11AN: Been slowly working on stories while dealing with life. Thought I'd put this story up to let people know I'm still alive. I can't promise frequent updates, but I will definitely continue this story. Writing forces my imagination to consider more details and paint or more vivid picture in my mind of how the ideas I have would actually unfold.
Quick note on the last chapter, when Samurai mentioned Anima he was referring to the Eastern most continent on Remnant, not another land in yet another of CPL's stories.
ryubimaru: Thanks for helping point out that inconsistency so quickly. That's the last time I rush to meet a self-imposed deadline. Doing so clearly cause my writing to suffer.
jordanlink7856: Thanks for the much needed feedback. Glad to hear that the premise helps make this stick out from other Aura ash stories for some people.
ezok: Hopefully there won't be any further confusion that causes people to think I'm adding yet another franchise / universe. I'm glad we were able to clear that up in the PM. I still find it hard to believe that someone said they liked my version of the story more than the original. It's very flattering. Also thanks for telling me in the PM about how you like the way I'm writing Giovanni. His characterization was a big part of the challenge by CPL that lead to me writing this story, so it's satisfying to know that I'm doing that part right. Hopefully you like how I handled Samurai in this chapter, as well as in future chapters if I bring him back at some point.
Guest 1: Don't worry, I don't plan on stopping, though I have had to slow down a bit due to life.
Ok, just found out about this electronic journal hidden in my Pokedex. So I'm going to write down some important things here to help pass the time as Dexter continues on through the tutorial. Oh, Dexter is what I call my Pokedex's AI, sometimes I call him 'D' as well. Most of what the tutorial is saying is stuff I already know or could easily figure, that or technical details that go over my head. So I decided to try and do something to keep myself from falling asleep while Dexter goes on about functions I already know about. I'm, … fairly sure I'll notice anything new and important about the Pokedex when Dexter gets around to mentioning it, though Dexter gave me some snark for it. I suppose that's what I get for meddling around earlier when I turn on his snark setting without realizing it.
Should probably mention the important events that happened recently. Woke up back home in Pallet, fought a Beowulf, and then repeated the start my journey. Running from the spearow flock, meeting Misty and team rocket went the same with some new details. What was really different this time was talking with Misty about these "Bloodliner" powers she now has, and the rampaging Ursa we had to take down with Samurai. Turns out Samurai also has visited Remnant and manage to come back to our world.
I should have questioned seeing a Beowulf after I first woke back up in Pallet more. I was so glad to be back home and to know that all the people I cared about existed again, that I didn't stop to think about it. I suppose I just thought it was a single grim that pulled back with and that I wouldn't see anymore. That was naïve and wishful thinking on my part. From now on, me, my Pokémon, and whoever else is traveling with me will be sleeping in shifts in case something tries to creep up on us at night while we're outdoors. Something we should have probably started doing already given how much more dangerous wild Pokémon seem to be now.
We're spending the night in Samurai's cabin after he offered to guide us as well as a safe place to sleepy for the night. As we made our way I vaguely mentioned I spent some time in Remnant, and Samurai spoke of his own adventure in Remnant. He spoke like he was telling a grand tale to an audience at a festival. To sum up his story, he stumbled upon something that sounded a lot like the vortex that transported me from Remnant back to home. Unfortunately for him, the moment he stumbled through he fell down a long, steep slope near a village around the time of a Grimm attack. Fortunately for him he met a huntsmen, or at least one in training, by the name of Cloud Strife. Cloud activated his aura to given him a better chance of survival, and the vortex thankfully remained open long enough for Cloud to help escort Samurai back to it. According to Samurai the vortex closed shortly after he crossed back into our world and he hasn't seen anything like it since then.
"And that concludes the introductory tutorial." The robotic voice coming out of the Pokedex stirred Ash from his writings. Ash looked up from where he laid on the couch to the wooden roof of the cabin as he let out a yawn. As his gaze came back down, he noticed the starry sky outside that reminded him of just how much time had passed since Dexter had begun only the first tutorial, which made Ash want to groan.
"I know I asked you to give me all the details, but couldn't you have skipped to the relevant features I could use Dexter?" the long list of technical details had went straight over his head and hadn't helped at all.
"You did say you wanted to know everything."
Ash looked up from where he was laying on a couch as he heard the door knob on the bathroom open and turned to see Misty in a loose fitting Tshirt that had the image of Lorelei on the front, a pair of shorts, a towel around her neck, and holding a toothbrush. She looked around the room before addressing Ash. "Did Samurai already turn in for the night?"
"Yeah, he must have been eager to sleep in his own bed after spending several nights sleeping outside on the ground. He's obviously camped out in the woods before, but it still takes some getting used to long stretches of camping between the occasional nights spent at an inn or Pokémon Center."
"That's fairly accurate, it took me a bit as well," Misty said while giving Ash a curious look. "I got to say, when you say stuff like that you kind of sound like a seasoned trainer who's been at this for a while."
"Yeah…" Ash exchanged a look with Pikachu who was laying on a pillow nearby. 'Should I tell her?' He thought to himself before gaining a serious look on his face. He set the Pokedex down as he sat up to face Misty. "Do you remember what Samurai said about the date being different when he got back?"
"Yeah adding further ridiculousness to his story. As if spending the day a in a different world with a man that unlocked some supernatural power of his soul wasn't hard enough." Misty sighed as she lifted her hands into the air, her body language seemed to scream 'How the heck am I supposed to deal with this.' "If it wasn't for how naturally you two talked to each other about that other world as a matter of fact, then I would have just written off the entire thing as crazy delusions."
"And would you believe it if I told you I already spent some time as a Pokémon trainer before winding up on Remnant? Or that when I found myself back in our world it was suddenly the day before I became a trainer?
"Seriously!?" Misty shouted. "Now I'm supposed to believe in time travel on top of everything else!?"
'Yeah that was the kind of response I was expecting.' Ash thought as he rubbed his head sheepishly as he mulled over what to say.
"Look Misty, I know you're still at some level of disbelief about all this, but I figured I should strike while the iron is hot and get that off my chest. You see, I knew you before. Which means I know various things about you without you being aware of it. I figured I should tell you about it now, rather than risking you finding out about it in the future and feeling like I had been dishonest with you somehow."
"Oh?" Misty's face morphed from disbelief to suspicious. "Why might I feel like you were dishonest with me?"
Ash put his hands up in a placating matter "Ah, well we seem to be starting off a lot better." Ash replied with a nervous smile. "To tell the truth, I was a little immature back then."
"Pika" 'A little' Pikachu cough sarcastically.
"Ok fine, I was a lot more immature than I am now. In the off chance you remembered anything like my Pokémon have so far, I didn't want you believing I was putting on an act this time around. I've just grown up a little since then."
Pikachu let out another cough.
"What? I said 'a little' didn't I?" Ash gave Pikachu a mock glare.
The glare was promptly ignored as the yellow mouse made a show of rubbing his chin in a thinking pose. After a few seconds Pikachu just shrugged its shoulders before curling back up on its cushion, causing Misty to let out a small giggle despite her overall disbelief with the situation.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Ash muttered before turning back to address Misty. "I just thought I should be honest and let you know. Whether you want to believe it or not is up to you. It won't be on my conscious anymore."
Misty gave a small frown while thinking it over for a second. "It sounds pretty unbelievable, but so does slaying a fairy tale monster. Let me sleep on it OK?"
"Sure thing"
"Speaking of sleeping, thanks for letting me have the guest room. You sure you don't mind spending the night on the couch?"
"I'll be fine. Sweet dreams Misty."
"Sweet dreams," Misty murmured softly. The memory of her and Ash dancing in kimonos from her dream flashed into her head. She swiftly turned away from Ash so that he wouldn't see the blush that was creeping onto her face. "Say Ash, in that time you say we supposedly spent together, did we ever attend a festival?"
"Quite a few actually. Why do you ask?"
"Well for starters," Misty looked over her shoulder back at Ash with a sly smile on her face. "I can now expect you to take me to a few." She happily walked off to the guest room without seeing the worried look that was on Ash's face as a chill ran up his spine as he remembered the princess festival, where he had spent all day holding clothes for Misty as she went from one sale to another.
[ A private office in Viridian City ]
Giovanni wasn't an overly optimistic man. Running a practical monopoly of Kanto's black markets had required him to operate on hard objective facts, harsh truths, and have plenty of contingencies in place if something went wrong. Such measures helped stop more than a few shares of rats and other unexpected surprises from snowballing out of control. With such a pragmatic mindset, he rarely expected pleasant surprises. So it was even more shocking when Jessie, James, and Meowth had contacted him with actionable Intel so soon after he had sent them off on their reconnaissance mission.
The screen Giovanni was looking at had just finished playing a segment of the local evening news, and was now showing a graph that displayed a rise in his approval ratings. Being so quick to identify a potential wild Pokémon threat and keeping it away from the city certainly reaffirmed the public's trust in his capabilities as Gym Leader. "It certainly is nice to be able to benefit from those three's surveillance so quickly." Giovanni commented, as he started to think back about how the event had unfolded.
The incident in the forest between the Beedrill and the unknown creature was a concern he had to address once Jessie, James, and Meowth had radioed in that the ruckus was getting closer to Viridian City. There would be a state of emergency if either the aggressive swarm or the unknown creature made their way into city. Naturally he would be expected to deal with it as the Viridian Gym Leader.
The info would be frightening to most. Giovanni wasn't most people though, he was a man who had built his career in part due to his ability to find and seize opportunities. It was the reason he had been able to grow his organization to where it was now. After he had received the three stooges report, he gathered up some of the tougher trainers studying at his gym and headed out. The positive PR Giovanni was getting good, but what was even better was the substantial amount of Beedrill that Rocket Grunts were able to easily pick off and capture in the confusion. Sure they were far from the most valuable, but still a relatively easy commodity to catch with the nets the rocket grunts were issued and the Beedrill being vulnerable out in the open instead of their guarded nest. Furthermore, the large dip in population numbers would be attributed to the incident and no one would suspect that poaching had occurred.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
"Come in"
"Here you go sir," Mattori said as she walked into Giovani's office.
She handed him a paper that at first glance looked like just another piece of fan mail that regularly came in through the public mailing address Giovanni had set up. The recipient in question took a moment to look over what at first glance seemed like a child's drawing of himself defending Viridian City from Beedrills. It was a rather normal occurrence to receive such drawing from children who stayed at orphanages that benefitted from his patronage/charitable tax deduction (Giovanni suspected the adults running said orphanages encouraged these drawing, and the businessman in him approved of this tactic). He then put on a special pair of reading glasses that let him see the preliminary report that was hidden on the paper, using a special invisible ink that Team Rocket R&D had developed. No one outside his inner circle at his Viridian Office had yet learned of this ink yet. Which means the police or anyone else who might show up to search his office, legally or illegally, wouldn't find any evidence that could be used against him. After all, who would think that the innocent, hand drawn, childrens'sdrawing he kept in his desk drawer was also the paperwork detailing various aspects of Team Rocket operations.
"We should wait till more Scientist weigh in, but it looks like the Beedrill population will recovery in time and there won't be a large impact on the forest. Good, that means we probably won't have to release any of the ones we captured." It seemed young Ash Ketchum had put an end to the mysterious new creature before it could damage the Beedrill beyond what they could recover from.
"I can only imagine how surprised the grunts would be if they heard that their boss was concerned about environmental impact." Mattori noted with mirth.
"They wouldn't if they knew of my stock and investments in Viridian City's tourism." Giovanni explained.
Giovanni returned his attention to the report. "We have quite the influx of Beedrill right now, enough to possibly equip quite a few squads of low level grunts." That many low level personnel and poison types would be able to effectively use hit and run tactics. Despite their effectiveness as a group, it would be inconsequential if a few grunts left the organization with them, or more foolishly tried to turn on Team Rocket. "Mattori, have some personal from the black market and operations divisions draw up a cost-benefit-analysis on selling our new assets vs equipping our grunts. I'll make a final decision based on the results of their report."
"Right away sir, anything else?"
"Nothing for now." As Mattori left, Giovanni returned his attention back to the papers he had been reviewing before the evening news came on. They were a report about the most recent details Jessie, James, and Meowth had sent in about their reconnaissance target. The young man was now traveling with a third trainer who seemed to prefer bug type Pokémon and, more oddly, wore samurai style armor. The three young trainers were overheard discussing how they had cut down the creature responsible for the upheaval in the forest. James noted how the two boys seemed to be oddly calmer about the ordeal then most would be given the situation given their age. The only time they seemed upset was when they lamented about the damage the unidentified creature had caused.
"Perhaps they're already able to understand the necessity of doing what has to be done?" Giovanni pondered out load. It would certainly explain why this Ash Ketchum didn't seemed to be perturbed about cutting down the beast. Even if it wasn't a human life, ending a life for the first time normally effects a personal mentally to some level. Unless of course young Ash saw the beast as a monster instead of a living being, though being raised in Pallet town and so close to Oak's ranch would have made that unlikely given town's reputation.
"First you stop a crime in progress when you happen to be at the scene when it occurred. Now you've gone out of your way when you heard there were either Pokémon in danger, or someone needed help." Giovani gather up the papers on his desk. He opened up his desk drawer, making sure to put the reports in the proper folders. He let a small smile grace his face as he put a paper in the folder marked "Ash Ketchum" in Team Rocket's invisible ink. "I'm getting the impression that if I want you to put out a fire for me, all I have to do is make sure you see the smoke." Giovani said before closing the drawer.
[ Viridian Forest, the next morning ]
The morning sun was shining, providing a gentle warmth for the inhabitants of Viridian Forest. Particularly two young trainers who set cross-legged as a Pikachu lay down nearby.
"You start by closing your eyes," Ash began. "Make no effort to control your breathing. Let it happen naturally. Focus on how your body naturally move when you breathe in and out. At first you'll only notice how the air flows in and out of your body. Then gradually you be able to pick up other things. The slight movements of your chest, shoulders, rib cage, and belly as they move with your body's natural flow and rhythm. If you keep working at it you should eventually be able to sense your own heartbeat. Then the flow of blood through your body. Then even subtle amount of aura that lies within, waiting to be used. Once you sense it, you can slowly but steadily work at trying to cultivate it"
"And then we will be able to unlock our semblances?" Samurai asked.
"Hopefully" Ash admitted with a note of longing in his voice. "I can vouch that this will help you slowly build up your Aura reserves over time and make it easier to call upon your aura. However, we need to remember that finding exactly what someone's semblance is can be very difficult. Some pro-huntsmen go their entire lives without ever discovering their semblance."
"How is it possible they could spend that much time on it and not find out what their semblance is?"
"It's possible that their semblances only happened under certain circumstances, or something else made it difficult to figure the semblance out." Ash said as he recalled the lessons Tai Yang had taught him. "A good example I was told, was to imagine someone with the semblance that let them breathe under water spent their whole life in a dessert. How likely would it be that they would even be in a situation that it would be possible to figure out there semblance, assuming they could do so the very first time there was any evidence of what it could be? Not to mention they would have to notice the abnormality when it happens to be able to have a chance to figure their semblance."
"I see" Samurai contemplated. "So one must apply constant diligence, so that when the sparse moment a clue to their semblance reveals itself, the chance to grasp what their semblance is doesn't pass them by."
"Assuming there actually is something to that spiritual mumbo jumbo you guys keep going on about." A certain orange haired trainer with wingull perched on her arm stated and she walked up.
"Hey Misty, how'd things go?" Ash asked.
"Tense but uneventful. I think letting out my two most recent captures out away from everyone else was the right choice given how tense the older one was." Not to mention how often Kabutops tend to stare daggers at nearly anything that wasn't her little Kabuto.
"It certainly must be a powerful new soldier you have recruited, given how you walk far enough away to be completely out of sight." Samurai commented.
"Oh, well, I just wanted be safe rather than sorry." Misty said a little sheepishly. 'By safe, I mean I wanted to make sure that if I had to use my bloodline to calm Kabutops down, you wouldn't see it.'
"Makes me wonder what it is." Ash voiced his thought.
"Well a girl has to have some secrets." Misty responded while seeming satisfied and a little bit smug.
Ash and Pikachu shared a look. She had been oddly happy when Ash had casually mentioned earlier that he didn't know what her new Pokémon could be other than perhaps a goldeen. That was the only other Pokémon he remembered Misty having that she hadn't let out of a Pokeball yet.
"Pika" 'Is this supposed to be her attempt at maintain that 'feminine mystic' as humans call it?'
Ash shook his head. "Nah, it's more like she happy it kind of contradicts what we talked about last night." Ash whispered to his pal. "She'd rather think I'm a Bloodliner just like her then a warrior who's trained to use the power of his soul. The fact that I don't know her exact roster supports her idea that I'm not sure what I'm talking about. Even if it only really contradict me saying I know about her due to time-travel shenanigans."
"Pi" 'Told you she wouldn't believe it.'
"It wasn't about her believing it." Ash admonished. "It was about being honest with her. Besides it'll make things easier if she does start to remember things."
"Hey, what are you two whispering about?" Misty asked with a suspicious look on her face.
"Nothing worth mentioning." Ash quickly responded with a nervous smile. "Anyway now that you're back you mind being the referee so that me and Samurai can have a quick match?"
The way the match had progressed had surprised Misty. Granted the first round had gone as she had expected when Ash's Pidgeotto used its type, speed, and mobility advantage to defeat Samurai's Pinsir. The fact that Pidgeotto had Gust and Pinsir didn't have any range attacks made it even more one side. The second round where both trainers had sent out metapods is where it started to get interesting. Much to Misty's relief it wasn't like her dream were the move harden was call out for what seemed to be hours on end. Instead it shook things up when Ash had his Metapod use String Shot to swing around into tackle attacks. Unfortunately Samurai's Metapod had a trick up its sleeve, specifically a move called Electro Web that Misty hadn't seen before. The move let Samurai's Metapod retaliate from a distance and exploited the fact that metpods were weaker against special attacks then physical ones. Once Samurai's metapod used it to catch and trap Ash metapod, the round was practically over. So now both trainers were tied with each having won one round. It was how they decided to conduct the third and final round that truly shocked Misty. "What do you mean you're not using your Pokémon for this round!?" Misty yelled from her referee spot to the side of the make shift field Samurai had in the backyard of his cabin.
"This is my first true opportunity at a bout with a fellow warrior, I'd be a fool to pass up the experience!" Samurai explained with enthusiasm. The hands griping his sword shook with excited anticipation. "Besides even we were planning on having a sparing session even if the winner had been decided within the first two rounds."
"Don't worry Misty, our aura means there's very little chance of us really getting hurt." Ash said waving off Misty's concern like her fears were completely unfounded.
"You know I haven't really come around to believe that stuff right!?" Misty yelled back. She could hardly believe what was happening right in front of her for crying out loud. "And I definitely don't want to be proven right by one of you two idiots getting hurt! For goodness sake Ash you're planning to use an old pair of gloves to fight against a sword" Misty said while dramatically pointing at the pair of Sir Aaron's gloves that currently covered Ash's fist.
"You don't have to worry, especially as we're about to prove that I'm right about aura." Ash confidently shot back. "There's a reason I handed you my Pokedex. Dexter explain the function I brought up."
"Certainly." The Podex's robotic voice called out. Misty looked down to the device in her hand. On its display there were two photos, one of Ash and one of Samurai. Next to each photo was a long green bar. "These gauges represent the aura reserves each combatant currently has." Flashing red outlines appeared around the bars to emphasize what was being explained. "As the fight is underway, the combatants' aura reserves will be steadily depleted over time to reduce and nullify bodily harm. Utilizing my sensors, I will monitor and actively display their Aura levels. The gauges will eventually turn yellow and then red. The fighter who first reduces their opponent's aura level into the red wins the match. It will be your job as the referee to then declare the match over and announcer the winner."
"See that's a function in the Pokedex I managed to find that's specifically used for a fight between two Aura users." It had completely surprised Ash when he found it. He was going to have to make a private call to professor Oak once he got to Pewter City. The fact that the Pokedex had such a function raised too many questions for Ash not to look into it later.
"Even if Professor Oak is a regional professor, there a chance he could have gone senile." Misty muttered though she looked very unsure about it. "OK fine, but you two have to promise me to stop the match immediately if I say so, for whatever reason."
"Sure thing." Ash said far too at ease for Misty's liking.
"I swear on my honor." Samurai said as he brought a hand up to his chest and gave a small bow.
Misty let out a long sigh "I really hope I don't regret going along with this." She then resolved herself and raised her right hand into the air while she held Dexter in her left. "OK get ready!" Both Ash and Samurai got into their respective stances. "Begin!" Misty yelled as she brought her hand down.
Samurai took a half step forward as he raised his sword and brought it down at Ash. Ash rose his left aura covered hand, and swiped the blade to his left. Only for samurai to use that momentum to change the position of the blade and then strike high at Ash's head with a horizontal slash.
"Hmph." Samurai smirked. "Gah!" Samurai cried out as Ash drove his right fist into Samurai's stomach, capitalizing on the fact that Samurai had risen his arms up to strike at Ash head. Samurai stumbled a few steps back as he took some deep breaths.
"Body armor like the kind your wearing disperse the force of strikes that would pierce or slash open flesh, which tends to cause sharp weapons to bounce off without breaking through" Ash said while gesturing to both the Samurai's traditional helmet and body plate that covered his chest and abdomen. "But like most armor it doesn't do much against attacks meant to deliver a high amount of blunt force." Ash explained while rubbing the part of his head that had been struck. "See Misty," he pointed at the area, "No blood, I told you my aura would protect me from harm."
'That or you really are that thick headed.' Misty mentally quipped as Ash and Samurai reengaged one another. Flashes of steel crashing against blue glowing fist that intercepted the strikes one after another. Both combatants remaining cautious as they tested each other's defenses.
'He's pretty comfortable using that sword.' Ash noted as he continued to block the Samurai's strikes. 'Every time I block or bat it aside, he uses the recoil to help quickly move the blade into position for another attack. Only now he's using that to keep me on defensive. ' Ash observed as Samurai continued to slash at him. He wasn't landing any clean hits, but he wasn't leaving any openings for Ash to exploit. 'He must be worried that if he extends to deliver a decisive attack like before he'll leave himself open for me to deliver another powerful strike.' Ash then noticed that Samurai's next strike was going to be another overhead vertical strike.
"Then let's try this!" Ash shouted as he rose his arms into the air to form an X block. Before Samurai could pull his sword away, ash opened up his palms, turned his hands inwards, and grabbed the blade. Ash smirked, "Gah!" before he felt Samurai drive his foot into Ash's stomach. Ash's hold on the sword slacked while it was his turn to gasp for breath. The Samurai tugged his sword free and delivered another powerful strike to Ash's head, this time forcing Ash to take a knee.
"You used a similar x shaped block to stop my blade when I tested your reflexes back when we first met. You didn't use your fists at that time, but I would have been a fool not to think of how to counter that kind of technique." Samurai explained. He took another swing at his opponent. Only for Ash to spring up to his feet. One hand pushing against the bottom of the hilt of Samurai's sword, pushing it up and out of the way. Ash used his other hand to deliver a hard uppercut to the bottom of Samurai's lower jaw.
The blow left Samurai wobbling on his feet as a ringing filled his ears from being clocked. It was impressive that his dominant right hand still held onto his sword even as both of his arms waved in the air in an effort to help him maintain his balance. Ash took advantage of Samurai being staggered to properly get on his feet then lower his center of gravity into a stance that Pikachu had seen only once before.
"Pika" 'That's' Pikachu manage to squeaked out as Samurai regained his bearings just as Ash started the onslaught of a Dempsey roll.
"You know." Ash stated before throwing a powerful right punch that threw Samurai off balance as Ash weaved to the left. "You had me for a moment," Ash threw a strong left punch and weaved to the right. "but you shouldn't," Right punch. "drop your guard," Left punch "until you know for sure," Right "your opponent," Left "is down" Samurai tried to bring his sword to bear "for the count," only for Samurai to finally drop it as a blow connected with the shoulder of the arm that was holding on to it.
"TIME OUT!" Both Ash and Samurai paused then turned to look at Misty. "Oh, um according to this Ash has won the match." Misty said while holding up the Pokedex. On the screen, Samurai's aura was shown to be in the red, while Ash's had "Winner" displayed in bold text by his.
Both Ash and Samurai dropped out of their stances to catch their breath. In Samurai's case that meant dropping to the ground on his knees where he took a couple of deep breaths. When he was done and looked back up to see Ash offering a hand to help him back onto his feet.
"Thanks for the great match." Ash said as he offered his hand.
"Anytime." Replied Samurai as he took the offered hand.
Off to the side of the field Pikachu was cheering next to Misty, who still look dumbfounded at how the third match had been carried out.
Samurai stood with Ash and Misty at the end of the forest. They were currently on a path that lead out of the forest. "This trail will lead you to Pewter City." Samurai said as he gestured to the rest of the trail as it lead out of the viridian forest.
"Thanks Samurai, but is there any reason you aren't coming with us. I thought you were aspiring to compete in the Pokémon League" Ash asked. "There gym a Pewter City after all, and it's nice to travel with good company."
"Unlike you my friend, I lack at confidence to go up against a gym were I would be at a type disadvantage. The time soon approaches for me to leave this forest and strike out on my own adventure. When that happens, I plan to first gain experience before performing the daunting task of challenging a gym where my bug Pokémon will be at a disadvantage. Regardless of where I go, I will work to perfect my techniques and one day we will meet again. Then I'll show you just how much I have improved."
"I'm sure it will be a most spectacular match." Ash replied. He was confident it would be something to look forward to.
Samurai gave a confident grin. "That is guaranteed."
"Hopefully when that happens you two won't resort to directly beating each other up." Misty sounded exasperated as she put her hands on her hips.
"Untill then Samurai." Ash called back as he and Misty started to walk down the path.
"See you" Misty waved. Pikachu also waved from his spot on Ash's shoulder.
"Farewell" Samurai returned with a wave of his own.
AN: I skimmed over the first two rounds of Ash's and Samurai's battle because the matches would have been mostly one sided with little back and forth. I wanted to focus on trying to set up a fight that felt like it could take place in Beacon's combat class. I looked up some videos on basic katana strikes before I wrote this chapters fight. I decided to have Ash win their fight with a Dempsey Roll because A.) Why wouldn't Ash use it to end a fight the moment he saw an opening to use it. And B.) Should Samurai and Ash ever duel again, Samurai will now to look out for the Dempsey Roll. Which lead to a longer tougher fight in order for Ash to win.
