Meanwhile while red was on his was to the tournament we see a certain group of travelers preparing for the tournament as well. These people are none other than Brock, Cilian, Max ,Gary, Misty, May, Dawn, and Iris.

"Max this tournament is going to have a lot of tough trainers in it, are you sure you are ready for this" "oh be quiet May, I have grown a lot since my last competitions said Max.

"Getting worked up simply because your sister is worried about you and your pokemon, you're such a kid" said Iris. Hey I will try my best to win this tournament then his voice got soft as he said "for him". As soon as Max said that they all became very depressed as they thought of their friend who they had not seen in years.


Flashback 4 years ago.

All of Ash's friends came for a party for him for making it in second place in the Unova league.

Just in the middle of the party a violent storm came out of nowhere and lighting struck a tree causing it to catch on fire and land right on top of his house.

"MOM!" "MOM!" ash shouted as he raced in with his friends to see if she was alright only to be stopped dead in his tracks as he saw his mom's lifeless body on the ground.

By that time the paramedics had rushed to the scene to take her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead at 2:30am on thursday.

Skip time 1 week later at the funeral:

Rain continued pouring down, never stopping. Everybody in Pallet Town was there for Delia Ketchum's funeral. Ash stood next to professor Oak with a dull face expression. All of his friends and their parents were there. They never saw Ash down before. He got up in the middle of it and went to the laboratory to be by himself. A little later when It was over Brock went up to go check up on Ash to find that he and all of his pokemon except the 29 touros was gone.

Brock ran down the hill while shouting "guys!"guys!."

"What is it Brock" Misty said

"It's Ash he's gone" Brock replied sadly

"WHAT" everyone said. "Yes and I have a note from him"

It says

Dear friends,

I am sorry but I need some time to be alone and don't bother looking for be because I am already long gone. Please continue on with you dreams as I will do. I will be back some day and we will have that battle okay Max.

Sincerely

Ashura Satoshi Ketchum.