After setting Ash down, Latias didn't turn invisible and fly back up this time, since everyone was about to eat.
After greeting the others, Ash pulled a Twisted Spoon and a Fairy Feather out of his backpack.
The shiny Ralts chose the prettier-looking Fairy Feather, while the other Ralts accepted the Twisted Spoon that boosted Psychic-type moves.
Watching all this unfold in silence, Serena's beautiful face was full of conflict.
They had only just reunited, yet Ash had already given Fennekin an Eviolite, then given her a Ralts, then a Twisted Spoon for that Ralts.
One Pokémon, two items.
Ash had given her too much.
At least for now, they were still only first loves reunited. They weren't officially together yet, so she couldn't treat them as one shared whole.
Serena couldn't bring herself to spend Ash's money without a second thought.
She liked Ash. She liked Ash himself, not his wealth.
Maybe when they were kids, his kindness had made her mistake gratitude for love.
Maybe later, after Ash became famous, after fame and success came pouring in and he became the object of countless girls' admiration, things had changed.
But what about everything in between?
When that early gratitude faded, when Ash still hadn't discovered Mega Evolution, still hadn't claimed the Indigo Plateau Conference, still hadn't become a five-time champion, back when he was practically invisible in everyone else's eyes, hadn't she still liked him all the same?
So many years had passed. Serena had long since figured out her heart.
What she liked was Ash himself.
And Ash probably liked her too. Otherwise, he wouldn't have quietly kept giving her Pokémon and items.
Maybe he was just shy and too embarrassed to confess.
In that case... now that she was sure this love went both ways, shouldn't she be the one to make the first move?
Her fair pink fist clenched. She took a deep breath.
As if she had just made some incredibly important decision.
"Ash!"
Ash turned his head in confusion. "Hm? What is it?"
In that instant, Serena did something that shocked Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie alike.
She decisively reached out with both slender white arms, wrapped them around the back of Ash's head, and, while he stood there completely stunned, rose onto her toes.
It all happened in a flash.
Sweetness, softness, and the faint fragrance of a young girl rushed over him and filled his senses.
Ash: ?
Pikachu: ?
Froakie: ?
The two Ralts: ?
Clemont: ?
Bonnie: ?
Ash looked baffled. "Why?"
Serena: "?"
"Mmm..."
The gentle blonde beauty flushed bright red and turned to run, but Ash immediately reached out and caught her.
"..."
"..."
After they finally opened up to each other, Ash realized that, without meaning to, he had put real psychological pressure on Serena. It had made things seem almost like he was trying to use past kindness to win her over.
He sincerely apologized and openly told her that, from the very beginning, he had already been treating her as his future wife.
That conversation brought them even closer.
"You know, I care a lot about fairness. You made the first move just now, so now it's my turn."
Serena's face turned bright red as she tried to flee, but how was a poor, helpless girl supposed to escape?
Ash leaned down. The girl's face was overflowing with shy embarrassment.
Kiss!
Serena's eyes widened. Her cheeks went scarlet, and so much white steam seemed ready to rise from her head, but she didn't resist.
Clemont and Bonnie stared with their mouths hanging open. "You two... have some decency!"
Back at camp, they started making lunch.
"Future wife"...
Every time Serena thought about those words, her face heated up all over again.
Ash was too much.
And even worse, Clemont and Bonnie had seen everything that happened afterward too.
It was mortifying. How was she supposed to face anyone after this?
Her cheeks were red, and faint wisps of white steam seemed to drift from the top of her head, like a real-life anime girl overheating from embarrassment.
So then... she would definitely become a good wife in the future, right? But would she really be able to manage Ash's harem?
She had heard that Cynthia seemed to have a particularly close relationship with Ash too, so maybe she would be part of it as well.
Maybe she should just side with Cynthia. Cynthia was so gentle and easygoing, she could probably keep everything under control.
No!
Serena, how could you just hand over the initiative like that? She should support Cynthia as her second-in-command to help manage everyone else.
Then Serena herself would only need to stay close to Ash...
Ahh! What am I even thinking? This is so embarrassing!!!
The more Serena thought about it, the more she wanted to dive onto a huge bed, cover her face with both hands, and roll around in humiliation.
Meanwhile, while Serena stayed in that blushing, steaming state and chopped vegetables, the beef on the cutting board had already been reduced to complete mush.
Even the cutting board itself was starting to let out miserable protests under the rapid rise and fall of her knife work.
As a result, Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie were all left with chattering teeth, trembling in fear.
Clemont looked at Ash in confusion. "Did that cow do something to Serena before it died?"
"I don't think so." Ash didn't look too good either.
"Well..." Clemont didn't finish the sentence, but Ash understood exactly what he meant.
That look was basically saying, Brother, take care of yourself in the future.
Worried Serena might cut her finger, Ash stepped up behind her and moved fast, grabbing both of her hands with perfect timing and stopping the two kitchen knives mid-slaughter.
"Um... Serena, you can't keep chopping. If you do, we're going to end up eating splinters from the cutting board too..."
"Ah! Sorry, Ash."
Being suddenly wrapped from behind, Serena instinctively started to raise the knife in her hand to strike back, but thankfully, Ash's grip was steady.
At least he managed to stop Serena from accidentally murdering her future husband.
Once she came to her senses, Serena was still embarrassed, but at least she stopped endlessly mincing the meat for no reason.
They put the beef and the other ingredients into the pot, and in the end everyone still got to eat lunch as planned.
The only difference was that the beef they were supposed to have turned into ground beef instead.
Still, it tasted great.
While eating, Ash glanced out of the corner of his eye at the Ralts, who was dining with graceful, elegant manners, and he remembered what he had noticed earlier. One eyebrow rose.
"By the way, it looks like your leveling trip this morning didn't go very smoothly?"
At that, Serena immediately showed a deeply troubled expression.
"It really didn't. We thought there'd be lots of Pokémon in the forest willing to battle, just like you said, but the Grass-types and Bug-types were all too gentle. None of them had any fighting spirit, so we had to search for a long time just to find one suitable sparring partner."
"I've just had a flash of inspiration!"
Clemont pushed up his glasses.
"If they don't have any fighting spirit, then why don't we help them get it back?"
Ash nodded in approval.
"Not a bad idea. It'd be even better if you added a function that attracts wild Pokémon too, so we can maximize efficiency."
If there was one thing viewers remembered most clearly about Clemont, it was definitely his daily inventing, along with Ash's habit of hearing the explanation right before everything blew up.
To be fair, the reason Clemont's machines often had little issues like exploding was because their upper power limit was way too high, which made them seem unreliable.
In fact...
All right, fine, he really was unreliable.
But before they exploded, the machines Clemont designed were usually very effective, and plenty of them had come in handy.
This time, Ash was planning to let him tempt fate again.