Before anyone realized it, another year had passed.
On a pleasant sunny day, Ash entered Viridian Forest.
The forest was filled with the familiar scent of grass and trees, along with birdsong and the chirping of insects.
He had come here to help Professor Oak conduct some ecological research on Pokémon.
As Ash walked, he occasionally stopped to record traces of Pokémon activity around him.
While he was focused on taking notes, a faint ripple appeared beside him.
He turned his head in surprise and saw a pink Pokémon suddenly appear at his side.
The Pokémon was small and resembled an adorable cat.
It also had a long tail that swayed lightly behind it.
It circled Ash playfully, its body glowing with a faint pink light.
Ash’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open.
“Mew?” he whispered.
After all, Mew was a Mythical Pokémon, an extremely rare one.
He had never expected to encounter it here in Viridian Forest.
Then again, maybe this was exactly what he should expect from one of the Pokémon world’s most unpredictable wanderers.
Ash was thrilled.
He took a few sweet Pokéblocks from his backpack.
Mew’s pink nose twitched.
It floated closer and lowered its head to sniff the food.
Its eyes immediately lit up.
A moment later, it reached out, grabbed a piece of Pokémon food, and popped it into its mouth.
“Mew~”
Mew gave a satisfied cry, its tail swaying happily.
Before long, it had eaten all the Pokémon food Ash had offered.
Watching it eat so fast, Ash smiled.
“If you like them, I still have more,” he said, taking out a few more pieces of Pokémon food.
Pichu watched Mew from the side and called out every now and then as if greeting it.
After finishing the food, Mew circled Ash a few more times before stopping in front of him.
It tilted its head and stared at him with bright eyes, as if thanking him.
Ash reached out to pat Mew on the head.
The instant his fingers touched Mew’s soft fur, a strange sensation ran through him.
It felt like an electric current spreading from his fingertips through his entire body.
His body jolted, and his eyes widened.
Then he felt something stirring inside him.
A strange new power was beginning to awaken.
[Congratulations, host.
You have obtained psychic powers.]
The familiar voice of the system rang out in his mind.
Ash froze for a moment before excitement took over.
He had never expected that simply touching Mew would give him psychic powers.
He focused on the new power inside him and tried to control it.
A small stone in front of him rose from the ground and floated in the air.
Ash could barely contain his excitement.
“Pichu, look!”
He pointed at the floating stone.
Pichu’s eyes widened.
“Pichu!
Pichu!”
Mew watched from the side, seeming to understand what had happened.
It gave a soft “Mew~,” as if celebrating with him.
Ash took a deep breath and released his hold on the stone.
It slowly dropped back to the ground.
He knew that even though he had gained psychic powers, he would need plenty of practice before he could control them well.
Ash looked at Mew.
“Thank you, Mew.”
Mew tilted its head, circled him a few more times, then turned and flew deeper into the forest.
Ash watched its pink figure grow smaller in the distance.
Before it vanished from sight, he quickly pulled out a portable camera.
Click.
He captured the moment in a photograph.
…
The setting sun cast an amber glow across the river.
Ash crouched beside the moss-covered pebbles, cold water running over his fingers.
“Finally done.”
Ash washed his hands and let out a breath of relief.
Suddenly, the Pichu on his shoulder shot upright.
It pointed upstream with its little paws, crying out in alarm.
“Pichu!
Pichu!”
Ash looked in the direction Pichu was pointing and saw a brown shape drifting toward them.
The muddy current carried dead branches and fallen leaves, pushing the shape in and out of sight.
Ash narrowed his eyes and finally made out a creature curled up on a piece of driftwood.
It was an Eevee, soaked from head to toe.
The fluffy cream-colored fur around its neck was covered in mud as the current carried it helplessly downstream.
Eevee lay on a rotting log, almost completely submerged in the river.
Its half-lidded brown eyes were unfocused, and its ears, tangled with river weeds, drooped limply on either side of its head.
Every surge of water made its weak body tremble.
A wound on its hind leg was a terrible red beneath the water.
Blood seeped through its fur and into the stream, startling several small fish into fleeing.
“It’s an Eevee!”
Ash’s pupils contracted.
His heartbeat quickened until the roar of the rushing water seemed to drown out everything else.
There was no time to think.
Instinctively, he drew on the psychic power that had just awakened inside him.
A pale blue glow burst from his palm.
His telekinesis supported the trembling Pokémon like an invisible hand.
Under the force of his power, even the rapid current seemed to slow.
Eevee’s mud-covered ears twitched faintly.
Its unfocused eyes gradually cleared as it looked toward Ash, who was reaching out to it.
Ash gently lifted Eevee from the water.
Droplets continued falling from its soaked fur, but with its injured hind leg no longer submerged, the wound no longer looked quite as horrifying.
Ash immediately cradled Eevee carefully in his arms, his body heat warming the soaked Pokémon through its wet fur.
“Don’t be scared.
You’re okay now,” he said softly as he brushed the river weeds from Eevee’s face.
The Pokémon trembled in his arms and pressed closer to the warmth.
Its damp nose touched his wrist as it gave a weak “Eevee,” its tail brushing feebly over the back of his hand.
Ash knelt on one knee on the gravel-covered riverbank and carefully laid Eevee on a clean patch of grass.
Pichu stood nearby and watched the injured Eevee.
Ash opened the hidden compartment of his backpack and took out a first aid kit.
After giving Eevee emergency treatment, Ash immediately picked it up and ran toward the nearest Pokémon Center.
…
When the neon sign of the Pokémon Center finally came into view, Ash practically burst through the glass doors.
Nurse Joy heard the commotion and looked up.
Her smile immediately disappeared.
“Nurse Joy, please save it!”
Ash gently placed Eevee on the examination table.
Beneath the mud-stained bandages, blood had begun to seep out again.
Nurse Joy quickly examined the wound on Eevee’s hind leg.
“The infection is serious.
It needs surgery immediately.”
She looked up at Ash, her voice becoming gentler.
“You treated it in time.
If you had been half an hour later…”
Before she could finish, the treatment room doors opened.
Ash could only watch through the glass as the lights came on and Eevee was taken inside.
Pichu jumped onto his shoulder and rubbed its cheek against his.
Every second of waiting seemed painfully long.
Ash slowly slid down the wall and sat on the floor, unable to stop thinking about Eevee struggling in the river.
The sharp smell of disinfectant filled the air as Ash leaned against the cold wall of the Pokémon Center.
Pichu curled up on his lap, its fur brushing against his palm.
Ash suddenly reached into his pocket and took out a small shard of glass.
It was something he had removed from the fur around Eevee’s neck.
The shard was unusually hard.
It looked like reinforced glass of the kind used in laboratories.
Professor Oak’s lab used glass like this.
“Man-made…” Ash whispered.
…
Fifty meters beneath Viridian City, fluorescent tubes buzzed faintly inside a laboratory.
A researcher in a white coat had sweat beading at his temples.
His fingers nervously rubbed the edge of a communicator, its “R” symbol standing out beneath the light.
“Boss, bad news.
Experimental Subject 001 escaped.”
His voice echoed through the sealed room.
The surveillance footage began to flicker.
In the looping video, the Eevee that should have been frail arched its back, every strand of fur standing on end.
Its brown eyes glowed with an eerie red light.
As it slashed a front paw through the air, the metal bars twisted like hot wax.
Reinforced glass shards sprayed through the room as the laboratory’s blast-resistant window shattered with a crash.
“Oh?
It escaped?”
A deep voice came from the screen as a leather chair turned.
The middle-aged man sitting in it turned around.
“It doesn’t matter.
It’s only an Eevee.
Let it go.”
He reached out and switched off the screen.
As the screen went dark, a cold smile appeared on his face.
His fingers moved across the keyboard, bringing up another set of images on the curved monitor.
Inside an incubation chamber, a white embryo slowly stretched its limbs in green fluid.
Beneath its pale skin, faint blood vessels could be seen spreading across its body.
“Mewtwo…”
The man pressed his fingers against the screen as if trying to reach through the glass and touch the unfinished life inside.
“The moment you succeed, the entire world will bow before me.”
…
The sun eventually set.
After some time, the treatment room door finally opened.
Nurse Joy removed her mask with a relieved smile.
“The surgery was successful.
Eevee is out of danger now.”
Ash rushed into the observation room, where Eevee was lying on a hospital bed.
He called home to explain the situation, then stayed there to keep Eevee company.
…
The monitor beeped steadily as Ash sat down on a folding chair beside the bed and carefully held Eevee’s little paw.
“Don’t be scared,” he whispered.
“From now on, no one will ever hurt you again.”
Outside the window, the night grew deeper.
The warm lights of the Pokémon Center reflected across the glass as Ash stayed beside the sleeping Pokémon.
…
At two in the morning, the Pokémon Center was so quiet that the hum of the ventilation ducts could be heard.
Eevee’s ears moved first.
Its eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
With the anesthetic wearing off, pain throbbed through its injured hind leg.
But when it looked at Ash sleeping awkwardly beside the bed, a soft whimper escaped its throat.
Ash’s cheek rested against the cold metal bedrail, his hair falling over his forehead.
His right hand was still holding Eevee’s little paw.
Eevee remembered what had happened.
The warm embrace that had pulled it from the river, the heat of Ash’s palm, and the voice it had heard through the roar of the water.
“Don’t be scared.”
Eevee trembled as it pushed itself up.
The bandages rustled softly against the bedsheet.
It moved around the IV tube.
Every small shift tugged painfully at its wound.
When its fluffy belly finally pressed against Ash’s cheek, his eyelashes moved, but he did not wake.
Eevee rubbed its nose against his temple and buried its head in the crook of his neck.
The monitor’s green light flickered in the darkness, while the footsteps of a night-shift nurse sounded faintly in the distance.
On the small hospital bed, the injured Pokémon and the sleeping boy quietly shared each other’s warmth through the night.