A lone girl sleeping inside a messy bedroom, a black with a blue underlight short-haired girl is waking up from her sleep. She sits straight after her long sleep while rubbing her own eyes. In front of her, sprigatito, her pokemon is greeting her morning.
"Nyaohaa.."
"Good morning, Sprigatito." Liko rubbed Sprigatito's head, "Did you have a good sleep last night??"
"Nyao!"
"I'm glad!" She looked around the messy bedroom and was confused, "Where are we right now..."
Her eyes widened when she suddenly remembered the event that's happened last night when the explorer groups tried to steal Liko's cherished pendant at school and the man named friede fought off the explorers at school, the time when Ash caught her midfall, landed at the floating balloon ship, and Ash wins the pokemon battle against the explorers.
"Sprigatito.."
"Nyao??"
"Everything that happened last night from school until both of us were here was crazy, don't you think?"
"Nyao!" Sprigatito seems to agree with Liko.
"Sprigatito... do you think we could get strong like Ash as well?"
Sprigatito tilted its head to the left, confused.
"I'm happy that Ash is there to save us, but.... it feels like i only become a burden to Ash because i don't have the courage at all..."
Liko continued on her mind with her suddenly getting sad, 'I also didn't dare to help Ash at all... because i'm scared of those explorers group...'
Liko also wants to get strong, so one day she will be able to handle herself because she knows she has to rely on her own one day. "Anyway, i should get dressed now."
Liko picked up her hanged school uniform that was dried on the clothes hanger.
Outside, Ash, Pikachu, scorbunny, and Greninja are chilling on the sides of the ship. Ash's Charizard is requested to help out in the engine room because Friede's Charizard needs to rest.
"This is a new experience we witness guys.. It feels like this sleep is floating on the water but in reality, we're flying right now."
Ash leans to the side of the boat and looks up at the upper part of the ship, "This is a convenient ship! We could sail on the water and fly in the air! Do you guys think this is incredible as well?"
All of Ash's pokemon ex. charizard agrees with him. They didn't have the time to fully check the ship because of the explorers attacking last night and Ash volunteered to battle them alone and he won.
Ash and his Pokemon heard a door open in front of them, and they saw Liko and Sprigatito come out of the room so Ash decided to greet her.
"Morning, Liko!"
"Good morning, Ash!"
Pikachu jumped from Ash's shoulder to Liko's shoulder and nuzzled his cheeks at Liko's cheek, "Ehehe, good morning for you too, Pikachu."
Liko gives Pikachu a sweet pat on his head, making Pikachu happy.
"You sleep well last night?"
Liko nodded, "I did sleep well last night. Also..." Liko clutched both of her hands behind her, her cheeks were tingly red and told Ash, "I... wanna say thank you again for helping me last night. If it weren't for you, the event last night would go differently."
Ash gives her a thumbs up, "No problem! I would help my friends in danger no matter what."
"But... i wasn't any help to you at all at that time."
"Eh..? What do you mean, Liko?"
Liko looks down with a sad expression, "It's just that... i want to help you fight the explorers but all I would do is get in your way because me and Sprigatito are not strong at all to help you.... and that made you fight those explorer groups alone.."
Ash looked at Liko's sad expression, the face that Liko's making right now made him feel sad because it kind of reminded him of May who failed to win at the contest against Drew.
Ash left hand slowly made its way to Liko's right side of her head and slowly stroked her hair, surprising Liko, sprigatito, and almost all of Ash's pokemon that was present.
"A-Ash?!" Liko's face became red, wasn't expecting Ash to do that at all.
"Sorry, but I feel like this is what i should do to cheer you up." Ash replied while stroking Liko's hair, "Liko, it's okay for now that you cannot help me at all. I mean, you just started your journey and it will take time until you can help me out so cheer up okay? I know when you get stronger, I'll be counting on you."
Liko's eyes widened in surprise, 'H-He's counting on me...?!' Liko slowly accepted all of Ash's words and slowly, her known smile of joy appeared on her face.
"T-Thank...you Ash... for trusting me at all."
Ash nodded, "If you would like, maybe one time we could train together. What do you think?"
Liko instantly accepted with a bright smile, "That would be helpful Ash!"
Liko's bright smile made something inside Ash triggered, he had never seen a cute smile like Liko just did back when he traveled from Kanto to Alola. And unknown to Ash himself, he has a little blush shown on his face as well.
Their moment was interrupted by a woman's voice.
"Ah! Got a good sleep last night?" the voice came from a woman with brown hair with orange hair ends on both sides.
Liko replied while still trying to compose herself, "Y-Yeah, thanks for the bed and my uniform."
"Aw, don't mention it! No problem at all."
Ash noticed the pen and the rotom tablet, "Ummm Orio, what are you doing right now?"
Orio replied while writing on the rotom phone, "I'm checking the ship if it got any damage or if something's missing because of the storm last night."
The door behind Liko opened, "Oh, you already woke up?"
Both kids saw Murdock coming out from the kitchen, "Breakfast is ready."
"You two go eat! Murdock is our top chef here!"
The door on the upper floor also opened and shows Mollie coming out of the room with Fuecoco, "It smells good from inside here as well. And I bet it's my favorite soup."
"You guess it!"
Ash also smells the food, "It smells great!"
Friede poked out of the door, "Guess everyone's already up! Oh yeah, Ash, Liko, i promised to explain everything to both of you last night, didn't i?"
Ash and Liko remembered Friede wanted to explain about Friede and his group.
"Oh yeah! I forgot about it since i got sleepy last night!"
"I'll explain to you after we eat!"
After everyone finished their food...
"That hits the stuff!" Ash put his empty bowl on the table.
"Pika....."
"Bunlicious!"
Pikachu and scorbunny also got their stomach full as well. Greninja and Charizard crossed their arms while sitting on the ground, showing their satisfaction for the food.
"Murdock always got it for the food!" Orio patted her belly.
"Thanks for my favorite soup, Murdock."
"No problem!"
"Sprigatito, do you enjoy the breakfast??"
"Nyaohaa!" Sprigatito happily replied.
"Now that we got our breakfast, do you want me to explain about our group?" Friede start the conversation.
"Oh yeah! I wanna ask this ever since you helped me back at school..." Liko then decides to ask, "Who are you guys?"
Friede then fully explained, "We called ourselves Rising Voltteccers! And our mission is to solve the mysteries of Pokemon... the mysteries of the world. And now your pendants become one of the things that we would like to discover the mystery of it as well."
Liko finally understood, "So that's what you're all about..."
Ash decides to ask, "Do you guys mind if i tag along too? It sounds fun to join since i got nothing to do at all."
Friede laughed a little, "Of course you can! In fact, we are glad to have the world monarch join us!"
"I have to admit, all of us didn't expect to have you with us right now, but we're really glad to have you here, Ash." Orio admitted.
"Same as well, and I'm glad you enjoy my food."
"It was the best!" Ash pikachu, scorbunny, Greninja, and Charizard give a thumbs up.
"Glad to hear that!"
"Also with you here, Liko's safety is guaranteed high when you are around." Mollie added.
"Anyway, I hope we got along, Liko! Ash!" Friede, Murdock, Molly, and Orio formed a fist in front of them gather into one after they got up from their seat.
"Yeah!"
Ash and Liko joined with their fist as well and followed the group's hand gestures.
All of a sudden, Ash Rotom's phone is ringing.
"Hmmm?" Ash checked who's calling him, "Oh! Mom's calling me!"
Liko got surprised, 'H-H-His mother?! Did.. Did Ash ever tell her about me?!
Ash picked up the video call, "Hello Mom!"
"Hello Ash, you finally helped your friend last night??"
"Yep! Liko's now safe and sound here!"
"You know Ash, I never know what Liko looks like, mind if you show me?"
"I don't mind about it, mom." Ash turns his rotom phone to show Liko on the screen, "Liko, my mom wants to see you, here!"
"Hyah?!" Liko in a blur picked up sprigatito and used sprigatito to hide her face, "U-Uhhh, hello M-Miss Ketcum.. I-I-I'm Liko... Nice to meet you..."
'Ash's mother wants to see me?! I wasn't expecting this at all!!!!!' Liko's heart wasn't ready at all.
"What a cute name you have there." Delia also added, "Also, you can call me Delia, no need for the formalities dear."
"O-Okay Delia."
"You must be Ash's friend am I right?"
Liko shyly nodded, still not showing her face at all, "Y-Yeah.. I'm h-happy to have Ash as my friend."
"Liko, can I see your face? You don't have to be shy, you know."
Ash gently removed the grass cat from Liko's grip, "No need to be shy at all, it's only my mom."
"W-W-W-Wait Ash!"
Everyone else, who's behind Ash and Liko only sweatdropped, even Friede knew what was going on while all of Ash's Pokemon facepalmed.
'He's truly dense at this kind of thing.'
'Please Arceus, help us Ash broke his dense shell.' Ash's Pokemon that was presented hope Arceus able to help Ash
"You really are cute, Liko! Ash must be lucky to have you." Delia was pleased to have Liko as Ash's friend, but in truth, she could see the potential for Liko to break Ash's dense shell and be able to date her in the future.
"A-Ash really is a good person, Miss Delia. I'm happy to be his friend."
Delia giggled, "That's good to hear. Anyway Ash, can you explain what happened last night and where you are right now?"
"Okay mom, so the thing is-"
-10 Minutes Later-
"Ahh I see..." Delia understood after she received the full explanation, "Liko's been targetted by the explorers because of her pendant that has mysterious power."
"Miss, I hope you don't mind having Ash join us right now, Liko would be much safer with him on her side." Friede tells Delia.
"No problem Friede, I was hoping for all of you to take care of Ash as well because he's sometimes reckless as well." Delia looked at Liko, "Liko, please take care of Ash, okay?"
Liko nodded, "Yeah."
"Oh yeah one more thing, Ash?"
"Yes, mom?"
Delia grinned, "Don't forget to changeyour underwearbye!" Delia instantly close the calls.
"MOM!"
In an instant, everyone covered their mouths to hold their laugh, they didn't expect Ash's mother to say that at all.
Finally, everyone is not able to hold it and the room is filled with laughter from everyone inside the room. Just typical Ash's mother truly is.
Omake:
Arceus in his domain just keeps watching the world for safety, Arceus sees that Ash's adventure gonna be way more troublesome. Just seeing the enemy that Ash faced recently, he could tell the threat was something that's more dangerous than before. He decided that it would be best to keep watching Ash, watch any danger that he and the Rising Voltteccers gonna face.
"The threat the chosen one will face is something else, and I'm not talking about the usual team rocket goons that try to steal his pikachu from how long the anime has gone through aka 26 years, but the explorer's group. I guess it would be the best for me to watch him if something bad happens."
Arceus then proceeded to walk inside a giant library inside his domain, "On another hand though, let's see if i have a book that's filled with ways to break the chosen one dense shell. All of Ash's pokemon really wished for Ash to get a girlfriend, so why not?"
Instantly he finds the book, but he's shocked that the book is bigger than Arceus himself. He opened the first page of the book and it says, "How to break Ash Ketchum's Dense shell, page 1 of 1.000.000."
".......This will take Years to read."
Author note:
Okay here is the new chapter, i have to admit the pacing for this fanfic is quite bad because i made each episode separately not in one part. I do what i can at least, anyway, i hope you guys enjoy!