"Kyosuke, you're here. Sit down." She pointed to an empty chair in front of her desk.
With his head lowered, Kyosuke shuffled over to Ms. Kinoshita's desk like a little quail that had done something wrong. He pulled out the chair and sat down, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"Teacher... I'm sorry... I shouldn't have played with my electronic pet in class... I shouldn't have disrupted the lesson..."
He was already prepared to be scolded, or even punished more severely.
But to his surprise, Ms. Kinoshita didn't put on a stern face or launch into the long lecture he'd expected.
She took the familiar red-and-white Poké Ball out of her drawer, gently set it on the desk, and slid it toward Kyosuke.
"Pikachu is cute, isn't it?"
Ms. Kinoshita gazed quietly at Kyosuke, a hint of amusement in her eyes. Her smile was like warm sunlight, dispelling some of the gloom in his heart.
Kyosuke stared blankly at Pikachu on the desk, then looked at his teacher, unable to react for a moment. This was nothing like the opening he'd imagined.
Then Ms. Kinoshita reached into her own handbag and took something out.
It was another electronic pet!
But this one had several sparkling Meowth stickers on it. It was round, and its colors alternated between pale yellow and light brown.
Ms. Kinoshita smiled and turned on the screen. "Look, I have one too."
A pixel-art cat appeared on the screen. It swished its curled tail smugly, the iconic coin on its forehead gleaming as it held a coin in its little paws and polished it.
"It's Meowth!"
Kyosuke's eyes widened in astonishment, his mouth hanging open so far that an egg could almost fit inside. He looked from his teacher's Meowth to his own Pikachu, his