Ash, an Inspiration Chapter 7

Everyone gawked at the container holding the egg with wide eyes, their jaws having collectively dropped to the floor. Even Kukui, who was watching from the side, was in shock over the reveal, though he was able to recover noticeably quicker than his students, as a stupid grin broke out on his face as he realised what Ash was planning.

"You clever little bugger," he muttered to himself, a slight chuckle breaking out as he stroked his chin. For a minute, his mild chuckle was the only sound that could be heard, before the group of students broke out into what could only be described as pandemonium.

"An egg! She got an egg!"

"Where did you get an egg from? Those things are incredibly rare!"

"I wonder what Pokémon's inside it?"

"That's so unfair! How was I going to win when I had a Pokémon which was actively ignoring my commands?"

Ash said nothing as the students shouted in front of him, tuning out the noise like he would a lecture from Misty, as he chose instead to focus entirely on one thing: Lillie's reaction.

Because that was the only one that mattered.

She was so far being quiet; the shock having gotten to her. Her eyes were locked onto the egg, and she seemed to be struggling for words, as her mouth was moving without any sound coming from it.

Ash just did his best to keep his reaction calm, because the last thing he needed was for his new students to see his uneasiness over this choice. Because he was taking a risk and he knew it.

He had spoken to Professor Oak long and hard about this, since he knew that this wasn't something to be done lightly. Eggs were a big responsibility for any trainer and required someone who knew what they were doing. Professor Oak had almost shot the idea down as soon as he said it, but Ash was nothing if not persuasive.

Because it wasn't about who actually won the egg, or at least at the moment it wasn't. No, the point was what the egg would do for the group.

Ash couldn't help but notice that this group, who were apparently being ostracised by the rest of the school if their interactions with that other class was any indication, weren't really that close. They seemed to be pleasant toward each other and could get along easily enough with one another, but Ash wasn't sure that they even considered each other friends. Just classmates.

Which wasn't good enough.

They were a group, a unit, a team. And an important part of a strong team is the sense of teamwork and friendship which bound it together. These five could easily become friends, with the ties that would bind them together already forming. Ash just needed to encourage and nurture these ties, allowing them to become strong enough to truly form.

Because how could they raise a team of Pokémon if they couldn't even be part of a group of friends?

And this egg was the perfect way to ensure that. Despite only having interacted them for a day, Ash could tell they all deeply cared about Pokémon above all else. Which meant that they would all know the importance behind raising an egg properly, and how hard it could be to do alone. Something that Ash planned to take advantage of.

No matter who won, the others would step up to help, making the egg feel like a group effort. Even though only one of them would gain a Pokémon, they all would become closer friends because of the experience.

Which was also why Ash was secretly glad that Lillie was the one who won the egg.

Out of all the trainers in this group, Lillie was simultaneously the one who knew the most about Pokémon and the one who needed the most help. Ash could tell just by looking at her that she did a lot of reading, probably enough to outdo even Brock and Clemont. Which meant she knew lots of stuff about raising and looking after Pokémon, probably more then himself. But reading it from a book and actually doing it were two completely different things, which is were Lillie would need the help.

Fortunately, the others seemed to be already gearing up to help, as Mallow was now talking to Lillie and offering to help her carry it if she weren't comfortable to.

It was already working.

Content that this was already working, Ash chose this moment to finally speak.

"So, what do you think of your prize Lillie?"

Lillie's attention snapped to him suddenly, her eyes wide and filled with doubt and insecurity. Ash could tell she was working up the courage to ask him to give it to someone else and decided to cut her off before she could.

"Don't worry if you're having any doubts, you won't be doing this alone." Lillie looked at him curiously, as did her classmates, now also hooked on his words.

'This is surprisingly easy,' Ash thought to himself.

"While this egg is yours, I fully expect all of you to help here. Clearly I don't need to tell any of you the importance of looking after an egg, and since none of you have ever hatched one before, I was expecting all of you to be willing to help out the victor no matter what. Call it a group project, and I will be watching closely."

The group was silent at first, as Ash gestured to Lillie to take the egg. He could tell that she was hesitant to take it, so decided to coax her a little more.

"I know you don't like touching Pokémon, but you don't need to at the moment. Just take the cannister, and we can work up to that," he said softly, which seemed to be what pushed her over the edge. With shaky hands, she reached forward and grabbed the cannister holding the egg, taking it with both hands from Ash.

Now out of his hands, Ash was finally able to give the egg a proper look, having been rushing when he received it earlier that day. The egg was almost entirely white, looking like it was completely frozen and cold to the touch. All there was that broke up the clean whiteness of the shell was were several small floral patterns, five-point flowers that dotted around the egg. If Ash didn't already know what was in the egg, he would have been clueless about what kind of Pokémon would hatch out of it.

Almost instantly the others were helping, providing helpful facts that they knew about eggs so that she handled it properly.

"You should hold it from the bottom, you'll have better grip that way," Lana supplied, holding it for a moment while Lillie readjusted her hands.

"Hold it close to your body, the body heat is good for it," Kiawe provided, which Lillie nodded to as she pulled the cannister close to her stomach.

Sophocles observed the cannister for a moment, before he noticed a plug socket in the bottom, pointing it out to Lillie. "This looks like a heater at the bottom, you must be able to plug it in overnight, so you don't need to hold it while you sleep. Let me see if I have a plug that fits this in my bag."

"And you should eat something as well, this is a big task and you can't do it on an empty stomach. Let me cook something up for you, something with lots of vitamins. And herbs, because it might as well taste nice. What do you fancy?"

While they all were doing this, Ash just walked over to Kukui, who was still chuckling at the scene.

"You know," he started, catching the younger man's attention, "you're a surprisingly devious little man. Never thought you'd pull something like this off."

Ash just shrugged in response.

"All I did was give them a good enough reason to start acting like a team. The sooner they do that, the sooner they'll learn the lessons they need to know to have a proper team. They're lucky to have each other, and I want to encourage them to help and rely on each other."

Kukui raised an eyebrow at the last comment, crossing his arms as he spoke.

"Sounds like you're speaking from experience, anyone in particular?"

"I've travelled with so many people right now, all of whom helped me to learn something that made me a better trainer. I wouldn't be in a position to teach those five a single thing if it weren't for them, and I consider myself lucky to know each and every one of them. That, and I'd probably be dead without their help."

Kukui smiled at this, slowly nodding as his eyes glossed over with nostalgia.

"I can respect that. Though based on what I've seen so far, I'm curious to see what your friends are like. Are they as crazy as you?"

Ash shook his head.

"No, not really. And anything you might consider crazy is definitely what they learned from me."

Half an hour later, the group had finally finished collaborating on how best to look after the egg, with topics ranging from techniques to useful tips to ideas about what kind of Pokémon was in the egg. Ash was enjoying watching them interact as a group when Kukui suddenly stepped in, interrupting the entire thing.

"Sorry to butt in, but I thought you might like to know that class is now officially over. You don't have to leave if you don't want to, but you're free to if you wish."

Kiawe responded first, his hand almost instantly snapping to his Charizard's Pokéball. But before he unclipped it from his belt, he looked back at the others, who were now sharing looks with each other as they debated what to do next, he relaxed, taking a deep breath.

"I'm happy to stay for a bit longer. It's not everyday you get to see a Pokémon egg," he said, which caused everyone to look at him with a mix of surprise and happiness. Which was most obvious in Ash's face, as his eyes sparkled.

Though while it was most obvious in Ash's face, Kukui was the one who felt happiest about it, the joy in his heart making it beat at three times its normal pace. He had been trying for months to get Kiawe to willingly stay behind after school to interact with the others, but Kiawe would always insist that he needed to head back straight away. But Ash had done what he had failed to in a single day. So with an energy that almost seemed contagious, he began stalking off to the headmaster's office.

He was going to kiss both Samson and Professor Oak for this. And he was definitely going to tell Burnet about this later.

Though as he walked off, his back to the other students, he failed to notice a small group of thugs entering the school grounds, all of them wearing black vests with crosses on them.

Ash was ecstatic that his plan was working, with Pikachu now perched on his shoulder looking just as pleased with himself. Though before they could both take the time to congratulate themselves on a plan done flawlessly, something happened which ruined this perfect moment.

Because of course it did.

Multiple shouts could suddenly be heard, coming from the edge of the field they had been training in. Turning to face this new noise, Ash was surprised to see a group of teenagers in vests and with bandanas covering their faces. They were bopping over to where his students were with a swagger that exuded confidence, causing Ash to tense up.

He didn't like this. Especially since all the others were now staring in shock and horror at the new arrivals.

"Yo, yo, yo. Would ya look a' 'hat? It's an egg yo!" One of them shouted, with the others nodding along.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yo, we should grab that for the boss. He'd love to get something as rare as an egg."

"And we can prove that we're really Guzma's boiz. Ain't no one else getting him eggs like this, g."

"And these kids ain't gonna be able to stop us. We dangerous out here, ya hear me?"

"Yo, but what if it's a Magikarp egg? Wouldn't the boss just get mad?"

The gang then began arguing amongst themselves, allowing Ash to get an idea. He still had all of the Pokémon from the training exercise he had done, and now there just so happened to be five rather clueless looking thugs right on their lap.

Ash just grinned, before he suddenly bolted over to the group, pulling out Pokéballs as he did.

"Everyone listen up. I know class is over, but I've got another lesson for you," Ash said as he started handing out the Pokéballs again, much to their confusion. "I want you five to battle these guys using what you learnt earlier."

Everyone gawked at him, with Lillie almost going green at the idea of battling.

"What we learnt is that we don't know how to coordinate these Pokémon. How is that going to help?" Kiawe shot back, holding Charizard's Pokéball up in the air. But Ash just pointed at him.

"No, I showed you that you weren't thinking about the strengths and limitations of the Pokémon you were using. Now that you know that, think about it. You'll notice a huge difference, trust me."

The students shared a look with each other, lingering doubt hanging in the air. But Lana simply clutched her Pokéball tighter, before she looked Ash right in the eyes.

"What's Totodile full move set?" She asked firmly, causing Ash to smile. And with her that, the others were quickly swayed, with Lillie even being convinced (though her legs were shaking somewhat).

After telling them all the moves that their Pokémon knew, and taking the egg off Lillie, the group of students lined up against the thugs, throwing their Pokéballs in the air.

"Go Totodile!"

"Let's go Bayleef!"

"Time to battle Charizard!"

"Come on Pikachu!"

"Please help Bulbasaur!"

The five Pokémon appeared in front of the trainers, all except Pikachu surprised to see themselves lined up against a bunch of teenagers in vests. Charizard rolled his eyes and went to lie down but stopped when Kiawe began shouting at him.

"Charizard, I know you don't want to listen to me, and that's fine. But I need your help, because without it, these guys are gonna steal Lillie's egg!"

Charizard raised an eyebrow at this, before he looked off toward Ash, who simply nodded. With a snort and a stretch, Charizard rose to his full height, and roared. A roar which could be heard throughout the entire school, and finally interrupted the thug's discussion.

"Yo, look at this. These guys be looking for a scrap."

"If they wanna throw down, we can throw down."

"'ell yeah, we're Team Skull. Ain't no way we'll lose here."

"We'll beat you down and keep you down, just like the boss would."

"Let's do this!"

The five then called upon their own Pokémon, a wide variety of Pokémon who looked just as eager to battle as their masked trainers. Amongst the Pokémon were a Golbat, Houndour, Ekans, Raticate, and Yungoos.

The stage was set.

Without a ref to officiate the battle, things kicked off right away, with one of Team Skull's Pokémon going after one of Ash's Pokémon. The battle had begun.

The Golbat went after Bayleef, teeth bared and a purple tint to them as it closed in. Bayleef barely batted an eye, and simply waited for Mallow to give a command. She seemed to hesitate at first, almost calling out a Sweet Scent, before she caught herself and focused on Bayleef.

"Quick, bat it away with vine whip."

Bayleef obliged, smacking the bat like Pokémon with two thick vines before it could land. Now noticeably far away from the grass type, Mallow called out another attack.

"Now, hit with razor leaf, like when we were shooting that target."

A torrent of leaves were quickly and easily produced, peppering the area that Golbat was in with endless sharp leaves. To Bayleef's surprise, this was enough, as it knocked the Pokémon out after just a few managed to hit.

"Yes, we did it!" Mallow screeched, running up and hugging Bayleef. While she was still shocked about how easy that was, Bayleef quickly shrugged it off, and leant into the hug.

Pikachu grinned as Yungoos charged him, his tail twitching as he waited for a command.

Sophocles didn't do anything at first, freezing up as he watched the Pokémon charge into Pikachu, knocking the mouse back slightly before he shook himself out of his stupor.

"Hit it with a thunderbolt," he yelled, with Pikachu's cheeks sparking in response.

One bright flash later, Yungoos dropped to the ground unconscious, with Pikachu crossing his arms triumphantly as he stood over the native Pokémon.

"Pika!"

Lana grit her teeth as Ekans snaked forward, darting around the small Pokémon.

Lana had quickly gotten into a battle mindset as everything kicked off, quickly calling off a multitude of attacks as soon as a target presented itself.

But despite how many water guns she had called out, the Ekans just seemed to be avoiding all of them, leaving Totodile feeling slightly worn out, and Lana to be frustrated.

Though as she watched the Pokémon circle the water type, what Ash said suddenly flashed in her mind. He said they needed to play to their Pokémon's strengths, and this clearly wasn't Totodile's strong suit. He was more than capable of firing powerful water guns, but he just couldn't seem to hit the slippery opponent.

But maybe he didn't need to.

"Totodile, wait for Ekans to attack," she commanded, getting a confused look from Totodile. But despite this, he complied, which Ekans took full advantage off.

With Totodile no longer trying to hit it with a jet of water, it darted in and wrapped around him, trying to squeeze him for all his worth.

Just like Lana suspected it would.

"Now, while it's close, use bite!"

This got a grin from the toothy Pokémon, who sunk his teeth into the snake with ease.

Howling in pain, Ekans uncoiled, freeing Totodile and freeing him for another attack.

"Quickly follow it up with headbutt!" Another command that Totodile was more than happy to oblige to, as he lept up into the air, smacking his skull into Ekans and knocking it out instantly, Totodile's skull being too much for the serpent.

Which left him free to dance all over their unconscious form.

Lillie wanted to scream as she watched the Houndour attack Bulbasaur.

She wanted to fight; she really did. Not only did she want to prove that she was just as capable of being a trainer as the others, but she wanted to protect her egg. She might not be able to touch Pokémon, but that didn't mean she wanted bad things to happen to them. Especially not an unborn baby.

But now that she was in the midst of battle, she found herself clamming up, which left Bulbasaur to take attack after attack because of her inaction.

She was trembling, and the urge to drop down and curl up into a ball nearly took her, when a sudden bark caught her attention. Turning her eyes back to the battle, she saw that Bulbasaur had taken the initiative, wrapping up the Houndour with vines and suspending it high in the air.

Taking a moment to compose himself, Bulbasaur threw the Pokémon back, which landed roughly but not rough enough to knock it back. But it gave Bulbasaur the time to shoot Lillie a reassuring look, nodding at her before turning back to the fire type.

Lillie stared at the back of the grass started, words escaping her. This Pokémon trusted her enough to await her command, despite being more than capable of doing it all by himself. After having a moment to take a breather, she stood back up, determination etched onto her face.

"Okay Bulbasaur," she started, her voice clearly trembling but filled with a stubborn determination regardless, "hit it with a leech seed."

Bulbasaur grunted in acknowledge, firing a few seeds which took hold quickly. The Houndour tried to shake them off, to no avail, though the time it spent trying to do this allowed Bulbasaur to successfully leech some energy from the dog Pokémon, healing some of the damage he took during Lillie's brief stint. Feeling reassured by this move's success, Lillie called out another move.

"Now, use the power of the sun with a solar beam!" She yelled, her high pitch voice hitting a dangerously high pitch as she did.

But it matter little to Bulbasaur, who began to soak up the abundant rays of sunlight that were beating down onto them, charging energy. The Houndour seemed to notice this and began running over to the starter as fast as it could. But the leech seed was taking its toll, slowing the Houndour's run to a slow jog.

By the time Houndour closed the distance it was too late. One moment it was charging, the next it was unconscious.

Which left Lillie feeling a strange feeling of numbness and euphoria.

"I won?"

Kiawe wanted to yell at the top of his voice at the display he was seeing in front of him.

Charizard was trying to fight the Raticate all on his own, ignoring every command that Kiawe shouted out in favour of doing his own thing. But the Raticate was proving to be a slippery opponent, as it dodged every attack Charizard threw and leaving numerous craters around him.

Charizard roared in frustration before he turned the action into a flamethrower, setting the area ablaze but failing to hit the rat Pokémon. Which was what finally broke Kiawe.

"Charizard!" He yelled, catching the fire starter's attention. "You need to listen to me, or you're not going to beat this Pokémon. And I am not going to let Lillie's egg be threatened because of a disobedient Pokémon like you!"

Charizard seemed surprised by this, before he grinned, a modicum of respect twinkling in his eye. He relented with a slight nod, which was more than enough.

"Good, now you'll need to combo your moves. Force it into range. So use a dragon tail followed by a flamethrower!"

Charizard grunted, before he spun round with frightening speed, tearing up the ground with dragon type energy. The Raticate avoided this by leaping into the air, but was soon looking horrified as Charizard finished his spin, showcasing his fire-filled maw pointing right at it.

Followed by an intense and almost unrelenting stream of fire.

By the time Charizard finally stopped using flamethrower, the Alolan variant of Raticate was several shades darker.

Ash couldn't help but feel proud as he watched the thugs break off into a run, tails hanging between their legs as they were chased off.

Allowing his hand to unclench his last Pokéball, which he had just in case something happened and was waiting to step in, Ash felt like he had actually done something right. His students had listened to him and, despite a few missteps, were doing as he instructed: playing to their Pokémon's strength. They needed a lot of practice in terms of actual battles, especially since a big reason behind why they won being his own Pokémon being much stronger than their opponents, but it was a start.

Especially since it meant that he could actually teach them, as that was something he could definitely help with.

Once the battle was well and truly over, he watched with pride as the group broke out into conversation about the battle, each regaling over their own experience.

Content with this, Ash let this play out for a few minutes, taking the time to thank all of his Pokémon for their help, before he collected their Pokéballs and returned them. Once that was done, he took one last look at the group.

The students were still talking to one another, each filled with boundless energy that hadn't existed after their arduous lesson under Ash about thirty minutes ago. Happy that he had done this part, he gave Pikachu a quick stroke and began walking off, his thoughts wandering as he pondered what to do now. He wanted to see what kind of Pokémon Alola had to offer, so he was tempted to begin exploring the forest. But he also needed to think about what his lesson tomorrow would be, so maybe he would do that.

As he let his mind work, he almost missed his name being called by Mallow, only catching it after the third time it was said, turning around to look at the group who was now staring at him.

"Hey, we were wondering," Mallow started, looking a little nervous as she spoke, "we were planning on going to Hau'oli City now, to grab a few things for Lillie's egg. And we thought, since you're new to Alola, that maybe you'd like to come with us?"

Ash's eyes widened at this, not expecting the invite at all. But based on how all of them were quietly waiting for his response, he was guessing that maybe this was the opportunity to befriend them that he was looking for. So he flashed his best smile and nodded.

"I'd love to."

Tapu Koko felt a strong sense of reassurance as he watched the foreign trainer work his magic, now realising that they had been blessed with his presence.

He was good.

In one training session, he had managed to improve their skills greatly. While the other human, the one that all the Tapus held a level of respect for, was a good teacher, he wasn't what these humans needed. This one was.

Arceus clearly worked in mysterious ways. But by her name, did they do the trick.

Content with how this was playing out, Tapu Koko called it a day. It would continue to watch from a distance whenever they had training sessions, but for now it felt that they deserved some time to themselves. Especially considering their progress today.

If this trainer could do so much in one day, one could only imagine what they could do in the next few months. It was almost frightening.

But exactly what Tapu Koko was looking for.

Hey guys, I've got another chapter for y'all.

This chapter follows up on the previous one and puts the lesson they learnt to action. Hopefully it conveys well, but I wanted them to see the effects of Ash's teaching early on, so that they're more open to his… stranger ideas going forward. And we also get to see them bonding which is exactly what you want to see.

Also, just to let you know, I now have created a list of all the Pokémon that the Alola crew are going to catch throughout this story. They'll all have full teams by the time I'm done with this story, and things have already started with the addition of Snowy's egg. But I have one slight dilemma. I don't know what to do about Ash.

I want Ash to catch Pokémon, that should be obvious. But I also want to mix it up from the canon story. So that leaves me wondering what to do. Do I have him catch all of his canon catches? Do I have him catch all new Pokémon? Should I do a bit of both? I'm not sure. So, I'd like to know what you lot think. Let me know what you think I should do about this in the reviews so that I can get a bit more of an idea about how to handle Ash.

Other than that, thank you for reading this chapter. I look forward to reading your reviews on this chapter, it's always a joy to do, and I'll see you all the next time I upload.

Happy holidays, love, and peace – TWoS.