Chloe Cerise feels trapped. Stagnant. Stuck in place, unable to escape Vermillion City or the crushing weight of everyone's expectations of her. They look at her and see the Professor's daughter, somebody who should adore Pokémon just like everybody else... but truthfully, she can't help but resent the creatures. Her father seems to have all the time in the world for his research, and for his assistants Ash and Goh, but none for her... despite making her work at the lab after school.
Goh's much the same; her Childhood Friend's always busy chasing after Mew, and never seems to have any time or thought to spare for her that isn't connected to Pokémon... or Ash. Ash, the amazing, worldly traveler who sucks in everyone's attention like a black hole.
Ash, who just so happens to be the first ever Champion of the newly minted Alola League. When this comes out during lunch, Chloe's classmates insist that she needs to challenge him — what kind of Professor's daughter would she be if she didn't?! Despite her misgivings, Chloe reluctantly agrees, hoping that will be enough to get them off her back for a while.
Following a stressful afternoon at school, capped by her Home Economics teacher giving her grief for making her curry exactly like the recipe instructed rather than adding her own distinct spin, she tries battling Ash... and gets curb stomped. Suddenly, Goh and her father are much more interested in her — or at least, in critiquing her performance and gushing about how this must mean that she's finally starting to develop a normal interest in Pokémon. Unable to handle the apparent confirmation that she only matters when Pokémon are involved, Chloe finally snaps, throwing Goh's phone into a plate of curry — followed by shoving the plate into his face after he shows more concern about that than about her. All her insecurities come pouring out in a hail of accusations, with Goh biting back that she's got no right to complain — not when she doesn't know what it's like to have a dream.
But she does have one, she counters. A dream to leave this all behind and go someplace where there's no such thing as Pokémon. No Mew, no research, no Ash — given the chance, she'd gladly trade this world for that one. Failing that, though, all she can do is run blindly out of the lab, eventually coming to rest in an alleyway.
While she rages about how much she hates her lot in life — and herself — she contemplates running away for good. Trainers leave home all the time; what's one more anonymous girl with a Yamper? Just as she resolves to go grab her dog, however, a whistle pierces through the air, heralding the arrival of a long steam engine train, all its windows emanating an eerie green light. Surreal a sight as this poses, an out is an out, and Chloe boards, leaving behind her flower scrunchie as the only sign she was ever there.
This chapter contains examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Goh's insistence that Chloe can't criticize anyone since she doesn't know what it's like to have a Goal in Life spurs her to declare her dreams of leaving this world behind for one without Pokémon. Cue the Train appearing to whisk her away, and all the consequences that come with it.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Chloe brings up how Goh ignores her and never cares for her in the slightest. Goh retorts Chloe never tries anything new even when Ash has asked her to join the two numerous times in the past.
- Can't Catch Up: There was no way Chloe would win against Ash. She only knows that Yamper can use Spark. Ash is the Alola League Champion.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Chloe vs Ash ends with Yamper losing against Gengar, which is what happens when a girl who's never taught about battling goes off against the Alola Champion.
- Devastating Remark: When Chloe asks Goh where he is when she's alone in school without anyone for support, his brilliant answer is to go, "I'm chasing my dreams, which is something you lack!" Needless to say, the entire story never would've happened if he didn't said that.
- Did Not Think This Through: Chloe hoped that challenging Ash would be enough to pacify her classmates; after all, they couldn't honestly expect her to win against the Alolan Champion, right? Only afterwards does she realize she's potentially provided them with even more to mock her about, especially if they see Goh's footage of how badly she got curb-stomped.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: When Chloe asks where Goh is whenever she's alone, bullied and desperately asking for help, he goes "I'm chasing my dreams something you lack!" Everyone around him realizes that Goh just shoved his foot into his mouth.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: When Chloe asks where the hell Goh is when she's alone and just wants him by his side, Goh shouts that "I'm off chasing my dream, which is something you lack!" This is what ultimately makes Chloe decide to just run away from home if Goh prioritizes his dream than their friendship.
- Prior to that, Chloe took her father sternly ordering her to apologize to Goh for the Food Slap without asking ‘’her’’ what was wrong as the final nail in the coffin proving that her needs are never going to be considered as important as Ash and Goh’s, because they’re boys who love Pokémon. She never considered that assaulting her Childhood Friend and her father’s employee ‘’right in front of of him’’ was ‘’never’’ going to be okay- Professor Cerise was only doing the reasonable thing.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Ash realizes Goh just said way too much when he said that he has a dream and Chloe doesn't.
- Free-Range Children: After the blow-up in the lab, Chloe considers taking advantage of this to run away from home entirely, becoming just another kid wandering around with their Pokémon. Then the Train appears...
- Hypocrite: Goh claims he's a good friend to Chloe; but when she asks where he's been while she's all alone at school, he states that he's chasing dreams which is something she lacks. Not to mention that he's so oblivious to the fact that she feels uncomfortable about Goh showing how she lost to Ash Ketchum and boldly praising Ash's win and not even comforting her...
- Innocently Insensitive: Everyone that interacts with Chloe in this chapter don't realize that the more they talk, the more they make Chloe's anger levels rise. But if you had to pin the most insensitive, just turn to one Goh Fujihachi and him boasting that he has a dream and Chloe just doesn't.
- The Last Straw: Chloe was already losing it from the minute her dad told her "Remember to not use Tackle on a Ghost" but it's Goh's damning boast that he has a dream that made her realize to just fuck everything and storm off.
- More Insulting than Intended:
- Goh accuses Chloe of being inferior to him cause she doesn't have a dream... until we learn in in the final arc of the sequel that what he was trying to do was motivate her to get a dream.
- Professor Cerise decides that the best thing to do is to give proper battling advice instead of reassurance that Chloe can try again. It makes Chloe think that her father only cares that she's into Pokémon and not everything else that's bothering her.
- Morton's Fork: If Chloe refused to challenge Ash, the class would've mocked her for being a coward. If Chloe accepted, knowing that she was going to lose, then it's all the more fuel to the fire to mock her. No matter what she did, she was going to be stuck and the Train would've kidnapped her.
- Never My Fault: When Professor Cerise sternly instructs his daughter to apologize to Ash and Goh, Chloe takes it as one last, damning sign that she's The Unfavorite, since he's supporting the boys over his own daughter. Actually, no, Chloe, slamming a spicy plate of curry into someone's face does actually warrant an apology. It's bad enough that his daughter had chosen to assault her Childhood Friend in front of him, but Goh is also employed by the Professor- what if he chose to simply walk out as a result of this?
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Goh accused Chloe that she had no dream — when all she was asking is for him to be by her side for once — which would ultimately lead her to run away and get onto the Infinity Train and everything that follows. Whoops.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The unfortunate Aversion of this helps send Chloe over the edge; instead of finding her sudden interest in battling Ash strange or unusual in any way, Goh and Professor Cerise are delighted that she's finally getting more engaged with Pokémon.
- Overshadowed by Awesome:
- How Chloe feels — by Ash, by Mew, by Pokémon in general...
- Following the fight, Goh immediately gushes over Ash and Gengar's performance, only acknowledging Chloe as his opponent while showing the battle to her father. This does not help Chloe's issues in the slightest.
- Rage Breaking Point: Chloe reaches hers over the course of the day, until she starts lashing out — both verbally and physically.
- Serious Business: Curry. Mr. Pepper treats Chloe following the recipe precisely as it's written as though it's somehow proof that she completely lacks any sort of creative spark, and expects her to redo the whole assignment. Chloe also dislikes curry due to associating it with a long-broken promise, and part of what tips her over the edge is being expected to happily eat curry made by Mr. Mime.
- Tempting Fate:
- When Chloe tells Yamper that she's glad someone is concerned about her, Ash and Goh shout her name and start gushing about their trip to the Galar Region.
- Just before the Train arrives, Chloe thinks that a girl like her with a Yamper is so small and significant in the grand scheme of things. Her disappearance eventually culminates in Vermillion City's reputation absolutely tarnished.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- If Akemi never brought up Ash vs Professor Kukui to Chloe, none of the events of the story wouldn't have happened.
- Had Goh said something other than he was better than Chloe for having a dream, Chloe probably wouldn't have entered the Infinity Train.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Convinced that her father feels this way about her, Chloe poses this question to him in turn, wondering why he had to become a Professor in the first place.
