"Because your age is close to that of the students at the academy, it will naturally stir up their competitive spirit," Geeta said. "That makes you the most suitable choice."
"How would the schedule work?" Gary asked.
"That depends on you. You only need to come once every quarter, and each time you must stay here for at least seven days. During those seven days, you'll battle the students at the school," Geeta said.
"No... how many students does the academy have?" Gary asked.
There were quite a lot of students at Naranja Academy. If the total didn't reach a thousand, there were at least eight hundred.
Even if every match were only one-on-one, there was no way Gary could defeat eight hundred Trainers in seven days. He wouldn't be able to finish even if he gave up eating and sleeping.
"Don't worry. I'll only arrange battles with the academy's best students, and the number won't exceed twenty," Geeta said.
If it was only twenty students, that was manageable, but Gary still had some questions.
"What format will the battles be?"
"Three-on-three, so your Pokémon will have time to rest," Geeta said.
Geeta had actually considered proposing full battles, but after thinking it over, twenty students with six Pokémon each would mean one hundred and twenty Pokémon in total, which was simply too much.
Besides, most of the students didn't even have six Pokémon yet. Usually they only had two or three, and having four was already considered good. After all, it wasn't easy for students to meet Pokémon they truly liked while studying at the academy.
And even if they did, those Pokémon might already belong to other students, or they might be Pokémon brought by teachers for class use.
"Sixty Pokémon," Gary calculated.
Defeating sixty Pokémon in one week was still a fair amount of work. Still, with the strength level of the students at Naranja Academy, it wouldn't be too difficult. Gary probably wouldn't even need to use his main team.
"Chairwoman Geeta, there's a pretty big gap between my strength and the students'. If I battle them, the matches will end very quickly, and they may not learn much from it," Gary reminded her.
It was one thing to let students experience battling a strong Trainer, but if the difference in strength was too large, there would be almost no learning value at all. If they were simply overwhelmed in one move, then there was no real battle experience to speak of.
"It doesn't matter. You have the right to use whatever level of Pokémon you want. Strong or weak, it's entirely up to you. If you're willing to use weaker ones, you can also treat it as training for newly raised Pokémon. That wouldn't be a bad thing for you either," Geeta said.
That was true enough. Gary still had several near-Elite Pokémon he could use in battle. Even if the students' Pokémon hadn't reached that level, they should at least be around Gym level.
Judging from Penny's strength, the others probably wouldn't be much stronger than that, so taking this job wouldn't be a problem.
"And the timing? I can decide that myself?" Gary asked.
"Yes. You can choose the time. Just contact me before you come, and we'll confirm the schedule. You only need to arrive at the academy on time," Geeta said.
"Alright. I agree to be a teacher," Gary said.
"Then let's talk about what you want in return," Geeta said.
They had already discussed the job itself and the rules. Now it was time to see what kind of compensation Gary wanted.
"I'm very interested in the Great Crater of Paldea. Can I enter it?" Gary asked.
Back when he had captured Great Tusk in the Hoenn region, Gary had already started thinking about ancient Paradox Pokémon.
All of the Paradox Pokémon were in the deepest parts of the Great Crater of Paldea. If Gary wanted to complete the system mission, then sooner or later he would have to enter that place and capture the others.
And the woman standing in front of him was not only the chairwoman of Naranja Academy, but also the head of the Paldea League. She held tremendous authority, and in terms of administrative power, her position was even higher than that of an ordinary Champion.
"As expected of Professor Oak's grandson," Geeta said. "I can allow you to enter, but anything you discover in the crater must be explained to our research team."
"Alright."
Gary had no objection to that. After all, it was someone else's territory. If he really discovered something new there, it was only proper to report it.
Besides, Gary was already quite clear on the situation inside the Great Crater.
The biggest secret there was the existence of the Paradox Pokémon.
The second was the deeper part of Area Zero, where the Tera crystal energy was much stronger, and where there existed a new Tera Attribute called the Stellar Type.
The Stellar Type didn't correspond to any standard type. Instead, it was a very special form of Tera power that encompassed all attributes at once.
In addition, there was some kind of connection between that place and Terapagos, though no one had figured out exactly what it was yet.
"Then there's no need to sign a formal contract. When you want to go to the Great Crater of Paldea, just let me know," Geeta said.
"No problem. Then I'll be on my way."
In truth, the Great Crater of Paldea was fairly close to Mesagoza, but Gary wasn't planning to go there yet. He still needed to hurry back to the Sinnoh region.
There were still several Legendary Pokémon in Sinnoh that he planned to capture. If he entered the crater now and ended up missing those opportunities, he would definitely regret it later.
"Then I won't see you out. Goodbye," Geeta said with a wave.
"See you next time."
Gary said his goodbye as well and left.
After leaving Naranja Academy, Gary continued wandering around the city. It was getting close to noon, so he started heading toward the Pokémon Center. When he reached an intersection, he noticed a shop by the side of the street.
The sign above the door read Cyclizar Shop, a specialty store that sold Cyclizar.
Cyclizar was a Pokémon unique to the Paldea region, and it served as a personal riding Pokémon for the people there. Almost every household had one.
Although Cyclizar was a Dragon-type Pokémon, it was actually rather sensitive to cold, so it liked staying in the sun.
Because it wasn't very resistant to low temperatures, it liked having people ride on its back. Human body heat helped it endure the cold.
That was why nearly every family kept a Cyclizar as a means of transportation. After all, it could run fast, it didn't eat much, and in any case, it was cheaper than paying for fuel.
"Looks pretty good," Gary said.
He looked at the video screen hanging outside the storefront, which was showing a Cyclizar in motion.
Cyclizar could not only be ridden like a motorcycle, but it could also climb trees and walls with Rock Climb. After all, it was still basically a lizard, and lizards could cling to vertical surfaces.
And because of the special structure of the scales on its palms, Cyclizar also had very strong braking ability.
Even if it was running at 120 kilometers per hour, it could still stop quickly enough to avoid crashing into people.
The key point was that Cyclizar's tail could regenerate. If you were out in the wild and had no food, you could temporarily fill your stomach with a piece of Cyclizar tail.