Metachuphasis

12. late night research!

Kukui waited patiently for Ash and all of his(?) Pokémon to fall asleep. It was easy for Rowlet (they slept the whole day and only woke up for food) but Rockruff really wanted to play through the night. Luckily, after Kukui advised them to train, Rockruff got tired and curled up on the sofa. The Professor also knows a trick- he turned on the news, and after a minute or two Ash was out like a light. Twinkle followed suit, after loafing next to his friend.

Turning off the lights and the TV, Kukui headed to his office to do the research and to make sure Ash's Pokéball wasn't malfunctioning. It seemed completely fine, and checking on Professor Oak's page there were no reports of Pokéballs not working, which meant that whoever turned Ash into a Pokémon made sure that the balls would keep working for Pokémon he'd caught as a human. It wouldn't have made much of a difference (Ash's Pokémon love him dearly, they would never run away unless he said they could) but at least criminal organisations or other trainers couldn't swipe them away with a single throw.

He put the ball into a secure box (Ash did say he wanted to stay out with Twinkle at all times) and sighed.

He was going to research that Aura stuff, but first he was going to get a coffee. It was going to be Saturday tomorrow, and he didn't have any plans for the morning, so he could sleep in if needed. He was going to get the caffeine bomb to give him enough energy to look at lots of sources, because knowing Ash, this Aura thing was either extremely overpowered or horribly complicated.

Clicking onto his Vulpix Browser and going on the Goodra search engine, he types in a few things while taking notes in a notebook for later (or tomorrow).

First, there's 'Aura', and there are a lot of results, most about the Riolu/Lucario line of Pokémon and their ability to manipulate this thing called Aura.

On the second page of results, though, he comes across something different. It's an article written in Sinnohian, and even though Kukui doesn't speak the language, he knows quite a bit of Kantonese, which is similar enough. His Vulpix browser has a translator armed, just in case.

He skim-read it to see if it was worth reading, and by the time he read the first paragraph he knew it was.

'Aura is the essence of every living creature.'

So everyone has it? Ash going out of his way to say he has it is a bit weird then, he doesn't say things if he doesn't need to. He seems like an honest kid(?) but Kukui quickly learned that he lies by keeping out the details. Well, he doesn't lie, but it's similar. What's up, though?

'Many think of it as a boring thing that simply exists, even though in reality it isn't boring, at all. In fact, some Pokémon species, such as the Riolu line, have found ways to manipulate Aura.'

Oh. Is that what the Pikachu meant? Is 'Having Aura' short for having the ability to manipulate it?

'Aura can be utilised if the user has a large enough pool of it and if they are aware how to do so.'

Okay. Aura pools. Another new thing to search up, later on.

'In the past, even people were able to use it-'

So Ash was one of those people? Kukui wondered how many of them there are.

'-However, most were hunted in the war, due to their extraordinary abilities.'

Great. Really. Just great. So before turning into a Pokémon, he was already a rare race of human beings with a large 'Aura pool'?

'These include: Sight, Telepathy, sensing of other Aura users, Projection of Aura and sensing nearby creature's emotions.'

Sounds.. Almost too good to be true. Overpowered.

'Only the pure of heart can use it, and if they aren't using it for healing or helping others, instead using it for evil reasons, their Aura will harm them and turn in on itself.'

That was creepy, and Kukui thought about the Aura possibly being the reason for Ash's Pikachu-ification. He eliminated it, though, as he could still use the Aura without issue, and he was completely fine in his new body.

Kukui was glad, though, because he now knew it was a possibility that his student(turned into a Pikachu) could, in the future, communicate directly with telepathy. Maybe.

The essay then goes into the specifics and explains how exactly Aura can be used (the creator said no harm can be done by having the information out there, because anyone with ill intentions can't use it properly, and beginners can learn from it) and Kukui sends it to Ash's phone.

Luckily, he and his Pokémon friends all sleep like rocks, so nobody woke up. Kukui thinks that Ash will reply to his text decently quickly, though, because his Kalosian friends are flying over and he will probably text them more about it. The professor has only seen Ash use his phone when he gets a notification from certain people or chats, or to watch battle videos like he was doing today. Heading to bed, ready to doze off, he smiled to himself. That kid was both hopeless (he gets into trouble every 30 seconds) and so dense (who thinks meeting Tapu Koko on your first day on the Island is normal?).

"Never change," Kukui thought, "Never change."