1. Ash's Story (Part 10: Galar)

Chapter 81: The Dojo's First Trial

The inside of the Master Dojo felt older than the building looked from outside.

Scrolls hung between polished wooden pillars, and painted scenes of battles, training, and quiet meditation covered the walls. Some of the ink had faded, but the feeling behind it had not. Every brushstroke seemed to hold someone's sweat, laughter, and stubbornness.

I stood near the entrance with Alice beside me, letting the smell of tatami, tea, and sea wind settle around us. After everything that had happened in Galar, stepping into a place built for learning instead of crisis felt strange in the best way.

"So this is the Master Dojo," I said softly. "It really does feel different."

Alice's eyes moved across the scrolls before she nodded. "Yes. It feels disciplined, but not cold. There is warmth here."

That was the right way to put it. The dojo carried strength, but not the kind that pushed people away. It felt like a place that expected us to work hard and enjoy the work at the same time.

Honey clapped her hands with enough cheer to turn every head in the room. "Everybody, I have an announcement to make! We have two new students joining us today!"

The students in matching uniforms turned toward us. Most of them looked curious. A few looked excited. Klara and Avery stood farther back, wearing expressions that made it clear they were still deciding whether we were interesting or annoying.

Honey waved us forward with a bright smile. "Please welcome Ash and Alice! I'm sure you'll all have lots to teach one another."

A chorus of greetings filled the dojo. Several students bowed, and Alice and I returned the gesture. I had walked into stadiums full of cheering people, but this was different. A dojo greeting was quieter, closer, and somehow made me stand straighter.

"Hi-yah!" Honey said. "All our students are so good and hardworking. Everyone really gives it their all around here."

A boy in a pink shirt and green shorts stepped from one side of the room, studying us as if we had appeared on a screen only he could see. "Now here are two people who are not listed in my database of students."

Alice blinked at him. "Um...who are you?"

Honey leaned toward him with a fond smile. "Hello, sweetie pie! It's not usual for you to bother greeting newcomers." Then she turned back to us. "This is Hyde, my darling only son."

Hyde held out two small charms before either of us could ask more. "Here. You can have these."

Alice accepted one carefully. I took the other, feeling the little device rest against my palm. It was light, but the casing had the clean shape of something made by careful hands.

"What is this?" Alice asked.

"That is an Exp. Charm," Hyde explained. "A charm that helps Pokémon gain Exp. Points more efficiently. But don't open it, OK? It's got tech I developed inside, and I do not want you to go and ruin it."

"I'll be careful with it," I promised.

Hyde seemed satisfied with that and wandered back toward his corner of the dojo. Honey watched him go with the kind of pride my mom used when she pretended not to worry about me.

"He's so good with his hands," Honey said. "Always making something new. Such a clever boy."

"I can tell," I said, smiling as Clemont and Sophocles came to mind. "I have friends who would probably want to look at his inventions for hours."

Honey's smile widened, but then she lifted one hand toward the back of the room. "And that handsome gent over there is my darling hubby and the very master of the Master Dojo."