Pokémon: Rewriting Ash’s Legend

"Pancham~~ Pancham~"

The two Pancham looked a little pitiful, acting as though they were absolutely starving.

"I wonder what they just said… Ash, you can understand them, right?"

Serena's curiosity was instantly piqued. She turned her bright eyes toward Ash, wanting to know what the mischievous pandas were saying.

Of course, Ash could understand them.

But before he could say anything, Clemont's eyes lit up.

"Hehe! Now it's my turn to show everyone how science can change the future!"

The lenses of Clemont's glasses flashed brilliantly.

"Clemont Engine, start! This is my latest invention—I'll call it the Clemont Specially-Made Pokémon Translator! Once I flip this switch, whenever a Pokémon speaks, this device will detect the sound waves of their speech and translate them into the language of us Class-953 humans!"

In his right hand was something resembling a radio.

In his left hand, a display screen connected to the "radio" by a data cable.

"Ugh, big brother, your naming sense is still hopeless," Bonnie muttered from the side, looking at him like a hopeless case.

"Clemont, are you sure this thing won't explode again?" Ash teased, though in truth he already knew—nine times out of ten, Clemont's inventions ended in explosions.

"This time, I guarantee it won't! Trust me!" Clemont declared with more confidence than he'd ever shown before.

"This does sound kind of fun…" Serena, seeing such a gadget for the first time, found it rather novel.

"Of course it's fun! Come on, Pancham—let's hear what you've got to say!"

Clemont held the radio-like device toward the two Pokémon.

The Pancham exchanged a glance, a sly glint flashing in their eyes.

"Pancham, pancham"

Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena immediately turned their eyes to the display screen.

It read: We're hungry. We need food.

Bold—very bold. Asking humans for food so blatantly… no wonder they were called mischievous pandas.

Bonnie's compassion flared at once. Seeing the poor little Pancham, she crouched down and pulled out some Pokémon food she'd prepared for Dedenne.

"Here you go, Pancham—eat up."

Ash didn't stop her, even though he knew the two were just playing tricks.

"Pan~cham!"

But instead of digging in, the Pancham sniffed the food, then wore a look of utter disdain.

"Pancham, pancham pancham!"

Pancham: We don't like this. You must have other food on you. Give us that instead.

"Huh? You don't like this? Big brother, we still have—"

Bonnie turned to Clemont, about to ask for other food.

The two Pancham exchanged another glance—this one brimming with Mission Accomplished smugness.

Seeing Clemont and Serena's of course we should expressions, Ash shook his head and stopped Bonnie.

"That's not right. If they were truly hungry, they'd eat Dedenne's food too. This isn't exclusive to Electric-types—it's made to suit all Pokémon's tastes."

Everyone turned to look at Ash.

"It's just not as tasty as food made for a specific type, but it's still far better than berries. They're just playing with you. Don't think all Pokémon are completely innocent—same goes for human kids. When they get too mischievous, they can be downright annoying."

As Ash said this, his calm gaze landed squarely on the two Pancham.

These two… were pushing it.

Knowing the original story, Ash already understood what these two were capable of.

If Clemont did bring out other Pokémon food, the Pancham would eat all of it—including the Dedenne food they'd just rejected—so fast you wouldn't even see it coming.

"Pan…cham…"

Feeling Ash's gaze, the two Pancham instinctively took two steps back.

"Well… now that you mention it, that does make sense," Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie admitted after thinking about it.

"Pika!"

Suddenly, Pikachu turned its head toward a certain spot…

"Meow~hahaha! Uh, I wasn't intentionally hiding here, you know. I'm here to bring you good news, nya! There's a super strong Pangoro over there, nya! If you can catch it, your team's strength will skyrocket, nya!"

Team Rocket's Meowth had just been punched halfway across the forest by Pangoro, crashing into a patch of grass—right where Ash and the others happened to be.

"Oh, really? Since when are you so kind?"

Serena was the first to doubt him.

"Uh, wait—what's happening—?"

BOOM!!!

Clemont's translator exploded.

Of course it did.

It had just picked up Meowth's voice and, not knowing how to process a Pokémon speaking human language, the device promptly malfunctioned and blew up.

Ash barely held back a laugh…

He'd completely forgotten about Clemont's invention-explosion tendency for a second—and now Clemont, Bonnie, and Serena all had perfect afro hairstyles.

"Ugh, Clemont! My hair!" Serena panicked, mortified at having such a ridiculous look in front of Ash. This was all Clemont's fault!

"Froakie—looks like you're up!"

Ash's eyes lit up with an idea, and he sent out Froakie.

"Froakie!"

"Froakie, use your Water Bubble to fix their hair back to normal…"

The adhesive property of Froakie's bubbles could be adjusted at will.

In no time, Froakie had restored all three hairstyles to their proper state.

"Thank you, Froakie—you're the best!" Bonnie threw her arms around Froakie.

The little frog scratched its head bashfully—then turned to glare at Meowth.

Its instincts told it this cat was definitely up to no good.

"Froakie, froa~kie!"

Froakie said something to Ash, and Meowth's face went pale.

It hurriedly tried to laugh it off and leave.

"Meow~hahaha! Well, I won't bother you any longer! You can go catch that Pangoro, nya—wait, hey! What are you doing, nya?!"

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T/N:

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