CH61 (291), Various Conversations (2)

The same day the inter-academy qualifiers finished, Mr. Cameron went to the main headquarters of the Aura Guardian Order in Rota. A quick look at his watch told him that he still had 45 minutes until the meeting with the other Elders, so he made a short stop at the cafeteria for a bite since the felt a bit peckish.

After his quick bite, he moved to the conference room with 5 minutes to spare. A quick look around the room showed him that everyone was present and that he was the last one to arrive. Just like the continental elder council, the regional one had 36 members.

However, unlike the continental one that only happened bi-annually, the regional council met every 6 months, which translated to 6 times per year. Only three of those dates were set, which were the one at the start of the new year, the one after the inter-academy competition, and the one at the end of the year.

The other three sessions were more flexible, but they did definitely happen as long as no extenuating circumstances came up, in which case they would most likely have a session anyway to address the situation.

*sigh* He was participating in way too many council sessions due to being part of the regional, continental, and global Elder Council of the Aura Guardian Order. Not only that, he had a supervisor function at the primary, secondary, and tertiary Aaron Aura Academies as well.

As if that was not enough, he was one of the representatives of the Aura Guardian Order for the regional (Rota), continental (northern), and global branches of the Pokemon Alliance.

Having so many positions was taking up a not-so-insignificant part of his time, and sometimes he was contemplating if he should step down from some of them, but he liked his positions as a supervisor since he liked the youthful atmosphere at the academies. Besides he enjoyed helping nurture the next generation.

As for his positions as a representative or council member, it was his turn and everyone else had already been in his position once, which meant that no one qualified was eager to take his place.

Well, at least he did not have to wait for much longer, then his term as representative would be up, and another 5 years after that his term at the regional elder council would be up as well, so he would be less busy once that happened.

*sigh* Being great at what one does could be a burden sometimes. He shrugged off those bothersome thoughts and moved to the seat reserved for him.

He began talking with his neighbor Jameson, a fellow continental councilor. At 6 p.m, Christina, who had been chosen to preside over today's session, declared the start of the meeting.

"Let's start the session with the events of today. Today all secondary and tertiary academies on the continent held their inter-academy competitions, including those in Rota. The academies under our Aura Guardian Order are also among them, so let's talk about the top prospects of those academies first."

Once she said that there was a moment of silence while each councilor began to think about what to say. Among those present, a few individuals possessed some sort of position in one of the 9 aura academies that were present in Rota.

There were also quite a few others that kept taps on one of the academies so that the council could be kept up to date with the major happenings in those academies without having to wait for the reports.

They began going over the tertiary academies first, and each councilor that had a student, they thought was noteworthy, spoke up. They then all discussed the student before moving to the next one.

9 students came up in total, 6 that stood out due to their personal prowess, and 3 that distinguished themselves through their Pokemon partners.

Things such as sponsorship, apprenticeship, and formal invitation to the Order were some of the topics that came up during these discussions. It was only close to an hour later that they concluded the subject of the tertiary academies, and they directly moved on to the secondary academies.

"The secondary division of our Spark Academy has one student with remarkable personal combat abilities, but no one I would call outstanding as far as Pokemon combat is concerned.

Adam Gala is a Tier 2 First-Class Aura User that has a pretty good combat talent and a slight affinity for the fire type. Not enough to become an Elementalist, but enough to integrate it into his aura-combat.

We've noticed his talent and chose to nurture it. He has been taught our academy dean's specialty, the flaming combat style. Thanks to his fire affinity he did not have to be able to use aura conversion to use the techniques effectively.

He added the flames through his affinity and fueled them with his aura to achieve a merely equal effect, and he has become really accomplished using the style.

Our dean plans to take him as his apprentice once he starts his tertiary education," the elder that had a supervisor role at Spark Aura Academy in Spark City reported happily.

The other councilors were happy to hear that a genius like that had appeared. The dean of Spark Aura Academy was a student of the founder and the flaming combat style was something he had learned from the founder.

The dean, together with his teacher, developed it further, and it was currently one of the strongest as well as most comprehensive aura combat styles the Aura Guardian Order had.

Hearing that someone talented enough to arouse the dean's interest appeared was gratifying to everyone present since it meant that another Aura Guardian with top combat prowess would appear in the future as long as no accidents happened.

They discussed the treatment they should give Adam before the elder who acted as a supervisor for Jeanne Aura Academy in Orleans City spoke up.

"Unfortunately, our Jeanne Academy doesn't have anyone that showed remarkable personal combat capabilities. However, we have someone who has a strong Pokemon party that shows great battle prowess. Stephanie Dola has four Pokemon with two (high), one (mid), and one (low) silver stage Pokemon.

The last one is her partner Lucario, and their fighting capabilities are good as well." The elder then told them what the other Pokemon were and some of the strategies she used.

After they finished the discussion on the treatment she should receive, the next one started. Dawn Aura Academy in Dawn City had someone with impressive prowess in Pokemon battles. Woods Aura Academy in Root City had no one outstanding, just like Grace Aura Academy in Grace City.

Dawn Aura Academy in Dawn City had someone in both categories, as had Lune Aura Academy in Luna City. Storm Aura Academy in Storm City had a great personal battler, and Grove Aura Academy in Cove City had an outstanding Pokemon battler.

Once all of them had their turn, it was Mr. Cameron's turn to give his opinion/report.

"Our Aaron Aura Academy has only a single outstanding student, but he's extraordinary in both personal as well as Pokemon combat. You should have heard of him since he made an appearance on TV and the radio.

Mikail Geo has reached Tier 2 First-Class as an Aura User, and he has accomplished the same as a Psychic. Not only that but he has trained in using both his talents in tandem, and is competent enough to face lower-end Tier 3 individuals while being capable of escaping from anyone below Tier 4."

Mr. Cameron had to pause a bit at this point because the elders chose to voice their surprise.

Reactions such as "unbelievable!" and "that has to be the highest comprehensive talent I've heard about in the last 800 years!" were just some of the exclamations by the present elders.

Mr. Cameron waited for his colleagues to calm down a bit before he continued, but he had to admit that it was hard not to feel proud of his academy student's achievement and the surprise it brought others.

"Actually, that's not all. He learned how to use Senbons as throwing weapons and become competent at it. He also learned how to apply his aura and telekinesis to boost the damage they caused, on top of being able to control their flight to a certain degree.

Besides that, he also learned how to use swords and has become good enough to face off against other Tier 2 Weapon Specialists such as knights."

Once he said that he was forced to pause once more because his words caused another uproar among the elders who felt the need to express their shock and delight at the appearance of such an irregularity. Words such as "monstrous" and "unprecedented" came up more than once. It took more than a minute for them to calm down.

"Yes, his personal combat abilities are truly beyond that of even traditional geniuses, and our academy did its best to nurture that talent. Still, that was only his personal combat talent, and as I said he is extraordinary in both aspects. I would go so far as to say that, as hard as it was to believe, his abilities as a trainer are above his personal combat prowess."

The elders could not hold back when he said that, and exclamations of disbelief were thrown out all around the room. Still, Mr. Cameron chose to ignore them this time around and simply went on.

"I'm sure most of you have seen the Butterfree and Xatu he has shown off during his appearance on TV. Well, those are truly his oldest and strongest Pokemon.

In fact, his Butterfree is currently at the (high) gold stage, and his Xatu is at the (mid) gold stage, but I would not be surprised if it managed to advance to the (high) gold stage sometime during the competition.

In the same vein, I believe it to be possible for one of his other Pokemon to advance to the gold stage as well before the end of the competition."

Most elders were looking at him in disbelief when he said that, and he was sure he heard some of them wondering out loud why they should even bother letting Mikail participate in the regional competition.

It would be better to directly assign him a quota for the continental competition. At least that way, he would not be demolishing the other competitors from Rota.

They were worried that being absolutely demolished would leave shadows in their hearts, which was something that was entirely possible if they had to face (high) gold stage Pokemon, especially ones that were of the king/queen variant.

"Well, before I address that worry of yours, I want to add that in addition to his two gold stage Pokemon, he has over twenty Pokemon at the (high) silver stage, which is why I said that his capabilities as a trainer are probably higher than his own combat abilities.

Anyway, as for him demolishing the other students and thus breaking their confidence, we've already asked him to abide by a set of restrictions during the regional competition to avoid such a situation.

Mikail agreed to only use his aura abilities during the personal combat competition unless he is about to lose, and the restrictions he agreed upon for the Pokemon category are even stricter.

He agreed to not use his gold stage Pokemon during the regional competition, and on top of that, he would refrain from using Pokemon with a type advantage against his opponents if possible.

Thankfully, Mikail has shown to be an understanding young man since he agreed to those requests, and I believe that should be enough for the others to not get demoralized."

That assertion was followed by praises and collective relief from everyone. While they were absolutely delighted that such an unbelievable genius had appeared, they did not want the other talented students to be traumatized.

After that report, the elders began to discuss the treatment Mikail should receive, and the topic of his future plans came up. The fact that Mikail was not planning to resume his tertiary education at Aaron Aura Academy or any other aura academy was brought up and got confirmed by Mr. Cameron.

Still, that got resolved by the unanimous decision to prematurely invite Mikail to the Aura Guardian Order. Others brought up the fact that Mikail was planning to return to Kanto for his tertiary education and that he would have no substantial link to Rota after that since the Aura Guardian Order was a global organization.

On that front, they decided that Mr. Cameron would remind Mikail and his parents of the option of a dual Kanto/Rota citizenship. Adding to the offer in case they wavered was authorized, and if Mikail agreed they would expedite the process.

Honestly, nearly all elders believed that Mikail would win this year's global competition, so they did not want such a genius to slip through their fingers, which was why they came up with those solutions. By the time they finished Mikail's case, as much time as the previous cases combined had passed.

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