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Schilly sat on her new bed, in her new dorm, looking at her new uniform. It hadn’t been too long since she had been in a similar situation. The uniform had been white, with black stripes and the number ‘303’ embroidered on the back. Her gym challenge uniform had long been stored away, ever since she failed at the fifth gym. None of that mattered for her anymore. She had reached her goal to be reunited with all her beloved Pokemon long ago. And with both Galars near destruction (thank you, President Rose) and the end of her journey with Sou, Marvin and Professor Magnolia, Schilly needed something new. This uniform was said ‘something new’. She put it on and viewed herself in the mirror. Oddly enough, the uniform reminded her of Giga, her Falinks. Fastening her belt, she excitedly left her room towards the great hall. Her first day at the Masters Dojo was about to begin.
The main hall was cluttered with students all wearing the same uniform as her. It felt like the opening ceremony in Motostoke all over again. Schilly had a big smile on her face. To her surprise there was one individual who didn’t wear the same yellow outfit like the rest did. It was hard to miss, the person (or rather their hat) towered over everyone else. Schilly walked over to them, noticing a bunch of Pokeballs flying around the base of their cylinder.
“Oh, wow! How do you make them fly?”, she screamed excited, making the person in front of her flinch and the Pokeballs landed on the floor. They turned around, an incredulous and perplexed look on their face. The man, as it seemed, cleared his throat and collected himself again.
“Oh my, what an awfully loud voice. But to ease your worries of surprising the great Avery: using my psychic powers I knew exactly when you would speak up and decided to play being startled. Now, show your gratitude to me.”
“Eh, what?”
Schilly didn’t understand a word he just said. She didn’t mean to startle him. Why should she show him a Geodude? Before that question was even spoken out, a voice spoke up behind Schilly.
“And who would you be, actually? I’ve never seen you around here!”
So there was another person without a uniform. The girl that slowly trudged towards them had a cool bow in her hair and a strained smile on her face. Schilly swung around, facing the girl and clasped her hand.
“I’m Schilly, nice to meet you. I love your bow! Who are you?”
The person winced, retracting her hand and playing them protectively over her ears.
“My name is Klara, please don’t talk to me over such a short distance.”
Had she been loud? This was something she wanted to work on, right? Schilly closed her mouth and nodded instead.
“Oh, aren’t you a fast learner? So what are you doing here in the dojo, Schilly?”
Yeah, what was she doing? She was here to find out exactly that. After all, it was Leon who told her ‘If you get lost, sometimes it's best to go back and start all over again. By making different choices and taking different routes you will eventually get to your goal. Even if you don’t know what that is, yet.’ Hop wouldn’t stop making fun of her for taking his brother seriously. But for some reason, she found herself agreeing with Leon, that’s why she took his recommendation to join the dojo in the first place. She simply hadn’t found her goal. A goal she could only reach now, with all her Pokemon and as the person she was now.
“Oh, I don’t quite know that, yet…”, Schilly concluded.
“You don’t know?”, Klara asked, irritated.
“If you don’t even know an answer to that question, you won’t make it far in the dojo”, Avery spoke up again.
“It would truly be best for you if you would just leave!”, they both spoke in unison, before trotting away in different corners of the hall. What a bunch of weird people. Schilly liked them already.
___
A few days later and Schilly was tasked with the first assignment of the dojo. Catching Pokemon probably wouldn’t be considered a difficult task anywhere else, but on this island, with this dojo, it was. Whoever said that she had way too much energy never met those Slowpokes before. It didn’t help that two of the Pokemon had stolen Avery's hat and Klara’s bow and those two had a bad temper. Schilly could understand them. She was just glad she had Sou to balance her out. But right now she didn’t have him and she was hellbent on doing this on her own.
Schilly looked around and tried to analyze the situation. It shouldn’t be too difficult. She was in the Soothing Wetlands and one of the slowpokes was currently resting under a tree in a puddle. It probably didn’t have the hat or the bow, Schilly concluded by the absence of their respective owners. Those Slowpokes seemed to be overly obsessed with headwear for some reason. And then Schilly had an idea.
She ran back towards the dojo, her personal room to be exact. She rummaged through her backpack and found her own green beret hat. She hid it in her uniform and hurried back to the slowpoke. It hadn’t moved at all. However, she had seen it move before and judging by their speed, she had to move fast.
“Okay, Mega! I need your help!”, she said, summoning her Stunfisk out of its Pokeball, “Bury yourself and I’ll lure the Slowpoke to me. It’s extremely fast, so be ready to bite instantly, okay?”
Her trusty Pokemon gave a sound of approval, before doing as she said. Schilly positioned herself in a direct straight line of the two Pokemon. The slowpoke was fast, it would almost certainly hurry towards her, right over Mega. Taking a deep breath, Schilly took out her hat, putting it on her head. Then she let herself fall on her knees, let her head hang down and screamed:
“AHHHHH, I’ll never get to catch one of these Slowpokes! I’m bound to fail!”
Schilly felt the earth rumble, a horde of Bouffalant was running past her back into the woods, A bunch of Talonflames abandoned their nests and then she heard the patter sound of Slowpoke's little feet running towards her. She moved her head upwards, just to see Mega snap it’s mouth around one of its feet.
“Great work, Mega. Don’t let it escape!”
Schilly jumped up, this was her chance. She should call out another Pokemon to assist Mega. But which? She mentally went through her Pokemon and their attacks. Wait. What typing did Slowpoke have again? Most People knew it as a water and psychic type, but those in Galar had a different one, right? Schilly eyes became blurry. No, she was supposed to be past that. She shook her head. Psychic. Those Slowpokes were simple psychic types.
“Let’s go, Kilo. Use Crunch!”
Her Barraskewda came out of its pokeball and propelled itself right towards the Slowpoke. Using its strong jaw, Kilo dealt quite a lot of damage. The slowpoke fought back, using its psychic abilities to harm Barraskewda, but Stunfisk used Metal Claw and efficiently managed to bring it out of balance. The attack missed.
“Great. Now, Kilo. Use Liquidation! Mega, let go!”
The Pokemon did as told and Kilo finished the Slowpoke off. The three of them triumphantly jumped high in the air, before collecting the Slowpoke and bringing it back to the dojo. Schilly looked into the eyes of both Kilo and Mega, content and ready to celebrate success. This had felt right.
___
The second challenge led Schilly into the Forest of Focus. She was standing in a clearing, inspecting the variety of different plants and fungi growing there. The forest was a damp and cool place. Cooler than the other places of the island to say the least. Still, it was one of the places where she was feeling confident letting out her Eiscue, Peta. The little penguin was strolling through the forest, picking up all sorts of mushrooms before hurrying back towards Schilly. On the other part of the forest, her Falinks methodically explored the tracks and roads and brought her a variety of mushrooms as well. Still, analyzing the mushrooms with the rotom phone so far had only brought negative results.
Schilly sighed, finding these Max Mushrooms turned out harder than she expected. She didn’t even know what they looked like. For someone who desperately wanted to become Professor Magnolia's assistant in the research field of Dynamx, that was disappointing. Not that this mattered anymore with the Professor's retirement. Behind her she could hear the specific rotating and splashing of water, signaling that Kilo had returned. Schilly had sent it out to the many caves, all connected through waterways.
“Did you find anything, Kilo?”
Her Barraskewda shook its head. Schilly was lost. The whole forest was full of mushrooms, but not the one she was looking for. The damp caves didn’t have any mushrooms to begin with. And every other location either was too dry or too hot for any successful growth of fungi. Well, she still had Exa and Tera, who were checking the Training Lowlands just beyond the forest. Schilly decided to check on them, using her Vikavolt video drone that she had sent with them. Just as she was about to open the videostream on her rotom phone, she saw Exa, her Cinderace running towards her. It was eagerly waving at her and seemed overly excited. And so did Schilly now.
“EXA!!”
Cinderace came to a stop before her and pointed towards the training lowlands it just appeared from.
“Did you find the Max Mushrooms?”, Schilly screamed, jumping up and down on the spot. Her Pokemon nodded, seemingly being proud of its achievement. She slung her arms around its neck and let out an exhausted, yet relieved sigh.
“Thank you, Exa! Is Tera still there?”
Another nod was her answer.
“Okay, Time to collect them. Great work, everyone!”, She complimented her team, before returning them into their Pokeballs and running along her Cinderace towards probably the only cave without any water in it. The only cave connected with a dessert. Probably the hottest and driest place on this island. Still, when they reached her Toxtricity, what she found were some weird looking and glowing Mushrooms of the same color as the Dynamax Pokemon she knew. Schilly smiled, she was proud of their success, too.
___
Schilly was sitting on the final steps of the Challenge Road, the massive Tower of Darkness next to her stretched to the sky. The sun was setting, coloring the Stepping-Stone Sea in a warm orange. She adored the sight from so high above and after witnessing the final battle of Klara and Avery, and their attempts to fool each other, it felt like the right place to go to. Kilo and Peta were splashing in the creek next to her. She could hear the melody of Giga’s synchronized steps and of Tera’s electric humming. Mega had buried itself when she had settled and next to her she could feel Exa’s heat. The moment was a calming one, yet she couldn't stop the squirming in her stomach. Klara and Avery both did their everything in order to reach their dream, even if they regretted their decision later. Schilly envied them for their drive. It was something she had lost after her encounter with Eternatus after all. After dreaming her whole life of becoming Professor Magnolia's assistant in the research of Dynamax Pokemon, it took only one Pokemon to ruin it all. She had never seen something like this, had never measured data like this. They had been completely powerless before the arrival of the Heros and even now remembering that day made her feel fear.
Back then, it had taken her too long to get back to herself. Before she knew it, Magnolia was in retirement and Sonia had hired Hop. She was glad for him. Glad that he found his drive again. But it left her alone in her struggle to find her dream again. Sou had his craftsmanship, Marvin left for his home after everything happened and even Bede flourished in his new role as gym leader. Schilly sighed, maybe her only chance was joining team Yell and staying with Marnie after all...
No, that wouldn’t be right either. Looking back, Schilly realized what she had enjoyed the most during her journey so far. Generating data, testing out her simulations, fighting and analysing Dynamax Pokemon. When trying to find her lost Pokemon she had managed to see so many different places, each more thrilling than the last. She wanted to recreate that, but she simply didn’t know where to start. Going on a journey to find unnatural phenomenons wouldn’t work, it’s not like she would know where to look. Another sigh left her lips and this time she could feel Hex bumping against her. Schilly smiled and turned around to see all her Pokemon look at her expectant. It truly had been so easy on this island. She could depend on her Pokemon and trusted them blindly. In return, they never let her down and supported her. Collecting all sorts of different data on the dens had come like second nature to her thanks to them.
“Maybe that’s it…” She said to herself, earning some intrigued looks from her Pokemon. Maybe simply going on a journey with her Pokemon, for her Pokemon would be enough. She didn’t need to have her life planned out already and she was sure, whatever she would encounter during the journey would only help her find her way. She clapped her hands together.
“It’s settled then! There is so much more out there we haven’t seen yet. Why stress over a reason or a dream. As long as we have fun together, that’s reason enough!”
Her Pokemon seemed to agree, cheering her on in their own way and fueling her self-confidence. Alright! She looked through her bag, finding the ticket to the second place Leon had recommended to her. The sun had long set and by dawn she would be in the Crown Tundra, with new drive accompanying her and her Pokemon.