I'm going to space the updates out more after this. If you're going to review this chapter (which I would greatly appreciate), please tell me how often you'd like to see this updated. But be reasonable - you're not going to get daily updates, especially as the chapters get longer.

I had so much fun writing this chapter, as well as finding the right places to insert political jokes. By not taking this story too seriously, I'm enjoying it a lot. Writing doesn't feel like a chore this way. Enjoy this chapter!

Current music: Just A Dream - Carrie Underwood

A week went by. One long week of nothing but sitting alone in his apartment, staring at the screen of his laptop. Contrary to Ash's usual desire to spend as much time as possible outdoors, this was quite a departure.

But this was his life now, whether he liked it or not. He had to place the interests of his campaign, and by extension the people and Pokémon of Unova, ahead of his short-term pleasure.

There will be far greater sacrifices if I'm elected. This is next to nothing by comparison, so I just have to deal with it.

"Honey, are you okay?" came Serena's voice from just outside the office. "You've been there for hours."

"Yeah, I am," Ash responded, though there were tears in his eyes. He hoped his girlfriend couldn't hear that he was on the verge of crying.

Nonetheless, the door swung open, and Serena walked in. "It didn't sound like you were okay. I wanted to check in on you, Ash - how is the campaign treating you?"

The man sighed, reclining back in his chair. "I don't know, to be honest. I've never done anything like this before. I had no idea that raising money was such an important part of it."

"Well, your campaign is going to have expenses no matter what," Serena pointed out. "Nothing in life is free, as they say."

"Well, of course it isn't free. But apparently lots of candidates spend hours a day on the phone asking for donations. And it just feels wrong."

"You could sell something in return," his girlfriend suggested. "Like T-shirts, or golf balls-".

"Or NFTs?" Ash responded with a snort.

Serena chuckled as well. "I don't know if that's an amazing prize. Of course, if that's what you have, then I'm sure people will take it. But I'm sure you can find a different solution. What are you doing right now?"

"Uh…" the man trailed off. "I'm working on writing a speech."

"A campaign speech?"

"Pika! Pika! ("Ash is going to give a speech?")"

Ash smiled. "Pikachu understands me well, doesn't he?"

"I guess he does; more importantly, you understand him. Anyway, what's your speech going to be about? Where will you deliver it? There are a lot of things to think about."

"Uh…I think it'll be about Pokémon's rights…in the workplace. Yeah, that's it."

Serena smiled. "I know you're quite passionate about that. By all means, Ash - show the courage of your convictions. That's the best way to make people think you're genuine, and that will make them want to vote for you."

"There's just one problem" her boyfriend said, deflating his chest.

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know how to write a speech."

"That's what your campaign manager is for" Serena replied with a wink. "We can always call Brock to ask him for advice. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to help."

"Yeah," Ash said. "He probably would be."

"So take the initiative, Ash. Send him a text. And you guys can meet via video call."

"I'll do that."

Serena raised an eyebrow. "That's another thing, honey. Make sure you don't sound too much like a video game character."

"Huh?"

"Don't sound too automatic. You need to think on your feet when you're running a campaign, and part of that is not having people call you an NPC. They won't take you seriously if you just spout the same talking points - why else would so many people give up on politics?"

"Fair enough."

Serena snorted. "That's exactly what I'm talking about."

"Whatever" Ash replied. "I'll text Brock and ask for help writing my speech."

"Okay, that's a good idea. I'll head into the kitchen and start making dinner. Have a nice talk with Brock."

So Ash pulled out his phone and sent his friend (and now campaign manager) a quick text. It was less than a minute before he received a response.

You're more than welcome, Ash, it read. Put your camera on, and I'll call you momentarily.

After another minute, Ash was looking at the face of his friend Brock. The other man's eyes were open wider than someone's mouth should be at the dentist's office.

"So what do you need help with, Ash?" Brock enquired. "Writing the speech?"

Ash nodded. "I guess I told you that. But really, I don't know where to begin. Who knew that speechwriting would be so complicated?"

"Well, what you need to do first is decide what it is you'll write about" Brock told his friend. "Be careful not to deviate from the script too much, though; you want people to think you mean what you say, and sticking to a teleprompter isn't going to help in that respect."

"It'll just be a general speech" Ash mumbled. "Just launching my campaign, I guess."

"Well, that's all well and good" Brock replied. "But you want to lay out a few policy proposals too. People want something to vote for, not just an assurance that you're different from a career politician. Quite frankly, that's what they all say - you want to break the mold by showing that you mean it."

"Okay, that makes sense," the black-haired man admitted. "But how do I go about actually writing something? It's been quite a while since I went to school." (Indeed it had been; the money he'd made off of winning the world's various leagues had set him up for life.)

Brock frowned. "You need to outline the speech first. And then you'll have to decide what you'll say in each section. When do you think you'll give that speech?"

"Tomorrow, I guess," the candidate said sheepishly. "I don't want to be the guy who starts running, but then doesn't hold any events."

"Well, that's an awfully short time to spend putting together your remarks" Brock replied, scratching his spiky brown hair. "But as a wise man once said: We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Ash didn't see any reason to disagree with that, so he didn't say anything. Instead, he opened a new document in his browser and began to type.

"So what are your main pillars, Ash?"

"Pillars?"

"Why, yes. Pillars. What do you want to do if the voters of Unova put their trust in you?"

"Well, I want to improve working conditions for Pokémon," Ash told his friend. "In fact, the night President Fiddlesticks announced he'd retire, Serena and I had been watching one of those TV shows where the poor creatures are exploited."

Brock raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that they earn money from your viewership, right?"

"I guess" Ash admitted. "Anyway, I want to right my wrong. So I'll tell everyone in the audience that I want to pass minimum labor protections for Pokémon in the film industry, as well as laws governing how they can be treated outside of that industry. How does that sound?"

"What about universal health care for Pokémon? That would improve living conditions for them, and Unova's the only region that doesn't have that. Even war-torn Hoenn accomplished it."

"True."

"Anyway," Brock said, "this is a good start. While you want to deviate slightly from your prepared marks to show that you're one of us, as they say, you also need to sound light on your proverbial feet. Not everything needs to be scripted, but you must speak as though it is scripted."

"Right."

"In any case, this all sounds workable. Just put together your script, and you can email it to me. I'll run through it with you, just to ensure you're comfortable speaking every word to the crowd. Because you have to sound comfortable in your own skin."

"Oh, Arceus, there are so many things to remember!" Ash all but cried.

"You've got this, Ash. You'll be the best damned President we ever sent to that office. You've already saved the world once, who's to say you can't save this region from political chaos?"

Ash worked on his speech late into the night. Long after Serena had retired to their shared bedroom for the night, her boyfriend remained in front of his laptop computer, furiously typing, revising, and typing some more.

He was quite certain he'd be tired tomorrow. He'd probably spend half his monologue trying not to yawn, but it would be well worth it. His eventual opponents for the Blue Team's nomination would no longer be able to pounce on him by pointing out that he was hiding in his basement (not that he had one.)

Speaking of opponents, none of them had declared yet. Perhaps they were intimidated at the prospect of facing the famous Ash Ketchum. But they would be coming, and Ash had to be ready for that day when it arrived.

Eventually, it was nearly two o'clock in the morning, and Ash still hadn't slept. It was growing increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open; his eyelids were leaden weights, and holding them up was equivalent to an intense bench-press.

I'm not ready yet. But I have to be, because there's no way on Arceus' green Nexus that I can stay awake much longer. I guess I'll get up early tomorrow, try to finish the speech then, and hope for the best.

And so Ash climbed into bed next to Serena, sinking into a fitful slumber right away. He was vaguely aware of his numerous tosses and turns, but he couldn't fully process the fact that he'd neglected to set an alarm.

When Ash woke fully, he noticed that sunlight was already streaming through the window. Right away, he knew he'd forgotten something important.

I'm running late! There's no damn time to finish writing the script! I guess I have to play the cards I'm dealt and hope I get lucky!

As the young man returned to his laptop and ran the commands that would print the document, he heard his girlfriend shuffle into the office.

"Oh, there you are," Serena said in a completely neutral tone.

"Why didn't you wake me?" her boyfriend snapped, narrowing his eyes. "I could have used the extra time!"

"You've got this, Ash," Serena replied, ignoring her boyfriend's main concern. "I sent out the RSVP for the rally, there are probably about fifty people coming. A very manageable crowd."

"Only fifty?"

Ash's girlfriend frowned. "You're not going to complain about that, are you?"

"Well, no. But that sounds like an awfully small number for a campaign launch."

"It'll be held in front of a playground outside a Pokémon center," Serena replied. "If you want to get a bigger venue, maybe you should be more aggressive with fundraising."

What Ash didn't mention was that, as a very wealthy man already, it didn't sit right with him to be asking so many randos for donations. Of course, like many other aspects of campaigning, this was just something he'd need to grow accustomed to.

It was then that Ash noticed the mug of coffee in his girlfriend's right hand. "I could use some of that," the young man responded with a yawn.

"Well, too bad," Serena snapped. "There's no time to make more coffee. Think of it as your reward for giving your first campaign speech."

Ash grumbled a bit, but he wasn't going to protest any further. Instead, he lifted a certain red-and-silver sphere off of the table and held it out.

"Pikachu? You're going in here!"

"Pika? Pika? (Where are we going, master?)"

"We're going to a Pokémon center somewhere in the city," Ash replied with a smile.

"Pika? Pika? (Why do I need a Pokémon center? I'm not sick or hurt!)"

Ash chuckled, feeling some energy return to his body. "It's nothing like that, Pikachu," he told the pikachu. "I'm holding my first event there. I'm not going to talk without you by my side, no siree."

"Pika! Pika! (Let's do this!)"

With that, Ash pressed the button on the sphere. With a flash of bright red light, the pikachu was recalled into the device. The candidate wasn't worried about Pikachu's well-being; he knew full well that while a Pokémon might move heaven and Nexus to avoid being captured in a Pokéball, they would acquiesce immediately once they realized it wasn't so bad inside one of them.

The couple made their way out of their apartment and down the stairs. They could have taken the elevator, but that would have merely made them the captive audience for someone who would rant and rave about how much of an honor it was to be in an elevator with the famous Ash Ketchum.

"So Brock's meeting us there?" Ash confirmed with Serena.

"Yep, I've contacted him already," his girlfriend replied. "He'll be there, because he wants to see you shine with the script he helped you write."

Ash snorted. "Of course. He wants to flex his skills. Why can't he be the one running?"

Serena didn't comment on that note, though she turned her nose up in what must have been disapproval. Ash, meanwhile, looked off into the distance so that nobody thought he stood out from the rest of Crown City's inhabitants. That was the best way to blend in, wasn't it - to act like everyone else.

Ah, who am I kidding? Once I'm at that park, and I've taken the stage, there will be nothing else for the news to cut to. I'll be the talk of the region, and probably the world.

"Is there going to be any security at the event?" Ash asked. "Like, Secret Service or something?"

Serena nodded. "There will be police officers there. Even if some want to defund them, they still provide a vital service at these events."

Ash rolled his eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, their taxi pulled into one of the parking spaces at the Pokémon center. If it hadn't been adjacent to an urban park, it would have looked just like any other such facility; except, that is, for the dozens of cars parked in the lot and nearby areas.

"Serena?" Ash enquired, feeling some of the blood drain from his face.

"What is it?"

"There are more than fifty cars in the lot," he said simply, trying to catch his breath.

"And?"

"You told me that there would only be fifty people there," Ash replied, trying not to let his voice break.

"Well, what's another fifty? You've given talks to much bigger crowds before, Ash; what makes this one different?"

Truth be told, he couldn't think of a good answer to that. The closest thing, perhaps, was the following: They already adored me then. They weren't going to judge me as a presidential candidate, just as someone who'd been brave enough to save the world.

He didn't voice this aloud, however. There was no need to sound arrogant, like he was only running for the adoration of the populace. If you wanted no bad press at all, the best thing to do was to stay the hell out of politics.

As he walked along the avenue, towards the stage at which he was scheduled to speak, Ash felt like he was on his way to the gallows. Hold your head high, he told himself, and don't look like you're condemned to a terrible fate. Because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A crowd had gathered in front of the stage. Right away, Ash knew that his girlfriend had undersold it, and that she'd done so on purpose. He couldn't have counted the attendees if he'd wanted to, but the park looked more like a mosh pit than anything else.

People in all shapes, sizes, and colors, along with Pokémon of pretty much all types, stood on the green, jockeying for position. Everyone wanted to be the closest one to the podium.

"Okay, Serena," Ash whispered, so quietly he doubted his girlfriend could hear him. "You lied to me."

Serena either pretended not to notice or was genuinely unaware. Either way, Ash, clutching Pikachu's Pokéball in one hand and his prepared remarks in the other, strode up to the podium. That was the best way to start an event, after all: One needed to project confidence, to show that one believed in what they were selling.

The audience all stared up at the podium expectantly. A few were pumping their fists in the air, but most of them just gaped at Ash as though the candidate were a Pokémon in a zoo (something else Ash hoped would be outlawed soon.)

"Good morning, everyone," the candidate announced as he took his position behind the podium. "I hope…ah, I hope you all slept well last night with all the excitement and whatnot. It must not have been easy."

Already, this isn't going well. I've got to sound natural, like I've been doing this my whole life. And I've given speeches for years, but this one is different.

"Anyway, let's get back into business, shall we?" Ash continued, clearing his throat. "My name is Ash Ketchum, and I am twenty-five years old. Following the recent constitutional amendment that lowered the minimum age for the presidency, I am proud to announce the start of my campaign to be the next President of Unova."

A copious amount of clapping ensued from the audience. It was then that Ash noticed a few of the attendees wearing hats with slogans like Make Unova Great Again. The candidate couldn't help but chuckle nervously.

"This isn't something I thought I would do," Ash admitted. "I mean, let's be honest; I'm still a young man, and peaking in my mid-twenties is far from ideal. However, after talking it over with Serena, I felt compelled to run.

"Unova isn't exactly a disaster, but it's not going in the right direction either. Of course, President Fiddlesticks and the Blue Team have steered the ship of state as well as they could under the circumstances, but the Red Team has obstructed the President's proposals every step of the way. It's time to make that end - I am running for the Blue Team's nomination."

More clapping made itself known, but this chorus of applause was louder somehow. This could have been for any number of reasons, but Ash chose not to pay attention to that.

"So why am I running? Why do I do what I do? Well, I've saved the world before, so I know I can save this region from ourselves. And I don't want anyone to think that I'm leaning on my celebrity in order to win the election - ".

"You're not, don't worry!" came a shout from one of Ash's supporters. Judging by the tone of voice, this supporter was an older woman, but the candidate couldn't have pointed her out in that crowd if he'd tried.

"Thank you" Ash told nobody in particular. "But the fact remains that we've got a serious problem in this region. Pokémon aren't treated the way they should be - they are our best friends, and they see us that way as well, but we don't extend them the same courtesy. And why is that?"

Ash then hoisted the Pokéball in the air and hovered his thumb over the button.

"Within this device is my best friend. Even before I fell in love with the woman behind me, Serena Courtland, I had Pikachu to thank. He's been with me through thick and thin, and I truly believe that Butterfree are just dead relatives saying hi."

Many of his supporters laughed, though a few appeared concerned. This was a joke Ash and Brock had inserted into the speech, which had been done in the interest of perceived authenticity. Nobody wanted a robot as President.

"In any case", Ash continued, "forgive that joke. I'll thank Brock for that. Hey, it's not as bad as saying a medieval army took over the airports!"

More chortles erupted from the crowd. Ash smiled as well. But then, back to business.

"I'll allow you to all meet Pikachu. I will press this button, and he will appear by my side in a flash of cyan light. It's just like magic, but you know what they say about any sufficiently advanced technology."

This is exactly what happened. The pikachu turned towards his trainer and jumped for what looked like joy.

"Everybody, I'd like you to meet my best friend. Like I said, Serena is a close second, but Pikachu gets the blue ribbon."

"We love you, Pikachu!" came several shouts from the audience, though this was nowhere close to being in unison.

"I love him as well," Ash responded. "More importantly, I'm running for a lot of reasons, but the most important one is the condition of Pokémon on film.

"What do I mean by that? Well, as many of you will remember, on the night President Fiddlesticks announced that he would not seek a second term, this announcement preempted other programming. One such program was this TV show, I forget its name, in which Pokémon were made to bite into household objects to see if they were edible.

"Now, there are all sorts of game shows like that. But our society has treated Pokémon as lesser than humans. That doesn't mean they are lesser - just look at Pikachu! But I want to improve their working conditions and end their exploitation. In other words, I want to stop this madness!"

A cascade of cheers erupted from the crowd, much like one of the active volcanoes in the Alolan islands. Fortunately, this eruption wouldn't unleash a wave of ash into the atmosphere.

"On my first day in office, I will implore the Unovan Congress to pass a bill mandating that all Pokémon on film are made to work for no more than eight hours a day, and that if they work overtime, it is always by choice, and they are always compensated for their labor. This is our moral imperative. After all, they've served us so well over the last several centuries, and it's time we returned the favor."

Ash smiled. Although he'd spent much of the night planning for this moment, it appeared now that he'd been overthinking it all along. Maybe, just maybe, this campaign hadn't been as insane an idea as he'd feared it might be.

However, in one crucial manner, running a political campaign was not unlike being in a romantic relationship. At first, adrenaline and exhilaration coursed through your veins at the knowledge that this was really happening. One could consider this the "honeymoon period."

Ash concluded his speech to much applause and congratulations, and when he stepped back from the podium to embrace Serena in his arms, he overall felt pretty good. This was something he could do without much trouble, and Ash felt his mind flood with confidence that nothing catastrophic would happen.

Much like the honeymoon period, this didn't last forever.