The fat brown-haired clerk continued reading his book, even as a new customer stood directly before him.

Unbothered and unwilling to look up, he instead retained his position and opened his mouth to speak.

Before he can say a word he's beaten to the punch

"Hello, how much are your pokeballs?" a strangely excitable man nearly in his thirties shouts, with a bit more enthusiasm than he intended

He stops reading his book and lazily looks up. He blinked a few times at the customer's unusual enthusiasm.

Mumbling some words he had no doubt practiced a thousand times he spoke, "Standard pokeballs are five hundred each, no refunds."

(...Well crap I can't afford that, and now it's going to be awkward leaving without buying anything... but since I'm here...)

The customer lightly coughs once to change the subject, "I'm new here, could you please tell me why the store is empty?"

"It's because nobody comes in here anymore, they get the merchandise sent directly to their home, or they pick it up at the Pokebank. I only accept orders. Times are changing, we don't stock real merchandise anymore," the man waved his hand.

He lets out a short sigh going back to reading, "I'm mostly here because the older generation prefers to order in person. Not like I'm complaining or anything, I like my job"

Jared rubbed his chin in thought.

(...I see now, so the banks all serve more than one purpose, that's smart... I guess! Since the Pokebank is supposedly such a well-defended location it makes sense to consolidate things. Well, at least I solved the mystery of why such a small city (compared to earth) has so many bank clerks but still lines and lines of customers.)

The customer laughs awkwardly when he realizes he had just been staring at him in thought for who knows how long, *cough* "Ahaa I see, then I think I'll order online, thank you for the help!"

The fat man shrugs, and a few seconds later the pauper is back out the door facing the hot Alola sun.

Jared droops his shoulders with a sigh, (I really need to try to break that habit of randomly staring at things and people like a maniac... People are going to spread rumors and I'll be known as the *creeper* AGH NO, ANYTHING BUT THAT... ok maybe that won't happen...)

(Still... five hundred for a single Pokeball... it's a bit much, isn't it? Now that I think about it, are pokeballs even needed to tame a pokemon? Going further, how does one go about taming pokemon besides a Pokeball? Do I have to beat them up first?)

(Maybe it doesn't matter, I'm clearly not getting a Pokeball using the stipened. But this is fine! After learning more I need to find a job!)

A creepy man stood outside the Pokemart. He was frantically scratching his head, while passers-by give him odd looks.

(No! I didn't come to the pokemon world to work a mundane non-pokemon-related job. Actually, to be fair I don't know how I came here at all, but that's beside the point! I'm here to uhm... umm... no... now that I think about it... I know for sure I want to interact with pokemon and I eventually get one of my own but I haven't actually taken the time to think about how I'm actually going to go about it... Maybe breeding them?)

A few people and their pokemon began stopping to watch the strange man continue his erratic display.

"GAAAAHH" (Maybe... maybe I shouldn't have wasted those seven days staring at the ceiling thinking up horrible things the officers might do to me if I don't *recall* any memories.)

A man in uniform accompanied by a growlithe eventually broke the strange man from his thoughts, "Sir, I've been getting reports from the locals that a suspicious man has been scoping out different stores, and you fit his description."

The suspicious man turned around with a jump and saw a uniformed police officer eyeing him. A small gathering of people gathered to watch.

"Wait what?"

"Will you please come with me sir?"

"I..."

The police officer then changed his tone.

"Are you resisting arrest?"

--

An hour later a thirsty man is spotted leaving the police station.

(They used the natu on me! BRIAN THE BALDY CLEARED MY NAME WHEN I WAS BROUGHT THROUGH THOSE DOORS, BUT THEY STILL USED THE NATU ON ME!... What is the Skull Gang anyway? Is it like team rocket?)

Jared coughs, (I'm suspiciously loitering again arent I... yes I am, but is it a crime to loiter!?)

The man soon noticed a sign right where he happened to be standing which reads, "No Loitering"

His eyes go wide, (NOO! but there was no loitering signs outside the Pokemart, or the bank, so this is still.... ah forget it...)

Jared reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to search the GPS.

(...Hm, there are a few cafes here and there, but I can't be wasting my money on frivolous things, and while I see a few groceries.... they probably aren't what I'm looking for.)

(Although I don't know the average cost of food and necessities, my time on earth tells me that the stores in the rich part of town aren't going to be in my price range, and even if I could afford to shop there, and conserving money would be wise.)

He rubbed his pant pocket containing Kukui's number thoughtfully, (Kukui seemed well off... maybe he'd let me bum a Pokeball or two off him if I promised to pay him back?)

Jared shook his head, (No, I still have time, and I don't even know how to go about catching a pokemon let alone taking care of one, and I'm not the type to borrow anyways.)

(...Yes! and I am no beggar, I'm not that old yet, I can find a job anywhere! I'll surely figure something out when it comes to it, surely! now then, let's find us some poor man's grub! Let's see... while there are no stores in the poor district, there is one close to it... oh, and it's coincidentally on my way home as well!)

Shielding his eyes from the sun, Jared put his feet to the pavement once more, and like a kid in a candy store, he continued to gawk at every pokemon on his way, (Ahh... merrills are so cute... one day I too will have a pokemon of my own!)

The smiley man crossed the street, and in the distance, he squinted his eye's when he spotted a strong-looking young man. He was wearing a white tank top, and he was escorted by an enormous Feraligator.

Seeing the sheer size of the beast, Jared couldn't help but stop in his tracks and gawk at the water-type powerhouse.

While focusing on the feraligator with his gaze, Jared muttered to himself "I wonder why this is the first stage three pokemon I've seen so far... are pokemon restricted by their potential, or is it just because of the training it's received, or maybe... both?"

Breaking out of his musings he opened his eyes wide when he noticed that the Feraligators whole body started to glow a very pale gold color right before his eyes. He looked away and blinked a few times, but when he trained his eyes back the glow was gone.

Jared blinked a few times more, (Am I really so dehydrated that I'm imagining things?)

Once the trainer and his and pokemon are out of sight, Jared continued on his way with a slightly confused expression.

Nothing else caught his eye on the way over, and now he was standing before a large build.

A sign above read, *Alola Bargain Mart* in large red letters.

(Well, we're here, let's hope the bargains are as advertised!)

He walked around the store enjoying the air conditioning but soon stopped to muse, (A bit coincidental isn't it? The interior seems strangely similar to what you'd expect in a scaled-down version of Walmart... the rabbit hole thickens... no wait, maybe it was the plot thickens? Oh god, I'm loitering again!)

The store was filled with customers, and it was packed with all sorts of merchandise neatly categorized and segmented.

(They really do seem to have a bit of everything... they even sell pokemon food. For some reason, I thought that you'd get pokemon food from the pokemart... maybe they did at one point.)

As he continued looking through more shelves, he found three different grades of pokemon chow, D, E, and F respectively.

(The E grade pokemon food is five times higher than the F grade, and the D grade is five times higher than the E grade, which now begs the question, what's in the D and E grade food that caused its price to be so wildly different from each other?)

Moving along the Jared hissed between his teeth when he noticed them selling miltank meat,

(While I thought eating pokemon might be a thing, it's still surprising to have confirmation of that fact before your very own eyes,- -and... uh... not that I would ever buy pokemon meat or anything... but since I'm looking anyways...)

The customer can be heard cursing under his breath "Oh god, forty dollars for half a kilo of miltank meat?"

(Okay, meats off the table for now.)

He moved further down, and his expression improved when he discovered the price of fish wasn't so bad.

(Ten dollars for a whole kilo, does the proximity to the ocean drive down the prices?)

(...Wow, grapes are a staggering thirty dollars for half a kilo? At least these... er... banana-looking fruits are only eight for an entire kilo. I don't want to buy too much, but there are certain things I must get despite my reluctance... YUP! If I try to just eat the cheap brown rice to save money I'm definitely going to get something like scurvy! While being a toothless pirate is fun and all I still like having teeth!)

Jared left the store, but he was accompanied by fifteen kilos of brown rice, a few bananas, a bit of tuna, and some daily necessities such as toilet paper and toothpaste. Holding it all was a sturdy black backpack.

(The rice might taste bland without seasoning, but I had no choice but to ignore the spices because unlike on earth, the price of salt is sky high!)

He cursed to himself while loitering in thought just outside the doorway, "Five dollars left..."

(...I didn't want to splurge and get such an expensive bag, but the other ones looked so fragile, and I can't exactly go through my neighborhood holding plastic bags full of food, isn't that just asking to get robbed?)

Jared rubbed his chin, (Next month I should be able to save more thanks to the fact that I won't have to pay for more reusables... not that I'd even have enough after the four months of time elapses... still, the more I save now the sooner I get my Pokeball...)

Just then his pocket vibrated with a beep. Reaching into it Jared pulled out the offending object, it turned out to be a phone.

Tapping it once a message soon appeared on the screen, *You are required to show up at this location at 8 am, or your stipend will be cut*

An icon of a map was inserted at the end of the message, and after it was clicked, the GPS automatically opened up the map. The Halu High School highlighted in yellow.

The phone-wielding man laughed dryly to himself, "Ah right... I almost forgot about the whole school thing"

It's free though, so maybe I can learn a thing or two! Well, at least it's not far from where I live, only fifteen minutes if I jog there. Despite my... unique accommodations, I suppose I have no choice but to give the police some credit...)

(As I expected though, the school is located closer to the center of town, rather than the poorer outskirts. I wonder why the world seems so different than the anime? No... this is reality, if it were the same, then that would be weird!)