"Is this... the world of Pokemon Emerald?"
Kazuki opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was knocking over a drink and catching a lovely 220 volts for his trouble. Now a middle-aged man in a white lab coat stood under a spotlight, rambling through an opening monologue aimed squarely at him.
Hundreds of Pokemon playthroughs had etched every detail into his brain. The words filtering into his ears, the slightly pudgy build of the man before him... it all clicked in an instant.
This was the opening sequence of Pokemon Emerald.
The man was none other than Professor Birch, famous for his recurring bit of being chased around by Zigzagoon or Poochyena like some kind of slapstick comedy act.
Two things told Kazuki he was inside the Emerald game world. First, the overwhelming déjà vu. Second, no matter what he did, the lab-coated professor didn't react at all. The man just kept reading his lines like a pre-programmed AI, oblivious to everything around him.
"These are the creatures we call Pokemon. People live alongside Pokemon, playing together, helping one another, becoming the best of partners... I've devoted my life to uncovering the mysteries of Pokemon..."
After the interminable introduction, Professor Birch stood there with one hand in his pocket, wearing the same mild smile he always gave new trainers. His right hand flicked upward like a stage magician's, tossing a Master Ball into the air.
"RAAAAAAGH!!!"
Beneath the white light, a massive silhouette coiled in midair and unleashed a shattering roar.
It looked like a dragon's skeleton given terrible life. The enormous skull was fierce and grotesque, its dark-purple frame gleaming with a dull metallic sheen. No flesh clung to those bones. It was a death dragon risen from the abyss.
The instant it appeared, the entire space shook with a piercing draconic scream that seemed to split the sky.
"Hold on. Is your Eternamax Eternatus even legal?"
Kazuki recognized it immediately and froze.
Eternatus. One of the Legendary Pokemon of the Galar region, the source of Dynamax energy itself. In its Eternamax form, its Base Stats soared beyond even Arceus, the creator god of the Pokemon world.
And here it was, the ultimate boss of Galar, reduced to a demonstration Pokemon for introducing new trainers. The absurdity was almost too much to process.
Kazuki was caught somewhere between shock and barely holding it together.
Since he'd transmigrated directly into the game, the usual character creation steps, picking a gender and entering a name, were skipped entirely.
"So you're Kazuki, the one who just moved to Littleroot Town..." The professor, in his athletic sandals and generally disheveled appearance, smiled warmly while essentially kicking him out. "I have high hopes for you. Come visit me at my Pokemon research lab."
"Hey, wait a second..."
Before Kazuki could sneak one last look at Eternatus, his vision went black. A crushing gravitational force engulfed him and dragged him into the unknown.
When his senses returned, he found himself in the back of a moving truck.
The boxes are stamped with a Groudon logo. Groudon Brand Moving Services.
After a stilted, NPC-style conversation with his mother at the front door, Kazuki stepped inside and swept his gaze across the room. His eyes went wide.
Two colossal figures clad in crimson armor stood cradling cardboard boxes, carrying out their moving duties with an air of perfect innocence.
"Rrrr~"
Hearing the commotion at the door, both Groudon swiveled their heads and gave him a friendly grunt of acknowledgment.
Wait. The brand name wasn't just marketing?
Kazuki stared up at the two Groudon towering over him. Moments ago he'd been mentally mocking the moving company's name. Now the joke was on him.
"No way... is this a Randomizer version of the Pokemon world?"
His pupils shrank. Something clicked.
A Randomizer Pokemon world. The name said it all: every Pokemon encountered in this world was completely random.
Maybe you'd cast a line into a lakeside and reel in a fire-type Charmander. Maybe you'd bump into some unremarkable Bug Catcher on the road, only for the kid to whip out a Mega Rayquaza.
It wasn't just the encounters that were randomized. Their abilities were too.
Given what he'd seen so far, the odds seemed pretty high.
Beside him, his mother in her house clothes didn't share any of his alarm at finding Groudon in her living room. She just smiled warmly, her admiration pointed in an entirely different direction.
"The moving company's Pokemon carried everything inside for us and even tidied up the rooms. How convenient!"
She turned to him with a gentle laugh.
"Your room's upstairs, Kazuki. Go take a look! And don't forget to set the clock!"
Well....
Ushered upstairs by his mother, Kazuki resigned himself to the situation.
Getting transmigrated into Pokemon Emerald was already surreal enough. Throwing in a Randomizer on top of that didn't exactly move the needle on his panic meter. He accepted the premise and moved on.
---
AM 6:00
Littleroot Town. A town that can't be shaded any hue.
"Oh, that's right! Professor Birch lives next door. Why don't you go say hello?"
After setting the upstairs clock to six in the morning and watching a brief TV interview about a certain Gym Leader who happened to be his in-game father, Kazuki hadn't even had time to sit on the couch before his mother shooed him out the door.
Compared to the pixel art of his previous life's playthroughs, the world that stretched before him now was unmistakably real.
The town held only a handful of houses, scattered loosely along either side of the road. He must have set the time too early. A thin mist still clung to the rooftops.
Beyond the idyllic scenery, the people were exactly as he remembered.
The neighbor's wife was curvy and pleasant-looking. His rival Sapphire was pretty in a fresh, youthful way. The only disappointment was that no matter what Kazuki did, they just repeated the same lines on loop like robots.
"Sapphire, how are you physically maintaining that position without falling to the ground..."
He stared at the chestnut-haired girl who remained seated on thin air after he'd pulled her chair away, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
In some other novel, this would've fast-forwarded straight to: Bad news, you've been transported to another world and everyone's an NPC. Good news, they're all... easy on the eyes. But Kazuki wasn't quite that far gone. He shook off the dangerous train of thought and slid the chair back under Sapphire.
The moment he stepped outside again, a little girl in a yellow dress flagged him down and handed him a field research task.
"Finally. Time to pick my Starter Pokemon."