Alola, amour!

Chapter 21 ~ Old friends and...

The next couple of days after returning from Kanto, Ash and Serena spent very normally. They went to Pokemon School, were with Alola's friends, had an adventure on the Island, and of course, competed with their Pokemon.

Now that Ash had got Greninja on his team, he seemed almost invincible to others. Their Bond Phenomenon brought them much more power and made them stronger, but it also caused nasty consequences for Ash, such as minor burns while fighting with Kiawe.

But let's jump into this chapter, which is the beginning of many more exciting things.

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"Pikachu, Electro Ball! Lycanroc, Rock Throw!" Ash exclaimed, instructing the two Pokemon, with whom he was training on the beach near Professor Kukui's house.

The Pokemon did as instructed and their moves collided in the air, causing a small explosion. Ash looked at them with satisfaction and thought his team was getting stronger all the time.

"Ash!" there was a sudden cry and Ash turned and saw Serena running towards him along the path to the shore. He was wearing his Alola clothes and she was holding something in her hand that looked like a piece of paper.

"What now, Serena?" Ash asked and the Pokemon looked at him in wonder. Pikachu jumped on Ash's shoulder and Ash scratched it distracted behind his ear.

Serena panted slightly as she reached Ash and then grinned broadly, showing the paper she had in her hand. "Read it," she said, handing the paper to her boyfriend.

Ash picked up the paper and found it to be some kind of brochure. As he read it, his expression turned from confused to a wide smile and he said, "New Malasada store? Sounds good, are we going to take a look?" And Serena nodded, smiling wide.

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Since it was an opening, there were lots of people at the store. However, Ash and Serena managed to clear their way through the crowd, get their malasadas, and still managed to find a free table on the outdoor terrace.

The secret of this store was clearly that it made the Malasadas much bigger than normal. They also used unusual fillings for Malasadas, but surprisingly, they worked and the Malasadas became surprisingly good.

After Ash, Serena, and of course Pikachu, had eaten, they got up and decided to stay hanging out at the mall and spend their time there.

Serena quickly found some clothing store she wanted to visit, and was already stepping there, dragging a slightly reluctant Ash to her as a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Hey Serena! Hey Ash!" exclaimed Mallow and ran against them with a basket full of different berries in her hand.

"Hey Mallow!" they exclaimed and waited for Mallow to reach them. "What are you doing here?" she asked curiously and Serena explained.

"We came to see the new malasada store, worth testing, were good, and now we're just spending time here," she explained and Ash nodded. "What are you doing here?" he asked Mallow and this one smiled happily.

"My dad asked me to go buy some berries from the market, you see he needs them for one of his new desserts and our stocks had run out. So, I went and thought about going to see a few other shops at the same time," Mallow explained and then glanced at the clothing store in front of which they stood. "Were you going in? For I was also thinking of going there, one day I saw a lovely dress and..."

However, Mallow's sentence suddenly broke, as there was suddenly a loud BOOM! nearby and black smoke began to rise into the air.

They glanced at each other and set off to run towards the smoke. It occurred to Serena and Ash that the situation was very much reminiscent of certain moments in Kalos, but that wasn't possible here, or was it?