Creig and Kakui entered the classroom carrying boxes with booklets and starter pokemon in them. Molayne and Olivia had already done the trials in a previous year, Mallow, Gladion, Mina, and Plumeria were too young. Guzma was a trial captain, something he hadn't been in the other timelines Creig knew about, which left Ulu, Ilima, Kahili, Kiawe, Jenny, Rosa and Nate. The booklets were handed out to everyone so they knew the routes and special rules for this year. In some games Creig remembered getting the starters of other regions, and in the anime Ash was usually presented with a regional "starter", it was actually a privilege/ prestige pick for qualifying trainers, people of his world just knew them as starters because it was the first pokemon you got at the start of the games, that was not the actual purpose in reality.
Creig released 21 pokemon into the classroom, making sure their pokeballs remained properly sorted. Before anyone stepped up there was a check on who already had a pokemon. Ilima had a Yungoos partner, Jenny had a classic growlith as well as a rockruff -part of her pre-cadet training as reason, Rosa had Foongi of course, and Nate actually had several oshawatt, kabuto, gligar and a secret. The rest were sorted by grades, which was Kahili, Ulu, Kiawe. Kahili went for the rowlets, eventually attracting one that liked to plan. Ulu was a bit torn as each starter offered different help to his cooking ability, eventually settling on a litten. Kiawe bonded almost immediately with the rowdiest of the litten, hyping so much they almost lit the classroom on fire. Ilima got a rowlet, Creig noted that is was the most "normal" pokemon in almost every aspect. Rosa sat in the middle of the pokemon, explained her lifepath to them, and let the pokemon choose, there was quite a discussion among the pokemon before a poplio chose Rosa. Jenny almost immediately scooped up a litten, petting the little cat. Nate considered the overall nature and individual nature of each starter before doubling up on his water type and getting a poplio.
Creig returned the remaining pokemon to their pokeballs, and handing off the pokeballs for the chosen pokemon, it was the first pokeball Rosa had ever held that she wasn't releasing a pokemon from. The remainder of the morning and a bit of the afternoon was the students familiarizing with their new pokemon, then it was a training session led by Kakui, Samson aided by Creig, Molayne, and Olivia. Creig put together obstacle courses for movement training, Molayne put target fields up for move training, and Olivia was refereeing a battle ground. Kakui and Samson were concentrated on the target field and battle field respectively only occasionally looking over to the obstacle courses, in part because Creig was reliable as an adult, even if he was still getting used to pokemon himself.
Toboggan could only do a few of the courses because his primary maneuverability was during rollout, which left shrift doing the most demonstrations, which got training in for them too. Guzma was the first to show interest, his wimpod and the totem ledian following along the accuracy course interesting ledian while wimpod preferred the cone course. Creig realized he and Guzma had a commonality of having a defensive pokemon of a fragile type as starter, they discussed that for a while. The differences talk gave Guzma greater insight into why ice tended to get farther, ice could CREATE terrain to their advantage AND messed with other pokemons biological processes, bugs relied on concealment and evasion using pre-set terrain, made them terrors in the wild, especially since sudden swarms were a common tactic. Guzma was both excited and bummed by the implications, the league battlegrounds rarely had terrain, much less complicated terrain for bugs to take advantage of. Aerial agility and string shot were the two big things Creig could think of that bugs had that others didn't, gym battles at least tended to be indoor making anchor points for string shot.
The ones who weren't part of the trials mostly hung out by the battle field. Plumeria, when she noticed Guzma was by the obstacle course toddled over and got Toboggan and wimpod to race cheering for wimpod, of course. Rosa came over to take some notes, planning to make courses in water for poplio. Jenny took a quick look and said something about family training similarities. Nate was the next true user with three of his capabale of running the courses. Ilima and Kiawe did runs towards the end of the school day, Kiawe in his excitement tried to run the courses as well, he got a couple bumps and bruises. The last thing of the day was everyone of the humans trying to run the courses, grace was given only to the youngest, and Samson(who just couldn't). Only Creig, Nate, Jenny, and Olivia came away without injuries, and Creig hadn't prepared anything that would cause serious injury. Creig and Nate were also the only ones to run the courses without being locked into the most obvious way, while not leaving or destroying the course, or not keeping to the spirit of the course.
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Tuesday Rosa joined Creig and Kakui in checking and handing out starters, nothing special like the prestige pokemon, but sufficiant. The reason Rosa was helping was due to the fact that they were using the pokemon centers as operating bases, switching for morning, afternoon, and evening. For kids whos' parents couldn't help get them a pokemon Kakui and Creig took them in groups, luckily the pokemon had been made aware that they were coming, so the ones that wanted partners, or wanted their kids to have partners, made themselves known. Toboggan and Shrift got to have a few fights, to make being caught fun for some of the pokemon. Tomorrow was probably going to be the worst day, Akala was a bigger island.
For all the people that came, for Creig being near Wela Volcano and the first attempts against fire types was the worst of the day. Rollout was their salvation here, they also managed with powder snow helping them keep their stamina which would have drained too fast otherwise. Luckily they weren't overwhelmed because Hala and the Akala Kahuna helped with the process', especially with some of the rowdy farmers. Those farmers also meant that there were less teens who needed escort to get their starter, having bonded with pokemon while doing jobs helping the farmers.
Most of the Ula'ula teens weren't participating this year, they just didn't have the heart. For the Older teens there were many who dreamed of rebellion, Kakui did talk to those he could and changed some of their minds, but many were clinging to the memories of their parents. The younger kids were sorted by those who would and wouldn't be going this year, he even helped find some starters, bug types, of course. Ghost type and dark type starters were at a high this year as well, and considering circumstances was likely to be the trend for the next few years. Creig thought that things would be better than what they would have been with how much better the orphans were being treated, rather than just wanting them swept under a rug.
Poni island was pretty much a break compared to the other islands with its relatively small population. For part of the day they just listened to stories about Alolas' history. Boiled down the islands just had a simple history with a scattering of being attacked, cycles of Sogaleo and Lunala life cycle, dealing with volcanic eruptions, unlike Creigs' world the islands didn't erode into nothing or appear from volcanic activity, but the small details made it bearable to listen rather than just a slog.
Saturday had Creig going over the moves Toboggan and Shrift learned while helping catch starters, now he had to figure out how to use them, with the natures of his pokemon. Toboggan had learned Fury Cutter and Rapid Spin, Rapid Spin was interesting, they were already using Rollout to handle movement problems and the shorter duration of Rapid spin could allow Toboggan to actually use its claw techniques in combat, but it might also damage any terrain they set up. Maximizing Fury Cutter would require removing the opponents ability to move, it was still better than scratch. Mist was showing synergy with Powder Snow to turn the battlefield into a snowfield, but using it early cut off the benefits of Defense Curl and Rapid Spin, Terrain or Stats, Creig would have to make judgment calls on which was best when. Shrift learned Disable, Quick Attack, and Ice Shard, Quick Attack was best used like in the anime or fan-fics as a movement skill, what with Shrift being an evasive mage type pokemon, but that also meant she would need to practice using her "casting" while moving. Ice Shard required accuracy training on top of the previously mentioned movement casting, which other new trainers might not realize needed to include predicting where moving targets were likely to go. As for Disable, it was more difficult than in the games with far more moves available, Creig would have to hit a move vital to peoples strategy when he called for it.
Sunday was often a day Creig contemplated God, and looked to the notes he had written concerning what he remembered of the Bible, with the first proper journey about to begin he spent extra time talking with God, pouring out his heart, his hopes, dreams, and fears. Did he feel better after?, not really, but he knew God had heard. He also made sure his pokemon rested so they would be full of will to get through the coming week. Surprisingly Creig also received messages of vague encouragement from the various ice leaders, who agreed that this would be a significant start for him, though the ones from the gruff old men technically were read as: don't make ice, and thereby us look bad. Creig confirmed his alarm for the next day and fell asleep, tomorrow he would become a naturalized resident of this world, as much as was in-so possible at least.
