Hello and blessings to you all. I apologize for the longer than usual delay, but life has been quite busy over the last couple weeks. I'm back though and ecstatic to be bringing another chapter. This will be another anime chapter based off of one of my favorite Kanto filler episodes. I thought it would be good to have a more relaxed chapter after the previous one. Anyway, let's hop in!
Chapter 15: The School of Hard Knocks
It had been a few days since the gang had faced the poachers and they were moving ever closer to Lavender Town. Unfortunately, that did not mean spirits were as high. As they should be.
"Ugh, I'm so hungry." Ash complained as he rubbed his stomach, "Brock, can we please have some lunch?"
The answer to this question was well known as it had been asked several times today.
"We can't." Brock replied patiently, "I already told you, when we left Cerulean City, I only packed enough for three people. We only have enough food for a meal or two and might not make it to Lavender Town till tomorrow evening."
"Way to go Misty." Ash growled as he continued to rub his stomach.
"Don't blame me, Ash. This wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have the appetite of a Snorlax!" Misty shot back.
"You know I always say that you're a pain but now you're actually causing me pain!" Ash shouted.
This caused the two to enter a full on shouting match. Serena was unlucky enough to have been walking between the two and was now getting stuck with earfuls on both sides of her. This had unfortunately been fairly common the last two days. Food had started to run low and Brock began cutting meals. It also didn't help that for the last few hours the group had been walking through a thick fog. Serena desperately looked to Brock for help and the older trainer sighed, "Well we can't have any food but I can make some tea to tide us over." The older boy offered.
Ash immediately broke off his argument with Misty and smiled broadly, "That sounds great to me!"
"Now we just need some firewood." Brock said as he settled near a tree and began pulling out supplies.
"Well since Ash is a big strong man: I volunteer him to do it." Misty said cheerfully.
Ash scowled at the red head, "Well since I've been training way harder than you, I think you should do it."
"I've been training way harder and I started training Serena as well!"
This turned into another shouting match until Brock put his hands over his ears and shouted, "Oh both of you go!"
The two tried arguing about this and he snapped again, "If you don't bring firewood back then you don't get any tea."
The two trainers seemed to give up arguing with him and sulked off into the dense fog. Though there could still be vague grumblings heard even after they had disappeared.
"Hopefully they don't argue too much while they get firewood." Serena said with a sweat drop.
"As long as I don't have to hear it." Brock grumbled, causing the performer to giggle.
"I kind of like it." Serena admitted. "My younger brother and sister used to argue all the time. So it reminds me of home."
Brock laughed sarcastically at this, "Oh just wait until you're the one having to break it up. Won't seem so cute then."
The two then heard even louder shouts through the fog. This was different though, it sounded much more aggressive than the usual bickering.
Deep in the fog, Ash was staring furiously ahead. He and Misty had separated to see who could find the most firewood when he spotted a faint light in the distance. Walking closer he finally found five boys about his age wearing matching navy blue school uniforms. Two of the boys had restrained a third while another punched him repeatedly in the stomach. The final boy, a spiky red haired boy standing about 5'9 sneered as he watched the scene.
"Did you think being a pokemon trainer would be easy? If you're going to be so pathetic you should just go home now."
"Hey! What's going on here?" Ash shouted as marched towards the group.
The five boys looked up at Ash with surprise.
"And who are you?" One of the boys asked.
"It doesn't matter who I am. Now why don't you leave him alone!"
The red haired boy stepped forward. Based on what he saw Ash assumed that this was the leader.
"Listen kid, I don't know who you are but this is a private matter. So get lost."
Ash growled, "I don't care if this is private or not, I'm not going to let you get away with bullying."
"Yea you tell him, Ash!" Came a voice from behind the raven haired trainer. Ash wheeled around to see Misty standing there, "I'm not going to let you get away with this either!"
"Misty, I can handle this myself." Ash complained.
"Oh you can, can you?" Misty said with a devious smirk coming across her face, "Well if that's the case I'll just stay here and let you fight those four on your own. Unless of course you're scared."
Ash inwardly grimaced at this, Misty had trapped him. Now he had to fight or look like a coward. He surveyed each of the boys carefully as they gave him devious grins. None of them looked particularly intimidating, still though four to one seemed like rough odds.
"Relax" Said the red haired boy after a moment, "We don't fight, we're not barbarians after all. Besides, class is about to end anyway."
With this he nodded to the two boys holding their victim and they threw the boy roughly into the ground before stalking off.
Ash rushed over to the boy laying in the dirt and helped him to his feet.
"Thanks" The boy said weakly as he dusted himself off. He was short and skinny, only standing about 5'6 with messy brown hair.
"Well that was interesting." Brock said as he and Serena finally caught up to their friends.
"Are you ok?" Serena asked.
The boy blushed momentarily at Serena before looking away in embarrassment, "You all shouldn't have helped me. Now they'll just make things worse."
"Aren't you a little old to be getting bullied?" Misty asked bluntly.
"It's a school tradition." The boy groaned, "I'm Joe by the way."
The group went down the line introducing each other before Brock asked, "School tradition? Do you happen to go to Milton Institute?"
"That's right." Joe affirmed, "I actually just graduated in May."
"What's Milton Institute? And if you graduated, why are you still dressed in a school uniform?" Ash asked.
"Milton is an elite private school. One of the best, and most expensive, in the world, actually." Brock explained, "One thing they're known for is when students who are going on pokemon journeys graduate they have them remain at the school for three additional months so that they can go through an extensive training program."
"Who'd want to do more schooling?" Ash grumbled.
"It's actually not as bad as it sounds." Joe explained, "We spend most of our time outdoors with our pokemon and occasionally fly to different parts of the region to catch rare pokemon for our teams. Actually in the past five years two of the rookies who've gone the furthest in the Kanto league came from Milton."
"And is what those others were doing to you part of your training as well?" Mist enquired.
"No, well, not officially." Joe mumbled, "I've been really starting to struggle in my training so they were just trying to give me some extra motivation."
"And what do your teachers think about this motivation tactic?" Serena asked.
"Well they don't know about it. Or if they do they certainly pretend they don't. But Milton has a reputation of excellence. And as pokemon trainers we have a responsibility to uphold that excellence, no matter the cost." Joe seemed to be reciting the last part as if he'd heard it before.
"Is that a school saying?" Brock asked.
"No it's what the top student in my class always says."
"I'm guessing he's the one leading the bullying. Is it that red head kid?" Ash asked.
"Who Zach? No Zach is kind of like the enforcer. He gets told who needs to do better and takes care of it. He's been getting told a lot recently that I need to do better." Joe mumbled sadly.
"Then who's the leader? I say we have a talk with him!" Ash exclaimed.
"You're really fired up about this." Brock noticed.
"You bet I am!" Ash said as he clenched his fists, "There's nothing I hate more than bullies!"
Serena smiled at this. Watching Ash defend others was one of the first traits that made her like him. Afterall it was once her that he was defending.
"I'm with you Ash!" Misty added, "I say we march up to this student and demand an end to this. All people have the right to their dignity!"
"Alright Misty! Now where can we find him, Joe?" Ash said with a big smile.
"It's actually a girl." Joe said before pulling a picture out of his wallet, "This is what she looks like."
"Give me that!" Brock almost shouted as he snatched the picture out Joe's hand. He and Ash observed it closely.
"You carry a picture around of someone who bullies you?" Misty asked incredulously.
"Well, I don't like how she treats me but I like the way she looks."
Looking at the picture it wasn't hard to see why. The girl looked tall, standing close to 5'8, with dark brown hair running down the length of her back and equally brown eyes. Her skin was white as snow and she had a slender body.
"Yea… she, uh, sure is something." Ash said with dumb look on his face and slightly pink cheeks.
"Yea, she can violate my rights any day." Brock mumbled in his usual trance he had around pretty girls.
"Oh shut up!" Misty said, punching Brock on the top of the head.
Serena though was frozen in her place. Why was Ash staring at the picture like that? Why was he blushing? Ash Ketchum was never interested in girls, right? Through all the years of struggling to get Ash to notice her as more than a friend this had been the thought that kept her going. The knowledge that one day he would start noticing girls and Serena would be right there. But here was Ash drooling over the picture of another girl. Had he just not met a girl that was his type?
Serena desperately looked at Misty, hoping to get some silent encouragement or support. Unfortunately the girl didn't seem to notice. It's possible that a good looking bully was hitting too close to home for Misty on account of her sisters. The red head was fully on a warpath now.
"If you two want to act like idiots that's fine. I'll go deal with this girl myself!" Misty raged, "Joe, take us to your school right now!"
"It's actually right over there." Joe said, pointing into the distance. In a strange coincidence at that very moment a loud announcement was heard over the intercom, "The fog training period has officially ended. Please take the rest of the day to rest and recover."
At these words the fog dispersed immediately and a massive school appeared only a few hundred yards from.
"Let's go." Huffed Misty as she marched forward.
As the group walked on Serena eyed Ash nervously. The last thing in the world she wanted was for Ash to meet this mystery girl. Fortunately Ash seemed to slip out of his stupor.
"Hey Brock, how come they were doing training in fog? I don't think I've ever seen a battle in that weather condition before." Ash asked.
As always Brock had pretty quickly snapped out of his stupor as well, "That's because no official battle is ever fought in fog. If the conditions were bad enough to impair visibility the pokemon league would set pokemon up above the stadium to use sunny day. Training in Fog is actually a well known training technique. The idea is that with less visibility both pokemon trainer and pokemon need to work in closer harmony. The trainer needs to learn to issue more descriptive yet concise commands while the pokemon learns to react quicker to its surroundings."
"I wish you would've mentioned that earlier so I could have done some training of my own." Ash grumbled.
"We actually do fog training once a week here. I guess the school has some pokemon that can change the weather." Joe said matter of factly, "Unfortunately since nobody can see anything it's recently been the time that Zach punishes the student Giselle tells him to."
At this Zach swiped a card to open the front gate to the school. As Ash walked into the front courtyard of the school he was taken back by how massive the place was. In fact the courtyard was larger than the entire school that he and Serena had gone to. The school was a large white building with an orange roof. It had a very traditional feel with large white columns lining the entrance and a grand staircase to the main doors. As they entered the school there was a clear lack of students that became noticeable. Joe explained to them that the most recent graduating class had been 200 students, of which about 60 remained to prepare for a journey. Those in lower grade levels had left for the summer as well. The highlight of the tour for Ash was stopping by the large cafeteria where the raven haired boy was able to make up for the lack of food over the previous few days.
"I'm starting to like this place more and more!" Ash said as he stuffed his face with french fries.
"You should see it when school is actually in session, the food is to die for!" Joe said with a smile.
"Yea whatever. Let's just go find that little witch." Misty grumbled.
"Misty, do you really need to confront this girl? I mean it doesn't really feel like our business." Serena stated tepidly.
"I'll stand up to bullies wherever they are!" Misty responded resolutely.
"Aww, Misty's just jealous about the other girl being prettier." Ash said as he kept munching on his meal.
"That is not it!" Misty shouted as she punched the boy on the head.
Joe sweat dropped at the antics, "I don't think confronting Gisele will do much good. I mean it's not like she'll have any reason to listen to you."
"Well for your information, I happen to be one of the gym leaders of Cerulean City." Misty boasted.
"Oh I definitely wouldn't mention that, the Cerulean City gym is kind of a joke around here."
"Why's that?" Misty barked.
Joe got up and motioned for the group to follow him. They finally entered a room full of computers. Sitting down at one of the computers, Joe pulled up a program.
"We spend a lot of time here doing simulation battles." The boy explained.
"Simulation battles?" Ash questioned.
"That's right." Joe said as he showed them the simulation. It was a game where he could give orders to his pokemon against an opponent. "Cerulean City is always the easiest gym to beat in it."
"This is nothing like a real battle!" Misty scoffed.
"I have to agree with Misty on this one." Ash added.
"Our teachers say that this is a better way to learn how to battle compared to actual battles. It strips the distractions of battle away to focus on what really matters: attack, defense, speed, and move pools."
"So it's about analytics." Brock said.
"Exactly" responded Joe.
"Brock, what's analytics?" Serena asked.
"Analytics is a school of thought that much of training and battling is flawed because trainers focus on the wrong things. The idea is through using numbers you can cut through these distractions to focus on what really matters."
"That's right, analytics is the future of pokemon! And Milton uses simulations to teach us to be the optimal battlers." Joe exclaimed.
"Well… maybe." Brock replied, "But keep in mind pokemon battles aren't a math competition. Things don't always go the way they're supposed to. And when things get messy the best trainers are those who can adapt, something this type of training doesn't account for."
"The teachers here say that is just irrational thinking. That's the reason nobody ever loses to the Cerulean gym, the water pokemon there aren't built with analytics in mind."
"Alright that does it! If you think my gym is so weak, let's have a real battle!" Misty shouted.
"Ok, but I already know I'll win." Joe sighed.
The group then walked to a battlefield behind the school. Misty released her Starmie while Joe released a Weepinbell.
"Smart move!" Joe called, "Your Starmie brings a secondary typing that gives it the advantage over Weepinbell."
Misty growled, she had no interest in humoring the know it all. It also didn't help that in truth Starmie was her only pokemon. Misty had revealed to the gang that her father had asked her to leave Staryu to help in the gym. Misty desperately wanted to get to another fishing spot as soon as possible to find more water pokemon.
"Alright Weepinbell, let's start this off with vine whip!" Joe ordered. The strange plant pokemon released a pair of vines that went to slap down on Starmie.
"Bubblebeam" Misty ordered. The star pokemon fired an array of bright blue bubbles. The bubbles slammed into the grass type with great speed and burst everywhere. Weepinbell was completely overpowered by the attack and blasted back into Joe, completely knocked out.
"How" Joe whimpered as he held his pokemon in complete shock.
"Well" Brock began but a sneering voice cut him off.
"Isn't it obvious? The reason you lost is because you're weak."
The group looked up to see none other than Giselle standing there flanked by Zach and the other bullies from earlier.
"Hey, lay off him." growled Misty.
"It's important that he knows now." Giselle responded without even looking at Misty, "Milton Institute is famous for its ability to produce talented trainers. Joe needs to accept he isn't strong enough and quit so he doesn't damage the prestige of the school we're all so proud of."
"And who are you to judge him!" Misty challenged.
Giselle smiled beautifully while clearing her long brown hair from her face, "Who am I? Well I'm Giselle Stevens of course. Heiress of the Stevens Resort Corporation. Top student in this year's graduating class. I'm the most talented, most intelligent, and most beautiful student this school has ever seen!"
"And the most humble." Misty said with a sweat drop.
For the first time Giselle studied the group in front of her, "It's not bad enough you tarnish our school with your own presence Joe, now you bring this rift raft in as-oh."
The girl's eyes were fixed now on Ash. Giselle swiftly crossed the room until she was face to face with the raven haired trainer, "Well hello there. I'm Giselle Steven, heiress to the Stevens Resort Corporation."
"Yea you're the most talented, most intelligent, and most of all the most beautiful student this school has ever seen. I heard you the first time. I'm Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town." Ash replied awkwardly.
Giselle gave an over the top giggle, "Cute and a good listener, I like that Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town."
Ash blushed and looked at his feet at this. Serena again froze. Watching Ash get hit on by another girl felt like somebody dumping a bucket of cold water over her head.
"I'm a great listener too!" Brock jumped in, "I can also be quite the romantic." He added taking the girls hand.
Giselle swiftly swiped it away from him, "No you reek of the lower class. Beside, I don't date older men."
Brock sulked in the corner at this, "I'm only two years older than you."
"If you think you're so great why don't you battle me!" Misty shouted, bringing the attention back on her.
Giselle gave a condescending laugh, "Oh I don't battle, I'm a pokemon performer." She then turned back to Ash, "I'll actually be performing in Vermillion City in about a month. Maybe I can arrange some tickets for you and you can come cheer me on." She added the last part with a wink.
"HE-CAN'T-DO-THAT-BECAUSE-HE'LL-BE-CHEERING-ME" Serena shouted. It was only after the words left her mouth did the girl realize how loud and fast she had said them.
Giselle now studied Serena closely. It was like she had just noticed the girl for the first time. With an ugly scowl on her face she said, "You're a performer?"
"That's right." Serena responded as confidently as she could, "And I'm competing in Vermillion City as well."
"You should just give up now." Giselle responded dismissively as she turned away.
"What?" Serena replied in shock.
"Hold on Giselle, I think this girls got some talent. She could be your rival." Zach replied as he and the other boys leered at Serena. The honey blonde haired girl rolled her eyes at the group.
"Zach quit being such an animal, it's beneath you." Giselle responded before looking back at Serena, "You should quit now because you'll stand no chance against me. In the last ten years Milton Institute has had six girls go on to be crowned queen of a region. Do you know why that is? Because here at Milton we are taught from a young age about elegance and grace. A nobody like you clearly lacks those qualities. It's not entirely your fault, you're undoubtedly a poor country bumpkin from who cares where."
Serena prepared a retort but another voice cut her off.
"You take that back!" Ash shouted, "Serena is more elegant than you could ever be. You might be pretty on the outside but you're rotten on the inside!"
"That's right!" Misty chimed in.
Giselle merely smiled and tossed her hair, "I only speak the truth, I know it can be hard to hear sometimes."
Ash looked back at Serena, "Come on guys were leaving. This place stinks."
"Running away already." Zach taunted as the group turned away, "I was hoping to give you a beat down in a pokemon battle first."
If Serena didn't know any better she would've thought Zach was trying to impress Giselle after the girl hit on Ash.
"Fine" Ash growled, "Let's do it.
The two then took their position on opposite sides of the field with pokemon balls in hand.
Ash opened his up to reveal it was empty and shouted, "Go Pikachu!"
Zach smirked, "Go Graveler."
"Oh no!" Joe shouted.
"Too bad" Giselle sighed.
"What's wrong?" Serena asked.
"This is bad, Ash is at a total mismatch. The simulation would give him less than a 1% chance of victory." Joe replied.
"Hah, you fool!" Zach taunted, "This is why you should always keep your pokemon in their pokeball. I knew that you had a Pikachu so I chose a pokemon that would be strong against it. The numbers say it gives me the best chance of winning."
"Oh you think so." Ash responded nonchalantly.
"Pikachu is an electric type pokemon with few coverage moves until it evolves. Against a ground type you stand no chance!"
Ash smirked, "Then make your move."
"Fine" Zach responded, "Graveler use rollout!"
The large rock pokemon jumped and folded into a ball before barreling at Pikachu.
"Dodge it, Pikachu." Ash ordered. The small yellow rodent easily danced around each of the bigger pokemon's attacks.
"Hah you're even more of a fool! Don't you know the longer Graveler does rollout the faster and more powerful it gets? You won't be able to dodge for long." Zach taunted.
"Zach's right, there's nothing Pikachu naturally learns that can hurt Graveler. And Zach's is so strong it could win with one hit." Joe added.
"Is that what the analytics tells you?" Misty asked, "Just keep watching."
After a few more dodges Graveler was now going at an incredible speed. The rock type was barely more than a blur as it charged for Pikachu again.
Ash now gave a soft smile, "Do it, Pikachu!"
The yellow mouse jumped in the air as its tail glowed white. Right as Graveler got near the electric type swung down on it and smashed an iron tail dead on. The rock type stopped dead in its tracks as it laid out face first on the ground. For a moment the entire room was speechless. Pikachu turned and dashed back over to Ash who broke the silence by cheering, "Way to go buddy!" as his partner nuzzled against his face.
"How?" Zach asked as he sank to his knees.
"Yea, how?" Joe echoed. The boy seemed happy yet just as confused.
"As I tried to tell you earlier." Brock began, "Milton's model has its uses but it's often inflexible. Ash let Graveler get up to incredible speeds because he knew the force of iron tail would certainly knock it out in one turn. This is a strategy a simulation simply wouldn't expect. Again, this is a real life battle, not a computer game."
Ash walked over to Zach who was now kneeling in front of his slumped over pokemon, "For the record: I taught Pikachu iron tail after we got beat down by another rock and ground type. It's hard for a Pikachu to learn iron tail so it took us weeks to learn but we pushed through it. That's the mark of a true trainer: facing obstacles and pushing through them no matter what. Maybe Milton can add it to next years curriculum." He then turned to his friends, "Let's go guys, I think we're done here."
"Wait!" A voice shouted. Ash turned to see Giselle coming towards him with a blush on her face, "You never told me if you'd come cheer me on at the next showcase."
"I'll be there but I'm going to be rooting for Serena." Ash responded dismissively as he headed towards the door.
Giselle scowled at Serena, "Her?"
"Of course, she is going to be Kanto Queen after all."
Serena couldn't help but blush at Ash's words but Giselle broke her from her trance.
"We'll see about that." The Milton girl spat.
"You're right." Serena responded as she glared back at the girl before finally turning and following her friends.
"That was really amazing, Ash!" Joe said. "I think you guys are right, I'm going to call my parents and tell them I'm going to start my journey early. It's clear that I'm behind enough because of this school as is."
"That's awesome, Joe. Best of luck." Ash responded.
"You know what, I guess you were pretty cool there, Ash" Misty said.
"What are you talking about, I'm always cool." Ash said.
"Yea right." Misty scoffed before turning to Serena, "It sounds like you have your first rival too. You'll need to start training extra hard."
"I won't lose!" Serena responded with confidence, knowing Misty was talking about more than performances.
"That's the spirit, Serena!" Ash cheered, "Now Brock, how about we take a break for some lunch."
And that's it for this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed a simpler storyline. Giselle will be a recurring rival of Serena's. I know a lot of the chapter focused on her at odds of Misty but that will continue to morph into a rivalry with Serena as the story goes on. Serena will have additional rivals you will all surely recognize though I'm still trying to decide who would be best to add. Anyway, thank you again for reading and, in case I don't get another chapter out this week, I hope all who celebrate have a blessed Easter week!