Always Forever

A Huge Setback

"Ash... Lost?" Serena said to herself, as Clemont quickly raised his arm, signifying Sawyer as the winner, while still trying to come back to reality. They have throughout this last stint of their journey had come to think that only Alain and someone of his caliber would have been able to beat Ash and Greninja. Sawyer was always strong but he was nowhere the two. So, was it really Sawyer finally surpassing him or was there something more?

"I..." Sawyer hesitated for a moment. At first, it looked like the shuriken was gonna be able to defeat the vines and hit Sceptile, where it probably would have taken a huge toll on him, with that fire aura around it. Though, for some reason it disappeared the moment their attacks met. At first Sawyer thought it was a decoy but when Greninja was struck and wasn't able to get up, he realized what had just happened only then. He shook his head. "That was a great match, Ash. I'm sure if that move worked, you would have been able to turn things around." He wanted to be sportsmanlike, not celebrating in a situation like this. "Ash never did it for me, I'll never do it for him." He thought to himself, as he looked back on his memories of Ash not rubbing salt on his wounds but actually stitching them in the sense that he'd always help him out with notes and things to look out for after a battle. 

Ash though, for that moment at least, wasn't having any of that. He quickly made his way over to Greninja, ignoring Sawyer's comment entirely. He ran up to the ninja frog and quickly knelt down besides him, taking him in his arms. "I'm so sorry, Greninja." He said as Greninja transferred back to his original form. "I've doubted myself and made you lose trust in me." 

Greninja only looked up at him in return, giving a tired croak. He was agreeing to what his trainer was saying but he thought part of the blame was on him as well. He'd been getting used to the power boost of the transformation so much that he'd probably lost power actually, when he should have been gaining. He croaked again about it, hoping Ash'd understand, and he did. "No, Greninja. You're strong, you've went head to head with a mega pokemon on a type disadvantage..." He said in return, not accepting to blame his own Pokemon for a defeat like this. 

Sawyer slowly made his way up to Ash as he reached out for him, holding his hand out. Ash took him up on it, while Sceptile helped Greninja get up. "Again, as I've said... You would have been able to turn it around had it not been for the shuriken's disappearance..." He raised an eyebrow at it. "How did that even happen anyways?"

Ash shrugged. "I have no idea..." For the first time in a while, he had to admit... He really had no idea what had just happened but he was sure it had something to do with him. "I guess it was a bad strategy on my part, it probably had to do something with my method of pouring down rain or something?

Sawyer didn't buy it but he at least read the room and understood Ash and Greninja were upset about something with each other. So quickly, he said his goodbyes and left, as that left a tired Ash and Greninja sitting down in the field, while the others were watching in silence, contemplating if they should go talk to them or not.

---

Greninja only croaked out of embarrassment, now that the battle was over with Sawyer gone, it was just the two of them left out on the field. He turned around, facing Ash as the boy did so as well. "Gren." The frog ninja said only, before he held his hand out for Ash. Ash reached out for it, holding onto it as Greninja halfheartedly helped him get up. Ash was just about to apologize to Greninja again, properly this time when Greninja croaked, asking to return to it's PokeBall. Ash sighed, watching his pokemon in grief. "I'm sorry Greninja." Ash was able to mutter out, pulling out the pokeball and returning him.