Now that everything was done, Ash went over to Guile's body. Anabel was still wondering if she should try to support Ash so he didn't fall over, but her eyes also fell to the sword.
"Um, should we do something about that?" Anabel asked.
Ash held it and spun it around, "I can get rid of it. There's a volcano I'm gonna throw it into," Ash answered as he handed it to Charizard.
Now, obviously he was lying. He was gonna keep it. Why would he get rid of this overpowered sword? Even without the armor, it was still stupidly broken, so this was staying in his greedy little hands.
"I see..." Anabel said, looking at the sword, then around her at the ruins of what was once the tower, and up in the sky where everyone was still flying on Ash's Pokémon, "Are...they gonna come down now or?"
"Not yet. Let's fix everything first," Ash said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out none other than Jirachi's Poké Ball, "Wishes, remember?"
"Oh right, we should deal with all of this," Anabel said, looking around at all the chaos surrounding them and sighing, thinking maybe she wouldn't get that wish she was considering. Her hand gripped the scarf sadly.
Ash coughed into his fist and looked away quickly, not touching that with a ten-foot pole.
"Uh, let's deal with Guile first, real quick," he said, quickly walking away.
Anabel blinked and realized, oh yeah, Guile was there, and he didn't have his armor anymore, so they could finally see who it was.
Anabel walked up next to Ash, and as Ash gripped a piece of rubble, he pulled it off, and there they finally saw the face behind the madness.
...It was a completely random person.
At least, that's what Anabel thought. The main thing that stood out was the cyan bowl cut, but Ash actually recognized him, at least somewhat.
Normally, this guy had the basic Team Galactic grunt outfit. Okay, so you would be forgiven for thinking he was just a basic grunt, but there was something else you needed to account for. This grunt also had to be connected to Sird, and that actually narrowed it down a lot.
With that, Ash knew this was the grunt known only as the Advanced-Level Grunt. In the manga, he was the best of the grunts and worked directly under Cyrus, carrying out missions. But in the end, it was revealed that he had always been under Sird's control from the start.
That's also why he knew that Sird wasn't exactly loyal to Galactic either. It was more like she sided with whoever was most convenient for her. Heck, if Team Rocket had offered her better benefits, she would have betrayed Galactic in a heartbeat.
But that wasn't his problem to deal with. That was D's problem.
Ash, right now, while he knew all this, also couldn't reveal that he knew, since, well, Anabel was right here. Most likely, the grunt was going to be taken to the International Police, and since Ash knew Anabel was part of the International Police, he had to keep up the act.
So Ash reached down to the dazed grunt, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him up.
"Who are you? Talk. Now," he said.
"I—wha..." the Advanced-Level Grunt muttered as he rubbed his head, "Where...who—"
Then he looked down and noticed his left arm was bleeding, and the pain hit him all at once.
"AHHH! MY ARM!" He grasped his bleeding arm helplessly.
Ash wasn't surprised that he didn't know anything. I mean, brainwashing was Team Galactic and Sird's specialty. But he couldn't say that out loud.
He pulled harder.
"I said talk, or I'll break your teeth."
"I-I..." the Advanced-Level Grunt stuttered, "I don't remember. I don't remember anything, please!" he said, looking pathetic.
"Convenient," Ash said flatly.
"I-I'm serious!" the grunt said quickly, "The last thing I remember is..."
He froze, then his face twisted, "I...I..." His breathing sped up, "I can't remember." His hand shook as he grabbed at his head, "Why can't I remember?"
Ash watched him quietly, then Anabel walked up from the side, putting a hand on Ash's shoulder, "Ash, wait."
When he glanced back at her, Anabel looked down at the man before speaking, "I think he's telling the truth."
The grunt immediately nodded, "Yes! Yes, I am!"
Anabel crossed her arms, "I think maybe the armor may have been controlling him, but..." She muttered, looking down at the uniform that obviously had a G on it. She did know a bit about Team Galactic since it was one of the things D had asked for, so she had looked into it more and recognized their logo.
"I don't think he's completely innocent either," she muttered, "The International Police can handle this from here. We-I mean, they'll investigate him properly."
She corrected herself since technically she was part of the secret division, so she couldn't admit she was part of the International Police to anyone.
Ash sighed, "Fine. They can take it from here."
The man visibly relaxed, "Thank y—"
Ash suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt, and before anyone could react, Ash slammed the man's head straight into a chunk of broken stone. The rubble immediately broke, and the grunt was knocked out instantly.
Anabel stared, "Ash!"
"What?" Ash asked innocently, letting the unconscious man drop onto the ground, "You said the police could handle him. It's easier if he stops screaming first. Besides, I think I get to have a little revenge after he stabbed me."
"You can't just—"
"He's unconscious, don't worry," Ash said, waving his hand, "Makes it easier so he won't run. Aren't I a good person?"
Anabel held the bridge of her nose, "You know, if you hadn't just gotten stabbed, I would hit you right now."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Ash said, sticking his tongue out. Then he held Jirachi's Poké Ball again, "But in all seriousness, let's finish this and then go sleep."
Ash opened the ball, and in front of everyone, Jirachi slowly floated out and looked around before looking at Ash and Anabel and smiling as it flew up and hugged them, thanking them for freeing it from Guile.
While it happened, Ash also noticed that of the three talismans, one of them was half used, "What's that about, Jirachi?"
Jirachi lowered its head and spoke into their minds, "[I'm sorry, friends...but when he stole some of my power, it used up some of my wishes. I can still grant you two wishes for whatever you want, but the third needs to be something smaller...forgive me.]"
Ash blinked, but then he reached up and poked Jirachi lightly on the forehead, "Don't apologize."
Jirachi looked up, and Anabel nodded.
"Yeah, you're the one that got kidnapped. You don't have anything to be sorry about. Besides, that's plenty."
Jirachi looked between them before slowly smiling again, "[Thank you...]"
Anabel let out a relieved breath, "So...we need to think carefully."
"Very carefully," Ash agreed.
Ash and Anabel sat there for a moment, just thinking and brainstorming how to word their wishes to get the maximum value. They threw ideas back and forth for a bit, pointing out how certain wordings could be taken the wrong way, or how there might be some loophole or something. They didn't know if Jirachi would monkey's paw them, but they weren't going to risk it.
Eventually, they nodded, having come up with an idea, and stood up.
Ash cleared his throat, "Okay, Jirachi." Jirachi floated attentively in front of him and opened its third eye so Ash could make the wish.
Ash took a deep breath, "I wish that every person, Pokémon, building, object, and living thing that was harmed, damaged, altered, infected, corrupted, controlled, injured, destroyed, displaced, or negatively affected in any way by the actions of Guile Hideout, Malde, or their plans would be restored to the exact healthy, safe, undamaged state they would have been in if Guile and Malde never existed," Ash said very carefully.
Jirachi smiled. Then the first talisman glowed, and Ash's wish appeared on it. Everything around them began glowing, becoming so bright that they had to cover their eyes to block out the light.
When they opened them again, they saw the Battle Tower completely fixed, as if nothing had ever happened. Then they looked around and saw all the facilities restored to how they had been before the attack. Out in the distance, they could see the rental Pokémon and people all coming back to their senses, completely cured.
But Ash also noticed Damian lying on the ground in the distance. He wasn't infected anymore. The mutation across his body was gone, and he was back to normal. He still hadn't gotten up yet, though. He was still hugging Shaymin on the ground.
Ash figured he could go talk to him afterward.
Way up in the sky, Gary blinked, "...Did my shoulder just stop hurting?"
Greta looked down at her hands, then at her waist, "My ribs are fixed."
Brendan flexed his arm, "Oh wow."
Wally looked at his hands, "...I feel amazing."
Then he touched his throat and realized it didn't hurt anymore, "Wha—"
He quickly turned to Green and he saw Green doing the same thing. She felt her neck, then quickly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away the makeup. The bruising was gone.
Since Deoxys appearing in town, destroying things, and choking Green and Wally had ultimately happened because of Malde, Ash's wording meant it was as if Malde had never existed at all. The bruises on their necks were gone.
Anabel felt herself heal as well, and the pain in her head disappeared, "It worked."
"Yeah, it did," Ash said before immediately coughing again.
Anabel caught that and quickly looked at him. She saw that he was still covered in blood and that the mark where Guile had stabbed him was still visible on his bare chest.
"Why didn't it heal you?" Anabel asked.
"Probably because I let myself get stabbed," Ash admitted.
Anabel opened her mouth, then immediately closed it and buried her face in her hands, "Oh my lord...why are you like this?"
"Hey, I didn't see you come up with any plans to get the sword away from him. Besides, it's not the worst thing ever. I'll live, and it'll heal," Ash said.
Internally, though, he was not looking forward to another scar. If he had a choice, he might use one of the wishes to clean up all his scars, but no, that would be a waste of a wish.
Anabel took a breath, "You know what, fine. We can talk about that later. For now, let's get through these next wishes," she sighed, "What else do we need to ask for?"
Ash rubbed his chin, "Maybe make a wish for the future, so that if anyone ever tries to use Jirachi's wishes for something bad, it won't work."
"Yeah, that's a good one," Anabel nodded as she looked at Jirachi, "If we do that, could we use the small wish on that?" she asked, just to make sure.
Jirachi nodded, confirming that the minor wish had more than enough energy for that. Anabel nodded and took a breath as Jirachi's eye opened and looked at her.
"Okay, I wish that from now until the end of time, if anyone ever tries to use Jirachi's wishes for anything evil or that would cause harm to people or places, it will simply be negated and waste the wish," Anabel said.
But then, even though she knew she shouldn't and it was a long shot, she slowly looked down at the scarf and held it tightly, "And also...if you have any extra power in that wish...there is someone I hold dear. He got hurt because of me, and I don't know where he is, but can you heal all of his injuries, if it's not too much to ask?"
Of course, she was talking about D, and Ash knew that. He quickly tried to cut in, "Wait, I don't think you can do that. It's supposed—" But he was interrupted.
Jirachi's talisman glowed, and on it was both the contingency and the wish to heal Anabel's friend. Yeah, it probably shouldn't work like that, but Jirachi was fudging the rules a bit since it had just been saved. Also, when it looked into Anabel's heart to see who this friend was, it understood.
Everything began to glow, and a light shot out and hit Ash. Before he could protest, and before both of their eyes, Ash's scars on his chest closed as though they had never been there. His ribs quickly fixed themselves, and he recovered all the blood he had lost, becoming good as new. Well, except for the jacket.
Anabel looked at Ash, Ash looked at Anabel. They stayed silent for a good five seconds, then
Anabel slowly started muttering, "Wait, why did...but that's...unless..." she muttered, then she realized something and slowly raised her head to look at Ash.
Ash gulped and awkwardly smiled, "Hey...darling..."
Anabel felt her eye twitch, as she was about to hit Ash and yell at him, Ash quickly raised his arms and pointed at Jirachi.
"I still have one wish! I could wish to wipe your memory!" he said frantically.
But both of them knew he wasn't actually going to do that.
Anabel looked at him, suddenly feeling very annoyed, angry, confused, and happy all at the same time. She crossed her arms, "Fine. You better make that last wish count. But then you better start explaining yourself, 'D,'" Anabel said.
Ash scratched the back of his head and sighed helplessly, this was not part of the plan. But yeah, might as well finish this. Oh, speaking of which, he should get everyone down.
He looked up and finally whistled. All of his Pokémon flew down really fast, especially Dragonite, who dropped off May and Wally before quickly rushing over to Ash and hugging him tightly since she had been worried.
"Oof-hey," Ash said, struggling against Dragonite's hug.
May, meanwhile, when she caught herself, ran over too and joined the hug, "Ash! You idiot! You got stabbed!" she shouted, but she was relieved being this close and seeing he was okay.
Brendan, Green, and even Gary rushed over, all talking at once.
Gary jabbed a finger at Ash's chest, "You're not seriously bleeding anymore, are you?"
Ash lifted his arms slightly and tapped his bare chest, now completely healed and scar-free, "Guess it got healed in the first wish," he said casually, keeping his eyes away from the group and not mentioning Anabel's second wish.
Anabel groaned and facepalmed beside him, silently scolding him for lying by omission.
Meanwhile, May pulled back and looked at Ash, "You absolute moron." She smacked him right on the shoulder, "You got stabbed!"
Just when Ash was going to say something, Dragonite squeezed him even tighter.
"Dragonite, can't breathe—" he muttered, but Dragonite responded by just squeezing harder.
"Ash."
Gary's voice made him look over, "Yeah?"
"If you ever do that again, I'm personally going to murder you."
"That's fair."
"No, it's not fair," Green cut in immediately, "You let yourself get skewered!"
"Okay, that's a little dramatic."
"A little dramatic?" Brendan repeated incredulously, "We literally watched a sword come out the other side!"
The Frontier Brains finally reached them as well.
Greta immediately jabbed a finger into Ash's chest, "You!"
Ash blinked, "Me?"
"Yes, you!"
"What did I do?"
"You got stabbed!"
"Why is everybody focusing on that?"
"Because that's not supposed to happen!" Greta yelled.
"Well, normally people don't let themselves get stabbed," Spenser added.
"Thank you," Anabel muttered.
Noland pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't know if you're the bravest or most irresponsible person I have ever met."
"Oh, get in line, pal," Brock said.
"It's a long line," Gary added.
Then Wally stepped forward, "Ash." Wally looked genuinely upset, "You scared us."
That actually made Ash pause. Then he sighed, "I'm sorry. I just didn't want you guys to get hurt anymore."
"Why are you like this? We talked about this," Brock said, crossing his arms.
"Hey, I'm trying to be better, alright?" Ash said, raising his hands, "Just...you know, after Green and Wally, I didn't want to risk you guys..."
Everyone sighed, but this was just going to have to be one of the many things they added to the list of things Ash would have to explain later.
But now that everyone had time to calm down, they realized Ash was basically shirtless and had his chest exposed.
And remember, Ash always covered his chest so no one could see the scar on it. Only Brock really knew about it, and now that scar was gone. Before, May, and even Green and Gary, had just assumed he stopped wanting to take his shirt off because he was self-conscious.
But now, after hugging Ash, they were very acutely aware of the fact that Ash had a six-pack under those hoodies he always wore.
Gary looked away, mentally noting to start doing more core exercises when he got home, while May quickly looked away and stepped back from Ash in embarrassment since she had just hugged him.
Even Green coughed into her hand and looked away, "Nice abs, by the way," she said, hiding her face.
Ash sighed and looked down at his exposed chest. He sighed again. He could go find his bag later. For now, he had to deal with this.
"Alright, so we have one more wish. Any ideas on what we should use it on?" Ash asked, "Because at this point, I might just wish for a shirt," Ash said jokingly.
But then, from above them, an Alolan shirt fluttered down and landed on Ash's head.
Ash quickly took it off, looking at it. Then they heard from above them, "Here, you can borrow one of mine."
Above them was Scott in his hovering chair, "Oh, and I'll take that wish, by the way."
"Eh, wait, shouldn't we talk about it? We can't just call dibs on a wish," Green said, like that totally wasn't what she was about to try to do. She had more than a few wishes she would have liked to get granted.
"Yeah, Scott, I think we need to actually talk about what would be best," Tucker finally added, while Ash was putting on the Alolan shirt so he wasn't topless anymore.
"Well, no, actually. I'm not just saying this," Scott said in a matter-of-fact voice as he pointed at Ash, Green, and Gary, "You three were sent here by Professor Oak, remember?"
"Yeah, but how do you know that?" Gary asked.
"Well, Professor Oak is an old friend of mine, and he's the one who planned out this whole thing after Guile broke into his lab and all."
"I'm sorry, what now?" Green said, since, remember, Oak never told them about this.
"Oh yeah, I forgot. Well, you can ask him later, but anyway, I told him he could use my Battle Frontier. In exchange, I wanted one of the wishes all for myself," Scott said with a smile.
Everyone stood there for a second, saying nothing.
Then Ash slowly reached into his pocket and pressed a few buttons. It rang, and then Professor Oak's voice answered.
"Ash, my boy, how are things going?"
Ash took one deep breath,"Professor Oak, did you not tell us why we came to the Battle Frontier, and did you also promise Scott one of the wishes?"
"I-er, well—" Oak stuttered.
Then Gary leaned in, "Answer the question, Gramps."
"Well, maybe I did some things without telling you, b-but everything turned out well, didn't it? Ash? Gary?" Oak tried.
Ash just hung up, then turned around and threw his phone as far as he could. It went so far they couldn't see it, but remember, it was still a Rotom Phone, so it flew back after a bit.
Ash sighed into his hand, "Of course he does this."
"Why am I not surprised?" Gary added.
Green raised a finger but stopped herself from saying the first thing she was going to say.
"You know, I should be mad, but I'm a little impressed. Is that bad?"
"Yes," everyone said in unison.
Ash sighed. Well, it's not too much of a loss. Sure, a wish is nice, and a lot of things could have gotten fixed, but whatever.
Ash wasn't as salty as he knew someone like Green would be, or even May, Brock, Wally, or anyone else here. After all, it was a wish. No limits. Who doesn't want that? Well, Ash was the exception.
There really wasn't anything he wanted that he didn't already have or couldn't get himself with enough time. Like, what was he going to ask for? Immortality? No one wants immortality; that sounds awful.
Heck, maybe he could have wished to be a Psychic to complete the trinity, since he had Aura and Hex powers now. But whatever, yeah, Ash was content with his life. There really wasn't anything a wish could give him that he really wanted.
"So what are you gonna wish for?" Ash asked while everyone else was gritting their teeth, salty that they wouldn't get a wish.
Scott smiled. He already knew his wish. He stepped up and looked at Jirachi's 3rd eye, "I wish the Battle Frontier would have a lot of customers, preferably a hundred thousand people on the first day!"
Jirachi nodded and started floating up as it glowed brightly like a star, and the 3rd talisman lit up. Then they heard it: the sounds of boats, large ones.
When they looked at the water, they saw 3 huge cruise ships all filled with people approaching the island.
The moment he saw the three cruise ships approaching, he actually stood up out of his chair.
"YES!" Scott shouted while pumping both fists into the air, "Do you have any idea how much money this is going to make?!"
Everyone else just stared at him in complete silence.
Then Green slowly pointed toward the ocean, "You used a reality-warping wish...for tourism?" This was a level that not even she was at...yet.
"Yep, this is my wish for the Battle Frontier to be the most popular facility in the world!" Scott rubbed his hands together, "Ohh, maybe after this I can open more facilities in other regions."
Meanwhile, Tucker was staring at the horizon in horror, "The sun is setting."
"Uh huh," Scott said happily.
"We just fought for our lives."
"You all won."
"I got stabbed," Ash added.
"You got better."
"I don't even know what to think at this point." May put her face into her hand.
"Same here," Brendan said, "I like battles as much as the next person, but this is...too much."
As they all gave a dejected sigh, Greta suddenly realized something, "Oh no."
"What?" May asked.
Greta slowly pointed toward the ships, "Those people are going to want autographs."
Everyone froze, and the Frontier Brains collectively shivered.
"Oh Arceus," Lucy whispered.
Noland immediately turned around, "Nope."
"What?" Tucker asked.
Noland repeated, "Nope. I'm retiring."
"You can't retire."
"Watch me."
"You own a facility."
"Not my problem anymore."
Meanwhile, Scott was already making plans, "Okay, everyone!"
The collective groan that followed could probably be heard from another island.
Scott ignored it completely, "Noland, get the Battle Factory ready!"
"No."
"Lucy, Battle Pike!"
"No."
"Greta!"
"Absolutely not."
"Tucker!"
"I feel like I died today."
Scott kept going anyway.
"Brandon!"
"Go away."
"Spenser!"
"No."
The responses came so fast Scott barely had time to finish their names.
Ash was honestly impressed, "Wow."
"Right?" Gary said.
Ash nodded, "I don't think I've ever seen this level of rebellion before from adults."
"It's beautiful," Green said, wiping a nonexistent tear from her eye.
Scott finally sighed, "Fine."
Everyone relaxed slightly
"Tomorrow morning." The entire group visibly brightened, but then Scott added, "At sunrise."
Everyone immediately deflated, "SCOTT!" they yelled.
Meanwhile, Ash and the gang were just to the side and looked up, seeing Jirachi starting to glow and go into a rock again.
"Guess Jirachi is about to go to sleep for another 1000 years," May muttered.
"It's a shame, but I guess that's how things need to go," Brock said, as Jirachi looked at them all and gave a last smile and wave before turning back into a rock and floating down, where Ash caught it and held it.
"I know, just I dunno, maybe it feels like we missed out on hanging out with Jirachi," May sighed, then looked up, "Max didn't even—" Then she stopped as she realized.
"MAX!" She stood up and looked at everyone, "Ok, has anyone seen my little brother?!"
Again, the Frontier Brains said no, and Scott also hadn't seen him. May started rubbing her head, but Ash put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, we'll find him."
Green put her hand on May's other shoulder, "Yeah, besides, knowing this friend group, I wouldn't be surprised if he appeared right about...now!" Green said, but for a good 5 seconds, nothing happened.
Green shrugged, "Eh, I tried. Guess I can't tell the future, huh? Well, what if we—" but she was cut off.
A blink happened, and right there in the center, Nora appeared holding onto the children, and in the center was Max holding on tightly.
When they arrived, May immediately cried out, "Max!"
That made Max look up and see that May, Ash, and everyone was here. He started crying a little as he ran to May.
"SIS!" he cried as he hugged her waist tightly and cried into her.
Nora slowly looked around and saw the situation she was in, "Uhhh...guys...did...you…"
Ash pointed with his thumb, "How about you look for yourself?"
Nora slowly turned to where Ash pointed, and standing there in the distance was Damian standing upright, hugging Shaymin, completely normal, and yeah, Jirachi was glowing. Of course, Damian walked over out of curiosity.
"Damian…" Nora muttered.
"Hey guys…" Damian scratched the back of his head nervously.
"So I'd love to hear you guys catch up, but we're all tired. Also, I have work I'm going to be forced to do," Ash called out as he held Jirachi's rock under one arm and pointed to the side of them where Deoxys was still holding Malde like a toddler.
Ash held out Jirachi's rock to the nearest person, which happened to be Anabel. He put it in her hand, "Here, hold onto this. Maybe we can drop it off at the cave later." When he did, he gave her a signal with his eyes to wait for him.
Anabel was still mad, but she would keep up the act for now, at least until she got some answers, "Fine."
Ash smiled and looked at Scott, "Is there a place to do surgery I can borrow?"
"Uh, I guess you can borrow one of the rooms. Why?" Scott asked.
"You know why," Ash said as he turned and started walking away, and he snapped his fingers as Pikachu and Vee stayed with the group. Deoxys 2 and Darkrai followed, still dragging Malde along.
And that left everyone standing there, so they decided to just go off to sleep since it was dark and they could deal with this in the morning.
–
Meanwhile with Ash, when he got to the room, he had Deoxys and Darkrai hold Malde down onto the table as he changed into more appropriate clothing. Then he prepared all his equipment, and a special pair of glasses that zoomed in like microscopes.
"Let me go, you brat!" Malde struggled.
"No, I don't think I will. You see, you've been quite the pain with that mutation and disease you have," Ash muttered as he put on a face mask and washed his hands, then put on gloves with Aura.
Then he grabbed a scalpel and adjusted the setting on the glasses to x500, "So I'm going to do what I do best and fix you. You won't mind no anesthesia, will you?" Ash said as Malde could only watch in horror as Ash brought the scalpel down.
—
It took 3 days of non-stop surgery. In that time, Ash had to be brought food and water so he could keep going. Thankfully, like he said, he had plenty of Aura to keep him energized, but after 3 days, Ash managed to take out each individual Pokérus strand.
In fact, the fact that he managed to do it in 3 days is really impressive since he had to actually change his DNA, but nothing a little Aura couldn't supplement.
So in the end, the strands of DNA were all put into a jar that Deoxys just reabsorbed, but of course, after all the mutation, Malde's DNA wasn't all there, so in the end Ash had to amputate an arm and a leg. But other than that, the surgery was a complete success.
And when Malde woke up, he had no memory of what happened, but that was to be expected. After all, the only reason he went crazy was because of the Pokérus affecting his mind. But yeah, no, he was back to being a normal old man, and in fact Ash managed to cure his illness. He wasn't in a coma anymore.
He's sure that Harmony will appreciate that, and he'll call a ship to go drop Malde at Lacunosa later, but for now Malde was asleep and it was dark outside since he spent so long doing surgery.
When he stepped out, as expected, his friends had fallen asleep in the chairs outside waiting for him. He smiled softly, but then he saw Anabel still awake and sitting on a desk. Next to her was still Jirachi's rock.
She narrowed her eyes at him, and Ash didn't even have to hear her voice to know what she was telling him. He tilted his head and grabbed one of his Poké Balls, quickly changing into a normal shirt and leaving with her.
—
They arrived on Charizard's back at the Artisan Cave. Ash and Anabel jumped off, still carrying Jirachi's rock as they walked in.
This place was still quiet. After Guile's attack here, again, a lot of the Pokémon had just left. Sure, things got fixed, but they all kept their memories of what happened.
Anabel walked ahead, "It's right here," she said softly as she got to the center of the cave and lowered Jirachi's rock back to where it was originally.
"There," she muttered.
"Good job," Ash said as he patted Charizard's head, and he curled up, deciding to take a short nap since he knew what was about to happen.
"Don't change the subject," Anabel said without looking at him, "So do you want to start talking, or should I call Looker to come arrest you?"
Ash raised his hands up, "For what? I don't recall doing anything illegal, darling,"
"Shut up," Anabel said, still not looking back at him, "Don't call me that…"
She took a breath and, while still not looking at him, said, "So you're really Ash. How? I swear I saw you, as Ash, compete in the Silver Conference when you were supposed to be in a coma."
"That's kinda a complicated story." Ash rubbed the back of his head, "But technically this is the real me. D is the personality I play."
That didn't seem to comfort her, as her shoulders shook again, "So was anything real…" she said softly.
"What?" Ash genuinely asked.
Then Anabel turned to him as she had tears in her eyes and grasped the scarf, "Was anything you ever said real?! I was so worried when I saw you fall. I thought...I thought so much...I thought you hated me...that I'd never get to tell you I'm sorry...but was any of it even real...? I...I saw you..." she shook.
Ash looked at her, then he answered, "It was real. As real as it was to you."
Anabel stopped trying to hold it in as she hugged Ash and cried, punching him in the chest and muttering, "You're a jerk...I hate you...why..."
Ash patted her head, hugging her back for a good few minutes. Then when she pulled back, she wiped her face, "Don't think this changes anything. When I get back to the police, we're enemies again, got it?" she said in a tone that she didn't even believe.
Ash gave her a small smile, "I know, but I think..." Ash took the scarf from her and wrapped it around his face just like he did when he dressed as D. Then he held his hand out, "Didn't I promise you one last dance, darling?"
Anabel looked at him, and she could hardly believe this. She huffed and looked away, but she still put her hand in his, "Fine, but this is just for closure."
"I believe you," Ash said, but neither of them did.