A/N: Hello again! Welcome back for another chapter of Soleil Academy! Now this chapter is going to be the dreaded exposition chapter. In fact, this is sort of a pseudo-introduction chapter since it'll explain Shu's work-study arrangement for the entirety of his time at Soleil. I did include a couple new characters, one of which is was submitted to me.

To the people who pm'd me a character and haven't gotten a response from me yet just know that I'm working out ways to better fit the character into the overarching plot but rest assured that you will get a response soon. I apologize for the delay. That's all I really have to say so let's hop in!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. I only own Shu and the rest of my OCs.

Chapter 6: Sycamore's Lab

Shu stood in front of his bedroom mirror, combing his freshly cut hair to the side. He had been too lazy to get a haircut so it had grown over a period of three months, ultimately hiding his forehead and ears. His parents wanted him to make a good impression on his instructors so they forced him to get a haircut. He had to admit it did feel good to feel the breeze pass through the sides and back of his head since he had cut it so short. Shu was not concerned about making an impression on his instructors, however. He had to say that the Kalosian girls were quite beautiful with all of their fashion and glamour as opposed to the covered up girls in Sinnoh. That was one thing he was looking forward to the most in Kalos.

After putting a jacket on, Shu grabbed his holo caster and shoved it in his pocket before taking his luggage downstairs where his parents, Sakumo, Natsuki, and Ganji were waiting. It was a surprise to see his friends at his house so early on a Saturday morning. Shu approached his friends and clasped hands with them. He noticed that each of them carried a gift.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

Ganji answered, "We came to see you off before you leave, man."

"Yeah and we wanted to give you these," Natsuki said as he held his gift up.

"You guys didn't have to," Shu said as he took Natsuki's gift regardless.

It was a department store box without any wrapping. Natsuki knew it was pointless to wrap it anyway. Shu lifted the top of the box and smiled upon seeing a light gray and navy blue zip up exercise sweater inside. The Pokemon League's official emblem was proudly displayed on the chest.

"I figured you would use it whenever you go for a run."

Shu took it out of the box and took off his hoodie to try it on. He filled it up nicely with the navy sleeves ending at his wrist - not too long and not too short either.

"It fits perfectly! Thanks dude!" Shu said as he and Natsuki clasped hands and hugged.

Ganji's gift was inside a small black case. As Shu opened it he saw an ultra ball in its expanded form sitting inside. His eyes went wide as he stared at it. He could see his own reflection in the black of the device and the gold lines made the ball shine in the light.

"Dude! You didn't!"

"Yeah, you didn't," Natsuki said with squinted eyes. "I thought we agreed on forty bucks."

Ganji laughed, "Relax, my dad has a hook up. I got it for fifty."

"That's still more than forty!"

Shu ignored Natsuki as he asked, "Why did you get me something like this? I mean, it's awesome but I'm not at the level to be using ultra balls."

"I know. That's why I want you to use it on a really strong and cool pokemon."

Shu clutched the ball tightly and fought back the tears tugging at his eyes as he brought both of his friends in for a hug.

"I'm really gonna miss you guys…"

Natsuki started sniffling to which Ganji asked, "Are you guys really crying?"

"Shut up!" they both yelled between sobs.

As they separated, Shu's mother said, "Honey, your dad and I have a gift for you too."

She was clutching a long rectangular box for dear life while she tried to keep herself from crying. Her eyes were already red and puffy, most likely from crying earlier while Shu was upstairs. She slowly approached her son in an attempt to stall the inevitable.

When she finally worked up the courage to hand Shu his gift, she went in for a hug which the boy reciprocated. Something had overcome him because he found himself unable to let her go as if his muscles had locked on their own. The tears that he had struggled to fight earlier with his friends had finally spilled onto his cheek and all over his mother's cardigan.

Eventually, his mother patted him on the shoulder and said, "Go ahead and open it, Shu."

Shu nodded as he reluctantly let go of her. Sakumo handed the boy a napkin so he could rub the tears out of his eyes. Once he could finally see clearly and the stinging in his eyes had faded, Shu unwrapped the gift and opened the box. He shook his head with a stupidly large smile on his face when he saw the custom trainer belt. It was black with six tiny holsters for his poke balls and a belt buckle with gastly's face as the design. There were no words as Shu's parents came around to hug him and the three held each other tightly.

As they separated, Shu asked, "Do you guys really believe in me?"

His father put a hand on his shoulder and said, "We do."

"You've been given a huge opportunity, Shu. Make the most of it."

Shu pressed his lips against each other to stop himself from crying, "Yeah...I will…I love you guys so much."

He went in for one last hug and afterward, it came time for Sakumo's gift. The older brother handed him a small black case which had two bells with thread inside - a round silver bell and a pearl white shell-shaped bell.

"What are these?"

"Just a couple of trinkets I've found during my field studies. The silver one is a soothe bell. It makes a calming noise that pokemon seem to like which makes training them easier. The shell bell has been said to have mystical curing properties. They're to help you once you get started with training and battling."

Shu smiled at his brother and thanked him before the two clasped hands. The boy looked around at his friends and family and thanked them all for their gifts. With nothing left to say, Ganji and Natsuki left so that Shu's parents and brother could take him to the airport where they said their final goodbyes.


Shu's second flight to Kalos was just as unpleasant as the first since he found himself sitting next to a man that stank of rotten bananas and day old cheese. The screaming toddler that kept slamming his feet into the back of his chair did not help either. Seven gruesome hours later and Shu arrived once again in Lumiose City's International Airport.

As Shu waited impatiently for the foul-smelling man to get his carry on luggage from the compartment above them, the boy looked at the huge line of people who were just as tired and frustrated as he was. Among them, he noticed another boy, perhaps a couple years older than him, sitting with his head tilted back, eyes sealed tight, and mouth wide open. Shu cracked a smile at the sliver of saliva that trailed down the other boy's cheek.

When the man finally got his luggage, Shu proceeded to get his duffel bag and move out of the way so everyone else could get off the plane. Just as he exited the hallway into the rest of the airport, he walked into a man who dropped his briefcase. Fortunately it had not opened and nothing fell out of it but nonetheless, Shu felt bad and immediately reached down for it.

"I'm so sorry about that!"

"It's quite alright," the man said with a slight grin. He graciously accepted the briefcase and tilted his coal black fedora to Shu. "Much obliged, young man."

Shu had finally gotten a good look at the man only to find that he was wearing a black trench coat that matched his fedora. From what little Shu could make out of him from under the dark clothing he saw that the man had sharp features, especially those steely eyes of his. That was all he could see before the man walked away and disappeared into the crowd.

Shu continued to the luggage pick up where he had no trouble finding his orange suitcase and proceeded to the street level to take a taxi to Sycamore's lab. Being all alone this time around, Shu was much more focused on where he was going since his mom was not there to pay attention for him.

When Shu reached Sycamore's front door, he knocked but no one answered. He knocked again and still no answer. Shu was starting to get a little unsure about whether he had the correct address so he asked Denki to dial the professor's number. The rotom happily obliged as its projection disappeared and Sycamore's appeared in its place.

"Shutsuga! It's good to see you!" he said.

"Hey, Professor."

"I take it you arrived in Lumiose City?"

"Yeah, I'm at your front door but nobody's answering."

"I'm sorry about that but everyone is busy sorting themselves out. Most of my assistants are students at the academy so they are either resting from their long trips or getting their rooms organized. I'll be down there right away."

"Thanks, Professor."

Sycamore hung up the call and immediately went to open the door for the boy.

"I'm glad you made it here okay," the Professor said.

At that moment, Denki's projection appeared from Shu's holo caster, greeting Professor Sycamore.

"Hello to you too, Denki," Sycamore said. "I see you've taken a liking to me after your last trip to Lumiose City."

Shu responded, "Just make sure to keep feeding him if you want him to keep liking you."

Sycamore chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind. Please come in. You'll have to excuse the disorder."

Shu realized what the professor was talking about once he walked in and found some of his assistants running across the foyer with boxes and papers. One of them was chasing a little fox pokemon around in circles trying to get it back into its ball.

Sycamore said with a laugh. "Things are always busy for the older students at the beginning of the year since they're getting all of their offices ready."

"Woah, they all get their own offices?"

"Yes, you'll even get one of your own once you start your third year at the academy. For your first two years you're typically in the labs assisting older students with their research but you get to start working independently in your second year."

"Wait but why would I need a lab? Aren't I going to be learning to battle pokemon?"

Sycamore stopped and sucked in air through his teeth before starting, "About that...I spoke to Dr. Maple and since you have very little experience in battling, she believed that the course would be too rigorous as you are right now so I entered you in the breeder course." Sycamore noticed the disappointment wash over Shu's face like a salty wave eclipsing the white sands.

"There is more, though, Shu," the professor continued. "She said that she would allow you to take the battle course introduction class in your first semester along with your breeder classes. That way you can still get some battle experience and if you work hard enough, you can transfer into the battle course so it can be your focus course. It's going to take a lot of hard work since you'll have to show that you can compete with the students that are going to be in the battle course since their first day at the academy."

"Well I can't give up just because I have to put in a little extra work. Emigna and I will definitely get into that battle course. Just you wait, Professor!"

Sycamore laughed, "That's the spirit! Let me show you to the room you will be staying in while studying at the academy."

They went up the stairs and down the wing opposite from the professor's office. As they walked, the man explained, "So the general layout for the building is that all of the bedrooms are in the east wing. The boy's rooms are on top and the girl's on the bottom. The bottom of the west wing houses all of the labs while the top is where all of the offices, including mine, are. We have two community bathrooms, one on each floor, so I hope you aren't too shy about walking around in a towel."

"No biggie. It's just like gym class at my old school."

The professor pulled a key out and of his lab coat and used it to unlock a door as he told Shu that it would be his room. Inside was a twin-sized bed, a closet, a dresser, and a small desk. There was one window with white blinds and an air vent in the center of the ceiling next to the light. The room itself was rather small and lacked color and substance.

"I know it's a little small but it has all of the essentials. You have the closet and dresser for all of your clothes and a desk to work on your assignments. You'll need to buy a set of bedding if you didn't bring one with you and you can get a laptop from the supply manager downstairs. Unlike at the dorms there's no set curfew but I would prefer that you don't stay out too late. As long as you have a valid reason for coming home late, I won't be upset. You can stay up as late as you'd like but please keep noise to a minimum since your classmates may be trying to sleep or work on their own assignments. Lastly, as tempting as it might be since your parents aren't around, no girls in here...or boys. Whichever your preference."

Sycamore flashed Shu a sly wink, making the boy laugh as he asked, "If I say I'm into guys can I have girls in here?"

Sycamore could not hold back the laughter as he shook his head and patted Shu on the back.

"That's still a no. You shouldn't have anybody up here, really, since you can do study groups and study dates on campus or downstairs in the lounge. Oh! And for that matter, try to stay out of the girl's dorms on campus as well. You are representing me, after all."

"Okay, okay. I got it, Professor."

"I know but I have to cover all of my bases. Why don't you leave your things here so I can show you around downstairs?"

Shu quickly left his suitcase and duffel bag by his bed and followed Sycamore back down the stairs and into the kitchen which by itself was almost three times the size of Shu's new room with three refrigerators, two sinks, and many, many storage cabinets. A counter with a window and a doorway to the side separated the kitchen from the dining room which had several tables.

They walked further down the hall past the dining hall and stopped at a door that read "Supplies." Inside was an older man sitting with his feet on his desk next to the small television that he seemed to be playing a video game on because he held a controller in his hand.

When he saw Shu and Sycamore walk in, he waved to the professor and said, "One moment, Professor. Let me just pass this level."

Shu looked to Sycamore in disbelief at how the man was making his employer wait. He had never heard of that happening but to his surprise, Sycamore did not mind waiting. In fact, he was watching the screen as he waited.

When the man finally finished the level, he paused the game and stood up. He was a very thin man with a frail build. His back was hunched slightly and his hair had long fled from the top of his head, hiding just above his neck. His large round glasses rested on his nose and touched his bushy mustache which moved up and down with each word he said.

"Shutsuga, I'd like you to meet the supply manager and day custodian at this lab, Harry."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, son," the man said with a wide smile. A couple of his teeth were missing.

"Nice to meet you too. You can call me Shu."

"Oh-righty, Shu. What brings you down to my humble quarters?"

"Professor Sycamore says I can get a laptop down here."

"The professor would be right," he replied with a chuckle as he walked away into the row of shelves that were stacked with supplies.

Harry came back moments later with a shiny silver laptop and its charger. There was a stylized "L" shaped logo on the back cover and a barcode sticker in one corner. Harry went back to his desk to input the computer's identification number before handing it over to Shu.

"Here you go, son. Take good care of it, okay? It's a pretty standard laptop with all of the basic functions you'll be needing: documents, presentations, tables, and a few other things. You can connect to the internet here, on campus, and anywhere else that they offer a public connection."

"Most coffee shops in Kalos offer internet for free," Sycamore added.

"So I don't have to pay to use this computer?"

Harry shook his head, "Not unless something happens to it since it's the lab's property. You'd have to pay for a replacement."

"You'll also be returning it at the end of the school year so please treat it as if it were your own."

"Don't worry, Professor. Nothing bad will happen to this computer. Thanks again, Harry!"

Just as Shu exited the supply room, he crashed into someone and his hold of the laptop slipped. The cyan-haired boy had lightning reflexes as he kicked off the threshold to dive for the computer before it could hit the ground.

"Oh, I sure hope so," Sycamore said with a sigh.

"Sorry about that," said the other person. It was a boy's voice and he sounded young but his tone was slightly low.

The other boy held his hand out for Shu to take which he accepted.

As Shu stood up, he said, "It's okay. I should've been looking where I was going."

This other boy was about Shu's height, maybe slightly shorter, and thinner than Shu with compact muscles and a slightly wide chest. His hair and eyes were dark and he sported a rather strong bronze tan as if he had been dipped in caramel. Shu noticed that he wore a long-sleeved turtleneck and a sweater over it. His left sleeve was rolled up slightly to make room for a strange white wristband. The boy looked slightly familiar to Shu.

"Austin, it's good to have you back," the professor said.

"Hey, Professor Sycamore! Sorry, I got caught up at the airport."

"By caught up you mean you lost your luggage?"

"As if that would happen to me...again." Austin's body tensed as he admitted with embarrassment, "I fell asleep on the plane and I didn't wake up until the captain hosed me down with his squirtle."

Sycamore laughed in response, "Only you."

"Wait, I think we were on the same plane," Shu said. "Yeah! I knew you looked familiar."

"You saw me asleep and didn't think it'd be nice to wake me up? Come on, buddy!"

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't-"

Austin chuckled, "I'm just messing with you, man. Lighten up. I haven't seen you around the lab. I'm Austin."

He offered Shu a handshake which the younger boy accepted.

"This is Shutsuga. He's one of my newest aides this year."

"You can call me Shu."

"Shu," Austin repeated. "I like it. Short and sweet. So I'll take it you're attending Soleil? You look a little young to come in as a senior aide."

"Yeah, I am going to Soleil. What's a senior aide?"

Sycamore explained, "Well I have student aides which both you and Austin are and senior aides which are graduates from an accredited school."

"Yeah," Austin said. "So what are you studying?"

"Well I thought I was going to be studying battling but it turns out I'm in the breeder course. My mom's a breeder so I have a little bit of experience taking care of pokemon. She made me help her deliver a few eggs too while my brother was away at school and my dad was at the gym."

"Oh, no way! Your dad is a gym leader?!"

"Gym trainer. He used to compete in the professional circuit but he retired from that so he could spend more time with me and my brother. What about you?"

"So my focus course is battling and my elective course is archeology but with the number of hours I put into research at this lab and at the fossil lab in Ambrette Town, I might as well have two focus courses. So you want to be in the battle course, huh?"

"Yeah, Professor Sycamore says I can transfer in at the end of the semester."

"It's possible but it's not going to be easy. Hold on, how about you show me what you've got?"

"You mean have a battle with you?"

"Yeah, why not? It'll give you a good idea of what the battle course teaches you."

Sycamore commented, "Too tired to get off a plane but never tired for a battle."

"Well, you know me, Professor. So what do you say, Shu?"

"Yeah, let's do it. Where at though?"

"It wouldn't be a good idea to use the pokemon enclosure here so why not go to one of the public fields. I believe the closest one is in Vert Plaza. You two can take a cab there. Just make sure to be back by five. I'm ordered catering for pasta and chicken - Shu, it's like ramen but without the broth and with sauce on top. I'm sure you'll like it."

"Yeah, it sounds good," Shu said. A small drop of drool poked out of the edge of his lip just from thinking about it.

"Don't worry professor, we won't take long," Austin said. "Besides, I can show you around Lumiose a bit after out battle, Shu."

"Yeah, let's do it!"


The taxi had dropped Shu and Austin just outside of Vert Plaza and as the two made their way to the dirt field, which was unoccupied, Shu could not fight the urge to ask why Austin was wearing so many layers in the modest climate. Austin chuckled. He often forgot that this was rather warm climate since summer had just ended.

"Well, I'm not used to the weather here since I'm from Alola. Well, I'm from here but I live in Alola."

"Wait, what?"

"Okay, so my family is from Camphrier Town, which is just east of Lumiose, and my dad was a manager at one of the hotels there until his boss gave him a promotion and a huge raise to go to a resort that he had just built in Alola. We moved over there when I was eight but there isn't a formal league in Alola so my dad sent me to study here so that after I graduate from Soleil I can participate in the Kalos League. Well, that's just one reason I came back. Anyways, you want to do a quick one-on-one?"

"Well, one pokemon is all I have."

"Fair enough, you are just starting out. Alright, let's go Treasure!"

Austin tossed his poke ball straight up into the air and it popped open in a flash to reveal a baltoy as his choice of pokemon.

"Woah, I've never seen that pokemon before. What is it?"

"Did the professor give you a pokedex?"

"Oh yeah, he did!"

Shu took out the ruby red device, activated it, and pointed it at Austin's baltoy. The pokedex played a robotic voice recording to explain the pokemon.

"Baltoy moves by spinning on its foot. Some baltoy have been seen spinning on their heads. It is a rare pokemon that was discovered in ancient ruins."

"Woah, that's definitely a pokemon an archeology student would have."

Austin chuckled, "Yeah, I know. I'm pretty basic, huh? So what's your choice?"

"Let's go Emigna!"

Shu's gastly and Austin's baltoy both floated above the field, bobbing up and down like a pair of empty bottles in the ocean.

"You guys can have the first move," Austin offered.

Without warning, Emigna shot forward and unleashed a Night Shade which Treasure quickly countered by spinning around with its arms spread wide. The shadowy mist dispersed and Treasure came to a complete stop facing its opponent. Austin commanded it to use Psybeam so it bent over and shot a violet colored beam of psychic energy from the point on its head which Emigna quickly maneuvered around.

"That was a close one," Shu muttered to himself. 'We won't be able to land a hit with Night Shade because he can just Rapid Spin it away and we can't get too close with Lick because of its Psybeam.'

Shu and Emigna took too long so Treasure began humming as chunks of the ground beneath them were lifted remotely and tossed at Emigna. In response, Emigna flew around to avoid the projectiles but as she rounded one, she found herself right in front of Treasure who was charging another Psybeam directly at her. The violet beam washed over Emigna, causing her to faint immediately.

"N-no way…how did you do that?" Shu asked as he called Emigna back into her poke ball.

"Well, there are a couple of things that helped me with the battle. First, I kept the rhythm of the battle in my favor. See, if you take too long to think of a move, your opponent will take advantage and turn the battle in their favor. Once I countered your attack, I kept you on the defensive until I had you cornered. Secondly, I knew type advantage. See, your gastly is in a strange predicament with its typing."

"It's typing?"

"Yeah, you didn't know that pokemon had types?"

"I know about their types but I'm not really sure how they work except that fire beats grass, grass beats water, and water beats fire."

"Right but all of the other fifteen types also have strengths and weaknesses. Some even have immunities?"

"Immunities?"

"Yeah, types that don't affect them. Like normal type moves don't affect your gastly because it's a ghost type but its ghost type moves also don't affect normal types."

"Is that the strange prediction you were talking about?"

Austin gave him a confused look as he asked, "You mean predicament?"

"Yeah, whatever you said."

"That's part of it. See, gastly are ghost and poison type which means that even though it can learn ghost type moves, which are super effective against psychic types, psychic type moves are super effective on poison types. That means a psychic type like Treasure has the same chance of winning against your gastly as it does losing to it."

"Woah, that's a lot to remember."

"Yeah but you learn it all in the introduction battle class."

"Man, I've got a lot to learn about battling though because you won easily."

"To be fair I'm a third-year student. I have two years of experience at the academy that you don't so it's only understandable. Don't beat yourself up about it. You'll get the hang of it. Come on, let me show you around Lumiose and we can walk back to the lab. It'll give you a good opportunity to start familiarizing yourself with the streets here."


After showing Shu the way back to Sycamore's lab and going with him to the store to buy some toiletries and bedding, Austin went to his room to make a phone call, leaving Shu to go to the dining room by himself. Shu dropped his things off in his room and went downstairs where he found Sycamore and all of his aides sitting at the various tables talking amongst each other as they waited for the food.

Shu entered the room and stood at the doorway, slightly uncomfortable since he did not know anyone else there but Professor Sycamore saw the boy shortly after he entered and excused himself from the table to greet him.

"Shu, you made it just in time. Where's Austin? The food will be here soon."

"He said he needed to make a phone call."

"Most likely to his girlfriend. I sort of pushed you onto him so this is probably the first chance he's gotten all day to call her."

"Oh…" Shu said feeling guilty.

Sycamore sensed this and reassured the boy, "I didn't mean to make you feel like you were imposing. It's just that I could sense an instant connection between you two and Austin has nothing but the best of intentions. He's a naturally helpful person. Come with me, I have someone I'd like you to meet."

Shu followed the professor to one of the tables where a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties was sitting cross-legged with a wine glass in her hand. She was perhaps the only one drinking. There was an air of extravagance and professionalism about her since she wore several golden bracelets with her suit pants and flowy white blouse. Her hair was tugged back into a ponytail with a single strand coming down her forehead, almost touching the bridge of her nose. She looked up at him with almost a look of contempt.

"Vivian, I'd like you to meet Shutsuga. He is our newest breeder course aide."

"Shutsuga, this is Vivian Durmont. She works at the academy as a professor as well as here at my lab as the head breeding analyst. You'll be working closely with her so pay very close attention to whatever she tells you. You can learn a lot from this bright young woman."

With a flirtatious grin she responded, "Professor, you are ever the flatterer." She faced her body towards Shu without ever uncrossing her legs or setting her glass down. "It's nice to meet you, Shutsuga," she said as she offered her hand. Having learned his lesson from last time, Shu accepted it but it was a rather loose shake, one that did not sit well with her.

"Nice to meet you too, Vivi-"

"Dr. Durmont."

"R-right. Dr. Dermont. Excuse me."

Shu was getting more nervous the longer that he was in her presence. This woman had a strong and imposing personality as well as incredible beauty and poise. He could feel his tongue and throat go dry as all of the moisture in his body fled through his forehead as small beads of sweat.

"Well, I look forward to working with you, Shutsuga. I emailed you your weekly work schedule so I expect to see you on time on Monday.."

"I will be," Shu responded.

Dr. Durmont simply nodded and turned back to her table to continue a conversation she was having before Shu and Sycamore had approached.

As they walked away, Sycamore said under his breath, "You're gonna have to hang in there because she can be quite...controlling."

"Noted…"

He took one last look back at her to find that her bright lilac eyes had wandered in his direction. Shu turned around immediately but not before she shot him a sly reddened smirk.

Next, Sycamore introduced Shu to a pair of assistants, Dexio and Sina. Both seemed rather enthused to meet him, however, Shu quickly caught on that the two were a couple since they practically finished each others' sentences. They were much friendlier than Dr. Durmont since they had asked Shu all about his life back in Sinnoh and shared their own experiences in Kalos and as Sycamore's aides. Shortly after, Austin came down from his room and the food had arrived just behind him.

Sycamore shot the tan boy a disappointed look but it quickly faded behind a warm smile as he walked to one end of the room and said, "Bonjour, welcome to you all. I'd like to start by saying thank you all for attending tonight. In fact, this dinner is in honor of you all since it is because of you that we make great strides every day in the various fields of pokemon studies. We make the world a better place with the knowledge that we bring them and promote all aspects of life from farming to sports. For Soleil students, I look forward to seeing how all of you prospering young minds will go out and impact this region and this world. There are a couple new students from Soleil this year so I'd like you to stand so that you may introduce yourselves."

Shu stood up from his seat and immediately started looking around for anyone else who was new. A girl stood up from the table next to his. She was incredibly petite with light brown hair that she kept in a pair of buns. Since she was closer to Sycamore he had her introduce herself first.

"Hi, good evening, my name is Yua Aragaki. I come from the Hoenn Region. My focus course is medicine and my elective course is breeding. I hope that we can get along."

The girl bowed slightly before taking a seat leaving Shu stranded by himself.

"Oh, uh, hi everyone," he said with a stiff wave. "I'm Shu-uh, Shutsuga, but you can all call me Shu and I'm from the Sinnoh Region. I'm in the breeder course and yeah, that's it."

Bzzz. Bzzz.

The smell of the food began spreading throughout the room and Denki had finally caught a whiff of it. Shu was far too slow to take his holo caster out of his pocket so the rotom shot out of the device with lightning streaming behind him as always. Some of the assistants were startled. Austin had reached for a poke ball but relaxed when the professor began laughing.

"I see our guest of honor is hungry so I'll just introduce him quickly and we can get started with dinner. Denki is a rotom, a species of pokemon that is capable of phasing into electronic objects and possessing them. This rotom, in particular, is actually from Sinnoh, Shutsuga's home region. I hope to study Shu and Denki over the course of this year since despite not knowing each other long, they have formed quite a close bond. Now without further ado, please help yourselves to some food."

Sycamore's staff ate, talked, and laughed and little by little, the students went to their rooms while the full-time faculty left home for the evening. After showering and brushing his teeth, Shu was in his room making his bed and putting his toiletries in a little bag that he had bought earlier. Since it was his room, he decided to let Emigna float about with Denki for a while. They did not take up much space, after all, but as soon as he was ready to go to bed, he called Emigna back into her ball and told Denki to go to sleep in his holo caster.

As the boy lay staring at the ceiling above him with the tiny bit of light that entered through his window, he started to think about his day. He was actually going to attend a school about training pokemon. Granted, he had to endure a couple months with Dr. Durmont but if he did, there was a chance that he could become a battle course student and start on his way to becoming a professional trainer. Just the thought of it excited him. How could he ever sleep now? Oh. He actually had no trouble falling asleep. Instead, he snored the night away comfortably.

A/N: I know, I know. It was a rather simple chapter but simple isn't always bad. In fact, I think we needed a little slower paced considering that the last two chapters were pretty exciting. Besides, next chapter will have quite the battle. Until next time, people!