Overcoming Shyness

(Master Porky Minch)


It was a quiet day at the Olivine Gym. As a matter of fact, there had been not a single trainer that day to challenge Jasmine, the leader. After Ash Ketchum, along with his friends, had brought back the medicine from Cianwood City (and won his fifth badge there, as well) to cure Sparkle, the sick Ampharos of Olivine’s Lighthouse, he had planned on going to the gym to attempt to win his sixth Johto badge. However, he and Misty decided to compete in the Whirl Cup on the Whirl Islands, so this gym battle would have to wait.

This left Jasmine with nearly nothing to do the last few weeks. Even though at first she didn’t want to have any battles, still being upset about Sparkle, she felt better after just a couple weeks. While trainers were always coming to Olivine City, most of them were disappointed that the Gym had been closed when they arrived, prior to Jasmine recovering. Many didn’t even bother waiting around for it to reopen, and just left to go to the next city. So, with hardly any trainers visiting, and Ash delaying his battle with her, she had almost no challenges lately.

Jasmine looked around at her Pokemon. Her two Magnemite were flying around in circles around each other, perhaps playing some kind of game with each other. Her Steelix, on the other hand, was curled up, taking a nap. Jasmine sighed and leaned against the napping Pokemon. It lazily opened one eye, spotted its trainer, and closed its eye again, grunting its name happily.

“I guess it’s nice having some peace and quiet for awhile, huh?” Jasmine said, and gave her Pokemon a little hug. The Steelix smiled, and rustled its body in comfort.

Suddenly, the two Magnemite started alternately chanting their names quite energetically.

“Hmm? Do you two want to show me something?” Jasmine asked. The two Magnemite seemed to nod eagerly, and flew over to a large boulder lying at one of the Gym corners. The two stopped on opposite sides of the boulder. At once, they started flying around the boulder, always remaining exactly opposite each other. Then, the two started firing a strange beam of energy that went right through the boulder and at the other one, essentially creating a closed beam. Then, the strangest thing happened: the boulder started shrinking! The Magnemite kept doing this routine until the boulder was just one-tenth of its original size, no more than a little stone now.

“Wow!” Jasmine exclaimed, “That was incredible! Did you two just discover this?” The two Magnemite excitedly said their names.

“That’s really cool,” she said. “I’ll bet that will come in handy soon. Well, what do you say we take an evening stroll on the beach tonight, to celebrate finding this new move? You can come, too, Steelix.”

All of her Pokemon happily said their names, to say yes.

By now, it was about 1 PM, and Jasmine was getting a bit hungry, so she decided to eat lunch at the Olivine Café. After quickly scribbling an “Out to Lunch” note (though she doubted anyone would come to see it), hanging it on the Gym door, and saying a quick goodbye to her Pokemon, she daintily walked down the road to the café.

At the Olivine Café, Jasmine pulled up a seat and sat down at the bar. Aside from the owner, there were two other people there: two chubby, muscular sailors sitting together at the table munching away at their hamburgers.

“Hey there, Jasmine. What would you like to eat today?” said the owner with a smile as he came over to her.

“Umm… well… do you think, um, I could have a… seafood chowder? Please?” stammered Jasmine.

“Sure thing. Are you getting something hot today to melt the steel barrier around your heart?” chuckled the owner. The two sailors laughed heartily at this, in between bites of burger.

“I… umm…” she mumbled, her cheeks growing very red from embarrassment at this.

“Relax,” laughed one of the sailors, “Only kidding. Just being friendly with ya!”

“Oh… okay…” said Jasmine, growing even redder. Except for a quick “thanks” after getting her chowder, she paid and ate in silence. The sailors and the owner exchanged lots of laughter and conversation while she did this, as good friends do. As she left, the sailors said goodbye to her, but she left too quickly to respond to this. Hastily walking back to the Gym, she passed by a pretty young woman in a yellow kimono, with black hair pushed back by a headband and a serene look in her eyes. The woman said hello to her, but once again, Jasmine was walking too quick to give a response besides “Umm… hi…” before rushing off again, leaving the woman standing there, confused. Jasmine was deep in thought while she did this, actually.

Why am I so shy around people? she thought. I just wish that I could have fun, laugh, and joke around with a best friend like everyone else. Oh well, I guess it’s always possible I’ll find somebody like that in the near future.

It was 4 PM. Ash, Misty, and Brock, along with Pikachu and Togepi, were relaxing in the Pokemon Center, getting ready for the next Gym Battle and talking about how they did in the Whirl Cup.

“Yes! I made the Top 16!” Ash shouted out.

“Pika!” said Pikachu, energetically in agreement.

“Just make sure you don’t forget who beat you to get a place in the Top 8,” said Misty, smugly.

Ash looked mad at this. However, he lost his composure in just another moment, and started laughing about it. Misty joined in laughing, too. Both were happy about how they did in the tournament.

“Guys,” said Brock, “I don’t mean to interrupt your happy memories, but shouldn’t you be preparing for your battle with Jasmine, Ash?”

“Right, Brock! I can’t wait any longer to win that Mineral Badge!” Ash shouted enthusiastically. Pikachu agreed.

“And we were also going to check out the rest of Olivine City, right? We didn’t really get to explore it that much before; I’d really like to see all the shops it has to offer,” Misty said. In her arms, Togepi happily said something.

‘Hmm… I guess we could relax in Olivine City and do all that stuff for a few days,” said Brock, thinking. “And besides, there are probably all sorts of beautiful girls in Olivine City!” His eyes grew love-struck at this prospect – Misty pulled his ear to bring him back to his senses.

“We can do that, after the gym battle!” said Ash. “You ready to win, Pikachu?!”

Pikachu voiced its agreement.

“Cyndaquil!” yelled Ash, “Burn the Sandstorm with Flamethrower!” Cyndaquil was the second Pokemon Ash was using for the Gym battle. Pikachu had knocked out Jasmine’s Magnemite, but her Steelix easily defeat him. As this was a two-on-two Gym battle, both Ash and Jasmine were down to their final Pokemon. For the last two minutes, the battle was at a standstill. Cyndaquil kept using Flamethrower, but Steelix would just Dig to avoid it. On the other hand, every time Steelix attempted to use Iron Tail, Cyndaquil would easily dodge. Ash finally got the break he needed, though: Steelix using Sandstorm.

“Cyn da QUILL!!!” screamed the Pokemon as fire sprayed from its mouth. The fire made a continuous stream, igniting the Sandstorm. Jasmine’s Steelix became engulfed in a fiery tornado, heavily damaged.

“Steelix!” shouted Jasmine in intense concern. And she was right to be concerned; the Steelix fell to the ground, singed by the tornado and defeated. The match was won by Ash.

“Err, well done Ash,” stammered Jasmine, “You’re, um, a better trainer than me, both in skill and kindness. Um… I guess I should give you this Mineral Badge now…”

As Ash did his usual victory dance sequence after getting a Badge, and as Brock and Misty cheered and congratulated him, Jasmine suddenly thought up an idea.

Maybe this will work, she thought. I guess it’s worth a try…Besides, the Magnemite will be happy to show off their new move again, I’m sure.

 

“Umm, Ash?” said Jasmine quietly, “Do you suppose, well, I could ask a favor of you?”

“Sure, Jasmine,” replied Ash, “What can I do for you? Do you need more medicine for Sparkle?”

“No, well, it’s not that,” she said. “See, while you were at the Whirl Islands, I… was working on a little, um, project. But, you see, there’s this little part, which requires another person’s assistance. And, um, you seemed to be a really trustworthy, nice, and strong boy. Like, err, how you got the medicine for Sparkle. Um, I would tell you what the project’s about now… but it’s really, well, top secret. Only you could really know about it, not your friends, or even Pikachu, I’m afraid. But it would only be for a few days. I was just wondering…” She looked down at her feet, with an incredibly innocent look on her face. Ash didn’t want to disappoint her, especially with how fragile her feelings appeared to be. The group was staying in Olivine City for a couple more days, after all.

Besides, Ash thought, the project could be about rare Pokemon, and that would definitely help me!

“You guys don’t mind exploring Olivine City without me for a few days, right?” asked Ash, turning to his friends. Misty looked a bit sad at this statement, but nodded.

“You sure you don’t want a great Pokemon Breeder like me to help you?!” Brock interjected, with hearts in his eyes. An ear-grab for Misty cleared that up.

Ash knelt down to Pikachu. “You’ll be okay without me, right? It’ll just be a few days,” he said. Pikachu became very saddened by this, but eventually nodded, acting in his trainer’s best wishes. The two exchanged a hug, which became a group hug, adding in Misty and Brock. Misty then turned to Jasmine with a frown.

“You better make sure he’ll be okay throughout this! If Ash gets hurt or something… I don’t know what I’d do!” she snapped.

Jasmine looked surprised and a little frightened by this outburst, but quietly said, “Of course. I would never let him come to any harm.”

Ash, as always, didn’t understand why Misty was getting so worked up about his welfare, but said, “Don’t worry, Misty. I’ll be fine!”


After exchanging lengthy goodbyes, Misty (with Togepi), Brock, and Pikachu left the Olivine Gym, leaving Ash alone with Jasmine and her Pokemon.

“Come with me,” Jasmine said, opening and entering a small door to the back of the Gym. Her two Magnemite followed, but her Steelix was obviously way too large to fit, and had to be recalled to its Pokeball to go through the door. Ash, excited to be a part of a top-secret project, quickly walked through the door, prepared for anything. Well, almost anything.

The room they entered was… Jasmine’s bedroom. No top-secret lab, no super Pokemon training facility, nothing like that. It was just a simple bedroom with walls painted light silver, a bed with light-green sheets and a bedside table on either side, a small blue table with a white chair pulled up to it, hardwood flooring, a wooden bookcase full of books, a small desk with a PC and a computer chair, and a large steel box off to the corner, appearing to contain many dolls. There was also another door off to the side; it was slightly ajar, revealing a closet full of clothes. There was nothing pertaining to any “secret project” here at all.

“Yes, welcome to my humble room,” said Jasmine, smiling a bit.

“It’s nice, I guess,” said Ash, not being an expert on interior decorating, “But where’s this project you brought me here for?” Jasmine sat down on her bed, her legs dangling off the edge. She nodded at her two Magnemite, who were hovering in the corner. At this, they both flew over to her, each sitting on one of her shoulders.

“Well, it’s right here,” she replied. “See, my Magnemite have discovered a strange new move that, well, I don’t believe has ever been discovered before. I was hoping, um, that you could help me by witnessing this, and possibly, you know, explaining it?”

“Okay then,” Ash said, unaware of what the move actually did, “Show me it.”

Jasmine took a deep breath, and then said, “Okay, you two. Do your special new move on Ash, right now.” Just like before, the Magnemite went on opposite sides of Ash. They aimed their magnets out front, facing each other, and fired the strange beam between them. Then, they began circling around Ash, and kept the beam between each other.

“Wow,” said Ash. “That beam kind of tickles. I’m starting to feel sort of funny. What is it supposed to do?”

Jasmine didn’t respond, though she looked a little disappointed in herself for not telling Ash what would happen. Just like the boulder, Ash himself started getting smaller.

“What’s going on? Why is the room getting larger? Huh?!” asked Ash, getting very confused at what was going on. The Magnemite continued firing their beam and spinning until Ash was no more than four inches tall. Then, the Magnemite stopped the beam, and Jasmine returned them to their Pokeballs.

“Well done, guys,” she said, with a very large smile on her face. “I’m so proud of you. I apologize deeply, Ash, for not exactly telling you what was going to happen.”

“You mean you did that on purpose?! Why?!?” demanded Ash, even more confused.

“…I knew I should have told you earlier. I’m sorry,” said Jasmine, losing her smile. “But I guess I should tell you now, then. See, lately, I have felt really lonely. I have seen so many people laughing, joking, and having fun with their friends. But I have always been so shy; I don’t have a best friend like that.

“But when you came along, and acted so nice, friendly, and sweet… I just couldn’t resist trying to become friends with you. And when the Magnemite showed me the new move they learned… it was just a perfect way to let us get closer. I’m sorry about the trouble this has given you. Truly, I am.”

“So now you want to play with me for the next few days? I don’t think so. I want to return to my regular size and go back to Misty, Pikachu, and Brock,” said Ash, his voice cold.

Jasmine looked down, with a very melancholic look to her face. “Very well. I guess I can’t force you to play with me. Never mind.” She sniffed back a couple tears.

Even though he knew that he had been lied to by Jasmine to get into this, Ash realized that it would be cruel to make her this unhappy by saying no. He also knew that Jasmine had promised to take care of him to Misty, so he wouldn’t be in any danger. So, Ash decided it would be better to make her happy than to make her depressed like this.

“Fine,” he said. “You can play with me for a few days. But this is just to make you happy, understand? Don’t blame me if I’m not as fun as you imagined.”

“You just did make me happy!” Jasmine said, her grin instantly returning to her face. She picked up the tiny Ash and hugged him tightly to her chest. Being pressed against the soft fabric of Jasmine’s white dress and her warm skin and body heat, Ash couldn’t resist feeling happy and comfortable. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he had thought. Ash had no idea, however, what would be in store for him later.

By now, it was 6 PM, and the sun was starting to slink down below the horizon.

“Well then, Ash,” said Jasmine, looking down at the tiny boy, “Now that we’ve gotten our introductions out of the way, how about we play a little game right now?”

“Umm, what exactly do you consider ‘a game’ to be, anyway?” asked Ash, a little nervous.

“Hehehe,” giggled Jasmine in a cute yet bewildering tone, “How about something simple, but fun? Like, hmm… hide and seek?”

“I’m guessing you want me to hide?” asked Ash, still concerned. Still giggling, she nodded.

“You better be hidden by the count of ten, or else!” Jasmine said, with a smile on her face. Ash noticed that she seemed to have completely lost her usual shy, stuttering behavior now, swapping it out for a happy, slightly mischievous one instead. He doubted that many people have seen this side of Jasmine before. However, Ash couldn’t exactly stand there and think about this, as he didn’t want to find out what she meant by “or else”.

“1…2…3…” counted Jasmine, sitting on the floor with her eyes closed. Ash looked frantically around the room, searching for a place to hide in.

“4…5…6…” she continued. Ash tried squeezing behind the bookcase, but it pushed too far back against the wall to do this.

“7…8…” continued Jasmine. Quickly, Ash spotted the steel box of dolls. He leapt inside, and became perfectly still, trying to disguise himself as one of the dolls.

“9…10! Ready or not, here I come!” said Jasmine, opening her eyes and turning around.

Ash tried holding his breath, but then remembered that he was small, and so she probably couldn’t hear his breath, anyway.

“Hmm, where could my little Ash be?” said Jasmine to herself. She first checked behind the bookcase (Ash was glad now that he didn’t hide there), then checked in the closet, on and under the desk, around the table, and finally on her bed.

Inside the box, surrounded by dolls, Ash was a little bit concerned about being seen. It was a game, of course, but seeing how Jasmine had been so unpredictable lately, he couldn’t rule out the possibility of a punishment for losing.

Ash watched as Jasmine turned around from looking on her bed. She seemed to look directly at him for a moment; and yet, didn’t seem to see him.

“Ugh, where has he gone?” said Jasmine to herself, appearing to grow a bit of a frown on her face. She gracefully spun herself around once, looking around the room. As much as he didn’t want to, Ash couldn’t help but think she looked attractive when she did that.

“Maybe I’ll just play with one of my dolls while I wait for him to return,” said Jasmine. Ash’s heart skipped a beat at this, but remained still, hoping she would pick one of the other dolls in the box instead of him.

A massive hand, much larger than Ash’s entire body, reached into the box. The skin was completely smooth, clean, and perfect, almost glowing. The fingers were long and slender, and the nails were naturally shiny, needing no nail polish. Being this size, it was very easy for Ash to see that Jasmine’s hands were beautiful. However, this was beside the point, as she was wrapping her fingers completely around Ash’s body (and he was small enough to be completely smothered by her hand). With his vision completely blocked by her skin, Ash could only feel himself being raised above the box, and then lowered back onto the ground. When Jasmine removed her hand from his vision, Ash’s heart skipped another beat: her gigantic sandaled foot was a couple inches above him! “Well, if I can’t find Ash, I might as well take my anger out by stomping on this doll!” she giggled, and slowly lowered her foot down on the tiny “doll”. Ash tried to scream, but his vocal cords didn’t work, for some reason. Trying to run, he just tripped over his own foot, getting nowhere. Cringing, Ash watched as the white sandal ceiling above him slowly but surely lowered itself to meet the floor where he was. As he felt the rubber coming down on his back, he waited for the end.

Except… the sandaled foot didn’t push down anymore. It just rested on his back. Then, Jasmine lifted up her foot entirely, and stepped on the floor completely away from his body. She picked him up with two fingers, grabbing onto the back of his shirt collar, and lifted him up to her enormous (to him) face.

“Hehehe! You didn’t actually think I was going to crush you, did you?” said Jasmine, genuinely laughing. When Ash realized it was just a joke on him, he let out a deep breath.

“Umm, no, no, of course not!” he said, crossing his arms. “But don’t ever do that again! That was so scary!”

“Aww, it’s okay, Ash,” she cooed in a soothing tone, lightly tapping Ash’s nose. “I promised I would never let you come to harm, and I intend to keep that promise. But I won’t do that trick ever again if it scares you. Sorry!” And, just like that, it seemed like all the anger in Ash drained away, replaced by happiness and amusement.

“Well, it was actually kind of funny, now that I think of it. Especially since I’m not the currently under the foot!” Ash said, chuckling.

Jasmine smiled warmly, and gave her little guest a big, warm, comfortable hug, just like before. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, she brought him up to her smooth, pink lips, and gave him a big kiss on the cheek (or, nearly completely covering his cheek, in this case). Ash turned red, just as Jasmine had at the Olivine Café a little while back.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to…” she said shyly (but it didn’t seem to be the same shyness as before).

“Actually, that felt really good! Perhaps I could get used to this,” said Ash, returning to his usual color and sighing a bit in happiness and comfort.

Both of them smiled at each other, savoring the moment, but having no clue what else fate would give them later.

It was about 6:30 now. The sky outside from the bedroom windows was getting a bit dim, and the shadows were getting longer. Ash, tired from the hide-and-seek adventures, was lying down in Jasmine’s warm hand, napping. Jasmine was reading a book, Sabrina Potter and the Everstone, on her bed while he did this. Periodically, she peeked over the book to check on the tiny sleeping boy, making her smile.

Right then, Ash awoke from his quick nap with a yawn and an arm stretch. He stumbled back a bit, shocked that he was standing on a girl’s hand, but then remembered what had happened. Just then, he realized something was missing, though: food for his belly.

“Um… Jasmine?” he asked in a loud tone, just to make sure she could hear him. Jasmine was just at the part where Sabrina Potter finds out it was not Blaine, her biggest suspect, who was trying to steal the Everstone, but Professor Elm, whose body was being used as a host for the evil wizard Giovannimort. He had braved through the many trials of the Everstone Chamber of Swinubacne School of Psychics, and promised to bring Sabrina’s parents back to life now if she gave him the stone. The Everstone could keep a Pokemon from evolving (and thus aging), so Giovannimort wanted to try to use it on himself. Sabrina, of course, was on to this lie, and refused.

But Ash was definitely more important to Jasmine than the book. Grabbing a steel bookmark from the bedside table, she marked her place by putting it in, and set the book aside.

“Yes, my Ash?” she asked to the little Pokemon trainer on her hand.

“I’m a little bit hungry right now. Do you suppose we could get something to eat for dinner?” he replied, his stomach slightly growling.

“Why, of course. Have you ever tried the Olivine Café? Their food is amazing!” she said, getting a growl in her stomach as well just thinking about it.

“Okay,” said Ash, “That sounds great. But I can’t exactly walk into a public place as a four inch kid, can I? What could we do about that?”

“Hmm…” pondered Jasmine, “That is a good question. I can’t exactly leave you here, as somebody might accidentally find you, or hurt or even crush you! And I would never, ever, allow that. But I don’t think the people there would exactly be normal about seeing you…ah!”

“What?” asked Ash, “Did you think of an idea?”
”I sure did!” said Jasmine, with another one of her little giggles. “You can just stay in one of the pockets of my dress while we’re there. I’ll order the food to go, and then we can eat it some place outside together!”

“Heh, good idea,” said Ash. “Wish I had thought of that.” With that, Jasmine picked up Ash, held open the left side pocket of her white dress, and dropped him in. The fabric was very soft and comfortable, and her warm body heat just an inch away was very calming to Ash. He considered taking another nap, but decided against it, just relaxing in her dress pocket instead.

“Alright, let’s go, shall we?” said Jasmine to her pocket as she began to walk out the bedroom door. Ash felt himself lightly being rocked back and forth as she walked. It was a comforting motion to him.

“Pika… pika…” said Pikachu sadly, running down an alley.

“Aww, Pikachu,” said Misty, catching up to and looking down at the Pokemon, “What’s wrong? Do you miss Ash?” Pikachu kept its sad face and nodded.

“Yeah… me too,” she said. “It isn’t often that we’re without Ash. Ahh… I miss his naïve, almost stupid intellect, his bravery towards even almost impossible tasks, his love for Pokemon…”. She sighed.

“Misty, do you like Ash?” asked Brock, beside her.

“Ah… hmm… what?!? O-o-of course not. Um… my bike! Yeah, I want to make sure he’s not getting away without paying for my bike,” floundered Misty, quickly remembering her excuse for staying with Ash.

“Yeah, sure,” said Brock sarcastically, going back to the subject. “I’m sure that Ash is having a great time working with Jasmine right now, anyway. And besides, aren’t we supposed to be having a fun time as well, touring Olivine City?”

“I guess you’re right,” said Misty.

“Come on,” shouted Brock with energy, “Isn’t anyone else hungry for dinner? Let’s try the Olivine Café. People said that their food is delicious – not as good as mine, of course, but delicious nonetheless. There might be some good-looking girls there, too!”

“Chu…” responded Pikachu, with as much enthusiasm as it could give with Ash not there, which wasn’t very much at all. With that, they headed down the alley to Main Street towards the Olivine Café.

“Hey there, Jasmine! Back so soon?” said the café owner as Jasmine walked in through the door.
“Hehe, kind of. Just having dinner with a friend,” she said. She was completely different from how she had shyly acted earlier this day.

“Good to hear you’re not just eating to put a little weight on your ribs!” chuckled the owner. The sailors sitting around the table (and since this was dinnertime, there were many more people now than in the afternoon) all laughed heartily at this.
Jasmine looked embarrassed, almost as if she were going to cry. Then, suddenly… she started laughing, too.

“Good one! But better you than me, right? Your stomach might explode if you eat another burger!” she said, unable to control her laughing. All the sailors suddenly stopped laughing, shocked that the shy, fragile girl they thought they knew suddenly became social, friendly, and able to both give and take jokes, just like them.

“Well, well, well! Looks like somebody’s become a social butterfly in a single afternoon! So, what would you like to eat?” the owner said, smiling.

“Hmm… how about an award-winning fettuccine alfredo?” said Jasmine. She lightly tapped her left pocket, and heard a little “Sounds good!” from there, that only she could hear.

“Just one?” asked the owner. “Didn’t you say that you were going to eat dinner with a friend?”
“Don’t worry. He has a very small appetite. I’m sure we could share one between us on the beach,” she replied, giving a small wink at this, though the only one to understand this was currently in her pocket.

The owner quickly told the chefs in the kitchen behind him this order. Jasmine exchanged friendly conversation with him and some of the sailors eating, waiting for the food to be ready.

“Okay, it comes to 1500 Poke Dollars,” said the owner, bringing out the fettuccine alfredo, wrapped up in a box. As she dipped her fingers into her right pocket to get the money, Jasmine also gave Ash in her left pocket a little tickle. She paid the owner, took the box, and started out the door, all while exchanging friendly goodbyes with all the people there. However, as she opened the door to walk out, she ran right into a red haired girl, a tall black haired, dark skinned boy, and a Pikachu.


All of them stood there in shock, looking at each other for a couple seconds. Jasmine was the first to speak.

“Oh, hey there, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu. I was just getting a little food for me and Ash to enjoy back in the Gym,” she said.

“Where is Ash, anyway?” asked Misty.

“We all just wanted to see him for a little bit,” said Brock. Pikachu agreed.

“Umm, he’s kind of busy right now,” replied Jasmine. “See, the project is very demanding. It might get messed up if he leaves for a bit.”

The three friends all visibly simultaneously sighed in disappointment.

“Any idea when we can see him again?” asked Brock.

“Umm, I’d guess, like in a day or two. The project will probably be done by then,” said Jasmine.

“Pikapika…” murmured Pikachu, thinking about its trainer.

“Don’t worry. Ash has said that he’s been really happy and having fun today, and that he’s been thinking of you guys. I’ll tell him that you miss him as well,” said Jasmine reassuringly.

“Okay…” said Misty. Jasmine left the café now, and the three pulled up seats at the bar.

“So,” said Misty to one of the sailors eating a steak sitting nearby, “What did Jasmine get for Ash and herself?”

The muscular sailor turned around. “She got a fettuccine alfredo.”

“Just one?” asked Brock.

“Yup,” replied the sailor, “She said that her friend had a very small appetite, and would be fine just sharing it with her.” He turned back around to his steak and conversation with his friends.

“Well that sure is odd,” said Misty, “After all, we know Ash. He’s always eating a huge plate of food by himself, if not two huge plates. He’s like a regular human Snorlax. Why would he just share a little plate?”

“I don’t know,” said Brock. “Maybe he was eating snacks before? Or maybe his appetite has gotten smaller? Or he probably just can’t eat too much that isn’t made by me, if I do say so myself!”

Misty snorted at that last statement. “Yeah, sure. Anyway, let’s just try to enjoy a good meal, and then have a fun evening, shall we?”

“Pika chu!” said Pikachu, determined to try to not be sad about being away from Ash. After all, it did have Misty and Brock with it, and its friend Togepi was just resting in the Pokemon Center, probably still eager to play with it.

 

 

The sun was lying halfway above the horizon, and cast a beautiful yellow-orange glow on the sea, as it was about 7:00 PM now. Jasmine sat down on the sandy beach and brought Ash out to let him see it as well, setting the box of food down. This was Route 40, a dead-end for those not wanting to cross the water right outside Olivine City. Looking at that city, there were streetlights and lights and buildings all around, but also a dazzling radiance from the top of the Olivine Lighthouse. Looking very closely, it was possible to see the silhouette of an Ampharos from that light.

“That was your doing, Ash. You know that, right?” said Jasmine, eyes still fixed on the lighthouse.

“Hmm?” said Ash absentmindedly, still daydreaming.

“If you hadn’t journeyed across this vast sea to get to the Cianwood Pharmacy, Sparkle likely wouldn’t be around today. So it’s because of you that Sparkle is still healthy, I’m still in great spirits, and ships can find the Olivine Port without crashing. It’s a debt I still haven’t repaid yet,” explained Jasmine.

“Hey, it’s okay,” said Ash, “Helping people out during my journey is something I like to do. Besides, today has been pretty fun, actually. You’re a really nice girl to hang out with, and I like you.”

At this, Jasmine didn’t smile. However, her eyes showed that she was currently happier than she had almost ever been. She scooped up the little Ash in her arms, and tightly embraced him. As before, Ash fell into a state of bliss being pinned against the soft white fabric of Jasmine’s dress and her smooth, warm arms. After holding him like this for about ten seconds, she then gave him a kiss encompassing his entire face, for approximately another ten seconds. After this, she then just held her arm out to look at him. Ash was a little dazed for a moment. When he recovered, he returned the same not-smiling-but-extremely-happy look to her.

“Sorry for being so sudden,” said Jasmine, “but that was a really nice thing that you just said.”

“You know, even though you have a very shy, timid exterior, you’re one of the most dynamic, affectionate girls I have ever met,” murmured Ash.

“I’m glad I picked you to be shrunk. Any other guy wouldn’t be as nice now as you are,” said Jasmine, deep in thought. She quickly got back into focus, though. “Anyway, we should eat the fettuccine alfredo now, while it’s still hot.” Opening the box, she took out a styrofoam container of noodles covered in the alfredo cheese sauce, a plastic fork and knife, and a couple of napkins.

“Umm, I don’t mean to be rude,” said Ash, looking at the contents of the box, “but how exactly am I supposed to eat this? I don’t think they provided micro-utensils.”

Jasmine thought for a second, and then giggled. “What did people do before they had utensils? Just use your hands. I don’t mind!”

“Okay, if you say so,” said Ash. He walked over to the container, reached in, and pulled out a noodle. After ripping it to create more size-friendly pieces, Ash put one into his mouth.

“Ahh, man,” he said, chewing, “this is delicious! Brock could never make food as good as this, no offense to him.” His face was covered in the alfredo sauce, but he didn’t mind.

“You’re cute when you eat your food so messily, Ash!” said Jasmine, smiling and taking a bite of the noodles herself. “Anyway, yeah, I agree. The Olivine Café is definitely the best place in the city to eat.”

Fifteen minutes later, the container was completely empty, sans a couple stains of alfredo sauce here and there. Ash sat down, stretching his arms and legs.

“Boy, I’m stuffed. How about taking a little stroll down the beach to walk off the food?” he said.

Jasmine opened her mouth to reply, but then a mischievous grin stopped her. “Well, we could do that. But…” She reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a Pokeball. “I was thinking about doing something a little more interesting!” Quickly picking up Ash to keep him from getting crushed from it, she threw the Pokeball, unleashing the enormous 30 foot Steelix (who, to Ash, was absolutely gargantuan).

“What do you say we take a little ride on Steelix instead?” said Jasmine, her mischievous grin still present.

“…You can’t be serious…can you?” said Ash, shaking. “I…I-I don’t want to fall off and die!”

“Hehehe! You worry too much, Ash. Yep, it would be suicidal to ride on Steelix at your size…” Jasmine loudly giggled. Ash sighed in relief. “…that is, without any harness. However…” she continued, looking around and finally settling on the bow on top of her dress, “we could do something about that.” She gently tugged on the ends of the ribbon attached to the bow until it came loose, and then took it off. Holding the bow and ribbon in one hand and Ash in the other, she started climbing up the huge Pokemon. Steelix groaned and wiggled slightly at this, being a bit ticklish, but did its best to stay as still as possible to keep its trainer from falling. When Jasmine finally reached the head, she went over to a thick side spike. After wrapping the ribbon around the top of the spike, she pushed her bow against it and then pressed Ash onto the bow, to provide a soft, cushioning fabric to rest his back on instead of hard diamond. Jasmine finally tied the ribbon tightly in a knot around Ash and the spike.

“Umm… Jasmine… I still don’t think…” stammered Ash.

“Relax, Ash!” said Jasmine. “Steelix always gives a safe, albeit wild ride. Just like a roller coaster!”

With that, she sat down on Steelix’s head between the protruding spikes on it, threw out both Magnemite Pokeballs (releasing the identical Pokemon inside), and grabbed the two spikes tightly.

“Alright Steelix. Let’s go!” With that, Steelix quickly started wriggling across the beach, rapidly picking up speed. It finally capped at a speed about 90 miles per hour.

“WOOOOAAAAHHH!!” shrieked Ash, being wildly whipped around, but still staying inside the ribbon. The Magnemite nonchalantly tagged along at a low speed.
”YEAH!” yelled Jasmine, thrilled at having a “front seat” on the “roller coaster”. Steelix took a giant leap in the air, getting about 50 feet high, and then took a huge dive at the ground. At the very last second before crashing, it leveled itself out, and made a couple high-speed loops and turns. Jasmine screamed out in delight, and let go with one arm, using pure guts. Ash, on the other hand, was just concerned about living at this moment.

Please don’t break, please don’t break, PLEASE DON’T BREAK! thought Ash about the ribbon that held his life.

Steelix made an incredibly fast helix spiral, and then, in a mocking of centrifugal force, made a huge vertical loop in the air. Jasmine screamed in thrill, Ash screamed in pure fear, and the two Magnemite calmly said their names at this. After a couple more turns, Steelix finally decelerated to a halt. It gave out a triumphant growl, and relaxed its body.

Jasmine hopped off, untied Ash from Steelix’s spike, and returned her bow and ribbon to the top of her dress.

“Oh… my… god…” sputtered Ash, still dizzy and terrified from the ride.

“Wasn’t that amazing?” said Jasmine. “I remember a couple of years ago when Steelix first showed its unbelievable speed. It was incredible to experience it the first time. And the vertical loops… I still can’t believe those are possible.” She patted Steelix on its back. “You were amazing. Thanks, Steelix!” The Pokemon gave a loud, happy grunt. Jasmine returned it and the two Magnemite to their respective Pokeballs, and then brought the little Ash up to her face. He seemed to have gotten over his frightened state, and replaced it with a pumped, energetic one.

“That was… so… cool!” yelled Ash. “No roller coaster could ever compare to that!”

Jasmine warmly smiled. “I know! We can take another Steelix ride sometime later, if you’d like.” Ash vigorously nodded at that.

“Now, how about we return to my room? Perhaps we could play another game,” said Jasmine.

“Sure!” agreed Ash. The two talked and laughed as they slowly strolled back to the Olivine Gym. Jasmine was unaware of the two Kanto Gym Leaders and Pikachu sitting on a bench on the sidewalk beside the street. They watched her apparently talk and laugh to herself as she walked towards the Gym, with no Ash in sight.

“Very… suspicious…” said Misty.


“What, do you think something strange is going on?” said Brock.

“Well, you gotta admit,” replied Misty, “From what we’ve seen, she’s acting a little funny. And Ash is apparently ‘too busy to talk to us’, while shee’s just walking around yapping it up and laughing.”

“Pika…” said Pikachu, the facts running through its mind.

“Ah, well. It’s getting kind of late, anyway. We should be getting back to the Pokemon Center,” said Brock.

“You wanna play with Togepi a bit when we get back there, Pikachu?” Misty said, leaning down to the Pokemon. Pikachu raised its paws up, and squealed an affirmative response.

 

“Okay Ash,” said Jasmine to the boy in her hand, “would you like to play something right now?” She was stretched out on her bed, with her arm extended out in front of her to see Ash.

“Umm, I guess. It’s just…” he said slowly, avoiding her eyes.

“Hmm? What? Is there something wrong, Ash?” said Jasmine, a bit of a worried look on her face now.

“I was just really wondering about something. Erm…” mumbled Ash, unsure of how to word what he was trying to say with sounding insulting.

“Well… it’s just… you seemed really shy before. But now, you’re really kind of outgoing right now. But why?” he said. “Sorry if that sounded rude,” he quickly added.

At first Jasmine looked surprised at this, but then she slowly changed the expression on her face into one of realization.

“You’re… right, Ash. I didn’t even notice. But I really don’t know why this has happened. I have just felt really happy and confident. Could it be…?” she thoughtfully murmured.

“What?” he asked, oblivious to the obvious as usual.

“…No, no, it’s nothing. Never mind. I guess I’m not sure myself,” replied Jasmine, descending in volume. “Anyway… I want to show you something cool I made.” She scooped up the little Ash in her hand, hopped off the bed, and walked out her bedroom door. Ash sighed a bit; he didn’t like being so helpless and dependent at this size, especially when his goal was to be a powerful Pokemon Master. However, he was grateful that he was being cared for by such a kind and benevolent yet mischievous and fun girl like Jasmine. Still, she had proved herself very unpredictable and surprising the past day, so Ash had no idea what could be waiting for him.

 

“What is this?!” exclaimed Ash, as Jasmine brought him over to the next room. It was a huge maze that spanned the entire room, which was square and about fifty feet each side. The walls of the maze were all made of pure steel, and they rose up to almost touch the ceiling, about twenty five feet high. The whole room was a shiny silver color, and all sounds were echoed.

“Pretty cool, huh?” said Jasmine to Ash. “I built this about a year ago. It was just to play a little with my Magnemite, but they didn’t really seem to like it. But now…” She turned to the tiny boy. “Ever heard the myth of Theseus and the Tauros?” Ash nodded.

“That was where the boy Theseus journeyed through a big maze to kill the big monster that was trying to eat him in it, right?” he replied.

“Yup,” said Jasmine, grinning a bit. “What do you say we do a little role playing? You try to reach the flag at the center of the maze, and I’ll try to stop you.” Ash looked nervous at this.

“You’re not going to eat me if you catch me… are you?” he anxiously asked. The giantess just smiled at this, making Ash more wary.

“I’ll give you a minute head start,” she said, and threw one of her Pokeballs on the ground. “Here, you can even ride Magnemite.” The Pokemon that was released said its name robotically.

Ash shook his head and tried to protest, but Jasmine had already started counting. Her Magnemite slowly descended to the ground. Ash, not wanting to be caught and eaten, quickly hopped on, straddling the center of it and keeping his legs on the inside of its magnet appendages. The Magnemite then rose back into the air. Ash leaned forward, and suddenly the Pokemon started moving forward, right into the mouth of the maze. The beginning was a T intersection; Ash tried leaning to the right, and Magnemite followed this gesture, turning right.

 

After turning randomly at all the intersections he encountered, Ash stopped for a moment and looked down at his Pokegear watch. According to it, he had been going around for two minutes now. This meant that the “monster” of the maze was already somewhere inside. Leaning to the left, Ash found his way into a narrow, snaking corridor. It went on for a long way, going from one side of the maze to the other. Finally, it ended in a dead end.

“Great,” sighed Ash. “Another dead end. Let’s just find another corridor to go into.” Magnemite said something in its robotic voice and turned around, going back through the long path. Just as it emerged into an intersection, Ash started hearing footsteps, coming from the opposite direction. He quickly leaned towards the right, and Magnemite swerved into another path, stopping right as it turned the corner. Looking around the corner, Ash spied on the intersection that he heard footsteps at. The steps got louder and louder as he waited. Finally, Jasmine appeared at the intersection, and stopped.

“I could have sworn I heard Ash around here,” she said rather loudly. “But where did he go? Hmm…” She turned towards the path that Ash had gone down. Ash held his breath (again, he forgot that his lungs were too small to be heard) and leaned back around the corner, hoping to not be seen. After a couple seconds, Jasmine turned away from this path and instead started walking down the very long one that Ash had just been through.

Ash sighed in relief, and he leaned forward to continue down the path he was one with Magnemite.

While he could still hear Jasmine’s footsteps (after all, they were very loud on his small eardrums), Ash couldn’t tell which way they were headed. Rapidly twisting and turning corners, the footsteps seemed to come from all around him.

“You know which direction she’s coming from, Magnemite?” asked Ash, looking down at the eye of the Pokemon he was sitting on. Magnemite slowly spun around once, twice, and slightly raised its magnet appendages, as if to shrug. Looking up, it seemed to Ash that he was near the center of the room. Turning the next corner, Ash saw a long straight path. At the end of it was… the flag! It was a silver pole with a bright green cloth firmly attached to it.

“Yes!” cheered Ash. “Come on, Magnemite, let’s go to the flag!” Magnemite agreed, and started going faster. They both got closer and closer, until there was only one last intersection between them and the flag. However…

Jasmine suddenly burst out from that intersection, blocking the way to the flag.

“Hello there, Ash!” she said cheerfully with a smile. Quickly whipping out a Pokeball, she recalled Magnemite. Ash started rapidly falling, from the height of twenty feet that Magnemite was hovering at.

 

“King me!” said Brock. He and Misty were playing a game of checkers in their Pokemon Center room. Brock’s pieces were Nidorino, and Misty’s were Nidorina. The king pieces were Nidoking and Nidoqueen.

Misty looked at the board carefully, thinking of a strategy. She had more pieces, but Brock had pushed her into a corner. After half a minute, she just leaned back.

“Meh…” sighed Misty, “This game isn’t really that fun without Ash pouting about losing. Maybe we should just go to sleep. It’s getting kind of late, anyway.”

“Fine, if that’s what you want to do,” said Brock. “But that counts as a win for me!” He slid all the pieces into a box and folded up the checker board.

“I’m just going to brush my teeth. Be back in a second,” he said, disappearing into the bathroom.
Suddenly, Pikachu burst into the room, followed by Togepi. They both looked concerned.

“Hey, Pikachu and Togepi. What’s going on?” Misty asked.

“Pika! Pikapika pi pi. Chu!” explained Pikachu.

“To-to gi!” added Togepi. Obviously, Misty had no idea what they were saying.

“Umm… do you suppose you could explain that a little bit more clearly? Like… charades?” she said.

The two Pokemon looked and whispered at each other. Then, Pikachu went up to one of the windows of the room and pointed at the Olivine Gym. Misty leaned over and looked out, too.

“The gym?” she asked.

“Chu!” Pikachu said, agreeing. Togepi then walked right up behind Pikachu. It followed the electric mouse as the two walked around the room.

“Um… follow? No, that can be right. Wait… it looks like follow the leader. Leader?” The Pokemon made a sound to indicate that she had guessed correctly. Togepi then went in front. It used Minimize, shrinking its body down for three seconds before growing up again.

“Small? Tiny? Shrink?” guessed Misty.

Togepi cheered at the last guess. Finally, Pikachu grabbed a cap that was lying on the nearby table, put it on, turned it backwards, and made a “peace” sign with its fingers.
“Um… Ash? It’s gotta be Ash!” said Misty.

“Pika!” said Pikachu, agreeing.

“So… Jasmine, the Gym Leader, shrunk Ash?” The two Pokemon nodded and spoke vigorously at this.

“Oh no! That’s horrible! We need to do something!” panicked Misty. “I knew I couldn’t trust that Jasmine girl… Let’s go right now… if Brock is finally done brushing his teeth.” She rolled her eyes at that.

 

“WOOAAAHHH!!” Ash yelled, quickly nearing the ground. Thinking fast, he quickly threw out a tiny Pokeball at the ground.
“Bayleef, go!” Bayleef emerged from the Pokeball, giving a shout of her name. She was shrunken as well, about one foot tall.

“Quick, Bayleef! Use a Vine Whip to grab me right now!” said Ash, about ten feet from hitting the floor.
“Bay…LEEF!” she said, shooting vines from her body. The vines wrapped around Ash and securely enveloped him, stopping his drop entirely.

“Bay!” said Bayleef, lowering Ash down to the floor and replacing her vine grasp on him with a friendly hug/tackle, forgetting her size as usual and nearly knocking him to the ground.

“Nice to see you too, Bayleef!” said Ash, “but maybe we should hug later. We have a bit of a problem here.” He pointed at the huge girl who was just standing behind him.

“Very clever, Ash!” said Jasmine. “You did better than I thought. But I bet you can’t get past me!” She reached out to grab him.

“Bayleef, let’s go to the flag now!” said Ash, hopping onto Bayleef’s back. She quickly dashed off to the side of the nearby wall, barely avoiding the fast-approaching hand. Jasmine sat down in the center of the path and stretched her legs out to the sides, completely blocking the way. Bayleef nearly crashed into Jasmine’s leg before backing up, unsure of what to do. Her leg reached all the way to the wall, and was too tall to jump over.

“Well then, Ash. Looks like you’re trapped! Got any more clever ideas?” giggled Jasmine.

“Bayleef, use another Vine Whip! But aim it at the ground!” shouted Ash. Bayleef launched the vine tendrils down and slightly behind herself. This motion pushed her high into the air, clearing Jasmine’s blocking leg. This left just a clear straight for Ash and Bayleef to cover.

Jasmine quickly stood up again and turned around. Seeing Bayleef quickly carrying Ash towards the goal, she sprinted towards the two. With one swift motion, she plucked Ash off Bayleef’s back, and held him in a firm grip.

“Hehehe, it seems as though it’s Game Over for you now, right Ash?” Jasmine laughed, keeping her tight grasp on him. Ash fiercely struggled to get out, but to no avail. He eventually lost the strength to struggle anymore and just lay limp in Jasmine’s hand.

Just as Ash was about to surrender, though, Bayleef realized that her trainer had been taken from her, and turned around to face Jasmine.

“Bayyy… LEEEF!” she shouted, releasing a barrage of Razor Leafs at the hand that held Ash. It worked; Jasmine let go of Ash in pain. Bayleef quickly rushed over to catch him on her back.

“Thank you so much, Bayleef!” whispered Ash, still weak from being held. Bayleef rushed to the flag at a breakneck speed. Jumping off her back, Ash finally grabbed onto the silver pole of the flag.

 

“Amazing, Ash! I never thought you’d be so resourceful and clever. That was a truly incredible game,” said Jasmine enthusiastically, walking over to the tiny Ash at the flag. She picked him up, brought him to her face, and gave him another large kiss, making him blush horribly. Bayleef, who was still there watching this, stomped over to Jasmine’s foot and whacked it very hard with the leaf on her head, as if to say, “No girl messes with my Ash!”

 

Back in Jasmine’s room, it was about 10 PM now. Jasmine was in her pale turquoise nightgown; Ash, not carrying any pajamas with him, was still in his regular clothes.

“It’s getting kind of late now. We should be going to bed soon, shouldn’t we?” said Jasmine, yawning.

“Um, yeah,” said Ash, “but… what do you mean by ‘we’?” He had a puzzled look on his face.

“Well, since you were victorious in the labyrinth,” explained Jasmine, “I figured I should give you a bit of a reward.” She hopped onto her bed and picked up Ash. Lying down, she placed him on her chest, and pulled up the covers.

“Is that comfortable for sleeping, Ash?” she asked. Ash felt very comfortable indeed, resting on the silk nightgown and warmed by her body heat.

“This is great!” he replied.

Jasmine leaned over to the lamp on her bedside table, and switched it off.

“Good night, Ash. See you in the morning,” she murmured. Ash made a happy grunt in response. This is the life, he thought to himself. The two relaxed in the bed, slowly tiring. After twenty minutes, they both were drifting in and out of sleep.

 

Suddenly, a knock on the door jolted them awake. There was also an unmistakable feminine voice behind the knocking.

“Ash! Don’t worry! We’ve come to rescue you!”


“Jasmine, what the HECK were you thinking?!” shouted Misty. She, Jasmine, Brock, Pikachu, and Ash were all sitting around on the ground of the Olivine Gym. Jasmine was back in her day clothing, not wanting to speak a difficult conversation in her nightgown. Pikachu held his trainer in a tight embrace, not letting go of him for anything.

“It’s just good that Togepi knew Future Sight and saw this coming, and Misty could figure out what he and Pikachu were saying,” said Brock.

“Um, I’m really sorry. Erm, I mean… uh…” stammered Jasmine, devoid of all her confidence in speech that she had gathered that evening.

“Yes?” said Misty impatiently.

“Uh… aw, what the heck. I might as well explain it all,” quietly mumbled Jasmine.

“Yeah, that would be a good thing to do,” said Brock coldly.

 

“Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. As you obviously know, I am not exactly the most social girl in the world. It seems like I’m shy to the point of socially awkward, and, well, I’m not exactly happy with that. When I see everybody else all around me, chatting, laughing, and goofing around with their friends… it just makes me sad and lonely. And lately, more than ever, I’ve felt especially sad and lonely.

As I already explained to him, that’s when Ash came into the picture. When he came here to the Olivine Gym, I was just totally overcome by his kind, friendly attitude; I just couldn’t resist trying to make friends with him. Of course, Ash would never have noticed me if I had just tried to befriend him directly. So I was forced to win him over another way. It was all perfect; my Magnemite learning the shrinking move and Ash coming at the same time.

“So, yes, I shrank him. At first, he was a bit unhappy and skeptical of being small, but as the day went on, it seemed as if we both loved this. And my plan worked: I lost all my shyness and inability to socialize when I began to play with Ash. And, well… to be honest, I felt a really warm, bliss sense of happiness when we were together, unlike anything I have ever felt before. Just as if, well, it was meant to be.”

“Is that all true, Ash?” asked Misty, turning to her friend.

“…Yes, all of it,” said Ash slowly. “It seems like something just clicked when we started playing together; Jasmine overcame her shyness, and we both got the really blissful sense of comfort and happiness together. To tell you the truth, I felt happier this evening than I have ever felt in quite a long time…”

Everyone was silent for about a minute. They all just looked at each other. Misty kicked a pebble that was near her. It echoed loudly as it rolled and bounced away.

“Chu…” whispered Pikachu, loosening its grip on Ash a bit.

“So… where do we go from here?” asked Brock, finally breaking the silence.

“Well, I was thinking that perhaps Ash and I could—” began Jasmine.

“I’ll tell you where we go now!” interrupted Misty. “We run on over to Mahogany Town. And then Blackthorn City. AKA, Ash returns to his journey with us to become a Pokemon Master!”

Jasmine gave out a sigh, and then turned to Misty.
“I suppose that would be the best thing to do, even if it’s what I don’t want. But I am being selfish here,” she said. She then turned to the little Ash. “Ash, it wouldn’t be right to just sit around and talk about your fate as if you weren’t here. What would you like to do, Ash?”

Misty sighed loudly, venting a bit of air. “Yeah, I suppose that would be for the best. Ash, I leave the decision on where you’d like to go now up to you.”

Ash looked around the room. All eyes were on him now.

“Okay, okay, I’ll decide. But can I just have a moment to be alone and sort out my thoughts?” he said.

Brock nodded, and the girls did as well after a second. All of them, including Pikachu, walked outside the Gym.

 

Five minutes passed. Pikachu got restless and wandered around.

“Do you suppose he’s made up his mind yet?” asked Misty.

“Probably. I’ll go back and see how he’s doing,” said Jasmine. She opened the glass door of the Gym and went inside. However, inside, Ash wasn’t where he was before. In fact, he was nowhere to be found.

“Ash? Where are you?” called Jasmine. “Oh no! What if he’s in trouble? What if he’s gone?! I better find him, fast!”
Jasmine frantically scanned the interior of the room. Come on, where are you, Ash? she thought. She turned over a couple of boulders lying around; Ash wasn’t hiding behind any of them. Suddenly, she heard a faint shout, coming from the back of the room.

“Ash? Is that you?” She ran over to where the sound was coming from: the transparent water pipes.

Indeed, a little Ash was swimming with all his might against a hopelessly strong current. “Waaaaaahhh!” he shouted, losing his strength to fight the water. Ash started drifting down the pipe, towards the end of the room.

Jasmine gasped, but was able to think clearly again after a moment.

“Steelix, go!” she shouted, throwing the Pokeball on the ground. The huge, towering Pokemon was released from the ball, and gave a loud growl.

“Steelix, use Iron Tail on the pipe!” she screamed. Ash was getting closer and closer to his doom at the end of the pipe. Luckily, Steelix had this. With a huge roar, it swung its tail full-force at the pipe. It was made of a very strong and durable substance; however, it was no match for Steelix’s Iron Tail. The pipe shattered with a loud bang, spilling a ton of water all over the floor. The tiny Ash went tumbling down the pipe, towards the break. He slid down through the crack and onto the flooded ground. Water was still gushing out of the pipe, though, and directly splashing onto him. Ash was unconscious by this time; his body was just getting tossed by the water all over the place.

Jasmine quickly thought up what to do. Without a word, she reached out, grabbed the unconscious Ash, ran over to one of the bigger boulders, and sat down on top of it. She placed Ash onto her lap and looked down at him. Ash looked as if he had gotten water stuck in his lungs. Knowing nothing better to do in this situation, she turned him over onto his back, and pressed on it with her finger. Ash started coughing roughly, and after a few hacks, spit out a great deal of water. After this, he began to regain consciousness again.

“… … Jasmine? … … Is that you?” said Ash weakly, squinting at the giant girl whose lap he was sitting in. “… What… happened?” Jasmine started to cry in relief at this point.

“Oh, Ash! I thought I’d lost you! You got knocked unconscious inside the water pipe! Steelix was able to break it open to make you fall out, thankfully. I’m just so happy that you’re okay!” she sobbed. Ash managed to sit up, and looked around at the flooding water. Jasmine picked up Ash and rubbed her dress against his entire body, drying all the water off of him. Ash felt a bit smothered by this, but it seemed to him to be in a good way, and he was certainly thankful of Jasmine for saving his life
“…You did all this just for me?” he said. “I’m kind of shocked right now – and not the kind that comes from Pikachu when it’s annoyed! After I had just tripped off the big boulder next to the pipe over there… I hadn’t imagined at all that I’d come close to death… Thank you so much for that: saving me even though you didn’t have to.”

“What? Of course I had to, Ash,” said Jasmine, “What would I do if you had died? You’ve helped me so much today, and I owe you all that, and more. Ash…” She slowed down now, carefully pronouncing her words.
“Ash… I… I… I love you…” she blurted out, blushing red as she did. “I know that it might not work out between the two of us… but still… I just had to tell you this.” Without another word, Jasmine grabbed Ash in another one of her signature hugs. As usual, Ash was pressed against her smooth, warm skin and the cool, soft fabric of her dress. They just stood there for a good two minutes, staying in the hug. The only sound throughout this moment was the gushing sound of water flowing through the break in the pipe. Steelix stood in the corner of the room, curious as to what was going on between its trainer and the boy. Deciding to make itself useful, it extended to full height in order to reach a rusty red lever on one of the higher water pipes. Pushing the lever down, the gushing water slowly slowed down, until it was completely turned off.

“Jasmine…” said Ash, looking up, “I… sort of love you too…”. He turned redder than Jasmine did before. Jasmine didn’t say anything, but just kept on holding the small Ash. A couple more minutes passed. Eventually, Ash asked Jasmine a question.
“What about Brock and Misty? Where are they? And how are we going to explain our feelings about each other to them?” he asked.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” said a familiar voice. Both Ash and Jasmine quickly looked up to see Misty and Brock at the door of the Gym. “We heard all that you had to say just now.”

 

Jasmine quickly set Ash down and opened her mouth to explain. Before she could, though, Misty waved her off.

“Don’t worry,” she said, “You don’t need to explain. I saw how you saved Ash from being lost in the water pipe, and then saving him from drowning. The very least I could do is let you show your love to him.” Even as she said this, she gave a sigh.

“Let’s just all go to sleep now. It must be past midnight now. We can pick this up again in the morning. Perhaps, we could meet back here at 9 tomorrow?” said Brock, trying to edge away from the tough subject they were experiencing at the moment. Jasmine exhaled deeply then, and looked towards her room. Miraculously, the flooding didn’t reach the room. Saying their goodbyes, Ash and Jasmine walked into the room at the back of the Gym, and Misty and Brock walked out the door and towards the Pokemon Center. Steelix decided to clean up the mess it made earlier while everyone else slept, and started sucking up the water on the ground and spitting it back out outside. Pikachu gave a little cry and ran towards Jasmine, catching up to her carrying the little Ash towards her room.

“Pika!” it cried, making it clear that it wasn’t going to leave Ash now that it had finally found him again. And so, the night in which so much happened finally came to a close.

 

The sun had risen from its point at the horizon beyond the sea, into the sky. Rays of sunlight poked through the window of Jasmine’s bedroom, giving the room a bright, natural glow. It was approximately 6 AM at this time, and Jasmine, an early bird, gracefully opened her eyes as she awoke. Feeling a slight tickle, she looked down to see the tiny Ash curled up on her chest stir slightly, rolling over in his sleep. He had a smile on his face, as if he was experiencing a happy dream. Jasmine had to smile herself at how little and cute this “big Pokemon master” was as he slept. With extreme care to prevent him from waking up, Jasmine picked up Ash and lightly placed him on her pillow. Adjusting to this new surface in his sleep, Ash’s smile shrank a bit, no longer sleeping on the soft fabric and warm skin of before. Silently slipping out of bed, Jasmine gave a big yawn and proceeded to do her morning activities for getting ready for the day.

 

An hour later, Ash awoke to find himself alone on the bed, sleeping on the pillow. Looking around, he couldn’t find Jasmine anywhere in the bedroom. Scratching his head, he leapt down from the pillow onto the bed, which was fully made.

“Jasmine,” he called, cupping his hands around his mouth, “Are you there?”

“Hi!” shouted the girl’s voice, right in his ear. Ash jumped back about five feet in surprise. There was Jasmine right behind him, fully dressed and ready for the day.

“WHOA! Jeez, Jasmine, is it because I look cute or something when I’m scared from behind that you like to do it?!” Ash yelled, still startled. Jasmine grinned and giggled, quite pleased with what she had done.

“As a matter of fact, yes, you do! And it’s fun scaring people who easily get startled!” she laughed. Ash shook his head, but after a few seconds couldn’t resist laughing as well. Then, after a bit, Jasmine stopped laughing, and her face turned serious.

“Listen, Ash… I think we need to talk about what you’re going to do now,” she said, looking him directly in the eye.

“I was thinking a little bit last night, and Brock and Misty agreed with me on this. You saved my life, gave me one of the happiest, most relaxing days I have ever experienced, and overall showed me that you care immensely about me. What kind of person would I be to just ditch you like that? I will stay here with you. Brock and Misty are okay with it,” he explained completely. Jasmine looked for a long time at him, and then turned away, uttering a single syllable: “No…”

“What?” cried out Ash, “What do you mean? I really want to stay with you!” Jasmine took a deep breath.

“Yes, I’m sure you think you do,” she said. “But… what about later? In a year, for instance. Can you be sure that you won’t feel empty and bored with your life by then without the thrill of Pokemon training? You are just a little kid, Ash. You still have so much to do. You can’t just retire from being a Pokemon trainer and leave the dream of being a Pokemon Master unfinished. My place is here in the Olivine Gym, but you need to get out and see the world while you still can!

“If you made a pledge to yourself to stay true to your dream, that’s what you must do. I’m just one more stop in your quest; you can’t stop now. And it would be extremely selfish of me to let you do it. After you beat the Pokemon League and become a champion; that’s when you can decide to stay with me. But you didn’t make it this far just to stop entirely. I can’t, with a conscious mind, allow you to stop it all just for me.”

Ash pondered this for a moment, and then answered, “But Jasmine! You saved my life. I’m in debt to you for that. And I know that you’d really like me to stay with you here. No getting around that. The least I can do for you is to stay here with you and make you happy this way. The Pokemon League can wait.”

Jasmine shook her head and slightly narrowed her eyes. “Ash, sorry, but that’s where you’re wrong. If you stayed with me instead of keeping with your journey, what would happen then? How would Pikachu feel about just sitting around all day instead of running in the fields and ThunderShocking its opponents into submission?

“And what about the rest of your Pokemon? You’re just going to keep them in their Pokeballs all the time from now until who-knows-when? Or if you release them or trade them all away; that’s like getting rid of your friends. I highly doubt that you’d think this would be right. You want to repay your debt to me? Go. Go out, and become that Pokemon Master. Then you can come back and stay here.” She let out her breath. “Sorry for being so assertive there,” she added.

Ash rubbed the back of his neck, choosing his words carefully. “I never thought about it that way. In that case, I guess I really don’t have a choice. I have to be like Odysseus: resist the urge to stay on Calypso’s island, and continue the journey ahead. I just feel kind of bad leaving you, when I do really like you.”

Jasmine reached over towards Ash and gave him a little tickle. “Don’t be. You helped me realize how to overcome my shyness, and gain confidence. I really like you too, Ash, and I’d like more than anything for you to stay here with me. But I just can’t allow myself to interfere with your dreams. You only live once, so live the best life you can, Ash!”

With that, Jasmine closed her hand around Ash. While Ash had felt this many times during this incident, he never got tired of having Jasmine’s perfect skin enveloped around him. The feeling of Jasmine’s warm, smooth lips on his own lips was also great to him; the two stayed in the kiss for seemingly hours. Eventually, Pikachu awoke from sleeping on the floor.

“Pika!” it cried, surprised at its trainer kissing the huge girl. However, neither of them heard it.

 

Misty and Brock, backpacks filled, were standing outside the Olivine Gym, with Pikachu at their side. The automatic door slid open, and Jasmine stepped out, holding Ash. Walking towards the Kanto Gym Leaders, she placed him down in front of them.

“Well guys, looks like its time to get moving. We’ve got to go to Mahogany Town!” shouted Ash to his friends.

“Umm… that’s great, Ash, but aren’t you still a little small to be traveling to the next town?” said Brock.

“Hehe, that’s right. I guess I should restore you back to your regular size, Ashy-boy!” Jasmine giggled. Reaching into her pocket, she took out two Pokeballs. Tossing them on the ground, the pair of Magnemite emerged into the air.

“Okay, you two,” said Jasmine, “please restore Ash to his former size!” The Magnemite responded with beeps and spun around Ash like before. However, nothing happened this time, and there was no beam between them. The Magnemite then stopped and looked at their trainer.

“What’s the matter? Aren’t you going to make Ash grow back?” asked Jasmine. The two Magnemite slowly looked at each other, then at Jasmine, with a slow mechanical whirring sound.

“You… do know… how to make things grow… don’t you?” she managed, realizing the truth.

“Am I going to have to stay small for the rest of my life?” asked Ash. Jasmine suddenly burst into tears, sitting on the ground.

“What have I done?!” she sobbed. “Ash… I am such a stupid girl… I never thought that you wouldn’t be able to grow again… I-I’m so sorry.” Ash ran over to her, climbed up her body to her face, and wiped away her warm, salty tears.

“There, there,” he comforted her, “it’s okay. You shouldn’t blame yourself. How could you have possibly known that I wouldn’t be able to grow back again? I’d assume the same if it happened to me.” Jasmine stopped crying and looked up.

“Th-thank you, Ash,” she mumbled, “but still. How are you going to live your life as a tiny person? This is… terrible!”

“Hmm, it could be worse,” he replied, “I’m still alive, happy, and healthy. And besides, it’s kind of cool being small like this. It’s like a new perspective on life.” He was acting unusually calm for this sudden turn of events. Jasmine kept weeping, murmuring under her breath about how dumb and foolish she was. Brock, Misty, and Pikachu were just standing there in shock, not saying a word.

Suddenly, a loud grumble came from inside the Gym. As everybody turned around towards the sound, the door slid open, and out came Steelix, all thirty feet of it. Before anybody could do anything, it let out a deafening roar and charged right at the miniscule Ash. Ash tried to run backwards, but obviously couldn’t outrun a gargantuan steel snake, even if he were at his regular size. Stopping right before him, Steelix started hacking its throat, appearing to be collecting spit in its mouth. Before Ash could run away, Steelix opened its mouth and spit a stream of glowing green liquid all over him.

“Bleaugh!” shouted Ash, spitting out some of the spit that had accidentally gotten in his mouth. His entire body was drenched in the liquid.

“Steelix!” scolded Jasmine in between her tears, “Don’t spit on people! That’s very rude!” Steelix closed its eyes and gave out a low groan at this, turning away.

“Wait… something’s happening, I think!” said Ash. “I feel kind of… bigger and stronger!” Indeed, his body appeared to be stretching in proportions.

“Ash! What’s going on?!” cried Misty, running towards him. The green liquid seemed to actually be absorbing into his body, making him rapidly grow in size. After about a minute, everyone gave a gasp: Ash was back to his regular size!

“Wow, who would have guessed that Steelix’s spit actually makes people grow? Cool! Thanks a lot, Steelix!” cheered Ash.

“Ooh, Steelix, you’re the best!” squealed Jasmine, hugging the steel body of the helpful Pokemon. Steelix gave out a humble little growl, happy with the attention it was.

“Yes! You’re okay, Ash!” shouted Misty in delight, squeezing him in a super-tight hug.

“Chu!” cried Pikachu, dashing over to Ash and hugging him as well. Brock smiled sheepishly and shrugged, joining in on the group hug. As Ash was back to his regular size, the group was reunited, so the adventure could continue.

 

“Well, I guess we’re off to the next town,” said Misty, looking out at the route leading out of Olivine City.

“Toki-toki!” agreed Togepi in her arms. The group was right outside the outskirts of the city. The sun was shining brightly overhead, lighting up the leaves of the trees nearby. It was the day after Ash had been restored to his regular size, and they were finally ready to move on. As they began to walk out, there suddenly came a voice from behind.

“Pika?” wondered Pikachu, looking around.

“Ash! Wait up!” Jasmine gasped, dashing down the lane. Reaching the group, she stopped to catch her breath.

“Hey, Jasmine,” said Ash, “did you forget something?”

“Ahhh…yes,” puffed Jasmine, “I nearly forgot to give you these.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out two discs: one was tinted bright yellow, and the other was a mix of blue and red.

“I was just thinking about giving you a little memento of your stay here in Olivine City. Then, I thought it would be a great idea for you to keep the moves that brought on our experience. So, I burned the two moves that my Pokemon used on you onto some TMs.” She handed the two TM discs over to Ash, who opened up his backpack and stuffed them inside.

“Hope you like it. And I hope that if you do ever teach one of your Pokemon Shrink Beam or GrowthSpit, you’ll think of me when you use it.”

“Wow, thanks, Jasmine!” exclaimed Ash. He then lowered his voice. “Well… I guess this is goodbye, then?” Jasmine pulled Ash in close to her, and gave him one more of her kisses.

“Don’t worry, Ash. It won’t be for forever. After you become a big Pokemon Master, I hope you’ll return to Olivine City and come visit me again,” she whispered in his ear.

“I definitely will. Jasmine… for everything… thanks,” he whispered back. With that, exchanging their goodbye waves, Ash and his friends exited Olivine City, not to return again until after the adventure is done.

 

Jasmine watched as the friends got smaller and smaller on the horizon, until she couldn’t see them at all anymore. She gave a sigh.

Well, I guess it’s time to return to my regular lifestyle again, she thought. Walking back into the heart of Olivine City, she suddenly bumped into somebody. It was the same woman wearing a kimono that she had passed two days ago.

“Hey there,” she said to the woman, attempting to start a conversation.

“Ah! Hello,” said the woman, with a soft voice. “You were the girl from a couple of days ago, correct? I must apologize for trying to speak to you when you seemed so busy before.”

“No, no, no,” replied Jasmine, “Please. It was my fault that I acted a bit rude before. I’m sorry about that. Say, what’s your name, anyway?”

“My name is Erika,” she said, “I am taking a vacation right now, away from being the Gym Leader at Celadon City in Kanto. May I ask yours?”

“Wow, the Erika of Celadon City? It’s a pleasure and honor to meet you. I’m Jasmine, the Gym Leader here in Olivine City.”

Erika smiled. “The pleasure is mine. You seem to be a very nice young lady.”

“Aw, thanks,” responded Jasmine, “Seems like we could be good friends. So, where else are you planning on going in your vacation?”

“Hmm,” said Erika, “I was thinking about going to Sunyshore City in the Sinnoh region, and participating in some of the Super Contests there. Maybe you’d care to join me?”

Jasmine beamed. “Sure, that sounds great, Erika!” The two new friends started walking down the street, continuing their conversation.

Didn’t Ash once say that he’d be going to the Sinnoh region after he goes through Johto and Hoenn? she thought. Suddenly, her mischievous grin returned to her face.

Perhaps we will meet again a bit sooner, Ash, thought Jasmine to herself.


END