The Road to our Destiny

Chapter 38

For the next few days, Ash, Pikachu, Serena, Brock, Holly, Dawn, Piplup, May, and Max enjoy relaxing on the ferry to Cinnabar Island. True to May's words, she and Dawn started giving Serena tips to practice contest battles with her Pokemon. Some were hard for her to understand, but she and Braixen, Pancham, Sylveon, Poliwag, and Absol do their best while making their own plans for the contest in Cinnabar Island once May and Dawn leave the room. Apart from that, everyone mostly just relaxes as if they were on vacation as opposed to traveling to the next gym battles or Pokemon contest.

Finally, late afternoon on the sixth day, the ship arrives at the dock on Cinnabar Island. Everyone exits the ferry only for Serena, May, Dawn, and Holly to smile brightly at the sight of the town.

"Wow, look at this place," Dawn says excitedly.

"It's beautiful," Serena says with a blissful sigh.

"Yeah, it is," Ash says, smirking. "And this whole place is just a small part of the island."

"Really?" May asks, surprised.

"Yeah, this only covers a fraction of the island," Brock says. "The town is a great place for tourists, though. There's a lot of souvenir shops, hotels, hot springs, restaurants and food stalls. In fact, the gym leader, Blaine, runs a hotel where he has the gym hiding behind the building.

"You had me at souvenir shops and restaurants," Holly says ecstatically while wrapping her arms around Brock's arm. "Let's go browsing shops and trying out some restaurants, just the two of us."

Brock's tan face turns pink, and he makes a goofy grin before taking both of Holly's hands and says, "For you, I'd browse through any shop and try every restaurant in the world together."

The two adults giggle happily while staring at each other's eyes. Serena smiles fondly at their affection, and even Dawn and May are smiling, having gotten used to the way Brock and Holly act around each other at the ferry. Ash is still oblivious to what is going on but is happy that Brock is happy. Max, on the other hand, frowns and takes it upon himself to yank both Brock and Holly by the ears.

"Augh! What's with you, Max?" Holly cries out in pain.

"Have you two forgotten why we came all this way here?" Max rebukes. "Serena and Dawn are competing in the Pokemon contest, and you and I need to challenge the gym leader, Holly."

Holly swats Max's hands away from her and Brock, and the two of them rub their ears.

"We can do all that and still find plenty of special time for Brock and me," she says, annoyed before going back to hugging Brock's arm while giving him a flirtatious look. "And besides, I looked it up, and the contest isn't for another two days."

The rest of the gang looks at her confused until Serena takes out her tablet and looks up the information on Cinnabar Island's Pokemon contest.

"Wow, what do you know? The contest isn't until the day after tomorrow," she says. "I guess our ship arrived earlier than scheduled."

"That's great," May says. "Looks like the three of us coordinators have more time to practice for the contest or the Grand Festival and even some time to go shopping and check out the hot springs."

"Alright!" Serena and Dawn cheerfully shout at the same time.

"Piplup!" Piplup shouts, sharing the girls' enthusiasm.

"Great, and I can use the time to do a lot more training with my Pokemon," Ash says. "Timothy promised me that we will have another battle the next time we meet, and I want to show him how much I've learned since our last battle."