A Special Kind Of Love?

Chapter 26

[Ash's POV]

The moment everything was over, we were taken back to Kalos. The reason being me crossing regions without any passport or permission. Fortunately Mr. Goodshow took care of that well. My Charizard was immediately taken to the hospital, his wounds were worse than any I've ever seen so we had to take him to Goldenrod city right there in Johto because of the limited time. I couldn't stay with him but I was told I could return back through the travel procedures after returning to Kalos. Honestly, I don't know if there was any other way or not but I didn't see any problem and I was assured by Goodshow himself so I was relieved.

In Kalos however, things were quite different. I was greeted by a huge amount of crowd at the airport. There were young as well as old trainers waiting for me. I was being escorted by army men. The trainers tried to break through to me, I felt like a celebrity returning home after a long time. But this was all new to me so I was feeling more uncomfortable than excited. I was still unsure if everyone appreciated me or the old rumors were revived again and the haters were back. Pikachu wasn't doing any better either, he never liked attention at all. And bow with this much commission all along our way, he had found comfort in his pokeball. I know, it's been ages since he entered his pokeball. Hilbert felt the same as me, he was never exposed to this much fame.

For the first time I was thankful, I chose to stay in a forest with wild pokemon roaming around. However, today there were more pokemon. I couldn't recognize the pokemon from anywhere nearby, but they didn't attack me while I walked through my path. They were probably deployed by the orders of Goodshow. Again, that man has helped me so much through all of this that I could never repay him. The area around the forest as well as the surrounding cities was under military surveillance for any person trying to get near my house.

As Hilbert and I neared my home, I spotted Serena's Braixen. She must have been on the lookout too. She came running and stopped in front of us. Before I could think of anything to say, Hilbert had already taken the cue of bringing out his Lucario. The moment he materialized on the ground Braixen had pounced on him and was hugging him close to her. I took the unexpected relationship unfold in front of my eyes as I turned to Hilbert with a confused look, to which he simply gestured "don't ask". I let go of the reason as we started heading back home with Braixen holding Lucario's paw with hers walking ahead of us.

When we reached home the door was opened by Serena, who immediately hugged me. After we parted I noticed Alexa and Goodshow in the living room along with some bodyguards of Goodshow. Alexa was a journalist whom I met during my travels in the Unova region. She was the only reporter who posted headlines in my favour when every other news company was against the whole accord of Ash Ketchum. She had kept in touch with me since then and reported information about my presence as a third person viewer. Honestly she treated me like her younger brother which of course I didn't mind at all.

Goodshow gave me a side hug as he could barely stand from his sitting position, he had grown quite old but still had the energy to run the whole Pokemon League. Alexa though, crushed me in a big sisterly hug which almost choked me to death. She was very worried about me when she saw the news. She made reservations to Kalos from Sinnoh as soon as she could.

Hilbert shook his hands with both of them, while I called out Pikachu who was very happy to see Alexa and her Helioptile. While they both played together we sat down around the small coffee table. Serena went to get us something to eat from the kitchen.

"Finally Ash, your identity has been revealed and it has created quite a commission across the world. What are you going to do about this now?" Mr. Goodshow started, I knew exactly where he was going. With my identity out in the open I can't enter the tournament as planned, now the world knew who I was and so did the ones whom I wanted my revenge on.