Chapter 19. I'm Going to Be the Principal!
"Pikachu—!!!!"
Pewter City, Pokémon Center, backyard.
From time to time, a Pikachu's agonized scream rang out.
Passersby cast strange looks this way, wondering if some scumbag Trainer was abusing a Pokémon inside.
"Um, Mr. Natsume, is your Pikachu really going to be fine like this?"
Nurse Joy passed by with a tray, looking toward the backyard with concern.
At the far end of the yard, near the Pokémon Center's wall, a Pikachu was trussed up "five-flowers style" on a chair wrapped with tangled wires.
From the chaos of cables, a thin lead extended to a custom ammeter, ran back toward the Pokémon Center, and was plugged into an outlet.
Clearly, those piercing screams were coming from this Pikachu.
"Mr. Natsume, this really isn't right, is it?"
Nurse Joy drew closer, unable to bear the sight.
"Pika—"
Whether on purpose or not, center-parted yelled even louder.
Natsume helplessly took off his sunglasses, set down the newspaper, and walked over to the "writhing in pain" center-parted.
"Bang!"
Natsume rapped center-parted on the head.
The current traveled along and zapped him too, making his hair stand on end.
"Quit acting. This level of current can't even hurt me."
The pained look vanished from center-parted's face, replaced by a guilty, exposed expression.
"Pikachu…"
"You're going to do current-strengthening training every day according to my plan."
"The intensity will rise step by step."
"This only benefits you, no downsides."
"Give it a month and you'll see."
Natsume eyed the chair under center-parted's butt and rubbed his chin.
Mm… with limited materials, his hand-made Revelry Chair could only reach this level, and the current strength wasn't even one-tenth of what Pika-god experienced yesterday.
"Pika~"
Center-parted lowered its head as if resigned to fate.
It just wanted to stay in its Poké Ball and take a nice, peaceful nap.
Who knew the devilish voice would sound again:
"Also, you'll go train with Ash every day from now on."
"I'll have him teach you."
"If you dare skip, your daily current-strengthening time doubles!"
"Pikachu!"
Center-parted panicked at once.
No doubling!
Sitting here all tingly makes it sleepy, but every so often a crackle of current jolts through and it can't doze off—this is torture for a mouse.
"I need to mail something."
"Nurse Joy, could I trouble you to watch this kid for me?"
"Ah—oh, sure, sure."
Seeing center-parted's face change expressions like a master actor, Nurse Joy nodded in a daze.
Natsume left the Pokémon Center and headed straight for the Pewter Museum of Science.
Ash had already rushed off to challenge Brock.
Taking advantage of the gap, Natsume planned to mail that Wishing Star to Professor Oak and have him ask Professor Magnolia to craft a Dynamax Band for him.
Doing it himself by hand would be a huge hassle, and he'd have to go back to Professor Oak's Laboratory.
A normal post office wouldn't know the proper way to preserve a Wishing Star, and it wouldn't be safe either.
Natsume intended to entrust the staff at the Pewter Museum of Science to forward it to Professor Oak.
Stepping into the museum, he was greeted by countless fossil skeletons.
If Misty were here, she'd probably be too scared to look.
"Uh, hello, can I help you with something?"
As soon as Natsume entered and headed upstairs, a lab-coat-clad attendant stopped him.
It was a young man.
His hair was dry and scruffy, stubble shadowed his chin—he didn't seem to groom often.
"Hello, I'm Shoko, a researcher at the Pewter Museum of Science."
"Only staff can go to the second floor."
The young man presented his ID and introduced himself.
"Professor Oak's Laboratory, Natsume."
Natsume took out his own credentials.
To his surprise, the moment Shoko saw the ID, his eyes lit up.
"You're the researcher who proposed the Rotom–Natsume Law!"
"I've read your paper—I didn't expect you to be this young!"
Shoko was unexpectedly excited, warmth blooming on his face.
"Mm, that's me."
Natsume scratched his head and stared straight at the young man.
Being stared at made Shoko shrink his neck a little before he spoke again:
"Then, Mr. Natsume, what are you here to do?"
"I can take care of it for you!"
Shoko patted his chest, as if to say "leave it to me."
"I'd like to ask you to send something."
"It must be an important research result, right?"
"Please, this way."
Shoko wasn't dumb.
If Natsume had come here, he obviously had a good idea of what needed sending.
With Shoko fast-tracking him the whole way, Natsume quickly got the Wishing Star packaged and mailed out.
"Um, Mr. Natsume!"
At the entrance of the Pewter Museum of Science, Shoko called out to him.
"What is it?"
Natsume turned back, giving him a slightly puzzled look.
From the moment he walked in, this guy had been unreasonably enthusiastic, and all through their interaction, it felt like he was holding something back.
"It's like this—I've also been researching some Rotom-related topics."
"Could you help me take a look?"
Shoko handed over a stack of documents, staring hopefully at this trailblazer on Rotom's path of innovation.
Mm.
Yes, Natsume was the forebear.
In particular, his Rotom–Natsume Law had become the baseline metric for rating Rotom's fusion forms.
Professor Oak doesn't take just any ordinary researcher as a doctoral mentee.
"My direction is the optimal circuit solution for Rotom's plasma state when fusing with high-power appliances, but I don't have a Rotom, so my research is stuck at the theoretical stage…"
One glance, and Natsume understood Shoko's angle.
When Rotom enters different appliances, it takes on a plasma state and becomes the "electricity" that drives the device, thus achieving a new form.
And the same Rotom, facing the same appliance, will produce different stats under different circuit operations.
This was something Natsume had mentioned only roughly in his first-tier journal paper.
He hadn't expected this kid to spin it out in detail.
As expected, there should also be "optimal circuit solutions" for low-power appliances and for overclocked-power appliances—enough to publish several papers.
Realizing his citation trail had been seen through, Shoko's cheeks reddened slightly.
"Mr. Natsume, you're the idol of us mid- and lower-tier researchers now!"
"With that single stroke of your blade, you hacked open a road straight to the heavens."
"We just pick a few minor branches to expand on, and it's enough to graduate as researchers!"
Hearing this, Natsume's eyes lit up.
He'd become the idol of the mid- and lower-tier researchers?
Thinking it through, that made sense.
The common big directions for Pokémon research papers had mostly been exhausted.
Natsume's bold slash had opened up a gigantic gap.
He wanted to build a Rotom mecha, and the workload would be enormous, especially the verification of theories and experiments.
Could multiple Rotom coordinate to control a single giant mecha?
Would ordinary materials undergo physico-chemical changes after fusing with Rotom?
What kind of Rotom cooperative mode would be most efficient?
And how should the circuits be designed under that cooperative-mode state?
One big direction could be split into countless small directions.
Those small directions could be split into several smaller directions.
Those even smaller directions could, in some cases, be split further—until, at the end, they became things like Shoko's "Optimal Circuit Solution for Rotom's Plasma State When Fusing with High-Power Appliances."
By a conservative estimate, Natsume figured he could spin out over a thousand projects.
If he had to do them all himself, he'd work himself to death!
"Um, Mr. Natsume?"
Seeing Natsume silent, Shoko's excitement ebbed, and only then did he realize that, in a sense, he'd poached someone else's idea.
His face flushed again.
"This is a good idea."
"Actually, you can use a Pokémon that can precisely control current intensity as a stand-in for Rotom."
Natsume came back to himself and patiently explained to Shoko.
Today he suddenly realized something.
Across the whole region, there were so many mid- and lower-tier researchers—he could make use of them all.
What those people lacked was merely the insight Shoko had: they couldn't pinpoint a clear sub-direction.
They couldn't find it—but he, the originator, could.
Natsume could absolutely point them to concrete research tracks.
He made up his mind on the spot.
At some point, he needed to organize a symposium…
No—just set up a school.
He was going to be an academic warlord—cough, the principal!
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