Pokémon Scarlet and Violet: Infrared

Chapter 1 (Old): The Legend of Koraidon

"Good morning, class!" Ms. Raifort pulled her glasses off and set them down in her lush, light black hair. She eyed her History students, who sat with their legs behind their desks, straight as poles, and admired their white uniforms with orange ties and striped, orange shorts. "Oh, aren't we missing someone?" Raifort wanted to know, after studying her students a little longer.

Nemona and Scarlet, who sat at the front of the class, exchanged looks with one another. Scarlet tucked her tight-covered legs under her chair and hid behind her brown curls, but they became caught in her glasses. Nemona, on the other hand, lifted her arm and said, "Arven promised he would be here today, Ms. Raifort."

"Well, I don't see him, now do I, Nemona?" Ms. Raifort questioned. She shook her head and closed her eyes. "I swear, it's like that boy's got his head in the clouds nowadays."

Scarlet and Nemona gulped when images of Area Zero and AI Sada filled their brains: the way Sada glitched when the time machine overthrew her, and Arven's face when she told him that his mother had loved him.

"Oh, come on," Ms. Raifort groaned, at the sight of Nemona and Scarlet's blank faces, "don't tell me you two have your heads in the clouds, too." She rested her palms over the papers on her desk and stared deeply into the two girls' eyes—past Scarlet's glasses. "What, do y'all need a sandwich to perk up?"

Right at the word "sandwich", one of the pokéballs on Scarlet's belt flashed open. Before the class knew it, Koraidon sat like a Mabosstiff in the aisle. He licked his lips, and his big, orange-yellow eyes searched the room for sandwiches. He almost knocked Nemona and Scarlet's desk over with the tire in his scarlet chest and silently whined, "Gias."

"Scarlet!" Ms. Raifort snapped. "How many times have I told you to not bring your Pokémon to class?"

"That's my fault," Nemona piped up before Scarlet could answer (she wasn't much of a talker). "We had a battle before we came here." Which was true. Now that Scarlet was a Champion-ranked trainer like Nemona, they spent way too much time battling one another, to Scarlet's exhaustion.

She wrapped her arms around Koraidon's powerful, scaly neck and buried her face in the feather-like features on his head.

Putting her hands together, Nemona said, "We'll do better, ma'am. Promise." One of her green-tinted bangs fell in front of her left, golden-brown eye, and she peered pleadingly into Ms. Raifort's face.

"Sigh," Ms. Raifort said out loud. "What am I going to do with you battle-crazy kids? Scarlet, it's okay for today, but if you bring your Pokémon to class again, I will have to send you to Director Clavell's office. Do you understand?"

Scarlet removed her head from Koraidon's and gave her a weak nod. "Yes, ma'am," she said in a low voice.

"Gias," Koraidon repeated, ashamed, but also disappointed that there were no sandwiches for him to munch on.

***

Poco Path. There was something about it that comforted Arven. Was it its lush, green grass, the view of the Paldean Sea sparkling under the sun's rays, or the fact that Poco's lab was where he grew up, without a mom or dad? Whatever it was, the lighthouse that was attached to the lab was always Arven's go-to place when he felt stressed, aside from the kitchen. He and Mabosstiff looked across the Paldean Sea. They kept an eye out for any incoming ships, and then they jogged to the other side of the lighthouse and studied Paldea's extensive nature: the white tips of Glaseado Mountain and Mesagoza just past Los Platos below.

Mabosstiff, Arven's Dark-type dog Pokémon, rubbed up against his leg and wagged his tail, with his favorite pokéball in his mouth.

Feeling him, Arven's eyes left Paldea's wilderness and settled in on his partner instead. "What is it, boy?" he asked. "Do you wanna play fetch?"