Helpless

by Epoxy-Resin

The disabled population is the world's largest minority of which anyone can become a part of at any time. "Peekaboo," said misfortune and jumped the already weakened boy. Ash wouldn't be Ash if he didn't try to get up again, though he's going to have to face he won't be able to do it on his own.

40. Trouble

Enjoy~

---

Turns out, he is able to sleep in, though his stomach is very upset at being denied any sort of sustenance other than that shitty sandwich from yesterday morning. Yes, he's slept the whole day through this morning, it's about six in the morning but he's hungry and even moodier than yesterday. This whole while of sleep did nothing for his feelings and now he's still got to give Dialga and Palkia their thingies but heck, it can wait, Ash has never gotten ready so quickly as he packs everything up and goes as far as to check out of the pokémon centre since everything he's feeling right now is pointing at a calamity and he's not sure if he's going to get out of this unharmed. There is not a single hair on his head willing to be a part of something that needs his uncle's assistance, the man has suffered enough already and something petty like children who can't accept 'no' won't be something Ash is willing to bother him about. At least the lady in the cafeteria is wide awake and still her bubbly self, she gives him some kind of pastry, she calls it a croissant and while it sounds familiar, it tastes like nothing Ash has ever eaten before so he eats about seven of them and asks the lady if she can pack some on the go.

She stuffs a dozen of those things in this huge bag, Ash pulls a bit of a face of surprise at that but gratefully accepts the bag, before realising he has nowhere to put it. The incubator takes up a lot of space in his backpack and hanging it on his backpack will only attract strays. Meep, however, pulls on his sleeve and gestures her dainty little claws at him. The teen blinks before he hands her the bag to hold but the dragon looks so pleased that he can't be bothered to take it back, it saves him a bit of trouble. The lady sees Pikachu for the first time too and thus, hands him another ketchup packet, which the pokémon opens with no difficulty at all and starts licking at it. That reminds Ash about the two packets he put back in his pocket earlier, that'll just have to be a treat for later then. He wonders if the Gym will even be open, thanks to the stunt Tierno pulled yesterday, and yes, he's absolutely sure it was the teen who did it because he saw the nurse stop him from entering the pokémon centre all upset and in the end, he and everyone travelling with him just went away. Ash wonders where they went, he sure wasn't awake to witness anything more but at least the nurse Joy smiles at him when he passes by. He has a bit of trouble returning it, his mood isn't exactly stellar and honestly, this is all business heaping up and Ash can't wait to leave Kalos since it's clear that this region doesn't like him very much.

It sucks that he doesn't know when the Lumiose Conference will be held, Ash feels like he's rushing but in the end, nearly every league event is either early, around September or like late into November. And it's September now so he's not happy about the delay he got but if he defeats Valerie, he only needs two more badges to be able to compete. But he did his research, Olympia could give him a lot of trouble, she's a lot like him but different altogether, it will be hard to hear her say something about his future when he already knows he's going to suffer, no matter what happens, no matter how badly he'll try to protect his most important friends… And he has a feeling he'll still lose something here, it's an ominous feeling of doom that's just hovering above his head. Being reminded of this doesn't make him any happier and when he comes across the Gym, the doors are closed, causing him to sigh deeply.

'You are still early, I suppose you can wait. I have something to talk to you about anyway,' Mewtwo says and the teen sinks down on the ground, resting against the wall of the Gym building.

'Oh?'

'I hope you will not mind, friend, but as the Aura master is looking for you, I wish to pass by the advice to not answer any of his questions. Especially not about the abilities that the forty presented to you.'

Ash frowns but figures that he might as well heed the advice. He didn't make that much of a difference in this future and the things the forty told him were exclusive to his talents, also, all he wants to hear from Gurkinn is 'thanks' but his expectations of a Kalos native apologising to him aren't high.

'I assure you, it is all just for your personal safety.'

'What about Cynthia, though? She must have laid some sort of link.'

'She is no one to be concerned about, for now, your relationship with her is not well-known knowledge and this can only work to both your advantage. On the other hand, it would be best if she were to return to her home.'

'She wanted to stay with Lance, though but then again, what is she here for?'

'Concern for your wellbeing, friend, that's what she is here for. All you need to do is reassure her that you are not ill from your adventure and she will be appeased.'

Ash wonders if it's really going to be that easy, Gurkinn usually sees straight through him but then again, what should Ash tell him? All he told those people from the past was to hide because he told them the same story Gurkinn told him so when it all boils down to it, all Ash did was repeat what he was told. So it's not like he can tell the man anything new, other than that forty people who didn't live in Gurkinn's story, did survive now. What the consequences of that event are, Ash doesn't know, and he doesn't care much either, everyone has a right to live and these people, they encountered enough cold shoulders to be offered a chance to survive and live the life they were put on earth for. It's unlikely that any of the original Aura users from those times are still alive, if they are, good for them but the teen only swore to protect them until times were safe. Thanks to Palkia and Dialga's support, as well as the grovelling Giratina who felt like doing something good this time, he could make it happen and sure, he's lucky he's such a powerful Aura user that he could lend them a hand but at the same time, if he wasn't, he wouldn't have ended up in the past or in any of this crazy garbage that's happened to him. But the thing is, Ash would rather be weird and help people than be ordinary and be used as a rag his mother would use to hide her issues he would also have trouble with.

'Really no regrets?'

'I could write a book about why I won't ever live in Pallet Town again, though I feel like no one would read it.'

'I am happy to have met you, though, friend, you have really made me a completely different kind of creature.'

'Then, you understand why I don't like Kalos? That I understand why you'd tell me to keep quiet?'

'I do understand. And believe me, friend, I love you all the more for that thoughtfulness. After all, if you are not here with us… What will become of us?'

'I'm not going anywhere. I won't be caught by the likes of a man who hasn't been told 'no' to in his childhood.'

'I would like to ask where you got the knowledge to understand these criminals from but I believe I was once one of them so I will refrain from asking.'

'Once one of them? Even if I did remember what happened the first time we met, there's no way you could ever match intentions with people who kiss the mirror every morning, they are so misguided in their intentions, nearly all of them have the same excuse that 'the world has wronged them' and that this is the reason why they want to destroy this world to make a new one where they are the ones who have the say in and over everything. But all I am hearing are issues, they are people trying to compensate for something. And Lyssandre, he's going to be one of those narcissistic assholes, he's high-educated and he likes charitable events, so he's looking for the praise he never got from his parents or parental figures and when he's not given what he asks for, he's going to go haywire.'

'That sounds like a good premonition, I would like to see if it will really fold out like that. However, this all means you have encountered a lot of bad people, I wish your morals were not in my way since it would cause a sharp decline in those kinds of meetings.'

'Oh, but these aren't too bad, they are fighting against larger-than-life pokémon and when they inevitably lose, they're in front of the pokémon with nothing but sorry excuses and shitty lies to offer. The issue kind of fixes itself too, after all so I suppose it's not too bad. And I got to see a cool pokémon so that kind of balanced out.'

'But, according to your own premonition, this will not happen with Lyssandre. So will it balance out?'

Ash shrugs, he's not sure why he feels this strongly about this region, other than his raging anger at discovering people haven't grown out of using pokémon as tools. And no, Meep carrying the bag of croissants isn't using her as a tool but keeping them locked in a basement somewhere no one other than those with some very special abilities could find them, that's abuse. He's told a few people about his feelings too but then, he's too angry, too upset and he needs to calm down but Ash refuses to bend down to such feeble attempts to hide such wrong… He just wishes that he didn't feel like losing something dear to him, the mere thought that he's going to lose one of his friends to this asshole is enough nightmare fuel to stop him from sleeping for days, no, weeks!

'I will not be me, I will fight, bite and claw my way out of the evil eye, I can assure you I will use every ability I own to make sure I will not be caught.'

Pikachu makes a valiant motion as if to say it won't be him either and so does the Dragloak hovering near to him, the actions really make Ash smile.

'They can try. No promise if they're going to get whatever body part they're reaching out towards any of you back.'

'It is a promise, then. I do wonder… Would you get in trouble legally for doing something supernatural in this region? I know of certain places where it is indeed prohibited but considering there is at least one Gym leader everywhere who has a peculiar ability, be it supernatural or not, it would seem backwards trying to curb their capabilities.'

'I can already imagine how pleased Diantha will be if I ask her. But I suppose I can look it up online if you're curious.'

'Not just curious, I am merely envisioning how many people will panic upon seeing that amazing quality to mega evolve several pokémon at the same time.'

'That's not a thing?'

'Why not look that up while you are at it, friend?'

Ash frowns but as soon as he moves his left arm upwards, the bracelet on his wrist lets out this unholy sound, it startles him a lot and it's loud enough for him to nearly miss the fact his phone is ringing at the same time.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Ketchum? Ash, are you okay?" the caller asks and the teen is so confused.

"Yes? What's happening?"

"Please push the blinking button, it should be red right now."

Ash does so and sighs in relief when the noise stops. It doesn't take long before he realises that the caller is the one responsible for this, though, but all he wants to know is why this thing gave off such an alarm while he's just sitting down peacefully. While it's peacefully silent now, his heart is still hammering in his chest and he needs to sigh before asking what the hell just happened.

"The bracelet registered a period of inactivity at ground level, it made that noise to alert the both of us."

"But I'm fine?"

"This is often registered as a sign of fainting, sir. But according to our files, you'll have some issues getting back up if you're indeed sitting on the ground."

The teen can't handle that comment and thus, stands up… and regrets it soon enough. Meep pushes her head underneath his arm to give him a bit more strength to stand up but he needs to lean on the Gym building too.

"Duly noted," is all he can say after having groaned that hard at needing to stand up. "Thanks for watching out for me. I… I forgot."

"No problem, though I'll add in the file that there isn't much of a need to have the alarm go off at your end. Despite being in a city, there doesn't seem to have been anyone to come and see what the alarm was about, right?"

No. No, that's correct, he's completely on his own, with the exception of his loyal pokémon. The doors of the Gym building are still firmly shut, there isn't any light visible from the inside either so that kind of means Valerie is having a bit of a lay-in today. Heaven knows what Tierno actually did to her but it likely justifies her absence… it's just damning to realise how he could have fainted and that no one in the neighbourhood would care about it. The lady excuses herself shortly afterwards, there's no reason for her to keep lingering her attention on him so the call ends. Ash barely pays any attention to whether or not she ended the call for real or not, he just stuffs his phone in his pocket again. However, as soon as he looks up, there's a pretty, all-dolled-up lady looking at him from the entrance of the Gym building.

"Are you okay?" she asks. "Did you fall?"

Before Ash can answer her questions, she takes a good look at him and instead goes 'oh' and then invites him in.

"You are a challenger, right?" she clarifies as she motions for him to sit down.

"Yes?"

"Oh, good. Have a little rest, Valerie is just getting ready."

"A-ah, I didn't wake her up, did I?"

"Mm? No, she was already awake. What was that noise, though?"

"I… have a security bracelet."

"Qua?" she says, looking a little oddly at the bracelet he shows her. "Is that a thing these days? Do you perhaps have the falling disease?"

"Falling disease?" Ash repeats, a little worried since his mother instilled such a deep fear of the word 'disease' in him that just hearing it while knowing that he's not actually having a disease at all just makes him panic.

'She means epilepsy,' Mewtwo clarifies and the teen instantly shakes his head.

"No, no, I don't have that. I can have seizures but not… not like that."

"Huh, c'est bizarre, ça," she just says and shrugs. "I am just glad I found you so that you could have a seat, you seemed to be in pain when you were standing up so it's better to sit down in that case."

The teen wants to be swallowed by the floor, this is not the kind of impression he wants to leave on this person. It just left both of them confused and that's so not it but he's got no other choice but to roll with the punches. What's he gonna do, make even a bigger fool of himself by trying to explain a situation to Valerie she was absolutely not aware of? Heck, he's likely the only one worried too!

'Maybe this is a good time to do a bit of research, friend,' Mewtwo pipes up and just because he doesn't have anything better to do, he just gets his phone out again.

Ash never paid much head to rules, he read the league book for trainers alright but even so, it's just being a bad trainer that'll get the trainer in trouble and well, there's the entire 'what if a trained pokémon attacks someone out of the blue' thing that got a whole different set of rules as soon as he settled into Lance's house, one-half leg less but a lot happier in a different kind of way. When it came to the supernatural, the teen didn't spend much time thinking about it, he used to be all about doing. Maybe he ought to stop thinking again, since everything he's been doing lately has started to go wrong, or at least, that's how he sees it. There's nothing he can do without needing to answer someone, heck, he couldn't even get his pokémon released onto the field before a Gym leader got offended by his choice!

But there's a bleak future ahead for Kalos if they're not going to get their shit together and start thinking about what these loose rules considering abilities and the supernatural could do to this region. Ash refrains from laughing when he sees the simple sentence of the 'user being decent and not meaning harm' as the sole requirement to walk free. As an Aura user with a few other tricks up his sleeve, he's offended by the lack of rules but also kind of relieved… and a little worried. What does being decent actually mean? If he meets Olympia and she tells him something that'll worry him and keep him awake at night, causing him to be inattentive and land in the hospital because he wasn't looking where he was going and got mowed down by a car… If he survives all that and tells the police, who will undoubtedly come and ask him what the heck he had been thinking, straying out of the pavement so far, that he was thinking about what the Gym leader said… That'll cause the incident to be classified as her fault, won't it?

However… Oh, he hears a noise and suddenly, he's not alone in that room, he's surrounded by other people and while they're not all dolled up to the point of looking more like display dolls just being creepy as they're mobile, Ash realises that the thing Valerie was getting ready for, might not be for a Gym function. As there's music and a lot of lights in the following room, the teen quickly slides to the back of the rows, not wanting to be noticed since he doesn't want to be here at all. It's just his luck that one of the dolled-up ladies is wearing a giant hat with all sorts of flowers stuck on it which leaves him with no other option but to look at the hat for the time being as she comes to sit right in front of him. But, considering he doesn't want to be seen here, it's maybe for the best that the hat is in the way.

'So, you were right all along by claiming some Gym leaders prioritise hobbies over their jobs,' Mewtwo says but to Ash, it sounds like the pokémon is horribly bothered.

And so is he, he's stuck here since the doors went and closed just behind Valerie, he won't be opening them unnoticed and so far, he's not seen another exit. It's obvious that there's a contest ongoing and the teen isn't surprised to hear Serena's name being called out, he figured she would be going forward in that direction. Shame he can't see her but heck if he's not getting more annoyed to be stuck here, all while he wants nothing more than to leave this place, in fact, he kind of wants to leave Laverre in total. But also, Ash needs to battle Valerie first and there's no way he'll come back here for that damned badge he sort of needs in order to get what he came to Kalos for.

Oh, it takes so long, he did take his phone out for a while just because he's so bored and didn't find any information on whether it's normal for him to be able to Mega-evolve multiple pokémon at a time. All he sees is information on groups that are against Mega-evolving and the researchers who publish information for interested trainers but Ash isn't looking for that kind of thing, he will only activate the mega stone if his pokémon want it since they know best. There will be people who will call him dumb for that kind of faith but they don't know or hear what he does. But when suddenly he heard someone ask if there were challengers for the Gym today, he couldn't get down those stairs fast enough, only… he did need to step out of the way of this foot that suddenly moved in his direction and all he hears is Mewtwo curse angrily but his thoughts are just in a one-way direction and that's battle.

"Oh, hello," Valerie says when he kind of crawls onto the 'stage' which suddenly looks a lot more like a battlefield than a contest hall, for some odd reason. "Glad to see you, challenger. I've heard quite a bit of you."

"All lies, I feel like. Don't let it bother you, I will treat you with the respect you give me," he answers and she smiles.

"I think that the ones who like pokémon need to band together."

"Oh, so you like pokémon?"

"Very much. But I think you know that, or you wouldn't have looked away."

"Your contacts creeped me out that morning, that's all there is to it," Ash says and he tries to remain civil since there are a lot of people looking at them. This is the most public fight he'll have since landing here in Kalos, that much is sure.

"I appreciate the honesty," is all she answers as he sees perfectly well where she put on a thick layer of foundation, to hide the injury Tierno's pokémon caused. "Let's begin, then."

But his friend has been steaming all nicely inside of his pokémon. Part of why he wants to leave Laverre this quickly is because he gave his buddy a special bath and it kind of lingered. The poor nurse Joy will not be happy with him and with this bracelet kind of barring him from sleeping outside, on the ground or else he might be getting another wake-up call, all he can do is win this fight and get the hell out of this place as soon as he can. And so, Ash calls out Muk, who has also been looking closely at how Charizard helped Infernape deal with the ability issue… and now, Stench wafts all around the arena and the referee gags loudly but can't leave or she'll make the Gym leader lose automatically. Valerie has her long sleeves over her nose the instant she hears the noise come from the referee and there's suddenly a lot less audience sitting closely to the battlefield than before. It doesn't matter, the bad smell will fill the room in a few minutes, it'll also attach itself to all these nice clothes and Ash? He's used to it, he wouldn't want Muk to smell any different since he is supportive of the absolute mountain of dirt his friend truly is and it makes him smile to see Muk bask in the nastiness it is. Sylveon faints after a couple of seconds of being exposed to the pokémon's ability and Valerie recalls the pokémon. That's 0-1 for him already and Ash couldn't be more pleased.

"W-what are you doing?" the Gym leader asks.

"Me? Nothing."

"B-but…"

"Why, is Muk bothering you?"

She shakes her head vehemently but she ought to be careful, Muk is a friendly boy and also a bit naïve. Someone giving him a fake compliment will only result in getting a big hug from the pokémon anyway so it's a losing situation no matter what Valerie says or does. And Muk doesn't care either, things just fly straight past him, it's all in good nature and as long as his pokémon doesn't get hurt, it's all fine by Ash. He gently pats his buddy on the head, getting a croon of appreciation from Muk and yes, Ash's hand comes back as clean as it was before. Muk doesn't stick to anyone who he knows doesn't mind having filth on them, which is ironic but just like people, pokémon can have different sorts of characters so it's still all in good fun.

Valerie sends out Spritzee soon after but the pokémon freezes as soon as it gets a whiff of the putrid smell and that's perfect since Muk isn't fast enough to defeat a speedy Fairy-type. Having gotten the flinch results in a nice, wide opening for a well-aimed Acid and the opposing pokémon gets showered in the mess. Ash knows this won't hurt the Spritzee, on the contrary, professor Elm told him how he harvested acid from Poison-types since that acts as a sort of stress-releasing drug for pokémon and people. Only, the acid gets diluted when administered medically but this time, Spritzee's getting the full trip and the teen smiles when he sees the pokémon's eyes become hazy before rolling backwards and just becoming unable to battle. The referee almost seemed relieved to call out the battle in his favour and Valerie didn't seem to have the energy to call out a third pokémon, maybe she just gave a secret signal to the referee to end the battle, instead of needing to publically give up. Or maybe she just only had two pokémon, that too is a possibility. Either way, Ash feels vindicated by the result of this battle and as predicted and as if to prove a point, Valerie comes over towards him. A wrong move, Muk gives her a warm welcome and no, her hand doesn't come back clean at all, the slime drips all the way down to her long sleeve and the concealer on her face can't hide her disgust.

"Is… is this you telling me something?" she asks as she tries to unsuccessfully get the goo off her sleeve -of course, it's super sticky too.

"Should it be?"

"You wouldn't be the only one who wouldn't like me because of my love for pokémon."

"I would like you a lot more if you were a pokémon," Ash says and now the Gym leader seems truly lost.

"But… but then…?"

"Not to be a downer but should the chance for you to become a pokémon somehow become available, would you still accept it if there's the tiniest chance of you ending up as a Muk? Because that's what I always find funny, not only do some people want that sort of divulging fantasy of becoming a pokémon but then also want to be able to decide which one they would want to be. I don't think that's realistic, in fact, I find it hypocritical to call yourself a pokémon lover but then follow up with the selection of ones you wouldn't want to be while the chance of that wish becoming true is so rare, that you'd also want to pick? Please, Valerie, reconsider."

She gives him an empty look as she shakes her head.

"You are a strange child, Ash."

"Thanks. Do I get a badge still?"

"Here," the referee says, still pinching her nose since approaching him meant getting closer to the reeking Muk but still, she reaches out the badge to him. "Take it and get the hell out of here."

Ash wants nothing more than that so he happily obeys but just for the attitude of the referee, he tells Muk to 'be lively' and no, he doesn't recall the pokémon and instead leaves through the big, open doors as Muk dutifully follows him, leaving a very big and wide trace of goo behind. And to be extra petty, he doesn't recall Muk until they're right at the entrance, where he gently pats the pokémon on the head, telling him he'll get a reward for the good job he'd done and that he'd see him later. If looks could kill, Ash would be dead and buried by now but see if he cares, they ought to treat all pokémon right and hey, at least he didn't come in with a big and burly pokémon, right? Heck, Muk never even touched Valerie's pokémon, the teen couldn't be any happier about this battle, it went smoothly and fast. And yes, he calls Bonbon out to take him to the train station since there's no way he's going to pass slowly past the pokémon centre either.

Ash is still very pleased with himself as he walks into the station, Muk's stench didn't affect him at all and he's still smelling like the shower gel he used earlier this morning. So no one in the train station gives him a dirty look, some just seem a little wary of him but otherwise, he's at peace when he embarks on the train towards Anistar City. He wonders how long it'll take for things to go to hell but excuse his little chuckle when he checks his phone for some news and sees that the Laverre Gym got evacuated after a neighbour thought their septic tank had some issues. Yeah, that poor worker isn't going to find anything wrong with it, though they ought to be careful not to slip in the goo, it's a pain to get the stains it creates in fabric out.

'I do hope you have not forgotten the annoying child who thought that tripping you on that long staircase downwards was a good idea.' Mewtwo pipes up.

'Let me be happy for a bit. I have a plan to bother all these Gym leaders as much as the previous ones have bothered me.'

'Is that a wise thing to do? Do they not get more powerful as you advance?'

'Maybe so. But nothing stopped them from stopping their fellow Gym leaders from making an ass out of me. And I won't forgive them, and heck if it wasn't horribly clear that Valerie got told about me.'

'You cannot expect them to stay silent now.'

'They never were. So that won't make much of a difference.'

'No, quite. Maybe I can be of help, in some way.'

'What do you have in mind?'

'Let me think about what I could teach you to bother people who bother you. It will need to be something you enjoy doing too, or else I will never be successful in teaching you.'

Ash smiles in response, not sure why Mewtwo feels like he needs another 'talent' to add to his arsenal of things that already bother a lot of people but it gives the pokémon something to do and also… maybe it could be helpful. The teen saw who stuck out that leg, after all, and he kind of feels like beating that kid up a little. So far, Tierno has been slowly creeping into the 'I'm starting to regret I ever helped you' category and to Ash, that's already far on his tolerance level. Kalos natives really are ungrateful people… His hope to have a good experience in the Anistar Gym is low already, he has no hopes of leaving a better impression on Wulfric and the way this is going, he might be going home when he defeated these Gym leaders because this region doesn't have their shit together, at all. How is it that they still need to build a whole arena for the Lumiose Conference? Have they never held a tournament before or is it just to make sure everything looks shiny and new for broadcasting the whole thing on TV? Sounds like something a champion like Diantha would worry about but honestly, what's up with the lack of information? No one better ask him how he is doing because he needs to vent about this, Ash remembers very well he's not exactly good at remembering dates so he considered himself lucky that most tournaments kind of lined up in the same month but what he saw of the 'already complete part of the building', is more looking like the tournament is going to be around December. That or they're going to have to bring in the big guns.

The landscape passes by pretty quickly and in the end, Ash shrugs and figures he doesn't need to worry about Kalos getting their main event prepared, he'll be there anyway. No matter what, he won't miss it, come hell or high water… and whether they like it or not.

---

Cynthia doesn't like trains. It's a bit too cramped for her and she grew up being ogled by strangers so she would rather not take another train in her life. But there's one person who she would willingly do it and that's Ash. She wants to find him as soon as possible, she's worried about him and when he appeared a little frazzled she told him to contact his therapist… but if he really did go and travel through time, it's highly unlikely that the therapist will have been able to help if the boy actually told that kind man the truth.

She woke up with the sound of a Gym building being evacuated but the Gym leader was somehow giggling as she told her the tale of how a teenager finally made her see the light she missed all these years, that becoming a pokémon was utterly impossible for her since she didn't love all of them and that she couldn't be picky at the time her wish could be presented to her. Valerie never needed to tell her the name of that teenager, the only one she could imagine having come up with that answer is the one she's currently following. Another reason why she wants to find Ash as fast as she can, she needs to tell him that Valerie loves his solution to break the constant streak of angry pokémon wanting to punch her pokémon through walls. Ash… he didn't hurt her pokémon, in fact, the nurse Joy told her that this Acid attack did a lot of good for her pokémon's mental health and while that sounds odd, it's, again, something she knows Ash would realise. Of course, he has interacted a lot with professor Elm, who couldn't be happier to house Ash's pokémon and while she didn't know where the idea of this Acid attack came from, looking it up brought her straight to the professor's extensive research. Even the referee looked ashamed, nothing happened that couldn't be fixed with a decent cleaning session and sure, it was ironic that it was a Muk of all pokémon, but why not?

"I told him to get the hell out of here," she told them and her regret was visible on her face.

"He would want nothing more than to do that," Gurkinn answered, causing Valerie to deflate but he held up his hand to stop her from jumping to conclusions. "Things happen when he settles somewhere. And you may think you got out of your dissolution because of that Muk but you'll have nothing to answer to the creatures that come to keep him company. I just wished he stuck around longer so we could've told him something that likely would have made him less moody."

According to Valerie, Ash came down the stairs with a frown on his face and they looked at the security footage only to see someone tried to trip him. Personally, Cynthia would've given the teen an award for the sheer lack of fucks he gave about that situation, she would've definitely retraced her steps and pulled the idiot who thought that was a good idea on stage with her, to hear what he had to say for himself. But then again, the Gym leader tells her that she's going to get him arrested soon if he keeps up these actions since that boy allowed his pokémon out of bounds and accidentally hurt her but looking at what happened in Ash's case, she's not starting to doubt whether or not her case was an accident or not. Especially not since the boy tried to challenge her for a rematch and when she hesitated, he plain out flipped her off but well, he won since she only had two other, not commonly used pokémon left so yeah, there's that to consider.

Thankfully, that boy isn't in the same coupon or Cynthia would go and stare at him the whole way to Anistar City. She hopes she will find Ash before these kids do, Gurkinn seemed to recognise the Lumiose Gym leader who was with Ash at the time of his return to Shalour City… but something isn't sitting well with her. Gurkinn may be able to make sense of why the boy is zooming through regions but that's not at all like the person she got to know him as. Now, she might be looking too deeply into this, she's a researcher too so she's used to looking at situations just that tad bit too long because you can never know if you've seen it all when you haven't looked properly enough but Ash… he's the most difficult puzzle she's encountered so far.

"You know," Gurkinn says. "I think I saw those other kids near Ash too."

"Well, something must've happened if the other boy wanted to make him trip and fall down a long staircase so at this moment, I don't mind that they aren't travelling together. While Ash didn't make a scene, I'm not happy about it at all. I don't need that boy to hang around him."

"I hope we don't meet those children, I don't think I could stop myself from saying something to them but I feel like I'll embarrass Ash if I do. Korrina always says so."

"Hmpf, don't waste your breath. You saw how he responded to Valerie, I don't think you're any more imposing than she is and I know you'll become mad if he disrespects you like that. And then, you'll only embarrass yourself."

"True," the man answers with a sigh but then looks around him, as if he's not sitting in an exclusive first-class compartment of this train and that there isn't a soul around them, just like Cynthia prefers. "Do you perhaps have an idea how on earth Ash knew where to find the forty Aura users? I remember you told me that you were looking for him because you were concerned about him but now I'm wondering why. Did something happen?"

"I…" she starts but stops herself from continuing as she isn't sure if she can just say this to Gurkinn.

It's not as if she doesn't trust him, the man didn't do anything to lose her trust either. It's just… Ash. He's so precious and Kalos is being so disrespectful of this little trainer, it's unbelievable. She can only hope he didn't leave upset from Laverre, she very much wants him to be happy but that seems nearly impossible to achieve for longer than a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Gurkinn says, apparently, she hesitated for too long.

"No, no, it's okay. I'm just not sure where to start."

"You said something about restoring an old temple. Perhaps you can tell me why you told me that when I approached you with questions about Ash's wellbeing."

"He… gave me a picture of how the Spear Pillar looked before it got destroyed. Or at least, he left it underneath the placemat of my desk which I discovered after he already left for Kalos, only for me to discover a little later that he was in Unova instead. So I never spoke to him about it and really, I don't think that questioning him will give me any answers either. I guess I just want to know if he's okay."

"Why wouldn't he be? Is he ill, or something?"

"It… it's a very old picture," Cynthia says and the man sits up all of a sudden.

"Oh no."

"Err, yes."

"Cynthia, I… I think I know what you mean."

"So you think it's possible?" she asks and sighs when Gurkinn nods. "How?"

"Well, it's Ash, that's how."

"How'd you know? What did he do to give you the idea that he… you, know… is so young and still managed to get such an old picture?"

"I was approached by two of my friends. They were convinced they had seen Ash before. Different, of course, not the same jacket and without his Pikachu but they are two people I definitely believe, especially since they have no reason to lie to me… and because they know I would know they're lying."

"Oh?"

"They're just horrible liars, Cynthia, his ears turn this bright ruby red and the woman rolls away her eyes as if she's high as a kite when I try to look her in the eye while she's lying. It's so visible when they lie to me but they looked me straight in the eyes when they told me this news though gave up when I asked them what difference it made to have a weird kid to a time-travelling weird kid."

"Well yes, I suppose it makes little difference but I'm just… worried. I mean, Ingo…"

"You mean the disease? Do you think Ash has it?"

"He seemed frazzled and now that he's travelling all alone... I don't know, maybe I'm worrying over nothing but I need to hear it from him to believe it."

"I understand your concern. I hope he doesn't have that illness… since you know that it's fatal, right?"

"Ingo is fine, though."

"He is? How do you know?"

"Professor Juniper has been keeping me up to date, Ingo is doing much better already, and both brothers have resumed their jobs and doing business just like usual. None of the challengers have reported any kind of issues either, just that the two are still as hard to beat as previously, if not a little harder."

"… Why does a regional professor from Unova report to you?" the man asks and Cynthia chuckles.

"She doesn't report to me, when Ash left for Kalos, he unexpectedly got off in Unova to go and visit Ingo and Emmet. It happened shortly after you called me, and well, we've kind of bonded after professor Juniper found Ash with the Subway bosses."

"Think he's got something to do with it?"

"Maybe but they're fine, I suggest letting those sleeping pokémon lie for now. All I know is that Ingo started feeling better after meeting Ash so that's something to take into account."

"… He can't heal anything but physical wounds, though," Gurkinn says and she groans in response, though not entirely because she's so bothered about the boy she's intent on finding. "Are you okay? Still a little nauseous?"

"Just a little. It's weird, I've never had issues sitting in the backwards seat of a train," she answers.

"September and October are months where it's easy to have upset stomachs, take it easy for now. After all, Lucian has been taking you out for dinner a lot, hasn't he? Maybe it became a bit too much."

She sighs as she nods, though feels like it's got more to do with the stress of the last couple of weeks than an upset stomach. At any rate, she'll be quite happy to go back home to the man who gathered all his courage and asked her to be his girlfriend. Cynthia didn't waste a second thinking about it, she said 'yes' straight away since they too grew closer thanks to their mutual worry over Ash. And she really does love him, it's just… a little odd. Her grandmother is over the moon with the news but now she wonders… Ah, Ash wouldn't mind, would he?

Yes, this train might be running at high speed but it's still not fast enough for her. It's illegal how badly she wants to talk to the boy right now, he's basically fulfilled a life-long dream for her and he… she never told him. He did this on his own accord and that's the most anyone has ever done for her, without asking her for 'payment' later. Is he that desperate to show appreciation or was it just something he thought of? She's not sure whether she can ask, especially not in front of Gurkinn. Maybe she's looking too deeply into this but the sole question she needs an answer on or she's not leaving, is whether or not the teen is okay.

---

Ash stretches his arms above his head, he's just seen a bit of Anistar city and he knows he's going to sit in front of that crystal sundial and lose a few hours. But he's just seen a shadow pass by it and it looked so much like professor Sycamore that he just 'noped' out of staring at it and went to the pokémon centre. He's a little lost in thoughts, Mewtwo has asked him a few questions to try and see what ability it could try and learn him but so far, not much has come up. It's likely got something to do with his determination to be a little less forthcoming about himself and that seems to irk his legendary friend a lot. But what was he supposed to do? Sure, Ash spent some time looking at his phone on the train and Valerie sent him a message where she thanked him for his insight and the respect he showed for her pokémon and apologised for the behaviour of her referee. Truth be told, the teen hadn't spent a second thinking about what was said in that Gym, he has no regrets whatsoever since he didn't do anything wrong.

"Hey!"

He actually groans, since the voice who called out to him sounds far away but heck, he can't have two seconds to himself? He can't even make it to the pokémon centre before someone wants to bother him, but as he turns around, Ash isn't the slightest bit amused to see the group of kids run over to him. Yeah, kids, since one of them thought it was funny to trip him.

"What do you want?" he asks, trying his best to not let his annoyance shine through since Serena and Clemont aren't quite meeting his eyes. He also distinctly misses Bonnie, she's not with this group -he respects her even more for it too.

Tierno doesn't seem impressed by him and sticks out an accusing finger towards him.

"I want to battle."

"Okay," Ash says and moves his hand to unclip Pikachu from his shoulder but that's as far as he gets since Tierno is quicker than him to react.

"No, not against Pikachu," he says and then points to Meep, who is still holding the croissants. "I want to fight against him."

"Her," the teen corrects and gently takes the bag from her little claws. "Go on then, girlie. I have all the faith in you."

"At least you don't have type advantage now!"

Well, jokes on him but also, shame on him since Tierno has no patience and strikes Meep with the same Rapid Spin Ash strongly suspects to have hurt Valerie before Clemont can even offer to referee. Two can play that game, though and Ash sees a drastic change in Meep's stance… and he can tell that her ability stepped in.

"Grr, that did nothing!" Tierno cries out, somehow already frustrated. "Wartortle, Rapid Spin again!"

However, the pokémon doesn't move and all Ash does is grin.

"Thunderbolt," he says and Meep all too willingly fries her opponent with a speedy and especially powerful attack.

"That's cheating!" the teen cries out as Ash rolls his eyes, having expected this kind of response.

It's typical, a loser's loss is always someone else's fault but he's not here to entertain this nonsense. Tierno, of course, has a lot to say about this battle but all Ash sees, is the teen's Cresselia feather disappearing, he's got a good view of it since the teen wasn't wearing it like Ash told him he should, underneath his clothes so it was in contact with him.

'He is undeserving,' Mewtwo says and the boy stills, knowing damn well what it means when pokémon lose all respect for a trainer, or rather, a young human.

Tierno is completely unaware of what has just happened and soon enough the accusing finger is pointed at his chest once more, along with the accusation that it was impossible for Meep to have an Electric-type move since the pokémon clearly wasn't an Electric-type either but that's Ash's breaking point.

"How do you know?" he says and it stuns the teen into silence. "How can you sound so sure about this, you challenged a pokémon that you don't recognise and then feel like I'm cheating when you have no idea what my pokémon is capable of? After all, I once was ready to consider you a friend but you turned out to be someone I can't trust, can't respect and least of all even want to befriend and still, I never accused you of cheating my feelings, my expectations are my responsibility and mine alone. In fact, if you have a moment to listen to what I'm saying, let me give you the best advice you'll get from anyone right now. Because you're on a bad road right now, if you want to continue this way, quit while you're ahead. You've hurt a Gym leader, you tried to hurt me and now you are trying to control me? I only have two rules, Tierno, are you listening?"

"… Yes."

"The first one is quite simple. Don't tell me what to do. Understand?"

"Yes."

"And the second is even more simple. Do. Not. Tell. Me. What. To. Do," Ash says and looks him dead in the eye. "Do me a favour, pick up the league's rule book and read it. Understand just how many official rules you just broke that I'm willing to let slide because I know you're just unaware. But you can't remain that way because I just told you what to do and if you ignore me, that'll make you oblivious or rather, delusional if you think you can continue this way."

The teen sags like a bad pudding but the thing is, with shouting comes attention. And with attention, comes an audience and someone just took offence to what just happened.

"I won't let it continue this way," the officer says and no, it's not a Jenny, she's looking ready to murder as she rounds in on Tierno. "Is this boy right? Aren't you aware just how many rules you broke in this battle?"

"… I… I challenged him, right?"

"You struck the opponent's pokémon before the battle was secured, there were still people behind, and you didn't let the referee scope out the area you needed in order to have a safe battle. You also assumed the first turn, which is unlikely for a trainer who instigated the battle and is usually not done unless it is a coin-tossed result. Next to that, you don't get to pick the pokémon you fight, that's not your call to make. And then you lose-"

Ash drones the speech out, she's only repeating what he's taken offense to but considering Clemont has already moved behind him and did pull Serena with him, he thinks he's got his friends back thanks to this. And then, he feels something fall into his pocket.

'The heck?'

'That little sucker stole a phone,' Mewtwo says and just the way it sounds so offended gives Ash the impression that something happened between those five that wasn't at all healthy. 'Exactly, it belongs to the girl next to you, so next to an unbelievably annoying sore loser, that boy is also a thief! Are you still bewildered that he was found unworthy?'

'I was never bewildered. I guess I'm still a little afraid for him.'

'Hmpf, your empathy suits you but your feelings will not help in a lost cause like this.'

'If he takes this officer seriously, it might not be too late.'

'Remain hopeful, I see no improvement in the near future.'

Ash bites his lip, he's not convinced and sure, he's a little butt-hurt at that attempt of getting tripped. He wouldn't have died but it could still have hurt like, why? Why would Tierno want that for him?

"Tierno?" he calls out after the officer is finally done talking. "If you don't know what to do right now, please go back to Laverre and apologise to Valerie? I feel like you're just trying to follow me and you're rushing through because I am but that's not necessary, the building for the Lumiose Conference isn't done by a long shot, you still have time. Heck, even if Valerie asks why you're apologising, just tell her I told you to do it, and it'll be fine. Just… doing it shows some remorse."

"… You're right. And you've been more than okay to me too," the teen says, glancing at the officer who seems like she'll bite if he glances at her again. "I think I'll do just that. Oh, but I-"

"I already have her phone," Ash says and smiles when Tierno looks confused. "Tell me something I don't know."

"I'm sorry."

"I knew that already. But thanks. However, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you."

"I won't mess it up this time, I promise."

Ash nods and is still smiling, despite Mewtwo mentally grumbling about how it has no belief over any change in Tierno's character. He doesn't bother to correct it, after all, behaviour and character have a link but no one is static. Ash could give Mewtwo itself as a wonderful example of how its character has slightly remained untouched but behaviour-wise, the change couldn't have been any bigger. Clemont, however, seems far too relieved that the three kids left and while the officer comes over and asks him if he wants to press charges and then leaves because he said 'no' which she absolutely didn't like, they're together again.

"Here," the teen says and holds out Serena's phone to her. "I think this belongs to you."

"How did you do that?" she asks and her voice is a little hoarse but Ash just smiles. "Don't do that, I deserve an explanation."

"With a little help from my friends," he answers. "Now what happened to the two of you?"

"I just went home," Clemont confesses. "Since I didn't want to travel with that idiot, I did just that but Bonnie ended up sulking so badly and father wanted me to find you again but well…"

"Was there really so much mould in that bread?"

"It was blue."

Ash turns away in disgust, he doesn't like milk or bread that much but in all honesty, it takes talent not to notice blue mould. Either way, he's quite pleased to hear that both Meyer and Bonnie are here, in Anistar City since Clemont called them in advance since he knew they'd be meeting up here. Serena's story isn't so positive, though.

"I lost a bet," she says and somehow, both he and Clemont groan at the same time. "Guys, please, I didn't know. And I told you, I'm slow."

"I feel he rigged that bet too," Clemont says and Ash chuckles.

"Nah, people like that, they're just lucky. Until they're not and I think he went and cut himself when he didn't show remorse to Valerie."

"Then why did you let him go back?"

"Because he really needs to apologise. I mean, nearly all the Gym leaders I've met were assholes in all different ways but Valerie really tried. And I read something about Fairy-types, they don't host Tauros crap either, Valerie's attitude will need to be real or Sylveon and Spritzee will pack up during the night and disappear and she'll wake up to open and smashed-up pokéballs. There are just some kind of pokémon who don't tolerate dishonesty and I can't find fault in it. And so I'm not happy to hear he went and hurt her… And yeah, I may have sent him to his doom but I think he needs a bit of a wake-up call."

"Smart," Serena says and sighs. "I'm going to have to call my mom, though."

"If you want, we can stay around you. Moral support or something?"

"Ash, why aren't you mad at me?" she asks and he looks at her strangely.

"You did nothing wrong. I'm not the boss of you, even if you don't want to travel with me now, that's fine too. I'm not forcing you to follow me around, I know I can get a bit much from time to time and that I too need to be alone sometimes… And we don't owe each other, it won't mean anything to me if you don't want to travel with me and I'll just be glad for the company if you do but that's purely opportunistic from my side."

"I do want to travel with you, I… I didn't feel safe with Tierno, not even with Shauna. She… tried to help me with the Performances but it felt forced. I didn't score very high in the Laverre City competition either, she was very controlling."

"Ah, so you found my help not controlling?" Ash asks sheepishly. "I did act a little pushy in Coumarine."

"But you helped me. She sabotaged me, she did something to my dress and I… I wasn't brave enough to say anything about it and the judges went for that detail straight away."

"She modified it?"

"Yeah."

"Heresy! It was such a pretty thing, what did she do?"

"The… cleavage wasn't low enough according to her."

"Serena, your mother will have a heart attack when you tell her that. Or worse, she might also barrel through the forest on the back of a Ryhorn, which in retrospect, would make, like, make sense if it's a thing running through the family but that's… I don't know much of the general things of Kalos but minors showing cleavage? I think that Diantha might draw the line there."

"She does," Clemont says. "As funny as it sounds, do you want my father to take a look at the dress? He's pretty good at sowing."

"Yes, please, if it's not a bother," she answers and looks genuinely sad. "I do like performing a lot."

"Alright, let's go see him. Perhaps it's better to not let your mother know, or she might indeed take one of those Ryhorn racers here and I don't think she can talk her way out of that one."

"Oh, I would like to see someone telling her that she's not allowed to be concerned about her daughter when she was nearly exploited. And if she can't talk her way out of it, I'll do the talking," Ash huffs. "Serena, did Tierno at any point tell you that he liked you?"

"…You know, he might but I don't get hints so easily."

This really doesn't sit well with Ash but when Clemont agrees with him and lets Serena notify her mother of what happened, only if he agrees to do the talking, he makes sure to tell Mrs. Grace everything, along with his suspicions… and along with the news that the pokémon took the boy's Cresselia feather away, deeming him unworthy. She is silent for a long while but then asks to speak to her daughter so Ash isn't sure what's being said but the tears sliding down Serena's face aren't those of sadness. And then, he perks up because he senses someone familiar near him. Ash can't stop the smile forming on his face when he sees Cynthia approach him, and really, he hadn't spotted Gurkinn until the man waved at him but he's not afraid.

"Hello, darling," Cynthia says and gives him the motherly hug he's gotten from nearly every woman he's known, with the exception of his mother. "How are you doing?"

"Peachy. Did you speak to Valerie?"

"We did, yes, she wants to thank you for your insight. It made her look at things differently and it did give her a good laugh since it was a funny battle. Oh, and she was pleased that you helped her pokémon so much too, I take it you got that information from professor Elm?"

"Yep, he asked me to harvest poison from Muk and I agreed to it but I got curious what he wanted to do with it so he explained that it has some sort of relaxing properties or something. Especially pokémon who have a weakness to Poison-type usually benefit from the gas but it'll just make 'em high if they get the liquid on them. So I figured it was a good way to knock out her pokémon so I'm glad that it helped her pokémon somewhat. How'd you meet her, though? Were you looking for me there?"

"I slept in," she admits with a small smile but something about her is drawing his attention away from her face, though Ash isn't sure what and he doesn't want to be disrespectful and look away when she's talking. "The evacuation alarm woke both of us up."

"Oh, that's unlike you to sleep in. Are you okay?"

"Ah, you Aura users all ask the same questions," Cynthia chuckles and turns away from him and thus, giving Ash the opportunity to look at what's wanting his attention. "Gurkinn keeps asking me the same the same thing."

"You have been nauseous ever since arriving in Kalos, dear, you can't blame me for being worried about you."

"Maybe I just ate a bit too much, those cheesy sandwiches were a bit much."

"It's not nausea, Cynthia," Ash says sunnily as he's just noticed the small, blue light he can see in her belly, through his right hand. "It's morning sickness."

A long pause of silence follows that statement and his expression falters a bit since Cynthia looks like someone just murdered her favourite pokémon.

"No," she says and Ash hesitantly catches Gurkinn's gaze since he's not comfortable at the moment. "How? We only did it once?"

"… Once is enough. If my mom was still reasonable, she would tell you the same thing," the boy tells her, though a little haughtily since he's not going to put his foot in something she really should only discuss with her partner. "Maybe you ought to call the person you created this life with."

"That's not something I would do over the phone!" she says and sounds a little upset. "Ash, how do you know?"

"I see it," he answers and only Gurkinn smiles at the statement.

"Ash, darling, please tell me this is a joke."

"… Do whatever you came here to do and then get yourself a pregnancy test, Cynthia. You don't have to believe me," he says.

"I do believe you, it's just… very sudden news. I didn't know how you would be able to tell but no, whatever, it doesn't matter now. I came here to check on you."

"Well, here I am," Ash says, though feels very weird all of a sudden. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"This isn't something we need to discuss standing up. Let's go somewhere," she says but Ash isn't sure what to do or where to go.

"Hey," Clemont says softly, barely above a whisper -but that's fine since the boy walked up right behind him- and gently puts a hand on his shoulder. "I'll go and take Serena to my father, see if he can indeed fix her dress. Where can I find you again?"

"… The pokémon centre?" he suggests, since that's about the only place he'll feel comfortable in right now and thus, also the place he's likely to go to after Cynthia is done being upset.

"Right, I'll see you there."

Gurkinn agrees that the pokémon centre would be a good place to talk, Anistar City is very calm and it's noon at the moment so there's barely anyone here. Mewtwo tells him not to worry as he drags himself over to the cheerfully lit building and says that he won't see many people there since most are afraid of meeting the Gym leader who is on the prowl at this exact moment. However, Ash feels cornered as Cynthia decides to sit right across from him, instead of right next to him like she usually does.

"Ash, I'm concerned about you, have you seen a doctor recently?"

"Why?" is all he asks and she frowns.

"You… I believe you travelled through time."

"Yeah?"

"She thinks you have time-traveller disease, Ash. And I hope you don't," Gurkinn clarifies and the teen isn't impressed.

"I don't."

"But if you haven't seen a doctor-"

"I don't," he persists, annoyed. "I would know."

"So… What about Ingo?"

"You're only here to question me?" Ash asks and frowns. "I was so happy to see you and all you have are questions? You only came here to get your gratifying answers? Well, yeah, I did go and get Ingo but it was on accident, I thought I went to sit on my bed but in the end, I landed somewhere completely different. And yeah, I found the forty and swore to protect them only because of what I was told but I also found them on accident as all these old pieces of shit out there were avoiding them like the plague."

"But you're one of the forty-"

"I'm not one of them. I protected them for all this time but now that it's over, I don't have any connection to them, I don't even know them so all I can say to you is that you can enjoy all these people's stories since they survived now but I need all of you to get rid of the idea that I did this for the likes of you. No, all I do is encounter and when I think it'll have some merit to someone, I'll see what I can do to help and just for the sheer fact that I felt so bad for these lost and lonely Aura users stuck in the most unholy, cold area in the entire Coronet Highlands and that two of the people of that time liked me so much, because of that and something else, I was able to save the forty and that those two gave me that picture of the Spear Pillar Temple. But I never asked, no matter how great of a service I provided for you, I didn't do it with the intention to be getting pats on the back for it."

Gurkinn sags in his seat and Cynthia looks away but Ash doesn't like how they were about to start questioning him as if he still isn't a minor who they know isn't happy. So no, even if Cynthia came here to thank him for that picture, he's not happy how she didn't start with this and also lumped him and Gurkinn together as 'Aura users' when he was just worried about her as a friend. But that apparently wasn't what Cynthia was looking for and he has no one but himself to blame for being hopeful that he did want to be friends with the people his uncle is friendly towards so that he doesn't need to hide in that big house every time Lance has company over. And Ash genuinely likes Cynthia a lot but being questioned makes him feel like he's back at home, in Pallet, with his mother hovering over him and demanding answers and with Cynthia having reacted to his initial statement about her nausea that way.

"Is there anything else I can do for you? Since I know that the two of you had some trouble finding me, I don't want you to leave with questions," he asks and the man in front of him sighs.

"I just wanted to thank you. And I'm sorry if you felt cornered enough to tell us all this but know that I'm worried about you because you are special to me. Next to the fact that I love how selfless you are, that, as you said, you just encounter events and think about us, that's already enough for me. I don't think you know how easy it is to forget about people."

"Just as easy to vilify someone you used to care about," Ash retorts, though keeps his tone even to not give the statement any intent behind it.

"… Quite. I guess… I just really did want to thank you. And not for what you did with the forty, also for what you did for me."

The teen looks away and rubs a hand over his face.

"You don't know what I did. Don't say that."

"You're right, I don't. But I still want to thank you for it. But perhaps, if you can humour me… Did I lose to the Dark Aura user?"

Of all the questions the man could ask… What could he possibly gain from asking this? As if it's not horribly clear that Gurkinn has no idea what has happened and hell to the people who put the thought into his head, Ash has got to answer him now or the man will never let go of the subject. And that's not how he wants to say goodbye to him.

"You did."

"Oh. I thought… never mind, something will have happened for you to want to intervene and I'm in no position to ask more information from you. I just wish there comes a time when you'll trust me enough to speak freely with me," Gurkinn says and Ash grits his teeth, what a low blow.

'Tell him,' Mewtwo says and hearing Necrozma agree, the teen does exactly that.

"Korrina killed you," he says and Gurkinn's face falls. "You did win from the Dark Aura user, at the expense of ninety percent of the lives of the Shalour natives. And you got mad at her for acting so mindless towards the Dark Aura user, she threw the puzzle from the forty at you, designed to kill whoever harmed the object. And considering the puzzle smashed in pieces after making contact with your head, you ceased to exist. Now, I hope this is a more satisfying answer for you than just the pruning of your feathers you desired but at the same time, remind yourself that this has never happened in this timeline."

"… Knowledge really is a curse, isn't it?" the man murmurs.

"Depends, I hope that Kalos loves their children enough so they'll stop making them unresponsive towards threats like you did with Korinna. Like Diantha is doing with every single person considering Lyssandre," Ash says and looks at Cynthia, who is just silently watching him. "But don't worry, I'll help and I'll be here. I'll always be here."

And with those last words, he slides off the seat and walks towards the nurse, who quickly ushers him towards the back. She apparently noticed something but the nurse is quick to explain herself and says she thought that it was a tough talk out there and that she thought it was better for him to sit here.

"My fault, though," Ash admits and grimaces.

"That doesn't matter, I saw from your face that what was said was hurting you just as badly. Now, is there something I can do for you so I have an excuse to have pulled you in here?"

"Err, yeah. Do you mind smells?"

"Smells?"

"I washed him in a special shampoo but even so…"

"Stench?" she guesses and Ash nods gravely.

"The nose hair curling one."

"Right, let me just get a mask on."

Yeah, the mask isn't going to help her much but it seems like she doesn't want to let up face as Ash doesn't even cringe when Muk comes out. But he should really get rid of that shampoo, it's getting nastier by the minute but the nurse Joy likes his idea to give the Muk a bath and the shampoo she gets out is much nicer. She really needed to stay with him too, though, he wonders why the ledge of this bathtub is so high, he didn't have any issues washing Muk in the bathroom of the pokémon centre. But then again, the shower nearly tripped him since pokémon and foam are a dangerous combination since they make a game out of everything and Muk is super playful, though this tub is high enough that he nearly tumbles in. The nurse is being a real trooper in this and the teen almost forgets about the talk he had earlier. However, he's got to come around the front of the lobby in order for the nurse to register a room for him and while Ash can pretend he didn't see Clemont and his father having taken the seat he was in a good half hour ago, they likely won't leave him alone since he knows that Cynthia and Gurkinn love talking behind his back. Still, he can enjoy the look on the nurse's face when she gets his special trainer card in front of her and she lets out this funny, little 'ah' as she now understands why he nearly fell into the tub so often, with that slippery floor. How she hasn't fallen down in there is beyond him.

"Ash?"

The teen whirls around and smiles at Clemont.

"Hi, what does your father think of the dress?"

"You should see what Shauna did to it. I think you were right in assuming Tierno got jealous of you since they clearly worked it out on her. And well, you could have gotten badly hurt if he managed to trip you, so there's that."

"Oh no, I'm going to get her another dress, then. This is likely also my fault but I'm not sure if I appreciate anyone being jealous of me, not when I had to work so hard at achieving what I have today. All this hasn't come naturally and I don't condone it."

"Neither does Olympia, she called me a little while ago. She's thrilled to meet you, Tierno… not so much. She is going to refuse his challenge and I'm sure you know what that means."

"I wish it could've gone differently. But so little people seem to understand 'no' these days. I'm so sorry for Serena, I too liked that dress a lot."

"Yes well, that's why I brought my father, we wanted to go and surprise Serena with a new dress since Anistar City has a few high-end fashion brands. I figured you wouldn't mind splitting the cost."

"Not by the slightest, I gave her the first one all by myself and it wasn't cheap."

"I figured as much, father was impressed by it as well, it's a real shame. But what's a bigger shame, is those two over there," Clemont sighs. "What's up with them all of a sudden? Is it still about the pregnancy thing? How did you see it anyway?"

"No, I told them something I think they weren't ready for," Ash answers and grimaces. "I don't think you'll be interested in much of the Aura stuff, it's just that I saw a blue light the size of the nail of a pinky there. So it's still pretty early days, I think, maybe a pregnancy test won't be able to pick it up."

"Father said that, if she's already nauseous, she might have multiples. He told me she and Lucian haven't been together for long."

'Oh damn,' he thinks as he watches Cynthia intently listening to Meyer.

'Three, to be exact. I feel like you will not wish to take a second look.'

'Really, huh? Thanks, Mewtwo, this'll haunt me my whole life.'

'On another note, I think I know what I wish to train you in. Considering you like the ability so much, I feel like you will pick up on the similar technique as Cursed Body uses.'

'Blocking moves? If it'll ever work for me, it'll have to be things I don't like. Like Mega stones. And abilities which cause harm.'

'That can be arranged.'

The teen smiles and shakes his head.

"It's none of our business, though, Clemont."

"You think she won't try and make you godfather of one of them?"

"Don't need to. She knows I would look after them, no matter what."

"You're a good person, Ash," Clemont says and pats him on his shoulder. "Maybe that's what Tierno's jealous of."

"Mm," he hums but it comes out as a sort of non-committal groan instead.

However, the nurse has finished his registration and she hands him his key, smiling widely.

"It's a good day for gradients today," she says and Ash blinks. "Also, you should get yourself some non-slip shoes, I have no doubt in mind that you will best Olympia but Wulfric's Gym is so icy, it won't do if you slip on some ice and get hurt. There's a good store in the neighbourhood, it's pretty close to the Gym so if you're going to shop for a dress, you'll pass by it since all the fashion shops gravitate around that area anyways."

"Thank you for the advice. What err… was the good day for colour patterns yesterday, then?"

"Colour blocking," the nurse answers far too quickly.

'Humans,' Mewtwo murmurs. 'Their concepts of arranging days with some extra peculiar traits like colours make me feel like they still have so much time to waste when all I hear is people complaining that they do not have any time to do the things they love.'

"Okay," Ash says, happy that he's here today instead of yesterday, as far as there's any merit to believe in this superstitious behaviour.

's Not like Serena is going to set the place on fire if they get her a normal, one-colour dress, right? Well, wrong, Clemont -the sucker- is hooked and so is Meyer when he hears about the idea of a gradient-coloured dress. Cynthia tags along as moral support but not for the plan they're about to execute, no, she has her hand firmly around his and Arceus bless her, as Ash walks next to her, slightly wary since he's still out of his comfort zone, he notices how tense she is… and she even looks a little scared.

"I called Lucian," she says, without even looking at him. "The thing I told you I wouldn't do… I suppose I'm not feeling like myself at the moment. But one thing I need you to know, is how sorry I am, Ash."

"What did he say?"

"He's elated, apparently."

She falls silent and Ash takes pity on her.

"You know… Mom didn't make it to full term, the doctors knew, she was so young too. The doctors told my parents that I wouldn't cry because I'd be born prematurely and well… On the darkest day ever, I came out butt first, which is still generally my attitude towards the world, but also crying bloody murder. It took a few months before they could take me home too and some administration needed to be completed but my dad, who my mother claimed stood there stoically the entire time she was giving birth as she broke his hand by squeezing it too much, turned into a goblin while my mom was busy filling out papers and took me out of the room, showing me to every single person who stood still long enough, to show them what he had created. Needless to say, my mother ended up in a room with an empty crib and the big building still ended up too small for the argument that ensued after my dad returned."

She looks at him and he smiles.

"Character isn't set in stone, though I think Lucian is going to be a nice and playful father."

"Mm," Cynthia hums and there's a while of silence before she continues. "I wish I knew that I was doing something good, I mean, I didn't even like doing it…"

Mewtwo has to give Ash a hint that she's talking about the act that creates life, though he can't help but sigh since many ladies in Pallet Town sat him down and told him to listen to his future girlfriend, to make sure she too left satisfied. It stuck with him, mostly because he only recently found out what they meant but he was like, six years old when they told him down and it left him mystified. Poor Cynthia has been left in the same miserable delusion as he was and went ahead and did the act without understanding what was told to her.

"… To quote a familiar professor: 'There's a time and place for everything', even for people pleasing. You wouldn't have told Lucian you loved him if he showed to be so selfish that he wouldn't look after you either, I think you enabled him to be selfish and acted like he did leave you satisfied."

'Oof, friend, what a statement. She will not have expected that from you.'

No, clearly not, Cynthia deflates completely and she remains silent until they get to the store, where Meyer somehow takes the lead and storms into the shop, halting straight at the gradient dresses. Ash is barely paying any attention until he sees a white-to-lilac to-deep purple gradient dress, with a matching pair of leggings. And no, he doesn't see Serena wearing it so he moves on until Cynthia stops him from continuing.

"What do you think I should do?" she asks him and seems serious but Ash, he's still so young too.

"… You should really be going home. You ought to talk to Lucian and you know, try and be happy with him, you're gonna need to be honest to him and not seem like the perfect doll for him to display in a closet no one actually looks at, you're a person, Cynthia, with feelings and dreams and aspirations. I know you do, that's why I even gave you that picture, I know that what I said earlier sounded rude but I really care for you. I mean, if you want to continue and raise these kids," he says and gestures towards her belly. '-then all I can tell you is what my mom told me and that's to have as many people around you as you can. She called it a social group that she could fall back on in case things didn't work out in her favour. I suppose you'll need to separate those who care from the ordinary busybodies but this pregnancy is going to mess with your feelings too, it'll sort out the busybodies from the ones who are there for you pretty quickly. And when you've made your decision, maybe you can look up names and see if you've got room for a nursery of some sort. Mom told me that was all the fun stuff she enjoyed when she was pregnant, like finding all these little clothes only to find that kids grow up so fast and are generally very good at destroying fancy outfits so she really shouldn't have bothered to get so many at all but I remember her telling me that it was a romantic time for her and Red. But above all of the things I just said, the thing you really ought to focus on is that it's okay to be selfish sometimes. 'Cause I want you to be happy too, you know?"

"I wish I could do the same for you, Ash. Of all the things you said, as hard of a pill they were to swallow, you were right," she sighs and takes his hand again. "I know Lucian might fight you on this, but I really do want you involved, Ash."

"I told you already, Cynthia, I'll be there, for you, for the kids, for their kids… I'll always be there when you need me. Or when you don't, though I generally feel like people only start looking for me when they're having trouble with something or just questions," the teen answers, figuring that this is also why Olympia is so 'thrilled' to meet him. "But please don't fight with Lucian over me, I hope you kind of see me as a bit of a friend but either way, don't let me come in the way of your happiness either, it's not the right hill to die on, especially not since you are going to have other priorities. And you're not going to see me getting jealous so he shouldn't be getting jealous of me either. If he does, it'll be the biggest red flag you'll ever see in your life but I figure that's not the case, at all."

"I know. Thank you, Ash. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you."

"Will do."

And while she still gives him a hug, Cynthia leaves shortly after and by that time, Meyer and Clemont picked out a pink-to-red dress that looks pretty good. Ash makes sure to send a picture of it to Serena's mom because he still feels like giving her updates because Mrs. Grace seemed affected by what he told her earlier. Oh boy, and he's right, she's still typing a response by the time he walks out of the store, which took a while since Meyer managed to haggle with the price. Ash wanted to crawl under the floor tiles just listening to him, that dress was so nicely detailed and wonderfully made and yet he found all these 'flaws'? The fact that the manager of the store agreed with the picky man made it all that slight bit worse but he's too distracted by the message he received. He's never had to press 'read more' on a simple message before this but heck, this mother is worried and mad at the same time, just not at him.

"Wow," he says and Clemont, who walks nearest to him, perks up.

"What's the matter?"

"Mrs. Grace told me she liked the dress but I didn't know they'd go so far as to arrest Shauna and Tierno," Ash says, looking up. "She's happy that they're off the streets and she had a talk with their parents and they're not happy with what happened either."

"Do you know what happened to Trevor?"

"She said he's travelling with someone else and that he's fine."

"I'm happy the two of you aren't travelling with them either, I hope they realise what they did and if not, then it's clear they need some help. But one thing I know is that those parents are to blame too," Meyer says, carrying the bag with the dress.

"How?" Ash asks, looking at him dryly. "I bet that those kids were aware enough not to do this in front of their parents, so how would they have known? After all, you didn't realise how much you were bothering your son with the Gym leader title either until he went and built a robot to get out of being the actual Gym leader. But go off, I guess, if you think that Lyssandre is nothing but an ordinary researcher too, while he's just regurgitating opinions."

Meyer gives him the side-eye but doesn't say anything, while Clemont grins.

"You know, Diantha doesn't see anything wrong with Lyssandre. And she asked me to tell you that they did an extensive search underground and all they found were pokémon who belonged there and for you to stop telling people that there is a legendary pokémon being mistreated in Lumiose."

Ash halts briskly and looks straight at Clemont. He's got half a mind to call the woman here and now because how dare she not tell this information to his face and just use someone he truly still considers a friend to pass on this message? But no, if she wants him to stop talking, then he will and no, even if the consequences of her actions will bite her in the butt, he won't be there to assist her. Granted, she doesn't owe him anything but their 'extensive' search clearly wasn't extensive enough or else they would've found the pokémon. But of course, the chances of Lyssandre having heard of the search and how he's being a pain in her ass about this are high enough to know that the man could've hidden the pokémon from the search… or influenced the people to exclude a certain area with some sort of lie how 'nothing could be living there' or something. He can already imagine how it would happen and knowing how some Kalos natives are… Nope, no matter how much anyone begs, he's not coming back to Kalos, no matter what happens or who is here.

"Okay," he eventually says. "I'm going to buy some shoes, see you later."

"Oh, don't you need help?" Clemont asks but as Ash raises an eyebrow at him, the teen recoils.

"I'm fifteen, not five. And I'm not comfortable in a shoe store as is, you're not going to be much of help anyway."

"… You're mad at me, aren't you?"

The teen pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Clemont, I haven't been happy ever since setting foot here in Kalos, this place is offering the worst experience I've ever had, it's rivalling the way I feel about my home town and just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. So please, don't make it worse, I'm not mad at you but you can't expect that I'm going to be all smiles at being told to shut up, especially since she doesn't have the balls to say it to my face. So please, let me get my shoes, I'll see you in the pokémon centre."

"Why don't you come and stay in the house I've rented here?" Meyer asks.

"Why do you even need the non-slip shoes?" Clemont asks.

"You are answering each other's questions, guys. Figure it out, I need to buy some shoes."

Ash rolls his eyes as soon as he turns his back towards the two and starts walking away. He's happy to be on his own for a little while, no one to rain on his parade and no one to tell him off or give jabs at his expense. Perfect conditions where he could end up very happy, actually so why is it so hard to be on his own these days, if all people want is for him to be happy?

"These humans are insane," Necrozma hisses "How is it that the words of liars are always believed?"

Ash wonders about that as well as he trails into the only shoe store he can find. The worker there is quick to assist him but even the young man understands how he isn't comfortable showing his prosthesis off to strangers and leaves him to try on the shoes. It doesn't take long before he finds a pair of shoes that looks suspiciously a lot like ordinary sneakers but they're black with a yellow jagged line on the sides and while it's far from a thunderbolt, Ash likes the idea of it… and he finds himself going back to that store from before since that white to purple dress seems like an ideal present and he feels like buying someone something. The cashier looks at him wary but when he makes no show about his choice and doesn't haggle, she warms up straight away and the manager throws in a cropped, long-sleeved jacket that matches with the dress and leggings, because he made a big buy or something. He wasn't paying much attention anyway, something about today doesn't sit well with him. But still, he returns to the pokémon centre, where no one is waiting for him, except for the nurse who beckons him towards her.

"Hi," he says, a little awkward. "I went and got some shoes, like you said."

"Oh, they're pretty cool too," she answers after peering past the counter, to get a good look at his shoes. "I'm glad you listen to advice. But actually, someone left something for you."

He takes out what he presumes is a bag of something but she tells him that it was Gurkinn who left it for him, which confuses him a little but he can't ask her for more information since a few trainers have just come in… and Olympia handed them their asses, apparently, so their pokémon need care straight away but Ash lingers around to hear how Olympia treated these trainers. Apparently, they tried to go for weaknesses but found themselves in shitty positions soon enough since the double battle style with two Psychic-type pokémon ended up pretty intense, especially since the Gym leader doesn't call out her strategy, which they find unfair. Ash refrains from snorting because two can play that game in his case. They go on a tangent and just generally rile themselves up with anger but one of the trainers notices how Olympia seemed tired and that catches his attention. Maybe his instinct isn't too far off either and coincidentally, Mewtwo's offer to teach him that new ability to block might be able to help her, if, of course, it's her ability pestering her.

'I feel like we ought to check on all abilities, except for the one responsible for thinking since no one here in Kalos is making much use of it. But to block the ability to move and speech seems like it might come in handy.'

'I'm so taking you up on that offer.'

'Excellent. When do we start?'

Ash chuckles as he goes to his room. His mood is lighter already and he's totally planning on raiding that bag of croissants so that he doesn't need to move out of his room. To his joy, dessert is also accounted for already, Gurkinn has left him a bag of candy behind, which is unexpected but when he thanks the man for it, he receives a message back that Gurkinn felt like giving him something for the trouble and that he's glad the gift is appreciated. Lucian has also sent him a message, thanking him for being so supportive of Cynthia and really, it should've been a given but Ash just sends a thumbs-up emoji at the man. He won't mind being in Cynthia's support group but it remains to be seen how far Kalos will stretch his patience. Diantha seemed to have wanted to contact him too but he didn't bother to pick up her call, he's got no words for someone who won't listen and really, he will prioritize the delicious croissants Meep has taken care of over the weird woman. Time will teach her where she went wrong anyway, might as well be since she's clearly not listening to him very closely. Ah well…

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End of chapter forty