Xiac Kanoshi
Viridian City
Pokemon School
I sat quietly as everybody got their comments in on the "hot head"'s behaviour. Originally, I had commented in order to avoid anyone else poking their noses in and starting something – this didn't seem so.
The "hot head" replied in retaliation, giving his opinion on the whole matter. This boy spoke of how dangerous it could be out there and how one thing would definitely go wrong. He criticised the Master and repeated many expletives. I sighed, knowing that he was going to be a handful throughout this journey... Maybe I could help him with calming down a bit? I thought about the probability of that actually working, and him allowing me to aid him, but the odds were against me. He seemed scared – as much as he acted the tough guy, he seemed to be afraid of the world out there. Either that, or he might genuinely not care – just trying to scare the members of our group. He walked off before saying something, with the word "damn" emphasised, to end his rant – I was right, he would be a handful.
Master Max then suddenly broke out into a speech; speaking about a girl in which he had searched for nine years ago seemed to have affected him greatly, almost as if it had been eating away at him for most of his life. I sympathised with him – living with something like that must take its toll on a person.
"Each of you have been selected because of a quality you possess, a quality that will be needed to help you on this journey; but you'll need more than that to get through this. You will need to work as a team, the most important thing you will do on this journey is hopefully learn to put aside all those petty differences and embrace what unique gifts each of you have to offer. Your decisions will affect not only you, but every young trainer who dreams of being able to start a journey." I thought hard about what he said – acknowledging every word. He was right – from here on out determined whether or not young people, like us, would be able to travel and embrace the Pokemon world as a Trainer. I nodded, as did Slick – accepting the Defensive Master's words.
Soon after he was done speaking, Master Max had vacated the room as an older teacher, Master Yin, beckoned him away. Not long after they had both disappeared around the corner, Master Yin had made his way into the Dining Hall. He approached me and, coincidentally, I was sat fairly close to a female's proximity – a Shiny Charmander sitting on her lap.
"Excuse me young Master Xiac and young Master Shay, I have a message of great importance for you. Master Max has requested that you and the team get ready to go on his signal. I'm not sure of what that is, but he said you would hear it. You are to take the team out the back doors of the building and make your way to Route Two. Once on Route Two, head north to the edge of Viridian Forest. Secure a camp site and wait for Master Max's arrival. Oh, and you're to do this with the utmost stealth. No one can see you or your group leave this building," he explained thoroughly. I furrowed my eyebrows, taking this all in – I would need to remember this if we were to succeed in this task. This would seem to be the first team-based objective that we had to complete and, because he specifically asked the female (in which I presumed to be Shay) and I to carry this out, the two of us seemed to be in-charge of the others. I didn't want us to fail – we needed to show that we could work together.
I looked at Shay –
this was going to be my most difficult challenge. The huge flaw within my design was that I couldn't speak to women. I'm fine when addressing a group of male and females, or mentioning a girl in a discussion, but a single woman, or a group with nothing but, were a challenge for me. My face flushed bright red as I realised that I would not be able to say a word to this person – a discussion on how we would do this was impossible. I quickly turned away from her.
"Well young masters, good luck on your journey. Before I say goodbye I have snuck each of you a parting gift. Don't tell Master Max," he said, then handing each of us a Potion. I nodded at him to show my gratefulness – then he was gone. I placed the item in my bag.
I sat there, thinking to myself on how I would possibly navigate the group outside. Slick was quiet, as usual, tending to his headache. Patting his head, hoping to soothe his pain, I pondered on how I would address the party. A full-out explanation of the plan? Seemed appropriate.
I placed Slick on my head, his belly resting on my hair and his hands holding onto my temples, I stood in front of one of the tables.
"Okay everybody, can I have your attention?” I asked calmly, raising my voice so that everybody could hear me. As soon as I saw every member of our party face me I coughed to clear my throat. "Master Yin came in here not too long ago with a message from the Defensive Master Max. The beautiful lady, Shay,” I pointed my finger in her direction in order for the party to know who I was talking about, "and I have been given the responsibility to get our little team here out and on our way. For some reason, we are to exit through the back doors and to ensure that we are not seen. We were not informed why, but there is most likely something going on at the front of the school that may affect us and our journey. Now, when a 'signal', which I'm not sure what it is, goes off, we need to move out through the back doors and avoid ourselves from being seen. When we get far enough from the building, the two of us will explain the next part of our plan." I looked around, scanning the faces of the group for any sign of confusion. "Do we all understand?" I asked.
Suddenly, a group of people began to scream outside. Faintly, I heard a familiar voice cry out "Save yourself! Rayquaza has come for us!" from the same location and a broad smile came across my face.
"Okay, that's the signal!" I informed the group, heading to the back doors and opening them fully. "Let's get a move on people," I stated, ushering the group through the doorway. I was hoping that Shay would get ahead of the group, in order to lead them away from the school and towards the direction of Route 2; of course, I couldn't actually ask her to do this with my inability to speak with women – I was hoping that she'd realise the idea and take control from the front.