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It arrived while Ash was over at Professor Oak’s ranch for the day. A clean unfolded white envelope and even addressed so formally to boot. It used his Champion title so it had to be official Pokémon League business.
“I’m home!” Ash called as he pulled the front door shut behind him.
“How was Sam’s?” Delia asked, poking her head out from the kitchen. “Oh, that came for you today,” she pointed to the envelope on the dining table with the spatula in her hand.
Ash crossed the room and took ahold of it. “League business, by mail?” Ash questioned. “Why didn’t they just email me?” he asked as he opened it.
There was a piece of sharply-folded paper inside. The blood drained from the nineteen-year-old’s face as he read over the contents of the letter.
“What is it about?” Delia asked, concern colouring her words as her son continued to stand there, staring at the paper. She hadn’t returned to the kitchen as she had been as intrigued with it contained as he was.
“It’s an invitation, to the five-year commemoration of the — of the Crisis,” Ash told her.
Oh.
“You do not have to go, if you don’t want to,” Delia reminded him before she returned to her kitchen.
He couldn’t have been the only one to receive this, surely?
5:15 P.M.
Ash: Anyone else get a rude shock in the mail today?
Bonnie: yep.
Clemont: Unfortunately.
Serena: I did too.
Serena: It’s a bit indecent, don’t you think? Holding a commemoration of the day that resulted in such destruction and death?
Ash: You’re going?
Bonnie: Aren’t you?
Ash: Not sure yet.
Clemont: Neither.
Serena: Same here.
Ash: We should go, even if it’s just to pay respect to what happened and those who were killed.
Ash: But then again, it’s being held in Lumiose…
Serena: Yeah…
The commemoration was to be held on Monday, the five-year anniversary of the Kalos Crisis to the exact day. And today was Saturday.
If Ash wanted to be there then he had to leave no later than that evening, at the latest. He had two-and-a-half hours to make his mind up; the last flight left Vermillion City Airport at 9:15 P.M.
Pikachu forced his way onto his trainer’s lap.
“You don’t have to go to that event if it’s too much, Sato,” the Electric Type told him softly. Pikachu curled up slightly on Ash’s lap, angling his head in a way that allowed his trainer to pat him easily.
“I know. But I should go,” Ash countered. “They’d be expecting me,” he added.
They were up in Ash’s room, the human was sitting on his bed looking out of the window while the pokémon sat on his lap.
A moment or two of quiet passed before Ash spoke again. “I’m going to go,” he decided.
“Alright,”
Ash hunted around his room for his Rotom Phone so that he could book a plane ticket to Kalos.
Fourteen hours later Ash, with Pikachu in his usual spot on the trainer’s shoulder, stepped off of the plane onto Kalosian ground. He was the last one off of the plane.
As he made his way to the café where he would be meeting the others, he made sure to avoid looking at all the billboards, TVs, and newspaper stands. All of which was certain to have some mention of the Crisis. Ash made it to the café without a problem.
“You three don’t have to go to this thing just because I decided to,” he told them after he had sat down.
“Yes, we do,” Bonnie said.
“They invited us all, if one of us goes, all of us go,” Serena told him. Clemont nodded, agreeing with the girls. There wasn’t much that Ash could say to contradict that then nor would he have any chance at changing their minds.
It was only 11:30 A.M. on Sunday and the event wouldn’t start until 9:20 A.M. the next day. They had just under twenty-two hours until then. Almost a whole day.
Their group head to a hotel and book a room that can sleep all of them. They could have gone to the Pokemon Center but with all that was happening that weekend, it would be packed. When there were that many people staying at one Center, privacy went out the window. Privacy was what they all needed for the next few days. Not to mention that Serena and Ash’s recent effectively-celebrity status meant that it was now unsafe for either of them to stay at a Pokemon Center. If the two of them weren’t able to stay at a Center and had to book a hotel room, then Clemont and Bonnie were joining them. Even if they had their own place in the same city.
The four of them spend the rest of the day catching up on life. While they have kept in touch over the last five years, they have all been busy. There’s only so much conversation that can be had when none of them are even in the same time zone as the others or in one Region for more than two weeks.
Eventually, the sun dipped below the horizon and night fell upon Kalos’ capital city.
The next morning rolled around faster than any of them wanted it to, but it was here now and they had to, as some people say, face the music.
They went downstairs where breakfast was free for all hotel guests. Once breakfast was over and done with, they headed out of their hotel to where today’s event was being held.
As soon as they arrived there, Diantha approached them. She was still the Champion of Kalos, even after all this time; Alain was the only one who had come anywhere close to challenging her for the title.
Diantha looked annoyed, although it was clear it was not at them, but there was also a regretful look in her eyes.
“I’m sorry about this,” she told them, “I would have stopped them from inviting you four if I had known about it but the mayor sent out the invitations on my behalf before even mentioning them to me,” Diantha said.
“It’s not your fault, Champion Diantha,” Clemont said.
“Even with those invitations, it was our choice to come here,” Serena added.
“I couldn’t stop you from being invited nor coming here but I did manage to prevent them from making you deliver a speech, Ash,” the Champion addressed the World Champion, who had been standing there in silence until now.
The Kantonian looked relieved at that as Pikachu chittered something, most likely commenting on what Diantha had just said.
“That’s — that’s good; thanks Diantha,” Ash said.
The event begins. It starts alright, they are alright. The Mayor of Lumiose is saying something that serves as both an introduction to what is coming and also to fill up the time. And then he starts talking about the Crisis. Saying that it will ‘go down in history’ and that ‘both this great Region and the city of Lumiose has made tremendous progress in healing what was ruined’.
Bonnie looks over her brother and friends as the mayor talks, she is checking that they are all faring okay.
It’s been years since all…that happened, Bonnie is thirteen now. She’s experienced a lot on her three-year-long journey, she’s not a little kid anymore; so when she looks over her group and sees the way that her other, not-by-blood older brother is staring at the stage but not really seeing it, she decides to do something about it.
Bonnie leaves her spot standing to the left of Clemont and makes a gesture in Pikachu’s direction. The electric-type mouse doesn’t look to be doing all that well either but he seems to be more aware of his surroundings than his Trainer. Pikachu pushes gently on Ash’s shoulders and neck, speaking quietly into his ear. He gets him to move.
With Pikachu directing Ash, the blonde leads them all away from the crowd and out of earshot of the mayor’s speech which is still going on . Clemont and Serena catch sight of them leaving but don’t say anything, she has the feeling that they will come to find them soon enough. The pair end up sitting on a bench in some alleyway, one that doesn’t have a view of Lumiose Tower and is relatively quiet.
Unlike her from five years ago, Bonnie now is perfectly fine to sit on this and wait until Ash comes back to himself. Which he does eventually, blinking the life back into his eyes as Pikachu pushes his shiny black nose into his hands, effectively demanding pets.
“Hi,” Ash greets, looking over to her from where he had previously been staring at Pikachu’s lemon-yellow fur.
“Hi,” she returns. In the silence that settles over them, Serena and Clemont finally appear right. Clemont explains that they had tried to leave over five minutes ago but had gotten tangled up with various authority figures that couldn’t take a hint.
Somehow all four of them manage to squeeze onto that bench together. It’s tight but they make it work. They sit there for an indeterminate amount of time, only getting up because Pikachu decides he wants ketchup right now and Dedenne follows suit, only he wants Serena’s macarons.
When Bonnie shares this with the two humans of their group who can’t understand what Pokemon say, Serena asks, “How did Dedenne know that I had made macarons?”
To which the electric/fairy-type tells her, translated and passed on through Bonnie obviously, that he smelled it on her clothing when they met up yesterday.
On their way back to the hotel, the four make a unanimous decision to never attend this sort of thing ever again. The next time they get an invitation, if there ever is a next time, they are going to ignore it.
Pikachu decides on the spot that if Ash ever gets another invitation, he’ll scorch it to all Distortion with Thunderbolt. The guilt of not stopping his Trainer from coming to this event has nothing to do with it, not at all.