The night fell like soft black velvet, slowly draping itself over the Safari Zone.
The din and energy of the day gradually settled, replaced by a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere.
A campfire crackled at the center of the camp, its dancing flames driving away the mild chill of the night and casting warm, shifting halos of light across everyone's faces.
Just as Ash had wanted, not a single Pokémon was returned to its Poké Ball tonight.
Whether it was the newly arrived Dratini or companions who normally lived inside their balls, all of them were savoring this rare, unrestrained night in the open wild.
It wasn't only Pikachu who disliked Poké Balls.
In truth, most Pokémon didn't enjoy being cooped up inside them.
It was much the same as with people — the type who preferred to shut themselves alone in their rooms all day was a rare minority. Most people wanted to get out and move around.
After all, it wasn't as though you could surf the internet from inside a Poké Ball.
And even if a small number of specially modified Poké Balls did have that kind of function, most Pokémon had no interest in it anyway.
Bill's male Gardevoir with his shut-in tendencies was, even by Pokémon standards, a rare exception.
So for these few days in the Safari Zone, the theme was — freedom.
The scent of freedom hung in the air, intertwining with the fresh fragrance of grass and leaves and the faint chirping of insects drifting in from the distance.
Misty sat cross-legged on her sleeping bag, and the pale-lavender Dratini had already found its most comfortable position in her arms, curled up into a little ball like a docile kitten.
Dratini's body shimmered with a soft luster in the glow of the campfire, its large purple eyes half-closed, radiating absolute trust and contentment.
Misty's Blue Gyarados.
This normally fearsome creature was now showing a remarkably gentle side.
Its great body coiled carefully around Misty and the Dratini she held, gently encircling them at the center, forming an enormous and secure barrier that kept the night wind at bay while offering an unmatched sense of safety.
The Gyarados rested its chin softly on the ground, rumbling a low and steady purr from deep in its throat, as if humming a lullaby.
Though strictly speaking, a Gyarados's body was a little on the short and stout side.
Still, it could manage to curl around in a circle on the ground.
On the other side.
Brock leaned back against his Onix, steady as a small mountain, with the cold yet somehow reassuring steel form of his Steelix looming beside him.
Both Pokémon were enormous.
And giant Pokémon had a way of making their Trainers feel safe.
Size was, in its own way, a form of strength.
Golem and Geodude huddled together, motionless as a cluster of rounded stones, apparently already lost in dreams.
Vulpix lay elegantly at Brock's feet, its fiery, fluffy tails occasionally sweeping lightly across the ground, its eyes — unusually bright in the darkness — gazing upon the harmonious scene around it with quiet contentment.
Over on Ash's side, however, the atmosphere was subtly different.
Misdreavus floated in midair, its small body appearing even rounder than usual due to its thoroughly puffed-up mood.
It looked at Ash, then looked at the enormous 'Golden Fearow' at Ash's side, its purple eyes brimming with undisguised envy and just a touch of grievance.
The expression was exactly like a child whose favorite toy had been snatched away — it was practically gnawing on a handkerchief to express its displeasure.
How Misdreavus wished it could curl up on Ash's shoulder or nestle in his arms right now, just like Dratini snuggled in Misty's.
'Mreee—' it let out a resentful little whimper, trying to catch Ash's attention.
'Pika... Pikachu,' Pikachu sighed with helpless resignation.
It tugged at Misdreavus's shadow-like body with one tiny paw.
The electric pouches on its cheeks flickered faintly, as if to say, 'Give it up already — that's Lord Ho-Oh over there.'
Pikachu wore the weary look of an elder who had long since grown tired of having to manage the interpersonal dynamics of the younger ones.
Unlike Misdreavus's petty jealousy, Pikachu clearly understood the atmosphere between Ash and Ho-Oh right now — one that should not be disturbed.
Pikachu: It's an age-old truth — the childhood sweetheart is no match for the one who drops from the heavens.
Pikachu: Early arrival doesn't always win out over a late entrance.
Pikachu: So just grit your teeth and bear it.
Misdreavus: QAQ
Meanwhile, Ash's other Pokémon — Pidgeot, Charizard, and even the Golden Gyarados — showed a complete and utter lack of concern about the whole situation.
Pidgeot: What's going on?
Charizard: No idea.
Golden Gyarados: Don't care.
They perched in the trees, or sprawled near the distant water's edge, or simply rested quietly at the camp's perimeter, occasionally glancing over at their Trainer and that supreme being — without a trace of jealousy in their eyes.
If you were to ask why...
That Golden Fearow was Ho-Oh!
Wasn't the fact that Ho-Oh had chosen to be this close to their Trainer absolute proof of his extraordinary nature?
As their Trainer's Pokémon, they ought to feel proud and honored!
Pidgeot · Charizard · Gyarados: Why is Misdreavus being so weird?
Pidgeot · Charizard · Gyarados: Boss Pikachu? What's the deal here?
Pikachu: You three blockheads, go to sleep.
Pidgeot · Charizard · Gyarados: ...
At this moment, Ash was enveloped beneath Ho-Oh's warm golden wings.
Even in its disguise as a Fearow, there was something unmistakably different about direct contact with Ho-Oh's body.
Those wings gently separated Ash from the outside world, creating a quiet space that belonged to the two of them alone.
The feathers were softer than imagination could prepare you for, radiating a warmth that eased the mind and carrying a faint, sweet fragrance.
As for Miss Misdreavus and her jealousy — let's leave that in the realm of comedy for now.
Let us shift our perspective away from this sulking little darling and venture beneath those golden wings.
After all, Miss Misdreavus's only job right now was to be jealous — there was quite a bit more to say about the time Ash and Ho-Oh were sharing.
The space beneath the wings was not dark at all. On the contrary, it was suffused with a soft, gentle golden radiance.
The sounds of the outside world grew muffled — the crackling of the campfire, the faint snoring of Pokémon — all of it seemed to drift in from somewhere very far away.
Here, there was only stillness, and an ineffable sense of something ancient and sacred.
Ash leaned against Ho-Oh's warm form, tilting his head back to glimpse a few glittering stars through the gaps in the feathers.
He didn't speak first — he simply savored this strange and wonderful sense of peace and security.
'...The history of humanity is long and winding,' Ho-Oh's voice resonated directly in the depths of Ash's heart — low, gentle, carrying the settled weight of ages.
'Full of brilliant creation, and shadowed always by dark conflict.'
'And in those turbulent eras, small yet resilient humanity needed guidance — and it needed protection.'
The Ho-Oh of the distant past had no reason to concern itself with the lives and deaths of humanity.
So what had happened, to make Ho-Oh come to cherish those human beings with brilliant souls?
There was inevitably a reason.
Ash listened quietly, knowing that Ho-Oh was showing him fragments of history.
'I have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations, and beheld the joys and sorrows of countless lives.'
Ho-Oh continued speaking, its wings drawing in slightly without thinking, sheltering Ash just a little more snugly.
'To protect those precious glimmers worth cherishing, to maintain the balance of the world, I have done many things.'
'I have quelled wars kindled by desire.'
'I have scattered the darkness that shrouded the land.'
'I have healed mountains and rivers torn asunder...'
'At times I was one who brought down revelation.'
'At times I was one who bestowed strength.'
'...And more often than not, it has been as it is now — silently watching, and waiting.'
There was no boasting in its voice — only the calm of stating plain facts, and a thread of fatigue that was barely perceptible.
The lifespan of a god was far too long — so long that even they themselves sometimes grew weary.
And so gods chose to slumber.
A deity's duties were not something that had to be carried out every moment of every day.
If the world were a company and the gods were its employees —
Then Arceus, the God of Creation who had founded the company, had only a single requirement for all employees (gods):
Don't let the company go bankrupt.
So everyone had a very high degree of freedom.
You could choose to do your work.
You could also choose to slack off.
...In any case, no matter what you did, basically no one was going to manage you about it.
'And the Rainbow Heroes came into being precisely against this backdrop.'
Ho-Oh's words turned toward the heart of the matter.
'They are those chosen by the Rainbow Wing — humans whose hearts shine with a radiance as pure as the rainbow itself.'
'They are the bridge connecting me to the human world, and the ones who act in my stead to uphold the belief in protection.'
'Over the long passage of time, I have chosen quite a few heroes.'
'Some of them became legends, others passed unnoticed by history, but all of them left their own mark in their own era.'
Ho-Oh's memories were so vast and heavy that even when Ho-Oh opened them for itself, it found far too many things within that stirred a deep longing.
...Completely unlike certain counterparts who did nothing but eat, sleep, and pick fights the moment they woke up.
...Ho-Oh had genuinely always been busy.
Ash was deeply drawn in by the story.
He couldn't help asking with curiosity: 'Then... what about the very first Rainbow Hero? What kind of person were they?'
The question seemed to stir memories Ho-Oh had kept tucked away for a long time.
Because this touched on the very origin of why Ho-Oh had come to protect humanity.
Ho-Oh owed humanity nothing.
So why had it done so much?
It certainly wasn't an order handed down by Arceus.
Even Zygarde, the God of Order, was the same in this regard — Zygarde protected the natural order, not humanity.
Ho-Oh was silent for a moment, and the golden radiance beneath its wings seemed to ripple faintly along with its thoughts.
Then a thought tinged with nostalgia and a hint of fond amusement reached him: 'The first hero, hmm... that was a very special beginning. Perhaps it would be more vivid to simply let you see it for yourself.'
The words had barely faded when the golden light enveloping Ash began to grow stronger and deeper, until it wrapped around him completely.
Ash felt a mild dizziness — not unpleasant, more like the space around him had been briefly twisted.
When he regained his senses, he was surprised to find he was still sitting in the same place, still enveloped by those warm 'wings' — but the enormous bird form beside him had vanished.
In its place was a girl — sitting close beside him, her chin resting gently against his shoulder.
She had radiant golden hair woven like sunlight itself, cascading down like a waterfall, the very tips carrying a natural halo of light.
Her complexion was so fair it was nearly translucent, her features so refined they seemed beyond mortal, her crimson eyes deep and luminous.
Most extraordinary of all were the wings on her back — Ho-Oh's wings.
The wings of a phoenix — not the wings of a Golden Fearow.
Her entire being radiated an aura of something ancient, noble, and absolutely untainted.
This was Ho-Oh's human form.
Ash went blank for a moment.
Not entirely because of this beauty that transcended the ordinary, but more from the sheer impact of the transformation itself.
Especially those eyes — carrying within them a depth of years that bore absolutely no relation to the apparent age of the face.
...It was a maternal radiance that seemed on the verge of overflowing.
The girl who was Ho-Oh's avatar tilted her head slightly, gazing at Ash with those all-seeing crimson eyes — then reached out and gently drew him into an embrace.
Ho-Oh was reminiscing about the past.
It was a feeling like a mother holding her child.
In a certain sense, Ho-Oh was indeed something like a mother who sheltered humanity.
A mother to an entire people.
Though that description wasn't quite complete.
After all, not all of humanity sheltered beneath the phoenix's wings.
Just as the descendants of meteor survivors in Hoenn held Rayquaza as their patron.
People from different regions had each found their own ways to survive.
Ho-Oh's voice resonated directly in his heart — clearer than before, and softened with a distinctly human warmth:
'You don't need to become anyone else, Ash.'
'Just as you are now — keep your true heart, your convictions, your reason, and those clever ideas that are purely your own that sometimes surface.'
'This is the you that is most beautiful, and the one I admire most.'
Ho-Oh cherished an upright Trainer.
Ho-Oh cherished a brilliant soul.
Yet after a brief moment of being swept away by it all, Ash let the corner of his mouth curl up ever so slightly.
He didn't lose himself in the embrace and the praise. Instead, with a quiet, knowing air, he spoke softly: 'She and I — that first hero — we're not the same person, are we?'
Ash paused, then added with firm resolve: 'I don't want — and I have no wish — to be a substitute for anyone.'
—Ash: If you like me, I'm glad.
—Ash: But if you're treating me as a stand-in for someone else, that makes me very unhappy.
These words made Ho-Oh — in her girl's form — visibly freeze for a moment.
A flash of genuine surprise crossed her perfect face, and then that surprise melted into a deeper smile and a warmth that said 'just as I expected.'
She shook her head, and the strands of her hair brushed against Ash's neck, leaving a faint, ticklish sensation.
'I know.'
Ho-Oh's voice carried an unmistakable sincerity.
'Of course I know.'
'From the moment you took the feather and it shone with new light in your hands.'
'From the moment you faced Marshadow's trial in Gringey City and made that decision that was so very "foolish" — and yet so absolutely right.'
'I have known with perfect clarity: Ash is Ash.'
Ho-Oh could look directly into a person's soul.
And even though every Rainbow Hero's soul shone with equal brilliance, the quality of that brilliance was never the same.
Ho-Oh drew back just slightly, gazing earnestly into Ash's eyes, as if to look directly through this window of the soul and see the very nature of his being.
'Compared to the first hero's almost stubborn naivety and her unreserved, sometimes rather foolish-seeming tenacity, you are indeed more rational, more inclined to think things through, and more capable of adapting.'
'You don't have that quality of hers... hmm, how to put it — that "foolish" quality of charging down one path until it went completely dark, refusing to turn back even after hitting a dead end.'
'Your radiance is a different color — equally dazzling, but entirely your own.'
Of course Ho-Oh wasn't searching for a substitute.
Because the girl who had first captured her heart had not chosen to live forever — she had chosen to die.
Many of humanity's greatest figures throughout history had ultimately chosen to die... it was a choice that Ho-Oh had never quite understood.
Ho-Oh was an immortal being with no end to its lifespan — it could not easily comprehend how humans thought.
These words completely swept away the last faint wisp of doubt lingering in Ash's heart.
He understood now — what Ho-Oh treasured was his true self in this moment, not any shadow from the past.
Ash relaxed, the tension leaving his body.
—Ash: Being treated as a substitute is the absolute worst.
Ho-Oh rested her head against his shoulder once more, and the two of them tilted their faces upward together.
Those great wings had shifted their angle at some point — like a skylight thrown open — letting them gaze up at the boundless starscape without any obstruction.
The night sky was a deep blue-black.
Countless stars scattered across the heavens like diamonds, gathering into a hazy and magnificent Milky Way that spanned the entire sky.
Far from the light pollution of any city, the stars here were pure and brilliant, filled with a power that struck deep in the chest.
They did not speak anymore.
Ash leaned against Ho-Oh's avatar, gently enfolded by her warm radiance and wings.
And Ho-Oh nestled close to him, as if she had found a haven where she could temporarily set aside her divine duties and simply rest.
A deep and harmonious silence spread between the two of them.
This silence was not empty — it was full of understanding and companionship that needed no words.
The reason the Rainbow Hero's trials were so rigorous was precisely because Ho-Oh would genuinely trust its Rainbow Hero.
The light of the campfire danced around them, illuminating a scene that was extraordinary and yet utterly natural.
The night breeze blew gently across the open land, carrying the fragrance of grass and wildflowers and softly stirring Ho-Oh's golden hair.
From the distance came the occasional cry or two of some unknown Pokémon murmuring in its sleep, or the soft flap of wings as the watchful Pidgeot adjusted its stance atop the treetops.
All these subtle sounds only served to make the night's quiet and beauty stand out all the more.
Ash looked up at the stars, feeling the warmth and tranquility emanating from the ancient deity at his side, his heart completely clear.
He recalled everything that had happened since setting out from Pallet Town —
His first meeting with Pikachu; the surprise of catching Pidgeotto and the Golden Magikarp; the unexpected run-ins with Team Rocket; passing the Rainbow Hero's trials; his clashes with the various Gym Leaders; and countless warm moments shared with Pokémon, just like this one...
All of it together made up his one-of-a-kind journey.
Compared to all the anime and games he had watched and played before.
The me of right now.
The me of right now — Ash.
My — Ash's — Pokémon journey has gone completely off-script!
I — Ash... am not some other Ash.
I am only me.
I will only ever be me.
Today's Ho-Oh was completely different from how it usually was.
Not aloof and distant as in the legends, dwelling far above the clouds.
But instead in a form that was close — one could even say vulnerable, like a human being — staying by Ash's side.
The two of them shared this expanse of stars between them.
That in itself was the highest form of recognition.
So this was what it meant to be a Rainbow Hero?
In this moment, Ash truly felt the weight and worth of what it meant to carry that title.
Ho-Oh genuinely treated its Rainbow Hero as an equal... well, perhaps there was a slight parental quality to it, like caring for a beloved child.
Ash didn't know what kind of story the first Rainbow Hero had shared with Ho-Oh, but that no longer mattered.
What mattered was right now — it was him, Ash, here, forging together with Ho-Oh a bond and memories that belonged to the two of them.
The reason their relationship had warmed so quickly — beyond the special nature of the Rainbow Hero's role — was surely also connected to the fact that the two of them had once literally merged into the divine immortal phoenix together.
That was a merging into one in the most literal sense of the words.
Time seemed to slow and thicken in this moment.
Ash's eyelids grew gradually heavy, and beneath the cover of the star-filled sky and the warm radiance at his side, a sense of ease unlike anything he had ever felt before loosened every last bit of tension from his spirit.
...In all his time in this world, this was the most relaxed he had ever been.
...With Ho-Oh's support, he should have more confidence to face whatever lay ahead.
...The only problem was... gods apparently couldn't interfere with each other's divine duties?
Ash took one last look at the Milky Way stretching like a waking dream across the sky, then slowly closed his eyes.
...These troublesome questions could wait for another time.
...Daydreaming wouldn't solve anything.
...So in the end, you still had to rely on yourself.
As Ash's consciousness drifted down into sleep, he seemed to feel those golden wings wrapped around him drawing in just a little more gently — like an eternal promise of protection.
The girl who was Ho-Oh's avatar remained leaning against him.
Her crimson eyes gazed at the stars — and seemed to gaze beyond them, toward a past and future far more distant.
At the corner of Ho-Oh's lips rested a smile — faint as a whisper, but utterly, unmistakably real.
It truly was a beautiful night.
Only...
The phoenix and Ash were both content.
But a certain someone was not.
Not far from the camp.
Misdreavus: QAQ
Misdreavus: >_<
Misdreavus: (>_<) ...
____
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🔥 New history: JJK: Naoya Zenin Reborn as a Woman
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