To mark the anniversary of this collection, I have extended the Three Wise Mankeys concept with this bonus chapter: Feel. I worked very hard on this chapter, so please leave a review to let me know what you think.
Feel
"Mesprit, the Emotion Pokémon. Mesprit taught humans the nobility of sorrow, pain, and joy, and is known as the 'Being of Emotion'. Although it slumbers at the bottom of the lake, its spirit is said to leave its body and flitter on the water surface."
Dawn threw her pink pokédex to the ground in defeat. "Well, that's no help at all!"
"Pika…" Pikachu exhaled dourly.
She turned back to the scene in question. "Ugh, it was worth a shot. May as well keep trying, Brock." Blinking in agreement, the older pokémon breeder knelt down in front of their catatonic friend, propped limply up against a tree.
"Ash," he said, calmly but with an undertone of worry. "Ash, can you hear me?"
As with all the pair's previous attempts, Brock's request was met with nothing but a bone-chilling stillness.
"Ash, come on, now, snap out of it," he continued, this time with more urgency; however, his young friend's eyes remained as glazed and lightless as they had been for the last half hour.
"Do you think he's…he's…?" Dawn stuttered, unable to finish.
"No, I can see him breathing," Brock answered quickly. He then pressed a hand to the nineteen-year-old boy's head, sighing in uncertainty when he moved it away.
"Well, he doesn't have a temperature," he stated, "and his pupils reacted to my flashlight earlier. As far as I can tell, he's totally healthy."
"Does that look totally healthy to you?" she pointed out when Ash began to drool against the tree trunk. "I don't get it – he's been hit by a Thundershock attack thousands of times! What was so bad about this one to make him…like this?"
While Pikachu prodded at his trainer's head with his nose and paws, Brock took a step back to gather his scattered thoughts. In doing so, his tight eyes wandered over to his left, at the spot where the pokémon who had started all of this was trembling mysteriously in mid-air. Mesprit was an icon of legend, a story told to young children across the superstitious region of Sinnoh. They had met it before, even saved it from the clutches of the villainous Team Galactic, but those were extenuating circumstances. What the reclusive sprite was doing so far away from its home at the bottom of Lake Verity was a complete mystery, despite it being of little consequence now. Having said that, the pokémon's strange behaviour intrigued the wannabe pokémon doctor, and he instinctively began to recount in his head the bizarre events that had just transpired:
"Priiiiiit!" Mesprit shrieked, the metal mesh rubbing painfully on its skin.
"Let it go, Team Rocket!" Ash cried up to the insidious trio's hot air balloon.
"No can do, twerp!" James teased from within the basket. "We came here for Pikachu and instead bagged ourselves a mighty Mesprit!"
"But don't worry, we'll be back for your electric rat as soon as we drop it off with the boss!" Jessie cackled.
"Hahahaha! We's getting' two pokes for da price of one!" shouted Meowth, his feline features stretched into a smug grin.
"Piplup, Ice Beam!" Dawn commanded. Her Penguin Pokémon leapt off her shoulder and prepared to attack.
"You help out, too, Sudowoodo!" Brock joined in, tossing a pokéball from which the deceptive tree-like rock pokémon emerged. "Double-Edge!"
The two pokémon's attacks were unleashed simultaneously, each hitting the cord that held up the captive Mesprit and severing it with a small explosion.
"Eeeeeeeeh!" wailed James. "Our net!"
"Dat was supposed to be the deluxe voision!" Meowth growled. "We sunk all our dough into it!"
Mesprit's turquoise body thudded to the ground, its arms, legs and two long tails thoroughly tangled in the shredded netting.
"Hold on, buddy, I'll get you out of there!" Ash cried. He ran over to the squirming pokémon and knelt down behind it to pull at the thick twine.
"Oh no you don't!" Jessie interjected, reaching for a pokéball. "Go, Wobbuffet!"
The inscrutable punching bag pokémon gave an ear-splitting yelp as it materialised.
"Pikachu, send them packing with a Thundershock!" Ash instructed.
"Pi-kaaaaaa…" Pikachu's body began to crackle with stored electricity. "Chuuuuuuuu!"
"Uh-uh-uh, twerp," Jessie laughed. "Mirror Coat!"
Before anyone knew what was happening, Pikachu's stream of electricity surged towards the balloon only to bounce dramatically off the emergent reflective surface and continue its warpath in the opposite direction – or, more precisely, straight at Mesprit and Ash.
"Ash, get out of the way!" Brock warned, though he already knew there was no time. The blast hit Mesprit dead on, sending it crashing into Ash and forcing the pair backwards by at least ten feet.
"Ash!" Dawn exclaimed. Brock, meanwhile, turned his full attention to the laughing Team Rocket trio.
"Sudowoodo, jump up and use Low Kick!"
"Sudowoodo!" it confirmed. With one powerful leap, the slender pokémon lunged towards the meowth-shaped balloon and effortlessly slashed through the outside with its foot.
"Waaaaaaah!" the three bellowed in unison as their punctured balloon exploded violently, sending them barrelling through the air. "We're blasting off again!"
Brock and Dawn immediately rushed over to Ash's side and writhed off the mesh he was covered in. Oddly, Mesprit had left the boy to seclude itself in a corner of the forest clearing.
"Well, that sure showed them," Dawn sighed.
Brock nodded. "Those guys are hopeless. Hey, Ash, they're gone, you can get up now." After a few seconds without a response, the twenty-four-year-old's mirth quickly turned to concern. "Ash?"
"Unless it wasn't the Thundershock…" Brock commented when he snapped back to the present. "Maybe you were right in the first place, Dawn. Maybe it was…oh my god."
He stopped in mid-sentence to shrug off his backpack and rummage frantically through its contents.
"What? What is it?" Dawn asked.
"I remember reading something in a book I borrowed from the Canalave Library. Ah, here we go! Now, where was it…"
A number of speedy page flicks later, he snapped his fingers. "There! It's an old myth about the Lake Guardians of Sinnoh. Listen to this bit here…"
He cleared his throat. "Dare not touch the Pokémon's body. In but three short days, all emotions will drain away."
"I don't understand," Dawn admitted.
"It's about Mesprit, Dawn. Ash touched Mesprit when the two got hit by that attack. And now he's…"
Dawn slapped her hands over her mouth. She'd heard the stories, of course, but to think that they were true…! Before she could question it any further, however, a shrill noise sounded out from behind her.
"Mesprit?" she uttered, wincing at the bright light that surrounded it. The pink tendrils on its head were glowing, and its pupils were obscured by white light. It then shot into the air at breakneck speed, the sonic boom knocking its witnesses to the ground, and soared off across the sky with an unbreakable forward gaze.
"Owww…" James groaned, his back cracking as he stood up straight.
"I can't take all this constant blasting off!" Jessie huffed as she pointed to her foliage-covered head. "Look what it's doing to my beautiful hair!"
"Will you guys keep it down?!" Meowth barked. "My poor noggin's killin' me!"
"Well, you did land on it," James pointed out.
After staggering to their feet, the aching troublemakers hobbled grumpily along the quiet dirt road in the rough direction they had flown from. For the first ten paces, the surroundings were silent as the grave; yet, with every subsequent step they took, a low rumbling in the distance became louder and louder.
"What the…" Jessie started, but the redhead was cut off by the sudden appearance of one all-too-familiar failed conquest.
"Hey, it's Mesprit!" Meowth cheered. "How ya doin', ol' chum? You changed yer mind about joinin' da team?"
"Oh, you'll fit right in here with us bad guys," Jessie nodded.
"Absolutely," beamed James. "Especially when- OOOOOOOOHH!"
A flash of light plunged the trio into pitch darkness, which eventually softened into clouds of greenish white smoke as far as the eye could see. Mesprit had vanished, and neither sound nor sunlight could penetrate the thick vaporous veil that trapped them. Whether they were still in the same place or somewhere else entirely was impossible to tell, though such a conundrum wasn't nearly as frightening as the distinctly human-shaped mass that gradually rose from the fog.
"A g-g-g-g-g-ghost?!" James shrieked, his blue bangs standing on end.
"HEEEEELP!" Jessie screamed. "I'm too gorgeous to die!"
"Calm down, guys, it's just me!"
Before their terrified eyes, the ethereal shape sharpened and condensed, becoming less and less like a ghostly apparition and more like…
"THE TWERP?!" they shouted all together.
"Hey, Team Rocket," waved 'Ash'. His voice had a strange echo to it, and his features were somewhat wispy, but from the boyish lopsided grin to the trademark cap covering matted black hair, it was unmistakeably him.
"D-Don't hoit us!" Meowth cowered. "We was just playin', ya see? All dat stuff with Pikachu – we weren't never bein' serious about stealin' him!"
Ash chuckled. "I'm not gonna hurt you. You don't need to be afraid. I've come to give you a gift."
"A gift?" Jessie repeated, incredulous. "For us?"
"I think the twerp must have landed on his head, too," James whispered to Meowth.
"You guys have been following me and Pikachu since the day I started my journey," Ash proceeded. "In a way, you've been as much a part of my life as my friends and family."
"I'm so confused," Jessie muttered.
"Stealing pokémon is wrong, and I'll never let you take Pikachu or any of my pokémon away from me. But honestly, I don't think your hearts are really in it. They never have been."
"Huh? What's he gettin' at?" Meowth thought out loud.
"I don't believe you're really bad guys – you just work for them. You could be so much more!" He scratched his head, sending little puffs of smoke flying out behind him. "Anyway, I'm saying all of this because I want you to know that I've kinda got used to having you around over the years – and I care."
"Such beautiful words!" James gushed with tears running down his cheeks. "How they ignite the bleeding heart in my frigid bosom!"
"Pathetic," Jessie sniped.
"Hold out your hand," Ash called out.
"Ooh, I wonder what it'll be!" James chirped as he extended his gloved hand out towards the boy.
"Not so fast, peabrain!" Jessie shoved her blubbering teammate out of the way. "If anyone deserves to be showered with gifts then it's yours truly!"
Before the other two could contest this statement, Ash brought his own hand forward in one slick motion. It rested on top of Jessie's, and the contact caused a kind of shockwave that sent the unprepared trio toppling onto their backs. When they looked up, the dirt road was back, the smoke had cleared, and Ash was nowhere to be seen.
"What the heck was dat all about?" Meowth asked when he stood back up.
"And where's our gift?!" James wailed.
Jessie growled. "What a ripoff. I can't believe that no-good little twerp! Let's see how much he 'cares' when we claim all his pokémon in the name of Team Rocket!"
Meowth laughed a wicked laugh. "Hahaha, dat'll show 'im! Lead the way, Jessie!"
Back in the clearing, Dawn had been pacing back and forth for so long that she had practically worn a groove in the soft forest floor.
"I still don't understand," she sighed. "You're saying he's fine apart from having no emotion, but look at him, he's like a zombie! I thought he'd just be speaking with a really boring voice or something."
Brock turned away from Ash to meet her eyes. "Emotionlessness doesn't work like it does in the movies, Dawn. Can you imagine doing anything, even the simplest things, without any feeling whatsoever? No, we humans rely on our emotions, and without them, how can we be any more than…well, that?"
As he pointed behind him to his inert friend, a slight twitch caught Dawn's eye.
"Brock, look!" she gasped as Ash began to stir intermittently. "What's happening? Is he getting better?"
Brock thought for a moment, then looked up to the skies, over the treetops where the so-called Being of Emotion had flown. Its odd behaviour could not have been mere coincidence – there had to be a connection somehow.
"I think," he murmured, his gaze fixed upwards, "I think Mesprit might be trying to save him."
A few dozen miles away, a tall and spiky-haired pokémon researcher walked peaceably along a quiet country road, a pencil and clipboard tucked under his arm.
"Way to go, Umbreon!" Gary Oak congratulated the pokémon walking alongside him. "That family of skuntank you sniffed out gave me some invaluable data to take back to Gramps and Tracey at the lab! Sorry about the smell, though."
"Umbree," the sleek black feline smiled, though not without a slight shiver.
"Anyway, I heard there's a nice pokémon centre in the next town so we ought to make it there before nightfall, eh, buddy?"
Gary turned around when Umbreon did not answer him.
"Umbreon? You okay?" he asked. His pokémon had its nose pointed to the sky, and its red eyes were squinting as if looking for something.
"Do you see something?" he tried again – though a spectacular sight would give him his answer only seconds later.
"Oh my god…" Gary mumbled, his eyes wide. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Mes," Mesprit uttered plainly.
"Wow…I've got to get a closer look at you." His heart thumping, Gary slowly reached for an empty pokéball on his belt. "Okay, Mesprit, just stay still…"
He hurled the ball at impressive speed towards the lake guardian, but was lost for words when the little sphere failed to make it all the way. As it clattered to the ground, he and Umbreon were suddenly enveloped in an endless pale green fog, concealing everything but a steadily rising figure from out of the haze.
"Ash?!" Gary choked out in alarm. "How did you…and wh-where did…what?!"
"Hi, Gary," Ash greeted.
"Umbreon, is this real?" he called down to his feet. The normally hyperaware dark-type pokémon was at a total loss.
"I'm as real as the friendship and respect we have for each other," Ash said rather mysteriously.
As well as his eyebrows raising almost off his head, Gary couldn't help but pull an amused grin. "Jeez, Ash, I know we're of drinking age now and everything, but save some for the rest of us, will ya?" he guffawed.
"I'm serious, Gary," he replied calmly, putting an immediate stop to Gary's laughter, "and I know I don't often say these things, so I want to prove it with this gift."
"A…gift?" Gary repeated. "Well, I just let a legendary pokémon get away from me, so unless you can top that-"
"I've known you for as long as I can remember," Ash interrupted. "For a lot of that time, I genuinely thought I hated you."
This remark brought another smirk to the young researcher's face. "No! You? Why, I would never have guessed that!" he teased with an excess of sarcasm.
"But the older I got, the more I realised it was just the opposite. It took me a long time to understand that you pushed me so much because you cared about me being better."
"Er…sure, whatever works for you," Gary snorted. "Man, I knew that wine at the Seven Stars tasted funny…"
"Our rivalry sure did keep me on my toes, alright. All that 'Gary was here, Ash is a loser' stuff? Yeah, that got to me every time."
"Ehehe…I forgot about that."
"But it motivated me to be stronger, go farther, fight harder…and I've gotta say, I really wouldn't be where I am now without you."
Though still convinced he was hallucinating, Ash's words took Gary aback. Their rivalry had long since been over, but his childhood friend was rarely so upfront about how he felt like this.
"We had our good times as rivals," Ash smiled, "but I know I like it way more now we're friends."
Gary stood up straight and nodded. "Yeah, me too, buddy," he chuckled.
"Shake on it?"
"Sure."
The two held their hands out to each other in an amicable fashion. As soon as they touched, a blinding light left the disorientated Gary and Umbreon standing alone in the exact place where they had first encountered Mesprit.
"Huh?" Gary vocalised. "Ash? Hello?"
He looked around to no avail, then sighed a sigh of great confusion.
"Tell me I'm not crazy, Umbreon."
Umbreon, however, said nothing, its eyes glued to the sky once again. Gary followed its gaze only to catch a fleeting gaze at the pokémon he had just tried to capture, floating away at incredible speed with a sparkly aura trailing behind it. His brow furrowed.
"Wait a minute…"
"Urrrghm."
Dawn jumped. "Brock, did you hear that? Ash said something!"
"Pikapi?" squeaked Pikachu curiously.
As before, Brock knelt down in front of his emotionless friend. After doing the usual medical checkups, the puzzled man looked up having been left with only one conclusion.
"Please hurry, Mesprit."
The landscape was a blur; all that lay before it was a mass of signals, pulsating with an energy that sent tremors through Mesprit's slight body. With great haste did it slice through the skies, hoping with every passing second that it was not too late to undo what had been done. Emotions were both its masterpiece and its curse; such feelings had breathed new life into all of humanity, but never could their creator feel the warm touch of a human being without robbing him of the very things that made him so.
Distance had to be maintained. And yet, this boy intrigued it. Such a capacity for love, even for his enemies, in such a…singular organism. The signals were several hundred, maybe even a thousand in number; how he had touched the hearts of so many across the world was nothing short of astounding. Some were rather faint, while others were positively bristling with energy. These emotions had to be shared, as was the only way to return them to their rightful owner, but time was of the essence, and Mesprit knew it could only afford to visit the very strongest of sources. As it happened, the nearest was far, far away, in the verdant wilds of the Johto region…
"Drew, wait up!"
May stumbled through the pokémon centre doors, clumsily fastening up her trademark bandana as she pelted down the road like a crobat out of hell. Groaning, her green-haired companion slowed his indignant power walking to a stop in order to let her catch up.
"What's…th-the hurry?" she puffed, her cheeks blazing from the unwanted exercise. "I wasn't even dressed!"
Drew crossed his arms. "I told you I wanted to be in Goldenrod City before five o'clock. At the rate you were going, we'd be lucky if we got there this month!"
"I slept in, alright? It's not as if you've never done that before," May said with a roll of her eyes.
"Not when I knew I had to be somewhere. I'd have thought making you breakfast in bed would wake you up at least a little bit."
"Heehee. Nope, that just made me want to stay there all day," she giggled as she stretched upwards to kiss him on the cheek. "You can be real cute sometimes, you."
"Yeah, yeah," he waved off, though not without a small smile. "Wait…what's that?"
An otherworldly twinkling caught the young man's eye not too far away in the air. It descended slowly until disappearing behind a row of bushes, and Drew did not hesitate to hurtle after it.
"Hey, where are you going now?!" May cried, exasperated. "I swear, Drew, you keep this up and you'll be heading to Goldenrod City in Munchlax's stomach!"
She chased after him, sighing when he disappeared from sight behind the bushes. With a few slight hops, she hauled herself through the shrubbery one bush at a time. Once on the other side, May discovered that Drew was long gone yet again – and, as it turned out, so was everything else.
"Drew?" she cried through the endless smoke. "Drew, where are you?"
"Over here," a faint voice responded. A number of back-and-forths eventually led the scrabbling May over to her fellow coordinator, but as she wobbled to his side, she noticed his gaze was fixed on something considerably more alarming than herself.
"Oh, hey, May! I was wondering where you'd got to!"
Drew anticipated her startled scream and silenced it just in time with a hand over her mouth.
"A-Ash?" she panted. "What are you doing here? What's with all this smoke? Somebody talk to me!"
"Put a cork in it, silly," Drew teased with a flick of his hair. "Ash just told me why he's here – right after I asked him why he looks like a genie."
"Er, okay?" She looked at Ash expectantly.
"I've brought gifts for you guys that I think you'll like," Ash smiled. When they said nothing, he turned to look May straight in the eye.
"May, you've always been and will always be one of my best friends," he said. "When I first met you, I'd been on the road for five years already, and it was nice to help you get over your fear of pokémon and show you how awesome they can be. You really came into your own when you decided you wanted to be a pokémon coordinator."
May was lost for words. All she could do was stare in awe.
"I guess I've always thought of you as my little sister, you know? Max, too – well, brother in his case, hehe. Make sure to give him my love, by the way. You've come so far since we travelled together, and I'm honestly so proud of you."
"I, um…" the flustered girl faltered. "Thank you, Ash. Really."
Drew stepped forward. "Hey, since when are you so touchy-feely? You didn't drink from the Lake of Rage on your way here, did you?"
Ash just smiled again. "Drew, we may not always have seen eye to eye, and I didn't get to know you as well as May did, but even though I never wanted you to win, I always enjoyed watching you perform."
"Er…" Drew hesitated. "Thanks. I think."
"Also, I'm so happy for you and May."
Matching blushes adorned the shocked pair's faces, despite their hands unconsciously finding each other.
"That's, er, nice of you to say," May smiled awkwardly. "But…we haven't told anyone yet! How did you-"
A sudden eerie flicker of the shroud around them broke off May's tentative questioning. Ash's smile slid off his face, replaced by a look of disguised urgency.
"Time to go," he said, prompting looks of confusion from May and Drew.
"Go?" Drew asked. "Go where?"
Instead of answering, Ash just thrust his arm outwards. "Don't worry about me, guys. Friends?"
Shrugging, the young couple raised up their still intertwined hands, simultaneously placing them down on top of Ash's. The moment of contact dispelled the smoke completely, restoring both the surroundings and their occupants to how they were.
"You didn't drug my breakfast in bed, did you, Drew?" May murmured over a minute later.
"Nope," he exhaled.
It took several minutes of walking for the unexplainable scene they had just witnessed to slip from the forefront of their minds. Once she had given up trying to rationalise it, May swivelled around to Drew with a twinkle in her eye.
"So…" she started mischievously, "think we've got time for a little ice cream stop before we hit the road?"
Drew rolled his eyes. "You and your food. Alright then, Grumpig, ice cream it is."
"You're buying, though, right?"
Walking slightly ahead, the young man looked playfully back over his shoulder. "Something like that."
"Hmm…something outside seems to be causing some interference. I'd better take a look- ooh, ack, this blasted lumbago!"
The handrail of the old metal staircase creaked under the full weight of the aged Professor Oak as he staggered painfully down to the lower level of his research floor. The device he held in his hand beeped more frequently the further he descended.
"Curious," he muttered, waving the device around in multiple directions. "If I can just pinpoint the source of- HEAVENS ABOVE!"
The signal led underneath the sofa the professor was currently sitting on, causing him to jump up in shock.
"Ayee, my back! Tracey! Tracey, can you come here a second? I can't bend down to analyse this…s-signal…"
The old man was floored by the legendary figure that floated upwards from between the seat cushions.
"In all my years of research…" he stammered. "Tracey, come quick!"
Outside on the reserve, the professor's docile assistant caught this last vital snippet through the open window.
"Coming, Professor!" he cried, dropping his equipment and darting towards the laboratory door. Unfortunately for him, an affectionate old acquaintance was hot on his trail.
"MUUUUUUK!"
"NO, MUK, PLEASE NOT NOW-AAAARRGGRHGHHHHH!"
Professor Oak eyed Mesprit with genuine fascination. He knew from experience not to chance a capture, nor to make any sudden moves. Instead, he simply watched, committing the pokémon's seldom-seen details to memory. Mesprit stared back for a second or two before swooping forward and disappearing into an all-encompassing veil of smoke.
"Professor!" Ash greeted as he stepped into view.
"Ash? How extraordinary," Professor Oak remarked. "The likeness is uncanny."
"What do you mean?" Ash chuckled. "It's me, Professor!"
He shook his head. "The Lake Guardians of Sinnoh have always been a particular academic interest of mine. You may look and sound like Ash Ketchum, but as the Being of Emotion, you should well know that that boy is one of a kind."
Like with May and Drew, the smoke around Professor Oak began to flicker and thin out. Ash's face was one of sincere alarm.
"I don't doubt that your intentions are good, Mesprit. That can only mean you've assumed Ash's form to warn me of something, correct?"
Instead of responding vocally, the Ash shape merely nodded its head.
Oak stroked his chin. "Then the legends are true…"
Mesprit did not react, which conveniently worked in the concerned professor's favour.
"Mesprit, if my theory is correct and Ash truly is in serious trouble, then I'd rather we didn't waste any more time chatting. Please, do what you have to do, and save him."
Across Ash's eyes passed an unnatural sheen of red. Were it not for its glistening brilliance, the colour would almost seem demonic. But Professor Oak knew this was a sign that Mesprit understood, and, more importantly, agreed.
A wispy appendage stretched forwards and gently swirled itself around Oak's frail right hand. As he expected, the smoke cleared, the surroundings returned, and Mesprit tore out of the room with unparalleled haste and a newfound resolve.
"Phew," Tracey wheezed as he scraped a handful of slime off his lab coat. Ash's overzealous Sludge Pokémon sure had put up a fight this time. Blowing his dark green bangs out of his eyes, the pokémon watcher continued his path through the lab to the top floor.
"Professor?" he called up the stairs. "Is everything okay? I'm almost- WHOOOAH!"
As Tracey reached the second flight of stairs, a whoosh of air knocked his feet right out from underneath him. The fall was slow, like sinking in water, but Tracey was aware of every drawn-out second. Before he hit the ground, a dazzling ball of light passed cleanly through his chest and flew out the open door at the end of the hall.
"What…just happened?" he thought out loud in a daze. When he eventually reached the research floor, a peculiar thought suddenly appeared in his mind. "Wait…Ash really thinks that much of me?"
"Indeed he does, Tracey," Professor Oak acknowledged from across the room. "Though I must admit, I really had no idea that Ash considered me a father figure."
The fifty-nine-year-old chuckled at his assistant's lost expression. "I think you'd better sit down for this one…"
Reversing the curse was a delicate procedure, one that Mesprit had only attempted a handful of times. The emotional transfer relied on the belief of the receivers, so when the cloth-headed female and her mate had shown some scepticism, the empathic pokémon feared all was lost. Its most recent episode with the elderly human had been an even closer call. But it was too late to turn back now, especially when its mission was so nearly complete.
Of the powerful energy signals, only two now remained, and each was far stronger than anything Mesprit had yet encountered. As luck would have it, both signals were transmitting from the same location. This would be its final stop – but the sheer potency of the emotions left to give out could yet prove a sizable challenge…
"Can I get you some more tea, Misty?"
The orange-haired woman on the sofa looked up. "No, thank you, Mrs. Ketchum, I'm fine."
"It's Delia, dear, remember?"
Misty blushed. "Oh, yes, sorry…Delia."
The benevolent single mother sat down beside her young friend. "So, how have things been going lately at the gym?"
"The gym?" she clarified. "Ah, you know…same old, same old."
"Ash told me the other day that he saw your picture on a magazine in Sinnoh. It's wonderful to see that you're so famous now!"
"He did?"
"Yes. I think he said the article was called 'Top Ten Sexiest Gym Leaders' or something?"
The red across the young girl's nose quickly spread to the rest of her face. "Oh…that," she mumbled, highly embarrassed. "My sisters made me do that stupid interview. I'm sure Ash had a good laugh when he saw the magazine, yeah?"
Delia smiled. "Not from what I could tell – because he told me he'd bought it."
"He what?!" Misty's stomach fluttered in a way she was more than accustomed to. "Wh-Why would he do that?"
"Maybe you can ask him yourself when he calls today," Delia winked affectionately.
Whatever conflicting thoughts had popped into the Cerulean gym leader's head were, to her relief, dashed by a strange, spirit-like presence outside the sliding door to her left.
"Hey, Mrs. Ketchum – er, Delia, I mean – do you see that?"
In the midday sun, the bright entity was near impossible to identify. But it radiated with a kind of energy, a warm familiarity that instantly drew Misty and Delia in. Mesprit slipped through the opening in the door and, before either of them could process what they had seen, morphed itself into the same greenish smoke to house them in its nebulous embrace.
"Goodness!" Delia exclaimed.
"What is this?" gasped Misty, looking around frantically. "What's going on?"
Through the expanse of pale vapour, not a sound but their own echoing words could be heard.
"I know you're out there," she continued. "Whatever you are, show yourself, or else!"
"Gee, Mist, all you've gotta do is ask."
"AAAAAAHH!"
She'd recognise the voice behind her in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, her instincts were even quicker than that, and she spun on her heel only to take a powerful punch at thin air.
"Hyaa!" she grunted. "Huh?"
"Whoa, hey, it's nice to see you, too!"
She and Delia turned back around to see their respective best friend and son grinning over at them.
"Ash!" Delia cried with joy. "How nice it is to see you! But, dear, how are you, erm…here?"
Ash scratched his head. "Yeah, sorry to scare you guys like that. There was no time to warn you – I just had to see you right away."
"Oh, well I'm very glad you did!" she gushed. "I was expecting your call today, but I certainly didn't expect this! Some fancy new Sinnoh technology, is it?"
"Er, something like that," he laughed. Misty's eyes narrowed. Somehow, this whole scene just felt…off.
"I can't stay long," Ash said, "just long enough to give you these gifts."
"Gifts?" Delia questioned. "Oh, Ashy, just seeing you is all I could ever ask for!"
"I'm honestly not sure where to start with you, Mom," he smiled. "You're the most amazing person I've ever known. It must have been so hard raising a kid all on your own in a place like Pallet Town, but you did, and you never complained, even for a second."
"Oh my," Delia breathed, her hand touching her heart. "Ash, I…"
"I've always wanted to travel, to be a pokémon trainer and rise to the top. You knew that the whole time, and even though that meant I'd leave you, all you gave me was encouragement, time after time. I don't think I can ever truly thank you enough for that."
"Ash," she choked as a tear or two escaped her hazel eyes, "I don't know what to say…"
"I know you'd do anything for me – and you have – but I never really tell you that I'd do the same for you. I love you, Mom. More than anything."
Tears were now pouring down the overjoyed woman's face. She covered her mouth with her hands to suppress her heavy sobbing.
"Thank you, Ash, thank you so much! I love you too, baby, and I miss you!"
The speech would usually have caused Misty to tear up as well, but still she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. Her heart almost stopped when she saw Ash's gaze shift to meet hers.
"Misty…"
"Stop," she said abruptly. "I don't know who you are, but you are NOT Ash Ketchum."
Both Ash and Delia lost their smiles in a fraction of a second. The smoky environs began to fizzle and fluctuate.
"What are you talking about?" Ash pondered. "It's me, Ash, your best frie-"
"Don't give me that!" she cut through. "If you're about to wax lyrical to me like you just did to Delia, then that only confirms it, because my Ash would never say those kinds of things about me! Now tell me who you are before I get really mad!"
It took several agonising seconds for anything visible to happen. Just as Misty had caught her breath, the veil of clouds suddenly faded to nothing, and in place of the ethereal Ash was the legendary Mesprit of Lake Verity, hovering a foot off the ground and exuding a vivid light.
"A p-pokémon?!" Delia shrieked. "What did you do to my Ashy?!"
Mesprit's glow receded into its body, and it stared Misty solemnly in the eye.
"You are correct," it explained telepathically. "I am not the human of which you speak. I feel what he feels, and I come to you because you are needed to feel it, too. His life depends on it."
"His…life?" Misty stammered, the air in her chest promptly retreating. Delia began to weep once more.
"Hold still. I mean you no harm."
Floating forward, Mesprit extended its jewelled tail out to Misty. It stopped only inches from her. Very slowly, it moved to make contact with the girl – not to her hand this time, but to her heart. And in an instant, Misty understood everything.
"Oh…my god…" she said on a disjunct inhale. The knowledge was beyond anything she'd ever imagined, the emotions more real and visceral than any she'd ever experienced. Hovering backwards, Mesprit nodded its head and silently turned to leave.
"Wait!" she shouted purely instinctively. The things she'd just heard, the feelings she'd felt – there was no way she could just leave it there. Ash needed her. And she needed him.
"Take us to Ash."
Dawn bent down to perform another checkup on Ash, who at this point was able to sit up unsupported but otherwise showed little consciousness at all.
"He's been getting a little better," she said to herself. "Do you think he could recover completely?"
Brock, having taken over Dawn's habit of pacing, just shook his head in uncertainty.
"And didn't the myth say it would take three days? What more could happen to him?"
"I don't know, Dawn!" Brock snapped, far more impatiently than he'd intended. "Ugh. I'm sorry. I just…don't know what to do. The nearest town's at least two days away, and-"
The fraught man was interrupted by a sudden burst of cool air on his back. He turned around to see his two old friends, Delia Ketchum and Misty Waterflower, sprawled on the grass a few feet away, Mesprit floating above them.
"Misty!" he cried. "Mrs. Ketchum! How…"
"Where is he," Misty demanded, her tone indicating no trace of a question. He pointed over to the tree where Dawn was crouching, to which they darted before Brock could even lower his hand.
"Ash! Oh, my baby, speak to me, please!" Delia howled, squeezing his dirt-covered hands in hers.
"Mesprit said it could feel Ash's feelings. What's happened to him?" Misty asked, her eyes widening as Brock explained.
"It's me, Ash, it's your mommy!" Delia kept trying. "Don't you recognise me? Oh, don't do this to me, Ash, please don't…"
Everyone was too moved to say anything. Even Pikachu could not face joining in the pleading, for Ash just sat there, staring emptily into the middle distance.
"You've g-got to wake up, you've just got to! You're m-my only son, my whole w-world! What am I going to d-do without you…"
The woman was hysterical now, and Ash's clothes were soaked in her tears. Misty placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Delia…let me try," she said softly. Still sobbing, Delia nodded and shuffled back to let the young girl get in close.
"Ash," she said, as calmly as she could. "Ash, it's me. It's Misty."
The boy did not make a sound.
"I know you're in there somewhere, Ash," she persisted. "I'm wearing my hair down, see? Mesprit told me you like it like this."
She pointed at her flowing jaw-length hair, frowning when Ash failed to notice.
"And that's not all it told me," she carried on. "I've seen into your head, Ash Ketchum, and don't think for one second I'm going to let you forget it."
"That's Misty?" Dawn whispered to Brock. "The girl from the fishing lure?"
He nodded. "Mesprit wouldn't have brought them here for no reason. If anyone has a chance of bringing Ash out of this, it's Misty."
"Well, it's real nice to know you feel bad about wrecking my bike!" Misty barked. "Not bad enough to ever get me a new one, though, huh?" She smiled. "I always figured you were just a cheapskate. You never told me you didn't pay me back because you liked having me around."
Scooting in closer, she took one of Ash's hands and stroked it gently. "I also never knew how much you missed me. Travelling with you was the best time of my life, and I miss it every day. You may have annoyed the living crap out of me at first, and still do a lot of the time, but I can't even imagine what my life would be like without you in it.
"You know what your mom and I were doing when Mesprit came to us? We were talking about you. That's what we do most of the time I visit Pallet Town, really. Though that reminds me: if I found out you bought that trashy gym leader magazine you're getting SO malleted!"
A chance meeting of his eye told Misty that now was the time to go in for the kill. "Mesprit told me something else, too. Something I never thought I'd hear from you, and in a way, still haven't." Her heart was beating at an uncomfortable rate. "But I know that's how you feel, whether you say it out loud or not, because the truth is," she took in a nervous breath, "I love you, too."
She ignored the gasping behind her and removed Ash's hat to press her forehead against his. "I love you so much, Ash. I always have. That's why you've got to come back to me."
For several seconds, Misty simply held silently onto her best friend, begging for the torrent of tears behind her eyes not to fall.
"You've always been dense, but not like this. And where's the f-fun in that, huh? Please, Ash…come back so y-you can be just the right kind of dense again…for me…"
She pulled back, hoping with all her heart that she had done enough. The emotion she released was the rawest and purest she had to give, and she prayed that he could feel it, wherever he was.
"Pika…" Pikachu purred in dismay.
But Ash was still unreachable. This had been their last hope. Misty's head drooped almost to the ground, a lone tear falling from her eye and splashing onto the grass beneath her. There was nothing more she could do, and she knew that, despite not wanting to accept it. All that emotion, all those fervent fragments and mesmerising sensations, now for nothing. It was a feeling she hoped she would never have to feel.
She could not look at Ash in this state. Her friend was gone, and the husk before her was only a painful reminder of that. With her eyes closed, she pulled the hair bobble from off her wrist and moved to tie her hair back up into its usual side ponytail. When she felt a hand close around her wrist, however, the heartbroken girl almost jumped out of her skin.
"Don't. I like it like that."
Misty's eyes shot open to see her best friend smiling warmly at her.
"ASH!" everyone shouted simultaneously.
"PIKAPI!" Pikachu squeaked with joy.
Is this real? Misty couldn't stop herself from thinking. Everything seemed so hopeless just a second ago. Even so, this small doubt didn't stop her from crushing the boy in the tightest of hugs.
"Mist…can't…breathe…." Ash coughed, his face awash with crimson.
"Don't ever do that to me again!" she shouted right in his ear. "You had me worried sick!"
"Misty, I've got no idea what you're talking about," Ash said casually.
She blinked. "You've got some nerve, Ketchum!" A smile appeared on her face. "Although…I guess if this hadn't happened, I might never have found out how you feel."
"How I…feel?" Ash asked confusedly. "About what?"
"About me, of course!" she giggled.
"Well, er, I'm happy to see you, if that's what you mean. Ooh, hey, we should have a battle!"
A pang of sickness sunk through Misty's stomach. "Wait," she said feebly, "you don't remember?"
"Remember what? Come on, Mist, let's battle!"
As he ran boyishly down the grass, Misty wobbled to her feet, all of a sudden feeling numb and queasy. After all of that, for Ash to come back only for her to essentially lose him again…it was like a cruel joke that nature had played on her. The humiliation, the heartache, it was unbearable. And all she wanted to do was run away and cry.
She glanced across at the others, most of whom averted their gaze presumably out of courtesy. There was one who didn't, however. Mesprit, still floating off to the side, was smiling, its eyes trained on her unmistakeably. With its paw it touched its heart, then pointed off in the distance to where Ash had run off. It was a peculiar gesture, but Misty felt she understood instantly. Whether Ash realised it or not, she had seen into his head, his heart, and knew with certainty the emotions she had found. The feeling was where it counted, after all – who needed to hear the words?
"Ash?" she called over, a newfound confidence fuelling her every bounding step.
"Yeah?" he said when she made her way over to him. "Erm, you're gonna need to move back a bit if we're battling, Mist."
She smiled, all the while swallowing her nervousness. "We can battle later. I've got a better idea right now."
Without waited for him to react, she moved in close to him and gently circled her arms around his neck.
"M-Misty," he spluttered, "wh-what are you doing?"
"Something I should have done a long time ago," she answered.
Ash's blush was now fierce. "I…don't understand."
"I'm not asking you to understand, Ash Ketchum." With every word, her face inched closer. "Just feel."