1. Ash's Story (Part 7: Kalos)

Chapter 33: Miroir Way

Route 11 stretched ahead of us with bright stone walls, narrow paths, and crystals that caught the sunlight like pieces of broken sky.

The road was known as Miroir Way, and I understood why as soon as we started walking. Every shining surface reflected us back at strange angles. Sometimes I saw Serena walking beside me in one crystal while another showed Pikachu on my shoulder a heartbeat later. Other times, the reflection bent enough that my own face looked unfamiliar.

It made the route beautiful, but it also made it difficult to trust what my eyes were seeing. A crystal reflection could make a corner look open when it was blocked, or make a narrow path look wider than it really was. Even the wind seemed to move strangely around the stones, carrying our voices back to us after a short delay.

Chespin noticed it more than anyone.

He kept glancing at the crystals, then at Froakie, Fennekin, Eevee, and Pikachu. Froakie moved with quiet confidence, Fennekin walked gracefully beside Serena, Eevee stayed close to Pikachu, and Pikachu looked as comfortable as always on my shoulder. Chespin puffed himself up each time he saw his round shape in the mirrored stone, but the puffing only made him look more uncomfortable.

Serena noticed too. "Chespin has been staring at those reflections for a while."

"He is comparing himself," I said quietly. "Maybe seeing himself from every side is making him think he looks silly beside the others."

Chespin turned toward us, pretending he had not heard. He marched ahead with exaggerated confidence, only to trip on a loose stone and roll forward. Eevee jumped back, unimpressed, then moved closer to Pikachu again.

Pikachu looked down at Eevee, then back at Chespin with a sympathetic tilt of his ears. His meaning reached me through the way he watched both of them instead of laughing. "He wants to be admired, but he has not yet learned how to be steady."

Chespin pushed himself up and tried to act like the tumble had been planned. He flexed both little arms, then glanced at Eevee to see if she was impressed. Eevee only tilted her head and stepped behind Pikachu's tail.

"That reaction probably did not help," Clemont said gently.

"Poor Chespin," Bonnie said, though she was trying not to laugh. "He is trying so hard."

Before I could comfort him properly, Bonnie's Dedenne suddenly jumped from her arms and ran toward a berry tree near the crystals. Another Dedenne peeked from behind the roots, whiskers twitching as tiny sparks jumped between them.

Bonnie gasped with delight. "Dedenne found a friend."

The wild Dedenne darted closer, touched whiskers with Clemont's Dedenne, then ran back behind the tree. It was not afraid of us exactly, but it did not want to be caught easily either. It grabbed a berry, vanished behind a crystal, then appeared in a reflection on the opposite side before its real body popped out somewhere else.

Our Helioptile lifted his head, and Pikachu's cheeks sparked softly. The wild Dedenne was pulling little bits of electricity from the air and sending them through its whiskers like signals. Each time we stepped closer, it seemed to know where we were before it looked.

"It is using its whiskers like antennas," Clemont said with bright interest. "It may be sensing everyone's movements through electrical waves."

The wild Dedenne dashed from one crystal shadow to another, stealing a berry and vanishing again. Bonnie's Dedenne chased after it, and soon both of them were racing around the tree while Bonnie cheered. Our Dedenne visitor was mischievous, but it kept glancing toward the higher slope as though it knew something about this route that we did not.