Chapter 323: The Other Ash
2024-05-15 Author: Samsung Charmander (Author Name)
Pallet Town.
A few figures stood at the town's entrance, shouldering their backpacks and fully equipped. They couldn't help but look back, gazing at the whole of Pallet Town as a gentle breeze brushed against their cheeks.
"It's finally time to set off."
Ash rubbed the cheeks of the electric mouse perched on his shoulder, his eyes glinting with a mix of excitement and nervousness.
The month of special training had passed in a flash, and now it was time to depart.
"Pika!"
Pikachu, however, jumped directly onto Ash's head, standing atop his red-and-white hat and looking ready to conquer the world.
After a month of training, Pikachu's physique had returned to that of a normal electric mouse, no longer weighed down by the thick fat from a month before. Its movements were now swift and powerful.
Standing beside Ash were his eternal best friends, Brock and Misty, as well as his temporary friend, the photographer Todd Snap. They were all about to leave Pallet Town and head for the venue of the Indigo League Conference—the Indigo Plateau.
His fellow townswoman, Blue, who was also participating in the Indigo League Conference, was supposed to travel with them, but she had unexpectedly left a note and slipped away two weeks earlier.
As for Gary, he had left Pallet Town long ago and was bouncing around somewhere in the wide world.
You could say that Ash was the only one who had remained in Pallet Town to train quietly. As Red had noted, Ash had already been on a long journey and faced many opponents, so a quiet period to reflect on his wins and losses was crucial.
Professor Oak, his mother Delia, and other friends and family from Pallet Town were holding back for now, planning to head to the Indigo Plateau only after someone had made it into the Top 16.
The battles before the Top 16 were all held in various flashy arenas surrounding the main venue. Only from the Top 16 onwards would all competitors be gathered at the Indigo League Conference's Main Stadium.
If they went now only to find that not a single trainer from Pallet Town had advanced to the Top 16, it would be Professor Oak and the others who would be left feeling awkward.
"Good luck. You have a bright future!"
Professor Oak simply patted his shoulder, signaling that Ash could leave Pallet Town now.
"By the way, I had a dream recently."
Thinking of Professor Oak's Top 16 benchmark, Ash suddenly blurted this out, a statement that piqued the others' interest.
Ash placed Pikachu on the ground, took a deep breath, and slowly recounted the events of his dream.
"I dreamed I participated in the Indigo League Conference, and I sailed smoothly into the Top 16."
Normally, dreams are forgotten upon waking, but strangely, this dream remained crystal clear even after he was awake, as if it had actually happened.
In the dream, he even swept three opponents right from the start with his Krabby. This was what Ash found so unacceptable; he had been planning to put Krabby on the bench this time, to be a kind of cheerleader crab for the team.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Making the Top 16 on your debut already shows great promise."
Seeing his friends' confused expressions, Ash waved his hand and continued:
"The problem is, in that Top 16 battle, my opponent was really strange..."
In the dream, he couldn't see the opponent's face, but Ash remembered it was a youth who also wore a cap and used a Pikachu, the starter Pokémon, and a Butterfree—all Pokémon he also had.
Moreover, the opponent's aura was incredibly familiar, as if...
"I was battling myself?"
Yes, it was just like battling another version of himself.
Everyone: "?"
Was this some kind of riddle?
But seeing Ash's thoughtful expression, Brock just patted his shoulder, suggesting he was simply too nervous.
"It might be an inner demon."
"An inner demon?"
"That's right. Everyone can develop an inner demon at any stage of their life, and the most common one is our own shadow."
This was Ash's first tournament challenge, so becoming nervous enough to conjure an inner demon was perfectly reasonable.
However, with Ash's current strength, stopping at the Top 16 was selling himself short. Brock even felt that reaching the Top 4 was practically a guarantee.
Provided, of course, that he didn't run into The Royal Mask early on.
The news had recently made it official: The Royal Mask would be participating in this Indigo League Conference. A king was coming to dominate the fishpond.
If he ran into him prematurely, he might as well start preparing a new side hustle on social media, pivoting to become a shopping agent for Indigo League souvenirs...
However, it wasn't just Ash. Red, whose soul was linked to his, had also experienced that same dream. In fact, in the dream, he saw even further than Ash.
He had seen the face of that inner demon. It didn't actually resemble Ash, but its aura was eerily similar, as if it were a second Ash.
Ash's dreams were rarely deceptive; they always carried some wondrous meaning. Red didn't dismiss it as a meaningless dream.
He remembered the last time Ash had a dream, back in Pewter City. In that dream, his journey had lasted a full twenty years, yet Ash never became Champion.
And in that dream, Red did not exist.
He even suspected that if he hadn't possessed Ash, that might have been the latter's path…
Red couldn't help but shudder. Failing to become Champion after twenty years was something he could not accept.
And this time, it was Ash's second dream, a dream of another Ash.
But this other Ash, it felt like something was missing...?
"What was missing?"
Red had agonized over it for a long time, and only now did he finally understand what the second Ash from the dream was missing compared to the real one.
The protagonist's aura.
This world chose to revolve around this Ash from Pallet Town, not the other one.
His own possession was proof of that.
Red even had a strange intuition that in this Indigo League Conference, they would come face-to-face with that second Ash.
Back in reality, on a small hill outside Pallet Town.
"Hmph, just the Top 16? I'll make it to the Top 8 at least this time!"
Ash secretly clenched his fist and muttered, trying to banish the strange dream from his mind.
No sooner had he spoken than the ground suddenly began to tremble inexplicably, as if something momentous was happening.
But the tremors weren't strong, perhaps only a magnitude 2 or 3 earthquake.
"Was that an earthquake? Strange, Pallet Town isn't supposed to be on a tectonic plate boundary, is it?"
Brock couldn't help but frown.
Ever since leaving Cinnabar Island and learning that the geologists from his own Pewter City had screwed Cinnabar Island over, Brock had started cramming geology. According to conventional wisdom, Pallet Town shouldn't experience earthquakes.
Soon, the shaking stopped. It caused no harm to the Pidgey flying in the sky.
*Sniff*...
Ash suddenly sniffed the air. The others might not have noticed, but he could smell that the air now carried a new scent.
It was a smell like gunpowder and sulfur, very familiar, as if he had smelled it somewhere before.
"It seems to be the smell from back on Cinnabar Island...?"
At his words, Ash and his two companions jolted, their eyes widening. They exclaimed in unison:
"Wait, how many days has it been since we left Cinnabar Island?!"
Todd Snap: "?"
What kind of riddle was this now?
(end of chapter)