The next day I made my way to our new classroom/homeroom on the third floor. I got swarmed by my classmates and they excitedly asked me questions about how it was to appear on TV and Radio.
I calmly and patiently answered their questions knowing that their hype was going to settle pretty quickly since all of them had called me during the break to talk about those things.
They just got a bit excited due to seeing me directly, and as I expected, seeing that I was just saying, or rather repeating, what I had said over the phone everyone thankfully decided to give me some peace. Well, more like nearly everyone.
Sorrel stayed to ask how my break went and asked curiously what my thoughts on the competition at the end of the year went. He even went so far as to put aside any kind of pride to ask me if I would be willing to look over some of the training sessions with his Pokemon to give out some advice.
Marlene who had also stayed behind chose to chime in at that and also asked for training advice. Not minding it too much I agreed to help them train a bit once a week or every second week on Giratiday during the double free period we had that day.
Mr. Burns chose to show up the moment right after I gave the promise to help the two, and as it had happened the years before, the first thing we did was to fetch the books for the lessons this year. The others obviously had to get all books, but I only took the ones for the regular lessons.
Thankfully, everyone had their own spatial bag by now, so no one was forced to carry around a giant stack of books in their arms. On our way through the academy, I noticed that our fellow academy mates who saw me seemed as if they wanted to approach me, but thankfully Mr. Burns's presence convinced them otherwise.
Still, that showed that I would be getting mobbed by a crowd for a few days until everyone got bored of me. Sigh, as a smart man used to say, troublesome.
Anyway, after Mr. Burns made sure everyone had all their books and that they had the correct timetable, he dismissed everyone, telling us to enjoy the last weekday without lessons for the next while. While everyone was leaving, I moved toward Mr. Burns instead.
"Mr. Burns, I'd like to take an academy mission as soon as possible. It would be better if I could take one today," I informed him and he looked a bit puzzled.
"Why the hurry? The term just started, you could at least finish the first week before taking a mission," he asked curiously.
"I'd like to gather the rest of the points I need to visit the Riolu habitat as soon as possible. The earlier I find my Riolu partner the longer we have to bond and get stronger," I returned to him, and it was the truth as well.
That was the only reason I wanted to take a mission straight on the first day. Not wanting to deal with students haunting me in the hallways for a week had nothing to do with it.
"Alright," Mr. Burns accepted my reason with a nod, "if you're sure, then I have no reason to stop you. You're lucky, I know that Mr. Cameron is in today, so let's head straight to his office.
If he had not been at the academy, you would have had to wait until tomorrow or the day after tomorrow before applying for a mission since all your possible missions have to go through Mr. Cameron's vetting and receive his okay, before they could be accepted by you."
A bit later we were knocking on Mr. Cameron's office door and I entered after receiving permission to do so. Mr. Burns seemed to have received some kind of signal that I did not notice since he patted me on the shoulder and smiled at me before leaving.
"Mikail, my boy, I had not expected to see you so soon. How can I help you? Did you change your mind over the break and completed another project of yours?" Mr. Cameron asked jovially and I shook my head with a smile.
"No, sir. I want to gather the points for the visit to the Riolu habitat as soon as possible, so I'd like to request a mission to earn some academy points," I replied and he gave me an understanding nod.
"Hmm, I can understand your motivation. You want to spend as much time with Riolu as possible before the competition, but even if you do I don't think you'll get him to the same level as your current partners, especially your Butterfree, Mothra, I think you called her," Mr. Cameron brought up a logical point and I acknowledged that he was right with a nod.
"You are obviously right, sir. However, I'd like him or her to be strong enough to at least participate in the early parts of the competition since it would be an invaluable experience for Riolu to participate in such an event," I gave one of my major motivations for wanting a Riolu as soon as possible.
The other reason was that I simply liked Riolu/Lucario and did not want to drag it out any longer. I had already waited for two years, so it was time to get one to join me. Besides the fear that I might waste the first visit was real, so I wanted to know as fast as possible if I would have to slave away doing missions for the second visit/chance or not.
"Alright, give me a moment. I'll take a look if there are any missions available that you could take," he said before focusing on the laptop on his desk.
"Hmm, not this one," he mumbled," this one might be too much as well, and it's too early for something like this." He kept whispering things like this for the next 5 minutes while scrolling through the list of available missions.
I had no illusions that he did not know that I was hearing him, but he probably found the situation amusing.
"Yes, this one should do," he said before printing whatever mission he deemed acceptable.
"Now, the mission should you choose to accept it, is to mediate an ongoing conflict between two Pokemon tribes within Rota's territory. The conflict seems to have started three days ago and it seems that the supervisor of that area has deemed that the two tribes most likely won't be settling their disagreement by themselves, which was why he requested that someone would be sent over to help mediate.
Now, in case you accept, you should know that you'll have a deadline of two weeks to complete the mission. Otherwise, someone more experienced will be sent over to finish the job, and while you won't be penalized per se for failing the mission, I won't assign you any more missions of this kind for the next three terms.
On top of that, you would have to go through a few diplomacy lessons along with lessons on applications of aura projection. Now, take a look at this and tell me whether you want to accept or not," he informed me before handing over the mission file.
Well, seems like this whole situation was happening close to a town called Randamach which was about 400 km north of Rota City. The conflict was called in by the mayor of Randamach and seemed to be happening between the two largest tribes in the area.
It was a fight between rodents, the Linoone line, and the Furret line to be specific. It seemed that the strongest known members of the tribes were the leaders who were at the (low) gold stage.
My mission was to solve or subdue the conflict, and upon completing the mission I would receive 150 academy points, with the possibility of gaining additional points depending on my performance.
"I accept the mission, sir," I told Mr. Cameron after going through the file.
"Good, I will inform your teachers that you are on an academy-sanctioned mission for the next two weeks, so you don't have to do it yourself," he said and I gave him a thankful nod.
"Then I'll go home and prepare for the mission before making my way to the mission area," I informed Mr. Cameron before going home.
I told my parents about the mission before calling out Hera/Pidgeot since I could not teleport there because we had never been around the area, and I did not want to do random jumps. Flying was the better option in this situation.
I greeted Hera before saddling her with the harness I received on my birthday, and we took off. I pointed in the direction of our target and Hera headed there. The 300 km to Randamach took Hera less than 15 minutes and I asked her to land outside the town.
I thanked her for her help before recalling her. I then made my way inside the town and asked around for the way to the town hall since I wanted to talk to the mayor about where I would be able to find the two feuding tribes.
Could I have found out where they were in a different way? Absolutely, but I was planning to stay here for the next 10-14 days, so I thought it was better to inform the mayor of my presence so that he knew that I was working on the situation. I did not want him to make another request or something like that after all.
It took me 20 minutes to arrive at the town hall, and I directly went to the reception at the entrance since there was no way that they would just let me meet the mayor without explaining the reason for my visit first.
"Excuse me, miss," I addressed the woman behind the desk. "I accepted the mission released by the mayor regarding the conflict happening close to the town, and I would like to have a word with him about the mission if possible. Is he in?
If so, could you please tell him that the operative sent from the Aaron Aura Academy would like to speak with him if possible? Thank you," I explained before I noticed that the woman was staring at me.
"Miss, miss," I called out to get her out of whatever funk she got caught in. Sigh, it looked like she fell into a daze due to my handsome looks. Sometimes it was hard to be as good-looking as I was, but that was something I simply had to live with.
"Ah, yes, sorry about that," she said after I gained her attention. "Excuse me, but are you perchance Mikail Geo?" she asked after she gathered her wits. That explained why she looked at me like that when she saw my face, turns out she recognized me.
"Yes, I am Mikail Geo," I admitted since I had no reason to hide or desire that fact, and her face brightened when I confirmed her guess.
"That's great. I thought as much since I watched your interview on the "tonight show" a few times. I'm a fan," she admitted before pulling out a notebook from somewhere below the desk.
"Could you please give me a signature?" She asked and I gave her a nod with a smile.
"Sure, do you want me to add a sentence or something?" I asked her and she nodded excitedly.
"Could you write for Emily Rostine," she requested and I did as she asked before returning the notebook and pencil to her.
"Emily, can I call you Emily?" I began and she nodded, so I continued. "Please, don't spread my presence until I'm done with the mission since I do not want to be distracted from my work. Is that possible?" I asked her and she solemnly promised to keep quiet.
I thanked her before asking her once more to ask the mayor if he had time for me. She called the mayor's secretary to inform her of my request, who in turn informed the mayor himself about my request. The mayor agreed to see me, so after thanking Emily for her help, I headed to the mayor's office following the directions she gave me.
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