Nobody knew what to do, Ash touched Ritchie's shoulder. However he had no idea of how continue their interaction, let alone what to say to him; situations like that were not his forte. Serena went over to try and console Ritchie, and as soon as she touched his free shoulder he used her own shoulder to continue his little cry.

"I need someone else's opinion on this," Ash said, reincorporating from his maudlin friend. "Gary, what do you think, which region should I go to next?"

"I don't know," Gary replied scantily. "And I don't even care, I don't want to travel to any region anyway, not even if they invited me."

"Would you like to come to Domerlac?" Karius stepped in and seized the opportunity. Although he seemed decidedly less interested in Gary.

"I don't know, maybe. What are you offering?"

"An invitation dude, I mean you can come if you want to, nobody's telling you you can't, in fact nobody's even talking to you."

"Hey! Don't you know who I am?"

"Yes."

"You do?" Gary seemed genuinely surprised.

"Yes, you're Samuel Oak's nephew."

"Hey, I am my own person, okay."

"Oh wow, no way. Hey everyone listen to this guy, he's his own person."

Something exploded outside. It didn't sound terribly loud, but the floor on the living room trembled a little, at least enough to make everyone afraid. Thankfully for them that seemed to be the end of it.

As soon as everyone realized they were not in danger they all walked outside filled with curiosity. There was smoke coming out from a tree nearby, and the multitude were soon joined by Yvgeny, who was still next to the window, in inspecting the maligned zone.

They followed the smoke all the way to a small patch of yellow grass surrounded by some trees, not far from Ash's house. Their surprise and intense curiosity were matched, perhaps even surpassed, by what they found underneath the tree. Some kind of vehicle had crashed there, it looked like a gray compact car, of the kind that can only fit two people inside, with a very futuristic design, and a pair of enlarged exhaust pipes coming from the back. It was not on fire, it didn't even look that damaged, but it was obvious the impact had been considerable.

One of the doors of the vehicle suddenly opened and a blueish-gray figure came out and dropped on the ground. Ash, Serena and Ritchie rushed to help, but the figure raised nonchalantly and started dusting its clothes off with its hands before the trio reached the crash scene. The dust settled completely and they got close enough to take a good look at the unfortunate pilot, it was a girl with remarkably curly brown hair tied into a wild bun. She had a lively face and an unusual pair of blue eyes, with a pair of blue goggles above them adorning her forehead. She was wearing a shiny blue tank top that adjusted tightly to her skin and left her midriff bare, and blue shorts that ended below her knee, also very tight.

She immediately recognized Ash, her face lit up. She went over to him and energetically extended her hand to him.

"Hey Ash!" She said with her high pitched yet pleasant voice. "I'm Emica, and I'm here to invite you to the technologically advanced, futuristically rich region of Kynomiral."

"Come on! Yet another one?" Scott cried behind them.

"I'm so glad I've found you Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, I was afraid I would arrive too late. That's why I—as you can see—didn't take the necessary precautions on the road."

"You did get here too late, leave!"

"Are you okay?" Ritchie asked her. His eyes were still swollen.

"Yeah, why? Oh this, don't worry, my travel pod is very safe. So what do you say Ash Ketchum," Emica said looking straight at Ash, who was confused, scared and excited, all at the same time, "are you ready to come with me to Kynomiral?"

"Uhh... you bet!"

"Wait! Hold on a minute," Jake cried out. "You can't just come here and snatch him away. Ash! You need to decide bro, who's it gonna be?"

Jake pointed at Ash in an accusatory manner, to which Ash responded by staring at nothing in particular, silently, with a resolute look on his face. It was obvious he was going to leave on a journey with one of them, but it was also obvious he had no idea of which one of them it would be. Just then, as they waited patiently for Ash to move and answer them, his eyes became ten times bigger, then he smacked his cheeks loudly. That whole deal had made Ash forget something really important, and remembering it made him explode internally. Everyone else took his volatile reaction as a sign of his resolution, and they were dying from the expectation.

"I just remembered," Ash said, while everyone gave him their most unadulterated attention. "My friend Lillie was supposed to arrive today, she's visiting from Alola!"

"So what does that mean?" Karius, the scholarly dude from Domerlac, intervened. "Which region do you choose?"

Before anyone could speak again Delia smacked her cheeks too, just as loudly as her son did moments ago, if not more.

"I forgot to tell you Ash!" She exclaimed. "She's already here, I'm afraid we left her alone in the house, she was waiting for you in your room."

"Come on Serena," Ash finalized before he bolted off to his house, with Serena quickly reaching him and running by his side.

"...you know what..." Jake said, "I blame Emica for this."

"Yeah, me too," Scott added.

"I don't know," Emica replied. "I have a good feeling about this…"