The water from the shower fell above Ash's head, wetting his dark strands of hair and all over his body.
He spent some time meditating in the same position.
His mind was racing with anxiety that wouldn't leave him.
Tomorrow I will definitely start my journey!
He had postponed his departure from Pallet by a day due to the circumstances surrounding his visit to Professor Oak's laboratory.
Ash had some Pokeballs with him so he would try to venture along the route near the city in order to capture his first Pokemon. When he was still at pokemon school, teacher Matilde had taught all the children the basics of a Pokémon capture.
"First you trigger the miniature Pokeball, leaving it at its normal size. Then you aim at the Pokemon and hit it", she had explained in a practical class.
All the children were in a row, waiting for their turn to do the task.
When it was Ash's turn, he had taken the Pokeball from the teacher's hand and triggered it.
A Rattata ran across the schoolyard floor, slinking in all directions.
"Remember that the more worn out a Pokémon is, the greater the chances of capture," explained Teacher Matilde. "So the ideal is that before launching the Pokeball you make sure that the state of the Pokemon is ideal for the capture."
Ash had taken aim at Rattata but, to his misfortune, had failed.
" Coff Loser Coff," Gary had scoffed.
When his turn came, the bastard had got it right the first time.
"That's how it's done, Ketchum."
Ash had clenched his fists so tightly he feared breaking the bones in his hand.
The Pokeball fell to the ground and shook three times. The Pokémon, however, had not been successfully captured and soon left the sphere through a beam of red light.
"Who's the loser?," Ash returned the mockery.
"At least I got it right, unlike someone else!," replied Gary irritably.
The teacher looked at them with a serious face. "You two stop! Can't you make it through a day without fighting?"
"He started it!", both said at the same time, pointing at each other.
The teacher sighed deeply.
"We have reached an important point of pokemon capture," said the teacher. "When the Pokemon is not successfully captured, your Pokeball becomes unusable."
Ash had looked at the sphere on the ground. It had split in half and smoke began to come out of it.
He turned off the shower.
He dried his entire body with a towel. Then he went to his room and changed into his pajamas as he wouldn't be leaving the house until the next day.
He lay down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.
Then those same memories flooded his mind again.
" Dad!"
Ash got up from the bed and walked towards his nightstand. On top of it was a blue box. He opened it and, from there, took out a videotape.
He put the tape in his TV player and sat on the bedroom carpet, watching as the video began to play on his television.
"Daddy, look, a Lapras!" said the voice of a small Ash.
He was on a beach watching as a Lapras passed through the distant Kantonian Sea. His black hair was blown by the sea winds.
His father was filming him with the camera.
"Look son, maybe one day I'll still get you a Lapras!", his father replied.
Ash had managed a smile with the innocence only a child could have.
The tape ended there.
Before he knew it, tears started to fall from his eyes. He could taste the salty taste in his mouth.
He dried his eyes.
My dad.
Ash hasn't seen his father since he was five years old. Delia always refused to talk about it, so he didn't have any information about what had happened to his father – or if he was even alive.
I don't even know his name...
If only he had some kind of photo or image memory of him, he could try to find him. Even with his mother's reluctance, that was his right as a son.
One day I'm still going to find him, no matter what.
His eyes began to feel heavy. Before he knew it, he was sleeping on the floor.
Ash's eyes opened, slowly.
He realized that he had fallen asleep without meaning to. He got up from the carpet in his bedroom and opened the window curtain.
It was night. Pallet's sky was starry and bright.
Ash admired the long green fields that surrounded the small town of Pallet.
Pallet was a small rural town, without many attractions. So he daydreamed about the day he would leave it and venture to other cities in Kanto like Saffron and Celadon.
As he daydreamed and admired the night landscape, an intense light began to shine through the darkness of night.
Soon, it began to increase in size.
A shooting star? Ash wondered, watching the light in the sky move.
He closed his eyes and made a wish.
I hope one day to see my father again.
When he opened his eyes again he realized that the light was too close.
He heard a loud crash as the light hit the ground not far from his house. The collision released a wave of strong winds that caused the window curtain to swirl.
What was this?
Quickly, he left the room and tiptoed so as not to wake his mother. When he arrived in the living room, he walked in stealthily. Mr. Mime was sleeping on the sofa in the living room, snoring loudly.
He turned the key in the lock and left the house.
His slipper brushed the grass as he ran through the brush toward the spot where he'd seen the unidentified object fall.
He sighed as he saw a huge crater form in the ground. When he got close he saw that, in its center, there was a gray boulder emitting smoke.
A meteorite?
Taking care, Ash began to descend the crater, getting all his clothes dirty as he tried to reach the center, moved only by curiosity and excitement at having found something new in that monotonous city.
When he got close to the meteorite, he tried to touch the rock.
"Hot!," Ash let out as his finger burned from the object's temperature.
After a while the smoke was beginning to fade away.
I need to warn Professor Oak, he thought, imagining that the scientist would have a great interest in that piece of space rock.
Ash was about to turn away when he heard a voice speak in his mind.
" Mission...Mount Moon...I need to..."
Ash turned, suddenly.
"Who said that?" he asked out of nowhere.
It was then that he realized. The meteorite had split in half and, from inside of it, a pink pokemon came out.
A Clefairy?
The Pokemon walked towards him.
" You... help me... get there..." he heard the voice again.
It can't be...
What he was thinking was nonsense. Pokemons didn't have the ability to speak, as far as he knew, so how had that Clefairy communicated with him?
The Pokémon was seriously injured by its countenance.
" I..."
Ash noticed that its mouth didn't move.
How?
The Clefairy ended up collapsing to the ground, unconscious.