From the moment Albert entered formal schooling, the system strained to keep up with him.
At three years old, he was already outpacing his peers. The preschool's lessons—letters, numbers, colors, and the simplest facts about Pokémon—were nothing more than review for him.
He answered every question without hesitation, often providing explanations that left even the teachers stunned.
At first, they thought it was a fluke. A bright child, yes, but surely he would plateau.
Instead, contrary to their expectations, he accelerated.
Within two months, he was promoted to the next grade. Two months later, he skipped again. And again.
Each time, the staff gathered to debate if it was truly wise to let a child so young climb so quickly, but each time the answer was the same: no curriculum could hold him back.
By the time Albert was four, he was seated in classrooms filled with students twice his age. He was half their size, with a rounder face and higher voice, but when the lessons began, it was Albert who led the discussions.
He read aloud passages others stumbled over, solved equations in moments, and rattled off Pokémon data with a precision that startled even the most skeptical teachers.
His classmates whispered about him; some admired him, while some resented him, but Albert neither flaunted nor concealed his brilliance.
He simply pressed forward, intent on devouring every scrap of knowledge available.
What made him unstoppable was the combination of his flawless memory, his psychic powers, and his mature mentality. He didn't just read—he absorbed.
A textbook on Pokémon ecology could be consumed in a single night, every diagram and fact etched perfectly in his mind.
Where others needed hours of sleep, Albert meditated, turning rest into practice as he honed his mental control.
Every day, he grew sharper, his powers steadier, his knowledge deeper.
And the teachers, who had once doubted him, now spoke of him in hushed tones.
"A prodigy."
"Unprecedented."
"He'll change everything, mark my words."
By the age of five, Albert Hugo Deford stood at the academic equivalent of a high school graduate.
He was still only a child in appearance, barely tall enough to reach the chalkboards of the senior classrooms, but his grasp of mathematics, science, history, and Pokémon studies rivaled—perhaps even surpassed—those of the adults who instructed him
He had become a curiosity, a phenomenon, a name whispered through Smeltwick's education circles.
To Albert, however, this was merely step one. He had not raced ahead simply to collect accolades.
Each skipped grade, each textbook mastered, each year compressed into months—all of it was just preparation.
The sooner he surpassed the world's standard knowledge, the sooner he could begin the real work: research, discovery, and, ultimately, the trainer's journey that would define his second life.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Far beyond Smeltwick City, word of his progress traveled further than the boy realized.
In Rustboro Province's capital, Ironforge City.
Within the gleaming towers of Devon Corporation, a man leafed through reports forwarded by school officials.
His name was Joseph Stone—known more formally as Mr. Stone, the head of Devon Corporation, and one of the richest men not only in Evergreen Island but the entire world.
He had been reviewing his son Steven's own schooling, who was already showing signs of brilliance himself. But one detail in the reports by his informants caught Mr. Stone's sharp eye: another child, the same age as Steven, unlike his son, was skipping grades like a hot knife through butter.
The name stood out: Alfred Hugo Deford.
Mr. Stone leaned back in his chair, intrigued.
A child with such accelerated progress, and in Rustboro Province of all places, so close to his company's headquarters.
A phenomenon among orphans, yet already being spoken of with awe by educators.
He did not act immediately, but the name lodged itself firmly in his mind.
Someday, he thought, paths would cross.
His son Steven would need peers worthy of standing beside him—or against him.
And this Alfred Hugo Deford might just be one of them.