Fanfic / Outsiders (xTRESTWHOx)

Louise and her starter Fennekin, Brennaraki.

Outsiders is a The Familiar of Zero and Pokémon crossover fanfic written by trestwho.

When Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Vallière attempts to summon her familiar, she draws the attention of a powerful (and irritated) being: Arceus. Rather than allow one of his creations to be summoned by an impudent mage, he instead summons her to the Hall of Origin... and declares her unworthy. Not one to back down, Louise vows to prove herself worthy... and is given one year in the Pokémon world to do so.

It can be found on SpaceBattles, FanFiction.net, and Archive of Our Own. The beginning can be found on Sufficient Velocity, though it has stopped updating on that site.

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Outsiders contains examples of:

• Achilles' Heel: Pokéballs are tough for the most part, but the hinges are comparatively fragile compared to the rest of them.
• Adaptational Species Change: Sort of. In canon, Derflinger was a talking sword, while here he's a talking Honedge. Brimir summoned a Honedge and, unaware it was a sentient creature, bound Derflinger to its body.
• Alternate Self:
  • Saito and Louise encounter alternate versions of themselves working for Team Rainbow Rocket.
  • After their battle with their counterparts, they see several other versions of them via the crystals in the Distortion World.
• Alternate Universe Fic: For the Pokémon half, which is based on the anime, it doesn't adhere to the Not Allowed to Grow Up trope. While he'll will not feature in the story, Ash is currently in his late teens vs. being eternally 10.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: Mew has been referred to with both feminine and gender-neutral pronouns. Mew's personal thoughts seem to indicate that Mew considers itself to be a girl, yet also has no issue transforming into a male Nidoran to quiz Siesta, so they may be genderfluid.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's left deliberately unclear whether or not the familiar Louise was trying to summon was specifically Saito, some other human from that world, or a Pokémon.
• The Aristocrats: Deflinger relays a version he claims was Brimir's favorite dirty joke. We only hear the punchline, but it seriously sets Louise off.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the Alolan Paradise timeline, when Louise runs off after a spat with her parents, Kukui asks when was the last time either of them had an honest conversation with their daughter. When neither can answer, he tells them they should have one.
• Ascended Meme: Louise's innocent search for pictures of Gardevoirs reveals that the internet of Pokémon Earth has subjected the poor mon to the same treatment as ours.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Louise saves the life of an injured Bisharp, causing him to follow and challenge her, only allowing himself to join her team if she wins.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Mew, despite being a powerful Legendary, is rather distractible. Celebi sends her to Tristain for the Prayer Book to help Louise develop her Void magic, but she gets so caught up messing with the Academy that she completely forgets and forces Celebi to just do it themselves, and when Mew delivers the Book to Louise at her birthday party, it ends up being thrown at her at high speed because the Legendary got distracted by the cake.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Derflinger describes most Void spells this way; powerful but taking a lot of time and/or magic to cast, which is why Brimir had four familiars to protect him during the process. Even the teleportation spell that Louise tries out first, which is one of the few that doesn't take forever to cast, takes so much out of her that she eventually runs out of magic and gets stuck in Spinarak nest.
  • Louise falls into this when challenging Ramos; she wants to impress Henrietta so badly with her Gym battle that she deliberately takes the more difficult route to the battlefield, and she loses her fight because she was distracted as a result, even if her team choices were well-reasoned. When she tries again after gaining some humility, and focusing more on what actually works instead of looking cool, she wins.
• Aw Look They Really Do Love Eachother: In the Alolan Paradise OVA, when Louise finally calms down from her panic over Mew sending her whole family to Alola (including the sickly Cattelya, not knowing Mew cured her sickness already), she starts crying and hugs the nearest member of her family, which turns out to be Eleanore. After a moment of shock, Eleanore awkwardly returns the hug. Additionally, Eleanore is close enough to her sister to recognize Louise's reason for being unhappy that her parents are showing her affection — namely that they are only showing it now, when she finally seems to be valuable.
• Barely-There Swimwear:
  • Louise's opinion on bikinis, resulting from the Culture Clash between the more liberal Kalos and the conservative Tristain in regards to revealing clothes. She even argued against them when Henrietta thought they were cute, although Henrietta ultimately settled on a somewhat daring one-piece.
  • In the Alolan Paradise OVA What If?, Kirche is the only girl from Tristain who chooses to wear one. The other female students disapprove and make their distaste known with any of the male students caught staring at any attractive bikini-clad beachgoer.
• Beach Episode: After Henrietta joins the party, they take a day off to enjoy the Seaside Amusement Park in their swimsuits.
• Berserk Button: Louise, as always, hates people mistaking her for a child, challenging a pair of swimmers to a battle after they assumed she was Saito’s kid sister. Another time, a Driftloon briefly kidnaps Louise to have a playmate, and Saito vows to never let her learn that the species only does that with young children.
• Big Eater:
  • Aile, Louise's Fletchling/Fletchinder, will take any opportunity to eat whatever she can. She frequently gets into trouble for this, but she gets better as time goes on.
  • When the Mew that ends up at the Academy turns into a Munchlax, this is a given.
  • Tabitha, of all people, is also heavily implied to be one when Karin catches her eating nearly five times as much food as Kirche.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Brennaraki, as a shiny Fennekin, was highly sought after by collectors, which she hated as none of them cared that she really wanted to be a battler. Louise bonds with her over similar issues with being seen as a worthless mage only valuable for her noble blood.
  • Henrietta's starter, Fleur, is a Snivy which dislikes fighting and does its best to peacefully resolve arguments between the other Pokémon in the lab. Much like how Henrietta's attempts to bring about political reform has seen her ostracized and ignored by the nobles, the Snivy is ostracized and ignored by the other Pokémon because it doesn't share their views on seeking strength through combat.
  • In an OVA, Kirche bonds with a Salazzle named Fira over their shared tendency to use their looks to get boys to do things with them. Said Salazzle is even shown getting a horde of male Salandit to get her treats.
• Breather Episode: Season 2, Episode 6, Chapter 3 is a much more light-hearted chapter after the drama in the previous chapters with Odachi turning out to be legally blind.
• Break the Haughty: Maindo in Episode 15. After he cruelly mocks Louise for her screw-up with her Absol by making her go crazy after Mega-Evolving and sending Louise running in tears, every Pokémon in the party gang up on him afterward. He runs away out of fear, which angers him immensely, and in his anger, attempts to pick a fight with a Snorlax that he woke up during his ranting. Snorlax casually beats him with one hit, hurting his already bruised ego.
• The Cameo:
  • Multiple characters from other series have shown up as minor characters. This includes Diego Brando, Donatello Versus, Ghiaccio, Guido Mista, and Foo Fighters from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Elphelt Valentine from Guilty Gear, numerous characters from Jurassic Park, as well as Scarecrow, Hunter, and Executioner from Girls' Frontline, with one of them mentioning a group that are deadringers for Squad 404).
  • In addition, several other JoJo characters have been obliquely referenced, including Jean Pierre Polnereff, Dr. Ferdinand, President Funny Valentine, Caesar Zepelli, Gyro Zepelli, the Pillar Men (via the Awaken theme), Rudol von Stroheim, and Doppio Vinegar.
  • A pair of twins are met at a Skate Park, and their names are Toni and Hawk, much like the real life skateboard star.
• Cassandra Truth: Zigzagged in regards to Louise's Trapped in Another World status. On one hand, normal Trainers like Saito initially don't believe Louise's story because it's so outlandish, and need more proof despite seeing her magic in action. On the other hand, more learned characters like Professor Sycamore and Interpool agent Smith have no trouble believing her, as they're aware of this sort of thing happening previously with the Ultra Wormholes.
• Color Blind Confusion: Louise, thanks to being poisoned by a Toxapex, is rendered temporarily colorblind.
• Combat Pragmatist: Saito and Louise when dealing with groups like Team Flare. Due to them being criminals, and Saito and Louise fighting to stop their crimes, the pair point out that the normal laws and rules surrounding Pokemon battles don't apply, meaning they can, and do, simply beat up the trainers, which ends up being especially effective since the criminals had brought tons of healing items, allowing them to overwhelm people with their relatively weak teams by repeatedly healing their Pokemon every time one was knocked out. Knocking out the trainer prevents them from healing their team.
• Culture Clash:
  • Besides the technological differences, Louise is thrown for a loop a few times by the cultural differences between the two worlds, like how nobles aren't nearly as powerful. Saito even lampshades it when she tells him about Reconquista before she makes it clear how nuts they are.
  • Louise finds it odd that some trainers don’t bother to give their Pokémon names and just refer to them by the name of their species.
  • Louise is shocked when she is told that children as young as 10 go on Pokémon journeys.
    “… People send ten-year-old children out unsupervised with Pokémon?” Louise could barely believe Saito’s words, the concept so alien to her. “What kind of irresponsible…”
    • It is noted that some people on Earth, including Saito's parents, agree with her point of view, which is why Saito had to wait until he was seventeen to start his journey. Professor Sycamore also points out to Henrietta that most kids only end up going to the next town or two before heading back home.
  • Henrietta is horrified when she sees her first Pokémon battle, not realizing that both mons and Trainers were enjoying the challenge. Also, where Louise quickly comes to appreciate the modern conveniences of Kalos, Henrietta is humbled to realize how much more powerful such a country is compared to Tristain, increasing her drive to force her country to change for the better whether they like it or not.
• Cuteness Proximity: When Cattleya meets Mew for the first time, she's quickly struck by how cute she is and starts petting her. According to Éléonore, this is a common occurrence, and even includes dangerous animals like bears and snakes, which seem to be instantly tamed by her.
• Curbstomp Battle: Maindo suffers two in a row after making Louise cry. First, the rest of Saito's team gives him a beatdown to make it clear they're through with him. Second, after he heads into the woods to throw a tantrum, he annoys and provokes a Snorlax who knocks him out of the fight with a single kick.
• Darker and Edgier: When compared to the Pokémon anime. Battles are more brutal, injuries including cuts, bruises, and broken bones occur, and the trainers themselves sometimes fight alongside the Pokémon when facing the remains of Team Flare.
• Dark Is Not Evil: When the group ends up in the Distortion World, Derflinger admits that while Giratina is one of the creepiest Legendaries that he's ever met, he's not evil; he just doesn't like people being in his realm. He even manipulates the terrain so that lost groups will find each other and leave faster if he's feeling merciful.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Par for the course with most wild Pokémon captured by trainers.
  • Deliberately invoked by Guerrier, a Bisharp that Louise saved in the Lumiose Badlands from what would've been certain death. Although he greatly appreciated Louise saving his life and was impressed by her subsequent rematch against Ramos to the point where he wants to join her team, he demands that she win his loyalty first by defeating him in battle, which she does soon after.
• Democracy Is Bad:
  • Averted. After being on Earth for a while, Louise admits to herself that she can see the advantages of democracy, but makes it clear to Saito that Reconquista's leaders have no intention of keeping the promises they're making when he notes that he doesn't see a problem with Albion becoming a representative democracy.
  • Averted again. Henrietta is initially leery of republics and democracies due to Reconquista but soon comes to realize the ones on Earth appear to be the genuine thing. However she also knows they won't work on Terre at the moment. The entrenched powers of the nobles and church would prevent such a government forming, and even without that a functional democracy requires the public be far more educated than is standard for Terre.
• Determinator: Both Géne and Tengu qualify after enduring a severe beating at the hands of a Mega Medicham and Mega Lucario, respectively, to give Louise and Saito their victories against Korrina, winning them their third Gym Badge.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the Alolan Paradise OVA, Mew decides to send all of the Tristain Academy of Magic to Alola so that they can enjoy a tropical vacation. She fails to consider the Culture Clash this might cause, especially since all of the students will quickly find that their nobility will mean squat in Alola.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Louise and Saito resort to stealing the uniforms of some Team Flare grunts to sneak into the occupied power plant and find Henrietta. They still look a bit off, and they can't hide that they're not using the grunts' hair dye, so they have Ronin soak them in water to hopefully deter any questions. This is not a very good plan, especially as the enemy leaders are actively searching for Louise, but unfortunately they don't have time to figure out something better.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the Alolan Paradise OVA, Lillie, Gladion, and Lusamine were eventually able to find Mohn in the Crown Tundra and get his memory restored, reuniting their family and putting it on the path to healing. This, of course, is a Late-Arrival Spoiler for Pokémon Journeys.
• "Eureka!" Moment: After Arceus cuts the link, Colbert realizes from his wording, combined with the other context clues, that Louise was a Void Mage the whole time.
• Everybody Has Standards: Despite being a Blood Knight like most Pokemon, Elizabeth's Machamp has zero interest in performing a Curb-Stomp Battle against Pokemon who are too weak to pose a challenge, and genuinely compliments Brennaraki's determination to fight while also making it clear that it would be a bad idea. He refuses to just forfeit, mainly because it wouldn't be fun and he also isn't a quitter, so he works with Brennaraki to throw the match by comically over-selling all of Brennaraki's moves. He also has zero respect for Elizabeth.
• Evil Counterpart: Played with. During their trek through Reflection Cave, Saito and Louise end up running across alternate versions of themselves that turned bad and joined Team Rainbow Rocket. While they are working for a massive criminal enterprise, they're not portrayed as evil. In fact, they joined Team Rainbow Rocket in the first place partially out of a desire to prevent end of the world scenarios before they become a thing, and they express similar views on various subjects. Rainbow Louise even ends up helping her other counterpart in escaping the Distortion World, waiting until she woke up in order to put her in the right direction before leaving herself. The implication isn't that they were always evil. Rather, they had the same experiences that their main counterparts did but took different, harsher lessons from them that made them anti-heroes rather than heroes, a distinction that swayed them towards Team Rainbow Rocket's way of thinking and turned them into villains.
• Evil Knockoff: As it turns out, in an example where the thing being knocked off is evil as well, the reason so many regional crime groups are named "Team" something is because Team Rocket is so successful that other criminal organizations deliberately style themselves after them.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Louise and Saito, when they first meet, can't stand each other. After an attack by a horde of Beedrill, however, the two learn to work together and end up becoming best friends.
• Fish out of Water: Louise is greatly shocked at just how different Earth is from Halkegenia, especially the lack of magic and the nobility lacking power. On the other hand, she quickly gets used to many of Earth's advanced luxuries, like electricity and the plumbing system, and intends to bring them back to Halkegenia. She initially spends a month with Professor Sycamore adjusting to everything, though she still gets astonished at commonplace items and attitudes on Earth every so often.
• Fluffy Tamer: Cattleya is described as seemingly having an aura that animals, even dangerous predators, are attracted to, becoming lapdogs under her care. Even Mew is affected, loving her pets. In the Alolan Paradise OVA, she not only manages to immediately get into the good graces of all of Louise's Pokemon, but also manages to befriend a Bewear a few days later with minimal effort.
• Forgot Their Own Birthday: Louise forgetting her own birthday leads to several jokes.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Episode 2 of Season 2 takes us away from the exploits of Saito and Louise and back to Tristain right before Louise attempted her summoning, showing us what her disappearance looked like from an outsider's perspective.
• Freudian Slip: After one of Espirit's Beware the Nice Ones moments, Maindo lets slip that he found it cute. Everyone else present tries to forget they heard that.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Louise plans to bring knowledge of things like electricity and modern plumbing back to Halkagenia.
• Great Big Book of Everything:
  • The Pokédex has detailed information on every species of Pokémon currently recorded, making it an invaluable tool for a prospective trainer. Both Saito and Louise have one, Louise's looking more like a tablet whereas Saito's physically resembles a smartphone.
  • It eventually gets revealed that Siesta herself has a Pokédex of her own. Unlike Saito's and Louise's, however, hers is instead a large physical book, which itself is a copy of the original volume created by her great-grandfather, who was a Pokémon Breeder before he arrived in Tristain.
• A God Am I: Arceus declares himself one in the very first line. Unlike most versions of this trope, Arceus can back it up given that they're the Poké world's equivalent to God Himself.
• Healing Hands: Mew manages to heal Cattleya of her illness with Heal Pulse.
• History Repeats: Derflinger is able to easily guess how Reconquista came to power, and hints that he's seen something similar several times before.
• Idea Bulb: Well, Idea Candle really, but Louise has one right before having her team attack Korrina's Mega Medicham with Will-O-Wisp, giving her a gnarly burn.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: In the Alolan Paradise OVA, Karin repeatedly requests wine from Lusamine while they are discussing their daughters, as only now does the Valliere matriarch realize that for all her efforts to care for Louise, she never actually asked her daughter what was bothering her.
• Inept Mage: As in canon, Louise's... issues with her spellcasting kicks off the plot. While she learns of her true affinity much sooner than canon, Louise lacks a way to actually learn Void spells, so she's still stuck with just the misfiring Fireball spell.
• Innocently Insensitive: Karin is this to Louise in the Alolan Paradise OVA. In particular, she tries to compliment Louise on making friends with Lillie, especially since the latter will likely be the future leader of the Aether Foundation. Karin is left dumbfounded when Louise is unhappy with this and other comments, failing to realize they are validating Louise's fears that her parents had written her off as a failure just like everyone else, and are only openly caring for her now because she's proven herself to be a valuable asset with powerful connections.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: In the Alolan Paradise OVA, upon arriving in the region against her will, Karin insists on locating Louise quickly, believing that her daughter is in a scared and hungry state, trying to survive in an unfamiliar land. Louise is found... sunbathing on the beach with a drink in hand.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite not summoning him as a familiar like in canon, Louise still meets Saito and Derflinger on her journey.
  • In general it seems that Saito and Louise meeting each other somehow is a near-constant, given all the Alternate Self versions they see in the Distortion World where they're companions, with only a few where they aren't.
• Instant Fish Kill: Louise, realizing she's unlikely to legitimately catch a fish, decides to instead start casting explosive spells underwater. She scales back just enough that the underwater Pokémon are merely stunned and keeps going in hopes of getting a good catch... right up until a very unamused Gyarados appears.
• Jerkass: Maindo, Saito's Ralts, comes off as rude, arrogant and really doesn't like Saito or the others. He eventually crosses into The Friend Nobody Likes territory and his behavior comes to bite him in the ass when Saito and Louise's Pokémon all gang up on him after he sends Louise running in tears after her blunder with her Absol's Mega Evolution.
  • When his Team Rainbow Rocket mirror counterpart pops up, it's briefly speculated if he'd be the Token Good Teammate... but no. Turns out he's somehow even worse, being outright Ax-Crazy and violent to a degree that even the "main" Maindo finds seriously disturbing.
• Joke and Receive: After finding out that Louise has magic, Elizabeth asks if she came from another world, which Saito confirms. Then she asks if Louise is on a mission from God. Louise denies this... because she doesn't consider Arceus to be a god.
• Kansas City Shuffle: Most of the remnants of Team Flare unite to mount a large-scale attack on Cyllage City, which doesn’t have anything warranting that kind of force. Multiple characters wonder just what Team Flare is really after, since many of the attacking grunts are bound to be arrested. Turns out it was all a distraction, drawing attention and law enforcement away from the nearby prison where many of Flare’s elite members were held, allowing for an easy prison break.
• King Incognito: Henrietta often slips out of the palace disguised as a commoner. At first she did this simply to escape the pressures of her position, but over time started learning more about life as a commoner which drove her interests in reform.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Faced with Team Flare suddenly hijacking the power plant and targeting Louise, the group opts to flee and warn the authorities instead of fighting them. Unlike their last encounter (which left Louise temporarily colorblind), there's no other friendly Trainers available nearby, and they're accompanied by Princess Henrietta, so overall fighting is way too risky. Unfortunately, Henrietta disagrees and soon charges right back in, forcing the others after her.
• Lampshade: Pokémon designs, in this exchange:
  Flare Grunt: "My Golbat is not an 'it'! He's a majestic creature!"
  Louise: "He's a flying mouth, that’s what he is!"
  Flare Grunt: "HOW DARE YOU?!"
• Laser-Guided Karma: When travelling through the desert, the heroes briefly have to deal with a group of wild Pokémon annoyed by a Tinkaton stealing their stuff. While said Tinkaton gets some comeuppance when she hammers a boulder at Odachi, when her trainer Carlos shows a complete unwillingness to punish her, and even encourages said behavior if it's limited to wild Pokémon, Maindo and Aile give a bigger dose of karma when they tell the angry Pokémon where to find the two, leading to an angry Poke-mob chasing them across the desert.
• Made of Iron: It's established after Louise's poisoning that Earth humans are significantly tougher on average than Terre humans. This is more or less a necessity to survive in the same world as wild Pokémon.
• Magitech: Henrietta comes to the conclusion that to help Tristain advance, she's going to need to heavily encourage the combination of magic and technology.
• The Magocracy: Halkegenia's system of government for the past six thousand years revolves around this trope. The minority who have magic are the nobility, tasked with ruling the land and protecting its people while the majority without magic are commoners, expected to serve the nobles. Unfortunately, this has created a highly stratified society where commoners aren't viewed very highly by members of the nobility. The Valliere family is noted to be much more courteous towards commoners and sympathetic toward their plights, but even they have a veneer of elitism that's culturally engrained.
• Martial Pacifist: Henrietta bonds with a Snivy who dislikes fighting, only doing so as a last resort. Much like how Henrietta is not respected because she does not conform to the typical noble views, the Snivy is not respected by the other Starters because she does not seek strength through battle like most Pokémon.
• Medieval Stasis:
  • Henrietta mentally lampshades how Halkagenia (especially Tristain) has become obsessed with tradition to the point of stagnation, as the land has not meaningfully changed culturally or technologically in millennia. Even magical research in Tristain delves more into recreating lost mysteries from the Founder's time than creating new spells wholesale. After seeing how much Kalos has changed in a relatively short time, the Princess becomes determined to help force Tristain to advance, kicking and screaming if need be.
  • Saito incredulously lampshades that how they've stagnated magically when Henrietta lets slip that most of the spells in Halkegenia could be traced back to Brimir himself, saying that things are supposed to get better over time, not stagnate.
• Mugging the Monster: Maindo's first encounter with Saito was him trying to rob him by scaring him with illusions so he'd drop his stuff and run. Unfortunately for Maindo, Saito was a trainer, and he ended up captured when he could have gotten clean away if he had really tried.
• Mundane Utility: Fire-type Pokémon can launch massive blasts of flame at their opponents, create walls of fire to encircle the foe, or shroud themselves with a blaze to add to their strength... they're also great for lighting campfires.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • During the Team Flare attack on Cyllage City, Louise got poisoned by a Toxipex and insists on continuing despite that. Elizabeth, who was with her, allowed her to despite initially trying to make her leave. Though at first she believes she isn’t at fault, a talk with her agent causes her to realize that she really should’ve done more to stop Louise.
  • This was Brimir's reaction when he realised he had destroyed a Honedge's soul by binding Derflinger to it. It's revealed that the reason Rainbow Rocket Derflinger ended up giving into cynicism is that, not only did his Brimir not have this reaction, he was outright fascinated by what he had done.
• Mythology Gag: Louise and Saito's Season Two outfits are almost identical to their outfits in the author's other Familiar of Zero crossover fic, Familiar Evil.
• Named by the Adaptation: Viola's full name is Violette "Viola" Pansy.
• Narnia Time: Enforced by Arceus who had Dialga and Celebi ensure that, by the time Louise returns to Halkegenia after her year-long journey in Kalos is completed, only a week will have passed from Halkegenia's perspective. The scale isn't consistent, however, with only the ends converging cleanly.
• No-Sell: Even square-class magic is unable to harm Mew. She thinks Karin's most powerful spell is a game and happily flies around in the tornado it makes.
• New Baby Episode: Season 2 episode 1.2 is focused on introducing the newly-hatched Ōdachi to the rest of the cast.
• Never My Fault: As Saito and Derflinger point out to Maindo, he really has no one else to blame for being captured by Saito, since he came back after running away from his failed attempt to rob Saito, only to get caught, he could have been released if he had just asked, and if he really wanted to escape or destroy his PokéBall, he could have done so easily (he can teleport, after all). This ticks Louise off even further when she learns about it, since she knows what being a victim is really like from being bullied back home.
• No Man Should Have This Power: Derflinger is not surprised that Brimir split the power of the Void among his bloodlines based on what little he could sense after coming to Earth, saying that no one person should have that much power.
• Old Master: Gurkinn is famously known as the Mega Evolution Guru. He knows more about the phenomenon that is Mega Evolution than anyone else, even if Sycamore understands it more in a scientific sense. He ends up giving Louise sage advice on the true reason why her attempt at mega evolution with Auspice failed. Namely, Louise didn't fully understand herself and hasn't fully acknowledged who she truly is. He tells her that if she is to have any hope of mastering Mega Evolution, she has to understand and accept herself.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: After Louise exhausted herself with Teleport spam and was webbed up in a Spinarak colony, Saito made it clear that as her friend he was obliged to never let her live it down.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Tristain Academy of Magic is hit with two in short order.
  • The first is Louise's reverse summoning. Simply put, the act of Louise being pulled through the summoning portal herself rather than her familiar being brought to her is unprecedented in the academy's entire history. Her disappearance sends the entire faculty in a panic as they try to figure out a way to bring her back, latching onto a theorized spell that Brimir came up with towards the end of his life as their only hope.
  • The second is Mew deciding to pop in and make the academy into her own personal playground. None of the teachers or students have ever seen or heard of a Pokémon, much less a Mythical Pokémon such as Mew. Combine that with her trollish and childlike behavior that's entirely focused on having as much fun as possible, and you have a situation that no one knows how to handle. Luckily, Mew isn't actively malicious and isn't trying to hurt anyone, so her presence is really more of an extreme annoyance than anything.
• Pass the Popcorn: Malicorne watches Guiche's one-sided "fight" with Mew in the form of an Alolan Dugtrio with a slice of cake before Mew steals it.
• Parents as People: Louise's parents, Duke Pierre and Duchess Karin de la Valliére. While they clearly love their children and want the best for them, their parenting style isn't the best. Particularly with Louise, as they inadvertently placed undue expectations and stress on her to live up to her family name and noble status to the point where Louise didn't feel comfortable telling them about how bad her time at the academy actually was regarding her bullying (an academy she never wanted to go to in the first place, on top of that). Brought up in the Alolan Paradise OVA, where Lusamine and Kukui point out on different occasions that they need to have an honest conversation with their daughter.
• Pet the Dog: While Maindo has thoroughly alienated the rest of the group with his bad attitude and cruelty, he is very restrained and considerate with the newly hatched Ōdachi.
• Planet Terra: To differentiate the two dimensions, the Pokémon world is referred to as Earth while the Familiar world is Terre.
• Politically-Active Princess: Henrietta has attempted to push multiple reforms which she believes would benefit both the commoners and her country as a whole, but the noble houses have sufficient power that they easily prevent this. This has led many of the nobles, even her most supportive allies, to view Henrietta as naive.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Sycamore never got around to informing the authorities about Louise being from another world (there's precedent and paperwork for it), so she and Saito fell under suspicion from the authorities due to their repeated run-ins with Team Flare before they clear things up with Agent Smith. Louise is rather ticked to realize this.
  • Maindo's Jerkass behavior was partially because he wanted to be released, and didn't think that Saito would let him go unless he was more trouble than he was worth. As Saito points out, as a Psychic-Type and The Empath, Maindo can tell if he's lying, then says he would have let him go if he had just asked. In fact, Saito had actually repeatedly considered the possibility that Maindo had wanted to be released, but kept disregarding it because he assumed that Maindo couldn't be stupid enough not to try the simplest solution.
  • Brimir didn't realize that the Honedge that he'd summoned was sentient, and ended up ripping its soul out to save Derflinger. The Holy Land was a desert once Arceus and the other Legendaries were through with him.
  • Given how accepting of everything Gène appeared to be up to that point, Louise honestly thought taking him to browse evolution stones to get an idea of what he wanted to evolve into, with no intention of actually choosing anything at that point, would be perfectly fine. Instead, Gène gets overwhelmed and almost has a panic attack at the prospect of making such an irreversible decision. Louise later admits that she was wrong to do that.
  • When Louise made her challenge to Arceus, neither party thought to inform anyone back in Tristain what happened, causing panic when Louise seems to vanish into thin air during her summoning.
• Power Nullifier: Arceus is so powerful, he's not only able to stop a Familiar Summoning spell from successfully summoning a creature from Earth either human or Pokémon, for the past six-thousand years, he's also able to prevent Louise's classmates, teachers, and family from bringing her back to Tristain.
• Power Perversion Potential: Brimir came up with the idea of the Teleportation spell because he nearly got caught in Sasha's room by her father.
• Powers via Possession: One Team Flare member used his own body as a Keystone for his Spiritomb, allowing him to use its moves.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Saito notes that unlike the more crazy criminal teams out there, like Team Aqua and Team Magma, or Team Galactic, Team Rocket focuses on organized crime over terrorism, which is probably why they're still around.
  • Similarly, while Maxwell is having agents keep an eye on Saito, Louise, and Henrietta, he isn't planning on having them eliminated, realizing that they're not deliberately seeking them out, and that criminal teams like theirs that antagonize young trainers have a tendency to end up causing their own downfall that way.
• Recursive Fanfiction: The Poké Adventures of Zero And RWBY, a crossover with Boldores and Boomsticks.
• Retcon: Early on, it is established that it was Louise's idea to attend the Academy and she had to beg her parents to let her join. Later chapters and omake revise this to instead have attending the Academy be her parents' idea while she was reluctant to go, with it contributing to her fears that they viewed her as a worthless failure just like everyone else and wanted to get rid of her.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense:Coming from a privileged lifestyle, Louise sometimes has trouble remembering that no one here knows who she is and that her funds are much more limited. She buys every single TM and insists on getting only the highest-quality healing items, ignoring Sycamore's protests that it's massively impractical. She does get better after figuring out that she essentially let the store scam her, though Saito frequently ribs her for it.
• The Rival: Louise, in typical Pokémon fashion, has one in the form of Elizabeth Collete, a wealthy Pokémon collector who tried to purchase Louise's starter from Professor Sycamore. She goes through a Break the Haughty phase and starts to mellow out, but she and Louise still don't get along.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After Brimir accidentally destroyed a Honedge's soul, Arceus and all the legendaries retaliated, reducing the Holy Land to a desert.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Both subverted and averted.
  • Averted with Princess Allie, who frequently orders around her servants with no regard towards them and expects things to be given to her just because she demands it. In contrast, Wikstrom Thyméo is revealed to be nobility, one who not only exemplifies what nobles are supposed to do in Louise's eyes, but also eschews the entire concept. The conversation he has with Louise helps to shape her evolving viewpoint on the institution itself.
  • Princess Henrietta is somewhat of a subversion as well. Despite only being Princess rather than Queen, Henrietta was forced to effectively step into the role after her father suddenly passed away the year prior and her mother was consumed by grief and unable to perform her duties. Unlike Princess Allie, Henrietta genuinely wants to perform her duties as Queen of Tristain, not just Queen of Tristain's Nobles, and frequently tries to push policies to benefit commoners. But due to both being extremely inexperienced and untrained in the art of noble politicking before being thrust into a role she wasn't adequately trained for, along with extreme political resistance to her views, she hasn't been nearly effective as she wished she was. This has led to many of her preconceptions about Tristain's nobility being shattered, and no longer views most of them in as high standing as she used to.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Kirche, as always. Notably, in the Alola OVA, when all of the Tristain Academy of Magic is sent to Alola for a vacation by Mew, Kirche is the only person to not find the beachgoers wearing bikinis to be scandalous, and quickly grabs one in her size.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: A Honedge can shift themselves to look other kinds of blades, like a female one that became a Royal Rapier, but they can only do so once and then they're stuck.
• Shipper on Deck: After seeing how Saito and Loiuse get along after months traveling together, Henrietta decides to help them get a Relationship Upgrade.
• Ship Sinking: Since Wales is still alive at this point and the relationship between Louise and Saito is far healthier, any trace of Henrietta's canonical crush on Saito goes nowhere.
• Shout-Out:
  • When Maindo senses his Rainbow Rocket alternate and realizes his counterpart is stronger, he channels Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z Abridged and declares "I'LL KILL ME!"
  • Several of the alternate universes that Louise sees in the Distortion World are based on other Familiar of Zero fanfics, including The Hill of Swords and the author's other work Familiar Evil.
  • When Mew finds out that Siesta not only knows what she is but also what Pokémon are, Mew decides to test that knowledge in a game of "Who's that Pokémon?"
• Sidelined Protagonist Crossover: The Pokémon side of the crossover is based on the anime, but doesn't feature its main protagonist, Ash Ketchum. Justified, as the story is occurring in parallel with the events of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, meaning Ash is in Alola.
• Sleep Cute: Aw, look at the fluffy little fox curled up with her trainer in their sleeping bag...
• Stable Time Loop: Arceus, after Celebi tells him that he would let Henrietta stay on Earth, wonders why he would have changed his mind. He starts wondering if it was because of that advice in the first place, before giving up because he made Dialga and Celebi to deal with this kind of nonsense themselves.
• The Starscream: One of Guerrier's subordinate Pawniards deliberately held back his evolution into Bisharp until Guerrier was injured during a particularly rough battle. He then challenged for leadership of the pack and won against the weakened incumbent.
• Stating the Simple Solution: As Saito and Derflinger pointed out to him, Maindo could have easily told someone that he didn't want to be a part of Saito's team, or even just ran way, but his Pride and assumption that Saito wouldn't let him go meant that he ramped his Jerkass behavior up so Saito would consider him more trouble than he was worth and release him. Saito even lampshades that he thought a few times that Maindo might not want to be a part of the team, but assumed that he wasn't so stupid that he wouldn't just say something.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Rainbow!Brimir tried attacking Arceus rather than talking. It didn't end well.
• Team Mom: Espirit, Louise's Ralts/Kirlia, proves to be this. Both the emotionally supportive kind as well as the terrifying kind.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Both Saito and Louise have this reaction when they learn the specifics of Korrina's Gym Challenge. Namely, they have to pit their entire teams against a single Mega Evolution. Given how disastrous their prior experiences with mega evolution were, they immediately know they're in for a rough time.
• Time Stands Still: When the reverse-summon spell is attempted, Arceus breaks the spell and stops time to talk to the people involved.
• Throw the Book at Them: Mew gives Louise the Founder's Prayer Book as a birthday gift (on Celebi's behalf) by lobbing it at her at high speed after getting distracted by the cake.
• Top God: Arceus stands as the creator of the universe, and as such is the top of the pantheon of Legendary Pokémon, though Louise is convinced that he is no more than a demigod.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Maindo decides to cause chaos at Parfum Palace after the rest of the group leaves, and gets Tanuki and Aile to help out when they're sent to find him. It doesn't help that Tanuki is already a prankster and Aile is easily bribed with food, and they all agree that Princess Allie is an Asshole Victim. Espirit tears them all a new one once they get back, especially since the group ran into trouble while they were gone.
• Tragic Mistake: Brimir binding Derflinger to a Honedge had devastating consequences for him and Terre. The retaliation of Arceus and the Legendaries reduced the Holy Land to a desert and devastated both his people and the Elves. The Elves rightfully blamed Brimir for this and drove his people out of the Holy Land, setting the stage for the modern political landscape of Terre and Brimir's transformation into a bitter, spiteful man.
• Trapped in Another World:
  • Louise, due to her being taken to Earth courtesy of Arceus. Thankfully for her, there is no rush to find a way home as it's made clear at the beginning that Louise's time in Kalos will only last a year. On top of that, Arceus took pains to make sure that Year Inside, Hour Outside is in effect, so that no more than a week will have passed by the time he sends her back; though this is less for Louise's benefit as it is to protect time-and-space from becoming too damaged from people being in the completely wrong dimension.
  • Mew drags Henrietta along to Earth in the second episode of Season 2, and ditches her in Lumiose City. Arceus would have sent her back immediately, since the political undress that would result from kidnapping a princess is a far bigger deal than taking Louise, on top of the temporal issues that Louise's presence in Kalos already risks, but relents when Celebi implies it won't be a problem and says she can stay.
• Troll:
  • A Mew that ends up at the Academy spends some time messing with Colbert, staying directly behind him the whole time so he can't see them. Afterward, it takes some of Tabitha's books, solely to see what all the fuss with people reading them (to try and find a way to get Louise back) was about, but after Tabitha and Kirche noticed they were missing it decides against putting them back just to see what happens.
  • Kirche eventually came to genuinely enjoy getting under Louise's skin.
• To Be a Master: The goal of both Louise and Saito. Both want to become champion of the Kalos Pokémon League, however whereas Saito wants to win due to a missed opportunity from his childhood, Louise wants to win because she believes that is how she'll prove her worth to Arceus.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: Rainbow!Saito points out that despite the fact that The World Is Always Doomed, no one seems to be proactively trying to prevent rampaging Legendaries or attempting to stop other threats before they actually become problems. Part of why he joined the group is because he believes that they are the best option for dealing with said threats before they become a serious problem instead of simply dealing with each as it comes along.
• Villain Takes an Interest: Team Flare has taken an interest in Louise for her magic, even stealing some of her blood.
• Walking Disaster Area: Terrorist attacks and other worrying incidents tend to happen when Louise is around, to the point where an Absol decides to join her team just to mitigate the damage from future events, and Interpol seriously considered if the party was working for Team Flare.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Louise is very confident that Viola won't be too difficult, since she's just the first Gym Leader and both Brennaraki (a Fennekin) and Aile (a Fletchling) have type advantage, while ignoring the fact that she's only been a Trainer for a week. Viola's Surskit subsequently knocks out both of her Pokémon while taking little damage in return, making Louise realize that her goal is going to be much harder than she assumed.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Rainbow!Saito joined the group in part because The World Is Always Doomed, and he believes that Team Rainbow Rocket is the best option for maintaining order. The rest of it's because he wanted to join the "winning team".
• What If?: Aside from the main story, there are "OVAs" that explores the scenario where Louise was sent different regions instead of Kalos.
  • The first OVA is set in Kanto during the events of Pokémon Journeys: The Series where Louise found herself under the care of Delia Ketchum before going on her journey.
  • The second OVA is set in Alola following the events of Journeys. The viewpoint actually begins with Louise's family and classmates back in Tristain, followed by Mew sending all of them to Alola, where they find out that Louise has been in the region for four months already. The OVA also features the Ultra Recon Squad from Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
• Wham Line: As soon as Henrietta tells Professor Sycamore what her full name is, he instantly realizes where she came from.
• World-Healing Wave: Before Mew heads back to Earth, she undoes all the damage she did to the school, and even makes it like new.
• The World Is Always Doomed: Lampshaded by Rainbow!Saito. He and his Louise did the math, and found that the world was nearly devastated (or outright destroyed), with catastrophe averted by sheer luck and the happenstance of having a plucky trainer be in the right place to stop it, twenty-two times in just the last seven years. This is part of why he and the alternate Louise joined Team Rainbow Rocket in the first place, believing that they can do the best job to stop these threats before they become a problem.
• Wrong Context Magic: Louise’s magical abilities generally serve as proof that there’s some truth to her claims about being from another world.
  • Additionally, a combination of her Void affinity and residual energy from being transferred across universes energizes any Mega Stone Louise has prolonged contact with, allowing for Mega Evolution without a Key Stone. She has no control over this, however, and resolves to avoid touching Mega Stones at all after a wild Beedrill Mega Evolves from a Beedrillite she was transporting and nearly kills her.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Arceus has Dialga modify the rate time passes on Earth relative to Terre. Louise is given one year to prove herself, though only one week will pass in her home.
• You Do Not Want To Know: After the noodler somehow catches a Gyarados, Louise is dumbfounded. She admits to having questions but doesn't want to ask because he might answer them.
• Zombie Apocalypse: One alternate world that Saito and Louise see via the Distortion World is in the middle of one, a Shout-Out to Familiar Evil, a Resident Evil/The Familiar of Zero crossover by the same author.

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