CH31 (645), Deal

"Hello, this is Professor Ishiro Serizawa speaking. Am I right to assume that I am speaking with Professor Mikail Geo?" Ishiro asked fully well knowing whom he had called.

He was absolutely sure that this was the right number as well. There was simply no way that it wasn't after all the hoops and loops he had to go through to acquire it, though admittedly that wouldn't have happened if he had simply waited until Mikail had started his journey. Nonetheless, as a renowned Professor, it should have been a relatively simple thing for him to inquire about the phone number of another person, even if that person was a Junior Professor.

Unfortunately, it had been anything but simple due to Oak and the Order running interference. Still, now that Geo had embarked on his journey, the restrictions they had set up were finally loosened, and once he heard that the boy had somehow managed to acquire another rare Magikarp specimen, during a fishing competition no less, Ishiro finally set aside his current project to dig up the number and make the call.

He knew that there was no way for Geo to join him in a research project during the first year of his journey, so he was planning to give him an offer he couldn't refuse instead. With Geo's obvious interest in apex and top species, it should be easy to persuade him to part with some variant Magikarp.

Ishiro did not expect Geo to give up his variant Gyarados, especially since they seemed to be part of his main lineup, but he was certain that Geo should have a few variant Magikarp right now. It would be illogical to not try to attain more of them after all. Those Magikarp were his target and thanks to his research subjects, he had the perfect candidates to establish a successful trade.

"Yes, I'm Mikail Geo, though I am still a Junior Professor, professor" Ishiro heard the boy confirm over the phone. "For now. There's no doubt in anyone's mind that you'll become a full-fledged Professor within a relatively short amount of time." Ishiro refuted. "Unless of course, you do not plan to aim for a full professorship," he probed, and if that was true Mikail would be disappointing a lot of people.

"I am," Mikail quickly returned. "I just did not want to come off as more than I currently am," Geo humbly finished. Ishiro had to chuckle a bit at that since there was nothing humble about his achievements as well as discoveries so far, and Ishiro was absolutely certain that Geo knew this.

Still, Ishiro preferred this kind of pretend humbleness, which was the bread and butter of Oak, over the haughtiness that some of his colleagues put on, Bill being the worst of them. Every time he talked with the fellow, he had the urge to punch him in the face. Honestly, the man needed some urgent humbling, though Geo and Oak had taken some of Bill's wind out of his sails with their recent discoveries.

"So, how can I help you, Professor Serizawa?" Geo asked and Ishiro focused back on the matter at hand. "It is no secret that my research is focused on Gyarados and Magikarp as well as their variants. You have more of those variants on your team than anyone else in living memory, and I have been trying to apply for a collaborative research project during your time at Oak Labs. Unfortunately, the good Professor declined all my applications, so the idea fell through. Due to the busyness of the practical year, I shelved any attempts to contact you on the matter until now," Ishiro did a momentary pause here before delivering my offer.

"I know that your current focus is on your journey, so I don't plan to ask you to join a collaboration project. Instead, I propose an exchange. I'm assuming you still have some variant Magikarp that are not part of your main roster, and I am offering an exchange involving those. It is public knowledge that one of my research directions involves the Tyrantiar line. My offer is to exchange your variant Magikarp for one of the Larvitar I have on hand," Ishiro finished before waiting for his answer.

"Well, I am interested in acquiring a Larvitar, and I do have some variant Magikarp at hand," Geo admitted after a few moments. "I'd like to hear the details of the exchange. Are we going to do a one-for-one exchange?" Geo followed up, though Ishiro heard a slightly joking tone at the last bit, which was good since there was no way he would agree to something like that unless the potential difference was heavily skewed in the Magikarp's favor.

"Well, one-for-one would be a bit too much, but how about you tell me what kind of variants you have along with their potential and I'll give you an offer for them," he proposed, not minding finishing the deal over the phone, and Mikail "hmmed" for a moment before giving out an "Alright".

"I currently have 4 Magikarp variants at hand," Mikail said and Ishiro was certain that Geo had more than that. 4 was most likely just how many of them Geo was willing to trade away, though that was still more than Ishiro had expected him to have. Even if he had half a dozen fully-grown variants, it was not certain that each one of their progeny would end up being variants as well, so Mikail offering 4 variants up for trade was more than Ishiro had predicted.

"2 grass variants, 1 dark variant, and 1 poison variant," Mikail continued, instantly grabbing Ishiro's attention. It was unfortunate that neither a fire variant nor a dragon variant was among them, but he could understand why. He would keep them to himself as well if he had them at hand. Well, maybe he was thinking too much into it, and Mikail only had these Magikarp at hand.

"The dark variant, and the poison variant both have 4-star potential. One of the grass variants has 3-star potential, while the second grass variant has 5-star potential. Also, aside from the 3-star grass variant, all Magikarp are female," Geo shared and Ishiro could freely admit that the Magikarp Mikail was offering had better potential than he had expected.

Still, that all Magikarp aside from the one with the worst potential happened to be female was quite a "coincidence". To some extent, their being female was both good and bad. It was good because there was a slightly higher chance for a female Magikarp to pass on her variation to her child. The reason it was bad, was because a female could only have one child at a time, while a male would be able to produce as many progeny as possible as long as willing females were available.

That the possible breeding pair had such a skewed potential disparity was another "coincidence". Regardless, Ishiro had to try his luck to see if he could get them for the lowest possible price without being unreasonable. Maybe if he was lucky enough Mikail would accept it without negotiating for a better deal.

"Well, I would be willing to exchange a perfectly healthy 5-star iron-stage Larvitar below the age of 2 for all 4 Magikarp. If you agree to that, we could finalize the exchange tomorrow at the latest" Ishiro offered, going for a somewhat reasonable offer, even if it was undoubtedly in his favor. "I'm sorry but that's a bit too much," Mikail politely declined and Ishiro chose to remain silent to wait for his counteroffer.

"I'd be willing to exchange the four Magikarp for 2 5-star Larvitar, preferably of my choice," Geo said, going with a proposal that was entirely too much in his favor. He probably knew that as well, but Ishiro still went ahead and denied his counteroffer.

"You know I can't do that," Ishiro said sounding disappointed before releasing a deliberate sigh. "While I can't let you pick 2 Larvitar of your choice, I can allow you to take your pick of one 5-star Larvitar below the age of 3 out of 10 Larvitar that I'll bring for the exchange at my Lilycove Research Lab," Ishiro proclaimed, giving Geo a slightly better offer than the first one.

"Tempting, but not enough. My Magikarp are worth more than that, especially to you Professor Serizawa," Geo refused Ishiro's offer. "I would however be willing to reduce my demand to one Larvitar if I am allowed to freely pick my Larvitar from all available options at your Research Facility on Mt.Silver," Geo suggested, and Ishiro's first instinct was to directly deny his request. However, he decided to agree if Geo acquiesced to certain conditions.

"That is not impossible," Ishiro returned. "However, I have to add a few stipulations before I am willing to agree to your condition. I can allow you free-range access provided that you limit your choice to the Larvitar at or below 5 stars, and you can't choose the Shiny Larvitar. Additionally, the Larvitar of your choice has to be older than 1 and younger than 5 years of age. I'm not putting a limit to the stage of the Larvitar, so you are free to choose a bronze stage one if you want," Ishiro finished before patiently waiting for Mikail to reply.

"I'm okay with that," Mikail returned after some time and Ishiro nearly released a sigh of relief at his agreement. "So, when should we go through with the exchange? I am pretty much free whenever you want, except for Giratiday next week," Mikail shared and Ishiro began to ponder when he could spare a day for the exchange.

"Well, I'm currently in the middle of a project, and since I have to be present to ensure that you can safely do your selection, we'll have to settle for a date when I can afford to leave the project. Unfortunately, it's going to take me two more weeks before I can afford to spare a day for the exchange, so how about Grouday in two weeks?" Ishiro suggested.

"Yeah, sure. I don't mind," Mikail readily agreed and after exchanging a few pleasantries along with setting the time of the meeting to 9 a.m. at the Mt.Silver research facility, they hung up. Once the call was over, Ishiro released a satisfied sigh before chuckling for a bit. He had noticed that Mikail had not mentioned the age of the 4 Magikarp he was planning to exchange, but Ishiro did not mind that.

Even if the Magikarp were currently not mature enough, Ishiro did not mind waiting another year for them to mature if necessary since he seriously doubted that Mikail would hand him newborns. As for the possibility of them being too old, he did not even consider that due to 2 reasons.

One, Mikail had a pretty good reputation, and something like this would harm his reputation, so it was just not worth it. Two, Mikail's first variants were barely 10 years old, so how old could their progeny be? Besides, even if somehow this batch ended up being unrelated to Mikail's Gyarados, Magikarp were hardy Pokemon with a decent lifespan, so as long as they were not over 25 years old, their age would have no significant impact on his plans.

Anyway, he stopped thinking about things he could not influence and turned his focus on his current project. He had to make sure to get everything on track so that he could ensure that he could go to the meeting with Mikail without negatively impacting his research project.

Meanwhile, at Lilycove Beach, Mikail put away his phone with a pleased smile. "I did not expect Professor Serizawa to call me, much less for me to get a Larvitar out of our call," he mused before shaking his with a happy chuckle. While that was certainly great news, he had a sand art competition to focus on. Mikail had already lost nearly 10 minutes due to the phone call, so he stopped wasting any more time and began working on his sand sculpture(s) instead.

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