Though his location had changed, Jason's schedule didn't change much from when he was living on Akala Island. His day was still broken up into four blocks: his morning routine, his training with Ren, his study sessions with Lillie, and his evening leisure time. The only real difference was that the number of people he interacted with and the ways he spent time with Lillie, Maeve, and Nanahoshi had changed.
"I had heard that you were into fish, but you're really serious about this, aren't you...?" Maeve questioned, relaxing on a leather sofa and watching as Jason tended to the 5000-liter aquarium Lillie had prepared for him in his den. She had wanted him to have a space to himself, where he could take people or decompress. And though it wasn't inexpensive to transport them, she made sure the fish, Luvdisc, and features within the tank were the same as those she had gifted him previously.
"I find it therapeutic..." Jason contended, his tone soft as he used a long tank scrubber to remove a thin layer of film-like algae from the aquarium's glass. He had already double-checked that the filters, protein skimmers, and refractometers were functioning. And though the water temperature was a touch higher than he was used to at 27.3°C, that was what the care manual recommended for Luvdisc.
"You should consider specializing in Water-type Pokémon. You seem like you would be good at it," Maeve remarked, causing Jason to turn a touch introspective as he had heard the same thing from five others. But while there were definitely Water-types he found interesting, the rest were, as some in his world might describe them, room temp.
"My favorite Typing is Dark, followed by Dragon, Ghost, and Fighting," Jason revealed, causing Maeve's brows to perk before she adopted a slight frown and noted, "Your preferences are kind of all over the place. Dark and Ghost-types suit gloomy edgelords and loners. Dragons and Fighting Types are the opposite. You need to have a strong heart and a strong sense of what you want to train them well."
"A sense of what I want...?" Jason repeated, wiping down the squeegee before joining Maeve on the sofa, surprising her as he asserted, "I know I want you..."
"Now...?" Maeve asked, her cheeks flushing.
"Now and forever..." Jason responded, turning his head and bringing his head around to Maeve's front to pepper her clavicle and the base of her neck with kisses. Her response was to lean back, her body largely going slack, and her breathing tinged with warmth as she allowed him to do as he pleased.
Contrasting Maeve's expectations, particularly with him slipping his hand under her shirt to trace his fingers along her toned abs, Jason didn't take things much further than kissing. He was spent from that morning, and his body ached from his neck down from his amplified training. Thus, while he couldn't resist resting his cheek against Maeve's breasts and breathing in her aroma, he ultimately raised his head and asked, "Did you decide what movie you want to watch?"
"Are you teasing me right now...?" Maeve asked, her eyes narrowing into a half-lidded stare.
"No...?" Jason responded, slightly confused. He knew for a fact that his actions hadn't made Maeve horny, but the outcome wasn't much different as she suddenly straddled him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and seized the initiative.
'Well, alright then...' Jason mused, the corners of his lips curling into a smile as he readily reciprocated Maeve's affection while caressing her remarkably round, toned, and velvety bottom. They were supposed to watch a movie before returning to their respective rooms. But one of the many things Jason had learned from dating multiple women was that, if one of his girlfriends wanted to kiss, make out, or do more, it was best to go with the flow...
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With two weeks passing in what felt like the blink of an eye, Jason watched with amusement as Lillie went through twenty different outfits, unsure of what to wear on their first day of school. His own outfit was a simple steel-grey tank top, bluish-black pants, a black leather belt, navy-blue-and-white Omnishoes, and a navy-blue windbreaker with a cobalt-blue interior and the stylized visage of a Lucario on the back. He also had a custom, steel-grey, high-collared half-zip made from the same material as Wicke's sweater, tucked away in his backpack alongside a first aid kit, a bag of high-quality Pokémon food, and a sketch pad.
"Mooooou...this wouldn't be so difficult if you didn't say I looked great in everything I wore..." Lillie complained, her voice tinged with a whine that was more pleasant than grating.
"It's my honest opinion..." Jason retorted, causing Lillie to direct a pouty glower his way. She wasn't truly angry with him, but Jason could tell she wanted to retort that he wasn't being helpful.
"Do I need to dress you myself...?" Jason asked, a playfully wolfish grin adorning his face. To his surprise, Lillie responded with a harrumph and a T-pose, facing forward with her chin raised and eyes closed.
"Mmn...alright, then..." Jason hummed, rising from the chaise lounge he was sitting on before carefully undressing Lillie to just her pale blue bra and panties. Then, in near complete silence, he held up multiple dresses to her body while standing behind her, his gaze focused on her reflection and reactions rather than the dresses themselves.
"This top seems good..." Jason muttered, his words causing the flush in Lillie's cheeks to intensify, her voice calm as she responded, "If you say so..." in a quiet tone. The top in question was a sleeveless white summer blouse with a pastel blue, sailor-esque collar. Next, based on Lillie's own reactions, Jason selected a long, pleated, blue-tinted white skirt with the same pastel blue and three-pronged, flower-esque markings that most of Lillie's custom dresses and skirts had on the hem.
"This skirt pairs well with your blouse, but I think we should change your bra, panties, and socks..." Jason muttered, causing Lillie's brows to perk as he kissed her shoulder and added, "As great as you look in these more mature undergarments, they're not very practical for conducting outdoor activities..."
"Mmn...you might be right..." Lillie conceded, her blush having crept into her ears and a thin layer of sweat coating her body. Despite that, she was able to maintain her composure, even as Jason removed her bra and slid her panties down her long, lightly tanned legs. In their place, he clothed her in a pair of panties that resembled pastel blue tennis shorts with white frills. For her bra, he picked a white sports top with a pastel-blue elastic band. Then, tying everything together, he carefully adorned her legs with breathable, thigh-length, lace-trimmed stockings.
"Alright, I believe we both need to cool down a bit..." Jason muttered, planting a kiss on Lillie's still exposed shoulder before leaving her to don her blouse and skirt herself. By that point, they were both sweating. So, while she turned to observe him with green eyes that appeared to glow as light refracted in them, he made his way over to the AC and turned it to its highest setting...
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Though Hobbes offered to drive them, Jason and Lillie chose to walk to school with Ren following them and Runa riding in her backpack, allowing them to observe Hau'oli City below them to their right. There was a solid 2.2km between their villa and the school. But as they would be expected to traverse much longer distances as Trainers, they wanted to get in the habit of walking.
"This is going to be so surreal...meeting people another version of me has befriended for the first time..." Lillie remarked. Jason had naturally told her about their future classmates—at least those who featured prominently in the anime and games. Whether they would actually meet them was yet to be determined, but the likelihood was high.
"Are we still going with our original plan? Because I could seriously use some male companionship..." Jason remarked in a joking tone. Inwardly, he was completely serious. He considered himself exceedingly lucky to have multiple girlfriends and Lillie as a fiancée. But if things continued at their current pace, he couldn't shake the feeling he was going to end up isolated—a singular male shared by dozens of women.
"I would like to try making friends of my own," Lillie confirmed, her gaze rising introspectively to the sparsely clouded sky overhead. What Jason was referring to was them forming their own friend groups and spending time apart. They would naturally reveal that they were engaged, but while he focused on making male friends and finding a suitable rival for him and Ren, she would focus on befriending the girls in their class.
"No need to think about it seriously or write our decision into stone. Let's play things by ear and go with the flow," Jason suggested, doing his best to appear and sound confident. In reality, though he really shouldn't have been, he was nervous. He had never had the opportunity to attend regular classes or make friends in a school setting before, so he was walking into completely uncharted waters.
"Mn! Let's do that~" Lillie chimed, grabbing Jason's hand and pulling him along as she added, "That said, we should hurry! We don't want to be late on our first day!"
With Lillie still being able to bench and squat more than him, Jason felt like his arm was nearly pulling out of his socket by her suddenly rushing ahead. Fortunately for Runa, he managed to resist long enough to have the poor Ralts returned to the comfort of her Poké Ball before they took off alongside Ren, their Omnishoes allowing them to reach speeds that the sprinters in his previous world could only dream of...
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Upon reaching the final stretch leading to the Pokémon School, a winding dirt road flanked by a cliff and a fast-moving stream that wrapped around the plateau the campus was built atop, Jason, Lillie, and Ren slowed down to take in the others hiking their way up the path. Unlike in the anime and games, there would be nearly a hundred students attending the Pokémon School alongside them. And in place of a single class and instructor, they would have six fifty-minute periods, each led by a different specialist in a variety of Trainer-centric fields.
Though he didn't recognize any of the students making their way along the path, Jason felt relieved seeing the disparity in student appearances and apparent ages. There was even a gaunt man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties, reinforcing the notion that not everyone becomes a Trainer or sets out on a journey at the same age. Either that, or he was a teacher.
With such thoughts swirling around in his head, Jason eventually reached the entrance to the Pokémon School's campus alongside Lillie and Ren—a fairly sizeable stone bridge with a sloping arch. There, he got his first view of someone he recognized, but they most certainly weren't a student.
"Welcome, welcome. The Admission's Office is to the right~" droned a woman with droopy, half-lidded, blue-grey eyes and a pleasant, albeit lazy-sounding voice. Her hair was a faded mustard blonde, fixed into a loose ponytail. More notably, she had long fringe bangs that dangled to the middle of her torso, tinted pink like paintbrush tips. The same pink was drawn across her face, framing her eyes and bleeding into her hair as a clear fashion choice.
"Hmmn? Do you need something...?" asked the woman, her figure slender but not without curves—even if they were currently concealed beneath a baggy, white, paint-stained shirt. Below that were faded, calf-length blue jeans—torn and similarly paint-stained above blue-and-white, slipper-like shoes.
Though he startled slightly at being caught staring, Jason managed a professional smile and responded, "I was just a little caught off guard by the teacher's appearance. I apologize for staring..."
"Mmn...you're an odd one. But you've got a good color..." remarked the woman, thumbing lazily over her right shoulder as she added, "Anyway, the Admission's Office is over the bridge and to the right. Go and pick up your student IDs and Provisional Trainer's Licenses. You won't be able to attend classes without them."
"Thank you very much, Miss...?" Lillie interjected, allowing her words to trail so the woman could introduce herself.
"Mina," responded the woman, her dull grey eyes shifting to Ren without ever glancing in Lillie's direction. This bothered the latter, but instead of calling Mina rude, she smiled and appended, "Thank you for guiding us, Miss Mina. We look forward to learning from you and the other instructors here at the Pokémon School."
"Mhmm. I'll see you around," Mina responded, her attention shifting to a group of newly arrived students, whom she promptly parroted the same information about the Admission's Office being across the bridge and to the right. As such, Jason and Lillie briefly exchanged glances before they stepped past her, missing the moment when Mina stopped to glance back at them over her right shoulder...
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