154 I-It has to be a coincidence r-right?

{Time skip}

"Charizard, finish this with [Slash]!" Ash commanded.

Samurai looked distressed, "Pinsir try to dodge!"

Pinsir tried jumping out of the way but before it could Charizard grabbed it by the leg and threw it to the ground giving him an opening to send a [Slash] to the bug's lowered body and sending it into a crater with spirals.

"And that's a game!" Ash said with two fingers pointing at Samurai.

"Man, I really thought I could win this time," Samurai said as he returned his bug

"I said it before and I'll say it again, if you wish to defeat me, train for another hundred years!"

A.J. marked something in a notebook, "Ok that makes 5 losses for Samurai, and 3 for me, anyone wanna give it a shot."

Everyone took a collective step back leaving only Jeanette standing there, "Don't look at me, we haven't battled and I'm going to keep it that way." 

Ash crossed his arms and pouted like a 3-year-old, "Boo, you're all no fun, just because I can curb stomp you doesn't mean I shouldn't get to battle anyone."

"I mean you can't blame us, in all the times I battled you our record is 2:15 in your favor," Misty said, crossing her arms.

"So that's like a 13% win rating for you, I'd take those odds."

"Only you would think that," Misty sighed as she grabbed the bridge of her nose.

"Soooooo, I'm not getting another battle am I,"

Brock waved his hands, "I mean why don't you ask Yellow, you haven't battled her yet."

"She's busy training with Sabrina, and I'm gonna go battle her tomorrow," Ash said as Pikachu walked over to him and jumped back on his shoulder.

"What, do you seriously think you need more training?" Misty asked sarcastically

"Na, I'm pretty sure I became strong enough to win after our 3rd day here," Ash said casually as he put his finger in his ears.

Immediately collectively the five screamed, "EHHH!!" x 5

"Then why did you decide to stay here for so long instead of battling her!"

"I was bored, and the ship isn't until another 3 days," Ash said casually,

"At this point why are we surprised," Brock said as he covered his face, getting a nod and a mumble from the rest of them

"You know what I think I have an Idea," Misty said, "You wanna battle, how about all of us vs just you."

Ash raised his eyebrow, "Do you seriously want to do this, I promise you this isn't going to go how you want it."

"I'm still not a part of this," Jeanette said as she sat down

"Yeah I'm with her," Brock said as he was currently bottle feeding his Bonsly.

"So what 3 against 1 is still good odds," Misty said confidently.

Ash sighed and took off his Jacket and hat and put them on the nearby table and looked at Pikachu, "You wanna take this one?"

"Pika! (๑`▽´๑)۶"

Misty, Samurai, and A.J. sent out Gyarados, Butterfree, and a Scyther respectively, as Pikachu jumped forward with his cheeks sparking.

"Let's give them a taste of what we've been working on, Pikachu show them our, [Pika Papow]!"

Pikachu's cheeks sparked as he jumped forward.

—

{Back at the mansion}

Ash came back, he had his jacket in his arm and Pikachu was sleeping on his head, that battle took more out of him than he thought.

As he walked in he saw Shuko sitting on a nearby table drinking tea, "Oh hey, glad to see your back."

Ash nodded as he looked around, "Where's everyone else?"

"Oh right, I forgot," Shuko said, knocking on her head and striking her tongue out, Sabrina and Yellow went down to the training field."

"Ok, thank you," Ash said as he turned around and was about to walk out but was stopped by Shuko.

"By the way, Takurou wanted to talk to you about your gym battle tomorrow."

Ash turned back and raised his eyebrow, "Huh, interesting, I guess I should go talk to him, where is he?"

"Top balcony," Shuko said casually before turning menacingly, "Oh, and when you're done can you tell him I want to have a 'talk'."

Ash gulped, "Sure, I'll be sure to tell him."

Shuko's face turned back to normal, "Aww how sweet of you to treat your Onii-san so well."

Ash walked out and first went over to the room to place Pikachu on the bed to sleep, he earned this one. He left the hat but took his Jacket since it was getting late and it gets pretty cold at night.

As he made his way towards the roof he started thinking about everything he knew, Saffron Gym is an exception to the norm being that Sabrina requested for the battles not to be broadcast.

But obviously just because he was here didn't mean that the challenges stopped, it seemed that due to Sabrina's mysterious condition that caused her to lose battles to challengers, a lot of people wanted to take advantage.

And the things that Sabrina did to those people needs to be studied, none of them came back after getting their teeth kicked in, and because of that rumors of Sabrina cheating or letting people win, etc. spread, but they went away pretty quickly.

A representative from the league even came by and tested Sabrina herself to see if she was worthy of keeping the gym, needless to say, she passed with flying colors.

Thanks to that Ash got a pretty nice rundown on his potential challenge, the only Psychic types in Kanto that she is allowed to use are Alakazam, Exeggutor, Jynx, Hypno, Slowbro, Starmie, and Mr. Mime. However, she hardly chooses Starmie and Exeggutor so he can safely assume the team will be with the rest.

Now the good thing is that Psychic types are made of Paper skin and Glass bones on the physical side, the only exception being Slowbro who is a wimp on the special side.

Alakazam usually runs a Life Orb set, except when she battled against the league representative where she used a mega, Mr. Mime is there for one reason and one reason only to set up screens and Baton Pass.

Hypno is the physical attacker with Wish just in case and leftovers for recovery, Jynx runs a Substitute + Nasty Plot set with leftovers as well, and finally, Slowbro is the tank with Rocky Helmet for chip and stall.

Overall it's going to be pretty annoying but he should be fine with the team he's going in with being; Gyarados, Beedrill, Scizor, Charizard, and Annihilape.

It's worth noting that as of recently he's been cross-breeding Berries to improve their effects and overall see what happens so he has some high-quality Payapa Berries to give to Annihilape, and since these Berries work differently here than in the game he gets 1 minute of resistance to Psychic moves before he's falling like a stack of cards.

It is a shame he doesn't have a keystone though, it would definitely come in handy but alas he only has the useless broken one.

As he got to the top of the building he saw Takurou leaning on the balcony and looking at the sunset.

Ash called out, "Hey I hear you wanted to talk."

Takurou didn't look back but gestured to his side, so Ash walked over, "You know Shuko told me to tell you that she wants to 'talk'."

Takurou felt a shiver go through his spine but remained stoic, "I guess I need to handle that later, but for now let me ask you, how confident are you about winning tomorrow?"

"Honestly, I think about 70%," Ash answered honestly

"That's what I was afraid of," Takurou sighed, "You already know about the Black Fog incident right."

"Yeah, about how she was kidnapped and stuff."

"Well, you don't know the full story, you see Sabrina doesn't like to battle as much as other Gym leaders do, in fact before she got kidnapped she showed no interest in battling, but when she returned she changed her personality completely."

"She isolated herself from everyone including us and started training every day, sometimes she wouldn't eat or sleep. Eventually, she challenged me for the position of Gym leader, although due to league rules, she shouldn't have even been old enough to inherit the gym she found and exploited a loophole, and after that, she became the acting Gym Leader."

"Ok, but why are you telling me this now? No offense but it doesn't seem like either of us is in the best position to tell her anything." Ash said bluntly

"Well about that…" Takurou said, "You and your friend Yellow seem to be close to Sabrina, more than I think you even realize, in the time after she returned her attitude changed and she seemed happier, even talking about how people helped her."

"And you're telling me this why?" 

"She is willing to listen to you, so I want you to beat Sabrina, but not in the regular match, are you aware about the optional rule of gimmicks being added to Gym battles."

"I have an idea, but enlighten me," Ash said, squinting his eyes.

"Well, a system has been implemented, as you know every Gym leader is very well capable, so unless directly part of the Gym challenge, the gym leader is not allowed to use any gimmicks, including Megas, Z-moves, etc."

"But the challenger is allowed to ask for it only after they have 5 badges, and the trade-off is that either the challenger will also be allowed to use a gimmick or the Gym leader in question will be forced to use less Pokemon."

"And what's the whole end goal of this?" Ash asked, he did know about the ruling, he was even considering doing it himself since if he beats the next gyms with a gimmick then he gets to skip another round in the League.

"Well, I want you to snap her out of this fantasy world she built around herself, she still thinks she needs to be the Gym leader, Don't get me wrong I'm not doing this to get my title, but I want Sabrina to do what she wants to do, and if that's being the gym leader then so be it, but if there's even a small part of her that wants to follow anything else I want her to take it."

Ash stayed quiet and turned around to start walking away, not before turning back to him with his eye glowing a royal blue color, "I can tell you're being genuine, and that's a good thing cuz if I found that you were doing this for your own goals I might have given you a beating myself."

Takurou gulped so Ash continued, "My family has a saying. 'Do what you want.' That's what my Mother taught me. Although my father was never around, something told me he's the one that told her that."

"They seem wise, does that mean-"

"I'll consider it, but I'll be sure to talk to Sabrina at least."

Takurou gave a relieved sigh, "Thank you, it's good to see at least your mother raised you correctly, I'd love to know her name."

It was common courtesy and Ash knew it, so with a sigh, Ash spoke, "Her name is Delia, Delia Ketchum." Ash said as he walked away.

Takurou nodded, "Thank you, Del-" he suddenly stopped as his eyes shot open, "Delia? No, it can't be can it?"

Takurou looked at Ash's back and remembered the sight of a girl younger than him in his Team Rocket days, and how despite her kind appearance, she was more ruthless and powerful than anyone, there were more than a few occasions where he would be on the ground with her boot rubbing against his face.

Takurou shivered and gave a loud gulp, "I-It has to be a coincidence r-right? N-no how can someone be the child of that M-m-monster."

—

Sabrina and Yellow were sitting down after a good training session, honestly, Sabrina was impressed by how fast Yellow learned, although she didn't learn how to teleport she had learned a lot of things, even how to read minds. Which she tried, and promptly failed, to read Ash's mind.

Just as she was thinking that they heard the sound of footsteps, when they looked towards the stars they saw Ash walking down with two bottles of water.

"Yo, how are you guys, haven't heard anything from you guys in a while!" Ash said in an overly cheerful tone as he tossed the bottles over.

Sabrina caught her's with no difficulty but Yellow was taken by surprise and tried but failed to catch it so Sabrina caught it for her and lowered it down to her.

Yellow pouted and took the bottle as Ash took a seat on a nearby chair.

"So are you ready for tomorrow?" 

"Yes, I suppose tomorrow is the fated day," Sabrina said calmly

"You know, I never got the chance, did you think about what you really want?" Ash asked.

Sabrina stopped and looked down, "Well kinda, when I told you I began talking to other gym leaders I didn't just mean the ones in Kanto or even Johto, I started talking to multiple people from other regions."

"What do you all have a group chat or something," Ash said chuckling.

"Actually not too far off, but it's more of a form than anything." Sabrina said, being completely serious, "The main people were Elesa of Unova and Fantina of Sinnoh."

"Wow, I have no idea who those two are," Yellow said with full confidence.

"They're basically both performers," Ash said

"Well, yes that is an accurate description of them, but the thing is that they invited me to become a performer like them, I live in a very different world than the showy one they live in. And besides, they're both much prettier than I am."

"Well, I think you're pretty," Ash said smiling.

"Yeah, I think so too!" Yellow said, smiling brightly.

Sabrina looked up at the two and was slightly embarrassed, "Well that doesn't matter I'm not a dancer or a model like them."

"Then why don't you do something different?" Ash asked, "I think you would make a pretty good actor."

"Oh you mean she would be in Movies and stuff, that would be cool you should do it!" Yellow said excitedly

Sabrina looked down, so Ash got up, "Well I'll let you think about it, I'm in no position to tell you what to do, I'll go first and I hope you're ready for tomorrow because I'm not losing."