I was staring up at the ceiling, thinking about all that has happened so far, I got born into a pokemon world, my parents died, and now I’ve been spending all of my time alone in a crib in a very boring room with only the occasional accidentally eavesdropped conversation to keep me from being bored.

  The caretakers do come around every hour or so to check on me and feed my voracious appetite, but I can hear the other babies in the orphanage crying out almost constantly, they must be overworked to all hell or would it be distortion world in this case?, because I'm quite certain a baby is not supposed to drink this much milk and that any other orphanage in my past life at least, would’ve noticed that I'm drinking milk by the gallon by now.

  Who knows, but my exercise seems to be working, I’ve been trying my best to gain some semblance of dexterity and strength by stretching my body and contracting my muscles as much as I can and as often as I can and I’ve recently noticed some progress, I can actually precisely control my limbs kinda now which is fun, but I’ve also noticed that I’m becoming stronger at an alarming rate, really, I would put gym rats to shame with how much I’ve been improving in the span of five weeks as a literal newborn, I’ve tried and only barely failed to stand up a few times now, which I’m quite sure is not normal for 5 week old babies.

  I’m pretty sure babies don’t grow up as fast as I’ve been growing as well, the way I know this aside from my experiences looking after my baby cousins in my past life, is that a caretaker came into my room earlier today, she was a pretty normal, friendly looking brunette.

  She looked at me, pulled out a notepad, looked from the note pad then to the name on my crib and then back to me. She repeated this a good few times before just staring at me in confusion for a bit, then she left in a hurry.

  I think she might have gone to get a doctor specialising in gigantism or something because if my eyes don’t deceive me, I seem to be about the size of a six month old baby right now, at this point in my thoughts, the confused looking caretaker and someone who I can only assume by the deference shown by the caretaker and just the sheer seriousness in her gaze as being some kind of superior, she was an older woman, not elderly but not middle aged either, she had thin glasses like some kind of stereotypical librarian and to my surprise, she wore a belt with six pokeballs attached with old timey metal clamps around each ball.

  Just as I’m trying to figure out what an orphanage manager would be called professionally, the caretaker speaks aloud “Matron Amelia, this is the one, I came in this morning and little, or maybe not so little Kane seemed much bigger than just a week ago when I last saw him, I checked the measurements on the crib and he somehow, went from just under fifty centimeters to over seventy centimeters in just five weeks.” she explained to the matron.

  “Ah, I see, this little one has a growth enhancing type affinity, one of the rarest classes, and awakening one at birth is rarer still, nevermind the fact that only about one in ten people even have an affinity and most awaken them at five to ten years old, hmm, odd indeed.”, she spoke aloud in a serious tone, “But not too unexplainable, his father was an advanced trainer himself, maybe the energy carried between the bond with his pokemon appeared genetically, maybe he had a distant ancestor with swathes of talent and that talent has only reared its head in him, Rebecca, you are to be assigned to Kane at all times, keep watch over him and inform me immediately if any change occurs, I must impose on you to keep this between us, but I’m sure a little pay bump wouldn’t alleviate this issue, don’t you think?”.

  The matron questioned to the caretaker, who I now know the name of, Rebacca.

  Rebecca, blinked rapidly, confused at the onslaught of new information that had just been all but launched in her direction, “I-umm…of course matron Amelia, it would be my pleasure!” she nearly shouted, but stopped herself just shy when she remembered that she was in the infant wing of the orphanage, the matron was renowned as one of the top 100 strongest trainers in Celadon city after all, her words held weight, a pay ‘bump’ from her typically means you would be able to live it up for the next few years if you worked hard now.

  “Good, now I must be off, if he continues any abnormal growth then contact me via my personal number, I’ve already added it to your phone, good day to you Rebecca” Amelia said with a slight smile upon her face “and good day to you too, not-so-little Kane.”, she turned to my crib and said with a smile, then she stepped out of the room and closed the door lightly behind her. “Well, I’d better get to looking after you before you outgrow me!”

  Rebecca said with a beaming smile and a little chuckle as she pinched my cheeks.

  -1 week later-

  So far, my experiences in this world have been nothing but confusing, interesting, but confusing moreso, in this past week, I’ve been exercising more in my crib, and Rebecca even let me out without being in her arms once a day so that I could crawl around, that was kind of fun, but I certainly miss being able to walk.

  In the time that Rebecca has been overseeing me though, I have managed to grow by another ten centimeters! After that growth spurt a few days ago though, I haven’t noticed any further growth, but I have felt a weird kind of sensation in my body, like there was something cold running in my veins, it actually felt way better than I feel like it should, it makes me feel stronger, like I’ve just taken a whiff of those smelling salts those gym bros would use every once in a while.

  I tried to focus on the sensation, it feels like I'm strong, durable and…lustrous? Wait, I think this is steel type energy! From what the matron said, an ‘affinity’ must have many different effects, she described mine as a growth type and called it one of the rarest types.

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  Hmmm…let me think back to all of those shitty cultivation stories I used to read, they always said something about ‘going with the flow’ or something, no no wait, it was more like ‘feel the energy and push it along its path’.

  Thinking about it now, those stories always had some supreme genius heavenly bodied main character that figures everything out in a few minutes. I’m sure I can do that, a fast growing baby perfectly equates to that kind of talent, certainly so.

  Anyway, I sit in a cross legged position and close my eyes, feeling for the steel type energy, it’s like a new series of veins running through my body, but they are just made of energy, weird, I do notice however, that it all seems to lead towards my heart, it feels like sand is piling up in an hourglass but instead of sand, it’s magical energy and instead of the hourglass it is my fragile, beating heart.

  I think this has all of the chances of going wrong and literally blowing up in my face but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. “Here goes nothing” I babble out loud as I begin to take a grasp of the energy in my heart and spin it, this would be the point where i’d spin it up and i’d suddenly gain heaven defying powers but alas, it just keeps slipping through my metaphysical fingers, every time I try and get a firm grasp on the energy it just slips away.

  Guess I’ll just have to spend some time each day trying to get a feel for it and move the energy around, *sigh*, this is going to take a while, isn’t it?

  -2 weeks later-

  “*huff*, fourteen *huff* fifteen *huff* s-si-ixteen” I gasp out as I crumple to the ground in a heap of tiny limbs. *huff* *huff*, the heavy breathing continues for some time, approaching a minute before I get my lungs under control.

  For the past week I’ve been doing some simple bodyweight exercises to condition my body, just now I was doing sit ups, and during that time I’ve had quite a few discoveries.

  Yesterday, Rebecca let out her pokemon, a wooper, to help with spraying down some furniture for a deep clean, and I felt some kind of…resonance when it appeared.

  The wooper clearly felt it too as it turned towards me the instant it left the pokeball and lept at me, softly of course, though it was quite big, nearly half my height and I wasn’t just your average toddler if I do say so myself.

  But it started licking my face and stuff and the caretaker was just standing there with a bemused smile on her face and cleaning supplies in her hands. When the wooper realised this, it ran back to its trainer and started lightly headbutting her leg, the caretaker mused aloud “Could it be another aspect of your affinity?, let me speak to the matron and inform her. Give me a minute little Kane.” she said and then sauntered off with wooper in tow.

  I waited for about ten minutes before several pokemon suddenly burst into the room. There was wooper, a spinarak, an illumise, a pidgeotto, a magnemite, a mareep, the matron’s clefable, a shuppet, a wobbuffet, a breloom, a houndour, a swinub, a poliwag and last but maybe least was a shuckle.

  “What?” I warbled in a confused tone to the group of caretakers behind their pokemon.Matron Amelia spoke up “It’s alright little Kane, we’re just trying to find out what type your affinity is, just go up to the pokemon that gives you a weird tingly feeling. Do you understand?” , she said in a restrained, excited tone.

  “Mmhm”, I responded even more seriously which due to my current circumstances of literally being a baby led to all of the caretakers involuntarily giving out “awww” noises.

  Anyway I looked at the pokemon that were now organised in a very straight line and did notice that I was feeling a weird tingle from a few of them, odd, didn’t the matron say it was meant to be only one? One of the pokemon that I felt a tingle from was of course wooper, I’m a bit confused on what all of this might mean but I'm sure they’ll explain it in depth to some random baby so I’ll get on with it.

  I give a mighty effort to stand and do manage it after a few seconds of grumbling, finally, I can walk, actually I managed it just a few days ago but I’ve been holding off on showing anyone to keep it a surprise, in almost perfect concert to my inner thoughts, I see Rebecca standing behind her wooper give a beaming smile and clap her hands together “Great job Kane!” she almost squeals in excitement while the other caretakers and their pokemon look in amusement.

  I nearly perfectly waddle my way over to wooper and pat him on the head, he gives me a weird feeling of vastness somehow, like the energy is supportive but large beyond imagining, huh…neat, he gives out a little “woop” when I pet him, adorable little fella, then I close my eyes and concentrate on the other feelings.

  There’s…three, including the vast feeling with wooper, I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I’ll go pet the rest I guess, the next energy I feel kinda gives the impression of being cold and smooth, maybe it’s ice? But no, it has a certain efficiency and lustre to it that makes me certain that it is-”magnemite!?” the magnemite yells in a robotic tone as I boop him on the head, luckily I didn’t get electrocuted, probably should’ve thought that one through a bit more huh.

  Anyway, the last energy I can sense feels like it’s old, somehow enduring in a weird way, strong too, I march over to the last pokemon…the shuckle, before I can pet it though, it retreats into its shell and gives a very sad sounding “shuck”, now that’s just sad, but I pet its shell before walking back to where I was sitting originally and I plop back down to sitting on the floor, when I notice the caretakers staring at me in open mouthed shock, “what is it this time?”

  I barely manage to sound out with my baby mouth and that manages to snap one of them out of their stupor “wh-what? Three! Three goddamn affinities! That's possible? Who is this kid!?” a clearly very excited male caretaker exclaims, but the instant he finishes speaking *thwak* the matron claps him around the back of the head with her right hand, “language, Johnathan!” she shouts in her most angered tone, “And do keep this quiet alright!”

  She looks over everyone in the room before speaking again “It might be exceptional but Kane shouldn’t be held responsible for things he cannot control, and anyway, just a few years ago there was a double affinity child on the other side of Celadon which they didn’t make too big a fuss about, still though, I don’t want young Kane here in any sort of drama, alright?” she looked around with a serious stare and there was a cascade of eager nods, not wanting to be on the bad side of the only full advanced trainer in the district.

  Ah, trainer ranks, these I overheard when some caretakers were lounging out in what I assume to be a hallway outside of my room, I shall explain, there are 3 steps to each rank, new, middle and full, the ranks coincide with pokemon strength tiers, but that's for another time.

  For now just know that a person would be lucky to ever catch a glimpse of an elite rank trainer, get within speaking distance of a veteran rank or converse with a proper advanced rank trainer.

  All of this is just to say that the matron is a very strong trainer that works out of the goodness of her heart, because with her strength, she could do practically anything and earn a boatload of cash if she were serious about it.

  The matron shuffled everyone and their pokemon out of the room, including Rebecca to my mild surprise. She spoke to me in a measured tone “Alright Kane, I’m going to teach you how to move that energy of yours, give me your hand.” she said as she knelt down in front of me.