It's now the third Monday of the school year. As expected, despite the school's attempts to integrate the exchange students, the rest of them didn't really care because even though their parents pay five hundred thousand yen a term, it doesn't make them actually friendly.

Akahana in particular was struggling at the moment for several reasons. Some might say it was due to practically living unaided in her bedsit, though she'd really been waiting years to be independent. After all, her father was a lord, so of course she'd had little freedom. Others might say she missed home, but she fucking welcomed the fresh start now that she wasn't being constantly judged for being a princess to the likes of Seiji.

No, the real reason was being the only student without a translator. They were supposed to arrive three weeks ago! She could sometimes use a Hisuian to Galarian translator she found online if a computer was nearby, but it put out nonsense most of the time, so she didn't even try normally and just sat there in class.

Al walked into school that morning to see like a dozen people surrounding someone unfamiliar, clearly too close while they talked about her. He knew about half of them, mainly Darren, and now he'd noticed him.

"'Ey, look, it's Al! Long time no se-"

Al was quick to interrupt. "Who you talking to, Darren?"

"One of the exchange girls, I think!" he boasted. "Wouldn't call it talking, though — she hasn't said a word, and I really thought she'd understand basic Galarian."

Al wasn't happy about this. "That's why you don't skip the assemblies, mate..."

"What?"

"They already told us there, most of them don't know Galarian," Al explained.

"Then why hasn't she picked anything up in the last couple of weeks? Most of them can at least greet you and talk during elevenses, but she might as well be in a barn!"

"Do you know how hard learning a language is? That's why most of them have translators!"

"Why not her, then?"

"Maybe they're late or still looking for one? I hear Hisuian's hard to learn."

"How do you know she speaks Hisuian?"

"Maybe because I know the basic Galarian of 'Go to the important assembly,' or 'You're making her uncomfortable, maybe back off'?"

Darren did not take this well, as usual. "Screw you, man, I'm just here to have a conversation! You've got no right to act like this!" A single punch was thrown and immediately deflected.

"Cornering someone when you can't understand each other? Must be an interesting talk."

The roast practically made the crowd die. Darren didn't take that well either, but the bell rang before he could give a proper response.

"Call that an act of God," he muttered, walking away with the others to class.

Al turned to Akahana with an apologetic look. "Hey... sorry about those lot. I don't know what's got into them all of a sudden. Not everyone 'round here is that bad."

Akahana looked at Al as if she wanted to speak, realised he wouldn't understand a word, then just gave up.

"Do you know where your next class is?"

She paused for a moment and shook her head, not understanding a word he said either.

Then Al realised he'd seen her in the same class as him around this time before. "Wait, follow me. Think I might know..." He walked to the stairs, but Akahana just stood where she had been, looking confused. "Come on, over here!" He gestured towards himself, to no avail.

...It was like trying to convince a three year old you couldn't just carry, but she eventually followed him to the classroom, and the teacher immediately noticed them. "Care to explain why you're 8 minutes late?"

Al immediately chose to release his frustration. "Ever try getting someone who doesn't understand a word you're saying to follow you? Last I checked, it was on us to keep them from getting lost! Or are you lot forgetting about that like you did with the translator?"

The class erupted into noise again, and the teacher sighed. "...I'll do you a favour and pretend I didn't hear that. We're doing a presentation on important times in Galarian history that I expect next week, so since you two came in together, you'll be paired."

"Wait a minute, how are we meant to-"

"You know how a laptop works, I'm sure your single brain cell can figure it out." The teacher had had enough of Al for today, but of course the class hadn't had enough of this very interesting roast battle.

So they just sat down, and Al opened Googmon Translate. Akahana typed something which was somehow translated to "Why teacher under mountain on skiing" which despite being hilarious Al didn't really react to. He was too focused on trying to work on the presentation, which would be nearly impossible alone.

Then Akahana wrote something on paper. It read "你為什麼要幫我？" and Al's response was a shrug, because how would he know the answer?

Man, he wished his Uncle Bob could make these fucks be competent.

...

Eventually lunchtime arrived. Al didn't know where Akahana had gone, but it wasn't really his problem, so he just went to eat with his other friends. For some reason, as soon as he showed up, Darren left.

"...Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

"Nah, he's just been a bit odd all day," one of his friends replied. "Prolly just Jono being gone."

"He was bothering an exchange student earlier, and seemed kind of miffed when I called him out on it," Al said.

"Blonde girl?"

"Yeah, why?"

"...No reason. You'll figure it out eventually."

Lunch began. The only suitable description is that they're eating like 10 year olds.

"Can the school actually do something about students who do this sort of stuff?"

"'Course not, that would cost money. What's got into you?"

"Darren seems to have chosen death, and that's incredibly worrying."

"It always is, especially if you're in the way. Never seen him fail at it."

"Sometimes having connections pays off... You of all people should know that, Al."

"I know, it's just... Sometimes people need a reality check, you know?"

"Mate, people like him control reality..."

Now it was the end of the day after they drew shit on the wall in the last lesson because abstract art. Fun. Now Al had a two-person project where the other person couldn't read, write, speak, or listen, and he couldn't even contact her.

He also had fencing club after school... assuming it wasn't cancelled for the 9000th time. Not that he wanted to go this week, or even had time considering the project was due this week. He'd just go to the library and find history articles on Bulbapedia.

...

Weirdly, he didn't find anything on the internet, though at least he was in a library, so surely the books had something. There could only be so many books about The Darkest Day, surely.

...The Legendary Hero, Zacian Lore, Eternatus and Dynamax, Zamazenta Lore, Local Slugma Melts Replicas Of Old Sword and Shield... Nope. All of them were about the exact same event. Guess he'd go with that.

Unless... It's another book, though it's a certainty different one... about Jordan, who used to come to this school in the early to mid 1960s. He left and pretty quickly became a member of the new Prime Minister's team in early 1968, and then would be credited with the events of April.

This was his autobiography, literally posted from his diary entries. Released a few months after his high profile assassination. Certainly worth studying, it would be quite a bit different to the history event everyone else was going to be working on. He'd start reading it now.

'June 1966 is definitely a time. Finally done with school, it was maybe the best time of my life. There were so many people from different backgrounds, but we all got along, at least the eight of us did. I can only imagine what it would look like if we could get the regions we're from to get along.

Here in Galar we've of course got the same huge issues with Team Rocket that everyone else does, but if we worked together for 5 minutes they would probably be gone. No more looking over your shoulder for the prick in a hat, or wondering where your next meal would come from either.

The problem is, none of that would ever happen. Galar's PM would rather willingly aim a nuclear warhead at his nuts than entertain the idea of talking with Kanto, and the relationship with the other regions isn't much better. Looks like the only people that ever win are the undertakers.

There's a new political party nobody's heard of hoping to put all of our issues aside for the betterment of society, but everyone seems to know they aren't going to get anywhere fast. Especially not when it would cost the establishment so much money, the newspapers make too much money from their fear-mongering clickbait around the perceived 'other'.

I'll have to try. It'll cost me everything to do so, my dad's a personal friend of the current PM so going against him would definitely get me disowned. Though if my skills can deliver him an election win he might be willing to go for our idea of a union.

As Jinen always said to us: One holds no power on their own, but people together have the power to change the world.

I just hope we can do it for the better."

He'd have to borrow this one. It was his best chance at getting a decent presentation out.