Chapter Text
Blueberry Academy is a very different place from its sister school, Uva Academy.
While Uva Academy covers a general range of subjects, Blueberry Academy has a singular purpose: to train students so they can become employees of the International League. So many Rangers and Veterans, Gym Leaders and Elite Four members, bureaucrats and politicians running the cogs of the various Leagues have attended Blueberry since it opened.
Blueberry was the passion project of its Director, Cyrano, a famous biotechnologist and industrialist. Cyrano worked in tandem with the International League, Uva Academy, the Aether Foundation, and the Magma Land Development Agency to create an Academy in the waters near Unova. Now, Blueberry was a prestigious Academy, a top research site, and a floating fortress safe against the enemies of the League.
Uva Academy is a sanctuary of the mind. Blueberry Academy is a battleground, where the might of one’s Pokémon rather than one’s intellect determines who is right. The League Club, Blueberry’s copy of the Elite Four, essentially dictated student policy, with the faculty and staff having much less authority than in a place like Uva.
“Blueberry must be a miserable place,” Violet reflected when learning about the Academy.
At least one Blueberry student agreed with Violet.
Kieran Kaijitsu, a first-year student at Blueberry, was not having a good time. Though he adored watching Pokémon battles and yearned to join them, he was not an adept Trainer himself. He had three Pokémon, an Applin, a Sentret, and a Yanma, who were his friends from his hometown. But though his Pokémon adored him, he wasn’t good at training them. He wasn’t good at commanding them. He wasn’t good at determining optimal move sets and held items, or planning elaborate battle tactics. He wasn’t good at catching wild Pokémon. He was a complete failure as a Trainer.
And complete failures of Trainers are picked on at Blueberry. For Kieran, it felt like such bullying was encouraged by the Academy; when he complained to the staff, they simply told him to get stronger. Things would be far worse if his older sister, Carmine, who was attending Blueberry to get a degree in Political Studies, wasn’t there to protect him.
Kieran only went to Blueberry because Carmine was already there. He didn’t know what subjects he wanted to study, or what career he wanted after graduation. His instructors noted this, wondering what to do with him. Maybe they should convince him to quit. But his impeccable reference letter noted that he had much potential. Perhaps he simply needed a different environment, one where he couldn’t cling to his sister so much. In Carmine’s overprotective shadow, he was clearly wilting. But if he was free to learn independently, he may blossom.
They’ll act on their tentative plan after reading break in a couple of weeks, during which Kieran and his sister will surely return home for the Festival of Masks. The Festival of Masks also served as an event for students of three Academies, Blueberry, Uva, and Naranja, to meet, collaborate, and compete.