Chapter 5
Eren rushed through the hallways, dodging people as he moved towards his first period class. Evolution and Progression was taught by a new professor going by the name of Marcella du Pallais, whom he had heard was lenient, but he didn't want to push his luck. Brock and the others had left quite a while back and he had accidently slept longer than he should have. He had told Brock not to wait for him, which proved to be a bad idea since he fell asleep soon after Brock had left for the cafeteria.
He had quickly showered, brushed his teeth and worn the first pair of clothes visible in his closet. The smell from the cafeteria was as tempting as it had been the day before, but he hadn't had the time to enjoy breakfast, instead grabbing a bagel and stuffing it in his mouth as he ran for the lecture hall.
He skidded to a stop at the door which said LH-1 and pushed it open, huffing and swallowing the last bits of the bagel. The students in the class snapped their heads to look at him, and he saw the familiar faces of Reyna and Terra amongst them. A student was standing at the bottom of the steps, impatiently tapping her feet next to the teacher's desk in the middle of the class.
Eren sighed in relief. Looks like the teacher hadn't come yet, lucky him. As he descended the steps to go sit next to Reyna, the girl next to the desk called out to him.
"It's not nice to ignore the teacher when she's in the room you know," she said, slight annoyance coating her voice. Eren looked around the class, not believing the short statured girl's words. He didn't see anyone that looked like a teacher at all.
"Uh, I don't see Miss Pallais anywhere, maybe you were seeing things?" he suggested as he shrugged. The girl only sighed, the blonde streaks in her bob-cut wavy black hair shining with contrast under the sun's rays coming through the window.
"I wouldn't think so, since you're talking to her right now," she remarked. Eren blinked a couple of times. He was talking to Marcella du Pallais? But that would mean…
"Wait so you're Miss Pallais?" he asked incredulously, his mouth a small circle as he pointed at the girl. The students snickered at his quick realization.
"I'm so used to it that I don't even take offense in it anymore, but yes, I'm Marcella du Pallais. Now if you would be so kind take a seat so that I can start the class," she said, gesturing to the seats.
"Uh, okay, sorry," he added as he sat down between Terra and Reyna, waving at Adelaide and Brock who were a few rows ahead of him. Reyna glanced over him with an unimpressed look.
"Your hair's all messed up, and you have crumbs around your lips," she said, putting her hand out to set is hair. He swatted her hand away lightly and brushed the crumbs off.
"I can do it myself you know," he indignantly said as he raked his hair to the side, the rebellious lock of hair falling over his eyebrow once again. Reyna and Terra smiled in amusement.
Marcella du Pallais clapped her hands to draw everyone's attention. "Now that we don't have any more interruptions let's begin now. First of all my name is Marcella du Pallais and I'm your teacher for Evolution and Progression this year. Since I'm younger than nearly all of you, at fifteen, you can just call me Marc or Miss Pallais, it's up to you. I'd like you to also remember that I'm your teacher in the classroom and a different person outside the classroom. So let's get started with the basics." She said, looking eager to start the lesson.
The first quarter of the class went on smoothly, surprisingly all the students seemed serious, even the ones who weren't listening didn't make any attempts to bother Marc as she taught. Eren was impressed by the way she taught everything so maturely and akin to a professional, especially since she was only fifteen. He had never met a child genius before, but had always been a little envious of the talents they were born with.
But he soon got a little bored of the topic at hand, he knew the basics, so it wouldn't make that much of a difference if he didn't listen initially. He took down the notes, but his mind drifted to the fun they had the day before. Even after lunch they had spent the entire day playing games back in the dorm rooms and talking about themselves. Terra had told them that she had lived with her fathers' close friend and his wife, both of whom were breeders. Her parents were busy people so they had dropped her off to live there.
Eren also remembered noticing the fact that Terra didn't talk much about her parents, on the other hand telling a lot of stories about the breeders who took care of her. Adelaide on the other hand had started her gym conquest at the young age of ten, and had even managed to get the first five gym badges before having to resort to bedrest and homestay due to her illness. Apparently she was famous in Kalos as a child star, which he found quite interesting in reality.
About halfway into the lecture, Marc decided to give them a small break. All the students happily complied, the room immediately filling with chattering voices. Eren leaned back and stretched his body.
"Anyone got food?" he asked, hoping someone would have at least something.
"I swear that's all that goes through your brain," Reyna said, giving him a disapproving look. Eren scoffed.
"There's hardly anything else just as interesting nowadays," he said with a shake of his head. "That and I barely had any breakfast."
"All your fault." Reyna said nonchalantly. "That's why you should wake up on time."
Eren waved her off. "Spare me the lecture Ivy, I had an eventful day and I was tired." Both Reyna and Terra looked at his arm. The bandage was still as it was, there was a little blood under it, but not enough to indicate that the wound had reopened.
"Can't really deny that," Terra murmured.
"Hey, you're Eren right?" a voice behind him asked. Eren turned his head to look at the person who had called him. Piercing yellow eyes inquisitively stared at him from the body of a lean and tall boy, who had forehead length short grey hair.
"Yeah, that's me," Eren replied. The boy was dressed in a black tank top, with some sort of Japanese characters placed in a white circle in the center. Eren watched quite a bit of anime from time to time and he understood a few words, but he had no idea how to read Japanese characters. The boy stared at him for a few more moments but then his lips broke into a grin.
"I heard you're the one that captured the rampant scyther from yesterday's survival course, cool man! Professor Hawkcrest told everyone yesterday after the hunt ended. No one could even manage to net the scyther in the dome, and you managed to get the even more dangerous one!"
Eren was suddenly reminded that he had to check up on the scyther once he had time. He really wanted to know what had happened to it.
"Oh I wasn't alone, Tanya helped me, in fact she was the one who threw the ball and captured it. I was just the bait really. We got kind of lucky I'd say," he said, squeezing his left arm a little.
The boy shrugged it off. "You'd need guts to be bait man, no one would be willing to do something like that." He held out his hand. "I'm Vic by the way."
Eren shook his hand. "Nice to meet you Vic, and thanks, I guess I just did what first came to my mind when I saw scyther." Before Vic could say anything again, Marc had resumed the class. Eren sighed and hung his head against the wooden desk, drowsiness seeping into his body. He was definitely not a morning bird.
"Ah, I think I'm finally alive!" Eren groaned in satisfaction, setting down the mug of steaming soup on the table with a loud smack. He felt his mind slowly clear up as the soup warmed his body.
"You're so noisy, shut up," Reyna murmured, as she looked up at him from her phone with her usual disapproving glance.
"You're so noisy, shut up," Eren mimicked, a smug grin on his face as Reyna glared at him. Oh the joys of annoying Reyna, worth it each and every time. The gang was sitting in the cafeteria again after Evolution and Progression, getting ready for the next class. Eren quickly rechecked his schedule to make sure he remembered what was next.
Pokemon Caretaking was just after the break, with Reyna and Terra. Despite the students applying for the same courses, the periods were jumbled, so Brock and Adelaide had different classes at the time.
Terra giggled at Eren antics. "So how long have you two known each other?" she asked. Eren glanced at Reyna and then scratched his head.
"Almost ten years I'd say, I met Reyna when I was seven. It was…the Viridian Forest I think." Eren replied with furrowed eyebrows. Reyna nodded in agreement.
"Viridian Forest? How'd you meet in a place like that?"
Reyna scoffed. "I remember it like it happened barely an hour ago. Eren thought I was a pokemon and he caught me in a net trap that he had set."
The others laughed and Eren shrugged. "I was a kid, what can I say," he said.
"Could you really not tell the difference?" Adelaide asked in between chuckles.
"She was wearing a weedle hat, can you blame me? The only thing I should've noticed was that weedles aren't that big." Eren said. This time the others laughed at Reyna.
"You wearing a weedle hat? That actually sounds so adorable!" Terra exclaimed with a grin on her face.
"And relatively unfortunate for her at the time," Eren piped in. "And because of that, she apparently hated me for nearly a year."
Brock looked back and forth between Reyna and Eren in surprise. "Really? I would've never guessed looking at you two now. Well that definitely changed, what happened?"
Eren scratched his cheek as he tried to recall what had changed. "Honestly, I don't remember. It's like I woke up one day and Reyna was friendly all of a sudden. I mean she's always annoyed of me anyway but it was like she despised me that entire year, and then that changed abruptly," he looked at Reyna inquisitively, "What exactly happened Reyna?"
Reyna seemed to shrink back a little as everyone's eyes fell on her. "W-well uh-" she started, but was interrupted by a student who had loudly entered the cafeteria, the doors clattering behind him. All eyes flew to the boy who was panting.
"Zac's having a battle with a freshman!" he shouted, pointing straight outside the cafeteria doors. At first, only silence greeted the boy, but then there was a loud uproar and without a moment's hesitation the students started to run outside to witness the battle. Adelaide was quick to grab her bag and she excitedly gestured to the others to come with her. Seeing that their break was almost over, everyone decided to follow Adelaide. Reyna sighed at the fact that she was interrupted, but for a second Eren could swear he saw relief on her face.
Adelaide sprinted off in eagerness, while Brock and Eren jogged slowly. Reyna and Terra walked calmly at the rear, their interest not as peaked as the others. A small crowd had gathered where the boy had indicated earlier. Eren squeezed through to get a front row view of the battle. He wondered what kind of a freshman would be stupid enough to challenge one of the top battle students in the school.
When he reached the front he saw two pokemon opposite to each other, but one was already on the ground while the other stood scratching its ears as if nothing had happened.
"What…happened?" Eren asked to no one in particular.
"That guy's pokemon got knocked out in one attack, that's what happened," the boy next to him answered. Calloway stood parallel to Eren with his skates slung over his shoulder, his backpack over the other. He grinned at Eren and mouthed a 'hey'.
Eren looked at Zac, who had a nonchalant expression over his face, as did his jolteon, who calmly walked back to its trainer's side. Eren looked at his opponent and was not surprised at all to find Derek standing there, an unpleasant look on his face. He walked over to his manectric Aiz, whose fur was crackling with electricity.
"And you know what's worse Eren?" Calloway said as his eyes followed Derek's movements to call Aiz back into his ball, "His manectric got knocked out by an electric attack, which isn't very effective against electric types at all. That's honestly some scary power that jolteon showed."
Eren was sure Derek was feeling humiliated to losing to such an attack in such a way. He watched as Derek silently walked up to Zac and held out his hand.
"Thanks for accepting my selfish challenge, I got to know just how much I still need to improve." He said with a straight face. Zac looked at his hand before reaching out to shake it.
"You're a little overconfident but you're not really weak, be sure to train hard." He said with a small smile. Derek nodded as he took in Zac's words. He turned around and stopped for a second when he saw Eren. In reply Eren just raised his eyebrows inquisitively. Choosing to ignore that, Derek walked through the crowd, who cleared a path as he passed through.
Soon after, the crowd dispersed, whispers of disappointment passing around. Eren turned to Calloway.
"So what's up? I don't see Lillianna around," he said, looking to Calloway's side.
"She got mad at me yesterday for some reason and then we got into a small spat," Calloway said, sounding a little regretful. "I'll tell her you said hi, maybe she'll listen to that at least."
"Eeeerennnnn," a sing-song voice beside him called, and he felt an arm fall around his shoulder. Not that she would be any different, but Lily was the same as she had been yesterday. She was dressed in light grey tattersall shirt and ripped jeans again.
"Hey Lily, I didn't realize you'd be here with Zac too. Morning," he said. Lily pinched his cheek and pulled. Eren winced but didn't complain, no use giving someone a reason to rip a cheek out.
"What's my favorite freshman doing this fine morning?" she asked as she pulled her arm back.
"On my way to Pokemon Caretaking since this battle ended fast." He said, looking around and seeing Brock rigidly staring at him, while Terra waved at Lily.
"Oh is that so? Weeell you're in for a surprise!" she teased, waggling her finger in front of his face, her grey eyes glittering impishly.
"I think I'm prepared for surprises after yesterday," Eren chuckled softly. Lily gave him a questioning look but didn't say anything.
"Oh that's right, I'll introduce you to my other friends. Here's Callloway, he's the one who told me about you the other day. Then there's Brock over there, Adelaide, my best friend Reyna and you already know Terra." He said, pointing to each of them as he recited their names.
Lily smiled brightly and waved at each of them. "Nice to meet you guys, I'm Lily!" she turned to Eren again, "I'd love to stay but I've got some place to be right now, see you soon!"
She waved at the others again before sprinting off along the road. Jake gestured a 'hey' as he caught Eren's eye. When Eren turned around, Calloway and Brock were literally up in his face, scowling at him.
"W-what's up?" he nervously said. Both of them squinted and looked him up and down. They placed a hand on either of his shoulders and pressed down.
"What kind of magic did you use?" they simultaneously asked, suspicious tones matching their suspicious features. Eren was laughing on the inside but he put up an innocent face. "What are you guys talking about?"
"You know what we're talking about." Brock said.
"Yeah, how does Lily know you? That's not important actually, why is she so close to you?" Calloway asked, his hand pressing down even more.
"Lay off the poor guy, Lily's the one who actually approached him in the café we went to yesterday," Terra said, bumping Eren's shoulder supportively. Eren nodded vigorously.
"Too bad you decided to go grocery shopping yesterday Brock, you missed the chance of acquainting with Lily. And thanks Calloway, I wouldn't have realized it was her if you hadn't mentioned her the other day," Eren said with a smirk on his face as he moved his eyebrows up and down teasingly.
Brock gave him a look of betrayal while Calloway seemed to regret his words from a day ago.
"Too bad for you, oh and we met Jake too and now he knows us too!" Terra exclaimed, a grin on her face, "He's soooo cool!"
This time Adelaide turned rigid as she looked at Terra with her mouth hung open. "Say what! I missed a chance too!" she whined. Everyone laughed as she continued to whine while trying to hit Terra, but not being able to land a single hit.
"Well you've exceeded my expectations Eren, maybe I'll tag along if you ever go anywhere, maybe I can get some new friends you know," he winked at Eren. "I'll see ya around then, I'll tell Lillianna you said hi."
He quickly slipped on his skates and dashed off, skillfully and swiftly navigating through the students. Eren looked at his back as it slowly disappeared. He had definitely forgotten to think about something, but what? Oh right, Calloway's hair had blinded him again.
Pokemon Caretaking was held in the Affinitive Academy Daycare and Nursery, just off to the left of the Pokemon Center. All newly hatched pokemon were kept in the Nursery for the first week, where they were taken care of, and it was made sure that they got the necessary initial nutrition before they could be given to their trainers. The Daycare and Nursery combined was probably just as big as the Habitat Dome, just that it was spread along a flatter base to accommodate the many pokemon.
As Eren waited alongside Reyna and Terra for their teacher to come, he saw Derek again, sitting on the grass and staring at it. Eren walked up to him and looked down.
"Why'd you challenge Zac?" He asked, "I'm sure you knew you stood no chance against any of is pokemon."
Derek looked up at him with an irritated look. "What's it to you?" he snapped.
Eren shrugged, knowing he had chafed a nerve on his fresh loss. "Nothing, I just wanted to know. Not that you would care, but I told you to wait didn't I? I told you we'll have a battle as soon as we're allowed to."
Derek pushed himself up and stood face to face with Eren, anger burning in his dark green eyes. "Well then you want to go at it now?" he growled. Eren stared back at him calmly. "Believe me, I would if we could. No use in going back to Autumns' office again."
Derek snorted at his reply. "Scared of that are we? You're like a damn goody two shoes. Fucking be a man," he said, his tone evidently sardonic. By now the other students who were waiting were casting glances at their verbal fight.
"You're trying to provoke me again, I already told you doesn't work on me. And just because you got your ass kicked by one attack doesn't mean you just go around getting angry at others," Eren brusquely shot back. Derek's words didn't affect Eren, but his uselessly aggressive and supercilious nature made Eren grit his teeth in annoyance.
"As if you'd be any different if you had challenged him, I doubt you could even land a hit like I did."
"He probably offered you the first attack anyway, a free hit for Derek, woohoo," Eren drawled, his gaze still locked onto Derek's.
Derek's balled fists were visibly tremulous of anger. "At least I don't ask for sympathy after getting my ass kicked by a random pokemon," he spat. Their surrounding had gone silent as the onlookers watched the altercation like a tennis match.
Eren was thankful that he didn't have an irascible nature like Derek, otherwise this would have escalated very quickly. But his annoyance levels were peaked, and he really wanted to punch him across his face, he would definitely feel satisfied after that.
"I don't recall you being able to capture the normal scyther, so I think I did better helping my friend to capture an even stronger scyther, wouldn't you say so?"
Eren's perlocutionary tone seemed to end the verbal spat as Derek reached for his pokeball, ready to start a battle. Eren reached for his own pokeball, with no intention to actually throw it, but was stopped anyway by Reyna, who put her hand on his. She shook her head and beckoned him to stop. Eren immediately let the pokeball go. He glared at Derek before addressing him again.
"Also, you may have forgotten, but I haven't. Apologize to Reyna for what happened," he said, his voice low but firm. Derek hesitated as he looked between the two best friends, his jaw clenched as he kept his eyes indecisively on Reyna.
"I'm sorry about what happened, it was uncalled for," he finally mumbled after a few moments, before turning around and distancing himself from all the other students. Eren sighed and plopped down on the grass.
"If that went on any longer I might've smacked him, thanks Reyna."
Reyna smiled as she sat down beside him. "I know you well enough, so I decided to stop you there."
"Why even bother talking to him Eren?" Terra asked as she watched Derek stand in a corner.
"I didn't realize he'd be that big of a prick," Eren shrugged, "I want to kick his ass so bad, but the only way is a pokemon battle, so I'll have to wait."
Eren and Terra silently watched as Reyna brought her camera out and began taking pictures of the area while they waited for the teacher to show up. Eventually she did show up, and Eren was surprised to see that Nurse Thorne was their teacher. Guess he'd call her Professor Thorn from now on.
"Sorry I'm late, I was caught up with something at the Pokemon Center, oh hello Eren, how's the arm holding up?" she said, taking notice of him. Eren flashed her a thumbs up and she resumed the class.
"Right so I'm Professor Thorn and I'm your teacher for Pokemon Caretaking. I'm also head nurse at the Clinic as well as the Pokemon Center. I'm usually very busy with the Clinic and the Pokemon Center so we won't have as many classes as you'd think. But there will be a reliable substitute in my place who will help you. Now there's not much effort you need to put in to pass this course, but you will need a lot of dedication and patience. You will be interacting and taking care of the pokemon here in the Daycare as well as taking down a few notes once in a while because the final examinations for this course are divided into the practical as well as theory parts."
Half the class groaned at the mention of 'notes' and 'theory'. But in this case Eren didn't mind, anything that he was interested in doing never got boring. Thorn, after pausing for the groaning to stop, continued.
"Also you will need to log a collective time of fifty hours throughout the entire year in the Daycare taking care of the pokemon as one half of the assignment. The other half consists of taking care of eggs that we will give you. It's simple enough, but if any harm is done to the pokemon, you will be held responsible and consequences will be taken as per the dealt damage."
Eren absentmindedly nodded as she went on about the details. It was basically the same as it had been in the Ivy Daycare, and he had no qualms regarding the fifty hour compulsion, he'd spent countless hours helping Reyna and her parents anyway. The idea of getting an egg fascinated him, even though he had hatched Laxer from an egg Reyna's parents had gifted him on his birthday, he found the experience quite enjoyable and testing. Baby pokemon were cute and small, and in some cases really playful too.
"And so today, you're all just going to get a little acquainted with the daycare pokemon and the varied terrain we have here. It's very similar to the habitat dome actually, just that the pokemon here are either young or newly caught. Large pokemon aren't allowed here due to consideration of the available area we had when the campus was constructed." Thorn gestured to the fence which encompassed the small grass field they sat in, "Beyond this fence is where the terrains starts. And so since we're done with the basics, let me introduce my helper for this year."
Everyone looked back to the entrance to see Lily standing and waving at everyone. She walked up to the front and stood next to Thorn.
"Lily here is an aspiring nutritionist for both pokemon and humans. While Zac and Jake are considered the top battle students, Lily is the top student overall, with the best grades of all the third years."
Choruses of 'ooo's passed around and everyone applauded. Eren himself was pretty surprised at the fact. Appearances were really deceiving, somehow he was always reminded that in one way or another.
"Aw that's too much Professor, I'm only that good because I love what I do." Lily modestly said, though it was obvious she enjoyed the praise.
Reyna nudged Eren with her elbow. "Why does a top student as well as a beautiful girl like her associate with you?" she asked.
"After all these years spent with me, you still don't know just how spectacular I am?" he replied, wiping a nonexistent tear from the corner of his eye. "It pains my heart."
"I forget that's the reason that popular girl back in Viridian didn't want you to be her co-star in the play."
"Screw you."
Thorn cleared her throat as she gave them both a sharp look. "Lily will be helping the substitute in my absence so be nice to both of them. Feel free to explore and befriend the pokemon here today and if you have any questions, ask me."
She dismissed the students, who started wandering off past the fence to explore. Eren looked around, wondering if he would see another familiar face, someone like Tanya or Vic maybe, but there was no one else.
"So where do you want to go first?" he asked the other two. Reyna shrugged indifferently, but Terra spoke up. "I was actually thinking of splitting up, that way we could see more pokemon."
"Yeah alright, that works too," Eren said, picking up his backpack. "Well then let me know if you find anything interesting." Terra nodded and started off into the opposite direction, her ponytail flowing as she bounded through the grass and over the fence.
Eren whistled an upbeat tune as he jumped over the fence and started off in a random direction. Similar to the Habitat Dome, the Daycare was covered in a large glass dome, although it wasn't suffocating or congested in the least.
"So you're tagging along with me?" he asked without looking back, knowing that the soft clicks of the camera shutter belonged to Reyna. "You really can't stay away from me can you?"
Reyna ignored him, choosing to stop under a tree to see if there were any pokemon hanging on the branches. "Is your arm okay now?" she suddenly asked, catching him off guard. She walked up to his left side and held up his arm. She gingerly moved it around as she looked at the bandages, where a little bit of blood still outlined the cut. "Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't really hurt, but it stings from time to time. Thorn said it wasn't too deep so it'll heal fast." He said as he slowly pulled his arm out of her hands. "Don't sweat it, it won't kill me."
Reyna rolled her eyes. "I know that, dumbass," she swatted his other arm. "You're too stupid to die from something like that anyway."
"I see no relation between my stupidity and the cut, but I'll take that as a compliment."
They walked through the forest habitat without encountering a single pokemon, which was a little odd, Eren had expected it to be brimming with different kinds of pokemon. As they neared the end of the forest area, the grass and barks of the trees went from being dappled with frost to completely blanketed in a layer of it. The air was chilly and small flakes of snow were coming from the direction they were headed in.
Reyna rubbed her arms with her hands. "It's getting colder, is this the boreal habitat? I can't believe they actually have something like snow and ice under control right next to a forest habitat with a completely different temperature, that's some crazy technology," she breathed, looking over the new landscape in front of them.
What had been a forest barely a minute ago, was now akin to a tundra, the grass turned into barren land covered in snow. The trees were either pine trees or leafless trees with the branches glistening with thin layers of ice. Eren took in a deep breath, feeling the freshness of the cold air.
The Daycare had to be kept under the glass dome because similar to the Habitat Dome, it had controlled habitats for all types of pokemon. Maintaining the climates of each of the areas sounded like a tough job, but he had heard that trained laborers were stationed underground to make sure everything was properly functional.
"Oh look! Finally some pokemon!" Reyna said, pointing ahead to the snow coated rocks. Sure enough, there was a group of cubchoo tousling in the snow. Reyna immediately brought her camera to her face and started taking pictures of the cubchoos. Meanwhile Eren decided to get more up close and personal with the small pokemon. He slowly began to walk up to the cubchoos, making sure not to scare them. The must've noticed him approaching, because they stopped playing with each other and looked at him.
Eren stopped midway and waved at them, making himself look as friendly as possible. Probably out of curiosity of a new face, they slowly made their way to him one after the other. Eren crouched on the ground as he waited for them to come. Soon enough, they were clambering all over is legs and shoulders, one even sitting on his head.
"Hey don't run over my legs, it tickles! Hey!" Eren laughed as the small cubs squirmed around everywhere. He fell back into the snow as his legs gave way. He patted the head of the cubchoo on his head, making sure it's…snot didn't soil his hair.
"Sometimes you're so naturally photogenic it's annoying," Reyna said from behind him, her camera hanging around her neck. Eren shrugged as he held out a cubchoo for her to hold.
"Must be the pokemon, these guys are really cute, see?"
The cubchoo in his hand cheerfully cried out, as if asking Reyna to hold it, to which she complied. They stayed there playing with the small cubs. Eren felt as though he were back in Viridian, having fun in the Ivy Daycare.
The cubchoo suddenly stopped moving and turned their heads to the trees, making Eren and Reyna look as well. A large figure stood behind the trunk of the tree, peering at them. Eren wondered if this person had specifically decided to come to the boreal habitat, because he was dressed in a large white overcoat and large brown boots. For a second Eren wondered if this was the same man as the one whom he had seen after the scuffle with scyther the day before, but upon closer inspection he realized it was a student.
"You want to play with the pokemon?" Reyna called out, her voice slightly cracking from exposure to the cold air without suitable clothing. "Why don't you join us?"
The boy hesistated, maybe debating between running away or listening to Reyna. Eventually he made up his mind and started walking towards them, his long legs taking big strides through snow covered dirt. As he got closer Eren realized just how tall he was, his figure towered over the sitting figures of the two best friends.
Eren picked the cubchoo on his head up and held him out to the boy. "Here, they're really friendly."
The cubchoo snuggled up to the boy, taking in the warmth of the furry coat. It was hard to tell what the boy was feeling because there was a long blue scarf tied around his neck, covering his rest of his face below his prominent nose. He patted the cubchoo on his head and slowly rubbed his back. The cubchoo rocked its head back and forth, enjoying the touchiness.
"See, I told you they're friendly," Eren tickled one of the more playful cubs. "Why were you hiding behind the tree?"
The boy didn't reply, he just shifted his gaze continuously between the ground and Eren. Reyna knocked Eren on the head with her knuckles. "Don't be nosy, he has his reasons. I just think he's a little shy, right?"
The boy gave a slow nod to affirm Reyna's thoughts.
"What's your name? I'm Reyna, and this is my dumbass of a best friend Eren," she introduced, rapping her knuckles on Eren's head for emphasis. Eren swatted her hand away.
"I'm Tundric," the boy finally spoke up, his words at first barely discernable due to his thick accent. "I already know Eren," he carefully added. Reyna and Eren both quirked an eyebrow at that.
"You do? What kind of trouble did you create so soon?" she asked Eren, who glowered at her.
"I really like the way you're always so confident that I've always done something wrong," he bitingly replied. They looked at Tundric who was shaking his head, the bed-head styled platinum blond hair framing his face moving with his action.
"Eren is now vell known among the students of the survival course. Professor Hawkcrest was praising him yesterday," he said, his accented voice soft and muffled due to the scarf covering his mouth.
"Oh because of the scyther incident?"
Tundric nodded. "You are very brave Eren, I'm sure you'll be svamped by the students in the next class, everyone will be excited to see you."
Eren found it amusing how he tried to adjust his accent each time but it still managed to slip through here and there. "You make me sound like some of celebrity, it wasn't that big a deal." He said, though he was a little happy on the inside. He had made an unexpected nice first impression after all, ignoring the fact he went to Autumns' office on the first day of course.
"How about we move on to the other habitats now?" Reyna asked after checking the time on her phone, "We don't have too much time left till the end of class, let's look around as much as we can."
Eren nodded and stood up, setting the cubchoos on his legs down on the snow. He gestured at his back with his thumb. "You coming Tundric?" he asked.
Tundric eyes moved back and forth between Eren and Reyna before falling to the snowy terrain. "I think I'll pass." He murmured. Seeing as he was shy, Eren had expected that, not everyone was as easygoing and open as him.
"It's okay, see you around Tundric, it was nice meeting you," Reyna said. The blonde boy nodded as he looked at both of them again. "It vas nice meeting you too," he replied. Eren couldn't see due to the scarf covering his mouth, but he was sure that Tundric was smiling. They left him to play around with small pokemon as they moved to the next area.
The time had gone by pretty fast and class was already over and all the students were assembled back in the lobby of the daycare. With some parting words Thorn dismissed the class and students began to file out one by one. Just as he was about to leave, Thorn called him back.
"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up soon," he told Terra and Reyna. Thorn was discussing something with Lily when she turned to Eren as he approached her.
"Ah, Jonathan was looking for you Eren, he's waiting for you at the Clinic. He said something about a scyther, but's that's all. Does this have something to do with your arm?" she asked.
"Kind of, yeah. Thanks for telling me, I'll be on my way. See ya Lily!" Eren waved as he jogged outside the door and headed towards the Clinic. It wasn't too far from where currently was and after a few minutes of sprinting he found himself standing in the cool atmosphere of the Clinic once again.
"Ah Eren my boy, good to see you!" Hawkcrest called out from his side. He walked up to Eren and patted his shoulders. "Nothing like a good run here right?"
Eren nodded as he observed the Survival 101 teacher. He was covered in dirt and leaves and large patches of sweat covered his muscle-fitted tee, though surprisingly he didn't smell at all. He put an arm around his shoulder and started walking him down the hall.
"Professor this is a clinic, you're not supposed to bring in dirt and bacteria here," the receptionist called out. Hawkcrest only gave her a friendly wave as he ignored her words.
"Now then Eren, sorry to have interrupted your daily classes but we have some news on scyther, and I thought that it should be shared with you since you were the one who requested that scyther should be properly treated." He said, his voice dropping to a more serious tone.
Hawkcrest guided him into one of the rooms and closed the door and shut the blinds. Eren saw that scyther was flat on a bed with an oxygen mask covering its face and an IV drip over its arm. Various other wires were placed over its vitals and connected to monitors placed right next to the bed. Eren was shocked to see that its eyes were open.
"Is scyther awake? It's not moving around at all." He asked Hawkcrest. "Well you see-"he started, but was interrupted by another voice from inside the room.
"It's in a vegetative state," a male voice said. Eren turned to see a man he hadn't noticed earlier standing right next to him. The tall man glanced down at him through his blue eyes, which were basically slits at the moment. His frame was wide and his sickly pale skin was only visible from his hands and face, as he was wearing a white shirt with a yellow tie hanging loosely from his neck. A pair of rectangular glasses hung from the breast pocket of his shirt.
"W-What?" Eren stuttered, forgetting what the man had said due his overwhelmingly odd presence. Hawkcrest gestured to the man.
"This is one of the brilliant younger teachers we have, Demi De Armand, he teaches Pokemon Habits and Behavior, which is one of the reasons I called him here. I thought he'd give us some insight on what happened to scyther."
"Uh, well nice to meet you Mr. De Armand, I'm Ere-"
"I couldn't care less for what your name is kid." Demi shot back. Eren gritted his teeth in annoyance at his tone. Hawkcrest laughed. "Don't worry Eren, this is just how he is, don't worry."
"Is that so?" Eren muttered through gritted teeth. Demi's eyes narrowed but he didn't say anything to Eren, instead he walked over to scyther's side. "As I was sayin' before," he pointed at scyther's face, "This thin' is in a vegetative state."
"And that means?" Eren asked. Demi looked at Eren as if he was the stupidest person alive. "That means this scyther here is unable to feel, see or hear anything. It's in an unconscious state with its eyes open and the brain isn't functionin' properly, except for performin' vital functions to keep it alive. Damage to the brain is usually the cause."
"How long do you think it'll take for it to recover?" Hawkcrest asked. Demi only shrugged. "Bein' in a vegetative state first of all is rare in itself, and recovery usually doesn't occur, especially in the case of pokemon."
Eren's eyes widened as Demi spoke. So scyther wasn't going to recover? He wouldn't ever get to know what had happened to it? Eren was jolted out of his thoughts as Demi spoke again. "Recovery is next to impossible, but even if it somehow manages to recover, there's no sayin' what mental state it'll be in."
"That serious huh," Hawkcrest softly murmured. Eren glanced between the two teachers. "So there's nothing we can do about this?" he asked, his voice a little on edge. Hawkcrest looked at Demi for an answer.
"Nothin' at all. I'd say we put it out of its misery." Demi said. Eren blinked a couple of times as he tried to register what Demi had just said. "You mean…kill it?" he whispered.
Demi shrugged, a wide smile on his face, which was unnerving because the rest of his features were emotionless. It was an empty smile, a hollow smile. "In a way yeah, though it would be medically induced," he said, his tone nonchalant.
"How could you even say that! Who are you to decide whether scyther gets to live or not!" Eren blurted out, anger coursing through him. Hawkcrest looked at him in surprise at the sudden outburst but Demi wasn't fazed in the least.
"This is reality kid, this isn't somethin' you can comprehend with that brain of yours." He coolly replied. Eren shook his head. "Screw that! Even if there's only a bare minimum of a chance that scyther can recover, we'll take it!"
"Why do you care kid? This thin' nearly cut your arm off right?"
"Like I said, it wasn't itself back then! Someone did something to it and it was forced to listen. Whatever that person did was cruel and it made scyther like it is now, I'll make them pay for it once I find who they are!" he growled.
Both the teachers looked at the student in front of them, before looking at each other. Hawkcrest put a firm hand on Eren's shoulder and directed his words to Demi.
"I support Eren in this De Armand, you never know what will happen. We have enough amenities to take care of scyther, so let's leave it at this."
Demi sighed and ran a hand through his grey pompadour. "Fine, if ya say so." He grabbed his white coat from a chair in the corner and slung it around his shoulder. "Don't say I didn't warn ya if it passes away," he whispered in Eren's ear as he passed by and walked out the door.
Eren barely contained his anger as he balled his fists and glared as Demi's figure disappeared from his sight.
"Since today is the first battle class you all are having, I'll evaluate you based on one-on-one battles. You'll each be paired with another student and it will be a short battle, the first to defeat their opponent or make them surrender will be declared the winner," Autumns said as she held up a clipboard.
It was the day after Eren had been to the Clinic to see scyther and the first and only class of the day, Battle and Tactics. He was surprised to see the principal herself as the teacher, but she was only filling in for the original professor who was still on vacation.
Throughout the entirety of the day before, Eren's mind had only been on scyther and its condition. He had vowed to make whoever messed with scyther's mind pay, but he had no idea where he would start and what he would do.
"Alright so the first battle of the day is, well well, quite an interesting pair we have here, Eren Fenrir versus Derek Raymond!" Autumns announced. All eyes fell on either of the two boys who stood up from their seats.
"Good luck," Reyna whispered, while Brock flashed him a thumbs up. He smiled at the gesture and walked down from the seating area to the main battlefield. In addition to the large stadiums on the campus, the academy also had dedicated battle gymnasiums with proper battlefields. And there were quite a few of these gymnasiums spread over the campus.
Eren rolled his neck and shoulders and grabbed a pokeball from his belt. Across the field, Derek did the same, his eyes fixed on Eren. The tension between them was strong, Eren could feel it. Both of them had been waiting for this battle, and both of them planned to win.
Autumns looked between the two and raised her hand, "Ready? Let the battle commence!"
And so there you have chapter 5, I hope you enjoyed it! All new characters belong to their respective owners. I'm not sure when I'll upload the next chapter, as I'll be very busy in the coming few months. I hope you all stick around for the next chapters.
Question of the chapter: Who do you think will win the battle?