Five women rushed through corridors towards the questroom, each of them eager to be the first to reach the treasure resting there. All of them either barefooted or in stockings, they kept slipping and sliding on the smooth floor the whole way. The door literally burst open as several bodies fell into it, startling something small under the bedsheets

"Pikachu?" Misty asked, but soon saw a different face poke out. It was Leaf's Rattata, wearing a pokemon sized yellow pyjama with a hoodie that had pikachu ears. His trainer came out of the bathroom, wearing the same kind of pyjamas in human size.

"Isn't this cool?" the little girl turned around to reveal a small lightning bolt tail at the buttflap. "Boss bought this for us!"

"Sooner or later, we will all die of diabetes in her presence," Dawn whispered to Serena and she nodded in affirmation, barely restraining herself to tackle the cute girl for snuggling. The evening would provide ample opportunity to shower this adorable little thing in affection.

"Are you ready for your first sleepover, Leaf?" Misty asked, letting her eyes roam around the room until they rested on a very large box in the right end corner. The thing was almost as tall as the girl and she recognized the postage stamps of Pallet.

The treasure chest was within reach and convincing Leaf to let them have it was the last thing in the way. Ash's apprentice was oddly protective with his stuff, not letting anyone even take a second look without his permission.

"Yes, I really really do!" Leaf took Rattata and cuddled him against her chest. "I was never invited to anything, because nobody wanted me around."

Serena began to hyperventilate from the casual mention of abandonment of this titan of cuteness, getting fanned from Dawn with a pillow.

"Why is the pretty lady breathing so much? Do I still smell bad? I washed thoroughly, I swear!"

"No, not at all!" Any self-restraint shattered from the imminent sadness on that adorable face. Leaf learned a second later how different a hug from Serena was in comparison to May. From the latter it felt like a tight and warm blanket around your body while the former enveloped Leaf how she imagined a cloud of warm cotton candy would be, down to the pleasant sugary smell in her nostrils.

She preferred this type of hug way more.

"Uhm, maybe catch up to us later when you two are finished with whatever this is…"

"No… wait…," Leaf protested faintly but Serena had the little girl deeply entranced in her expert snuggles. Unaccustomed to bodily affection, a few strokes through her long hair and soft humming of a tune was enough to make Leaf as docile as a meowth, getting spooned from the bigger woman with half-lidded eyes.

Severely distracted, May walked up to the box and lifted it on her left shoulder. The remaining girls, minus Serena and Leaf, were amazed how effortlessly she carried the thing that must weighed several hundred three followed her back to Misty's room, Misty trying for some small talk on the way. "Is Serena always like that around cute stuff?"

May answered casually with no physical strain evident in her voice. "Don't ask me, I haven't seen seen any of you for almost as long as Ash."

She was right and Misty didn't like what it meant. None of them had kept in touch for years, so why did it feel so natural to hang out when they barely knew each other?

Iris gave Misty the answer. "I'm here because of Ash. No offense but until recently I thought your name was Mindy."

"Wait a second," Misty could understand not meeting her, but three of them were Coordinators. "You didn't even meet on occasion with Dawn or Serena during a contest?"

A shadow fell over May's eyes. "I retired from being a Coordinator when I took over the gym in Petalburg from my father."

"You're a gym leader?" Iris asked.

"Certified and accredited in my fourth year now." May answered with little enthusiasm and the other three girls noticed it right away.

"You always had so much fun as Coordinator." Dawn had trouble understanding what May motivated to give up on her dream. "Why did you quit?"

For the first time, May showed something you could interpret as anger. "Sometimes growing up means to make tough decisions and live with the consequences. Life isn't just about what you want."

Dawn's mood soured from the snippy answer and Misty stepped in to stop the situation from deteriorating completely. "Let's focus on happy things today, right? Ash wouldn't want us to be moping around when he returns."

"Who's moping?" Serena joined them with a groggy Leaf on her back and Rattata by her feet. The love-starved child had developed a taste for physical displays of affection, rubbing her cheeks against Serena's neck like a pokemon.

Iris raised an eyebrow at the cute display. "The kid must be light as a feather if you can carry her. I saw how you almost killed yourself dragging the luggage up the stairs."

"I'm not that weak..." Serena pouted and stared enviously at how easily May lifted the massive box on her shoulder.

"You took his stuff…" Leaf said with a glare and also pouted.

Iris chuckled from the double pout coming their way. "His mother has sent it to Ash and she's surely smart enough not to put stuff in we shouldn't see."

Leaf's pout went from angry to thoughtful and with a final nod of approval, the Ash Ketchum nostalgia buffet was opened and started with a true banger. Deliah Ketchum had put any piece of clothing that shouldn't get crumbled on top, like the collection of caps Ash wore during his journey.

"Oh gimme!" Dawn grabbed the cap Ash had during their time together and put it on. The others joined her with a smile, each choosing their version with a wave of nostalgia. All except Misty, because no matter how hard Dawn looked, she couldn't find the cap from his time in Kanto.

Four pairs of eyes looked at her sadly, but Misty blushed with a sigh and walked to her dresser. She came back with his original hat putting it on under their inquisitive stares. "I asked his mom to lend it to me years ago…"

"Girl, you have it so bad for the guy!" May laughed, adjusting her own cap with reverie.

"Just look for interesting stuff," Misty kept rummaging through the box, avoiding eye contact with anybody. Especially Serena, whose gaze she felt in the back of her head like a laser. A small hand entered her line of sight and she glanced at its owner. Leaf stared at the cap on Misty's head had the biggest grin on her face.

Several minutes of searching unveiled a few more humorous but way more mundane articles of clothing with a pair of Pikachu themed boxer shorts as their personal highlight.

May sat down on the bed with a thoughtful expression. "Well that was fun, but we are missing something juicy to confront Ash."

"What about that thing?" Iris pulled out a giant black clothes bag from the bottom. "Has anyone looked inside this yet?"

Headshakes all around drove the excitement back up. The clothes bag was very high quality, even having several attachments for accessories, so whatever was in there should be important to Ash. Misty opened the zipper at front and frowned when she saw a stunning lemon colored dress. Another compartment had a blonde wig. The third contained matching dancing shoes and a purse with makeup.

Leaf, Iris and Misty had no idea what this was all about, but the other three went wide-eyed with Serena gasping in shock.

"Can you hook up a phone with your TV?" Serena eyed the big flatscreen TV on the wall and pulled out her smartphone. "Does somebody have a cable?"

"Me, I do!" Dawn searched in her bag and threw the cable as soon as she found it towards May and Serena, who were already fiddling with the appliance for possible ports.

After a quick hookup and web search, the large screen played a video of an entrance ceremony in a large arena. Rows after rows were filled with spectators, waiting for the announcer to get on stage.

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls! We are proceeding to the main event of this evening. As our last contender for the championship title of Kalos we are delighted to introduce the new sensation of the Coordinator scene. Please welcome with roaring applause, the queen of Kanto!"

A young girl, maybe fourteen years old, entered the arena with the same dress and hair Misty was holding in her hand right now, flanked by a rather tall Hypno in a nice black suit. Serena stopped the video at a close up of the girl. The contestant radiated confidence with a big smile on her lips with expertly applied lipstick.

"Do you recognize that girl from somewhere?" Serena asked, garnering three headshakes and two intense stares at the screen. She used her hand to block out the wig, making only the face visible. "How about now?"

"Son of a…" Misty held onto the dress in her hand tighter. Serena resumed the video and watched how the contestants started their choreography. Misty, Leaf and Iris didn't know much about the intricacies of Coordinator contests, but the ensuing show had a magnitude of its own.

They were literally floating above the ground while dancing, fluorescent psycho energy sparking around them. Parts of the floor broke off, making small platforms where the two landed and continued dancing.

"This girl," Serena put the word girl in air quotes, "was known as the newly coined queen of Kanto and had been on the finish line towards becoming the greatest Coordinator ever, dazzling everybody with her daredevil performances."

The show on the screen looked more like parkour now, the queen of Kanto and her pokemon jumping and flipping between in dizzying intervals between the floating platforms while debris and energy swirled around them at mach speed. One mistake, and even a glancing hit would turn the two into red paste.

"The only reason the queen of Kanto didn't win against the reigning champion here was the point deduction because of property damage. A major point of upset among the community, which was profoundly convinced her highness had been robbed of a deserved victory."

With the last beat of the song, every piece of concrete in the air turned to glittering dust under the roaring applause of the crowd and the fanatic ravings of the commentator.

"She vanished after this last performance, never to be seen again."

Dawn had a complicated cocktail of emotions boil up inside of her. "Are you telling me, Ash dressed up as a girl and casually fulfilled my dream while training to achieve his own?"

May stared at the beautiful blonde girl at the screen. "Sometimes it frightens me to think what else Ash could fullbring if he weren't such a nice person."

"At least he stayed on brand. It's not the first time he wore women's clothing. " Misty said with May, Dawn and Iris nodding in affirmation then staring at each other in surprise.

"With you too?" The four asked at the same time, then laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Leaf and Serena just looked confused and a bit miffed to be out of the loop on their inside joke.

May rubbed the tears of laughter from her eyes. "That certainly counts as something juicy, don't you think? I can't wait to see his face when we confront him."

"It's not nice to tease someone…" Leaf had a serious expression.

"It's all in good fun kid, don't worry." Iris handed Misty a small beat up camcorder with lots of dents and scratches. "Can you hook up this thing to the TV too? I found it wrapped up in some socks at the bottom. Maybe it's his travel diary?"

Nobody in the world knew how the unbeatable champion had trained in the past few years. Even the slightest hint how Ash had turned out to be the man he was today felt invaluable to everyone here. That hope diminished greatly when they realised there was only one video file of a few minutes and a record date from five years ago, right in the middle of his training trip.

"Here goes nothing."

The video started grainy and dark in a cave, whoever filming holding the camera very shaky. Loud howling wind picked up on the microphone from a nearby storm or blizzard outside.

Suddenly the integrated flashlight on the camera went on and it dropped to the ground. A lot more shaking footage followed until finally hands came into view to pick it back up.

Hands stained to the elbows in blood.

The view changed again and they saw the person behind the camera for the first time, pointing it at his face. It was Ash, battered and bruised with his upper body soaked in blood from a gaping hole in his chest.

Despite the dire circumstances, the young teen spoke calmly and managed a strained smile.

"Hi everybody… Ash here…"

He coughed, spitting out red droplets all over the lense.

"Sorry for not keeping in touch, but better late than never I guess. Pikachu is out there… looking for help… I don't think he'll make it back in time so this for you too buddy…"

His voice had lowered to almost a whisper as every word seemed to be an ordeal.

"For whoever finds this, my name is Ash Ketchum, born and raised in Pallet, Kanto region… and this is my last will."

A deep intake of breath, followed by a groan of pain.

"I have no important worldly possessions so do whatever you want with my stuff. I'm a pokemon trainer and I want my pokemon to be set free… all of them.. because..."

Several minutes you couldn't hear anything besides the raging storm outside the cave, then heartrending sobs that gradually transformed into low chuckling. The view changed again, the camera now resting on the floor and pointing at the exit.

"What am I doing? I'm not ready to die.. I don't want to die… not like this…"

All watchers in Misty's room, human and pokemon alike, felt a bloodcurdling chill go up their spine by the following scream of rage coming from the speakers.

"DAMMIT NOT LIKE THIS!"

The camera had recorded how he forced his broken body off the ground, shambling outside into the storm like a zombie. Misty hit the power switch when Ash kept out of sight for several seconds and only the empty entrance remained.

Deathly silence reigned in the room, interrupted by the occasional sniffle of Leaf cradling her Rattata and getting comforted by Serena.

For the first time since their reunion, Misty had the feeling she would never be able to fully understand what giving up on his dream had done to Ash. A glimpse of a few minutes had been enough to shock anyone present to the core. The maddening thought of having endured pain and suffering for your ambition, facing certain death and coming out on top to have everything mean nothing in the end.

Three knocks on the door pulled the group out of their depressive thoughts.

"Hey girls, can I come in?"

They knew that voice by heart, although four of them hadn't heard it in person for almost a decade. The door opened slowly to a small gap and a hand with a large paper bag slowly inched into the room. Pikachu sat on his shoulder looking at the weird behaviour of his trainer with a raised eyebrow.

For him, the mating rituals of humans had way to many steps. Every female of age in this room would be a fine choice for Pikapi to pass on his bloodline, but Pikachu had a special soft spot for Pikachu-Pi to become the mate of his trainer.

He would love to spoil their offspring rotten.

"I won't look or bother your sleepover for long, just putting this ice cream on a table and be on my way." Ash carried the large paper bag with one hand while keeping his eyes closed with his other hand. "I bought each of your favorite flavors from memory, so I might have gotten something wrong. Leaf, I figured you like something with lots of chocolate and cookie dough."

The addressed girl pulled herself away from Serena with a sob to tackle his waist and hugged him.

Five more bodies joined her in a group hug.

Ash was confused but let it happen without making a fuzz, until he noticed they slowly pushed him deeper inside the room. Pikachu looked as confused as he was, getting cuddled and pulled by Leaf's Rattata.

Misty said to him what everybody was thinking.

"We won't let you out of our sight anymore, you reckless idiot…"