A/N: Welcome back! Right off the bat, I want to prepare you guys for the time jumps and flashbacks in this chapter. You're going to think that you completely skipped over a chapter or missed something but not to worry. I just found this format to fit the flow of the chapter. Just pay close attention so that the ending doesn't completely throw you off. And don't skip to the end of the chapter. I'm looking at you. Yes, you. You know who you are.

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

Chapter 9: Seize The Day

Shu slipped a finger through the collar of his white button up shirt, pulling on it to loosen up the burgundy tie around his neck. His old school did not have a strict dress code so he was not used to having to wear a uniform, let alone a tie.

"I told you that you should stop messing with your tie," Yua began. "Your teachers could be strict about the dress code."

They were both wearing matching uniforms consisting of a white collar shirt, burgundy tie, and burgundy jacket with golden buttons and accents. Shu wore a pair of khaki pants while Yua wore a skirt with knee-high burgundy socks and they both wore shiny black dress shoes which clicked loudly against the floor inside the train station - enough to distinguish itself from all of the noise around them.

"Why do we have to wear stupid uniforms?"

"Because that is one of the school's rules."

"It's a dumb rule," he grumbled.

"I think it's quite comfortable. My legs are a little could, though."

"Want me to keep them warm?" Shu offered with a smirk.

He laughed to himself watching Yua begin to blush until a beam of light shot out of Yua's blazer pocket and materialized itself as an electrike. The canine pokemon began growling at Shu with small sparks dancing around her fur. Shu jumped back as the electrike snapped her fangs at him, just missing the boy's hand.

"Celi, down. He was just being playful."

The electrike stopped growling but kept an eye on Shu, always keeping him within her peripheral vision. Shu stuck his tongue out at her and caught up to Yua to walk beside her but made sure to keep his distance. Celi stayed outside her ball even as they boarded the train and found their seats. The pair sat across from each other with Celi making herself comfortable beside her owner.

Once she had settled in her seat, Yua took one of her textbooks out of her backpack and opened it on her lap. Shu noticed that she was well into the first chapter, which struck him odd.

"I know this school is pretty picky but aren't you being a little too much of an overachiever?"

Yua looked up at him with a confused look.

"What do you mean by overachiever?"

She did not sound offended in the slightest. She sounded lost.

"Yeah, I mean it's not even the first day and you're almost done with the first chapter."

"We have to come ready to class with the first chapter already read. The first two for my status illness class."

"W-w-w-what?! No! How do you know that?!"

"It should say it on the class syllabus."

"The what now?"

With a sigh, Yua asked Shu to open his email on his holo caster. Shu took it out of his pocket and had Denki hover between them so they could both see. She told him to go to his class list to find that all of his classes had syllabi and that he had to have the first chapter of each class' textbook completed before the first day. Luckily for him, he only had three classes that day. Unluckily, that was three chapters he had to read in the span of forty minutes.

"No! No! No! No!" Shu shouted as he threw all of his textbooks on the seat beside him and began skimming desperately through all of them. Words like "egg," "day care," and "type" appeared several times through his speed reading so they were the only ones that stuck.

"Shu, slow down."

"I can't slow down! I've got to finish all of them so I don't look like I don't know anything! The teacher's going to call on me if I don't look like I know anything. They always do that!"

"But if you skim all of them, you won't process anything. Why not read the first few pages of each chapter? That way you know a little bit and if the instructor asks a question about a topic in those first few pages you'll know the answer and then you won't have to worry about them calling you to embarass you. Just make sure you read them thoroughly."

Shu stared at Yua and blinked a few times before grabbing her by the shoulders and yelling, "Yua, you're a genius! I could kiss you right now!"

Celi did not appreciate the elbow pushing against her skull so she retaliated by shocking Shu with a very weak wave of electricity which left the boy completely paralyzed. His hair stood up and his face looked panicked.

"Celi, why'd you do that?"

The electrike merely huffed and curled herself into a ball on the seat next to Yua. With a sigh, Yua reached into her bag and pulled out a paralyze heal which she sprayed Shu with all over except for his eyes. Slowly, he began to regain movement over his body as his muscles relaxed, though he still felt very stiff. Shu sat sat up and began stretching his limbs. He then looked down at Celi with a ferocious scowl to which the electrike simply yawned.

'I'm going to ship that mutt off to Orre or some other backwater region,' Shu thought to himself.

"I'm sorry about Celi," Yua said, "She must have thought that you were trying to hurt me."

Shu shrugged, "No big deal. It's a good thing you had medicine for that…um…what was that that just happened to me?"

"The status condition you underwent is paralysis. It's characterized by the uncontrollable stress in the muscles, making it difficult to move. Some stronger pokemon can overcome it though they will not be as fast as they normally are. Very few humans have been documented to be able to move under paralysis."

"Wow, you sure know a lot about parabolas. Did you read that in your book?"

"Paralysis."

"What did I say?."

Yua let out another sigh as she explained, "You said parabola."

"I'm not hearing the difference."

Yua decided to show Shu her textbook so he could see the word for himself.

"Ohhhhh!"

"Yes, so, the first chapter gives an overview of each status condition but I already know what each one does. My mom is a nurse at a pokemon center and Celi knows the move Thunder Wave, which is the move she used on you, so my mom explained to me what it does so if I ever need to stun someone, I can."

"So if you already know this stuff why take the class?"

"I only know the bare minimum. There are other things that the class talks about like how status conditions can be made and better ways to treat them. The medicine sold at pokemarts help treat status conditions in general but sometimes do not heal severe cases. Celi used a very weak Thunder Wave on you so the paralyze heal was enough to help you get your mobility back. You will feel a little stiff still but that will go away the more you move."

"Got it. So this bottle heals paralysis!"

Shuexamine the yellow bottle, shaking the liquid inside of it a little. Yua giggled at how rudimentary he made her explanation for himself. Whatever worked best for him since he did understand the basic concept, after all. Shu gave Yua the bottle back and began reading the first few pages like she had told him to. Halfway into reading the first page of his battle basics textbook, he came across a sentence that read, "There are a number of important concepts that trainers must understand and master in order to become professional battlers including pokemon types, the ways that they each interact with each other, same type attack bonus (STAB), abilities, and side effects that some moves have."Shu stopped reading after the part about pokemon types and began to think back to Saturday night. He lifted his eyes from the page and looked out the window at the passing trees.


Saturday (2 Days Ago)

The four boys had found a nice open area in the town center where Shu and Zygos stood several yards from each other with Austin and Benji off to the side. Shu stared blankly at the ground in front of him, beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. He had to impress Zygos but considering that he was in the same league as Felicity and Mallory he wondered if that was even possible.

Denki buzzed, calling Shu's attention to the floating electric and ghost type beside him. The plasma pokemon was again in its pure form, smiling at Shu, and shaking itself to tell him something. Shu interpreted it as Denki telling him that he could win, or at least impress Zygos, to which Shu nodded and looked into the crimson eyes with determination.

"Are you ready?" Zygos called.

Shu answered by unclipping Emigna's poke ball from his belt, expanding it, and holding it forward. Zygos smirked as he did the same and tossed out his pokemon, a helioptile.

"Ready Savannah?"

"Lio!"

"Let's go Emigna!"

The ball of gas appeared with a bright flash of blue and hovered in front of Shu, awaiting her orders.

"After you," Zygos offered.

"Don't mind if I do. Emigna, use Night Shade!"

Zygos stood still with his hands crossed over his bare chest and Savannah stayed up as the dark cloud engulfed her tiny form. Shu was thrilled that the attack landed and began cheering. He jumped into the air and raised a fist.

Zygos' smirk never faded. He simply said, "Thunder Shock."

A small bolt of electricity shot out from inside the Night Shade and hit Emigna square in the face, creating a small surge around the gastly. Shu flinched at the sudden flash and became more guarded.

"I guess I should've expected that that wouldn't have been enough to one-shot your pokemon."

The helioptile glowed in a white aura as she zipped across the floor and leaped towards Emigna. In response, Shu had Emigna use Lick only for Savannah to completely phase through the gas pokemon. Both Shu and Emigna were caught completely off guard when Zygos had Savannah turn around mid air to fire off another Thunder Shock. It was enough to fry Emigna and knock her out. The helioptile touched the ground right after the gastly did and scurried back to her trainer's side.

Shu was still processing what had just happened. He knew that Zygos must have been incredibly powerful but he thought that he could have done at least a little damage. Savannah was completely unharmed. Shu found himself staring at Emigna as if he would get the answers he was looking from her unconscious form.

Zygos told him, "You should call your gastly back into her ball and take her to the nearest pokemon center. We can show you where it is."

"Right…" Shu said as he shot the vermillion beam at gastly which sucked her back into her poke ball.

"You seemed unprepared, Shu."

"I didn't know what to do when your pokemon came at me. You knew exactly how to win from the get go."

"You're right, I did. I knew both of your gastly's types so I knew what moves to use and when to use them. For example, my normal-type move wouldn't have done damage since ghost is immune to normal but it made the perfect opening to catch you off guard."

Austin said, "I told you the more you know about certain pokemon and their types, the better off you'll be."

"Yeah, you're right. I guess that's something I'm really going to have hammer in. Still, I can't believe that your pokemon is so strong that my attack didn't even phase it, Zygos."

Zygos chuckled, "Well Savannah wouldn't have taken much damage from it anyway but it has nothing to do with a difference in strength."

Shu tilted is head in confusion.

"Savannah is part normal type which means that ghost type moves are completely useless against her. To make it simple, normal and ghost types moves can't touch pokemon of the other type."

"I mentioned that to you already, Shu," Austin said.

"You did?"

"Look Shu," Zygos started, "honestly, it's going to take a lot of work for you to get into the battle program."

"I know that. I'm ready to-"

"No, I mean that you're going to have to eat, breathe, and live battling if you hope to get in because most battle course students come into the program knowing at least something about type interactions. What a type is super effective against and ineffective against. What it resists and is immune to. You're at a huge disadvantage right from the start and if I can be real with you for one second, I think you should stay in the breeder program. You're already in it and you would get to play with plenty of pokemon. I noticed that you're very friendly with pokemon which is important for training them but if you can't earn their respect by being a competent trainer, you won't get far. I'm not trying to put you down. I just think that you should really think about this before committing to it."

Zygos' words had hit Shu like a truck going downhill. Shu's current record in one-on-one battles was zero to three but he had only gone up against older students with more experience. Because of that, he did not get too down on himself but hearing Zygos say that he might not be cut out for training and battling pokemon sent a flood of doubt through his mind.

Shu stood completely still as Zygos turned to Austin and began talking to him. The cyan-haired boy was too preoccupied thinking over the Dracomancer's words to listen to their conversation. He remembered Austin handing Zygos a bright yellow stone before Zygos and Benji said goodbye to them.

The older lab aide patted Shu on the shoulder and said, "Come on, we should get Emigna healed and then head back to the lab."

"Y-yeah...okay."

"You alright?"

"Yeah…"


Present

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"

Shu whipped his head toward the boy standing next to him in the aisle. Yua had also looked up from her book and Celi had opened her eyes and lifted her head. The boy was dressed in Soleil's uniform and although his black hair was not combed, it was spiked neatly.

"No, you can sit here," Shu said as he moved his books onto his lap and started putting away the ones he no longer needed.

"Thanks," the boy responded. "I saw the uniforms and figured that I could get to know some other students at Soleil. Especially since not that many others commute. I'm Takamaru."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Yua."

"Shu," he said with a quick wave. "You go to Soleil too?"

"Did the uniform give it away?" Takamaru asked sarcastically, which made Yua laugh. It went completely over Shu's head, however. "Yeah, it's actually my first year there. What about you guys?"

"It's our first year too," Yua answered.

"You guys don't look to be from Kalos. Where are you guys from?"

"Hoenn."

"Sinnoh," Shu answered.

"No way, I'm from Sinnoh too."

"Really?" Shu asked excitedly. "What part?"

"Snowpoint City."

"Oh no way! I'm in Eterna City."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah, I've lived there my entire life."

"Me too. It's only recently that I came out here to live with my uncle. He's a professional trainer so he's letting me stay with him at his place."

"Where does your uncle live?" Yua asked.

"He lives in this small town called Brightview Town. It's only like ten minutes from Estelloi Town."

"Wait, did you say we're only ten minutes from school?" Shu asked.

Takamaru nodded, not sure why Shu was asking. He was even more confused when the other boy started panicking and speed reading like a maniac through his text books.

"He didn't read for his first day of school," Yua explained.

"Did he not read the syllabus?" Takamaru looked back at Shu and answered his own question.

"I didn't even know what a syllabus was!" Shu whined.

While Shu began reading again, Takamaru asked Yua, "So what program are you in?"

"Well right now my focus course is medicine and my elective course is breeder but I don't think I'll stay in both. This first year I wanted to take classes in both so that I can see which I prefer."

"I see, that's pretty smart. Well I'm a battle course student as my focus but I'm going to take a few culinary classes as my elective."

"You're a battle course student?!" Shu asked. He had practically leapt onto Takamaru's lap.

The boy recoiled in response as he said, "Y-yes. Why? What's wrong?"

Not realizing that he was invading Takamaru's personal space, Shu said, "I'm trying to get into the battle course. W-will you battle me?"

"Um...yeah, I wouldn't mind it. I have class at ten, though so it'll have to wait until I have a gap in my schedule."

"Denki, can I see my schedule?"

"Roto!"

Denki floated out of Shu's pocket and instantly pulled up Shu's schedule. Takamaru was shocked by the self-aware holo caster and found it even more unbelievable that Shu and Yua were both unbothered or alarmed. Going with it, Takamaru pulled his schedule up on his poketch to compare their schedules.

"Looks like we both have a gap between one and two," Takamaru said.

"I have a meeting with the dean at one. She wanted to talk to me about me getting into the battle program."

"W-with the dean?" Takamaru stammered in astonishment.

Shu nodded, "Yeah, the professor guy of this region called in a favor from her to let me attend so she wants to see what she's working with basically."

"Okay well I do want to get home pretty early to make myself dinner so how about we meet up on Friday? It looks like we're both done at two."

"Alright it's settled then!" Shu said with a grin.

The train stopped several minutes later and the three made their way off the cart and towards the academy. When they arrived, Shu and Yua walked towards their first class of the day while Takamaru walked in another direction.

"It was nice meeting you, Taka!" Shu said with a wave.

Takamaru was going to comment on the nickname but decided against it and waved back.

"It was nice meeting you both! I'll see you guys around!"

As Shu turned to face where he was walking, Yua said, "You seemed to feel comfortable with him already."

"Huh? Why do you say that?"

"You did just give him a nickname."

"I did? I guess I did," he said with a chuckle. "His name was just kinda long so I decided to shorten it, you know?"

Yua laughed and responded, "He did not seem to mind it much so it might stick."


Sunday (Yesterday)

Austin had gone off to Soleil to spend some time with Zygos and after the night before, Shu felt it best not to tag along especially because he did not want to seem desperate or clingy. The cyan-haired boy instead went downstairs to eat breakfast and then to ask Professor Sycamore if he could practice moves with Emigna in the back. Luckily for him, the professor was in his office and able to talk.

"Shutsuga, what brings you to my office?" he asked pleasantly. "Is it the incident with the washing machine?"

Shu recoiled at the question, realizing that Denki could have done some serious damage with his little game.

Sycamore realized that Shu might have been afraid to tell him about that incident and tried to reassure him by saying, "I'm not upset about that. I didn't mean to sound irritated. I wouldn't want to turn all grumpy like Professor Rowan, after all."

Sycamore's joke made Shu laugh a little which helped ease him back into the conversation.

"I would like to ask you a little bit about that," Sycamore said. "From the wet floor and walls and the slightly displaced washer, is it safe to assume that Denki took control of it?"

"Yeah, he really surprised me too. I knew he could hide out in electronics but I had no idea that he could control them. Oh! You have to check this out!"

Shu reached into his pocket to pull out his holo caster. What he did next, surprised Sycamore, leaving him wide-eyed. The boy dropped the device to the ground only for cybernetic wings to sprout from the side to allow Denki to fly. The electric and ghost type ascended until it was face to face with the professor. It completely astonished him to see the pokemon completely control the holo caster.

"Denki, can I see my emails?"

Denki opened Shu's email application.

"Can I see my call log?"

It went to the call log, showing that his mother was Shu's most recent call.

Sycamore shot up from his seat and shouted, "That's incredible! Truly impressive! When did you learn that he could do this?"

"Last night and he learned how to do it really quickly."

"What I find incredible is how quickly Denki has taken to listening to you."

"Nah, I think it's because he's a big show off."

Denki whipped around and stuck his digital tongue out at Shu who returned the gesture.

"Well he does seem to enjoy being in the spotlight," Sycamore commented. "Who knows, he might want to be in performances. There is so much potential for you two that it absolutely excites me to see just how far both of you will go."

"You mean together?"

"But of course. You are all that Denki has in this world and although I will be here to aid you as much as I can, Denki and the pokemon you catch are all you have to move forward from here on out. Anyways, I'm sorry for getting carried away. That will surely add to my research on rotom but you didn't come here for that. What did you want to ask me?"

"Well I just wanted to know if I could practice some of Emigna's moves in the back of your lab behind the habitat enclosure. I need to get better if I plan on becoming a battler."

"Yes, I don't mind at all. And oh! That reminds me. Did you get Vienna's email?"

"Who?"

Sycamore smacked his forehead and said, "Sorry, I always forget to refer to her by her professional title. I meant Dr. Maple."

"The one about meeting her tomorrow? Yeah."

"She told me that she was looking forward to meeting you since I did speak so highly of you."

Shu blushed and rubbed the back of his head, nervously.

"Professor, you didn't have to do that for me."

"Well how do you think she considered you for her school? She only accepts the best of the best and I think that your love of pokemon will propel you to the expectations that she sets."

"Huh? What do you mean?"


Present

To no surprise, the first teacher that Shu had encountered on his first day of class was none other than Dr. Durmont. She was dressed almost exactly as she was on Friday when Shu had met her but with different colors and this time, she wore a blazer with her suit pants. Even her hair was styled the same, tugged back into a ponytail with a single strand falling over her forehead. As he entered the room, her lilac eyes shot towards him though they did not linger. She went back to looking at something on her computer until it was time for class to begin.

"Good morning students," she started. "For those of you who do not know me, I am Dr. Durmont and I will be your instructor for breeding basics. Throughout the semester I will give you a broad overview of breeding including topics such as the biology involved in breeding, egg groups, and proper care of newborn pokemon. As I said, this will be a rather general overview so we will not dive into the specifics of breeding and raising every species of pokemon but we will discuss rather common pokemon found in the wild in this part of Kalos to give you matter to the concept. Now I assigned the first chapter of reading to you all so I will be discussing the main ideas covered but before I begin are there any questions on the reading that you would like to ask me? That way, I can answer it now if I will not address it later."

Shu shot his hand up just as soon as Dr Durmont finished speaking which caught her by surprise. She looked up at him inquisitively for a moment before calling on him to speak.

"Ah, Mr. Ishikawa. What a pleasant sight for my new lab assistant to be engaging in the classroom already. What question do you have?"

On cue, all of the students in front of Shu turned their heads to look up at him and suddenly he was washed with uncertainty. He doubted the strength of his question now that all eyes were on him, watching him, judging him. Shu became so preoccupied with the number of students looking at him that he had let too much time slip by.

Dr. Durmont's eyes narrowed as she repeated, "What question do you have, Mr. Ishikawa?"

Shu blinked a few times as he tried to focus his gaze on Dr. Durmont. If he did not look at the other students, maybe he could forget that they were watching him. It only made it worse now that he could see that his instructor was beginning to grow impatient.

He stuttered, "Oh...um...yeah. S-so how did...um...how did they find eggs?"

Dr. Durmont tilted her head in confusion as she stated, "That question is rather broad. Are you referring to how eggs were discovered?"

"Yeah, that!" Shu said excitedly.

The woman's mouth twitched in slight annoyance as she answered, "Well this has been known by humans for thousands of years, before written records even existed so there is no clear answer to that question. However, I will say that Kanto and Johto were a little behind the rest of the world in pokemon studies so a professor from Johto is claimed to have discovered pokemon eggs about twenty or so years ago but that will not be on any test."

"Oh, okay. Thanks!" he said simply.

"You're welcome," she answered. "By the way, you might want to tighten your tie, Shutsuga. Are there any other questions?"

Shu looked down at his desk to hide his displeasure as other students snickered at him. One-by-one Dr. Durmont called on other students and each new question made it clearer to Shu why Dr. Durmont seemed annoyed by his question.

"How has pokemon breeding impacted the competitive battling scene?"

"If pokemon types are determined primarily by the moves that the pokemon inherently strengthens in use because of their DNA, what determines the egg group that pokemon are placed in?"

"Is it possible that incenses are a cause for the offspring being unable to reproduce?"

The next question was always better than the previous one but no matter what, all of them were rooted in the text itself, most likely found somewhere deep in the chapter rather than Shu's surface level question. He could not even understand some of the questions, let alone the answers that Dr. Durmont provided. The lecture itself was also hard for Shu to follow since Dr. Durmont discussed the topic assuming that they had all read the entire chapter. It did not help that the discussion moved from subtopic to subtopic so quickly that Shu had barely copied down anything that she had said. He began to wonder what exactly he had gotten himself into.


Saturday (2 Days Ago)

The walk back to the train was rather quiet with Austin starting up conversations here and there only for Shu to let them die out. As they waited on a bench for the next train to arrive, Austin took another shot at making conversation by bringing up the stone he had given Zygos.

"So do you know what that was?"

"That's a thunder stone."

Austin looked genuinely impressed.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"I'm not completely clueless about pokemon stuff," Shu shot as he stared at the tracks.

Austin narrowed his eyes at Shu and said, "I wasn't trying to offend you, man. I was actually curious since I didn't know about evolutionary stones until I came to Soleil."

Shu stayed silent as he continued staring blankly at nothing, really.

"I know that what Zygos said is bothering you."

"Yeah. I know it shouldn't since he doesn't really know me but...he knows what it takes to get to the top."

"You're right he does. But let me tell you something about Zygos. The guy is a prodigy. He came in with his first pokemon - a dragon-type, mind you - ready to evolve and dragon-types take a lot of training to evolve to their final form. Back in Hoenn, he lived with his tribe and although they do produce some skilled trainers, there hasn't been one like him in hundreds of years in his tribe's history. A genius like him doesn't see how much hard work pays off."

"So are you saying that you think I have a shot?"


Present

Shu found himself waiting in the lobby outside of Dr. Maple's office for their appointment. Those five minutes that he waited there felt much longer than they actually were. He looked down at the beige carpet, thinking to himself about everything that people had told him since he arrived at the academy...Austin, Professor Sycamore, Dr. Durmont, and Zygos...It killed him thinking about what Dr. Maple would say. Would she support him or give up on him before he even started?

All of Shu's thoughts came to a screeching halt when he heard the door open. He snapped his head forward to find Dr. Maple, a woman of average build with some weight to her, especially around the face. Her cheeks bones were rather pronounced, allowing for a wide and confident smile. Seeing her come out of her office with a smile put Shu at ease.

"Hello there, Shutsuga," she greeted cheerfully.

Shu shot up from his seat and offered her a formal handshake. His body was rather stiff as he did so.

"H-hello Dr…"

"Maple," she finished for him. She did not seem at all upset that he did not know her name. In fact, she seemed rather relaxed which confused Shu. His former principal was always very stern because of his many responsibilities. This was a pleasant change for sure. "Come in," she continued as she stepped aside for Shu to enter her office.

Dr. Maple closed the door behind them and walked around her desk to take a seat across from Shu. From his many times to the principal's office, the boy knew that there was no point in waiting for the principal to tell him to have a seat. He took a moment to look around Dr. Maple's office and found a bookshelf practically littered with trophies, awards, and plaques. Some were personal awards and others were for the school.

She drew Shu's attention back to herself when she started, "So I finally get to meet the famous Shutsuga and his friend Denki."

"Oh! Did you want me to call Denki out? It's in my holo caster right now."

"Only if it's no bother. Does Denki sleep?"

"Yeah, it usually sleeps whenever it wants. Let me see if it's up right now." Shu brought out his holo caster and tapped on the glass screen. "Hey buddy, you up?"

The screen flashed revealing Denki's face. The electric and ghost type blinked several times and let out an audible yawn. It activated its cybernetic wings and began levitating above the desk between Shu and Dr. Maple who was wide-eyed at the sight.

"Now I see why Augustine is so fascinated with you. With a pokemon like that, who wouldn't be? I have never seen a rotom do such a thing."

"You've seen a rotom before?"

"Yes, during my own journey across Kalos, I saw a couple up in the mountains. They cost me a new camera and almost cost me a new pokedex. I learned that they can possess electrical objects, something amazing even for pokemon since electrical devices are man's creation. Anywho, how are you liking my school so far? Tell me about how you're doing."

"I'm doing pretty good. I'm just sort of getting used to it all. I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't expecting to already be reading my textbooks before classes started."

With a soft smile Dr. Maple responded, "Yes, it can be overwhelming for some students who are not accustomed to the standard we've set here for them. You are not alone in that."

"I'm not?!" he asked. His voice was a little too high and he noticed it which made him sink in his seat slightly.

Dr. Maple chuckled as she said, "Of course not, Shutsuga. I've found in my time as an educator that most students will reach the expectations set for them. Most have what is necessary for it."

"And what's that?"

"Tenacity."

"Do you think that I have that?"

"That's yet to be seen, Shutsuga. What I do know is that Augustine has a…knack, if you will, when it comes to seeing the potential that youth have - latent potential in your case. Not one of the students that have come here on his word have failed to impress me yet so I have quite a deal of faith in his judgment. That brings me to what I wanted to speak with you about."

Shu's body began to stiffen again. He knew what was coming. She was going to talk about his enrollment in the battle course but despite everything she said, Shu could not shake the feeling that she was about to crush his dreams.

"It is to my understanding that you want to join the battle course. Is that correct?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

"Why?"

"Well...thinking about it now, this might not be the best reason but the first time I battled

alongside a pokemon, I felt like I could make a change. I don't know if it'd be to the world or maybe just even in my own life but I have this gut feeling that being a trainer is what I'm meant to do."

Dr. Maple heard his explanation and closed his eyes which sent chills through Shu's spine. She remained silent for a few moments, thinking over his words, processing them. Her face twitched a couple of times during this silence which only confused Shu more. When she opened her eyes, Shu bit the inside of his cheek as he waited for her answer.

"It looks like you have your mind made up."

"Yeah."

"Considering that you have no experience in battling, I should tell you to give up and focus on the course you're already in. It was breeding, correct?" She tilted her glasses to get a better view of his record on her desktop screen.

"Yes ma'am."

"Like I said, Augustine has never failed me and although there's a first for everything, I am going into this with an open mind so I'll tell you what, Shutsuga. We have a trial for students who want to join the battle course after the beginning of the semester. You are to defeat seven first year battle course students in ranked battles by the end of your first semester. These wins do not have to be consecutive and losses do not count as negative points. You just have to win seven battles. If you can do that then I will personally welcome you into the battle course."

Shu's smile engulfed his face as he stood up from his seat and said, "Consider it done!"

Dr. Maple also stood up with a mirroring smile and with a nod she said, "We will see, young man. It's not every day that I allow that condition, afterall."

"Y-you don't?"

"No."

Shu blinked a few times and shook his head in confusion as he asked, "Then whydo it for me?"


Saturday (2 Days Ago)

Austin turned on the bench to look Shu directly in the eye as he told him, "Shu, I think that with the right support, you can make it into the program. That's why none other than yours truly is going to train you to train pokemon."


Sunday (Yesterday)

Professor Sycamore sat back in his chair and flicked a strand of hair from his face as he said, "I mean that you have a love for pokemon one that, in my many years of interacting with trainers, is unmatched. Too many trainers see pokemon as a means to an end whether it be fame, fortune, women, or what have you. You see them as friends, something that I believe will only make you stronger as a trainer."


Present

Dr. Maple adjusted her glasses and gazed into Shu's dark eyes with her brilliant emerald gems as she explained, "You could say that everybody loves a good underdog story, including me, which is why I'll be rooting for you the entire time. Now go and seize the day, Shutsuga!"

A/N: And there we have it! Every main character needs that drive, that motivation in order to get where he/she wants to go so the real plot begins now. I know this has been rather slow but I truly feel like I've given myself enough time to flesh Shu out as well as some of the other characters so that they stick more when I jump straight into the action. To be honest, I did through that two-parter battle between Felicity and Mallory to give you guys a good idea of just how intense the higher level battles will be but the ones Shu will be a part of will be more tactical and practical (see what I did there?) Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know your thoughts on the chapter and even the future of the story in the review section and until next time!