Sinnoh Region, Twinleaf Town.
In the eastern part of the town, within a massive ancient ruin abandoned for thousands of years, a young man was sprinting.
His strides were long, his speed astonishingly fast, covering each level of the ruin's passages in mere moments.
Racing through layer after layer without slowing down, the young man occasionally glanced back, shouting loudly toward the shadows behind him.
"Have you slept for thousands of years and lost your minds? Or are you so hungry you've gone dumb? You can't even catch up after all this time. With this efficiency, you call yourselves guardians of the ruins? Even a Slowpoke would give you a thumbs-up for that!"
His booming voice echoed through the passage, drifting swiftly into the darkness behind him.
Yet, as seconds ticked by, the shadows remained silent, without a single stir.
"Guess they've built up immunity to taunts after hearing them so many times," the young man muttered. Deciding to switch tactics, he raised his voice even louder: "If you don't catch up soon, I'm going to start tearing this ruin apart! It's just a thousands-year-old pile of junk that's overdue for demolition anyway!"
As he spoke, he picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it at the wall beside him.
Thud!
The stone struck the wall, its crisp shattering sound reverberating through the passage. Yet, the silence persisted, with no response.
Unbeknownst to him, where the stone had hit, a massive black eye suddenly appeared.
Then, one by one, countless eyes emerged around it—on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the passage. They slowly opened, their gazes initially scanning the surroundings in confusion. But when they locked onto the young man, they flared with rage, emitting sharp, furious screeches.
"Jima!!!"
The eyes then burst from the walls, transforming into shadowy figures that lunged toward him.
Under the dim, yellowish light of the ruin, these figures were vaguely recognizable as Pokémon resembling the 26 letters of the alphabet, exuding an aura of ancient times.
Pokémon devoted to guarding ancient ruins—Unown.
"That's more like it! Show some enthusiasm for your job!" the young man said, nodding with satisfaction before bolting again.
The Unown, enraged by the smirk on his face, sped up in a frenzy to chase him down. Yet, just as they were about to catch up, the young man would abruptly turn a corner, slipping into another passage with practiced ease, evading their pursuit.
It was as if, compared to the Unown, he was the true guardian familiar with this ruin.
This infuriated the Unown even more, but they were helpless, left to chase him with all their might.
Fortunately, after several twists and turns, the young man, who had been sprinting at full speed, began to slow down and eventually stopped.
Ahead, at a corner that should have been passable, a massive boulder blocked the passage due to a partial collapse of the ruin.
It was a dead end.
The Unown noticed this and let out gleeful, mocking cries.
With no way forward and the Unown closing in from behind, the young man was trapped.
They quickly activated their sole move—Hidden Power.
Red, blue, green, purple… orbs of energy in various colors, radiating a powerful aura, rapidly gathered in front of them.
In the next moment, the energy orbs flooding the passage surged toward the young man's position.
Faced with this seemingly unavoidable attack, the young man stood still, surprisingly calm.
As the attacks drew close, he swiftly crouched and rolled to the side, expertly diving into a narrow gap in the wall just big enough for one person.
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion roared through the passage.
The Unown's attacks grazed past him, most slamming into where he had been standing, blasting a crater into the ground. A smaller portion hit the boulder blocking the path, cracking it with a sizable fissure.
Seizing the moment, the young man used the dust from the explosion as cover. While the Unown were still assessing the situation, he slipped out of the wall's gap and darted through the crack in the boulder.
On the other side, the light shifted from dim to bright. Squinting to adjust, the young man began to survey his surroundings.
The area looked much like the rest of the ruin—just another dilapidated corner steeped in the aura of ancient history.
But a smile spread across his face.
"After all this effort, dodging Unown attacks left and right, I've finally made it. I wonder what Pokémon I'll summon after exploring this thousands-year-old ruin."
The young man's name was Aoyagi, a transmigrator.
A week ago, he arrived in the Pokémon world, dropped directly into the wilderness where ferocious Pokémon could appear at any moment.
Fortunately, Aoyagi was a self-proclaimed "virtual wilderness survival expert," having watched countless survival videos from Bear Grylls and Ed Stafford. After a few days of trial and error, he managed to achieve basic self-sufficiency in the jungle.
But new problems arose.
In that week, he had narrowly escaped encounters with volatile Pokémon like Ursaring and Dustox, known for their aggressive tendencies.
This made him realize that in the Pokémon world, survival knowledge alone wasn't enough to ensure safety or a future. Pokémon were essential.
The problem was starkly practical—he had no money to buy Pokémon, lacked the strength to subdue one, and didn't have the luck to stumble upon an injured Pokémon that might bond with him out of gratitude.
Most critically… he didn't even have a Poké Ball.
Without a Poké Ball, everything was just talk.
Luckily, just when he was at a loss, a blue virtual panel appeared before him.
With his extensive experience reading web novels, Aoyagi quickly understood the panel's purpose.
In simple terms, it was a summoning panel capable of randomly summoning various things.
The first summonable entity was exactly what he needed most—a Pokémon.
However, the panel required energy to activate, which could only be gathered by exploring objects or places of historical significance, like ancient ruins.
The ruin beneath his feet was the only suitable target he found after scouting the area.
With his strong physical fitness and quick reflexes, he had explored most of the ruin over the past few days, reaching 96% completion. Only this final area, blocked by the boulder, remained.
He had confirmed that the boulder's weight and durability were beyond his ability to move or break without a Pokémon.
So, he devised a plan to provoke the ruin's guardians—the Unown—into using their power to crack the boulder.
Though the process was risky, with the constant threat of being obliterated by furious Unown, Aoyagi understood the principle: no risk, no reward.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly, and he successfully entered the final area.
At that moment, on the panel only Aoyagi could see, lines of blue text flickered.
[Twinleaf Ruins - Exploration in Progress]
[Exploration Progress: 96%… 97%… 98%… 99%… 100%]
[Exploration Complete. Summoning Available.]
[Summon Target: Random Pokémon. Proceed with Summoning?]
[Yes/No]
Aoyagi immediately selected "Yes."
As the panel displayed [Summoning in Progress], it began to spin, then dissolved into tiny specks of light, forming a human-sized circular portal.
A blue glow shone, and a figure about one meter tall poked its head out.
It was a creature resembling a small dinosaur, its body mostly yellow with white-tipped claws on its hands and feet. Standing upright, it scratched its head with sturdy arms as thick as its legs, its large green eyes scanning the surroundings with a bewildered expression.
The reason Aoyagi hesitated to call it a Pokémon was that he wasn't sure if the creature before him was one. Perhaps it wasn't a Pokémon at all, but… a Digimon?
Specifically, it was Agumon, the evolved form of Koromon, the partner of Tai Kamiya from the first season of Digimon, jokingly called the "origin of all things" by fans.
Yes, emerging from the summoning portal was an Agumon.
At that moment, Aoyagi was also struck with confusion.
In theory, some Pokémon in this world could change forms, and it wasn't unreasonable for one to mimic another Pokémon's appearance in unfamiliar situations.
But no matter how much they transformed, they shouldn't cross entire fictional universes to become a Digimon.
"Or maybe I've unknowingly fallen under a hypnotic spell, causing hallucinations?"
If that were the case, Agumon's presence would make sense.
Taking a deep breath to stay calm, Aoyagi silently accessed the panel.
Besides charging and summoning, the panel had a basic function to scan Pokémon data. By checking the creature's information, he could determine what it truly was.
He focused on "Agumon," and the panel aligned with his gaze.
Instantly, a line of blue text appeared.
[Species]: Agumon[Category]: Reptile Pokémon[Type]: Dragon[Ability]: Sharp Claws (Increases the power of attacks using its sharp claws)[Level]: 12[Signature Moves]: Mini Flame (Fire-type, Power 60), Sharp Claw (Fire-type, Power 40)[Learned Moves]: None[Base Stats]: 360 (HP: 50, Attack: 72, Defense: 55, Special Attack: 72, Special Defense: 50, Speed: 61)[Bond]: 10 (Initial Encounter)[Status]: Hungry[Summary]: A reptile-like Pokémon resembling a small dinosaur, capable of walking on two legs. Though still developing, it has a bold and fearless personality, undaunted even by stronger foes. Its hands and feet bear hard, sharp claws that deliver decent power in battle. It is predicted to evolve into a formidable form.
Aoyagi: "...?"