Turns out, I was actually not a prodigy when it came to being a psychic. I was proud to say that I was at least above average. Most of what I had shown to impress Olympia before had been thanks to me spending most of my childhood actively working on my psionics.
After working together with Olympia for about a week, we settled on a plan for how my time here would be spent. We would spend one year focusing on each of the major pillars that every psychic had to master. Telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and lastly, the best transportation a psychic could hope to master, teleportation.
I had accepted that I wasn't going to become friends with any other students in Olympia's school. As the months passed, all the other students had become slightly scared of me. A poor child that had gone mad. To be fair, I didn't blame them; going along with Hoopa's pranks did make me look unhinged, especially whenever I failed any of his challenges during class.
I had to admit that Hoopa's methods were efficient. Not wanting to be subjected to one of their punishments was a good motivator. I could feel my understanding of what it meant to be a psychic advance at a higher speed than should be possible with my talent. Olympia herself had been left impressed with it.
Right now, we were working on the fundamental that was clairvoyance. By clairvoyance, I didn't mean I could see into the future. It was mainly a way to see the world beyond what was possible for a normal human. To experience and witness events happening far away from you as if you were right there.
"Gabrielle is currently getting an ice cream at the store, chocolate and mint flavor."
Today was a special event for the school as the students were encouraged to go outside and enjoy the city, to take a break and relax. I, however, was still stuck in the middle of class. Right now, I was sitting with my eyes closed on the outskirts of the city with Olympia right next to me.
"Oh, well would you look at that, Daniel and Juliet are on a date. Though judging by her expression, it is not going well."
Dealing with Hoopa's nightmare-inducing lessons had actually made my mind quite resilient. Though before, I would get overwhelmed with information wherever I let my clairvoyance out; I was now somewhat capable of processing and sorting through everything. Though, being able to see everything that was happening everywhere all at once was still an impossible feat for me. At this point, I could only clear my mind and focus on specific things and people I wanted to look at before bringing all my attention to them.
"Ah, Gabrielle dropped her ice cream after being startled by a Fennekin running by. Remind me to buy her some more later. The poor woman has been through enough."
Seeing my apparent "descent into madness" had taken quite a toll on her. I had somehow managed to convince her that it was just an unconventional training method against being uncomfortable when being judged by crowds. And that if I wanted to be able to participate in pokemon contest in the future, I would have to train the skill. It wasn't a great excuse, but she ended up believing it, which greatly helped her mental health.
"Grim is over at the store eating a cookie, Valerie is over at the pokemon center… Don't you think me spying on the students is a bit creepy?" I asked. In reality, I didn't care, but I was getting kind of bored by now. Most of my fellow students weren't actually that interesting.
I stopped my clairvoyance before opening my eyes and turning to my teacher who was rubbing her temples.
"You gotta admit it's at least a bit weird…" I said as a mischievous smile appeared on my face.
"I told you to tell me whatever you saw that was interesting. You were the one who decided to spy on them." Olympia said as she shook her head, almost succeeding in hiding the slight smile that appeared on her face.
I stretched my arms before asking.
"Yo, teach. Do you think you can look into my future? I'm not gonna lie, I am a bit curious. I haven't had any luck with precognition, but maybe seeing it in action would help me get a clue as to how it works."
Olympia looked to the clouds before shaking her head.
"Visions are not something I can do on command. They just happen. Usually, they are caused by a big event that involves me. Seeing another person's future is just a game of luck. But trust me. Sometimes it is better to not know than to know."
Her expression turned into a slight grimace before adding.
"The future can be quite… grim. Sometimes, all we can do is try our best, you know?"
It seems like my question had poured salt into a wound I didn't know existed. So I quickly decided to change the subject.
"Juliet decided to sneak through the bathroom window. I guess Daniel is destined to be forever alone."
— — —
Time passed by without me even noticing it. It was nice to have someone to watch over you when you were trying to learn to teleport. One wrong move, and you could end up 50ft above where you intended to move to. Or you might end up in an entirely different location than what you had planned. Thankfully getting stuck between two objects was not really something that happened in this world. If it somehow happened, then the psychic would have had to try extremely hard to do so.
It was also nice to have someone to watch over you when working on telepathy. Surprise, surprise, but linking your mind with someone else was incredibly risky. Especially the way I had been doing it so far. Luckily I had only really done it with my musketeers, so I had been safe.
Now that I think about it doing anything psychic without proper training was incredibly dangerous.
My understanding of telekinesis was incredibly rudimentary. It was just a "lift thing and move thing". I had no real finesse when it came to juggling different objects or moving things in a careful manner. I am surprised I didn't cause a major incident back at camp, probably thanks to Kadabra's supervision. Most of my training for telekinesis was mainly assembling and disassembling simple items, and the hardest thing of all, playing Jenga. I could not tell you the number of times I made that Jenga tower explode.
Same thing with Clairvoyance. Before I got to the school, I was incapable of using it. My mind would become overwhelmed with information and give me a massive headache. The whispers and visions I experienced mostly came from me being able to see and hear everything in a set area. Working with Olympia, I was now able to focus my clairvoyance on specific people or objects in order not to become overwhelmed.
Studying here was a nice routine. But as my fundamental classes began to draw to an end, I could see my time here was about to end. Most of what I needed to do was to simply continue to practice what I had learned. Something I could do anywhere.
I thought back over what had been the past four years of my life with a smile.
My mother had jumped back into her pokemon coordinator career. It was cool to see her show up on tv from time to time, and I had to admit she was surprisingly good at it. She seemed to have an innate understanding of showmanship. The first time I saw her, I was impressed by how much her energy and demeanor changed once she got on stage. I even had to take a few mental notes for the future.
I also spent some of my free time working at the local pokemon center. The legion of Nurse Joys had spread my name to each other, so the moment I introduced myself to her, I was instantly welcomed to help out. By now, I probably knew enough to be able to cure my pokemon in the wild, but I enjoyed helping out at the pokemon center. It made me feel warm to see an injured pokemon recover and go back to full health.
*bzzzzzz*
A buzzing sound took me out of my thoughts as I rapidly jumped away in panic.
"Hoopa no! I said you couldn't shave my eyebrows! After you shaved half my head, we made a deal that shaving was off-limits!"
Hoopa only gave a creepy smile before saying.
"Come on, Lucas, I know you are leaving the school soon. How about you leave this school with a makeover?"
Dashing to my closet, I pulled out a spray bottle filled with water before aiming it at them.
"Bad Hoopa! Bad" I said as I sprayed them with water.
They could have probably teleported or dodged out of the way of the water. But this had become a sort of game we played from time to time.
Hoopa stuck out his tongue at me.
"Try to catch me, you monster!" Hoopa said before teleporting away.
Following suit, I teleported after him, arriving at Olympia's office.
It was a bit of a shock to see Olympia holding a small cake. The whole office had some small party decorations, and when I turned to look at Hoopa, I noticed they were wearing a party hat. Hoopa made some confetti fall from the ceiling before saying.
"We planned a goodbye party!" Hoopa said with excitement.
"It's pretty basic because Olympia is a party pooper, I was going to build my own party with blackjack and hoo-" Hoopa was saying with excitement before he got a smack in the back of the head.
"Never mind what they say, Lucas. Hoopa has been getting a bit carried away lately."
I didn't expect them to do something like this, though I had to admit that when you spend nearly every day with someone, you tend to get quite close. I was going to miss them once I returned to Sinnoh, though it would be a nice break to not have to worry about being pranked on a daily basis.
The party ended up being quite simple, but it was a nice experience. After I had finished eating my cake, I saw Hoopa lift up a small box over their head before asking.
"Can I show the surprise yet?"
After Olympia gave them a nod, Hoopa gave me a small red box.
"This is my gift to you as your wise teacher, young student." Hoopa said as they stroked an imaginary beard.
While it was true that Hoopa had helped out a lot during classes, he mostly helped by using their overwhelming pressure as a mythical pokemon and their "punishments" whenever I failed. Most of the actual education came from Olympia. I could only let out a small chuckle as I opened the gift.
*Thud*
A fake snake made out of plastic jumped and smacked me in the face. I could only give a deadpan expression as I heard Hoopa's mad laughter.
Wiping a fake tear from their eye, Hoopa said.
"Ok, ok, this time it is for real." They said as they pulled out an identical box.
I opened this box carefully, but when I looked inside, I saw a familiar bracelet-sized golden ring.
Looking at Hoopa, I noticed they still had all three rings around them, but Olympia was missing the silver ring that was usually around her shoulders. She gave me a simple smile followed by a nod.
"I can only really use my three rings in this form, so I had given the rest to Olympia. But since you are also my friend now, I wanted to give one of them to you." Hoopa said as he made the three rings around their body float.
"I might need it back if I do get back my true form though." They said in a slightly embarrassed voice.
Carefully placing the bracelet around my hand, I felt it adjust its size until it became a perfect fit. The pure gold color slowly changed to rose gold as I felt a small connection to the bracelet. Turning my arm around, I noticed the now rose gold bracelet seemed to give off a silver reflection when it interacted with light. Probably indicating my two type affinities. The silver rings around Olympia's hands probably indicated her pure psychic type.
I couldn't help but let out a genuine smile as I turned to both of my teachers before saying a simple.
"Thank you."
*bzzzzzz*
"Now, about those eyebrows…" Hoopa asked as they pulled an electric hair clipper out of nowhere.
~Author's note~
I got arrested for an alleged power stone burglary. Send me your power stones so I can get a good lawyer. I promise I am totally innocent.