Paragon

Origin Child [6]

PARAGON

Origin Child Arc [6]

Chapter 6 : The Paragons of Paragon

Cynthia left that afternoon after joining Ash and Sylvester for lunch. She'd said Sylvester's cooking was only mildly better than the airplane fare on her private jet, or else she'd have left earlier, but Ash caught her packing several containers to go as he was heading outside to rejoin his other pokémon.

Don't tell Sylvester, she'd said. His ego is big enough as it is.

Bit of tsundere when it came to her cousin, clearly.

He took a plate outside to eat with the rest of his pokémon after they'd gathered together again. There, they enjoyed a nice lunch, courtesy of Sylvester, though unfortunately Cresselia had flown off somewhere. It was nice to eat alongside all of them together, under the sun and out in nature. Luckily, they behaved themselves for the most part, but of course Gengar had to antagonize his usual prey. This time, Oshawott landed a few hits with Razor Shell and Gengar was beginning to counter with a cloud of poison, but Ash shut it down before anyone could get seriously hurt. Although he felt a bit bad for Oshawott, all the pranks were starting to make him a legitimately better fighter, even against Gengar's incorporeality. After lunch, he recalled them all and headed back to base to plan out his next journey.

Now he found himself in one of several conference rooms throughout the facility. A map of the entire world lay on the table in front of him, and Pikachu padded across it, trying to find words he recognized. Kanto and Johto, or the Tohjo Supercontinent, lay to the west, Hoenn and Alola lay to the south, Sinnoh lay to the north, and Unova, Kalos, and Galar all lay to the east. Ash had set up another map for Paldea, even further to the east. He squeezed his chin as he thought.

"We'll have to split up," he murmured, "or we'll never cover enough ground in time."

Is this two-year time limit so important, Master?

As expected, Lucario could not let his master bear the burden of planning their next move by himself, and he insisted on joining the meeting.

"It is important," Ash replied. "Now that we don't have any conference deadlines to look forward to, we need to set our own or we'll get complacent. I told Cynthia we'd be back in two years to defeat her and that's what I intend on doing."

What sort of 'ground' are you looking to cover? Not another round through the gyms, I presume? Perhaps the others would benefit, but us who took part in the World Championships have already done it. I'd like to continue improving myself as well.

"And I expect you to. All of you. So no, no more gyms. I became World Champion. I don't know if they'd even let me challenge them again. But even if I'm not holding the throne, I can still take full advantage of the privileges that title grants." He placed his finger on the map. "Now we should be able to go here."

Lucario circled around the table to see what he was pointing at. Mount Silver... if I remember, you need the eight badges of the Kanto or Johto Regions as well as a conference victory to be permitted entry.

"That's right. Though there are areas even deeper within the mountain that are still off-limits to trainers who meet that criteria. Certain unexplored or dangerous sections can only be accessed by Elite Four members and above. That's where I mean to go."

Lucario chewed on that notion for a bit. I'm confident I am prepared for such an ordeal. But forgive me for saying, I'm not sure most of the others are.