A/N: Thank you for taking the time to leave me all those incredible reviews. It's always fun reading what you guys think!

I couldn't stop laughing when I read what you thought about our adorable Magikarp, so I had to include him in this chapter too.

This chapter is about how hard it is to tell someone you care about when something bad happened. It's also about how rewarding doing it can be.

Thank you for all your support so far, I love each and every one of you. Keep being the wonderful readers that you are (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

1

Ash almost choked at how tight the hug was before his mom pulled back.

She looked at her little boy with both of her hands still around his shoulders, "Ash Ketchum!" She said with a firm tone, but her eyes were still moist from the tears. She looked like she didn't sleep, and her hair was in disarray. Ash felt himself growing teary when he thought about the reason why.

"Where have you been, young man?! Explained to yourself!"

Ash looked down at Pikachu, who gave him a look that screamed, 'don't look at me, it's not like I can do anything.'

Now that he faced his mom, Ash wasn't sure what he was supposed to tell her.

Would something like: 'Hey mom, so I'm a Pokémon now.' Would it be enough? No, that didn't sound like it could work. Ash needed to give her more information. Something like, 'hey mom. I couldn't get home because I was kidnapped by Team Rocket, experimented on, and physically changed into a Pokémon. Please don't freak out, ok?'

Ash wanted to slap himself. Him being a Pokémon would freak out anyone. No sane person was going to treat him the same as before.

Mom too, she's going to-

"Ash!" Thankfully, Delia's nagging stopped her son's thoughts from spiraling out of control, but that didn't stop the doubt that nested in his heart.

All Ash could do was shake his head silently. How could he tell his mom what happened? What if she didn't love him anymore? He wasn't human now. He wasn't like her.

Ash watched quietly as his mom grew far more concerned. Her brown eyes traveled across his body as trying to find what bothered her child, but couldn't.

Ash wanted to tell her. He really did. He never hid something this big from his mom before. Plus, his guilt ate at him – for making her worry, for being a bad son, and it's not like he didn't want her help, but his fear suffocated him from inside.

Telling mom is the right thing to do, he tried to convince himself, but no matter how logical it sounded in his head, he just couldn't. It was like a physical force that prevented him from sharing the truth with her.

"Ash, tell me what's wrong? Where have you been all this time?! Do you know how worried I've been?"

And she had been worried. She didn't sleep that night. Instead, Delia searched outside for her missing son. In her mind, sleep was secondary to her little Ashy. If she couldn't find him, make sure that he was safe, there was no way she could fall asleep in the first place.

Delia couldn't be any happier seeing Ash standing in front of her. It was all she prayed for and more.

Delia looked down at the Pokémon in her son's arms. It was an adorable yellow Pikachu. The Pokémon didn't look like it was injured, which was great, but it still was a wild Pokémon in her child's arms.

Delia didn't know about Pikachu in general, but she remembered hearing that this kind of Pokémon tended to electrocute anything that entered its' territory. It made Delia a little worried, but from the look of things, this Pikachu looked pretty comfortable in her son's arms.

The probability of it attacking her boy was low, so Delia didn't say anything about it to Ash. Instead, she took a long look at her boy and searched for injuries... she didn't find any, which was more than good. Delia didn't know what she would have done had Ash been injured, but it would have been ugly.

Upon farther examination, Delia noted that Ash's clothes were dirty like he slept on the ground and traveled through the forest. He looked tired and subdued. Whatever happened took a toll on the child.

Delia had always been a good mother. She wanted to know what happened, but her son's wellbeing was more important to her. So, Delia took a deep breath and smiled as cheerfully as she could, "well, we're going to talk about it later, for now, why won't you go take a warm bath, eat something nutritious and sleep, ok?"

Ash looked relieved, so Delia let herself smile for real this time.

Ash woke up the next morning in his room, covered with soft blankets in his bed. He had never been as grateful as he did then for having a real bed.

Pikachu was still sleeping next to Ash, not that the boy was complaining. He didn't mind sharing his bed. It wasn't like Pikachu took a lot of space.

Ash looked around and found out that everything looked bigger. It turns out that he reverted back to his Mew form while he slept.

Luckily, he woke up before his mom came in and saw his true-form. It would have been really awkward had she would have found out the truth like that. Ash yawned sleepily and rubbed his eyes. He Transformed, got up, leaving the sleeping Pokémon behind as he searched for his mother.

Delia was up already, which wasn't all that surprising. Delia was used to getting up early in the mornings. She runs a restaurant called Pallet House that she inherited from her own mother. To run a restaurant takes a lot of hard work, and Ash knew it. It's just, he hoped that after not sleeping for so long, his mom would catch up on her sleep.

"Mom…" Ash cleared his throat hesitatingly and froze as she turned to face him, "can we talk now?"

Delia smiled proudly at her boy and felt that Ash had indeed grown up. If it were a year ago, she would have needed to pry the information from him. "Of course, let me finish here, and we'll talk."

Delia was in the middle of making breakfast, so she couldn't pause in the middle, and she has almost finished anyway.

Ash moved closer to peek from the side, "what are you making?"

Delia smiled happily and turned the dish over, "hum? Just a little something. I saw the recipe online not too long ago, and it looked really good."

Ash felt his stomach rumbling in agreement, "it smells good."

"I was thinking of adding it to Pallet House's menu," she took a spoon and tasted the almost ready dish, "nice and sweet." Delia passed the spoon to Ash how he took a sip and nodded his head in agreement.

It was very good.

Like that, the pair of mother and son sat down in the kitchen to eat breakfast. When they were finished, Ash felt a lot better, and it was like his courage came back.

"Mom, I wanted to tell you something…"

Delia nodded but didn't add anything else. She decided to let Ash tell her in his own time. She wasn't going to push.

"Actually," Ash took a deep breath and started telling his mom about cutting class and hanging out in the forest. He was thankful that his mom didn't stop him at this point because he wasn't sure he would have been able to continue if she had.

While he was talking, Pikachu woke up from the delicious smell coming from downstairs. He blinked, stretched, and run downstairs only to hear Ash talking about being kidnapped by Team Rocket.

Pikachu had already heard it before, but now he really paid attention, because before, Pikachu thought that it was just a part of a Mew game. Now he knew that it was a real kidnapping and not a story at all.

Delia didn't speak, but she was horrified to hear that her son was taken by Team Rocket. She really hoped that Ash was lying to her, but in her heart, she knew that he wasn't.

"I really thought that they were going to kill me, but then this weird looking guy knocked on the door. He was really annoying, and I'm pretty sure that the only reason I'm alive now is because Team Rocket's leader wanted him out of his hair," Ash continued talking about being taken by the strange guy to a lab, being put inside an odd tube and what that tube was supposed to do.

It was at this point that Delia couldn't keep her silence anymore. She got up from where she was sitting and rushed to hug her child.

"Mom…?"

Delia shook her head, and a kind of righteous anger started burning in her chest, "Ashy, tell me what happened next."

"I- I changed…" it took a lot out of Ash to admit it, but after he did, he already felt better. "Can I... can I show you?"

Delia nodded and didn't let go as her child started growing smaller in her arms. Ash's Pokémon form looked adorable, and Delia couldn't help but hug her son closer. As a mother, something like this was never going to make her stop loving her son. All she could do was grow angry on his behalf.

Ash didn't know what passed through his mother's head, but he basked in the warm feeling of love and safety that practically radiated from her.

2

Magikarp Stared upstream with a determined look on his face. His two black eyes narrowed farther, showing how serious he was regarding the situation.

If he wanted to grow stronger, this is what he needed to do. This was the first trial. An ancient training method long thought to be lost (It had been lost…). It's said that once the training was completed successfully, the power a Magikarp could use would increase by so many levels!

How this stupid little Magikarp came across this ancient method is a strange story indeed. It all started after Magikarp swam away in shame after he was helped by the adorable Mew.

Magikarp swam blindly with tears in his eyes. His mind was busy thinking about how pitiful his whole situation was. How sad, to be disregarded by the one being you admire. Magikarp wanted to find a dark corner in the river and cry mournfully.

Suddenly, because he was swimming without looking, the idiotic Magikarp crashed into a wall. Even the walls are his enemies now, the small Magikarp thought vindictively.

To show this wall, Magikarp used Splash with all of his considerable power! Which didn't really do much at first, but Magikarp didn't know how to give up, and after using Splash countless times, suddenly, the wall crumbled!

If you were to look at that wall before, you would have seen a delicate, crumbling shingle. It wasn't going to be long before the wall was going to fall, and Magikarp crushing headfirst almost toppled it entirely.

The fact that the wall had been in poor condition never crossed Magikarp's mind. It was obviously Magikarp's almighty power that destroyed his nemesis.

Magikarp looked inside the newly found cave. It so happened that the instructions for the wonderful unparalleled technique previously mentioned were painted on the walls of the cave.

It was destiny that gave Magikarp an opportunity! The Pokémon was not going to waste it!

It didn't matter how hard the training appeared. Magikarp believed he'll succeed. After all, if he couldn't do it, how would he be able to face the beautiful, merciful Mew?!

No. As fate dedicates, Magikarp can only master the training, storm Mew's current holding place, and rescue his beloved from the yellow demon's claws!

With a determination and unparalleled commitment, Magikarp started the first challenge. Swimming upstream!

Next to the straggling Magikarp, you could see a group of Squirtles moving around without breaking a sweat.

Life is really unfair…

When Magikarp finally reached his destination, it was late at night. It took him a lot of hard work and resentfulness, but Magikarp didn't give up and continued to swim against the current without rest. When he finally finished, a glowing sense of accomplishment filled the small Magikarp, and he started laughing maniacally.

At that very moment, a group of Spearow dove from the sky and picked the stupidly-noisy Magikarp. Of course, they didn't have any good intention at heart, but with Magikarp's newly mastered Splash attack, he blinded the Spearow carrying him, which made the bird Pokémon drop its prey.

"AHHHHH!"

Magikarp fell down and hit the water. Needless to say, out of the two of them, the water won, and Magikarp sank to the bottom with a silly look on his face.

He'll resume his training tomorrow.

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