Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After Clavell’s visit, and maybe also after meeting Saur, Aunt Delia was fully on board with Red going to Sagrada Academy. That didn’t give him any more information. Red tried to read the book Professor Oak had given him, but when he looked at the sun symbol on the cover, remembering what Professor Oak had said about it, his stomach twisted. He had managed to read the cover — Magical Bonds: An Analysis of the Connections Between the Abilities of Pokémon and Dainisa by Augustine Sycamore.

Ash left almost as suddenly as he’d come. He did remember to tell Red he was leaving, and promised, “I’ll be back soon to take you to Fruit School!”

“Please don’t,” Red replied. The last thing he needed was Ash Ketchum drawing attention on his first day of school.

Of course Ash pushed back, but Red insisted, and now he just had to hope Ash didn’t do what he wanted anyway. Aunt Delia laughed, saying Ash surely would ‘follow his heart as always’, but she’d try to stop him. She, at least, understood what it was like to be a normal person overshadowed by a celebrity.

Clavell organised to meet them at Viridian City airport, where he would also be meeting several other students from the ‘Tohjo Area’, as he called it. Red spent the rest of August reading about Paldea in all his favourite spots around Pallet. There weren’t that many — the grassy knoll by the beach, the tree near the lab, the fence marking the end of the town and the start of the road to Viridian City — but Saur enjoyed the sun, and Delia was less anxious about letting him go out with Saur than with Sally. She didn’t give Sally back until the day before Red left, which of course meant he burst out of his PokéBall the second Red touched it and started clinging to him while growling at Delia for ‘daring to separate me from the baby once more.’ He only stopped when he realised Red was struggling under his weight. Despite being a big scary dragon that was very proud of being a big scary dragon, Sally always forgot how big he was and tried to crawl over and around Red like a puppy.

“You’ll have to behave at school,” Delia told Sally, hands on her hips. “I’m counting on you to look after Red without biting any more of his classmates!”

Honestly, Red wouldn’t have minded leaving Sally behind, but you’re not supposed to think that about your dead mother’s salamence. And he’d probably miss Sally more than be embarrassed by him. …And it was kinda good when he bit people who upset Red.

As she helped Red pack, Aunt Delia started talking about her own time at boarding school. Apparently she’d gone to Viridian Academy since she was eight, and that was where she’d met Ash’s father.

Who is Ash’s dad?, Red didn’t ask, because there’s some things you absolutely do not bring up.

“Now that I think about it…” Delia’s smile became smaller. “That was the year Cynthia was born.”

Red knew that, because he knew maths.

“It was a wonderful time.” Delia handed Red a stack of t-shirts she’d finished folding. “Sometimes it was sad, being so far away from my family, and why… But I liked school.”

Red put the t-shirts in his suitcase.

“Why, I must’ve tried almost every club! Tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy, poetry…”

It seemed odd to be taking a suitcase when Red had seen how much could fit in Ash’s backpack. Couldn’t he do something similar? And Clavell said they had a uniform, so he’d have to wear that when he got to school.

“You don’t have to stick to pokémon because of who your family is, Red.”

“I know,” he mumbled. He watched as Delia stood up and finally noticed the purple book on his dresser. Her smile disappeared entirely as she stared at the sun symbol on the cover. “Professor Oak gave me that. Since nobody can tell me about the magical people.”

“Dainisa,” Aunt Delia corrected on autopilot.

Red didn’t say anything. He couldn’t think of what exactly he wanted to say, but he wanted to say something. His aunt knew more than she’d told him. And she must’ve realised he was thinking that, because she turned to look at him with tears in her eyes.

“I always said I’d tell you when you’re old enough,” she said, “but I left it too late, didn’t I?”

Red nodded.

“I’m so sorry.” She wiped her eyes on the back of her hands. “I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t understand enough, I don’t know enough… But I know what it’s like to get too much responsibility too young.”

Was there anything Red could say? Delia wanted to be reassured, but, well, Red had found out he wasn’t even human and Delia could’ve let him know at any point but decided not to.

“You understand that I love you, right, Red?”

He nodded.

“And that all I want is you to be safe?”

And once more.

“And your mother, I promised I’d always keep you safe, and I’d never let Giovanni anywhere near you again.”

Red stared. “Again?”

Delia sniffed, wiped at her eyes. “He wasn’t after your mothers, Red. He was after you.”

“Me?” That didn’t make any sense.

“You’re not like other people,” Delia said. “You use magic like it’s nothing.”

Red shook his head. “I’ve never —”

“Understanding and speaking to pokémon is magic, Red,” she said. “Most people need to actively think about doing it, or can only do it for a few seconds, but you don’t. And you do it all the time.”

“O-okay?”

“You’ll realise what I mean when you meet more of us,” she said, “and you’ll see that… That you have so much more magic than everyone else. More than anyone I’ve ever met.”

This was sounding dangerously close to what Professor Oak had said about the sun symbol. Red shook his head. Aunt Delia smiled weakly, reaching for his right hand. She squeezed it tightly for a moment, before reaching for his wrist. Red watched, heart pounding with dread, as her fingers traced over his birthmark, the four long triangles, the four squiggly lines between them, one of which became a spiral at the centre. A sun he’d always hated, and avoided looking at as much as possible.

“I still don’t want you to show this to anyone,” Aunt Delia said softly. “It’s more important now than ever. You’ll meet dainisa who’ll know what it means straight away.”

Red was starting to get pissed off. “I don’t know what it means.”

“Minaci,” she said, in that dainisa language Ash had said none of them knew, and Red knew it meant Solar Demi-God before she got around to translating. “It means you’re the Sun. The most magically powerful dainisa. Chosen by Arceus to bring balance between dainisa, humans and pokémon.”

Well, that sounded like nonsense. Completely stupid, actually. It was harder to disbelieve coming from his tearful aunt than from a dismissive Professor Oak, especially with more details, and his heart wouldn’t stop racing. Red could understand pokémon all the time, and that meant he was the most magically powerful of some species he hadn’t even know existed? How lame were everyone else’s abilities, then? And what did that have to do with balance or Arceus itself?

All he could ask was, “No joke?”

Aunt Delia nodded, not meeting his eyes. “I don’t — I don’t understand much of what it means. I should’ve tried harder to find out more. But I know Giovanni was trying to steal your magic. I know he’s still trying to do that, wherever he is.”

She was trying to explain things to him, but she was only making Red more confused. And he was confused enough about the idea of magic. And he wouldn’t be so confused if she’d at least told him magic was real. Then he’d have less to be confused about.

Red pulled his hand away. Sally growled. Delia looked up, alarmed.

“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“Red, I don’t — I thought, it’s too much of a burden, and I don’t understand it either,” Aunt Delia had started to speak very quickly, with a sharpness in her tone. “I barely have magic, I never spend time with our dainisan family, I don’t remember the language or culture, the only other dainisa in town in Professor Oak and he thinks it’s all stupid, oh and they definitely didn’t want anything to do with me after I got pregnant and had to drop out and —” She cut herself off. “I’m sorry Red, you’re right to be upset, I just.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.

Well, that was awkward.

“Okay, fine,” Red said. For some reason it didn’t do anything to stop Aunt Delia crying, but if he did anything to comfort her he’d just get angrier. “What do I do?”

“Keep it hidden at school,” Aunt Delia said, “you never know who’s a Rocket. Or who wants to use your magic. Try to find out more, without telling anyone who you are. Don’t tell them your real birthday, that’s how they found you… Minaci is born during a solar eclipse. I remember that part of the legend.”

Of course. Because everybody is walking around with the dates of solar eclipses memorised, desperately looking for that kid who can talk to pokémon so they can kill him for his magic. And it seemed way too dramatic for how someone as boring as Red was born. It’d suit Ash.

Aunt Delia must’ve misread his face, because she started trying to reassure Red, “You don’t have to do anything, or be anything except you, Red. Be you and be safe.”

Safe from people who wanted to kill him for magical powers or whatever. Cool. It wasn’t like any of this meant anything to Red, except that his aunt had always lied to him. Apparently lying is the path to safety. Was that what his mothers had done wrong? They hadn’t lied enough so they had to die for some old Rocket dickhead to kill a baby for magic? It was all too stupid and Red didn’t care. All he wanted was to get away from his lying aunt and… He remembered the look on Ash’s face as Professor Oak explained the sun symbol.

Red asked, “Did Ash know too?”

Delia hesitated. “Yes.”

Funny. All the times Ash called Red special, he’d hoped his amazing cousin was seeing something about Red that he liked. Instead he just knew Red allegedly had more magic than anyone else.

“No, Red, please, don’t be upset with him, I asked him to —” She reached out for him, and froze when Sally growled. His tail coiling around Red’s legs, and it was a relief, because nothing was feeling real and he wished he genuinely didn’t care about any of it. “I’m so sorry Red.”

How’s that help, Red didn’t say.

Get away from me, Red didn’t say.

I feel sick, Red didn’t say.

All he could do was pat Sally on the head, turn back to his suitcase, and keep packing. If he loved Paldea, maybe Red would never have to come back to Pallet Town.

Aunt Delia left him alone after a few more attempts to talk, and a lot more growling from Sally. Red didn’t feel any better.

It was too hard to wrap his head around it all, so Red buried the stupid book by stupid Augustine Sycamore at the bottom of his suitcase and started shoving the rest of his things on top. He hoped he’d be less angry by the time he was done, but he wasn’t, so he recalled Sally, grabbed Saur’s Ball too, and snuck out for a walk. It felt good to lie down on the grass with the pokémon, until he thought about the sun shining down on them. Then he had to go sit in the shade, legs pulled to his chest, unsure if he wasn’t thinking about it on purpose or not.

Aunt Delia made him okonomiyaki for dinner and didn’t nag him for sneaking out. She talked lightly about the next day, when they’d leave, all that, and Red wondered if she had meant to leave it to the last possible moment to tell him the truth.

Red tried to be nice to her, because he knew he wasn’t going to see his aunt for a long time, but it was harder than ever to speak. And he didn’t know how to fake it like she apparently did. He’d always thought she was simple and honest, overprotective for sure, but — But how was Red protected by not knowing people wanted to kill him for his alleged magic? Or that he was a Chosen One too, like Ash? Maybe he would’ve felt less overwhelmed by having to live up to being Cynthia’s son and Ash’s cousin if he’d known that Arceus liked him. Or whatever it meant, because Delia couldn’t even tell him that!

It was hard to sleep that night. When he finally did, Red dreamt of camping on a snowy mountain, his long hair whipping around him even though he’d pulled it way back into a high ponytail. He woke up disoriented, wondering where his tent and long hair had gone, before remembering who he was and then where he was. Red stared at his suitcase by the door for a few long minutes as he breathed in and out and accepted he wasn’t freezing to death in the middle of Pallet Town’s summer.

The things Red got scared about were so stupid. No wonder his aunt and cousin wouldn’t tell him the truth about magic and Team Rocket and his mothers’ murder, he was enough of a coward as is.

Red looked at Sally, who was nuzzling against him reassuringly. He patted him on the snout. “You need to do me a really big favour today.”

Sally bumped his snout against Red’s fingertips, before starting to nibble on them.

“You need to stay in your Ball no matter what until I let you out.”

Sally huffed.

“They don’t let loose pokémon on planes unless they’re small. Like Saur or Pikachu.”

He moved his mouth away from Red’s fingers, sulking.

“Sorry.”

Sally huffed again. “It is okay, baby. I shall do that which you ask of me. I guess.”

Maybe someday Sally would learn to call Red something other than ‘baby’. At least he’d promised, Red thought, as he got dressed and scanned his room for anything he’d forgotten. The flight would be less scary knowing Sally wouldn’t appear out of nowhere to bite the other students for thinking Red was weird.

Aunt Delia made him a very ginger-heavy congee for breakfast, like she was anticipating his stomach being unsettled. She was right, and Red didn’t know if he was feeling affection or anger. He’d seen her every day of his life he could remember. He was about four when his mothers died, but Aunt Delia was the first person he could remember. Red hadn’t even gone on school trips or had a sleepover before.

“Your big trip to school…” Aunt Delia murmured as Red ate. “Are you excited?”

Red nodded.

“Professor Oak’s going to give us a lift to Viridian City, and you’ll meet Clavell there.” Delia was just going over the plan to fill the silence. Red nodded again, but his mind was blank. “Are you all packed?”

Red managed a, “Yeah.” It was so little, but his aunt beamed at him anyway.

The drive took about an hour. Aunt Delia sat in the front with Professor Oak (who also asked about Red’s excitement levels), which meant Sally burst out of his Ball to lie across the backseat with Red. He took up most of the space and kept accidentally hitting Aunt Delia and Professor Oak with his wing, but they laughed about it.

Nothing except Sally felt entirely real. The scenery was going by too fast for Red to process, he couldn’t quite hear his aunt or the professor, and his mind was buzzing with things he didn’t know how to think about. Next thing Red knew, they were at the airport, Sally was grumbling about going back in her Ball, Delia was fussing with his luggage, and Red hoped he’d be normal enough to talk the other students without being bullied.

It was a small airport, so they spotted Director Clavell and the four students around him almost immediately. Three of them were about Red’s age, one a tanned boy with a spike of black hair pulled through his backwards cap, one a girl with chestnut brown hair pulled into a high ponytail, and the other, Red wasn’t sure if they were a boy or a girl, but they looked a lot like the girl. They were probably twins, though the girl had blue eyes and the other had brown, and their noses were distinctly different. The other student looked a few years older, maybe fourteen, and something about him was familiar. Red had no idea what — the guy looked like what would happen if you tried to create a child star in a lab, so maybe he was actually an actor. The red scarf he was wearing was pretty dramatic. It was impossible not to feel overwhelmed, but Red did his best to approach Clavell like he wasn’t bothered by anything in the world.

“Ah, good morning Red, Delia, Samuel.” Clavell nodded gentlemanly at each of them in turn. “We’re waiting for one more student. Your grandson, Samuel.”

Dread filled Red. He glanced up at Professor Oak, who also looked confused. Gary was a lot of annoying things, but he wouldn’t forget to tell his grandpa if he’d become a student again.

“Ah, here they are now.”

Red turned to the entrance. Through the glass, he could see a kid who looked like a miniature of Gary, strutting towards them. He already hated him. The man with him looked much less familiar, with his cropped blue-ish-green-ish hair, and pinstripe suit. It wasn’t until he was standing next to Oak that Red could see any resemblance.

“Father.” The man was pompous even in one word. Of course.

“Archer.” Oak looked… angry?

“I hadn’t expect to see you here,” Archer said. His eyes, too cold to be like Oak’s, dragged over Delia. His lip curled.

“Daisy told me you’d had another child she wasn’t allowed to meet.” Oak was looking at the mini-Gary, and smiled at him. “You’re Green?”

Oh, fuck off, Red thought.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Green’s voice wasn’t as nasally as Red expected but he still hated it, on principle.

“Red, come on,” Aunt Delia whispered in his ear, inclining her head towards the others. He nodded and started to follow her. “The Professor’s family situation is messy. You don’t want to hear any of that.”

“Yeah.” He glanced back to see Clavell trying to defuse the situation.

The kid in the hat immediately asked Delia, “Hey, o’nee-chan, what’s happenin’ over there?”

Aunt Delia laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about that, they just haven’t seen each other for a long time!” She clapped her hands together and leant down slightly. “I’m Delia, and this is my nephew, Red.”

They all looked at him, and Red wanted to hide his face. He tried waving. It felt like the most awkward thing anyone had ever done in the history of the world.

“Whoa,” hat-kid gasped. “Dude! You’re like, the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen.”

Red stared, confused. The oldest one started laughing. So it had to be a joke then. But hat-kid slid up closer to Red, taking his hand like Red was a princess or something. At least he stopped short of kissing it.

“You can call me Gold,” he said, grin wide, “Venus Guided champion of love and luck.”

“Oh, my,” Delia giggled. The oldest one was still laughing, and the girl started too. The other one stepped in, giving Red the chance to pull his hand away.

“Stop being so weird.”

“Aww, little bro,” Gold whined. Red was thankful for the gender reveal. “I just get so overwhelmed by beauty when I see it!”

He elbowed Gold in the gut before introducing himself, “I’m Black. That’s my twin, White.” The girl waved. “And our brother Diamond.”

“C-call me Dia.” He smiled at Red too. “Tell me if Gold’s being weird.”

Red nodded. At least he and Green weren’t the only ones with colour names. It’d be mortifying if that stood out any more than it already did.

The others still were looking at him. Oh, right. “Nice to meet you all.”

“Look, it’s all been sorted,” Delia said happily. Red looked over his shoulder at Green and Clavell approaching. Oak was standing by the door, and that suspicious-looking Archer guy was storming off. No wonder Oak said his family was weird. “Red, you’ll call me as soon as you’re at school?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll be very careful?”

“Yes.”

“And Sally’s staying in his PokéBall?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll remember to wear clean underwear every single day?”

“Yes, I’m not Ash.”

Aunt Delia hugged him tightly. Red hugged her back automatically, and then tighter when he remembered he wouldn’t see her for months. He could still feel the anger and betrayal, but she was still his aunt. She was still the person who’d always been there, no matter how much of that time had been spent lying.

“Stay safe, sweetheart,” Delia whispered, “I love you so much.”

Red nodded.

It was weird walking away. Nobody said anything about Delia’s emotional goodbye. Clavell started talking about flight arrangements, reminding them to keep pokémon secure if they had any, and handing out tickets. Red ended up sitting at the window, next to Gold, with Green in the aisle seat. In the row in front of them, Dia was on the aisle, then White, then Black. Clavell was across the aisle from them.

“Why’m I stuck in a shitty seat,” Green complained.

“It must be by name,” Gold guessed. “I’m Gold Kinyou. And you’re…?”

“Green Oak.”

Gold nodded. “And, Red, what’s your family name?”

“Hanano.”

“Yeah, right, and they’re,” he pointed at Dia, “Reikyuji,” then the twins, “and Touryuu.”

Why did siblings all have different family names?

“You just said a bunch of weird names, but I’m stuck on,” Green looked at Red, sneering, “Red Hanano. As in ‘flower red’? Seriously?”

Red stared. “Your name literally means ‘green tree’.”

Green flushed with rage. Satisfying.

“And like, it can’t mean anything else,” Gold said. “Hanano could be a lot of other things. Leaf, blade, nose, coast…”

It was nice to have someone his own age stand up for him, but Green was basically right. Red’s comeback couldn’t be ‘Actually it’s field of red flowers’. Green didn’t need to know any of that though, and as Gold got into rattling off potential kanji compounds (“What if it’s feather-quince? Or waves-on-the-shore? Or the sound of waves-on-the-shore?”), Green looked more and more annoyed.

“Whatever!” Green eventually cried. Then he started speaking quickly in a different language, and Red was reminded of the weird secret magic society of it all. He almost tuned it out, but Green said his name, so Red listened harder, and when he listened harder he realised he could understand the last thing Green said: “I don’t need to care about something as stupidly human as kanji!”

Dia’s dark grey eye peered through the gap between seats at Green. He asked in a tone full of concern, “You can’t read?”

Green snapped, “Of course I can! Kanji are a redundant form of communication that’s dying out! Shut up!”

Dia hummed thoughtfully, and kindly said, “Ask your senpai if you need help with anything, okay?”

Of course, Green started to say something else, but Red’s focus was shaken by the airplane taking off. He stared out the window, watching as Viridian City got smaller and smaller, and disappeared beneath the clouds. The next time he stood on solid ground, it would be in Paldea. He wouldn’t set foot in Kanto again until at least winter break, maybe longer if he could get away with it. There was a stirring in his stomach, but it wasn’t the usual one that made him want to throw up. It was a different, nicer one that made him want to smile.

“Have you ever been on a plane before?” Gold asked him.

Red nodded. “When I was a baby.”

“Me too, when I was a baby, but this is my first time I can remember.” He craned his head like he was trying to look out the window without annoying Red.

“It’s okay,” Red said, “you can —” He gestured at the window.

Gold grinned at him, then shamelessly leant across him, whooping at the clouds. “They’re like giant cotton marshmallow balls!” He sat back, leg bouncing excitedly. “Someday I’m gonna use my powers to fly in the clouds all on my own!”

“Gold, c’mon,” Black whispered from behind them.

Gold waved his hand dismissively, and asked Red, “What’s your one?”

Red blinked. “My one?”

“Y’know! Your power?”

Oh. He was asking about magic. “I can talk to pokémon.”

Gold gasped. “So can our little sister, Yellow!”

“Really?” So maybe Aunt Delia had lied about how unusual Red was.

“Uh-huh! And Black and White have matching magic ’cos they’re twins —”

White’s hand reached between the seats to pinch Gold. “What was that?”

Gold squirmed out of the way. “— and Dia’s really cool but he can barely do anything —”

White slapped Gold’s arm.

“Hm, no, that’s accurate,” Dia agreed, “instead I’m burdened with being the only funny one.”

“But me.” Gold was beaming. “I can do weather stuff.”

Black sighed.

Red asked, “Weather stuff…?”

Gold was absolutely beaming with pride. You’d think he was the so-called Solar Demi-God.

“I can make it rain more!” Gold cried. “And, sometimes, if I try really hard? I can make it rain less.”

Black muttered, “At least you’ve stopped bragging about being able to ‘make it windier’.”

“Hey! Shut up!”

“Wow,” Green said flatly, “What an interesting ability.”

Wasn’t it, though? Even if a lot of pokémon could do it, it was still interesting.

Gold chuckled. “Yeah, I’m pretty cool.” He grinned at Green. “What’s your power?”

Green sneered, “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy.”

Gold’s smile became a frown. Red sighed. White’s hand popped out in the other gap between seats, hitting Green.

“Ow! Watch it!”

“Don’t be a dick,” White hissed.

“He kinda walked into it,” Black said.

Gold was still frowning and it kinda sucked to see. Red told him, “Ignore him. That’s just how Oaks are.”

“Excuse me?!” Green was sounding more shrill. “What do you know?!”

“Your brother, sister and grandpa,” Red replied, “and how much they all hate your dad.”

“You —!”

“Students,” Clavell’s voice cut in, “please. Behave and be friendly.”

Green spluttered some protests, but Red was much more interested in how Gold gasped, “Are you from Pallet Town?!”

Doing his best not to sigh or look disappointed, Red nodded.

“Do you know Ash Ke—”

“Gold, he’s clearly related to him,” Dia said, “maybe keep it on the DL.”

Hopefully Red didn’t look as embarrassed as he felt.

“Sorry, I was just — he’s so cool.” Red nodded, wondering which of the usual questions about Ash would follow. Instead Gold’s grin turned wicked and he asked, “How much does that pikachu swear?”

“Only when it sees a meowth,” Red replied, before realising he’d never heard that one before. There were perks to people knowing he could talk to pokémon already. 

“Really?! It has this vibe about him like it’s always swearing —”

“I guess, if you’ve only seen it in battles…”

“Do you know any pokémon who swear a lot?”

“Um, my bulbasaur…”

“You gotta meet my togepi, ’cos I reckon, from the look on his face —”

Gold launched into a series of anecdotes about the togepi his cousin Lyra’s grandparents had given him as an egg and how no matter what he did, ‘Togebro’ was an insufferably ‘ungrateful child’. He then started speculating about which pokémon of his siblings’ swore. He seemed really caught up on the idea of pokémon swearing like it was a novelty. Maybe his sister hadn’t told him how common it was? At any rate, Gold was still talking about it when people came by and gave them food, which Red mostly felt too nervous to eat, so he gave it to Gold, who asked if he was a vegetarian, called that cool too, and thanked Red eternally for giving him food. Green made a few comments about Gold needing to shut up, and it only made Gold talk louder about less and less relevant things. His siblings seemed wholly immune while Green looked increasingly desperate for death. Gold was still chattering about some manga called Fruits Basket as the plane landed. Then once they were in the airport, he started cheering about being in Paldea.

“You have a wonderful spirit Gold, but please try to shout less,” Clavell said.

“Sorry sir! My heart is full and I must scream!”

“And I appreciate that heart, if not the volume.”

Of course, this was when Sally decided to burst out of his Ball again. He stretched his wings out while pulling Red towards him, growling at Gold, Clavell, everyone.

“S-sorry!” Red muttered to Sally, “You promised.”

“You are no long on the plane,” Sally replied, scanning the crowd staring at him. “Which ones of these do you hate, baby?”

Red glanced at Green, but chose mercy. “None of them. Can you please go back in your Ball?”

Sally growled.

“I’m safe! We’re almost at school!” Red let Sally nibble on his fingers a bit as he glared around at the group before repeating, “Please.”

Finally, Sally went back in the Ball, muttering about how weak all the children looked anyway.

“Sorry,” Red said again, keeping his head down, “My mum…”

“Whoa,” Gold gasped, “your mum is a salamence?!”

The tone wasn’t convincing at all, but it caught Red so off guard, he couldn’t help laughing. Gold beamed at him. Nobody had ever looked so happy at Red’s laughter before.

“I did hear about the salamence,” Clavell said, “though it seems you mostly have it under control, as Ash said.”

Red’s happiness faded at the mention of his cousin. It wasn’t a fully unfamiliar feeling, but it was different. Usually he was more ashamed of himself than sad about stuff Ash had done. But he didn’t get to think about it for long — another group of students was headed their way, and a teenager in purple shorts was running over waving at Red like he knew him. 

“Hi!” He chirped, “Ash really wasn’t kidding about the salamence, huh?” 

Red was so embarrassed, but the guy kept smiling at him. He had brown hair under a wide-rimmed straw hat, olive skin closer in shade to Ash’s than Red’s but with freckles sprinkled across his face, and eyes as purple as his shorts. The shorts were part of the uniform, Red could now see, along with a short-sleeve white shirt.

“Florian?” Red guessed.

Florian nodded, giving him a thumbs up and a somehow brighter grin. “Pleased to meet’cha, Red!” He turned to Clavell. “Sir, we’re all here in one piece, sir.”

Trailing behind Florian was another small group of people around Red’s age, and a couple closer to Dia and Florian’s. One of them Red wasn’t sure about at all — they were taller than Dia or Florian, with long green hair, but their face didn’t look any older than eleven, and they were already wearing the school uniform but with an orange skirt, and a really out of place and really big black-with-silver-metal-plates leather bracelet clasped around their right wrist. Well, forearm, more like. Beside him, Red heard Gold give a breathless, “Whoa.” He was going to agree but then he realised Gold was staring at the redhead, who would probably be pretty if not for the intense scowl and terrible vibes. It occurred to Red that they were both staring, and he quickly looked down. Whoever that green-haired person was, something about them was… warm.

“Gold. No.”

Red hadn’t even noticed Dia coming up behind them and grabbing Gold’s hood. Gold strained for a moment, eyes still on the redhead, but he stopped.

“You really can’t read the room at all,” Dia sighed.

“Let him go, I wanna see what he does,” White suggested.

Gold cried, “It’s not my fault there’s so many beautiful people in the world!”

The redhead was glaring at them.

Clavell quickly brought the two groups together, keeping a calm composed authority as he directed them through getting luggage and to a bus outside the airport. Red barely had time to take in the humid air, the stones that somehow blended seamlessly into nature despite usually being painted in bright pastels, the abundance of colourful clothing, and all the pokémon he’d only seen pictures of. This had to be the right choice, because the first wild pokémon Red saw was a pawmi. A real live pawmi! He held onto that adorable image as the bus pulled up to the school.

Sagrada Academy was impressive in photos, but overwhelming in person. Red had never been more aware of how short he was than when he had to tilt his head way, way back to see the PokéBall tower. And right when he was so impressed he might have exploded from it, they walked into the giant entrance hall, and he saw all the books. You could fit Delia’s entire house in the hall twice, and they chose to fill it with millions of books. Too lame to be imaginary.

Clavell led them further into the hall before he addressed them again. “Welcome,” he said, spreading his arms out wide, “to Sagrada Academy.”

“Woo!” Florian said.

“Woo!” Gold said back.

Nobody else joined in, but Clavell didn’t seem discouraged. “It’s been a long day for you all, so rather than tour you around the entire academy, let’s show you to your dormitories and pick up tomorrow, shall we?”

On the website, Red had read about four dormitory groups, each a reference to a treasure from an old Paldean myth. The dorms were in two of the six school buildings that jutted out from the central tower (one for Uva Academy students, one for Naranja), but Clavell didn’t direct them to any of those buildings. Instead he led them past the reception desk, to the side of a staircase, past a weirdly placed bookcase with columns in it, to an elevator hidden under the stairs. There was a card reader next to the buttons to call the lift. Clavell held up a purple swipe card for show before using it, and selecting the topmost button marked with an unfamiliar symbol. It looked sort of like a bottom-heavy spirally S. The doors opened and immediately let them in to an enormous elevator.

“Of course, as you’re all dainisa, we wanted to create a space for you to practice your magic and culture without concern.” Clavell said it so casually. “We have been operating this branch of the school for some time as a small club activity, but decided to expand and actively recruit students under the guidance of Prince Florian and Their Majesty Wallace.”

A majesty? Was that like a king or a queen? Florian’s mum or dad? But wasn’t that the name of the Hoenn region champion?

“Yeah, we thought it’s silly not to do it,” Florian said brightly, before giving them another thumbs up. “Thanks for making my dream closer to reality!”

“What is your dream?” the green-haired person asked. Their accent was so interesting. Red wanted to hear them talk more.

“Uh, going to a sick-ass magic school,” Florian replied. “Oops, sorry, Director.”

“It's fine Florian,” Clavell said, “I am down with the cheugy slang.”

The elevator stopped. They stepped out into an enormous circular room, divided into sections like a little library, a little lounge, so on, all bathed in purple light. The walls were purple glass, curved to form a dome, and in the centre of the room there was an extremely long spiral staircase.

“Oh, we’re in the PokéBall,” Black whispered.

Red could’ve figured that out himself if he weren’t too busy being stunned by everything.

“Yeah!” Florian turned to the group, grinning widely. “The Lang family had this included with the founding of the academy. It’s as old as the building itself!”

The Lang family? Nobody else seemed confused. That had to be Florian’s family, then. And everybody else had to know more about magic and dainisa or elves or whatever than Red. Dammit.

“Now, this is your common room area,” Clavell explained unnecessarily. He gestured to the central pillar. “These are stairs to your dormitories. Florian and I will now let each of you know your placements.”

Red tried to listen closely as they called out names and details, but it was pretty hard to focus. He got that a lot of them had colour names, but really, all he wanted to know was what the green-haired person was called. His eyes kept drifting their way, taking in their height and confidence stance, the ways their pale skin differed, how wild their green hair was even pulled back into a ponytail, how cool it was that no amount of staring made their gender more apparent… And then he was being told where his dorm was. He went up the stairs (which took a long time, with only tiny little windows to offer glimpses to the courtyard far below them) to the halfway point, as instructed, and stepped out into a long corridor with purple and orange doors. Tapped to each door was a piece of paper with five names on it. He quickly found:

Florian Violet Lang

Red Hanano

Natural Harmonia Gropius

Hibiki Gold Kinyou

Touya Black Touryuu

So at least he was mostly with people he’d already talked to. Staring at the unfamiliar name, he thought about the person with the messy green hair, and hoped. Then he went into the room. To his relief, there was a small tiled area with a shoe rack, pressed up against the counter of a tiny almost-kitchen. Red placed his sneakers on the rack, stepped onto the wooden floor, and opened the door immediately to his left. It was a bathroom, and thankfully, the door locked. In the mini-kitchen, there was a mini-fridge, a microwave, a sink, and a mix of purple and orange cups, plates and bowls in the cupboard. There’d been a big long dining table downstairs, so Red wasn’t sure what the purpose of this kitchen was. There was another door opposite the entrance, and next to it, a blank whiteboard. He opened the door to find a large room. The walls were a soft purple, and in each corner there were beds with… violet curtains? Red didn’t know beds could have curtains. Next to each bed was a dresser and wardrobe, and in the middle of the room there was a plush couch facing towards the very big window. In front of it was a pile of five suitcases, Red’s at the bottom, but he was much more interested in the enormous arch-shaped window. There were also beds on either side of the window, light streaming onto them, and the view was of the entrance courtyard. The pathway looked bright, even in the sunset, even from far away.

Red took a picture of the view and sent it to Aunt Delia. She’d said to call, but he didn’t feel like he could talk to her right now. She responded immediately, so he quickly said the flight was fine but he was tired. Red glanced at the bed to his right, wondering how they were assigned. As he wondered, Sally once again burst from his Ball, soon followed by Saur and Aero. He ended up with Sally’s neck around his waist, Aero perched on his shoulder, and Saur headbutting his leg once before exploring the room.

“I guess this is fine,” Red mused. He glanced over his shoulder, noticing there was one more door, between the other two beds. “Huh…”

There was a sign on the door declaring, ‘FLORIAN’S ROOM’. So Florian got his own room specially assigned? Was it because he was older, or because he was a prince? There still wasn’t any sign of anyone else.

“Should I look?”

“No,” Sally said, “let me.”

Red was about to agree when the front door opened. Sally turned, growling, but it was Gold and Black. Completely unfazed by Sally, Gold nodded approvingly at Red, “If it couldn’t be that redhead I’m glad it’s you, beautiful.”

“Thank you?”

“Ignore him, he spends all his time reading shoujo manga and listening to musicals,” Black said, eyeing Sally nervously. Red placed a hand on Sally’s head, and the brothers came further into the room.

“Those are positive traits!” Gold cried. “I’m destined to be a love expert!”

Red hadn’t ever thought about love and didn’t like shoujo manga, so he decided it was okay to stay silent.

“Mm, whatever the stars say.” Black pointed at Florian’s door. “Dia said they’d assign us a senpai in our dorm but I didn’t know what he meant.”

Before Red or Gold could say anything, Black walked over and opened the door. It wasn’t all that remarkable — another small room, this one with no windows, and the same type of curtain-y bed they had. Maybe a bigger wardrobe.

“One bathroom and five people could be a problem,” Black mused, shutting the door again.

Gold shrugged. “Oh well. Better sharing with me than White and Yellow, right, bro?”

Black raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see.”

Gold turned to Red, gesturing at Black with frustration. “Give ‘em love and what does it getcha?!”

Red didn’t understand, so he shrugged. For some reason that made Gold grin.

They walked back to the centre of the room, standing behind the couch. Red wondered what he was supposed to say, or if there was anything he should say. He wanted to be friends with the people he lived with. Maybe they were thinking the same thing.

“Red, if you want a bed by the window, that’s fine with me,” Black said.

“Huh?”

Black pointed at Saur. “For her? I’ve got a rufflet, and Gold already told you about his togepi.”

“Can I meet them,” Red blurted before the thought even properly entered his brain.

Black looked surprised, but nodded. He and Gold were looking for their PokéBalls (having to look for them! What!) when the door opened again. Florian walked in, grin in place, and behind him towered the green-haired person, just as Red had hoped.

“Hey guys!” Florian seemed entirely unphased by Sally’s growling. “As you’ve probably figured out, they decided it’d be best to put you newbies in experienced upperclassmen. My dad shilled out for a private room in the main dorms too but I’d rather be in here properly getting to know all the dainisa.”

Why was Florian telling them that?

The green-haired person (Natural Harmonia Gropius?) was staring at Sally. “Where is this salamence from?”

“His mother,” Florian answered. “Red’s the son of Champion Cynthia,” Red was about to clarify that Sally wasn’t Cynthia’s pokémon, but Florian kept bragging on his behalf: “and the cousin of Ash Ketchum.”

Natural Harmonia Gropius had extremely blue eyes that Red could only meet for a millisecond. Maybe less. Was there anything shorter than a millisecond?

“Cynthia wasn’t from Hoenn,” Natural Harmonia Gropius said.

Sally growled, “What is this shithead saying?”

Red ran his fingers along the spot where Sally’s head met his neck. “Don’t worry.”

Sally growled again, but settled.

“It seems protective,” Natural Harmonia Gropius observed, “I wonder why.”

He couldn’t do anything when my mum died protecting me, Red didn’t say.

“Um, so, anyway,” Florian said. “As you can see, we’ve got a li’l kitchenette if you desperately need snacks or water or anything, the bathroom’s next to it, that’s my room, and this is you guy’s room!” Florian gave them a thumbs up. “If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to knock on my door. Speaking of.” He turned to the luggage pile and pulled out an extremely large, extremely purple leather bag. “I’ll be unpacking.” And with that, he went to his room.

“Cool,” Gold said, voice weirdly flat.

Black asked, “You’re, um, Natural Harmonia Gropius?”

Was that a scowl? “Call me N.”

“Wow, I didn’t think they’d put a girl in our dorm.” Gold grinned at N, nodding weirdly. “S’up?”

“For the purposes of conversation in human languages, I am a boy,” N said.

What did that mean?

Gold’s smile vanished. “Oh, shit, fuck, sorry about that! I just assumed ’cos the skirt, but that was pretty ignorant of me, huh?”

“Yes,” N replied.

“Not really,” Black said in the same moment.

Gold looked between them, unsure, and very faintly whispered, “Trans rights…?”

Black sighed and whispered back, so softly Red almost didn’t hear it, “Stop, you’re drawing attention to me.”

Red wondered if ‘trans rights’ was another thing he was supposed to know about.

N started to say, “It is ignorant because gender is —”

But Florian re-entered the room. “Oh, you guys haven’t moved at all, huh?” He went to the pile of suitcases, and took another enormous bag. He seemed to process the implications of this in the same moment as they did. “Are you all light travellers?”

Red shrugged. Gold said something about ‘being from Johto’ like that explained it instead of implying the opposite. Black mumbled something about not having many clothes. But N looked down at Florian and said, “I had thought we would be sleep outside to be among the pokémon, but I suppose, with the humanification of our society…”

Red stared. Gold hunched over, body shaking, either laughing or crying. Black repeated ‘humanification’ in complete disbelief. But being older and wiser, Florian simply asked, “What are you talking about?”

N scratched at the bracelet around his right wrist. “My… father said —”

“Does your dad not let you sleep inside?” Florian frowned. N nodded with confusion, and Florian muttered more to himself, “Should I be telling this to Clavell? Is this a police matter?”

“No,” N said, “it was a —” He looked like he was struggling to remember a word, which made it all the more concerning when he ended up at, “a joke. It was a joke. I apologise.”

Florian sighed in relief. “Okay, phew. Sorry for not laughing.”

Gold made a bizarre choking noise. Black elbowed him in the stomach, which certainly didn’t help.

“Hey, c’mon guys,” Florian said sternly, hands on his hips.

“S-sorry,” Gold said, “I liked your joke, N.”

N’s face was completely blank. Too blank. It was familiar, but Red couldn’t place it.

“Okay, well, I’m beat, so I’m gonna leave you to it for real this time and take a nap before dinner.” Florian smiled around at them in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring before leaving, closing the door behind him with a final, “Welcome to Sagrada Academy!”

The air was uncomfortable. Red didn’t know where to look.

Black calmly asked, “You don’t believe in beds, N?”

There was an explosion of laughter and Gold was hunched over, hands on his knees, slapping at Black between wheezy cackles. Black bit his bottom lip, but there was a clear twist to it, like he was trying not to smirk.

“Juvenile,” N snapped. “Some of our kind are so willfully blinded they understand nothing, and I see you are one of them.” And then for some reason, he turned to Red. “This is what happens when the most prominent of us is someone like Ash Ketchum.”

Red’s fists clenched. The laughter vanished.

“Hey, man, c’mon, he’s just standing there,” Gold said. “Get mad at us.”

“To so celebrate those who force pokémon through painful battles and mock those who strive for genuine connection,” N said, “what a sad world that is.”

Red’s eyes narrowed. “Ash loves pokémon more than anyone in the world.”

With a click of his tongue, N turned away. He stormed over to the nearest bed (to the left of Florian’s room), climbed onto it, and pulled the curtains shut.

Red had been disappointed a lot recently, but he still had room left to be disappointed by the gap between what he’d hoped N would be and what N actually was. But he found it hard to linger on when Gold lightly bumped his fist against Red’s shoulder (avoiding Aero’s feet), murmuring, “Don’t worry, man.”

“Take a bed by the window,” Black suggested again, “for your bulbasaur.”

“You’re clearly gonna need a lot more space than us for your ‘mons,” Gold laughed. He dragged a beat-up duffle bag to the bed opposite N’s, which left Black with one of the other window-side beds. “Hey, when we’ve finished unpacking, I’ll introduce you to Togebro.”

“Yes,” Black sighed, “he really named his togepi Togebro.”

Red smiled, and it wasn’t as much effort as he thought it would be. Yes, it had been an extremely long day. His mind was buzzing with so many things he wasn’t sure about. Everything was unfamiliar, he wasn’t sure of anything he used to be sure of, and he was worried about his place in all this, how he should feel about his family lying to him his entire life, whether or not school would be worth it, if Gold and Black really liked him or were just nice to everyone…

One thing was for sure — Red and N would be enemies.