I Wanna Be The Very Best

Chapter 97: Calem's Dream

We continue right where we left off as Ash and Lucario make their way out of Prism tower and back out onto the streets of Lumiose city as they both head towards the store to meet back up with Serena.

The two of them walk in relative silence for a while, just taking in the beautiful place that is Lumiose city. The scenery and the glamour of the place never not being something either of them can appreciate.

Eventually, Ash breaks the silence as he turns towards the young aura pokemon and questions "So, what do you think of Lumiose city? Pretty awesome right?"

Lucario nods in agreement with his trainer before he replies with a small smile on his face "It certainly is a nice place master. I can see why you like this region so much. Sensei told me to expect as much should I ever get the chance to visit such a place."

Ash smiles even brighter as he explains with clear love in his tone "Yeah, I like this place a lot. It's the region where I feel like I really came into my own and started to feel like myself. I guess I grew up here in a way. I felt like this was the first place where I truly started to feel like I was a leader. Like I had a chance of becoming a pokemon master. I have so many memories from this place that I honestly can't even count them all. I met Serena again here, Clemont and Bonnie too. So many cool Pokemon and cool people too. Each region and journey is special in its own right, but this is one is probably my favourite journey on the whole. Outside of Kanto it's where I feel closest to home."

Lucario takes in his trainer's words and can tell that he really does have a strong affinity for this place. He soon places a small smile on his face as mentions "It's also where you met Sensei, right on that battlefield over there."

The young aura pokemon points forward towards a battlefield in the distance, the same one where Ash had his first battle on in this region. It's also the battlefield where he first met Greninja as a Froakie when he was having a few problems with team rocket.

He soon turns towards Lucario as he replies "Yeah it is, how did you know that anyway?"

Lucario turns back towards his trainer as he explains "Sensei showed me his past. I was having a down moment in my training so he showed me his past as a way of showing me that to be stronger you have to go through a lot of tough times. I never knew he'd been through so much, with his family abandoning him and all to your struggle to master the bond phenomenon. I must say it made me see you both in a different light. Not the unstoppable duo that you always look like, but instead a duo who had to fight extremely hard to get to where they are today. I must say it was inspiring to me and has made me see the world slightly differently."

Ash listens carefully and is actually really happy that Greninja showed him there struggles. It sort of helps for Lucario to see just how hard it is to be a strong Pokemon, instead of Ash just telling him. You need to be dedicated to your training sure, but it's about getting up from setbacks to battle back even harder. Hopefully Lucario is ready to do just that now, after suffering a few setbacks of his own so early on in his battling career.

The champion of 3 regions soon shakes off those thoughts as he turns back towards the young aura pokemon with a small smile on his face and explains "Well yeah we both struggled a lot, that's the case for pretty much our whole lives. We're still struggling now in fact, me with the team rocket stuff and him with those wild vines. But it's important that we don't ever get too down about them. We keep moving forward and try to be better. That's how we win Lucario. You never get too high with the good times or too low with the bad times. You just keep moving forward and take life as it comes."