I gotta be honest, I never expected this story to get any views, much less almost 1,000 in under an week, so thank you guys. Don't be afraid to leave comments on things I may need to improve on but please be gentle this is my first time and I heard it hurts and- er, getting off topic. Anyway, I've got a poll up concerning this story on my main page. Check it out. Now on to the show! Oh and I don't own pokemon. If I did there would already be a game in which you can travel to literally every region and actually catch them all. Instead I'm writing fanfiction about it. Yay.
Ash was beyond nervous. He was currently flying over the ocean on Charizard. And he boy was he jittery. He kept running his hand through his hair, overcorrecting their course, and generally just annoying the everloving shit out of Charizard. It wasn't his fault, at least not entirely. Those clouds on the horizon behind them were getting darker by the second, and the last thing they needed was to get caught over the ocean in a storm. Plus he was returning to Alola, and he wasn't expecting a very warm welcome. Why would they just take him back? He was the first champion that the region had ever had and he just up and vanished. Sure, he had his reasons. Everyone understood that he was mourning and that he needed time to deal with his grief, but five years? Even he knew that was too far.
And what would he tell his friends? 'Hey guys, I got a dream message from Arceus so now I am back'? How does that work? Sighing, Ash shook his head to clear his thoughts. He would need to focus on getting there safely first. Sure, Charizard was more than capable, but sometimes he got a little too overconfident. And they were flying over water. You get the picture.
It wasn't easy though. He was exhausted from trying to convince his pokemon that they would need to leave the island that had been home for the last five years. Some of them, like Charizard, Pikachu, and Zoey, took very little convincing. They had traveled a lot on their journeys and never really called any one place home. Then there was Torterra, Noctowl, Leavany, and Sceptile, and the like, all of whom had grown to love their island home quite dearly. It had taken Ash hours of begging, pleading, bribing and convincing to get them to agree to come along. And that was after he found all of them. The majority never ventured all that far, but some, like Garchomp, made their home in the more extreme corners of the island.
And now Ash was on his way. He would need to meet with Professor Kukui and Professor Burdette. He owed them an apology almost more than anyone. He had left them after they had taken such good care of him and without a single explanation. Then there was Mallow, Sophocles, Lana, Kiawe. Lillie, oh Arceus, what would he say to Lillie? Despite appearances, Ash had never been completely oblivious to the world around him nor to the girls within it. He had kinda sorta picked up on her feelings for him but, to be honest, they scared him. He didn't want to hurt her, or any of the other girls he had traveled with so he merely pretended not to notice every time. Now, though? Well… Ash was twenty one now. He had gone through his awkward phase already. Even so, things were going to be even more awkward with Lillie when he got back.
And that wasn't even mentioning Gladeon. Oh boy was Ash in for a tongue lashing from him. Beating him in the league finals, traveling to the Galar region for a year, and then just vanishing with no explanation. Not his best move so far. Ash was so busy worrying about what he would say and how everyone would react that he failed to realize something very important. Charizard, affected by Ash's constant overcorrections, had flown off course. And as land came into view, the trainer was too busy worrying to realize that it was not the island region of Alola that they were flying towards.