Kanto's Pride

Chapter 8

To say Scott was surprised will be an understatement. The person who conquered his battle frontier all those years ago has changed. Ash's hood flew of as he descended on the ground. His puberty have shown as his once childish face has changed into the face of a matured and strict person. His features were attractive enough to make any girl within a mile radius fall for him. Although his deep auburn eyes generated the same warmth as they did before, but that seemed like flickering as well.

The three person stood there not daring to say a word, lots of emotion were conjuring up, as Scott finally recollected himself.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet the Champion in person," Scott said with pride and a hint of sarcasm.

The raven haired trainer sighed as he got of his Pidgeot.

"It’s good to see you again Scott. But you of  all people should not address me like that," Ash said calmly with a deep and matured voice.

Scott yet again, was surprised because he was still somewhat expecting to hear that young childish voice Ash used to have.

Professor Oak beamed as he went to give a  hug to his boy after seeing him in such a long time. Ash beamed as well who returned the hug to his father-like figure. Ash couldn’t help but notice that he was taller than the professor, which felt kind of strange since he was kind of used to see everyone taller than him in the past.

Oak had a lot of questions in his mind. But he decided to shove them aside and enjoy this moment at hand.

"Ash, my boy, I-I am just glad that you are all safe and sound. That's the best I could wish for you," Oak said with tears of joy.

Ash smiled at him as he said, "Professor, I am glad as well to see that you're doing well. And congratulations for all of the works you have accomplished in these years." Scott and Oak smiled as they saw the then young kid full of dreams was now a matured and smart teenager.

"Pika chu," exclaimed the rodent as he went to the professor's arms. Oak laughed and said," Pikachu! Its good to see you too. I see you’re strong and healthy as ever." Pikachu raised both of his small paws and tried to bulk them to show how strong he was with a small 'pika.' All of them chuckled at the yellow rodent's cute gesture.

All except one.

They seemed to have forgotten another  person who was standing there, not moving an inch. The young researcher seemed to be at a lost of what happened here in just a few minutes. He was in one of those 'Shit went from 0-100 real quick'  moments.

Ash was the one who took notice of his former  rival, who was standing there like a stone. He gestured the other two towards Gary. Oak looked and had a horrified look on his face as he totally forgot about his grandson due to his excitement of meeting Ash.

"Oh no I completely forgot about him," Oak said. "Gary? Gary can you hear me son?" he said a bit worriedly.

Gary shook out of his trance as he looked at his gramps, then Scott and then finally him.

"Sup Gary," Ash said casually as Pikachu smirked clearly enjoying Gary's reaction.

Gary finally managed to say his first words, "Ashy-boy?" he croaked as Ash and Pikachu  stiffled a laugh.

Gary cleared his throat as he spoke, more loudly this time," How the -? What are you-? I mean-

Oak interrupted him. "Looks like the surprise was too much for you," he said laughing nervously.

Gary ignored the comment and stared incredulously at Ash. Then something clicked inside his head.

"WAIT! That means you two knew about him all along?!" Gary said with a bemused look.

Oak and Scott sweatdropped because they felt this was going to come up a lot.

"Don't blame them Gary," said Ash as Gary looked at him,"I only told a few people about it. I decided to go on a training journey by myself and unintentionally, I never noticed that I cut myself from the rest of the world." Ash lied because he can't tell anyone about him being part of the KDA, which was famous throughout the world for taking down criminals and dropping  the crime level so dramatically in just a few years. However, Oak and Scott knew about this confidential information.

Gary looked suspicious at his response but decided to keep the interrogation for later. Now, there was a smirk on his face seeing his childhood friend and rival after so many years.

"Nevertheless, can't say I am not happy to see you.....Ashy-boyyy."  Gary said with his usual mocking tone, just like the times he used to tease Ash.

Ash just genuinely smiled, which surprised Gary as he replied, "I think you were expecting me to be mad, but for some reason, it feels really good to be mocked by you again, so feel free to use any nickname  you want."

Gary noticeably looked disappointed.

"Geez, since when did you of all people become such a kill-joy?" Gary asked with an annoyed tone earning a laughter from the others.

Gary gave Ash a hard punch on his arm. Ash honestly didn’t feel a thing as he could endure 10 power-up punches from his Lucario at a time, but faked his pain.

"Ow hey!"

"Well that's for not paying me a visit after becoming Champion you dickhead," said Gary clearly satisfied with the punch. "That was nothing compared to what the others would do to you when they see you," said Gary as Ash suddenly got a vision of a mallet slamming over his head by a certain red haired girl. He shook his head as he chuckled nervously rubbing his arm.

After all the chit chat was done, Oak then took notice of the magnificent bird behind them, who was watching them with red beaded eyes, full of curiosity.

"Ash?" Oak said catching their attention, "Is that your Pidgeot? " Everyone except Ash looked at the bird with admiration and awe. Ash noticed this as he chuckled.

"Beautiful, isn’t she?"

Oak and Gary looked at it with curiosity and nodded as Pidgeot looked embarrassed from the attention.

It broke of its mega evolved state as Ash thanked her.

"Thanks for the ride girl, you deserve a good rest," Ash said while returning it.

Pidgeot smiled, glad it was helpful to its trainer as it was enveloped in a red light returning to its pokeball.

Gary then asked a question he has been longing to ask.

"Since you are here Ashy boy, I assume you’ll join the academy as well, right?"

Ash nodded. "I heard this place was full of strong trainers so I thought joining it would be useful for my carrier," he said.

Gary nodded and asked again,"So did you get an invitation or plan to enter by passing the entrance exam?"

Ash was confused.

"Entrance exa-?"

He was interrupted as all of them heard a voice from behind which was strangely familiar to Ash.

"Well, well."

They turned towards the voice.

"So you finally decided to show up huh... Ketchum. "