The academy had granted a day off immediately following the tournament, meaning the new students had the entire day to rest.
Eichi walked towards the teaching building. He was heading to Director Yanagi's office to collect his prize.
He felt slightly puzzled. In previous years, the championship prize was always collected by the class teacher or the student directly from the Logistics Department. Why did his year require the Director of Instruction to accompany them?
Harboring this confusion, Eichi arrived at the door of Director Yanagi's office. The door was closed, and Eichi knocked.
"Knock, knock."
Director Yanagi's deep voice called from inside, "Come in."
Eichi opened the door and entered. Director Yanagi was looking at a document. Seeing Eichi, he smiled. "You're here, Eichi. Have a seat first. A few other people are coming soon."
A few other people are coming. It seemed he wasn't the only one. He wondered if Sato and Konan would be among them.
After a moment, a knock sounded. Director Yanagi called out, "Come in," and, just as Eichi guessed, the person who arrived was Sato. Sato greeted Eichi and sat down beside him. Only a few seconds after Sato sat down, another knock was heard. This time, Konan entered. She greeted Eichi and Sato before sitting down opposite them.
Eichi thought it would just be the three of them, but judging by Director Yanagi's expression, it seemed more people were on their way.
At this point, Konan voiced Eichi's question. "Director Yanagi, is someone else coming?"
Director Yanagi looked up, saw the trio's questioning eyes, and chuckled. "Don't be impatient. Wait a moment, two more people are joining us."
Two more people?
The three of them were full of questions, but since Director Yanagi didn't say who, they could only guess.
Before long, another knock sounded. Director Yanagi looked up, his eyes brightening. "They're finally here!" He then raised his voice and called, "Come in!"
Eichi and the others turned their gaze toward the door. The door opened, and two people were standing there. They walked inside. Director Yanagi rose and led them to Eichi and the others. "Come, let me introduce you. These two are your upperclassmen. They graduated this year."
Konan interjected, "I know them both! I watched the Indigo League." She then pointed at Genkaku. "This is Upperclassman Genkaku, runner-up in the Indigo League. His Gengar is incredibly strong." She then pointed to the other upperclassman. "And this is Upperclassman Shoichi, who reached the semi-finals of the Indigo League. His Ursaring is also very formidable."
Hearing the praise from the underclassman, Genkaku and Shoichi both smiled.
"Since you already know them, I won't introduce them further," Director Yanagi said.
Eichi commented, "When I watched the Indigo League, I thought both upperclassmen were extremely powerful. I didn't realize they were upperclassmen from the Silver Academy."
Director Yanagi then introduced the new students. "Let me introduce these three youngsters to you." He pointed to Eichi. "This is Eichi, the first-place winner of the Freshmen Tournament."
"Eichi, I know him," Genkaku said. "Shoichi and I saw yesterday's match. It was very exciting. Both of these juniors are excellent."
"Thank you for the compliment, senior," Eichi and Sato replied.
Director Yanagi then pointed to Konan. "This is Konan, this year's third-place winner."
After the introductions, Director Yanagi walked to the center and addressed the three new students. "The reason I called you three over is to let you get to know each other, but that's not the main point. What I am about to say is the most crucial part. After their competition, Genkaku and Shoichi traveled in Kanto for a period. Then, they were invited by the Indigo Academy. They spent two days being given a tour of the Indigo Academy.
After two days, the Indigo Academy approached them to discuss a matter. Although they discussed it with our senior students, it was essentially a discussion with the Silver Academy. I won't go into why they talked to them instead of contacting the school leadership directly for now. The content of their discussion was a proposed Inter-Academy Exchange Match in six months. Their Indigo Academy team would come here to our academy for a competition."
The three new students looked surprised. "An Exchange Match? With our academy?"
Director Yanagi paused before continuing, "That's right. They brought this matter up with me yesterday, and I reported it to the school. After a discussion last night, our academy agreed to the Exchange Match with the Indigo Academy.
For the Exchange Match, each academy will send the ten strongest students from the first, second, and third years to participate in Pokémon Battles. And you three represent the hope of the current batch.
The gap between you three and the other first-year students is quite significant. Furthermore, according to Genkaku and Shoichi, the average strength of the Indigo Academy across all three years is slightly higher than ours. Only in this batch of new students, where we have you three, should we be comparatively stronger. Therefore, I hope you will all work hard in the coming months and not become complacent."
After listening carefully to Director Yanagi's words, Eichi and the two others exchanged glances. Evidently, they were not intimidated. Instead, the flame of battle was visible in their eyes.
Director Yanagi looked at the three of them with a sense of relief. Sure enough, they're the ones we have to rely on. However, the thought of the situation in the second and third years gave him a headache.
After a brief chat, Genkaku and Shoichi left, as they had other matters to attend to.
Director Yanagi said, "Since they've left, I'll take you now to claim your Freshmen Tournament prizes."
The prizes were all at the Logistics Department, which was quite a distance from the teaching building, located on the east side of the entire school.
Students usually went there to exchange for necessary items, so most students knew where it was. However, they, as new students, still didn't know the location.
For one thing, given their family backgrounds, Konan and Sato didn't need to exchange for anything at the Logistics Department. Furthermore, the items they might want required a lot of Credit System points, and since they didn't need them now, they hadn't paid any attention to the system or the location.
Following Director Yanagi for a while, they arrived at the Logistics Department. In Eichi's mind, the Logistics Department was supposed to be a quiet and run-down place. However, the Silver Academy's Logistics Department completely shattered his perception. The building in front of Eichi was a very luxurious, magnificent structure. The interior decoration was filled with a sense of technology and modernity, feeling completely different from other places.
Director Yanagi led the three inside. Eichi found the interior very spacious, with more than a dozen staff members behind the counters. When they entered, some people were already making exchanges. Judging by their age, they were older than Eichi and his companions, mostly upperclassmen.