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

Chapter 47: False Reflections

Morning found us walking into the Moomoo Farm area with the grass still wet from overnight dew.

Route 39 felt gentler than the roads behind us. The fields rolled toward Olivine, and somewhere beyond them waited the sea and the lighthouse that both Xatu had sensed.

Miltank walked beside Lillie, keeping close enough that their shoulders nearly brushed.

Lillie glanced down at her. "We will ask first. We are not giving you to anyone without understanding what happened."

Miltank gave a quiet snort and glanced toward the farm fences, "Good. I want to know before anyone reaches for me."

Granbull walked on Lillie's other side, still holding the little cloth in her teeth.

East checked the route map. "Farm buildings ahead. Main road continues toward Olivine afterward."

Ethan looked relieved. "So we can have an actual farm visit, not a haunted tower, not a fake peaceful road, and not a Contest emotional crisis."

Kris did not even look up from her notes. "You have said a version of that before every problem this week."

"I am trying to manifest peace," Ethan said, spreading both hands as if Route 39 owed him one quiet morning.

Reisa smiled faintly, but Marill, walking near her feet, kept staring toward a stream that crossed under a little wooden bridge near the farm road. The Water-type's round ears twitched with each sound of running water, and Reisa slowed down to listen with her.

"Marill hears something," Reisa said, lowering her voice.

Before anyone could answer, a blue-white shape flashed across the far field.

Lillie's breath caught, and her hand tightened near Espeon. "Suicune. I saw Suicune."

The shape vanished beyond a line of trees before we could take two steps. I saw no tracks, but the air felt colder where it had crossed.

Ethan ran forward anyway. "It went that way!"

"We follow carefully," I said. "We are not capturing it. We need to know why it is here."

A voice called behind us before we could move. "Did you see it?"

Eusine came sprinting up the road, coat flaring and hair windblown as though he had been chasing rumors all morning. His eyes were bright in the dangerous way they got whenever Suicune was involved.

"It was here, was it not?" Eusine asked quickly. "Tell me you saw Suicune."

"We saw something," Kris said carefully.

Reisa pointed toward the trees. "It crossed the field and disappeared."

"Then I am still close," Eusine said, already turning. "After Burned Tower, I knew Suicune had begun acknowledging my pursuit."

"That is not what happened," Lillie said.

He either did not hear her or chose not to. "No matter. I will prove that I am worthy."

Before Eusine could run, another familiar voice laughed from the farm gate. "Well, if it is not Ash."

I turned and saw a man waving from beside a sign advertising Moomoo Milk.

"The Safari Zone warden from Fuchsia," I said. "What are you doing in Johto?"

He grinned. "I have been traveling and studying how other places care for their Pokémon. I am planning to open a new Safari Zone west of Cianwood, so register my number on your Rotom Phone. I will call you when it is ready."