Last Time on Ashes:
A secret passage, a festival full of distractions, a stolen kiss, and an identity revealed.
Quote: "Not bad, Pikachu Hunter."

Chapter Fourteen: Once Upon A Time

You are my sweetest downfall
I loved you first, I loved you first
-Regina Spektor

A little girl dashed out of the hot kitchens and into the sunshine. Her short skirts flew out behind her, hardly able to drag her down. She was a redheaded blur, her pockets full and heavy. She bounced to a stop in the center of the courtyard just steps away from where a small cluster of feathered monsters were pecking at the ground.

The little girl dug into her pockets, crushing the contents into her hands. She withdrew two large handfuls of cookie crumbs and with a happy laugh scattered the crumbs into the air. The pidgey reacted just as the girl knew they would. The snowfall of food was enough to entice them closer. In moments, she was encircled by them.

She couldn't hold in her glee. She spun about, causing the birds to flutter and flap into the sky again. They brushed by her, ruffling her skirts and hair. It tickled, making her laugh harder.

And through the falling feathers and fluff, the girl was startled by the sight of a small boy standing across the way. She confused him for a statue; he was so still and silent. His hair as dark as the night sky and skin as pale as the moon, a frightening combination. But then his eyes shone and she could just make out the drying tear tracks running down his cheeks. Her fear melted into cool curiosity.

He wasn't crying now. Just staring at her as if he'd never seen another person before. His drab, hand-sewn cotton garb said "country boy", so maybe he hadn't. Country people were sheltered. The girl had seen many of their glazed, wide-eyed looks before, whenever they first visited Hanada palace. But, as she swayed on the spot, she realized it wasn't her that had captured his attention—his eyes weren't following her. He was enraptured by the monsters.

The girl jogged over, unsurprised that the boy recoiled, stumbling backward and behind the nearest tree. He looked to be only a year or so younger than herself. Five turns at the most; awfully young to be out and about by himself. She stuck her face too close to his own, ignoring the tree he had tried to place between them.

"Hiya," she chirped sweetly, digging into her pockets to withdraw another messy handful of crumbs. "Wanna try?"

The boy was scared but like the pidgey, he couldn't seem to resist the cookie crumbs. He reached out hesitantly and she dumped them into his hand, letting the excess tumble to the ground. Before she could lead him back towards the birds, a sudden shout stopped the girl cold.

"KA-SU-MIIII! YOU DEVIL GIRL!"

The girl—evidently named Kasumi—cussed under her breath. She quickly snatched up the boy's wrist, unintentionally tossing the crumbs from his hands and dragged him with her into the nearby bushes. "Shush yourself or we'll both get the paddle," Kasumi said to him, forcing the younger boy to duck down into the dirt with her. It wasn't exactly true, but she needed him quiet. To his credit, he complied. He only stared numbly at his hands, where the scant remainder of crumbs Kasumi hadn't managed to knock from him remained.

An older woman stormed into the courtyard, waving a broom over her head. The boy tensed at the sight of the broom, suddenly taking Kasumi's warning more seriously.

"THOSE COOKIES WERE FOR THE ROYAL TABLE, YOU BRAT! THEY WEREN'T FER YOU!"

"Oh please," Kasumi whispered, rolling her eyes. "Shigeru dun even like sugar cookies. Nobody misses them."

The boy stared at Kasumi wide-eyed. "Shi-shigeru? Prince Shigeru? You know him?"

"'Course I do. We're best friends," Kasumi turned about and smiled at him. "You can be best friends with us, too, if you want."

The boy didn't seem to know what to say to that. His cheeks went pink, which Kasumi thought made him look pretty cute under his too-dark hair. It was some welcome color to an otherwise white sheet.

As soon as the old woman had gotten tired of stomping around the empty courtyard, Kasumi led them out of their hiding spot. The little boy's hands felt surprisingly warm and soft in her own. They weren't exactly the hands of a farmer's son. They felt more like Shigeru's. Like they didn't know an unwashed kettle from a pan.

Noble hands. The unconscious discovery gave Kasumi pause. But she was too young to make out what it meant.

Instead of asking the question she'd regret not asking years later, Kasumi shook the passing thought away. The pidgey were still on her mind. And like many children her age, she couldn't resist the urge to run amongst their huddled groups and send them scattering into the sky. The boy followed behind her obediently. However, he was not as happy to chase the monsters away.

"You scared them!"

"They'll be back."

The boy looked doubtfully skyward. "They will?"

Kasumi laughed. He was quite a bit younger than she originally thought. "Have you never seen pidgey before?"

"No. Never," The boy whispered as if the admission held a secret. "They're wonderful."

Kasumi wandered over to the central fountain. She felt the boy's eyes on her as she climbed up onto the basin's rim and cat-walked the edge.

"Where do you come from?" She asked without looking at him. She kept her gaze ahead, carefully placing one foot ahead of the other.

"I dunno."

"You don't live in the castle though, do yah?"

"No. I don't… live in a castle."

Kasumi spun about, chancing a look the boy's way. He was shuffling his feet, his gaze finally scared away by her prying questions. His tight stance said he was close to tears again. She plopped heavily on the fountain's edge, beckoning the younger boy to sit beside her. He did so reluctantly.

"You have a Mum or a Pa?"

"I have a Mum." He started to wipe at his face, so Kasumi knew he was crying.

"She work here?"

"No. No, she don't. We don't live here. We don't belong here. B-but Mum, she… she's leaving me here."

"Leaving you?"

"I don't think she loves me anymore."

"So you ran away?"

The boy started, looking up at Kasumi with bloodshot eyes. "W-what? How-"

Kasumi cocked her head and leveled a pleasant smile his way. "Come on now. You're out here all alone. I'm guessing you got lost in the gardens, right? It's alright. You didn't do nothing wrong."

Her words were like the release on a flood gate. The boy wept openly, only half-heartedly trying to catch and hold his grief in his hands. Kasumi watched, occasionally rubbing his back as he hiccuped through his tears. She had seen Joy do the same before for others. Joy always knew how to make anyone feel better, so Kasumi knew it would work. Sure enough, as if there were magic in her fingers, her touch seemed to slow the boy's tears.

He stopped crying and just stared blankly ahead; into the courtyard that was still empty of flying pokemon.

"I don't have any parents," Kasumi admitted. The boy looked at her and somehow, his look made her face feel hot. She looked away. "It's no big deal. Lots of people don't have parents. And I'm lucky. I got Joy. She took me in here at the castle. I'm better off here, in the castle, than I ever would've been with parents."

She said it because it's what everyone always told her. Her sisters when they had left her. Joy whenever Kasumi was particularly lonely. But even so, it never made the words feel solid in her mouth. Kasumi spat out the hollow things, hoping they might make the little boy feel better than they ever did her.

"So… if you don't have a mum anymore, that's alright. I'll look after you."

"Why?" The little boy asked.

Kasumi shrugged. "I like your face. I think we can be friends."

The boy's nose scrunched up like he smelled something. Once again, Kasumi thought it made him look cuter. Emotion brought life to his stonelike features. "Is that how it works?"

"Yup. We're friends now." She clapped her hands on her lap determinedly. "I've made up my mind."

Kasumi leaped up from her seat, startling the boy. She proceeded to surprise him by digging into her pockets and emptying a new pile of cookie crumbs into his unsuspecting hands.

"So," Kasumi said while dusting off her hands. "You don't have to cry anymore. You're safe now."

Kasumi had noticed the pidgey's return before the little boy. They floated down from the nearby trees, lured in by the potential of more food. And as Kasumi predicted, the sight of the monsters returned a smile to the boy's face.

"The best thing about living in the castle, we can get our own monster someday."

The boy's face lit up. "We can?"

"Sure can. Shigeru and Crown Princess Nanami will have ceremonies. We can get our own pokemon then! We just have to save up. I already have a whole gold piece!"

"How much does a monster cost?"

Kasumi made a face. He would have to ask a sensible question, wouldn't he? "A lot, I think. But that's why we start now."

The little boy had gotten up off the fountain. He stepped forward carefully, afraid to drop even a single crumb. Kasumi stepped forward with her own handful.

"Look, you toss it like this," She explained, throwing a small handful just in front of the waiting pidgey. They brought their pecking in a bit closer. The boy tried to copy her, only dropping the crumbs far sloppier than she had; wasting a bit. Not that the pidgey much minded the extra food.

"What kind of monster would you want?"

"There's many kinds?"

Kasumi couldn't help the look she gave him. She had never met someone so dumb before. She really felt sorry for him. "Of course there are. You think pidgey are the only monsters in the world?"

"Pidgey," the boy tried the word out in his mouth as if he were tasting it. Kasumi just shook her head.

"Fire, water, psychic, ground, grass, poison… flying," Kasumi said, ticking the words off on her fingers. "That's just a few. There's more. Many more. I just can't think of them all. Never met someone who didn't know that."

"Sorry."

"Not your fault. Just think it's crazy is all. Not knowing the types of monsters. Honestly. You grow up in a box somewhere?"

The boy just shrugged. He didn't seem too bothered by Kasumi's disapproval, much too absorbed in the task of attracting the nearby pidgey. He tossed another handful, careful this time to not be wasteful.

"I'd like any monster. Any at all. So long as it was mine."

"Oh come off it. You don't even know the differences. You're just saying that," Kasumi huffed.

"Well, what do you like?"

"A water type, of course."

"Why?"

"Because they're the best. Obviously."

The boy rubbed the crumbs around in his hands thoughtfully. Kasumi could tell that he had no idea what a water type even was.

"I guess water would be okay," he mumbled.

His words boiled her blood. She dumped what was left of her cookie crumbs and marched back over the fountain. Without a word, she scooped up a bunch of water and in a single fluid motion, tossed it out him. He recoiled, yelping as the icy water came close to landing on him. The water didn't bother him. But his sudden movement scared away more pidgey. That he didn't like much. But before he could tell her so, Kasumi had scooped up another handful.

"Water! Water type!" Kasumi shouted between splashes. "They live in the water. Like mermaids! Fish! Magical fish! They. are. the. best!"

Her aim was getting better. She had managed to wet one of his trouser legs and both his shirt sleeves as he tried to shield himself from the water spray. "Okay, okay! Stop it! Stop splashing me!" The boy cried.

Kasumi grinned triumphantly. "So you agree."

"Only if you stop."

"I accept your surrender."

She settled herself back down on the fountain's basin, watching as the boy resumed his feeding of the birds. Her eyes had only slid away for a moment or two. She ran her fingers through the fountain's cool, clear water. It brought back memories of the home she used to have.

They were a classic case of too many mouths to feed under too small a roof. It was crowded, but Kasumi remembered it as warm and happy. Her parents had long since faded away into wisps. They danced faceless through her young memories, formed only by what her sisters had told her to remember. They tacked labels and names to these strange ghosts who dared to die before Kasumi could get a chance to know them. Her father worked the lighthouse. Her mother would fish and collect seashells to sell. They lived there on the coast. Until they didn't.

Mum went first. Pa quickly followed. Some of her sisters might have gone too. Kasumi thought she remembered all of them getting sick. Except they got better and Mum and Pa never did. And her sisters couldn't keep her. Too many mouths under too small a roof. One mouth had to go. And since Kasumi was the youngest, she was the one they sent away.

Kasumi knew she shouldn't have been angry with them. They did what they had to survive. She recognized it now. How that by sending her away, they were ensuring not only their survival but her own as well. Her sisters could always change their station in life through marriage. Kasumi needed time. She needed to go away.

Kasumi made a fist as if to catch up the water. But it was water. It slipped away.

She still hated them, her sisters, a little bit. She couldn't help it. When they came to see her, Kasumi always kept them waiting... on purpose.

The boy did have a nice face. But that's not why Kasumi felt like protecting him.

The silence felt a little long. She could hear the boy cooing to the birds and their soft little chirps in response. But she hadn't said anything in a while. She didn't want the boy to think she was actually mad at him.

"Pidgey are pretty shy. You probably won't get them—" When Kasumi looked up, she almost toppled into the fountain in surprise. Not only had the little boy managed to draw the birds in closer, but they were all over him. They sat on his arms and shoulders. One even had taken up a seat on top of his head. The others pressed in around his feet, all eagerly chirping up at the little boy.

"Look, Kasu! They like me!" The boy laughed, careful not to jostle too much with the monsters on him.

Kasumi resisted the urge to rub her eyes. She had never seen pidgey act like that before. Weren't wild monsters naturally distrustful of humans? Wasn't that why humans had to catch them as eggs in order to befriend them?

"Woah," was all Kasumi could muster. So surprised, she was even able to forgive that unforgivable nickname he had given her. "How… how did you do that?"

"Do what?" The boy giggled when one of the pidgey cozied up next to his cheek. "I just did what you told me to. I told you they like me!"

He threw up his arms, casting the birds around him into the air. The two children watched them go in awe. One in awe of the monsters and the other in awe of the boy standing across from her.

"What… what's your name?" Kasumi asked, realizing at last that she had never asked.

The boy smiled over at her, feathers and fluff still sticking out of his hair.

"My name is Ash."

"Ash? Who on earth is that?"

Satoshi had been lost in her story. He hadn't realized just how far until his own voice, echoing from somewhere deep, had broken through the spell. He blinked, the heavy scent of incense making his head swim.

Satoshi had forgotten where he was. He'd started out skeptical, arms crossed and only half listening as Mist set the scene. But then her voice had an oddly sedating effect. Though he fought against it, Satoshi found himself daydreaming. It wasn't a memory, it lacked all the sharpness and certainty of one. It drifted in out of the fog of his consciousness, as if he was almost remembering it. As if it were almost real. Satoshi watched the little girl and her new companion as they played in an unfamiliar, bright courtyard still caught in the cusp of summer. He could smell the salt in the air. He could feel the wind on his skin. He experienced it as a detached spirit, flitting amongst the shadows.

Satoshi fell for all of it until the boy said his name. He had expected a completely different word to pass the boy's lips. The anticipation was as warm a feeling as rereading a favorite novel and reaching the daring climax. So when the boy's answer betrayed his expectations, Satoshi jolted awake. The tendrils of her mesmerizing spell fell about him and Satoshi found himself thrown unkindly back into reality.

He looked about wildly, seeing nothing that changed in his surroundings. Mist was still propped up by her large collection of pillows. The flickering light from her candles cast a pleasant orange glow over the tent. It appeared as if nothing extraordinary had happened at all.

"What's wrong?" Mist's voice was pleasant and even. She seemed to have no idea the effect her words had had on him. Perhaps she hadn't noticed. Was it possible that Satoshi imagined it all himself?

No. No, she was a mystic. She knew what she was doing.

"The boy's name… Ash," Satoshi began again, swallowing against his harried breath. "Why is his name Ash?"

Mist stared at him, her expression heavily guarded. Satoshi could tell that she had one of her many masks in place again. This was another act. Although why she felt the need to play with him was still lost on the prince. More secrets, more lies. It seemed as though Satoshi had to dive down deep amongst them in order to get to the bottom of anything.

"His name is Ash… because that's what he said."

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"Doesn't it?"

"No, it doesn't. His name is supposed to be…" Mine, Satoshi had thought. But he couldn't bring his lips to say it. He didn't believe in any of this nonsense anyway. Satoshi huffed and folded his arms across his chest again. "I don't understand how any of this has to do with my past."

Mist shrugged, flipping idly through a deck of cards she had spread out in front of herself while telling Ash and Kasumi's story. She had flipped each card over so precisely while telling the story. Probably only pretending the symbolic images added anything to the story she was telling. Satoshi tried to figure them out at first, until Mist's words had had their way with him. At that point, Satoshi had completely forgotten he was even listening to a story.

Now Mist fiddled with the cards, teasing and worrying their corners absentmindedly. She refused to meet Satoshi's needy stare.

"I tell the story you need to hear."

"So… you made up a story about two kids thinking I needed to—"

"I don't make up anything. It's the story I read from you. It's the story you want me to tell you."

"And how do I know any of it is true?"

Mist seemed genuinely bothered by the suggestion. She shrugged off his words and gathered her cards back up in obvious irritation, crushing them in her hands.

"I'm not lying to you," She said in a far more measured tone than her actions betrayed.

"Look. I'm sorry. But I just don't think I can trust all this magick stuff. It's not you. It's just… all of this." Satoshi swept his hand out over the eclectic collection of bottled oils, waxes, cards and possible bleached monster bones Misty had laid before them. His hasty swing nearly knocked over one of the lanterns set behind him. Sheepishly, Satoshi quickly pulled his wayward arm back in.

Mist slapped the cards back down in front of her. All pretense of mysticism was lost. Satoshi found that he had unconsciously leaned back away from her anger.

"His name is Ash because your name was Ash, stupid."

Satoshi stared. "...what?"

"Do I have to spell it for you?" Mist flicked cards his way. Not for him to observe like before. She was wielding them like weapons, flicking them at his unprotected chest. With each thrown card she tossed out another barbed word. "You. Went. By. A. False. Name."

"How could you possibly know that?"

Mist frowned and turned away. If Satoshi didn't know any better, he would have thought she was avoiding his eye. "You seriously still don't believe in my abilities?" She grumbled.

"Well, it's not like I have any way to verify what you are saying!"

There was a moment where something very much like doubt flickered across the mystic's face. She frowned a small frown at the seated Crown Prince. "You mean, you don't feel anything? You can't feel that it's true?"

"Was I supposed to?"

"Yes," Mist said distantly. She shook her head and made little tsking sounds to herself as she finished gathering up the last of her cards. She set them down in a neat pile in front of herself.

"I don't really even care about any of this," Satoshi tried again, gently. "I just want help catching a pikachu."

The silence hung for several minutes between them. Mist kept arranging and rearranging her rumpled cards.

"You don't think you can trust "the magick stuff" and yet you want my magick to catch a pikachu…" She said as if just then deciding to voice her critical thoughts aloud. "It's rather hypocritical, Crown Prince, the types of magick you are willing to believe in."

"Hey… hey, no," Satoshi unintentionally scooted closer. "None of that. No twisting this around. I'm right to be skeptical!"

"How else would you put it then?"

"...You're trying to trick me. It won't work."

"I'm doing nothing of the sort."

"I know you're trying to trick me."

"Keep it up, Pikachu Hunter. You'll really start to hurt my feelings."

She had deliberately stuck out her bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. It was meant to unnerve him and, much to Satoshi's irritation, it worked. Mist was pretty and she knew it. She used it to her every advantage. Even her pout was attractive in a weird sort of way, and Satoshi couldn't stand it.

"I just find it hard to believe anyone can "see" into my past. I don't even know it myself. It would be so easy to lie to me. You can't blame me when you tell me a story about a kid named Ash, pretending that he has something to do with me."

"I'm only telling you what I see."

Satoshi let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, yeah. You keep saying that."

"And yet, you still don't trust me."

Mist must have read something in Satoshi's noncommittal look. She fell back into the pillows with a frustrated huff. It seemed such a natural reaction from her. It lacked all the careful delicacy she had when in court. Nor any of the theatrics that came from her various acts as either drunkard or mysterious mystic. Just a young woman of somewhat off-colored upbringing who expressed her emotions a bit too freely. A little like Satoshi himself.

"What would it take to convince you?" Mist mumbled up at the tent's ceiling. "I mean, I don't see much a point in us continuing if you're gonna interrupt and nitpick everything."

"I'm not nitpicking."

"Sure," Mist rolled her eyes.

"Well, you could just skip the story and just teach me like you promised."

Mist sat up quick, a frown stuck to her face. "We had a deal. This is part of it."

"Right…Why can't you just… give me something? Something to help me catch Pikachu? Why all this stupid smoke and mirrors?"

Mist glared at him. Then, abruptly, she swung herself up to her feet. She retreated back to the corner where her trunks sat, still opened and overflowing with her unusual goods. She shuffled through a messy mountain of garments before withdrawing with a pair of blackened gauntlets. It wasn't until she slipped them over her slender hands that Satoshi realized they were the same ones he had seen her wearing when fully costumed as a mystic.

She flexed out her fingers, stretching the hardened leather. Then Mist snatched up a metallic object laying on uncharacteristically secured trunk; one that she was evidently using as a makeshift table. Mist twisted the cylindrical object about in her hand before pressing a trigger on its edge.

There was a sudden crack and a burst of light. Satoshi was so startled by the sound that he almost missed it. Out of the end of the device laced a single bolt of electricity. Mist aimed the device into her other hand, letting it shoot harmlessly across the skin of her gauntlet.

"What… what was that?"

Mist shrugged. "Magick."

"No way. You summoned it!" Satoshi jumped to his feet. But when he tried to reach out for the device, Mist pulled away from him playfully.

"Uh-uh. It's not a toy," She pushed him back by his face, much to Satoshi's disgruntlement. "Sit down, baby bird. I'll feed you soon enough."

Mist didn't lower her hand until Satoshi had backed off. Then, with casual grace, she slipped the lightning wand into the folds of her skirts.

Satoshi eyed where she had hidden the object away warily. "That was a weapon," the not-quite-a-question slipped from his lips.

"That's not its original purpose, but you could use it as such, yes. I mostly use it to test my salve." At Satoshi's incredulous look, Mist held out her gauntleted forearms for inspection. He ran his fingers cautiously over the leather, startled by a sticky residue that came off onto his hands.

"Wh-what is it?"

"A mixture, a recipe that many mystics use to help make our clothes retardant to electricity. Our own brand of magick," Mist withdrew, shrugging off the gauntlets as she did so. "As a mystic who specializes in water monsters, I made it my business to learn all about my antithesis. How to protect myself and Phoon."

She then tossed the gauntlets into Satoshi's unexpecting hands.

"You're just… giving them to me?"

Mist shrugged. "A gesture of goodwill."

Satoshi rolled them about in his hands, seeing where the fastenings could be readjusted for his own hands and wrists. He thumbed the twined strings and frowned back at the mystic.

"They won't help."

Mist tried to pretend she didn't understand. She did nothing but smile. Satoshi could tell by her smug look that she had known exactly what she had given up.

"It won't be enough. To catch a Pikachu."

"Correct." At Satoshi's sour expression, Mist laughed. She tossed her hands in the air and continued, "Even if you doused yourself in my salve and walked out into those woods in full plate armor, those Pikachu would eat you alive."

Satoshi tried unsuccessfully to keep the snarl from his voice as he said, "Will you stop playing with me already?" Satoshi didn't realize that Mist might have been just as tired of this game as he was.

Mist grabbed the gauntlets roughly out of his hands and shook them in his face. "I gave exactly what you wanted from me. There! A slice of my magick. You should be satisfied. So go." She pushed them hard back into his arms, nearly knocking Satoshi off his feet. "Since you know so much, go after your Pikachu. Get out of here."

She turned away from him but made no further efforts to push him out of her tent. Satoshi hesitated. He wanted nothing more than to take the gauntlets and run. But she was right. These would be as useful as trying to tame a Charizard with a burnt out torch. Much as Satoshi hated to admit it, he still needed her.

"What… what else do I need to hunt a Pikachu?" Satoshi wasn't sure where the question had come from. It had appeared already formed, unfurling only half realized from his lips. He wasn't even sure Mist would care enough to answer.

So he was surprised that Mist not only turned back around but was smiling at him.

"Finally asking the right questions."

She gestured for him to sit back down. Satoshi did so reluctantly, setting the gauntlets at his side, on the side where Bulbasaur wasn't. His monster still had the unfortunate penchant for eating things it shouldn't.

"You'd need to learn how to make the salve yourself," Mist started, ticking off on her fingers. "Its potency only lasts a few hours, less in rainy weather. You'd need to wear clothing that would help ground you to the earth to prevent the lightning bolts from using you as a conduit. And lastly, you'd need to learn more about Pikachu. How they move. How to anticipate their attacks. Self-defense techniques against their methods of swarming and flanking. Fighting a monster is different than fighting a human and after seeing you in action, I dare say you are wholly unprepared for it."

"And you'd be willing to teach me all of that?"

"You're not asking a simple thing, Crown Prince. These are mystic techniques. The price for them is steep."

"The story."

Mist nodded. Satoshi sighed heavily.

"I don't understand. Why is this fairytale so important to you? What do you get out of it?"

"I want to hear the ending."

There was sincerity in her words. It had softened her voice so it came out only a touch above a whisper. Satoshi stared at her. She stared back. Satoshi flinched first, staring back down at his feet.

"I suppose it's not that big a deal. Listening to a story in exchange… pointless as it is."

Mist nodded. Bulbasaur let out a loud yawn startling them both. It jarred something loose in Satoshi's head. A sudden question that he hadn't thought to ask before. He stared back up at the Mystic, skeptically. Had she already answered this question, or had she just evaded it like all the others? No, she had definitely not answered it. Satoshi was sure.

"Mist?"

The redhead was given a start. Satoshi realized it was actually the first time he had addressed her by her name outside of the mask. She seemed genuinely bothered by the sound. Curious, Satoshi thought.

"Mist," Satoshi tried again. "Can I ask you one thing? Before you start again…"

She composed herself, sitting up straighter against her mountain of pillows. "Go ahead."

"Why was I going by the name Ash?"

For the second time in several minutes, Mist looked at a loss. She didn't say anything, staring hard into the flame of her oil lantern. Then, at last, a smile slipped back on her lips.

"The right question again, Crown Prince."

To Be Continued…
Please Read and Review.

Sorry for the slight delay guys. Had to rethink this chapter a few times. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks again to my beta, HarunaRei, who helps me get these chapters out to you all. She is also a lifesaver when my chapter just doesn't make sense even to me!

GLOSSARY

Satoshi= Ash
Prince Shigeru= Gary
Kasumi/Mist= Misty
Hanada= Cerulean City

Thank you to all my lovely reviewers. These chapters come out faster with your kind enthusiastic comments! You make me more excited to write. Thanks to Shadowsplosion, Leiry Yawa, ameriboo, cake0108, and Anon. Also thank you to my anonymous reviewers too!

Next time, Satoshi begins to learn what it takes to hunt Pikachu.

Expect the next chapter in the May/June time frame. Until then! Love you all!