The next day, early morning.
"..."
"..."
At the dining table, both Ash and Dawn sported dark circles under their eyes, yawning constantly and looking very sleepy.
"I can understand why Dawn didn't sleep well, after all, it's her first day traveling, so it's inevitable that she's excited, but Ash, what's wrong with you? Do you have something on your mind?"
"No, no." Ash shook his head and said, "I just slept too long on the plane, which caused me to not be able to sleep well last night. It's nothing, I'm used to it."
"Is that so..." Johanna said, and could barely accept Ash's explanation. "But it's best not to get used to this kind of thing. Young people shouldn't overdraw their bodies too much, otherwise it will be too late to regret it later."
"Yes... thank you for your concern."
Ash could only barely squeeze a smile on his face in response.
Ash himself didn't remember what time he went back to sleep yesterday. He only remembered that he and Dawn had argued at the door for at least half an hour, and in the end, they couldn't decide who was right. So they simply chatted idly at the door, continuing the topic from noon.
Later, Pikachu, who woke up in the middle of the night, found that he was gone, and then discovered from the window that he was locked out, so he helped him and Dawn open the door with a speechless expression.
Pikachu was useful at critical moments.
Although he and Dawn finally managed to get back to bed, it was already dawn at that time. Ash guessed that he had only slept for about four hours last night at most. It was a very delicate situation. If they had slept any less, he and Dawn wouldn't have been able to get up today.
"Aipom!"
"Pika?!"
While Ash and the others were eating at the table, Aipom, who was eating Pokémon food on the ground, couldn't help but want to play a prank again. It secretly took a lot of Pikachu's food. Even when it was discovered, it didn't show any remorse, just quickly finished eating it all, leaving Pikachu with a helpless expression but unable to do anything, sadly remaining in place.
"Can you not play pranks so early in the morning..."
Seeing this, Ash could only refill the Pokémon food that Pikachu had consumed, and also squeezed a large dollop of ketchup on it. Only then did Pikachu's mood completely turn from cloudy to sunny.
"By the way, I haven't had time to ask before." After seeing Ash and Pikachu's interaction, Johanna asked, "You did say that Pikachu doesn't want to stay in a Poké Ball, right? What about Aipom? Is it the same?"
"Aipom~?"
Hearing that the topic seemed to have shifted to him, Aipom giggled, and then saluted Johanna, as if to tell her that her guess was correct.
"The hell with that!" Seeing this, Ash gave it a chop on the head and explained, "This guy followed me here on its own. It should be at Professor Oak's lab right now. Because it followed me secretly, I don't have its Poké Ball yet. I can contact Professor Oak and have its Poké Ball transferred over when I get to the next town."
"I see."
Johanna suddenly understood.
Compared to Aipom, the companions she had captured during her many years of traveling were all very well-behaved and didn't make her worry at all. Thinking about it, she was a bit lucky.
After finishing this conversation, Johanna began to ask Dawn, who was quickly gobbling up her breakfast and looked like she wanted to finish it quickly, "Dawn, have you thought about which Pokémon you want to choose? Didn't you not rest well all night?"
"Hmm? Me? Um..."
Dawn held her chopsticks in her mouth and looked very tangled.
"I haven't thought about it yet. I feel like all three Pokémon are cute. I'll have to see the specific situation at the time, right? Seeing them in person is the best!"
That was indeed true.
Johanna nodded in agreement. When she went traveling, although she had decided early on which starter Pokémon she wanted, she still hesitated for a while before confirming her choice after seeing them in person. For rookie trainers, they would only start to feel cautious when they personally saw the companions who would be fighting alongside them for the rest of their lives.
"Have you prepared everything? Although you can buy anything you're missing in the middle of the trip, it's best to bring some necessities from the beginning, like medicine, otherwise it would be terrible if something went wrong in the middle of the trip."
"Hehe! No problem, no problem! I've prepared everything!" Dawn quickly scraped the last bit of food left on her plate, and then said with her chest held high, "I moved the things I needed to bring outside after I woke up this morning!"
"Moved to?"
"Outside?"
Ash and Johanna exchanged a look. They both read the doubt and a trace of worry from each other's eyes. Then, under Dawn's confident gaze, the two came to the door, opened the door and only saw—
"This is really..."
"Who in the world would bring luggage that's taller than themselves when they go out?"
"Why!? These are all necessities, right? Like this dress, and this skirt... even this hat, these are all very important!"
Her carefully prepared and confident luggage was criticized so mercilessly, so Dawn naturally voiced her dissatisfaction.
"Where are they important!? Seriously! Can you really travel with so many things? It's because you said everything was fine that I felt relieved to leave packing the luggage to you! But didn't you just mess it all up? Anyway, quickly throw out all the useless things inside!"
"No way!!"
Watching Dawn and Johanna pulling back and forth, Ash could only smile awkwardly on the side.
How should he put it? It was indeed very Dawn-like. She was so careless in so many places, but she was so convinced of her own methods. Dawn's personality easily influenced the people around her.
"Oh, this child..." It was only after finally driving Dawn back inside to repack her luggage that Johanna had time to press her forehead helplessly, and then apologized to Ash, "I'm sorry, my child may not be very bright, so I'll have to trouble you to take care of her along the way."
"Ah... um..."
Ash didn't know how to respond to this, so he could only force himself to hum in acknowledgement.
After all, in his memory, it seemed like Dawn took care of him more often along the way.
...