The perfume formula provided by Rich Ash required about ten distinct ingredients.
Ash had thought that if the little workshop didn't have them, he'd just ask Erika for help finding substitutes. But to his surprise, even though the room was small, it was impressively well-stocked.
"Let's see… Cheri Berry juice… Gloom extract…"
Ash picked out each material one by one, arranging them neatly on the counter. Erika, who was watching from nearby, initially observed in silence. But as the list of ingredients grew, her calm expression began to fade.
'Wait… these aren't even part of the formula I gave him.'
Ash, oblivious to her growing confusion, muttered, "Alright, that should be everything… next step…"
A soft blue glow shimmered around his body, the unmistakable radiance of Aura. Under its guidance, Ash could precisely gauge quantities, temperatures, and energy balance, all without any of the precision instruments that perfumers relied on.
Ten minutes later, the faint fragrance of something new began to fill the room.
By then, Misty had already failed in her attempt, her mixture had curdled into a cloudy mess. Not that it was unusual. Even veteran perfumers couldn't guarantee success every time.
Perfume was an art of subtlety. It required perfect harmony between multiple scents, a balance so delicate that even a drop too much of one ingredient could ruin the entire blend. Normally, advanced instruments helped calculate exact ratios, and even then, results were unpredictable.
So Misty's failure was perfectly normal.
What wasn't normal was the boy across from her.
At that moment, Erika could no longer sit still. As a professional perfumer, she could tell at a glance, Ash wasn't following her formula at all. He was creating something entirely new.
And as the faint aroma spread through the air, Erika's eyes widened in disbelief.
The scent wasn't inferior to her shop's best-selling perfume, it might even surpass it!
'Impossible… there's no way! Has he blended before?'
A few more minutes passed, and the sound of glass stirring rods and gentle liquid mixing subsided.
Ash exhaled softly and looked at the vial in his hand. A brilliant red perfume shimmered under the light, its scent faint yet invigorating.
He had done it, on his first try.
Ash wasn't particularly passionate about perfume, but creating something from scratch that could enhance Pokémon training filled him with genuine pride.
As he turned, he suddenly noticed how quiet the room had become. When he looked up, two faces were right in front of his own.
"Whoa! What the?! Why are you both so close?!" he yelped, jumping back in shock. His hand trembled so hard that he nearly spilled the perfume.
"Ash, have you ever blended perfume before? How did you succeed on your first try?"
"This isn't even the formula I gave you, is it?" Erika and Misty blurted out almost in unison.
Misty blinked, stunned. 'Wait, Erika just said it wasn't her formula? Then… what exactly did Ash make?!'
As the faint aroma reached her nose, Misty felt her body grow light, her mind clear and serene, as if her very cells were singing.
She had assumed it was the effect of Erika's "training perfume," but if this came from Ash's own formula…
"When did he learn to make perfume?!" she thought, utterly dumbfounded.
Ash grinned, scratching the back of his head.
"I haven't done it before, but come on, Misty, have you forgotten who I am? Using Aura to control the ratios makes it easy to be precise."
He swirled the red liquid gently. "As for the formula… well, I just made it up on the spot. Not bad, huh?"
He wasn't exaggerating, he could feel the energy radiating from it. Just one whiff made his body feel alert, every cell humming with vitality. Sprayed directly, it could activate a Pokémon's entire body, clear the mind, and maximize training efficiency.
Erika leaned forward, astonishment written all over her face."Not bad? This is amazing! That scent alone… Ash, this perfume enhances a Pokémon's physical and mental performance, doesn't it? Where on earth did you get a formula like that?"
Ash hesitated. There was no way he could say "Oh, from a parallel version of me who got rich off perfumes."
So he simply shrugged. "Ah, this one? I kinda came up with it after reading your formula. My Aura reacts to energy patterns, so when I looked at the materials, I just… felt that they could produce something special when combined."
'Don't ask, just say it's Aura,' he thought. 'When in doubt, blame Aura.'
Erika blinked. "Aura…?"
She'd heard him mention that word before, but at the time, she'd been too focused on the perfume itself to think about it. Now, hearing it again, curiosity sparkled in her eyes.
"It's a special power of mine," Ash explained. "This afternoon, the reason Charmeleon managed to hold its own against your Venusaur was because it received the blessing of my Aura."
"The blessing of Aura…" Erika murmured, eyes widening slightly. "So it's a unique ability, something like Psychic power?"
Hearing the hidden truth behind Charmeleon's sudden growth, she felt surprised but not completely unprepared.
She had suspected something strange during the battle. After all, if Ash could defeat Sabrina, a Psychic herself, then it was likely he possessed some extraordinary ability too. Still, she hadn't imagined that this mysterious Aura could influence things beyond battle… even perfume-making!
Her mind was already spinning with possibilities.
'If this Aura can enhance perfumes that work on Pokémon… this could be revolutionary!'
Erika's own perfume shop, the largest in Celadon City, owed its success to two exclusive products that improved Pokémon training. The first increased focus, boosting training efficiency by about ten percent; the second enhanced cognitive sharpness, raising skill-learning speed by five percent.
They sold for 48,888 and 38,888 respectively, prices justified by the fact that only her shop could make them. That monopoly was her pride and the secret foundation of her wealth.
Yet the fragrance Ash had just created… was clearly on another level.
She turned toward him, excitement flickering behind her calm demeanor.
"Ash, can you lend me that perfume for a while? I think it really might have an effect on Pokémon. If my hunch is right, we could cooperate."
"Cooperate?" Ash echoed, blinking.
"Yes," Erika said smoothly. "If I'm not mistaken, you're rather short on money, aren't you?"
Ash gave a helpless smile.
It wasn't as though he could deny it. From the moment he entered the perfume shop, his every word and action practically screamed broke. Even Pikachu's drooping ears looked poor.
Travel expenses, food, Pokémon supplies, everything needed money. After Celadon, he'd have to rely on wild battles again just to survive.
Erika's tone softened. "If this perfume of yours truly works, we can sell it under my shop's brand. You can give me the formula, we'll handle production, materials, and distribution. You'll get eighty percent of the profits, and I'll take twenty. All you need to do is collect your share."
Her words hung in the air like a miracle offer.
Ash froze. "Eighty… percent?"
He stared at the small vial of crimson perfume in his hand, utterly stunned.
He didn't need to do anything, no production, no marketing, and he'd get eighty percent just for providing the formula?
Was this real life?
He almost felt guilty taking that much… though technically, the formula was his, well, sort of. It came from another version of him, but same face, same name, same soul, right?
Still, he hadn't expected this level of generosity. By his estimation, a seventy–thirty split would've already been incredible. Yet Erika had jumped straight to eighty–twenty.
It could only be said that Ash hadn't seen enough of the world.
If Rich Ash were here instead, an eighty-twenty split would've been offered only out of respect, for Erika being a Gym Leader and a familiar face.
For anyone else? He'd flip the numbers without hesitation. Ninety-five to five. "I take ninety-five, you take five!"
Erika, misreading Ash's silence, smiled nervously.
"How about it, Ash? Do you think the percentage is too low? If you'd like to renegotiate, that's fine, but I'll need to take the perfume for testing first. Once we confirm its effectiveness, we can finalize the terms."
"No, no, eighty percent is plenty, Miss Erika!" Ash quickly waved his hands, panicking at the thought of scaring off such a golden deal. "You can go ahead and test it first. We'll talk again after the results are out. How long will it take?"
"About half a day," Erika said, taking the perfume from him with both hands. Her movements were slow and deliberate, as though she were handling something priceless. "Come back around noon tomorrow."
"Got it." Ash nodded, then remembered something. "Oh right, Erika, you said earlier that if I managed to blend perfume, you'd give me some of those training perfumes?"
"I'll have someone bring them to you shortly." Erika's tone softened. "Do you want them for skill training or for level and ability growth?"
"Level and ability growth, definitely." Ash didn't even hesitate.
When it came to learning skills, who could compete with his human-shaped skill machine self? Level-boosting was the smarter choice.
"Alright," Erika replied, still examining the crimson perfume under the light, its faint glimmer reflecting in her emerald eyes. "You two can wait outside for a while. Someone will bring them out soon."
"Oh, and Miss Erika," Ash added slyly, striking while the iron was hot, "Misty seems to really like your perfumes. If she finds something she likes, could you maybe… make it complimentary?"
Erika chuckled softly and waved her hand. "No problem. She can take whatever she likes, it's on the house."
Compared to the potential value of Ash's creation, a few bottles of perfume were nothing.
Ash beamed. "You hear that, Misty ? You can pick any perfume you like now, no need to look at price tags!"
But when he turned around, Misty was staring at him with a strange, unreadable look.
"What?" he asked blankly.
"Nothing," Misty said with a faint smile, shaking her head. "Thanks, Ash. Consider this your treat, next time, it's my turn."
She waved at Erika, then dragged the still-grinning Ash out of the workshop.
Watching them go, Erika couldn't help but chuckle.
"Youth really is wonderful… though I'm not exactly old myself."
Outside, Misty kept pulling Ash along from shelf to shelf, asking for his opinion on every bottle. At first, Ash tried to answer seriously, but after sniffing the fifteenth sample, his poor nose was on strike.
By the time Misty finally made her choices, she had settled on three bottles, together costing just under two thousand. For human use, that was considered luxury, but compared to the astronomical costs of Pokémon training items, it was practically pocket change.
Before they left, a staff member brought over the promised training perfumes from Erika. Twenty bottles in total.
According to the shop's official catalog, that batch was worth nearly a million.
But Ash, ever the pragmatic one, flipped through the ingredient list and realized the production cost was probably closer to five or six thousand.
He couldn't help but sigh deeply.
"Man… perfume really is daylight robbery."
Raising Pokémon truly was not for the faint of heart when it came to spending money.
...
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