Something New to Wear

Ash and company came back to the locker room to get changed. He wasn't looking forward to putting on his muddy outfit but there wasn't much else he could do, or so he thought. In the hall he was stopped by Marina, the woman that owned the place, who was holding a basket of random items.

“Oh, good. I caught you in time,” Marina smiled.

“Uh, hi. Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong. I just thought that since it didn't look like you had a spare set of clothes, you might not want to put those muddy things back on. With that in mind, I collected things from our 'lost and found' box. I have been meaning to get around to clearing out the older items anyway.”

“Thank you, that's really nice.”

She handed Ash the box and left him to look for something to get changed into. He wasn't super happy with having to wear someone's forgotten things but it did beat the alternative. Ash placed out the items, on by one onto a bench and looked them over. It looked like the best Marina could come up with was a simple hoodie and black shorts along with a pair of pink socks.

“Wouldn't be my fist choice but here we are. Maybe we should look for a shop and grab something something else to change into once we are done here.”

Quickly, Ash dropped the robe and slipped up the shorts on his now hairless legs, which he finally noticed.

“What?...That's not good...” Ash blinked.

Hypno silently took note of Ashley's displeasure of having to wear shorts with a hint of relief. She had always been a more of a fan of skirts and dresses and it looked like she still remembered that. He was looking forward to helping her find something cute to wear later. Pikachu jumped up on the bench and gave Ash a concerned look. Hypno wondered if Pikachu knew what she used to wear, too. He could tell that Pikachu was really a good pokemon inside but so far things have been a little rough. Ever since Hypno arrived, Pikachu was abrasive if not outright aggressive but it was clear he cared about Ashley. He hoped that Pikachu wasn't normally always so worked up before he was around. Ashley did say he was acting out of character...

“Oh no...I see now,” Hypno thought. “Pikachu must think that since I'm back, I'm going to replace him. He must be so scared.”

Ash looked over the empty bottles from the shower and found the depilatory that Hypno had used on him. Though frustrated at the event, there was no use in being mad at a pokemon that was just doing his best to help. In the end, he decided that there wasn't anything he could about his legs at the moment and he should just move on and grab some pants before his friends saw him. He was sure Misty would have a grand old time at his expense.

The hoodie was next and immediately Ash saw that it was a bit big. Even so, he slipped it on and felt it hang on him in a way he wasn't used to. The front was oddly baggier at the chest and it was so long that it almost covered the shorts completely, which wasn't saying much since the shorts weren't the longest pair out there. After slipping on the pink socks, he looked at himself and felt kind of ridiculous. He grabbed his muddy shoes and slipped them on, dirty as they were, the inside was dry at least. Now finished, he place the the bath items into a collection bin and turned his attention to his muddy things. After considering getting them washed too but chose to just toss them out instead. He reasoned that if he was going to get a new outfit, he wouldn't need to carry that one around anymore. He tossed it out and he, along with his pokemon, left the bathhouse.