Ash rose into the air above the center of Fantasy Island and looked down at the full spread of it. It was smaller than he remembered, or maybe he'd just grown accustomed to thinking bigger.
Either way, he had the Rinnegan now. Chibaku Tensei could handle this.
Word spread across the island in minutes. Mewtwo reached Serion, Serion reached everyone else, and suddenly the entire population of Fantasy Island was in motion. Trainers, residents, and Pokémon alike flooded toward the central square, packing around the base of the tower. Even visitors from nearby islands had caught wind of what was happening and made their way over, unwilling to miss it.
Half the square was Pokémon. The other half was people. It wasn't a sight you saw every day.
...
"Everyone's accounted for," Mewtwo said, floating up beside Ash with Lugia just behind him. "The perimeter is clear. You can start."
"Good."
Ash pressed his hands together, and black energy wrapped around them like a second skin. He closed his eyes and began drawing his Chakra inward, pulling it up from deep reserves, compressing it steadily.
Lugia's eyes went wide. "He's... stronger. Much stronger than the last time I saw him."
Mewtwo watched quietly, something close to satisfaction in his expression. Our dream keeps getting closer, he thought.
...
Ash opened his eyes.
The Rinnegan blazed, purple ripple-pattern pupils cutting through the sea wind with quiet intensity. Every person and Pokémon on the island felt the pressure simultaneously, a deep, instinctive weight pressing down from above.
His hands separated slowly. A dense black sphere of condensed Chakra floated between his palms, humming with gravitational force. He guided it upward with a gentle push, letting it climb until it hung above the island like a dark second moon.
Then he pressed his fingers together again.
"Chibaku Tensei."
The Chakra burst outward from his body in a visible shockwave. The wind picked up violently, thunder cracked across a clear sky, and dark clouds began pulling toward the sphere from every direction.
"Mewtwo, Lugia, shield the island," Ash said without looking at them. "Keep everyone inside the boundary."
"Leave it to us." The two exchanged a nod and split apart, each moving to opposite sides of the island, their combined barrier stretching outward to envelop every resident and Pokémon in a protective shell.
"Charizard," Ash called out, "anything that breaks loose and heads toward the island, you handle it."
Charizard was already airborne. He'd felt the technique activating from across the island and come without being called. The other main team Pokémon had done the same.
...
"HAAAA!"
The gravitational pull of the black sphere spiked. Out across the surrounding sea, uninhabited islands cracked apart at their foundations, stone and earth tearing free of the waterline and rising, piece by massive piece, drawn irresistibly toward the sphere above Fantasy Island. The sphere grew, layer after layer of compacted rock and soil accumulating around it until it was enormous, blotting out a section of sky entirely.
Charizard and the others worked steadily, blasting stray boulders apart before they could drop on the island below.
Ten minutes passed.
Ash looked at the size of the sphere and made his call. Slowly, carefully, he guided the massive ball of compressed earth downward and outward, positioning it along Fantasy Island's borders. Then he released the gravitational bind.
"Boom. Boom. Boom. BOOM."
The sphere fractured outward in sections, enormous slabs of new land crashing down and fusing with the island's existing edges. The ground shook with each impact. The shoreline extended visibly in real time, the island's footprint growing and growing until the dust finally began to settle.
Fantasy Island was three to four times its original size.
...
The square erupted.
"LONG LIVE ASH!"
"THE STRONGEST!"
"LONG LIVE FANTASY ISLAND!"
The roar carried across the new shoreline and out over the water. People who had lived here for years and people who had arrived just this morning were cheering with equal intensity.
The island's policies were good, the environment was extraordinary, and Legendary Pokémon walked the grounds like neighbors. There was a pride that came with living here that was difficult to explain to anyone who hadn't experienced it.
And their lord had just made it bigger with his bare hands.
...
Ash landed near the new border, breathing hard. Chibaku Tensei at this scale had burned through more than half his Chakra reserves in one use, more draining than the laser cannon by a considerable margin. His legs felt heavy.
"Easy," Sabrina said, sliding down from Lugia's back and crossing to him quickly. She took his arm without waiting to be asked.
Mewtwo and Lugia touched down nearby, both watching him with quiet concern.
"I'm fine," Ash said, straightening up slowly. He looked out at the new land stretching to the horizon, raw and undeveloped, untouched earth waiting to become something.
"Lots of work ahead," he said.