Ron the True Fan: Shorter, perhaps filler-esque, but not a damn thing I do is without a purpose. WE HATE FILLER CONTENT!
One day from Olivine City - 1921 hours - Day 467 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
Max STILL had no idea what happened, but at least he was learning some of the more necessary skills in the art of Pokemon training from Ash, who actually taught him a few more tricks from the Galaxy Expedition Team.
Ironically, the same force that would later become Team Galactic.
Hikari, though, was proving to be a bit of a problem.
"Ano…Er…" the bluenette started, Ash trying to coach her through a sentence in modern Kantoan.
"Come on." Ash encouraged, black bags under his eyes undermining the gentle expression on his face and his words, making him look just a tad menacing. "You can do it."
She nodded as Max watched. "Pokemon…have…" she started. "Ichi-ju…Ten?"
Max sighed. "Slow going?" he asked his mentor.
"Very. I keep forgetting my family somehow has the ability to learn languages insanely fast and not everyone can do that." he said as Hikari looked at a pronunciation guide Ash had written up with a little help from Hikari herself, lining up the two languages to make things easier. "How's life?"
"Still can't remember what happened two weeks ago." Max admitted. "Walked into a room and…blank. Next thing I remember, you're checking my head."
Ash snorted. "You're better off, Max. Please drop it." he said before Hikari started practicing with vowels.
"But what if it happens again?" Max pleaded, getting a look from his mentor. "You don't find this concerning?"
"Max, I've been all over the world dealing with weird shit for most of my life." Ash said. "My level of being worried is basically limited to the region and the world in general. If it's not life-threatening, I don't see a reason to be concerned. It's not effecting anything."
"But I need to KNOW." Max whined.
"Max, some things are best left untouched, unknown and generally ignored." Ash retorted, before his expression turned to exasperation. "I know from experience, or haven't we noticed the fact I HAVE ISSUES WITH SLEEPING AT NIGHT?"
Max scowled, but Ash had a point.
"Your curiosity is a strength, Max, but sometimes, hell MOST of the time, some things are best left alone." Ash said bluntly. "So leave it be. Please." With that, he turned back to Hikari.
Max was not going to just let it be.
Hikari knew she had to do this. With Ash's loathing of time travel and his paranoia over messing with the timeline, going home was not an option.
But learning a new language was not easy. She had to translate everything TWICE. Couldn't she get help from the psychic parrots? Just have one of them take the information from… Serena or Misty and dump it into her head?
Ash, obviously, wasn't an option. Giratina's realm was poison to the living: their minds broke and drove them mad and to end their lives, Ash only remaining alive thanks to stubborn will and his utter hate of Team Galactic.
…and the women in his life giving him purpose to live beyond ending Cyrus' life.
"ARGH!" she yelled. "This is insane!"
"Take a break, Hikari." Ash said gently, patting her on the head before she flushed red enough to equal the sun and he left the wagon to brave the MUD.
Then she felt something nest on her head.
"Natu… I need your help," she said to the parrot.
"Natu," said the ball of feathers.
"I need you to get one of the others and put their language knowledge into my head." she said to the parrot, who seemed unimpressed with the request. "...I need to know this to live in this time."
Natu took off, floating with psionic power out of the wagon while also flapping her wings comically.
Hikari sobbed.
While the journey was long between towns thanks to MUD, that didn't mean there weren't things to deal with.
It's simply that they weren't worth noting or writing about. Like almost EVERY filler episode in Johto. (WHACK!)
What? I speak for everyone here: we ALL hate filler content. (MORE WHACK!)
With all that said, the downside of such activity was that Ash was simply exhausted, mentally and physically, as Hisui was so DRAINING that he was starting to nap more and more often.
Not that Serena was complaining. More cuddles as far as her happy little head was concerned, as she was doing just that: Ash's head nestled between her all-natural pillows.
Good thing she was doing exercises to counteract the stress the weight would cause to her back. She might've wanted them, but she was MORE than aware of the consequences of having big bouncy boobs.
But Ash was worth the pain.
'WHY are you such a pervert…' Astral Serena sobbed.
'Hey, I'm not just your highly-charged, long suppressed libido, remember?' Jade thought back. 'I'm also your confidence. And thanks to you breaking Ash-'
The 'ghost' glared at the physical girl. 'I didn't BREAK him!' she counted before rubbing her hands together sheepishly. 'I… asked him."
'I'd say he's whipped, but if he REALLY wanted to, he could control us, not that YOU would mind, so don't lie to me,' Jade replied. 'That's lying to yourself. Literally. But back to the point, now that his vow no longer applies, you're confident as all hell. And the more confident you are-'
'The more perverted I am…' the psionic imprint sobbed.
'Instead,' Rey said as Ash rolled over, face-first into a very compromising position. Again, if she was anyone else, she'd scream and slap. But she wasn't anyone else. The girls understood and they knew he wasn't a pervert. He was just calmed by their heartbeats, the nightmares kept away by them.
Anything more lewd would have to wait another two and a half years. Not that Serena as a whole minded. She just thought of it as two years of dating before they finally crossed the line into married bliss.
And all the FUN that came with it.
'At least she is keeping it under control.' Hime snorted. 'We would be in more trouble otherwise.'
Jade laughed. 'PLEASE! The only one who gets to see the really perverted side of us is Ash!' the perverted personality declared. 'We're his, even if we have to share him with the others.'
'Lucky skanks.' Yuno groused before being gagged again and dragged off.
'Lucky US, too.' Jade said, eyesmiling like a certain land shark. 'After all, the others are a feast for our eyes, too!'
She then felt something land on her head. "Natu." said the something, identifying it as Ash's parrot.
"What's up, parrot?" asked the girl before Natu's eyes glowed and revealed the problem Hikari was having. "OH. Hikari wants to cheat? …Doesn't she know psychically implanted knowledge doesn't exactly stick?"
Oh, sure, it was tried before. Implanting knowledge into someone's brain using a psychic-type seemed easy, right? Turns out the brain HATES that sort of thing. It was so counterproductive that everyone just gave up on it. It took dozens of attempts to just get it to stick for more then five minutes.
And even then it took constant practice for it to be ingrained.
"Unless she wants to be turned into a perv, she'll have to look somewhere-"
"Natu." the bird cut off, leaning over to look her in the eye upside down.
"…RIGHT, because we're all kinda perverted anyway, so what's the harm?" Serena deadpanned. "All yours, little guy."
Natu's eyes glowed before she pecked Serena gently and Natu-ported away.
Olivine City Gym - the next day - 1023 hours local
Kyoji wondered if Ash was going to just demolish the little girl.
"You know waxing the hell out of your Onix is illegal in a regulation match, right?" Ash told the 15-year old verdette, who stared blankly at him. "That coat makes him waterproof; the rules are there to encourage creativity, not ruin your day. Now, where is Janine? Because I KNOW you're not her."
"Janina, remove the polish from your Onyx." said a very beautiful young brunette wearing a white sundress who walked into the room. "Ash Ketchum and his infamous harem. I don't suppose you've come to try your luck on me."
Kyoji snorted and laughed at that, earning him looks from Ash and Janine, one of exasperation, one of confusion and amusement. "Oh, come on, it's not like anyone's outright demanded it before!" he defended.
"Well, obviously he's here for a gym battle and I am not stupid enough to believe I have a chance unless he humors some challenge I impose, which I really can't given the fact he's also fighting on Lance's behalf to take over the region." the gym leader said, Ash scowling at that. "I take it you're not happy, but to be honest, Lance has something of a point about consolidating the region. That said-"
"You have a sick Ampharos and you aren't taking challengers until he's well." Ash cut off, making her give him a look of confusion. "Your student is here instead of you, your lighthouse is famous for having an Ampharos and you're well-known for caring for it. Should I go on?"
Janine huffed. "You're well-informed." she muttered. "And SHE'S sick, but it's not exactly easy to tell the difference with the Mareep line at a glance, so that's easily forgiven. She's got medicine in Cianwood, but there's an infestation of Shadow Gyarados off-shore-"
A metallic snap got their attention as Serena pulled out her torque bow. "KILL THEM ALL," she said darkly.
Misty pushed the weapon down to point it at the floor. "I think Ash can go alone for this one." she stated. "I don't think there's much reason for all of us to deal with them and it might be safer for just Ash to go…"
"Charizard and I can go with him." Kyoji declared. "As an escort."
"And he has to keep me around him at all times." Max reminded. "He IS my teacher."
Ash's eye twitched. "At least the idiots aren't going to kidnap a Lugia." he muttered, confusing Janine, but Ash was known to be a bit… eccentric and his trip into the Distortion Realm was also common knowledge thanks to the Ransei debacle, so she chalked it up to long-term sleep deprivation and partial insanity caused by said sleep deprivation.
The former Rockets glanced at one another with a tad bit of fear from that statement. "Go find a hotel," Ash half-suggested, all-but-ordered. "I'll be back at the end of the day after I kick Chuck's ass."
"You're going to fight Chuck before you come back?" Janine demanded. "What are you-"
"Killing as many birds with one stone as possible. Unless Sparkly, Amphy, whatever her name is, is on the brink of death, he can wait another couple of hours." Ash cut off gently. "Right?"
Janine stared at him, annoyed, but more with not thinking of that herself. "No, she's not going to die, but would you make someone wait for medical attention?" she asked pointedly.
"I don't want to go cross the ocean and deal with that many Shadow Gyarados with a large group after going there ONCE." Ash retorted. "And while I don't like Lance using me as his tool of conquest, the sooner those things are balled and purified, the better, right?"
Janine stared blankly, not having thought of that apparently.
"Yeah, Ash isn't as stupid as he looks sometimes." Kyoji said, Serena turning to glare at him for that comment. "…And running time."
He narrowly avoided a torque bolt to the ass as he ran for the door.
Ash sighed. "I miss the days where I could pretend to be a lot more naive and dumb…" he said before leaving the gym, Max tailing him closely. "Life was so much SIMPLER…"
Ron the True Fan: Let's just say this is the last chapter I am putting out for a while. Not because of writer's block, but because the demand for updates has outstripped the number of chapters I have pre-plotted. We plan these ahead of time.
Takeshi Yamato: And as we've reached the end of planned material, that means we need to do more planning. …Don't expect the next chapter before October. August if we're LUCKY.
Ron the True Fan: So…hate to say this, but the ones demanding frequent updates pretty much brought this true hiatus on themselves. That said, I will be plotting whenever I am not making vids to buy myself another 24 hours per 2 vids. Also, because it's been a while, subs = chapters in the long run. Don't worry: while this will not take as long as Take is hoping (cue him cursing me out) I'll be FINISHING Johto's planning and making preparations for Hoenn. And for those paying attention, the TRUE seventh member of the harem will be introduced at the end of the arc, as everyone else was tacked on after Take decided to OPEN THE BLOODY FLOODGATES…
Takeshi Yamato: Wanted to keep up the tradition. New Region, New Girl.
Ron the True Fan: And now it's turning into 'all veterans automatic, new girl in every region'. And I keep putting up with the 'ALOLA' crowd. NONE of them are in Ash's age bracket: they're either too young or WAY too old. (Goes on a LONG rant that goes into R-rated territory and will NOT be repeated)
Takeshi Yamato: Yeah, and evening out the age gap just ain't happening. So… yeah, sorry, none of the Alola girls are gonna be in the harem. They may have sibling roles at best. And as per usual, please watch the Tethys Shipyard vids. And if you play Star Trek Adventures, consider running one of our campaign guides. And if you stream or otherwise record it, please share it with us so we can enjoy watching it.
Ja ne!