1 Youngster Program (1/3)
[Words: 1427]
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Dear Izan Ritcher,
Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we can inform you of your acceptance to the Youngster Program. This opportunity was granted to you in recognition of your expertise and practical achievements.
We have enclosed a few documents with this letter so you can familiarise yourself with the stipulations and benefits that come with this certification. Feel free to reach out at any time or ask a local League Admissions Center employee.
We look forward to seeing your future accomplishments.
Sincerely,
The Pokemon League.
---
Finally, it was here.
Izan slumped in his seat as he let out a satisfying sigh of relief. It had taken a while, but the stress of waiting was worth it.
Roughly a few weeks ago, he was just a normal high school graduate without any ambitions or dreams. His plans consisted of getting a job that required extensive manual labor and living with his parents until he was frugal enough to move out.
Nothing special, really.
That was until he was walking home one day and got beaned by a stray tire straight to the head.
From there, it was a rollercoaster of ups and downs.
With his untimely and unfortunate death, he was immediately transmigrated into the body of a kid in the Pokemon world.
That was a pretty good trade, in his opinion. His past life wasn't the most extravagant, and he didn't really have much going for him anyway.
A quiet life was his only goal since the 'excitement' of modern society was boring to him. There was no adventure.
Sure, he could build a life that that made him fulfilled. Maybe picked up an adrenaline-pumping hobby or made a risky life decision.
But for him, that wasn't what he wanted.
A life of fighting, swords, magic, bullshit abilities, and slapping young masters was the life he wanted to live.
A very naive mindset, but he didn't care. Either way, he knew it would never happen, so he resolved to live a quiet life and indulge in fantasy on his own time.
Until he woke up from his death. A miracle come true.
The issues came when he realized that Izan was about as sharp as a bowling ball.
To be fair, he was just a teenager, but still.
After opening his eyes, he was immediately assaulted with a wave of pain when he realized that he was very much still injured from Izan's choices.
See, Izan was an orphan with a dream. Just like everyone else his age, he wanted to become a high-level trainer and surpass the Champion all on his own.
But for some reason, the legal age of adulthood was 14. It was also the age that which compulsory education ended.
Meaning the moment he hit fourteen, he was simply given the address to the nearest homeless shelter and promptly kicked out.
Plus with his limited funds and overall low grades, he wasn't cut out for attending any sort of Pokeschool.
Without a trainer license to fund his journey and give him a starter Pokemon, he was, to put it nicely, fucked.
Even if he did somehow get a Pokemon and some funds, he still needed a license to take on the league challenge.
His solution?
He decided to become a fisherman.
It paid decently well and with the ACE trainers, the equivalent to the military like the SAS or KGB stationed at the harbor, it was fairly safe as well.
They were usually there, making sure people didn't piss off and then get obliterated by a Gyarados' Hyper Beam.
The plan was to gather money, get some experience handling fish Pokemon, and then try and take the official trainer test alongside the Pokeschool graduates a few years later.
An alright plan, albeit with a bunch of holes in it.
But none of the holes in his plan mattered since he too was hit with a sudden slap of bad luck.
An encounter with some Team Rocket grunts.
He tried to defend himself with his Magikarp but there were a few glaring problems with that.
For one, it was a Magikarp.
The second and bigger problem was that he wasn't a trainer. Most wild Pokemon besides psychics and some powerful ones didn't have sapience.
To unlock their sapience they had to either reach a certain level of power, or bond with a human. Something only trainers were taught to do.
Without sapience, Magikarp was just a carp that flopped on the ground.
They paused, laughed at him, sicced their Rattatas at him, and then promptly fed his Magikarp to their Rattatas.
They took all his belongings, even if he didn't have much, and then threw his body in a dumpster where he bled out.
And that's when the transmigration happened.
It was jarring, and more than a little irritating trying to get used to having a smaller body again.
The injuries from the attack didn't help, and neither did the bills that he had to pay for treatment afterward.
Honestly, Izan really couldn't help but think that the previous owner of his body was a fairly stupid kid just trying his best.
It was admirable, sure, but man was it frustrating to know how many problems he could've avoided by just picking up a book.
Or a quick internet search.
See, there was actually a Pokemon League website that was moderated by the officials of pretty much every region with a Champion in it.
It had information about certain trainers and their current achievements. Discoveries about Pokemon, and even locked forums for trainers to converse.
All he had to do was take a quick look at the front page advertisements to get a solution to his license problem.
While you could take the test alongside the Pokeschool graduates, you were doomed to fail. They had experience and a full two years of extra studying.
But there was a little something called the Youngster Program.
Everyone knew that trainers had different rankings and classes to them. D, C, B, A, and S-Class.
Even below D-Class, however, was an F-Class trainer. Something that was only given to Youngsters while graduates received the D-Class ranking.
In reality, it wasn't a real trainer ranking. No one took you seriously if you were an F-Class, and no one expected you to go far. You barely got any money and your given starter Pokemon was noticeably worse than others.
But even so, you could rank up to become a D-Class level trainer with enough hard work.
And the test for joining the Youngster Program?
"Too fucking easy," Izan muttered out loud, cracking a pleased grin.
The biggest requirement for the test was that he was legally an adult. After that, it was a series of basic questions regarding Pokemon knowledge that you'd be able to find out by just using the internet.
A quick practical exam regarding survival in the wild, despite the fact that he didn't have a single outdoor survival skill, he'd passed.
'I most likely only passed because I aced the written portion. There were some serious no-brainers on there. Like who doesn't know all eighteen Pokemon types?' Izan internally scoffed.
Logging out of his email account and turning off the computer, Izan stood up and stretched before looking around the room.
It was a simple hotel room that he was staying in for the time being. A little expensive, in his opinion, but that was only because his budget was strained in the first place.
25 Pokedollars daily for a hotel was pretty much cheap considering that Pokedollars and actual dollars were about the same value.
But he only had 990 Pokedollars to his name. A paltry amount.
Gathering his things and making sure every appliance was cut off, he made his way to the door.
Catching himself in the mirror he stopped to make sure he looked okay before leaving.
All in all? He looked… presentable.
There wasn't much to work with, to be honest.
He was a lanky, early-stage puberty kid with a tan. He was fairly tall for his age, being 5 foot 9, but that only made him seem skinnier than he was.
Besides the beanie that tamed his wild brown hair, he had a simple brown backpack with a black hoodie and gray jeans. Barely anything substantial besides a shoddy map was in said backpack.
[Image]
He sighed at his appearance. 'Man, I really need to start working out. Or just eat more. Either way, I'm way too thin.'
Shaking his head, he made his way out the door.
