CH31 (161), Joint Excursion

Unsurprisingly, my parents signed the waiver without any hesitation, and they even told me to have fun. Still, dad didn't forget to add that I should keep up my alertness and not underestimate the excursion just because it's a "school trip".

I was happy to note that they had returned to their usual selves and, I was sure it wasn't an act since my emotion-sense told me the same. They did get sad for a while after visiting the graves, but that much was normal.

They left on Arcday after I left for the Academy. I directly went to Mr. Koetsuji's office and handed in the waiver. He gave me a paper that had the do's and don'ts on it in return, along with a checklist of the things we could bring along.

The rest of the day and week went by as always with the only exception being that Tatsumaki mastered Ally Switch on Kyoday. It allowed her to swap the position of not only herself and my other Pokemon or even myself, but it allowed her to switch the places between just us.

It may only work for those that had a bond with me, but the move made my Kadabra invaluable in the wild or group battles. Anyway, all third-year students met at the academy gate at 7:30 a.m on Arcday the 04.28.2178.

There were a total of 67 students and according to the teachers, everyone was present. If we took the number of the first-year classes as the norm, then roughly 13 people either got suspended or graduated early until now.

"Alright, I want you to line up. 10 people per row and only 0,5 meters distance between each person." Mr. Koetsuji ordered and everyone began to move.

It was a bit chaotic, but none of the teachers interfered. I just moved towards the third row that was starting to form, while Ace and Weiss followed beside me. They took place to my left and right. In the end, it took more than 5 minutes for everyone to be in position.

"It took you 6 minutes 28 seconds to do something as simple as forming lines. I am utterly disappointed with your performance. This should not have taken more than 90 seconds. Still, I believe by the end of the excursion we'll come close to that number. At least I hope so for your sake." Mr. Koetsuji said before adding the last line in a totally not ominous manner.

He then called out a Gallade, who promptly teleported away with Ms. Brown and Mr. Smiles before returning a few seconds later.

"Okay, listen up. My Gallade here is going to teleport you to our main camp row by row. Ms. Brown and Mr. Smiles are already waiting there for you, so I want you to calmly wait for everyone to arrive. Any problem maker will be punished." Mr. Koetsuji explained, after which his Gallade began teleporting us to the main camp.

Each round of teleportation only took around 10 seconds and our row got teleported in the third round. Those that had arrived before us were still standing in line, so we followed their example and began to wait for the rest.

Meanwhile, we took a provisional look around the area. From what I could see the main camp was a medium-sized place that resembled a military camp a bit.

I could make out a fence circling the camp and a few buildings that looked like barracks to my left. Something that looked like an exercise field on the right and a few smaller buildings. All in all the place did not seem to be temporarily built.

Less than a minute after our arrival the relocation was completed and Mr. Koetsuji addressed us again.

"Now, that we are here I will tell you the action plan for this week. After this, the boys will be led by Mr. Smiles to the boy's barrack, while Ms. Brown will lead the girls to their barrack.

You have until 9:30 to choose your bunk and change into some appropriate clothes. I hope you followed the instructions we gave because anyone caught having one of the banned items will be directly failed and receive a 2-week suspension.

Knowing this, is there anyone that wants to hand over something to us. Those that do so now will not be punished, unlike those that get caught later on. You may step up and hand over whatever it is if that is the case. It will be returned to you right before we return at the end of the week." Mr. Koetsuji said while letting his gaze wander through the row.

He was releasing an invisible pressure that underlined the seriousness of the situation. A few moments later the first person stepped forward. It was a girl that handed over a make-up bag to Ms. Brown.

She was followed by 7 more girls who also handed over some make-up. I involuntarily looked over to Weiss, and Ace did the same. She just released a *hmph* when she saw our looks.

"Do you think I need make-up?" She said in a confident tone a moment later and we shook our head.

Neither of us had any idea if she normally used some or not, but that was obviously a trick question. Not saying anything and seemingly agreeing with her was the safest bet in such a situation.

We swiftly turned back to the front, just in time to see a slightly chubby boy walk out as well. After he arrived in front of the teachers, he began pulling out snack after snack out of his bag.

That led to another wave of students, nearly half of all students, walking to the front and handing over snacks as well as any meat they brought along. Both genders were roughly equally represented among them, and not many of them were chubby.

I had to stop myself from laughing seeing so many "breaking" the rules, but I couldn't hold back anymore when I saw both Weiss and Ace step out as well. Weiss handed out some sweets and Ace pulled out nearly 10 slabs of meat.

Weiss's face was a bit red, but she didn't say anything, while Ace sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

"I like meat. A lot." He said without mincing his words.

We saw Mr. Koetsuji rubbing the bridge of his nose and after enhancing my hearing I could hear him complain about this shit happening every year.

"Alright, quiet down. Now, let me talk about what's going to happen. Today we'll do some general physical training and some wilderness training. Tomorrow we'll have our first joint event with the knights, a hunting competition to be precise. On Giratiday we'll once more do some wilderness training.

Palkiday will have another joint event. This time a battle competition, split into personal, Pokemon, and mixed battles. Now, depending on whether we manage to finish the events on Palkiday or not, we will continue them on Dialday.

In that case we will only have some light training after that to give everyone a chance to recover from the battles. On Kyoday we will hold the last joint event. We'll return on Grouday, so you'll have free time until it's time to return.

You'll obviously have other responsibilities besides those. You'll be divided into 3 groups directly supervised by Ms. Yu, Ms. Brown, and Mr. Smiles. Every day one group will be responsible for hunting food, one for cooking, and one for cleaning.

The groups will switch their jobs daily so that everyone can have some fun. We wouldn't want you to feel left out after all. Now, I'll read out who is in which group." He said and everyone began to whisper excitedly.

Mr. Koetsuji ignored them and began calling out names.

"Let's start with group 1 led by Ms. Brown. Arnold Almond, Christy Beam, ..., Weiss Schnee, Yvonne Star, and Samuel Zorn are part of group 1." He began listing out and Weiss made a disappointed sound when her name was called out.

It seemed like she would not be in our group. Ace and I just shot her a reassuring smile before we focused back on Mr. Koetsuji who began listing the members of Group 2.

"Group 2 will be led by Mr. Smiles. Björn Axelson, Clarissa Clairemont, ..., Ace Gold, Stephen Stranger, ..., and Max Wonder are part of Group 2." He said without caring if the students were happy about their assignment or not.

Still, it looked like the three of us were all going to be in different groups. We exchanged looks and could only shrug.

"Everyone else is in Group 3 led by Ms. Yu. Today, Group 1 is responsible for hunting, Group 2 for cooking, and Group 3 for cleaning. Alright, that's it. You may now follow Mr. Smiles and Ms. Brown to the Barracks. Make sure you're on time. For every minute that someone is late, everyone is going to run a lap around the field." He finished his speech, which made a few people look around the crowd with gazes that promised pain if they had to run because of them.

Ace and I, along with the 34 other boys, followed Mr. Smiles to the boy's barrack, where we found ourselves some beds in the middle of the building. The beds were extremely simple and beside each bed was a small dresser.

Thankfully, the barrack had a shower and a functioning toilet, the regular kind. All thanks to energy conversion/technology, which made sure no indoor or outdoor plumbing was necessary.

Anyway, after we chose our beds, we still had roughly 90 minutes until the deadline. Unlike many others, we already wore appropriate outdoor clothes, so we went out to see if Weiss was done as well. We saw her waiting for us at the place we arrived, so we moved towards her.

"What took you ladies so long?" She asked in a sarcastic tone, and all three of us had to laugh.

"So, we've got three joint events with those from the Knight Academy. A hunt, some battles, and a mystery event. How much do you know about them? All I know is rudimentary." I admitted, which was true.

I did not look up their curriculum, so I only had some general knowledge on Knights I had gathered, partly at the amusement park I visited with my parents during the holidays.

"Well, I know some stuff, so I'll mention those. If one of you knows something I don't just add it after I'm done." Ace spoke up first and we just nodded in consent.

"Knights in general and those at the Knight Academy focus mainly on three things, personal combat prowess, mounted combat prowess, and commanding ability, which includes Pokemon combat.

Personal combat entails mostly sword and shield fighting, but I heard some train either with something else or with something on top of that. Mounted combat is divided into 2 categories, land-bound and aerial." I interrupted him here.

"Do you know what Pokemon we can expect?" I inquired, but he shook his head.

"Not really. I know they like to use Ponyta/Rapidash and those like them on land while using Pidgeot in the air, but I'm not sure which other species they use exactly." He confessed with a shrug.

"I heard about that from one of the Knight Academy students." Weiss threw in and we looked at her.

"I'm beautiful." She said as if that explained everything. "A student with his 2 friends was trying to brag and impress me by mentioning the greatness of the Knight Academy." She amended afterward.

"Anyway, Knight Academy students all seem to receive 2 Pokemon thorough their education. A land-bound mount during the second year of their elementary education and an aerial mount during the first year of their secondary education. The first choice is between Ponyta, Doduo, Blitzle, Skiddo, and Mudbray." She explained and I couldn't hold back a whistle.

The other two nodded in agreement even Weiss who was doing the explaining. Except for Doduo, all options were really strong, and even Doduo was not bad.

"All species whose final evolution is fast, strong, big, and can be comfortably ridden. The second choice is between Pidgey, Spearow, Starly, Pidove, and Rookidee. All species whose final evolution is big and strong enough to carry them while still being capable of flying fast." She finished after my interruption.

Those options were not bad, especially the Rookidee, even if I was a bit partial to the Pidgey line. I would definitely like to have a Rookidee of my own. Still, I noticed that all land-bound Pokemon and 1 evolution, while all aerial ones had 2, except for Spearow that one had only 1 evolution as well. Still, they managed to make the option pretty balanced.

"Thanks." Ace and I thanked her for mentioning that before Ace continued with his previous explanation.

"Anyway, the knight rides a Pokemon of either group while being equipped with a weapon of his or her choice. The most preferred weapons are a lance, glaive, or spear for close/medium-range combat, and bows or crossbows for medium/long-range combat.

As for commanding ability that's being able to command Pokemon, humans, or both in combat, so none of them should be bad at Pokemon battles. Theoretically, at least." Ace finished his explanation.

Weiss and I thanked him before we fell into a short contemplation, which I broke first.

"In my opinion, we should expect the first Pokemon of any knight student to be evolved. So, we can expect to see some Rapidash, Dodrio, Zebstrika, Gogoat, and Mudsdale.

As for their second one, those should either have evolved once or even twice. Moreover, that does not mean that they have no other Pokemon. I can imagine them having a third on to help them with/during direct combat." I told them my opinion on the Pokemon we would most likely see.

Weiss and Ace agreed with me. We began talking about what Pokemon could qualify for their third one when we noticed the others trickle in. We looked around and saw our teacher already standing at the front smiling at us. They even nodded at us, which probably meant that they had been listening in on us and agreed with the content of our little conversation.

At point 9:30 Mr. Koetsuji made a headcount, but some idiots managed to be late despite the warning. We had to wait for them and every one of us was glaring at them once they arrived.

"Alright, everyone's here now. As promised you may run 17 rounds around that field thanks to your compatriots. Don't worry about counting, we'll do that for you." He said while pointing at the field to our right.

"Now, get to it!" He yelled and everyone had to run over to the field while cursing the 5 idiots that arrived late.

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