New Beginnings – A Pokemon Slice of Life. [OC/Isekai/Move Tutor/Breeder]

Standing in between the cluttered and filled aisles of a hidden away thrift store, Ethan stared dubiously at the item Chatot wouldn't stop chattering about. Chatot clambered down his arm, careful to not injure Ethan with her talons, then pecked the small rectangular device in his hands.

*Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick* *Tick*

Chatot watched with curious eyes as the metronome's metallic pendulum clicked and clacked back and forth. Her tail ever so slowly began wagging in sync with the swinging, and she bopped her head every time it made a sound.

"♫ tot-tot-tot-tot-tot-tot ♫"

"Are you sure this is what you want?" Ethan asked with a slight smile, already knowing the answer.

"♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫"

Ethan stored the metronome into his shopping basket, then continued sweeping through the chaotic assortment of items. This store had a bit of everything. It was all filled with used or outdated items, but they all appeared functional, and Ethan doubted teaching a singular move to a pokemon made him wealthy. The thrift store was his first destination.

He grabbed a few spare sets of clothes, a belt that had a clip for pokeballs, and a large gym bag to store all of his stuff. Chatot pecked at random items, and kept trying to put more stuff into his little basket, and Ethan repeatedly and casually snuck them out and put them back onto the shelves nearby.

When Ethan finished shopping, he strolled up to the cashier who stared at him with a singular raised brow. "No offense my guy, but I don't know if that hat suits you."

Ethan calmly took the sailor hat Chatot had just finished placing on his head and put it back onto the nearby hatrack. "I agree."

All of his purchases came out to the total of $2100. Which, if he accounted for the fact that pokemon was a game originating from japan, and that pokedollars were roughly the equivalent of the Japanese yen… it amounted to his idea of around $21 USD. A pretty good deal for what he'd grabbed.

Next, Ethan went around the city looking for a place to buy cooking supplies. He mostly needed pots, pans, and utensils. Hopefully, he could even scrounge up some seeds as well. He quickly found what he needed at a few different stores, and it had cost him a pretty penny. He walked out of a culinary store with his cooking tools, and several bags of rice seeds, and a few seed packets for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. He picked up some actual produce to practice preparing meals as well. It had cost him over $13,000, but in his mind, it was a necessary expense. He'd forgotten what it felt like to start from nothing.

On his way back toward the Pokemon Center, he passed by another famous building—A Pokemart. The building looked just like he'd imagined. A small, clean, and sleek, white and blue convenience store. It had a large sign out front that had a rotating pokeball on top as an advertisement, and he figured he might as well look around.

As he walked inside and gazed around, Ethan realized that this might have been the cleanest store he'd ever walked into. The linoleum floor glistened and reflected the lights from up above. Steel shelves, neatly stocked with various bags of Pokemon food and bottles of supplements, shined as if polished, and the teenage cashier stood with a straight back and held a smile as she watched him gawk.

After perusing down a few of the aisles, he learned a lot. Each type of pokemon had specific types of pokechow pertaining to them. Fire types canines, electric type canines, plant grass types… the whole lot. He read the ingredients listed on a few of the bags, and saw roughly the same list of ingredients as the standard recipe he'd seen online. Lots of complicated, unrepeatable ingredients.

In another aisle, rows and rows of grooming hits hung upon shelves, and each section had cute chibi-esque pictures of pokemon plastered around it. He found a section for bird pokemon, which had a picture of a Starly and Pidgey smiling, and grabbed a grooming kit. Chatot saw the picture of the Starly, and gave him a minor heart attack.

"Star-Starly!" Chatot chirped, mimicking the pokemon with startling accuracy. He'd have to get used to that.

Ethan chuckled as he moved on, coming across something he thought was impossible—Silph Co, bags. The fabled dimensional bags from the games. They looked sleek and came in many different forms and colors. Some came in a side-carry travel bag, others a simple pouch which could hang from a belt. The one that looked like a large backpack was the cheapest, but they were all severely out of his price range. The cheapest one, a brown stereotypical looking backpack, was 200k, which would be $2000 USD.

Maybe in the future. Ethan thought as he came up to the register with his grooming kit.

As the woman rang up his purchase, he stared at the various pokeballs held behind and inside the glass countertop. It was then that Ethan discovered he was worse at the games than he'd thought, as he was unaware of most of the different types of pokeballs on display. While he could point out a few of them, some of them were completely foreign to him. There was, of course, the standard Pokeballs, Great balls, Ultra balls, Premiere balls, and Luxury balls, but also a wide variety of specialty pokeballs.

Fortunately, the names and prices were right next to each other, so he could identify them. There were Dive balls, Net balls, Heavy balls, Love balls, Lure balls, Net balls… a whole world of different pokeballs which were vaguely familiar.

The prices varied, but none of them were cheap. A standard Pokeball would run him 10k, nearly one third of what he had left.

While he was bad at the games, he had learned that traveling without any spare pokeballs was a fools errand, and so he quickly asked for two standard pokeballs as well.

Ethan walked out of the Pokemart with roughly half of what he'd started with, a happy Chatot, and supplies for becoming self-sufficient on his plot of land. So, he considered today's shopping a win.

Chatot stared and sang at those he passed, and those with their pokemon out and out flashed her a smile and a little wave—their pokemon doing the same.

"♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫"

To Ethan's surprise, everyone's eyes seemed to linger on Chatot. Curiously, he peered around and examined those he passed, and watched them merely glance at most of the other pokemon around them.

Is Chatot that uncommon? Ethan mused.

He hadn't seen another Chatot so far, but they were from Sinnoh if he remembered correctly. They shouldn't be that uncommon of a sight. There were some people with foreign pokemon with them, and they also got some lingering stares, so maybe Chatot just wasn't a popular choice. They were missing out.

Once back at the Pokemon Center, Ethan returned Chatot into her ball, and called up Agent Looker from his phone. It range twice, then the serious, no nonsense voice of Agent Looker sprang into his ears. "L, speaking."

Ethan coughed awkwardly, not expecting him to be so serious. "Hi… L? It's Ethan Reed."

"Oh, Ethan, what can I do for you?" The serious voice was gone, replaced with casual conversation.

"I was calling to ask about some of the finer details about setting up my clearing—Once I get permission, of course."

"Do you have concerns?" Looker asked.

"No, no. I just wanted to know about a time schedule. Say, if I get permission, how long until your people arrive to build the house, do all of the plumbing and whatnot, set up the fencing… Those kinds of things. I've been making preparations of my own, but getting back to my clearing is the first hurdle. I'm planning to start heading there tomorrow."

There was a second of silence, before Looker spoke again. "Have you got yourself a pokemon already?"

Ethan smiled as he took a seat in an empty chair in the lobby, draping his shoulder over the back of the empty seat next to him. "Yup! I didn't find her, she found me! She's a Chatot! We haven't been together long, but I have faith that i'll be fine during my travels. By the way, do you know how long the trip to my clearing will take? I'll be going on foot."

"Hmm. Two or three days I would guess. Closer to three, if I'm being completely honest with you. I'm glad you found yourself a partner, Ethan. You sound very happy, and I'm sure your Chatot will protect you should the need arise. As for your clearing, give me a call once you get permission. I've already begun preparations for finding a company willing to head out there to build what you need. I don't know how quickly building was… where you're from… but it should take a few days to have everything up and ready. The biggest issue will be flying materials there, but we'll cover the costs. Did you have anything else for me, Ethan?"

Ethan hummed in thought as he idly tapped his fingers on his armchair. "I think that's it. Thanks for your help. I'll call in a few days."

"I'll be waiting." *Click*

Ethan watched as people came and went, observing the pokemon and trainers hover about the busy lobby. He swung himself out of his seat and left for the cafeteria section of the center to practice his cooking. If he could help it, he and Chatot will eat food fit for kings and queens on their trip!

---

"In my defense…" Ethan started, but got a chastising wing upside the head and an unfamiliar low pokemon growl from Chatot.

Ethan sighed as he looked down at the… slop he'd created. On Earth, on the very rare occasion Ethan attempted to make rice, he'd had a rice cooker on standby. Without one, he was flying blind. Ethan grabbed his brand new pot, walked over towards the trash, dumped out the contents, then walked back to his little cooking area.

The Pokemon Center had miniature kitchens for those who wanted to prepare their pokemon's meals, but he'd never seen someone use one yet. He'd honestly thought that he would be successful at the start, but quickly, he learned that cooking wasn't as easy as some people made it seem. Ethan scrubbed away the blackened rice, which clung to the sides of his pot like barnacles on a ship, with contempt as he tried to remember if kings and queens ate salads.

As he scrubbed, a digital voice drew his attention.

"Chatot - The Music Note Pokemon. With its human-like tongue, Chatot has the uncanny ability to mimic not only human speech but also the calls of other pokemon, often confusing would-be predators. Chatot's are known for their musical acumen. When in the wild, groups of Chatot can be heard singing in harmony, creating a melodic sound that resonates through their tropical forest's canopy. Chatot is the only known pokemon capable of using the move Chatter, which damages, dazes, and confuses those who hear its call."

"♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫" Chatot sang.

Turning around, Ethan saw an older teen holding his phone up with the camera directed at Chatot. "Uhh…"

The kid lowered his phone as he read whatever was now on its screen. Ethan coughed, causing the kid to jerk in surprise and finally realize that he'd drawn Ethan's attention. He pointed. "Is that a pokedex?"

The kid quickly dismissed that notion with a frantic wave of his hands. "Sorry! Sorry, no. It's an app that's like it though! It's pretty neat. It's called PocketDex. I thought I'd give it a try. Sorry."

Ethan raised a brow. "No, it's fine. I was just surprised."

After a quick scan, he didn't find any pokemon that looked to be the kids partner, but he noticed two pokeballs on the kid's hip. "Doing the gym circuit?"

The kid looked to be around sixteen, which was the legal age for going on your journey. After a quick nod, the kid patted the balls on his hip. "Yup! I got two badges so far! I'm waiting for my battle with Gardenia. Then, I'll have my third! I've never seen a Chatot before… Are they strong?"

Ethan nodded. "Any pokemon can be strong."

The kid looked dubious at that statement, and Ethan waved to encourage him to speak. "You're telling me Magikarp can be strong?"

Ethan place his now clean pot onto the countertop and turned to face the kid fully. "Sure am. Teach a Magikarp Flail and train it to withstand some attacks. Not to mention, once it eventually evolves into Gyarados, it'll be a force of nature. If I was ever to fight a battle in the water, I'd choose Magikarp over, say, a Geodude."

To the kids' credit, he did pause and think about what Ethan said. "Huh… I never thought about it that way."

Ethan wasn't the pokemon master, but he at least could give some life advice. "Don't worry so much about which pokemon are strong and which pokemon are weak. Think about why, when, and where each pokemon would do better than others. Also, think about their abilities outside of battling. Take Chansey for an example—they can do fine in a battle, but they're also the partners of Nurse Joy's across the world and there's a reason for that… but I'll leave that for you to figure out."

"Huh…" The kid blinked owlishly at him, surprise coloring his face. "You've given me a lot to think about… Thanks."

Ethan waved him off. "No problem, good luck on your badges."

The kid started to walk away, but noticed Ethan taking out another bag of rice and filling his pot with water. He coughed, grabbing Ethans attention. "Wash the rice until the water runs clear, then use one and a half cups of water per cup of rice. Bring it to a boil, cover it and reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer until it's tender, then you're done."

Ethan looked from the kid to the pot, then back to the kid. "Mind writing that down?"