After realizing what just happened, Reiji quickly scanned his surroundings. His eyes swept in a full circle, but he didn't see anything unusual.
The deserted island was exactly the same as before.
All he could hear was the sound of waves, insect chirps, and bird calls. Not a trace of another human.
He wasn't sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved as he trudged out of the water and back to the beach.
Disappointed—because survival on the island wasn't over.
Relieved—because at least he hadn't run into pirates, poachers, or Pokémon traffickers. In this world, Pokémon were worth more than people.
Back on land, he spotted another Poké Ball washed up by the shore.
A small consolation, perhaps. He now had two Poké Balls.
These had probably been discarded by Trainers—either they missed a throw at sea and didn't bother retrieving it, or simply abandoned them. One way or another, it worked in his favor.
Reiji sat down on the sand, soaked to the bone, staring at the Poké Ball in his hand.
Poliwag waddled up to him with a piece of driftwood in its mouth. Seeing Reiji in a daze, it called out to him.
"Yoo-yoo! Yoo-yoo!"
It was probably talking about grilled fish again.
Reiji looked at Poliwag in front of him and reached out to rub its round, blue head.
Poliwag didn't resist—but Reiji still couldn't understand what it was saying.
Now that he had a Poké Ball…
Should he try to capture this little guy?
"Poliwag, do you want to be my first partner?"
"Yoo?"
Poliwag tilted its head. It had no idea what this human was talking about.
Did he want it to go inside that red and white ball?
So it was true—anime really did lie. Pokémon didn't actually understand human speech.
Reiji let out a soft sigh. Communicating with Pokémon was much harder than he thought.
He had been too naive—assuming Pokémon would be obedient like the starters in the anime.
Those were clearly well-trained by professional breeders, which was why they could understand and obey humans so well.
This Poliwag in front of him had probably never even seen a human before. Of course it wouldn't understand him.
But just as he sighed, Poliwag suddenly slapped the Poké Ball's central button with its tail.
Click.
The ball opened, a beam of red light shot out and wrapped around Poliwag, pulling it inside.
The Poké Ball's button flashed red a few times… then settled.
That meant one thing: Poliwag had been successfully captured.
It all happened so fast, Reiji barely had time to process it.
Just like that, he had captured his first Pokémon in this new world.
Through the transparent part of the Poké Ball, he could see Poliwag looking back at him.
It could see him too.
When it saw Reiji smiling, Poliwag squinted its big black eyes and smiled back—though it didn't quite know why it was happy.
Just then, a new panel appeared in Reiji's vision.
[Poliwag]
[Type: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 31%]
[Level: 5.32%]
[Abilities: Damp / 0.53%] [Hidden Ability: Swift Swim / 1.23%]
[Known Moves: (Mind Reader / 0.11%) (Ice Ball / 0.11%) (Refresh / 0.11%) (Bubble / 1.11%) (Hypnosis / 0.52%) (Double Slap / 1.69%)]
"So this is everything about Poliwag?"
Reiji examined the panel carefully. It looked similar to his own, just with four more lines of data.
It reminded him of that janky Pokémon game from his past life—simplified now, but still familiar.
The first three lines were self-explanatory: name, type, and gender.
The fourth line was "Potential"—probably referring to base stats.
This Poliwag had only 31% potential—pretty low.
But that was to be expected.
He wasn't some "chosen one" protagonist. Not Professor Oak's grandson. No pseudo-legendary starter was going to land in his lap.
He was a nobody. A black-market nobody stranded on a desert island.
And this Poliwag? It was a wild one. Drawn in by bait. Of course its stats wouldn't be amazing.
Still, he was satisfied.
He wasn't from some elite League family. He didn't transmigrate into James' household. He washed up on a beach. Staying alive was already a victory.
He had the proficiency panel, after all. Potential could be improved over time. No need to be discouraged.
Next was Level.
Poliwag was around level 5. With the panel, he could see precise experience percentages too.
Then came Abilities.
This Poliwag actually had a Hidden Ability—Swift Swim. That was a nice surprise!
And finally—Moves.
Poliwag knew six moves.
Reiji recognized Double Slap—Poliwag had used it to knock out that Wishiwashi.
But "Mind Reader"? That one caught him off guard.
He tapped it to view the move description.
[Mind Reader]: "Focuses to sense the opponent's movements. The next attack will not miss."
Ah, that move. In the games, it's usually paired with low-accuracy moves like Dynamic Punch (which only has 50% accuracy).
Use Mind Reader, and the opponent is "locked on"—meaning Dynamic Punch becomes guaranteed to hit.
It also inflicts confusion.
But… this was real life now. Would that "guaranteed hit" effect still work?
Maybe it just helped improve focus?
He'd have to test it later.
Next up: Ice Ball, an Ice-type move.
It was like a rolling snowball—power increased with each consecutive hit:
1st hit: 30 base power
2nd: ×2
3rd: ×4
4th: ×8
5th: ×16
→ That's 480 base power by the final hit.
He'd used this move a lot in the games. With the first-turn advantage, it could even sweep whole teams.
If paired with Defense Curl, Ice Ball's power could be doubled again—up to 960 base power.
As long as it didn't miss, it was god-tier.
The remaining three moves were:
Bubble – basic Water-type move
Hypnosis – Psychic-type move
Refresh – Normal-type move that cures status conditions
All were moves that Poliwag could naturally learn while growing, or inherit genetically.
Among the three, Refresh and Hypnosis were decent—though Hypnosis's accuracy left much to be desired.
All in all, this Poliwag was… not bad.
And more importantly—this was his first companion in the Pokémon world.
He was genuinely happy. He wasn't alone anymore.
Compared to a Magikarp, this little guy was a massive improvement.
Reiji had always found Magikarp's evolution process to be a mystery.
He only remembered two methods from the anime:
James' kick of evolution—Magikarp evolved out of rage.
The Magikarp waterfall in the Orange Islands.
At least with Poliwag, there was no need to worry about training.
It's only requirement to evolve into Poliwrath was a Water Stone.
But that was something for later.
When the time came, he'd definitely find a high-purity Water Stone—to help Poliwag reach its full potential and break past its limits.
To free it from mediocrity…
And to help himself survive this perilous world of Pokémon.
(End of Chapter)
[+50 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]