Waking up in a dark room, Kaito gets into a sitting position, sweat coating him like a second skin. His eyes rapidly move across the space, the moonlight coming in through the window barely allowing him to survey his location.
"Where the hell am I?" His thoughts escape in a whisper.
Before Kaito can question further, his eyes shoot up in surprise at his voice, being nothing like he remembers.
Moving to sit on the edge of the bed, he catches a glimpse of his left hand.
He stares at the uncalloused, scar-free and, most importantly, small hand.
"What kind of situation is this? Am I under Hypnosis?" Kaito shudders slightly at a particular memory.
Having calmed down slightly, he once again surveys the room, this time more attentively.
On the left side of the room from the door is a bunk bed — the one he is currently sitting on. He doesn't know if someone is in the top bunk, but on the other side from him is a similar bunk bed: two children sleeping, one on each layer.
Deciding to move quietly, he slowly walks to the mirror mounted on the wall near the door.
"Sigh..." Just like he suspected, he has turned into a child.
His appearance is almost identical to how he looked as a child in his previous life, quickly coming to terms that this is, in fact, a new life — as the memories of his final moments are fresh in his head.
Kaito's eyes, unlike the previous golden color, now resemble a typical Pokéball. The top half of the iris is red, while the bottom is white. The pupil is white with a slight black outline along the edge.
He blinks a few times at the sight.
'That's certainly... unique.'
Looking down from his face, his eyes settle on his right hand — or rather, the empty space where it should be. His forearm is gone up to the elbow.
Kaito stares at this for a long time.
Not because he regrets it, but because he is lost in thought about his Pokémon and what happened to them.
'If I'm alive, they should be as well. They have to be.'
Shaking his head, he finishes inspecting himself, but just before leaving he sees something peeking from under the neckline of his t-shirt. Moving his left hand, he pulls the neckline down to get a better look.
"Sigh... you followed me as well, huh...?" A helpless smile appears on Kaito's face.
Extending from his collarbone to his right shoulder is the familiar and ugly scar from his past life. But instead of being an actual scar, it seems to be a birthmark, the color only slightly darker than his skin.
Moving back to his bed, he lays down but doesn't actually fall asleep, instead contemplating his future actions.
'First, I need to gather some information on which region I am currently in, as well as what my age is. Then I will once again do what I always have. Explore — this time with the added goal of finding my previous companions.'
Morning arrives quickly, and his plans are going to be dashed just as fast.
Moving out of the room with the other three children, who don't seem to particularly care about him, they enter what seems to be a cafeteria. But instead of the room, Kaito focuses on some of the more unique individuals present — kids and adults alike.
'What the hell? Why does that guy have scales instead of skin? And that kid... are those antlers?'
As he makes a few more observations, he is shoved slightly from behind as he is blocking the way of others. Quickly apologizing, he takes a tray and stands in line.
Moving up in line every time someone leaves, he contemplates what he's just seen.
'What were those appearances? Are they Pokémon?'
He makes discreet glances at these individuals once again, trying to remember if he's seen anything like it in his journey.
'No one seems to find it weird... Is it a new undiscovered region?'
His eyes light up in excitement at the thought.
Eventually, it's his turn to take the food.
The server — a friendly-looking middle-aged lady — addresses him.
"Oh, if it isn't Kaito. Same as always?" she asks with a kind smile.
Having no recollection of what she could be referring to, he absentmindedly nods.
He is served a simple meal consisting of a bowl of rice, miso soup, some pickled vegetables on the side, and a portion of tofu.
"All vegetarian, just like you prefer. Do you need any help carrying it?" she asks.
Kaito has a look of realization as he bows his head slightly and leaves. "Thank you, I'll manage."
Sighing in relief inwardly, he thinks, 'I didn't even think about the food.'
But then he raises an eyebrow at what the lady said.
'Like I prefer? This body had the same preference as me?'
Finding an empty spot and sitting down, he quickly finishes his breakfast. The quality is quite good for orphanage food.
Bringing the tray to the tray return, he turns and heads towards the two female caretakers he saw talking off to the side.
"Excuse me."
They turn toward him and put on a slight smile.
"Yes? What can we do for you, Kaito?"
He questions inwardly. 'Does everyone know me or something?'
But recalling his unique appearance, it makes sense.
"This might be a weird question, but how old am I?"
Kaito looks at the woman who is standing closer to him and notices how her eyes are constantly changing colors.
'Woah...'
The woman puts on a thoughtful expression and turns to her colleague.
"Do you remember?"
"Hmm... He should be around four, I think."
Turning back to Kaito, the woman sees him looking at her with sparkling eyes.
With a small smile, she asks, "What is it?"
He excitedly questions in turn.
"Why are your eyes changing color?" He bounces in place slightly, waiting for an answer.
"It's because of my quirk."
Kaito raises an eyebrow at this. "Quirk? What's a quirk?"
Now it's the caretaker's turn to look at him in confusion, but she still explains it to him.
"A quirk is like a special power you're born with. It can range anywhere from something as simple as your eyes constantly changing color to the ability to control fire."
He can't help but widen his eyes as he exclaims in excitement. "Woah. Do I have a quirk?"
She looks at him nervously and says, "I-I don't know. But your eyes look unnatural — maybe that's a part of it?"
Kaito can't help but deadpan at the answer, losing his excitement. Hearing something like "the ability to control fire" followed by "your power is that you have weird eyes" would really crush an actual child's dreams.
Good thing he isn't an actual child.
His expression makes the caretaker let out a slight, nervous laugh.
Before Kaito can make things too awkward, he bows his head and leaves. "Thank you."
He spends the next twenty minutes roaming around the building, peeking inside any room he finds along the way — eventually chancing upon something like a small library. Inside are a few bookcases filled with books and what look like three computers on one side of the room.
The sight makes him raise an eyebrow. "They have computers here...? Then why haven't I seen people with these inhuman traits on the internet before?"
The more Kaito discovers, the stranger it gets.
Sitting down at one of the setups, he turns on the computer. Thankfully, no password is required.
He doesn't recognize the apps, but he doesn't find that surprising. "Did they create their own internet here? That's quite impressive."
Clicking through the colorful icons, his missing hand making things slightly awkward, he eventually finds what appears to be the internet. He quickly types in "Map" and clicks on images. The sight makes him freeze.
"...This is the world map? But... where are Kanto, Johto — any of the regions?"
Before he comes to a conclusion, he once again clicks on the search bar and types in "Pokémon," the search giving him no results.
Kaito just sits there, staring at the "No results found" screen — not sure how to feel about the discovery, conflicting thoughts and emotions fighting in his head.
'A whole new world! Things I've probably never seen before or will never see in my old world!'
His excited explorer self proclaims.
'But what about my family and Pokémon? Will I never see them again?'
Kaito's more emotional self counters.
Before he can come to a conclusion, a tap on his shoulder interrupts him from the inner conflict. Turning his head, he sees an old woman with glasses and hair made of water standing behind him.
Having stepped out for a few minutes, she never expected to find this one-handed child on one of the computers, so she asks him with her slightly raspy voice, "What are you doing here, Kaito? Did you get permission from someone?"
Kaito, still a little in shock from his discovery, answers absentmindedly, "No... I was just curious about something."
The answer makes her raise an eyebrow at him, as he is normally a quiet and well-behaved child.
"I'll let you off with a warning this time. Be sure to get permission next time, okay?"
He bows his head slightly and quietly leaves the room, as the old woman goes to the computer and checks the search history. Finding he made two searches, the older one from ten minutes ago.
'Weird. What was he curious about?'
But eventually, she shrugs slightly and turns off the computer, going to finish up her work.
Kaito spends the rest of the day going through the motions. As the other children play, he keeps to himself, not engaging with anyone, spending lunch and dinner the same way. No one seems concerned with his behavior, as if he's always been this way.
Eventually, it's time to go to sleep — but instead of resting, he sneaks out of the building. The orphanage is surrounded by a fence, so he can't leave the premises. However, at the back of the property, the fence encloses a small patch of forest. Being surrounded by nature always soothes him, so he slips into the trees for a quiet walk.
He has already come to the decision that he will live in this world — not having any extreme thoughts like "what would happen if I died again?"
But he can't help but think back to when the children were "playing," as he absentmindedly watched them. How they threw around words like "quirkless" and "useless" to one kid, just because he was unlucky — being born without one.
'A society like this... discriminating based on something you can't change. If young kids do stuff like this, I can only imagine what teenagers would do.'
He thinks back to his old world — how some Pokémon had prejudices placed against them just because of their origin.
'Maybe it's not that different after all.'
Eventually, Kaito reaches a small pond in the patch of forest. Sitting down on a nearby rock, he admires the view as the moonlight reflects off the water.
'It's nice here...'
Putting his palm under his chin, his eyes droop little by little — his child body reaching the limit of how long he can stay awake.
As the moon reaches the zenith, Kaito's eyes shoot open. Looking around, he tries to identify what woke him, but soon realizes it's coming from his own body — a warm feeling spreading from his chest to the rest of his body.
Looking at the reflection in the water, he notices how his Pokéball-shaped eyes begin spinning — slowly at first, then speeding up, as if loading something. This has no effect on his vision.
The whole situation, while strange, seems to bring back his forgotten excitement, as Kaito grins slightly.
"I have a good feeling about this..."
Continuing to stare at his reflection, after a short while the spinning makes an abrupt stop — in turn making a blue beam of particles shoot out from his pupils to just in front of his feet.
A mass of blue particles forms at the location, eventually morphing into a familiar white and red fox.
"Zorua!" Kaito shouts in excitement as he looks at her.
Zorua returns his gaze with wide open eyes, clearly shocked.
(AN: I'm just going to refer to her as Zorua/Zoroark but just know it's the Hisuian variant. I just don't feel like writing the full name in narration.)