Time for another Shudo cross Modern Ash, though this time one that shares continuity with a previous one.

Yes, this is a continuation of Shudo cross Modern Ash: The Professor Who Observes his Charges, so I'd suggest either reading that, or accepting that some bits of this will confuse you because you don't. Also note that said Ash from that bit, and this one, is based on what his M20 incarnation was up to. While he has composite elements, any event that happened to him in M20 happened in place

I'd have made this a second chapter to it, but the main P.O.V of that was Professor Oak, so I figured it would work better to do it this way.

Anyway, the Shudo cross Modern Ash spiel: long ago in the early anime headwriter Takeshi Shudo had ideas for how he wanted to present the world and end the series before Pokemon became the juggernaught it is today.

It was a dark world he wrote, where 10 year olds like Ash had to pay taxes, could get married, and based on comments in the bible about Misty and her 'luck with men', the age of consent was likely 10 as well.

A Pokemon revolution was brewing, most adults lived painful and miserable lives, and the amount of potential endings mentioned all sounded like things that would have made Hideki Anno shake his head about how he was beaten in WTF.

These stories take the ideas of Shudo, and apply them when later anime and game influences are present. I also age the trainers up to fifteen at start so the implied age of consent is less eye gouging.

Now, I like to also explore ideas that I see people loving doing, but otherwise generally fail at. The first Shudo cross Modern Ash looked into what might make an Ash with the people issues people love to give him, just substitute 'illogical and poorly written betrayal' with 'Shudo verse plus Paul and the like equals Ash having common ground with N'.

This time I'll be covering a topic that often goes with such stories: the corrupt league. However I will not write 'Greater Good "Dumbledore" Goodshow' to do it.

No, I'll be exploring the idea of a corrupt league in a smarter manner.

…

The office of the Pokemon League president had been occupied by Charles Goodshow for decades. Under his guidance the modern league formats were finalized and improved, and a modern era of top notch league winners, Elite Four members, and Champions were crowned.

It was under him that the first female Champion, Diantha, had been crowned, as well as the first Champion who was also a master Coordinator (Wallace, who had since lost the crown to Steven).

His office was filled with the fruits of his many labors: photos with hundreds of individual winners, ribbons and medals from all over the world, personal gifts from good friends, and even a framed death threat from the former Team Rocket boss 'Madame Boss', over not allowing Team Rocket to rig matches or operate gambling based on the results.

"Get rid of it all. Box this crap up and sent it to wherever that old Gogoat is being put to pasture. My desk is in the third storage room down, move it in when you are done cleaning up after him."

It was all going away of course. She had no need for all his old trinkets.

She paid little heed to the stream of burly movers rushing into the office before walking a few offices down from the presidents and stood before the door to the League Treasurer's office.

The office she had begun working on years ago, before rising to her position she had obtained only days ago after years of advancement, politics, and deals until she could finally take the top.

She, Electra Artisan, the new Pokemon League president.

Through the office window she could see the same charts she had reported on at her opening position, which held the same issue they did when she first began.

The leagues made money, but they did not make all the money they could. Their potential revenue was being stemmed from two areas of issue.

The first was under-monetization of league events, products, and licenses as enforced personally by Goodshow. Millions if not billions that could be potentially earned were not being seized, and she intended to implement them.

There were a number she would not be able to fix due to how close the Indigo Conference was, but by the Silver Conference the problem would be remedied.

Contracts for vendors, sponsorship limits, prices of goods, providers of goods, television rights, and online streaming access…all needed to be revamped to be properly competitive and profitable.

The consumers would adapt to them, they had no competition and thus they had no choice other than to not participate.

The second issue was the product itself, or more specifically their top brand. The Champions.

The Champions significantly hampered their potential profitability due to their inability to stay in one place or follow requests.

They didn't show up for photo ops or press events if they didn't happen to wander into the area when they were between stopping random Pokemon rampages and poking their noses in caves and ruins.

There had been little difference in the Kanto-Johto champion's availability between when he hadn't been dying of illness, and when had spent the last year dying of illness.

If the league was to reach the full potential of its potential influence and value, they needed to have Champions that were better than their current ones.

With the Kanto-Johto slot open, the only champion without market appeal was the hairy old Unovan. He was old enough that retirement was possible, though she doubted it. Champions tended to operate until they lost a battle, either with another trainer or with death itself.

Death or defeat aside, Alder was not the only one who needed to be replaced. While Steven, Cynthia, and Diantha were quite marketable, she wanted a new generation of champions.

The champions Goodshow had let exist, as did Goodshow's predecessors even before Leagues, were unreliable. You couldn't get them to regularly attend league conferences, it took immense wrangling to get them to battle tournament winners in minor competitions, and you couldn't fire them when they ignored your call to come to the photo op at Eterna or Slateport or any city.

She had checked the rulebook, and the ability to amend it.

While these old faulty type champions weren't going away without defeat for a while, she was not going to simply repeat the failings of Goodshow and his predecessors, be they league presidents, warlords, kings, daimyos, chiefs, and seeming every other form of leadership position there was not named Kahunas, mostly because Kahunas were just as bad as the Champions and were basically the same thing but with actual leadership responsibilities.

How did Alola function with such leaders?

She was going to see every a Kanto-Johto champion in place who would not spend half of his or her time wandering around nowhere, randomly popping up near ruins or caves or movie sets of random productions that would instantly be elevated to stardom without reshoots (if because the star actress never needed them and tended to vanish the moment her scenes were done). The scramble to replace the champion would officially begin after the Indigo and Silver conferences, and she would see both won by strong and marketable candidates who could beat the previous winners and the Elite Four to have the position.

Her champion would take photo ops when she said so. Her champion would attend events when she said so. Her champion would not randomly vanish into a cave for a month before randomly showing up in a completely different cave with a pacified Draconid tribe and a pile of defeated colorful goons led by a mad scientist named Zevie.

That was not what a Champion's job was. Their job was to be a symbol for young trainers to want to beat as highly marketable figures. Dealing with the criminal element was the job of the Jenny clan, not the Champions.

She took a deep breath as she refocused her mind to the future.

In a few days the Indigo conference would begin. With the openness of the Champion position, namely in the fact that you did not have to beat a Champion to get it on top of league winners and Elite Four members, the Indigo conference was more packed than usual. While usually with one to two hundred competitors, this year it was looking more like there would be five hundred competitors from around the world.

The Silver was looking to be just as packed.

She'd be personally watching and planning with these five hundred. There would be many present who had the combination of presence, skill, appearance, and ability to sit still she wanted.

She'd be making sure they'd win, and that anyone without one of those traits, particularly the last one, lost.

….

The same day found Ash wandering Pallet Town.

In the time since he returned in preparation from the imminent Indigo Conference Ash had done much of that. He had lost the ability to stay still after his trip to meet Ho-Oh, during which he had died.

He had gotten better, and dying had done little to dampen who he was. It was not in losing parts of himself that Ash was necessarily worried.

Quite the opposite concern really.

His wanderings brought him up the hill to the residence of Professor Oak and through the door that the Professor never locked.

Right into the man's study where the Professor had just closed a book that was thicker than some people's arm.

"…Well, that had nothing useful in it, The old man of science declared before twirling his swivel chair around to stare at him and Pikachu, sitting upon the shoulder that had been improved for such a purpose by dying.

Unintentionally.

"Oh, why hello there Ash. I didn't hear you come in. Are you here to do some training for the league conference?"

Ash shook his head.

"No, I did a lot of that the last few days and I'm giving all the Pokemon a day off. Apparently that is better than constant training without rest."

Doing that wasn't something Ash had done before knowing the fact, though finding out made him feel a lot better about his choice to not do so.

The Professor nodded.

"That is true, though it is a lesson I fear fewer people learn. So, any reason you are here instead of with your mother or Verity?"

Ash walked to the other side of the room before answering, needing to move before he could explain. He did not miss the Professor's slight wince at the reminder of one aspect he had gained upon being brought back to life.

"I was helping Mom at the restaurant, but I really couldn't stay. It was getting…awkward."

The Professor raised an eyebrow at his statement.

"You and your mother were having an argument? I thought she was fine with the…"

The Professor's eyes drifted to the mark on his shoulder that most would assume was a tattoo of the Rainbow Wing of Ho-Oh, which he had given himself after defeating the Legendary Pokemon in battle.

His mother believed that too, she was not among the ones who knew that it was no mere tattoo. It was best it stayed that way.

"She doesn't have a problem with it; you were there when I told her it's a symbol of my triumph and not some random ink I had injected into my shoulder. No, the problem was that Pallet House is really busy today; specifically with people wearing low cut blouses."

Professor Oak let out a bit of an amused chuckle, though Ash noted there was a bit of a bitter undercurrent to it.

"I suppose that would be a problem. You and Gary are the first trainers from Pallet Town to go to the Pokemon League in years. It's no wonder all the young ladies are smitten with you both. I'm honestly amazed I haven't heard of any of the young men also being interested in you two. Is that why Verity isn't with you, annoyance at the flirting?"

"Verity's visiting that Professor Westwood guy as a favor for her mother today. Also, there was a…additional problem. You see…the people who were flirting with me, were more around my mom's age."

As in women in their late twenties, early thirties, forties….

The Professor raised an eyebrow.

"I can see why you decided to leave." The statement was less in the tone of 'ew', and more 'I can see why that might bother your mother'.

It certainly did. She was getting really furious by the third time she had caught one of her mahjong buddies, exercise friends, or fellow gardeners bending over in a way that made it clear to him they were not wearing bras, which wasn't even how many times such actions had happened since Pallet House had opened for the day, and leaving solved the problem.

It wasn't fun on his end either: sure purely on the physical side he did not mind what he saw at all, but that ignored the context that at least forty-five percent of them had kids around his age, and way more of them than that had kids in general.

He had since shifted again in the room to a painting depicting an Alakazam, which made him flinch. It hadn't been that long since that…

Thing.

Yes, that thing that happened involving an Alakzam, a Gengar, and a bunch of ruins. A thing is the only way to describe it.

Though it did give him something to ask the Professor about.

"Say Professor, you know that thing the other day with the ancient ruins?" He asked as the old man winced as well.

"Given I have not taken up Professor Birch's offer to send me some of his Cannabacea, I have not forgotten whatever it was that had happened then. Even if I have no idea what exactly happened."

Pikachu made a noise of agreement about the entire Pokemopolis…thing.

"Well, before the craziness started, I remember that Eve girl showing Sorrel, Verity, and I," Sorrel having since left because of additional commitments that were already in place before whatever had happened, well happened, "a book about ancient kingdoms and their structure, which mentioned something that sounded a lot like Champions and Gym Leaders. Then I found another book about less ancient but still really old kingdoms that also had positions that sounded a lot like Gym Leaders and Champions. Yet I feel like you said something once about the Pokemon Leagues not being nearly that old."

"So you do remember lessons?" The Professor snarked in good humor. He didn't give a retort even as he felt one bubble up as the Professor stood from his chair.

"I feel like taking a walk, and I think you'd appreciate a moving conversation more. I like looking over my grounds like a responsible land owner unlike one of those lazy ranchers who cannot bother with basic responsibility and insist it is part of the actual concerns we have…"

The Professor stopped himself from rambling on that topic further before giving an apology about having been caught up in a piece in the odd Pokemon behavior puzzle he and his colleagues were investigating, before the three of them walked out to the grounds.

…

"Yes it is true that the Pokemon League as it stands now, as a competitive tournament, is not that old. One of the older leagues, the Orange Conference, is only three hundred years old for example. However, while the league as a competition is fairly new, the people who would today be called Gym Leaders, Champions, and so on existed long before the league."

Ash and the sexagenarian professor walked along the well-trodden paths with Pikachu following a step behind. Around them Oddish skipped merrily, Rhyhorn grazed, and a Nidoran couple were nuzzling each other.

"One term I don't think I ever used around you before is called Convergent Evolution. The term refers to the idea that unrelated species will evolve similarly in response to similar conditions, even if they aren't particularly related. It's why species like Timburr, Seviper, and Maractus evolved quite similarly to Machop, Arbok, and Cacnea despite not being particularly related. Human cultures have a similar tendency: unconnected cultures tend to develop similarly to one another if they grow in the same conditions, and organizational methods tend to be similar. You will always find in cultures kings, generals, and prostitutes for instance, along with similar designs if not function for boats, pyramids, and weaponry."

He was pretty sure Sorrel had said something about Pyramids not having a universal function, so Ash assumed that was what the Professor meant by 'similar designs if not function'.

"It's the same with types of people. While they might be known by different names to the same end: City Protectors, Local Intermediaries, Administrators of Strength, and Garrison Heads for Gym Leaders and Wandering Peace, Land Wanderers, Surveyor Sages, and the King's Third Hand for Champions among dozens of other names I can't think of from the top of my head along with a few that were a bit more unique in their function, like Aura Guardians or the Alolan Trial Captains and Kahunas, mostly because they are in their native languages and you are better than me at pronouncing foreign words."

Why was it so hard for other people to learn other languages? Honestly it was easier for Ash than writing book reports.

"In many ways, these proto-Gym Leaders and Champions for lack of a better word all shared roles with their modern counterparts." The professor stopped mid-step to pick up a Kakuna and replace it on the tree it had fallen from as he said this.

Surprisingly, no Beedrill appeared to kill him for his good deed.

"Proto-Champions wandered the territory under their individual rulers doing good deeds wherever they traveled. They saved lives, settled disputes, and made a variety of discoveries, and were generally the strongest trainer in the nation. This was before Pokeballs, so this was by a wider margin than today by their sheer ability to inspire Pokemon to follow them. Proto-Gym Leaders tended to be local leaders who protected their hometowns from enemies of any species, and also help train trainers in their countries both as mentors to teach and challenges to overcome. They like Champions tended to be in the service of local rulers, though how much in service depended on the specific ruler and culture. There were less of them on average than now, both Gym Leaders and those who learned and battled with them."

The Professor stopped walking for a moment before taking a slow and audible breath.

"…Was fixing that a mistake?"

Ash stopped and looked at the suddenly thoughtful Professor.

"Fixing what?"

The Professor held out a hand as a Pidgey flew onto it and cooed. The Flying-type flew off before he resumed.

"It's something I was pointed to recently by Professor Rowan while we try and figure out the cause for more Human-Pokemon conflict recently. It was a book by a Professor named Bill."

"The guy in the lighthouse?"

"No, that Bill's a younger fellow that the one I'm talking about, though both actually come from the same region. A real inspiration that one, he apparently started as a fisherman out around Cianwood City in Johto and now he's one of the world's top sociologists. Anyway, the book was called The Three Peoples and the Fall of the Many, and it postulated that historically there were many more potential people who could be successful trainers, Gym Leaders, and other such people. However due to how life was, up to half of this potential group was never able to achieve this."

The way the Professor was saying that, it sounded grave. Almost like it was a mistake.

"But, isn't that a good thing?"

"On its own, it is. The book mentioned thirty-four mass slaughters preventable if that change had come sooner. Seventy-two coups, one hundred and seven invasions, two hundred conflicts of Pokemon and Humans, the benefits from the change are as great as the weight of contemplating what not having it did. However, there was a cost to it, one I suspect you have noticed."

"Unless it sets off a Rainbow Wing, I'm not the guy to notice things like that." Ash reminded him. It was an exaggeration sure, he had noticed things he'd wish he hadn't before he became a Rainbow Wing and more since then, but he wasn't a master of perception either way.

"Even you cannot be unaware of the massive difference between how many trainers attempt the journey, and how many fail. Particularly those aren't able to find something to grasp when they fail."

The Professor took his silence as 'I know what you mean' and continued.

"For every trainer who makes it as far as you and Gary, there are eight who did not make it. That is four for each of you, to make my math clear. Some stop because they find a different way in life they are happy in, but more often than not that they just crash and become…" Professor Oak struggled to find the word for it, and Ash felt a few possible ones come to the tip of his tongue.

Moving husks, perpetually depressed, living unlifes…and what worried Ash the most was how they acted when they saw him or any other trainer.

At one point they looked at him like one would someone approaching imminent doom, like they were waiting for him to become like them. That changed at some point, around the time his badge count began to rise.

The looks become ones of envy and hate for what he was, and yet the times he had entered bars they frequented the televisions were always playing league battles.

They watched what they hated, and cheered those they had failed to be like. Around them the Rainbow Wing tattoo always glowed purple, and he saw that even their cheers were filled with a toxic evil.

Cheers, Ash had always noted, differed from those he had heard from himself or those who were in school with him. He and other children had always cheered for the trainer and the Pokemon, even if it was probably not an appropriate split of the praise. Those who envied, hated, and cheered for trainers in the same measure only had cheers for the trainer.

"…Well, you clearly know what I mean, so I'll let you add in your way of describing them. I had always thought that was the way it was in the world, but The Three Peoples and the Fall of the Many and the research I did after reading it corrected my misassumption. It wasn't how it always was. In fixing a deficiency a new and larger problem was created, and I don't even know how it would be fixed, if it was even something I could try and work on. The world rebuilt itself with the problem, and even if fixing it would better the world in ways I'd love to see the exact calculations on, trying to get the world to move towards it would be arduous."

The Professor fell silent upon reflection, and Ash decided to shift the subject a bit.

Not only to get the topic a bit less dark, but also get them moving again. When the Professor wasn't talking he was staying still, which meant he couldn't keep moving, which would get awkward quickly.

"If it's called 'The Three Peoples', who are they exactly?"

The question got the Professor talking and walking again.

"Well I sort of touched on that earlier, but the idea is that there are roughly two types of people in the world, which he had the second split into two distinct groups. He had admitted he could have done so a lot more with the first, but he left it as one whole group for simplicities sake. I touched on the first group, 'The Many' already. That's just a lumping for all of the non-trainers in the world, and those whose roles with Pokemon are more akin to what the Joys and Jennies do, and even myself. Then there are those who succeed as trainers, Gym Leaders, and etc, which he called the Trainers, and then the Champions, which can easily be lumped with the Trainers at about 10% of the world's population combined."

"I'm not sure I follow. I mean Gym Leaders seem pretty normal. They're ninja and war veterans and mad scientists and psychic cultist…" Pikachu put his tail up against his mouth to silence him as he accidentally undermined his case.

"…I worry about your sense of normal, though I feel the need to point out that the Saffron City is not a cult. It's actually part research facility fully endorsed and regulated by people I can say from personal experience do a good job. No, it's a bit more than profession really…"

Their walk was interrupted by a distant rumble of thunder, which had both of their gazes move towards the horizon it originated from.

A horizon upon which dark clouds were gathering and moving their way.

"Well…I must apologize but I will need to be securing the place down for the weather. Some Pokemon can handle the rain, but others cannot and I must take ensure the safety of those who cannot. I suspect you'd prefer not to be cooped up with me when the rain hits, though if you are wondering a bit of what I mean, I think some of your mother's reading material will be of some use to you."

And with that the old man ran past him, hurriedly moving towards where Ash recalled the Fire, Ground, and Rock types liked to be.

"Pikapi." Pikachu stated bluntly.

"Yeah, I have to agree." Looking at his mother's books was not going to be fun.

…

There were few things that could keep him still these days. It always surprised Ash that reading was one of them.

He was not known for liking the subject much after all before he died. Ask anyone who ever tried to educate him on the matter.

Of course it was not a sure thing, and only something that either interested him or was important could keep him there for the entire thing.

His mother's books could do that…but not for any reason he felt his old reading teachers would appreciate.

No, he was kept in place as he read them aloud (for Pikachu was illiterate and there had been no desire on either of their ends to remedy it) by the sheer disbelief at what had been put to paper.

I leaned over the fence, the cold morning air drifting along my aged silk shirt and caressing my skin like the gentle touch of a babe's fingers, the top rail hanging just short of my stomach. My eyes stare in amazement, for he had returned just as he had said he would the week before.

I had assumed they were the words of empty platitude, words that meant as much as the dew upon my meager crop.

That line required Ash to mentally remind himself that she was talking about her farm (her poor, lonely, isolated, miserable farm she was barely holding together on her own, as had been prosed a few dozen pages earlier), and not something else.

His trip beyond my reach had taken him into the hills, and he had returned as he had been from there. His hair, blond as the sunlight rays, light as the shimmer of a reflecting pool, had grown even wilder. It hung upon him like a mighty mane, cascading down like a mighty waterfall. His chiseled face, worn like a well trodden floor into a rugged wonderment, was framed by a thicket of freshly grown hair that looked soft to the touch, should I dare reach to stroke it with my minuscule fingers. His eyes, lilac like I had only heard of among bards, were like gems upon a King's mighty crown, his nose standing as proudly as a castle tower in defiance of all who'd strike it. A glimmer of white teeth between his lips brought to mind the beauty of winter's snowy grip.

I took a deep breath as I continued to stare at him. He smelled of untamed wilderness and the vigor of an adventuring man. He smelled of intense work and untamed nature, of wondrous musk found only out of reach of civilized man.

So the guy smelled like he needed deodorant? That was considered attractive to people who bought these books like his mother?

That was not the most unnerving thing he had picked up since he came back home.

His shirt had not returned with him, though the jagged red lines that crossed his chest like roaring streams suggested the shirt was a casualty of his adventures. His upper body was bare to her, revealing a range of sinful flesh sculpted from his body, topped by a forest of thick hair that twirled as it rose off the body, as if it wanted to be as close to him as she desired to be. To always touch him, to know the scent of him intimately.

His arms were like her tools when they were new, solid hunks made hard by the intensities of the earth. She could scarily imagine her touch reaching even half around his arm at any place, for even his palm dwarfed hers like the moon did a star.

He had the gravity grander than either, that drew her gave to him always even when it was needed elsewhere. To dawdle and gaze upon him was to be idle, but his perfection kept her idle and unmoving.

As each word passed through his mouth, Ash couldn't help but try and articulate what emotion they were meant to convey. It was starting to get painful, and he could not seem to stop himself from doing it. Was this the revenge of his reading teachers?

If so, perhaps they should consider reviving Team Rocket.

Below his torso, just as wondrous to gaze upon low as it was high, hung a pair of trousers. Like his chest, they bore the marks of conflict. His flesh would mend in time, but the pants would forever bear the gashes of his unseen battle. They flashed many things to her: calves grown to a perfection no plant could by her own efforts, knees that resembled brilliant stones she had tossed across water in her youth, and the faintest flickering of paler, forbidden flesh. All over it was the same luscious growth of hair as his upper body.

The shoes he had once wore were lost as well, and his feet stood unabashed in their glory. Soil caked the bottom of them in a pleasant arrangement, while his toes formed a perfect procession from pinkie to big toe. They looked powerful, like they could grip like fingers.

"As I promised, I have returned, Jane." Dariek declared, a voice deep and low like a cavern, but with the warmth of one safe from the Magical Creatures than one where you would meet your end by one.

He'd fear neither, for he was a Tamer of them. A man of the wilderness as much as the human world, moving between them like a flickering samara in the wind.

He had seen the foreward in this thing, it had been written before Pallet Town was even called Pallet Town. He was aware that Magical Creatures were names once given to Pokemon, and Tamers were a name for Trainers from around that time.

"Have you thought of it?" he asked, stepping towards her with powerful motions. As he grew closer, so did the scent that wafted from him.

It made her body heat like a fire.

"I...I have not..." she lied, not looking at him directly as he reached the fence she stood at. His two palms pressed against the wood, creaking it with the force he possessed casually.

"You're lying." he simply stated. He could read her like a book, as she understood the phrase was. She could no more read as she could make the farm grow properly.

"You have been thinking of me, every night haven't you. You remember my offer like the wondrous call of a Flying Creature: it sets your heart fluttering like a falling feather as your body burns for it like the intensity of a Fire Creature. I can smell it." He took a deep breath through is nostrils as he declared it, a wafting sound of powerful force.

His nostrils put her lungs to shame with the volume of air they took for their own.

Pikachu had long since began staring at his mother's choice of reading material like it was the Necronomicon, with every word came from a guttural language that could not be spoken by the pure of heart. Ash was starting to wish it actually was the case, it would be less disturbing than this.

"You want to be bred by me, don't you? To swell like a rising sun with our offspring again and again until you can do so no longer, and once you are done to marvel as they grow and become more themselves." His words were warm with the impulse of spring, making her body tingle like a bell struck with a fine instrument.

"You have others though, and what would you want from someone who can barely keep a farm." I told him, even as my body sang in agreement with the musk that glowed from his body much as light did of a candle.

"A farm is an alteration of the natural state, a battle against the heavens and the earth. Your farm is old and creaking like an old bucket, and like such a metal object must be left behind for better life. It is nothing of you so much as it was the many that came before you who tired the land. A farm is without nature's regenerative ability: that I have shown to you. What compares to the ripening of nature unhindered in the fields of humans? As to your earlier question of me and the others I share life with, we do not pretend to be bound in chains made by ourselves. Few creatures upon this world are monogamous, and humans pretend they are one of them. What is a Tamer but someone who doesn't care for the leash of the common man: that is what we say."

He was now so close to her she could feel the faintest touch of his hair, and his body heat warmed her more than any fire.

"We are quite sure of what we want, and even more than that what you want. Leave this farm and come with me..."

The me at the end trailed off as the door opened and his mother walked in, standing still in disbelief at the sight of him holding a book that Ash was pretty sure would be part of her 'bodice ripper' line.

Behind her lightning cracked and a downpour began falling behind her.

"...If I explained that Professor Oak told me to read this, you'd believe me right?" Ash asked her as he put the book down on the table. Pikachu hissed at it before scooting away from it.

…

Thankfully, she accepted the explanation and did not assume he had a taste for trashy romance novels. Which meant that he shouldn't expect to find one of the horrible things as a unexpected birthday or holiday present.

Unless his mom decided it would be funny, which was not entirely out of the question…

Though even with the novel question out of the way, there was still an air of awkward tension hanging between the two of them that would not go away.

A point that had been brought up quite starkly at Pallet House today that the two of them had been trying to avoid directly talking about.

Like most people though, they could probably avoid it by simply diverting to do other things. Like cooking…

Upon thinking that, a loud thunder rumbled through the town and all the light flickered off, bathing the both of them in darkness.

Well that was just great, between that and the rain there was no way to avoid talking about it, it seemed.

Pikachu seemed to agree in the inevitability, and electrified his body a bit. Nothing to a point of being potentially flammable to the table or his mother's reading material, but enough so he served akin to a lamp in between the two, and so the conversation neither particularly wanted had nowhere to go but out.

"Well…that wasn't the way I would have wanted you to learn about things. I admit I'm not entirely sure how I'd have to bring it up, but certainly not how it came up." His mom began awkwardly, not in an exactly shamed tone, more awkward if anything.

"I sort of was picking up that something was going on, it didn't catch me completely off guard." Ash admitted.

Even before he left, and before he died, he had had picked up a few hints on it, though it was only since he came back for pre-league training that he had really known for certain that it was going on.

Dying and being reborn by Ho-Oh had done a lot to him, and that included a stronger sense of smell and taste.

The fact that those enhanced senses had developed in the time after his revival, instead of being immediately present like his inability to stay still (which was suppressed by darkness, which heavy rain and a blackout provided), was something that bothered him when he thought about it, but the enhanced smell was well developed by the time he had returned to Pallet.

It had confirmed his suspicions even before one of her friends spelled out clearly today.

"Barbara! Stop flashing my son!"

"Oh come on Delia, he's a trainer. He's seen more than on the road than what I showed, a heck of a lot more. Think of it as me being ready to tip him when you let him off for the day"

"He has a girlfriend."

"He's a trainer, since when does that stop them? Plus you are hardly one to talk about monogamy Delia. You haven't exactly been waiting on his father like you said you would. I'll give you credit you held out for ten years, but these last six years…I'm amazed your hunky son over there doesn't have a brother or sister."

"Oh, I was that obvious." Delia murmured.

"Well, not really. I mean I never actually knew for certain you were…uh…."

"Having sex." Delia bluntly put it.

"…Er, well sometimes you did seem to take too long on errands, or look a bit off when you were out. It wasn't until I got back that I could really pick up that sometimes…well sometimes you smelled like you had sex."

"Because you know what smells like."

And thus the crux of the awkwardness.

He had heard jokes before that no one wanted to think about their parents having sex. Ash understood the idea of it well enough; he did not particularly enjoy the realization himself.

However it seemed like the opposite it was true, and that his mom was equally unhappy with the idea of thinking of his sexual behavior either.

Yet if they didn't get it out there, it was only going to get worse.

"Mom, if you are worried that I'd have gone on about you betraying him…don't be."

Ash didn't know his father, and thus didn't particularly care if his mom wasn't chastely waiting for him. He didn't owe that man anything.

His mom sighed.

"I know. I try to hope he'd come back, but he never did. Honestly those ten years were just out of Ketchum-brand stubbornness."

"Pikapi…" Pikachu shook his head at the whole thing.

Ash was aware that this conversation was something that would have no context to exist among Pokemon, though he did appreciate his sticking around.

Oddly enough more so than his mother, who got up and went to the kitchen and began rummaging for something.

The stove, microwave, oven, and quite possibly the sink weren't working; he wasn't sure what she was trying to cook to get out of this conversation.

It couldn't even be sandwiches: they had finished off the loaf of bread yesterday at lunch and the store was out of bread today.

She eventually did rummage something up and came back into the kitchen, though what she had pulled out was not what he would have guessed.

"You keep alcohol in the house?" Ash commented on the large bottle his mother had plopped onto the table as she fumbled to get the cork out.

"Only one bottle at a time, but yes. Keeping any more of it can only lead to trouble, my mother always said. Now Ash…we need to get this off entire thing off our chests. This will just make it come out easier."

His mother popped the cork off and placed it on the table, ready to drink it right out of the bottle.

"We both drink until we can get this entire thing out of our systems without dancing around it."

Nothing about this would be illegal. The drinking (among many other) age was fifteen, and he had drunken alcohol before. Still, there were risks in doing this.

"This could just make us dance in the rain all night." Ash pointed out as his mother began chugging the bottle for a good five seconds before slamming it back on the table.

"….The two of us, this bottle, and only this bottle? Hardly likely."

Seeing as it was either following or risking his mother drink the entire thing and deal with that, Ash took the bottle and began chugging himself.

…

Humans and Pokemon differed greatly from each other.

The insistence of naming themselves was one such thing. He had never understood the point of it.

He was a Pikachu, and being called that identified him fine. Unless he was among others like him it was hardly confusing, and there were ways to identify yourself among your own kind.

Another was a strange sense of…shame? He wasn't sure if it was the best word for it, but it was what the humans used to describe it. It was a paradox really.

"If I have to really be honest with you, it's just that the idea of you being all grown up and doing all grown up things bothers me. It makes me feel old even when I'm barely in my thirties, and I still think of you as my ten year old little boy." Ash's mother declared louder than normal.

"Yeah, I guess I do give off that impression sometimes. Apparently I have a 'child's enthusiasm', even after I started scraping six feet. It makes me want to grow out more than my bangs to see if that would help it. Would I look good with a beard?" Ash was similarly louder in a different way than he usually was.

"I'd shave it off in your sleep and so would Verity."

"Damn. Well I guess if we're being honest, the entire reason that thinking about you and other men bothers me is that for so long it was just you and me. I mean, it sounds hypocritical of me to say that after I left and all, but ever hear of that saying three's a crowd?"

Humans took to wearing clothing unlike virtually all Pokemon species (there were apparently ones that did make clothing, but they were rare), to cover their bodies at nearly all times, and among many found the act of discussing reproduction highly awkward, so much so that the two had needed fermented plant matter to explain why bothered them the other was performing such acts.

And yet at the same time…

"Oh I doubted that would ever have really happened. I mean sure, someone consistent would have been nice, but you never seem to find anyone like that around here. I mean most of the men who are still in Pallet would love to fuck me, but half of them would only care for that and the other half would just lay on their couch and just eat, sleep, fuck, and use the bathroom. If there would have been a third person in this house with us, he'd have had to come from outside of Pallet Town. I mean the only men in Pallet Town that aren't like that are either gay like the general store owners, or really old. I mean I adore Samuel Oak, but he's too old for me."

"I think he'd be sorry to hear that, not that I'm complaining. I'm not sure I want to be legally related to Gary."

"Then why did you have that crush of Daisy?"

…When among certain people, often strangers or when freed by alcohol as was currently happening, they proudly boasted about what they had done in ways no Pokemon ever would. There was also the sheer variety of reasons, methods, and times they engaged in such behavior.

Pikachu knew they didn't have an obvious breeding season, but human libido was shockingly massive, a fact they both celebrated and felt ashamed of.

Again, a paradox.

"…Because I try'd to pretend she isn't related to Gary. When he was an asshole ten year old that was easy to do."

"True, it was hard to remember he was related to Samuel either back then. If he didn't say it loudly enough I'd have never have guessed. So, about what broke my stubborn streak you might be wondering?"

"I'm not really wondering…"

"Well I'm going to tell you anyway. It was back when you were ten. The Professor had requested that the best trainers in Kanto arrive at his lab for some studies for a project and they all came surprisingly. The Elite Four, the Champion bless his soul, top Pokemon Masters other than them, the works. You were on a field trip during that time and were horrified to realize you were missing it, but it was either go on the field trip or fail reading comprehension so you forced yourself to go anyway. It was good business for me that day, and it paid for getting my wisdom teeth pulled a few months later. Anyway I was cleaning up for the day when this really muscular man came in…"

"You aren't talking about Bruno…"

"I am! Ketchum stubbornness is no match for those muscles. I know he's your favorite Elite Four member Ash, maybe at least before you started noticing Lorelei more along with finding out about that exclusive boyfriend of hers, and let me tell you…he more than earns the respect you have for him as a trainer, a gentleman, and a lover."

"I could have lived without knowing that."

"But you wanted context, and I figured you'd appreciate that he leaves large tips."

"I regret asking."

"I meant cash tips. I actually initiated him taking me against the wall."

"Are you sure we drank all of the alcohol? If you have any more, can I have it now?"

There were other things that he noticed humans tended to be odd about.

"….I mean, I can't really understand what girls see in me. I mean sure I've gotten some muscle since I've left, but I'm hardly funny, or smart, or even handsome."

Humans had this odd tendency to put themselves down even when it wasn't really deserved. Either in personal conversation, or in media for some reason. That time they were stuck in that Duplica girl's place he had come across a few old human films, and they seemed to have a habit of having other species telling humans they sucked for some reason.

"Oh I don't know about the last one Ash. I'd say many girls find you handsome. It's more than qualifying for the league that is making all of my friends want to fuck you. By the way, even beyond me not wanting to feel old, could you not do that? It would be kind of awkward."

Ash didn't start out of as much, true. Even with his own personal issues with being commanded at the time, Ash hadn't been much to write home about, as he believed the human saying went. He had shown himself to be kind and brave, one could hardly say something bad about the person who shielded your grumpy self from a flock of angry Spearow., though there was still much he had to prove.

However he had quickly adapted, and proved himself to be an observant, quick thinking, and clever human who helped him and the other Pokemon grow stronger than they could on their own in the same amount of time, with insight and ideas they'd have never thought of on their own.

Ash had said their victory against Ho-Oh only warranted 12% credit to himself. That was inaccurate: he really deserved quite possibly 30% credit from his effective observations and calls.

Again that odd thing about humans underplaying their own greatness and overplaying their failings reared its head.

It was why Pokemon, even ones not raised by humans, worked with humans among many other reasons. Humans cared for them, fed them, protected them, and many other things.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. I mean a lot of your friends are hot, but the fact several of them have kids around my age is kind of…"

"Glad we agree."

That was not to say there weren't problems. There were trainers who worked with Pokemon wrong, who abused in the name of expecting or creating strength. Cross had been like that, though the Pokemon he hadn't throw away did not see it that way.

Pokemon did not mind working hard with humans to grow together. They did not mind living together, or seeking out a variety of fields from medicine to law enforcement, construction, and gardening. However they did not tolerate abuse, of themselves or the land they lived in.

That was what had caused the Diglett incident that the old Professor was researching the cause of. Gary's Pokemon had confirmed it had been the habitat destruction that had made the response, and the Pokemon sent out during it agreed with the Diglett.

From what he had heard, the professor and his fellow scientists were aware of many incidents triggered by habitat issues, but apparently there were incidents that did not seem tied to environmental conflicts.

He'd leave it to the smart humans to figure out. His interest in human affairs started and ended with Ash.

"You actually use protection on your own initiative? I didn't think I ever pressed that into you, given this is the first time we used alcohol to communicate."

It would appear thinking had caused him to miss a few points.

"Yeah, around the first time the local Nurse Joy was handing them out. Apparently Johto was having a really bad gonorrhea problem. After that I just…got in the habit I guess."

"And what a rare habit it is. Apparently a lot of trainers think that protection is the girl's job, which completely ignores the difference between protection and prevention. I blame the parenting honestly."

"Yeah, Verity mentioned something like that. Apparently while she was back in Sinnoh she met up with a guy and everything was going fine until she asked him if he'd use a condom she had on her. He apparently got really indignant about it, and it all ended with her slugging him in the face."

The alcohol fueled conversation promptly turned into one about Ash talking about how his relationships worked, and Pikachu idly tuned it out.

He was well aware, and possibly a bit more perceptive about it, at least after hearing some of the points from the book Professor Oak had mentioned, and to some extent that wicked book from before the power went out.

It put a few pieces he had observed both pre and post Ash into place, or been told by other Pokemon.

Those 10% of people, those who had that special spark that let them succeed as trainer, gym leader, champion, or what have you had always been noted by Pokemon as being a bit closer to Pokemon than other humans.

Some were simply more empathetic towards them than most, and they tended to be the ones that would be gym leaders and such. Others were noted to eventually start to have issues with humanity and tended to live away from the majority of it.

They'd respond to the requests of gym leaders and champions if asked for help or to train with them, but more of their days were spent in remote areas where they trained and watched over the Pokemon there.

It was what apparently happened to many young people who competed in leagues for a while. They became disillusioned and darted off to a forested hill, isolated valley, or remote island somewhere.

Was that something that could happen to Ash? He had to admit he had concerns, concerns that were not his alone. All centered on the Rainbow Wing that had become part of Ash.

While that book had come from a pit darker and more twisted than anything from Pokemopolis, it had touched on something he had heard and observed a bit of. Namely that among the things they tended to have relationships closer to what Pokemon had than humans.

Relationships that tended to be a bit more open and lax than what humans seemed to traditionally do. They seemed to get jealous less often, and as a result trainers in open and multiple relations of a variety of forms was somewhere between uncommon and somewhat common.

Like any relationship they were not unfailingly perfect, but they were quite capable of being as stable as any other relationship.

The other 90% of humans who weren't like that seemed to be trying to embrace it, as it was 'what trainers did'. Pikachu had to wonder the effect that had on human society.

"Me, Verity, and Serena huh…"

Ash's grammatically wrong pause interrupted his thinking, having tuned out the part where Ash explained how his relationships got to the point they were at to his mother.

He had only partially paid attention: had intoxicated Ash looked about to mention the dying thing he'd have taken steps to shut him up.

The Quick Attack to the gut would have hurt in the morning, but Ash would appreciate the lack of spilling of that particular number.

"You know, I'm not sure what I want. I mean I want it to stay going, I don't want them to leave me or anything. But in the future…I honestly don't know where I want it to go."

"You know, that's not the worst thing to be unsure of. You can plan for life, and then something unexpected happens that throws it all off. All of that planning, it just goes down the drain Ash. Sometimes playing things a bit by ear is simpler. Keep having an idea of what you'd want, see what they want, and see where it goes. All I ask is that you don't do anything I taught you never to do, and that if could maybe not have kids until I'm forty. I feel old enough as it is."

"I'll try, but if Serena really wants a kid when you're thirty-five…"

The drunken conversation promptly turned to tax law for some reason, and Pikachu promptly decided to go to sleep.

Taxes were not lethal enough for it to likely stray in a dangerous direction, and the league was in a few days. He needed to get some sleep for it.

…

"So let me get this straight: while I was stuck in a hollow tree waiting for the rain to stop trying to flood everything, you and your mom were hashing out issues with alcohol?"

The next day Ash found himself with a light buzzing in his head (which was less of a hangover than what his mom had), taking a sip of the 'Ketchum family sobering secret drink' (which reminded Ash of something between the taste of a foot and the flavor of Pecha berry jam his mom used to put in his toast, despite the drink being yellow) after having explained to the returned Verity last night.

"I mean, it does sound kind of strange when you say it like that, but it worked."

Verity shook her head in amusement as he took another slow sip of the sobering drink. The longer it was in front of him and not all in his belly, the longer he'd have until he'd need to start moving incessantly.

"Honestly that sounds like the description of a porn video, but I digress. Still, glad you were able to get over that rough patch. Easier than me and my mother."

"I thought your mother didn't have any issue with you?" He was pretty sure she had admitted to seeing things that weren't there, or at least not from her mother's end.

Or her mom's.

"Hey, my 'working out my issues' talk with her had me punch her in the gut. Drunkenly discussing your sexcapades and tax history with each other doesn't quite compare to punching the top Champion in the world in the gut while shouting about the times she wasn't there for all the minor things."

Ash flinched, and tried to ignore Pikachu looking like he was exaggerating in his reaction.

"Not to look down at your issues Verity, but I could have lived all my life without my mom going back around from taxes to describing what she got up to at my age. I could have lived all my life without talking about 'Xanadu'."

Pikachu had missed that one, and now he could never look at that nursey again.

"Eh, can't really say I have the same problem. The idea of my moms getting it on was never really hidden."

Verity's shrug caused him to look at her strangely, so she elaborated.

"Mom apparently read somewhere that if you don't make a big deal when your kid walks in on you, it isn't nearly as traumatizing. The two are always all over each other when Mother gets back from digging old ruins or solving problems, and I've probably walked in on them half a dozen times. It was always weird, but never something that made me want to rip my eyes out."

Oh. It did make a sort of sense. Sure it wasn't exactly the idea of his mom having sex that bothered him last night, but he wasn't entirely sure what negative connotation Xanadu had other than the hangover buzzing.

Still, to get off that topic before he thought about what she described too much. Open relationships had limits, and he was pretty sure that Verity would not be amused at the idea of him thinking too much of her moms having sex.

"So, it's a few days until I head out for the league and they are still doing entrance exams for it. Charizard or Pidgeot could get you to one if you want to compete."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not really interested in trying for being Champion. My Mother and I might have talked it out and I understand why she was always away more, but I can't see myself ever doing Champion stuff. My goal is beating her in a fair fight, not having the same job."

He was aware that she wouldn't take the offer, he was honestly just trying to not think of her moms. However her comments about her issues with her mother's Championing did ring a not-unrung bell of concern in him.

The things that she had issues with her Mother about (wandering all the time and never staying in place), were things that he now had problems with.

Was this one of those fabled female subtle signals that were the spoken of bane of guys?

"Ash, your overthinking again. I can almost hear your brain overthinking: that will not go well with the hangover. Just finish your hangover cure and we can do some training at Professor Oak's."

Or maybe it wasn't meant that way. Unless it was a test to see if he could tell she didn't meant to not take it…

"Pikapi."

Or maybe he'd just finish his foot covered in jam drink and see if he could overcome that rough patch he hit the other day with Heracross.

Chapter end

For the curious as to why this is an ongoing unlike the last two Shudo crosses, realize the words you see here.

That is just the opening pre League. I have a problem.

Anyway until next time.