Pokémon the Movie: The Journey of a Slate

The next day, the news that Eslo had ascended to the Sinnoh League champion throne spread like a snowstorm sweeping across the mountaintops, instantly reaching every corner of Sinnoh and even spreading to the wider world. Newspaper headlines, news bulletins, trainer forums... all were filled with the name of this young powerhouse who swept through the Four Heavenly Kings with thunderous force and defeated the legendary champion Sirona. Praise and admiration flooded into the League headquarters like a tide.

However, all this noise seemed to be a world away from the young man who was currently in the league champion's office.

In the spacious and bright champion's office, sunlight shines in through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows. It should be a warm and hopeful scene. However, on the large desk that symbolizes one of the highest powers in the league, the mountains of documents, reports, application letters and other miscellaneous things form a daunting "paper mountain". They are stacked layer by layer, almost blocking the sunlight outside the window, and the shadow shrouds the new champion behind the desk.

Eslo was slumped in the large leather office chair, as if his bones had been pulled out. His handsome face was now gray and his eyes had lost their former vitality, leaving only emptiness and a dullness that was almost desperate. He supported his forehead with one hand, and the fingers of his other hand hung stiffly above a document with a frighteningly long title - "Joint Review Opinions on the Repair of Road No. 37 in Northeastern Sinnoh and the Adjustment of Wild Pokémon Habitats (Draft, Third Revised Edition)", and he did not put it down for a long time.

The densely packed text and complicated diagrams seemed to have turned into twisted runes before his eyes, indescribable and inexpressible.

"Ah..." A weak sigh escaped from the boy's lips, and Aislo casually threw away a large booklet thicker than a dictionary that Wusong had handed to him. The booklet was titled "Basic Qualities of the New Champion and Key Points for Handling Affairs."

Aislo's already weak body now collapsed like water, his eyes filled with a sense of vicissitudes that did not match his appearance and age.

"Pfft."

A burst of laughter broke the suffocating silence in the office. Mary was seen leaning against the door frame, her green eyes filled with mischievous smiles. She was wearing a neat coat that was convenient for traveling today, and there was a small suitcase beside her.

"Our dear new Sinnoh Champion," Mary walked in slowly with a hint of teasing in her voice, "What? Are we already in the legendary 'Champion's Troubles' on the first day?" She walked to the desk and gently poked the pile of shaky documents with her white fingers, "Is this the 'weight of power'?"

Aislo raised his eyes that had lost their luster and looked at Mary with resentment: "Mary...save me..." His voice was filled with deep grievance, "I feel like I'm surrounded..."

Mary looked at his hopeless look, and her smile deepened, but it also carried a hint of helplessness and heartache. The girl walked around the table to Eslo and gently patted his shoulder, "Okay, don't play dead. This is just the beginning, in the future..." She paused deliberately, and when she saw Eslo's eyes suddenly become more terrified, she slowly said, "... there will be more."

“No——!” Eslo let out a cry of grief and buried his head in his arms. “I was wrong, I was really wrong… What did I promise Sister Zhulan to do at that time? It would be so nice to be a free traveling trainer…”

Mary looked at his childish behavior and couldn't help but poke the soft cheek of her beloved in front of her. Then she sighed softly, leaned down close to Aisiluo's ear, and softened her voice, "Aluo."

Aislo uttered a muffled "hmm".

"I'm leaving." Mary's voice was soft, but it was clear in Eslo's ears.

Aisiluo's body stiffened slightly, and he slowly raised his head. The grayness in his eyes faded a little, replaced by a strong reluctance. He had known this moment would come, but when it really approached, the heavy feeling of separation still made him a little breathless.

"So fast?" Aislo's voice was a little low.

"Yeah," Mari nodded, avoiding his overly direct gaze and looking out the window, "Registration and preliminary preparations for the Galar All-Star Game will take time. And... if I stay any longer, I'm afraid someone will use it as an excuse to drag me in to deal with these documents." She pointed to the "mountain of paper" and tried to dilute the sadness of parting with a relaxed tone.

Aisiluo forced a smile and stood up, "Then I'll take you to the airport."

He didn't even glance at the pile of papers, as if they didn't exist.

At this moment, seeing her off is more important than anything else.

……

Meanwhile, at the corner of the Alliance Corridor.

Our dear hard-working model, the super-powerful king Wu Song was holding a new stack of documents and hurried to the champion's office. He muttered to himself, frowning slightly behind his glasses, "...It should be okay, right? This is only the first day, and I only gave him less than one-tenth of the documents I usually have to deal with...With his ability, even if he is not familiar with the process, he should be able to figure it out after reading the book and spending some time...Well, he shouldn't be slacking off..."

Wusong was very confident in his arrangements. He had specially screened the documents, and those were all key matters that required the champion's approval, avoiding the tedious daily affairs. He believed that this would allow Aislo to get into the state as quickly as possible without making him feel daunted at the beginning.

The young man walked to the door of the champion's office, knocked twice symbolically, and without waiting for a response (and without hearing any response at all), he pushed the door open and walked in.

"Champion Aislo, regarding the latest feedback report on the Tianguan Mountain Ecological Protection Area, I..." Wusong's words stopped abruptly.

The office was empty.

The sunlight was still shining brightly, falling on the large office desk. There were two neatly stacked piles of documents on the desk, neater than the ones Wusong had stacked in the morning. The "Opinion on Route 37" was lying alone in the middle of the desk, with a pen next to it, like a silent accusation.

Veins instantly bulged on Wusong's forehead. He took a deep breath, muttered to himself "calm down", and quickly walked to the desk. With a bad premonition, he began to sort through the documents, trying to find any comments or clues left by Eslo.

The left half of the mountain of documents had been annotated, and Wusong did not find any problems with the opinions or solutions given, so the young man breathed a sigh of relief. Just when he thought that Aislo was simply skipping work, his fingers touched two different pieces of paper in the corner of the table.

When he pulled it out and looked, Wu Song's glasses almost slipped to the tip of his nose.

One was a piece of letter paper with the highest standard of the league, with Eslo's slightly casual but beautiful handwriting on it. The title read: "Resignation of the Sinnoh League Champion"

The content was extremely concise, and the gist of it was that he was grateful for the alliance's trust, but he felt that he was not capable of handling the tedious administrative work of the championship. In order not to delay the affairs of the alliance, he kindly requested to resign from the championship position, effective immediately.

The other piece of paper underneath the resignation letter was an equally formal letter of recommendation. Aislo signed in the recommender column, and the name of the person recommended to be the next Sinnoh League champion was clearly written on it - Darko!

Wu Song held the two thin pieces of paper and felt that they weighed more than a thousand pounds. He stood stiffly on the spot, his eyes behind the glasses wide open, his mouth slightly open, as if he was hit directly by a bolt of electricity of one hundred thousand volts, his whole face turned much darker.

Outside the window, the Sinnoh sky was still as blue as ever, but inside the window, all that was left was a nearly broken Psychonauts and a mountain of documents in front of him.