Ash hated waking up early and going to school, mostly because he found reading boring and being cooped up in a classroom tedious. He was annoyed by being roused each morning, but no morning was as bad as this one, the day his father returned home.
His father wasn't there most of the time because he was trying to be a good trainer—a fact his mother disliked the most. Yet his father did send a portion of whatever prize money he earned in his career as a trainer to help support them. Ray Ketchum, Ash's father, wanted to be a great trainer, but he never quite made it to the top. His best performance had been a top eight at the Indigo Conference.
The reason the old man decided to come back home was that he planned to quit traveling and halt his adventure days, which was surprising, but nothing surprised Ash more than what came next. He received a job offer from the Violet City Gym in Johto. The Gym Leader, Walker, was impressed by his father's skill—he had three Flying-types on his six‑Pokémon team—and his father's experience. The job offer was for a senior gym trainer. The pay was good, which sparked a heated debate between father and mother. He finally had a stable job, and housing was provided with the contract for the gym trainer position. His father wanted Ash and his mother to move with him to Violet City. Truthfully, Ash's mother didn't want to leave; Ash himself didn't want to either. But his father made his points, and after some heartfelt talk with his mother, apologizing for not being there, as he tried to pursue his dream, this time he wanted to be there for his son. It was selfish, perhaps, but eventually his mother relented. Education would also be covered there, as there were better schools in the city.
The next question was what to do with the house in Pallet. Delia had inherited the house from her mother, who had built it when Pallet was barely forming. The house could fetch a fairly high price on the market now, since Oak had built the town around his residence, making it one of the safer places in Kanto. But Delia decided she would rent the house rather than sell it, and that was agreed upon.
Goodbyes were sad, and nothing was sadder than saying goodbye to his best friend Gary and their other friend Leaf Green. Gary told Ash to visit during vacations, and Ash agreed. Gary, despite giving Ash a hard time, genuinely considered him a good friend and would miss him.
They traveled for a while on the road and a bit on the backs of his father's Pokémon. The journey was a good time to bond with his father—something Ash had rarely experienced in his childhood—and his parents began to get along again, which was a relief. His father also told him a lot of stories, like how he started with a Pidgey, the most common Pokémon around, because his own sponsorship opportunities were limited. He did odd jobs to earn money for a Poké Ball, bought bird food to lure his partner to join his team, and then registered for the League.
He had two other Flying-types, Dodrio and Jumpluff, and he caught a Rapidash near the outskirts of Fuchsia, a rarer addition to his lineup. He also caught a Rhyhorn in the Safari Zone, which was quite unregulated back in his days, and a Cloyster, which he evolved by pure luck at Seafoam Islands. He talked about his adventures in Johto and Kanto during his first two years as a trainer. He couldn't quite snag all eight badges due to financial constraints or being too weak to beat some Gyms as there were only 8 major gyms and no minor gyms , but after gathering a team of six, he challenged the Indigo League, where he reached the Top 64. By the time he tried Johto , he couldn't beat the Blackthorn Gym in time the following year, which still gave him nightmares and contributed to his failure that year. But he trained hard, and the next year he beat the Blackthorn Gym, collected eight badges, and challenged the League, making it to the Top 32. Later, he challenged again and reached the Top 16 at his best run. Of course, he didn't just challenge Gyms; he traveled all around Kanto and Johto, seeing many things and sharing those stories with his son.
Eventually they reached Violet City, and Ash's life changed from that day onward.
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Violet City stood as a quiet heartbeat in the Johto region, its sunlit roofs and lantern-lit alleys sheltering stories as old as the first flutter of wings. Here, the bells of the Pokémon School rang through misty mornings, and Gyms gleamed with a mix of old-world charm and hard-edged ambition. The city's flagship gym was run by leader Walker, with a keen eye for Flying-types. He promised both challenge and opportunity, at least that's what Ash used to think until now. He was watching a kid with a Graveler beating the hell out of Walker's Pidgeotto with Smack Down and Rock Throw. Pidgeotto, doing its best, got knocked down, and Walker eventually handed the kid a badge. Ash, surprised, asked his mom why Walker lost—shouldn't he be a very skilled trainer as dad had praised him to be? But before Delia could answer, a boy with blue hair spoke up, "That's because the kid was challenging him to a two‑badge level, hence Walker was using a similar level of Pokémon. If all gyms went all out, no trainer would get a badge."
Ash questioned, "What did you mean about badge level?" The boy explained, "There are eight gym badges to collect for a trainer before qualifying for the Silver Conference. Each time a trainer earns a new badge, the gym leaders up the ante for the next badge, pushing the trainer until the eighth badge level, where the gym becomes a guardian gym battle. Generally that's done by Blackthorn for this region, but any gym can become a guardian if the trainer takes a different order to go through the gyms. The eighth‑badge match is a match where the gym leaders can bring out their second main team for battle, or in some cases their main teams, and hold nothing back. My father's eight‑badge team is pretty strong in that regard."
Ash then asked, "Who are you?" The boy replied, "My name is Falkner. I am Walker's son. You must be the son of the new trainer Ray, I think."
"Aye," Ash said.
Falkner asked him, "Do you like Pokémon battles?" To which Ash replied, "Yes. I want to be a Pokémon Master." Falkner nodded, "I see."
Eventually the matches for the day ended, and Ash went back home with his father. This was his first day watching, and he had a week until his new school started here, so he could come to watch matches. According to what his father had explained, he would have to battle only if a trainer decided to go through the challenge route, which meant challenging all gym trainers at the facility first before facing the leader. The merit of this mode is that the gym leader gives a tougher challenge even for that badge level, but if the trainer wins, the gym leader offers higher prize money than normal and throws in a TM of his choice. A few Trainers who want to prove themselves go with this route—either for prestige, training, or the TM.
Ash decided that if he was going to do the gauntlet to get gym badges, he would challenge himself and win it the hard way.
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Days went by in a blur. He got accustomed to the city. Who was he fooling himself? He missed Pallet. The city, while good, didn't have his friends. He did make some friends at school, but none were as close as Gary, and truthfully the challenges of learning were still there. It was only when Falkner pointed it out to his dad that his father started teaching him stuff, and that's when the boy's progress began.
Falkner was practicing while Ash watched him as usual. Falkner was older than Ash and about to begin his journey, whereas Ash was still six years old. Falkner decided to do a battle with Ash—a mock battle between gym-trained Pokémon. Falkner used a Hoothoot and gave Ash a Pidgey. Truth be told, Falkner later confessed he wanted Ash to lose, to teach him that it's okay to lose. But Ash somehow won. Both Pokémon didn't know many moves, and Ash didn't know any moves that Pidgey could do because he daydreamed in class. Falkner explained that Pidgey could use Gust, Tackle, and Sand Attack, and what each did. Falkner was surprised by how gullible Ash was to not know the basics, but the battle genuinely surprised him. The kid combined Gust and Sand Attack to create what looked like a pseudo Sandstorm that blinded Hoothoot (which didn't have Keen Eye), then he started sniping at it with Tackle. Even Ash was surprised when Hoothoot lost. Falkner, though he lost, took it in stride and told Ash he could be a great trainer. He urged Ray to teach Ash the basics, since Ash struggled to learn some things at school and could use extra practice to sharpen his battle skills. Ray realized Ash struggled with certain subjects and tried to be a better father by helping him learn his schoolwork at night after his duties—duties that mostly involved refereeing, feeding Walker's Pokémon, managing the trainers, and occasionally overseeing a gym challenge. By evening, he finally had some free time to teach the boy.