We're heading to Galar and a new start. This is an introductory chapter, because some things will be different. I'm very sorry, as you're expecting a date, but I have to set up some things for these last chapters. This series is just a little disappointing.

Also, I decided to postpone releasing this story to post it on Christmas day.

Everything related to my broken promise is written at the end.

Chapter 9

Lumiose airport

Ash's POV

I sighed. We've had a lot of fun together, and on top of that, we've fallen in love. I had never experienced a feeling like that, or at least, not that serious (his crush on Giselle in Indigo League Ep009 wasn't serious and didn't last long). Obviously, we would stay in contact, but still… It was something different to see each other via a computer than seeing each other personally. And I would miss her Pokémon: Zorua, who was also happy to see me, her Absol, her Aurorus, etc. And her Meowstic who seemed uncontrollable for some reason. And now, I didn't know who I would meet, if I would meet someone who could be my travelling companion. And that while I was planning to head into a region unknown I don't know.

Suddenly, she pulled me in for an embrace. She wrapped her arms around me, and I wrapped my arms around her. I let my head rest on the handkerchief around her neck. 'I'm going to miss you, Ash.' she said. 'I'm going to miss you too, Astrid.' I replied. She then lowered her head so they matched heights, and pulled me in for a last kiss (as for now). I enjoyed the feeling of her lips against my own lips. She then pulled away, smiling at me, before telling me to hurry to the plane or I would miss it. I wouldn't mind missing the flight actually, and I wouldn't mind accompanying her back home and meeting her parents, but then I would make my own mother worried and distract Astrid from her parents, while they asked her to head home to spend more time with her. 'Goodbye, Astrid, we'll see or hear each other soon, I'll promise!' I said. 'You too, Ash. I can't wait to see you again. Take care of yourself! She said, waving at me. 'Pika pika!' said Pikachu, and it was responded with a goodbye from Astrid, Zorua and Absol. 'Goodbye, Zorua. I'm glad we met again, and I'm glad we might meet each other more often! The same goes for you Absol!' I said. When everyone was asked to board the plane to Kanto, Astrid basically pushed me away, laughing while I waved back. I grabbed my luggage and waved one last time before walking around the corner. She gave me an air kiss. Astrid had promised to not go around the corner, to make sure Ash wouldn't get distracted and something would go wrong. I sighed.

In Galar

Here I am. I looked at Pikachu, who just stared at the contained sight of Galar. He finally realised he was being looked at, and returned the gaze. 'Well, here we are, Pikachu. What do you think of it?' I asked, not sure what to do now. Well, I needed to call mom sometime this day, to assure her of a safe arrival. But further I didn't really have anything to do right now. 'Are you Ash Ketchum?' a feminine voice asked. I turned around, seeing a girl around my age. She had brown hair with a relatively big part covering her left side of her face, fair skin and brown eyes. She wore a pink-red dress with a grey hoodie over it. On her head she had one of these Galarian things I've heard of… How were these called? Tan' o shelters? It was dark green with a white fluffy ball on top of it. Later I would see there was a white stripe pattern on it too. She also had a brown backpack on her back, though it seemed to actually start midway her back. Creepily, a boy appeared from behind her. He coughed, surprising the girl. 'Victor!' she exclaimed, though he grinned at her yell. 'You're just like these Team Yell grunts.' According to the girl's red cheeks, it was an insult. According to the almost visible glared daggers, it was a big one as well. Guess this Team Yell is just like Team Rocket. Thinking about them, I haven't actually seen them for a while. Even though it might sound weird, I actually missed commenting on their boring intro, and making them blast off again. 'I'm Ash Ketchum, and this is my partner Pikachu.' I said, introducing myself. 'Pika!' came Pikachu's standard introduction response.

'Oh, ehm, we forgot to introduce ourselves.' started the girl, shooting "Victor" a nasty look. He responded with a content face. You know. These faces Ash used to pull when he was insulting Misty. Arms behind the head included. 'I'm Gloria. This here is, or used to be, my friend Victor, but he doesn't really seem like a friend anymore. How is he to you?' started the girl named Gloria. I looked at Victor. I couldn't help but smile as he reminded me of myself when I would insult Misty. However, I didn't want to repel her so I decided to give a neutral answer. 'He seems to be like me.' I said. 'Pika?' Pikachu, who had silently followed the conversation before, now started questioning my "neutral" answer, sensing trouble. 'How I used to be.' I quickly added, looking away. An annoyed huff came from Gloria, before Victor introduced himself. I looked at him, studying his appearance in case I might see it everyday. His head was basically a boy-ified version of Gloria's head. He wore something that most closely resembled my favourite socks. Obviously, they were more than thrice the size of my favourite socks. And thrice as clean. He also wore a red T-shirt (with rolled-up sleeves) and blue jeans. There were these Galarian patterns at the sides. And he had a huge (very huge) brown bag/suitcase thing on his back. 'I'm Victor, a friend of Gloria. We both chose our starter at the same time.' he said. I smiled, now that he started about starters, I felt the need to battle. 'You did? Allright, let's have a battle then!' I exclaimed. 'Pikapi!' exclaimed Pikachu too, in for a battle. 'You want a battle? Well then, I won't say no to that!' Gloria responded, before running… away?' Victor ran after her. Then they noticed I wasn't coming along. 'Eh, where are you guys going?' I asked, confused about their sudden departure. 'Eh, we're going to the airport's battlefield.' responded Gloria, seeming confused at my question. 'You wanted to battle right here?' Victor added. I realised he was right about that, so I followed them to the battlefield, slightly excited that this airport had one. Or all airports have one, but I never knew they did.

At the battlefield

It was a standard battlefield. A battle referee stood near it, talking with Victor and Gloria. I couldn't hear what was being said, but the referee seemed excited. Gloria turned around, looking at me, then at the battlefield. I understood the hint and walked over to one side of the battlefield, and she walked to the spot opposite of my spot. The referee's voice sounded, explaining that which I've heard already a thousand times. As such, I wasn't really paying attention to what was being said. Apparently, I had the first turn. 'Alright, Pikachu, let's do this. I choose you!' I said, sending out my buddy. 'Pikachu, huh, Octillery, let's do this!' Gloria exclaimed, sending out the Jet Pokémon. 'Let the battle begin!' the referee shouted. 'Pikachu, start with a Quick Attack!' I shouted. 'Pika!' he shouted as he sped towards the Octillery, leaving a light white trail behind. 'Octillery, counter it with Bullet Seed!' The command from the other side made the Octillery fire four volleys of seeds, though Pikachu managed to evade all of them. However, when he hit Octillery, it didn't do much. 'What! How didn't that work!?' I asked in surprise, though not expecting an answer, which Gloria gave anyway: 'Dodging the volleys slowed Pikachu down immensely, thus canceling a big part of the speed boost of Quick Attack!' she shouted proudly. 'Octillery, use Gunk Shot!' she commanded. Her Octillery responded by firing a big piece of rubbish outlined by purple. 'Pikachu! Counter it with Electro Ball!' I commanded, hoping the Speed difference would increase the move's power to the necessary level required to counter the heavy attack. 'PikaaaCHU!' he shouted, using all its power in hopes of not only blocking, but also damaging it's opponent. It blocked the Gunk Shot, but wasn't strong enough to damage it, though. 'Alright, Octillery, let's finish this with Octazooka!' commanded Gloria. Her Octillery responded by forming a ball made of ink in front of its mouth and firing it after charging it. 'Pikachu, use Electro Web!' I commanded, not sure whether this would work or not. 'Pi… ka… chu.' he said while magically summoning an electrified web out of it's tail. The web caught the ink attack in it's flight, wrapped around it, and sent both attacks flying towards Octillery due to more speed. The attack successfully hit, with the Electro Web increasing the effectiveness of the Octazooka against its user. The counter took a heavy toll on the Jet Pokémon, and Gloria sensed she wouldn't win the battle with it. 'Octillery, return. Good job out there, Octillery, you were a great help.' she said, praising it to keep it content. 'Remoraid, you're out!' she said, sending out the former's pre-evolution. From here on I'm just going to call it prevolution, whether it's grammatically incorrect or not. 'Remoraid?' I asked, confused about the choice.

'Pikachu, use Electro Ball!' I commanded. 'Chu!' sounded from the Electric Mouse Pokémon, as it fired an electric ball from it's tail once more. 'Remoraid, use Water Pulse!' Gloria commanded, to which the Remoraid responded by charging up a blue ball of water, and fired it as the Electro Ball had bridged half of the distance. Despite the Electro Ball technically being stronger than the Water Pulse and having already bridged a lot of distance, the Water Pulse was able to trigger the Electro Ball in the collision causing both attacks to explode. While I watched in awe, Gloria took the opportunity to attack. 'Remoraid, use Bubble Beam!' she commanded. Before I could react multiple bubbles came out of the smoke, exploding on impact with Pikachu. Having already been damaged severely, the latter fell to the ground. 'Come on, Pikachu, I know you can do this.' I said, gritting my teeth while I watched Pikachu trying to get up. His legs were trembling as the distance between his belly and the ground slowly increased. Then, they stopped trembling and the distance between his belly and the ground drastically decreased until the value became zero with a small thud. Two swirls had replaced Pikachu's eyes, and the battle referee came with his standard "unable-to-continue-the-match" sentence. I stared at Gloria's Remoraid, then at her, not sure how a single Bubble Beam had taken out my Pikachu. Then again, Squirtle took out a Machamp with Bubble Beam too.

Pikachu's POV

I woke up to see an unfamiliar, but nice face. And a nice smell too. I looked around, though I was disoriented I suspected I was in a Pokécenter. The insides of the room I was located in looked different from other Pokécenters. I knew it was a Pokécenter because of the other beds in the room, with some having Pokémon resting on it. Then, I realised there were some among them I hadn't seen in my life: a thing that looked like a refined Porygon, oh help there goes the friendly rating, some kind of cormorant, but blue. There was an unusual amount of… rainbow fluff (What?) with some protrusions sticking out, though I wasn't sure whether these were horns or limbs, or something entirely different. Other Pokémon included a tan-coloured cobra, a Corphish, a red centipede Pokémon who either had a flaming tongue or flaming appendages (Maybe whiskers?) and was busy chatting to a Pokémon that greatly reminded me of a Floette. Only then, a lot thicker and still different from a Floette. The centipede Pokémon had noticed my awakening, and stopped his conversation to greet me: 'Hey, you're awake!' the Pokémon greeted, his voice giving his gender away. The "Floette" turned around too, and smiled cutely. I felt all the butterfly Pokémon that I've seen until now fluttering in my stomach. Wow. She's… cute. 'Hello. Glad to see you awake. We've never seen your variant.' she said. My variant? Is there a Galarian Pikachu? Imaginations of possible Galarian Pikachu's raced through my mind, but she interrupted me. 'From which region are you?' 'I'm from Kanto.' I replied. She better not call me a Kantonian Pikachu. 'So… you're a Kantonian Morpeko!' she exclaimed. What a bi-, wait, what did she call me? A Kantonian … what? The centipede must have read the confusion on my face, and spoke to "Floette": 'Eh, Fleur, I don't think he knows what a Morpeko is. I doubt he even knows what we are.' Fleur seemed surprised, considering something, then introduced herself. 'Oh, how stupid of me! I'm a Gossifleur, but you can call me Fleur. Though everyone does it because they think Gossifleur sounds stupid. This here is my new friend Sizzle, a Sizzzzzzzz...lepod.' she said. It seemed she didn't know the species name very well. 'It's Sizzlipede.' Sizzle corrected her. 'Right. Sizzilipede.' she said. Apparently, she still didn't get his name right, as Sizzle shot her a death glare, before continuing the introduction. 'You wonder how we got here? We got into a fight with some bossy Porygon2' he nodded towards the refined Porygon that was apparently known as Porygon2 'before a Ponyta came in and tried to diffuse the situation, though he got badly injured as well. But he managed to drag us towards this Pokécenter, and we got patched up.' he said. I started processing the information. I had realised that the "Porygon2'' must be the evolved form of Porygon, and that the Ponyta a regional form is of a regular Ponyta. 'Are you two… captured?' I asked. Originally I had wanted to ask if they were a couple, but decided it would give away too much information. The two Pokémon looked at each other in surprise, then answered with a no. They asked if I was wild too. 'No, I'm under ownership of a boy from Pallet Town. He's very nice.' I said. The two looked at me, not sure what to say. 'So...' started Fleur, though she didn't say anything after that. I realised I hadn't even introduced myself. 'I'm a Pikachu, by the way. My trainer, Ash Ketchum, and I are very close friends. I'm sure he would like it when you two would join him in exploring this region.' The two of them stared at each other, considering the idea. Fleur seemed progressive towards the idea, but Sizzle seemed conservative in his thoughts about humans. 'Why not!? I'm sure it will be nice, right Sizzle?' Fleur obviously tried to push Sizzle into a direction where he couldn't turn down the opportunity, but he responded fiercely. The two of them started friendly arguing, though Fleur would often interrupt him and then call out to him for not responding, slowly cornering him. After some time, Sizzle decided to give up, but promised one thing: 'I'll leave if it doesn't please me. And neither of you will stop me in leaving.' His flaming tongue agitatedly moved left and right as he spoke. Fleur seemed to consider the option, despite it being the only option she could choose. 'Very well then. We're pleased to meet your… trainer.' she said. The two of them looked at me. It took some time for me to realise they were waiting for me to introduce them to Ash. 'Oh, right. I'll try to contact a Chansey.' I said as I started searching for a button that would call Nurse Joy or her assisting Pokémon. 'There.' A new voice came from the direction of the rainbow fluff. I took a look at what I presumed to be a "Galarian" Ponyta. Despite the fluff and the horn, the Ponyta looked rather similar to it's Kantonian form, except for the eyes, which were much… cuter? More cartoonish? 'I'm a Ponyta. You are a Togedemaru, right?' he asked. Togedemaru… Really? I thought I was pretty common outside of Kanto, but I suppose I wasn't. 'Isn't it a…' Fleur looked my way. 'Pikachu.' I finished for her. 'I'm a Pikachu. NOT a Togedemaru.' He noticed the annoyed tone in my voice, and seemed offended by it. 'Oh, I'm sorry. I can't remember all the Morpeko clones that exist.' he said. 'Why does everyone think I am a Morpeko clone!?' I asked. 'That Morpeko must be a clone of me!' 'I mean, a clone of my kind.' The regional variant frowned at me, but did not decide to say anything. After a short silence he decided to point out the button's location once more. 'Right.' I said, as my right paw hit the button.

Ash's POV

'There you are! I was worried about you, you took so long to recover.' I said as I darted towards Pikachu, who jumped into my arms. As I hugged him, I noticed two hidden Pokémon: a flower and a red flaming centipede. They shivered as they realised I took notice of them, but stepped out of their half-hiding place. Rotom started buzzing enthusiastically at the sight of two unknown Pokémon and tried to scan them, but as it still occupied an Alolan Pokédex, it couldn't identify the centipede: the flower Pokémon was identified as a Floette, to which Victor pointed out it wasn't. 'It's a Gossifleur, the Flowering Pokémon.' he claimed, before aiming a… phone(?) at him. The phone then started talking: Gossifleur, the Flowering Pokémon. It's a Grass-type. It anchors itself in the ground with its single leg, then basks in the sun. After absorbing enough light, its petals spread as it blooms brilliantly.

'Wow, does that have a Pokédex?' I asked. He responded positively and added that it had more functions before scanning the centipede for me: Sizzlipede, the Radiator Pokémon. It's a Fire/Bug-type. It stores flammable gas in its body and uses it to generate heat. The yellow sections on its body get particularly hot.

'Where can I get one of these?' I couldn't wait to get one of these phones. 'We got them from professor Magnolia. Since you're new to this region, you should visit her too.' I thoughtfully looked at Gloria, curious as to why a trip to the professor was that necessary. Before I could ask anything, Pikachu suddenly pulled my trousers impatiently, seemingly desiring my attention. 'What's wrong, Pikachu?' I asked. 'Pika, pika pika.' he said, pointing at the, ehm, …, new Pokémon. 'What is he trying to say?' asked Gloria. 'Really? That's awesome!' I exclaimed, while Gloria and Victor exchanged looks. I pulled out two Pokéballs, ready to throw them, but the two scurried away. 'Chu! Pikachu.' Pikachu angrily yelled. 'Oh, I see. I'll just touch them then.' I said. For those who haven't seen much of the anime, a Pokémon can be caught too by just pressing the ball against them (mostly their foreheads). After all, if you insist on travelling along with someone you don't need to have a ball still thrown against you. 'Pika! Pika pika!' Victor tried to use his phone hoping that it could translate Pikachu's speech, while I stared at the two "hidden" Pokémon. They looked at me with an unsure gaze. 'Alright, you want to join me?' I asked, holding out my hand. The… flower Pokémon looked at Pikachu, who nodded, before proceeding to my hand. She swallowed audibly before moving upon my hand. She nervously looked, I should say checked, me as some time went by. Eventually, a small satisfied smile appeared on her face as she seemed to relax. She turned to Pikachu, who smiled at her. Then she turned at the … centipede. Damn. I really need to get a new Pokédex if I want to be able to remember their names. Both Pikachu and the "Pokémon-whose-name-I-forgot ≠ the-centipede-Pokémon" turned to the "Pokémon-whose-name-I-forgot = the-centipede-Pokémon" and started encouraging it. It stared at me and the "Pokémon-whose-name-I-forgot ≠ the-centipede-Pokémon" before the latter proceeded towards him and basically dragged him towards us. Apparently they were on good terms, as the flaming protrusions moved protestingly, but carefully enough to not scorch her. I shuddered as I felt the centipede on my hand, but didn't remove it. I made eye contact with it, and it looked back. 'I feel like we're going to be great friends!' I exclaimed, but some whisper - which sounded suspiciously sarcastic - was the only enthusiastic response I received. Oh well. That doesn't matter. I looked at Victor and Gloria, who finally understood what the issue was. 'Alright, let's go to that lab and get a new Pokédex!' I exclaimed. 'Pika pika!' 'Gossifleur!'

Okay, I did not expect myself to not keep my promise. What happened? Well, I actually underestimated this year. Previous year was relatively easy, but this year I've chosen a "profile" (not sure if this exists where you live. I know it exists in France), which contains subjects related to what you've chosen.

You have Culture&Society (CS, doesn't require any subject apart from the subjects every profil has, which are mathematics, English, Dutch (grammar only), civics, philosophy of life, and either German or French if you don't have old-Greece or Latin), Economics&Society (ES, requires economics), Nature&Health (NH, requires chemistry and biology) and Nature&Technic(NT, requires chemistry, physics and mathematics "B" (for scientific studies, abstract mathematics).

Anyway, I chose NT, which includes chemistry, a subject that equals a lot of homework and just sucks if you never really liked chemistry. Past that childish "I-hate-homework" the year I'm part of is, despite the lack of subjects not required for me, a lot rougher. I'm doing fine, I've got good grades, but it does rob me of more time than it did previous year. And that promise was made in the vacation, when I thought the year wouldn't be that hard and that I would be able to write at school, which is a waste of time: I either do things for school or game with my newfound friends.

Still, I need to say I do game a lot more than I did previous year. A lot of the leftover time I have goes towards Pokémon Go and Real Racing 3. While Pokémon Go does pay off by letting me actively become a Pokémon trainer, RR3 woke up a new side in me: an interest for racing/motorsports. I like racing a lot, I think I always did but now I either race a lot (gaming) or race my toy cars. And that is where a lot of my time and ideas go towards too.

In the end, I made that 3-month promise because I underestimated this year, but I also postponed this story because I game too much. I somewhere fear I'm becoming either game or race addicted.

So from now on, I am not making any promises anymore because I can't really keep them. I will finish this story in my own tempo (which I might try to push up) and that's just it. I will be surprised if anyone still bothers to check out on this story. Whoever does that, I'm impressed by your interest. That's why I decided to wait a few days to post this story. It's a "Christmas gift" to anyone who does so.

Thank you for taking time to read this, and maybe my little talk about myself. That felt wonderful to write, and I don't care if anyone read that.

Merry Christmas and a healthy new year to you all!