𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓙𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓷𝓮𝔂 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓼 𝓣𝓸𝓭𝓪𝔂 *EDITING*

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 8: 𝙷𝚘𝚙 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚎

Ash's POV:

Bea and I decided to go find Hop, Leon's little brother. I remember him bragging to me two days ago and wanted to battle him. Bea told me that while Leon was the Champion, Hop wasn't particularly strong. Still, he was Leon's brother. We soon saw a miserable Hop standing beside Leon, who attracted tons of people.

"Wow! The previous Champion!"

"He also helped save Galar five years ago!"

"The unbeatable Champion is here!"

"Well, Ash defeated him. But yeah, no one else!"

We walked right through the crowd to see Hop. "Hey! You're the Champion's brother, aren't you?" I heard a squeaky voice ask. Bea and I spun around. Two trainers ran towards Hop and stopped before him. I recognise the two trainers.

"Bonnie? Clemont?" I muttered. What were they doing in the Galar region? Did Clemont ditch his Gym again?

I caught Bea looking at me. "Oh, they--um, Clemont is the Electric Gym Leader in Kalos, and Bonnie is his little sister. A professor told me that," I explained. Phew! I almost said I travelled with them! I forgot that Mew made some slight changes to my appearance that would definitely make me unrecognisable.

Bea nodded. "I would like to battle them someday. It would be a good learning experience," she whispered.

Hop was looking at Clemont and Bonnie sadly. "Yeah, but I'm not that strong so, you two should go talk to Leon over there."

"Hey, believe in yourself! Once I had a friend who never gave up till the very end. You might know him as the current champion though," Bonnie said. Hop widened his eyes.

"You were friends with Ash? I just wish I was as accomplished as my brother," he sighed. Bea and I walked over to them.

"Hi, I'm Kesh Atchum, and these are Raboot, Thwackey, Drizzile and Hattrem!" I introduced.

"Hello, I am Bea, the Gym Leader of the Fighting Type Gym in Stow-on-Side," Bea greeted.

"Cool! Another Gym Leader!" Bonnie exclaimed. Hop merely looked up.

Suddenly, a small green head popped out of Bonnie's yellow bag. I gasped.

"Squishy?"

Bea stared blankly at the Order Pokémon while Hop's jaw dropped. "You caught a Legendary? Now I really feel like a failure-"

"Hey! Don't say that! I know, in the end, that you will do everyone proud! Just give it your best shot!" I encouraged.

"Yeah! Listen to the kid!" Hop's Scorbunny exclaimed. I smiled.

"See, even your Pokémon agrees!"

In the end, we got Hop out of his funk and headed to Ballonlea's Gym. It was getting dark, so we decided to camp out. Clemont praised me for my vast knowledge of Pokémon despite my young age. If only he knew who I truly was. Bonnie was fascinated with the story of Eternatus and said that she could not imagine a Pokémon that gigantic.

Around the campfire, I told stories of a boy's experiences with Legendary Pokémon and purposefully left out the Kalos ones since the boy was me, but I hid that fact. Clemont and Bonnie wouldn't have that bad a memory. I talked about Lugia, I talked about Mew, I talked about Jirachi, I talked about Darkrai, I talked about Genesect, I talked about Marshadow, I talked about Calyrex and much, much more... Hop was pretty jealous of the main character and I had to convince him that it was all fiction. Then, we climbed into bed.