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The Fragile Fire by Joat

It was a hot, sunny day as Ash and Pikachu walked down a forest path. Or rather, Ash was walking, while Pikachu was perched atop his shoulder, taking in the sights. That was one lovely thing about traveling, after all. Even when retreading ground one has traveled before, as Ash currently was after having visited home a few days ago, there was still plenty of new things to see along the way, and even that which remained the same was still quite lovely to see. Of course, Ash was mostly the sort to focus on the challenges ahead, but he could still appreciate the places he found himself in. Plus, there was always a chance he’d find a new Pokémon to catch or trainer to challenge if he paid attention.

Pikachu, meanwhile, was looking for something specific. He thought he’d seen a glint somewhere and was curious as to where. It may have been a trick of the light, but he was still curious. But after a bit of searching, he finally spotted it again. It was much closer this time. In fact, it was right in front of where Ash was walking!

Pikachu called out to Ash. Of course, he knew that Ash would be unable to understand what he was saying, but he still wanted to call attention to whatever it was that was on the path. Ash turned his head toward Pikachu, still walking. “What is it, Pikachu? Is something wroOONNG?!” he said, his foot catching on something. He just barely managed to avoid falling over, stumbling a couple steps, while Pikachu had jumped off as soon as it seemed Ash might fall over. Pikachu was quite quick, after all.

Ash knelt down to get a closer look at what had nearly tripped him. It looked to be... a Fire Stone? It was! Wow, what an incredible find! Evolution stones were really rare, and to find one out here without even trying was a stroke of amazing luck! But upon picking it up, he noticed it appeared to have been cracked. But... it should still work, right?

As if to answer his internal question, he suddenly felt the stone become searingly hot. He cried out in pain and dropped the stone. Then, to his surprise, the stone shattered when it hit the ground. In fact, it shattered like movie glass, spraying shards of itself all over, many of which slashed Ash’s clothing and embedded themselves into his skin. But to his surprise, although it felt hot, soon the places the stone shards had pierced felt perfectly fine. His clothes were ruined - even his shoes were full of holes now - but there was no blood, no open wounds, not even a single sign it’d been pierced at all. If not for his tattered clothes, he might have wondered if he’d imagined the whole thing.

“Pika!” Pikachu called out, now in a near-panic, rushing over to Ash in concern.

Ah took a moment to recollect himself. “Don’t worry, Pikachu. I’m okay,” he said. Though now that he’d said it, he wasn’t quite so sure. His chest was starting to feel warm, then hot. Soon, it felt as hot as the Fire Stone had before. But somehow, it didn’t hurt this time. In fact, he found it quite comfortably warm, even though he knew he should be in pain.

But perhaps more alarmingly, he saw a bit of smoke rising from a small point on the chest of his shirt. Then soon, he saw it light up red hot, before a hole started to open up, glowing red hot around the edges, which were still lightly smoking. But perhaps even more alarmingly than that was what he saw through the hole in his shirt: soft, cream-colored fur.

“What?” he said, looking at the spreading hole and the fur underneath. Despite knowing that he should be alarmed, somehow Ash couldn’t bring himself to be. He didn’t know what was going on, but instead of evoking fear, that instead made him quite curious. Pikachu cautiously approached, getting a closer look. “Pika?”

The spreading of the hole was slow at first, but it soon accelerated, the fur spreading faster along with it. Soon, his entire chest was covered in thick, soft, cream-colored fur. Hesitantly, he touched a hand to his new fur. It was as soft as it looked, and quite comfortably warm. And soon, it spread from his chest to his shoulders, at which point he felt them shifting. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t stopping at just making him warm and giving him fur.

At this point, his poor shirt simply couldn’t hold on anymore. With the top of it destroyed, it fell around his waist, then quickly burnt to ash. His back, too, was now being overtaken by fur, as was his belly. But mostly, the transformation seemed to be focusing on his arms at the moment. It spread down his arms, then to his hands, where the biggest visual change so far took place. As the fur spread to his fingers, those fingers shortened considerably, his thumb moving back as it shortened. And quite quickly, he found that what he had was no longer hands, but paws.

Ash stared at his new paws in awe. “Am I... becoming a Pokémon?” he thought aloud. Pikachu was staring as well, his head tilted in confusion, yet he was also quite fascinated. He suspected that was exactly what was happening. But what Pokémon would Ash become?

By this point, the fur was down to Ash’s hips. His pants were slowly burning away just as his shirt had, removing the only obstacle to the growth of his new tail. It started, at first, as a nub. But quickly, it grew out into a big, bushy fox tail, the same cream color as the rest of his fur. Ash moved the tail into view to get a closer look, but as he did so, he saw that it wasn’t stopping there. Another tail grew, then another, and soon nine soft, furry tails had grown. And at this point, it was clear to Ash just what he was becoming: a Ninetales. It should have been impossible, but then again, he and Pikachu had seen so many things by this point that they would have thought impossible before. That hadn’t even been the first time he’d been a Pokémon before. But even so, he still had a difficult time believing that an ordinary Fire Stone could be causing something so incredible as this.

Ash lowered his forepaws to the ground, still sitting down. He watched his pants burn away from the top down, revealing his newly-fluffy legs underneath. But as he watched, he could also feel the fur progressing up his neck. Then, it moved up from there. He could feel his cheeks being covered, his black hair being replaced with cream-colored fur. As the fur continued progressing toward his face, he watched his shoes being burned away, his human feet being reshaped into cute, fuzzy hind paws, complete with cute little claws at the tips of his toes, just as there were on his forepaws.

With a forepaw, he reached up and touched the top of his head. he felt the fur was quite long there, gradually getting longer. Soon, the fur started curving back as it grew, growing out behind his head. He also felt his ears moving upward, reshaping themselves. Touching them with a forepaw, he could feel they’d taken on a triangular shape. Then finally, Ash saw his nose pushing out from his face, turning black, his nose and mouth forming into a furry fox-like muzzle. And with that, his transformation was complete.

“Ash! Are you okay?”

Ash could tell that Pikachu’s speech pattern hadn’t changed. But unlike before, now he could understand what his friend was saying. He spoke in return, now speaking in Pokémon-speak as well. “Yeah, I feel fine!” he said. Though in retrospect, he realized that perhaps ‘fine’ was underselling it. In fact, he felt great! He felt so powerful; he felt energized; and he felt such an amazingly comforting warmth from his own body and the fur that covered it, almost like a fuzzy heated blanket.

Nearby, he noticed that the Pokéballs he’d been carrying were safe and sound. Unlike with his clothing, the shards and the fire had left them completely unharmed, aside from being a bit covered in ashes. With a smile, he lifted the balls holding his Pokémon in his nine tails, then used them to toss the balls up and release his Pokémon. He most definitely wanted them to see this!

The Fragile Fire

Joat

A commission for Zohaku, of Ash turning into a Ninetales.

I haven't watched Pokémon in years, so hopefully I did well nonetheless.

Submission Information

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