PokePiece: A Grand Pirate Kalos Adventure

Chapter 5: Reunions and Meetings

Ash and Serena stared at each other with happy looks on their faces. While that was happening, Froakie, Fletchling, and Chespin were looking even more curious about the girl. Brock, who had returned Croagunk back into his Pokeball, and Pikachu turned to each other, very confused now.

"Rena? Do we know any girl named Rena? I can't think of anybody with that name." the man wondered out loud. Pikachu shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"Pikachu pika pika Pika-Chu. (Your guess is as good as mine, Brock.)" he responded. They then faced the duo with a lot of questions on their minds.

"Serena, it's great to see you, but what are you doing here in Kalos?" Ash asked curiously. Pikachu's eyes grew wide in recognition.

He smiled mischievously before mumbling to himself, "Pika...pikachu pi? (Now I see...it's her, isn't it?)" At the sound of Ash's question, Serena giggled.

"Actually, Ash, I live in this region." she replied knowingly. Ash's eyes widened as he slapped his forehead.

"Aw crud...I'm gonna assume you saw the Garchomp incident." he uttered exasperatedly. Serena nodded and turned stern. Ash noticed that and just sighed.

"Fine. I probably deserve this for worrying you anyway." he admitted, resigned to his fate.

Serena snickered while saying, "Good, I'm glad you remember. And for the record, you get two." She suddenly reached up and flicked Ash on the forehead.

"The first one was for acting recklessly against Garchomp. And..." Serena started. She then gave Ash another flick of the forehead as tears fell down her cheeks.

"The second one...was for almost falling to your death! Do you have any idea how devastated I would have been if Blaziken hadn't caught you?! Do you have any idea how much I've been looking forward to seeing you after all this time?! If you had died there, then-" Serena got cut off by Ash wrapping her into another hug.

"...I'm sorry for making you worry this much about me, Rena. But I'm still here, and I swear to Arceus that I'll be more careful from now on. You have my word." he reassured her apologetically. Serena sniffed and smiled as she returned the embrace.

"I'm just happy to see you're all right." she stated. Ash flashed his toothy grin, which made Serena's heart melt. They enjoyed this moment for a while longer before Brock cleared his throat.

"Excuse me, can someone please explain WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" he shouted, clearly annoyed. Ash and Serena both blushed as they quickly separated from each other. He then turned to his friend with a mareepish smile.

"Sorry, Brock, I forgot you were even here." Ash replied as he rubbed the back of his neck. Brock actually chuckled nervously.

"Hey, at least I let you have your moment. Just imagine if Misty, May, or Dawn were here. They would be swarming you like Beedrills if they saw you randomly calling off a battle, singing a song, hugging, or getting flicked on the forehead by a girl...twice in two of those cases." he retorted. Ash flinched before turning back to Serena, who was looking a little nervous.

"Before you ask, Serena, I traveled through Kanto, the Orange Archipelago, and Johto with Misty. I traveled through Hoenn with May, and when I did the Battle Frontier in Kanto after the Hoenn League, she was my companion for that too. I traveled through Sinnoh with Dawn. And I traveled through Unova with Iris, but Brock wasn't there for that one. Iris was just annoying. Always calls me a little kid. I always thought of Dawn as a little sister. May too for that matter, but at least she has Drew. Those two always seemed to click. And Misty always seemed to try to hit me with a mallet, sometimes for no reason." he explained. The more Serena heard, the more she calmed down. But then she winced upon hearing what Ash had to go through with Misty.