229. Island

Ash was back inside of the Rustboro Cuty Pokémon Center, but this time he was taking to Misty about how to train some of her Water-type Pokémon's.

Ash was simply telling her the training orders he made for his Water-type Pokémon's back at the Lab.

After talking to her for a while, he went back to the Old Harbor.

Close to the shore where Mr. Brineys house was, Peeko happily ate what May was feeding it.

Looking at Peeko's eating state, May still couldn't forget her original goal from this morning, "I really wanted to eat the best pasta in Rustboro City. But alas…"

"The best pasta in Rustboro City? Could it be the store on the way here?" Old Man Hatch seemed to be very familiar with it and pointed towards it.

"You know about it?"

"Of course I know about it. After all, that store used to be run by my best friend. Unfortunately he later retired after losing his partner." At this point, in order to thank Ash for saving him and his beloved Preko, Mr. Peeko smiled and said, "In this case, I will ask him to make that pasta for you. You can eat all you want."

This old man must have been a great person when he was young, at least in terms of loyalty to his friends. The owner of that pasta restaurant was also getting older and had handed over his skills to his son after losing his partners. Now his has opened a new store in the central area of Rustboro City.

After a single phone call from Mr. Briney, the young shop owner came over in person and made a pasta feast for lunch for Ash and his party.

After lunch, Ash found that his initial guess was very wrong; Mr. Brineys boat was not broken at all. It was the complete opposite because it was exquisitely designed and well-made. It was based on his Wingull and was very well maintained. Ash even suspected that this boat was completely new.

They were now ready to sail out to the high seas.

"This is my super high-speed boat, the S.S. Wingull!"

This is the boat that Mr. Briney is most proud of, and it is his crowning masterpiece in his later years of being a captain.

Additionally this boat is fast, as in really fast for its size.

They were originally supposed to use a large passenger ferry to go from Rustboro City to Dewford Island.

It takes about 2 days on one of this to reach there, but this boat is obviously much faster than that one.

Me. Briney, who was standing at the bow of the boat and steering the boat, his eyes gleaming, opened his mouth to introduce to everyone, "After I retired and stopped captaining any boats, I lived a leisurely life every day. I thought that the adventure life of crossing the seven seas had nothing to do with me anymore but here I am."

"On such a day, my dear Peeko suddenly appeared and started to live with me and he kept flying freely in the high sky. Unknowingly, my heart was beginning to burn with the energy of youth once again like all those years ago!"

"I wanted to go out to sea again and travel the world's oceans with my little Peeko, so I built this boat all by myself!"

It was really a touching scene.

The encounter between a person and a Pokémon can sometimes create something so magical.

"I have a great idea!"

May had an idea and threw out her two Poké Balls, "Come out, Torchic, Wurmple!"

Today's weather was really good, and the sea was perfect for a little swimming. It was a great day to cross the sea.

Before arriving at Dewford Island, May wanted to let her Pokémon enjoy the open sea breeze and relax.

"Then I will do the same thing. Come on out, Dratini, Taillow, Treecko!" Ash also threw out his three Poké Balls, his Pikachu and Ralts were already outside.

Ash was holding Ralts in his arms while she was still sleeping soundly from her earlier training.

Overall, it was very cute.

Children are more sleepy than adults after all.

Ash's second red Pokémon Egg was currently sitting quietly inside of his backpack, waiting for the moment when it will comes out to see the world.

"Come out, Lotad, Forretress!" Brock also summoned his two Pokémon. As soon as Lotad came out, he spit up a column of water over everyone, it was very comfortable under the sunshine on the sea.

Except for May's Torchic, who kept fluffing his feathes, obviously he didn't like the feeling of getting water on his Fire-type body.

"May, you have to be patient with your Torchic, it's a Fire-type Pokémon after all. So it is of course he is afraid of water." Ash couldn't help but laugh.

Ignoring May's pouting face, Ash let his Dratini go into the sea water. He has grown a lot now compared to when he caught on the Silver Conference.

"Dratini, let's start enriching your skill structure." Ash finally decided to let his Dratini practice a new skill.

Dratini doesn't have many skills now, except for his core Extrreme Speed. After that are Thunder Wave, Twister, Dragon Rage, Dragon Tail, Aqua Tail, and the accidental Blizzard.

Now Ash decides to let him learn his Pikachu's signature attack, Thunderbolt.

After all, it is best to get many different types of coverage for his future Dragonite, a Dragon and Flying-type Pokémon.

And this skill was easy to learn compared to some other move, he can just practice with Pikachu and learn from the basis of his Thunder Wave.

Except for his Dratini, his Taillow was still practicing hard to better master his Steel Wing attack, but Treecko is not in a hurry to learn any new attacks. Instead, he continued to strengthen his body under the constraints of Macho Brace by doing some basic exercises.

He was very close to evolving into a Grovyle.

May and Max ignored Ash who was still doing his special training on the boat, while they continued to enjoy the warm wind on the sea, "Looking at it, I too want to go swimming now!"

When they said they wanted to swim, Mr. Briney suggested something, "I know a perfect place for a little swim."

Hearing this, May and Max immediately looked up at Ash who was doing his special training with pleading eyes, "Ash/Big Bro..."

Ash was doing his Aura practice while talking to them, "May, Max, forget about being cute, what kind of cuteness are you trying to act upon?"

"Mr. Briney, we would be grateful if you can take us there. I want to continue training some more before arriving at Dewford Island and challenging the Gym there."

As the main figure of the group, Ash spoke for them all, and Mr. Briney nodded understandably, "Then I will change the course to yake us there while the sun is still high."

After a while, Mr. Briney took Ash and his party to an unnamed island. It was a crescent-shaped island with a small beach surrounded by steep peaks at pretty much every side.

It was like a giant natural seawater swimming pool here.

"Sometimes I come here secretly and enjoy the sun. Its perfect out here." This is why Mr. Briney knows about such a good place. "I almost forgot the existence of this place during the past few months that I was away from the sea life. It's incredible, just as I remember!"

The scenery on the beach was very good, Max got very excited by this, "This kind of place feels like the perfect place where there might be a secret pirate's chest hidden out there!"

The boat sailed deeper into the Crescent Island, but before they even landed, May and Max couldn't wait to put on their swimsuits and jump into the water. They had bought them in Rustboro City and were already ready to have fun in the beach at Deword Island.

In such a nice weather, Ash was also planning to give his Pokémon a day off to enjoy their vacation, "Well then, everyone, let's relax for today!"

But just as he and Brock were preparing to enter the water like May and Max, they heard the loud screams of the two siblings.

They were unexpectedly surrounded by dozens of Sharpedo, which was a moment of shock for them.

The biggest fear at sea was being spotted by a shark, let alone so many of them!

"HELP!" The two siblings hugged each other and shouted loudly for help. They were completely frightened.

"Dratini!" Ash gave his clear order. Dratini, untied from his Macho Brace, turned into an afterimage and rushed over to suddenly standing between May and Max. Now he was being watched by all of the Sharpedos.

Ash's Dratini's pressure was slowly being released, and all the Sharpedos retreated little by little.

"Hold on tight, you two!" Ash reminded them, "Aqua Tail!"

A thick water columns shot up from Dratini's tail to the sea, then another jet of water lifted May and Max, and the he threw them towards the boat. Ash's eyes turned a shade of pink and he used his Psychic to pick them up and placed them smoothly on the boat.

"Blizzard!"

Ash's attack was not over yet. Cold wind and snow blew out of his Dratini, the ice began to spread with Dratini as the center point of everything.

Some of the Sharpedos quickly retreated, but most of them who had no time to react or escape were frozen and unable to move.

"Crack!" Suddenly, the sound of breaking ice came from the sea.

They saw an extraordinarily large Sharpedo, which crunched through the ice and freed all the frozen Sharpedos.

Then, it stared at Ash with its scarlet eyes, and then it called on the other Sharpedos to retreat, but it always surrounded the exit of the crescent-shaped island, not willing to let Ash and the others leave this place.

It was getting late now, so Mr. Briney had no choice but to take his boat to the beach inland to take a rest.