The Aarey Camp had never been this quiet.
Five hundred students stood in formation at the forest's edge, their boots lined neatly against chalked markers on the ground. Some held their hands behind their backs like soldiers. Others clasped them in front, knuckles pale with tension. A few shifted their weight unconsciously, nerves betraying them despite weeks of preparation.
They came from everywhere.
Mumbai suburbs. Satellite towns. Small coastal villages. Crowded housing blocks. Quiet gated societies. Some had grown up seeing Pokémon daily since the Merge. Others had only watched them from behind barricades and news screens.
But today—
They all stood on the same ground.
At the front of the formation were the instructors.
Imran adjusted his glasses for the third time, exhaling slowly. He looked calm on the outside, but his heartbeat refused to slow. Kavya stood beside him, tablet in hand, scrolling through final attendance checks. Behind them, slowbro and oddish units moved quietly between medical tents, their presence steadying in a way no human medic ever could.
Whispers moved through the student lines.
"Is he really coming here first?"
"They said he flies in."
"No way—like actually flies?"
"My cousin swears he landed on a police HQ last week."
Imran raised a hand.
Silence returned—but it was fragile, trembling with expectation.
Then the forest reacted.
Not the students.
Not the humans.
The forest itself.
Birdsong cut off mid-note. Leaves stopped rustling. Even the distant hum of camp generators seemed to dull, as if the world had lowered its volume.
A shadow swept across the clearing.
One student looked up.
Then another.
Then all five hundred heads tilted skyward at once.
Gasps rippled through the formation.
High above, wings stretched wide—massive, controlled, impossibly steady. The air pressure shifted as Pidgeot descended in a slow, deliberate spiral, feathers cutting the wind with precision that spoke of experience far beyond instinct.
Riding her was a single figure.
Calm.
Balanced.
Unhurried.
Aakash Patil.
Pidgeot's landing was perfect—no stumble, no wasted movement. Dust flared outward in a controlled ring as his talons touched the stage platform prepared at the center of camp. He folded his wings neatly, standing tall, head high, eyes scanning the area with quiet authority.
Aakash dismounted.
For a full heartbeat, no one spoke.
A hush spread through the clearing.
Someone whispered, barely audible—
"…He's real."
Aakash stepped forward.
He didn't wave.
He didn't smile.
"Good morning," he said.
Two simple words.
They carried.
"I won't take much of your time," he continued, voice steady, "because from today onward, your time will no longer belong only to you."
Every student straightened.
"You're here," Aakash said, "because the world you were born into no longer exists."
The air shifted.
"This is not a hobby course," he went on. "It is not a shortcut to fame. It is not a game."
A pause.
"Pokémon are not tools.
Not weapons.
Not trophies."
His gaze moved across the clearing—slow, deliberate, unflinching.
"They are living beings capable of protecting cities," he said, "or destroying them."
Silence deepened.
"And from today onward, every one of you will be judged—not by your power—but by how responsibly you handle that truth."
A murmur tried to rise.
It died instantly.
"Being a Trainer," Aakash said, "does not mean you fight all the time."
He took one step forward.
"It means you decide when not to."
Behind him, Pidgeot shifted, wings rustling softly—like distant thunder rolling across the sky.
"There are tiers in the Trainer system," Aakash continued, lifting one finger. "And you will earn every step of them."
"Basic Trainer.
This is where you begin.
Control. Restraint. Care."
A second finger rose.
"Advanced Trainer.
Leadership. Zone operations. Pokémon integration with human systems. Responsibility beyond yourself."
A third finger.
"Elite Trainer."
The word alone made the air feel heavier.
"Elite Trainers do not chase battles," Aakash said calmly. "They prevent them. They stabilize regions. They stop conflicts before they become wars—human or Pokémon."
His hand lowered.
"But understand this clearly."
His voice didn't grow louder.
It sharpened.
"With every tier you climb, the number of lives depending on your decisions increases."
Some students swallowed.
Some clenched their fists.
Some finally understood what they had stepped into.
"You are not here to replace the system," Aakash said.
"You are here to become it."
The words settled, heavy and inescapable.
"India did not move first because it was lucky," he continued. "It moved first because it chose structure over chaos. Responsibility over fear."
He gestured toward the camp—the instructors, the calm Pokémon at the perimeter, the order holding everything together.
"And you," he said, "are the backbone of that system."
Something changed in the clearing.
Not excitement.
Resolve.
"You will make mistakes," Aakash said. "You will fail. Some of you will quit."
No disappointment.
No judgment.
Just truth.
"That is reality."
Then—just slightly—his expression softened.
"But those who endure," he said quietly,
"those who learn,
those who protect without arrogance—"
He looked across five hundred young faces, each standing at the edge of a future they couldn't yet comprehend.
"You will decide what this country becomes."
Silence followed.
Not empty.
Not awkward.
Full.
Aakash stepped back.
"That's all," he said simply. "Training begins now."
He turned.
Pidgeot lowered himself instantly—no command required.
The wind shifted.
And the future of India's Trainer System took its first step forward.
With a single, powerful beat of her wings, they rose into the air—wind surging across the clearing, snapping banners, sending loose leaves spiraling.
Students shielded their eyes.
And just like that—
He was gone.
The same scene unfolded again that day.
At another Mumbai camp near a mid-level forest boundary.
At a coastal camp overlooking a stabilized large zone.
At an industrial-edge camp where steel and vines intermingled.
At two more camps on the city's outskirts.
Different faces.
Different instructors.
Same silence.
Same shadow.
Same words.
Aakash never stayed long.
He didn't need to.
Because the moment students saw him descend from the sky—calm, controlled, partnered with power that obeyed rather than rampaged—they understood something no textbook could ever teach.
This wasn't about strength.
It was about worthiness.
And across Maharashtra, as training began in earnest, one truth took root in thousands of young minds:
The future of India's Trainer system wasn't waiting to be written.
It was already standing.
And it expected them to rise to it.
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