CH134 (364), Various Reactions (4)

Date: Grouday, 21.17.2181, a day before Oak Labs released the statement regarding Mikail's internship.

Location: Goldenrod City, Johto.

POV: Professor Bill Sonezaki

I leaned back in my seat and mulled over the news that my informant shared with me just now. Oak Labs would be announcing tomorrow that the global student champion Mikail Geo had signed up with them, so the matter of his internship had already been decided.

Apparently, the Professor himself had made an appearance to "recruit" Mikail, so it was no surprise that the matter has settled without any other applications being sent out. Especially since the offer extended to Mikail seems to grant him privileges close to that of a leading assistant.

The professor certainly did not hold back to ensure the young champion agreed. Nonetheless, if not for the fact that he was directly assigned to the main lab in Pallet City instead of one of the many sub-labs, I would have still approached him in hopes of poaching him away.

However, I did not have the resources to compete with the main lab of Professor Oak, and I doubted any other professor did. Well, at least on the northern continent. Professor Rowan in the south and Professor Magnolia in the west were probably the only ones that could.

It would take me a substantial amount of time to reach their station and the prestige of getting the student champ that many professors all over the human territories were interested in, would have helped me in that endeavor quite a bit.

*Sigh*

I had the necessary funding, but I was missing on the achievements and prestige front, which meant getting certain resources was harder for me. Still, I was quite a bit off from reaching the top professors, but becoming an acknowledged first-class Professor was my short/mid-term goal.

*le sigh 2*

It seems I would have to bank on coming out with a new evolution and stable evolution method if I want to further my goals. The priority and funding of my plan/project of finding an easier way to evolve an Eevee and a new Eeveelution would have to increase by a few notches as well since my informant told me that Oak's Lab was planning to start on a similar project.

*ruffles his hair in frustration*

Unfortunately, the guy was unable to find out the exact details which was why I had to resort to investing so drastically into mine since I could not risk them coincidentally aiming for the same Eeveelutions as me. The risk of them finishing before us, rendering all my investments moot was not one I could accept.

Finding out more about the goals of Oak Lab's new project had now moved up to one of my top priorities, so I would have to invest more into gaining that information.

Compared to the success of my projects, trying to poach Mikail was not as important, so I decided to discard any concern regarding the young champ. There was not much help he could have provided me anyway aside from the prestige bonus.

Date: Arcday, 22.17.2181, after Oak Labs released the statement regarding Mikail's internship.

Location: Sienna City, Kanto.

POV: Kevin George, head of the George family

Once more the boy made it to the headlines with some grand news, I thought while rubbing my temples, after finishing the call with the team leader of the information group I had instructed to keep track of Mikail.

Joining Oak Lab was already an honor, but this estranged relative boy of mine had to straight away join the main lab. The only greater honor/news I could think of would have been if he had been invited by the Professor himself since that would show the importance he assigned him.

I suddenly felt as if that thought did not seem as outlandish as I first believed. Oh, holy Mew, that was exactly what happened wasn't it? However, Grant did not mention any news in that regard, so it probably did not get mentioned in any of the information he found.

Well, that was good for me as well. This meant that not many besides me would know about it since Oak personally recruiting Mikail was quite significant. There had to be more to my young relative than I initially thought if he could get the Professor to personally approach him for recruitment before the boy even sent out his applications.

As for the extra safety, Mikail's signing on to Oak's ship would provide him, that was of no consequence to me or the family. I used my authority as family head, and made it undeniably clear to all family members regardless of age as well as position, that any actions against Mikail Geo and his parents were strictly prohibited.

No one would dare to act against that, especially after I stripped one of the elders of his position. The idiot was "indirectly" brewing some plans against the boy by targeting his father to blackmail him after he won the global competition.

*groan*

How anyone this dumb managed to become a family elder I don't know, but I publicly, at least within the family, exposed him and stripped him of his position to warn everyone that I was serious with my previous orders. Still, no one dared to complain, at least outwardly, after I revealed to them that the boy had already joined the Aura Guardian Order as a full-fledged member.

Now that he had also joined Oak's main lab he was practically untouchable, so I was going to have the news spread among the family as soon as possible. That should bury any thoughts still brewing among any of the family stupid or daring enough to act against my orders.

Well, this piece of news also confirmed that Edward and his family were moving back to Kanto which was good for my plans of having James and Layla befriend Mikail. The two had been back for some time now and had been asking me for details.

Now, that I knew that the Geo family was coming back to Kanto and that Mikail would spend a significant amount of his time in Pallet City, I could prepare accordingly. I would have James and Layla move to either Ashgray City, or directly to Pallet City so that they would have an easier way to come across Mikail to befriend him.

Hmm, I guess Ashgray City would be better for them since it would allow them to keep up their own business as well since the city was better connected than Pallet City. I did not want to harm the progress of my grandchildren after all.

Regardless, it was probably a better idea to let them choose where they were going to live for the next three or so years. I'm sure they would choose whichever city in that area fit their plans outside of befriending Mikail the best.

The two were currently the most promising youngsters in our family, which was why I chose them in the first place since geniuses would have an easier time befriending another genius. At least that was what I was hoping would happen.

Date: Arcday, 22.17.2181, after Oak Labs released the statement regarding Mikail's internship.

Location: Rota City, Rota.

POV: Professor Maria Varon

So, it has been confirmed, I thought after reading the announcement released by Oak's Lab. Michael had been hinting at this happening, but I had wanted to see the official statement before giving up since that was the only thing I could do in this case. I mean I was not delusional, I knew that I could not compete with Professor Oak.

I had hoped that my research into aura and its effect on Pokemon would tempt the boy since I had learned that he had shown interest in the topic, but it seemed that his interest lost out compared to joining Oak's Lab.

Still, I had been prepared to be disappointed due to Michael's warning, so I had already thought about some alternatives before this. It was obvious that I would need to do a collaboration project with Oak's Lab if I wanted to involve the boy in my research.

I was not sure if it was his talents, affinities, the blessing he had, or a combination of all threes, but the boy had uncanny luck with variations, which could prove beneficial to any researcher. That he had a mind fit for research was a point in his favor as well, so he would be learning something in the process too.

Anyway, seeing how he had chosen a Buneary as one of his new partners/Pokemon, I ended up deciding to suggest the evolution into the Aura-Variant Lopunny as the co-project. Finding out how to reliably allow any Buneary to evolve into the aura variant would be an outstanding contribution due to the evolution being stronger than its counterpart.

That it would give access to all trainers to a bonafide aura Pokemon was a big plus as well since that was something mostly reserved for aura users at this point due to such Pokemon preferring them which would not be a problem with Buneary.

I was going to put Mikail's participation as a condition, so I would have to wait for him to settle with the team first, but that was okay. I could wait a few months. Regardless, it was better to make the offer in advance so that my collaboration offer arrived before that of anyone else.

I knew that Michael was interested in doing the same, and he was probably not the only one. At least those that knew or had an inkling about Mikail being a blessed one would be interested in working with him, so any advantage I could get was welcome.

Date: Arcday, 22.17.2181, after Oak Labs released the statement regarding Mikail's internship.

Location: Purity City, Orre.

POV: Professor Krane

*le sigh*

I had known that my chances were slim to none after he had declared that he was planning to stay on the northern continent, but there had been the idea that just maybe he would end up changing his mind.

I had asked his friend to extend my offer for this reason as well so that he had the knowledge that I was interested in inviting him to my Laboratory at the back of his mind. I was informed by Ryuuto that Yu had even mentioned that I had expressed my interest to the champion, but it seemed that it was not enough.

My plan to call him with my offer next week also fell through with this announcement. I saw no feasible reason why Mikail would breach a contract with Samuel Oak of all people to join my Lab, so I had to reluctantly give up the idea of recruiting him.

Working on a project with Oak Lab was the only way to get access to young Mikail, at least for the next 3-4 years, so it was either that or wait until the internship was over.

The suspicion that he was blessed by one of the Legendaries was mostly why I wanted to work with young Mikail, and the information I managed to gather on him made me believe that the suspicion was true.

Still, blessing or not, none of the research/projects I wanted to involve him in was something I wanted to involve another research team in, so I would have to wait until Mikail was done with his internship.

I was not in a hurry anyway since none of my projects could be rushed so while the current development was a bit unfortunate it did not affect me all that much. I would have been working on them either way even if Mikail had never shown up on the scene, so I would simply continue as usual.

Still, true or not, I would keep an eye on the development of Mikail since any blessed one was a boon to humanity as a whole. Even if he ended up not being blessed, the talent he had shown so far indicated that he would end up becoming a pillar of humanity either way as long as he did not perish prematurely, so there was no harm in keeping track of his future.

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