I was told to write Brock x Bruno in this fic. I suppose its possible, never seen it before though.

Disclaimer: This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfic belongs to Phantomness under international copyright laws. Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Satoshi Tajiri and Shogakukan Comics and 4Kids and Game FREAK and a lot of other companies…

Notes: ** is used for thoughts. The timeline in this chapter is progressing onwards, as Ash is getting older…

Chapter 6

King Fernando named his ‘son’ Carlos, and brought him up like a little prince. When he was five years old, Blaine showed up and began training him in the arts of fighting.

The golden eyes failed to manifest.

“That was very good.” Koga said. “Now, I will teach you the third sword exercise.”

Ash gripped his bamboo sword and nodded.

“Now, when you are older, we will give you a metal sword, but you might hurt yourself now. I will do the first three steps…”

Ash watched as Koga first slashed downwards in a front stance, before shifting to a back stance and bringing the sword to a side block, and then made a quick jab above.

Ash gripped his practice blade and copied Koga’s movements.

“Wider on the back stance.”

He complied, and Koga watched as he practiced.

Bruno had gone back to the nunchucks as Ash had improved in unarmed combat. Ash wore padding and cotton scarf was wound around his face just in case he hit himself by accident again.

Still, at least it was happening less.

Maybe he was getting the hang of things.

“Down strike. Now, back stance and inward block. Good!”

He hadn’t hit himself today yet. Never mind. Ow…

“Next step. Inward block again, and use the whirl.” The nunchucks swung in a semi-circular figure.

“Very good. Now practice those moves.”

Ash stared at Agatha as she picked up a bucket of water. Oh no! He wasn’t ready for this yet!

“Don’t worry, you won’t get that wet. Now begin!”

As she threw the water at him, he spun his spear and made passes, and truly, he was mostly dry… except his sleeves and part of his pants were sopping wet. Never mind. He got soaked. Still, better than before.

“Very good, Giovanni would be proud…”

She picked up another bucket of water and they practiced again.

“Got it.”

“You didn’t even touch me! How…”

Lance handed Ash back his necklace. It was a simple leather thong, with a piece of polished stone on the end, but it had also been from Giovanni.

“Now, what did I do?”

“You tripped, fell against me, and then my necklace was gone! But you had your arms crossed… how did you do it?”

Lance smirked. “Ah, I was showing off. Don’t worry though. Now, I’ll let you practice on me. I have three coins hidden in my jacket, try and get them without me noticing…”

He was teaching Ash his sleight of hand tricks now…

“Ow! No, that’s too hard. Anyone would notice, even if they were sleeping… wait a minute.”

Lance smirked as he noticed Koga was snoozing. “Now I want you to steal Koga’s throwing stars while he’s asleep.”

Ash tried, only got one before Koga woke up and demanded what was going on. He wasn’t terribly pleased, but… oh well.

His ears were still ringing from that slap...

“Try not to get caught, Ash…”

“Now, try it on that one.”

The two-tailed whip curled in his hands as he threw it out, before the fist-sized rock shattered.

“Excellent!” Surge roared. “I knew you had potential!”

Ash glowed at the praise. True, he had caused his teachers plenty of heartache, but once they started teaching him simpler things and working up from there, he had gotten better.

Delia was very proud of him. The ten year old found another small rock and kept training. Even though he didn’t know why he was learning, he sensed it was important.

He wouldn’t let his teachers down!

A slightly bigger rock also fell. Smiling, he went at it with a will.

“See?”

Ash stared at Aya in disbelief. He had actually disarmed her?

“As you grow older, you do get stronger. Now, let’s try again.”

The trident was much lighter. He hefted it rather easily as they began sparring again. It was good.

He was getting better.

“Ack!”

Bob went flying as Ash kicked him in the groin, before using his own blade – a sai, like Lance used – to make sure he stayed down. Well, yes, it was cheap. But Lance was teaching him that anyways…

Lance had taught him sai after watching Bob’s horrible lessons, because in either case a sword was better than a butcher knife, and Koga was using that... At least the horse stance had improved Ash’s inner strength.

Still, none of them were any good with spirit summoning. It wasn’t their forte. The only spirit sorcerer they knew of was Karen, in Johto.

They hadn’t seen her in almost five years.

It was a clear day, and Ash was spending a rare afternoon taking care of the sheep, now there were thirty-four of them…

A blue blur suddenly shot out of a tree and attacked.

Ash grabbed his sai and quickly scored a gash in the boy’s arm, despite Russell’s acrobatics. “Who are you?”

“Are you Ash?” The teen queried, staring at his bleeding limb in disbelief. * How did that little runt… *

“Yes.”

“I have a letter for your teachers.”

Ash left the sheep in the care of the herder dog, and went to the house. He found Agatha meditating, while the other six were resting.

“Who are you?”

“I am Russell, and I bring a message from Blaine. I am his student.”

“Very well.”

“Blaine sends his regards and says that the match will take place as planned.” Lance tossed the letter on the low mahogany table. “Well, you’ve delivered your message. Thank you.”

“Wait.” Agatha paused. “Are you higher or lower in skill than Giovanni’s child.”

“Carlos? Oh, he’s better than me.” Russell said flippantly. He did a midair flip just to show off.

“You seem to like gymnastics.” Agatha said. “So why don’t we have one more performance!”

Her body suddenly flared with purple light as Russell went hurtling out the open door through the air.

“Carlos is better than Russell, but Ash beat him. We still have a chance.” Surge growled.

Bruno nodded in agreement, cracking his knuckles. They wouldn’t lose that bet!

Ash blinked, but decided they’d tell him when he was older. It seemed everything had to wait.

Oh well.

End Chapter

Completed 8/26/04