Three days before Rayquaza's Ascent, in a brightly lit room, not all that secret to the rest of the world, 24 people not obscured by anything like cowls met to discuss important events that had happened over the year that was about to end.
"Alright, let us begin the annual global council." A middle-aged man said in a serious voice while letting his gaze sweep through the room. "I'm sure many of you want to be done with it and return to other things." He added in slight amusement causing many of the men and women present to chuckle.
"Let's begin with our younger generation. We all read the reports provided by the aura academies. So, aside from the things mentioned in those reports, do any of you have something that deserves a mention?" The middle-aged man that seemed to lead the meeting inquired.
The others looked around to see who was going to speak up first, or whether anyone would speak up at all. After a brief moment of silence, one of the females attending the meeting spoke up.
"Lucas, I can't speak for the rest of our eastern continent but as far as Kalos is concerned the only one that deserves an extra mention in my opinion is Korrina Gur.
Korrina is currently 14 and will graduate at the end of this academic year. While she is listed as a Tier 2 First-class in the reports, she is in truth a Tier 3 Third-class aura user.
She did not register her breakthrough because she did not want to get even more attention than she is already receiving. I respected her decision and kept the official reports to what she has shown on the surface.
The information on her four Pokemon is also not accurate. Her Lucario and Mienshao are already at the gold stage while her Machoke and Hawlucha are not too far off from reaching that stage as well. Korrina is undoubtedly the greatest genius of our Kalosian Branch in the last few centuries, and probably our Eastern Branch as well."
"Thank you, Angela. That is indeed a worthy achievement and I'm sure the others agree with me that your decision was the correct one. It is not often that one of the youngsters knows the value of discretion.
The new information shall be added in her file but only those with Elder-level or above shall be able to access the new information." The middle-aged man identified as Lucas said which was followed by supportive nods all around.
"Any more outliers from the eastern branch?" Lucas addressed the members that were stationed on the eastern continent. However, none of them spoke up.
"That's alright. So, any others from the other branches?" He questioned, hoping that some spoke up since that would mean that another great genius appeared.
A brief silence followed, where everyone curiously looked at each other wondering if humanity was lucky enough to get another great genius. When it seemed like no one was going to speak up another middle-aged man did speak up. If Mikail had been present he would have recognized this man as Mr. Cameron.
"Lucas, before I talk about my charge, I request that anything I mention if added to my charge's file is only accessible to those with the highest clearance grade." Mr. Cameron requested.
His action instantly piqued the interest of everyone else. They were wondering what kind of genius required such prudence.
"Arthur, are you sure that's really necessary?" Lucas wondered since this was the first time such a request had come up since he took his position as chief of the Aura Guardians 528 years ago.
"Yes, I trust everyone in this room, but if anything I mention gets added to the system I want it to be behind as many locks as possible." Arthur Cameron replied seriously implying that he was not going to budge on this one.
Seeing his seriousness Lucas asked for a vote regarding Arthur's request and the motion passed unanimously.
"I have no doubt all of you have read the report on the little genius that joined Aaron Aura Academy this year and jumped straight to the third year.
While he had been previously of interest more because of the high number of bonded Pokemon than his aura talent, that changed when he openly showed that he has reached Tier 2 Second-class.
Being a Tier 2 Second-class at 8-year-old is enough to qualify him as a genius at the top of the category, together with his Pokemon he is at least equal to that lass Korrina that Angela mentioned." Arthur mentioned, which got approving nods from everyone.
"Yes, but we all already know that much, and the information regarding little Mikail is already secured behind an elder-grade clearance upon your order. So, please tell us what has changed that made you raise a request for a clearance increase." Lucas urged him to get to the point.
"I personally met Mikail when he made use of the chance to receive a partner from the academy. I immediately noted a few interesting points and have been keeping an eye on him since then.
After his reveal during the annual excursion, I focused on him a bit more and at the beginning of this month, I decided to follow up on my observation. I sent out Alakazam to do a thorough check to confirm a few of my observations and follow up on them in case I was right.
It turns out that I was in fact correct and that the little guy was hiding even more than had expected." Arthur narrated but got interrupted by another council member.
"Oh, come on Arthur. Stop teasing us and tell us what you found out already. You've raised our curiosity and expectations to the roof already." The councilor complained and the others chuckled.
"Yuuto's impatience aside, I agree with him. Get to the point," Lucas requested.
"I was about to do so anyway," Arthur countered. "Anyway, Alakazam confirmed that Mikail was not only a Tier 2 Second-class Aura User but also a Tier 2 Second-class Psychic."
An excited murmur came from the others when he said that, but Arthur chose to ignore it and continued.
"I already had my suspicion that Mikail had psychic abilities even if I had not thought that they were that advanced. Mikail was doing his best to mask his psychic side, but Alakazam made sure that no one at the (low) platinum stage or below will be able to sense Mikail's psychic abilities as long as he does not actively use them in their proximity."
"An 8-year-old, dual Tier 2 Second-class Aura User and Psychic. He indeed deserves your consideration, Arthur. You've done a great job with the seal, we wouldn't want Mikail to get noticed by some random psychic." Lucas praised Arthur excited about the news of such a genius, and he was not alone.
Everyone in the room was just as excited as their chief.
"Everyone calm down for a bit, I wasn't done yet." Arthur tried to calm down his fellow council members, and he succeeded.
"His psychic ability was not the only thing that Alakazam had to mask. The 13 Pokemon currently registered under Mikail are not the only ones he has, not by far.
Alakazam told me he detected 31 genuine bonds, and as if that was not enough, nearly all of them are Stage 2 bonds. He obviously masked them as well, so those at or below the (low) platinum stage won't be able to find out the strength of the bonds.
Neither will they be able to detect the number of bonds. All they'll be able to detect is that he has genuine bonds. Furthermore, I'd like to add that I noticed during my observations that most of his Pokemon are already at the silver stage." Arthur finished his report and everyone erupted into excited chatter.
"How about we send a few Elite-class trainers as his secret protection detail," came from one of them.
"Too many shadows will attract attention. I suggest we send a Champion class to protect him in secret." Another one promptly disagreed and gave a counter-proposal.
A few more similar proposals were thrown around that all revolved about ensuring the safety of what they seemed to agree was one of the greatest geniuses currently known. Geniuses of that caliber were extremely rare and each one of them had proven to be a great boon to mankind.
They were all hoping for another Aaron Cameron or Samuel Oak to grow up to help keep humanity safe since they were still not in a situation where they could relax. Any unlucky development in the wilderness outside humanity's territories could have catastrophic consequences for them.
"Sending any such extra protectors will be noticed and only make everyone curious why we are so interested in Mikail's safety. His safety during his time at the Academy is guaranteed and the protections afforded to all academy students are enough to keep him safe right now.
As for his safety after his graduation, we'll talk about that when the time has come. Since that's still more than 2 years away." Lucas declared seeing that the discussion was going nowhere. They still had a lot of topics to go through so he wanted to get on with it.
"Are there any other outliers that appeared?" He asked after everyone had calmed down.
There were none, and they continued with the next topic afterward, the safety inside the route system which included the settlements. They went over big disputes that had been settled, tides that had been averted, and discoveries that had been made, before moving on to the next topic, the wilderness inside humanity's territory.
That was followed by the wilderness outside humanity's territory inland and the ocean. They finished their meeting after talking about any noteworthy events, trainers, or humans in general that appeared during the last year.
Once the meeting was over, most of them left the Headquarters in Rota and returned to their own branches all over the four continents.
Meanwhile, Mikail, who had no idea that a great part of his "secrets" had been revealed to a certain group, was spending the last days of 2178 with his parents.
His parents had returned at the beginning of the week and were going to stay till the end of Rayquaza's Patrol, which was the two weeks of New Year. Well, one week was nearly over so a bit more than a week was left.
This was their first Patrol at their new home, so they were enjoying the slightly different atmosphere in Rota compared to Hope Town. Of Mikail's friends, only Rose and her family joined them since everyone else had to spend Rayquaza's Descent with their own families.
Still, they spoke over the phone and wished each other a happy new year. Mikail made sure to speak with all his friends and acquaintances since he did not want to accidentally forget to talk to one. That was how the distance between people widened after all, and he wanted to avoid that if possible.
The event itself was much grander than the one in Hope Town. There were a lot of bright fireworks, but on top of that, there were Pokemon moves that were shot into the air that creating an even greater spectacle than the fireworks.
The moves had nearly no power behind them, but what they lost in strength they made up in looks. Fire Blasts modified to have certain forms, Moonblasts turning the sky pink, Flamethrowers, and Thunderbolts that resembled yellow, as well as red Rayquaza, rising into the sky.
Pokemon moves of all kinds that focused on visual impact, appeared one after the other, creating a visual feast for everyone. His parents confirmed that it was mostly performers and coordinators that were paid for this, and Rose's eyes sparkled when she heard that.
The night sky was lit up like this for a few hours before it finally stopped and everyone went to sleep for the first time in 2179. The Fields stayed over for the night and left the day after Rayquaza's Ascent, meaning that they spend the first day of the new year with Mikail and his parents.
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