I would like to thank everyone who offered me their condolences, as well as their feedback. It means the world to me, so here's Chapter 2 for you all. Let me know what you think of it.
Also, the political system is mostly going to be modeled after the US system, since that's the one I'm the most familiar with. If you have a problem with that, click out of this story. "Don't like, don't read", as they say. Enjoy.
The following morning found Ash standing in front of his mirror, an event that didn't happen very often. In fact, it was very rare that the man cared about his appearance at all.
This even extended to parts of his appearance that were arguably unacceptable. If Ash's shoes were untied, for instance, he would often need someone else to point that out before he rectified the issue. He just wasn't very attentive.
But today was different - a special occasion, as some would say. Ash Ketchum was determined to look the part of a candidate, because that's exactly what he would be starting today.
"Ash, honey, you'd better be almost ready," a familiar female voice rang out from the next room. "Time waits for no man, or 'mon."
"I'm coming, sweetie," Ash responded. "I just have to take some extra time with combing my hair."
Combing Ash's hair, of course, was easier said than done. There were days when his spiky black mane just couldn't be tamed. It would stick straight up, as though he'd just climbed out of bed after a wrestling match with his pillow.
There was a knock on the bathroom door. Ash pretended not to hear it, instead focusing more intensely on the task at hand.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"I'm working on it, Serena-".
The door swung open, but Serena was not on the other side of it. Rather, it was a yellow mouse-like creature who leaped into the air and knocked his trainer to the floor.
"Whoa, dude," Ash mouthed, the wind having been knocked out of him. "I'll be ready when I'm ready, okay? It's not fun getting tackled to the ground when I just need more time than others."
"Pika! Pika! (I want to help comb your hair!)"
Ash snorted. "I'm afraid you can't help with that."
"Pika! Pika! (Why not?)"
"Because you're not tall enough. It just won't work; I don't want you straining yourself on something you'll never be able to do."
The pikachu deflated a bit at those words, and Ash knew he'd probably said something he shouldn't have.
Maybe it's a bit hypocritical to chide politicians for treating Pokémon poorly if I've gotten into such disputes with Pikachu. Oh, well - whataboutism never helps anyone. I can still criticize them for legitimate reasons.
Five minutes later, Ash had finally combed his hair into something more presentable, but Serena was nowhere to be found when the young man left the bathroom. He glanced around the kitchen, but his girlfriend wasn't there either.
Ash scratched his chin. Where could she be…?
"Ash, honey, I'm already by the door! I thought you'd be quicker; this is your filing day we're talking about!"
"I know, Serena. I promise, I'll be faster next time. Don't leave me over something like that."
His girlfriend frowned. "When did I ever suggest that I'd do such a thing?"
Don't be so impulsive, he told himself. Don't accuse other people of things they aren't doing. Serena isn't going to leave you because you took a little too long at the sink.
"I've already had a phone call with Brock, by the way," Serena said as the pair descended the steps from their seventh-floor apartment.
Ash widened his eyes further. "What did he say?"
"He's offered to serve as your campaign chair," the woman responded, smiling to reveal two rows of perfectly white teeth. "Needless to say, he was quite thrilled at the prospect. He wants to help you win the election, and then if you're elected-".
"No, Serena. I'm pretty sure that won't work. We have anti-nepotism laws for a reason."
Serena sighed. "I'm not sure if being someone's friend would count as a violation of these laws. More importantly, we're just talking about him chairing your campaign. If you're elected, then it'll be different."
If you're elected.
The word if there was a pretty important qualifier, but the words it qualified made Ash's heart pump faster. It wasn't that he couldn't stomach the thought of being President (if he didn't want the office, he wouldn't file at all), but rather that the idea seemed so patently absurd.
Once on the curb right outside the apartment complex, Serena pulled out her phone. "Are you calling Brock again?" Ash asked her.
She shook her head. "Pick us up at Wexford Street," Serena said. "We'll agree on the fare while we drive over to the Capitol. No, we're not taking any Pokémon with us. Okay - that's all you need to know."
"Who was that?" Ash enquired again once his girlfriend had hung up.
His girlfriend frowned, her eyes turning into slits. "I was calling a cab, Ash. It wasn't Brock, nor was it anyone we knew."
We might not know him, Ash thought bitterly, but he knows us. Everyone knows us - you just can't escape that fact.
The subway would have been a quicker way to the Capitol building. It also would have been cheaper, not that they needed to worry about money. At a minimum, having the option of taking public transit would have been liberating, would have made the pair feel more free as residents of a region that was supposed to be all about freedom.
But that wasn't the way it worked. Had Ash and Serena elected to travel via the bus or subway, the numerous stares from the other riders would have been unbearable. Some Pokémon could create illusions, of course, but Pikachu wasn't one of them.
Once the taxi arrived, the couple climbed inside the vehicle. As Serena confirmed the destination with the driver, a buff, dark-skinned man in sunglasses, Ash gulped.
He probably knows who we are. And he knows why I'm going to the Capitol, unless he thinks I'm going to take part in an insurrection or something. Like, really - what if he actually believes that?
In the back of his mind, Ash knew he was overthinking it. The driver already knew their identities, that much should have been obvious! He'd seen Serena's phone number, which was probably public information. Anyone who wanted to stalk the couple could.
Maybe she won't want to stay with me anymore. My fears of Serena leaving me could be valid, because who wants to date someone with such a public life?
"Why is there a fence around the Capitol, sir?" Serena enquired as the cab pulled into a spot in front of said fence.
The driver shrugged. "Just an extra security measure, I guess. Maybe they think there'll be a revolt or something against President Fiddlesticks. They think he's so incompetent - fortunately for Fiddlesticks, so would be the hypothetical mob."
"Well, we're not planning on joining an insurrection," Ash muttered, climbing out of the cab. He left his girlfriend to deal with the fee - perhaps not the most chivalrous decision, but one's mileage might vary.
Once Serena had caught up with Ash, the pair began striding up towards the building. During this time, Ash felt all too aware of the abundance of cameras and microphones all over the place. Reporters were constantly jostling one another around, jockeying for position. Everybody wanted to hear the news straight from the Rapidash's mouth.
"Ash Ketchum!" one of the reporters, a woman from OUNN (One Unova News Network) exclaimed as the man walked by.
Oh, great. I'm being marked.
"I'm not Ash Whatever!" the black-haired man shouted on an impulse.
If he'd been thinking straight, Ash most likely would have come up with a white lie, one that would have sounded rather innocuous to the casual listener. Granted, an OUNN reporter wasn't exactly a "casual listener."
The woman's glasses nearly fell right off her face as she recoiled in shock. "You're not Ash Ketchum?"
"Nope! You've got the wrong guy!" Ash exclaimed. He knew he'd made a mistake, but he was committed to it now. He'd thrown his chips into the pot, and there was no removing them from contention now.
"We'd better hurry, honey!" Serena exclaimed, grabbing Ash's wrist and yanking him away from the OUNN reporter.
Once the couple were out of earshot of that woman, Serena leaped in front of her boyfriend, a wild look in her eyes. One of utmost shock, to put it mildly.
"Ash! You can't lie about things like that to the media!"
Ash gulped. He knew, of course, that Serena spoke the truth, but this was one of those cases where it hurt to admit that you were wrong. He'd just made an embarrassing scene, one that would likely be used against him in a campaign, for no good reason.
"I don't know why I did it, Serena. Maybe I just don't want to be caught off guard."
"Well, if you're going to be a candidate for President of Unova, you'll need to find a way to deal with that," his girlfriend responded sharply. "Like it or not, Ash, they'll push a narrative. They'll say you're only running because you're a celebrity, or that you only have a chance because you're already famous."
Well, like it or not, that's kind of true these days.
"The point is, Ash," Serena continued, "that if you're not comfortable with the press, you might as well not run at all!"
You kind of pushed me to run, Serena.
Ash didn't dare say those words aloud. If that display with the OUNN lady hadn't been embarrassing enough, exclaiming that he didn't really want to run would be bad press. Even in a 24-hour news cycle, that still meant something.
Before long, Ash and his girlfriend had climbed the stairs and crossed the threshold into the Unova Capitol. The design was quite stunning, even if you weren't an architectural nerd by any means - everything seemed to fit together in a way few buildings did, and the paint was fresh, unlike some buildings in the rougher part of Crown City.
"Where is Brock?" Ash asked Serena.
Serena frowned. "Are you only now noticing that he isn't here?"
"No." Although I'm appreciating it now more than I was before.
"Quite frankly, Ash, you won't always have those you care about by your side. Sometimes you'll have to leave secretly in the middle of the night, and you won't even be able to spend Christmas with us."
"Whatever," he responded, turning his attention away from his girlfriend and towards the table in front of him.
Judy Lynch, an older woman who served on the Crown City Council (CCC for short) looked at the couple from behind her spectacles. Her curly gray hair stood on end at the sight of their feud.
"Are you two done arguing?" she asked curtly. "We're expecting a few candidates to file today, and that's an important process. We can't have candidates breaking campaign finance laws, can we?"
"Yes, we are," Ash mumbled, though he felt certain that his face was the color of a Cheri berry. The visible embarrassment on his face, combined with the knowledge that everyone knew how he was feeling, would only make his face redder. It was a vicious cycle.
"Very well," Judy told them. Then, adjusting her glasses and squinting at the couple: "Wait a minute, are you…?"
"Who do you think I am?" Ash responded, shaking his head. This probably adjusted his hair back into its traditional "spiky" shape, but he couldn't bring himself to care about this.
"The famous Ash Ketchum, of course," Judy replied. "I've heard so much about you; then again, the whole world has."
"That's hardly a secret, Mrs. Lynch" the trainer and would-be candidate told the city councilor, injecting a hint of bitterness into his voice.
"Well, why are you here?"
"I'm running for President," Ash said breathlessly, forcing those words out before he could second-guess himself.
Judy gasped, dropping the pen in her hand onto the table. Picking it back up, she placed it behind her ear. "You're running?"
"Well, yes. Serena and I have thought it over for some time, and…".
"How much time, Ash? This isn't a snap decision you can just make one day - running for President is a major time commitment. Your life will never be the same again."
"Uh…" Ash trailed off, not knowing how to answer. Eventually, deciding he'd had enough lies for one day, he continued with, "A day. We thought about it for a day. Ever since President Fiddlesticks announced that he wouldn't stand for reelection."
The city councilor pursed her lips. "I just want to make sure you've thought this through. You shouldn't run just because someone else wants you to, after all. You have to want it."
"Trust me, I want this," Ash responded. "More than I've ever wanted anything in my life."
But do I? At a minimum, I'm sure I didn't exactly sound genuine there.
By this time, Ash was acutely aware of the looks on the faces of the other people in the chamber. Most of them were members of the legislature or their aides, but they still paid attention to him.
Of course they are. Just by putting my name into consideration, I'm ensuring that there's at least a possibility they'll have to work with me.
This is real. I'm really doing this. I might actually become President of Unova.
"Very well," Judy replied.
From behind her desk, Judy Lynch produced a stack of papers. She then handed Ash the pen she'd placed behind her ear and winked at him.
"You know what to do," she said.
Indeed, he did. Without reading any of the waivers, which probably said the same things they always said about not holding anyone liable if something went wrong, yadda yadda yadda, he signed them all. Where necessary, he wrote down values like his date of birth, height, and gender.
This whole time, the young man's grasp on the pen grew weaker. Just like Judy, he feared he might drop it if he wasn't careful. Of course, once he was officially in the race, so many things could go wrong that were several orders of magnitude worse.
When he reached the last sheet of paper, Ash signed his name one last time and put the pen down. He then stared at Judy, right between her eyes.
"Is there anything else he needs to do?" Serena asked Judy. It was only now that Ash noticed his girlfriend hadn't spoken for some time.
The older woman winked at them. "Campaign like hell. We're rooting for you, Ash. Who would've thought that the boy who needed to be reminded to change his underwear every day would one day run for President of Unova?"
Ash blushed again.
As usual, you know where to contact me if you wish to. SnowLabrador#7822 on Discord. I'll see you all next time.