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As much as Ash sulked about it, being back in Kanto felt absolutely incredible. He loved Alola. He loved the sunny beaches, the forests, the amazing people and endless ocean, but nothing could compare to stepping into the airport and seeing Kantonese written on every sign and logo. Nothing could compare to when he recognized the familiar pigtail of bright orange hair and spiky brown hair of his first best friends. Pikachu had instantly leapt off his shoulder into Misty's open arms after the very familiar scene of dragging Brock away from harassing another woman.
"Ash! It's great to see you!" Misty exclaimed, still holding on to Pikachu who was furiously licking her ears.
"It's so great to see you too!" Ash replied and in that moment he realized he'd instinctively switched back to Kantonese.
As much as he loved learning new languages and their nuances, Ash didn't realize how much he'd missed being able to comfortably converse in a language where he didn't have to worry about messing up an idiom or not fully grasping the grammar structure. Brock eventually joined in with a wide grin.
"Can't believe it's been this long since we've all been in one room together!" Brock added in. Pikachu had at some point jumped onto Brock's shoulders and was also licking Brock's ears.
"Yeah you're right" Ash murmured.
He did eventually realize he had come to Kanto in a group and turned around sheepishly as Misty and Brock continued to talk in Kantonese.
"I want you guys to meet Misty and Brock! We all traveled together for a while when I first started my journey!" Ash made sure he was talking in Unovan so everyone could understand and sure enough, Misty and Brock stopped their conversation to wave to the Alolan kids.
"Are you guys the special guests?" Asked Mallow, quickly glancing back at Professor Kukui.
"We sure are!" Said Misty who had walked closer to meet up with the group. "I'm Misty, internationally known beauty and the leader of the Cerulean Gym!"
Brock stepped forward as well. "And I'm Brock! Pokemon breeder, Pokemon doctor in training and the former leader of the Pewter City Gym!"
A wave of awe went through the group. Ash looked over to Kiawe who was clearly eyeing the two with a deeper level of respect and rivalry. The rest were all just as impressed and Ash felt Misty's elbow jab into his arm.
"That's why we're special guests" she smirked, clearly very proud of the reactions of his classmates. Ash rolled his eyes playfully and just managed to catch Misty sticking out her tongue before they started to head out of their gate.
As they walked, Ash was able to catch various smaller conversations going around. Lillie, Snowy in hand, was amicably discussing Brock being a Pokemon breeder and doctor in training. He wondered how much knowledge the two could learn from each other about Pokemon, with Lillie's fear and love versus Brock's compassion and skill. Misty had blended in together with Mallow and Lana, their friendly auras almost radiating off of all three girls. Ash himself was walking at the same pace with Kiawe and Sophocles in the front of the group with Professor Kukui and Principal Oak.
"Isn't this great Pikachu! It's almost kind of like our first journey with the 3 of us!" Ash commented, nuzzling Pikachu's chin who let out a contented squeal.
"Wait so your native language is Kantonese?" Questioned Sophocles. Ash turned around so he was walking backwards to face Sophocles and Kiawe. He hadn't realized how much of his conversations and comments were probably in Kantonese now that he was basically back home.
"Well yeah! I was born here and traveled around. It's a bit difficult to travel if you don't know the region's language" Ash responded, still feeling slightly confused as to why Sophocles asked a question with such an obvious answer. He suddenly remembered that no one in Alola really went on a journey since there was no league and mentally slapped himself.
"Wow! How'd you get so good at Unovan then if it's not that useful while traveling?"
Ash cocked his head. "Well, Unovan is still needed on the road. There's a lot of trainers not from Kanto that know Unovan as a common language and most official stuff has Unovan translations. Brock and Misty being gym leaders also helped. Professor Oak and Gary too I guess."
"How so?" This time it was Kiawe who spoke up, his curiosity growing ever obvious.
"Ah well, gym leaders get challengers from all different kinds of regions right. And they both have to deal with official league paperwork and people or something. I'm not an expert, all I know is that both Brock and Misty were required to know conversational Unovan. As for me, Professor Oak is a super famous scientist right? And he was friends with my mom so he made her teach me Unovan. I didn't want to but then Gary kept showing off and insulting me in Unovan so I learned it out of spite."
Sophocles and Kiawe both blankly stared for a moment while Ash turned away to start walking in the right direction. He slowly readjusted his hat and fell in line with Professor Kukui and Principal Oak. (Ash was also trying to actively ignore Sophocles' terrible attempts of whispering in half Unovan and half Alolan, both of which he understood)
They finally stepped out of the automatic doors and Ash could just stand and breathe in the air. It was drier than Alola's humid stickiness by a large margin. Cooler as well. He couldn't help the smile that grew on his face.
The car ride had a nice breeze and the steady noise of Ash's Alolan classmates talking about anything and everything they noticed about Kanto. Ash had somehow lost his window seat to Misty and was squished in the middle of Misty and Lana.
"You okay?" Misty prodded in Kantonese.
"I'm fine. Still kind of surreal I'm in Kanto of all places with everyone" Ash grinned before switching back to Unovan. "Hey Lana, did you know that Misty is a water type specialist?"
Instantly he could see Lana's face light up. Misty gave a small chuckle. "We're going to Professor Oak's ranch so there's going to be a lot of water pokemon the lake nearby." Ash was getting a little worried that Lana might explode at that moment. Poplio's constant stream of gentle bubbles also kept popping on Pikachu's nose and she eventually let out a small sneeze. Misty laughed in the background and Ash thought he did too.
The car ride passed relatively quickly and Ash surprisingly wasn't in a talking mood. He was content just quietly sitting there and petting Pikachu's head over and over again. Misty kept giving him odd looks and Ash could do nothing but try to give a full hearted smile back in return.
He was also right. Lana did look like she exploded from happiness after the full day at the ranch.
-
There was noise everywhere. Loud conversation and stories from the table and Ash still couldn't pinpoint why he felt so out of place in his own home. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder.
"We're gonna go borrow Ash to catch up!" Brock's voice echoed. He suddenly noticed that Misty had stood up as well.
"Well, have fun!" Professor Kukui answered. Ash nearly stumbled out of his chair but was caught just in time by Brock. They stepped out into the backyard, the night air now significantly colder and with only a sliver of the moon visible. Everyone was quiet for a moment, even Pikachu was completely still as Ash sat down on the porch.
"You know, I never realized how much I missed you until now." Misty started, breaking the silence. Ash smiled and scratched his nose but made no effort to respond. His mouth was dry.
"You can tell us if something is wrong." Brock said quietly.
He had knelt down in front of Ash and was silently petting Pikachu.
"There's nothing wrong. Just jet lag probably" Ash responded. The two exchanged a look and Ash sighed. His excuses were bullshit and everyone knew him too well for him to lie his way out.
"I just, I don't really know. I just feel like somethings going to go wrong because I'm back here again. Something always goes wrong whenever I'm around and you two have been doing great and I don't wanna ruin that-"
His rambles were abruptly halted by two crushing hugs.
"Don't worry. It doesn't even matter, we can handle ourselves" comforted Misty.
"After all, it's all worth it so we can hang out together again," Brock added.
Ash's breath hitched. Then he found himself being able to properly breathe again.
"Did you know that I locked Takeshi out of all his dating apps-"
"He has what?!"
-
"You having fun?" Ash jumped, startled from Kukui's sudden entrance. It was the middle of the night and Ash was still up. He had made his way to the room where he'd initially met Pikachu, his partner on his shoulder as they inspected the room. Ash looked up to see Professor Kukui, without his signature hat or glasses. At least the shirt still wasn't there.
"Yeah. This trip is awesome!" Ash exclaimed as quietly as he could. He could still make out Kiawe's snoring from upstairs.
"What are you doing down here?"
"This is where me and Pikachu first met!"
"Really?"
"Yeah," Ash raised his hand to tickle Pikachu's chin, "I overslept on my first day and only Pikachu was left. Our first day together was awful!" Both Pikachu and Ash started to giggle at Kukui's bewilderment.
"I can imagine that's quite the story," Kukui chuckled.
Ash laughed but made no attempt to start talking. By all accounts his first week was absolutely atrocious by all global standards. He didn't like to think about how weak Pikachu looked on the bike, the bite of the cold wind and pouring rain. He still wasn't a big fan of Spearow either despite how long ago his experience had been. Ash started to rub his hands together to gather some warmth.
"Yeah, it is" Ash quietly replied, suddenly remembering he still needed to respond to Professor Kukui. On his shoulder he felt Pikachu give a large yawn. Ash felt his own body doing the same thing.
"Looks like you two should get some sleep" Kukui smiled and Ash nodded along before walking back to his room. Pikachu climbed down into his arms as he sat on the edge of his bed, willing it to not creak. His eyes met Pikachu and Ash gave his best attempt at a genuine smile.
The two didn't need any words as Ash laid down and Pikachu snuggled right next to him.
-
The battle between him and Misty was exhilarating to say the least. He probably still had enough energy in him to run around the entire gym twice if he wasn't currently nuzzling Pikachu and sitting down with the rest of the group for lunch.
"Ash! You and Misty were incredible!" Mallow complimented, her smile wide and her eyes excited. Ash grinned and scratched his nose while Misty grinned.
"Seriously! I mean having Pikachu jump on electric platforms, oh and Brock using Gyro Ball as a defensive move! You guys are so cool!" Sophocles exclaimed.
"You said it was a challenger who taught you that move?" Lillie asked Brock who nodded in response.
"Yup! And you guys all know the challenger so I'm sure it comes as no surprise."
All the Alolan kids looked around at each other in surprise when they heard that. "Who...?" It finally clicked when Kiawe turned to stare at Ash and everyone else did the same.
"Huh?" Ash intelligently asked, finally looking up from his food. Brock and Misty burst out laughing while the Alolan kids were a mix of giggling and further shock. Ash just scratched the back of his head in slight confusion.
"I still can't believe Pikachu beat Mega Gyarados," Lana commented, obviously in awe and pride if not a little disappointment about the powerful water type losing.
"I can't believe it either! Doesn't feel that long ago that Pikachu lost against my Staryu. Now look at her and Ash, toppling Mega evolved Pokemon and being a runner up in leagues!" That peaked nearly everyone's attention, although Kiawe was the first to ask. "You were runner up in a league?"
Ash just shrugged. "Yeah? What about it?"
Misty was giggling while everyone else looked shell shocked. Brock was smiling as well. "Can't believe it only took school and a vacation to humble the great Satoshi Ketchum" Brock joked to Ash's indignation.
"He's been domesticated!" Misty howled with tears in her eyes.
"Sumi!" Ash yelled, clearly embarrassed. "Takeshi you suck."
"See the old Sato would've started biting me instead-"
The Alolan kids weren't ever really able to get a solid answer for a good while as the trio's arguing and laughing devolved into a mix of Kantonese and various insults.
"Wait who's Sumi?" Lillie finally managed to ask.
"And Takeshi?" Sophocles added.
"And Sato?" Lana finished.
"Oh those are just nicknames, '' Misty answered. "My Kantonese name is Kasumi but these idiots here call me Sumi."
"Same story here. My Kantonese name is Takeshi and Ash's Kantonese name is Satoshi."
"So you all have a Kantonese and Unovan name? Does every person in Kanto have two names?" Asked Lillie.
"Well it really depends," Brock answered, "my father was a gym leader and often encountered foreign challengers who couldn't pronounce his name so he just picked a Unovan name. Then he decided to give all of us a Unovan name just in case."
"For me, I just wanted to prove I could run the Cerulean gym! My sisters were kind of jerks, so to prove myself I learned Unovan and picked a Unovan name. It's kind of a gym leader requirement my sisters ignored." Everyone turned to Ash.
"Well Professor Oak was fluent in Unovan and taught Shigeru who picked his own name, Gary. Then he kept making fun of me and taunting me so I learned Unovan out of spite. Turns out my mom was fluent as well and one time I made a fire type pokemon mad and got covered in ash and that kind of became my nickname and now my Unovan name!"
Brock intercepted. "So yeah it just kind of depends on your situation and what you want. There's plenty of trainers across the world who don't use another name."
"I never knew about that" said Kiawe, who had been looking at all of them with an expression that Ash couldn't quite place. Ash shrugged it off and promptly finished his food.
-
There was still daylight out when everyone was back at the airport, ready to board a flight back to Alola. Pikachu had firmly gripped onto Misty's shoulder as Ash stared back at Brock and Misty.
"Man, I'm going to miss this!" Ash complained.
"What, us or the free Kantonese food?" Brock joked and Ash felt himself laughing along. Brock held out his arms, the three of them squeezed together.
"Stay safe idiot" Misty smiled and Ash couldn't help but let out a chuckle at that. "And don't forget to call, you don't have an excuse anymore" Brock added on. Ash simply rolled his eyes, a fond expression still on his face.
An announcement over the speaker soon let the entire airport know that their flight was boarding. Pikachu promptly hopped onto Ash's shoulders. The trio exchanged a few more glances before settling on wide grins and smiles.
He couldn't stop staring out the window as the airport became nothing but a dot, and Kanto's terrain eventually gave way to the magnificent blue ocean. Pikachu had long since fallen asleep on his lap and slowly, Ash felt himself drifting as well. He spotted Professor Kukui in the corner of his vision and that was enough to let his eyelids fall shut.