"Pikachu, use thunderbolt!" Ash's voice was strained.

"Again?" She listened anyway.

"Iron tail!"

The former Indigo League Champion was being challenged by yet another Hiker with a team of impossibly leveled Golems. Now, Pikachu and Ash had spent three years in and out of Victory Road, going nowhere. Ash had finally worked his way up to the championship over a decade, but now it seemed that he had—well, he had plateaued.

"Had enough, son?"

"Double team!" Pikachu shook her head. "Okay. Return. Go Wartortle!"

Wartortle emerged in a beam of red light. "My turn."

"Hyro pump! Then, return."

"Really—?" Wartortle was cut off as he dematerialized into red light again, back into a Pokeball.

"Now, Pikachu, use thunderbolt!"

The Golem was knocked out in one hit. Ash sighed.

The hiker put a few coins in Ash's hand. "Here ya go. See ya 'round."

Ash nodded in thanks. After the Hiker was out of earshot, he glanced at Pikachu. "This is getting a little repetitive, isn't it." He wasn't asking a question; he was stating a fact.

"Chaaa..." She yawned.

"How about we go back to Pallet, huh? Take a quick break. Get a breather" Ash took his hat off, and fumbled with it. "I just need to get out of this cave."

"Me too." Pikachu hopped on his shoulder while Ash opened his backpack and tugged an Escape Rope, which transported them to a nearby PokeCenter.

/

Mr. Mime acted as if he had never been gone, as if he was still ten years old, but Delia was surprised to see her son when he showed up in Pallet Town.

"Hey Mom, I'm back."

"Hi honey, is everything okay? Did you finish Victory Road?"

Ash had thought about how he'd phrase this question the whole length of his hike back to his old hometown. He'd lost sleep, thinking of how all the times he'd asked this question before, turning over and over in his sleeping bag. He knew he couldn't continue trudging through Victory Road without knowing this one thing. And now, in the moment, he had lost the lengthy speech had had mentally prepared. "Mom, I need to know what happened to Dad."

"You know he's out there training to become the Champion." Delia said this musically, the same way she'd answered all his reiterations of this question over the years.

"I should have run into him by now." Ash looked to the floor and shrugged. "I need to know."

Pikachu glanced at Ash and then Delia, watching her composed face waver. "Ash, I—"

"Mom, just tell me the truth. Everything. I've got the time. Plenty."

"He really is training to become the Champion."

"Mom!"

"He just—" Delia continued, closing her eyes. "He just isn't, um, very good at it." A too-long silence hovered over the three as Mr. Mime washed dishes in the kitchen, oblivious to the conversation. Delia composed herself. "His dream was to become Champion with a team of Gyrados. The last time I spoke with him, he was hanging around Cinnabar."

"A team of Gyrados?"

"He always felt attached to them."

"No. Can I see that picture of him again?"

"Of course." Delia rose, rummaging through a drawer. She presented the photograph, which was bent and worn.

"I did run into him..."

"You did!?"

"...The trainer with six Magikarp..."

"I told you he wasn't that good at it..."

"But why didn't he recognize me? I mean, I didn't recognize him, but I wouldn't have expected him there. I wouldn't have expected him to have six splashing Magikarp! I ended that battle in minutes..."

"Honey-"

"He should have known who I was! And how could you go this long without telling me what he was up to? How?"

"Ash, he's so embarrassed. We didn't want to disappoint you." She swallowed. "I didn't want to disappoint you."

"And that's an excuse for not having a father!"

"He abandoned me too, Ash." Delia stiffened. "He left me alone with a failing restaurant...and a newborn."

"You could have gotten a divorce! You could have told me the truth. A long time ago."

"You know the law. It wasn't—and isn't—possible. We've never had the money for the fines. But your father knows better than to come into this house again."

Ash sank into the couch. "I can't believe it. I really can't."

Pikachu reached a paw out to Ash's lap.

He looked away. "This whole time, I thought that—that even though I messed up a lot, things were fine at with you and Dad. That it was okay."

"Oh Ash—"

"I'm going to go outside for a little bit."

/

Pikachu brought a bottle of ketchup to Ash, who was sprawled out on the lawn.

He gestured towards a passing cloud. "I know I'm stubborn, but am I that stubborn, Pikachu? Could I be holding on to this stupid dream even if, even if—?"

"Pikapi, you never give up, but it's a good thing. I mean, I've never met your dad, but..."

"I mean, I'm not that great. A lot of what I've accomplished has been luck."

"You've improved a lot. And, hey, you saved the world when you were a kid."

"And what am I gonna do? Go back to Victory Road? I know you don't like grinding, Pikachu, and I don't either. I'll end up just like him, like the fishermen who stay in one spot forever, like one of the Hikers who keep training Golems for decades."

Pikachu plopped beside him and stared at the sky, not knowing what to say.

/

They hung around Pallet for a week, with Ash increasingly becoming withdrawn. They were in the tall grass on the northern side of town when Ash started wiping tears from his eyes.

"Pikachu, I'm releasing you..."

"Pika!"

"Of course we're still friends, but I'm not going to be a trainer anymore. Look at all the older trainers. Do you want me to be like that? Only kids can make it work, and they eventually move on to something else."

"Pikapi—"

"It's not fair to you. You never liked Pokeballs, so now you don't have to be bound to one." He clicked a few buttons on Dexter 3.1, and Wartortle, Venusaur, and Charizard appeared in red beams of light, confused by a lightheaded sensation they hadn't felt since they were first caught. "Guys, we're having a team meeting."

Charizard yawned. "Now?" He looked around. "Here?"

Wartortle whispered to Pikachu, "What's going on?"

"I have no idea." Her tail sank.

"You guys know how hard the last few years have been. I decided it's not fair to you to keep working so hard if we're just going to get stuck like everybody else. You're released."

"What!" Wartortle's jaw dropped. Charizard, for once, was speechless.

"You can keep hanging out with me if you want, or you can stay with Professor Oak and the Tauros and Kingler, or you can go on your own journeys. Whatever you decide is fine." Ash looked at each of them in turn, trying to ignore the growing lump in his throat. "I love you."