Desolate [Pokémon Arven x Protagonist]

Epilogue

• • •

"Dang, where is she?" I craned my entire body around to spot that galarian ponyta-haired girl.

Arven chuckled, settling me down with a hand to my shoulder. "Relax. She wouldn't miss this for the world."

I pulled away from him. "It's about to start!"

Arven kicked his feet up, allowing me space to freak out. "We already bought the tickets. No one's gonna take the seat."

After we had arrived at the Academy months prior, we ultimately had to tell Director Clavell all about what had happened down in Area Zero and what really happened to Professor Sada. The school was shut down for weeks, and no one but us really had any idea what was going on. All over the papers were headlines reading: Professor Sada Dead! It was horribly traumatic for Arven. We all chose to go completely on-campus for the time being, shutting off our phones and avoiding the press brought in from town. Ultimately, word got out that we were involved with the whole fiasco. Saving all of Paldea wasn't something we would be able to hide forever.

Because of all the disarray, the League was also shut down for a time, and Nemona's final battle with the champion Geeta was postponed. After fighting the monsters of Area Zero, Nemona was able to pass the Elite Four test in record time. When the fame of being the 'Saviors of Paldea' started to spread and people began to realize that one of those teenagers was scheduled to go up against La Primera when it opened back up again, the Academy was suddenly flooded with applicants, people of all ages with a heightened fascination with the art of pokémon training. The director told us he had never seen so many people look for higher education until the news broke out. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or if he was overwhelmed by the flurry of new students for the next semester.

The champion battle was usually set in a private area of the Champion League building, but because of the sudden spike of interest in battling, Geeta, Nemona, and the rest of the Elite Four agreed to allow the public to spectate this unusual event. Seats were set up around a stadium made from the mines of the South Province by the town of Artazon, but the crowd was so huge that seats were sold out within half an hour, and the League had to arrange for an area for the rest of the interested group to bring their own seats to watch. The League paid a huge sum to the store owners and food vendors of Artazon to help out with the refreshments. They had definitely made triple the profit they spent on traveling down to the arena. Almost everyone had some sort of merchandise and a bottle of juice to celebrate the occasion.

"Hey, hey! I'm here!" Penny shuffled her way past the dozens of legs to sit beside me and swung her eevee backpack to the front of her knees. "Snacks anyone?" She opened her bag to reveal a stock of aluminum-foil-wrapped meals and snacks. A mouth-watering aroma of sugar, meat, and cheese hit everyone within a twenty-feet radius.

Arven didn't hesitate to grab himself a warm, dulce-filled churro with an audible, "Mmm!"

I squinted at the girl. "You got these legally, right?"

Penny laughed. "Yeah! I actually bought these, don't worry." I fingered around for a bag of caramel-corn. "Bought it with the yen I hacked out of the Academy's system," she added, quietly.

"Penny!"

"I'm kidding! Geez!" She adjusted the snack bag between all of us to enjoy through the event. "I was helping out the Director with some light tech before I got here," she explained.

"Ah, is that why it hasn't started?" Arven was tapping at his watch.

"Since when did you start taking theater classes?" I joked.

"Oh! It wasn't for a class. Um...." She scratched the back of her head, looking off to the side. "They... uh... finally arranged Professor Sada in her casket. Like—the real one."