My name is Kang Seulgi and from the moment I was old enough to receive my first starter Pokémon, I knew that I wanted to become the best Trainer in Alola. Fast forward seven years, to my second year in Trainer School and I realized that my dream would be a little harder to achieve than I originally thought. I watched on T.V. as Trainers such as Moonbyul from Hoenn and Irene from Kalos defeated their champions and entered the Hall of Fame, to forever be immortalized.

So I figured if I wanted to be the best then I needed to go to school with the best. But some things are easier said than done. Welcome to the Kalos Academy and to my story.

XXX

“Leeteuk, I don’t get why we have to do all of these things to prepare,” Irene complained, staring listlessly out of the car window at the scenery rolling by. Her Alolan Ninetales curled up on the seat next to her, content with snoozing the whole car ride away.

“Irene, you’re one of only a few people to become a Hall of Fame Trainer, and as such you must treat your fans well. They’ve propelled you to stardom and now it’s time to give back,” the Kalos Champion replied smoothly. "You’re going back to the Academy to finish your schooling there, but in between your classes there are people who expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain.”

Irene rolled her eyes. She did not sign up for all of this. Granted, she didn’t think she would ever make it through the entire Kalos gym circuit, much less challenge and defeat the Elite Four. She liked the fame at first, enjoying the long lines of fans that shouted her praises and asked for autographs. Things quickly got lonely though. Her status as a Champion separated her out from the legions of other Pokémon Trainers. It didn’t help that she wasn’t much of a people person outside of when she had to be.

“Are you thinking about it again?” Leeteuk asked softly, turning to face Irene. “I know it’s only been a couple of months since it happened, but don’t you think he’d want you to go through with it? After all, you couldn’t have done any of this without him.”

She had been on top of the world. But the higher the pedestal, the harder the fall, Irene figured. Less than a month after her victory over Leeteuk, she had her world torn apart. Dante. Her faithful Charizard, the Pokémon that she’d been partnered with for years had suddenly and unexpectedly fallen ill.

He was sick for a very long time, and even the best of healers couldn’t find what was wrong with him. Irene remembered being at dinner with some of her friends when she received the phone call. The next day, she was standing in Lavender Town in the Kanto region, laying a bouquet of flowers near a silver plaque.

Of course the entire region mourned with her. They saw it as the tragic tale of a champion Pokémon cut down in his prime, but for Irene, who had raised him from a tiny Charmander, it was far more personal and heart-wrenching.

The car rolled to a stop at a fancy wrought-iron gate, and within seconds the car was surrounded by young men and women screaming their heads off and waving little signs shaped like Irene’s face. For a brief moment Irene thought she saw a marriage proposal among the numerous signs being waved around. It took the security guard and her three Mightyena to stave off the crowd long enough for the car to scoot through, the gates closing behind them with a heavy thud.

“Irene? Joohyun!” Leeteuk shook the young woman’s shoulder and disrupted her reverie. Ninetales whined and pawed at her Trainer. “We’re here.”

Irene looked out at the familiar grounds before her and couldn't help the growing pit of anxiety in her stomach. How would she be able to handle returning to school without her most trusted companion by her side?

"Leeteuk can we just sit here for a while before I get out? It's kind of overwhelming." Her mentor nodded kindly, crossing his legs and taking out his tablet. Irene heard the sound of a popular mobile game coming from the tablet a second later.

"Take as long as you need, Joohyun."

They sat together for about twenty minutes before Irene finally gathered up her courage. “I guess I should get going. I still have the same room, yeah?” Irene avoided theChampion’s gaze as she gathered up her things and opened the back door. She didn’t want Leeteuk to see the lone tear that rolled down her face.

Recalling Ninetales back into her Pokéball, Irene snapped the ball onto her belt and walked the familiar route back to her dorm room. She climbed up the flight of stairs in front of Dorm One and was about to reach the top she suddenly collided with something tall and sturdy. She was bounced back down the stairs, where sherolled to a stop, her muscles groaning in protest. “Ow, what the ?”

XXX

From the moment Kang Seulgi saw Leeteuk crown a new Kalos Champion, she knew she had to meet the raven-haired Trainer. She even caught herself a Vulpix, which she hoped would soon evolve into a Ninetales, like Irene’s. There was only one problem.

Seulgi lived in the Alolan region, a long distance from the far-off Kalos region.Transportation between the two was expensive to say the least, and a three-day journey to boot. Rarely were planes chartered to travel that distance, as they had to make stopovers in Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova before reaching Kalos. In fact, there were only two reasons to charter a plane to Kalos.

Onewas to obtain a region passport and officially move there, a process which could take years to come to fruition, and Seulgi simply didn’t have the time. The second was far more manageable, if harder to obtain in her case. If Seulgi wanted to meet Irene in Kalos, she had to travel with a student visa.

Seulgi currently attended one of the Alolan Region’s best schools for up and coming Trainers and maintained high enough grades to be considered for a transfer program. She had dutifully filled out the paperwork and registered her team with the appropriate organizations and just last week had received her letter of approval from the school in Kalos.

Granted, she may have slightly embellished her transcripts just a little bit. (Her Bewear hadn’t beaten that many opponents) Nevertheless, the Kalos Academy for Gifted Trainers was happy to accept her as a transfer student.

Now three days later, she was walking up the road, orange rolling suitcase in one hand and town map in the other, jet-lagged and highly confused. The Academy should be around here somewhere… She turned right at the next intersectionand was immediately blocked by a growing crowd of fans. What is going on here? She wondered, stowing away her map and tightening her grip on her belongings. Seulgi soon found herself knee-deep in fangirls as she tried in vain to wade through the crowd. Who could they be waiting for? “Irene! Irene! IRENE! IRENE!”

Seulgi wished she could call her partner Pokemon out and get rid of all the fans. One look at her Bewear would send them scurrying away like Rattata . She stood on her tiptoes to glean just the slightest glance of a black van being stopped at the gate. Her heart suddenly beat faster, and she just knew that Bae Joohyun was in that van. Seulgi had to restrain herself from letting out a squeal, lest people catch on to her true plan.

The one thing her new school had adamantly declared upon her acceptance: No bothering their celebrity students. Joohyun wasn’t the only celebrity attending their school. Moon Byulyi, a Hall of Famer from Hoenn, Park Jihyo, an elite Pokémon Breeder and Kim Yongsun, a champion coordinator from Sinnoh also attended school there. So that meant absolutely no cameras other than the ones the school-provided tablets (all of which were on a closed network restricted to school students and staff), no ambushing them for autographs or advice, and definitely no battles with them unless sanctioned by staff.

Seulgi was driven back as the crowd suddenly dispersed, no doubt thanks to the three snarling Mightyena herding people away from the van. She watched as it crawled through a tiny opening in the front gate before the wrought-iron gate shut behind it.

“Hey, you! What are you doing here?” the security guard asked, pointing at Seulgi and waiting for an explanation. Her Pokémon flanked her and growled.

“Uh, hi. My n-name is Kang Seulgi and I just transferred here.” She reached into her backpack for the transcripts and letters she had received just in case she was questioned further.

The officer scoffed, “Yeah, right. Do you know how many boys and girls say that in order to get inside these gates?”

“No, really, I have my papers and everything!” She handed over the documents and waited patiently as the officer carefully pored over every single page, no doubt checking for even the slightest error or discrepancy.

Seulgi heard a sigh and was handed her papers back, before being waved through the gate with nothing more than a reluctant, “Go on then. You don’t want to be late for morning classes. The office is located in the largest building, they’ll want to see you before you start.”

Seulgi’s face dissolved into a huge grin, as she thanked the officer and bounced through the gate. I’m in!

The farther she walked, the more she was impressed. The Alolan Academy’s campus was a decent size, but was absolutely nothing compared to the grounds before her. It must’ve been three times the size of her old school, and from what she could see, it was filled with the latest state-of-the-art battling equipment and coordinating arenas.

A row of six grass-and-dirt stadiums were on her left, and she saw a few early risers out with their Pokémon, putting them through their paces and engaging in practice battles. On the other side of the main road she was on stood an outdoor arena that was not doubt home to practice contests. She saw a beautiful shiny Rapidash let loose with a dazzling Flame Charge attack, the red flames mixing with the silver of the Pokémon’s natural mane.

Both areas led