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Nowhere in particular.
Ash stared darkly at the clouds above as he replayed the question in his head.
“Now that you’ve become Champion, how much closer are you to being a Pokemon Master?”
He was surprised he’d never considered it before. Had he really been moving towards his goal all along? Was he a Pokémon Master? He walked ponderously down the road, long shadows stretching behind him like answers: he knew if he turned, they would be gone.
Pikachu cantered a few steps behind him, an inquisitive glance twinkling in his eyes.
Dappled sun-rays stretched lazily across Ash’s face. He felt that his thinking was sluggish; he was struggling to move forward, as if he was swimming in honey.
“Pikapi?” came his partner, softly questioning.
Ash shook himself out of his ruminations. He needed a break.
“How about we go see what’s for dinner?”
Leon raised a hand to hail a Corviknight taxi, feeling the breeze in his hair. It was a strange sensation to feel grass around his ankles instead of hard concrete, for the first time in years. He’d had enough of the big stadium, the roaring showmanship and commercialization. Finally free of the Monarch title, he had time to rediscover the core of what being a Trainer was.
“Where to, Champion sir?” The cab asked as it pulled up, the powerful wind overhead making Leon reach reflexively for the brim of his cap. It wasn’t there. He jolted as he remembered he’d gotten rid of it when he’d decided to reinvent himself.
Leon grinned. “Anywhere.”
Cynthia raised an eyebrow as she read the latest news on her Rotom-phone. “Monarch Ash vanishes; whereabouts unknown.” Hah. She probably should’ve suspected. Ash was never one to settle down and calmly take on his new responsibilities.
Anyways, she thought, licking her ice cream cone, she couldn’t blame him. They all needed a break after the Masters 8 to relax, reflect. She certainly wasn’t doing any official work here, on a faraway beach under the Alolan sun. Cynthia hid her eyes behind dark sunglasses again and smirked languidly.
Hopefully Ash wouldn’t hurt his head thinking too much, Gary thought with a fond smile as he wandered down the road out of Pallet Town. The question he had asked was an honest one: his grandfather and him had long wondered what a Pokémon Master was. In his younger days, Gary had doubted even Ash knew. His friend had been to so many places, seen so many things, that it was hard to define him. Hmm. All he could guess was that Pokémon played a role, Gary mused distantly. Only one person could say for sure.
Ash gazed thoughtfully at the stormclouds just beyond the tree-leaves.
That lingering question…!
His hand idly reached out to stroke Pikachu’s fur, being rewarded with a contented “Chaaa!” Rain began falling from above, filling the air with mist that chilled his skin and warmed his heart. Pokémon appeared: a Rattata and Pidgey, all huddling for shelter from the storm.
One particular Caterpie seemed to draw nearer, making Pikachu perk up out of its bliss. Ash turned to consider it momentarily. Oh! It jumped on his lap, almost making him jump too.
“I guess you want some too, huh?” Ash asked the Caterpie quietly as his hands began to pet its hardened exoskeleton.
His eyes surveyed the clouds as if they contained all the answers, if only he looked hard enough.
They stayed like that, for a few minutes perhaps, or even hours.
Infernape knew that his Trainer wouldn’t be coming back to the Ranch today. He had seen it, a certain glint in his eyes and a freshness in his step that meant a new journey was about to begin. Infernape wondered who Ash would be travelling with, this time. What new Pokémon would he be sparring with, before long. And in the meantime, it fell to him to look after all Ash’s old fire-types…
“Looks like the twerp found his mojo again,” Meowth commented as Team Rocket clambered into the balloon again. It felt like months since they had last talked – although Meowth knew days was probably closer to the truth.
“Well so did we,” James added softly. His hair blew gently in the breeze that scattered rose petals around them.
“What are you waiting for? After them!” Jessie commanded as their balloon rose higher into the air.
“Wobbuffet!” it exclaimed happily.
“Aye, aye, madam! Where are we going to?”
“Wherever the journey takes us.”
It was only when the storm cleared the fog from his mind that Ash finally stood up. The faintest trace of a rainbow emerged, painted across the sky in watercolor. The sight filled his stomach with a buzz, like muted static. His eyes shone with the light of a hundred colors. Pikachu leapt to his shoulder, the awe infecting him as well.
“I wanna keep going on adventures, and meet lots of Pokémon. I wanna make friends with all the Pokémon in the world. That’s what a Pokémon Master means to me,” Ash declared, his voice rising without thought.
It was a goal some might have dismissed as silly or naïve, Pikachu thought. But it had been theirs, from the beginning so many journeys ago, and they could never forget it.
“Pikachu?” looked up to hear “when I become Pokémon Master, you’ll be there, right?”
“Pikapi!”
There was a high note of ecstasy and Pikachu nuzzled into Ash’s cheeks – hard – so that he would never forget it.
As the morning light crept in through the window, Delia wondered if Ash had slept in again. It had been nice having him home for a few days, she thought as she opened his bedroom door. But she had to admit he had grown lazy…
The bed was empty and neatly folded.
She stopped, glancing around the room as if expecting to see her son pop out from behind the curtains. Her eyes caught on the desk. There was a pair of worn-out shoes where she'd left his new ones the night before.
She smiled wistfully. “Where are you off to this time, Ash?”
Ash looked brightly towards the road lined with flowers that blossomed like nostalgia and new beginnings. He breathed in the open air. A rainbow bathed the dirt track in a resplendent glow as his fresh shoe-steps threw shadows behind them. It was just him and Pikachu again, leaving Pallet Town with nothing but a dream.
The path split in two.
“Where should we go, Pikachu?”
Pikachu ran off the track, briefly. His partner returned, holding a forked twig in his mouth.
Ash held the stick to the wind and flung it up, carelessly. It spun slowly, as if a dream.
It landed. “Let’s go, Pikachu!” Ash exclaimed, scooping Pikachu onto his shoulder.
And Ash ran endlessly towards the end of the endless rainbow.
And he ran.