"All right, Torracat?" Ash asked, as the Fire-type turned up to lunch the next day.
"Yes, thank you," she replied, then set herself on fire to clean up before her meal.
"I'm starting to notice that's your solution for a lot of things," Lycanroc said, inspecting their plate, then crossing their eyes.
A rock cake slowly floated upwards.
"You're one to talk," Torracat replied.
"Oh, I'm not complaining," Lycanroc shrugged.
They took a bite out of the floating cake, chewed in a contemplative sort of way, then swallowed.
"I'm sorry, Ash, it turns out I don't like these," they said. "The floating thing is neat but it doesn't make up for the texture for me."
"No problem!" Ash told them. "I'll just send it to Snorlax, unless Salazzle wants it."
"I'll give it a go," Salazzle volunteered, and Lycanroc levitated the rest of the cake over to them.
"How did the visit go?" Ash added. "Unless you don't want to talk about it."
"Talking about it is fine," Torracat said. "I…"
She swallowed. "Maybe not? I… he was so proud of me."
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, Torracat," Ash said. "Sometimes there are things where it's important to say them, but you don't have to force it if you don't want to. We know he's a beloved friend of yours."
Torracat nodded, swallowing, and Ash moved a bowl of food over to her.
"Dragonite left this with specific instructions it was for you," he explained. "Now… it's up to you guys, but does anyone want to help with my next lesson? Pikachu's going to be a really big help, but apart from that I can use just about anyone else…"
"Okay, everyone!" Ash began, about an hour later at the school. "So, today we're talking about talking!"
He grinned. "How Pokémon talk, that is. I'm not going to be able to teach you everything about talking, but I can definitely get you started! So, who do you think I'm going to be using for this demonstration?"
"Lokoko?" Lillie asked. "That would make most sense because she can translate Pokémon speech for us."
"Actually, no, I'm specifically not using her," Ash replied. "Anyone else?"
Nobody else quite got where Ash was going with it, and he held out his arm for Pikachu to run along. "It's Pikachu! That's because he knows how to speak two Pokémon languages, because of something that's a sort of quirk – all the bits of Pichu are in Pikachu. That's not the only one, too, because Azumarill has all the bits of Azurill and Marill in, and there's others too… but because Pikachu's who I've got with me, he's who we're learning this with."
"Oh, huh," Kiawe said, in a wondering voice. "How do you even notice that?"
"It's one of those things you spot if you pay attention, I guess," Ash shrugged. "Anyway, Pikachu, what do you call me?"
"Pikapi!" Pikachu said brightly.
"Exactly," Ash confirmed. "So that's what Pikachu calls me. There's three syllables in it, but you might have noticed something about it?"
This time it was Mallow who put her hand up.
"One of the syllables is ka, isn't it?" she asked. "That's the one that's not in Pichu."
"Exactly," Ash confirmed. "What would you call me in Pichu, Pikachu?"
"Pi-pipi!" Pikachu said.
"There, did you catch that?" Ash asked.
There were several head shakes.
"Again?" Ash asked, and Pikachu repeated both of them.
"So Pokémon language is all about tone and inflection and details of how the syllables are said," Ash explained. "The two pi syllables in my name are shared between both versions of it, but the closest fit for the middle syllable is ka, said ka, when Pikachu has the option of all three of them. Otherwise it's another pi syllable, with a little pause in front of it to change the sound."
"Wow," Lana said. "You must have amazing hearing."
"It's not all that hard, actually," Ash replied. "Well, uh… it took me a couple of years, but it took me longer than that to learn my first language so it depends how you think of it! And all Pokémon get it, too, even ones with Soundproof…"
He shrugged. "It does probably help that Mew taught me, because they could take all kinds of shape to help out and because Mew's natural dialect is all the same sound. Me-mwww-eew-me-eeew. But just listening to it you can tell there's a difference."
Snowy began giggling.
"I know, I said the same sentence twice," Ash agreed. "It's kind of funny how different they sounded, right? But if Pikachu says the same thing…"
"Pi, pikka-piii, pika-kaaapi!" Pikachu provided.
"They've got the same kind of pattern to them," Ash said. "Now, I know teaching you a whole language at once would definitely mean you were late home today, but what we're going to work on is your names. To start with, can everyone's Pokémon partner tell them what they're called? Then we'll swap around, and keep going until everyone's heard their own name from all the partners. After that it's time to start trying to recognize whose name is being said!"
"It still amazes me that you learned this before your journey even started," Mallow admitted. "Okay, uh… Steenee? How do you say my name?"
It took a while, but eventually everyone in the class did get to the point where they could recognize their own names when Pokémon said them.
Most of the time.
It was definitely something that was harder than Ash made it look, mostly because Ash made it look effortless, but after noticing that they were struggling a bit he did the starting example again switching between each of their names in Mew (courtesy of Ash), Dartrix (from Dartrix), Torracat (provided of course by Torracat), Solgaleo (via Nebby) and Togedemaru (which, confusingly, was the result of Zoroark's help).
As Dartrix said, it was all to do with Ash's school syllables, which earned him another suspicious look from Torracat.
The next day, there was a visit from Ilima – one of the previous graduates of the Pokémon School.
He said that what he wanted to talk about was Pokémon Ping Pong, a game that used a different style of skills from either Contests or Battles.
"Contests are great, don't get me wrong," Ilima explained. "They're a real demonstration of how creative a Pokémon and trainer team can be, and how they can craft that into a combination that shines forth and demonstrates their skill. And Battles, well, everyone knows how battles demonstrate skill, I think."
His Eevee nodded firmly. "You bet!"
"Er," Ilima blinked. "Pardon?"
"What is it?" Eevee asked. "Is something wrong?"
"You seem to be… speaking?" Ilima asked, waving his hand. "Don't get me wrong, I'm quite impressed, I'm just surprised."
"That's Lokoko," Ash provided helpfully. "She wasn't here yesterday because the lesson was about understanding Pokémon speech, but today she's back because it isn't."
"Oh!" Eevee realized. "So I get to talk to you? So Smeargle gets to talk to you as well? That's great!"
"It is," Ilima agreed. "But, um… right, I was talking about Pokémon Ping Pong."
He waved a hand in a flourish. "You see, with Pokémon Ping Pong, Pokémon and trainer work together, but it's all about precision and accuracy. Power barely matters, but accuracy, that's very important because what you want is to land the ball in just the right place."
"I took part in a Pokémon Ping Pong tournament once," Ash remembered.
"That doesn't really count as taking part, Ash," Pikachu pointed out.
"Why doesn't it count as taking part?" Lana said. "Did you get knocked out in the first round?"
"No, I just didn't really do anything," Ash explained. "I was on a team with Latias, but she's really good at Pokémon Ping Pong because of motion controls so I just gave her my spare bat and stood back. She won the competition by herself, really."
Eevee's ears were twitching in interest. "That sounds great!" the Normal-type said. "A rival!"
"I agree with Eevee," Ilima said. "I'd be interested to meet this Latias. What kind of Pokémon is she?"
"A Latias," Ash answered. "Oh, uh, maybe you're not familiar with that Pokémon… she's a childhood friend, actually, I met her before I set off on my Pokémon Journey. Hey, Ibid, can you see if Latias is awake?"
Ibid teleported away.
"Awake?" Ilima asked, looking at the window in case something had changed. "It's the middle of the day."
"Yeah, but it's morning where she lives," Ash replied. "I'm not sure how early morning, but depending on what time zone she was synchronized with she could either be up already or have only just got to bed…"
"I guess that makes sense," Ilima decided. "I know there's a huge time difference between here and Kalos."
Latias didn't appear in the middle of the classroom, but that was mostly because she was invisible. Her ping-pong bats did, though, and she waved one of them. "Hi!"
"Not many Pokémon can go invisible," Ilima said, then blinked as Latias decloaked. "Oh, right, now I remember. In hindsight, it was obvious… she's a Legendary Pokémon."
He rubbed his temples. "I actually forgot that that's the most likely explanation for any Pokémon you have. You'd think I'd remember, given how involved you were in the creation of the Giant Dog of Lumiose."
"I am always glad to hear of news of my theoretical cousin," Zygarde said, from where they were drowsing in the sunlight near the window. "Of course, the Lumiose Node passes it on anyway. Ouaf ouaf."
"So, what's this I hear about a ping pong tournament?" Latias asked. "I'll go up to bat for the honour of motion controls!"
"Oh, well, I'm sure Smeargle and I will have to show you the benefits of practical experience," Ilima replied. "In fact, why don't we demonstrate now? Then everyone else can take part, too – and then there's a tournament in a couple of days, so I can face my rival Ikari there!"
The series of games played at the school had a series of mixed but overall positive results.
Ash and Pikachu had a go, which worked out well for them overall because of their good teamwork, though Lana turned out to have a sharp tactical mind and eventually managed to score a point against them after a long-running rally. Then Mallow and Steenee pulled off a tricky Magical Leaf bounce against Lillie and Snowy, and Latias went up against Ilima and Smeargle in a blurring exchange of back-and-forth rallies and ball strikes that went on for several minutes and ended when Latias overdid it and the ball exploded.
Lokoko went next, going up against Sophocles, which resulted in a quick loss for her and a clarification that it wasn't actually sporting – or within the rules – to camouflage where the ball was.
"That's fair, I admit," Lokoko said, stepping back. "Perhaps I'll try with my tails next time… though that might curse the ball. I wonder what happens to a cursed ball?"
"They go in a match between Latias and Ilima!" Ilima's Eevee suggested, giggling.
"I think that's a good answer," Lokoko smiled.
Kiawe took part in the last of the sequence, with his Marowak alongside him, and lost almost immediately as a blazing serve went past both of them too fast for trainer or Pokémon to react.
"At last!" declared his cloaked opponent, somehow managing to do that while sniggering at the same time. "Finally, Victini! We've won something!"
"Are you in this class?" Kukui said. "I don't think I remember you from before."
"Of course you don't, Victini made an avalanche come down on top of us before the sled jump!" Kiawe's opponent declared.
"Hi, Darkrai!" Ash said. "How's Tobias doing?"
"We've been found out! Drat!" Dastardly Darkrai cursed, and stomped off.
That Sunday, at the Ping Pong tournament and at Latias' insistence, Ash entered with her as his Pokémon.
Latias promptly declared that this would let her find out which of her and Ilima was better at Pokémon Ping Pong without being interrupted by an exploding ball.
As it turned out, though, that didn't happen.
Nobody got to see Latias versus Ilima. Or Latias versus Ilima's rival Ikari, or for that matter Ikari versus Ilima.
There was a wide audience to watch as James (wearing a sundress, because it was a hot day) and Ambipom – mostly Ambipom – defeated all three in succession to win the whole tournament, though.
She seemed to have something of a natural talent for it.
AN:
Ping Pong merrily on high.