I Wanna Be The Very Best

Chapter 7: Evil Emerges

After Ash's encounter with Rockruff Ash and Pikachu returned to the rest of the group and explained what happened the night before. The group were saddened by Rockruff's story but ultimately happy that he decided to join them on their journey.

After a quick breakfast they packed up camp and got back on the road. On the way to Haouli city they were stopped by a frantic lady who ran the local daycare for pokemon and preschoolers.

The daycare in question happened to be a daycare that Lillie used to attend when she was younger and the two quickly caught up as the caretaker explained the situation. She explained that they had a power outage at the daycare that caused all the lights to switch off as well as the machines used to produce food and drink for the kids and pokemon. She also mentioned that they were way too short staffed to deal with the situation.

Ash decides to help out much to the delight of the caretaker. After they arrive Ash goes full XyZ handyman. Ash and gets to work on fixing the power issue. Him and Pikachu set to work as electricians for the day and after a quick phone call to Ash's old friend Clemont for advice him and Pikachu manage to eventually get the power back on.

Him and pikachu high five eachover and make their way back inside as Ash takes off his cap while wiping the sweat off his forehead. He looks up and feels a wave off deja vu. It's then he remembers a similar situation during his Kalos journey where he walked in after fixing the pokemon centre roof to see Serena in a nurse outfit. Ash smiles to himself at the happy memory and walks in to join the rest.

Meanwhile Mallow decides to take on the role of providing food for the children and pokemon. She runs a little cooking class to keep the children occupied while also producing the food required.

Kiawe also helps out with keeping the children entertained by playing with them. The other helpers raise an eyebrow and comment that he is surprisingly good with children. Kiawe shrugs and replies that when you have a little sister these things just become natural.

Lillie is tasked with looking after and feeding the Pokémon. Lille may have made progress with her fear of Pokémon and is completely comfortable looking after any of the groups pokemon but wild or unknown Pokémon she still gets startled.

She is tasked with feeding the pokemon the food Mallow had created for them and shakes with nerves. She enters the pen where the baby Pokémon are kept and tentatively approaches them. She gets about half way towards them and the baby Pokémon smell the food and rush over to her excited for lunch.

Lillie instantly turns around and tries to run off scared but as she runs off she ends up crashing into Ash who was standing quietly at the entrance to the pen. Ash takes a deep sigh and says "Lillie you can't always run away you have to face this at some point." Lille cries and says "but it's scary Ash, it's scary to fail." Ash smiles and puts a hand reassuringly on her shoulder. He says "Lillie trust me I know it's scary to fail but listen to me if you never try then you'll never succeed. If you fail then at least you know that you tried and you can always try again until you get it."

Lillie smiles in response and tries again. She manages to feed all the baby Pokémon and in the end they all melt into her arms and fell asleep as she quietly embraces them. She smiles and whispers "you know you guys aren't that scary." Ash watches from a far with a small smile on his face as he chuckles at the familiar words he used.

Afterwards the kids all go home for the day as the daycare staff thank the group. As a reward the caretaker gifts all 4 of them with a Pokémon egg. The group are all excited as they leave the daycare and get back on the road.

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The next day our heroes find themselves by a mountain range right outside Haouli city. Ash pumps his fist and say's excitedly "we're nearly there Pikachu it won't be long now until we battle our first island kahuna." Pikachu, sitting on Ash's shoulder, raises a fist and let's out an excited "Pika."