A Journey's Link

Chapter 42 - Whereabouts

"Mega Ash-Greninja?" Ash repeated back to Sycamore. There was no way he heard him correctly. He learned that the Ash-Greninja form was some variant of Mega Evolution when he traveled through Kalos. So, then how can there be a Mega Evolved form of a Mega Evolution? He asked himself, perplexed by the whole situation.

Sycamore nodded, a gleam of joy in his eyes as they witnessed the now Mega-Evolved Ash-Greninja. "How is that even possible?" Ash asked, also staring at the powerful and towering Mega Ash-Greninja. He had grown almost a foot in size and had grown muscle-wise. Every feature about Ash-Greninja had carried over to this form, excluding an additional layer of the X-shaped water design that grew on his back.

"Well, when you left Kalos to go back home," Sycamore began explaining. "I began experimenting on Greninja to test its stamina while being away from you." He walked over to a laptop and opened a datasheet, containing numbers that Ash couldn't possibly understand. Goh could probably tell what they say, he thought, saddened by the thought of his friend, alone.

"This datasheet contains some pretty clear evidence that Greninja seemed to be getting somehow weaker the longer you were away from it," Sycamore continued, pointing at spots on the sheet. "The longer you and he failed to bond together, the more you both started getting weaker."

Ash realized that what Sycamore was saying lined up with what had been happening the past few days. "Yeah, when I ran the other day in Vermillion City I became tired a lot quicker," Ash said, referencing back to the race he and Goh had to Cerise Laboratories, and how he had run out of breath much more quickly than normal.

"Exactly!" Sycamore exclaimed happily. "I found a temporary solution to this when I had my Garchomp Mega Evolve. The second she changed forms, Greninja suddenly got a boost of energy, so I decided to test something," Sycamore explained, walking over to Greninja.

"I introduced a wide variety of Mega Stones to Greninja to see if he would react to them, and he did," Sycamore said, staring at the Mega Stone in the scarf Greninja was now wearing. "Unfortunately, he never Mega Evolved due to the stones, only received a boost of energy." He took off the scarf from Greninja, causing him to revert to his normal form, looking refreshed and otherwise healthier than before.

"When I saw this piece of fabric glowing, I knew that somehow, it was Greninja reacting in a positive way to it, which is why I was confident enough for you to put it on Greninja," Sycamore finished, handing the scarf back to Ash, who held it in his hand. "But how did you know that Ash-Greninja could Mega Evolve?" Clemont asked. "Wasn't that form already a variety of Mega Evolution?"

Sycamore raised a finger. "Not quite, Clemont. It seems that the bond between Ash and Greninja is almost symbiotic, rather than a normal bond that simply triggers Mega Evolution. It seems in this case, Ash and Greninja almost need to be together to maintain their strength," he explained, walking back over to the laptop to shut it.

"Wait, so why was Greninja green?" Clemont asked curiously. "It seemed to be almost glowing as it came in." Sycamore frowned and closed his eyes. "That I am unsure of, but I think now that Ash is here, we can most likely dive deeper into that to figure it out," he responded.

Ash walked up to Greninja, who was now sitting down on the stretcher Professor Sycamore and Clara brought him in on. "Hey, Greninja," Ash whispered, getting down to his eye level. "How have you been? Did you finish slashing all the roots?"

Greninja looked up at Ash and nodded, clearly excited to see Ash but not overly emotional, as he usually kept to himself and stoically did his job. "That's great," Ash said, smiling back. His smile disappeared when the roots reminded him of something. Squishy.

Squishy had asked Greninja to travel across Kalos to help slash the roots, so if Greninja was traveling with it, then maybe he would know something about this third Zygarde cell. "Greninja, do you still know where Squishy is?" Ash asked Greninja softly.