After spending the night and completing his morning routine with Wicke, Jason ate breakfast with Ellaine, Bianca, Seren, and Skyler before it was time for him and Lillie to depart.
"Take care, you two. And don't be afraid to drop by and visit when you have free time or on weekends," Ellaine expressed, standing confidently with her hands on her hips.
"Don't be in too much of a hurry to graduate. There's more to gain at places like the Pokémon School than just knowledge," Bianca advised, beaming supportively.
"I'll be on call if you or your Pokémon need a medical check-up," Skyler stated, winking playfully.
"Keep a room open for me if I decide to visit..." Seren droned cooly, her usually impassive expression tinged with a hint of melancholy. Maeve and Nanahoshil had been assigned to Jason's and Lillie's security detail. With the four of them gone, the only person she was especially close to on the beach was Bianca.
"That shouldn't be an issue. Just be sure to inform us well in advance so your visit doesn't conflict with our schedule," Lillie responded, precluding Jason's impulse to step forward and console the blue-haired Professor's Assistant.
With everyone's good-byes tentatively completed, Jason suddenly found five pairs of eyes focused on him. He had already bid each of the women individual farewells in the days leading up to his and Lillie's departure, so while doing his best not to choke or tear up, he smiled and affirmed, "We'll be sure to drop by often. Until then, please, take care of yourselves."
"We'll be certain to do the same on our end~" Lillie chimed. Then, before Jason could delay their departure with additional farewells, she borrowed a page from Korrina by grabbing his hand and pulling him toward a sleek, almost teardrop-shaped twin-turbine aircraft. Jason compulsively glanced back at the four women on the edge of the landing pad, but when he saw all but Seren smiling as they waved, he allowed himself to be pulled along without resistance...
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'This is infinitely better than a Flying Taxi...' Jason thought, glancing out the aircraft's curved window as it sped above the sea at a surprisingly low altitude. Electric-powered planes in his previous world had an exceedingly short range. But with power cells provided by the Devon Corporation, the small, two-passenger plane ferrying him and Lillie to their destination had a range of 1,500km.
"Shall I perform a loop around the island to allow the two of you to get a grasp of its layout...?" questioned the elderly, well-dressed, mustachioed man serving as Jason's and Lillie's pilot. He certainly wasn't dressed like one, but that was to be expected considering his actual station as Lillie's personally assigned Butler, Hobbes.
"Oh? If it won't delay our arrival by too much, I would personally like to see Treasure Island and the Pokémon School," Lillie answered, her green eyes sparkling as she noted, "According to the Melemele Island Pokémon Encyclopedia, there are as many as eighty-six species of Pokémon on the island, alongside 9,132 species of flora."
"If the Young Lady wishes, we will naturally perform a flyover. But I'm afraid we cannot get too close, as the island itself is an Alolan heritage site. Unless you're a First-Class Pokémon Ranger or receive permission from the Melemele Island Kahuna, it is generally not permitted for people to visit Treasure Island," Hobbes explained, altering the aircraft's heading as an island dominated by emerald-green mountains gradually came into view.
"Then, please get us as close as we're permitted without violating any of Melemele Island's local ordinances," Lillie stated with poise, reining in her excitement. She was excited by the prospect that she and Jason now had much greater freedom than before, but true freedom came after they both graduated and became Trainers. Then they could receive permission from Melemele Island's Kahuna to visit Treasure Island directly...
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At Lillie's behest, Hobbes flew her and Jason over Treasure Island, a small, uninhabited island with alabaster-white cliffs encircling nearly its entire perimeter, a single large island at its center, and lush forests that covered all but its single crescent-shaped beach. They were too high up to see any Pokémon, but it was still quite the view.
Following the brief detour to Treasure Island, Hobbes piloted the plane toward the nearby Melemele Island and its densely populated southern coast. More than 90% of the population was gathered in a long stretch of highly urbanized beachfront, colloquially known as Hau'oli City—the Alola Region's foremost tourist destination. The remaining ten percent, most of whom were Alolan natives, lived in small towns and villages of only a few dozen to hundreds of people—separated by wild Pokémon preserves and habitats.
"And here is the school the two of you will be attending two weeks from now~" Hobbes hummed, slowing the aircraft and causing its nose to dip as the turbines adorning its thin but durable wings rotated and allowed it hover in place. Fortunately, the seats within the compact but comfortable cockpit rotated up to thirty degrees on a gyroscopic hinge, allowing Jason and Lillie to look out the curved windows without feeling like they were on the verge of falling toward the nose.
"It feels much bigger in person..." Jason noted. He and Lillie had reviewed a campus brochure and taken a video tour to get a feel for what they were in for, but witnessing the campus in person made it clear they wouldn't be attending just any Pokémon School. Rather than a place of learning, it was more like a resort.
For privacy and to deter wild Pokémon, the entire 27-hectare campus was encircled by a line of similarly sized, expertly trimmed trees that produced an aroma that kept them at bay. There were two enormous structures that resembled barns, a 500m-long dirt track used for practicing riding on Ride Pokémon, an artificial river that fed into a large pond, two regulation-sized battlefields, and, most prominently, a massive tree next to a linked cluster of off-white, yellow-domed, cylindrically-shaped buildings. Said buildings were only two to five stories tall, but that was to facilitate Pokémon of all shapes and sizes.
"Look, Jason! There are structures in the tree that look like tree houses! We have to investigate them...!" Lillie intonated excitedly, her nose nearly glued to the window. There was also a large slide that circled the central building from its top level, which, according to the brochure, was 415.8m in length. She had to go down it at least once.
"Look at the far side of the river. Those are Alola Executor, aren't they...?" Jason observed, referring to a group of thirteen Pokémon that resembled living palm trees—with elongated necks, spheroidal torsos, thick legs, and long tails resembling palm offshoots. He didn't know how tall those below were, but he knew they averaged 10.9m, with the tallest recorded topping out at 23.8m without Dyna- or Gigantamaxing.
"They are! And just look at how long their necks are~!" Lillie confirmed, her excitement spreading through the cockpit like an infectious warmth. She was still only able to interact with a select handful of Pokémon, but her love for them as a whole was clear to see.
'I think I understand what Bianca meant when she said there's more for us to gain here than knowledge...' Jason mused, his gaze turning to Lillie with a smile. Lillie had befriended many people after their initial meeting, but she had yet to form any truly organic friendships. Everyone she met was either affiliated with the Aether Foundation, an influential figure in the Pokémon League, or a member of high society. Now, for the first time in her life, she had the opportunity to form bonds that weren't influenced by her mother or private circumstances.
'Come to think of it, this will be my first time interacting and competing with people who aren't Gym Leaders or world-class Pokémon Trainers...' Jason realized. Up until that point, his and Ren's win-loss ratio was an oppressive 4-95. They had lost very nearly every battle they had taken part in. Now that they would be encountering other aspiring Trainers, he and Ren might finally be able to turn things around. They might even be able to dominate...
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Following their aerial overview of the Pokémon School campus, Jason got his first view of where he and Lillie would be living for the duration of their enrollment—a symmetrical, chateau-style mansion with white walls, blue-tinted glass windows that adorned most of the building's exterior, dormer windows protruding from a pale teal roof lined with solar panels, wrapping balconies, and looping driveway with a luxurious domed water fountain on the front lawn.
As the plane flew over the mansion, Jason's brows perked to see an in-ground, regulation-sized battlefield bordered by spire-shaped spruces, doubling as their landing pad. He also learned that the mansion had a U-shape, with the negative space populated by a playground.
"This brings back so many memories..." Lillie remarked, her expression and tone nostalgic.
"You've been here before...?" Jason asked. He knew Lillie had a residence near the Pokémon School from the anime, but he hadn't actively watched the series. It mostly played on a second monitor while he edited videos or responded to emails. And as he hadn't been all that interested in the plot due to it deviating tremendously from the games, he really only recalled a few tidbits from the last of Sun and Moon's three seasons, specifically the episodes pertaining to the Manalo Conference.
"That's correct. Before my father's disappearance into an Ultra Wormhole, my family lived here together..." Lillie revealed, exhaling nostalgically from her nose before stating, "To be perfectly honest, I don't recall much from that time. I was only five and a half when my mother took my brother and me to dwell at the Aether Paradise. It was around then that I experienced the events that resulted in my Poképhobia, causing most of my memories from before then to become muddled..."
'I seriously need to give Faba a punch at some point...' Jason decided, his brows briefly creasing before he grabbed Lillie's right hand, prompting her to meet his gaze as he smiled and said, "From now on, we'll make as many happy memories as we're able...together and with our Pokémon..."
"Nothing would make me happier," Lillie responded, using the fact that the aircraft had landed to unfasten her seatbelt, lean over the cupholders and armrests separating them, and kiss Jason on the cheek.
"Now, let's head inside. I shall personally give you a tour of the grounds before showing you to our shared bedroom and love nest~" Lillie teased, poking her tongue out. Jason's cheeks warmed, but instead of becoming flustered, his expression softened into a loving, deeply appreciative smile. His many concerns hadn't suddenly disappeared. But at that moment, he felt that the only thing that mattered was the smile of the girl seated next to him...
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crklecrkle
fwooooooom
Around the same time that Lillie was giving Jason a tour of their new home, a section of space near the shore of Treasure Island began to sink inward on itself—like a ball of rainbow-hued plasma appearing out of thin air. As it stabilized, a stretched corridor of vibrant rainbow-hue light was formed, followed by a group of men and women in mostly black uniforms, flat caps, and dark grey boots and gloves emerging.
Following behind the more than twenty people that had emerged before him, a voluptuous and athletic woman with long, crimson-streaked black hair emerged wearing a far more revealing version of the same outfit. Her variant left her shoulders, arms, abdomen, and lower back exposed, but it had the same rainbow-hued R on the chest as the others present.
"Alright. According to The Collector, Tapu Lele appears here regularly to play pranks on and battle the local Pokémon. We only have so much time before the local authorities notice we're here, so move quickly and inform me the moment you encounter it," commanded the woman, removing one of gold-hued Poké Balls from her eight-segmented, diamond-pattern belt before releasing what was inside—a colossal serpentine creature covered in silver scales and inverted, saw-tooth-like spines that was large enough to coil around and strangle an Onix. More notably, it wasn't a creature that even the most scholarly Professor in the Pokémon world would have been able to identify...
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