I stared at the floating pink kitten in front of me, and then at the seven-year-old boy standing beside it. The world felt like it had tilted about forty-five degrees to the left.
"So... Ash," I said, my voice cracking slightly. "The friend you mentioned... the one you were playing tag with... is Mew?"
Mew. The Mythical Pokémon. The creature rumored to contain the genetic map of every single Pokémon in existence. According to the research papers I'd stayed up all night reading back in Sinnoh, Mew was a ghost story—a legend that only appeared to people with hearts as pure as freshly fallen snow. It was invisible to human eyes, undetectable by sensors, and yet here it was, giggling and doing a backflip in the air.
"Yeah!" Ash replied, sounding as casual as if he'd just introduced me to a neighbor's Pidgey. "I met Mew several years ago when I came to play on the back mountain. After that, I ran into it almost every time I came back. We're really good friends. Right, Mew?"
"Miu~!" The pink cat chirped, looping around Ash's head.
Several years ago... I thought, rubbing my temples. Kid, you're eight. You met a god when you were practically in diapers? But then I looked at Ash—at the absolute, unshakeable kindness in his eyes—and then at his future. This was the kid who would eventually befriend every Legendary from Lugia to Arceus. Suddenly, being surprised felt like a waste of energy. It was Ash. Of course he was best friends with a Mythical Pokémon before he could even tie his own shoelaces.
"Truly worthy of you, Ash," I muttered, covering my forehead. "I should have known."
Mew saw me covering my face and tilted its head. Thinking I had a headache, it drifted over and reached out a tiny, soft pink paw. The moment it touched my forehead, a warm, blue light pulsed from its fur. A strange, tingly sensation washed over my brain, like a mild static shock that tasted like peppermint. Then, it zipped back to Ash's shoulder.
"Ash," I said, my eyes snapping open as I pulled out my camera. "Could I... could I please take a photo of you and Mew together? I promise, on my life as a Researcher, I will never show this to anyone without your permission."
Ash looked at Mew. "Well, Mew? Is it okay? Julian's a good guy!"
Mew circled me once more, its large blue eyes peering into my soul. It seemed to sniff the air around me, sensing the "Fairy" energy of my partners and the honest excitement in my heart. After a moment, it gave a happy somersault and nodded.
"He said yes!" Ash cheered.
Click.
The shot was perfect. A young boy with lightning-bolt cheeks and a messy black-and-blue mane, grinning beside a pink legend in a field of swaying flowers. It was a photo that would make every scientist in the world faint from shock, but for now, it was just a souvenir of a friendship.
As we walked back to the camp, I felt... weird. My head was buzzing, and every time the wind blew through the trees, I felt like I could hear the leaves "talking."
"Brother Julian, aren't you going to take a photo with us?" Ash asked.
"No, Ash," I said, shaking my head. "Mew is your friend, not mine. I'm just happy I got to witness it. But listen—when we get back, you need to give Professor Oak a massive apology for scaring him, okay?"
"I know, I know," Ash groaned, kicking a pebble.
We found the main group soon after. Ash apologized, Oak did his "stern grandpa" routine before hugging the boy in relief, and I spent the rest of the evening in a daze. After a long dinner, I retreated to my tent, my head feeling like it was stuffed with angry Beedrill. A constant, low-frequency hum was vibrating in the back of my skull.
"Is it the Kanto air? Did I eat a bad berry?" I muttered, curling up in my sleeping bag.
I fell into a restless sleep, only to be woken up by the buzzing growing louder. It wasn't just noise; it was like I could feel the presence of everyone in the camp—the sleeping children, the guards, the wild Rattata scurrying under the floorboards.
I fumbled in the dark for my flashlight, but my hand accidentally knocked into two Poké Balls on the nightstand.
Pop!
Sylveon jumped out, her ribbons glowing faintly in the dark.
"Sylve-on? (Jing? Is something wrong? You feel... loud.)"
"Oh, sorry, Sylveon," I whispered, rubbing my eyes. "I was just looking for the flashlight and bumped your—"
I froze.
I had understood her. Not just the "vibe" or the "intent." I had heard her words as clearly as if she had spoken English.
"Fly? Fly-ah? (Jing? Why are you staring? Your face is doing that weird thing again.)"
"Sylveon..." I whispered, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Say that again. Anything. Talk about the weather."
"Sylveon! (Say what? Are you crazy? It's the middle of the night! Go to sleep!)"
"I can understand you," I gasped, staring at her. Wait—it was pitch black in the tent, yet I could see her outline perfectly. Not with my eyes, but with a strange "sense" of her shape and energy. "And I can see you, even though it's dark."
"Sylve-on! (You really can?! That's amazing!)" She bounced on the sleeping bag, her ribbons wrapping excitedly around my arm.
"Let's check Floette," I said, my hands shaking. I released the second ball.
"Flo-ette? (Ugh, it's too early for snacks...)" Floette muttered, rubbing her eyes with a tiny hand.
I confirmed it. I could hear them both. But when I looked toward the tent flap and saw a wild Rattata sniffing at the trash can outside, all I heard was a series of "Squeak-squeaks." I couldn't understand the wild Pokémon at all.
I didn't sleep for the rest of the night. I sat cross-legged on the grass outside my tent, with Sylveon and Floette guarding me. I closed my eyes and focused on the "buzzing" in my head.
Slowly, I realized it wasn't a headache. It was Aura.
The Mythical Pokémon Mew, seeing my "headache" yesterday, hadn't just healed me. It had sensed the dormant Aura within me and—in its infinite, playful wisdom—unlocked it. Every living thing has Aura, but for humans, it's usually like a locked door. Mew had simply turned the key.
Because the power was fresh, my brain was being overwhelmed by "feedback" from the world around me. I could understand Sylveon and Floette because our hearts were already synced after a year of living together; my Aura recognized theirs instantly. The Rattata, however, was a stranger.
"So that's it," I whispered as the first rays of dawn began to peek over the Pallet Town horizon. "Mew didn't just give me a blessing. It gave me a new way to see the world."
The "noise" in my head finally began to settle into a calm, steady rhythm. I could feel the life force of the forest breathing around me.
"You two stayed up all night with me," I said, looking at my tired partners. "Thank you. I think I've finally figured out how to turn the volume down on this new power."
"Flo-ette... (Good, because I'm going to sleep for a week...)" Floette drifted into her Poké Ball.
"Sylve-on! (We're proud of you, Jing!)" Sylveon nuzzled my hand one last time before returning as well.
I stood up, stretching my stiff limbs as the rest of the camp began to wake. I looked toward the deep forest where Mew lived, and then toward Ash's tent.
"Thank you, Mew," I whispered. "And thank you, Ash. I have a feeling this journey just got a lot more interesting."
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