Author's Note

May's POV


"Hello, everyone. My name is Ash Ketchum." said the familiar figure at the front. "I'm a Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town." Ash looked around the room calmly and then sat down in a free seat near the front.

There was a momentary pause. Dr. Garez had said the introductions should be brief, but none of them had been that brief. Everyone had been expecting a little more, especially from Ash. Speaking of which… As Dr. Garez broke the silence and began the lecture, I turned to meet my friends' eyes. I was forced to acknowledge what I'd been trying to ignore since I realized it was Ash that walked in.

Something was terribly wrong.

There were a thousand reasons for that conclusion. To name a few: Ash was not wearing his hat; he had not included the obligatory phrase that was always a part of his introduction and identity, "and I want to be a Pokémon Master"; disturbingly, he did not have Pikachu on his shoulder; also disturbingly, his eyes had moved over all of us without even a flash of acknowledgement. I was not sure which of the last two points was more disturbing.

Something was terribly wrong.

For the rest of the class Dr. Garez lectured on the different trainer classes and the realms and bounds of each one. The lecture was anything but boring – I could see him moving about often, bringing out props, doing demos, and I often heard laughter from the class – but I couldn't focus. I was tuning in and out of the class, unable to keep my mind or eyes away from Ash. I often met worried eyes with Misty, Tracey, Brock, or Dawn; every so often, two of them would whisper between themselves. I was dying to get up and approach Ash, but the good doctor seemed to not be giving breaks in such a dynamic class.

I looked at the clock. Forty minutes to go. I fidgeted. It was too long.

I unzipped my waist pack and reached inside. My fingers closed around the cool metal of my half-ribbon. I felt the soft fabric on the edge of it and took a deep breath, closing my eyes.

"…And thus," I jerked awake, realizing I'd fallen asleep and attempting to compose myself, "while each class of Pokémon trainer has different objectives with their Pokémon, all of them share a common element: a strong bond between trainer and Pokémon dramatically increases their chance of success in their field." Dr. Garez pressed a button on a remote and the projector screen slid up the wall. The sound of a bell ringing nearly made me jump. The professor clapped his hands together as people bustled to gather their things. "And that's it for today! I will see you all tomorrow - please enjoy the rest of your first day here at PokéCamp!"

People were filing out of the room already as we all stood up. Brock looked grimly at the rest of us; I could imagine that the changes in Ash were most apparent and disturbing to him, who'd traveled with Ash the longest.

"Let's catch up to Ash," he said.

"Too late," said Max, who came back into our row, panting. "I tried to catch him but he was out near the front and it was too crowded."

A moment. Then: "Alright, let's not stress over it, guys. We'll see him at lunch or around the campus and we'll find out what's up. For now, let's just go to our next classes."

I found it hard to believe Brock could brush over all the red flags with Ash, but then I realized he was just trying to keep everyone calm. If he acted panicked, we would all lose it. Or at least by the looks of it, Dawn and I would. Misty had a frown pasted on her face which I guessed was to suppress her worried side. Max seemed upset and Tracey was talking to him. Suddenly Max nodded and Tracey stood up.

"Brock's right, guys, let's just deal with it when we see him." Tracey said. We all agreed silently, and made our way out of the hall.

I checked on Max quick to make sure he was ok and then let him split off to his next class. Everyone else just followed their maps until we all split off, except for Dawn, who was either following me to talk, or…

"Dawn, do you have Pokémon Fashion now, too, by any chance?"

Dawn looked like she'd been snapped out of a trance. "Huh? Uh, yeah, I do." She smiled. "So we have it, together, huh? This'll be fun."

I smiled back. "You better believe it." But I couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. "So… Weird stuff with Ash, huh?"

Dawn looked pretty upset. "Yeah. You saw, no Pikachu, no hat… He didn't seem enthusiastic at all when he introduced himself. Worst part was when he looked around I could swear we met eyes… but it looked like he didn't even recognize me."

I felt a pang as everything she said resonated with my earlier thoughts. "Yeah…" How could I comfort her when I was in the same pit? "It'll be ok. There's some explanation, and we'll find out soon. Let's not let it get us down too much before we know what's actually going on."

It was awful encouragement, but Dawn gave a small nod and a forced smile. We walked into our next class and took seats next to each other.

The teacher was a young, pretty blonde woman named Ms. Modino. She looked like lots of fun and promptly began teaching in a perky, enthusiastic voice. But Dawn and I looked straight at each other, and I knew trying to pay attention wouldn't be worth a lick.

This was going to be a long day.


"Glaaa~~" Glaceon complained, making a face at me. I jumped, surprised, and then knelt down to pet the poor thing. I was in my Pokéblock Mixing class, and on the first day the teacher was evaluating our current skills by having us mix Pokéblocks as best we could and feeding them to our Pokémon. Which I really wasn't bad at usually. But I was still out of it, and Glaceon was paying for it.

"Sorry," I said sincerely, rubbing behind Glaceon's ear. "I'm just a little distracted, is all. I'll get you something nice afterwards, maybe even something Brock whipped up." Glaceon purred in happiness.

I stood up as people started packing up. I sighed; after Dawn and I'd made it through the Fashion class, we'd all met for lunch, but we couldn't track Ash down. But before we had to get back to class we'd realized that we all shared another class in common – the Battle Seminar, at the end of the day. We figured that chances were it was another large class most people passed through, and we were banking on Ash being there.

The bell rang and I snapped to attention. I returned Glaceon to my Poké Ball and rushed out the room. I hurried to the place where the Battle Seminar was taking place.

From the outside it looked the same as the room in which the General Seminar had taken place, but as I pushed open the door I found the inside layout much different. There was a chalkboard and desk at one end of the room for lecture purposes, but in the center of the room was a large, circular depression which housed an arena – there was the classic Poké Ball logo in the middle and a large electronic scoreboard mounted on the wall of the arena. Bleachers surrounded the arena. This was as hands-on as a classroom could get.

I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Dawn waving at me from the top of one of the bleachers. Apparently everyone else was already here. I ran up to meet them.

"Any sign of him yet?" I asked Dawn.

"No, but we're looking. Keep your eyes peeled, too." No kidding. All of my friends were standing up as well, looking around intently.

"There!" Max piped up suddenly.

We all looked where he was pointing. Sure enough, I saw messy black hair and Ash's Sinnoh outfit. He was here, sitting near the front of the bleachers.

The professor moved to the front of the room. "Hello, and welcome to the Battle Seminar! Here, we'll be learning all about Pokémon Battling." He boomed. "I would tell you what exactly this class is about, but I'd like to make a point about it by showing you instead!" He grinned widely. "Now, can I have two enthusiastic volunteers to give us an exhibition match?"

It was an admirable attempt, but I doubted anyone would be willing to stand up in front of so many people on the first day and just –

"I'd like to volunteer." Alright, never mind. The person who'd said this was sitting directly opposite Ash at the bottom of the bleachers. As the professor nodded and the volunteer stood up I saw he was a boy about my age, with purple hair and a serious, heavyset face.

Dawn shifted next to me uncomfortably, and I turned and saw recognition on her and Brock's faces. That must mean this guy was someone they met in Sinnoh.

The professor waited a moment. When there were no other volunteers he motioned to the boy who'd stood up.

"Thank you for volunteering, young man. Your name?"

"Paul," said the boy curtly. Was it just me, or was he trying to make eye contact with Ash?

"Well, Paul, since nobody else is volunteering, you may choose your opponent. I have to say that while I am not a fan of forcing participation, I think an exhibition match is the best way to get this class started, and seeing as the people gathered here are the best of the best, I can't say I feel bad for forcing anyone's participation – everyone here should be more than qualified for a little exhibition match. So, young man, who'd you like to face? Someone random? A friend? An old rival?"

Paul smiled grimly – this guy just wasn't happy, huh? – and said, "I'll go with the last option. He raised his finger and pointed it straight at Ash. "Ash Ketchum, I challenge you to a battle!"

It seemed there were a good many people in the room who were familiar with the rivalry between Ash and this guy named Paul. Cheers broke out as Paul issued his challenge. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brock and Dawn looking at each other uneasily. I turned to them.

"If Ash accepts the challenge and battles and this guy really is his rival, we can probably figure out a lot about Ash's situation from the way the battle plays out. Sit tight, guys, and if anyone notices anything, point it out to the rest of us."

Brock and Dawn seemed to loosen up as I said this and there were nods all around. But there was a small caveat – Ash had to agree to the battle.

The room had gone silent as everyone waited for Ash's response. I felt a sudden pre-battle adrenaline rush and the ridiculous urge to smile and I turned to the others in my row, who seemed to be fighting the same urge. I knew exactly why.

Who was I kidding? Some things might have changed, something might be wrong, but Ash Ketchum was Ash Ketchum.

Ash Ketchum stood up from his seat and faced Paul head-on, locking eyes with him.

"I accept your challenge."


Author's Note

Next Update: 07/14/13, by 4:00 AM UTC