A/N: Hey-oh, my wonderful readers! Happy New Years and thank you for stumbling onto my story!

For those who didn't read Ash's Realization or hasn't read it in a while, this prologue should be a good summary what happened last book without having to go through almost 500,000 words of reading. If you want to continue past this point, then please, go ahead. If not, that's alright, too. I just hope everyone has a lovely day. Happy reading!

Certain things make note of:

"..."- This denotes regular speech

"..." This denotes thoughts, flashback or telepathy when stated directly.

"..." This denotes a Pokemon's speech.

"..." This denotes a Pokemon's thoughts or telepathy or Pokemon speech in flashbacks when stated directly.

"(...)" (This denotes a Pokemon's speech, but only select characters can understand it).

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." -Lao Tzu

Tales of a Rising Master

Chapter ?: What Even Is My Life Now?

Um… hey? I'm not sure how to start one of these things. My mom suggested it to me as a way to keep track of my thoughts if I'm ever feeling overwhelmed or if I feel like it. I don't usually write things like this, but hey, I might as well start somewhere. Now that I have some time to myself, that is.

I'm not even sure where to begin. Speaking about my mom is so… strange… at this point.

Up until about two weeks ago, I thought my mom was a woman named Delilah Twilight. I didn't know my dad, but we lived happily in our house in Pallet Town. She was often very nice, although she could be a little embarrassing to me at times. Going on those journeys and her freedom with them felt great. I often was afraid that I wasn't giving her enough credit or attention. When I was a younger kid, I was thinking moreso about the new Pokémon I would meet.

Now, I never want to see her again. Every time I think of Delia, I feel myself get so… angry. It's a scary type of anger, too. I feel like I'm capable of breaking her neck the next time I see her. I… don't like having those type of emotions. It doesn't feel like me. A lot has happened since I ended my journey in Kalos.

When I reached Kanto after finishing up the Kalos League, I found out that my real mother's name is Auroralia Ketchum… or Aurora for short. She doesn't like being called Auroralia to the point where I found out that was her name the same day I started to live with her. She's weird, but caring and adventurous.

Anyway, apparently, she lost her memory of me after being knocked unconscious protecting me nine years ago from this group called the Zurui. The Zurui is this ragtag group of mostly psychics that hates guardians and wants psychics and guardians to remain segregated from each other. They want to use their patron legendary to achieve this, too. The Zurui saw my mom as a threat to their plans and tried to kill her and kidnap me. For the most part, it worked. Unfortunately for them, my mom survived, eventually regained her memory of me and took me back from my fake mother.

All in the while, I was linked aura-wise to Mom because of the legendary Pokémon Mew. She did that to allow one of us to find the other if we regained our memory of one another and to allow us to get stronger. The ambush that left Mom on death's door caused her brain to be without oxygen for more than five minutes. This caused her to lose her memory on a lot of things that she had to work toward getting back. I lost my memory when Delia stole them, so I would regard her as my mom.

Mew linked us together as a trial of sorts. Mew always wants Mom and I to improve, whether we think it's right or wrong. So, she used our other sides' anger against us to help us get stronger. Our counterbalances had been suppressed when Mom and I lost our memories and they took their anger out on us. Mew gifted Ketchums with a counterbalance to their personality similar to how Arceus is her counterbalance, but separated. My counterbalance is kind of like me, but is much more distant and cold to people.

Mew made the Ketchums and our psychic counterparts, the Malladuses, the most like her when she first creating humans, so that makes us the most powerful of the guardians and psychics respectively. I can switch to Ashton at will and he makes my eyes red when he's out.

This grants my family a lot of strength, but… piss off our counterbalance and they become more of a hinderance. I can't tell you how many times Ashton has made my head hurt when I disagreed with him. Now that the whole life-threatening link is over and I remember Mom, both Mom and I have been on pretty good terms with our counterbalances. Arceus, this is so weird to think and to be serious about reflecting. Having another side of myself is even weirder than my brand of strange seeing all those legendaries on my journey.

My home region… my real home region, Hokori, even has a section of cities that practice separation between guardians and psychics. It's horrible thinking about it. I want to do something about it, but I know I'm not strong enough. I've been in situations other trainers never hoped to dream of. I've had so many encounters with legendaries and evil teams. You name it, I likely been through it. However, from how Mom is describing it, Hokori seems like it's an entirely different sort of beast.

My mother is actually the Champion of the Hokori region. She's scary strong and skilled with both Pokémon and aura. I've seen her in battle. She battles just like me, but her style is more refined and unpredictable. I felt this personally when I faced her in the finals of the Kalos League and later again at the back of Clemont's house. She knows how to play to your weaknesses and that's something I want to be able to do when I get stronger. I know I have a lot to learn and I want to learn from one of the best.

My mom lives in the Tree of Beginning, in a secluded part of the forest. She has a berry tree garden in front of the house and a battlefield past that. The whole place screams nature. The air there smells so good and fresh and I almost always see some Pokémon hanging out near her house. It's crazy how many Pokémon she's met in her life. She told me a lot of my father's Pokémon live in the Tree, too. Since living with her, I needed to transfer all of my Pokémon over from Professor Oak's lab.

Although the professor was sad to see them go, he was totally understanding and helped in the effort. I started to learn more about him and his past, like how often Celebi and him interact or some of his interest in scholarly things. I've never been too much of an academic person, but I love when he talks about his adventures with his Pokémon. I could feel my marks glowing in excitement when he talks about some of the close calls he's had with his Dragonite in the past. The professor is stronger than I imagined him to be.

Now, all my Pokémon roam freely in different parts of the tree. I find them doing their own thing most of the time throughout the tree. I made sure to check up on them at least once because I don't want to forget about anyone again. I recently told Bulbasaur that along with Pikachu, Greninja and Charizard that they are my guardian partners. Bulbasaur seemed so excited to connect with me more. I'm excited, too, especially since I'm going out tomorrow to catch the last two of my partners.

Even though it's been a couple of weeks since I started to live with Mom, my time here have been both toughest and the best in my life. Mom makes learning things interesting. Instead of just telling me things, she does it with me. She never yells if I do something wrong or sighs in disappointment. She's really patient with me and I appreciate that. Her smile helps to keep me going even when I get frustrated with doing something like making a cupcake.

I only started to delve into more aura things today, but before that, Mom has been teaching me how to take care of myself. She's also been helping me learn how to fight hand to hand again. I feel a lot of my movement is natural and I'm enjoying myself. I've not been able to lay a hand on Mom while sparring, but that's because she's super experienced. I know I'm not going to surprise her too much as I've just started and that's okay. I know I'll get better. I dread when I have to use what I've learned against other people, though.

Mom also showed me a few recipes I could use and how I could use my powers to find berries to incorporate into these dishes. What she makes is very healthy, but delicious, too.

I… struggled quite a bit trying to grasp the basics of self-sustaining myself. I didn't realize how much I leaned on my friends to help me. I felt as though I was useless on my own. However, Mom was slow and patient with me. She even got her mother to try helping me out. They know that Delia didn't really teach me much, so they decided to fill in for lost time. I think I can locate different berries, identify them and use them both for healing Pokémon and cooking basic foods. It's all thanks to them. I still don't know how to cook too well, but I'll get there.

I really like my maternal grandmother, actually. She's super sweet and she's even more handy than Mom. Her name is Alison, but I see my grandpa call her Alice. The main thing that separates Mom and Grandma is that her temper is even scarier than Mom's. I even see her hair point up like devil horns when she's fuming. I've only seen her like that toward Grandpa, but I don't want her to ever look at me like that.

Grandpa is much rougher than both of them, though. His name is Gordon, but I see Grandma call him Gordo. I heard from Mom that he has been keeping up a psychic barrier to prevent foreign psychics from entering the Tree to interfere with my training. Mom really tried her best to make sure I stay as comfortable and focused as possible. Sometimes, Grandpa delegates the duty to Mew, but I can tell he's super exhausted.

The first thing my grandparents did when they saw me for the first time in nine years was stand there in shock. It seemed like I was a bit of a ghost to them. Once their surprise was gone, they both gave me a big hug, though getting hugged by anyone in the family can get you crushed if you're not careful. I even saw them both crying, but Grandpa was trying to hide his tears more. We've reached a bit of a status quo at the Tree since they got used to seeing me again.

I really like that my family is bigger than I thought. For the longest time, I thought my mom was my only family. I'm glad to see that I have a grandma and grandpa. If only I knew where Dad is…

When Grandpa isn't tired, I noticed he can be rude when talking to or about psychics. Grandma is the same way, but she's a bit more discreet. The only person here that is a little bit psychic here is Serena. Serena is only half psychic and half guardian, though. I don't think Grandpa or Grandma likes Serena for that reason. I don't like that, but Mom told me that they won't change and that she has encouraged them to be more open in the past. Mom has tried to make sure Serena keeps her distance from her parents and has apologized for their behavior time and time again. I can only imagine how the rest of Hokori is like if Grandma and Grandpa are so racist.

Speaking of Serena, she's here with me. Mom makes sure we don't sleep in the same room, but I'm not sure why. Still, I find it strange to be in a relationship with her. Considering how dense I am at times, I am not sure how I ended up with someone so great like her. Serena has helped me so much since Mom found me again and she's helped me to keep my emotions in check. Just thinking about her makes my heart soothe… and I feel so appreciative that she's committed to being here with me. I hope nothing ever happens to her. It would rip my heart apart.

Mom has been helping Serena with her performances since she had been a Coordinator at some point in her life. She's also enlisted the help of two of her friends from the Hokori region. Mirabelle has been trying to help Serena tap into her psychic side since she's a master psychic and the Psychic-type Elite Four specialist in the Hokori region. Raven, a dusk guardian and an dark aura master, has been helping train Serena with her guardian side. Mirabelle looks a lot like Anabel. I wonder if she is her mother. Raven seems slightly creepy at times, but she's super sweet, even helping defend Serena from my grandparents, just like Mom does.

I heard from Serena herself that she prefers Raven teaching her guardian stuff over Mom, despite Mom being more powerful and experienced. She told me how close she and Raven was in the past and wanted to find out more about her through training. I respect that. It seems like some of what I told her got through since Serena doesn't like training much.

It's crazy how much Serena been through, too. She didn't go through some sort of life changing separation like I did, but she dealt with her powers being suppressed for most of her life. Only when she met Mom was when she began delving into her own latent power. Actually, I'm not too sure if Serena has a good relationship with her mother. She's always so sore when she mentions Ms. Grace. I can only imagine.

I have yet to see Grace come and visit us here in the Tree of the Beginning. I'm not even sure if she knows where Serena is. I've told Serena that she should talk with her mom, but Serena always changes the topic or brushes me away. I'm not sure what's in her head, but I hope that things will get better for her. I have a lot that's in my mind, too.

The Second Great Prophecy… if I'm going to ever see Dad at some point in my life… if I'm going to meet my mother's expectations of me… all these things are flooding my mind. I don't let people know about these things because I don't want them to worry about me. However, I do see Mom stare into me at times, almost as if she's noticed. I feel like she might want to talk to me about everything soon.

This is the beginning of my new life. I need to make the most of it and I'll be happy to do it with my real family and Serena. I have to keep going and never think of the past. When I do, my head begins hurting. I can't ever let what happened when I confronted Delia happen again. I don't want to be like that to anyone. I saw the look in her eyes… she was terrified of me. Serena was, too.

As long as I'm still breathing, I will do what I can to protect those I love. I just hope I won't go overboard.

Hmm… Mom was right. I do feel a little better writing out all my thoughts. I feel a little liberated. Er… at least, I think that's how I use the word 'liberated'. My other self is usually better with bigger words, snider comments and… well, smarter things in general. Heh… I can feel him cringing in me now. He's wondering what's wrong with me. I'm not sure at this point, either. Anyway, I think it's time for me to head to bed.

Tomorrow is the day I begin to search for the guardian partners I don't have already. Mom talked about how certain Pokémon strengthens my aura due to having a bond that fits me the most. The more guardian partners, the stronger the base guardian is. She called them Aspects of myself. I can't wait to find Larvitar and Lucario and get to know them better!

Um… I'm really sure how to end this, so I'll write… Ash Ketchum signing off!

A/N: Chapters will be around this length typically (no more than 6000 words) and the story is faster paced than the previous book. This was a conscious choice as I grew a little annoyed at my own verbosity. Hopefully, the chapters being shorter won't hinder the reading experience. For those who read the previous book, I hope you enjoyed the first person point of view callback/parallel! The story won't be in first person and is instead in third person.

Also, for those who didn't read the previous book... Hello! Pleased to make your acquaintance! I hope you'll stick around for the ride. If you want to stay updated on my progress on each chapter, feel free to head to my profile! I only update when I finish a chapter. Once again, happy reading!

First chapter: Setting Expectations

~SPG123~