Ashchu's Journey

Chapter 1: The Reason

Ash was on his way to the Cerulean City gym. He was so excited. He was going to travel through Kanto and challenge the elite four a second time. Pikachu was running next to him. He was just as excited as ash. They were going to ask misty if she could join them. They really wanted her to come. Ash more so.

I have to tell her how I feel, Ash thought. While he thought this he remembered the incident that had led him to learn of his feelings for Misty.

(flashback)

Ash was travelling back to Nuvema Town to head to Pallet Town. It was a beautiful day and Iris and Cilan were with him. He had to say he would miss travelling with these guys. Maybe they could visit him in Pallet Town. He was excited to be going back to his old hometown. He missed his friends. Brock, the great cook and loyal friend always there to help out and give any advice; except tips about how to get a girl, which only worked once and helped Kenny with Dawn. Brock could never get a girl, even though he would try to woo just about every woman he saw. Ash chuckled to himself.

Then there was Misty. The fiery, hot-headed red-head who would bang Ash and Brock into the ground with her feared mallet. Ash always got a weird feeling inside him whenever he thought about the water type gym leader. He couldn't explain it, but he knew it had something to do with Misty.

Later that day, they arrived in the harbor of Nuvema Town. Ash was about to board a ship to Kanto. He hugged his friends.

"You sure you guys don't want to come? It'll be great! I could introduce you to my first friends and you could meet all of my pokemon." He reasoned with them.

"I'm sorry Ash, but I have to go back to the gym and Iris has to go back to her village. Maybe we could visit for a holiday or something like that." Cilan told him.

"Yeah that would be great." Then a bell chimed. "Well I have to go now. I'll see you at Christmas." He said walking down the dock. Cilan and Iris waved and were about to leave when a huge pokemon broke out of the water and dragged Ash down into the ocean. Iris, Cilan, and Pikachu screamed.

"Ash/Pikapi!" They ran to where the pokemon had dragged Ash into the ocean. A crowd had started to form. The pokemon had never been seen in Unova before, and they have never known a pokemon to just drag someone down with them.

"What pokemon was that Cilan?" Iris asked.

"I don't know Iris. It's definitely not from Unova." He replied. Meanwhile, Ash was being dragged to the bottom of the ocean. The pokemon that had grabbed him was a Feraligatr. He wondered why it was here and why it had dragged him into the ocean. He couldn't worry about that now. He was losing air. He struggled. He managed to kick the pokemon in the shin and elbow it in the face. He heard it growl. He knew he wasn't doing that much damage to it. He then put all his focus into a river of energy that flowed in the back of his mind. He focused that energy into a ball in his hand and threw the aura sphere at the big jaw pokemon. It did a lot of damage. The Feraligatr recovered, looking beat up, and growled at him one last time before swimming away. Ash didn't focus on his victory very long though. He had to get to the surface as fast as possible. He was very far down. He started to swim up.

Iris and Cilan were waiting at the edge of the dock with looks of foreboding on their faces. Ash had been down there for a very long time. Suddenly, Cilan put a hand on Iris's shoulder. She looked at him.

"Iris, he's been down there too long. I don't think our friend will be coming back up. The most we can do is call his family and friends and tell them what happened to him." He told her depressingly. Iris had tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe the kid that had managed to get through extreme dangers, would die of drowning. She cried.

"Yeah…" she said between sobs. "But I don't know any of Ash's friend's phone numbers or his mom's." Cilan looked disappointed.

"I don't know any of them either. How are we supposed to tell them now?" he said to her.

"Well, I could call Prof. Oak. And he could tell Ash's mom and his friends." A voice said behind them. They looked around to see Prof. Juniper standing there with a sad look on her face.

"Thank you Professor. We really appreciate it."

"It's the least I can so after he helped me so much with my research." She replied. "For now, we will remain on or vigil for our beloved friend." She said sitting down next to them.

Meanwhile, Ash was swimming as fast as he could. He had lost his breath 30 feet ago and was starting to pass out from lack of air.

"Have… to… stay… awake…." He thought. I turned out that staying awake was much harder than he thought, although with his lack of air he should have known it would have been. He still had 20 feet to go and knew he wasn't going to make it. As he was about to completely lose all his will to survive; a voice called out to him.

"Ash you have to stay awake. You can't die on me now. Think of how sad we would be if you never returned. You've already died once and I don't want you to die again. You've made it through much worse than this. You have to keep trying." The voice urged him. Ash opened his eyes. He recognized the voice as Misty's and the thought about her crying over his death gave him a boost in strength and determination. He didn't want to see her crying over his grave as a spirit. He started to swim again. He had sunk a few feet while he had given up. He swam faster he was at his breaking point. He had to get above the water soon or he would most certainly die. A few seconds later, he broke the surface.

Cilan, Iris, and Prof. Juniper all yelled in surprise. Pikachu yelled in delight of seeing his trainer alive. Ash was too tired to swim or even stay afloat even more. Luckily, Cilan had the sense to swim out and help him back to the dock. The crowd all looked relieved to see him alive. Even if he was a complete stranger. Ash was lying on the dock, breathing heavily, his vision was blurry and the only things he could make out were the yellow of Pikachu's body and the green of Cilan's hair. After he registered that he passed out.

Ash shook from the memory. He had woken up to find himself in the hospital. Luckily, His friends were too worried about him to call his mom or any of his friends. He didn't want to worry them.When they had left, he started to think of why heard Misty's voice. He rolled it over in his mind and it attached itself towards the strange feeling he ad whenever he thought of her. And it clicked.

Then they saw it. The gym was right up ahead. It was a large gym, with beautiful pictures of water pokemon on it. Ash smiled. He couldn't wait to see Misty. He hadn't told her he was coming. He wanted it to be a surprise. He knocked on the door. Daisy answered it.

"Ash! Like, what are you doing here?"

"Hi Daisy, is Misty here?"

"Yeah, like, I'll go get her."

"That's okay, I got it." He said. He wanted to surprise Misty and also get away from Daisy. The way she talked was just weird. They walked into the gym and Daisy led him to a hallway.

"Misty's room is down the hall 3rd door on the left. If you need anything, just call me." She said.

"Wow Daisy, you just went a whole sentence without saying 'like'." Ash said surprised.

"Hey, we can't act blonde all the time." She replied, walking away.

Ash stood there, shocked. Was all their stupid quirks just an act? He continued to stand there until pikachu shocked him back to his senses. He'd have to ask her later. Right now there were more important things to worry about. He continued his way to Misty's room.