Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai

Chapter Eighty-six: Blackthorn battles, part three

Dawn and Kenny were over at Blackthorn City Academy in Blackthorn City, Johto. They were in the middle of giving a lecture to some students when one of the male students spoke up about how Dawn had defeated Clair in the gym battle held in the school's stadium so that the students would get to see a live gym battle in order to take notes. When the homeroom teacher Suwabe called out the boy in question, Dawn and Kenny took an immediate interest in him.

He was Katsuku Badorigo, the older brother of the roaming trainer Ideku Badorigo.

The reborn trainers, knowing of how bad Ideku's life was growing up, wanted to know more about it so they could better figure out how to help Ideku out with how he had suffered unnecessarily in life. With his older brother right there, they would be able to start their personal investigation into what they had reservations on calling a family. Since Katsuku had gotten dawn's attention, she decided to make the first move on the Badorigo's first born son.

"...Clair said you're Katsuku Badorigo," Dawn said to the older boy, "Is that true?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Katsuku half asked half snapped.

"And you mentioned a brother you have who beat Clair on his first try at her," Kenny said.

That made Katsuku tense up a bit, a look on his face of realizing he had let slip something that he didn't want to let slip. "Hey Katsuku," a boy with long and spiky red hair said, "Since when did you have a brother? I don't think you ever mentioned that."

Katsuku looked away from that boy and the rest of the students in the class, his expression turning somber. "...I don't like to talk about it," Katsuku said, his tone taking on a defeated, mildly sad hint. Dawn and Kenny could tell that Katsuku was feeling guilty about something; a sign that Kenny's earlier assessment of Katsuku being not as bad as his parents might be pretty on the ball.

Akeno hummed in amusement before she shrugged. "Katsuku shouldn't be blamed for not wanting to talk about his embarrassment of a brother. After all, his brother is a special needs fre-"

"What are you talking about, Mrs. Akeno?" Katsuku, looking mildly surprised, suddenly interrupted.

Looking at Katsuku, Akeno said, "Your brother, Ideku. He's special needs, is he not?"

Shaking his head, Katsuku said, "No he's not! Ideku is, for lack of a better way to put this, as normal as you and me!" Katsuku shook his head again. "...Where in the hell did you get the idea that Ideku was special needs?"

"Before we continue here," Suwabe said, "I think that the students aside from Katsuku should be dismissed back to their respective class dorm buildings." Looking at Katsuku, Suwabe said, "As for you, Katsuku, come with us."

The students got up and proceeded to leave the classroom. Dawn noticed the boy with long red spiky hair talk to the suspected special needs girl, then nod to her before leading slash escorting her out of the classroom. After the students aside from Katsuku were all gone, Yasuhiro said, "Well now, I suspect that Katsuku has quite a bit to share with us."

"...I bet I do," Katsuku said, sounding defeated and guilty, yet with an added hint of being suspicious about something. The others still in the classroom left through a different door and proceeded to make their way to a conference room located on Blackthorn City Academy grounds.

Later in the conference room, Dawn and Kenny sat around with Lance, Clair, Yasuhiro, Suwabe, Matsuda, Akeno, Kenta, and finally Katsuku. "...Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that I had been a brat towards Ideku when we were growing up," Katsuku began, "Things were always tight, so it was often a competition for stuff like extra snacks and whatever spending money our parents would allocate. The goods always wound up going to me, so I ended up getting a bit full of myself."

Dawn nodded in understanding, remembering what Professor Elm had said about the Badorigo family having money troubles. "If things were bad enough financial wise as you say," Yasuhiro began, "Then why didn't your parents ever consider getting assistance from various programs that help out with such cases?"

"They refused to try getting any sort of help along those lines," Katsuku said, "They have too much pride to ever seem like they need help." Katsuku gave an ironic chuckle. "...That would explain where I get my own sense of pride from." Looking up at the staff members, Katsuku asked, "Now, what's this about Ideku being special needs? Where the hell did that lie come from?"

"Your parents had expressed as such," Akeno explained casually, "When they came here to discuss the letter they got from Blackthorn City Academy about how Ideku had been offered enrollment."

Katsuku went wide eyed, as if he was having trouble believing what he had heard. "...What?"

Shrugging, Akeno said, "Well, they didn't say it outright. At least not until I guessed that Ideku had the same disease that Matsuda's dumb girl Amanda has and your parents confirmed it."

"Amanda's autism is NOT a disease, Akeno!" Matsuda snarled, slamming his place at the meeting table with his right fist, "And she isn't dumb! Amanda is actually comparable to Suwabe's student Colleen when it comes to academics, believe it or not!"

Dawn was about to speak up when she noticed that Katsuku had a hand raised. Gesturing to the first born Badorigo son, Dawn said, "What is it?"

Lowering his hand, Katsuku said, "What... what is this about Ideku being accepted to school here?"

"When your parents came here with the letter explaining how Ideku had been offered enrollment here," Akeno said, "They had expressed that they didn't want him to go to school here. I was a bit surprised when they turned down sending a child of theirs to Blackthorn City Academy, especially since it's one of the top trainer schools in the world and Ideku was being offered a full scholarship and everything, so they didn't have to worry about expenses. But them implying he was special needs, then confirming it when I guessed it, cleared the air for me at least."

Dawn and Kenny felt utterly disgusted. Not only at the Badorigo parents for blatantly denying Ideku a golden opportunity that an unrelated party was offering him, but for Akeno for being more than happy to play along solely because she thought that Ideku was special needs, most likely autistic as Akeno thought Ideku had what Matsuda's student Amanda has, and Matsuda had just confirmed that Amanda has autism. Although chances are that the Badorigo parents saw Akeno guessing that Ideku was special needs as a golden opportunity for an excuse to not have Ideku go to school here.

Going on, Akeno said, "Your parents did, however, express immense pride in you Katsuku, and that you'd be a fine fit here in Blackthorn City Academy. So I, after your parents requested it, pulled a few strings to shift the enrollment offer from your brother to you." Looking mildly confused, Akeno went on, "Although I fail to see why they wouldn't want Ideku to go here but want it for you. I mean, the both of you would have been accepted as neither of you are reta-"

"AKENO!" Kenta barked loudly, startling everyone in the room. Everyone turned to look at the board member, who was glaring daggers at the woman who was unreasonably hateful towards those who are differently able. "...You go too far," Kenta said, "What would your grandfather say if he were here to see and hear you speak so horribly towards special needs students?"

"He'd agree with me that all such students here at Blackthorn City Academy ought to be kicked out right away," Akeno replied casually without missing a beat, "Starting with that little freak girl that Matsuda has in his class."

Kenta gave an amused scoff of a laugh. "...Funny you say that, considering the fact that his personal student after I had graduated was an autistic girl. I had even helped with nurturing that girl's potential as a student from time to time, more so after I had gotten the teaching position that I held here before I got my job as a board member."

Akeno looked as if she had been dealt a considerable shock. "...He... no way..." Akeno said, clearly at a loss for words.

Speaking of being at a loss for words, Dawn turned to look at Katsuku, who was sitting there with his head hung. From what Dawn could see of his expression, he was shocked into silence, the wide eyed look on his face making it clear he didn't know how to handle the information that he had just acquired. Yasuhiro saw this as well. "...Despite the... finer details... of how you came to Blackthorn City Academy, Katsuku," Yasuhiro said, "You've proven to be a very fine student indeed. You would have assuredly passed the entrance exam-"

"...That my folks wouldn't have been able to afford..." Katsuku said quietly, barely loud enough for everyone else to hear, "...And it's not like they'd have accepted any help paying for it, even though it would of been for my benefit... they don't like accepting anything that they see as charity, they're too prideful for it..."

"I... think we ought to take a breather," Lance said, clearly hoping to clear the air, "Reconvene when we're calmer." Yasuhiro agreed wholeheartedly, and with that everyone got up to take off. Yasuhiro explained that Suwabe's and Matsuda's respective homeroom classes don't have actual classes for today, but they still have to be present for the battles Clair would have against Dawn and Kenny. As such, they had free time to burn.

Dawn and Kenny wanted to talk to Katsuku more, so after everyone left the conference room, they caught up to him, asked him to go with them to talk in private. Katsuku seemed too resigned to disagree, so he suggested a cafe that he knew about. Dawn and Kenny agreed, and with a place in mind to go to, the reborn trainers and Katsuku took off.

"Yeah, I just found out that something that was originally offered to Ideku was taken from him and given to me," Katsuku said in a defeated tone, "I wasn't the one originally given that offer, I wasn't the one who earned it. I don't deserve to be at Blackthorn City Academy."

It was clear to the reborn trainers that Katsuku finding out the finer details of how he had gotten into Blackthorn City Academy wrecked his sense of pride, his self-esteem. Katsuku had made it very clear that he had always wanted to get into Blackthorn City Academy, but finding out that he, in his own view, didn't do so on his own merits in any way, had wrecked him in a way. The opportunity that was given to him wasn't really given to him; he stole it from his brother.

...No. Their parents stole it from Ideku and gave it to Katsuku.

"...So aside from how you guys competed against one another for extras like snacks and pocket money back when you were little kids," Kenny began, "Which given how things were for you growing up could be excused to an extent, you aren't really an asshole to Ideku after all."

Katsuku nodded grimly in agreement. "...Ideku... that dude... it still baffles me to this day how he still was able to be this incorruptible pure pureness back when we were growing up. Given how our mom and dad permitted him barely anything at all, combined with how they clearly had nothing for him but hate, you would think that he would have long since sna-"

"Katsuku?" a female voice called out, cutting Katsuku off and making him and the reborn trainers turn to see a girl Katsuku's age come walking over. She was dressed as an employee of the cafe that everyone was at. The girl was also fair-skinned, and had forest green hair in a bobcut, plus emerald green eyes.

"Oh, Ayane," Katsuku said, sounding mildly surprised to see the girl here, "What are you doing here?"

Scoffing bitterly, the girl now identified as Ayane said, "After Ms. Akeno had me expelled because I told her off when she was picking on Amanda, I had to get a job. This cafe is the first place that had offered to hire me, despite my record of being expelled from Blackthorn City Academy."

Dawn and Kenny both turned to look at Ayane. "So you're the girl that was expelled," Kenny said, "If it counts for anything, sorry about the raw deal you got."

Ayane nodded once in acknowledgement. "Thanks. Anyway, I'm on break right now, so maybe we can talk?"

...

"...You're kidding me," Ayane said to Dawn, "You're really the same Dawn Berlitz who defeated the previous Sinnoh champion Cynthia and took her place as the new Sinnoh champion?"

"Yeah," Dawn replied with a nod, "Kenny and I are on a gym challenge tour right now, going from region to region to challenge the gyms to earn the badges there. We've obviously cleared Sinnoh, and had cleared Kanto before coming here to Johto. Blackthorn City has the last gym we were aiming to challenge before getting eight Johto gym badges each."

Gesturing to Dawn, Katsuku said, "Their battles are being done at school because the teachers wanted to have us see a live gym battle so we could take notes on it. This girl beat Clair earlier, one-shoting each of Clair's three Pokémon with this bizarre monster of a Pokémon that I have no idea on what the hell it is."

Sighing, Dawn said, "My Pokémon in question is a Porygon-Z, an evolution of Porygon 2 that was discovered in the Sinnoh region."

"And Porygon 2 evolves from Porygon," Ayane said, "So this Porygon-Z thing is, like, a suped up Porygon in a way." After Dawn nodded in agreement, Ayane said, "So what were you all talking about before I came over?"

"About how Katsuku's brother had been screwed over by their parents," Kenny said dryly, his tone very clearly unamused.

Ayane looked confused by that. "Brother?" Ayane asked, "Katsuku has a brother?"

The first born Badorigo son nodded once in confirmation. "His name is Ideku. He's a solid guy who many had described as the human form of a cinnamon roll." Katsuku turned to look at Ayane. "...I bet that you would have liked him."

Ayane blushed a bit out of embarrassment, then went on to ask about Ideku. However, Katsuku said after seeing the time that he had to get back to campus, given that it's getting close to five in the afternoon, and soon Clair's Pokémon ought to be rested enough for Clair to have her battle against Kenny for the students to take notes on. Ayane hummed once in an understanding tone, a tone that carried a hint of jealousy towards someone who, unlike her, was still a student at one of the finest Pokémon trainer schools in the world.

Regardless, she saw the reborn trainers and Katsuku off, wishing them luck for the future.

...

"So a teacher bullies an autistic girl in front of the class," Kenny said, "That Ayane girl stands up to said teacher, and said teacher has Ayane expelled because of it."

Katsuku nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that pretty much sums up Ms. Akeno."

"And yet Blackthorn City Academy has done virtually nothing to reprimand Akeno because she's protected by the legacy of her grandfather who founded the school," Dawn said, bitter over the lack of justice being shown in this case.

Shrugging, Kenny said, "I have an idea. Everyone who saw your battle with Clair will be there to see my battle with Clair in a bit, right?" Dawn nodded in confirmation. "And that includes Akeno, right?" Once more, Dawn nodded to Kenny. "So here's what I'm thinking," Kenny went on, "I use Black to solo Clair's entire team, then after I win I look to Akeno and tell her that if she's a jerk ever again, I will have Black pay her a visit to-"

"You are not going to use Giratina to threaten a Blackthorn City Academy teacher into behaving properly towards special needs students," Dawn said firmly. Dawn says this despite having already entertained a similar fantasy where she did what Kenny implied he wants to do, but Dawn had used Tsukune in her version of the fantasy instead.

Katsuku arched a wry eyebrow. "...Ain't Giratina a legendary Pokémon talked about in Sinnoh region lore?"

"Yes and Kenny actually caught it," Dawn said, "But that's beside the point. If we're to see Akeno act properly and treat students with respect regardless if they're special needs or not, we can't do so by using threats. It wouldn't be in good form to stoop to so low of a level. We've got to be better than that if we're to have a genuine, effective impact."

Shrugging, Katsuku said, "I don't know. I mean Ms. Akeno can be pretty thick headed and full of herself. I think Kenny's idea of using a legendary Pokémon to bully Ms. Akeno into being nice might be the only way to get her to be nice, considering the fact she has too much protecting her from having to willing change herself as a per-"

*THOOM*

Dawn, Kenny, and Katsuku all stopped short upon hearing what sounded like a blast in the distance leveling a building, with said sound immediately followed by panicked, terrified screams, and those screams followed by the angry shouts of people calling out Pokémon attacks. "The fuck is all of that?!" Katsuku swore, looking surprised.

Looking up around the sky above Blackthorn City, Dawn saw smoke rise from several places. "...I think that Blackthorn City is under attack," Dawn said, looking worried, "And if I had to guess, I would say that the attack had been launched by-"

Dawn was cut off when she, Kenny, and Katsuku were confronted by a trio of male Team Scorn grunts. "Hey!" the first grunt said while pointing at Katsuku, "That blazer jacket that you're wearing! You're one of those elite preppy school students who goes to Blackthorn City Academy!"

Katsuku scoffed in pissed off annoyance. "And I suppose you and your little butt buddies here are behind what all's going on here?"

"Katsuku, dude," Kenny began, "These guys are members of Team Scorn! They're a villainous organization not unlike Team Rocket!"

"Kenny and I have run into them several times during our going about here in the Johto region," Dawn said as she called out Chi-Chi, "They're bad news." Kenny called out Godzilla to help fight off the trio of male Team Scorn grunts that were there.

Katsuku scoffed once again, but this time there was a hint of savage amusement to it. Tossing up a pokéball to call out his Feraligatr, Katsuku replied, "So it doesn't really matter if we're a little rough in handling them. Sounds legit."

The trio of male Team Scorn grunts called out their Pokémon, one Raticate each. "You all will be good and surrender!" the second grunt said firmly, "We can't really afford to have anyone arrive to aid of Blackthorn City Academy, now can we?"

"...You guys are after the school?" Dawn said.

"Our forces are spread out over Blackthorn City as a whole," the first grunt said, "Keeping as many people occupied as possible! After all, Blackthorn City Academy is the true target of our mission here in Blackthorn City!"

Katsuku scowled. Despite how he had recently learned that he got into Blackthorn City Academy because an opportunity that was originally given to his brother was taken from said brother and given to him instead, the school was still the school that Katsuku went to. "The hell do you bastards want with Blackthorn City Academy?" Katsuku snarled.

"According to First Captain Quaid and Admin Brother," the third grunt said, "Team Scorn's mission here in Blackthorn City is to raze Blackthorn City Academy to the ground."

Dawn, Kenny, and Katsuku all looked shocked. "...You're... you're going to destroy the school?!" Kenny snapped, "Are you guys insane?! Do you know how many people will be killed by such an-"

"The officers said nothing about trying to kill anyone," the second grunt interjected, cutting Kenny off, "If the people we run into are smart enough to run, then it's no skin off our noses. But if they stay to try to stop us from making that elitist preppy school collapse wholly, then we aren't going to be held responsible."

Dawn glared seriously at the Team Scorn members. "...So you guys don't want to kill anyone. You just want to destroy Blackthorn City Academy."

The first grunt smirked, his expression a wide eyed look of amusement. "We can't make everyone else feel terrorized if they're all dead."

The reborn trainer narrowed her gaze. She at first thought that Team Scorn's attack on Blackthorn City Academy would be something akin to the terrible school shootings back in her previous life. But what the grunts in front of her, Kenny, and Katsuku just said, combined with remembering that there is chaos going on across Blackthorn City as a whole, Dawn realized the situation Blackthorn City is facing right now extends far beyond that.

What Team Scorn is trying to pull off is a full blown terrorist attack.

Not wanting to waste any time, the reborn trainers and Katsuku knew that they had to get back to Blackthorn City Academy; Lance was there, as were Clair and the school staff that Dawn and Kenny had come to know. There's also all of Katsuku's classmates and schoolmates. Dawn had Chi-Chi rush in with Brick Break, Kenny had Godzilla use Crunch, and Katsuku had Feraligatr use Waterfall. Each of them took out a Raticate in one hit each.

The Team Scorn grunts recalled their Raticates and sent out Furrets, but the same process repeated as what happened with the Raticates; Chi-Chi, Godzilla, and Feraligatr knocked out one enemy Pokémon each with a single attack per attacking Pokémon. The Team Scorn grunts, all out of Pokémon, had no choice but to flee after recalling their Furrets. After the Team Scorn grunts were all gone, the three trainers turned to look to one another.

"These Team Scorn jokers are really bad news, huh?" Katsuku asked.

"I'm surprised you apparently know so little," Dawn remarked, "Especially since many of Team Scorn's activities should have made the news."

"Do I look like the kind of guy who pays attention to the news?" Katsuku asked. Shaking his head, the first born Badorigo son went on, "But that doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that we need to rush on over to Blackthorn City Academy to help out there! There's bound to be loads of these Team Scorn mooks running around!"

Dawn nodded in agreement. "And chances are we may run into those Captain Quaid and Admin Brother fellows," Dawn said, "We might be able to put a halt on the attack that Team Scorn is doing if we can get ahold of and take down their officers leading the attack."

"To the fancy pants Pokémon trainer school!" Kenny said as he led the way, having Dawn, Katsuku, and their Pokémon all have to catch up with him. None of them could blame Kenny, though; given that Team Scorn was trying to carry out a practical terrorist attack, they had to stop the villainous organization, no matter what it took. Dawn just prayed that Team Scorn was keeping to their word of not trying to deliberately cause any fatalities.

The last thing that had to happen was there to be at least one body on the evening news all over the Johto region.

END, CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

Author's notes;

This chapter sees Dawn and Kenny get to know Katsuku, the older brother of Ideku. They learn that Katsuku, aside from competing against Ideku for anything extra when they were little kids, wasn't really all that big an asshole after all, and his aforementioned competing against Ideku back when they were little can be excused to an extent. Katsuku also is devastated to learn just how far his and Ideku's parents went to make Ideku's life nothing but hell, going so far as to take from Ideku what was offered to him and have it given to Katsuku himself instead.

Dawn and Kenny wanted to learn more, but were cut off when Team Scorn launched their attack on Blackthorn City, with the ultimate goal of said attack being to raze Blackthorn City Academy to the ground. Dawn, Kenny, and pretty much everyone else will be fighting in the battle of their lives as all of them work to repel and stop the attack from the terror that is Team Scorn. But safety is far from being guaranteed, so everyone is going to have to work together, put whatever difference aside, if they want to get out of this alright enough in the end.

As a side note, I saw the comments expressing concern for how long I had been gone. Sorry, my previous device had gone kaput, but I got a new one on 8-1-22. So Odin willing, my new device will stay solid and permit me to continue working here. Thanks for the concern everyone, btw.

Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Leni (female Lucario), Argent (male Arcanine; Hisuian; alpha), Rapparatta (Porygon-Z), Cyrus (male Staraptor), Tsukune (Palkia)

Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Android 21 (female Sneasel; shiny), Godzilla (male Pupitar), Shallot (male Glaceon), Roshi (male Torterra), Juan (male Pikachu; Libre), Black (Giratina)