After Giovanni left, Ash and Misty also walked out of the Viridian Gym together.
The morning sunlight of Viridian City fell gently upon them, dispelling the oppressive feeling brought by the dim environment inside the gym.
Misty followed behind Ash, looking at the boy’s still straight and unwavering back.
In the end, she could no longer suppress the questions filling her mind.
“Ash.” Misty quickened her pace and came up to walk beside him.
“Hm?” Ash turned his head slightly.
“Your Pikachu can actually use Iron Tail?” Confusion was written all over Misty’s face.
“If it could, then why didn’t you use it from the very beginning of the battle? Why did you insist on having Pikachu clash head-on with Nidoqueen using Quick Attack? If you had used Iron Tail right away, the battle wouldn’t have dragged on like that, would it?”
The moment the question left her mouth, Ash’s steps suddenly came to a halt.
He revealed an expression almost identical to Misty’s confusion, tilting his head as he raised a hand and pressed his fingers thoughtfully against his chin.
After a long while, Ash finally replied quietly, “Because I didn’t even know Pikachu could use that move…”
Ash’s answer nearly made Misty stumble and fall flat on the ground.
“What? You didn’t know?” Misty’s voice shot up in disbelief.
“Yeah.” Ash nodded as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Back on the battlefield, I don’t know what came over me. I just kept thinking that I had to win, that I absolutely couldn’t lose. Then when Nidoqueen launched its attack, I somehow just shouted out that move without even thinking.”
Even Ash himself could not clearly explain what had happened.
He lowered his head to look at Pikachu, who was walking beside his feet, swaying left and right with its short little steps.
Bending down, he asked curiously, “Pikachu, did you know you could use Iron Tail?”
Hearing Ash’s question, Pikachu stopped walking as well.
It raised its head and let out a cry that was just as full of confusion.
“Pika?”
It tilted its head upward at a forty-five-degree angle, gazing at the blue sky as if seriously thinking about the question.
After several seconds passed, Pikachu finally lowered its gaze, then tilted its head at Ash and spread its two small front paws, wearing an innocent expression that clearly said it had no idea either.
Its situation had been exactly the same as Ash’s.
At that moment, Pikachu had only been thinking about defeating Nidoqueen no matter what, and then it entered a strange, selfless state.
After hearing Ash shout the command for Iron Tail, its body simply moved on instinct.
If one had to compare…
It was just like when it had faced the flock of Spearow before.
Back then, it had also jumped out instinctively and used Thunder under Ash’s command.
Seeing that Pikachu could not explain things either, Ash decisively gave up thinking about it.
He let out a relieved smile, then straightened up again, placing his hands on his hips.
“Forget it! It’s not important!” Ash’s voice returned to its usual spirited and energetic tone.
“What matters is that Pikachu has learned a new move! That means in future battles, we’ll have more options to choose from!”
“Pika!” Pikachu cried out excitedly in agreement.
Misty fell silent.
Watching Ash and Pikachu being so optimistic, she felt a wave of helplessness wash over her.
She raised a hand to press against her forehead, not knowing what else she could say.
After all, even the person involved and the Pokémon involved did not understand what had happened, so what could she, as an outsider, possibly add?
So Misty shifted her focus and asked a second question.
“By the way, Ash.” She adjusted her emotions and looked at him seriously. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Why didn’t you accept that badge just now?”
Before Ash could answer, Misty began explaining on her own, feeling that he might not understand this yet.
“The rules of Pokémon Gyms don’t say that a challenger must win in order to receive a badge. As long as the Gym Leader acknowledges the challenger’s strength and spirit, they can still award a badge. Since Gym Leader Giovanni was willing to give you the badge, it means he already recognized your ability.”
In Misty’s memory, several of Ash’s badges during his journey through Kanto had not been obtained through proper victories.
For example, when Ash first arrived at the Cerulean Gym, her foolish older sisters had been ready to hand over the badge directly.
Even when she herself stepped in to represent the gym and battle Ash, the match never reached a proper conclusion.
After resolving the chaos caused by Team Rocket, she simply gave the badge to him.
Later, in Saffron City, Ash had also received the badge because he managed to make Sabrina laugh.
Even the Viridian Gym was no exception.
If that was the case, then accepting Giovanni’s badge now did not seem inappropriate at all.
However, after hearing Misty’s explanation, the previously cheerful Ash fell silent once again.
He stopped walking, lowered his head, and the golden sunlight stretched his shadow long across the ground.
After quite some time, he finally spoke in a voice almost like a murmur, “I know, but…”
“Gym Leader Giovanni was right too.”
For once, Ash did not argue.
Instead, he acknowledged Giovanni’s evaluation.
Standing there alone, his voice carried a hint of heaviness that had never appeared before.
“Right now, I don’t really understand Pokémon battles at all. He wasn’t wrong to call me arrogant… before this, I really was too naive.”
“And besides…”
Ash slowly raised his hand, spreading his palm open as he stared at the empty lines upon it, speaking calmly, “Even though Pikachu and I were able to fight Nidoqueen on equal footing later in the battle, I still feel like… that wasn’t entirely my own ability.”
Ash recalled the latter half of the battle in his mind.
It had been an incredibly strange feeling.
When his will synchronized with Pikachu’s, his mind seemed to become extraordinarily clear.
Every command from Giovanni and every movement of Nidoqueen could be predicted in advance, and he could respond in the most optimal way in an instant.
It was as if he had directly grasped the essence of battling itself.
“But that’s not enough!” Ash clenched his fists, his voice regaining its strength.
“I want to be that kind of mature trainer even outside of battle! Not someone who only reaches that state by entering some strange condition in the middle of a fight!”
He lifted his head, his gaze passing over the street ahead and landing in the direction of the Viridian Gym.
“So before I challenge the Viridian Gym again and face Gym Leader Giovanni, I need to keep improving my strength! Next time, I’ll definitely make him look at me in a new light!”
Misty stood quietly at the side, listening to Ash’s monologue.
As she looked at the determination written across the boy’s face, she found herself momentarily lost in thought.
She had not expected that after just one setback in a Gym battle, Ash would already come to understand so much.
This realization had come far too quickly, far surpassing how he used to be.
But…
That unwillingness to accept defeat and the ability to turn failure into motivation looked somewhat similar to the future champion who would one day stand at the pinnacle of the world.
Perhaps…
A thought surfaced in Misty’s mind.
Perhaps both Ash and Pikachu had, in some way, been influenced by the future.
And Pikachu as well.
In her memory, it should have taken a long time before Pikachu learned Iron Tail, and also Thunderbolt.
Everything pointed toward a single possibility.
This journey, from the very beginning, was already completely different from the past.
Thinking of this, Misty suddenly felt the gloom in her heart vanish entirely.
In its place rose an unprecedented sense of motivation.
If everything was different now, then she could not continue on as she had before!
She had to improve her strength as quickly as possible and continue moving toward her goal of becoming the strongest Water-type Pokémon Master!
Misty quietly clenched her fist.
Then she quickly ran a few steps forward, spun lightly, and stopped right in front of Ash, a radiant smile blooming on her face, bright enough to melt ice and snow.
The morning sunlight added a golden edge to her short orange hair, and her figure was full of youthful vitality.
“I really don’t know what to do with you,” Misty said, placing her hands behind her back and leaning forward slightly as she blinked playfully.
“Since you’ve said all that, it looks like you can’t do without my help after all! Let me help you become a qualified Pokémon trainer!”
Faced with the girl’s sudden enthusiasm, Ash stopped once again.
He simply stared at Misty without saying a word.
Under his direct gaze, Misty’s cheeks grew warm for no apparent reason.
Feeling a bit uncomfortable, she turned her head aside and muttered, “W-what are you staring at! Am I wrong or something!”
Only then did Ash snap back to his senses.
He did not answer her question.
Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and looked her up and down, his face filled with undisguised doubt.
“You?” Ash’s tone was full of skepticism.
“Can you even do it? I feel like relying on myself is more dependable, right, Pikachu?”
“Pika…” Pikachu did not give an answer.
It simply stood there, looking up at the sky as if it had no interest in joining the discussion.
Upon hearing Ash’s words, the smile on Misty’s face instantly froze.
She slowly straightened up, raised her right hand, and her slender fingers curled one by one into a fist, producing a series of cracking sounds.
A dark aura seemed to rise behind her.
“Is that so? Is that so?” Misty’s smile turned dangerously dark as she stepped closer to Ash one step at a time.
“Since you think I’m not capable, then I’ll just have to let you experience it for yourself!”
Seeing Misty like this, cold sweat broke out across Ash’s forehead.
“W-wait? W-what are you going to do?!” he stammered as he stepped back.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“If you’ve got the guts, say that again!”
“Help! Someone help me!”
The next second, the streets of Viridian City echoed with the boy’s desperate cries.
“Pika~”
Meanwhile, Pikachu, completely uninvolved, lazily scratched its chin with its hind leg and let out a long yawn.
It turned its head to glance at Ash, who had already been grabbed by the ear by Misty and was desperately begging for mercy, and simply watched the scene unfold with great interest.
Today was another peaceful day.
(End of Chapter)