The day after Ash had the wonderful night with May, and then Winona, it was time to say their real, final farewell.
Well, for now.
"Dad, please, I want to go back with Big Brother. Big Brother, you can take me home and we can see new sights, right?" Molly hung on Ash's leg again, and really didn't want to separate.
Professor Hale and Ash looked at each other and smiled helplessly. Molly really was getting a little too spoiled, and looked to need some more kind parental guidance.
However, in the end, Professor Hale, Delia, along with May and her family took a boat to the port of Littleroot Town. With someone like Norman taking care of them, Ash felt relieved.
With this, May and Max said their goodbyes to Ash and got on the boat with everyone else, where they will then have a little ride back to Patelburg City.
Now Molly has once again joined Ash's team, though this time for a much shorter period.
"Perfect, Growlithe, let's go!" Molly was having a great time with Growlithe now. After the tournament, Ash called Slowking to tell him that now was an appropriate time to take a break and let the Pokémon relax.
So he took out Ralts, Togetic and Growlithe with him and let them play with Molly.
However, Ash seemed to have forgotten something… again.
———
Now back in the Kanto-Johto Region Border much quicker than ever, thanks to them taking a plane while Delia was enjoying her cruise to Pallet Town, Ash said goodbye to Brock there again, and now he was on his way to take Molly back to her home in the Johto Region!
Since the Johto Region and Kanto Region are on the same continent and share a very close border, it was actually very convenient to just take a sweet train ride to one of the closer, larger cities to where Molly lived. But just when the pair of siblings were about to board a train, they got a piece of news that made them both very very interested.
"Big Brother, it's the famous Wind Festival of Fula City!" Molly immediately got very excited when she saw the news, "This is a super large Pokémon Festival, and I even heard that you can also see Lugia there!"
As soon as Ash heard Lugia, his eyes lit up with some delight.
He quickly took out his multifunctional PokéNav he got from President Stone himself to check the detailed information of the Wind Festival.
Now that the Ever Grande Conference is over, he thought it was a good time to reward himself with something.
Even though Ash didn't see much information about this new city, he learned enough to be intrigued. This is a large seaside city in the Johto Region, close to the border of the Kanto Region, and a city that has been coexisting with the wind for a long time after an incredible incident.
And this Wind Festival he's hearing about is held here every year because of that.
According to legends passed down from ancient times to this day, the Legendary Pokémon Lugia will come on the last day of the Wind Festival and bring with it the Blessing of the Wind!
Now that the main Regional Conferences of all the closest regions have ended one after another, it is time for the Trainers from Johto Region and Kanto to return to their hometowns for a break before their next journey.
Now that such a festival is being held, those Pokémon Trainers will of course flock here, making it very lively.
"It's about to start, Big Brother, can we please go and see this Find Festival?" Molly quickly used her skill to get what she wanted.
"Yeah, yeah, sure, but what about your classes?" Ash rubbed Molly's hair, which had now grown to below her shoulders.
"Don't worry, I'm amazing at this. I have already learned everything my teachers gave me, they said I'm a once in a generation genius, or something. If you don't believe me, you can ask dad!" Molly was indeed a genius in her school. And because of her journey with Ash and his group, she learned things even quicker. If not including her age, she was already a qualified Pokémon Trainer in every aspect.
"Oh don't worry, you can trust me that I'll definitely make a call to your dad," Ash said, just to make sure he didn't fall into a lie made by a little girl.
He quickly found Professor Hale's number and called it to explain the situation to him. With a faint wry laughter, he finished the call and got permission to take Molly there before going home.
"Yes, let's go!" Molly was naturally the happiest.
Fula City, Ash didn't know why, but he already quite liked the atmosphere of this city. Unlike some of the special places like LaRousse City, which was full of high-tech things, the buildings here definitely had more of that warmer feeling to it, and there are all kinds of trees and nature on both sides of the road.
Sitting on the famous tram of the city, Molly looked to be very happy with the small windmill in her hand, "Big Brother, look out, there is a big windmill on the top of this tram! And that building has one on top of it too!"
After getting out of the tram, Molly threw a Poké Ball from her small bag, "Stand by, Jigglypuff!"
The famous Jigglypuff holding a microphone appeared next to Molly. This Balloon Pokémon usually sways in the wind and will definitely like the environment here.
"Long time no see, Jigglypuff!" Ash poked Jigglypuff's soft face. Ralts and Togetic also came up and pinched Jigglypuff's face.
"Pika pi!"
Pikachu and Togetic leaned directly on one of the passing windows, a dessert shop, and Molly quickly came to it and said, "Pikachu, Togetic, which one do you want to eat?"
Ash didn't seem to see the 100% tourist trap price listed below the item, he was now so rich that this and all of his travel expenses together were nothing more than a drop in a bucket. He bought all kinds of snacks along the way, anything his group wanted, they got.
If only getting points was this simple…
But alas, now even that is seeming to come to an end. The amount of points he's getting now is definitely a noticeable decrease compared to at the beginning of the Johto Journeys.
"Ah, Big Brother, this cone is so cute!" Molly covered her full stomach, but her eyes were already fixed on another ice cream stall.
Ash was stunned for a moment when he saw
the ice cream, "Isn't that Vanillish?"
"Huh, you actually know about Vanillish?" The stall owner was an older man, "This is one of the Pokémon I saw in a distant region when I was traveling in my younger days, it saved me, so it naturally left a deep impression on me! Hahahaha!"
"Big Brother, you know what kind of Pokémon is Vanillish?" Molly took the ice creams and shared
it with Togetic and the others.
"Yeah, not that much, just a little. This is a Pokémon that's relatively common and native to in the distant Unova Region, in their colder, mountainous areas. So it's unlikely we'd see one of these in our area, where it's almost always more tropical. Even our mountains get too warm for them at certain times." Ash didn't explain too much. As for the Unova Region, it was certainly one of the places he plans on going.
After finding a place to sit down, they saw the big screens on many tall buildings in the city suddenly light up simultaneously. Not only that, but even Ash's open PokéNav automatically connected to the same broadcast.
"Starting today, Fula City's annual celebration, the Wind Festival, begins! The Wind Festival is said to be held from the blessing of the Legendary Pokémon Lugia!"
It was naturally customary to explain the origin of this festival, otherwise many of the tourists would not understand it just by participating in the event.
"This place where our city now used to be a barren land, but people and Pokémon supported each other and lived here to the best of their abilities. When Lugia passed through, it praised their bond and agreed to bless the wind to grace upon this land. The people soon used this wind to develop the city we now know of!"
"So, Lugia comes here every year, to confirm the bond between people and Pokémon are still there, and to send its Blessing of the Wind to this land every year!"
And that was the jist of the origins, or was it?
The atmosphere here was really good, everyone brought out their closest partner with them, and even regular people got along very well with the wild Pokémon's.
"In addition, there was another major event that happened in this city. Once, when there was a large-scale wildfire in this city, it was Lugia who helped put out the wildfire...
Hearing this, Ash and Molly both smiled and said, "Lugia, it's always so gentle."
"I wonder if Silver has grown up. Big Brother also has its blessings!" Molly obviously still remembers the young Lugia they met when they were on the Whirl Islands, who was rescued by Ash from Team Rocket and seems to have liked to stay close to him.
————
————
When Ash and Molly were talking about the information about the city to their Pokémon's, a man sat next to them and he also took his sweet time to read all the contents of the broadcast.
At this time, a little girl who looked to be even younger than Molly ran over holding two Vanillish ice creams, followed by a beautiful young woman with short blue-purple hair, who must have been her mother, or sister, but that was more unlikely.
"Uncle, I'm back from buying ice cream! Here it is. This is for you!"
"Thank you, Kellie!" The man was quite gentle to her, and his eyes when looking at the little girl were full of adoration.
The little girl climbed up on the bench and sat down next to Molly. When she saw this girl who was a little older than her, she quickly greeted her, "Hello, my name is Kellie!"
"Hi, my name is Molly!" Molly also smiled, "This is Jigglypuff, Ralts, Togetic, Growlithe, Pikachu, and this is my Big Brother Ash!"
'Shouldn't you introduce me, your brother, first? Why is it last?' Ash thought to himself.
"Hello, Mister Ash!" The little girl behaved well, definitely a nice child. After saying hello to Ash, she then turned her attention to the Ralts and could no longer look away.
"Every one of them is so cute!" the little girl praised sincerely. Then she turned to the man on the other side and said, "Uncle, let Mister Ash and the others see your Pokémon! You said that they are all very powerful Pokémon, right?"
Hearing this request, the man's face changed, but he immediately sat straight to be more confident and said, "Of course!"
He took out a Poké Ball and said, "Look!"
The little girl was looking forward to it, "What kind of Pokémon is it?"
To Ash, this was a regular Poké Ball, with no signature in it. With his eyesight and a little Aura to see certain things that no normal person can see, he saw at a glance that this is an empty Poké Ball that has never been used, just well taken care of.
This uncle was obviously pretending. He had no Pokémon at all, but Ash didn't expose him, he had no reason to.
He could tell at a glance that Kellie admired her uncle very much, and that he had been working hard to maintain his tall and majestic image in her mind.
Ash didn't hate this.
In fact, he thought this was adorable.
He just didn't want to think of the consequences that will definitely happen one day when she finds out the truth.
Seeing that Kellie was coming to touch the Poké Ball, the man quickly dodged away and explained, "You see, my Pokémon just had a very hard battle before and is now very tired…"
"Look Kellie, your ice cream is about to melt!" Finally changing the topic, the little girl's attention moved to her ice cream, and she quickly made sure none of it was wasted by filling her face with that cream.
"Uncle, what kind of Pokémon is that?" Kellie asked, pointing to the balloon in Lugia's proportion not far away from them.
"That's the Legendary Pokémon Lugia!" The man answered fluently, and then added more details to what he had just played, winning the little girl's eyes.
"Well, I suppose it's time to say our byes for now," Ash couldn't stand it anymore and thought it was Usopp who had traveled into this world along with him, so he pulled Molly away.
He didn't dislike the man, just didn't want Molly to begin believing him like Kellie.
Molly waved to Kellie, "Goodbye, Kellie!"
"Goodbye, Molly!" The little girl was a little envious that Molly could be surrounded by so many Pokémon while she can't even see her Uncle's Pokémon.
Ash and Molly decided that they had eaten and drank enough for now, and since Molly was also a little tired, Ash decided it was time for them to get going to the nearby Pokémon Center to settle down and take a little rest before they go to find a nice place for their stay.
"Look, it's a Phanpy!" Molly exclaimed joyfully as she saw a very little Phanpy following a lemonade stall set up by three little boys.
When Ash's Phanpy was small and with the group, he played and got along well with Molly, but now that Phanpy has evolved, Molly no longer found Donphan cute.
This made Donphan sad when he overheard it, and he went directly to his mom, Ash's Tyranitar and cried, who did her best to help her son out.
But his father, Ash's Rhyperior, told it to man up and deal with it, so Tyranitar beat up her husband.
But that's a story for another day.
The three little boys were pushing the small stall up the steep slope in front of them, looking like they were struggling but used to it.
Just when Ash was just about to take Molly away, a girl with short pink hair, about the same age as Molly, suddenly rushed out of one of the nearby alleys and knocked down their small lemon juice stand, causing the lemons to roll to the floor.
The little girl also fell to the ground, but she immediately checked her backpack to confirm that nothing inside was broken, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hey you, Margo!" The three little boys actually recognized the little girl instantly and directly called her identity, "The Mayor's daughter!"
It turned out that this little girl with pink hair was the daughter of the mayor of Fula City.
Ash looked in surprise, is the daughter of the Mayor of a city really going to be so easily bullied by a few kids?
When the three little boys saw their lemons rolling to the ground, they immediately began to curse, "Look at what you did! We can't make any lemonade with these anymore. What should we do now?"
In this world, where energy and nutrients were found and used much more easily, it was impossible for these lemons to have anything happen to them. Yeah, maybe they will get a little dirty, but a simple dip in water should do more than enough to clear this is. These lemons definitely will not get unusable from this simple, light roll on the ground.
These three little boys were obviously just looking for some trouble.
But this little girl apologized immediately, though she likely didn't have enough time to think this through, "I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry to go somewhere now!"
"Stop yapping!" The three little boys were not willing to listen to her at all. They actually picked up the lemons on the ground and threw them towards her, "Pay us what you have!"
"No!" Molly got ready to rush forward.
Ash's body suddenly flashed with blue light, and with speeds where it seemed like he was teleporting, got in front of Margo, and caught all the lemons like it was nothing—it really wasn't. After all, even without all his powers, as a Pokémon Trainer, catching a ball was an absolutely necessary skill.
"Now now, kids, we don't want to fight now, would we? This is a rare once in a year occurrence. Let's all get along well!" To teach these little children, Ash chose to be polite before being not.
Molly smiled and stood together with Margo, comforting, "Don't worry, Big Brother is here, everything will be fine."
"Oi, Unc! Who are you? You want to fight us or what? Phanpy, use Rollout!" But these three little brats didn't know how to restrain themselves, so they let the cute Phanpy attack.
Hearing the word "Unc" from these brats made Ash annoyed.
He was a handsome, rich, young man with tens of millions of fans worldwide, with young girls being the majority and a harem of beautiful girls.
If he didn't constantly use his power to distort his face to normal people, he would constantly be swamped by people wanting his future kids.
So how can he be so polite anymore, "Ralts!"
Well he was still being nice enough to not send out his Pikachu, or even go into battle himself.
Ralts teleported in front of Phanpy, and a little Psychic shot Phanpy away with no resistance at all.
"So strong!" The three naughty kids suddenly panicked and threw Phanpy into the stall. They finally pushed it here, but now they let gravity do its work and went downhill again.
Margo thanked Ash, "Thank you, and thank you too, Ralts, you were so awesome!"
Ralts returned to Ash's shoulder and ignored her, what a little girl.
After the three of them got to know each other a little more, the Mayor's daughter decided to take the group for a stroll, "Look, that's the Eternal Flame! Lugia uses that Holy Fire as a beacon to send its blessed wind to our city every year!"
This so-called Eternal Flame stands on top of that mountain should be a luminous crystal and not any real flame.
Why?
Because why the fuk would Lugia, the Sea God, use flames?
Maybe it wasn't Lugia who saved them, but Ho-Oh.
In Ash's mind it made perfect sense.
Yeah, sure, both Ho-Oh and Lugia were powerful Legendary Pokémon with the Flying-type who had ties to bonds and friendship between humans and Pokémon's, but Ho-Oh more so; and especially if the blessing item had the word "Flame" in it and not some other watery kinda name.
Hmmm, but anyway, Molly pointed to an abandoned building behind the Eternal Flame Tower and asked, "What's that there?"
"That previously used to be a power plant, but was burned down by a wildfire around 50 years ago and has been abandoned ever since then. I read that it was the rains brought by Lugia that saved the city from being burned by the wildfires at that time!" Margo knew many things for her age, which made sense considering her background.
The Mayor: Why of course, my daughter not only looks like a princess, but also a wise future queen.
Molly also got along well with her.
Before the Wind Festival started, Molly, who had already become friends with Margo, wanted to follow her to see where she was going.
Margo thought about it for a good minute but finally agreed after seeing Molly's eyes full of curiosity. With Ash present, it was much safer for the two little girls to climb this mountain full of wild Pokémon. By the time they got to where they needed to go, they could see the ruins of the area that had been burned in the wildfire.
Margo arrived in front of one of the ruined buildings with practiced ease. She placed some tangerines, milk and a piece of bread on the steps, and said softly, "I'm sorry, it was my fault that caused you to be injured. Please eat these, you will recover quicker if you eat them all!"
However, there was no movement from within the ruins.
In addition, she also brought some food for a Teddiursa and a Ditto, two of her good friends, who she decided to catch as her partner when she turns the rightful age to be a Pokémon Trainer, but now they were with their families in the mountains.
"If you are injured, it would be better to let Big Brother take a look. Although he is not a Pokémon doctor, he will definitely be able to be of more help than any of them!" Molly was very worried about this friend that Margo seemed to care about so much.
Like her older brother, she really likes Pokémon and thinks about their best all the time.
Margo shook her head, "It's okay, don't worry."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Ash's body flashed with a dazzling blue light, and Pikachu had already rushed out. Then they saw a blue lightning sparks flash past, and Pikachu was actually pushed a little back.
Then, a big golden cat with electric arcs all over its body appeared in front of Ash and the others.