"Aha!"
A woman pointed at Ash. "Our eyes met! That means we have to battle!"
"Does it?" Ash said. "Huh, I must have missed that rule somewhere… hey, Pikachu, doesn't that mean you owe battles to half the trainers from here to Hoenn?"
"Don't you mean you owe them battles?" Pikachu asked.
"I battled a lot of the trainers we met, but you didn't battle more than a couple of them," Ash said. "I might need the special long lasting potion if we need to go back and have all of those battles… I think if you're counted as the trainer then I'm the only one who sort of counts as your Pokémon? Arc, does that work out?"
"The rules on Illusory Trainer Reciprocity allow for a Zorua, Zoroark or other disguised Pokémon to count as their own trainer, and they also allow for that trainer's other Pokémon to count as the trainer for them if desired," Arc said. "This is to prevent a group of several illusionist Pokémon from counting as communal trainers for one another, on the grounds that: that would be too confusing."
"Huh, thanks," Ash nodded. "Maybe I should give Zorua or Lokoko a turn being my trainer in a battle some time… something to think about! Anyway, is the eye contact thing a rule?"
"Oh, hold on," the woman said. "You're Ash Ketchum, right?"
"That's him," Lokoko confirmed.
"Well, I was hoping that I could beat whichever trainer came along, and then ask them to come with me to show their Pokémon to my school class," the woman explained. "Normally Sylveon and I explore for wild Pokémon to bring to meet the class… but I think maybe in this case I should just ask."
"What do you think, Fennekin?" Serena asked.
Fennekin's ears twitched. "Fee-n?" she said, wiggling her paw a bit.
"I guess?" Serena guessed, and Fennekin nodded confirmation.
"I like that idea!" Dedenne contributed. "We can show off the food gun!"
The teacher's name was Penelope, and she introduced them to her class.
Most of them were amazed, interested in seeing Ash's Pikachu or his Clefairy or any of his broad collection of Pokémon – or, for that matter, Serena's Fennekin and the Pokémon Clemont brought along – but not quite everyone was so enthusiastic.
Randall glanced around the side of the building, then shrank back and hoped he hadn't been seen.
Getting close to Pokémon was… all kinds of scary.
"Hey, is something wrong?"
Randall looked up, surprised at the new voice, and saw Bonnie had come around the corner.
"I saw you looking," she said. "Are you allergic to Pokémon or something? That would be sad."
"No, I'm not," Randall replied. "I just don't like them, they're scary."
"Really?" Bonnie asked. "I guess some Pokémon can be scary if you don't know them, and 'cause Pokémon are a lot like people some of them are going to be nasty, but all the Pokémon in our group are nice! Except Aten but he's mostly just all bristly and stuff, and he's not here today."
"What's an Aten?" Randall asked, confused. "I don't remember hearing about that Pokémon before."
"That's his name," Bonnie explained. "Like how Lokoko is Ash's Ninetales. She's a Ninetales, called Lokoko."
Randall nodded. "Okay, I think I get it…"
Bonnie had been thinking, though. "So you think some Pokémon are scary, right?" she asked. "Or all Pokémon? But how are you going to know if any Pokémon aren't scary?"
She waved vaguely in Clemont's direction. "I know I'm not meant to trust just anyone, but if Clemont says I can trust someone it helps me know if I can trust them! And if lots of people say a Pokémon is okay, then that has to help too, right?"
Randall was still uncertain, and shook his head. "But… what if you don't know?"
"Then you don't know," Bonnie said, sounding like that was obvious. "But when you do know, then you should get to know them… oh, I know!"
She went hurrying off back the way she'd come, then returned a minute or so later with a little green blob.
"This is Zygarde!" she explained. "It's as small as Zygarde can get. They can't actually do much like this, but they're kind of squishy and like spending time in the sun."
Randall hesitantly touched the little blob, which went squish, then rolled over and waved its tail at him.
"They do seem less dangerous than a Beedrill," Randall admitted.
"Oh, Ash says that some Beedrill are real jerks," Bonnie said. "They're all spiky, and either they're nice ones who remember that or they're not nice and don't care."
Hey, I've got a question, Ambertwo said.
You often do, Mewtwo replied, as their soap-box cart gathered speed down the slope. What is your question this time?
It's not really a single question but more like a collection of questions on the same related topic, Ambertwo corrected herself a little. I was thinking about how you define a person, and a relationship like that.
They went up a little ramp, lurching into the air before coming back down again, and Ambertwo waved her hand. There's some things that are obvious at first, like how you can have a brother and sister who aren't related by blood.
Even though, by any reasonable definition, we are, Mewtwo said, then frowned. Though I suppose given the circumstances of your resurrection 'reasonable' might not belong anywhere nearby.
Right, Ambertwo agreed. I don't think we ever did a blood test, but apart from us both being Mewtwo I don't think we're related genetically. It depends how Ho-Oh's powers work, and I think some of the foremost experts in those powers would say 'they don't' as an answer.
She shook her head, then held on with both handpaws to the sides of the cart as it fishtailed along some bumpy ground. But, you are my brother, because we decided we were.. but what happens if two people disagree about that kind of relationship?
That's a good question, Mewtwo said. I don't know if there's a single answer. It might depend on intent, which is hard to measure at the best of times.
Right! Ambertwo agreed, then ducked as they went under a low-hanging branch. And then I started thinking about a person. So, obviously, you can either be really permissive about giving something the benefit of the doubt about whether they're someone, or you can be really restrictive. But if you set a particular set of solid rules…
...the disadvantage is that someone can play tricks with the rules, yes, Mewtwo agreed. Which mostly goes to show that the guidelines were poorly thought out.
Not just that! Ambertwo told her brother, as they hurtled down a slope. It shows that the idea of using rules is poorly thought out. The world is all messy and doesn't fit clear definitions. Sometimes it's nice about that, and sometimes it's not! So trying to say whether or not something is someone is like trying to say whether or not a patch of land is a wood, or whether a wood is a forest. It's okay for there to be a fuzzy boundary, and say, we don't know in this bit but be nice to them anyway.
Ambertwo, I treasure your advice, Mewtwo said. And you're being very profound. But a lot of my attention is going on making this cart move at several hundred miles an hour, because we are in a race.
Ambertwo looked to their right, where Zacian was making an overtaking attempt with one young child on her back, then to the left where two Dragonite were unsuccessfully attempting to get past Cresselia. Then a particularly adventurous young boy went by upside down as Articuno did a barrel roll which left him skating on a mid-air board made out of Galarian Psychic-type.
Oh, right, yeah, she realized, then there was a shoom as a girl went past doing a superhero flying pose.
Probably riding on an invisible Latios, was her guess.
Two days later, in a rainstorm, the friends went to shelter in a nearby old mansion.
"You know, I could have just made it so there wasn't any rain any more," Ho-Oh grumbled. "Or Rayquaza could have, which would count as me doing it by proxy because I'm sort of like her parent."
He looked pensive. "Actually, I wonder if that means I'm sort of like a parent to everyone I've revived… it's probably something I should think about more seriously. It'd mean I got a lot more attention on father's day."
Serena chuckled. "I guess…"
She went to turn the lights on, and they flicked on before she actually touched the switch.
"That was weird," she said. "Hey, are we sure this place doesn't have anyone here? It's kind of creepy how that happened… and if magic's real, then what about curses?"
"Oh, sure, curses are real," Ash said. "But they're breakable, too."
He glanced down at Lokoko, for permission, and she gave a slight nod.
"That's actually how I met Lokoko," Ash went on. "She was trapped in an old building because her old trainer kept her in an early Pokéball, and it had some kind of curse on it that stopped her from going far from the building. But we broke it and she was able to leave, so that's good."
"So does that mean that maybe there's a curse on this place?" Serena asked, a bit worried.
"I don't think that's very likely," Clemont reassured her. "It makes much more scientific sense that there's sensors here that detect when someone's present. I can think of three ways to do that just with what's in my bag."
"Yeah, but this place is really old," Serena countered. "How much of the stuff that's in your bag is new?"
"I think we should all calm down," Lokoko suggested. "It is quite possible that magic is involved. It is quite possible that a ghost is involved, or that a Psychic-type is involved. But it is also quite certain that Ho-Oh is involved, and therefore the worst-case scenario if everything goes spectacularly wrong is a case of dysphoria."
"Arc, can you check if anyone actually lives here?" Ash asked. "Any humans, I mean, because if not then whatever's here is probably a Pokémon."
"Checking," Arc replied. "This property has been abandoned for some years, but it is still owned by the heirs of the previous occupant."
"Heirs?" Serena repeated. "That doesn't sound good…"
"Serena," Fennekin said, prompting her to look down. "I'm here to keep you safe, okay?"
Serena didn't quite get what Fennekin was saying, but she certainly got the general idea, and smiled in thanks. Then she gasped. "Oh!"
She turned to Ash. "Do you think it'd be okay for us to ask Lily if she knows what's going on?"
"I guess?" Ash replied. "It depends what the time is in Johto, I'm not very good at keeping track of that kind of stuff sometimes."
"Hmm," Lily said, on the other end of the phone call. "A mysterious old building, in a storm, and you want to know if there's anything magical going on… actually, hold on a minute, okay? I'm going to check something."
There was a rustling sound, then much closer to them there was a beep as Clemont turned something on.
"What's that?" Ash asked.
"I'm going to put something together to detect any nearby Ghost types," Clemont explained. "It's a Ghost type detector! Let's see… I put that there, and attach that to that…"
"It can detect Ghost types?" Ash repeated. "Wow, science can be pretty amazing… does it work?"
"Not yet, I haven't finished it," Clemont replied. "Bunnelby, hold that, would you?"
"Of course, sir," Bunnelby agreed, with a salute, and took hold of a piece of electronics as Clemont began clipping things together with wires.
"Okay!" Lily told them. "I had to find the right spell book, but there's actually a really simple divination spell that can tell you what Pokémon are inside a certain distance. It doesn't go very far, but it should be a good start, and as a bonus I think this one's simple enough for you and Fennekin to try."
"You're sure?" Serena asked. "We're still not great at understanding one another properly…"
"That's the good thing about it, I was taking that into account," Lily replied. "So what you'll need is… firstly, the feather of a Flying-type. The larger the better."
Serena and Fennekin looked at Ho-Oh.
"...what?" Ho-Oh asked.
"I think we've got everything," Serena said, about ten minutes later. "Feather of a Flying-type, a Grass-type's leaf, you said we'd need the fire of a Fire-type and that's Fennekin's job… and we've got some of Pikachu's fur for the Electric-type… what's left?"
"Well, that's the hardest ingredient, normally," Lily replied. "You need the shavings of a Sneasel's claw. But you've got Ash, which means you've usually got Mew."
"Oh, yep, I can help!" said Ash's hat, which popped off to reveal it was actually two hats – one of them the actual hat and the other one Mew in Zorua form. "This should be fun!"
"Actually, can you hold on a moment?" Clemont said. "I want to test my ghost type detector!"
He pointed it at the floating Mew. "Okay?"
"Sure!" Mew agreed. "Do you want me to be a ghost or not for this bit?"
"Not," Clemont replied, and Mew gave a paw-up. "All right, here goes."
He pressed the button, and a foam ball shot out and clonked Mew on the nose.
"Hey!" Mew protested.
"And that means… not a Ghost type," Clemont declared. "A successful detection!"
"Hmph," Mew said, sticking his tongue out, then turned into a Sneasel and scraped one claw against the other. "Anyway. There you go!"
Fennekin breathed fire onto the collection, and there was a little glitter of light.
"Well?" Lokoko asked. "Has it worked?"
"I think so?" Fennekin replied. "I've got this list of Pokémon in my mind all of a sudden… Marshadow, that's in Ash's shadow, we know about that one… umm… do you have a Sandile?"
"Yep!" Ash agreed, holding up a Strange Ball. "I forgot to mention him, I think. That's pretty cool!"
"Then the only other one I don't recognize is the Espurr," Fennekin said, blinking a few times. "Also, where did Bonnie go?"
They found Bonnie a minute or so later, playing catch with the Espurr.
As it turned out, the Psychic-type had befriended the owner of the mansion many years ago, and had come back to play but without really understanding how much time had gone past since they'd played… or how long ago that had happened, since Espurr had been in the mansion for the last several years.
At least when a young woman called Elise turned up – the grand-daughter of the old mansion owner – she was charmed to meet Espurr and said that she'd make sure to renovate the mansion instead of seeing it demolished.
Which was a happy ending for everyone, really.
AN:
Seen here: the firefox wizard installation. Except Fennekin is female.