When a life fades away

6. Mother World

Welcome to a new chapter. Now we have to make a step back and see how his other friends reacted in the few hours after the announcement.

Pewter city.

Someone thinks that grey is an empty colour, cold and menacing.

But the city of grey and stones was a lovely place, with Pokèmon and humans working together in one of the most rural parts of the otherwise quite chaotic and sophisticated Kanto Region.

A doctor with a dream and a lot of love was visiting his patients during his time as assistant for the local Nurse Joy when he heard some noises coming from the cafeteria.

Giving his faithful Blissey the medical records for his latest Pokèmon that came under his supervision, he headed to the source of the noise, finding a group of trainers surrounding the TV.

"Something big happened?"

A kid turned to him and stated: "They announced that Ash Ketchum, the yesterday winner against Diantha, is dead!"

The boy was panicking. By now, Ash was well known in Kanto, being his home region.

The doctor gently placed a hand on a boy's shoulder and said with a caring smile: "Come on, everything will be okay!"

The kid sobbed for a bit, before calming himself down: "Thank you doctor Brock"

"It's nothing, little champion!" stated Brock with a wide smile.

The tanned man continued his job all day long before finally finishing his work shift and heading home.

But he didn't go home. He decided to stop by the gym, now closed because it was night-time.

He opened the door and went in the middle of the rocky battlefield.

Memories flashed in his mind, since that day, 10 years ago, when a kid with a Pikachu entered the same door to challenge him.

After all the granitic determination he had showed during the day to not allow himself to be sad, tears started to flow through his face and was soon enveloped in a hug by his Pokèmon.

In Cerulean City, on the other side of Mount Moon, an orange haired girl had a completely different reaction.

Unable to say a word, she rushed home, cried all she could and then she called the person who was suffering probably more than anyone else in the world: Delia Ketchum.

In the Hoenn region a girl was travelling from Mauville City to Fortree city, home of her next contest with a green haired guy, Drew, his rival and maybe more than that. Her parents called her, telling the sad new. She quitted her journey and went home in order to recover from the shock.

There, she found her brother Max, crying out the pain for the loss of his role model and guide throughout his journey. Seeing this, May's heart shattered, and she joined her brother in the pain.

She also had just lost his mentor. Sweet memories fading away.

There were regions where this new didn't arrive by TV.

Iris discovered it from Cilan who was in Johto.

The Alola region discovered it by Professor Kukui who was informed by Samson Oak who was in Kanto at that time.

For Kukui and Burnet it was devastating. In a way Ash was like their son. Losing him made them feel every kind of bad emotion, depression and regret on top.

The Pokèmon school was closed for a week, and it was declared National Mourning for the loss of the first Alolan champion.

The entire region lost his joviality for some days. The land Ash loved like his second home was in pain for him.