The awaited Meeting

During the course of two years, I had been in touch with both Serena and Cynthia. Serena had found her passion for music so we would often play music together, on phone of course. Cynthia began her journey and entered the Sinnoh League. She reached semi-finals in the league and lost to an older and experienced lady who had diversity in her pokemon as well as her style. Cynthia was quite sad about her loss. I called upon to check on her.

Loss is quite an experience. When I was a doctor, every patient we had was a battle, just like a pokemon battle, or a soccer match or anything similar to that. We had our profession on the line too, just like those games. Whenever, we lost a patient, apart from the anger and grief of relatives, we often received praise from our peers, complementing us for our effort, particularly for those cases that were a lost cause. The only thought in my mind during those complements used to be, "What's the complement for! We lost anyway."

When I found myself talking to Cynthia, I didn't know what to say. I knew that words like 'It's Ok' or 'You did your best!' or 'It was a good battle.' seem encouraging but for those who received a taste of loss, those are just empty complements. Sure the speakers mean well, but the losing person doesn't appreciate those words.

Me-"It hurts, right? The feeling of loss."

Cynthia remained silent for a while before giving a soft nod. On the screen, I saw her tears flowing while she tried to keep herself from crying.

Me-"Cry it out! Shed your tears! Weep! Let your heart out. You feel desperate, don't you? You feel weak! Helpless! Remember that feeling well and keep it close to your heart. That feeling is proof that your heart hasn't given up. Train again, cause you were weak."

Cynthia calmed down a bit and I could see that Professor Carolina, who was standing behind Cynthia was shocked by my words.

Professor Carolina asked me-"If you want her to get stronger, why to tell her to remember the feeling of loss?"

Me- "If it was a fairy tale with a hero, forgetting the feeling of loss may be an option, but this is reality. For every winner, there is a loser. The success of one comes at a price of failure of another. For a champion to be born, every stepping stone for him/ her needs to cry out its weakness. For those who become champions, they need to remember this feeling, as they need to acknowledge the efforts of everyone they've beaten. A champion needs to know the feeling of the pain of loss. It ties the feet of the person to the ground. It makes sure that you don't become complacent about becoming champions. When you remember the pain of loss and you keep that feeling close to you, it drives you to become stronger, every moment of your life!"

Cynthia had her eyes widened with my words and after some time she cheered up a bit.

"Next time, I'm definitely becoming the champion. Let's go have something to eat Garchomp!, See ya later Ash!"

And she marched away without disconnecting the call. Me and Professor Carolina facepalmed on seeing her reaction.

I then turned off the call and proceeded to my training.

Next year Cynthia won the league and challenged the elite four. She lost her very first battle against the elite four-member, who happened to be a dragon-type pokemon trainer. The battle was really awesome though. This time Cynthia wasn't as much discouraged as before and got back to her feet quickly.

Two years passed this way and came the time for my 8th birthday. This year again, we had a huge party, having Professor Oak, Officer Jenny, Nurse Joy, Big Sis Daisy, Gary, JB, and a few other locals who were friends with my mom. One thing special was that all the Chansey of the restaurant had evolved to Blissey. The Blisseys had brought even better energy to the restaurant as we started having waiting for our restaurant. Well restaurant aside, mom gifted me a pokemon egg again. She was quite happy with the cute Eevees that hatched out of the previous eggs. This time the egg was quite big and I could somehow feel that she probably won't be that pleased with the pokemon coming out of it. Still, I was happy with the egg. More pokemon for my starter team. As luck would have it, the egg hatched when the party was midway and it surely wasn't the cutesy my mom was expecting. It was an Onix. The first one he saw was Arbok and just got attached to it. Arbok himself was quite happy, as he had gained a new sibling. Mom wasn't as disappointed as I thought she would be. She welcomed the Onix warmly.

Professor Oak gave me quite a big surprise this time

Professor Oak-"Here you go champ! Happy Birthday!"

When I opened the gift pack I saw a Pokeball. I found it empty and looked at Professor Oak.

"It's a Pokeball from Agatha, the elite four of Kanto. She got a ghost ball for her Gengar and gave this Pokeball to me."

Gary got angry at his grandpa for not giving him that Pokeball.

The party ended in a good note and I spent the night with mom.

A few days later I went to the forest to visit Rain. I played my music for some time, but he didn't arrive, so I just spent the rest of my time dallying around the forest. Now I had gotten permission from mom to enter the forest as now I had a big company following me- Pikachu, Growlithe, Arbok, Onix, and Eevee. The day had been like a normal peaceful day in the forest until the weather changed abruptly. Dark clouds gathered and started flashing with different kinds of lightening. Taking the opportunity, I took Pikachu to the thunderstorm and allowed him to absorb it. The amount of electricity was quite huge and it had differently coloured lightning as well, from black to red to blue to silver to purple and others as well. Pikachu absorbed almost all the lightening and was a bit overcharged now. The results would be great but he'd have to control his electricity for the next whole week to be able to harness the entirety of the electricity stored. After the electricity disappeared from the clouds, a black gaping hole opened up in the sky and two figures dropped from it.

"Kaze, catch those with a tornado. Try to reduce their speed, Arbok catch them with your body. Onix clear the ground of any rocks. Eevee, try to keep them in place when Arbok catches them."

Kaze was able to reduce their speed by a lot and Arbok was able to catch them safely. Looking at the figures, I recognized them as Nico Robin and her mother Olivia. They were quite injured, Nico Olivia badly so. I fed both of them with Senzu beans and laid them down carefully on soft ground. The weather changed to better as soon as the two appeared here so I believed that it was to cover up the spatial portal from One Piece world.

I sent Arbok and Onix to space as they had a bit intimidating looks and I didn't wish to frighten the girl or her mother, as from their looks, they had escaped from a battle and they probably had been tense. Although immoral, I checked out their memories and found that the story of their world had changed a bit. Both Robin and Olivia had been able to escape the disaster and had sought refuge under Whitebeard. Being chased by Akainu, Whitebeard had a fierce battle with Akainu and the effects of Whitebeard's devil fruit caused a lot of spatial cracks to open up, with Robin and Olivia falling into one of them. They passed out while lying in the Spatio-temporal fabric. Their memory ended here and I guess the next thing was that they arrived here through the crack I saw.

Robin opened her eyes a few minutes later to see the two Eevees peering into her face. She turned up with a start, which scared the Eevees a bit as they fell down. I turned myself to look at her in all my seriousness to talk something serious but burst out laughing. Robin had a huge mustache and a monocle drawn quite seriously onto her face. Eevees had turned her into a very artistic piece. Robin was kinda amused by my behavior, as she had only known getting bullied ever since she was born. I proceeded to wipe her face with my handkerchief, which she didn't oppose. I guess she hadn't digested the change in her surroundings yet.

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. Sorry for my friends, they drew some things on your face. Whoa! You look beautiful!"

Robin-" I'm Robin fro.....aaaaahh! where's mom?"

Me-"You mean the Silver-haired lady? She's sleeping next to you. You're quite roughed up! What happened to you two?"

Robin ignored me and tried to wake up her mom, who was definitely very tired. The Senzu beans only charged you up physically. She must have been quite tensed to save her and Robin's life. Now that she had some relief, she was releasing all that stress in her sleep. I stopped Robin fro waking her up and told her to let her mom sleep as she was very tired.

Robin-"But she must wake up. We need to escape. We don't want you to get drawn into our troubles."

I acted quite cheesy-"It's a man's duty to protect the ladies. What ails you, my lady?"

Robin-"We're being chased by Navy and the World Government. Akainu was quite.......where are we?"

Me-"In the forest of Pallet Town in Kanto region. And there doesn't exist any World Government or Navy here. We have Pokemon leagues, which govern the areas, and most definitely, none of the leagues have a hobby of chasing people unless you stole something. You two don't have anything on you so who are you running from?"

Robin's mouth opened up big enough to fit a Pokeball inside.

' Pii...Pikaaa...Pikaaa.....Pikachu!"

Pikachu tried to get her attention and introduced himself. The Eevees followed their big brother nad gave their intros, "Eeveeeeee"

"The yellow guy is a Pikachu, name's Bolt. The two cuties who drew on your face are Eevees. I guess you don't know them but they're Pokemon."

Robin took some time to digest the information and started asking me questions if there were any pirates, or devil fruit, or Grand Line or something like that.

I gave her my answers to the best of my knowledge and asked questions from her in return, about her world. She showed me her devil fruit ability, very nervous while showing it. I knew that kids of her age had called her a monster, devil incarnate, and whatnot. As I had requested the reaper to provide Robin with a better environment as I had sympathy for her life, I decided to become something like emotional support for her

Me-" That's so cool!"

Robin (bashfully) -"Really? Do you think it's cool? You don't think it's monstrous?"

Me-"Why?"

Robin-"Because I'm different."

Me-"Aren't you special then? And I said your ability is cool because I can do something similar. It's just that my hands are not visible."

I used my psychic hands to pick up berries and hand them to her.

Me-"You said that there was a fight between a guy who used earthquakes and a guy who used lava, right? And you couldn't swim in the water! Let's try something out. Maybe I can Figure out your situation."

We moved towards the lake which was nearby. I tried to use aura to keep her calm and Pikachu acting to cheer her up helped a lot. I asked her to trust me while holding her hand and kept walking into the water. She was quite tensed but eventually loosened up, feeling nothing from the water. I tried the experiment to see if the curse of devil fruit was still working, as when I saw her use her ability, it felt to me like very dense psychic energy. If her fruit power had changed to psychic, she'd be quite a powerhouse in herself and could easily travel this world. I even asked her to take a swim and asked a Goldeen from the lake to take care of her.

Robin slowly broke out of her bubble and started cheering like a little girl. I was happy as I had achieved something for her.

Later as she calmed down, I told her my hypothesis.

"I think that what you fell into was a Spatio-temporal rift, or simply a dimensional crack. Perhaps the earthquake caused the fabric of space and time to tear and open a dimensional pathway that sucked you two in. So, simply speaking you traveled to a world different from your original one. I can vouch that this world is entirely different from your world. We don't have pirates. There may be some but they are very limited in number. As far as I know, there isn't anyone searching for anything named 'One Piece'. There isn't any gap in our history. Sure there are patches where it's not clear but it's not like there isn't any information. There is no law banning the research of history. Sure, you cannot do any dangerous research privately, but the leagues promote research and Pokemon researchers are a very respectable Profession. Even I'm a Pokemon researcher, though I don't study history. Also, we don't have anything like devil fruit. You said that those who eat a devil fruit are cursed to be dry ducks. You saw yourself, you can swim in the water. Also, no one, absolutely no one has powers as you mentioned in the human race. There are Pokemon who can do similar things, like Magmar who are magma pokemon. And almost ever rock Pokemon can cause earthquakes. Even Pokemon like Bolt, the Pikachu sitting on my shoulder can do it."

I then proceeded to tell her information about the Pokemon world and finally completed with an essential piece of information-"Although I praised my world a lot, it's not all roses. There are criminal organizations here as well, but they are not as free to roam around as your world. Well, we don't need to be pirates to go on adventures, so those labeled as criminals are the ones who are really so. Most of those organizations are those trying to steal pokemon. There may be others but the chances are very low. I'm a researcher and am allowed access to league information. If I don't know about a criminal group, then either it is still not discovered by the league, which is impossible, or is just some small-time gang of idiots."

I then showed her Arbok and Onix. She was quite afraid of them at first but when I told her that Onix was just a newly born baby, she took interest in it and started petting him. I told the pokemon to play with her and started to do what I had come to the forest for, playing the music. I got into the zone and started playing pieces after pieces of music I knew about. I tried to pick up soft and uplifting pieces and at the end, when I opened my eyes, I rolled out laughing again. Robin had been buried under Pokemon. I even saw a Beedrill stuck to her head. She had been very amazed to see the diversity and the bonding between Pokemon. Like Pikachu sitting on Arbok, this would have been impossible in her previous world. Heck, even being near someone like Arbok would have been impossible. We spent the time talking about the Pokemon world and her childhood. Seeing in an anime and hearing from the person herself, were two different things. I couldn't help myself but shed tears on her account of her childhood. I had heard somewhere, "Kid's who've never seen war have different values than those who've never known peace." I could see that she had started to mature a bit, bringing grace to her speech. To normal people, it'd be seen as a kid trying to copy an adult, which is a cute gesture, but those who know, a maturity in an 8-year-old child means the society isn't worth existing. It means that the childhood has been destroyed.

I just couldn't hold myself and hugged her tightly, as if she'd be blown away by the wind if I let her loose.

"Now that you've escaped that shitty world, I promise you, I'll be with you forever! I'll give you the joy of playing around, the feeling of having friends, the thrill of going on adventures, the pleasure of being loved! for as long as I live. I promise on my soul"

I kept ranting on and on until I heard a soft whimper. I let my hold loose to see Robin tearing up. I just pat her head, gave her a soft smile and she broke down in my arms. She clutched my chest and started sobbing. I let her cry and just patted her back and held her close. We remained in that state for some time until she calmed down a bit.

Finally, she rose up to give a small kiss on my cheeks before shying away a bit and then proceeded to do something amazing-

Destroying the mood

"You'll have to take responsibility. You took a maiden's first hug."

Eevees nodded

"You took her first kiss.'

Eeevees nodded. Pikachu nodded.

"You made a maiden cry and even have her tears on your shirt."

Eevees nodded. Pikachu nodded. Onix nodded.

Whaaat!

I and Kaze just fell down from surprise. My shirt got wet and I was the one responsible.

Though I showed such a reaction I was happy to see her smile and act a bit tsundere.

After that I played some more music until it was time to leave the forest.

"I'm leaving the forest."

Robin-"Will you come back tomorrow?"

Me-"Yes! Why?"

Robin-"Nothing!"

Me-"You aren't planning to sleep in the forest do you?"

Robin-"Yeah!....Ouch!"

She glared at me holding her forehead as I had given her a dekopin.

Me-"Fool! You're coming with me, along with your mom! No objections!"

"Kaze, I need your help bud."

I put Olivia, who was still sleeping, onto Kaze and started walking out of the forest. As we left the forest, Olivia woke up.

Me-"Slept well?"

Olivia looked around questioningly and saw herself riding a tiger-striped dog with her daughter jumping around while walking.

"I'm Ash from Pallet town and we're going to my home."

Robin then told Olivia everything I had told her. With Olivia being older, she was quick to adapt and easily accepted the fact that they had been isekai'd.

As we were walking slowly due to Robin and Olivia still being tired, We reached home a bit late and saw mom waiting at the door.

"I can see that my son has quite a talent for picking up women. Whoa! You captured a woman the age of your mom! Ash! Where did I go wrong in raising you? Snifff!"

I facepalmed and told her I'd tell her the story inside the house. After we went inside, I told mom that Robin and Olivia were from a different world who ended up in our world somehow. My mom was quite sympathetic towards them and offered them a place in our home.

At night, when mom and I were alone, I told her the detailed story of Olivia and Robin. Something that had me in tears definitely made her moved to tears, as she is quite emotional, which I like. We went to sleep and the next morning brought quite some surprises.

Robin-"Good Morning Ash! Good Morning..."

Mom-"Aunt Delia for you! Good morning sweetie!"

Olivia-"Good Morning..."

Mom -"Big-sis for you! No questions asked! As of now, I'm your big sister. Good morning!"

Olivia-"Why am I the little sister? You don't even know my age!"

Mom -" I don't need to know your age. After My son rescued you, you've been hired as an employee to "THE FAIRY FOOD COURT". As I'm your employer, I command you to be my little sister! I won't take no for an answer. Your lodging will be at Ketchum residence. Report for duty at the restaurant tomorrow."

Mom was a typhoon. She blew away all questions and reasons and hired her straight away.

Robin-"What's "THE FAIRY FOOD COURT"?"

Me-"It's our restaurant. Mom runs it with the help of Pokemon. I'll take you around town today and show you the restaurant as well."

Robin-"Where's Ketchum residence? Is it far? Will you be able to come there?"

Me-"umm! This house is Ketchum residence you know!"

Robin and Olivia were blank-eyed and stood still for a moment before Olivia walked to my mom hugged her and broke down. Finally, I was relieved to see her shed tears. This meant that she had now accepted her life here.

In reality, I knew Olivia was older than mom, but if we see their character, Olivia is like a girl who didn't have any sense of responsibility until disaster arrived at her doorstep, while mom had been a mom from day one. So yes, My mom had every right to call herself an older sister amongst the two.

From that day on, Robin and Olivia became our close family.

Next time-

Prelude to the Journey