Zangoose growled low in her throat the second Professor Diane looked at her.
She didn't attack but she did bare her fangs in warning, muscles tense, tail lashing slow and deliberate behind her. Like she was trying to decide if the woman in front of her was worth eating or not.
Professor Diane didn't seem intimidated. "Friendly little thing, isn't she?"
I sighed. "Zangoose. Please stop threatening my teacher."
She didn't look at me, but the growl faded. Slightly.
Diane tilted her head. "I was planning on giving you all a Pokéball tomorrow, but since she's hatched early…"
"I'm not putting my Partner in a ball."
She didn't seem surprised. "Most who get a Partner don't," she said, already turning toward the drawers behind her desk. "Even the ones who get Wailords." She muttered that last bit under her breath, pulling something from the drawer before I could decide if I was supposed to laugh.
It was a sleek black device—flat, smooth, maybe the size of a small remote. She set it on the desk in front of her and gestured toward Zangoose.
Zangoose growled again, sharper this time. Her ears were flat, claws twitching like she was half a second from going through the table.
"And what is that?" I asked in favor of Zangoose.
"This'll formally register her as your Partner Pokémon. We'll get your ID updated tomorrow once the faculty database syncs."
"Ah, I see. Zangoose," I said in warning. "Enough."
She gave a huff, fur bristling, but didn't growl again.
Diane didn't look away from the device as she activated it. "Aggressive and paranoid? That's a good temperament for a Partner. She'll need to be since I doubt you have enough Aura to form a second bond."
The scanner beeped softly as it synced with my Aura and then hers. The display pulsed blue once, then green.
Diane glanced up at me. "So. Aside from the registry, I assume you have another reason for bothering me?"
'"Bothering her"? But she said to—You know what? Whatever.'
"I want to learn how to perform an Aura Cleanse."
She blinked. Then she narrowed her blue eyes at Zangoose for a moment. I swore I saw a flicker of light behind her irises, too fast to be natural.
"Huh," she muttered. "So you've already bonded. I wasn't expecting anyone besides the clan students to know how to do that yet."
"…Clan students?" I echoed.
Diane's brows furrowed. "...You do know what a clan is, right?"
There was a moment of awkward silence as I tried to gauge what in the world she was talking about.
Then I made the connection.
"Wait—do you mean like… Gary? And uh, Zinnia?"
Her expression shifted—caught between confusion and exasperation. "Yes. Those two are both from their respective clans. Are you feeling alright?"
'Oh. Shit. I stumbled into common knowledge I should know. Uh…'
I blinked a few times and put a hand to my temple. "Yeah—sorry. Just feeling a little lightheaded. I think my lack of Aura made the bond hit harder than normal."
That seemed to satisfy her. She didn't press further.
But internally, I was reeling.
Clans. That had to be it. The reason everyone treated Gary and Zinnia like they expected greatness despite Zinnia being rather normal. It wasn't about them personally, but their ancestry.
Surnames were clearly not just names here—but indications of pedigree.
Maybe it was more like the Naruto world where each of them had a specialty? Or even techniques that only those of the Oak or Draconid clans knew about?
It was something to think about for later.
I shook that thought away, refocusing. "Anyway, I'd like for you to teach me how to perform an Aura Cleanse," I restated. "You said not to waste time, and I figured I could use this time to get ahead of my classmates."
Professor Diane's lips thinned at me throwing her words back at her. For a moment, she didn't say anything—just stared at me, her expression unreadable.
Then she tilted her head slightly. "Do you know what an Aura Cleanse actually does?"
"...Yes?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Then explain it."
I looked up in thought. "It… clears up all the various excess types that settle in a Pokemon's Aura, purifying that Aura and making them stronger as a whole."
"Hm." She folded her arms. "That's not technically wrong. But that isn't the whole picture."
She walked to the whiteboard near her desk, uncapped a marker, and began drawing. "Let's say your Partner's Aura is made up of ten bubbles," she said, sketching a row of circles. "Each one represents a container inside them—something that can be filled with power."
She shaded one bubble fully blue and wrote a 10 inside it. "Clean Aura—let's say Normal-type, since it matches your Zangoose—would be worth a full ten out of ten points."
Then she shaded another bubble red and wrote a small '5' inside it. "And this? Is pure Fire-type Aura. It still fills the space, but it's only worth half what the Normal-type one is."
One by one, she filled the remaining bubbles in different colors—yellow, orange, green—each with numbers smaller than ten. "The problem is that the body doesn't have infinite space. When it's filled, it's filled. So even if you fill ten bubbles in total, if six of them are only worth half or less…" She circled the row. "You're not getting the full power."
Despite each of the ten bubbles potentially being worth 100 when combined, they were far less than that due to all the various types.
She wiped away the red bubble, writing '0' in the middle. "A cleanse removes this. Empties the space so you can refill it with the correct Aura type. But in doing that, your Partner will be weaker, at least until you fill that space in again."
I nodded slowly, starting to understand.
She turned back toward me. "So no, you wouldn't be getting ahead of anybody. In fact, by doing this, Zangoose will be far behind the vast majority of your classmates."
Instead of replying immediately, I stared at the diagram, eyes tracing the colored bubbles. It was simple enough, but the implications weren't.
Cleanse a Pokémon's Aura, and you lowered their immediate power in exchange for a higher long-term ceiling.
That much was obvious.
But what wasn't obvious was that this information was something my classmates would already be privy to. Since each of them should have some grasp of their Aura, that meant they all had previous experience or teaching.
Learning this now was crucial even if me and Zangoose completely bombed the final evaluation.
"I still want to learn it," I said firmly. "Even if I don't use it now, it's valuable knowledge."
Zangoose flicked her tail, and I could feel her approval through our bond.
Professor Diane studied me quietly for a few seconds. Her fingers drummed once against the desk, then stopped.
"Fine," she said simply. "Then pay up."
'Huh?'
"...Huh?"
She held out her hand, fingers curling expectantly. "Technically, I'm not your teacher yet and you're already asking for in depth instruction before the semester's even started. Luckily, you can buy almost anything in this academy with enough points. So, pay up."
I stared at her hand. Then at her face. She smirked. I went back to staring at her hand.
An explosive sigh left me the moment I realized she wasn't playing a joke with me. I'd forgotten that almost every version of the Pokémon world ran on merit—nothing came for free.
"Fine," I relented. "How much?"
She shrugged. "Let's say… five hundred."
"Five hundred?!" I almost choked. "That's half of everything I own!"
From what I read on the Pokégear, a single Academy Point was worth a whopping fifty Pokédollars. By agreeing to give up five hundred, I'd be spending 25,000 Pokédollars in one go!
And a Pokedollar seemed to have the same worth as actual dollars.
She rolled her eyes at me. "Oh, stop whining. With five hundred points you'd only be able to buy two Technical Machines at most."
"That's easy for you to say—you're a teacher! Only the richest trainers could casually buy a TM like that."
"Not really," She gave me a flat look. "A single A-Rank mission is worth 10,000 Pokedollars at the very minimum. And even if you didn't want to do missions, there are other ways to earn that much money easily."
"...I'm a student. I have no idea how dangerous a A-Rank mission is. To clarify, that analogy means nothing to me."
Professor Diane let out a sharp breath through her nose. "You came to me, didn't you? If you think it's too steep, then leave. Otherwise, stop wasting my time and pay up already."
I bit back my first three responses.
She wasn't wrong. It was steep. But it wasn't unfair.
I pulled out and looked down at my Pokégear. Five hundred points. Gone, just like that. The same points I could've spent on… well, anything. I wasn't sure how to get money just yet beyond class jobs, but that much couldn't be as little for me as it was for her.
My eyes drifted to Zangoose. Her attention was still locked onto Diane, like she expected the woman to pull a weapon at any second. Her fur bristled faintly, claws still flexed.
Zangoose wasn't a Pokémon that could coast along with raw power. Even though she was the Partner variant, she was still a Zangoose at the end of the day.
I doubted a few extra stats would put her in the Pseudo-legendary club.
I needed every advantage I could get if I wanted to mold her into a Pokémon capable of great things.
With a sigh, I placed the Pokégear into Diane's waiting palm.
Her smirk returned—smaller now, but somehow more satisfied.
"Good. I like students who are daring," she said, already keying the transaction into her own Pokégear. "Not the prodigies or the clan kids. The ones who bet everything without knowing if they'll even make it halfway to their goals."
A few taps and the transfer went through with a quiet chime. She handed the Pokégear back with a smile that was all teeth.
"That attitude reminds me of myself," She admitted.
"And since I like your attitude," she said, turning toward a nearby cabinet, "I'll do more than just teach. Bring me any one Pokémon, any time, and I'll Cleanse them for you. Just once. No questions, no price."
My eyes widened. "Wait—seriously?!"
Diane didn't answer, already rummaging through a drawer for something. But that was all the confirmation I needed.
I didn't say anything else out loud. Didn't risk jinxing it. But inside?
I was already planning.
I wasn't going to Cleanse Zangoose any time soon. I wasn't sure if it felt gross having all those random energies within her, but Pokemon in the wild lived like this constantly, didn't they?
She'd be fine for at least a week. I couldn't afford to weaken her before the evaluation took place.
But if I understood the process I'd be able to repeat it later.
I'd let her build up power, even if some of it was impure. Push her just far enough to stay safe while climbing far above the rest of the grade. Blow everyone away during evaluations. Get a top rank. Land a high-class placement with the best resources.
Then I'd finally cash in my Aura Cleanse with Diane. Strip away the filth and let her grow unimpeded.
I didn't have the luxury of doing things the proper way. I had to take the edge wherever I could get it.
I looked up at Diane, still grinning. "Alright," I said. "We can start now, right?"