My 2nd day at ANHS begins today and my path to becoming a trainer has begun. Waking up the first thing I noticed was my new partner Honedge sleeping while hovering. You could say Honedge's sleeping is quite cute.
I decided to get my morning routine done before going to school.
It's just some calisthenics, followed up with a shower and then I dress up and make breakfast.
The school uniform consists of a red jacket, white dress shirt, green pants, burgundy tie and a brown belt that has built in slots for up to 6 Pokéballs.
I finish eating and decide to return Honedge into the Pokéball.
Now to put the Pokéball into one of the slots and time to move on ahead.
Despite it being the 2nd day to school, most people seem to be walking in groups to school, although I definitely wasn't the only person that was going to school by myself.
I made it to class and most people were there and so was my seatmate Horikita, who was reading a book.
Although I was trying to be silent when getting myself seated, Horikita noticed.
"Good morning, Ayanokouji-kun."
"Good morning, Horikita."
Class would soon start when a teacher entered the class.
~Pokémon of the Elite~
"Today's topic will be about how your new partner Pokémon can become stronger.
First off, Pokémon can get stronger from battles against other Pokémon. There are other methods, but you're mostly going to get your Pokémon stronger from either battles or the 2nd best option, capturing Pokémon. Capturing Pokémon would seem like the better option on paper, but you have to keep in mind that you don't have an endless supply of Pokéballs to chuck away, so it's you, the trainer, who needs to actively decide on which to do when encountering a Pokémon."
This information is all new and well but there is a very big question that hasn't been answered.
Hirata raised his hand.
"Yes, is there something you don't understand, HIrata-kun?" asked the teacher. The teacher's tone of voice seemed like he was expecting to be asked a question.
"No, everything is clear, our Pokémon can get stronger from fighting other Pokémon, but how do we even encounter other Pokémon?"
"Oh, I forgot to explain, basically, if you wish to encounter Pokémon, then there's a safari zone, which is the only place where you can encounter Pokémon. Needless to mention, if you duel another trainer, then you'd need to have that match in an arena."
"Thank you for the answer, sensei," said Hirata.
Safari zone huh, I didn't see anything safari like when I walked through campus yesterday, but I could've missed it. I guess an investigation is in order after class.
The class got livelier for a second, about the discovery of this place called the safari zone, but the teacher got our attention yet again.
He coughed very loudly.
"There's no need to make plans to go to the safari zone, as we will be going there right now. If Hirata-kun never asked the question about Pokémon getting stronger, then the whole class would've been expelled."
The room was enveloped in silence until someone brave or I'd rather say foolish would say something?
"EXPELLED? WE JUST GOT HERE!?" said Ike.
"YEAH, YEAH! WHAT HE SAID!" chanted some girls.
"You're not expelled yet so act like someone who's a student of ANHS, let's get moving to the safari zone." said the teacher nonchalantly.
Some students were still in their seats processing the information, including myself. I more or less understand my modus operandi for Pokémon related classes, as earlier, we had some regular classes like Biology and Physics, yet the teachers let us slack off.
I decided to stand up and start following the teacher.
"You coming, Horikita?"
She doesn't say a word and just stands up and goes on ahead.
~Pokémon of the Elite~
We're approaching the one sided glass area, which I believe covers upwards of half of the million square meter campus.
"Alright Class 1-D, you've arrived, you've done your job Stone Steven-sensei.." said Chabashira-sensei.
I guess the important bits of Pokémon will always involve our homeroom teacher.
Stone-sensei just nodded and left.
"Alright, now that you're here you'll be given your first task. You have to either beat an encountered Pokémon or capture it. A single one will be fine. You cannot run away from battle, so if you come back with a fainted Pokémon, you will come back again and again and again and again, until you finish this task, the deadline is today. The Pokémon Center is near the registration part of the Safari Zone, any questions?"
This time a different student raised their hand, I believe their name was Kushida.
"Yes, Kushida-san?"
"What is a Pokémon Center for?"
"Basically, it acts as a hospital for Pokémon in some sort of way, you heal your Pokémon there. Let's say it's the best way to heal your Pokémon if it faints. Just go to the nurse and she'll take care of the rest."
"If there are no more questions, I will give you 5 Pokéballs each and you'll be on your way. These Pokéballs are usually small in size before being used, so click on the center button and they'll be normal sized, ready to be used to capture a Pokémon. Usually there's an entry fee to go to the safari zone, but since this is part of the curriculum, it's free for today. The Pokéwatch on your wrist will give me the information needed to know, if you've completed the task or not."
A/N: Tracking software overpowered, there's no way Chabashira would wait hours for some of the worst off students to finish the task.
We line up and then register ourselves using our Student ID. I haven't yet linked it with my Pokéwatch, which is something I'll do tonight.
After I finished registering I was led off to a huge door and when it opened, my eyes couldn't do anything but wander around. The environment here is so pleasing to the eye and I can't really explain it with words. I didn't expect this to be what would be covered by the one sided glass walls, but I am not disappointed, not one bit. It's a lush forest area with lots of trees, it's a lot different than it is outside, not a sakura tree in sight. Mostly spruces and pines, leaves still on the ground, reminding me of autumn, even though it's spring.
When entering the zone, my Pokéwatch vibrated and AR-technology said that I've arrived in Safari Zone: Area 1 - Serene Forest.
"Now that everyone has arrived, go to the wild area and defeat or capture a Pokémon. The choice is yours." says Chabashira-sensei.
"Just go towards a Pokémon and throw your Pokémon and engage in battle, use your Pokéwatch to find out what moves your Pokémon has. That will be all for the explanation and this task will commence in...
3, 2, 1. You may approach the wild area now."
Some are frantically running towards the wild area. I decided there's no rush and just walked.
The wild area is an open area, where I can already see an abundance of Pokémon. There's a lot of bug-like Pokémon and birds. I guess this could be considered the starting area and that's why there aren't any more stronger looking Pokémon. Although, my observation may be proven wrong in the future.
I can see some of the more clever students going for the bug-type Pokémon. The only exception who's looking for something more "powerful" would be Kouenji.
"These pests are not worth the effort." says Kouenji while looking at his reflection.
I wanna attempt to capture a Pokémon, but it's hard to decide who or what to capture from the options I have, so I might as well catch as many as I can with the 5 Pokéballs I have. I decided that I should first approach a bug-type to get a feel on how easy it is to capture a Pokémon. We haven't been given any advice on how to approach this task so I'll first try and just throw a Pokéball at one.
"Honedge, can't say I choose you, since I have no choice, but go?"
Honedge appears and is rather happy to be out of the Pokéball.
As soon as I threw out Honedge, my Pokéwatch showed me the choice of moves I have.
Those moves would be "Tackle" and "Shadow Sneak."
I wanted to see what Pokémon was ahead of me, so I opened up my Pokédex and scanned it using the camera feature.
Caterpie, huh.
By the Pokédex description it doesn't seem to be strong, but I'll attempt to capture it anyway.
I decided to just chuck a Pokéball at it.
It would shake once from side to side, twice, thrice and then it would...
snap out of it.
One of my 5 Pokéballs would seem to be wasted now, but it was a good experiment. I have no clue, if it was close or not, but I would not waste anymore, since I do want to capture some Pokémon, it could even serve as practice.
Let's try method B.
"Alright, Honedge, use Shadow Sneak on Caterpie."
Honedge's shadow would follow the ground until it's behind the Caterpie.
It would strike it from behind and the Caterpie would be struck away from its placement.
Caterpie didn't take my Pokémons actions in a friendly way and would retaliate with some sort of string attack.
Honedge seems to be covered in the strings like a cocoon.
"Honedge, use Shadow Sneak and while Caterpie tanks the attack, break free from the strings and then go for a Tackle."
Honedge's shadow is yet again going for Caterpie and it somehow strucks the Bug-type Pokémon again.
Honedge would struggle and struggle, until he eventually broke free of the strings, using his blade. He now was going through the air and meeting the Caterpie, who was struck by Shadow Sneak from behind, head on.
"Do it, Honedge."
Honedge would fly through the air and gather speed as it would inevitably collide with the Caterpie.
They would make an impact and Caterpie would be sent flying towards a tree.
"Honedge, don't follow up with another tackle, I think that will be enough."
Call it intuition, but I don't believe another tackle is in order.
Caterpie would not get back up and have spirals on his eyes.
I'm not sure if the Pokémon is dead, but it's not moving, so maybe it will not be able to fight back the phenomenon known as a Pokéball.
I chuck the Pokéball at it, it would go from side to side once, twice, thrice and it would stop and flash white for a moment.
My Pokéwatch AR-screen would confirm that I have captured Caterpie.
I would go and retrieve my new captured Pokémon, which is in the Pokéball under the tree.
My Honedge would appear next to me and seems to be wanting praise.
"You did alright, I guess."
With no prior experience in seeing Honedge in action, I can't say he did better than average. He performed as he should.
After gathering Caterpie, I would move on to observe my next target, while I did that, I could say most were still struggling with the task.
I can see Yamauchi for example, in despair, as he looks at his 5 broken Pokéballs.
One of the few who have completed the task, would be Hirata, but he's still here and he's helping some of our classmates in completing the task, Kushida would be doing the same.
'I wonder if we'll ever formally introduce ourselves to each other.'
I need to get my mind straight and focus on the task, I already have found my next target, I mean my soon to be next capture.
My next target would be a bird-Pokémon. I see a small bird that has a bright orange head, I guess I'll attempt to catch it.
Since I already have Honedge out, I just would continue using him. I was going to maybe try to use Caterpie as well and tag team the bird, but Caterpie would seem to be out of commission for this time. Makes sense, considering it was passed out.
I would use my Pokédex's camera yet again to snap a picture of the Pokémon.
So this one's called Fletchling.
"Honedge, use Shadow Sneak on Fletchling and follow it up with a Tackle."
Honedge's shadow would yet again be approaching the opponent, but this time...
"It had no effect?"
I decided to check the Pokédex entry for Fletchling. It says it's a Normal/Flying type.
Earlier I saw that the move Shadow Sneak was Ghost-typed.
Is it because ghosts are usually depicted to not be able to affect humans that it had no effect?
I can't make any conclusions yet, but this mistake would cause my Honedge to be struck by a gust of wind from Fletchling.
Honedge would be struck back almost at me, so I decided to dodge the impact, because I won't get myself hurt over something as pointless as this.
Honedge would get back up but you can tell that he's feeling the damage of the last battle?
That would make sense, but I need you to hold on a little bit longer.
I will need to get a little creative.
"Honedge, use Shadow Sneak, but this time, switch places with your shadow and use Tackle."
Honedge would yet again extend his shadow until it crept up behind Fletchling, this time instead of striking Fletchling from behind, the shadow would be replaced by Honedge himself.
The Fletchling would be struck by surprise as it's sending backwards in the air.
"Honedge, don't stop the momentum and hit it with another tackle from above and shove Fletchling to the ground."
Honedge would follow the Fletchling in the air and would blink above it and strike it with another Tackle.
However after that Tackle. it would seem that instead of it being a Tackle, it was a body slam, because Honedge would faint along with Fletchling.
"Your job has been accomplished." I said nonchalantly as I returned Honedge into the Pokéball.
Now, for the main task, I take another Pokéball out from my pocket.
I throw it at the Fletchling with a nice arc. It would go side to side once, twice, three times and blink. My Pokéwatch would yet again give me a notification that I've captured a new Pokémon. I'd go and retrieve my new Pokémon from the ground.
After gathering my new Pokémon I would discover that the sun is setting and I'm one of the last people here. I can see Chabashira-sensei far away with a file in her hand.
I decide to finally leave, because I have no more usable Pokémon left and who knows, maybe on a rainy day, these 2 Pokéballs will come in handy.
"I've finished my task, Chabashira-sensei." I said.
"I can tell, head to the Pokémon Center and that'll be it, is what I would normally say, but..."
"But?"
"The task was to capture only 1 Pokémon."
"You never said that we were limited to catching one though?"
"It looks like this year's class D is interesting." muttered Chabashira-sensei in a murmur.
I'll pretend I didn't hear the last part.
The Pokémon Center was a very convenient thing indeed, the nurse took my Pokéballs and would insert them in a recovery machine of some sort and they'd be revived and at full strength.
Best of all, it was all free and it would be free in the future, but only once a day, if you wanted to use it multiple times, then it would cost 300 private points per Pokémon, up to 1800 private points.
This day I would say, was quite eventful, I'd have 2 more Pokémon, but would they remain in the team? That would be known maybe by the end of the month perhaps.
The sun will have set and I will make my way back to the 1st year dorm.
It looks like most of my classmates are returning together from some sort of social outing, guess I took too long and missed out. That would not make a difference, but it seems like I've caught the attention of them.
"Hey, you."
I turn my back to the voice, which might've been directed at me.
The group seemed to be a mix of girls and boys. I can see Hirata, Kushida, but also, Ike, Yamauchi, Karuizawa, Matsushita and Shinohara.
"Excuse me, but do you mean me?"
"Yes, you. Sorry for calling you out, but you see, some of our class went to karaoke after class to get to know each other and since we're going to be classmates for the next 3 years, could you introduce yourself to us?"
I tried to come up with a cheesy introduction, but I decided against it. I think I know what my goal will be for the next 3 years.
I used to think, what is a normal adolescent boy's life like, but I don't really care for that anymore. My path in life was decided the moment I was born, but I'm beginning my rebel phase a bit late. For as long as I can, I will try to achieve my goal, that is...
"My name is Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. I don't have a lot of things I like nor dislike, but I have a goal or some may say a dream. I will become the Pokémon master."
The reactions were mixed, some didn't say a word, but Ike couldn't help not murmuring a "Heh, sure you will" under his breath or Karuizawa who was just holding her laugh behind her hand, but seemed to be letting bits slip by on purpose.
Hirata introduced everyone one by one until he finally introduced himself.
"I'm Hirata Yousuke, I like football and Pokémon, we'll be rivals in Pokémon you could say, Ayanokouji-kun. Nice to meet you."
I shook his hands, "Likewise."
"We wanted to visit this fancy cafe, want to join us?" asked Hirata.
"I'd rather not, it's getting late, enjoy yourselves though." I said as I turned my back to them and said farewell.
The shower and the bed was softer and comfier than usual I thought as I succumbed to my human needs of sleeping.
A/N:
HI!
I apologize for not posting a chapter last week, truth is, I got lazy. So I decided to write a bit more in this chapter as an apology, it isn't much, but it's honest work.
I hope you notice a bit more quality, as I wrote this in 2 days, so I could fix up some parts and make it more fleshed out.
I hope I made the battles understandable, there nothing special, but I felt I did it well enough.
As always, feedback is appreciated and
Until next time,
KojiEnthusiast