The Twins At Paldea Univeristy (Pokemon Scarlet and Violet)

Rising Stars

It's been so long since they've been here.

There was a sense of nostalgia to be had being within the walls of the academy once more, yet it was also subsequently alien. New shelves, new floor tiles, and the thing Atticus had noticed most of all, the students. Their hair had been the most stylized it's ever been, coming in all lengths and colors as opposed to the old rule of either black, brown, blonde, or ginger and then further restrictions of style and length for boys.

Another thing Atticus had noticed about the students was the fact that they feared them, the star grunts let alone the bosses such as himself. It used to be the other way around. Some of the jockish mooks were still around, but they were nowhere near as menacing as the ones he knew. It was like he wasn't in the same school anymore. It made him feel all the more antique.

"Something on your mind, ninja man?" Mela cracked her fingers. The two of them were sitting by one of the computer desks. Mela had taken off her big red boots, mostly because sitting down in them was pretty uncomfortable. Atticus on the other hand had removed his facial coverings, although the rest of his outfit was the same.

"Negative, mine thoughts be muddled by the premises remade. Reborn it is, if I be placed here prior to our fall, I'd have made the erroneous mistake of believing it replaced entirely."

"You seriously need to update the way you talk, Atticus, I'm just saying," says Mela, "you talk in one of those classy fonts. Actually wait, no, you talk in cursive. Yeah. That's it."

"Apologies. 'Tis speech of mine be a habit ingrained in me since I'd been a wee bairn." said Atticus. "Mine vernacular, a source it has been for much strife beside mine fascinations with the shinobi arts."

Mela sighed and shook her head, "I didn't mean it like that, Atticus" she said. "It's just... Well, not everyone is like us, you know? You don't know when any of these punks will jump out and before you know it it's as if we were back before Operation Star happened."

"I know what thine speaketh of. But methinks thy paranoia misplaced" Atticus crossed his arms, closing his eyes as he began remembering a particular figure, "each of the great unwashed bears fangs. Be it then or now. But the malefactors of our antecedent tenure's fangs are sharp, a quality the current batch is bereft."

"Oh come on, Atty, I'm going to get a nosebleed if you keep this up," Mela groaned. "Judging from what I can decipher from what you just said, you're saying everybody's soft now. They're not tough as nails enough to be like the bullies of yesteryear even if they did what to. On that end I can agree wit'cha."

"Dost thou recall that wretched ruffian, Saburo?" asks Atticus. Mela scowls at the mention of the name. "Great, now you've ruined the mood. I thought the G-man wanted us to forget about all this? You and him did all this talking to get me to move on and yet here you are bringing him up."

"Apologies" says Atticus, "the topic of fangs naturally leads to the discussion of the serpent with the sharpest ones."

And a sharp-fanged serpent he was indeed. Gonja Saburo, or on a first-name-first basis Saburo Gonja, was one of the many infamous bullies that roamed Paldea University then. While other bullies stomped, Saburo was known for slithering around. It didn't make him any less dangerous, if anything it made him the most dangerous among them. A Johtonite transfer student, Saburo had a sadistic streak preying on the various students of the academy, the bosses themselves included. Sporting burgundy hair and hazel eyes, he was one of Operation Star's main targets. Almost everyone from the newest recruited grunt to the bosses themselves had a bone to pick with him.

"He was a tough bastard, I'll tell you that much" says Mela. She then notices the Charlos, the small charcadet running towards them, with the small lad named Youssef walking behind him. "Hmm? Oh, ninja man, look, it's one of your compadres."