"So, from Nacrene it's on to, uh, Castelia I think?" Ash checked. "Arc, what's the fastest route to Castelia?"

"Step one: teleport," Arc replied. "Step two: There is no step two."

"Okay, what's the shortest route to Castelia that doesn't involve teleporting?" Ash corrected himself. "Or flying. The shortest route that involves walking."

"Calculating," Arc said.

"Or altering the shape of tectonic plates, or drying rivers," Pikachu pointed out. "In fact, the shortest route that involves nothing but normal walking unless that's impossible to avoid."

"If you had said that in the first place this would have been easier," Arc said. "Route determined. Take the road through Pinwheel Forest."

"Thanks," Ash told the Normal-type. "Pinwheel Forest, huh… I wonder what Pokémon there are in there?"

"Like the Pokémon everyone else has seen in Pinwheel Forest will have any relation at all to the Pokémon you see in Pinwheel Forest," Iris chuckled. "I'd… try to suggest something ridiculous but then it would happen."

Any further conversation was cut off by a beeping sound from Ash's backpack, and Ash extracted the egg case to see what Pokémon was going to hatch.

"We should probably take notes for Zorua's theory," Pikachu suggested.

"Zorua's theory is that some Pokémon are smarter than others when they're hatched, and he's one of the smart ones," Lokoko replied. "It's basic information combined with bragging."

"...yeah, fair," Pikachu agreed.

Then the egg glowed, and a Scrafty hatched out.

"...uh…" Iris began. "How was I not expecting something like that to happen?"

"Hello," Scrafty said. "Oh, so that's what I am. Scrafty. Interesting."

She put a claw to her chin, then raised it. "First question. What's a Scrafty?"

Ash got out Ibid, who turned into a miniature Bronzor.

"I don't think I look like that," the Fighting-type said.

"I am trying to be a mirror," Ibid replied. "You actually look like this."

He turned into a miniature Scrafty this time, and Scrafty contemplated how she looked.

"I guess I can see that," she decided. "So what are Scrafty like?"

"Scrafty," Ibid replied. "The Hoodlum Pokémon. Groups of them beat up anything that enters their territory."

"That doesn't sound very polite," the Fighting-type grumbled.

"Each can spit acidic liquid from its mouth," Ibid resumed. "It can smash concrete blocks with its kicking attacks."

That bit got a bit more of a positive reception from the young Pokémon.

"It has a certain territory that it never leaves its whole life long," was the next bit, and that got Scrafty thinking.

"So… how far are we likely to go?" she asked. "For example, I know we're in Unova and you're not from Unova."

"All over the world, probably," Ash guessed. "I know we're going to Kalos some time, and I've got a nephmew on the moon who might like to show it to me some time."

"Then my territory is clearly the entire universe," Scrafty decided. "And any others we might happen to visit. Fortunately I don't actually have to do anything with that territory, right?"

"Scrafty may be rude, but it takes very good care of its family, its friends and its turf," Ibid suggested.

"Rude? Well, I never," Scrafty huffed. "I can take good care of things though. I think."

On the way through Pinwheel Forest, the friends encountered a wild Sewaddle who swung down on a String Shot and flung a Razor Leaf at Pikachu.

"Hey!" Pikachu complained promptly, flicking up his tail and converting it to an Iron Tail. "What's that for?"

"I'm challenging you to a battle!" Sewaddle replied, then flicked out a String Shot and swung off through the trees. "Catch me if you can!"

"I wonder if that was Mew?" Ash said. "That kind of reminded me about how I met Caterpie who was Mew. Or possibly Mankey who was also Mew."

"I don't know," Pikachu replied. "Would they do the same thing that many times?"

"Honestly I wish I had thought of it, now," Purrloin who was Mew admitted, phasing into visibility and turning out to be on Ash's hat. "But nope! That's a genuine Sewaddle! I assume, I mean, it could be a Zorua or a Ditto or something."

"I'm not going to turn down a challenge like that!" Ash said. "All right-"

A Pidove darted off Keldeo's shoulder and zipped into the forest.

"-huh," Ash added. "That was odd."

"You're telling me?" Keldeo asked. "Normally they just hang around, and occasionally give me valuable life advice. And look cute."

The Pidove returned, along with a dangling and slightly miffed Sewaddle and followed by someone with a green top and a loud red scarf.

"Is this your Pidove?" he asked. "I'm asking because she seems to have kidnapped this Sewaddle."

"Sewaddle challenged Pikachu to a battle, then ran off," Ash explained. "I was going to have Starly chase them down, but Pidove is one of Keldeo's friends and I guess she got over-excited?"

Pidove chirped. "Little bit."

That led to Sewaddle falling out of her beak, and thumping onto the floor.

"That was unfair," she protested. "I gave the challenge to you to chase me down, not bring me back."

"Takeout and delivery are only different when the one doing the delivery isn't a part of your dining group," Cilan said knowingly, then looked up at the human. "Aren't you Burgh?"

"I am!" Burgh agreed. "And you must be… Cilan, right? Striaton?"

"I'm on a temporary vacation from my gym," Cilan answered. "I hope to find all kinds of new ways to relate to humans and Pokémon, and the fact that I've already held dozens of conversations with them seems to show that I'm off to a good start!"

"Hey, Sewaddle!" Ash called. "Is this a battle to see if you're going to join my team, or is it just for the fun of it?"

"Okay, I am now weirded out," Sewaddle confessed. "Normally humans can't understand Pokémon, right?"

"Yes, assuming that I'm not around," Lokoko agreed. "Or one of my trainees. But Ash can all the time."

"But yes, being captured was an option," Sewaddle added.

"Oh, hold on, does this mean I've got a chance to watch Ash Ketchum in a battle?" Burgh asked. "This might rekindle my artistic flair!"

"Oh, that changes things!" Ash decided. "If this is to inspire someone, then it's time to make it a really good battle!"

Iris let out a long sigh. "This is going to get weird, I can tell."

"How weird can it get?" Keldeo asked. "Beyond the inherent oddity of Pokémon wanting to be captured, I mean."

Ash took three types of Pokéball off his belt. "Pick one of these!" he said. "That's going to be your teammate! The other two will be on my side and battling against you!"

"Question withdrawn," Keldeo decided.

In the end, Sewaddle worked quite well with Starly, especially when Ash forgot which side he was giving advice for and pointed out how they could use a combination of Iron Defence and momentum on a String Shot between them to adjust their combined momentum and weight on the fly. It wasn't enough to quite eke out a win against Gible and Croconaw – not least because Croconaw managed to reverse-engineer the dancing they were doing and turn it against them even though it wasn't a formal dance – but when the dust settled and the fallen tree had been put back up, Sewaddle happily joined Ash's team.

"That was a fine battle indeed!" Burgh said. "I'd give you my badge now but someone would complain and I think you actually have to beat me for it. I'll look forward to seeing you in Castelia!"

"Actually, about that, how long have you been out of the gym?" Ash asked. "My friend Whitney can get a bit annoyed about that sort of thing."

Then a Sandile popped his head out of the ground.

"Dang," he said. "I'll have to try again next plot beat."

"Next what?" Pikachu asked.

"Never you mind," the Ground-type said, vanishing back under the ground. "And slow down a bit so I can keep up with you!"

The friends stopped off at a giant Pokémart where they met another Pokémon Connoisseur like Cilan – one who had a grudge against Cilan because he'd beaten her in a Gym Battle – and though she was annoyed enough to challenge Cilan to a battle Ash asked if they could do the rating thing first.

"Well… of course," agreed the Connoisseur, Burgundy, who was technically a Connaisseuse because she was a woman. "Let's start with your Pikachu, who isn't nearly as cute as the pictures I've seen."

"Yeah, I photograph well," Pikachu shrugged, twitching his ears.

"I mean you're not as-" Burgundy began, then blinked. "...did you just talk?"

"Pokémon talk all the time, it's not our fault most humans don't listen properly," Pikachu sniffed. "It's Lokoko doing the facilitating, she's over there."

"Well, I don't think your Pikachu is very polite!" Burgundy huffed. "You're not a good fit."

"Shows what you know, I've Mega Evolved him," Pikachu retorted.

"Pikachu can't Mega Evolve," Iris protested.

"That's not what I said," Pikachu countered.

"Hey, maybe she and Cilan should have that battle!" Ash suggested. "That might help. I usually find having Pokémon battles helps!"

"That's true," Keldeo said, then looked conflicted.

It was a bit hard to tell if the battle helped, but Burgundy didn't seem quite so actively hostile to Cilan afterwards and they were willing to chalk that up to a win.

The rest of the journey to Castelia passed mostly without incident, though once they actually reached Castelia City and crossed the Skyarrow Bridge they had a bit of bother with ending up flung into the past.

"Hmm…" Ash frowned. "It'd be kind of nice if Dragonite was here, or May or Eevee, they've had experience with this kind of thing."

"Okay, you're going to have to explain that one," Iris requested. "Experience with ending up back in time?"

"Yeah, or, I've done it but that involved Dialga and Arceus," Ash clarified. "So it was definitely time travel and it was caused by a specific Pokémon. But we're only kind of sure that this one is time travel because we're back before the Skyarrow Bridge was built… and May had this experience where she went back in time and sort of changed things? It involved a train station I think, and this one involves a bridge and those water taxi things that were there before the bridge so the connection there is transportation."

He frowned. "Hey, Ibid, is there a Legendary Pokémon of Transportation?"

"Manaphy is the Prince of the Sea and a lot of transportation methods involve going by sea," Ibid suggested.

"Yeah, so it'd be really helpful if May was here, she's got a bottle of Manaphy with her," Ash nodded. "But if we don't have that as an option then we just need to find out what went wrong or right and fix it or prevent it from going wrong, unless this isn't actually time travel and it's just a dream thing like when Giratina showed up only it was an illusion of Giratina instead of the real Giratina."

Iris and Cilan both stared for a long moment.

"Ash, you're terrible at explaining," Cilan said. "This is like being asked to do something to use up leftovers and ending up with more leftovers than when you started."

"Ibid, can you get Cresselia?" Ash asked. "She might have some idea what to do if this is some kind of dream… and if it's an illusion, both Zorua and Aten? One of them should have the tools to get out of this."

"I cannot," Ibid replied. "Checking… answer found. I cannot teleport out of an altered dream reality."

"Oh, so it's to do with reality," Ash said. "In that case, I know just how to handle this!"

He juggled Ibid into his pocket and Arc out. "Do you have an app for reality alteration?"

Then, very suddenly, the Skyarrow Bridge was back in front of them again. The fog was gone, and a Gothitelle was looking annoyed.

"What did you just do?" they asked.

"I uncreated the altered reality," Arc replied. "I hope this was not a problem."

"But – that was – I want to go back!" Gothitelle said. "I want to go back to when Sally was running the water taxis!"

"We can't do that," said an older woman, who they'd seen before. "Gothitelle, we can't live the same life over and over again… we can just get on with what we have now. And I'm grateful for your friendship."

"It's still not fair, Sally," Gothitelle protested.

"Is it fair to get other people stuck like that?" Sally asked.

"Uh… I have a question?" Iris said. "Why can't the water taxis be a thing for tourists to look at the underneath of the Skyarrow Bridge? Gothitelle could even use her dream memory powers to show how it looked when it was being built."

She blinked, then groaned. "Now you've got me doing it, Ash!"

AN:

Usually self-discovery doesn't involve looking up yourself in an encyclopedia. Not as step one anyway.

As of when I post this, I'm not sure how much longer daily posts will be possible, but let's see what happens.