The announcement came three days later.
Ash was in the middle of a literature worksheet—one of those abstract poetry exercises where nothing meant what it said—when the intercom crackled overhead. The voice that followed was unmistakable.
Professor Oak's voice—smooth, warm, but laced with formality.
"Ash, Chloe, Goh, Green, Gary, and Yellow. Please report to the multipurpose room."
Half the class turned to stare.
Ash blinked once. The pencil in his hand stilled, hovering just above the paper. He felt something stir in his chest—not quite pride, not quite dread. But something deeper. Familiar. Heavy.
The others were already reacting.
Yellow beside him looked up sharply, the charcoal still clutched in her fingers. Her sketchpad remained behind on the desk as she stood slowly, hesitantly.
Across the room, Chloe gave a tight exhale and snapped her notebook shut with deliberate care.
Green leaned back with an exaggerated stretch, already halfway out of her seat, looking smug and entirely unsurprised.
Gary rose last from the back row, casting Ash a sidelong glance—half challenge, half curiosity.
Goh was already halfway to the door.
Ash stood, moving on instinct. Around them, the whispers started.
"Did they just say Gary too?"
"Wait—Chloe got picked?"
"Yellow? Seriously?"
The hallway outside was cool and oddly quiet, every step echoing off the tiles louder than it should. A few teachers passed them by, but none offered a word. Ash caught a murmur from behind a half-closed classroom door.
"Goh's on the list? Of course."
Ash walked a little faster, when he reached the multipurpose room, the door was already ajar. Inside, Professor Oak stood at the front, alongside him, a man with short brown hair, gray eyes and a lab coat stood. Professor Elm.
By the time he reached the multipurpose room, the door was already ajar. Fluorescent light spilled into the hallway.
Inside, Professor Oak stood at the front of the room, posture relaxed but purposeful. Next to him stood a man in a slightly wrinkled lab coat—short brown hair, sharp gray eyes, and a nervous sort of energy radiating from his stance. He adjusted his glasses as Ash stepped in.
Professor Elm.
Ash's stomach tightened.
The others had arrived ahead of him. Chloe sat upright in her chair, arms folded and brow furrowed in thoughtful unease. Goh stood near the back wall, pacing restlessly with a notebook clenched tight in both hands. Gary leaned casually against a table, pretending to be bored, though his eyes were sharp and watching everything. Green had claimed a patch of floor space against the far wall, one knee drawn up beneath her chin, fingers lazily spinning a pen. Yellow sat a little apart from the others, near Green but withdrawn, hat brim low over her face.
Ash stepped in.
"Ah," said Oak, smiling warmly. "And that makes all six. Please, come in. Close the door behind you, if you will."
He obeyed, fingers brushing the cool metal of the handle as the door shut with a quiet click. The noise of the hallway vanished behind it.
The room felt… prepared. Choreographed. Six chairs arranged in a loose semicircle. A table with folders. Oak's presence at the front like the head of a ceremony. There was something theatrical in the stillness.
Oak gestured toward the semicircle of chairs that had been set up. "Please, take a seat."
Once they had settled, Professor Elm stepped forward and adjusted his glasses, fingers twitching nervously around the edge of his lab coat. He looked like he hadn't quite slept, and his posture was less polished than Oak's—more academic than authoritative. But his eyes were sharp, and when he finally spoke, his voice carried quiet conviction.
"Thank you all for coming. I know being pulled out of class like this may feel...sudden," he began. "But I assure you, this moment is the beginning of something extraordinary."
Ash glanced sideways at the others.
Chloe's posture shifted—straighter, wary but attentive. Yellow's aura flickered faintly, delicate and uncertain. Gary didn't move, but Ash saw his eyes narrow, calculating. Goh stood perfectly still now, notebook half-opened in his hands. Green looked somewhere between amused and intrigued.
He continued. "My name is Professor Elm, and I represent the Johto branch of the League's Interregional Education Initiative. I specialize in Pokémon biology and evolutionary theory, but in this project, I'll be handling team coordination on the field."
Oak picked up smoothly. "The six of you have been selected to represent Kanto in the first year of this pilot program. You'll travel to other regions. Study under regional professors. Observe, record, and assist in live research efforts. This is more than a scholarship. You'll be Kanto's youth emissaries in a League-sponsored global collaboration."
"You'll form a long-term field team," Elm added. "Documenting regional Pokémon behavior, evolution patterns, and ecological dynamics. The hope is that through cross-regional integration, we'll uncover deeper patterns—hidden connections, even anomalies previously overlooked by isolated studies."
Chloe tilted her head slightly. "Anomalies?"
Elm smiled faintly. "Yes. Let's just say… the more we observe, the more we realize how much we don't understand.
Ash could have laughed. Understatement of the century.
Oak moved to the front of the table and laid down a stack of folders.
"You'll be traveling together. Learning together. And—if needed—facing the unknown together. You'll be supervised, but this won't be like a classroom."
Chloe raised a hand. "Will we have to leave home permanently?"
"Not permanently," Elm said quickly. "The program will run in segments. Each regional study phase will last between four to six weeks, followed by time at home to rest and review your data before the next journey. There will be checkpoints, breaks, and even evaluations to adjust the schedule based on your progress."
Oak's smile widened slightly. "And we'll begin in Johto. In two weeks. Your families have already been contacted."
Ash's brows rose. "Already?"
His mind jumped to the quiet way Delia had folded his clothes that morning. The breakfast she'd made, slightly more elaborate than usual. The way she hadn't said a word when he mentioned his science project.
"She wanted it to be a surprise," Oak said with a wink. "And I may have... asked her to keep it quiet."
Beside him, Yellow whispered, "Two weeks…"
'That fast?'
Then Elm clapped his hands once, the sound echoing sharp and sudden.
"Let's talk logistics."
He handed out the folders—each one thick with documents. Ash flipped his open and scanned the top pages. There was an itinerary: two weeks orientation in Pallet, five weeks stationed in New Bark Town. Scattered between were project headers: "Localized Evolution," "Cross-Regional Typing Variants," "Ecological Harmony and Disruption Patterns."
He pulled out a folder and handed each of them a small packet. "These are your schedules, packing requirements, and program outlines. You'll be expected to report to Pallet Research Station in one week for your initial orientation. After that, we board a private transport to Johto."
Gary flipped through his pages. "Wait. This is full of field tasks. You're expecting us to present reports?"
"Correct," Elm said cheerfully. "You'll form working pairs, rotate responsibilities, and submit data weekly. Think of it as your first real job."
Green snorted. "I knew this would be more work than fun."
Ash kept flipping. There were notes on lab partners. Permissions. Vaccination cards. Emergency contact protocols. One form was entirely about Pokédex compatibility.
He let out a quiet breath.
"Any questions so far?" Elm asked, his voice light but inviting.
Goh's hand shot up, too quickly.
"Will we have access to restricted zones?" he asked without hesitation. "Like protected habitats, or known anomaly sites? Because if we're being tasked with cataloging unique phenomena—"
"You'll be supervised," Elm said, a bit more firmly than before. "And yes, some areas normally restricted to the public will be open to your group. But your primary responsibility is observation, not interference."
Goh nodded, but his eyes didn't settle.
"I have a question," Chloe said, more slowly. "Why us?"
Everyone went still.
It was Yellow who shifted first, her eyes lifting from her packet like she'd been holding her breath.
Oak's expression didn't change, but he folded his hands behind his back and nodded solemnly. "A fair question."
Elm cleared his throat. "We began with academic performance and extracurricular interest, of course. But we also considered psychological resilience, adaptability, and potential for growth. You weren't chosen just for what you've already done—but for what we believe you're capable of doing."
"You each scored uniquely on certain behavioral matrices," Oak continued, "and together, you form a group with a rare balance. Curiosity. Competitiveness. Compassion. Drive. Caution. Intuition."
Ash looked around at the others. He could almost place the traits to each name like puzzle pieces. It made sense. Too much sense.
But that didn't explain the other feeling—the unshakable sense that something larger was in motion. That this moment had been waiting for them.
Yellow's voice was soft. "So we're… what? A team?"
"A beginning," Oak replied.
The room fell silent again.
A beginning.
Ash stared down at the itinerary one more time.
He already knew Johto's forests by heart. He knew what lay beneath the Ruins of Alph, what whispered between the twisted branches of Ilex. He knew which of the towers still stood, and what slept beneath their ashes. But none of that mattered now. Not really.
Because he wasn't just there to see it again.
He was going to shape it.
"Then I'm in," he said.
His voice cut the silence like a thread pulled taut.
Chloe turned to him, startled. Gary smirked faintly. Green raised one brow, intrigued.
Yellow blinked as if she hadn't expected him to speak first.
Gary shrugged. "I'm in too. Can't let you have all the fun."
One by one, the others followed.
Green lifted her hand lazily. "Yeah, sure. Beats another semester stuck here."
Chloe sighed but nodded. "I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?"
"You do," Oak said gently.
"But I'm still saying yes."
Then Yellow—softly, but without hesitation—said, "I'll try my best."
That left Goh—he hadn't looked up from his packet once. When he finally spoke, it was almost a whisper.
"If there's even a chance," he said, "that I'll find something important out there—then I'm going."
No one argued.Elm clapped once, brighter this time.
"Excellent," he beamed. "Then let's talk preparation."
For the next half-hour, the room filled with logistics—immunizations, gear requisitions, trainer permits, sponsorship waivers. Most of it washed over Ash like white noise. He caught snatches—"You'll each receive a regional Pokédex model," "Shared funding for field rations and transportation." Normal things. Necessary things.
But through it all, he kept feeling it:
Like a clock had started ticking.
A countdown toward something.
And when Oak finally dismissed them with a smile and an encouraging, "Welcome aboard," Ash was the last to stand.
Green lingered by the door. "Heavy stuff, huh?"
"Yeah," Ash murmured.
"You okay?"
Ash looked at her—really looked. Her eyes were sharp, but not unkind. Somewhere behind the sarcasm and bravado, she cared. Maybe more than she liked to admit.
"I will be," he said.
Green nodded. "See you at orientation."
Then she slipped out, leaving Ash alone with the hum of the ceiling lights and the weight of the folder in his hands.
Outside, the hallway had filled with noise again—chatter from classrooms, the distant bell ringing.