Irene Robertson sighed as she set down the Encyclopedia on the Hoenn Pokemon League.
She learned that she was now in the body of a 12 year old who just so happened to share her exact name. The report detailed that Pokemon world Irene’s parents died in a “Pokemon related accident” when she was just 2 years old. Irene was miraculously saved by some of the surrounding trainers and was then raised in Mauville’s orphanage. Due to her traumatic experiences at a young age, Irene was always afraid of Pokemon, and adamantly refused to become a Pokemon trainer. She “graduated”, as it was called, or more accurately was kicked out of the orphanage 2 days ago when she turned 12 and ended up in the Mauville city hospital 2 days later due to an Arbok poisoning on route 117.
‘Well, this is a remarkably sad backstory, though it also means I don’t have any baggage. No family to worry about,’ Irene thought, ‘I can basically do whatever I want with this life.’
‘This also probably means I ended up here on accident. Otherwise, I should have had a meeting with some god or the people who summoned me. I suppose the original Irene died from the poison, and somehow my mind was transferred to her body, due to our shared names. Did her mind transfer to my body then? Good luck on Earth, oh other-Irene.’
Irene found it interesting that the map she found was eerily similar to the world in Pokemon Emerald she played back on Earth.
The Pokemon League, however was quite different from what was shown the games or anime.
The champion, elite four, and 8 gym leaders still existed, but the structure of society was a bit different.
These thirteen people are considered the most powerful trainers of the entire region and are also the face of the league. They are both politicians and celebrities and all hold an immense amount of power politically, economically, and militaristically. As a result, everybody wants to become a part of this exclusive group, but few have the talent and worth ethic to climb all the way to the top.
There wasn’t any official nobility, though the encyclopedia did discuss several families in detail, such as the Stone and Devon families, which demonstrates the power of generational wealth and family lead businesses in this world.
Irene also found it surprising that the legal age of adulthood was 10, which seems super low until you consider the fact that the mortality rate in a world containing fantastical creatures was extremely high. There wasn’t even any public education, and most kids were encouraged to find a job quickly.
The league, however, sponsored everyone to become trainers. The entire sponsorship program was effectively a meritocratic public education. All new ‘adults’ had the opportunity to become Pokemon trainers, though the quality of the resources the league provided was directly based on the trainer’s performance.
League sponsored trainers were expected to challenge the 8 gyms, elite four and champion on a demanding time schedule. The gyms could be challenged in any order, though trainers must defeat each successive gym within a certain time limit, or they would lose their sponsorship. 1 month was given to defeat the first gym, 2 months for the second gym, and so on. The same applied to the elite four and champion. The entire sponsorship could last up to 6 years, though most trainers fell off the track and lost their sponsorships in their first few months.
League sponsorships were also an integral part of Pokemon culture, as nearly everybody in Hoenn took part in it. The number of badges won by a trainer before losing their sponsorship was seen as a measure of talent and a status symbol. People who won more badges before falling off track were considered more capable and therefore would receive better opportunities and have better jobs.
Irene spent some more time reading the encyclopedia, but she felt her knowledge still had some gaping holes, so she headed to the cafeteria to access some less curated intel.
The hospital apparently was testing some sort of technology that magically identified people, sort of like a magical fingerprint, so Irene was able to order some food with her league associated account.
‘Magic is sure powerful; this already feels more technologically advanced than Earth,’ Irene thought as she was handed a tray of chicken, ‘I guess animals do exist in this world. I wonder how they coexist alongside Pokémon.’
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The cafeteria contained several other recovering patients talking with their friends and family, so Irene sat at a nearby table to eavesdrop on their conversations.
Most of the information she heard was surprisingly mundane. There was a researcher complaining about the poor management at his company and the lacking safety protocol which led to his eye injury. Another patient was a Pokemon ranger who told a grand story of narrowly escaping a wild Nidoking, though the story seemed to be greatly exaggerated based on his friend’s reactions.
Irene did learn some interesting cultural information. Pokemon battles were basically the only form of sport in this world, and people loved talking about up-and-coming trainers, experienced veterans testing their mettle against gym leaders and most importantly, trainers who had the potential to finish the entire league sponsorship.
The last trainer to complete the entire league in their sponsorship was Steven Stone, who is now expected to take over for Wallace and become the league champion in the next decade. Finishing the entire sponsorship was exceedingly rare, as it meant a young trainer defeating the champion. The champion wouldn’t be using their main team, but it was still an incredibly impressive achievement, nonetheless. Anyone who even reached the elite four was considered a genius and anyone who had over 6 badges was considered impressive.
The average trainer only received 3 badges during their sponsorship, though most continue to challenge gyms later in life, but at a far more relaxed pace.
Irene did find it confusing why talent seemed to be solely judged on Pokemon battling skill. How was battling skill supposed to translate to other job skills like management or research?
As Irene absent mindedly chewed on a chicken bone while listening to the latest gossip on the most impressive new trainers, a young, tall woman sat down at Irene’s table.
“Hi, I’m Sarah! What’s got you so interesting in their babble over there? Is Stephen Ramos really that interesting? I just see him as another hot-headed fire type specialist that just spams flamethrowers and blast burns to overpower anything in his way. Sure, he’s talented, I’ll give you that, but I just feel what he does takes no skill at all,” the woman said.
“It’s not Stephen that I’m interested in specifically” Irene replied, “I actually suffered some brain trauma recently, which may have been a blessing in disguise, as it helped me overcome some childhood fears and I now realize how little I actually know about the league or just Pokemon in general.”
“Huh, well if you have any questions, ask away. I did manage to get 5 badges before falling off, you know!” Sarah bragged.
“Well, I was looking into being a league sponsored trainer, I was hoping you would share some helpful advice” Irene replied.
“Hmm, I guess my best advice is to take things slow and steady. Make sure you have concrete and dynamic battle plans and strategies which are easily improvable over time. The biggest newbie trap is new trainers only training their starters in a single move. It may be effective for the first gym, but you’ll hit a wall real fast, and after only spamming a single move for so long, it becomes hard for your Pokemon develop other more versatile strategies. How old are you anyways?”
“I turned 12 2 days ago.”
“So, you signed up already? How’d you get injured so fast?”
“I’m not a league sponsored trainer yet.”
“What?! Everybody knows the deadline for signing up is your 12th birthday. Oh, my goodness you are in such a mess. Here, come find me when they clear your injury and I’ll help you sign up.”
“But aren’t I already past the deadline?”
“Yes, but you still have time. As long as you complete the first gym within a month of your 12th birthday, you’ll be back on track.”
“Well, that’s a relief. What about you then? Don’t you have some job you need to do? Why’d you want to help a girl like me anyways”
“Nah. I’m on vacation right now. My job as an accountant was super boring anyways. I was originally planning to train up to challenge my 6th gym during my off time. My team ran into a particularly nasty wild Roserade and I had to get to the hospital to get the toxins and spores removed. My Manetric took quite a beating, so he still needs a bit of rest. Besides, you seem like you need the help and can actually benefit from my advice. A lot of the kids your age simply copy their favorite trainers’ Pokemon or teams without any regard to strategy and don’t think about how they can actually utilize their Pokemon effectively.”
“Well, I’ll be in your care then. In the meantime, can you share your own trainer experiences?”
After talking to Sarah for a few hours, Irene quickly realized how little she knew about this world and Pokemon. Irene learned that Sarah was an electric type trainer, and Sarah explained that trainers tended to specialize because it allowed them to understand their Pokemon better and more effectively utilize their strengths. Generalists were considered superior if done well, though few trainers had the knowledge and patience to actually make being a generalist worth it.
One thing Sarah warned her about was the debt to the league. After the age of 18, the league had the right to draft trainers who were in debt. This is what Sarah wanted to avoid, which lead to her taking a boring accounting job with the league. Luckily, the debt collected no interest while a trainer was actively on a sponsorship or was working for the league, so most trainers were able to pay off their debts eventually.
Sarah also avoided talking about her own experiences or strategies explicitly, emphasizing that Irene should develop her own strategies that she would be comfortable with. Apparently, trainers generally were more likely to excel if they developed their Pokemon and strategies without much outside help. This was also why there was no real standardized education system. There was no way to mass produce high level trainers. Each one had to have their own unique path.
Overall, Irene felt enlightened with everything she learned that day, and fell asleep feeling excited about starting her Pokemon journey in the days to come.
