Before him, Ash could see Goldenrod city. There he could catch the ferry back to Kanto. He sighed to himself. "Was it enough, though?" Was his ready for his duties? Not only in his role, but in his life as well? He slowly made his way down the road, not quite feeling up to rushing back. He became aware of a second set of footsteps, and another accompanying them, a much larger set. Ash paid them no mind, they were not the first Human/Pokémon pair he'd passed in recent days. The pair grew closer, and closer, and from the side of his hood he made out a familiar mass of Pokémon, a Thyphlosion, not exactly a rarity in Johto...

For a second, the four were parallel to one another, and then they took one more step. Pikachu took a look back, watching the pair-"Chu." Wait. With a loud cry of his name, Pikachu pulled back Ash's hood, drawing the attention of the second person. Ash, feeling eyes on him, looked back.

Both blinked.

"Oh, it's you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

One thing that never could be said for Ash, is that he kept anything resembling normal company. Since the day he left home to start on his journey he had kept some interesting people among those he knew personally.

That wasn't about to change any time soon. Recently, he had added the fifth Grandmaster to his list, how interesting it was he had come across another one of Quentin's successors. One day he would give thought to himself and his current company, and the man they had succeeded in one way or another. How strange it was, that the two were almost bound by a link to that man.

At least they would consider it strange, if either of them had bothered to think about it deeply enough. Neither of which would ever be interested in doing.

He was the youngest Grandmaster in history. Across from him sat the youngest Champion in history.

Coincidently, their ages were almost perfectly matched.

It was so rare now, for Ash to himself in the company of one it was so easy to talk to. A rarity shared, and an opportunity the two would not pass up.

They did many things.

Things one would expect...

James "Jimmy" Nathaniel Hibiki caught an incoming can out of the air, opening and drinking half of its contents in the span of a few seconds. The two sat alone at the edge of a wood, a forest behind them, the city not too far in the distance.

Jimmy let loose a roaring belch, to the genuine awe of those present. "So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Your neck?"

Jimmy grinned. "I''m champ, Johto's my turf now."

Ash smirked. "I'm Grandmaster, I outrank you."

Jimmy's expression turned pensive, before-"Shit."

Ash chuckled. It was good to be the king.

Things one probably wouldn't…

"When'd fans first start hounding you?"

Ash stroked his chin, in thought for a moment. "I got cornered for autographs sometimes, and a lot in the early rounds of the championship, but when I beat Steven… Ugh, took me forever to get back to the hotel that night. Girls were the worst." With that, Ash clasped his hands together, resting his cheek against them, and taking his voice up a pitch. "Oh Ash, you're sooo cool. That was sooo amazing. You command your Pokémon so well, can you give me some lessons sometime?" (Jimmy snickered at that one, for reasons unknown to Ash.) He turned to find Jimmy smirking. "What?"

"You've done this before, haven't you? Next you'll tell me you've cross-dressed." Ash flushed. "No way..." Ash flushed deeper, Jimmy grinned. "How much would people pay to know this..."

"Breath one word and I'll beat the crap outta you!"

Jimmy put up his hands. "I'll be good." He grinned. "So what's it like wearing girl's underwear?"

If only Ash had access to a Celebi, time travel could correct so many mistakes... "I only put on a dress and wig-" Jimmy raised his brow, smiling. "I was trying to sneak into a gym!-long story. And I'm never doing it again..."

"Ever wear a maid outfit?"

Ash put his face into his hands and groaned. "You have got to give me your life story sometime. Hmm, should probably get my hands on a couple of those, actually..." Jimmy grinned, seeing something in his mind's eye as he laughed to himself.

Ash decided not to enquire.

His mind also decided not to wonder.

Huh, he was making better decisions already.

Arceus, he hoped there were no pictures of him in that outfit.

Things that should never be spoken of again...

Till the end, I will be with you. We will go, where our dreams come true. All the times, that we have been through. You will always be my best friends.

Pikachu winced. "Ka pika chu." Shut 'em up.

Typhlosion opened his mouth, unleashing a silencing inferno.

Things went on, until at last they sat down to discuss that infinitely complex little thing.

Life.

Ash leaned against the tree they now shared, rubbing his chin. "Stupidest thing you've ever done."

Jimmy winced. "Took a whiz on a tree."

"How's that stupid?"

"The tree was a Sudowoodo." Ash broke into loud laughter. "Hey! It's not funny! It was dark! I thought it was gonna kill me!" It was close to a minute before Ash could calm down. "Alright, your turn."

Ash emptied his current can, in thought for a moment. "Walked into an Ursaring mating ground."

Ash felt something poke his shoulder, finding Jimmy's finger-"You're not a ghost, right?"

"Nope, but there were moments..."

With that thought left in the air, Jimmy took another gulp, his mind traversing back to-"So why're you in Johto, anyway?"

"I went to see Quentin Gelden." Ash sensed Jimmy's head turn. "I needed some advice."

"And?"

"We battled."

"And?"

"I won."

"Wait, you beat him, seriously?" Ash smiled. "Seriously?!" He turned to his fellow master, smiling wider. "Holy shit!" Ash couldn't help but grin, the phantom of his ten year old self proclaiming in his head I beat Quentin, I beat Quentin. "Guess that's the reason for-" He signalled to Ash's form, bandages visible on his arms, the healing cut plain on his face.

He looked down at them, with a mixture of pride and regret. "Yeah. It got wild."

"You should have sold tickets."

"Maybe," Ash's hands opened, and closed again. "Maybe not. It was more than a battle against him."

"Feel like explaining that?"

"I had some...stuff, to work through."

"Details?"

"Long story."

"Listening." A few seconds passed silently, before-"Seriously, listening, if you wanna share."

Ash sighed, and before he realized it, was telling his story. The story that began in Unova, and throughout its land. The journey, the path to power, to glory, glory he attained alone. It was...hard, to say it out loud, to put the facts into phrase, and cast them into the ether. Like pulling chains that had been seared into his skin, the pain was liberating.

It was the closest he had yet come to seeing himself from someone else's eyes..."I threw myself at the biggest title in the world, and took it, but screwed everything else up on the way. I really am an idiot." With that, Ash let silence fall.

Jimmy cast Ash a considering glance. "Ash," Ash turned to face him. "Why did you want to become Grandmaster?"

"To be the best." In light of recent days, something felt off about that answer. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"What other reasons?" By the look he got back, Jimmy might as well have asked him to explain what the Arcues Particle was (not that he'd be able to do it). "Take me; I wanted to be the best, sure, but I wanted to do more too. I became a Master for the kids in my town. New Bark's a small place, not many bragging rights. As a Master, a Champion, I give the kids something to look up to, to hide behind when bad guys come. I can teach 'em, inspire 'em, them and all of Johto's trainers. Or beyond, I'm not picky."

Those words, a younger Quentin could have easily said them..."You'd make a better Grandmaster than me."

Jimmy grinned. "Wanna forfeit the title?"

"Can't "

("Dammit.")

"But I...I don't know why. I mean, other than being the best, I don't know why I became Grandmaster. I've-I've never had a reason other than just being the best. I've never thought about it beyond that."

"And now?"

"I'm kinda having to think about it. It was supposed to be simple."

"And what is it really?"

"Anything but."

"I get you." Jimmy let lose a heavy sigh. "We all got problems I guess."

Ash turned to his-yeah, he was gonna go with 'friend', "What are yours?"

"Long story."

"I like long stories."

Jimmy met his gaze with a raised brow. "Really?"

"No," Ash admitted, "I'd fall asleep whenever my mom read me the three little Grumpigs."

"Me too."

They smiled.

Then smirked, and sniggered. The two parted gazes, caught between trying to suppress their laughter, and coming to terms with the fact they were to lose the battle. Their laughter grew more rapid, like paired embers feeding the other flame. To the bemusement of their Pokémon, the pair broke out into laughter that filled the woods.

For that moment, in between their problems, the two boys had not a care in the world.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A while later, Ash was in Goldenrod once more, awaiting his passage home. Jimmy had left the city, on his way to where Ash never asked. Ash reached into the bag he was holding, extracting the only thing it contained, opening it and handing it to Pikachu.

"Kachu chupika." Bottle one hundred. Ash threw him a questioning look. "Ka ka pika." I recounted. He took the bottle, downing a mouthful of the greatest elixir known to Pika kind (if you asked him, and it was best not to question his opinion).

Ash smiled, some things would never change. Some might, some inevitably would, but some things wouldn't. If he'd learned a single thing in recent years, that'd be it. The only question was what changes could be undone. His mind turned back, briefly, to the photograph of Quentin's daughter, the one he was estranged from, as Ash had become estranged from his own family. Yeah, family was a word that applied to them. That was a change he was going to undo.

He had debts to pay, somehow. Some way. He smiled. Well, he'd gotten this far in life.

"Let's go home, Pikachu."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

End of Chapter

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Omake

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the top of the Talon of Ho-Oh, the sight of "the greatest battle never seen" (as it would seen be called), a man and a Pokémon had suddenly appeared. Quentin took a look at the ruin that had until so very recently, been a fascinating natural landmark. He smiled, good times, good times. Traditionally, this duty was left to construction workers, but he wanted to do this themselves.

"Alright, lets start with the ground out here, shouldn't take us too long. We'll probably need more than the team to fix the claws though. I swear, if I knew the battle was gonna do this much damage..." He exchanged a look with Smeargle. "I'd have done it anyway." Smeargle nodded, smiling. That they would. Smeargle walked, looking over the remains of their last great battle, turning to-he stopped, suddenly frozen.

"Smeargle? What's wrong?" Smeargle's tail rose up, pointing to where Quenitn's eyes followed, finding-"Oh."

The Pokémon that, only days ago, Quentin and his last opponent had discussed, was coming to this very place. Ho-Oh was coming towards his talon. Quentin smiled, it'd been a long time since he'd seen the Rainbow Bird. Hopefully, Ash would earn himself another viewing one of these days.

As Ho-Oh approached however, it became clear this meeting wasn't going to as smoothly as was in the past. Ho-Oh landed, looking around the utter ruin that was his landmark (apparently), and set gaze on the only human around.

"Oh shit!" Quentin felt the hairs on his neck stand up as the bird openly glared at him. Somehow, Ho-Oh knew Quentin-hey, he was only half his fault! "I swear on your ashes I'm gonna fix it all!"

If Ho-Oh could understand human tongue, he didn't currently care to listen. As far as Ho-Oh was concerned, somebody had wrecked one of his nests. He spread his wings, unleashing his battle song. Not quite a 'cry', there was something melodic about Ho-Oh's cry of battle. Smeargle leapt forth, taking place between Quentin and the Legendary Bird. Well, there was only one way this was going. Quentin had taken on too many so-called "legendaries" to count. He had long come to the conclusion that the title was just another way of saying "very, very rare" in most cases, but to take on a legendary of this calibre in mythology was something new, even for him.

"Looks like I'm going back to hospital."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

End of Omake

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Notes: Did anyone predict my choice in Johto champion? Personally I think I dropped a decent hint back in chapter 9, and made it obvious back in 18. He was not chosen lazily as a character to have appear, and having him be Champion, well, you can figure that out. If you understand what Michael was meant to represent, you can guess what Jimmy does (which means you can decipher the meaning behind my vague bullshit...consult Google on the location of your nearest nut-house).

(Maybe I'll explain it at the fic's end...circa 2022.)

P.S. Am I the only one who's annoyed that Jimmy wasn't shown in the main anime, despite the fact Marina and Vincent/Jackson were? Alright, he was a frigging Ash clone (to a degree), but he was (arguably) the best one!