It's been a month since Ash had lost against Koga and a lot has happened.

The day after the match Ash and Misty flew back to Pallet town on Alis' back, which took them about a couple of hours. Delia welcomed them into her home with open arms and they spent the rest of the day settling in again. She assumed that Brock was back in Pewter city, so she asked Misty why she wasn't with her sisters out of curiosity. Naturally, Ash's mother was angry at what her son's friend was going through and Delia said that Misty could stop by whenever she wanted to or needed to. They spent the whole of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day together, with Tracey and Professor Oak as well. Tracey also offered to help Misty out with the Cerulean gym, after hearing how her sisters had dumped the responsibility of being a gym leader onto her out of nowhere.

Once Christmas was over Ash, Misty and Tracey had a quick trip to Alto Mare in order to make sure that Latias arrived at her home safely. Being as enthusiastic to learn as he was, Tracey wanted to come with them because he had never seen Alto Mare before. After dropping Latias off and catching up with Bianca and Lorenzo, (who were extremely proud about how far Latias had come) the trio decided to stay in the city for a couple of days so they could enjoy the tranquility of the city before going to Cerulean city to help Misty out with the gym.

A week later, Brock also visited the three in Cerulean city to help them further as a former gym leader. He was disappointed about how her sisters left the gym like it was nothing too and he trained with Ash and Misty for a few weeks, whilst Tracey was sketching all of the pokemon. Before, Misty was insecure about taking on the responsibility of being a gym leader. However now, she was a lot more confident about the job and was even enjoying the feeling of giving battles to any challengers she had. Taking care of the gym and all of the Pokemon there was hard for her, but the satisfaction of seeing the smiles on her pokemon only motivated her to do an even better job. The water type trainer knew that deep down that her sisters would ignore the fact that they were the gym leaders before and completely leave the job to Misty when they got back, but Misty was now prepare for that. Either way, she wouldn't let her sisters take that role back as it was already the main part of her life right now.

Soon, Tracey did have to return to Pallet town because professor Oak needed him for some research. He did promise to visit Misty as often as he could, which was something that Misty deeply appreciated. Ash and Brock stayed for an extra week after he left, but they eventually had to leave too. There was an empty emotion that she could sense in her chest, as she knew that she would be alone again. Well not completely alone, because she had her pokemon with her of course. Even then, she knew that things probably wouldn't ever be the same again and that saddened her. Brock promised that he would video call her as often as he could to check up on her and Ash even swore that he would write letters. When they were about to leave, Misty gave Brock some extra cutlery then gifted Ash with a handkerchief and a customised 'Misty' fishing lure in case he ever went fishing. After all, there was a lot of water in and around Hoenn. Ash's mother had made Ash a new outfit for travelling in Hoenn, including a new cap. So Ash thought of giving his old cap to Misty, mainly because it was precious to him just like the friendship he had with her. Brock printed out plenty of photos that the three of them took in their journey and added them all into a photo album, which Misty knew that she would cherish for a long time.

...

"Hey Brock," Ash wondered. "Do you know how long the flight to Hoenn will take?"

Brock thought for a moment, "I'm not sure, but I would guess maybe a few hours. Why?"

"No reason," Ash shrugged. "I just wanted to know."

"Are your taking any other pokemon apart from Pikachu?"

"Yup," Ash nodded. "I've got Lapras and Phanphy too."

"Oh," Brock let out in a slightly surprised manner. "When did you get Lapras back?"

Ash closed his eyes, "I contacted her while we were training our pokemon back at the gym and I met her on the beach."

"That's cool," Brock smiled. "So how does it feel, being eleven years old now?"

"I don't know," Ash looked outside the airplane window. "It doesn't really feel that different."

The older friend chuckled, "Well, you've only just turned eleven so I guessed that it wouldn't. That's fair enough, really."

He stroked Pikachu's head and asked Brock, "Do you think we'll make any new friends here?"

"I'm sure we will," Brock had a thoughtful expression. "They may even end up coming with us, just like how we ended up travelling together."

There was an announcement, "The plane will land in ten minutes."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

...

When they arrived it was still quite early in the morning so the two chose to get to Littleroot town where Professor Birch's lab was, since it was nearby. Then, they found a pokemon centre and booked to stay in a hotel room there. Once they spent a while getting used to the room, they both went out into the forest to see if they could find any new pokemon. They didn't necessarily want to capture any pokemon yet, they just wanted to enjoy the peacefulness of the wildlife for once. After a while, they called Delia, Professor Oak with Tracey and Misty just to let them know that they had arrived at Hoenn safely. In the evening, Brock tried to find some girls to chat with and Ash remained in the hotel room as he longed to catch up with his old hobby. It had been a long time since he had last written lyrics down onto a piece of paper. He thought deeply about ideas on what he could write, then the idea finally popped into his mind. In fact, there were a few.

I close my eyes and I see my friends, my family...

Ash knew how Brock had felt when he was in a rush to see his family again. Why wouldn't he be? It had been months since he'd last seen them. Family was an important thing to Brock and there was no way that Ash or Misty would ever try to interrupt his friend's feelings because they both felt the same way, except that Misty was slightly bitter towards her sisters. It was hard, going on a journey without your family for the sake of the dreams one could hold on to for so long. The trainer had always kept a photo of his mother in his bag somewhere because even he got homesick every now and then. As he finished singing the the meaningful tune, he started to sing the second song that lingered in his mind.

Goodbye...

This was a word that Ash and many others in the world loathed to say. However, it is a word that everyone has to say at least once in their lives. When he had to leave her there was an unpleasant, but strong feeling inside of him that he couldn't quite explain. It was a short, but sweet song that didn't need length to send him into whirlpools of emotion that he found difficult to escape. Moving on from the melody was the best choice he could make, because he didn't have a need to cry now. No, not now and not yet.

Together forever, no matter how long...

He needed something happier in his life and this was it. This song gave him hope to carry on and the life to set himself free. His friends would always be there for him and he would always be there for his friends no matter what. That was what the song meant to him and it was a song that he'd sing his heart out a little bit more than regularly. Hopefully no one would get too annoyed at him after a while.

It's everything I've wanted, it's everything I needed...

Finally, the euphoria of journeying itself. Nothing could beat the fresh feeling of setting foot into somewhere new: whether it's a city, town or a whole new region. He had other songs that described the specific emotion well, but none of his songs made him appreciate more than this one. Each journey he had always meant that he was one step closer into achieving his vast dreams and he would do it. Somehow, he knew deep down that the day he accomplishes them will come. He wasn't quite sure if they would be in a short time or ages and ages away, but there was no way that he wouldn't because he will always be moving forward. Ash was determined that he would become a pokemon master someday, always.

...

Author's notes:

Ash is officially in Hoenn now and his journey will start very soon!

Lapras is back now: let's see how her battles will go.

I may not update until next Sunday, but I will go back to updating every Sunday because I start school again soon.

Until then, see you :)