1 Chapter 1: Yuki

"Alright class, now just because I have pushed back the assignment date to next week. Doesn't mean that you should be leaving it for then. It's best if you get started on it now so you can have all of next week free to yourself. I'll see all of you tomorrow." Announced our professor as class came to a close.

"I'm definitely not touching it till next week." I thought to myself as I placed my laptop in my bag.

"Yo, Yukiiii~. You know what day it is my friend?" Takashi said as he threw his arm over my shoulder.

"We goin out again?" I asked hoping he would say no.

"No man, that fan game I was talking to you finally came out today. Me and a couple other guys already have it downloaded and had planned to play it the second we got home. But me being the amazing friend that I am thought I should invite you to come play with us for a bit." Takashi rambled as we walked out of the classroom.

I mean I could easily hop on and join them. I have the Full Immersion Dive Headset or FIDH for short that you need to play it. But all I do is play Sim Racing games on there and the occasional free to play games.

"I don't know man. If I'm going to play a Pokémon game I'd rather play an official title. The fan games usually look weird." I said giving him my excuse not to play.

"Ok, but this won't be anything like the fan games you've ever played. But fine. If you hate playing games with your best friend so much we can just forget about it. But if you change your mind and remember just how much you love me just send me a friend request in game. I'll be running the same name as always." He said before heading home.

I swear sometimes he makes me want to strangle him.

Though I felt like I should be a good friend and actually give it some real consideration as I walked to the station.

"If this game is anywhere over free I ain't buying it." I thought to myself as I stepped onto the train.

I pulled out my phone and looked up Trainer's Escape only to find that it was an entirely free game to play. Though looking at all the screenshots it looked way too good to be true. If the graphics are this good for a free game then it has to be a buggy mess of a game.

Though it wouldn't hurt to just download it and play it once so he would leave me alone about it. But if this game is anywhere as good as what the screenshots make it out to be it might be the only thing I play for a while.

I got off at my station and sent Takashi a message saying that I would download it when I got home. Only for him to respond with an I told you so, followed with an anime gif of a character grinning.

"I'm home." I announced when I got home.

"Oh hey, going straight into the sim again?" Asked my little sister from the living room as I took my shoes off.

"Not this time, Takashi wants me to try out this new game with him." I responded as I walked over to the living room.

She was laying on the couch as she scrolled through all the channels on the tv to find something to watch. With her short black hair in a mess and not a care in the world.

"Are you talking about Trainer's Escape? All the boys in class today were talking about it. It looks fun, I bet you'll like it." She responded without even turning to look at me.

"Mom not home yet?" I asked looking around for her.

"She said she'll be late again. I already ordered a pizza for us again." 

"And with who's money are you going to be paying for this again?" I asked raising my eyebrow at her.

"Yours obviously." She said finally stopping at a channel that was interviewing some pop group.

I let out a sigh as I handed her the amount of money she would need for the pizza.

"Thank you!" She called out as I walked up the stairs into my room.

I dropped my bag at the door and made my way to open the curtains in my room. I looked over at my desk where the FIDH was sat. I grabbed the USB-C to USB cable to connect it to my computer and started the download.

While I waited I took out my textbook and started studying for anatomy exam that was for tomorrow.

It didn't help however that every five minutes Takashi would send me a text asking me if the download was done. This guy has the same exam as me tomorrow and I know for a fact he's forgotten about it. I know he'll ask me if he can look over my notes tomorrow before the test.

After about an hour and a half worth of studying and some pizza later. The download was finally done but it was already late. It would make more sense to just go to bed and play tomorrow.

Knowing Takashi, if I don't hop on now he'll just spam my phone the whole night. And if I mute his messages I'll never hear the end of it.

So I gave in and sat at my desk putting on the headset.

"Launch Trainer's Escape." I said out loud so it could boot up the game.

As my vision faded to black and the in game music grew louder I started to get excited. It had been so long since the last time I played a Pokemon game and was happy to be able to get back into it.

*ENTER YOUR NAME*

The first thing that met me was a text box asking me to put in my player name. Below the entry point was some fine print stating that whatever chosen will be the name all AI will call you by.

"I can only imagine the sick names these people are forcing the AI to call them by." I said to myself.

I gave it the bare minimum of consideration before just typing in the same username I use for my sim racing.

*YUTA. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO USE THIS NAME?*

I clicked yes and the text box disappeared.

"Welcome to Trainer's Escape. I am Yu, your virtual assistant while in the game. Now that you have selected a name let's begin character customization." Once Yu was finished speaking a character outline was presented before me.

There were so many options and dials on the screen it was starting to make my head spin. There were more options for hairstyles than I even knew existed let alone every other part I could customize for the character.

"Is everything alright?" Yu asked.

"Yeah, there's just so many options for me to choose from that I sort of got lost." I responded almost hesitantly.

It felt sort of weird to just talk back to a voice while inside of a game. Something I've never experienced before in other games.

"If you'd like I can curate a custom character design for you and you can make the necessary changes that you want yourself." She suggested.

"Sounds good to me."

After I responded all the dials started moving at once and was changing the look of the character for me. Once it was done I was looking at a character that looked terrifyingly close to how I look.

There were some subtle changes like a different hairstyle and color. That's also not to forget that the character looks like it was straight out of the anime. But the similarities are there.

"How does the character look?" Yu asked.

"Looks good. We can continue with this."

"Alright now all you have do now is confirm your age."

My age? Does this mean if I wanted to I could play as a ten year-old like in the main-stage games? 

It showed me my real age of 20 and asked if I wanted to continue with that. So I clicked yes.

"Now on to what most see as the most important decisions so far. Your partner and your starting region."

A list of all the starter Pokemon have appeared in front of me and now it was my turn to choose.

I scrolled up and down the list hoping something would just pop out at me.

"I mean I could roll with Tepig, can never go wrong with a big ol' pig. But choosing a fire-type is a little too safe of an option isn't it? Maybe Squirtle then, join the game apart of the Squirtle Squad." I said talking to myself.

Then while scrolling through the generations my eyes were drawn towards Turtwig. With a random memory popping into my head. Where as a kid I had a Turtwig birthday cake before I had my more mature obsession with racing. With that scene playing through my mind I clicked Turtwig and accept.

"You have chosen the grass-type starter Turtwig from the Sinnoh region. Now, where would you like to start your journey?" Yu asked as she pulled up pictures of all of the regions available.

I decided not to make the mistake that I made earlier by over thinking it. So I closed my eyes and just clicked something at random.

"You have chosen the Unova region. Loading you in now."

Lights and colors zoomed into view from the distance until I was stood in Route 1. 

I can feel the wind blowing and the sunlight hitting my virtual skin. With a sudden rustling of the grass next to me I spotted a Lillipup run past me. With a flock of Pidove flying overhead and other players running around me catching Pokemon.

It was exactly like I had been thrown into the games and anime. So much so that I could feel a childish smile form on my face.