"I need to talk to you."
The Grandmaster glanced up from the piles of paperwork on his desk, but didn't say anything. Beside him, Zhang studiously ignored Claire as he passed the Grandmaster more forms to sign.
"I've heard all about it already," said the Grandmaster simply. "Well done."
Claire blinked. The Grandmaster pressed his chop onto a logistics plan and passed it back to Zhang, who received it with a bow.
"You took a risk and it paid off," the Grandmaster continued. "Team Power views success according to results, not methods. If you managed to rob the High Dzong without jeopardizing our future plans, what harm is that? Rasmus will be even more valuable now that—."
"Dad," interjected Claire. "Uh, Grandmaster, I also need to talk to you about Rasmus. He's…"
"A monster?" said the Grandmaster. "I'm well aware of that. Rasmus is a tool to be used. He is not as powerful as you think, or as he thinks. Leave Rasmus to me."
The Grandmaster rose and set a hand on Claire's shoulder. It was an astonishingly affectionate gesture—the closest he had come to showing real feeling since they had left Nanzo and set out to restore Team Power.
"Okay," said Claire. "I'll leave him to you."
The Grandmaster smiled.
"He's been teleporting our grunts into Nanzo," said the Grandmaster, returning to his ornate seat. "I suppose you've already worked that out. With his Pokemon, the process will be greatly accelerated. You've done Team Power, a great service, Admin Claire."
Claire flushed and gave an awkward bow.
"Thank you, Grandmaster."
"Keep training our forces," said the Grandmaster. "But remember the lesson you've learned today. Understood?"
Claire bowed again.
"Yes. Thank you."
The Grandmaster smiled again, giving his painted face an almost sinister aspect.
"You lost a Pokemon at the High Dzong," the Grandmaster added off-handedly. "You can take another one from the armory, or go catch one on your own. That is your assignment for the time being."
Claire bit her lip.
"Yes, sir," she said.
As she left the Grandmaster's office, Claire struggled to make sense of her conflicted feelings. She had won her father's approval for the first time in more than a year—proved herself to him in a way she hadn't been able to do in months of hunting down rogue gym leaders and training grunts. And she had Rasmus to thank for it. Still, she hated him. She hated him for leaving her Bisharp behind. It was like letting go of Anastasia all over again. She couldn't accept it.
She had to get him back.
Liam was surprised to see Orchid slip into the back of the tent during the Team Virtue meeting that afternoon. Either she had given up on overcoming artist's block that day, or she was lonely, or bored, or all three. Whatever the reason, Liam was secretly pleased to see her.
"So," Liam began. "Continuing with our study of the philosophy of Virtue, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a question: what's the difference between Team Virtue and the other teams? The good ones—not Team Power."
The younger students stared blankly back at Liam. His eyes darted from Jera to Aziz to Chelsea, hoping one of them would at least venture an answer. Finally, Aziz raised his hand.
"Team Balance thinks it's wrong to want to win, right?" Aziz mumbled.
"Yeah," said Liam. "Well, sort of. They think that if you want to win too much, it gets in the way of making good choices, and the more you want to win, the more likely you and your Pokemon are to suffer defeat. That's a good one, though Aziz," Liam added quickly.
There was another long, awkward silence. Liam was beginning to realize why Werner had clearly regarded him as the star pupil: at least he had been willing to open his mouth. Finally, Chez raised her hand.
"Team Truth thinks that you can win if you just learn to act naturally," she said. "Like, on intuition, I guess."
"Good," said Liam, trying not to show any special attention to Chez. "Yeah, Team Truth are really into acting naturally. They think if you can just align yourself with the mystery at the center of all existence, good choices will come automatically."
Liam smiled ironically.
"And yeah, it sounds silly to me too."
The other initiates laughed, which made Liam feel better.
"Okay," Liam continued, "So, we know the differences, but what do we have in common with the other teams?"
Another long, awkward pause. Liam's eye flicked to Orchid, but she was staring very intently at her shoes. Chez raised her hand again.
"Go ahead," said Liam.
"Well, we all love Pokemon, right?" said Chelsea. "And everyone wants to be good at battling. And, well, we're all against Team Power."
Liam smiled with pride. If he had been Werner's star pupil, Chelsea was his.
"Exactly," said Liam. "And that's something we always need to remember. Even if we battle and train our Pokemon in different ways, all three teams share things that set us apart from Team Power."
Liam picked up the copy of Social Crisis and Pokemon Philosophy in the Spring and Autumn Period that Professor Shrike had lent him and opened it to the page he had bookmarked. It was a painting from long after the fall of the School of Power depicting Grandmaster Kong, the Old Master, and the Enlightened One sitting together under a tree by a riverbank, each with a Pokemon at his side. Liam held up the book so the others could see.
"This is a painting from ancient Nanzo," Liam explained. "It's called The Three Schools Are One. It shows the three founders of the Schools of Battle sitting beside the Golden River, learning from each other. There was a time in Nanzo's history where many trainers believed the three schools made up a cohesive whole."
Liam noticed the blank stares he was getting at the word "cohesive."
"Meaning each school has something to teach us about battling, and we need all three if we want a complete picture. I'm not saying you have to believe that, but I want to give you guys an assignment this week: learn something from someone in another team, and then share what you learned with us. Okay?"
There were several reluctant nods. Out of the corner of his eye, Liam spotted Orchid slipping back out of the tent. He wasn't surprised. Social homework didn't really seem like her kind of thing.
"Okay," said Liam, rubbing his hands together in the way Professor Werner used to. "Now, let's do some battles. I wanna evolve this Houndour."