4 Guilt and Shaky Trust

Upon stepping outside Jason immediately was hit by the fresh air and was surprised by how nice it was. The weather was slightly chilly, but manageable thanks to his down jacket. He knew Sinnoh was based on Hokkaido but he didn't think that the entire region was going to be cold as well. He looked at the piece of paper with the map drawn on the back of it. The map was crudely drawn but it at least gave him some direction.

Following the map he walked down the street towards the Mart, looking around at the scenery. It was midday and he could see housewives bringing their kids out to play, and some older folk relaxing on the benches that littered almost every corner he passed by. Not everyone had a pokemon out but there were a few who did. Jason noticed it was mostly smaller pokemon like rosella or pokemon that only went up to your waist like Psyduck.

And while walking down what Jason could only describe as a main street, being much bigger than the ones he went through was filled with shops selling different foods and goods. There were even street performers that were singing and dancing for people. One even had a Kricketune playing a tune while he sang. Jason was shocked by how busy the town was. In the games, he remembers it being just 5 houses but here it felt so much bigger.

"If a town is this big, then what about a city?" Jason muttered as he looked around. "Jubilife must be crazy big"

"I-it is! Mom brought me there before. There were buildings that were reeeeaally tall!" The reflection said, this time appearing in the window of a restaurant selling Octillery salad.

"Umm... Mark. Do you guys eat Pokemon?" Jason asked as he looked into the restaurant to see a family of 4 happily chowing down on some tentacles and leaves.

"Huh? Y-yeah of course we do. Where else do you get meat from?" The reflection replied.

"Riiiight... let's move on then," Jason said as he continued walking. The thought of becoming vegetarian crossed his mind for a second before shelving the thought for later.

After walking a couple of blocks down from the main street they finally reached the Mart. Just like Jason remembered from playing the games, this Mart also had a large blue roof with a pokemon ball right smack in the middle. But what struck Jason was the size of it.

The Mart had 3 floors and each was packed with shelves filled with all kinds of stuff. Jason was reminded of how he had seen those images of Japanese convenient stores that had walkways so small the width was only enough for one person. But the fact it was so dense boggled his mind.

"This place is a freaking department store, why the heck does a town need this much stuff?" Jason muttered as he looked at the shelves.

The one he looked at was the shelves for magazines, enough to fill an entire shelf full of them. There were magazines about fashion, food, places to go, celebrities, and even battling. Jason even recognized some of the people shown on the front of some of the magazines.

'Elesa debuts a dazzling new outfit at Unova's Gala!'

'Hoenn's new Gym Leader Flannery! Who is she?!'

'Drew Ackers cooks up a storm in his latest cookbook!'

'Rumour! Steven Stone to step down as Champion?!'

'Get Rich! Krieg Olson shows you how in his new TV show!'

'Battle frontier opens back again, do you have what it takes?'

Even just a passing glance was enough to give Jason a headache. Looking around the mart wasn't helping either, everywhere he looked there was a person looking at an item or talking with a store clerk. He shook his head and started walking up to the 2nd floor, hoping that it wouldn't be as packed as the first.

Luckily for him, the second floor wasn't as crazy as the first. The shelves were more spaced out and there were much fewer people. Looking at the shelves here gave Jason the reason why. It was all miscellaneous goods like hair brushes, nail clippers, plastic bags, baskets, and more. Compared to the densely packed shelves below this whole floor felt extremely tame.

"Hi! Do you need any help?" A male store clerk approached Jason with a smile.

"Oh err, well I'm running an errand at the moment," Jason said as he took out the piece of paper from his pocket. "I'm looking to buy all the stuff on this list."

"We should have all of these in stock," the store clerk said as he looked through the list. "I can help you gather all of the things you've listed on here. This might a while, there are a few benches over there where you can wait."

"Yeah, that would be great." Jason replied as he spotted a small mirror on the shelf "Could I by any chance also have that mirror?"

"Yes you can take it with you, I'll add it to your total. Please wait there until I've gathered all the items. Thank you!" The store clerk said before moving towards what Jason could guess to be the cashier area.

After taking the mirror he sat on one of the benches in the seating area. There wasn't anyone here but an old man reading a newspaper, but he was far enough that he would probably not hear what Jason was saying if he spoke.

"So a mirror does work." Jason said as he looked in the mirror, his reflection looking back at him nervously " this way we can talk even if there isn't any reflection available. Though this floor might have worked. I wonder they use to keep it this clean..."

"U-umm... You know so much about me now mister. B-but I still don't know anything about you."

"Me? What's there to know about me? I'm just some guy that's trapped in your body." Jason said and sighed "God that really sounds bad when you say it out loud..."

"You keep mentioning the word g-god? I don't know what that is"

"God? Errr I guess the closest thing here would be Arceus?" Jason replied "but don't think about it too much. It's a habit I ended up with after high school."

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, the reflection unable to figure out how to carry the conversation. Annoyed by the feeling Jason finally asked a question that was bugging him.

"Hey kid, what's with you admiring your dad so much. The guy went off and left you when you were 6 and that didn't seem to piss you off in any way?"

"I-I... I know... I was angry he left me and mom. But, it's what great trainers do. They go off on adventures to find new pokemon and become the very best! I want to be the best trainer. And my dad's the best I know... yeah..."

"So you like him just because he's successful? Kid, my dad was successful and never left my ass behind but I still think he's an asshole. Just because some guy is good at what he doesn't automatically make him a great parent." Jason said with frustration in his voice before calming himself down. "What the hell am I doing. Who am I to say anything about family shit..."

"M-mister?"

"Yeah?"

"I'd like to be back in my body. Just for a while again..." The reflection said as he looked at him. "I tried to get it back last time but, I only managed to get you to say what I wanted..."

"And so you want to do that again?" Jason asked and the reflection nodded.

"I-I... just want to be in my body one more time... I-I know y-you're here because of me and I'm s-sorry." The reflection said in tears "But could you at least allow me to do this? J-just for a short while..."

"Even if I wanted to I don't know how," Jason said as he looked at the reflection. "And let's say you take over me, what's to say I get stuck in some void and never return? Do I just get forgotten then?"

"P-please... come on mister!" The reflection shouted, tears forming in its eyes.

'He's only ten...' Jason thought as he looked at the reflection. Dozens of situations played out in his head, some were good and others were disastrous. But ultimately, he couldn't escape the bit of guilt that was eating away at him.

When he woke up, he didn't think much of it at first. But after seeing the kid fully conscious and stuck outside his own body. For a child that wasn't something, you'd want them to go through. Jason knew there wasn't a non-zero chance his choice would backfire massively on him. But having a child in the back of his mind torturing him with guilt wasn't something he earned to deal with.

"...Fine," Jason said looking at the reflection. "I'll let you have the body. But just we're clear, I do you this favor and we figure out how to get me home. Got it?"

"...Y-yeah. So mister? Umm... don't resist what I'm about to do like last time...OK?"

"Like last time? What do y-" and then it hit him. The world looked as though it was spinning, the colors starting to warp and everything kept mixing. Mixing and mixing until there was only white.

...

Jason blinked his eyes as he looked around. It was white, just a vast infinite plane of white. There was no sky, no horizon, only the solid white ground that stretched forever. And in front of him were 3 things, a tall full body mirror and a small CRT TV that reminded him of the one his parents stored in the attic of their house.

He looked down at his body to see he was in his original body, clothes, and everything. Looking back at the TV, he noticed that he was looking at Mark in the Mart from a 3rd-person perspective. The Mirror on the other hand was showing the perspective from the handheld mirror he bought before. It showed Mark's body slouched over as though he was sleeping.

"I-Is this how he saw things... just completely empty space?" Jason muttered to himself and shouted as loud as he could "HEY!"

His voice echoed in the white void, but no one was there to receive it. His voice traveled to who knows where. Once the echoes vanished, the unnerving silence floods back in.

"Right... I can see why he didn't want to stay here anymore. This place gives me the fucking creeps"

Looking at the CRT Monitor Jason thought about the last thing Mark said to him. Something about not resisting. Jason then tried to imagine himself going back into that body. He felt a strange feeling enveloping him as he did so, the more he detailed the image of him going back into the body got, the more irritating the feeling felt. It was as though he was feeling some kind of resistance like the body was rejecting him.

After a few seconds of trying he gave up, the attempt clearly not working out for him. On the monitor, he could see Mark's body shaking his head with his hand covering his mouth. It was clear to Jason that whatever he just did, affected Mark back in his body.

"Hey, are you alright boy?" The elderly man asked worryingly.

"O-oh umm I'm fine sir. Sorry if I scared you or anything. I'm just feeling slightly under the weather."

"Ahhh alright, it's been chillier than usual eh? You should take care of yourself boy, you young blood are the future of the region! Get fit and strong like these old bones did back in his youth! Hohoho!" The elderly man said and after a small wave, he went back to his seat.

Mark closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. A smile formed on his face as the feeling of being back in his body never felt better.

"J-Jason... are you there?" Mark said as he looked at the mirror. Instead of showing his reflection, he only saw a man he guessed was Jason. He had black curly long hair that reached his shoulders and had a short beard as though he'd forgotten to shave. He didn't look like anyone you'd see in Sinnoh, in fact, he looked more like someone you'd see from either Unova or Kalos. He wore a white jacket with baggy black pants and sneakers. Mark then noticed the bags under Jason's eyes and he wore a tired expression.

"Yeah real wonderful over here. A real vacation spot you should visit me sometime." Jason said sarcastically as he looked at the tall mirror "Now it's only fair that you help me back, so you need to keep your end of the deal and help me figure out how to get home."

"Yeah." Mark replied, "s-so where do we start?"

"Well, we could start by getting some information for Jirachi. I don't know if you guys have Internet over there, but we need to use something or go somewhere that can give us some clues on where Jiraichi might be at." Jason replied "Or we can also try to find your father, if he had a part of Jirachi it's likely that he knows where to find it as well"

"Umm... oh yes terminals! There are a bunch of terminals in the poke center that we can use to look up stuff. I used to do that to look up information on pokemon for school."

"Great then let's go there. Oh but get the stuff we're buying for your camp first!"

"Yeah got it. I think the store clerk is coming back"

Jason rubbed his eyes as Mark went to interact with the store clerk. Whatever he did just now was making him feel exhausted, as though he hadn't slept in days. It reminded him of the times he worked overtime to make sure his boss didn't find a reason to fire him over not working hard enough. And then the conversation he last had with his parents, right before he ended up here...

Jason didn't want his life to end there, at 18 in a shitty job with no future prospects and still living in his parent's house. He didn't want all that effort to amount to just that, he knew that there was something out there for him. He couldn't just leave all that behind, it'd mean all the failures, embarrassment, successes... all of that would have been for nothing.

It was a shitty note to end on, and Jason didn't want leave it there. His life didn't look like it had a bright future but he was damn sure he wouldn't let it end just like that. All he had to do was find a Legendary pokemon to wish him back home...

Back home...

Jason thought for a moment, there was an if and a big if, that they might even fight Jirachi. For he all he knew it might not even exist at all. But it wasn't the only Legendary Pokemon out there. Pokemon like Dialga who could maybe turn back time so Mark didn't make that wish. Palkia is a bit of a stretch since his world might not even be in the same universe. Maybe Giratina, though Jason didn't remember the distortion world having this white.

Ideas kept flying by as Jason tried to come up with a foolproof plan to get out of here and back home. And all he needed to do was count on a nervous wreck of a 10-year-old boy. No pressure, right?