Turning the Tables

"Candidates, have your admission slips, ID cards, and student IDs ready. Leave your Pokémon and phones here before entering the exam room. You're all returning students, so you know the consequences of cheating. Mind yourselves."

"Meownei, hold on to these. Go wait over there for me."

"Meow~"

Meownei took the phone and Weavile's Poké Ball, picked a window with plenty of sunshine, and sat right on the sill. Xin Mu joined the end of the line and picked up his review notes for one last pass.

Everyone lining up here was a student retaking exams to graduate. Since their papers were different, they weren't taking their exams alongside the next year's students. They had a separate exam room, though even then, they weren't all taking the same subjects.

Broadly speaking, they fell into two categories. Everyone in Xin Mu's exam room majored in something Pokémon-related. The existence of Pokémon had brought enormous changes to productivity and spawned many industries.

Accordingly, universities had introduced all sorts of majors. Some were purely theoretical, and students might go four years without ever interacting with a real Pokémon, but that didn't stop these majors from sounding more prestigious.

Other exam rooms held exams for ordinary subjects, but those had nothing to do with Xin Mu.

Besides the cameras and human proctors, Xin Mu also spotted the Pokémon proctor at the entrance. A Haunter wearing a proctor's badge was helping the humans conduct checks, though the process was a little... haunted.

That did suit Haunter's nature. As a Ghost-type Pokémon, Haunter was, strictly speaking, already a ghost. And the whole point of using Pokémon as proctors was to prevent people from cheating with Pokémon.

The Telepathy of certain Psychic-type Pokémon and the innate invisibility of some Ghost-type Pokémon made them particularly good at that sort of thing.

The Haunter slipped in and out of the floor and walls, checking things among the crowd. Since its hands were detached from its body, it would sometimes even pluck its eyes out and hold them in its hands to inspect people from other angles.

Some candidates accidentally came into physical contact with Haunter, and every one of them shivered involuntarily.

Apart from Xin Mu, everyone who had brought Pokémon had recalled them into their Poké Balls. That made Xin Mu the exception, which piqued Haunter's curiosity.

But just as Haunter reached out, while its little hands were still some distance from Xin Mu, an invisible force caught them. Then both hands slammed straight into the floor as though they had been filled with concrete.

"Haunt?!"

For a "ghost," Haunter looked remarkably as though it had seen one. It seemed unable to understand why its hands wouldn't fly anymore-until it noticed the hostile-looking Meowscarada beside it.

Meownei, who had been sunning on the windowsill just moments earlier, had silently appeared beside it at some point.

"Meow-"

Cat Pokémon shared certain traits with ordinary cats. Their voices could be sweet and soft or sharp and piercing. Right now, Meownei's voice had a raspy quality to it, and sounded intensely threatening.

Meownei kept that voice low. Xin Mu, who was beside them trying to memorize his review notes, hadn't even noticed anything happening. Haunter, however, was another matter.

Though Pokémon had different cries, they shared a common way of communicating. Haunter had already sensed Meownei's hostility.

[What are you trying to do?]

Meowscarada were proud Pokémon that loved the spotlight, had sensitive emotions, and were intensely attached to their Trainers.

Seeing a Ghost-type Pokémon apparently about to do something strange had naturally prompted a targeted response.

Then Meownei adjusted the angle of the leafy cape, revealing vines that had been invisible and showing Haunter why its hands had become so heavy.

"Heehee..."

Though it now understood the cause, Haunter seemed unable to wrap its head around the situation. This wasn't its first day helping proctor exams, and it had seen plenty of Pokémon, but never a student's Pokémon like this one.

As far as Haunter knew, what student's Pokémon would dare lay hands on a proctor's Pokémon? Besides... who had brought a boss out for a stroll?!

The aura Meownei gave off even frightened Haunter a little. After all, upon evolving into Meowscarada, Meownei was no longer purely Grass-type, but a Grass- and Dark-type Pokémon.

The unfavorable type matchup and gap in strength both left Haunter uneasy. Meownei showed no intention of letting it go, either, and a half-open flower bud hovered near Haunter's body.

Any Pokémon familiar with Meowscarada would have understood that this was a very dangerous sign. That thing wasn't a decorative flower. It was a genuine flower bomb.

Meowscarada's signature move, Flower Trick, was launched through it. Judging by Meownei's demeanor, if Haunter couldn't provide a reasonable explanation, this probably wouldn't end here.

Fortunately, things didn't spiral out of control. The friction between the Pokémon had already caught the proctors' attention, and Haunter's Trainer was walking over.

"Could you please have your Meowscarada release Haunter first? My Haunter only recently evolved from Gastly and isn't quite used to having hands yet. I'll discipline it later."

The man didn't put on airs. He knew exactly what his own Pokémon was like. Ever since his Gastly had evolved, it had loved touching things everywhere. From the looks of it, it had touched something it shouldn't have.

"Meownei, let Haunter go. It's safe here. You don't have to be so tense."

Xin Mu had been focused on his exam notes and hadn't paid much attention to what was happening. Only when he heard someone mention Meowscarada did he realize they were addressing him. After all, there wasn't a second Meowscarada in this exam room.

"Meow~"

"It's fine. I know what you were trying to do. You haven't caused me any trouble. Go back to sunbathing."

Xin Mu had figured out why Meownei had acted that way. It seemed Meownei still retained the traits from that game.

There had been plenty of ways to fight in it. Trainers could even stab one another in the kidneys while their Pokémon battled, so from Meownei's perspective, a Ghost-type Pokémon approaching like that posed a danger.

Once Meownei released Haunter, it immediately fled back to the exam room entrance, apparently frightened. Its Trainer said nothing more, either, and simply resumed his duties.

He wasn't a three-year-old who would make trouble for someone over something this minor. Xin Mu also dropped his notes onto the table by the entrance, said goodbye to Meownei, and went to his seat...