Kouji's Bizarre Adventure

Alright let's start at the setting. The world is an alternate history of our own. Guns and weapons of war are practically nonexistent but still exist stuck in a flintlock design. Wars still occurred but eventually stopped fully after WW2 when America and Japan joint-discovered an infinite energy source.

Cut to present day where the modern world is ruled by governing bodies, countries, criminal organizations, and corporations rat racing against each other to create superstar Olympian-tier champions and trainers to sway the public and generate political power. Since alliances and lines in the sand have been drawn, America decided to start the world's first worldwide elite trainer initiative where every country, including the smaller nations, fund the creation of Aurelian Pokemon Academy—an exclusive university flotilla island built over a sea lab off the coast of Guam to mold the best of the best of the best in the world.

CEO kids, military spies, elite fours, champions, hicks and everyone in between are effectively sponsored by their respective countries and organizations to be trained in the most rigorous world champion cultivation program known to the modern world. Sounds like an opportunity of a lifetime, right? And it definitely would be—if you were important enough to get sent.

Enter Kouji. Just your typical eighteen year old Japanese delinquent with a huge chip on his shoulder. Got expelled halfway through high school after engaging in what the school called "wanton violence", and decided that he was better off doing part-time work to help sustain himself and his younger sister who he was effectively guardian of. You see, Kouji's life has been nothing but rough. His mother was once a famous stuntwoman turned actress in America; dead, after a frenzied Hollywood pokemon flew into a rage and mauled her during a shoot. His father? Never around, too busy gallivanting across the globe as an Interpol agent trying to make the world a better place. Sure Kouji had a chance to accept money from his estranged father, but his pride wouldn't let him, and his sister loved him too much to go be with their dad, so using whatever was in the bank he lived off of what he could and supplemented the rest.

Now, this rough and tumble life story doesn't exactly sound like the sort of person who'd get sent to a top tier military university for the best would-be trainers in the world. And you'd be right to assume that, especially because Kouji HATES pokemon. A carryover grudge from his mother's death. So how the hell does he end up on the island? You see, because the program is meant to measure every possible parameter, there is another big factor besides raw skill or talent that needs to be looked at. Luck. So, the initiative has a special lottery program for a very small select few to try their chance of a lifetime.

So now this begs the question, why would Kouji, who loathes pokemon, even bother at the slim chance of getting? Well, that's where the secret spice comes in—he didn't. Somehow, for some reason, someone put his name into the figurative goblet of fire, and it just so happens... he was among the select few winners who got in.

I can keep going if my writing style isn't cringe and people are still interested.

I'll take that as a blessing to continue. As a simple preface, I'll recount the campaign so far with as much accuracy as possible, but through the lens of Kouji as though he were the main character (because I'm playing him). Additionally, I may have forgot specific details like what other characters said or did, so I'll just embellish a tiny bit or make broad assumptions since not everyone has revealed their backstories in character yet. Without further adieu...

While Kouji may have been entered into the lottery system for the university, it doesn't mean that he's forced at gunpoint to ACTUALLY go. However, his little sister, Emi, feeling extremely guilty over relying on her big brother and being the underlying cause of him being expelled from school (TLDR: Kouji's family situation is means bullies gonna bully, and because they can't bully him, they went after the next target), she pushes Kouji to live a little and to not look a gift Rapidash in the mouth. Begrudgingly, Kouji decides he'll indulge his sister's request and give it a shot. After all, if he doesn't like it (he won't), he can just bow out after a day or two... right?

Cut to the START of the campaign proper.

After taking a short plane trip to the Guam, he's stuck waiting for the rest of the academy's students before everyone embarks on a private ferry to get to the Aurelian Islands—diverse biodomes constructed entirely for the project's initiative. With the main one having the academy proper. After landing officially on school soil, Kouji is surprised to see that he island actually has a real city constructed just outside of the campus grounds. A place for the local pokerangers', teachers', and staffs' families to dwell during the extent of the project's lifespan, which is supposed to last a total of 3 years in total. Before it can even sink in just what he's gotten himself into, an academy staff member directs the students toward some bus shuttles.

Cont...

Just as all of the students grab their luggage and belongings off the ship and start heading to the shuttles, something strange happens. Everyone hears a shout, and sees a fast moving ball of pink rage hurling themselves toward the throng of students—specifically, Kouji himself. It doesn't take more than a few seconds for the thing to reveal itself as a god damn Flamigo! Now OOC here, I myself helped developed the homebrew system alongside my DM/GM, and as an inside joke from a previous campaign (a two-hour debate on whether Flamigo is a badly designed pokemon), he decided to throw him at me to force the players to come together rather than lone wolf it up.

With that said; meet the boys (the PCs).

>Liam is the son of a major CEO of some old money family. Beside his upbringing, he's actually pretty swell and has a personality that makes others want to be around him, got in by money connections
>Johnny Silver, a ye earnest sailor turned LARPing pirate, has an English accent and never leaves home without an orange in hand, calls everyone his mates or his crew, got in through scholarship
>Deus something something, son of an organized crime family, is standoffish and thinks these plebians are beneath him, also is money hungry and always trying to hustle, got in through recommendation and money connections
>Finnel, resident quiet boy who is actually the grandson to the academy's botany teacher, is apparently not afraid to get into a scuffle even though he'd prefer sitting around and reading about nature and plants and nerdy shit, got in through scholarship and nepotism
>Damian, German expatriate who apparently traveled around for a bit before coming to the academy, he's equal parts MUSCLE and SMART but ask him to go on an endurance run and he'll crumble like a house of cards, got in through lottery
>Kouji, we already know who he is by this point. Lottery... or was he?

Pic related. Cont...

Where was I? Right, the god damn flamingo. So, given that Kouji's choice of attire is his signature red jacket, a memento from his mother's career as a stuntwoman, the Flamigo literally sees RED and jumps down in front of him. In an astonishing turn of events, it looks him squarely in the eye and... scoffs? Well, unfortunately for it, Kouji immediately throws his shit on the ground, squaring up. A one-two jab later from our resident ass kicker, and now suddenly there's a pokemon battle of the wrong kind occurring in front of literally everyone. Damien, seeing a chance to tussle and make a new friend, jumps in and tries to pull the pink ball of death away from Kouji. Finnel on the other hand decides that perhaps they need some help, and tries to wrangle the thing without trying to hurt it. The rest of the boys stand idle watching with great interest as three people proceed to reenact the printer scene from Office Space. After giving it enough wacks Kouji manages to slap its shit in, and it is finally at this point everyone wakes up from their reverie and the local pokerangers jump in and help subdue the pokemon.

Kouji got away with a couple of scratches, but all in all a job well done. He thanks Damien And Finnel before nonchalantly picking his stuff up, muttering to everyone's surprise, "I hate pokemon", before stomping away to get let on the bus. Well, this has earned some minor respect from THE BOYS so Kouji is begrudgingly finding himself surrounded on all sides by the PCs. People share a little back and forth about themselves and Kouji tries to drown them out by staring out of the window and watching the biome of the landscape change as we drive into the academy proper. Given this was a very long day of traveling, and the jet lag for a majority of the would-be students, the buses park directly in front of the multi-floored dorms, constructed in fashion similar to high-end condominiums. We're let off and told to make ourselves at home.

Cont.

A full course meal is waiting for us, as well as the freeform ability to choose our own rooms, with the building itself reaching 11 floors of fully furnished dwellings. Of course, the girls get their own dorm as well, but we don't care because we're on our own Bizarre Adventure™. For reference, the rooms we picked are—

>Deus, room 1
>Finnel, room... 17? (can't remember)
>Damian, room 23
>Kouji, room 34
>Liam, room 37 (he wanted to be on the same floor as Kouji)
>Johnny, room 69 (this is important later)

After settling in, Kouji throws himself on his bed and immediately starts fuming about how shit his luck is. When suddenly he hears a knock at his door—Liam, our resident dudebro, is standing out there completely drenched from head to toe. Before Kouji can even ask what happened Liam immediately asks for his help.

>Liam: "There's a weird hose inside the toilet and it sprayed me and won't stop. Can you help?"

Turns out the bathrooms come equipped with bidets, and now Kouji is on retard wrangler duty as he follows Liam back to his place to play plumber. Meanwhile, Finnel is hanging out with Damian in the downstairs eatery, Johnny Silver is unpacking, and Deus is ominously standing outside, watching from the treeline and muttering some weird chuuni shit like "Hmph, plebs. Why would you trust something so easily handed to you?"

Well, the day comes to a close without much fanfare. Besides Deus who decides to pull a Bear Grylls and sleep outside in a tree canopy, everyone else turns in for the night with the full expectation that their first day of classes finally begin. Now, in the morning, before Kouji can even think about sleeping in, he is immediately jolted awake by a loud banging on his door. It doesn't take three guesses to figure out who it is—Liam, wanting to walk together with him. Everyone eventually comes down to find a massive breakfast buffet, they eat, and we all head to school. For reference, classes start at 8 o'clock.

Cont.

I did forget something else that happened the first day. We got to pick our "starters". Effectively any pokemon with a final evolution with a BST less than 530 (with some wiggle room for backstory). We're also grabbing pokemon from some of the better fan made ones, like CAPX and Untamed. For reference, here is what we picked.

>Johnny, Lapras
>Liam, Dracozolt
>Finnel, Lileep
>Deus, Durant
>Damian, a SHINY Scorbunny (he rolled full odds)
>Kouji, Platypow (from CAPX)

The way we IC got our starters was basically picking from a list from a BOX in our room which transferred it to us. Kouji, true to his delinquent nature, never bothered to officially read or look at the list, and so flicked the screen so it'd move too fast to read and picked the first one that the selection landed on. Anyway, moving on...

The boys make their way to school, with Liam and Kouji getting there early. Interestingly enough, they're greeted by a strange scene at the bottom of the stairwell is a wheelchair-bound girl, seemingly unperturbed by the lack of a ramp. Liam and Kouji look at each other, but the former just shrugs and moseys on ahead... but Kouji? Well, beneath his rough exterior, he's got a heart of gold that he tries to hide from others. So he tells Liam he's gonna loiter and leans against the wall near the wheelchair girl. She looks up at him in interest, but they both don't exchange a single word as the students pass them by. It isn't until Deus, who woke up out in the wild and made his way into the school, that this changes. You see, Deus is the sort who likes being better than everyone else, so when he stumbles upon this scene, ALSO stands there in silence, not wanting to let someone outdo him in anything, even in loitering. Well, finally the girl speaks up and tells the two of us that she's just waiting for the teacher to help assist her up. Deus offers to grab her chair, and Kouji, embarrassed but determined to see his actions through, stays silent.

Cont.

Well, with just a single minute left until class officially starts, both Kouji and Deus finally meet their teacher. A green-haired Mary Poppins lady who always smiles. She looks between everyone before saying, "Forgive me for running a little late, Elysia—oh, and look at that, you've got two gentlemen waiting for you. I'll be sure to overlook tardiness just for today."

Shortly after, she lets out an Arcanine and let's the Elysia climb on. Deus offers to grab her chair and Kouji just swaggers behind them in a sort of mood. Eventually we hit class and find a majority of the seats already taken. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I take the not!protag seat. Feeling that he's been one upped, Deus scoffs, walks over behind the girl sitting in the front of our row (Caterina) and looks down at her. Without any word, he scoffs again and grabs the ENTIRE desk, scraping it against the floor and leaving the poor girl to think he'd rather straight up move than sit next to her. She's visibly upset and trying to hold back tears, but Deus is on the sigma grindset and parks himself behind a police-looking lady (Lei Qing).

Seeing that a girl is effectively being bullied, Kouji gets triggered but decide not to start a brawl, and so grabs his own desk and moves to the front. The girl looks at him both amazed and a little flustered by his actions, but smiles and introduces herself as Caterina. Kouji just replies in a grumble, "I didn't do it for you. I just wanted to be closer to the door," before averting his gaze. She smiles but says nothing else as the teacher coughs and tells us class is in session.

After doing class introductions and a long spiel of the history of the school, she warmly welcomes us with a mischievous glint in her eye. Then tells us we'll be formed into groups. However, there's a big problem—our (PC) group has one extra person compared to everyone else.

Cont.

So with one extra person compared to every other group, there's suddenly a discussion with some of the other groups complaining and asking why we've got 6 people instead of the evenly split 5. The teacher smiles and says something along the lines of, "This is simply how it has been worked out. Trust me when I say this is also unexpected."

Kouji, unsatisfied with that answer, raises his hand and asks, "So does that mean there's an extra person? Does every class have a group like ours?"

The teacher narrows her eyes at him, almost breaking her sunny façade, seemingly giving him a wider grin and replying, "Kouji-kun, you should know better than anyone else, no?"

This cows him and he settles down, wondering now if him being forcibly entered into the school was some plot of some sort. Why? Who knows, but now he's got the class' eyes on him wondering what the teacher meant. Regardless, the teacher interrupts the discussion by clapping her hands and telling us it is time to do our first lesson—battling. She leads us out of the class and out to the battling fields which is a few minutes walk away. After telling us that these matches are scored and will be reflected on our grades, she pairs up each group. When it finally gets to us, we're placed on the opposite side of the arena and forced to look at our opponents, knowing this might make or break our record here at Aurelian Pokemon Academy—and that's where I'll leave the story off for today, since that was all entirely Session 1. Hope you guys liked reading the misadventures of THE BOYS. Since I'm taking a dramatic flair with my writing it ended up being pretty lengthy so maybe in the future I'll just use greentext format and condense it for readability if people would prefer it that way. Regardless, thanks for reading my blog. If anyone has any questions or comments feel free to shoot them.