"The vines are gone."

"Then I suppose you may go back."

"Both of us. I'll be heading back to Bonnie."

"Alright, I suppose. Goodbye."

"Until we meet again."

"Until we meet again."

All three of them were sure they would. One of their trainers was literally the Chosen One, and the other two were quite literally legendary.

One of these pokemon was quick to run off, hiding in a cave before attempting to find its trainer. It started an attempt to bond with its trainer, giving its trainer, who was thousands of miles away, a slight headache, due to how far away they were. Once the pokemon had the general direction and distance, it cut off the one-sided bond, as to not tire its trainer. The trainer knew the pokemon was bonding, but yelling "Let's go!" in school and suddenly paying no attention whatsoever to the boring lesson would be uncalled for and require an explanation they weren't so sure they were ready to give.

The pokemon left the cave and started heading in the direction where it knew its trainer now was. It ran through the Kalos region, only stopping once to visit a Goodra. Even then, that visit was short. It was more of a final goodbye for a bit, rather than the "I'll probably see you again soon so goodbye for now." goodbyes that had previously been exchanged between the two. When the pokemon reached the Kalosian coast, it opted to swim across the ocean. It had just hit a small island when its trainer started the bonding again. The pokemon was quick to comply to a full-on bond, curious on why.

"So, Greninja, what did you need?" The trainer telepathically said.

"Oh, sorry Ash, I was just getting your location so I could come back to you. The job in Kalos is complete." The pokemon—Greninja—replied.

"Seriously, Greninja? Just let me come to you, it's easier." Ash said.

"Too late. I'm already outside of Kalos."

"Of fucking course you are. As soon as you reach Alola, just attempt bonding to me again, alright?"

"Got it."

"Well, my class is probably going to wonder where I am, so I should get going."

"Wait, class?"

"I thought we already went over this!"

"It's still funny though."

"Shut the fuck up."

"Ash, get a filter for your mouth."

"Lmao, why would I? I'm only like this around you and my other Pokemon."

"Seriously? You were like this around your Kalos friends too."

"That's different. That took time to build up and wasn't a straightaway thing like with my pokemon like you."

"It's not really different but okay."

"Shut the fuck up before I fucking harvest your toes."

"And there's the second favorite threat."

"Only after boiling teeth. Anyways bud, I've really got to get going. See you soon."

"See you soon, Ashy-Boy."

"Shut the fuck up."

With that, both trainer and pokemon severed the connection, knowing that they were only poking fun at each other and wouldn't hurt the other.

The Greninja continued on, throughout day and into the night, passing through Unova on the way, as it was the closest region to Alola. After Alola was in sight, however, Greninja's luck ran out. He ran into a group of wild Dragalge, who were hostile. The group was a large group, of at least twenty. He was able to beat the majority of them but fainted before he could be all of them, as toxic was used on him early on.

~~~

"Ash!" Mallow exclaimed, trying to get the boy's attention for the tenth time.

"Ugnh...What?" Ash finally replied, now being in quite a bit of pain due to the long-distance connection.

"Are you alright? I tried ten times to get your attention but you were just so far zoned out." Mallow asked, "You weren't looking at or doing anything either."

"Huh? I'm fine... no need to worry." Ash replied.

"Alright then? Come eat lunch with us!" Mallow spoke.

"Alright!" Ash exclaimed, following Mallow back into the classroom.

After school, the class went to the beach, doing who knows what. After Ash returned home and was going to bed he felt that something was wrong. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he knew something was wrong. While he knew his gut was always right, he decided it was an issue he could deal with tomorrow. It wasn't legendaries threatening to end the world, it could wait.

Maybe he shouldn't have waited. On his way to school, which he was already late to, he was told to avoid the Pokemon Center, but, being who he is, he made a mental note to visit the Pokemon Center later. He would have gone then, but he was quite literally on school grounds and was not about to walk all the way there and back if it wasn't on the top of his priority list. Nah, the top of his priorities was to wait for Greninja. The Kantoian ran into the school and to his classroom, apologizing for being late and assuring it wouldn't happen again, before sitting down.

The class was learning about legendary pokemon, something Ash could do in his sleep. He was regretting not going to the Pokemon Center instead at this point, as this class was the most boring of boring classes Ash had been in. Kukui had called on Ash while he was talking about Mewtwo, asking if he had heard of Mewtwo. Ash, who had completely zoned out and only caught Mewtwo's name in the question, used all of his zero brain cells to figure out that Kukui was asking if he had heard any stories about Mewtwo. He chose to turn his first encounter with Mewtwo into a story.

"A kid when to a party on an island with some people and got turned into stone by Mew and Mewtwo. Kid got brought back to life by pokemon tears from the pokemon and pokemon clones. Mew and Mewtwo then wiped everyone's memory of it except the kid's and his pokemon." Ash spoke, only then realizing everyone was staring at him, confused, "The question wasn't what I thought it was... was it?"

Before anyone could reply to the immortal ten-year-old, Principal Oak and another man sprinted into the classroom.

"There's... a pokemon... going... wild... in the... pokemon center... so... avoid it..." The unknown man panted out, being at the school to warn anyone who didn't already know.

Ash had moved towards the railing of the balcony, ready to jump over it if he needed to, Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Do you know what species of Pokemon it is?" Ash asked, having a sudden gut feeling it was his Greninja.

"A Greninja, why?"

With that, Ash was over the railing.

"Ash!!!" The entire class, including their teacher and principal, worriedly exclaimed.

Kukui ran out of the classroom, going after his student, border, and acting son.

'They'll be fine. Don't worry about them. This is nothing for Ash and Pikachu.' A voice telepathically said to the people standing in the classroom, very concerned for the forever ten-year-old and his electric mouse.

"Who are you and what do you mean by nothing?" Kiawe spoke.

'I can't say or show who I am yet, Arceus would be upset. By nothing, I mean nothing. Compared to the other shenanigans they get themselves into, jumping off that railing is absolutely nothing.'

"Then... what is something to them?" Lillie spoke up next.

'Exploring a new region and discovering new pokemon. That's about it, honestly.'

"Wait, so him meeting Tapu Koko was nothing?" Mallow asked.

'Why would it be?'

"Because it was a legendary pokemon that rarely shows its face, especially to foreigners, let alone give a gift to one?" Sophocles spoke.

'How much about his past adventures has Ash actually told you?'

"Pretty much nothing now that I think about it." Lana replied, "I mean, we know he's a kid from Kanto who fought in the Indigo League and we've met some of his Kanto pokemon, but other than that..."

'I'm not surprised. The only groups he's ever opened up to about anything were his pokemon, Team Rocket, the original trio, and the group before he came here. That last group didn't know anything for most of it either and it took a lot of coaxing from Z1 and his pokemon. Go after him, learn.'

With that, the remainder of the class sped off, leaving Principal Oak and the random guy.

Meanwhile, Ash had just arrived outside of the Pokemon Center, Kukui on his tail.

"Ash, what are you doing?!?! That Greninja's hostile!" Kukui exclaimed.

"To Nurse Joy, maybe. He's confused and no one will tell him where he is. He's lost and away from everyone he knows."

A step forward.

"To Team Flare, absolutely. There's no one he hates more, taking over his friends like that. Attempting to control him and his trainer."

Another step.

"To everyone else, maybe. It really depends on the situation at hand."

A third step.

"But to me, never. The person he understands and who understands him. He already feels bad enough for what I feel when we do that."

A final step forward, the doors of the Pokemon Center open.

Ash looked at Kukui and smirked before turning back to the interior of the Pokemon Center with a serious look.

"Right, Greninja?"

The Greninja stopped in his tracks, knowing that voice. His trainer. Ash. He had made it.

He lunged forward, leaving Kukui worried, but the Kantoian trainer caught the frog in a hug.

Kukui was admittedly confused but watched from the sidelines as his class ran up.

"What is going on?" Sophocles asked, motioning to the ball of tears in front of them.

"Admittedly, I don't really know." Kukui replied.

Two hearts, reunited as one. A veil of water overtaking them, dissipating a few seconds afterwards, revealing a Greninja that looked a bit different.

A professor, stunned that his own student, boarder, and son by bond was the same trainer who had helped save the world in Kalos.

A future astronaut, shocked to find out who the mysterious Greninja from the Lumiose Conference Finals belonged to.

An unsure friend, confused, she was sure she had read about this form, but it was only seen hundreds of years ago.

A cook, lost in what was unfolding in front of her.

A trainer, excited for future battles.

A fisher, overjoyed to see a new water type.

A floating pokedex, exclaiming that this does not compute.

A trio, hiding in the trees, happy for their twerp.

The trio in front of them all, Ash, Pikachu, and Greninja, finally letting go of each other, Greninja now holding a pokeball he presumably took from his trainer's belt.

Kneeling, the Greninja rolled the pokeball to its trainer, who picked it up and held it out to the ninja frog. Greninja hit his fist against it, allowing himself to be sucked into the ball after shrugging the transformation off.

Instead of turning back to his classmates, he walked into the pokemon center, walking up to Nurse Joy.

"What happened?" He asked her.

"Well, a person saw your Greninja floating, unconscious, at the beach and dragged him here. He was poisoned and had taken a lot of damage. After he had woken up, he tried getting up, but Comfey and I had to keep him down because he wasn't healed enough to get up yet, or so I thought. He started fighting back and so Comfey and I fought back and it all went downhill from there. You need to take better care of your pokemon!" Nurse Joy spoke.

"Me? Greninja came here all the way from Kalos on his own! He didn't know where he was and wanted answers! His first course of action was probably to attempt to bond to me, but couldn't because you weren't allowing him the focus he needed, he couldn't! You wouldn't give him answers to where he was either so he was absolutely lost!" Ash rebutted, "I'm also sorry for any damage Greninja may have caused, I'll pay for it."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Nurse Joy replied, "Your Greninja surprisingly didn't cause any damage, nothing needs to be paid for."

With that, Ash finally turned towards his adoptive father and teacher, and now his classmates.

While Kukui was still stunned into silence, the others spoke up.

"What was that?" Mallow spoke.

"I want to meet your Greninja!" Lana exclaimed.

"I'd love to battle your Greninja sometime!" Came Kiawe's voice.

"I read that a Greninja like that defended a village of ninja hundreds of years ago, but the form showing up now?" Lillie questioned.

"You're the finalist from the Kalos League last year?" Sophocles asked.

"It was the Bond Phenomenon, as Professor Sycamore calls it, or Ash-Greninja, as my other friends and I call it. Sure, you can meet him later, Lana, and you can battle him, Kiawe. Yeah, this form also did defend Ninja Village a long time ago, I know nothing else about that though, sorry Lillie. Yes, Sophocles, I was one of the Kalos League finalists." Ash replied to them all.

"Wait, that means you helped in the Kalos Crisis as well!" Sophocles exclaimed.

At the mention of the Crisis, Ash and Pikachu both flinched. Kukui, noticing the flinching, quickly spoke, "Alright, let's get back to class, class."

Ash looked at him gratefully. Kukui nodded back at the boy, telling him he never had to talk about it unless he wanted to. Kukui also made a mental note to later have a long-overdue conversation with the trainer about what shouldn't be mentioned around him.

When the class arrived back at the Pokemon School, Lugia was kinda just floating in the classroom.

"Lugia! It's been a while!" Ash exclaimed, he and Pikachu running to hug it.

'Hello, kid. Arceus and Mew wanted me to come to make sure you were doing fine because the Tapus haven't been doing their job lately. Also, congratulations on the lack of death recently.'

The rest of the class, including Kukui, was absolutely lost.

"Oh, thanks! Tell them I said I'm not a little kid. I've saved them how many times now? If one of us die again, we'll show up. Otherwise, there is no reason for them to need a report—what—didn't they up it to once a week?" Ash snapped.

'Yeah, they haven't been updated in over a month and wanted updates once a week. You may not be a little kid, but you're still the youngest, and they will worry about you, just like Delia, and your new Alolan parents, what are their names?'

"Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet!" Ash smiled, motioning the professor, "That's Kukui!"

'Read his Trainer Profile. This is a threat, not a suggestion.' Lugia turned its attention back towards Ash, 'You're collecting parents like pokemon now, are you? You've almost got a full team. Anyway, see ya!'

"Bye, Lugia!" Ash exclaimed as it flew out of the classroom, 'Thank fucking Arceus Lugia didn't call me chosen one for once. They called me kid though, must've been in contact with Iris.'

The class was about to speak, but Ash spoke before any of them could, "Don't question it."

The class finally got settled back into their seats, learning about the legendaries. While this tale could end here, there's more. At the end of class, Kukui gave them an assignment.

"You all have a week to write about all of your encounters with legendary and mythical pokemon." Kukui spoke, thinking Ash would only have a few more things to write.

Oh no.

Kukui doesn't know what he just did.

Ash's hand rises into the air almost immediately, "Can I get an extension?"

He knew writing about all of his experiences with legendaries couldn't be healthily tackled in a week. He would have to do basically everything while writing and forget sleep, he wouldn't be able to, he'd be unable to finish at that point.

Being unaware that Ash is quite literally a legendary magnet, Kukui replied with a "No, you cannot Ash. Feel free to leave out anything that makes you uncomfortable, though, and that goes for all of you."

He had realized he didn't bring that up far enough and dismissed the class. Ash shot off, leaving immediately.

Later, Kukui entered his home to see a stack of paper that was already knee-high next to Ash, who seemed to be talking to two people over the tv, which had a built-in phone, as he was writing.

He walked downstairs into the lab and opened up the official trainer database, already being kind of concerned when he saw a folder labeled 'Ash Ketchum and Friends', as named by Cynthia, champion of Sinnoh, a folder that had seemingly replaced a folder called 'Ketchup', which had been the replacement name, named by Gary Oak, a Pokemon researcher, for a folder called 'forever ten gang', which was named by Korrina Shalour, leader of the Shalour City gym.

For some reason, the champions had given gym leaders the ability to change the names of folders, and this folder got it the worst. Researchers and Professors were also allowed to change folders' names, but Gary was one of the few who actually did.

Apparently, the folder's original name was 'Ass Ketchup', as named by Misty Waterflower, gym leader of the Cerulean City gym. It was quickly renamed 'Damn The Forever 10 Immortal Kid & His Forever 10 Friends Finally Got A Folder', named by, surprisingly, Lance. It went through many names, some gym leaders and champions getting into naming wars. Some of the names that stood out to Kukui were 'haha ash-greninja go brr' by Clemont Citron, leader of the Lumiose City gym, 'He's such a kid' by Iris Pyra, the new champion of Unova, 'HE STILL OWES ME A BIKE' by Misty Waterflower, 'Alf' by Norman Maple, gym leader of the Petalburg City gym, though his son, Max Maple, probably named it, 'good flavor ash pikachu' by Cilan Striaton, one of the Striaton City gym leaders, 'lmao stop dying for five seconds' by Brock Harrison, the former gym leader of the Pewter City gym, and 'Legendary Magnet.' by Brock Harrison as well.

Now, Kukui was terrified. What had he gotten himself into?

Kukui clicked on the folder, looking through the list of trainers in it. There were some spots for some trainers-to-be, specifically Max Maple and Bonnie Citron. Ash's profile was at the very top of the folder, labeled 'Legendary Magnet (Ash Ketchum)'. The spaces below were for, in order, Misty Waterflower, Brock Harrison, Tracey Sketchit, Gary Oak, May Maple, Max Maple, Dawn Berlitz, Paul Shinji, Iris Pyra, Cilan Striaton, Trip Shooti, Clemont Citron, Bonnie Citron, Serena Yvonne, Sawyer Shōta, Alain [Redacted], and surprisingly, Mallow Mao, Kiawe Kaki, Sophocles Mamane, Lana Surien, Lillie Aether, Gladion Aether, and both his and Burnet's profiles.

If there was a feeling beyond terrified, that is what Kukui was feeling as he clicked on Ash's profile. As he read through it, his blood ran cold. Now, he really felt bad about not giving Ash the extension he asked for. He walked back upstairs, after closing Ash's trainer profile, and turned to Ash, whose pile of paper next to him now reached his waist, and there was a second pile, this pile blank, reaching the same point. Greninja was sleeping on one part of the couch, whereas Ash's other Pokemon surrounded him. On the screen, there was a line dividing Misty and her gym background from Tracey and the lab's background. Team Rocket was sitting outside the window.

"Misty, did I die when I drowned during Shamouti? I know I was unconscious, but no one ever told me if I died or not." Ash asked.

"You didn't, for once in your life." Misty replied.

"Hey, Ash, you can have that extension you asked for, or you can just pick a few encounters with legendaries and write about them." Kukui spoke.

"I'm sorry, professor, but it's too late. He has his mind set on writing this all by the end of the week and not leaving out anything." Misty spoke, "And you know how he is when that happens."

Ash gave the professor a smile, telling him Misty was right.

"Alright, but still rest. Don't work constantly." Kukui spoke.

"It's alright, we've got it all figured out!" Ash smiled.

So it turned out, by we've got it all figured out, Ash meant that he and Greninja could apparently transfer energy between each other through the bond phenomenon and if Greninja sleeps a bunch and transfers energy, Ash doesn't have to. He had also stopped paying attention in class, but it was fine, as they were just going over legendary pokemon. By the morning the essay was due, Ash was pretty sure that if he stacked all of the papers on top of each other, it would reach the moon. The only thing he didn't quite think about was how he would get the papers to class.

"Uh, Professor Kukui?" Ash hesitantly asked, "I'm not really sure how I'm going to get my essay to school..."

From outside, Team Rocket facepalmed.

James spoke up, "Twerp! We have a balloon we can take it all in."

"Never mind, Professor!" Ash called as Team Rocket left to get their balloon.

Once the trio arrived back at the house, they helped Ash load his way too long essay into the balloon. It was sitting in nine piles, one for his original Kanto journey, one for the Orange Islands, one for Johto, one for Hoenn, one for the Battle Frontier, one for Sinnoh, one for Unova, one for Kalos, and one for Alola. Each stack had dividers in them, and the Kalos stack had at least half of it under the label 'Squishy'. The Trio, along with Ash and Pikachu, rode the balloon up to the balcony of the classroom, where they started unloading. Luckily, none of his classmates were there yet. However, when Ash went to sit down his Sinnoh stack, he noticed an issue. There wasn't quite enough room on his desk to fit any more stacks.

Unsure what to do, he went to Principal Oak's office, where Principal Oak already was and asked him for something that would hold nine extremely large stacks of paper. The principal ended up giving Ash a long push cart thing, which Kukui could also use to take the essay back home for grading. Ash took it to the classroom and sat all of his essay stacks on it. They all fit, but barely. Ash then waved goodbye to Team Rocket, Pikachu on his shoulder, and promptly fell asleep at his desk, sleeping for the first time in a week.

He was awoken a bit later by Kiawe's Charizard landing on the balcony of the classroom.

"Ash, you're already here?" The fire-type trainer questioned, "And what are all these papers?"

"Yeah, it's my essay..." Ash drowsily replied.

Kiawe looked between Ash, the papers, and the measly essay in his hand when compared to it, "How?"

"Brock said I was a legendary magnet or something. Something to do with being the chosen one or my aura or something, I don't know..."

"What do you mean by legendary magnet..?"

"Wherever I go, a legendary's sure to be. Arceus and Mew wanna be updated like once a week or something, it's stupid. Sure I may be the youngest, but I'm still just fine..."

"The youngest what...?"

Ash just waved Kiawe's question off, signifying he didn't feel like answering it. Pikachu nuzzled up to Ash and the duo fell back asleep. Kiawe filled in the rest of the class about the papers being Ash's essay when they asked, allowing Ash to finally get some much-needed shut-eye.

Writing it all down felt like a step in the right direction for Ash, so he decided he would write everything else down too, but in an unrushed manner.

Ash was finally awoken by Kukui as class started, and the class was very curious about Ash's seemingly endless essay. Ash smiled as he started to share some of the tales in the essays, nothing feeling like a burning wound in the back of his head for the first time since he started his adventure.

~Fin

~4063 words

gasp, a second update in this book before the next year? never thought I'd see the day.

the essay part was inspired by the first two chapters of a book on ao3 called "sunglasses" it's really good and i would recommend it :)

I finished this on the 11th of August, but because I finished Gohing Home a few days ago, I decided to wait to publish it now, on my birthday and on the day my school starts.

I didn't think I would get this oneshot over 1k words when I was around 750 words, but damn did I prove myself wrong.

Question of the chapter because that's a thing now: Favorite Pokemon?

Personally, I love Sylveon. I love its design, and Serena's in the anime really helped boost my love for it. Plus, I already absolutely adored Eevee and all of its evolutions.

Published: August 16th, 2021

~Vannah