Opening the door, I was struck once again by the coziness of the room. Little stuffed animals adorned every available surface, and one small desk lamp lit up the entire room. Then I was struck by the people in it. The principal, my foster parents, and me- I was expecting that. But there was also a young man, about 20-something. He had brown, spiky hair, and was wearing a light green shirt with a white coat, black pants, and glasses. He looked a bit absent-minded, yet nice. But why was he here? As the principal started speaking, I gathered that the man wanted to adopt me, not as a foster parent, but as a real-life dad. I looked quizzically at him, and he smiled at me, motioning that he would explain more later. Confused, I turned the idea over in my head. Should I go with him? Well, I decided, I might as well give him a chance to explain himself. Happy with my decision, I returned to the room at hand just as he started to speak.

"Thank you for explaining that, Principal Harring, but may I talk to Kelemon alone for a moment?"

As my principal nodded, I somewhat warily left the room with the strange man, ready to scream if need be. My fears proved unfounded as he and I sat down in a small room I hadn't noticed before.

"Kelemon. My name is Professor Cypress, as your principal said. However, I do not work as a biology professor. In reality, I am a professor studying habits of nature at my own lab." He gave me time to absorb this, then continued. "Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but you have heard of a series called... Pokémon?" Holding up a hand as I started to franticly construct a suitable response in order to not make me seem like one of those 7-year-old fanatics who wants to be just like Ash Ketchum when they grow up, he went on. "I am not trying to make you uncomfortable. I am merely trying to explain something that will be important to you. You see, those creatures known as toys and made up creatures are real."

I gasped. "You mean-?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I mean what?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. It just seemed like the right thing to say."

The professor chuckled. "I see. Point is, I know that they are real because I am from one of those regions, and I am carrying one of those creatures with me now. I assume that you wish to see it?"

I eagerly nodded. "May I?"

He drew out a red and white sphere I immediately recognized as a Pokéball, and gently tossed it on the cement floor. A white light emerged from it, resolving itself into the form of a small, yellowish red panda I didn't recognize from the main series. Anticipating my imminent question, the professor identified it as Elecha, the Electric Panda Pokémon.

I quizzically raised an eyebrow. "I've never heard of that one before! Which region is it from?"

"It's from the Tortla region, a newly discovered region slightly southeast of Sinnoh. That's why you haven't heard of it before."

I nodded. "That's cool. Not to change the subject or anything though, but why are you here? I guessed that you want to adopt me, but how does that fit in with all of this Pokémon stuff?"

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck in a style I recognized from the anime. "You see, it's only just been discovered, as I've said. But for people from the established regions, this region doesn't exist. That's because there are no people on it yet except for its evil team, Team Shadow, who moved onto it as soon as their probes had found it. They recognized it as a new region with its own new, unique Pokémon. So us professors have been trying to find people from your dimension in the multiverse who understand and are knowledgeable about Pokémon so that they can go and investigate the new region undercover as Trainers, Coordinators, Breeders, etc. We can't use established Trainers for this because they will have built themselves a reputation in Team Shadow's files, meaning that they'll be on the lookout for those people on the island."

I gasped. "You mean you want me... To go to your dimension of the multiverse... To become a Pokémon user... To overthrow an evil team from undercover!"

He nervously nodded.

I jumped up and down. "This is the best day ever!" I impulsively hugged him and bowed Japanese style, with my hands on my knees like I had started doing in honor of my favorite animes. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! Of course I will!"

He wiped the sweat from his brow. "Phew. For a second there, I thought you weren't going to do it." He smiled. "That's a load off my mind. Now, on to reassuring your principal that we're still alive."

I stood up, then thought of something. "What should I call you? Normally I would call you 'Professor Cypress', but if you're really adopting me, that wouldn't feel right. 'Daddy' wouldn't work either, and I'm not comfortable referring to adults by their first names. So what can I call you? I don't just want to be shouting 'Hey, You!' all the time."

The professor turned around from the door. "You know, that's a good question. I hadn't thought of that! I'll let you know as soon as I think of an answer."

I nodded my approval, and we both trooped out the door on the way back to the office.