Kanto's Pride

Chapter 21

A cool breeze blew in the night sky. Ash went out the campus and looked around.

'Where should I start from?' he thought.

"Pika chu pi?" the rodent suggested.

Ash thought about it. "Yeah searching from above is a pretty nice idea," he said, "And since it's night time, I need a flying type who can see through the darkness easily."

Ash unclipped a pokeball and threw it. A large pokemon materialised. It had two wings attached to its hands, white fur around its neck and two big ears on its head. The sound wave pokemon gave a cry.

"Hey, Noivern," Ash said petting the dragon type. It feels like only yesterday when it hatched from an egg and had trouble with flying. Noivern licked his hand showing affection.

Ash chuckled. "Hey bud. I need you to look for a girl of my age who has a Piplup with her. Find anything, let me know, okay?" Ash requested as Noivern gave a cry and ascended to the sky for the search.

***

It's been like 20 minutes since Noivern flew off. Ash and Pikachu were searching through the remoted places of Lumiose city. Ash just sighed as he was proceeding towards a shopping mall until he heard a familiar cry from above.

He looked up just in time to see Noivern descend to the ground.

"You found her?" Ash asked as the sound wave pokemon nodded.

"Alright take me to her," he said and climbed on Noivern's back, as the dragon once again ascended to the sky.

The city was busy and crowded as usual. Although it felt quite peaceful to Ash in the cold breeze of the night sky. Noivern soared across the city, heading towards the direction of the mountains. Once they reached a small clearing, they landed there safely.

Ash looked around his surrounding. It was just a plain grassy field with some trees and bushes. He walked a little further, and then saw a silhouette. He got closer and closer, and was relieved to see the girl he was looking for. She seemed fine, but....tensed? She was looking for something frantically, as her Piplup was helping her too.

Ash got closer. He was a bit worried when he heard her sobbing.

"Hey," Ash said in a gentle voice trying not to startle her. But Alas! She was scared to death and fell on her back losing balance.

"Ouch," she said as Piplup came back running to check if she was okay.

'So much for not startling her,'  Ash thought sarcastically.

"Relax, it’s just me," he said stretching out his hand.

Dawn looked dumbfounded as she stared at the boy. She didn’t expect to see him here, out of all people. Nevertheless, she accepted his hand and stood up, brushing off some dust before she spoke.

"Ash?! Wh-what are you doing here?" she asked standing up. Pikachu jumped down and walked to Piplup, greeting him as well.

"Well um--" Ash started scratching the back of his head, "I heard about that you didn’t arrive at the academy before time, sooo I thought...you know? Look out for you to see if you're okay?" Ash said honestly and faithfully, not wanting to sound like he was stalking her or something.

Dawn just stared at him. Her face was neutral showing no reaction at all. Even she didn’t notice that she lost track of time. But Ash seemed to did and not only that, came to look for her as well. One thought was inside her head.

'He cares.'

Ash was about to say something to break the silence, when suddenly the blunette lunged at him and hugged him tightly, snuggling into his chest.