A few days later, after everything was done, Ash was finally finished with all of that stuff, and oh boy, he had words to say, but he said none of them for now, for the sake of children being present.
It's been more than a week, by the way, and he told Brock that he just paid another deposit for a few more days on the beach house, since again, they don't know he actually bought the whole thing. And hey, Max and May haven't been complaining.
Ash has been dealing with his new Pokémon, too, Torchic, Treecko, Ralts, Mudkip, Slakoth, Phanpy, Horsea, Taillow, Aron, and Corphish. All of these goobers were getting trained, and if you think that's too much… do you remember who Ash is?
Besides, the two eggs he has don't look close to hatching anytime soon. As for the Carvanha… don't worry about it. Ash didn't forget; it has its own job.
Oh, and as for Koraidon and Miraidon, Ash has still been taking care of them. It's not that he doesn't want to bring them out and show them to everyone, since no one knows they're supposed to be legendaries, it's just that these two were barely starting to open up to him. It's gonna take a little more before they even want to try with other people.
So yeah, introducing the bikes isn't possible yet, but we're getting there.
But now, he was training his Pokémon on the beach, well, except for Slakoth. Slakoths have that weird thing Snorlax has, where they don't need to train. They get stronger by eating nutritious food and sleeping to digest it. Quite simple, really.
"Alright, guys, Brawly will be back anytime, so you goobers need to be ready to kick his teeth in. Pick a partner and let's get to training," Ash announced to his group of Pokémon.
But before that, he pointed to the side where Corphish was. "And Corphish, no more trying to fight the ocean. You lost last time."
"COR—!!" Corphish said, looking offended.
"Yes. You lost. Badly."
Corphish sulked.
May and Max peeked out the window while they were sitting on the porch.
"Yeah, morning training isn't for me. Man, am I glad I don't have to do that anymore," May sighed.
Max looked up at her. "Didn't he say if you slacked off too much he'd put you to—" but he got interrupted.
"Shut up. I have no idea what you're talking about!" May covered Max's mouth, looking around nervously.
Pikachu and Vee, who were laying on the hammock, looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but didn't call her out on it… yet. They totally weren't going to use this for blackmail for extra snacks.
Anyway, back to Ash. Ash clapped his hands once. "Alright! Treecko, you and Taillow pair up! Mudkip, you're with Phanpy! Ralts, stay near me for focus drills! Torchic—"
Torchic immediately sprinted past him, flapping tiny wings, trilling proudly, and trying to square up with Aron for some reason.
Ash blinked. "…Torchic. Buddy. That's not what I said."
Torchic chirped back defiantly, doing a little hop-kick combo at Aron that bounced off the steel type like a Nerf ball. Aron didn't even notice.
Ash walked over, hands on his hips. "Hey. Look at me. Torchic. We talked about this, listen first, fight second."
Torchic turned his head away, beak up, pretending he didn't hear him.
Ralts tugged on Ash's pant leg and gave him a look. Ash didn't even need to hear it.
"Yeah, I figured," Ash muttered.
May, from the porch, sipped her juice. "So, having trouble there, oh 'Pokémon Master'?" She was the one teasing this time.
"I don't want to hear it from you," Ash said as he crouched down. "Torchic. Come on. Just work with me here—"
Torchic strutted away again.
Ash squinted after him. "…Huh."
Vee opened one eye from the hammock. Pikachu did too.
Mudkip paused mid–Water Gun warmup, looking confused.
Ash crossed his arms. "Okay, why is he only listening when he wants to?"
Ralts tapped her chin and raised her hand as if trying to tell Ash something. She teleported up to his shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
"Huh… no, that can't be…" Ash mumbled. You see, when Ash got this little Torchic, he asked Birch where he came from, and Birch said a funny, that this Torchic was from Kalos. And Ash also remembered that when he fought Roxanne, Torchic did start when he said "Mademoiselle." to Roxanne
May lowered her juice cup. "What's he doing now?"
Max adjusted his glasses. "I think he's reaching his mental breaking point."
Ash sighed, straightened his posture, and, after a deep breath, slid into a perfect Kalosian accent.
"Torchic, mon ami," Ash called out, "s'il vous plaît, get over here so we can train."
Torchic instantly froze.
His head snapped around so fast he nearly spun 180 degrees.
He chirped, a delighted little "Chiiiic!" rushed over, skidded to a stop in front of Ash, stood at attention, and saluted with his wing like he had just joined the military.
Ash stared.
Torchic stared back expectantly.
Ash whispered, "No. Absolutely not. I'm not doing this every day."
Torchic leaned forward, eyes sparkling like he was telling Ash he was only going to listen to him like that from now on.
Vee fell off the hammock from laughter. Pikachu wheezed, electricity sparking with amusement.
May choked on her juice. "WHAT—?!"
Max looked utterly impressed and excited. "Oh my Arceus, he's bilingual!"
Ash glared at everyone. "Not. A. Word."
Ralts sighed sympathetically and patted his cheek.
Ash cleared his throat, continuing, "Très bien, Torchic, let's do this."
-
After a few hours of training, Ash was wrapping up everyone's session.
"Alright, guys, good work today," Ash said, clapping his hands. "Cool down, get water, don't drown, don't explode, don't fight the ocean—" he paused, staring directly at Corphish, who froze mid-lunge toward a wave, "—I mean it, Corphish."
Corphish froze, slowly retracted his claw, then pretended he had actually been checking a seashell the whole time.
Ash rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Brawly was supposed to arrive soon, but there was still enough time before the battle for the team to relax. Ralts calmly levitated seashells into a neat spiral pattern. Torchic tried copying her by flapping really hard and only succeeded in face-planting into the sand.
Ash scooped him up. "Oui, magnifique, keep it up," he muttered sarcastically.
Torchic chirped proudly anyway.
"Hey Ash, do I even want to ask where you learned how to do a Kalos accent?" May called out.
"Not unless you want me to add 'Kalosian' to the teasing, you rabbit," Ash called back.
"W-wha!" May stood up defensively. "Wait just a minute, you're still on that? First off, they aren't bunny ears, that's just how my bandana is! And second, why are you starting this now?!"
"1. Because it looks like bunny ears, I say it like I see it. And 2. since you had a reaction to it, and it's funny," Ash said completely seriously.
"Wait… so if I just didn't react, you wouldn't tease me?" May said slowly.
"Pretty much. It's only fun that way," Ash said.
May looked like she wanted to sigh into the sand. Meanwhile, Brock walked out and patted her shoulder, passing her an Oran Berry shake.
As Ash chuckled, he suddenly heard a voice behind him: "Yo, bro!"
That got everyone's attention, and they all looked back toward the source of the noise. There they saw Brawly, looking at them with a huge grin.
Brawly was a relatively muscular young man with spiky blue hair and blue eyes. Right now he had orange goggles on his head, which tied part of his hair back. He had on a black-and-orange surfing outfit, with gloves of the same color. He also wore blue shorts with black-and-orange shoes.
Right now he looked like he was finishing a jog, which, based on the fact that he hadn't been there that morning and now looked like he had spawned in, meant that the second he got back on the island, he immediately went for a run for training… classic Brawly.
Brawly moved down the hill and jogged up to Ash. "I saw your training, bro! It was rad," he said, nodding approvingly at Ash's Pokémon.
Then he leaned in closer to Ash himself, looking between him and his Pokémon back and forth. Since Ash wasn't wearing his baggy jacket or hoodie like he usually did, and instead had on a button-up Alolan shirt and shorts, Brawly could see his muscles.
"Your upper body is definitely impressive. Your muscles make it obvious you've got an intense training regimen. And your lower half is totally gnarly too, nice!" he said, giving a thumbs up at Ash's leg muscles.
Ash coughed into his fist, trying to recover from the sudden barrage of compliments. "Uh…yeah. Thanks. I, uh… train a lot."
Brawly clapped him on the back hard enough that Ash stumbled half a step. "Bro, don't be modest! Those delts are shredded. And your quads? Prime surfing stock, man!"
May choked on her Oran Berry shake. Max dropped his glasses. Pikachu made a little "pikaaaa??" noise. Vee stared directly at the camera like he was in a sitcom.
Ash, meanwhile, just blinked a few times. "…I… guess?" he said, even though he'd never actually surfed.
Brawly grinned even wider, stepping back to look at the whole group. "But seriously, dude, I could feel the vibes from up the cliff. Your team? Pure fire. That Treecko's stance? Rad. That Torchic? Tiny but ferocious, like a flaming coconut. That Ralts? Mad focus, bro."
Ralts perked up at the compliment, telepathically radiating smugness.
Torchic puffed up proudly and promptly fell over again, making Treecko scoff at him. That, of course, only made Torchic angrier as he jumped up and kicked Treecko across the face.
Treecko took it, got mad too, and started fighting back. The two immediately devolved into a tiny martial-arts brawl in the sand.
Meanwhile everyone else was promptly ignoring them. Brawly pointed at the chaos. "See? The spirit! That's the stuff that gets you champion material, my man!"
Ash scratched his cheek. "Well… I do my best."
"Heck yeah you do!" Brawly beamed before suddenly, instantly, leaning in about two inches from Ash's face. "Hey, bro."
"Huh?"
"You wanna throw down?"
Ash blinked. "Wh—"
"As in battle, man," Brawly clarified, swinging his arm around Ash's shoulders. "I was jogging back from hitting some gnarly waves, right? And I'm thinkin', 'Brawly, my dude, it's been like fifteen hours since your last high-octane fight. You're gonna get rusty.' And then BOOM." He gestured broadly to Ash and his Pokémon. "There you are. Training. Sweating. Muscles glistening. Ash Ketchum of the Kanto and Johto Leagues, here on my little island, I can't pass this up."
Of course Brawly knew who Ash was. After all, Bruno had quite a good impression of Ash, and Bruno and Brawly were good friends. So during one of their talks, Ash came up, meaning Brawly was well aware of Ash's reputation.
May snorted into her drink. Max was writing all of this down. Brock looked out the window, said nothing, and went back to preparing ingredients for dinner.
"And I thought," Brawly continued, "that's the vibe, bro! That's the one! That's the challenger I want! So-" he stepped back dramatically, striking a surfer pose with a flex for no reason at all, "-Ash Ketchum, bro of bros, trainer of rad Pokémon… you wanna battle?"
Ash blinked, then shook himself out of it. "Actually, yeah! I was planning to challenge you soon anyway, so this works out."
Brawly pumped a fist. "SICK! That's what I'm talkin' about! You got that fire, bro!"
As he shouted that, a small crowd of beachgoers, mostly girls, suddenly appeared out of nowhere like a migrating flock of Wingull.
"He's back!"
"Brawly-senpai is training again!"
"OH MY ARCEUS, HIS SHOULDERS!!"
Max's eyes sparkled. "He has fans…"
Brock, who immediately ran out of the house when his radar went off, bit down on a rag and pulled. "And they're all beautiful girls," he said with jealousy.
May groaned. "Of course he has fans. Look at him! He's a walking romance novel cover!"
Ash blinked at the crowd, then at Brawly. "Uh… does this happen often?"
Brawly waved them off with a charming grin. "Aw, they're chill! They just appreciate the gains. You know how it is, bro."
"He… hehe…" Ash laughed awkwardly. He did, in fact, understand that. I mean seriously, after the Indigo and Silver Conferences he'd had more than his fair share of fangirls. Ash was good-looking; he wasn't going to lie about that. Even before he won two leagues and got famous he had a lot of fangirls, slightly less than Gary, but still a lot.
Now, after those wins, he had definitely surpassed Gary's simps. And let's not even talk about situations like Pink.
Ash shifted awkwardly as the crowd of Brawly fangirls grew like some kind of migrating horde. One girl held up a sign that said "TRAIN ON ME BRAWLY-SAMAAA," which made May gag so hard Brock had to pat her back.
Pikachu stared.
Vee stared.
Treecko paused mid-fight with Torchic just to give the sign a deadpan really? look.
Brawly, meanwhile, beamed and threw them all a wink that sent half the crowd into cardiac arrest.
"Alright bros and bro-ettes, love the support!" Brawly called, giving a lazy salute. "But me and Ash here—" he slung an arm around Ash's shoulders again, nearly knocking him over, "—gotta focus on a totally tubular showdown of epic proportions."
Half the girls swooned. One fainted. Brock caught her on pure reflex, stared into the distance in agony, and whispered, "Why does Arceus hate me…?"
Ash just laughed helplessly. "So, are we going to the Gym?"
"Totally, bro!" Brawly said, releasing him only to slap both of Ash's shoulders like he was checking the quality of a Snorlax mattress. "You, me, big arena, big waves, big battle vibes. We're talkin' peak performance energy, my dude. The kind that shakes the soul, y'know?"
"I… think so?" Ash said, not entirely sure if this was a pep talk or a cult initiation.
Brawly clapped his hands and spun around in a perfect 360°, pointing dramatically at the gathered fangirls. "Alright, wave squad! Clear the way! The surf of DESTINY calls!"
Every girl screamed at once. Some cheered. Some fainted. A few just sighed dreamily and took pictures of his biceps.
Brock stood among them like a weary guardian angel of suffering. "Why… why can't ONE of them look at me like that…" he whispered into the void.
May patted his back. "Because you keep opening with weird lines."
"Also because you sound way too desperate," Max added.
"That's not… okay, fair."
Ash quickly returned all his Pokémon, and again left Pikachu and Vee with the team, since those two were way too strong.
By the time they got to the Gym, the fangirls were following and building up like some kind of parade. When Ash opened the Gym doors, it actually looked like a real gym, full of workout equipment and everything.
But at the back there was a field for battling, and Ash and Brawly walked there as the fangirls and Ash's friends went to sit on the bleachers to watch.
Brawly happily got to his side and grabbed a Pokéball, spinning it on his finger and accidentally flexing his bicep, which made the giggles from the bleachers increase.
He waved one of his Gym trainers down. "Yo, Tessa! Come here and do me a favor, can you be the ref?"
Tessa, who had been sitting in the bleachers fangirling, tensed up so hard she nearly tripped as she scrambled down the steps, "Y-Yes, right away, Brawly!"
Brawly flashed her a smile and a thumbs-up. "Thanks a bunch, Tes, you're the best!"
Tessa immediately blushed at Brawly's smile, which made Brock let out another sound that resembled a dying Tauros, forcing May and Max to fan him in an attempt to revive him.
Tessa cleared her throat, trying her hardest to act cool in front of Brawly, "Um—I… this battle will be a 3-on-3, between our Gym Leader Brawly and the challenger, Ash!" She wasn't even finished before the fangirls erupted in cheers.
Tessa continued, "Um… the challenger is allowed to use substitutions, while the Gym Leader is not! Good luck!" It was obvious she wasn't used to being a referee, but it was good enough
"Show me what you've got!" Brawly called. He dropped his spinning Poké Ball into his hand and tossed it coolly forward. "Surf's up, Machop!"
Machop formed from the white beam, his short gray tail flicking. With a cocky gleam in his red eyes, he leaned over and kissed his flexing bicep.
Ash gave a tilted smile. "Alright then, let's have some fun. I've been saving this one for a special occasion. Horsea, come on out!" He tossed thePoké Ball.
From the burst of light, Horsea appeared, stretching as he looked around at everything before focusing on Machop. He settled into a ready stance.
Then Machop rushed forward at Horsea, arms crossed as he attempted to chop the seahorse down.