Ash could see the lighthouse approaching. After a month away, they were back in Kanto. Now came the hard part, explaining what happened to him while he was gone.
"Come on Pikachu, might as well get this over with." Ash said approaching the doors to the lab.
Walking through the lab, he eventually found himself at the main research area.
"We'll all be excited to hear more when you get back." Professor Cerise said, hanging up the phone.
"Was that Goh and Chloe?" Ash asked, stepping into the room.
Professor Cerise jumped in shock. "Ash, welcome back. If I had known you were going to be here…"
"It's fine, how have things been?" Ash interjected.
"Quiet, you always seemed to find a way to liven up research. How are you feeling?" Professor Cerise asked.
"Good, just thought I'd stop by before heading to Pallet, I promised my mom I'd stop by and see her when I got back to Kanto." Ash said, his luggage behind him.
"Well, you'll need this." Professor Cerise said, digging around, eventually finding a Light Blue Rotom phone. "You're lucky Goh managed to capture the Rotom in your old phone, after it broke."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Ash said apologetically.
"It's fine, I'd rather it be your phone than you." Professor Cerise said. "Well I shouldn't hold you up. Go and drop off your things, I'll go see how lunch is coming."
Ash made his way into his room, nothing had changed. At least not for the room. Taking off his jacket, and looking at himself, no matter what way he looked at it, he had changed. Whatever Darkrai and that Hypno did, he couldn't hide it. Ash only hoped it stopped where it's at.
"So, Ash… how was Alola?" Professor Cerise asked awkwardly.
"It was a bit different, not being myself and all." Ash commented.
"What are those?" Parker asked innocently.
"Parker, we don't ask questions like that, it's rude." Talia scolded.
"No, it's okay. That question was inevitable." Ash said. "When I lost my memories, a couple of Pokémon that aren't exactly my biggest fans used it to their advantage to manipulate me mentally and physically. These are part of the end result." Ash said emphasizing on his chest.
"Thankfully, they're small enough that with a bit of layering, or baggy clothes you can still hide them." Talia said sweetly.
"Yeah, if my friends from Alola visit, for my safety don't refer to them as small please." Ash said, fearing what might happen.
Outside the lab
"Alright Dragonite, let's go!" Ash shouted, the two taking off into the sky.
By the time Ash had landed in Pallet Town, it was around 2. Ash got off Dragonite and headed for his first stop, Professor Oak's lab. His mom would be busy until later anyways.
"Professor, Tracey? Are you two in here?" Ash asked into the lab.
"Gahh! Catch them!" Tracey yelled.
Around the corner, heading straight for them was a Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle. Ash caught the Squirtle, as Dragonite grabbed the Charmander, and Pikachu intercepted the Bulbasaur.
"Thanks for that miss." Tracey said. "How can i help you?"
"Tracey, it's me, Ash." Ash said with a slight laugh.
Tracey's eyes bugged out. "Ash! When Misty said you had changed, I didn't think she meant this much!" Tracey said astonished.
"Yeah, it's been a weird couple of months for me." Ash admitted.
"You know, sometimes I miss it." Tracey said, trailing off.
"Having a series of strange and incredibly unlikely events making it hard to give the appearance of being a guy?" Ash asked confused.
"No, I'm glad it's not happening to me. The adventuring though, at first I was happy being Professor Oak's assistant, and I was for a while, but it's gotten almost stale." Tracey said with a sigh. "This is where I'm needed though."
"Tracey, I'm sure if you talked to Professor Oak, he'd let you go on an adventure, or even if you still wanted to work with him, maybe do field work like I do." Ash offered.
"Do you think he'd let me?" Tracey asked.
"Oh, I think he will if you simply asked." Professor Oak said from a balcony. "Tracey, you have always been free to come and go as you please. Never think I'm keeping you here."
Later at the Ketchum house
"Mom, I'm home." Ash said walking through the door.
Ash was suddenly enveloped in a bear hug from his mother.
"Oh, Ash it's so good to see you're okay." Delila said before curiously squeezing him again. "Ash, what happened exactly?" Delila asked.
For the third time that day, Ash explained the events of what he knows happened while he had amnesia, and filled in what he had figured out as well.
"And how do you feel?" Delila asked.
"I'm fine, why does everyone keep asking that!" Ash said annoyed.
"Because it looks like you went through 5 months of HRT in 5 weeks. I want to make sure you're healthy right now." Delila said concerned.
"I, I didn't know." Ash apologized.
"Well the good news is it looks like you inherited your mother's genes." Delila smirked. "Could've been like your father, broad shoulders, always looked scruffy, and deep voiced." Delila said with a laugh.
Ash thought back to himself before Christmas, those pretty much described him then. Did what he take make him take more after his mother in all actuality?
"Well come on, I have some dinner prepared for us, and we can talk for a bit.
Ash spent the night with his mom, enjoying the quality time. Spending the night in his old room, before taking off back to Vermillion in the morning. He enjoyed his time in Pallet, but it was just too small for him to stay all the time.