Descent (Pokemon Anime/Drabble/One Shot - Ash Finally Won, It Sucked)

[0Jordinio0]

The cheers of the crowd chanting his name rang in Ash's ears. Professor Kukui, his mentor and teacher beamed at him with pride and Gladion's eyes were filled with respect. But even with all of that, even with winning the Alola League, all Ash Ketchum felt was utter despondent disappointment.

He had won a major regional league tournament, but it didn't fill him with any sense of accomplishment, all it felt, was hollow. This wasn't what he wanted to achieve. There was no learning experience for him to grow from this.

He hadn't even been trying hard. This had been a holiday, learning from school had been a decent fun change, but he hadn't done any extensive training during his time in this region at all, he hadn't even been in Alola for all that long, only a few months.

Gladion was a good trainer, prodigal even, just as talented as the likes of Paul and Alain. But unlike them, Gladion hadn't had the kind of crucibles he and his major rivals went through to hone their strength and skill. There was only so far Gladion could take his pokemon with training, until he felt complete and utter defeat, there was little growth he could make as a trainer himself.

There wasn't one pokemon in this entire league tournament he'd battled, that he couldn't have just utterly bulldozed his way through with Charizard, Sceptile, Infernape or Greninja. Even Pikachu, as rusty as he was since taking it easy after the debacle of the Kalos League, hadn't had too much trouble, and he still wasn't fully up to par with his past self from when he took on Tobias' Latios.

So yes, Ash was disappointed. He'd learned nothing from this league, his opponents used cookie cutter strategies that any generic league trainer would learn in their first few weeks of training, for Arceus' sake, Lilie and the others were allowed to compete.

There was nothing like a gym challenge for this league to hone the trainers up to epic levels of power, the only ones who even came close to true league competitors were Guzma and Gladion, Hau couldn't even beat Rowlet his his strongest pokemon, and Rowlet had the least training out of all his new pokemon bar Melmetal, and even then his mythical pokemon after evolving had such a vast amount of sheer power in contrast to Rowlet that it let the grass type starter pokemon the utterly weakest pokemon he had.


Ash sighed, staring up into the sky, "This isn't what I wanted," he whispered to himself. It was almost enough to make that old red hot anger he used to let fuel him early on rise up to the surface.

It felt like, he'd taken a step back. Multiple. Sliding even further back than he had in Unova. He wished way when he first met Gladion he re-challenged him after letting Rockruff have a shot and utterly crushed him with one of his older pokemon. He wished he brought some of his older pokemon just to show those around him the kind of things they could rise up to if they dedicated enough. Instead, it felt like he'd been given the ticket to his dream on a silver platter.

Without ever earning it at all.

This wasn't an ascent. "It's more like a descent," Ash gritted his teeth. Closer to a novice than a master. He couldn't believed he had at all felt excited at the idea of becoming the first champion of the Alola League. The prize money, the hall of fame, the trophy, what did that matter? It was all empty platitudes.

Paul would be disgusted at the very idea of taking pride in such a farce, even Alain would pity him.

He couldn't take any satisfaction in this journey at all. Sure he had a bunch of rare pokemon, one even a mythical at that, near enough a legendary. But he'd been content to just relax his way through this journey. Why hadn't he caught those rare pokemon he saw all over the place, like those Dragonair when he first went for his 2nd grand trial. If he'd put more effort in, if he trained harder, if he took it seriously, there might have actually been a chance to feel pride in his skill.

But having relaxed all the way through his journey in Alola and still winning the League without training any of his new pokemon hard at all, he just felt bitter disappointment. His team back in Kanto way back when he tasted his first major league defeat to Ritchie could destroy the current team he had sans Pikachu.

Ash Ketchum longed and dreamed to become a Pokemon Master, but not like this, never like this.

How pathetic.

---

I watched the Alola League, and all I felt at Ash finally winning a Regional League, was utter disappointment. It was utterly beneath him, his opponents never truly pushed him, he never grew from this journey, or this win at all. I think Ash himself, at least earlier iterations of himself like Kalos would be disappointed with the results and how easy it truly was to win the first ever Alola League.

 

[JadeKaiser]

Well, it was a brand new league after all. I think it would be interesting to read a story that started here, in which he took this feeling and used it to drive himself, to make it a league worth winning by dragging the competition up to the level of the other leagues. He could keep going to other regions, to try and conquer their leagues and hone himself farther, while in between he returns to Alola and makes it his mission to raise their league not only to the same level, but to be the most competitive one of all.

His goal was always to become a pokemon master, the greatest of them all and the best there ever was. What master is greater than the one who drags an entire region to mastery behind him?

That would be a legacy he could feel proud of.