Bai Kong
Bai took in a deep breath and let it out, smelling the crisp and wonderful ocean air as the boat travelled towards the Pokemon Trainer Academy. She was nervous about teaching trainers, some probably only a bit younger than her, about going on a journey; she knew that her journey was probably abnormal compared to most even if one did not pay attention to the fact that she was four people in one body. Plus, there would be the fact that she could black out at any time during her lessons, and she hadn't told anybody about her...condition except Cynthia, although she was sure that the headmaster of the Academy knew. After all, one does not hire someone without getting their full background. She would probably have to warn her students too, as it was not do well for them to needlessly panic when she blacked out.
Most people would be worried if they kept on passing out without much warning, but to Bai, this was already normal. In fact, it had been happening to her since she was nine years old when she got into an accident involving fire, which gave her the very unattractive burn scar that reached to the back of her neck to the middle of her back. It was obvious that it was very painful. Because of this incident, her mind broke and split into two different entities, one named Bai and the other named Hei. They were complete opposites of each other: while Bai was happy, sweet, and confident, Hei was angry, sadistic, and arrogant. Bai's mind broke two more times; once when she was the only one who could deal with a hostage situation, which created Hui, an intelligent, lazy individual who really only comes out when she has a chance to test her intelligence. The last time was due to her torture at the hands of an evil team, Team Viper, in Unova. This time created Lan, a sad, lost, and even broken girl. Still, at some point, Bai's psyche had started to heal, merging the four personalities slowly, which starts with Bai gaining memories of everything. When Bai is starting to gain a memory, she, as she calls it, "blacks out" or passes out and when one memory comes, usually more memories follow. In between memories coming back, Bai has no idea where she is and is usually seeing things that would break most people. It certainly broke Bai.
Bai sighed. She didn't even have a map of the Academy and she didn't even know where to go. Worry about classes some other time, Bai thought to herself. Right now, hope that Cynthia would be waiting at the dock.
In fact, from the bow of the boat, she could see the Pokemon Trainer Academy. They would probably reach it in about ten minutes, judging by the speed the ship was going and how the island seemed to be growing.
Bai took in another deep breath, trying to banish her nervousness. She was usually quite confident in herself, but there was a difference on knowing that you were good at pokemon battles and knowing that you could teach a class about how to survive. After all, a lot of new trainers don't even survive to their third gym badge; they usually died in the wilderness, either due to an extremely aggressive wild pokemon, or because they did not have the necessary tools for surviving without a mum to help out with the cooking and the shelter over their heads.
Most ten year old kids had no idea how to cook, much less fend for themselves by scavenging or taking extra care of their supplies. In fact, perhaps that should be a lesson; know how to cook, scavenge, and take care of their supplies.
Way to go, Bai, she thought to herself. You have one lesson plan down.
Bai could see the dock and noticed a blonde figure waiting. She smiled. Cynthia didn't let her down after all.
-x-
As soon as the ship was docked, Bai ran off the ship and hugged Cynthia. Cynthia, smiling, hugged back.
"Hello, Bai," she said softly. Cynthia paused. "You are Bai, right?"
Bai chuckled. "You think Hei, Hui, or Lan would give you such a warm welcome?"
"Maybe Lan," Cynthia replied thoughtfully.
"If she wasn't too busy crying," said Bai without bite; she knew that Lan had the most painful memories of her life, so she was thankful to Lan for keeping those memories at bay for a few years, even if she was gaining a few of those memories now.
Cynthia stepped out of the hug. "Nervous about teaching?"
Bai smiled. "A bit, yeah. Not sure what I could tell them."
"Most of the students here are rather bright," Cynthia stated, as they walked away from the docks. "Most do not have much experience as you do, so remember that."
"I'm pretty sure that's why I'm a teacher and they are students," Bai replied dryly.
"Such cheek!" exclaimed Cynthia with shock. "When did you pick up such a mouth?"
"From you," teased Bai. "Didn't you know? You are a terrible influence."
"I'm a Pokemon League Champion, I can't be a terrible influence," Cynthia stated, aghast.
"You are a terrible influence," Bai repeated with a smile.
Cynthia rolled her eyes, but the effect was ruined by the grin on her face. "I'm not quite sure when your classes start, as I haven't talked to the headmaster yet. Are you going to tell your students about...?"
Bai sighed, all remnants of the good feeling their bantering had brought gone. "I probably should. They should know that a journey is not to be taken lightly. Maybe one class a week, I'll share something from my own journey?"
"Unova?" asked Cynthia solemnly.
Bai shrugged. "I hope that they will never have to fight against an evil team, but one does need to be prepared on the evils of the world."
"Are you going to speak about--"
"No," Bai interrupted. "I only have one memory from that period of time, probably because my mind knew I couldn't handle more, and even that memory was a horrible one. I'm trying to teach them to be careful, not for them to never go on a journey."
Cynthia gave Bai a one-armed hug as they walked. "You hungry?"
"Starved and parched, actually." Bai smiled.
"Let's go to the cafeteria before we visit the headmaster," suggested Cynthia.
"Alright," Bai agreed.
They walked, more like Cynthia steered and Bai just came along for the ride, to the cafeteria.