Edited 11/16/22

I continue to exist. Do not question. Receive chapter.

Now that Ash had Pikachu firmly on his team to become a trainer, one might think it would be smooth sailing.

One should avoid making assumptions.

True, both of them being on the same page made communication easier. Also, now that Pikachu was not dead set against the idea, eagerness started to spread between the two of them. Regardless of how they did it, going on a region-spanning adventure was a pretty exciting prospect for the two Pokemon.

But there was still the tiny fact that as far as anyone knew no Pokemon had ever actually become a trainer before. There was no precedent meaning that Ash would be the first, which brought into doubt whether or not there were any rules against the matter.

As it turned out? No! Not yet at least. The regulations talked about what trainers were and were not allowed to do but none of them mentioned the trainer specifically had to be human. There was another rule though, that might prove a bit of a hiccup, the minimum age a trainer had to be was ten years old.

Fortunately, that was only a year or two off but it was still an annoying wait to go through.

But the truly hard part, the part that Ash was still not quite sure how to deal with, was how to broach the topic to not just the professor but also his trainer.

That… could prove difficult.

Well, that's never stopped him before, why should it now?

"Why do humans have to wait until they're ten to become a trainer?" He'd asked Delia one day. Very subtly of course.

She blinked in surprise and paused what she was doing. "Why do you ask?"

Blast! Why hadn't he planned for that question!?

"I was just curious!" He might have sounded a bit too defensive because she gave him a skeptical look but answered his question nevertheless.

"Well, it was decided that at that point a trainer would still be adventurous enough to be willing to start their journey but also old enough to be self-sufficient." She chuckled. "Honestly when I was little I was desperate to reach ten and thought it was much too old! But looking back it feels like it's far too young for a child to go off on their own."

"That's weird," Ash said honestly. "I'm a fully functioning Pokemon and I'm not ten yet!"

"It's a little different when it comes to Pokemon." Delia acknowledged. "Some mature faster than others. I've heard of Pokemon who come out of the egg ready and raring to battle and others who need a lot of help and care as they grow up. You really can't evenly match human aging to Pokemon aging. If a Pokemon is not considered an adult until they fully evolve what does that mean? Some take years to evolve and others can do so in days or weeks! You'd probably be better off asking Professor Oak about the details if you're curious." She repeated his earlier claim with another look, this one less skeptical and more, 'I know you're up to something but I'm not quite sure what yet.'

"Maybe later, what was your journey like?" He asked, changing the subject masterfully once more.

She didn't question him this time and instead simply started talking about it. "To be honest it was one of the most exciting times of my life! I didn't set off with a goal like some trainers do. I was never interested in becoming a champion or even becoming a coordinator. It was just an adventure to go on and meet Pokemon!"

"I got Shelldon and we set off, although it did take me a while to catch any more Pokemon.'' She looked thoughtful. "I can't remember exactly what was going through my head, but every time I was about to try I thought about how it might have friends or family and I didn't want to separate them."

"That was really nice of you!" Ash told her honestly thinking that if Pikachu had heard that he'd probably like her even more than he'd already grown to.

"I certainly thought so! A couple of other trainers left around the same time as me. One was Professor Oak's son, Gary's father, the other was actually the one who found you in the first place and asked if I wanted to look after you. They picked on me when they found out I hadn't caught anything." Delia's tone was scathing but light.

Ash lightly growled. "That's mean."

"Maybe." She laughed. "They were kids and so was I and they were teasing me. At the very least their teasing did motivate me to finally try and catch something."

"Wait, you have Pokemon other than Shelldon?" Ash asked before pausing. "And me?"

"Yes, technically. Not many though, just two but we were a happy little family. I never did complete the gym circuit, I stopped when I got to Cinnabar. I did win a contest ribbon too once." She added fondly.

"Who are the others?" Ash pressed, more than a little eager.

"Don't get too excited, you might have already met one of them and the other is a long way off right now. There was my Pidgeot who lives on Professor Oak's property now. I never technically released him and as far as I can guess he probably sired at least a third of the local Pidgey population." That sounded… impressive.

"The other was my Clefairy who through a confusing set of circumstances is currently the mascot of Moon Flakes cereal." She pulled a box of said cereal out of the cupboard and sure enough, there was a smiling Clefairy on the box.

"I think I've seen that Pidgeot," Ash muttered thinking to himself. He had seen a larger bird flying over the Oak ranch more than a few times. He'd thought it was Dragonite at first but he'd seen the dragon-type on the ground nearby one of the times he saw the shape flying overhead. "I wonder why he never came and said hi?"

Delia just smiled sadly. "He was never the happiest with my decision to stop pursuing the gyms. I don't think he hates me, but I do think he's bitter about it. He wanted to show off how powerful he was. Shelldon is similar in some aspects, but he was more content knowing he was strong than needing to show it. He did want to battle though which is why I loaned him for a while. Clefairy on the other hand didn't seem to mind. She still sends the occasional letter with cereal coupons."

The idea that his trainer had never made it to the conference kind of bothered him. He'd seen how strong Shelldon was a few times and Pidgeot sounded strong too. He wondered why she'd given up. Was it a lack of drive or a lack of skill? Or were some trainers just that much stronger?

Despite these thoughts, a deep pounding excitement started to well in him. Thinking of how great he could be someday, standing aside or above these powerful opponents out there! He could see it now, standing in the Indigo Plateau, a set of badges and a team behind him! Pikachu at his side! A trophy held aloft!

"Alright, what are you planning?" His trainer's words cut through his budding excitement.

"Uhhhh." Was Ash's intelligent response.

"You're planning on going off on an adventure of some sort aren't you?"

"Uhhhhhhhh," Ash repeated, his eyes darting around. Looking for a way out. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her. It was more that he wanted to have everything all set to go so that when she found out he could just say, 'look I'm all ready! Boy, it sure would suck if someone said I couldn't do it after I put all this work into it!'

He twitched his ears. "Ah! I think I hear Pikachu calling me! I'll talk to you later bye!" He jumped off the table, loped across the floor, leaping straight into the window which bounced him back onto the floor. He stood up, shook himself, got on the window sill, and pushed the glass up before continuing on his way.

Ash ran down the path away from the house and Delia came to the window and sighed looking after him. Shelldon thumped over and looked between the two.

" 'Toise?" He asked his trainer.

"He's going to use his illusion to look human and go on a journey." She explained to her starter.

"Blas," Shelldon noted.

"He thinks he is being clever about it. It would be a shame to ruin the conspiracy for him." Delia continued fondly. He wasn't nearly as good at hiding it as he thought he was. After he had demonstrated his ability to talk she had been keeping a closer eye on his activities in case he had some other bombshell planned, and low and behold…

"Blastoise." The shellfish Pokemon nodded sagely and wandered on. She was honestly surprised at how well he had taken to domestic life but apparently, his adventures in Unova had helped him mellow a bit. He'd taken up landscaping the yard and had created a very pleasant garden space in the back with a small pond.

Leaving her Pokemon to their plans she closed the window and prepared to head to her diner.

Pikachu was glaring at him pointedly which Ash chose to ignore. Kindly, he also ignored how ridiculous Pikachu looked with a power cable sticking out of his mouth so in reality his electric-type friend should be thanking him.

There were plenty of computers and printers in Professor Oak's lab. Unfortunately, they were all monitored either by Oak or one of his assistants so printing something discreetly and secretly was an exceedingly difficult endeavor.

Fortunately, there were some old printers in the basement. While a bit outdated they did get the job done just at a slower rate.

To help maintain total secrecy they had pushed the printer into a side closet alongside a laptop that was disconnected from the local networks.

The sheer amount of time they had wasted trying to figure out the laptop was mind-boggling but they had gotten there in the end. One (borrowed) laptop with all the paperwork for certifying and approving a new trainer on it. It did require a few signatures though but they'd be dealing with that soon enough.

Unfortunately, the closet they were hiding out in did not have an outlet in it, so in the interest of convenience, Ash stuck the power cord in Pikachu's mouth. It worked perfectly too! He wasn't sure why his friend did not recognize the genius of the idea.

"Okay, I think this is the last one." Ash narrated as he carefully tapped the keys on the laptop to bring it up to the print cue. "Why are humans so obsessed with having everything written down? It feels like a waste of time. Why can't I just say,'hey, I wanna be a trainer!' Then they hand me the balls, card, and Pokedex and send me off?"

Pikachu said nothing to this. Likely because he still had a cord in his mouth.

Upon realizing what a golden opportunity this was, Ash continued talking. "Did you know that some printers make people pay money? It's crazy! I just want to print some useless documents that I just so happen to need, I don't want to pay to have them printed. I'm already paying with my time wasted!"

The wannabe trainer had learned a great variety of human facts and trivia throughout his research both to become a trainer and how to perfect his human disguise.

Many of these facts were fairly useless but some were interesting or perhaps amusing. His friend, though, had little interest in the affairs of humans and was thus quick to cut Ash off or find some other way to distract him from going on and on about random things he had learned.

Realizing that Ash was just going to talk his ear off until the print job finished, Pikachu just groaned and did his best to cover his long and unfortunately capable ears. The other Pokemon continued heedless of his friend's distress. Or perhaps he did heed it and spitefully continued on ever the same.

The small mercy was that the resident Zorua had not realized the chance he had until the last print order so Pikachu's unjust suffering was brief.

He spat out the cable as the printer quieted with the final page finished. "I normally like the taste of electric cables but that one tasted dusty. Bleck." He stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"Don't they just taste like metal?" Ash asked as he inspected the papers and tried to grab them in his paws. They slipped through and he glared at them and considered.

"And rubber," Pikachu said fondly.

"Humans are lucky," Ash announced as he flashed and appeared as the young boy he'd invented for his disguise. Dropping his Pokemon-based speech and adopting the human one he continued. "Thumbs are amazing."

"Speak for yourself!" The electric type announced flexing his own. Maybe not anywhere near the size of a human hand but his own had their uses when he needed them.

"I did, all I have are paws for walking. You can multitask with yours." He explained as he picked up the papers with his human-shaped hand.

"Can you even feel that? It's a solid illusion but it doesn't let you feel what you touch does it?" Pikachu asked as his partner flipped through the pages.

"Kind of? I can tell I'm holding something if that makes sense." He admitted as he closed the laptop and grabbed that as well. He carefully opened the door and glanced both ways before tiptoeing out of the storage closet.

"It really doesn't. I mean the clothes are part of the same illusion, what did you make a human body and then put a clothes illusion on top of it or just one illusion that has clothes?" Pikachu took his chance to badger his friend with questions.

"The second one," Ash whispered. "I tried the first one once but it was way too complicated to keep up. Fingers were hard enough to figure out but toes too? And the clothes on top of that? I'll just keep to the sneakers." They were moving down the hallway now towards the main office where Oak did most of his research. Well, the research he could do inside anyway.

"What if you need to take your shirt off for some reason, or your shoes? Either really." The electric type continued to pepper questions about illusions at Ash. The disguised Pokemon in question was listening to the door and checking if there was light creeping out from under it.

"Then I just make an illusion without one of those things, duh," Ash explained. Feeling somewhat safer he opened the door to the main room of the lab and walked into the dark room.

"What exactly is your plan here?" He was asked as the other Pokemon followed behind him.

"I'm gonna fill out what I can and slip the papers into the ones that need the professor's approval." It was an ingenious plan. The professor would be mechanically going through paperwork and not even realize what he had approved.

His friend looked on as he laid out the paperwork, grabbed a pen off the desk, and began writing. "Do they not need guardian signatures or something?"

"They do…" That was the part he hadn't figured out yet. Maybe once Oak had filled out the information he needed, he could show them to Delia and convince her to give the final approval. That should work, right?

Pikachu just looked at him deadpan. "You hadn't figured that part out yet had you?"

"I've got a year!" A bit more than that actually but technically a lot less. The paperwork had to be ready six months before the actual journey began so he had about eight months to figure it out and have everything ready. After that, it was just waiting to go.

"You should probably tell her we're doing this, you know. Didn't she chew your ear off about going to the camp for like a week without telling her?"

"I'm going to," Ash promised, both Pikachu and himself. "When I'm ready. I… as far as we know no Pokemon has done this before. I want to show how far we got on our own without a human helping us before we get what we need for the final stretch."

Pikachu contemplated that. "As far we know." He repeated to himself. "What are the odds another Zorua or some other illusion Pokemon or one that can disguise themselves has done this before?"

"I dunno." Ash admitted as he finished with one set of papers talking about health. History of family illness? No. Known mental impairments? Friends with Pikachu. Blood type? Red. Ethnicity? Dark-type. "I mean it is possible. Maybe we'll meet them!"

"That could be interesting." Pikachu acknowledged.

They poked each other with questions and jokes back and forth as Ash continued his work. Upon completion, he put all the papers together in a neat stack and inspected Professor Oak's desk. There were a few piles on there and he located the one that contained papers that did not have a signature yet. He pulled up about half the pile and slipped his own in there and tapped the pile neat again.

He brushed his hands together and smiled at his handiwork. A job well done!

"We're almost there, Pikachu! We'll be on our way soon!" Give or take a year.

'Soon.' He had said.

A year was far too much time to be called soon. In fact, there was still more than a year to go. Maybe they should have waited for longer just so they would not have to suffer the waiting any longer than they had to.

Of course, they were still waiting on a few things, the most notable being the fact that after putting the papers in the Professor's pile of paperwork, Ash had no way to find them.

He'd gone back to the lab the next day, stealthily disguised as a Caterpie, and found the desk cleared of paperwork. He'd searched the room and asked Pikachu to keep an eye out but the papers were not to be found.

His friend had convinced him to give the papers a bit of time to turn up rather than just print another set of them all. A month he had declared and Ash had sullenly agreed to this wait. He was regretting it every hour and spent much of his time going between the lab and staring at the clock at home.

Even now, he glared at the calendar, willing it to turn pages or days to magically rocket past them. But alas, he had no such control over time.

His embarrassing lack of temporal powers accepted he instead paced the kitchen, mind going a mile a minute, but not in a straight line. More it was going in a confusing zigzag that also circled back on itself.

Before he could bemoan the slow passage of time for the third time. The door opened and he heard footsteps enter.

"Ash, Professor Oak's here, could you come in the living room?" Delia called.

The Zorua froze at this call and contemplated his options. He could just go to the living room and meet with his trainer and the professor and pretend like there was nothing amiss and his behavior had not been suspicious at all. Or he could jump out the window.

Or…

Delia looked on unamused as a Caterpie inched its way across the living room. Professor Oak stood next to her, although he seemed to find it much more amusing than she did.

"Why Delia! You should have told me you had caught a Caterpie! After all this time I thought you'd given up on filling up the Pokedex for me." He proclaimed quite dramatically.

"Caterpie!" The little bug trilled. It stopped only for a moment to look between them and froze for a moment upon seeing the electric mouse currently held captive in Delia's hands.

Pikachu had not exactly wanted to come willingly and she'd ended up telling him that she could either carry him nicely in her arms, carry him less nicely with rubber gloves, or have Professor Oak go and get his Pokeball.

He had smartly taken the first option.

"Ash, stop messing around or I'll get Shelldon to use Water Gun on you." It was not a particularly dangerous attack and Shelldon knew to be mostly gentle with the younger Pokemon but it would burst his illusion and leave him soaked.

Caterpie considered this. And then, moving faster than should have been possible for the little bug-type's stubby legs, it raced across the floor, away from the door, and towards the window instead. Which he proceeded to bounce off of, bursting the bug illusion and revealing Ash's black and red fur.

"And the other half of the conspiracy reveals himself." She sighed. "Alright mister, have a seat, and let's talk."

She seated herself on the couch and set Pikachu down next to her. Ash sullenly trudged to the couch himself, tail drooping, and hopped up. Professor Oak took the nearby chair and shifted it a bit so he was facing the trio.

"It's a busy time of year, you know." He started amicably. "I've got a new set of trainers heading out in a bit more than a month and I need to make sure they're all set for their journeys. Which was why I was surprised that when filling out the final forms that let the league know I was the one sponsoring them I was surprised to find the initial permission, medical and approval forms for a trainer for next year's group."

Ash found the ceiling immensely interesting and Pikachu had similar intrigue with the floor.

"Now it wouldn't be the first time I've had a paper in the wrong pile. I can be a bit scatterbrained sometimes or one of my assistants might make a mistake. But these forms lacked the signatures of any parents or guardians. Not to say anything on the frankly atrocious handwriting employed throughout." The professor explained gravely.

"That's weird Professor Oak." Ash agreed. "Must've just been a mistake and who knows maybe whoever filled them out did their best and just weren't good at using hands and pens?"

"Oh I can agree with the second part but I somehow doubt there was a mistake." Professor Oak explained and pulled a file out of his lab coat and set it on the table. The tab on the file labeled it: Ash Ketchum.

Ash groaned and huddled down covering his eyes with his paws. He was ready to be chewed out.

"So, Mr. Wannabe Trainer, feel like explaining your curiosity now?" Delia asked her Pokemon slyly.

"Not really." He groaned. "I just wanted to try it. I met a guy a while ago who suggested I could be a trainer and the idea kind of got caught in my head. Pikachu was against it for a while but after the summer camp, he agreed to help. I was gonna tell you. Just not yet, I was going to wait until you would have to let me go."

"Let you go," Delia repeated. "Ash if you wanted me to release you-"

"NOOO!" The Zorua leaped up and howled, forgetting for a moment to speak the correct language. He looked at her with panicked eyes before shaking himself. "No! I don't want you to release me! I love you! I like Shelldon! I like Pallet Town and the lab and everything here! I just…" He trailed off. "I just want to go on an adventure! I want to meet people and Pokemon and make more friends and see the world."

"Oh, Ash." She said and picked him up in a hug. She felt his tense form relax as she embraced him. "I can understand that. I just wish you didn't feel like you had to hide it from me."

"I wanted it to be a surprise." He muttered. "I like surprising you."

"That's alright, just try to keep them good surprises." She told him and let him go. He returned to the couch and began sulking again.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. Guess this whole thing was a waste of time." He sighed. "You were right, Pikachu, sorry for dragging you into all of this."

Professor Oak coughed and regained the group's full attention. "Well as it were, there was one last thing I needed to discuss with you." He flipped the file open to the top form while reaching into his jacket for something else.

"I cannot in good conscience let a young trainer off on their own without permission from their parent." He looked closely at Ash and Delia as he said the word. "So I'm going to need your signature Delia." He placed the pen he'd pulled out next to the papers on the table which currently had two of the three lines filled. One sloppily written aSH KetcHuM, a cursive Samuel Oak, and one blank spot with a small subtitle proclaiming (Parent or Guardian Signature).

Delia looked at the form then looked at the now star struck Ash and the gaping Pikachu before sighing. "Alright then. But we are talking about all the details. No running around trying to figure out stuff on your own." She grabbed the pen and jotted down her name. "Where else do I need to sign?

Next time on Zorua Trainer: The Journey Begins, Now!

Or something like that.

Not dead, hi.

This last year sucked for a lot of reasons by the way.

You know what did not suck? Legends Arceus! My god it was everything I could have wanted from a Pokemon game. Could it have been a bit prettier looking in places? Yeah. Could some trees be seen with floating roots? Yeah Did it literally give me everything I wanted to see from sneaking to battling to hunting to capturing to dressing up to craft to-

I get ahead of myself.

Suffice to say I enjoyed the game. Also Hisuian Zorua. *chef's kiss* perfection. He's perfect. I love him.

Anyway, reviews!

jurassicdinodrew: I have a few ideas for what Ho-oh can do in this story. We'll see how he gets involved.

Lupercuss1944: Glad to know I did better with the chapter I posted *checks date*... over a year ago. I hope you're still reading! As for whether or not he'll catch the same pokemon he did in canon? Ehhhhh. I want to include some of them at least.

Johnathan-Mandrake: Oh Psychics are gonna have a grand old time with Ash. As for the Zoroark from the movie… that is a looong way off.

Anxi609: It's updated again! Also glad to hear I was one of your first fics!

Oakley: Hope you like the direction I'm going!

7sky: Not dropped to the abyss. Not yet. Hopefully never!

That's all for reviews and I dunno what to say about updates. I want to say there will definately be another next week on this or something else. But I have really had a rough one this past year and it killed my desire to keep writing for a while. Sometimes the motivation will strike me and I'll try and get something down.

But it feels harder and it frustrates me. I want to keep writing. I want to see my stories finished or continued and it frightens me that I might not. I wrote the first half of the first page of this in March of 2021 and only now managed to get the rest of it done.

I'm going to say I'll update next Saturday. Not say maybe I'll do it because then if it comes around and I've done nothing I'll just say guess not. But if I say I will then I'll force myself to start at least and once I get started I can normally find the motivation to keep going.

Maybe not this story specifically. (Although it probably will be.) I will update next weekend. Feel free to yell at me in reviews for the rest of the week to make sure I don't forget.

~FriTik

R&R