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It was… a morning. That’s all Ash could describe as a headache slowly but surely overtakes him before he could even get to the school. Pikachu and him were literally half way through their walk from the professor’s house at that exact moment.
Slowly over time Ash had been spending more and more time at the dinky little shack. Enough to at least have the right to call it a dinky little shack despite how good and clean it was inside. The name was just to annoy the Professor who fought valiantly on his house’s behalf which in the end always caused the Professor and TA to break down in laughter.
Back to the headache, it was pounding against Ash’s skull. Growing just a tad with each time it metaphorically hit his poor tired brain. It didn’t help that Ash and Kukui tried to see who could out drink the other last night out of boredom and refusal to buckle down and grade the class’s test sheets that they did two days ago. Ash won, obviously since Kukui’s a fucking wimp , but that meant he had a worse hangover then the older man.
Ash wasn’t late thankfully, but it was close enough. Kukui gave Ash the saving grace of actually not coming into school today. The only reason Ash declined was because Kukui had nothing to do at his house. The only electronics that worked were the computers downstairs that were locked to kingdom come, the coffee machine, and the tv that only played Detective Laki reruns. He’d die of boredom first before the hangover took him out.
So here he was. The gates to the school appeared in sight as Ash and Pikachu finally finished trudging up the stupid hill. Two traveling mugs of coffee stacked on top of each other, almost comically large sunglasses over his face with a sun hat with the rim bounding just a little into his sight from above, and an even more comically large size of aspirin. First bell was about to ring. Signifying that students and teachers needed to be heading class within five minutes, like any other day and school.
So why the fuck was Kiawe standing just beyond the bridge and school gate? Let alone squaring off with three teens who looked just a tad younger than Kiawe himself?
They were squabbling about something but it all blurred in one intangible voice in Ash’s head as he got closer. Stopping just out of their general eyesight to see if he could piece together what the hell was going on.
“Go-”
“We ain’t-”
“-so yeah!”
“Tell-to fight !’
“ Enough !” Ash’s voice carried easily through the air. To the point he wouldn’t be surprised if it gained the attention from the student body and staff from inside the school like it did to all the stragglers in the courtyard.
“Ash…” Kiawe greeted hesitantly. Immediately looked ashamed, which Ash is using too much of his brain to figure out why he’s looking like that. “Good morning.”
“This morning is anything but good.” he snipped under his breath as he put himself between the two kids. Ash wasn’t trying to hide his voice and he expected the flinch Kiawe did. “Not your fault, Kiddo. I mean yet, at least.”
His hand itched as the mental image of Ash putting a reassuring hand on Kiawe’s shoulder flashed in his mind. Leaving just after a second.
“So who are y’all?” Ash asked. Turing to look at the trio on their… motorbikes?
Were those motorbikes? They looked like pimped out tricycles.
“Their Team-”
“We’re in a gang called Team Skull, ya loser. ” a guy with blue hair snapped. Trying to act bold, when in reality his eyes darted to Ash’s belt. “What Pokemon does a loser like you have, anyways?”
“Their probably all weak pokemon!” the pink haired girl egged the boy on. No doubt he was their leader.
“Yeah!” another boy piped up and he looked like the stereotypical character that no one wanted around. “Look at’im! He doesn’t even look strong.”
Ash glanced down to what he was wearing, besides the floppy large hat and sunglasses of course. Noting how he’d just thrown on some spare clothes he kept at the professor’s house for the weekends when he stayed over. It was just a pair of black shorts, a bit shorter then he’d like them to be but that was because this was an old pair, and an old white shirt that was also admittedly a little see through.
“You don’t look that good either.” he snorted. Handing the aspirin to Kiawe so he could grab the first travel mug. Eyeing the trio as he took a few gulps of it.
They floundered, like Ash expected them too. Stuttering over themselves like they were actually tripping over their feet. He felt kinda bad for them until Kiawe came closer. Looking at the trio with intense eyes.
“They tried to force me and Charizard to battle.” The kid muttered. Stepping closer as the trio’s shouts and jeers for attention grew louder. “They said if I lost, then Charizard was the prize.”
Now Ash had only been Kukui’s TA for two week’s and a half now. The majority of the kids liked him enough, Mallow and Lana were particularly interested in him despite Ash trying to keep himself separated from the students. His contract was clear cut and even Kukui had told the kids to refer to Ash as a Teacher Assistant instead of a Student -Teacher Assistant. He wasn’t here to help them in any way, just Professor Kukui.
Lillie and Sophoclese liked him, as much as they could like a stranger. The blonde girl was awkward around everyone, even her classmates though they didn't seem to mind, and flinched everytime Pikachu or any Pokemon in particular came too close to her. Ash had read her file on the first day he started his new job and didn’t like what he saw.
Her Father wasn’t present, either dead or a dead beat , and a Mother who had notes upon notes about her absences to every parent-teacher conference and other events like it. Lillie also had an older brother, Gladion, but there was just a singular file that had the information of the boy's mysterious disappearance along with charges of theft of property from whatever the Aether Paradise is supposed to be.
Sophoclese was a boy genius though he lacked more social skills then Ash did around his age. He was the youngest out of the class as well. Twelve compared to Kiawe’s age of fifteen. His Togedemaru adored Pikachu. So much so that Ash had to return the roly-poly Pokemon back to her Trainer multiple times a day.
Now, Kiawe ? Kiawe disliked Ash the moment the Kantonian stepped foot on school grounds. Glaring at the young adult with a fire of hatred that was holy unwarranted. There wasn’t anything that showed why Kiawe didn’t like him, Ash hadn’t even known the boy existed until he stepped into class following behind Kukui and the Principal, but he made it very clear.
So having him lean into Ash’s face, almost unconsciously at this point, worried the older Trainer greatly.
“PikaPi!”
Ash dropped both mugs in favor of wrapping his arms around Kiawe. Pushing the two of them to the side and out of the way of a move that neither could see, it was only thanks to Pikachu’s quick warning. They both ended up on the ground before Ash could even begin to look back to see just what kind of attack that flew by their heads not a second before.
The blue haired kid had three black and red lizard-lookin’ Pokemon, the pink haired girl had three Zubats, and the last boy had three Yungoos. All nine Pokemon were snarling and snapping at the air as Ash stood up. His headache worsened from the sudden dive he had to take to the floor.
Kiawe’s Charizard had peaked up. Smoke billowed from its jaw and little flickers of flames made themselves known as it licked up over the fire lizards' slightly bared teeth. Pikachu was already in a good batting stance. Sending a worried but then pleased glance as he saw his Trainer get onto two feet, unbothered and just a little dirty.
Unbothered… until Ash saw his coffee. Spilled and seeping into the hard ground.
“Fight us, loser!” Blue Haired kid shouted and it took everything in Ash not to kick up a rock and sending it through the little shit’s skull. One permanent KO hit.
You are in front of a school, Ash reminded himself. Eyeing Pikachu who seemed to be on the same wavelength as Ash. fur relaxing down his spine as he stood a little taller, trying to look a little less affected by the unwarranted attack. A school full of kids and adults that don’t need to see you kill three children by hand.
“You want a fight?” Ash asked. Hair ruffling as it was freed from the hat during the fall, thankfully the sunglasses stayed on to hide his bright blue eyes. Aura ripple over his skin, unseen to the human’s naked eyes but not the Pokemon who edged back slightly. “I’ll give you a fight .”
“Finally-”
“ End them. ”
The immediate year was flashed in a bright light. Enough so that even Ash, who was used to seeing this level of controlled power from pikachu and have seen it for years by this point, had to squint.
The end result was nine almost mostly charred Pokemon and four very somewhat blind kids.
“I can’t see!”
“What happened?”
“Why can’t I see!?’
“Come here.” Ash huffed as he stepped towards Kiawe. Who was silent for the most part, letting out a surprised gasp as surprisingly cool fingers brushed over his eyelids. “That should help.”
Ash used a little bit more of his Aura to work over the massacred Pokemon. Pikachu’s amusement danced through the air as the little sadistic fuck watched the kids continue to cry out in shock. Their clothes were charred, bikes slightly damaged, but besides their sight nothing else had happened to them. Pikachu was a dick sometimes but he’s not a murderous dick.
“Ash.” Kiawe muttered as he finally opened his eyes. Blinking rapidly as everything was just so bright. “What… what happened ?”
“Told Pikachu to end them, so he did.”
It was the honest answer, Ash didn’t see a reason to lie. Especially now that the Zubats, Yungoos, and the lizard-like Pokemon were just fainted now. A little charred more then Ash would have liked but that was his fault for giving Pikachu the all clear to nuke their asses.
He was still the zap-happy pokemon from when Ash and he first started their journey.
Kiawe peaked over Ash’s body that was planted in front of him. Balking at the amount of damage not only to the humans and pokemon across the short distance but also the ground surrounding the area.
“I’ll have a talk with Principal Oak,” Ash started, sniffing and rubbing the edge of his nose with his thumb, “see what I can do to help fix the ground. I might have to pay for a crew to do it if he wanted it professionally done. But that’s a convo between me and him. You need to get to class.”
Kiawe couldn’t even begin to argue against Ash. not when he saw the massacre behind the TA’s body. Jolting a bit when Pikachu appeared out of nowhere, hanging off Ash’s shoulders and even licking one of its paws like it didn’t win against a one-vs-nine battle with ease just a few moments ago.
“Come one, come on.” Ash sighed. Waving Kiawe towards the school as he bent down to pick up his spilled coffee cups. “Tell Kukui what happens when you get to class.”
“You’re not joining me?”
“Kiawe, dear.” Ash chuckled tiredly as he stood up, cups in hand along with the aspirin. “I have a raging hangover right now and as much as I adore the class, I’m not dealing with all of y’all until I have enough caffeine in my system to kill a Ponyta. Now get . ”
“What about… them?” the boy nodded his head to the Trio who were still rubbing their eyes. No longer out right whining but they were whimpering from pain.
Ash sniffed as he looked towards them as well. He didn’t want to deal with them but it’s best to nip this sort of behavior before the bud bloomed into a big problem. “I got it. You just get going. Now .”
He watched Kiawe scramble towards the gate. No doubt the kid was at least a little afraid of Ash, now that he’s seen what he could see what Pikachu could do in a flash.
Heh .
“Alright!” Ash clapped his hands and turned to stalk across the destroyed and burnt ground. Little bits of electricity reached up from the dirt, seeming attracted to Ash as it danced across his skin. “ You .”
Blue Haired Kid choked as Ash’s hand made it around the collar of his loose tank top. One hand was still rubbing his eyes, now that he was actively crying from the pain, and the other clenched weakly around Ash’s wrist.
“Look at me.” he whispered. Leaning in close and feeling his Aura work against the kid. Ash let out a tiny pleased noise when Blue Hair eye’s shot opened. Teary and petrified and he looked up at Ash, who towered over him on his stupid pimped out bike. “If I catch you or anyone else from this Skull Team of yours, terrorize any kid from this school from now on…”
Ash leaned in close enough so his breath brushed over the kid's ear. Feeling him tremble against his fingers. “I will rip out your eye’s and shove them down your throat, so you can see me tear your carcass open. Do you understand?”
The kid whimpered as he just began to realize the threat he’d just brought onto him and his friends. Especially when Pikachu was balanced perfectly on Ash’s back so the kid was staring directly into murderous eyes.
“Do you understand -”
“Yes! Yes I do!”
Ash let him go easily. Brushing his hand on his shorts like wiping off something disgusting that he touched.
The other two regained their eyesight, not without having to squint as the sun they were so used too had gotten seriously bright. They watched as Ash backed up and nodded his head towards them.
“If I even see you around this school, without a good fucking reason, your ass is grass and I’m putting your popped eyes on a mantle.”
“Let's get out of here!” The other boy yelled and turned his bike. Revving his engine, so it is a pimped out large tricycle, and was gone as fast as the little engine could go. Leaving the two in the dust.
“W-wait for me!”
“Get out of my way!”
Ash and Pikachu stood there. Watching the dust pick up as they left and settle against the ground again. Silence taking over the two for the most part.
The key words being most.
There was a flush of wind and a cluck and coo behind Ash. Both best friends turned around to see Tapu Koko doing little infinity symbols as it floated just a bit above the ground. Staring straight at Ash and Pikachu.
“ Coo ?”
Ash’s eyes narrowed as Tapu Koko offered its hand towards him or should Ash call it a beak? A hand-beak ?
Yeah, hand-beak would do.
“Are you asking for a fist bump?” he asked jokingly though Ash’s humor died on his tongue as the Tapu nodded. “Well, jeez . This is a first.”
He couldn’t make out just what Koko’s hand-beak was made out of but it felt close to Swellows own beak. Ash couldn’t ask anyways as Tapu Koko quickly fled after Ash’s hand awkwardly found a place to bump against the Gods.
“I’m delusional.” Ash muttered to himself. Wearily eyeing the spot the Tapu was a second before. “I’m going completely mental.”
“Pikapi.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go get some coffee.”