Chapter Text
The class looks confused as professor kukui comes in, looking tired, with sticks in his hair and bruises and dirt all over.
It makes even less sense as they see a little kid in a tiny pikachu onesie.
"Class, weve had a bit of an incident with a celebi on the way to school,meet ash." he tells them as the kid he was holding the hand of looks up at him, his fist in his mouth as he looks around with wide eyes.
"Pikaachu!" pikachu says from its position on professor kukui, looking about as drained as their teacher.
"Thats ash?!" the class says in unison, looking at the small child who claimed to be their classmate.
"Bah!" the kid says with a bright smile, holding his hand to the class's Pokemon.
"Do you guys mind watching over him before I start class? I need to clean myself and pikachu," the class obviously nods. With how dirty their teacher looks, he could use not just a few minutes but a day off.
"Thank you, don't let him out of your sight, please," professor kukui tells them before leaving the room with pikachu leaving Ash in the care of his classmates.
"Awh, look at this cutie!" mallow squeals as she sits at Ash's height. Ash's attention is on the classes Pokemon.
"Pok-a-mah!" he says, crawling over to where they are playing.
"Well, that's ash alright," kiawe says with a chuckle. Ash is always thinking about Pokemon.
"Why do you think pikachu and the professor seemed so tired?" lana asks, making the group look at each other.
"I'm not sure, he did say they had an incident, so it might have been somthing leading up to them meeting Celebi," lillie points out, and the class thinks for a bit.
"I don't know, but they looked really tired!" Sophocles says, shaking his head with a grin.
"They really did. The least we could do today is watch over Ash," lillie nods, making kiawe blink.
"Wait, wheres ash?" kiawe asks, jerking his head over to where he was crawling. Ash wasn't there.
"Ash?!" the group shouts, simultaneously looking around the class with all their Pokemon and all the corners.
"Uh guys!" Mallow shouts to them, and they rush over to her.
They lean over the railing Mallow was pointing over and watch as Ash crawls into the middle of the track field, somehow getting from the class on the second story to the first floor without anyone noticing him leaving. Though with the wide enough railings for a small child to go through and the snapped branches of the bush below, they could guess how he did it.
Their hearts leap in their throats as they see the track being used for Taurus riding for another class, and Ash is right in the middle.
"Ash!" they yell, much more fearful as the Taurus collides with Ash. He gets thrown several hundred feet in the air, and the class panics.
"We need to go find him before the professor finds out!" Mallow tells the class, and they all agree, rushing out the door with only their Pokemon on them.
They rush into the forest, kiawe, the most athletic right next to Ash and Lana, in front as he leads the way.
"Ash! Ash!" lillie calls out as she runs snowy right next to her.
Kiawe suddenly skids to a stop after a few minutes of running.
"Why'd we stop!?" lana asks, looking past kiawe only to freeze. Ash was sitting in a small forest clearing when a beware held up an arm. It was about to swing at Ash.
Ash, the young child he was, just giggles, his arms held out in a little grabbing motion towards the beware.
"Maroak boomerang!" kiawe calls out as he bursts to life again, grabbing Ash before the beware could swing. Marowak throws its bone, hitting the beware and knocking it off balance.
Kiawe holds Ash over his head as the beware retreats from the group.
The class stands there for a few seconds, doubling over as they catch their breath. That's before lana catches sight of something behind kiawe.
"Kiawe, look out!" she says, but it's too late. A vullaby swooped down and took Ash by taking Ash's tail from the pikachu onesie.
"Ash!" the class yells again as they watch Ash be taken by a vullaby. Ash continues to giggle like this situation was the funniest thing ever to the little kid.
Kiawe turns as white as a sheet, still holding his hands up like he was still holding Ash.
Lana was the first to act, calling out Dragonair and chasing after the vullaby. The class scrambles to do the same.
"Ice beam, Dragonair!" lana shouts as she points to the vullaby. Dragonair quickly does as she says, and the vullaby gets jerked off course, dropping Ash into the forest below.
The class dives with their ride Pokemon, quickly getting a few sticks and twigs, along with many scratches as they do so.
They look along the forest floor, seeing no ash, so they look upwards into the trees above.
And right above them, on a branch, was a sleeping Tapu Koko and a little ash crawling towards it.
"No-" Mallow whispers to Ash, desperately not wanting to wake their sleeping guardian.
"Ash, don't-" kiawe does the same. Ash grabs Tapu Koko's tail waking it in a second.
Tapu Koko shoots upward, obviously surprised by the toddler holding onto its tail with an iron grip.
Tapu Koko starts flying around, spinning any which way, anything to get its tail to be let go of. The students quickly fly after their guardian.
Tapu Koko thrills angrily as its tail isn't let go of flying to a familiar place on Melemele island.
"After it!" Mallow shouts as she bursts forward towards the guardian, hoping her friend won't get hurt.
Tapu Koko starts to fly faster, its speed being shown as the kids lose sight of it.
They fly around the island, looking for their friend.
"Ahem!" the class hears, making them stop on a dime. Well, they try. Some bump into the ones in front of them. They look down and see kahuna Hala with his hands on his hip.
"Looking for something?" he asks, gesturing to the toddler babbling behind him.
"Oh, thank Tapu," lillie says in relief, and they land, thanking kahuna hala profusely.
"Wheres your teacher?" kahuna hala asks the group of teens, who stiffen.
"Professor Kukui doesn't know we lost ash yet," Sophocles admits sheepishly.
"You won't tell him, will you?" Mallow asks hesitantly, and hala looks at them thoughtfully.
He sighs, "If he asks, I won't lie, but I won't bring it up to him."
"Thank you!" the class says in unison. Hala chuckles.
"Go get back to school, children," he tells them, and they nod, heading over to where Ash is.
They had a brief second to watch before Ash disappeared, grabbing onto a natu's tuff of hair.
"Ash, don't-!" the class shouts again, but it was too late. The natu used teleport, and Ash was off to who knows where.
Kiawe puts his head in his hands as he muffles his scream, lana pats his arm to try and console him as they all stare at where Ash was in defeat.
"Wait!" Sophocles says, pulling out his tablet, "I can track his tracking device!"
Sophocles starts to input commands into his tablet.
"Wait ash has a tracking device?" Mallow asks Sophocles in confusion.
"Sure! You all do," he tells them before stopping typing as he realizes what he just said.
"What." lana deadpans.
"Sophocles, did you put tracking devices on us?" Mallow asks him, putting her hands on her hips.
Sophocles goes with the safe answer, "no…"
He continues looking for Ash's tracker.
"Here he is!" Sophocles pulls up a map of the islands, "He's on Akala island. Let's go!"
They head onto their ride Pokemon and rush to their neighboring island before anything can happen, and Ash moves again.
"He should be near here," Sophocles says as he points to a field, they see a familiar person and Pokemon.
"Brother!" lillie says as she spots Gladion, landing her Pokemon and rushing over to him, only to stop in her tracks.
Gladion looks panicked as he holds onto sillvaly. He holds one of his legs out, using sillvaly as balance, trying to stop a young child from touching him with his foot.
Ash was trying to go and hug Gladion, but gladion had a foot firmly on his chest, stopping Ash from moving forward.
Gladion makes eye contact with his sister and mouths to her, "Help me."
Lillie giggles at her brother's reaction to a kid before picking Ash up and holding him firmly on her hip. They aren't going to let him get away this time.
Gladion heaves a sigh of relief, and lillie shakes her head.
"Come on, we need to get back to class before the professor finds out we're gone," Mallow tells her friend, and she nods, getting back on alteria.
"Thanks for taking care of ash gladion!" she yells to her brother, not seeing him look confused at why Ash was so young.
Midway through the flight back, Ash spots a water Pokemon below them, lillie was still recovering from their small adventure with Ash and thought he was safe. Ash slipped off alteria, leading to multiple shouts of panic as Ash freefalls for a few seconds.
Mallow, lana, and kiawe all dive to catch him, but Mallow is the one to grab him in the end, holding him steady on Flygon.
"I've got him!" Mallow yells, and the group sighs in relief yet again.
They keep a close eye on Ash as they head back into the school, never letting him out of sight, not being held by someone.
And when they finally make it to their classroom, they collapse in a heap, exhausted from their journey to get Ash back.
"Alola class-" the professor says as he enters the class only to find everyone in a dog pile on the floor.
"What happened?" their teacher asks them. Ash answers for them.
“pok-a-mah! Pok-a-mah!" he says as he claps his hands together in delight.
"Pokemon indeed," kiawe groans softly, banging his head on the floor.