T-Minus 1 Month and 2 Weeks and 6 Days?

  Keyboards clacked away at a rhythm that was nearly soothing. Erika personally found the sound a little annoying. Yoko eventually had it filter into white noise. The girl that had been her escort to the tiny office had been babbling about different keyboard types—an obsession that she picked up from her boyfriend—which was nigh incomprehensible in both the naming schemes and preciseness that well went beyond being pedantic; and it wasn't as if she were uninformed at the end of her subordinate's rant, which had only reinforced her position and made her do a very rare thing by declaring inside her head that she'd hate the cherry reds and whatever other new cherries they discovered along the way. If the region were truly heading towards the path of 'modern' (defined by the specific gray plastic their box-shaped monitors were made from and flying cars) then she'd do well to remove any notion that their offices would tolerate anything above a certain decibel.

  The actual duties of the League offices were few. Rangers took care of the wilderness. The gym took care of trainers and trainer disputes. Police enforced the law. Pokémon centers were jacks of all trades that had so many roles that Erika pitied whatever their work schedule was like. Past processing certain paperwork and doing reports on the interplay between all of these parts for their headquarters, there wasn't much action. Thus it ran in a lobby that was smaller than her gym. Behind a plastic window was a man who didn't bother finishing his tie. Another, fedora resting against his shoulder for some reason, was waiting with a foreign pokémon sitting in his lap. The thing's tail that was shaped like a paintbrush would swipe every so often, staining the trainer's apron.

  Rotating fans kept creaking. Curiously, Erika tried imagining the place on a summer day. With no window that could be opened and the compact space with machines running, she imagined that it would become unpleasant.

  Yoko turned back to her with a smile. "It appears that our message was received."

  Erika felt her breath becoming hot. Figuring out the whole process had been an ordeal, but she considered it well worth it, if just for the experience of doing so.

  "Does that mean we have one for us?"

  "That's right, Ms. Celadon," the desk jockey drawled. She couldn't place the accent. "You've got your response being printed up."

  Printers weren't unknown per se, rather being rarities most didn't see the need to splurge for—Erika included. Spitting out a page with tiny ink letters printed on it was fascinating enough that even Yoko was caught staring. The paper slid under the dip that was built into the desk, withdrawing his hand straight back to the keyboard. It was fun playing with the page by shifting her hands around the sides. There was a completely unfamiliar warmth, freshly baked, a slight slippery feeling when her thumb ran across the fresh ink, or an illusion from its glossy look.

  "I've never had international mail before! Can I see? Can I see?" her girl asked.

  "It isn't as if it's private," Erika teased.

  All three of them huddled around the page.

  "S'up. I wrote out 's'up' on a letter. That's because I'm cool and computer literate.

  First things first please for the love of whatever typing you are, make sure where you're sending the letters, and maybe we shouldn't do this in the first place. Not that this whole letter thing is bad, but theres a cool thing that Im sure your girls know about called video calls which are amazing inventions. This makes absolutely sure that your stuff will be private. Just a security concern! Im sure nobody else read your letter. On that note, remind me to include computer literacy into your cirriculum (how do you spell this lol) because you're gonna need it at some point. Hopefully soon. Consider that my next project: first pokémon typings, then getting more modern stuff into Kanto. Youll thank me for this, trust me.

  Sounds cool. I wish that I felt that when I was there. The whole renewal or whatever. All that I felt was a little bit annoyed at all the arguing. I should not have been forced picking up a pokémon from another region to prove a point. Whatever. Tradition, schadition.

  Really, what is this letter even looking like? Let me read back on it. Wow. This is just random words.

  Actually Ive got a lot to write about Hoenn. Its nice. Warm. I dunno, come down and see it yourself if you want to know so bad. I aint here to live your life for you. Im here to kick butt and take names (and pokémon). Can definitely say that the dances here are dances. Maybe your dad should be a little less pretentious?

  Okay, serious part of the letter. Im currently in Rustboro after having to travel across the entire darned region and am soon going to be talking to Roxanne. Hopefully. Well work something out and Ill have another pokémon soon. Hopefully. I got this little Seedot from the wild. He's unevolved, but hell one day be a dark/grass type. So I'm gonna send him over. Well have to coordinate about what to do about that, I guess.

  Oh. Right. Since I said no letters, why not a call? Ask around for a phone with international stuff inside of it and well work it out ourselves. Say in a week? I dunno how well confirm it. Guess youll have to send another letter.

  Yeah I don't have anything else to put here so bye lol.

  -Lane

  P.S. Get a vacay or something man."

  Erika felt as though the fans weren't doing a good enough job keeping the place cool. As the secretary next to her steamed, her employee kept rereading the paper.

  The gym trainer eventually asked, hesitantly, "do you want us to be this casual with you, Erika-sama?"

  "Please don't. I don't think that Yoko could handle it."

  The girl was normally the type to keep her thoughts closed. Yet she felt particularly brave that day. "Then why does he do it?"

  "Do you blow up Kanto's news stations overnight and then claim you can catch multiple foreign pokémon within two months? No? That's the reason." She folded the letter and cupped it into her palm. "Now, let's get back to work. You haven't read anything. Okay? Absolutely nothing. We forbid you from reading it and you've never read a thing. If anyone asks, there was no such writing that has ever existed."

  The next day the girls were giggling over how casual Lane already had become.

  T-Minus 1 Month and 2 Weeks and 6 Days?

  Walking into town after being through a harrowing experience wasn't interesting enough for Kane to have a definitive opinion about. He squatted down at the edge of Hoenn, staring into the place where his reflection should've been. Dark blue slammed against the tiny cliff that led into the water. Uneven faces were left in the rocks though Kane doubted that he'd be able to hold onto the rounded shiny surfaces. Those rocks were much better at giving him a reflection than the ocean was. Something about minerals, he'd heard once, determined the properties of the water—important for Lulu.

  Looking where his reflection should've been was a sinking gullet where he could place the last time that he'd seen himself, the same fair skin and eyes that he'd always thought were like a muddy puddle rather than the sky above, or the ocean's current carrying all the pee and chemicals in the world. It was the same person, the same one as just over a year ago, or at least with his same memories. He'd just survived after sleeping in the wilderness without a watch, having his pokémon come at the last second to save his behind; he'd been chosen by both Professor Oak and Erika as an acceptable envoy when he struggled keeping a straight face, hanging around a thief without any redeeming qualities from what he'd seen, breaking every easily reachable polite rule that he could; and everything still called back to the time that he'd leapt into a river, surviving.

  Kane was coming to a certain conclusion.

  "What are you doing out here?" she asked.

  "I didn't think that gym leaders spent their time taking long walks on the beach. Did you come out here to join me?" Kane asked, giving her a wink.

  She wasn't amused. It was a combination of the fashion sense, carefree nature, and the flirt being a decade younger.

  She stood a short distance behind Kane, firm stance without a single tendon out of place. Kane personally thought that the skirt she wore was entirely too much, ballooning about three times further than the rest of her body and giving him a view a little higher than he was comfortable with. Pants covered up her modesty but wearing a skirt that flared in the first place just felt indecent, in his opinion.

  "Why are you wearing that?" he asked.

  A kevlar of calluses pressed against her chest. "Why are you wearing a trenchcoat despite it being ninety one degrees out here?"

  "It's proper protection for the products." The inventory was revealed by flicking the coat back. "We've got a cowardly Rattata here, but that ain't his best quality! Your opponents will find a surprise typing if he ever got over his fear of battling. Over here we've got brochures for all the hidden locations in Kanto, such as the famous Silence Bridge that's an entire 60 kilometers, and this is a pokédex! Here, take one. It's free for women who like long walks on the beach, gov'na."

  It traded hands without question.

  "What's in that vial?" she asked.

  "I'd tell you, but then you'd find yourself swimming with the fishes." The coat wrapped back around him as he stuck his hand out. "The name's Kane, merchant. It's good to meet you, Ms. Roxanne."

  They shook hands, Kane wincing as the grip was the type that belonged to an electrician rather than a teacher. "You had two friends that were worried about you. They said that you walked into the forest alone. Do you even understand how dangerous that is?"

  There was no outward reaction. Getting thrown under the bus didn't feel that bad. On the contrary, vicious glee sprung in his chest.

  "That's odd. From what I remember, we got lost on the backroads and I told them that we should stop for the night instead of getting more lost. When I woke up, it was only me out there."

  Never mention the most dangerous parts of your journey, especially when it could implicate somebody that you could know—it was the motto that Kane lived by, or started to live by, learning from their mistakes. There was no reason to mention how close he was in becoming a fresh human hackepeter.

  Even the little information implying that they were all in danger was enough to stoke her irritation.

  "I find it in poor form that you'd blame your traveling companions. They're the children of respectable leaders who surely would've taught them the dangers of being out on the road. It's doubtful that they would have such poor etiquette," she said. In a huff, she crossed her arms. "Though to be completely fair, I have no way to know what happened out there in the forest. All that I can do is suggest that you all stick together next time. You should go see them. They were worried enough that rangers are out there looking for you."

  "They can wait. We've got business, after all. I want to teach about the pokédex in your school. Spread it around too. Since I was around during the thing's creation, I think that I'm pretty much the best person who can teach anyone about it besides Oak. And his other researchers. And anyone who can talk about—"

  "You were around for its creation?"

  All pretense disappeared. What was once the respectable leader of education in Hoenn dropped formality whenever her interest was hooked. It was in the tiny movements, how her proper posture discombobulated into aimlessness, enough that from her slightly raised heels she could be caught in a sudden wind, the dress as a sail. The sudden shift was enough to make him wary, holding up his hands as her intense expression seemed to press against him.

  "During the latter part of it. It's got the entirety of Kanto's pokémon already scanned inside of it for a reason. Or at least these do." For emphasis, he flicked out one of the pokédexes. "Got these this morning. These are better 'cause they've got more recent information since they've got the data that me and a companion personally worked with along with a small update—a little too much information if you ask me. Most people won't need a pokémon's tracks."

  Roxanne opened up her pokédex and flicked down the list. The names at the end made her fumble with the device, bouncing around like a hacky sack. Each swipe for it sent it back into the air. She grabbed it just as it was about to fall into the ocean and resumed her professional posture, clearing her throat.

  "So there are the famed winged mirages in here also," Roxanne said.

  "Mm hm! Saw Articuno myself!"

  Her hands twitched. The pokédex fell softly on the grass. It couldn't be contained anymore.

  Kane squeaked as that same grip that crushed his hand worked on his shoulder.

  "Tell me everything."

  "I can't exactly do that!" Kane squeaked.

  "Why not?" she asked calmly—not politely, nor nicely. There was the authority that Kane hadn't been subjected to for quite some time. Even Erika's secretary lacked the certain amount of intensity that the woman summoned up in that short moment. It could be inferred that unlike the prim woman in a suit, this one had the strength to arm wrestle the average male. When he was stalling for too long, she repeated with a terse, "well?"

  "I haven't seen all of them, and it's kind of a long story, and you're being weird in public, and I'd rather talk about business first, if that's alright with you, Ms. Roxanne," Kane fired off. His wavering confidence didn't mean that he spoke too fast or too garbled. Speech coaches would've only chided him for dropping the silly accent that he'd been trying to keep up.

  The pressure against his shoulders lessened until he was free. Small readjustments were hidden through innocuous movements: adjusting her skirt, coughing into her hand and making sure that nobody had seen that brief loss of control, until they stood at arm's length.

  "Very well. If that's what you wish, then we shall talk about that at a later date. You want to teach about the pokédex? A grand idea. I'm willing to defer to Professor Oak's judgment in this edge case considering how hard it'd be to disprove any outrageous claim you could make at short notice, and I'd rather get more students acquainted with this remarkable tool sooner rather than later. Of course, this is predicated on the dean accepting this arrangement. There's no need to worry, since I'm sure that she'll agree if we explain the circumstances. Afterwards, if we confirm your position at the school, then perhaps you can spare some time to talk about the legendaries that you've seen in your travels? I've heard of these mirages from Professor Oak's own writings and, naturally, historiography of Kanto is rather limited over here. So? Could you? I believe that this sounds like a reasonable plan."

  Kane tried multiple times raising his finger to interject only for her to trample straight over him.

  "Yeah," he said with puckered lips.

  "Excellent." She pivoted on her heel. "Perhaps you'd be willing to share some of your travels as we walk? I would love to hear about how a person such as yourself had come under Professor Oak's employ."

  That got him excited again. He bounded up to her side and they started walking. "Oh boy, do I! I've got tons of stories to share. You know about how me and the former champion busted up the former Team Rocket base? Woo! Love that one."

  Coloring over the parts where he trash-talked a respected gym leader was necessary, though he sourly noted that it made the story much less satisfying; relationship dynamics weren't nearly as interesting if the later friendship didn't have the spice of antagonism. Roxanne chuckled at them getting arrested; he didn't think it was that funny.

  The trainer school was much smaller than Kane had been expecting. It was known even over in Kanto (he would personally add 'evil backwards region known as Kanto to some') as the center of the education (he would then add how Kanto was against being smart and generally liked being dumb) yet the building barely had enough room for the teacher's classrooms. Context clues hinted at the history: new facades updated by each leader couldn't hide the hasty construction from the years of the school expanding into nursing, contests, League training, whichever caught the fancy of the current dean. Kids mixed together with women in nursing uniforms—where those nurses went he couldn't say considering that he'd only ever met a Nurse Joy.

  Roxanne was able to get them into the dean's office with a call of the woman's name—not even a knock! Her gym was on the street behind the school. From the room that they were sitting in, he could see a convenient path made from the sidewalk behind the school that she could walk in from. The exact term for it waffled around in his head. Not nepotism since there was no family or friends involved. Plain corruption? He hesitated calling a gym leader supporting education such a bad thing. The term for a public figure supporting an institution so much that it could never fail was on the tip of his tongue without ever forming.

  He thought about anything other than what the woman in front of him was talking about. Most of the process was streamlined by having the not-corruption happen while the second half were boring platitudes. An on-the-spot-appointment as a temporary professor when he was around half these women's ages. He didn't really pay attention. It was a basic guideline of do's and don'ts that were self-explanatory. Hundreds of hidden ones she wasn't talking about went something like 'not lying overly much about a topic you're not supposed to be lying overly much about' and 'not threatening your students with your bomb' and 'not having a bomb on campus'—this list being non-exhaustive.

  Roxanne sat beside him, the flat stare she was giving an obvious tell of what she thought about the blatant disrespect to the dean.

  "Now! Were there any questions?"

  The office they sat around inside was warm and personable. Drawings from kids plastered the walls picturing them playing with the portly woman. The front of her desk was cluttered with pictures; her team and family were prominent in every single one of them. Nervous tapping played out with her fingers on the fake wood. There was a carving of a Meganium sitting at the very edge, nearly tipping over.

  "What's the story behind that?" Kane asked.

  An award hung on the wall next to all the different certificates she held. It didn't feel like one, lacking all the shiny brass or decorative colors, but the words certainly said that it was an award. Any specification was conspicuously left out.

  "Oh, that? I was a casual pokémon breeder who competed in tournaments when I first started my time at this school. I just so happened to have bred a fantastic Oddish during my…" she looked off as the woods of her office became glowing spotlights, "second year here. I was so confident that I'd win that, I admit, I had a swollen head when the actual competition came. That year also saw some amazing breeders join with their own masterpieces. I lost to the experts without surpassing the other laymen. Somehow there was a student who caught wind of the whole situation and the whole student body presented me with this award as a prize. I'm sure they meant it as a consolation prize but I took it as a real one."

  "Cute," Kane said.

  "It was a reminder as to why I tolerate all the nastiness that comes with this job. Behind every name that passes my desk is a person that wants to hone their minds for the betterment of society. My job is to sharpen them enough that they walk out of these halls with the skills to make the world a better place. The impact that a single dean, a single teacher, even a single person on the street can make with another person is immeasurable, because then how many people does that person touch? That's why I'm so excited about this opportunity. I'm sure you have great stories about how your own life was changed by the pokédex," the dean said.

  That was a loaded question to ask, Kane realized. Looking back on the past experiences weren't a great introduction to the pokédex and would rather be told in ominously dark lighting, the crackling fire making the ridges of his face into gaunt cubist lines. The whole debacle when he tried cutting through a forest would've instantly made Roxanne take over and force him through a lecture on proper traveling procedure. Talking casually about the legendaries in the region would raise skeptical eyebrows, no matter how vivid he described the feeling of a cold so great that the insides of his nose dried out of snot. Take that he'd never used the pokédex for its intended purpose and he was the opposite of a fount of knowledge.

  He was a salesman though, not a scientist. The name of the game was lying.

  "Plenty."

  "Great! Now I believe that Roxanne here also implied that you could get some for our students? What would be the price range and how many would we receive?"

  Kane had already prepared for the question. He simply reached out with a slip of paper. "Call this number. Tell Professor Oak that I sent you. All that I'm doing is spreading the word so we can standardize these things throughout the world. He's the one handling all the industry and stuff. You think I can do that? Pfft. I barely know how to count."

  It was as if the holy grail was trading hands. The dean softly caressed the cheap paper with her thumb as Roxanne narrowed her eyes.

  "Where did you go to school?"

  "The streets." Kane held out three fingers. "East side, yo."

  Any criticism was held back as the dean cleared her throat, putting the slip of paper in a safe compartment in her desk—a very safe compartment. All the staples that were previously in a cardboard box were hastily emptied so the paper could sit snugly inside.

  "I think that we're about done here. I believe that Roxanne had supplementary classes today. Would you be willing to have them dedicated towards teaching about the pokédex or would you rather we work out another slot on the schedule?"

  "I think it'd be better if I could supervise him. I'd like firsthand evidence that he can teach before leaving him to his own devices," Roxanne said.

  The dean nodded. "Very well. By the end of today we'll give you a semi-permanent position so we can make sure that everybody gets a chance to attend your class."

  Leaving the office felt like a freed man from prison getting his first breath of air. Handshakes were shared and gone he was.

  The hallways of the building weren't nearly large enough for the students that were sliding around. Kane saw the obvious mission creep from the short space, the kids around his own age waddling next to young women with aprons and freshly ironed clothes. It was a little humiliating to be wearing his ratty trench coat around people that had all their own styles, from the simple t-shirts and khakis to kids who looked like they were from a flashdance movie. Yet because of his smallness he was given a front row seat to bigness—the tiny smiles, the clarifications of her schedule, and praises for the previous lectures. Every corner was a new person that had some kind of connection to the gym leader and Kane started to suspect that it was because they just wanted to breathe the same air. Clout came from the gym leader title. Being a renowned teacher was another title under her belt. Studying ancient history on the side gave her further respect from those who appreciated academic types. Being cute had attracted some of the older boys. These were the whole chemical formula belonging to a school.

  Paved pathways with prominent alumni grafted into their bricks led into single buildings. Little windows led inside to classrooms of varying sizes. All of them had no empty seats. It was at the furthest of these buildings that Roxanne opened the iron door.

  The door shut behind them. Even the gigantic window that let a blinding amount of light in didn't make the world any less dark.

  "Sit down."

  He walked to the desk and sat in the front row like a good little student. Loud clacking came from the heels that pressed against the arena's warm wooden floors. On the chalkboard was a Cascoon smiling without a mouth. One swipe and it was gone.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  "Let's make the details of this arrangement clear: you're here to be a teacher. This isn't a vacation, nor a game, not a frivolous afterthought. You're going to be a positive addition to these student's lives or you're not going to be in them at all. To that end, there are guidelines that you'll have to follow, which I'll be happy to go over with you," Roxanne said.

  "That's alright. I think that I'll be a good teacher!" Kane said quickly.

  He shut up when she walked all the way over to his desk and leaned onto it. The foreboding came to flower when she cast a shadow over his body. "This was not a suggestion. You may have a cavalier attitude when you're a trainer, but you're now a part of a teaching institution. The people you talk to demand a certain amount of respect. That includes the dean."

  Not entirely willing to be cowed, Kane raised his head up. It felt as though he were physically butting against her forehead. "People gotta earn respect."

  Brown orbs lit like a wildfire. He shrank back into the chair.

  "Titles do not come from nowhere. Though some may have been given the luxury of respect through sheer coincidence or birth, you may rest easy knowing that everyone here has worked for their positions. I've been training at least five times a week since I became fourteen while remaining in the top of my classes until my graduation with a degree in paleontology. The dean is the valedictorian of her class while she was working with a part time job and maintaining a family at home. Every teacher here has similar accreditations to boast of. Even the guest speakers are only allowed when they have some sort of renown; from the sounds of it the greatest weight that your name has is in the police registry back in Kanto. So, when you're being talked to by any of your superiors and colleagues, you will not brush them off. When directions are being given, you will listen. You will not disrespect your colleagues—my friends—if you want to continue this job. I gave it and I will not regret taking it away if you'll be a deleterious influence."

  Paycheck on the line. Mad lady may be taking things too seriously but mad lady was also holding a paycheck in line. Go along with the mad lady. Like a rusting hinge, he could hear every creak when he was nodding along.

  She stepped away from the desk. "Be here at three thirty so I can verify you have a lesson plan. Unless you have any questions, I have a gym appointment to attend."

  He didn't say anything, so she left. He didn't say anything because that wasn't part of the plan. The plan wasn't part of the plan. Education plan? He'd never heard of it! From the sound of it, it was a plan for educating people, and the plan that he currently had for educating people was talking about what came to mind, so he broke out the pencil and paper and went to work. No thought was given to the time either in the presentation or to real life, and the early morning nippiness that had intermingled with the soreness from squatting was quickly wiped away. There was barely time to eat, make sure that he was presentable in the hotel that he booked, and run back in time for class.

  Roxanne looked as if their earlier conversation hadn't happened. With barely a raised eyebrow, she accepted the papers he'd handed. An elegant 'Le Plan de Educatione' was penned at the top of the papers. A silent thirty minutes passed before she'd given them back with red markings for the words that he'd misspelled. Students started to enter. He felt sweat at the back of his neck. Suddenly the trenchcoat just felt really lame.

  All ages of learning from the very youngest to those about to graduate were present. A respectful silence overrode conversation as Roxanne, the real teacher, stepped in front of a blackboard.

  "Good afternoon. Today was supposed to be a supplementary lesson about rock-types. Those more observant would've noticed that the schedule changed at the last minute." She turned to the dirty, dusty pair of worn pants and a bulky trenchcoat with her hand extended. "This is Kane, a representative of Professor Oak. I believed that it was prudent for all students currently attending to get the chance to hear his lecture. Please give a warm welcome and your full attention towards our guest lecturer."

  Claps came from a few eager students. Those who followed were reluctant. Roxanne walked to the L-shaped desk nudged into the corner of the room and sat down, folded her legs, gesturing for him to continue. He took the same spot that she stood in with much, much smaller feet.

  "Hello. As she said, my name is Kane. I was involved in the production of the pokédex, these little contraptions."

  Each syllable grinded against each other like he was shoving two concave puzzle pieces against each other. He handed out the pokédexes that were inside of his coat to the people in the front row. Ten rows, five desks back, missing about eleven pokédexes for the entire class. Underneath his armpits was a solution of heat sweat and nervous sweat.

  "Er, if you'd just pass those to the back of the class so that everybody can mess around with it."

  Kane was at least thankful that the people were more technologically literate than those in Kanto and were fully exploring the buttons without looking as if they'd been handed alien blasters. "Professor Oak's invention. These things will scan pokémon and tell you all the basic facts about them. Useful for battles as well as, well, whatever you need them for. I'm here to tell you all about their features so that you can be familiar with them by the time that these are widespread."

  One of the students raised his hand. An iron chain bounced underneath his leather jacket. The boy was a few years older than Kane, even if his height didn't imply it.

  "Yes? You, with the chain," Kane said.

  "What credentials do you have?"

  Roxanne glared, though Kane still answered. "Eh? What'dya mean, gov'na?"

  "Are you a trainer?"

  "No."

  "And you're too young to be a professor who worked on it." The boy grinned as the pokédex got in his hands. It flipped around like a rogue would do with an ace of spades. "What can you teach about these that we can't figure out ourselves? You ain't a trainer, you didn't make them, and you're not a teacher. You look like Roxanne just picked up the first kid that came with a pokédex."

  "Mr. Ronin! This kind of behavior is unacceptable towards a guest!" Roxanne yelled.

  He shrugged with the same grin taunting Kane. "I'm sure that I'm not the only one thinking it. If you're really so big and mighty, then you can at least win a pokémon battle, right? Else you're just a kid tryna look cool."

  There was a window taking up the entire wall on the opposite side of the entrance that Kane considered jumping out of. It was preferable to breaking character. The facade that he was a normal merchant would be broken if he suddenly was a good trainer. Side-glancing towards Roxanne also made his hands nervously tap against his buckling legs, realizing that she was much more focused on the conversation than would be considered proper. She was watching, judging.

  There wasn't an elegant way out of the situation other than putting the rowdy student in his place.

  An arena separated the teacher's realm from the desks—merely a very basic rectangle drawn in white chalk. Looking around, Kane realized that austere materials made the room look hardier than any classroom he'd ever seen. He bet that the desks used were also the most worn in the whole school, scorch marks on their legs and dents on the surfaces.

  "Do you have a pokémon that I can borrow?" Kane asked Roxanne.

  "Hey! How can I know that you wouldn't just win with a pokémon that she trained? Don't you have your own pokémon?" Ronin yelled.

  "I only have the pokémon that I'm selling. I'm not a trainer." He glanced over to Roxanne. She was still intently watching. "Is this fine? Us battling, I mean."

  Roxanne gestured to the students. "I recognize most of the people here as being part of the battling curriculum. They would probably trust your words if you showed them that you at least had a decent understanding of battling rather than me vouching for you. Just use the pokémon you're selling. I only have my ace team on me."

  Ronin started moseying down, feet kicking out in whimsical arcs and thumbs sticking in his pockets. "One versus one, if you even have a single good pokémon."

  A ball was picked. He was pretty sure that it was the one he was thinking of. Having pokémon he was selling and a new outfit had given him a new layout of where the pokéballs were.

  Flashes of light appeared on each side of the arena. Cottonee trilled in anticipation as the Makuhita on the other side bellowed a war cry with his arms raised high.

  "Ah, sorry. I picked the wrong pokémon," Kane said, rubbing the back of his head.

  "No substitutions! You 'fraid that thing is gonna get one shot by Menace?" Ronin taunted. 'Menace' beat his chest in approval.

  "No. I just didn't want the fight to end immediately," Kane said. He dismissively looked away. "Fairy wind."

  It was a testament to the Makuhita being trained by a semi-competent trainer that it didn't get knocked out after one move. It still cried in bewilderment as the pink wind knocked it off its feet, unprepared for the strange attack to hurt so bad. Only two more were needed before the poor thing was seeing stars. Agent pink had dusted the fat crop. The battle ended in an anticlimactic ten seconds.

  Just when the pokémon was recalled, Roxanne appeared behind Ronin and grabbed his ear. Any protests were silenced when she gave a glare.

  "I'll take this one off your hands and make sure that he learns why we don't treat guest speakers in such a way," she said. Ronin whimpered. "In the meantime, please continue teaching this class as your lesson plan said. I believe that you have their attention."

  She dragged off the boy as Kane took the teacher's position again. She was right: the entire class was sitting up at attention towards the boy who completely wiped the floor with one of their own. Clearing his throat gave him a few extra seconds to remember what he was doing. Then he realized that the papers of the lesson plan he was going to use were still being held. 'Good job, though put more time in the future' was neatly boxed inside the margin.

  "Please continue passing around the pokédexes. Once you've all become familiar with the layout, we'll go over the basics and future planned updates of the machine." Finding the chalk, Kane brandished it like a sword as he wrote each of the words with a huge underline underneath them. "The development process. How it works. The database. How to read about the pokémon. The future. We'll go over each of these and the standards that the database will be subject to. Ah! And how could I forget? We'll also talk about the update with soon-to-be international standards on fairy, dark, and steel-types."

  The murmurs of confusion made him gleefully snicker.

  Roxanne came back when the students were walking out of the class, two additions following alongside her. It exceeded her expectations to say the least. The youngest excitedly talked about using them to plot out the best places to find awesome pokémon. The more serious battlers were discussing the implications about everybody having the information about evolutionary paths and typings at their fingertips. Those who had initially gone because of Roxanne begrudgingly admitted that it was informative, but their teacher should've been a cute girl at least.

  Inside told a better story. About the best case scenario had been achieved in Roxanne's mind, the best being Ronin not interrupting. Multiple students had stayed behind to ask questions related to the release of the pokédex, more about typings, clarification on a pokémon's inherent abilities, and continuing to hustle. Recognizing the two sheepish kids standing behind Roxanne made the deal start to hurry along.

  "I'm not selling it for the price of a potion," Kane said wryly. "7,000. This isn't a rare pokémon by any means, but it's not native to the region. I don't want to give it out to just anybody."

  The kid he was haggling with crossed his arms. "You're charging that much for a common pokémon who doesn't even battle? The way you described it sounded like you wanted to give it away. I'm thinking more around 2,500. No way it's that valuable if you're so annoyed by it."

  "You're not making it to the region that this came from anytime soon and, if you do, you're going to be paying a heck lot more than 5,000 for the round trip. This is a bargain that you're throwing away if you walk away now. We can both tell that you're interested in a companion pokémon, so let's drop the hardball numbers. I can go down to 6,000," Kane said.

  "5,000 then. I'm doing a huge risk getting a pokémon that nobody here knows about. People who don't know about pokémon are never going to drop that much money on a single one and those that do understand know the risks of buying a pokémon at that price who doesn't want to battle. You'd have to find a special sucker willing to go over 5,000," he said.

  "Have you considered that this is a female? If she's ever willing, then catching a random Rattata will give you the same species that she is. You'd be able to make back the money if you ever get into breeding yourself by spreading it around the school," Kane said.

  "But you've already said that she's a troublemaker. 5,500 and no more than that," the boy said.

  They locked eyes for a few seconds before Kane extended his hand. They did a firm shake, exchanging the goods. He walked up to the trio, counting his money with a devious grin.

  "Sorry everybody! I'm going to be here for some time, so any questions can be asked if you see me around campus. Thank you very much!" He turned around as the students had gotten a hint, cat-like smirk challenging the duo. "Look at who dragged themselves in."

  Brendan tried laughing. It sounded nervous, making Roxanne glance at him suspiciously. "Hey, Kane. Good thing you made it out of the forest. We were worried."

  "Yeah! Wouldn't want you to be hurt or anything like that. I think that we should let bygones be bygones," May said.

  "You two didn't—"

  "Yeah, we should," Kane agreed, nodding his head emphatically. "Nobody was really at fault in that situation. Let's just try to be better in the future."

  Both kids would've felt more relieved if Roxanne's suspicious glare wasn't still centered on them.

  "Whatever! Let's stop talking about whatever that was and focus on the here and now. We're gonna battle Roxanne today!" May said, pointing at the woman. "You should come watch! It's going to be the start of the fastest champion run in history!"

  "I for one think that it's reckless you challenged the League with this kind of goal in mind. Your journey is supposed to be a learning experience where you properly bond with your pokémon and—well, nevermind. You both are obviously committed to it," Roxanne said with a sigh.

  "We're going to battle the next hour. Apparently she had a class that she had to cancel because of us," Brendan said quietly.

  "Don't think that it was done for your benefit. It was canceled because this is my substitute," Roxanne said. The two kids looked at her in betrayal. She looked back impassively. "I'm sorry, but this was the arrangement that we came to. You two were the ones who wanted to battle me at first notice."

  Kane put a hand on each of their shoulders. "Don't worry too much, gov'nas. I already know that you're going to be sweeping through the League with how exceptionally you've been training already. You're going to carry that along with all the battles that I won't be present for."

  May dropped into a pout. "What do you mean by that?"

  "What he means is that by teaching here, he'll be here for the foreseeable future," Roxanne said.

  "AKA, I can't follow along for the next gym battles that you're going to have since I'll be spreading the word." He flicked May's nose since she looked put out. "Don't look at me like that! Check back with me and I'll have some places for you to check out. If you do well then I'll have a few gifts that'll make that two month time frame look like a breeze."

  Roxanne once again gave him a side-eye. "You said that you're not a trainer yet you're referring to your coaching as able to make a difference in their battling performance. It almost seems as if you have an intuitive understanding of the concepts."

  It was only a guess before, but Roxanne's clumsy attempts at poking around confirmed Kane's suspicions that she already was onto him. Getting figured out grated on his nerves and only reinforced his commitment to the persona.

  "Traveling around with a champion does that with you, which is a story for another time. Now, if you three don't mind, I have to think about how to make the next class better and you two have a battle to win. Au revoir! Give her Geodude a kick in the teeth for me."

  They locked eyes until the door interjected between them. The battle of wits was on. And, though there was no way for Kane to know it, he was far outmatched.

  Learning about how to teach during his brief tenure as Erika's tutor gave him a few basics to build off of. Apparently there were entire fields based around how people learn, to his surprise. The basic book that he skimmed between classes had red lines which separated the good from the bad, ugly from the pretty, and felt a little more in-depth than the Kanto version which didn't surprise him. Improvement, of course, could be done with every aspect of his course, of course. Students came in thirty minutes later to fill the exact same amount of seats, leaving no room left. Saying that the class went smoother wasn't implying there weren't interruptions. Just like the other one, somebody came up to challenge him. Then the last, another one. By that time, he'd expected the entire school was trying to cut their teeth on the young guest speaker.

  After every class there would be a line of people asking for better clarification on the pokédex, sometimes with things that weren't related to it at all. Many throwaway comments he made would lead to a greater mini-lecture as he imparted the oodles of knowledge to hungry students. It made him feel strange, knowing that these people would carry the knowledge of special defense and exactly how Seismic Toss became more powerful may create the next generation of trainers explicitly better than any before them.

  It was when the very last students left that a girl dressed in a simple blouse and skirt combo walked to the front. It was easy to tell that she was important from the amount of people that were peeking through the door.

  "Hello! Your class was very informative. I was very interested in hearing about how Professor Oak may work on making the databases international and including where to catch pokémon. I believe that would be useful for learning where to catch pokémon that I haven't seen before. Do you have any idea of when that feature may be added?" she asked.

  Looking at her closer didn't give him any context clues. Her nearly neon-blue hair laid flat down on her back, and the casual outfit wasn't familiar.

  "Don't act so formal with me. I'm pretty sure that I'm younger than you. Don't know much about that side of the thing, so I can call Professor Oak when he thinks they'll be done. From what I've heard, the international database thing is a little shaky 'cause he has problems with the connections from so far away." Kane shrugged, realizing his limits as a teacher. "Not that I know how any of that works. We have internet connection with Kanto, right?"

  It was at that moment that Kane remembered that no, no they did not. They did not have a specific internet connection with Kanto. There were specific lines that had to be constantly maintained to connect with the entire continent over there because of the backwards infrastructure that the entire world had. Magic storms did that. Magic beasts who could make storms did that. They destroyed human stuff. Accidentally, for the most part. Sometimes maliciously. How they transferred data over was beyond his head. All he knew was that it wasn't exactly the internet yet suspected the detail was so pedantic that it was basically the internet for the average person.

  "Oh, that wouldn't do. I'm moving on by the day after and tomorrow I'm busy. It's fine if you don't know. I was just curious," she said.

  "You don't go to this school?"

  Her smile transformed. It was a little more genuine instead of the blinding beam that expressed an impossible happiness. "No. The programs that introduce people to pokémon contests were actually created with my help. Not much point in attending a school when I already made all the stuff in the courses. You can call me a professor if you like!"

  "What courses?"

  "Coordinating!"

  "Big shot gov'na." He leaned next to the blackboard. "Are you curious because you're going out of the region?"

  She mimicked him, perfectly miming as if she were leaning on a solid object. "Ah! I was thinking about it, somewhere like Sinnoh. I just thought that it would've been a great opportunity to expand my team."

  Kane felt the money that was earned earlier in the day turn just a little less light. "What're you looking for? You're a coordinator? That means you're looking for a cute thing."

  She hesitated a moment, thinking about how to word it. "Not precisely. How much do you know about contests?"

  Thinking back on everything that he knew about contests drew a bunch of cobbled information that didn't make much sense put together. There was an arbitrary voting stage that he could never figure out and a bunch of moves that were rated on their emotional appeal. He could already close his eyes and imagine a stage in front of a bunch of judges that apparently had greater aesthetic judgment than the crowd at large through standards normal mortals weren't allowed to know. Was he supposed to believe that? He didn't think so. If a performance is so perfect, then shouldn't even an average joe recognize perfection?

  "They're about making pokémon look pretty," he said with a shrug.

  There was no outward expression of her disappointment. It was always disheartening to hear someone who she hadn't taught yet; it was always exciting to find someone who she hadn't taught yet.

  "There's a little more to it than that." She fondly rubbed the ball that was clipped to her waist. "Because of the amount of work and money that goes into making a pokémon contest-ready, our teams are smaller. With the way that contests are judged, it makes those who manage more pokémon be a little more flexible, just like a battler. Those such as myself fully bring out a pokémon's potential by focusing on them though. Let's take my Ali for example: he has become emblematic for his tough and beautiful demeanor. We don't always take home the win though! Occasionally there's judges who prefer cool, cute, and clever pokémon."

  "You're looking to round out your team," he said. Dollar signs seemed to emit from her. "Actually, I think we can come to an arrangement. Are you free tomorrow?"

  A few 'squees' came from the open door. Kane arched an eyebrow at the girls who looked like they were about to explode.

  "I have some time before a photoshoot. Is seven good for you?"

  No, it wasn't, but he would yank himself away from the downy covers if it meant scamming a rich girl. Basic blouse she might've been wearing, the material wasn't anything to scoff at. He could see the tiny stitches made to look like waves trailing along the bottom of her skirt had genuine attention put to them.

  "Of course. Outside the school?"

  "Sure!"

  More 'squees'. Anymore fangirling was interrupted when two kids barreled through the eavesdroppers.

  "Kane! You were right! We wiped the floor with her!" May yelled.

  "It wasn't really that easy, but we were able to pull through," Brendan corrected, though he was still smiling. "If that was supposed to be the first gym leader, then thinking of how strong the others will be is crazy!"

  The girl he was speaking to gave him a nod before walking out the door, though he managed to catch that her eyes seemed focused on May. Neither of the kids paid attention to the extra student as they excitedly gave him the lowdown of the battle.

  Then they went and got wings. Why? Because he liked wings. Brendan liked wings. That's why. May only thought they were okay, but she was willing to suck up a perfect victory meal for how enthusiastic her traveling partner became and gems they were meant to save for a rainy day. Neither questioned how Kane had come to know about secret places off-route nor where the gems he gave as presents came from.

  They spent a long time with their victory meal, longer than Kane was intending to stay awake.

  T-Minus 1 Month and 2 Weeks and 5 Days?

  Frost never built up in tropical climates. Dew did. Standing at the edge of Rustboro gave a perfect view of the field reaching into the forest glinting off the early sunlight, dozens, thousands of shining spotlights making the ground look blanketed in light.

  "It's beautiful out, though I think that I brought the wrong clothes for the weather," she said.

  Kane would've agreed if he were an insane person who thought that 90 degrees was a nice median. Nearly being eighty so early was outrageous. The school's tallest spires rose above the skyline, windows glinting brightly from the morning condensation sticking to them.

  The sea only made the whole area more moist. Saltwater, thankfully cooler than the air clogging their noses, sprayed against them from the rocky blue chariots bashing against the rocks. In the distance a spout of water sprayed into the air. Water, water, water. Everything is water. Hoses spraying lawns in the morning. Sprinklers automatically turned on during the wee hours. Wingulls dipping just above the waves to catch leaping fish.

  Two pokémon were lounging next to the treeline, trying to hide from the flying-types that would devour them for a snack. Both showed evidence of their work from the patches of mud caked onto their bodies that hadn't been cleaned off. Just a few days away scrubbed some of the luster that Lulu loved into a duller pink. That didn't stop the girl from stopping a good ways from the two, knees bending like a predator, leaping for the throat.

  Lulu cried in shock as she was suddenly picked up and rubbing cheeks with a human.

  "Girls really like pokémon in a different way than guys. When I see a cute pokémon, I just want to pet it, but this has been two different girls of good standing who have gone gaga over them," Kane said as he walked up. Lulu gave an aggrieved expression that he totally ignored.

  "What is she?" the girl asked.

  "A Lurantis."

  "A Lurantis. Lurantis…" she repeated. Lulu was held out, arms dangling as she submitted to her fate. "What do you want for this Lurantis?"

  "Priceless."

  She turned around, pouting. Buzzing came from deep within the forest as diurnal bugs started waking up.

  "Really?"

  "Really, really. However, she already has a child who looks like he's close to evolving. The problem is that he has expressed that he wants to be a battler," he said. "So really you only have one option: waiting. Lulu is exclusive."

  "Exclusive?"

  "She's picky and only one pokémon has reached her standards. Means that you'd have to wait for them to get together again. I'd be willing to reserve the egg for you though."

  "How much?" she asked.

  "5,000 upfront and 15,000 later. These are specially bred and you can see the quality! I'll bring you a Fomantis that's partially ready for evolution and teach you my grooming process."

  "You groom your pokémon!?" she yelled, taking a closer look at the pokémon in question.

  Because he already confessed to not knowing much about contests, she wasn't walking in with the best of expectations. Paying attention brought out details on Lurantis' body that should've been blinding. All of the leaves' edges were sharpened to nearly gleaming edges. Though it must've been partially due to the pokémon's natural beauty, a florist's heart would beat out of their throat if they saw the overwhelming pink that almost seemed artificial. Tiny growths around the base of the bow-like limb on its back showed the beginnings of what would happen if a careless trainer didn't trim them, and obviously they were maintained since tiny incision marks littered her back. Somehow the same process was happening on the pokémon's forehead—green growths that were sprouting like tiny agave seedlings—yet no marks of a blade touching her skin were present.

  Everything about the pokémon was carefully maintained. Lulu, though annoyed by the manhandling as she was completely looked over, gently let herself be moved. Let it never be claimed that she doesn't have vanity.

  She stood up and turned around mechanically.

  "Are you interested in being a coordinator?" she asked.

  He made a show of thinking. "Perhaps, mayhaps. At the moment I'm tied up in the school and then I have the whole pokédex thing and I'm still hired by the grass gym back in Kanto, but maybe. Maybe."

  "Busybody." She held her hands on her hips. "I like it! You know that I haven't picked a dud yet? You'd be my one hundredth coordinator that I've scouted! It's a s-s-suuuuper fun lifestyle!"

  "Save the bullet points for later. Don't you have a photoshoot or whatever to attend?"

  With a gasp and hurried guarantee that they'd keep in touch, she ran back into the city.

  The figure stalled, looked up to the sky in thought, pivoted and ran back. "Wait! What's your number?"

  "Don't have a phone!"

  "What!? How am I going to contact you?"

  "Just come back! Or call the school! I'm going to be teaching here for a while," Kane said.

  "Ugh. Neophytes!" she yelled before running back to town.

  Turning to the newest hire, Kane stepped around to get every angle of the little man who was hobbling around on his feet from the attention. Seedots were relatively common and relatively boring in the grand scheme of the world and, being completely honest, Hoenn itself.

  He kneeled down. Even then they weren't nearly eye-level. Kane gave a stiff salute that made Seedot stand ramrod straight. What that meant for the acorn was that its feet shuffled together, facing forwards.

  "You are not here to serve me. You are here to serve a girl. She is a very important person—known otherwise as a VIP—who is going to hopefully bring the force of modernity to the backwater region known as Kanto. Kanto is a special kind of place, one where people think that living without air conditioning is a good thing. I do not. Therefore, you're going to be a soldier on a mission to save the region from itself. Do you understand?"

  Seedot shaking his head meant that his entire body was moving.

  "Then let me state this in terms that you can understand! You! Protect the VIP! Work your very best! Never give up!"

  The Seedot jumped up and down, high enough that it could've cleared over Kane's head. Satisfied with the enthusiasm, Kane caught the pokémon and walked back to school with Lulu trailing by his side.

  Mission completed without much fuss. Granted, it wasn't that hard, but even the most low of quests had the grunt work that made them unenviable. Before, he was hired as a teacher when he was younger than most of the school. Before, he had managed to get hired even goading Roxanne. Before he'd lived through the forest. Before, so much, so many details, feeling as though he were being taunted by something higher than him, that added up into a frame that the painting didn't fully fit. He was being taunted by a life that felt real in every respect—the people that he met, the radiance that he felt—yet fell apart whenever he looked too closely. Every single foolhardy action was rewarded, every risk hardly dangerous.

  Aren't I above consequences? he asked himself while reading his name posted on school boards.

  Bureaucrats showed their ability to forget the existence of their own souls, grinding out the paperwork that needed to be done within a single day. A schedule handed to him by one of said soulless bureaucrats at the front desk had his name printed instead of Roxanne's, held in a new classroom: 107. It had a domed ceiling with honeycomb vaulting making it really trippy to look at for too long. There wasn't an arena drawn out onto the floor, which made him wonder if that was coincidence or to discourage more challengers. The cream-colored room only had hopper windows along the ceiling's edges cracked open to let a little airflow in.

  Lulu quickly passed out. The teacher's chair that she appropriated had legs nearly as thick as her body, flat seat so wide that only her feet were hanging over the edge. Having his own classroom made his chest feel warm, having to refer students to his later classes when it was already full ten minutes before the lesson started.

  A boy walked in with a disgruntled expression. His feet stomped hard enough as if he were trying to bury them, nasty eyebrows raised sending thrills through Kane's body. Lurantis opened an eye at the racket before falling back asleep. A suave smile horribly hid his annoyance. The crisp blue suit and gunked blonde hair combo already foretold every turn the conversation would have.

  "When I saw on ZuChat that you had asked Lisia on a date, I thought that I was going to be meeting a master coordinator who had skillfully hid his presence. Now that I'm here, hah! I can barely see the resemblance to the original picture. You're merely a child playing adult!" He did an exaggerated laugh before extending a hand. "The name is Chaz. Coordinator with a master Machoke. You're looking at Lisia's rival."

  "Who's Lisia?" Chaz was blinking wildly as Kane looked through his memory. "Uh, uh, oh! She's the girl with the blue hair!? That's her name? Huh. Y'know, I was more focused on the hair. Is it dyed? It looks dyed."

  "It's completely natural!" Chaz yelled. Flicking a hand through his hair, he turned around and left. "Forget it! It's obvious that I wasted time greeting you for nothing. Good day!"

  Kane temporarily forgot that he was still supposed to be teacher-like and ran out to the doorway, sticking his head out to watch Chaz walk away in a huff.

  "Hey! I wanted to make fun—have fun with you, gov'na!" Chaz didn't turn around. "Hey! Aren't you—pokédexes! You should learn about them! Hey!"

  Nothing he said got the fuming boy to turn around.