CH5 (527), Prelude To The Practical Year (5)

Utopia's size increase and capability upgrade were not the only changes that happened due to Horus' breakthrough. Over the next few days, I noticed that the energy density of Utopia was slowly increasing, and despite happening much, much slower, even the purity of the energy inside Utopia was increasing as well.

Even by the time my 14th birthday arrived nearly two weeks later, this increase was still ongoing. By that point, the energy density had been enhanced by slightly more than 40%, and the energy purity had risen by about 4%. This was great news for me/us since it meant that everyone's training/progress speed had risen along with it. I was really curious at what point the increase would stop.

Still, all I could do in that regard was wait and see how it went, so I shelved the matter for now and focused on my birthday party. I told everyone through our chat group that they did not have to go out of their way to come over just for the party since quite a few of them were not even on the same continent or were otherwise busy.

In the end, Jessie, Weiss, Erza, Rose, Misty, Aaron, and Kinji showed up regardless. Ace couldn't show up because he was on duty, and Yoruichi was on a mission. The others could not come over as well, but they all made sure to call me to wish me a happy birthday.

It was nice to hang out with friends, and one of the topics we talked about was the practical year schedule for this year that had been announced two days ago. I had already known the 3 schedules that had been considered thanks to Professor Oak, and it seemed the alliance had ultimately settled on the first one.

My practical year would start with 6 months with the Military, followed by 2 months at a Hospital, 3 months at a PokeCenter, and 6 months with the Police. After that came 1 month at an Orphanage, 2 months at a Nursing Home, 2 months at a Logistic Department/Firm, 2 months at a Finance Department/Bureau, 3 months at a Disaster Relief Center/Bureau, and finally 6 months with the Rangers.

Unlike with the school year, there were no vacation/break periods aside from the weekend, and even that was not really present during some of the stages such as the Military one at the start. No wonder everyone described it as super grueling, and mine was going to be even worse since I went and had the professor arrange for me to go to the best places during each phase.

Still, each and every one of my friends said that it was a necessary as well as important experience and that they were glad that the alliance organized it since it truly prepared them for the life that was waiting for them.

Even Rose said that she would do it every time if given the choice since she would have had a much harder time if she did not go through the experience. I could see where she was coming from since I knew for a fact that "little" Rose had never gone through anything that would qualify as hardship before her practical year, and that she had nearly zero real-life nature/wilderness experience.

Anyway, a big part of my birthday party was spent with everyone reminiscing about their practical year, sharing their experience with me and the others, and giving me tips by explaining how they handled certain situations.

Our conversation even managed to attract the attention of the "parent group", and they joined in as well, talking about their own practical year. The conversation only stopped once it was time to prepare for dinner, with the men moving to the grill and the women setting the table.

I heard Mom joking that grilling was the only time she could get Dad to "cook", or at least "cook" something edible, with all aunts laughing and agreeing with her, citing that it was the same for them. Dad complained that he could make a perfectly fine omelet, which had the women giggling.

Aunt Rouge griped that Uncle Roger could set water on fire while trying to make soup, which caused everyone, since all of us were obviously listening in, to laugh. Uncle Roger grumbled that he was not that bad and that it only happened once which made everyone break out in another round of laughter.

Uncle Jacques' laughter got caught in his throat when Aunt Willow said that he managed to freeze the water while trying to make soup. Well, at least, Uncle Roger joined us this time around.

When everyone looked at Aunt Lily and Uncle Thorn to see if something would come up from their side, Aunt Lily actually complained that she had nothing to complain about since Uncle Thorn had become a decent enough cook after getting teased in the past.

Anyway, jokes aside, once the table was set and the food was ready, everyone made sure to thank them for their hard work. After dinner, Jessie, Rose, and their teams put on a few performances for us, and they even did a spontaneous collaboration that turned out pretty great.

After that, I was "dragged" onto the "stage" as well under the persistent request of the "audience", and they requested me to play a few pieces and sing a few songs. I obviously streamed all that to Utopia as well so that they did not miss out on the fun, and Mothra/Butterfree ended up requesting that I let her out since she wanted to put on a performance for me as well.

Naturally, her performance was based around Spiral Galaxy, and it was still a rather impressive show, especially when it was executed for display's sake and not for attacking.

Still, Mothra's act caused a few more of my Pokemon to request that I let them out since Mothra's performance fired them up and they wanted to put on a show of their own. Among them, Tiamat/Milotic, and Lapras put on the most beautiful performance, and Rose wistfully said that it was a shame that I was not planning to join the coordinator's circle.

She and Jessie became really excited when I said that I might do it at some point as long as my Pokemon wanted to do so. Nonetheless, that was something that would only happen later on, once I had reached some of my immediate goals, such as winning a circuit/cup or two and advancing to the Elite Class.

In my opinion, reaching the Ace Class was a forgone conclusion after all, so my next goal trainer-class wise was to reach the Elite Class. I did not aim for the Champion Class since reaching the requirements for that particular class advancement within the next 5 years was practically impossible unless something big happened.

Regardless of my distant future as a possible coordinator, Jessie dragged me to the side after everyone began to leave so that she could talk with me about something. She ended up admitting that she had thought about my offer and that she would rather accompany me on my journey than stay at the sanctuary or orphanage.

She also shared that she had already managed to persuade the colleague she had been enticing and that she was working on a second one if I wanted to hire more than one Pokemon nurse. That was naturally something I wanted since it would allow them to work in shifts.

Honestly, the only reason I could have to decline her offer/request that I could think of was Utopia or rather the fact that I would not be able to camp inside Utopia at night if I traveled with her, at least not as long as I was not willing to take her inside with me.

Well, I probably still could, but she would no doubt notice that I was not inside my tent, and that would just be rude. The plus side of her idea would be the human company I would have on my journey, because honestly, with Utopia I doubted that I really needed her expertise as a Pokemon Nurse. Well, at least not for myself.

In the end, I temporarily accepted her offer, but I told her that I was probably going to do a speed run in Hoenn since their Senior League Tournament (SLT) happened at the end of my first year, so I was planning to participate in that one because I did not want to waste another year to wait for the KSLT. Well, unless I found a better option.

I explained to her that she might like it more if she accompanied me when I started my Grand League journey, but Jessie said that she did not mind being in a bit of a hurry in Hoenn, which was her saying that she wanted to join me from the get-go.

I had no reason to say no, and we agreed that she and her colleague would start working for me at the start of the new year and that Jessie would keep working at my sanctuary until I began my journey. After that, she would arrange for a second nurse to take her place while she accompanied me on my journey. If something came up we would adjust accordingly.

The days after my 14th birthday were calm, and just a week later on Grouday, I received some good news during the weekly check-up. Osiris/Marowak had officially begun his limit-breaking phase with one of his parameters being already at S.

As for his evolution, we were still waiting for Igneel/Charmeleon to evolve into Charizard to prove that he/Osiris had overcome any kind of ancestral grudge against the species. Considering that it had not been long since this first parameter is to S, we would have to wait close to half a year while until he was ready to evolve.

At least I did not think that Igneel would be able to complete the first round of his limit-breaking phase before that time, and since that was the optimal evolution point for the Charizard line, we were forced to wait.

It was on Giratiday the following week that I received a letter from the alliance which told me where I would be assigned to for my time with the Military. I was quite surprised when I saw the area that the military camp I had been assigned to was located in, but compared to me, my parents had a much bigger reaction, and it was not a good one.

I had been assigned to a military camp on the northeastern border, and neither of my parents was happy with that. No one did their practical phase at a border camp, at least as far as my parents knew. Considering that those places were seen as active war zones, I was not surprised by their attitude.

Mom wanted to directly head to the closest alliance office to give them a piece of her mind, but we managed to calm her down. Dad's reaction was milder compared to hers. He simply said that we would have to call the alliance hotline to inquire whether an error had occurred. He told Mom that we would head to the office if they could not help us over the phone.

I knew that this was most likely not a mistake but something that had been specially arranged for me. I reminded my parents about Professor Oak's plan to set up my practical year, and honestly, neither looked happy when they realized that this was most likely real and not a mistake.

To clear things up, I called Professor Oak under the watchful eyes/ears of my parents, and he confirmed that there was no mistake with my assignment. When Mom heard that, she asked me to hand her the phone in a low voice, and seeing her look, I did so without hesitation.

Mom first greeted Professor Oak before she began to rip him a new one. Ok, it was not that bad, but she did ask if he lost his mind and what he was drinking when he arranged for me to be sent to an active border camp.

Once my heart went back to its place after witnessing the way Mom talked to THE Oak, I could not help but find it amusing that she was talking like that to the Professor. Normally, Mom would have never done that, but it seemed that her worry about me overpowered any rational thinking.

Thankfully, Professor Oak did not seem to mind her outburst and he actually explained to her the reasoning behind his decision, which basically boiled down to "Mikail can take it" and "It's the best place for him to develop". Honestly, I was really, really happy that this was not a cultivation universe when I heard her talk like that, or this could have gone rather differently.

Actually, it could have also gone rather differently if Professor Oak was not such a nice and understanding person, so I was happy that he was a nice guy.

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