"Are you okay? Did you miss a step?"
Dawn, who had been following nicely behind Ash, couldn't help but ask worriedly, peeking her head over the ledge when she noticed that Ash seemed to have fallen.
The stone steps in front were about a meter above the ground of the small path. Although one could see the path below from above, the small patch of ground close to the stone steps was obscured. Under this obscured vision, it didn't seem strange to fall, but logically speaking, Ash seemed to be careful when he went down, so why did he fall?
As Dawn poked her head out to ask about Ash's situation, Pikachu and Aipom had already jumped to Ash's side. However, when Dawn looked at Ash, Ash's gaze... no, it should be said that the gazes of Ash, Pikachu, and Aipom didn't seem to be on themselves, but on...
"Eh?!"
Following their line of sight, Dawn discovered that a person was crouching in the corner. His back was facing outward, and he was muttering unintelligible words in a wall-facing posture of repentance. There was also a fresh footprint on this person's back, probably just put there by Ash? This scene looked a little strange.
"S-S-Satoshi... are you okay?"
Dawn jumped down, but she specifically avoided the crouching person when she jumped down. Otherwise, she would have encountered the same thing as Ash if she had jumped down at her original spot.
"I'm... okay..."
"?"
Dawn found it strange that even after she came down, Ash's gaze still didn't turn back. He just stared with a speechless expression at the man crouching in the corner who was... a bit dark-skinned?
"Since you're okay, let's go first? He looks a little strange. I wonder if he's a bad person...."(whispering)
Dawn said in a low voice next to Ash's ear. Feeling the warm and slightly itchy sensation from her ear, Ash finally came back to his senses, looking at Dawn as if he wanted to explain something, but in the end, he gave up on the verbal explanation. Then, under Dawn's astonished gaze, he walked to the crouching man, raised his head, and slammed his shoulder hard.
"Wake up!!"
Dawn: "?!"
Dawn was startled by Ash's action. She thought Ash was angry that he had been tripped. Although she could understand, after all, who would have thought that there would be someone hiding in this place? Being tripped after jumping down was simply an unexpected disaster, but this person in front of her didn't look right no matter how she looked at him, right? It felt like he had some mental problems. Wouldn't he suddenly become violent later?
"Why... why is this happening... it shouldn't be...."
Ash: "..."
To the surprise of both Ash and Dawn, this person didn't even notice the surrounding situation after being hit, and was still immersed in his own world. Seeing this, Ash was really helpless, so he gave Pikachu a look and slowly said, "Pikachu, Thunderbolt."
Dawn: "Eh? No! Wait! It shouldn't be necessary to do this..."
"Pi~ka~chu!!"
Unexpectedly, Pikachu, who should have been calm, didn't hesitate at all after hearing Ash's instructions. The shining electric light instantly swallowed the man. After letting out bursts of screams, he finally came out of his world.
"Who?! Who is it! Who is attacking... eh? Ash and Pikachu?"
"Aipom!"
"And Aipom?"
Dawn: "???"
After seeing the strange man greeting Ash and the others, Dawn finally recognized the fact that they knew each other.
....
"Ugh, seriously... even if you want to call me, you don't need to use Thunderbolt, right? You could have just said something or patted me."
The man patted the dust off his clothes and complained.
"There's no way, I already patted you, and even stepped on you when I came down. Didn't you notice?"
"Pi~"
Ash explained, and Pikachu echoed Ash's statement. After clarifying what happened, it was now the man's turn to feel embarrassed.
"Ha... haha... I'm sorry, it seems like it's my problem~ Then who is that standing behind you..."
While chatting with Ash, the man shifted his gaze to Dawn, who was cautiously hiding behind Ash. Seeing the man's gaze shift to her, Dawn took two steps back in fear.
Although she had previously guessed that they might know each other when she noticed that Pikachu, Aipom, and Ash's gazes towards this man seemed a little strange, Dawn thought his mental state didn't look very good no matter how she looked at him, so she denied her guess, until now...
"Oh, I forgot to introduce you, her name is Dawn, she's a rookie trainer who is debuting today and is preparing to receive a Pokémon." Ash first introduced Dawn to Brock, and then turned around and said to Dawn, "Although I didn't mention his name before, I also told you his story. He is Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader from Pewter City, who traveled with me before."
"Former Gym Leader." Brock added.
"Eh?" Dawn asked in surprise, "Are you the reliable person who cooks well and has a lot of experience in raising Pokémon that you mentioned? You don't look like it at all..."
"..."
Dawn's bluntness silenced Brock. He had just suffered a blow, and he didn't expect to suffer a second blow after finally recovering. If his personality wasn't so "calm", he would probably have hidden in the corner and cried again.
"Don't mind her." Ash patted Brock's shoulder. "The way you looked just now was very strange to anyone. It's already good that Dawn didn't say you looked like a pervert!"
"Is this your way of comforting people?"
"Eh? You can say that? I was afraid that this statement would be impolite, so I kept it hidden in my heart and didn't say it."
Ash and Brock: "...."
A deathly silence fell over the scene.
Although the process of meeting was more or less strange, no matter what, the three had reunited in the Sinnoh region in a brand-new way.
....