So, the next thing I remember explicitly happening was that I found myself alone, laying down on a bed, in a nice room actually, painted brown and a fancy orange, light but tenuous. The bed was very big and very soft, and so were the sheets. Both were obviously very expensive too, I could tell.

Apparently, Cleaved Joe out of all people noticed me as the group crossed the bridge on their way towards the hideout on the park. He and Iris helped me out while the kids dispersed and prepared to deal with what would unavoidably come next. Iris called Bianca and Burgh, however only Bianca agreed to help me. She's way too good of a person. Anyway, even with her help there was still not much they could do, and I needed to get out of there, fast.

I was basically smuggled out of Castelia, by boat, all the while I was barely conscious. And this was allowed to happen by someone who agreed to help me. Someone did agree to help me, after all that had happened, after all I had done. It was Fantina. Out of all the people that I met with during that crazy week, she was the one who ended up saving me. She took me discreetly, although not really secretly, it was just that not many people cared at that point, with all the stuff that was happening in Castelia at the time, anyway, she took me all the way to her vineyard in Kalos, where I had been resting and recovering for a few days before I realized exactly where I was.

Very few people know I'm here. I have been here for a few weeks, and will probably stay for a lot longer than that. At least until they find a safe way to take me back to Kanto. I really want to go back there, I want to see my mom and my pokemon, and I want them to see me; but at the very least I have already spoken to her, more specifically, I have reassured her that I'm fine, and hopefully I've made her a little less worried about me. I did tell her, my mom, why I had decided to go back in the first place, and why I hadn't taken the plane. And I knew exactly what she'd say. She said it. She said: "You should never give up, just be confident, you can do anything that you set your mind to." She's been saying that to me for the past six years. Hearing that actually helped me a lot, when I was a child. I guess I wouldn't have become what I became if I hadn't heard that a bunch of times. I guess all you can do sometimes is lie to yourself just to keep going. But there are some times where you just can't. And when I grew up I just couldn't believe that, and I didn't see a reason to keep believing it. Maybe she should've told me there were things I just couldn't do. But I don't want to put any blame on my mom. Maybe it was up to me to learn that. It's very cool actually, even if they ruined it, because they've ruined it. But it doesn't matter, because now that I know, I know what I can't do as much as what I can do. Why would that be bad?

I do get visitors though, mostly my friend Misty. I told her everything about what happened, without sparing a single detail, and it seemed like she wasn't that weirded out by it. She also didn't worry too much, which offended me a little bit. In fact she said that it didn't surprise her, coming from me. I guess that's fine. That makes me feel better actually, but I won't say that to her, because she should've been at least a little bit worried about me, I think. Maybe I'll just tell her, maybe she won't even like it, and that would be even better.

I guess Misty isn't the one that visits me the most, it just feels that way because Bonnie, who actually visits me the most, doesn't feel like a visitor at all. Before I took a break from training I came to Kalos for a bit, and entrusted her to take care of what was the most important anything to me. I chose her out of all people because she reminded me of me. I don't know what came first, I think I knew she'd do a good job, so she reminded me of me. Maybe that's it.

When I first heard she was coming to visit I got really anxious, in fact I felt genuine fear. But when she came, she came alone. Don't get me wrong, I was still very happy to see her. She's one of my favorite people in the world, but I was expecting my pokemon to come with her. He hadn't forgiven me for leaving him, and I couldn't blame him.

Pikachu, my best friend, did come to visit a few days ago. I got him when I was ten years old, and I remember that at first I didn't even want him, and he certainly didn't want me. I'm sure we hated each other. Remembering that there was a time where we couldn't stand each other is both funny and weird. He's my best friend, we were inseparable, but every relationship has to hit a rough patch once or twice, and of course it was my fault, but I just couldn't keep going, thinking that I was weak, thinking that everybody thought I was weak, thinking that there was nothing I could do to change that. Because what is there, if all you do is get yourself a pokemon that is considered strong, and then you're strong? And then you have the same pokemon as everyone else. Yeah, I'm in the wrong for sure, I'm just resentful, says I, sarcastically. No, just think about it for a bit. Who would you be on your own, without your pokemon? For a while there Pikachu didn't understand, and then we reached a point where he wanted to leave me too. We couldn't stand each other once again. So I left him with Bonnie.

Since I got here, every day Bonnie has come to visit me. And each day once she arrived, I'd look at her, expectant, and then she'd look at me and nod negatively; he hadn't come.

A few days ago she arrived in the morning. It was a beautiful, clear morning of early spring, and we had the whole vineyard for us. First she went for Chespin, Torchic and Piplup—They had come with me—and then they went out into the green plains. I was a bit tired so I said I'd join them later. And even though I was actually tired I went out some time after them, and followed them from a far. I watched the four of them run all across the vivid green, and then fall on the grass laughing and at the same time without breath. And I cried. I cried a lot actually. They had seen some stuff and yet they were still kids. Torchic had basically burned down a building. On my orders, so it was on me, gladly, just to take it from him. I'm sure he didn't even understand. Cause he's a kid. I joined them on the river. They were crouched down together right next to the riverbank, laughing discreetly. I walked over to them cautiously and asked them what they were doing. They screamed and laughed even more, startling me quite a bit. Then I crouched down with them. Bonnie was holding a small paper boat on her small hand, that was it. I guess it was a big deal, it was. She took off her shoes and dipped into the water, and let the boat loose. Then she went out of the water and started running along the riverbank, following the boat, and then we went after her and started running along too. It was a nice moment and we laughed a lot, up to and until the river reached a slope where the boat got completely inside the water and got neutralized, at which point everyone but me stopped satisfied. I instead went into the river and rescued the completely wet boat.

"What are you doing Ash?" Bonnie said.

"I'm rescuing the boat," I replied.

"Why? It's done. It's useless now."

"I don't think so, you can still use it."

"What for?"

"…I don't know, when it gets dry you can start a fire with it, maybe."

"I guess," she said. Then she went into the water too, and took the boat from me, and started waving it around as she ran through the river. She waved it on the air, and then motioned with her hand like she was going to throw it away, but when she saw that I wasn't reacting and was just standing there, she just went and handed it to me.

Afterwards we walked back to the vineyard and got some berries. The pokemon and Bonnie wanted to eat them straight off of the stem, but I managed to make them take the berries inside and wash them first. I almost didn't want to, they wanted to eat them straight off of the stem and I just wanted them to have everything they wanted. On our way back to the house though, right at the front door, he was waiting for me. Pikachu was there. I could tell he was waiting for me simply by taking one look at him. Although it wasn't just one look, but a lengthy stare, and as I kept my eyes on him I felt like I was back in my own room on Pallet Town, and was about to meet him the next day. And while I was there, still a child, I also knew that he would become my very best friend, my most trusted companion, with just one look. The only one who I shouldn't live without, and yet I had tried. I had left him. And yet he was there, with his pointy ears, with his red cheeks, his plump belly, and his sharp tail. He was there, and at the same time I was the happiest I'd ever been in a long time, I was also in desperate need of him, and I was also about to cry for a lot of reasons. I walked slowly and calmly towards him, and he waited patiently with a benevolent smile on his pouty mouth, until I reached him and he welcomed me with a lively growl. I knelt down right in front of him and stood there until he finally jumped at me and hugged me, and at that point I knew we couldn't be mad at each other, I certainly couldn't. On that moment I knew he had forgiven me for becoming discouraged. But I can't really regret any of what happened, or at least not from what happened to me. A friend like that, you can't lose. A friend like that, doesn't make you feel like you're going to die just because you're not directly close to him every hour of every day. No, he's a real friend. He's my only real friend because I didn't get to make another friend like him. And even after we changed our ways, and even after we were forced to separate because of it, and even if that happens again, he'll still be my only true friend, the only one I want to need. Together we are a society, just the two of us, a couple, a person and a pokemon, but maybe, just maybe, that's the only society anyone really needs. Just two. It's the only one I need, that's for sure. And apparently that's the only one I'll get for now. I guess now if anyone is looking for a society they need to find another someone to form it with, because there's not much of a society left, with what is happening in Castelia, which is spreading all over the world. Somewhere Todd K must be smiling, but maybe not, because we still use technology, and pokemon centers, and pokemarts, and gyms, thankfully. But there seem to be a few less creepy places, and maybe that's good, I don't know, we'll know soon enough I guess. After the trainers of the world stop to recapitulate. At least maybe it will be easier for the two of us to go out and roam, with no one having the time to look for me, for us. Maybe we could go search for Johnny again, or Cleaved Joe, or maybe even Todd K, or someone else who wants to destroy the world. I don't know what they think about it now, and I think I know how to deal with them, maybe, anyway. I'm sure we can also check out a few places where we haven't been, and see how they are dealing with it. I can't help but think that I had something to do with it, with what's happening all over the place. Who knows, but if I did something, and regardless of whether it is my fault or not, I did it by myself, without my best friend. And sure, if I had had Pikachu by my side while I was in Castelia, he probably would've stopped me from being so reckless. He would've saved me from a lot of pain, that's for sure. But see that's the thing, either way, I did it alone, I did it. I may not have an overpowered garchomp, or an overpowered something else, because let's face it, why wouldn't you just get an overpowered anything to feel powerful? Anyway, I endured. I endured. And who said being a hero would be painless?