(Ash's Room - Quick Scene)
Ash finally succumbed to the day's immense physical and emotional toll.
He fell asleep almost instantly after closing the chat with Cynthia and Iris, the familiar banter having momentarily eased his turbulent thoughts.
His breathing evened out, deep and steady, his usual restless energy finally quieted.
Pikachu, curled at the foot of the bed, watched him for a moment, a soft, fond expression on his face despite his earlier teasing.
(Finally asleep. He needed it.) Pikachu thought, before closing his own eyes, letting out a tiny contented sigh, ready to guard his partner through the night.
The room settled into a peaceful quiet, a stark contrast to the lively discussion happening just down the hall.
(Back in Serena's Room)
Sleep, however, was still a foreign concept in Serena's room.
The atmosphere remained slightly charged, though the intense awkwardness following Green's startling confession had eased into a state of thoughtful silence.
Green's backstory, raw and unexpected, had made them all feel a complex mix of sympathy and perhaps a touch of unease.
It painted a picture of a young girl navigating immense loss and instability with a chilling sort of pragmatism.
"Alright," Green said finally, breaking the silence and seemingly shaking off the lingering vulnerability with visible effort.
She adjusted her glasses, resuming her more typical analytical demeanor.
"Enough about my rather unconventional past. Let's move on."
She glanced towards Serena, who was still processing Green's logic regarding the engagement.
"Since Serena's story, while cute, is the fairly standard 'saving the damsel in distress' trope, let's perhaps move onto Misty?"
Green attempted to divert the group's intense focus away from herself, perhaps strategically choosing Misty next.
"Hey! My story is not boring! Or standard!"
Serena immediately protested, puffing out her cheeks indignantly.
"Meeting Ash was fate! It was romantic!"
Green just raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"The same boring saving damsel in distress scenario, resulting in an engagement promise. What good is analyzing the minute details?" she countered coolly.
"It lacked... strategic initiative on your part."
"Ughh!" Serena groaned, thoroughly irked by Green's dismissive logic but knowing arguing was likely pointless.
She gave up with a frustrated sigh and turned her attention, along with everyone else's, towards Misty, who immediately looked like a Deerling caught in headlights.
Misty instinctively tried to shrink back against the wall, her face flushing slightly under the sudden collective gaze.
"Um... Me? Why me?" she stammered, fiddling nervously with the edge of her pajama.
"It's really not something interesting or anything special, you know. Totally forgettable."
Misty said, desperately trying to escape the interrogation spotlight.
Public speaking was one thing; sharing personal, potentially embarrassing childhood stories with this particular group felt infinitely more daunting.
"Don't worry, Misty! It'll be interesting, I am sure!" Dawn chimed in encouragingly, offering a bright smile.
"Yeah, spill it!" May added, leaning forward eagerly.
"We promise not to laugh... much," Dawn added with a mischievous grin.
Green simply nodded, her expression expectant.
Jessie watched Misty's flustered state with open amusement.
The silent message from the room was clear, echoing with the same unspoken intention:
'Today, no one will be spared.'
A collective, silent 'hehehehe' seemed to hang in the air.
Misty blushed harder, realizing escape was futile.
She took a deep breath and gave up trying to deflect.
"Fine! Fine! Just... stop staring at me like that!" she grumbled, crossing her arms defensively before starting.
"Ahem. So... this happened when I was really little. Maybe two, I guess?"
She began, her voice slightly hesitant at first.
"Ash and his mother, Delia-san, came to Cerulean City for the annual Waterflower Extravaganza Show."
"At that time, my mother was still the main performer, the star mermaid."
Misty's voice held a note of pride as she mentioned her mother.
She began to narrate that memorable, and mortifying, day.
"That particular day," Misty continued, gaining a bit more confidence as she recounted the events, "I'd had a huge argument with my older sisters."
She scowled slightly at the memory.
"Daisy, Violet, and Lily... they were all involved in the show, doing synchronized swimming or helping backstage."
"But they kept teasing me because I was too young to participate in the main routines."
"They said I was just a 'poliwag' and would probably just splash around and ruin the choreography."
Little Misty, already possessing her characteristic fiery temper and deep love for Water Pokémon, desperately wanted to be part of the beautiful water ballet her mother starred in.
But her age was still that of a small child, deemed too young for the complex performances.
So, to make her give up wanting to join, her older sisters resorted to mockery, teasing her relentlessly for not being graceful enough, not being old enough, not being 'glamorous' enough.
Standard older sibling torture, really.
But, of course, telling a determined, temperamental child she can't do something is rarely the best method to achieve compliance.
It just made her furious.
"I finally snapped," Misty admitted, a faint echo of that childhood anger flashing in her eyes.
"I yelled at them, told them they were just jealous because I was cuter, and then... well..."
She paused, hesitating again.
"I yelled, 'I Hate you guys! I hope you never, ever get a boyfriend! Ever!'"
Misty confessed, her cheeks turning red again.
"Wait! You actually said that?! You cursed them with eternal singledom?"
May interrupted, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and amusement, effectively breaking Misty's narration again.
"Over not being in a water show?!"
Misty glared at May.
"Don't interrupt me!" she snapped, before sighing.
"And yes, I said it! I was two! I was mad! At that time, I didn't know anything better or more hurtful to say! It felt very dramatic and final!"
She huffed, then forced herself to continue.
"Anyway... back to the backstory..."
"So, I stormed out of the house in a fit of childish anger, tears streaming down my face."
"I ran all the way down to the banks of the Cerulean River, just outside the city limits, where I sometimes went to watch the wild Water Pokémon."
...
Misty was crying beside the gently flowing river, fat tears splashing onto the grassy bank.
"I hate those Dummies!" she sobbed quietly to herself, hugging her knees.
"Mean! Stupid! Hope they trip on stage! Hope they never get boyfriends!"
She whispered the childish curse again for good measure.
"And... And when I grow up," she declared fiercely to a passing Poliwag, "I'll be the most beautiful, most graceful water performer ever! Way better than them!"
"And I'll have a super handsome, strong boyfriend! A Gym Leader maybe! Or a Champion!"
"And then I'll go back and tease them so much! So they regret ever calling me unattractive and childish and a poliwag!"
Misty paused in her narration, suddenly aware of the completely silent, staring expressions of the girls in the room.
She blushed furiously again.
'Oh, Mew, did I really just admit that out loud?' she thought, mortified.
'So embarrassing!'
While little Misty by the river was lost in her elaborate future revenge fantasy, plotting ways to make her sisters green with envy...
A large shadow suddenly loomed over her.
The sunlight dimmed.
She felt the atmosphere change abruptly, the cheerful sounds of the riverbank seeming to fade.
A strange stillness fell.
She raised her tear-stained face slowly to look up... and up... and up...
"Waaaaaaaaa!!!!!"
A terrified scream ripped from her tiny lungs.
Towering over her, rising dripping from the river, was a Gyarados.
Not just any Gyarados.
A massive, powerful, terrifying Red Gyarados, its scales gleaming like blood in the sunlight, its eyes burning with intensity.
The sheer shock, the sudden appearance of the notoriously ferocious Pokémon known for its destructive rampages, was too much for her young mind.
She fainted dead away from fear.
"Roar?"
The Red Gyarados tilted its massive head, genuinely confused.
It hadn't done anything threatening. It had just surfaced to investigate the source of the loud crying disturbing its afternoon nap in the deep river channel.
It hadn't expected the little human to just... collapse.
It nudged her gently with its snout. No response.
"Roar....?"
(Now what should I do? I can't just leave a little girl lying unconscious out here in the open. Something might get her.)
Gyarados pondered, its fearsome appearance belying a surprisingly conscientious nature, at least in this instance.
Just as it was considering perhaps gently nudging her towards the town path, another voice piped up nearby, filled not with fear, but with pure, unadulterated excitement.
"Ahhhh! Wow! A Red Gyarados! It's really red! So cool! And HUGE!"
A little boy's curious and excited voice echoed from the riverbank just a few yards away.
"Roar?" Gyarados turned its massive head towards the sound, surprised again.
It saw a small boy with messy black hair and wide, fearless brown eyes staring up at it with undisguised awe.
(You are not scared, little human?)
Gyarados projected the thought, surprised by the lack of terror.
"Umm, scared?" The little boy tilted his head, considering the question seriously.
"I guess... maybe a little? You're really big! But... mostly I'm just more excited than scared! I've never seen a Red Gyarados before!"
The little boy, who was, of course, two-year-old Ash Ketchum on one of his unsupervised exploration trips, beamed up at the giant sea serpent.
"Roar?"
(You... you can understand me?)
Gyarados felt even further confused by this strange, fearless boy who seemed to understand its thoughts.
Most humans just screamed and ran.
Ash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and smiled.
"Umm... I don't even know myself how I do it. Sometimes I just... understand what Pokémon are feeling or saying. It's kinda weird, huh?"
Gyarados regarded the boy for a long moment, sensing no malice, only genuine curiosity and a strange connection to Pokémon.
"Roar."
(Alright then, strange little understanding human guy. Since you're not running away screaming, I hope you can do me a favor and take this little fainted girl somewhere safe. She seemed quite upset before she passed out.)
Gyarados indicated Misty's still form with a slight head movement, then prepared to submerge back into the cool depths of the river, its social interaction quota for the decade likely fulfilled.
"Okay! Sure! I can do that!" Ash agreed readily, puffing out his small chest responsibly.
"But hey! Wait! When I see you again someday, when I'm a trainer, I'm gonna battle you! Okay?!"
Ash shouted and waved his hands energetically towards the sinking form of the Red Gyarados.
Gyarados paused just before disappearing, perhaps offering a silent, rumbling acknowledgement, before vanishing beneath the surface.
Ash watched the ripples fade, then turned his attention to the fainted girl.
"Alright then... Hmm... She's kinda heavy..." he muttered, trying to gently pull Misty's arm.
"Where should I bring this girl to...?"
He looked towards the distant outline of Cerulean City.
"Maybe back to that big building with the water show?"
...
Misty picked up her narration again, skipping over the presumably awkward journey back to the city with an unconscious girl and a two-year-old 'rescuer'.
"So... I don't remember anything clearly after I passed out by the river," she admitted with a sigh.
"The next thing I knew, I was waking up backstage at the Cerulean Waterflower show. Apparently, Ash had somehow managed to get me there."
"Don't ask me how a two-year-old managed that," she added quickly, anticipating the question.
"Maybe he got help, maybe he just dragged me, I have no idea. But he did it."
"I am glad he did, though," her expression softened slightly.
"Even though the first thing anyone should do after finding a lost, unconscious girl should probably be bringing her to the police station or a hospital, not a Pokémon show..."
She smiled faintly.
"But because he brought me there... I didn't miss my Mother's last big performance as the star Waterflower Mermaid. It was... beautiful. Probably the reason I wanted to become a Water Pokémon expert so badly."
"So yeah," Misty finished, shrugging slightly.
"That's how I met Ash. He saved me, sort of accidentally, and let me see Mom's show."
"Alright, that's the end of my thrilling tale."
She finished her story, looking relieved to be done.
"Wait a minute," Jessie interrupted immediately, leaning forward again, her eyes sharp.
"That explains the meeting. A very dramatic meeting, fainting at the sight of a Shiny Gyarados..."
Wait, Shiny Gyarados? That tidbit made everyone realise something and caused another ripple of murmurs, but Jessie continued before anyone could ask.
"...but you still didn't say why you got engaged, Misty."
"Ugh! Why are you so curious about everyone's engagements?!"
Misty complained, throwing her hands up in exasperation.
"Isn't the 'how we met' part enough?"
But the intensely curious looks from all the other girls – Dawn, May, Serena, Green, all leaning forward expectantly – made her sigh in defeat again.
There was no escaping this interrogation.
"Alright! Fine!" she grumbled.
"It was my Dad! Okay? After he heard the story – me fainting, Ash somehow getting me back, maybe Gyarados was actually A friend of my father's Gyarados who told my Father in turn or something like that– my father got it into his head that Ash was some kind of destined hero who saved his precious daughter."
She rolled her eyes dramatically.
"So, he wanted to repay Ash, for the 'brave deed'. And what better way, in his old-fashioned mind, than by betrothing the 'rescued damsel' to her 'hero'?"
Misty finished the explanation in one rushed, slightly embarrassed breath.
"So, yeah. That's it. Repayment via childhood engagement. Super romantic, right?"
There was another beat of silence.
Then, May voiced what everyone was thinking.
"Wow, Misty. That was... really anticlimactic."
"Yeah, seriously," Dawn agreed, slumping back slightly. "All that drama with the Red Gyarados and fainting... and it just ends with your Dad making a deal?"
"It was anticlimactic, alright," Green nodded, adjusting her glasses. "Though, from a strategic standpoint, securing an alliance through betrothal after a perceived debt of honor is a classic, albeit outdated, maneuver."
Even Jessie just shrugged. "Okay. Less calculated than Green's, more... impulsive gratitude, I guess."
Misty just groaned. "Can we PLEASE talk about someone else now?"