The A.U.M. Academy. The name represents the three cosmic states: 'A' (Creation), 'U' (Preservation), and 'M' (Dissolution). It is the great Stillness that holds the universe. This academy is the crucible where raw potential is forged into mastery. Legends like Cynthia and Leon are alumni here. I am Shiv. I aim to be the best, but I carry a heavy secret: the 'AUM Power.' The power that the academy was named after. It is not just an aura; it is the source of stillness itself, a bridge to all living things. If I unleash it, it overwhelms people. Therefore, I must keep it tightly suppressed, hiding my true nature behind a mask of normalcy. I stand at the massive ivory gates, hesitating. The courtyard is filled with the next generation of legends, separated into their elite cliques.
The Kanto Veterans: Leaf Green, Misty, Blue, and Red stand together. They don't just look strong; they feel heavy, exuding a battle-hardened pressure.
The Celebs: May, Dawn, Lisia, and Serena are gathered nearby. They shine with a dazzling, charismatic energy that feels like a spotlight.
The Supernovas: Groups from Unova (Hilbert, Hilda, Rosa) and Alola (Selene, Lillie) are scattered around, each with their own unique intensity.
I take a deep breath, clamping down on my AUM power to make my presence feel like "nothingness." I want to enter unnoticed. I step into the courtyard, simply observing the gap between me and these legends.
The air within the ivory gates of A.U.M. Academy didn't just carry the scent of sea salt and ancient stone; it carried the weight of Wills. To any ordinary person, the courtyard was a gathering of talented youths. To someone like me, who could feel the pulse of the world, it was a thundering orchestra of clashing frequencies.
I drew the AUM power inward, coiling it into a tight, dense knot at the base of my spine. I practiced the "Art of the Void," making my presence as significant as a single pebble on a mountain path. I became a ghost, walking through the shadows of titans.
To my left, the Kanto Veterans formed a wall of sheer experience. Blue Oak stood at the center, his Charizard looming behind him like a gargoyle of living flame. The dragon's eyes were slit, scanning the crowd with a predatory boredom.
"I don't care how many 'prodigies' they signed this year, Misty," Blue's voice cut through the air, sharp and jagged. "A title in the minor leagues doesn't mean you can handle the pressure of the A.U.M. furnace. Most of these kids will crack before the first bell."
Misty stood with her arms crossed, her Starmie hovering just behind her shoulder. The gem at its center pulsed with a rhythmic, wary light. "Keep your ego in check, Blue," she snapped, though her eyes were narrowed, scanning the newcomers with a clinical skepticism. "The world is getting bigger. Even Red is paying attention."
Beside them, Red said nothing. He didn't have to. His presence was a gravitational well, a silent mountain that demanded respect without uttering a word. His Pikachu sat on his shoulder, its ears twitching—not at the noise, but at the invisible currents of energy flowing through the yard.
Across the lawn, the Celebs radiated a different kind of intensity. It wasn't the "heavy" pressure of Kanto, but a blinding, magnetic pull. Serena stood with a poise that bordered on the ethereal. Her Delphox stood beside her, its stick held like a scepter. The Pokémon's fur rippled as if caught in a wind that didn't exist.
"The resonance here is... chaotic," Serena murmured, her eyes drifting toward the crowd. She wasn't looking at faces; she was looking at the 'shimmer' of souls. "Everyone is trying so hard to be seen. It's like a thousand candles trying to outshine the sun."
Further back, the Supernovas from Unova and Alola were a riot of raw, unrefined power. Hilbert and Hilda stood back-to-back, their Samurott and Emboar exhaling steam that hissed against the morning air. They represented the 'Dissolution'—the force that breaks old boundaries to create something new.
I moved past them, a silent observer in a sea of monsters. My suppression was perfect, yet as I passed the Kanto group, Blue's Charizard suddenly snapped its head in my direction. Its nostrils flared, and a low, guttural growl vibrated in its chest. It didn't see me—it felt a 'lack' of something where a person should be.
"What is it, Charizard?" Blue asked, his brow furrowing as he looked toward the space I occupied.
I didn't stop. I couldn't. If I faltered for even a second, the AUM power would leak, and these apex predators would scent me like blood in the water.
So, I didn't just let the power leak; I precision-engineered a "flicker."
Deep within the core of my being, I momentarily loosened the knot of the M—the Dissolution. For a fraction of a second, the 'Void' I was using to hide expanded outward in a silent, invisible ripple. It wasn't a flash of light or a burst of wind; it was a sudden, jarring lapse in the universe's rhythm. For one heartbeat, the ambient noise of the courtyard—the chatter, the cries of Pokémon, the rustle of leaves—simply ceased to exist. It was the "Great Stillness" asserting its dominance over the chaos.
The effect was instantaneous and primal.
In the Kanto circle, Blue's Charizard didn't just growl; it let out a sharp, strangled hiss, its tail flame exploding into a violent blue pillar of heat. Blue spun around, his hand instinctively hovering over a second Poké Ball. "What the hell was that?" he barked, his arrogance momentarily replaced by a sharp, predatory alertness.
Misty's Starmie reacted even more violently. The central core of the mysterious Pokémon turned a deep, warning crimson, spinning so rapidly it hummed with a high-pitched frequency. Misty herself stumbled back a half-step, her hand flying to her throat as if the air had suddenly thinned. "The pressure..." she whispered, her eyes darting through the crowd with a fierce, skeptical intensity. "Something just... erased the air."
Red didn't move, but the change in him was the most terrifying. His Pikachu's cheeks sparked with lethal red electricity, and for the first time, Red's eyes—usually distant and calm—sharpened like flint. He began to scan the crowd, not with curiosity, but with the cold calculation of a master looking for a threat.
Among the Celebs, the reaction was more refined but no less urgent. Serena's Delphox dropped its stick, the flame at the tip snuffed out as if by an invisible hand. Serena froze, her ethereal poise cracking. She felt the "shimmer" she had been observing get swallowed by a momentary, absolute darkness.
"Did you feel that, Delphox?" Serena murmured, her voice trembling slightly. Her eyes, usually soft, became piercing as they swept across the sea of students. She wasn't looking for a "candle" anymore; she was looking for the sun that had just eclipsed them all. "That wasn't just aura. That was... authority."
Nearby, Cynthia's Garchomp, resting near the academy's inner archway, surged to its feet. It let out a low, bone-shaking roar that silenced the entire courtyard, its fins vibrating in a defensive stance. It sensed a predator.
I was already twenty paces away, my presence once again folded into "nothingness." I didn't look back. I could feel their eyes—dozens of them—searching, probing, and failing to find the source. I had planted the seed. To them, a ghost had just whispered a promise of destruction in their ears.
I remained anchored in the obsidian shadows, my breathing shallow and rhythmic. Instead of stepping into the light, I turned my focus inward, toward the microscopic needle-point of my AUM signature. If I was going to survive A.U.M. Academy, I needed to know exactly how much of my "void" the system could detect before it triggered an alarm.
I began to pulse my power—not in a burst, but in a slow, oscillating wave. I expanded the suppression field by a mere fraction of a millimeter, then snapped it back.
The Monolith reacted instantly. The massive crystal structure groaned, a low-frequency vibration that rattled the teeth of every student in the hall. On the digital display, the rankings began to scroll at a blinding speed, the names of the Elites flickering like dying stars.
Misty, standing near the front of the crowd, shifted her weight. Her striking silhouette was framed by the crystalline glow of the Monolith; the fitted, azure-lined uniform of a Master-rank trainer hugged her hourglass figure, emphasizing a captivating beauty that was as sharp as her reputation. She placed a hand on the hilt of a specialized Pokéball, her brow furrowing. "The sensor dampeners are failing," she murmured, her voice carrying a melodic but wary tone. "Something is eating the ambient energy in the room."
Beside her, Serena looked less skeptical and more entranced. She was a vision of elegance, her presence carrying an effortless allure that seemed to soften the harsh edges of the training hall. Her long legs were crossed as she leaned against a terminal, her curvaceous form casting a long, graceful shadow. She wasn't looking at the screen; she was looking at the air itself, her perceptive eyes tracing the ripples of my AUM pulse as if she could see the distortion in the light.
"It's not a glitch, Misty," Serena whispered, her voice a soft silk that cut through the mechanical hum. "The Monolith is trying to breathe, but something is suffocating it."
I pushed a bit harder. I focused on the internal sensors of the Monolith, the delicate Viridian-circuitry designed to measure an Aspirant's soul-weight. I projected a 'phantom' signature—a dense, heavy void—directly into the core's intake.
The effect was violent. A spark of violet electricity jumped from the Monolith's base to Blue's boots. He jumped back, a snarl twisting his handsome, arrogant features. "Hey! Watch it with the hardware!" He glared at the technicians, but his eyes quickly darted back to the shadows where I was hidden. His Arcanine let out a low, rumbling growl, its fur standing on end.
Red remained the eye of the storm. He didn't look at the Monolith. He didn't look at his friends. His hat was tilted down, shadowing his eyes, but I could feel his focus narrowing. He wasn't tracking my power; he was tracking the absence of it. To a master of his caliber, a hole in the world was just as visible as a mountain.
The academy sensors began to scream, a high-pitched whine echoing through the hall. My AUM power was acting like a black hole, drawing the system's calibration into a recursive loop. If I held this for another ten seconds, the Monolith's core would overheat and potentially detonate, exposing me in the blast.
I clenched my fist, visualizing the sprawling, hungry void of my AUM signature and yanking it back into the infinitesimal point at my core.
The release was instantaneous and violent.
The "AUM Vacuum"—a phenomenon where the sudden absence of a massive energy suppression field causes ambient Aura to rush inward to fill the space—manifested as a localized implosion of air and light. The high-pitched whine of the Monolith didn't just stop; it was swallowed. A shockwave of displaced pressure rippled outward, invisible yet heavy, striking the assembled Elites with the force of a physical blow.
Misty, despite her Master-rank reflexes, was caught off guard. The sudden change in pressure forced her to plant a hand against the cold floor to steady herself. Her striking silhouette, usually a picture of poise and aquatic grace, was momentarily strained as she fought the kinetic backdraft. The azure-lined uniform hugged her hourglass figure as she leaned into the wind, her auburn hair whipping wildly around her face. Her skepticism was replaced by a flash of genuine alarm, her captivating beauty sharpened by the adrenaline of a sudden threat.
"What... was that?" she gasped, her voice strained as she tried to reclaim her balance.
Serena fared little better. The elegant trainer was nearly swept off her feet, her curvaceous form swaying as she gripped the edge of the terminal. Even in her disorientation, she looked like a vision of effortless allure, her wide eyes darting toward the shadows where I had been standing. She wasn't just feeling the wind; she was feeling the psychic afterimage of the void I had left behind. Her perception, sharper than any sensor, felt the "emptiness" move.
Blue let out a sharp curse, his Arcanine barking fiercely at the empty air as the trainer stumbled back against the Monolith. "The system just flatlined! It's a total blackout!"
Red was the only one who didn't fall. He shifted his stance, lowering his center of gravity, his boots grinding into the obsidian floor. His eyes, sharp and lethal, cut through the swirling dust and fading violet sparks, locking onto the exact coordinate where I had been. But I was already gone.
I moved through the darkness of the upper rafters, my footsteps silenced by the lingering atmospheric roar. I was a ghost in the machine, a shadow gliding through the architecture of A.U.M. Academy. Below, the technicians scrambled to reboot the Monolith, and the Elites were left standing in the wreckage of a sensory anomaly they couldn't explain.