Under normal circumstances, a damaged Pokémon Egg that couldn't be treated immediately meant only one thing, the end of a life.
Forget five years. If such an Egg survived even three days, it would already be considered a miracle of willpower.
And yet… this one hadn't gone cold. Even now, five years later, it still clung to life. Its tenacity was beyond anything they'd ever seen.
"With all due respect, Professor Cerise," Brock said, brows furrowed, "that sounds impossible. Theoretically, a damaged Pokémon Egg shouldn't last that long. Its life energy should've faded long ago."
His skepticism was understandable. Even if it had been the Egg of a Legendary Pokémon, five years was unthinkable.
Professor Cerise nodded slightly. "You're right. Under normal circumstances, that would be true. But this Egg is… different. It's survived because of this pond."
He gestured toward the pool, where faint ripples shimmered around the Egg like a heartbeat. "The water here comes from a place called Clear Cliff. It's infused with potent life energy. Without it, this Egg would've perished years ago."
"Clear Cliff?" Ash repeated, exchanging a glance with Misty and Brock. "I've never heard of that place before."
"It's in Johto," Cerise explained. "A dangerous region, towering cliffs, unstable ledges, wild Pokémon that attack intruders on sight. Helicopters can't approach safely, so researchers have to climb by hand. Few ever attempt it."
He paused, his gaze softening as he looked at the Egg again. "That's why Clear Cliff's waters are so precious. They're pure, untouched… and alive."
The way he said it carried a quiet weight. The kind of truth that sounded simple, but had come at a cost.
Vermilion City wasn't cheap to begin with. Renting a lab here ran into six figures a month. And yet, the tiny pond before them, just a few square feet of water, was worth more than triple that.
And it didn't stop there. The vitality in Clear Cliff's water wasn't endless. The pond had to be replenished once a year, which meant the expense was constant.
To keep this one fragile life breathing, Professor Cerise had spent more than most people could hope to earn in a lifetime.
Even then, the Egg had never shown signs of recovery.
He exhaled quietly, his voice tinged with resignation. "Even with the water's energy, its life force keeps fading, little by little. No matter what I do, it's slipping away. At this rate… it may not last another year."
Silence fell over the garden. The only sound was the soft trickle of the waterfall behind them.
Then Ash took a step forward.
"Professor Cerise," he said softly, eyes locked on the Egg. "May I touch it?"
Cerise's head snapped toward him, startled. "Ash, what are you? That Egg is incredibly unstable. Even the slightest disturbance could…" He trailed off, trying to choose his words carefully. "It could extinguish what little life remains."
The implication was clear: don't.
But Ash didn't back down. His fists clenched, and when he spoke again, his voice carried a quiet, unwavering determination.
"I want to save him."
"Save him?"
Professor Cerise froze. Then the meaning sank in, Ash was serious about reviving the dying Pokémon Egg, about restoring it to the point where it could hatch.
That was impossible.
"H-haha, Ash, don't joke around." Cerise waved a hand, trying to mask his unease with a chuckle. "You can't just say things like that."
But Ash didn't laugh. He said nothing at all, only met Cerise's gaze with eyes that were calm, unwavering, and frighteningly sincere. Something in that look made the professor's chest tighten.
He wasn't joking. He meant it.
"Please, Professor Cerise," Ash said quietly, "just this once, trust me. I might seem reckless sometimes, but when it comes to Pokémon, I've never treated their lives as a game. Not ever."
There was no bravado in his tone, only conviction.
Cerise stood there, torn between reason and instinct. Then, after a long silence, he finally exhaled and gave a small, reluctant nod. "All right, Ash… try it. I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong. I believe you're… different from that person."
'That person?'
Misty and Brock exchanged a glance. The way Cerise said it carried weight, perhaps the one who had caused the Egg's current state. But there was no time to ask.
Ash had already knelt beside the pool. Slowly, he reached into the clear water and pressed his palm gently to the top of the Egg. His hand was small, barely large enough to cover the upper curve, but it fit perfectly over the fractured spot.
Then he closed his eyes.
A pulse of deep blue light rippled from his body, radiating outward like a heartbeat.
Professor Cerise's eyes widened. The air itself seemed to thrum with power.
'What is this energy?'
Before he could process it further, Aura poured from Ash's body into the Egg, flowing like liquid light.
The water glowed softly.
Normally, a Pokémon Egg takes between a week and a month to hatch, rarely longer. Around the halfway point, the Pokémon inside begins to stir, becoming aware of the outside world. When it senses care, its parents' warmth, or a Trainer's gentle voice, it forms a bond, a connection that shapes its heart after birth.
That was how Ash's Ralts had come into the world so quickly. Her hatching had been accelerated by the energy of the Giant Moon Stone, compressing weeks of growth into mere seconds.
But this Egg…
This Egg had lingered in its shell for five long years. No Pokémon Egg, healthy or not, should remain unhatched for so long. Only the life-rich water of Clear Cliff had kept its spark alive.
As his Aura reached into the fragile shell, Ash could feel it, the faint, flickering consciousness within. When his energy touched it, a flood of emotions answered back: gratitude, joy, relief.
It was alive.
And more than that, it was aware.
The mind inside wasn't new or unformed; it was mature, enduring. It had known it was dying. It had cried out for help.
If Ash hadn't arrived today, it might have gone silent forever.
As Ash's Aura flowed into the Egg, the fragile spark within began to stir.
At first, it was faint, like the slow heartbeat of something half-asleep. But with every pulse of his energy, that heartbeat grew stronger. The faint, flickering light of life inside the Egg blazed back into a steady glow.
Still, this was no simple healing. Aura was life itself, vital energy drawn from one's own soul.
Pour out too much, and the body would weaken. Give too much, and life itself could fade away.
That was why Aura could save the Egg at all: because it traded life for life.
But this time, the one giving it was Ash Ketchum. Not only did he receive all of Aura Ash Aura, but his own Aura is also slowly developing. Injecting Aura into a dying Pokémon Egg to revitalize its life would not cause any burden to Ash.
Reviving a dying Pokémon Egg?
Even restoring a Legendary or a Divine-grade Pokémon, so long as it wasn't one of the true life-givers like Ho-Oh or Xerneas, wouldn't cost him his life.
The Aura of a human-shaped Legend burned within him.
Blue light shimmered from Ash's palms, spilling through the water like liquid fire. Misty, Brock, and Professor Cerise could only watch, hardly daring to breathe.
Seconds ticked by.
Then;
A faint sound echoed from within the Egg.
"Did you hear that?" Brock whispered.
The soft sound grew sharper, louder, crackling like lightning under glass. Tiny fractures webbed across the shell, racing faster and faster until it was covered in a mosaic of glowing blue lines.
Professor Cerise's eyes widened. "The cracks, are they…?" He couldn't tell if this was revival or collapse; his instruments weren't here, and his heart pounded helplessly in his chest.
Crack. Crack. Crack
BANG!
With a muffled blast, the shell shattered. Fragments burst outward like shards of glass, scattering through the air and raining into the pond.
Misty and Brock threw up their arms, shielding their faces from the spray.
"What...what happened?" Brock winced, feeling a sting where a piece had struck his hand. "Did Ash… fail?"
If it had truly hatched, it shouldn't have sounded like an explosion. When Ralts had hatched, it had been silent, almost gentle, nothing like this.
But Misty shook her head, voice trembling. "No… Ash doesn't fail. Not when it's something like this."
Over the past month, she had watched him do things that seemed reckless, impossible, and yet, every time, the results spoke for themselves.
He always pulled through. He always found a way.
This time wouldn't be any different.
They slowly lowered their hands. Professor Cerise hesitated, torn between fear and hope, while Misty, heart pounding, looked into the pool first.
Her breath caught. A brilliant smile lit up her face.
"Professor Cerise! Brock! He did it, the Pokémon hatched!"
"What?! Really?!"
"Where is it, where's the hatchling?"
Both men turned toward the pool, and then froze.
Nestled in Ash's arms, still faintly glowing with blue light, was a small, blue-black Pokémon. Its body was sleek, its ears rounded, its form canid yet delicate.
The small Pokémon in Ash's arms stirred faintly, its soft fur still damp from the water, its breathing slow and even.
This was the Pokémon that had hatched from the long-silent Egg.
"It… actually hatched," Professor Cerise murmured, disbelief flickering across his face. He hurried closer, unable to stop himself, and knelt beside Ash.
With a trembling hand, he gently touched the little Pokémon's flank. The warmth beneath his palm made his breath hitch. It was alive, truly alive.
Misty and Brock stepped forward as well, crowding around Ash, their eyes wide with awe and curiosity.
"What kind of Pokémon is that?" Misty asked softly. "It doesn't look like anything from Kanto."
Ash smiled faintly, glancing down at the tiny form resting against his arm. "Riolu," he said. "It's from the Sinnoh region."
Misty blinked. "Riolu…?"
Her surprise wasn't because of the name, but because Ash had recognized it so easily. He wasn't exactly known for encyclopedic Pokémon knowledge. In the early days, he could barely identify half the species in Kanto. Sure, he'd learned a lot since then, but recognizing a Pokémon from Sinnoh, a region he'd never even visited, was strange.
Was it another special case like the rare Pokémon Professor Oak sometimes told them about? Like Hippopotas or Aron, species occasionally seen far from their native regions under unusual circumstances?
"Riolu is extremely rare," Professor Cerise began, his scientific curiosity quickly taking over as the initial shock faded. "Even in Sinnoh, sightings are uncommon. Some researchers compare its rarity to that of certain Legendary Pokémon."
He adjusted his glasses and continued, his tone warming with fascination. "Riolu possesses a very special ability. It can sense the emotions of people and Pokémon alike, perceiving the world around it through a unique energy known as Aura. Those with kind hearts are drawn to it, while those with malice make it recoil. In short, Riolu is one of the few Pokémon capable of freely manipulating Aura Power."
"Aura Power…" Misty echoed, the term clicking instantly. She and Brock exchanged a knowing glance.
Of course. That explained everything.
Ash knew about Riolu because he shared the same gift.
Aura, the life energy that connected all living things. Even as Gym Leaders, neither of them had heard of a human capable of wielding it. Later, after meeting Ash, they'd researched it out of curiosity but found almost nothing.
Only a handful of Pokémon were known to use Aura: Lucario, perhaps a few others. Those gifted individuals could channel their inner energy into a devastating move, Aura Sphere, a technique that never missed its mark.
That was the same move Ash had once used.
But what made Ash truly different wasn't just that he possessed Aura, it was how he used it.
He could do things no Pokémon ever had: merge his Aura with another's, form protective barriers, track life energy through solid terrain.
And now, the newborn Pokémon in his arms, Riolu, was one of the few species capable of that same mastery.
Being able to sense good and evil, and being able to observe any Pokémon's emotions with Aura, isn't this one of Ash's ways of applying Aura Power?