"Good morning, everyone!" Ash said. "So, I had to think a lot about when to put this lesson, but I think now is a good time. Do you remember when we visited Kanto last week?"

"That was only a week ago, yeah," Lana realized. "Wow."

"And you remember my friend Misty?" Ash went on. "That's because of a magic potion, which is meant to allow humans to understand Pokémon better – and it does, by letting them understand what it's like to be a Pokémon. It really helps out a lot!"

"Is that how you can understand what Pokémon say?" Kiawe asked.

Ash shook his head. "No, I learned that before I started my journey, I didn't encounter the witch who showed me this potion until I was on my third region. But it's still helpful – so for example I have a much better understanding of how you move on all fours now. It's not like walking on two legs, where there's just walking and running really – instead you've got different patterns of how you move your legs-"

"Ash," Pikachu said.

"Oh, right," Ash realized. "Thanks, Pikachu! So I don't know the exact details of how the potion works, my friend Serena does because she can make it and she learned a lot about it, but it sort of… turns you into what you'd be as a Pokémon, I think? And then you turn back when the potion runs out again."

Sophocles put his hand up. "When you say magic, do you really mean, literally, magic?"

"Well, it could be science," Ash conceded. "Or it could be psychic somehow. But the person who makes it calls it magic, and Serena learned a lot of what she called magic, so it probably is magic!"

He rummaged around in his pocket, and brought out a thermos. "I made sure I had enough, so everyone can give it a go if they want. You don't have to, though!"

"What Pokémon would I end up as?" Lillie said.

"I bet it'd be a great one!" Snowy yipped.

"It's actually quite hard to tell in advance," Ash replied. "There's a lot of Pokémon! And usually you end up with something that fits you really well, but it's not always something you could work out in advance. Sometimes it's not even something that makes sense until you find something out later, like how my friend Dawn was a Plusle and that only properly made sense when we found out that there's someone else who looks just like her and who's a Minun. Right?"

"I think so," Lillie agreed. "So there's no real way to be sure unless we try it?"

"Uh," Sophocles said. "I wondered about that, but is that why you and Pikachu looked at me and tried to work something out? Before you went and found Charjabug?"

"Yeah, if you'd been your Charjabug that would have been neat, but it didn't seem likely to me," Pikachu shrugged. "I'm not apologizing if it turns out you would work as a Charjabug, though – if Ash had turned out to be a Pikachu then that wouldn't mean I'd have to leave, or anything."

"Right!" Ash confirmed. "So, who wants to try some?"

"I have no idea how to record this information!" Rotom said.

"I do," Mallow replied. "I'd like to see what happens."

"Great!" Ash said.

Rotom thought for a moment, then made a split screen appear where one side showed the pupils, and the other side a set of question marks.

"I will record this under observational data," the Ghost-type asserted.

"Huh," Mallow said, a minute later. "Chikorita. That's weird… I don't know what I expected, though, so…"

She shrugged.

"It feels so strange to see a Pokémon talking in a human voice, especially a familiar one," Steenee admitted. "Why isn't she speaking in Chikorita?"

"That's getting a bit into the lessons we'll be doing later, but it's because language is something you learn," Ash said. "Mallow's getting used to a differently shaped mouth, so her accent is a bit different, but apart from that she's just speaking in the same language she already knows. She doesn't forget all that just because she's changed body, like how she doesn't learn a Pokémon language instantly… that's why Lokoko's here today."

"I should try some, see what I get," Kiawe decided, then.

"Yeah, I want to see what I end up as," Lana agreed.

"What kind of Pokémon have people ended up as?" Kukui asked. "Is there any rule to it?"

"Not so you'd notice," Ash replied. "There's been, Absol, Nosepass, Vaporeon, Snom, Plusle, Minun, Zoroark, Kecleon, Keldeo, Buneary…"

"Isn't Keldeo a Legendary Pokémon?" Lana said. "Wow, there really isn't a pattern."

Before long, everyone in Ash's class had taken the potion – including Ash, though he'd done it before turning up – and there was only Professor Kukui left.

"Hmm," he said. "So, what do you think each of these tells you about yourself?"

Lana examined her feathers. "Well, Quaxly is a Water type, and apart from that I don't really know," she admitted. "It feels funny to have wings, especially because I can pick things up with them now… am I one of those water types that can breathe underwater, or not?"

"Probably best not to test it," Ashbsol said. "But, hmm…"

He checked Ibid. "Maybe it's because you get on well with Popplio, and she likes performing? Quaxly's evolutions like performing as well, so that could be it."

"It could," Lana said, considering.

"And I think you called this one, right?" Togedemaru asked, pointing at her trainer. "Boltund, I mean."

"Being on all fours is weird," Sophocles said.

"Growlithe for Kiawe… I have to admit, I don't get that one," Mallow frowned, scratching her head with a vine. "At least not in detail. But there's all kinds of things to say about why Lillie is a Togetic."

Then she noticed she was scratching her head with a vine, fell off the table, and Steenee caught her.

"That's actually a good chance for me to talk about something," Ash said. "See, sometimes someone turns into a Pokémon that can evolve, or has evolved, and what Lily says – that's the witch – is that based on asking around she thinks that the Pokémon that humans magically turn into depends on who they are, and so evolving is the same thing as changing something about themselves. My friend Iris is a Zoroark, not a Zorua, and it might be because her realization was about connecting properly with her Excadrill and it had already happened before she took the potion. But it's hard to be sure!"

"So, uh… how long does the potion last?" Kiawe asked. "We could have trouble taking notes like this."

"Oh, it usually lasts a few days," Ash answered. "There is a version that goes the other way, though, that reverses it."

"Phew," Kiawe sighed. "I was worried…"

Then Kukui turned into a Hawlucha.

"That's a weird one," Lillie said. "I would have expected you to turn into an Oranguru or something, Professor."

"Uh, yeah, no idea why this one happened," Kukui agreed.

The next morning, when she got back to school, Mallow sat down next to Lana.

"That was such a weird night, last night," she said. "Even though I'd only been a Chikorita for a few hours, I kept reaching for things with the vines I didn't have any more."

"I didn't have that, at least," Lana replied. "Though I did get a bit wobbly at one point… but we were mostly worried about Harper and Sarah, they got lost… fortunately they were saved by a Pokémon, but they couldn't tell us anything about it."

"Really?" Mallow asked. "Nothing?"

"Well, not quite nothing," Lana amended. "Apparently it was 'big', and 'nice', and gave them some berries."

"Berries…" Mallow repeated, frowning. "Something about that is familiar, but I can't quite remember it."

"Now you say it, I know what you mean," Lana realized. "But how can we work out what we're missing?"

"Sure, we can help!" Ash agreed. "So, what kind of berry was it?"

He sent out Salazzle.

"Afternoon, boss," the Poison-type said, with a nod. "Something up?"

"I wanted to see if there was anything special about the berries Lana's sisters got given," Ash explained. "What were they like?"

"Rounded, and red," Lana answered. "With a stalk. And there was a sort of spiky bit at the bottom, the other side from the stalk… apparently they were mostly bitter and a bit sweet?"

"Hmm," Salazzle said, rubbing his chin. "Try this?"

He waved his tail.

"That's Haban Berry," he explained.

Mallow gasped. "That's – I remember that smell! Remember Grandpa Forest, Lana?"

"Oh, yeah!" Lana said. "Wow, it's been years, but you're right – it must be! That must be who my sisters met!"

"Who's Grandpa Forest?" Ash asked. "Is that an older version of the junior Pewter Gym Leader?"

"What?" Mallow asked. "Who would… why would you think that?"

"Because it could happen!" Ash replied. "My friend May once travelled back in time and had to make it snow so she could make it so that things had happened the way that to everyone else they'd always happened, if I remember that right, it was a while ago, but May obviously came from the world before everything had changed so she remembered differently."

"Am I done?" Salazzle checked. "Because if I am I'm going to go and make myself some pancakes."

"I think that should be fine, yeah," Ash agreed.

"Grandpa Forest is a Pokémon," Lana said. "And I don't think it was an older Pokémon version of Forrest from the Pewter Gym, but I don't remember what it looked like so… I can't actually rule it out."

Mallow gasped. "Wait, wait! If you can bring Lokoko, Ash, we can go and say thank you to Grandpa Forest for saving us, and for saving Lana's sisters too!"

"That sounds like it'd be really polite!" Ash agreed.

Nebby flew over from the nearby trees.

"I was having an afternoon nap," she said. "But I heard what Salazzle was saying, and then I heard what Mallow was saying, and I'd like to come along!"

She landed with a crunch on the sand of the beach. "That's okay, right?"

"Well, you are only a couple of weeks old," Ash agreed. "So it's important to get adventures in!"

"...I just imagined what it would be like if I met Pichu and Pichu while you were around, Nebby," Pikachu said. "I'm not sure if I want to panic or not."

Looking for Grandpa Forest wasn't something that Lana and Mallow had never done before. They'd tried looking many times in the past, partly because they were curious and partly to say thank-you, but no matter how hard they tried they'd never come across the whatever-Pokémon-it-was again.

"Maybe what we need to do is to get lost," Lana wondered. "That way Grandpa Forest might turn up and help us out?"

"If you want to do that, you're with the right trainer," Lokoko chuckled. "But, hmm… it might work."

"I've got an idea," Nebby said. "I'm a Ghost-type right now, right?"

She landed, and furled her wings. "That means I should only hit other objects when I want to! So I can fly through and search the whole forest without actually hitting any trees!"

"That could work!" Ash agreed. "It might still be hard to see this Pokémon, though, especially as you're not sure what it looks like… but maybe that's what we can do when we get closer. For now, Lycanroc and Litten can help! So can you, Zygarde, if you want to."

"Ah, I see," Zygarde realized, as both the other Pokémon Ash had named came out of their Pokéballs. "Finding a source of Haban Berries as a useful starting point."

They nodded. "That is a good plan. It makes scents."

"Ow," Mallow said, wincing. "Did you have to do that?"

"Do what?" Zygarde asked innocently. "Woof."

"You know what she means," Litten snorted. "Okay, Haban Berry… I guess that's whatever Salazzle waved around you before… right, let's go looking, Lycanroc."

"Yeah!" Lycanroc agreed. "Hmm, I wonder if I could get Salazzle to touch up my scent a little… there's probably something that compliments it."

Shaking that thought off, they began sniffing for a fresher source of Haban Berries.

"And… just through here," Nebby finished, swooping overhead through the trees and guiding them around a turn.

The trainers followed, then both girls stopped in their tracks.

"That's them!" Lana gasped. "Grandpa Forest!"

"That's a Drampa," Ash recognized. "I think the last time I saw one is when that's what Iris's Zekromreshiramandkyurem came out of their Pokéball as."

"Iris's what?" Steenee asked, as Mallow hurried forwards to say hello. "I've never heard of that Pokémon."

"Yeah, that's because they're actually three Pokémon but when they come out of their Pokéball it's as one Pokémon," Ash clarified.

"Important information has been obtained," Zygarde stated. "Drampa is hugging Lana and Mallow. This therefore means that as a Dux I have a report to deliver."

They sat down.

"What kind of report?" Nebby asked, dropping to the floor and switching to Solgaleo. "Is it something important?"

"I think Zygarde's mostly focusing somewhere else," Ash told him.

"Oh, right, of course," Nebby realized.

Then a Hyperspace Hole appeared, and King Dragonite came through.

"Hello!" he said, waving. "I wish to grant you a royal medal for services to helping small children get home. Is chocolate acceptable?"

"I've heard of chocolate," Drampa replied. "Do you think I'd like it?"

"I'm going to assume probably yes," King Dragonite decided, then patted Drampa on the head and gave him a hug. "It's wonderful to meet you! I am a big fan of hugging dragons in all their shapes!"

AN:

The bit about evolving is one I thought it'd be best to have explained in canon.