Achromatic

2: Assignment

Touya realized he was rambling and had said everything aloud. "—and, yeah. It's my favorite story."

Professor Juniper's eyes twinkled a bit more. She was just as fascinated as he was, it seemed. "Impressive! I've had a few people come in liking history, but their knowledge didn't extend as far as yours did."

Impressive echoed through his head.

"Touya, what kind of a Pokémon trainer would you be?" Professor Juniper asked. "As you know with the job, I'll be giving out the three elemental starters for Unova, and I'm sure you know how rare these three are. I need to know that they would be in good hands, of trainers that I could trust."

Touya had imagined, as a kid, what kind of Pokémon trainer he would be. Would he take on the Pokémon League challenge, like Touko had dreamed of as a child? Probably not. He didn't really know what kind of trainer he would want to be, or if he would even geta Pokémon. He loved Pokémon, but they could be expensive to care for, and their family could barely afford two.

After the minor geek-out with Professor Juniper, Touya had relaxed a bit, but now he was stiff again. "I—I'm not sure." He didn't know what kind of trainer he would be. He noticed the Professor nod and write something down on his paper. Shit. "I guess—it's just. I don't know what specific kind of trainer I'd be, but I know that I'd want to be the best for whatever Pokémon I got. Does—does that make sense?"

Professor Juniper nodded. "Alright, so. A masked burglar has broken into the lab, and you're the only one here at night. With whatever Pokémon you had, what would you do first? Would you A, battle the burglar, given he had a Pokémon, B, hide and call the authorities, or C, make sure the lab equipment is safe and secure before taking on the burglar?"

Oh. This was a strange interview question, but Touya supposed it was a possibility. Not particularly in Nuvema, but it was a possibility, nonetheless. What would he do? He would—he would probably hide. He was a bit of a coward, and he knew it. But he'd want to make sure that everything was safe from the burglar, wouldn't he. "If—if it's possible, I think I'd do a mixture of B and C."

The professor's eyebrow quirked up. "Explain, would you?"

"Well, I would try and make sure everything was safe, first. But I'd try and be quiet, because I—I don't want to alert the burglar? And then I'd find a way to call the authorities, and either hide or... Well, I guess all three."

She wrote a few more things down on his paper, circling something. "Thank you. Now, do you have any allergies, medications, or something of the like that I should be aware of?"

Touya gulped. He was expecting this question. He was expecting a lot of questions—not the burglar question, in particular—and he was expecting one of these to be there. It was nice to inform an employer of any particular allergy or medication, which even though it was illegal to take in account before hiring, allowed the employer to figure out a way to work with it. If Touya had an allergy to the natural pollen that grass-types gave off, then he wouldn't be working with a grass-type.

He pulled on his gloves, nervously. He had to tell her. He didn't want to lieand say nothing, because there was something, and why he always wore gloves. It would impede him if he had to work with his gloves off at any point. His parents, even Touko suggested that if Professor Juniper asked, that he should tell her.

But it was his secret to spill.

"I... Yes." Professor Juniper didn't work for the Pokémon League. She worked with them in assisting trainers by giving them League-sanctioned starters on this side of Unova, like her father did in the north, but she wasn't an official employee. "I'm a P.U.A."