Chapter 114

The screen begins to appear.

[After bidding farewell to Liu Li on Trovita Island, Ash and his friends arrived at Kumquat Island, where they saw a large number of migrating Magikarp.]

[Through observation, Ash discovered that nearly one-third of the migrating Magikarp had evolved into Gyarados.]

["Over thirty percent of the Magikarp evolved into Gyarados? This is just too unbelievable!"]

[The evolution of Magikarp is not that simple; only the most outstanding Magikarp in the school can evolve into Gyarados. Generally speaking, only one in ten thousand Magikarp will evolve into a Gyarados.]

[What kind of magic does this Kumquat Island possess to allow so many Magikarp to evolve?]

["Because they are all the most outstanding Magikarp. The ordinary ones were already weeded out during the migration process."]

[Suddenly, a strange old man appeared before Ash. He smiled and introduced himself: "My name is Green River, and I am a Pokémon observer."]

["In other words, these Magikarp are all excellent? Even the individuals that haven't evolved?" Ash asked curiously.]

["That goes without saying. The Magikarp that can return to the island are all the most excellent ones. Even if they couldn't evolve successfully this year, they surely will next year," Green River nodded and said.]

["Then what are we waiting for? Misty, hurry up and catch a Magikarp," Ash hurriedly suggested to Misty.]

[Ash had expected Misty to agree readily, but who knew Misty would shake her head like a rattle, "No, no, I would never catch a Magikarp even if I died! Gyarados are just too terrifying!!!"]

[Now it was Ash and Brock's turn to be surprised. Was there actually a Water-type Pokémon in this world that Misty hated?]

[One must know that even for Tentacool and Tentacruel, Misty found them quite cute.]

[Under Brock's repeated questioning, Misty finally slowly revealed the secret buried deep in her heart.]

[When she was still a child, she accidentally crawled into the mouth of a Gyarados and was almost eaten. From then on, a shadow was left in her heart, and she became afraid whenever she saw a Gyarados.]

Lorelei: "Afraid of Gyarados? That's such a pity. Gyarados are very practical Water-type Pokémon."

In Lorelei's view, the most practical Water-type Pokémon in Kanto is the Gyarados; the only drawback is that it is very difficult to make a Gyarados listen obediently.

Lance: "There is actually someone in the world who hates Gyarados? It's truly unbelievable."

Clair: "Some people claim to be Dragon-type masters, yet they like Gyarados—isn't that what's really not right?"

Wallace: "I must speak up for Lance here. Who says Gyarados isn't a dragon? Doesn't it have 'dragon' in its name?"

Steven: "In that case, Lance is indeed a Dragon-type master; all his Pokémon have 'dragon' in their names."

Diantha: "I suggest Lance go catch a Magmar. Fire-type Magmar are excellent at dealing with Ice-type Pokémon."

Cynthia: "No chance. Among Lorelei's Pokémon, only Jynx is pure Ice-type; the others are all Water/Ice."

Alder: "I feel sorry for Lance for a second. This world is really targeting him."

A remote town in Kanto.

"You actively crawled into a Gyarados's mouth? Misty, what kind of move is that?"

Ash was stunned. He thought he had been mischievous enough as a child, but now it seemed he was still a bit behind Misty.

It's no wonder he isn't Misty's match now; the foundation she built from childhood is more solid than his.

"It was an accident! I already said it was an accident!!!"

Misty's face was as red as a red apple. She never expected such an embarrassing past to be exposed.

Now she was completely socially dead.

[Since Misty had a shadow regarding Gyarados, Ash stopped bringing up the matter of catching a Magikarp. But something happened that no one expected: Misty's Psyduck picked up an injured Magikarp from somewhere.]

[Since it had already been picked up, they couldn't just throw it away. Helpless, Misty had to take care of the Magikarp. Misty's original plan was to release it once its injuries were mostly healed, but who would have thought this Magikarp would latch onto Misty.]

[Even though all its wounds had healed, it simply refused to leave.]

["How about you catch it? Maybe it won't evolve into a Gyarados," seeing that the Magikarp was truly pitiful, Brock advised.]

[Misty was about to cry. Even Brock wouldn't believe that himself; Grandpa Green River had already said that any Magikarp capable of returning to Kumquat Island had a high probability of evolving.]

[Besides, if this Magikarp couldn't evolve, what use would she have for a Magikarp that had no combat power and could only use Splash?!]

Lorelei: "No combat power if it doesn't evolve, and facing the shadow of her childhood if it does. But if she forces a release, she can't bring herself to do it. Misty has truly encountered a difficult problem this time."

Misty: "Psyduck, Psyduck, it's always Psyduck!!!"

It never does anything good, but it's always involved in bad things. Misty was about to go crazy.

She could empathize with the pain her parallel-world self was feeling at this moment.

[In the end, Misty still couldn't bring herself to be heartless, and she caught the Magikarp.]

[After bidding farewell to Grandpa Green River on Kumquat Island, Ash and his friends began to head toward the next island.]

[Misty, who had just caught the Magikarp, caught a new Pokémon on the new island: a Poliwag.]

[Starmie, Kingdra, Omanyte, Togepi, Crystal Onix, Magikarp, Poliwag, Psyduck—the number of Pokémon in Misty's possession suddenly surged to eight.]

[After much thought, Misty finally sent the Crystal Onix and Kingdra back to the Cerulean Gym.]

[However, before sending the Pokémon home, Misty had Ash design a daily training plan for Kingdra and the Crystal Onix, and she repeatedly warned them not to hang around with her three sisters.]

[She understood her three sisters too well. With such rare Pokémon as Kingdra and the Crystal Onix, they would definitely take them to participate in water ballet performances, which was something Misty could not accept.]

[After arranging everything properly, Misty transferred Kingdra and the Crystal Onix back to the Cerulean Gym.]

[At the Pokémon Center on Pummelo Island, after Misty finished handling everything, Ash took Misty and Brock to the front desk of the Winner's Palace. Ten minutes later, Ash completed his challenge registration.]

[His match against Drake was scheduled for three days later.]

["Three days later?" Ash doubted his ears were working correctly.]

["Do we have to wait that long?"]

["There's no way around it," the man in charge of match registration said helplessly. "There are simply too many challengers coming to challenge the Supreme Trainer Drake; we can't schedule them all."]

["Alright then," Ash sighed in disappointment. He had originally thought he could compete tomorrow.]

[With a depressed mood, Ash returned to the Pokémon Center, where he received a long-distance call.]

["Ash, has the Orange League match been scheduled for three days from now? That's just great."]

[Upon hearing this news, the girl on the other end of the phone was extremely excited.]

["Great?" Ash didn't quite understand what Serena meant.]

["Hee hee hee, you'll know when the time comes," Serena hung up the phone mysteriously.]

Kalos region, Vaniville Town.

"Mom, Mom, look, look! I've appeared in the parallel world again!!!"

Serena said excitedly.

Although there were still differences between her parallel-world self and her real self, if her parallel-world self could really win over the dark Ash, that would definitely be a huge encouragement to her.

If her charm could conquer even the dark Ash, wouldn't a mere Ash be easy to capture?

"I don't really understand what you're so happy about."

Grace looked at her own daughter with the eyes one would use for a fool.

"The dark Ash's first kiss went to Lorelei, his real first kiss went to Ursula, the one traveling with the dark Ash is Misty, and even Liu Li, who is over a decade older than the dark Ash, seems interested in him. Don't you think you appeared too late?"

"Appearing late is better than not appearing at all,"

Serena said weakly.

A remote town in Kanto.

"Serena and the dark Ash are very close," Misty said sourly.

"That's for sure. They've known each other since they were kids, and Serena is so cute," Brock said with a smile.

"Cute? Am I not cute?" Misty glared at Brock with eyes full of murderous intent.

Brock hesitated for a long time, but still felt that one should be honest: "Serena is a bit cuter."

"Go to hell!!!"

["Ta-da!"]

["Ash, didn't expect this, did you?!"]

[Serena stuck out her tongue and said cutely.]

["Serena, how did you get here?"]

[Unexpected—Ash truly didn't expect it. How could he have imagined that Serena, who was thousands of miles away, would suddenly appear before him.]

["Hello, you must be Serena, right? I'm Ash's traveling companion. My name is Misty."]

[Misty quietly sized up Serena while trying to assert her sovereignty in a calm manner.]

[One has to admit, Serena's appearance was truly striking, and her outfit was quite fashionable. A little dress paired with a special hat gave her an indescribable charm.]

[The moment Serena stepped into the Pokémon Center, she attracted the gazes of countless young boys and girls.]

[Yes, not just the boys; even the girls couldn't resist Serena's charm.]

[However, although Serena was very good-looking, she wasn't bad herself. And she had a point that Serena couldn't match: her capability.]

Gary: "Capability? Is this comforting yourself? Capability is worthless in the face of cuteness. Sigh, the dark Ash is truly happy to be able to get a girlfriend like Serena."

Misty: "Girlfriend? Where did you see that the dark Ash and Serena are in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship?!"