I managed to complete the interview phase of my Viridian Forest project, so now it was time for me to go through all articles and any information I could find on the web and in books. This was going to take a few months since there was a lot of information to look through.
Once I was done with that step I was going to look through my super-library to corroborate my findings since I wanted my list(s) to be as accurate as possible.
I hoped that I would be done with the project by the start of the sixth term. I was then going to hand the product of my hard work to Mr. Cameron so that it could go through the verification process as project No.1 had done.
Besides going to class, I naturally did my best to keep up with my other activities like training my Pokemon or myself as well while doing my research, so my schedule was pretty packed.
Still, it was fulfilling, especially whenever some good news appeared like it did on Palkiday of the first week of the fifth term. That day during our training session Kun/Azuraid's Strength reached C, after being stimulated under Luna/Clefable's Gravity.
I was pretty sure if not for her our progress would be much slower despite all the resources I was investing, so I was really thankful to her. Still, I decided that it would be better if Tatsumaki/Kadabra learned Gravity from Luna.
That way they could work together to increase the gravity even more, or they could take turns using Gravity and use that time to do something else. This would be especially good for Luna since she could use the freed time to train her other moves.
Anyway, just like Hashirama/Venusaur, Kun now only had to increase one more parameter to C to reach the (high) silver stage, and that was obviously not all the good news.
By the end of the first month, the personal training I did with my "newly" unlocked short-range teleportation had borne fruit. I managed to increase the teleportation range from 20 to 50 meters, which was pretty good for just 5 months of training.
I mean I managed to more than double the previous range, and I could have probably exceeded that if not for that point being something like a hurdle.
I could feel that my rate of improvement had slowed drastically after I reached the 50-meter range, so I was sure that any further improvement was going to take much longer than before.
My current theory was that this reduction in progress speed was because the ability itself was a short-range one, so any increase to the range after a certain point was going to become harder and harder.
Still, that was no problem, at least not for now. I was planning to keep working on the range until I reached 60 meters, after which I would switch my focus to the number of possible teleportations.
At the moment it was at 20, which was an improvement compared to the previous 15, but my goal was to raise that number to 50 once I started to focus on that aspect.
The second month started out with some good news as well. During our first weapon session, Mr. Burns declared that I was good enough to try my hand at fighting wild Pokemon using my swords.
I was not sure if that had something to do with the fact that I had begun being able to reliably win against the sword and ax users at the Knight Academy, but that might have been one of the determining factors.
While I was still having a hard time against the spear, halberd, and naginata users, that was no reason to feel down since I ended up getting some praise from Mr. Burns regardless of the difficulties I was having against them.
So, during our next session two weeks later we went outside Rota City and Mr. Burns led me into the forest. He seemed to know where we were going since there was no hesitation in his steps at all, so I obediently followed behind him.
"You'll use blunt metal swords instead of wooden ones for these sessions since they are tougher, and will allow you to get the correct feel during your fights," he said before handing a pair of blunted ranger swords to me.
We stopped so that could briefly test the swords, so I waved them around for a bit before nodding to myself. They were just slightly heavier than the hardwood ones I used during training, but the difference was not big enough to cause a flaw in my swordplay. I put the swords away and we resumed walking.
"I've agreed with quite a few wild Pokemon for them to fight against you, and the only restriction I set for them was to not go for the kill. So, they won't go for your throat or try to kill you in case they take you down.
Other than that the fight is practically a free for all. Oh, and while they won't use any long-range attacks regular moves are allowed. Now, I'll be upfront with you and tell you that once you've reached a certain point the long-range restriction will be lifted as well," Mr. Burns said while leading the way.
"No problem," I agreed, before asking something rather important, at least in my opinion. "Am I allowed to freely use my aura during these fights?"
I straight up called them fights instead of spars since they were much closer to fights with restrictions than sparring matches.
"Yes, you are free to use any of your aura abilities, whether it be internal or external aura manipulation. You may even use emotion inducement or any other more subtle aura ability.
However, please refrain from using any of your active psychic abilities no matter how subtle or slight your usage may be," he replied and I momentarily paused when he mentioned my psychic abilities before resuming my stride.
I had known, or rather strongly believed, that the academy staff, at least the senior staff, knew about my psychic prowess, and I honestly had no problem with that fact.
However, I had not expected to be confronted with the proof of my assumption so suddenly, especially not in such a blase manner. I mean with the tone he had when Mr. Burns said that, he might as well have been talking about the weather. That was how nonchalant he sounded when he "exposed" one of my "secrets".
The first opponent he led me to was actually a Scyther. I threw Mr. Burns an unbelieving look when I saw the Scyther. I mean I did not have to worry about being beheaded since it won't aim for my throat, and I did not mind getting any cuts.
However, looking at those gleaming scythes it has for arms, there was a real risk for me to lose a limb during our confrontation if I got careless or made a mistake, which was something I really did not want to experience. I liked my limbs where they were, thank you very much.
Mr. Burns seemed to have felt my misgivings, he called out a Gardevior before he addressed me.
"Don't worry about being hurt, Fayette here is quite adept at healing. Mending wounds is no problem for her at all, and she even has experience in reattaching limbs, so you can fight as much as you want.
As long as you're not dead Fayette will be able to patch you up just fine," said in a reassuring voice and his Gardevior said "leave it to me" with a bright smile.
At that moment I felt as if a shadow covered Mr. Burns's face and I could have sworn that I heard evil cackling in the background, but that was not possible since Mr. Burns was neither evil nor a sadist, right? Right?
Still, jokes aside, I really felt a bit calmer with that reassurance even if I was still a bit uncomfortable with the possibility of losing a limb. I knew that the healing function of Utopia would perfectly take care of any faults or omissions that could happen during the re-attachment as long as Gardevior put the limb back in its place.
So, I did not have to worry about something like sequelae or any hidden injuries. Yet, that did not help all that much against the nervousness. Still, I steeled my nerves and nodded toward Mr. Burns.
This was not something that should stop me from participating in the training, and it was better to first experience it here in a semi-controlled setting than to experience it out in the field.
That did not mean that I would willingly allow myself to lose a limb, but the thought helped me become calm, or rather calmer. Now, that I was back in the game I studied the Scyther that had been simply watching us while our byplay happened.
Scyther did not bother hiding its strength/aura, so I could determine that it was at the (mid) silver stage without having to check its status. I did not know what Mr. Burns offered Scyther for his help, but I offered him my thanks regardless of that. It waved me off and once I pulled out my blunt swords, our fight began.
We clashed with each other, sword against scythe. We exchanged slash after slash, and each of us managed to parry each other's attacks. We were pretty evenly matched and after some more clashes between us, Scyther decided to up its game.
I noticed that it used Agility, Sword Dance, and Focus Energy in quick succession, so I began to use my internal aura manipulation to boost my strength, speed, and reaction time to match it.
This led to our next few clashes being evenly matched as well, so Scyther used Fury Cutter during his attacks, so I made use of my second thought stream to coat my ranger swords in aura to make sure they could hold against Scyther's Fury Cutter.
The second thought stream was a passive ability of mine, so making use of it was not against Mr. Burns's request. I was pretty sure that I could have won the battle if I had also used my psychic abilities, but since I couldn't Scyther began to overpower me with its Fury Cutter.
I deflected its latest strike but it followed that up with a Wing Attack, which I was forced to block. Scyther used that chance to deliver a regular slash that managed to deliver a cut on my leg.
I was bleeding from the gash, but I still fought on. Nonetheless, the gash did slow me down a bit, which Scyther capitalized on to wear me down. It succeeded in delivering another cut. This time a rather serious gash on my right arm, which ultimately led to my loss.
While I managed to cause Scyther quite some damage, which would have been more serious if I had sharp swords instead of blunt ones, I still lost. I understood that I was given blunt swords to make the most of the opportunity and to prolong the fights, especially when I fought against those that did not have sword/scythe arms.
I knew I could have definitely won that fight if I went all out, but I chose to graciously accept my defeat. No one liked sore losers after all. Mr. Burns' Gardevior healed my wounds and those of the Scyther as well, and Mr. Burns led me to my second fight, which was against a (mid) silver stage Raticate.
I won that one and after Gardevior healed the few bite wounds I had suffered, we returned to the academy. Mr. Burns told me I did a good job, before adding that we were going out once more during our next session in two weeks.
The next two sessions were pretty interesting as well and I got to face different Pokemon with my swords, like an Arbok that actually broke one of my arms with a perfectly timed Iron Tail.
On the Knight Academy front, I managed to handle the spear, halberd, and naginata users most of the time by the time for our session at the start of the fourth and last month of the fifth term. I felt that this was good progress, and I had to admit that facing the wild Pokemon had helped a lot with that.
Ms. Striker seemed to agree with me on that since she informed me that I would spar against the third years instead of the second years during the sixth and final term.
On Giratiday, 15.12.2180, two and a half weeks before the end of the fifth term, dad turned 31. It was his birthday, and we went out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate it. We considered inviting the Fields as well, but dad wanted to keep the celebration between us, so we didn't.
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