Aoi Hyoudou: Here's Fire Emblem: Three Houses - the co-winner of the last poll. This one was a bit difficult to do, but I hope you guys like it! The new poll will be up shortly to determine which series is up for next chapter 7.

Main character: Ash Ketchum

Supporting cast: Byleth (female), Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude and Kostas from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

Fated Encounter

{...}

"Okay...I think I'm lost now." Ash finally admitted aloud with a groan after walking around in circles for the past hour or so ever since arriving in a random forest just nearby a village.

"Of all the places, why a spooky forest at night?" He asked no one in particular. "That's just asking to get mugged..." The Pokémon Trainer cautiously looked around his surroundings, hoping that wasn't the case. "Or worse...getting attacked by some crazy lunatic with an axe like in the horror movies." Once again, he was hoping he wasn't jinxing himself for those two outcomes to happen.

"Well, well, well...! What do we have here? A brat from Garreg Mach Monastery? This is my lucky day." An evil voice said from behind. The male voice belonged to Kostas, the leader of a group of bandits.

Ash groaned. He had to go and jinxed himself. He turned around and confronted the bandit leader with a long sigh. "Look...if you want money, I don't have any. So can you do me a favor and just leave? I'm already lost as it is." Kostas laughed.

"Stupid boy!" He sneered. "I want more than just your money." He drew his axe and pointed it dangerously at his next victim. "I want your life as well!" He charged forward at the startling teen. "Die!"

Suddenly. however, a young woman with long blue greenish hair stepped into Ash's view and deflected Kostas' clumsy strike with her longsword in a blink of an eye. "Gah!" Kostas flew off his feet and fell on his back, soundly defeated.

"Are you okay?" Byleth asked with a monotone voice as she glanced back at the young teen.

Ash blinked momentarily, but then nodded dumbly. "Oh, um. yeah." He laughed sheepishly. "Thanks for the save." He gave her a smile.

"Don't mention it." Byleth said simply, offering a small smile in return before sheathing away her sword. "Although, it's dangerous to be out here alone, you know." She scolded with a firm glare. "Especially with bandits still lurking around."

"It's not like I have a choice." Ash replied with a sigh, earning a confused blink.

"What?"

"Don't worry about it." The Pokémon Trainer simply waved it off. "I'm Ash, by the way." He finally introduced. "And you are?"

Byleth hesitated momentarily, unsure if she should be giving out her name to strangers especially to those she just met and dressed in strange clothes like Ash was wearing. But since Ash was nice to her and she didn't sense any evil intent from him, she decided to introduce herself, but not before having a bit of fun with the young teen out of his expense.

"You can call me Byleth. It's a default character name given to me by birth." Ash blinked.

"Uh, what?" Byleth chuckled at his baffled expression.

"Hey!" A new voice called out, abruptly interrupting their conservation. They moved their attention in the direction where they heard the voice and noticed a group of teens were approaching them. They were wearing similar outfits, but in a variation of a different color, almost as if they were respective representatives of a certain class.

"Oh. Who's this?" Edelgard was the first one who noticed Ash's presence.

"Are they friends of yours, Byleth?" Ash somewhat ignored Edelgard and glanced back at Byleth.

"I wouldn't go as far as calling us friends in all means." Dimitri intervened before Byleth could even say a word. "Especially when we just met so you could say we're more like acquaintances than anything else."

"Come now, Dimitri." Claude sighed and shook his head at his comrade for being such a downer. "At the end of the day, on or off the battlefield we're all friends here right?"

"Perhaps, Claude." Edelgard somewhat agreed while Dimitri just frowned.

Claude glanced at Ash. "Sorry about that." He unexpectedly apologized for his friend's behavior. "That guy there is Dimitri."

"H-Hey!" Dimitri didn't like how Claude introduced him.

"And she's Edelgard." Claude introduced Edelgard who spoke earlier.

"Nice to meet your acquaintance." she said kindly in a respectful tone and smiled.

"And I'm Claude. Nice to meet you, kid." He grinned.

"Nice to meet you all." Ash replied back with a smile of his own. "I'm Ash. Ash Ketchum."

Quite a tease for being so short, right? xD Maybe one day I might consider doing a crossover story between Pokémon and Fire Emblem: Three Houses with Ash x Byleth (female) being the ship. Anyway, the new poll will be up either later today or Friday.