Age 9, Month 4, Day 9 『My Name is New Ash of Pallet Town』
I hit my head at the Pokémon Camp in Pallet Town and regained the memories of my past life, so I decided to start keeping a diary today.
My name is Ash. Yes, that Ash from Pallet Town.
The same Ash who's always been the protagonist of the anime, who somehow got weaker every time a new series started, and who finally won a Pokémon League after more than 20 years.
Some people might think I'm acting strangely mature for Ash, but it seems that remembering my past life has had a major impact on my personality.
My personality has apparently changed so drastically that Mom's been looking at this newly calm version of me for the past few days, worried I might be sick.
But it can't be helped. The memories of my past self have been added to Ash's original personality.
At first, I didn't understand what was happening and was bedridden with a fever for several days. By the time I finally reconciled the memories, Ash's mentality had been dragged into adulthood by my former self. It's cruel to ask me to act the way I did before.
Luckily, my name in my past life was also Satoshi. From now on, I'll do my best as "New Ash." First, I need to get Mom used to the new me, for her own peace of mind.
Age 9, Month 4, Day 10 『It's Not the Anime or the Games. This is Pokémon.』
From my memories as Ash and my memories as Satoshi from my past life, I know I'm set to get my first Pokémon and start my journey in one year.
One year. I have to use this advantage.
To start, I'll begin by holing up in Professor Oak's lab and devouring books to fill the gaps between my past-life knowledge and the way Pokémon work in this world.
Mom was confused about my personality change for a while, but she seems to have finally gotten used to it recently. Even when I ask for books about Pokémon, she just cocks her head a little, like "Ash? A book?" but she doesn't get as shocked as before.
However, as I'm researching the Pokémon world anew, I'm finding many differences from my anime and game knowledge. Moves, in particular, are a completely different ballgame.
Basically, in the Pokémon anime and games, a Pokémon could only know four moves. To learn a new one, it had to forget one of the four. But in this world, it seems a Pokémon can learn unlimited moves from its move pool, and the trainer then restricts them to four for use in battle.
Therefore, they might use different moves from match to match. The books say that preparing countermeasures for specific opponents is a basic Trainer skill.
Incidentally, using a fifth move is a violation and results in immediate disqualification.
According to Professor Oak, there was a Trainer at the Pokémon League a few years ago who got a powerful Pokémon, but it wouldn't obey them and used moves without limit, getting them disqualified.
I figured I'd better be careful if I end up getting a Charizard like in the anime.
Age 9, Month 4, Day 11 『Did You Really Think You Could Beat a Pokémon Power-Gamer?』
I ran into Gary. He's just like his early anime character—super annoying.
He does seem to be a diligent guy, though, showing off his Pokémon knowledge at every opportunity.
He seems especially confident about battling, going on and on about "Pidgey learns this move" and "Rattata learns that move." It was just... astonishingly relentless.
I started to get tired of dealing with him, so I used the memories of my past life as a "power-gamer" to counter him with a brute-force assault of knowledge. He was rendered completely speechless.
Acting all high and mighty. I've already memorized every move a Pokémon can learn, from level-up moves, Egg Moves, move tutor moves, TMs, and TRs, across every single series! Come back when you've studied more!
Age 9, Month 4, Day 12 『Not Interested.』
Since kids start their journeys at age 10, it seems they hold Pokémon Camps regularly to ensure the children can travel safely.
From what I hear, they're held once every six months, and apparently, "Ash" has a perfect attendance record so far.
Searching my memories, I also recall meeting a girl who seems to be Serena.
Honestly, it's not like you can catch Pokémon at this camp, and it seems the "flag" from that event has already been set, so I don't really need to go. But, if I do too many things that are "un-Ash-like," Mom will worry, so I decided to participate in the next camp in six months.
Age 9, Month 4, Day 13 『Eevee's Evolutions are Just Common Knowledge, Right?』
I went to Professor Oak's Lab, which has become part of my daily routine, and there was a beautiful woman I didn't recognize.
Apparently, she's Gary's older sister, Daisy, who gives you the Town Map in the games. She exists in this world. Naturally, she never existed in the anime.
Come to think of it, the move mechanics are different, too. This world might not be the pure anime world. If so, my plans will have to change. What should I do?
While I was worrying about various things, Gary showed up, so I gave him a small wave.
He, however, seems to have become wary of me since our last encounter and is keeping his distance. Looks like I went too hard on him.
The adults were tilting their heads, confused by the awkward relationship between me and Gary, but it's nothing to worry about.
I heard that Daisy is traveling as a Pokémon Coordinator and just happened to return to Pallet Town this time.
When I asked to see her Pokémon, she sent out Chansey, Clefairy, and Eevee.
She apparently also has a Lapras, Arcanine, and Nidoqueen, but they're too large to send out indoors. That's a shame.
It seems she's raising her Pokémon for Contests. She told me Arcanine is for Coolness, Chansey for Beauty, Clefairy and Eevee for Cuteness, Lapras for Smartness, and Nidoqueen for Toughness.
Clefairy and Eevee overlap in their category, but she said that since Pokémon Contests also have Double Battles, she basically raises several Pokémon for the same category.
As thanks for her telling me all this, I told her about Eevee's evolutions.
Daisy and Gary were listening with shocked expressions, but for some reason, Professor Oak, who was with us, was also surprised. It appears that in this world, Eevee's evolutions are still in the research phase. They knew that friendship was involved, in addition to evolution stones, but the conditions related to the time of day or specific moves hadn't been figured out yet.
Well, Sylveon's evolution method differs between "Affection" and "Friendship" depending on the game, but watching Daisy and her Eevee, it's clearly just a matter of time either way.
After I gave them the full explanation, Professor Oak looked at me suspiciously and asked, "Ash... my boy, where did you get this knowledge?" I just brushed it off, saying, "Some random old guy I met at camp was talking about it." To be blunt, they wouldn't believe me if I told them the truth, and it would just be a pain if I attracted any weird attention.
He still looked unconvinced, but when Daisy asked, "What kind of Pokémon is this Sylveon?" his attention shifted, and he started explaining about Sylveon to her. Nice one, Daisy.
According to the Professor, although specimens of Sylveon had been confirmed, there was absolutely no information on it. Its resemblance to Eevee led them to suspect a connection, but they still knew nothing about its evolution.
He had a photograph, at least, and showed it to us. The moment Daisy saw it, she got extremely excited.
She was fired up, declaring she would absolutely evolve her Eevee into a Sylveon. However, her Eevee didn't know either of the Fairy-type moves Eevee can learn: Baby-Doll Eyes or Charm.
In the games, it learned them by leveling up, but maybe in this world, a Pokémon can't learn them unless it intentionally tries to. Otherwise, it would be impossible to evolve it into Espeon or Umbreon, which use the same friendship method. The extreme lack of information on Sylveon also makes this seem like the natural conclusion.
Daisy seemed to think this was a good opportunity and decided to have her Eevee learn a Fairy-type move, enlisting the help of her Clefairy, which is also a Fairy-type.
In the end, her Eevee didn't evolve into Sylveon while Daisy was in Pallet Town, so I don't know what happened after. I did hear, however, that Professor Oak submitted a new paper to the academic conference about Eevee's evolution. When I gave the Professor a deadpan stare—with no particular ill intent, of course—he arranged for me to meet Lance of the Kanto Elite Four at a later date. Sweet!