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Packing up to travel was a pain in the ass, but Kamil Hachiko was used to it after having to go back and forth from Unova and Kanto so many times in a hectic but worthwhile effort to maintain both his reputation as a Counselor for Collegiate Battlers as well as his family ties with his sister who still studied at the Pokemon Combat College.
"Let's see," he muttered as he checked his list mentally. "Training regiment notebook, more old tapes of father, encrypted case studies..."
"Good afternoon, Mr. Hachiko. I see you're packing for yet another trip." An older, middle-aged Xatu stood in the doorway of Kamil's office, watching the normally somber mon pack with a rarely seen excitement in his normally calm movements.
Still adjusting his button-up long-sleeved shirt, the Absol turned to his totemic avian friend and offered a brief smile. "Sorry Samuel. Was invited to a little shindig down in Johto."
The bespectacled fellow faculty furrowed his brow, before nodding. "Right. My apologies, the date came up so quickly. Wish your sister a happy birthday for me, and best of luck to you."
"What's in the cards and crystal ball for me, dare I ask?" Kamil grinned at his coworker Professor of proper psychic ethics, fully anticipating his response.
"You know I try to avoid divination. Stuff gets in the way of the path people make for themselves."
"Same as always. That always lifts my spirits." With that, Kamil grabbed his briefcase and rolling backpack luggage, and whistled as he strode down to the airport.
As the sun started to follow suit of the student body and retire for the day, the young Celebi in her nurse intern scrubs uniform grumbled as she applied ointment to her Flareon lover's forehead yet again this week right outside the gym doors. "I told you you'd get sloppy without taking a break."
Inari returned the grumbling, poking tenderly at the bruises she had given herself with that rough landing. "You know I can't stop, Galiana. I need to train for-."
"You'll do fine for next week. I know this anniversary is important to you, but remember you're important to the anniversary, as well as your big brother, and me!" Galiana poked at Inari's bruised arm with each thing the Flareon was important to. "After all these years, you still push yourself too much!"
Inari winced. The bruises hurt less than the words. She hesitated, hushing up for a moment, before finding the word. " . . . sorry."
Galiana took a deep breath. "I can't say how important your father should or shouldn't be to you. But I can say how important you should be to yourself. Stop forgetting that, okay? Besides, Kamil is going to ask about these abrasions."
"Don't remind me."
"I will keep reminding you until you stop straining yourself!"
"And then I'll have to do this!" Inari suddenly leaned forward and smooched Galiana on the lips, to which the Celebi could only stutter out her frustration.
"Incorrigible!" Her flustered fury lasted only a brief fleeting moment, before the forest fairy smooched her back. "Just relax a bit, okay?"
The plane trip would stop over in Kanto for a day or two before heading to Johto. The extra landing would be worth it to catch up with his little sister and her 'best friend'.
Kamil chuckled to himself at the thinly veiled euphemism while brushing his white mane out of the way of his glasses as he studied his itinerary. The bond was clear as day to everyone who knew the couple, even if Inari still got ridiculously defensive and flustered whenever it was joked about.
He hoped she never lost that little spark of innocence. Dad would've been proud.
Kamil chuckled quietly at his own musings. Alexander "Master of Disaster" Hachiko was a great man on and off the battlefield. Even given the four short year he had known his father personally, the eye-patch wearing Absol certainly didn't act like a big shot celebrity around his toddler son.
The Absol relaxed and played back what little memories he could recollect - ones so old, he was surprised they weren't in black and white. Not that their monochrome fur helped the mental images any.
For the 10th anniversary, a 14-year old Kamil gave a speech honoring the great fighter about how his sponsors and managers had complained to him that his father was horrible about keeping appointments after the young Kamil was born. He remembered how his father had told him that the people he was talking to on his cell-phone were "evil little Drifloons coming to snatch him away" before chasing him with his arms wiggling like tendrils, as the Hachiko family shared a picnic in a clearing in the middle of the Viridian Forest.
Inari's 20th birthday also signified their father's last battle, and the day he passed. The now-grown Absol took a moment to clean his specs.
"Can't be helped," he whispered.
Every 10 years since Alexander's passing was marked by a ceremony that the League hosted for their Hall-of-Fame father - he was a big money-making name after all. This year, Inari would join in with more than a simple kata-form exhibition. Brother and sister would be teaming up to face actual Hall-of-Fame professional battlers currently in the League.
It sounded like a privilege to most people, and it really was a privilege. But nevertheless, it was a performance. Kamil closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he felt his heart skip a beat.
He hoped Inari was ready. He hoped he was ready.
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