The Seviper that had set its sights on Serena was only about three feet long.
Compared to the standard length of an adult Seviper, this undersized juvenile was several sizes too small, the kind of pathetic weakling in the forest that usually had to go around everyone else.
Humans, in Seviper's experience, were the easiest targets around.
It had even successfully eaten careless rookie Trainers who had only just set out on their journeys.
All it had to do was stay silent, creep in close, and, before the target could react, tear open flesh and pump in all of its venom...
Now, having quietly slipped up behind Serena, the cold red eyes of the Seviper locked onto the girl in the red skirt, who sat completely still in front of it. The killing intent in its gaze rose to its peak.
Its body coiled tight.
Its tail suddenly exploded with force.
It launched forward, ready to rip open the defenseless girl's soft skin and inject its venom before Serena could even realize what was happening.
Then a human hand suddenly appeared and clamped down just behind Seviper's head, bringing its beautiful hunting dream to an abrupt end.
Seviper thrashed wildly.
During the struggle, it finally saw who had grabbed it, a flat-chested human.
When had he gotten here?
It hadn't sensed any living thing approaching at all.
Everything in the world had Aura. As an Aura user, Ash could suppress the Aura in his own body and hide himself from notice.
Since Seviper hadn't been on full alert, there was no way it could have detected him.
Once it realized it couldn't break free from Ash's grip, Seviper immediately tried to wrap its body around Ash's arm, while at the same time opening its huge mouth and snapping at the back of Ash's hand, its sharp fangs gleaming coldly in the night.
Hearing the noise, Serena turned back in confusion and saw the horrifying scene at once.
"Ah! Ash!"
The girl screamed instinctively, but very quickly she realized something was off. For some reason, Seviper's body suddenly went limp.
"Well, rest in peace."
Ash casually flung the snake aside like a heap of wet rags, the blue glow on his palm gradually fading.
He didn't kill Pokémon lightly.
But there was one way he differed from the original Ash.
Even though he had grown up with similar values, he had crossed over with the soul of an adult, so his worldview had never been rebuilt from scratch.
He gladly accepted the good parts, and ignored the foolish parts completely.
When it came to survival of the fittest, that was still the truth, even in the Pokémon world.
Most Pokémon preferred peace, but plenty still preyed on other Pokémon or on humans.
Humans ate Pokémon too.
At first, Ash had wondered whether people in the Pokémon world really felt nothing about eating Pokémon.
Later, he realized that only a few species were actually used that way.
Just like people in his previous life could calmly accept eating chicken, duck, pork, beef, and lamb, a small number of Pokémon species, like Kantonian Farfetch'd, Lechonk, Oinkologne, and Tauros, were still major sources of meat around the world.
And after learning more about the ancient history of the Pokémon world, when humans and the creatures then called monsters had practically hunted each other in turn, with some Pokémon even passing that instinctive hostility down through their bloodlines so that bloody incidents still happened from time to time, Ash had become even more rational.
He wasn't looking at the world through the kid-friendly filter of the anime.
And he certainly hadn't let his own near-invincible physique lull him into believing Pokémon were harmless to everyone.
He liked most Pokémon, especially his own, and he was fiercely protective of them.
But when it came to individuals like this Seviper, creatures with a deep, clear urge to attack humans, it was kill or be killed.
If it stayed out of his way, fine.
If it came after him, then Ash would go full exorcist and send it straight to the afterlife, full service included.
Because of that, even though he had just killed a Seviper with his own hand, Ash's expression and state of mind were completely unaffected.
"You saw that. It was trying to bite me. It's not like I killed it on purpose."
"Pffft!"
Serena burst out laughing.
"Thanks, but wasn't it actually trying to bite me?"
"Oh? You knew?"
"Hehe, secret." Serena gave him a mysterious smile.
The truth was that when she turned around a moment ago, she had just happened to see someone running toward her from the direction of camp.
At first, she had wondered why Ash looked so anxious.
And then, without thinking, she had briefly imagined Ash unable to hold himself back anymore, rushing over, pinning her onto the rock, and doing all sorts of embarrassing things to her.
Only afterward did she realize he wasn't heading for her at all, but for something behind her.
Confused, she had looked back and seen the vicious Seviper, eyes full of killing intent and looking ready to devour her.
That was when she understood what was really happening.
Even as relief and fear mixed together inside her, her heart pounded faster and faster, and when she looked at Ash now, everything about him seemed wrapped in a rosy glow.
Ash, however, had been focused entirely on Seviper and hadn't noticed any of Serena's tiny reactions.
Still puzzled, he sat down on the large rock. Serena sat beside him, and Ash looked at her apologetically.
"I'm sorry, Serena."
Taking advantage of the moment, Ash decisively chose to apologize for what had happened earlier that day.
Having lived two lives, Ash knew far too well that feelings could completely fall apart through one misunderstanding after another.
Some things had to be talked out immediately.
If it was his fault, he had to admit it.
If it wasn't, then he had to stand firm and explain himself clearly.
He believed in honest communication, but he could still be dense sometimes. That was the current Ash.
Not macho, and not some clingy simp either.
"Huh?"
Serena tilted her head in confusion, a trace of blankness appearing on her pretty face.
"It was wrong of me to ignore how you felt."
Ash's eyes were absolutely sincere.
"I always thought you belonged to me and I belonged to you, and I misjudged how we understood each other."
"Mm!"
Serena almost burst into tears from sheer joy, letting out a strange little sound because she was barely managing to hold back a huge grin.
Her mind instantly spun out of control.
What is he saying?
He belongs to me and I belong to him, that's a confession, right?
Ahhh...
After several thousand words of internal screaming, her thoughts somehow made a direct leap to: So what should we name our kids?
Seeing the girl beside him, cheeks flushed red, eyes dreamy, faint steam practically rising from her head, but still not saying a word, Ash grew a little worried.
"Serena?
Hey, hey, Serena, are you listening?"
"Ah, I don't think that one works. We should probably think of a different name."
Ash: ?
When I put a question mark over my own head, it doesn't mean I'm the one with the problem, it means you are.
Ash's speechless silence and bewildered expression finally pulled Serena back to reality.
The moment she fully came to her senses, the flood of embarrassment was too much for her to bear.
"Ahhh!!!
I, I, I... I get it!"
As she said that, Serena, who felt so overwhelmingly happy that she was practically dizzy, announced on the spot that she felt lightheaded.
It was like the feeling of staying up all night and then being so exhausted that the second you hit a bed, you passed out.
Her body swayed, then dropped straight into Ash's arms. Her eyes gradually lost focus, and finally she closed them and fell asleep.
"Huh?"
Before Ash could even react, Mewtwo, who had been silently watching everything, immediately delivered a perfect assist.
It appeared right in front of them.
At the same time, the blanket and bedding from inside the tent floated over, and Ash himself, still holding Serena, was lifted into the air.
Mewtwo laid the bedding out on top of the rock, used its psychic power to lower the two of them onto it, then pulled the blanket down around them until only their heads were left sticking out, wrapping them up like a giant burrito.
After that, it lifted its three-fingered hand and gave Ash what was basically an OK sign, or as close to one as three fingers could manage.
Ash understood what it meant, but he was still baffled.
What exactly was Mewtwo thinking?
From letting Seviper get close to Serena without doing anything, to stepping in afterward with perfect timing, the more Ash thought about it, the creepier it felt.
Don't tell me Mewtwo had planned this from the very beginning.
Had it even lined up a convenient scene-stealing snake, only for him to personally send the actor to the afterlife?
What?!
That thought nearly made Ash pull his head back under the blanket.
Naturally, he failed.
Because in the position he and Serena were currently lying in, if he lowered his head, he'd bury his face right into her chest.
Doing something like that while she was asleep felt just a little too inappropriate.
Feeling guilty for no reason, Ash instinctively glanced back at the now stiffening corpse of the Seviper.
Mewtwo: ?
Thinking Ash found the body unpleasant to look at and was hinting at it with his eyes, Mewtwo immediately used psychic power to send Seviper's corpse far away, right into a Zangoose den.
The moment it smelled its mortal enemy, every hair on the sleeping Zangoose's body stood on end and it jolted awake.
It struck a fighting stance at once, only to discover that what had suddenly appeared in front of it was a Seviper that had only been dead for a short while.
Huh?
Now that was a gift from nature.
Before taking a bite, Zangoose didn't forget to follow an old instinct passed down through its bloodline, making the ancient gesture once used by human priests to honor the heavens before meals.