"And this is why you don't interrupt a heracross when it is sipping on honey. Next question on bug types, how do pinecos grow?"
"I know, I know!" One of the young children that Volkner is currently teaching raised his hand excitedly in the air. "They add layers of tree bark onto their shell!"
"Thank you, Ben. Splendid answer." Volkner praised the child in the small classroom that he is currently teaching at as the entire class sat in one big circle on the floor, chairs and tables stacked neatly to a side of the room to create the needed space. Volkner had never been a fan of the typical classroom-style teaching method.
"And pinecos stay still hanging in the trees because…"
"They wait for their prey!" A few of the children shouted out their answers in unison. "And you cannot disturb them while eating or they will fall onto the ground and BOOM!"
"Yes, precisely that. So the next time you guys ever see a tree hanging with pinecos you-"
"Avoid them!"
"Correct. Good job."
The bell rang.
"Alright! Pack up! School's over! Class dismissed!" Volkner clapped his hands once in a jovial manner as the children all whooped in joy. "We will be having practical sessions tomorrow on handling bug types, so remember to read up on chapter 3 before then!"
"Yes, Mr Tide!"
With a chorus, the children exited the classroom like beedrills buzzing out of their hives. Kayla decided that now is the time to enter.
"Volkner."
"Hey, squirt." Volkner replied as he manually moved the tables and chairs back to where they were supposed to be. Kayla helped him out as they shifted the furniture.
"How long have you been waiting outside?"
"Only about a minute or two. How's your class?"
"You saw the kids. Today is more like a refresher for what they need to do tomorrow. Hands on is always the best way to get children to learn about pokemon. Hey, what about that Max kid from your class? Is his application to get a Regional Starter from Professor Elm successful?"
"Max successfully got into the initial selection to be one of the few recommended trainers. If all goes well, he should be able to pass the second selection before attempting the final one." Kayla replied absentmindedly. "On a side note, I just got a text from Marco and Vicky. Marco finally worked up the guts to propose to her, it seems."
"Oh? No surprises there. He kept texting me for tips about a month ago. I must have been a very good teacher."
"I knew it." Kayla groaned with her palm over her face. "The way he proposed to her looks too much like your handiwork. No way Marco is smart enough to think of everything himself."
"But the important thing is, did Vicky eat it all up?"
Kayla's right eye twitched as she reluctantly gave her answer.
"Yes."
"Then it is a success. What are you complaining about?"
With their job for the day done, the two of them left Olivine's Trainer School, walking side by side.
It had been more than a year since Volkner retired from his position as Sunyshore's Gym Leader and moved here to Olivine.
Roxanne from Hoenn, the Gym Leader of Rustboro, had started the idea of having a trainer school system in her own region almost five years back. The motivation behind it was because the then gym trainer had witnessed too many deaths and injuries in both pokemon and novice trainers alike, because not all novice trainers had equal access to knowledge about how to handle pokemon. In hindsight, it's a wonder why nobody thought of doing something similar earlier. There are schools to teach children basic knowledge, but no school in any region to teach aspiring trainers how to handle pokemon until very recently.
Roxanne's idea succeeded. The mortality rate of novice trainers just starting out on their journey in Hoenn dropped drastically the moment her idea of having a trainer school took off.
Roxanne's success in her own region had quickly encouraged other regions to do the same. Now, almost every region is trying to implement the same Trainer School concept to teach children who are aspiring to be trainers. Letting aspiring trainers attend the Trainer School before they became official trainers soon became mandatory as per the orders of the League.
Most children sit through the three years course, although sometimes there will be one or two child geniuses that will pop up here and there. They can graduate immediately if they fulfil a few criterias. Firstly, they need to pass the same exams that the third years are sitting through. Secondly, the child in question must be willing to skip grades. Thirdly, both the parents and his/her teacher must agree to the early graduation arrangement. Only then can a child skip the full three years and become a pokemon trainer earlier than their peers.
"I'm going to have to make a detour to pick up Fluffy and Amphy from the lighthouse. You coming?"
Kayla did a shrug of her shoulders.
"Why not? It's not like we are in a rush."
Ten minutes later, Olivine's Glitter Lighthouse is in sight. It is the place where Volkner and Jasmine held their wedding two years ago.
"Bellossom, Moonblast!"
The sound of a pokemon battle could be heard ahead. The two of them hid themselves behind a wall and observed the two trainers commanding their pokemon. On one end is a trainer and his bellossom, on the other is another with her sunflora.
"Sunflora, Sludge Bomb!"
They both took the unanimous decision to continue watching silently without getting spotted. There is a faraway look in Volkner's eyes as he took in the sights of the battle.
He hasn't been battling ever since his resignation.
"Volkner?"
Volkner jolted a little when she poked him on the shoulder, confirming Kayla's suspicions that he was indeed lost in his thoughts.
"Ah, sorry about that, got lost in my thoughts."
"It's fine." Kayla reassured the person who used to be her superior, her Gym Leader. The person who had trained her to be what she is today. The person who had looked after her like his own sister when she had nowhere else to go after her mother, her only remaining family, had passed away. He had offered her to come with him to Olivine where he had decided to live the rest of his life with Jasmine, telling her to take all the time she needs to think until she found a new purpose in life now that she is not a gym trainer. When a trainer school in Olivine was founded shortly after they settled down in Johto, Kayla took his suggestion and tried her hand in becoming a teacher, imparting to the younger generation what she knew about pokemon.
Kayla ended up loving the job. She can tell that Volkner loves it too, because it allows him to continue to work with pokemon apart from battling.
Upon Volkner's recommendation, Riley was nominated as the person who will take on the mantle of the 43rd Gym Leader of Sunyshore. Volkner had been grooming Riley for that role for years and there was nothing left that Volkner could teach him. Volkner thinks Riley is ready. Volkner had absolute faith that Riley will be the one who will eventually surpass him and Kayla can see why. In the two years since Riley became a Gym Leader, he had not let anyone down.
However, Volkner never took part in pokemon battles again after his resignation. He still took great care of his pokemon and trained them when they asked for it, but he never took part in battles again.
The reason? There is no longer anyone that can give him a good challenge. The few who can are either too busy to come down and find him for regular visits or see no reason to battle him. Volkner and his pokemon are so ridiculously strong that he became bored from having a lack of worthy foes appearing before him, so he decided to just drop pokemon battling altogether.
"Solar Beam!"
Taking care to not get in the way of the battle occurring in front of them, Volkner and Kayla walked around it and proceeded to climb the lighthouse.
"Remember the time when my dream was to be Sunyshore's lighthouse keeper and I keep asking you to send in my letter of resignation for me?"
"How could I forget about that? You were an ass. Still are."
"Guilty as charged."
They both reached the top of the lighthouse soon enough. Amphy and Fluffy greeted them excitedly upon spotting them.
"Hey there, had fun?" Volkner patted Fluffy with his hands, arms wide open when Fluffy all but demanded a hug from him. "You and Amphy made another egg or something? Yes? No?"
"They did." Kayla replied when her eyes spotted another pokemon egg at the area where the two ampharos were at. "The mareep population back at your house is only going to get bigger. You and Jasmine can already start your own mareep farm."
"Good thing we own our own plot of land big enough to build an entire forest." Volkner snorted. "I knew it was a wise choice to buy all the land around our house when Jas and I moved in."
Kayla rolled her eyes in response, knowing that Volkaner wasn't kidding.
A wide variety of pokemon lived in the absolutely massive plot of land that Volkner had bought where the home he had built with Jasmine is now at. Despite the area looking more like a forest than anything else, the married couple had referred to it as their own reserve because not only is it large enough to be one, the purpose of the land is very much the same as those of a nature reserve. There are packs of the elekid line, shinx line, pikachu line, mareep line, voltorb line, magnemite line, and many other electric types that made their homes near the various mini power plants Volkner had built for them to live in within the reserve. Each of the power plants are the size of a small house, its primary function is to provide a steady food source for electric types. The generators in it are powered by the sea surrounding Olivine by connecting the numerous turbines laid on the seabed that are linked to the power plants.
Jarvis had thoroughly enjoyed himself when helping to plan the entirety of this project with Volkner. The success of the project was largely attributed to his efforts and meticulous calculations.
The entire span of land also houses a few steel types, although they are mostly made up of colonies of magnemites, the few arons that Jasmine had introduced into the reserve because she found them cute, and the occasional few wild skarmory that dropped by. Other species of wild pokemon had also soon chosen to make their homes there as time passed, living peacefully with the two humans who created such a haven for them. Since the land belongs to Volkner and Jasmine, it is technically private land. Most government enforced rules don't apply there. As long as what they are doing does not jeopardise the safety of anyone and anything, they can do whatever they want on it.
The peace and order in the reserve is maintained by the combined efforts of Volkner's and Jasmine's pokemon. To make sure that the ecosystem of the reserve can sustain itself, Volkner went out of his way to get pokemon from other regions who are known to help greenery bloom with their powers. Volkner managed to get his hands on a few florges and trevenants to help out in this endeavour.
The reserve is located at the very western end of Olivine City. Most of the pokemon that lived on the reserve chose not to venture out of it even when there was a lack of physical borders keeping them in. The reserve itself naturally provides enough food, water, and shelter with how it was designed and it doesn't even need to be actively maintained or monitored because the pokemon living in it are doing so naturally simply by living there. Again, most of it was monitored by Jarvis with Volkner checking in every now and then.
The only things marking the borders of the reserve are the signs Volkner had erected to warn any trespassers that they are approaching private land and they should turn back now if they came here without invitation and don't want to be turned into pokemon food.
And yes, you read that right. Turned into pokemon food. The 'turning into pokemon food' part wasn't an exaggeration. That nearly happened when Simba caught a trespasser and nearly mauled him to death for trying to poach his young from him. From then on, no one ever approached the mysterious private land to the west of Olivine when news of the poacher nearly dying in there reached the locals. No one save a select few even knew that the land belonged to Volkner and Jasmine because the couple simply didn't draw attention to themselves.
To the Olivine locals, it just seemed like some rich mysterious tycoon suddenly appeared more than a year ago and bought a massive plot of land on the outskirts of Olivine to the west. A month later, a miniature nature reserve had somehow built itself there, teeming with wild pokemon. The only thing reminding the locals that the plot of land actually did belong to someone was the sparse distribution of signs erected around it. While Jasmine and Volkner called their creation the reserve, the locals refer to it as the West Forest due to the large number of huge lush trees planted there that made it look like a true forest.
Kayla still doesn't understand how the rest of Olivine is ignorant of the fact that their Gym Leader is one of the two owners of the mysterious West Forest. It's not like Volkner and Jasmine are actively hiding that fact. Heck, it's like 99% of Olivine locals don't even know that Jasmine had already been married to Volkner for more than a year!
HOW?!
Kayla followed Volkner back to his home, walking through the route that anyone who wants to visit him or Jasmine will have to take if they don't want to be attacked on sight by the pokemon who live here. Volkner's and Jasmine's home is a little cottage, but it is modelled after a two storey lighthouse that looked suspiciously familiar to the one that overlooks the sea around Olivine. Volkner and Jasmine now live in a lighthouse, quite literally.
The wild pokemon who made their homes here are naturally protective of Volkner and Jasmine since they are the ones who provided them a safe place to call home. This place is so safe that there is even a small group of stantlers, a rare species of pokemon on the verge of extinction, who had recently migrated and settled down here to escape from poachers.
As usual, Kayla and Volkner prepared dinner since Jasmine is busy with her Gym Leader duties. Kayla was even offered a room in their house, but she declined because she felt that Volkner had done enough for her ever since she worked under him as his gym trainer.
Besides, she really cannot stand how lovey-dovey Volkner and Jasmine acted in front of each other. Even after they got married more than a year ago they still act like newlyweds. Seeing them flirt with each other can not only give her a serious onset of diabetes, it can blind her eyes and make her entire body shrivel up when she cringed at their cheesy words.
For the sake of her sanity, it's better that she lived alone in her own cottage not far from the reserve. That doesn't stop the couple from insisting that she should come over for dinner everyday because she might as well be Volkner's sister at this point.
Volkner had no need to work after his retirement because he had amassed a lot of wealth, but he decided to take up teaching because pokemon is his passion even if he never battled anymore. He works as a part time teacher at the school and took on a few classes of first years because their school hours are shorter. He is in charge of teaching the first years in the subject of pokemon handling. Kayla herself works full time and she teaches the third years in the subject of pokemon battling.
Jasmine is still the Gym Leader of Olivine. Now that she and Volkner are living in the same city and had been married to each other for some time, they had been wanting to have a child of their own and start a family. However, none of their attempts had been successful thus far, so they decided to just let nature run its course.
She still finds it a pity that Volkner decided to not take part in pokemon battles anymore, but she understands. There's no more fun in pokemon battles if victory comes too easy to you.
Maybe this is for the better. Volkner is finally living the normal life he had been dreaming of for years. Sinnoh had asked too much from him and he had given too much. Things had been relatively peaceful in Sinnoh and Johto for the past year. Volkner deserves to rest and live the life he had always wanted to live, doing the things he loves and enjoys.
Furthermore, the Sun of Sunyshore might have set, but Kayla is confident that the Sun will rise again in the time of need.
The Sun always does.
Pokemon and trainer list:
Volkner Tide: Ex Gym Leader of Sunyshore, Electric Specialist
Titles, Accolades and Achievements: Tie for First Place with Flint in the 521st Lily of the Valley Conference, Sinnoh's strongest Electric Specialist, The Sun of Sunyshore, The Yellow Flash
Pokemon Team:
1. Electivire (Franky), male
2. Luxray (Simba), male
3. Jolteon (Jo), female
4. Magnezone (ISpy), genderless
5. Gallade (Myst), male
6. Rhyperior (Tec), male
7. Probopass (North), female
8. Gyarados (Puddle), male
9. Raichu (Squeaky), female
10. Pachirisu (Scrat), male
11. Heliolisk (Bask), male
12. Ampharos (Fluffy), female
13. Vikavolt (Vik), female
14. Eelektross (Whirr), male
15. Lanturn (Glowy), female
16. Rotom (Prime), genderless
17. Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
18. Alolan Golem, (Toss), male
19. Electrode (Boomer), genderless
Jasmine Terbium: The Gym Leader of Olivine, Steel Specialist
Titles, Accolades and Achievement: Johto's Strongest Steel Specialist, Thirteen Pillar of Johto, The Iron Wall of Olivine
Pokemon Team:
1. Ampharos (Amphy), male
2. Steelix (Steely), female
3. Magnezone (Magny), genderless
4. Skarmory (Skia), female
5. Forretress (Forest), male
6. Metagross (Mety), genderless
7. Empoleon (Emy), male
8. Bronzong (Bronzy), genderless
9. Mawile (Molly), female
10. Lucario (Lucy), female
11. Excadrill (Drilly), male
12. Ferrothorn (Thorny), male
13. Klinklang (Clang), genderless
14. Bastiodon (Bobby), male
15. Aggron (Ronny), male