ash opened his eyes and looked at the two familiar faces.
He swallowed.
Yes.
Leaf and Green.
This world was a little different from the Pokémon world he remembered from his previous life.
Leaf and Green existed here.
They should have been characters from Pokémon Adventures.
They shouldn’t have appeared in Ash’s story.
And yet not only had they appeared, they had become his childhood friends and naturally become part of his life.
Was anyone still arguing over whether Green and Leaf were the same person?
No need to argue now.
I’m writing them both in.
“Please.
I’m the youngest professor in the Pokémon League, you know.” Ash grinned as he propped himself up and stroked Pichu’s ear.
“Analyzing Pokémon data reports is way more exhausting than field exploration.
If you two want to learn about some unusual Pokémon evolution methods, I can tell you while lying down.”
He deliberately dragged out the end of his sentence, raising an eyebrow at Green and winking at Leaf.
Green planted one hand on her hip, clearly amused.
“Stop using your professor title to pressure us!
Weren’t you the one who said yesterday that once you became a Pokémon Trainer, you’d travel all over the world?”
Leaf nodded.
“All right, get up.”
Leaf took Ash by the wrist and started running toward the camp, pulling him along.
Green had already scooped up Pichu and chased after them.
This Pichu was the future Pikachu—the legend himself.
Using his knowledge of the original story, Ash had gone straight to find Pikachu while it was still a Pichu.
Not only had he successfully won it over with ketchup, he had also brought home the Kangaskhan that had raised it.
…
“Ash, if you keep dawdling, Professor Oak’s lecture is going to end.
Relax once in a while, okay?
Don’t spend all your time thinking about research,” Leaf said.
Leaf turned around, and her hair brushed against his face.
Green held the struggling Pichu securely with one hand while using the other to tug Ash along by the brim of his cap.
“Exactly!
Last time, you said you were going to train Pichu in a new move, but you were the one who slipped off to the lab first!”
“Pichu—!” Pichu protested, the electric sacs on its cheeks glowing faintly.
The three children and one little Pokémon soon disappeared into the lively camp.
Ash was caught between the two girls, listening to them complain back and forth, but he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
He let Leaf pull him along, a confident smile hidden beneath the brim of his cap.
In his previous life, he had watched Ash through a screen and constantly worried about him.
The guy had been hopelessly dense when it came to romance.
A girl would say, “If you lose to me, you have to go on a date with me.”
And he would answer, “I won’t lose.”
Seriously?
That was enough romantic luck to make Brock grind his teeth in envy.
But now, Ash was him.
That kind of thing was never going to happen again.
He looked at the two girls laughing and chasing each other ahead of him, feeling a complicated mix of emotions.
He took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of grass and flowers.
“Man, I hope I can be Shido, not Makoto.”
Ash smiled.
With the system around, he felt a lot more confident.
That was right.
[A System.]
It was the cheat ability that had bound itself to him when he transmigrated.
Every time he won a battle, he could obtain a reward.
And hidden even deeper within it was an ultimate function that excited him more than anything else.
Cheat codes.
Memories from his previous life came rushing back—entering cheat codes, farming Pokémon, hunting shinies, adjusting stats, and grinding items.
“With the system, it shouldn’t be that hard,” he murmured, excited but still cautious.
But when Green turned back and waved at him, and Leaf smiled as she called for him to hurry up, Ash suddenly felt that perhaps this was the best life fate could have given him.
With the memories of his previous life, he would write his own story in this world full of miracles.
A story of Ash without regrets.
The achievements he could only unlock with cheat codes in games and all the moments that had made him feel sorry for Ash came back to him one after another.
He would catch the strongest Pokémon.
He would reach the top and become League Champion.
And those moments he had missed, those regrets, those precious opportunities—this time, he wouldn’t let any of them slip away.
After all, this time, he was no longer a spectator.
He looked at the two laughing figures ahead of him, completely confident in what lay ahead.
The breeze swept past the brim of his cap.
Pichu seemed to sense Ash’s mood.
Its little paw gently patted his cheek as it let out a puzzled, “Pi?”
The person inside this body was no longer the naive, reckless young Trainer from the original story.
In his previous life, he had sighed countless times over all the opportunities Ash had missed.
Now he had been reborn into this world filled with possibilities.
Every regret left behind by the original story would now push him closer to his goal of becoming Champion.
“Ash!
Hurry up!” Green called, pulling him back to reality.
As she turned, the movement of her hair reminded him of an unfinished image buried somewhere in his memory.
Ash ran after her, already knowing his answer.
Whether it was the Champion’s trophy or the people walking beside him, he wouldn’t let go of anything precious to him in this world.