1.Ash's Story (Part 2: Johto)

Chapter 8: Silver Name

Mr. Pokémon's house looked too peaceful for the amount of importance waiting inside it.

The small building stood near the northern end of Route 30, tucked between trees with warm light glowing through the windows. After Ledyba, Aibo, Spinarak, Team Rocket, Apricorns, and a suspicious number of lessons about trust, a quiet house should have felt like a reward.

Pikachu did not relax at all.

He sat on my shoulder with his ears angled toward the door. His meaning came to Lillie and me in a low spark: "Professor Oak smell. Egg smell. Something else."

"The something else better not be another machine," I muttered.

Lillie adjusted Togepi in her arms. "Do not challenge the region."

Chikorita stood at my side, leaf lifted as if she could guard me from the house itself. Aipom copied the pose from a branch, though hers looked more like a stage bow than a warning. Sentret stood on its tail beside Ledyba. Spinarak watched from a low branch, still enough that Aibo almost reached toward the webbing before Ethan caught his tail-hand.

East checked the road behind us. "No one followed us from the orchard."

Kris held her notebook closed, but I could tell she wanted it open. "This is Professor Elm's errand. We should record what Mr. Pokémon actually found."

Ethan looked toward the door. "And Professor Oak might be inside."

I smiled at the nerves in his voice. "He probably is."

Before I could knock, the door opened, and Professor Oak's familiar face appeared.

"Ash!" he said warmly. "Lillie, too. I thought you might arrive soon."

"Professor Oak!" I said, relief cutting through my tension. "What are you doing here?"

A man with bright, curious eyes appeared behind him. He looked like someone who had spent years finding strange things and enjoying every second of it.

"So this is Ash Ketchum," the man said. "Professor Oak has told me quite a lot about you."

I stepped inside with the others following carefully. "Then you must be Mr. Pokémon."

"That is what everyone calls me," he said proudly. "A useful name for a man who keeps finding unusual Pokémon-related things."

Mr. Pokémon insisted we sit before anyone carried the Egg again, because according to him, important discoveries should never be rushed past tea.

That sounded like something Professor Oak would usually agree with, except Oak kept glancing toward the back room with the same look he wore when a research question was trying to outrun his patience. The house itself was full of shelves, boxes, and carefully labeled oddities. There were Apricorn samples, unusual feathers, old maps, cracked stones, and a faded drawing of a Pokémon track none of us recognized.

Kris nearly vibrated with the effort of not asking about every single object.

Mr. Pokémon noticed and beamed. "A good researcher suffers beautifully in a cluttered room."

Kris turned pink. "I am trying to be polite."

"Ask later," East said quietly.

"Much later," Ethan added, because Aibo had already opened one small drawer and been stopped by Pikachu's glare.

Professor Oak accepted the tea but did not drink it right away. "This house has always been where strange leads gather before they become proper research. Some end as nothing. Some become history."