"Down. Down. Down."

Like a soldier inspecting his troops, Finn strode with weight and momentum down the rows of students doing push-ups on the main square. His emerald kimono billowed behind him, a lone speck of green in a slate grey field, as he paced past one trainee struggling to get himself off the floor.

"Clench your core and use your back." Finn's tone was firm, measured but somehow encouraging, like the weight of a cool river rock in your hand. He bent down to place a finger gently in the centre of the flailing student's upper back, right where he should feel that contraction, and braced him by the side as the trainee finally lifted his torso off the ground with a laboured grunt.

"Well done."

If you listened closely, you could hear the smile in his voice.

Despite his tough exterior, Finn was an understanding and fair teacher, but some students truly tested his resolve to be fair and professional. Zev, a recent addition to the school, was one such person. When Finn told Zev that he'd admit him if he managed to snag his glass off his palm, he expected chasing, snatching and agility... not being choked until his vision faded.

Luckily, Zev had already come in for the week.

As Finn made to push his knee off the square, he saw a new face emerge from the school's main gate. There was no way of missing him - he wore a patch on one eye, something none of Finn's current students wore.

"Class, break up into pairs for drills."

Yes, Master!

As his students dispersed like a flock of Taillow, Finn walked up to the young man to examine him closely. He seemed somewhat lost and expectant, just like Zev did when he wandered in on that fateful day.

"Can I help you?"

Isaac Merlo

This young man pulled up a bright smile in a slick, sure way. Finn stopped to wonder where he'd seen this before, but kept his thoughts to himself. Outwardly, he stood poised as a Swellow.

So, he wanted to know about training. Finn smiled gently and waved a robed hand at the trainees behind him. Some did static bodyweight exercises, some sparred with wooden swords. Grunts and honest laughter peppered the crisp air. Finn's fringe flickered in the wind.

"This is where you'd begin. Our neophytes train up their basics in the outer courts, and those who wish to dive deeper work inwards into the school."

Flying Sword School was a great place to progress if you knew where you stood, the rites of decorum and honour. Thoughts about his recent recruitment misadventure faded away as he listened to the young man speak. He seemed bright, eager to learn. He'd heard about them from someone he had to think twice about calling a friend. Finn's eyebrow raised by a hair's width. Who would provoke such doubt?

And it hit him.

Even though he kept his face as restrained as possible, Finn felt like a Swellow struck by a Thunderbolt. So that was where he had seen this performance before.

"Harcourt."

Finn had to take a calming breath.

"And what did he tell you about why you might be a good fit for us?"

This was not a good fit for people like Zev. Finn let him in because he won on a technicality. If this man was anything like him, Finn wouldn't hesitate to throw him out like he wished he could have with Zev. Finn braced his core. Anything could happen now. Maybe he would throw his elbow into Finn's face.

Isaac Merlo

Isaac's words left a lot unsaid, and that's what the swordsman was trying to pin down. Finn scanned Isaac, his eyes sharp like a Fearow's break. The pauses, the spaces between his words, concealed thoughts like screens. The blade of Finn's mind pressed against them, testing for a break.

"If you're talking about rowdy, Zev is more than capable of training you himself." Finn spoke without heat, but his words were clipped and sharp.

But, as Finn taught his students to do, he took a step out of himself to look at his mind from an observer's point. Yes, Zev burst into the school and wouldn't take no for an answer - but he was Finn's student now. And Zev wasn't Isaac. If anything, Isaac seemed aware of how... Intense - the word Isaac had used after mentally browsing a list of much plainer descriptions - his... Coworker was.

Seems like a lot was left open to future discovery. But if Isaac was to get thrown out of the gates, he should earn it on his own terms, and not by association. And so, too, for his entrance.

Finn loosened up and the air around him changed. He was being, or was trying to be, open to new possibilities.

"That's why Zev wants you to learn. Why do you want to learn?"

Isaac Merlo

Isaac's words felt like a Taillow's gust, a fresh wind of openness and possibility. Finn nodded deeply as he listened in admiration of Isaac's courage; in embarrassment that he'd judged Isaac by association. Isaac had everything Finn wanted to see in a student. Not only was he brave, he was compassionate too. The sword work can be taught. What takes a much longer time to develop is the state of the student's heart. 

Finn's smile was sincere, humbled. He felt like he was proud of Isaac even before he'd properly enrolled. 

"If I measure a teacher by his student, that means Zev has depths that I have not understood. Or, perhaps, you should teach him instead." 

Now that he knew the man's heart, he had to know his skill.

"There's just one thing left I want to see." 

Finn spiralled to face his students and raised a hand with such simplicity but so much assuredness that he could have parted a cloud in the sky. His footsteps, soft but crisp, sounded like a drumbeat.

"Students, to the side!" 

The air shifted. Static tingled around them as students in grey training uniforms scattered from the centre of the large, earthen square. Shocked exclamations rustled amongst them in response to this sudden change in lesson plan, and at Isaac's impressive team of Pokemon. Finn strode across the arena, addressing all of them at once. 

"Class, this young man stands a chance of becoming one of you. Watch respectfully." Murmurs broke out amongst the trainees, but Finn's sharp action drew them to a weighted, awed silence - with the slicing certainty of a Gallade's shadow, Finn took his steel fighter's crown off his spiky green fringe and held it towards his challenger. 

"Take this off my hands and you may enter my school."

And then, impulsively, as memories of nearly having his neck crushed by Zev flashed across his mind, Finn threw his other hand out in an uncharacteristic break and interjected himself. "But please try not to kill me in the process." Having allowed himself this brief moment of spontaneity, Finn composed himself again, holding his crown in front of him like a bullfighter's red flag. His students' eyes zoomed back and forth between their teacher and his challenger, examining them both. Some of them had found themselves in this situation too, not too long ago. They rooted silently for Isaac, but they also wanted to see if he was worthy. 

"Ran! You're up!" Finn's voice rang as clear as a Flash.

Ran, Finn's Primeape, answered Finn's call, charging to his trainer's side.  

"One on one. Three Pokemon maximum. Remember, your aim is not to win a battle - it's to get this from me." 

Finn's eyes glinted like his steel crown. He was itching to see how Isaac would fare.

Isaac Merlo

And they were off.

Finn didn't actually need to conduct trials like this, but he felt the call of a good battle in his blood. A hundred eyes weighed down on the arena. Finn felt that attention keenly; he knew Isaac could too. And so far, Isaac was showing promise.

Isaac and Reverb flashed in and out of sight, near and far. Finn's students gasped as their eyes zig-zagged across the arena, trying to discern some pattern to their teleports. Conversely, Finn and Ran stood still. They broadened their focus, their senses rippling out from the borders of their skin. Isaac and Reverb were certainly adventurous in strategy, but the Ralts was still young. Teleporting was an art of precision. Shunt yourself between dimensions too brusquely and air rushes in to fill the vacuum your body leaves behind.

Pop. Pop. Pop. Finn might not see them, but he could hear them perfectly. Right within arm's reach, he could feel their arrival in his hair.

"Ran, now! Make the ground dance!"

Finn's Primeape bellowed and drove one foot deep into the ground, sending shock waves exploding out across the square in circles of crushing force. Finn himself swung out a sword and stabbed it into the ground, anchoring himself to the spot as the earth shifted around him. Primeape used Stomping Tantrum!

The crown was safe for now!

"Listen with all your senses! Now, Ran - Rage Fist!" Finn couldn't help but make use of this chance to teach his students something. Veins popped in Ran's skull as his fists ignited with ghostly power. He leaped into the air, crashing down towards Reverb!

Isaac Merlo

Finn winced when Ran socked Isaac across the jaw. Oh, man. That's gotta hurt. Sympathy wrinkled Finn's eyes but the man recovered his hard glare in an instant. Isaac made a choice, and it was his fallout to bear. But somehow, Isaac pulled through. Finn's gaze narrowed approvingly at how Isaac and Reverb worked together with so much unspoken trust.

Gasps from the crowd pulled Finn's awareness back into his body, and he noticed it getting darker beneath his feet even though the sun glared on. Finn's mind raced like slicing blades and spurred him into action. Think later; do something first.

"Take this and go." Finn slipped his crown into Ran's paw and the monkey tumbled off just in time to avoid being lanced by an Aegislash. The hem of Finn's robe beat in the dark wind that rushed from his side.

Finn locked eyes with Isaac.

"What happened to one on one?" His expression was unreadable, impossible to place - was he mad or did he appreciate Isaac's magic trick?

Seems like the same mischievous streak ran in both Zev and Isaac. But, unlike the previous applicant, Isaac seemed to have enough good inside him for Finn to brush this off. Totally unflappable, Finn slipped his hand into his robe, his indeterminate expression settling into a crooked smile.

"Remember, you started it."

Bawang, a Gyarados, roared like the gates of hell flung wide, and Finn's students recoiled and shrieked. Finn rarely called upon Bawang, and his students knew that he meant business whenever he appeared. Like a Swellow, Finn hopped onto Bawang's car-sized head, where Ran joined him too. Up on his blue dragon, his crown in one hand and his sword in another, Finn looked every inch like his title - Master Flying Sword.

"Try sneaking up on me again!" Finn laughed. Surprisingly, he was taking all of this very easily. Mentally, he'd already accepted Isaac - and, if Isaac managed to get one up over him, then he'd absolutely have to take him in.

Isaac Merlo

Two students chattered away amidst the screams and cheers around them.

"Coach is really going all in," the one with short spiky hair commented as Bawang growled and thrashed.

"Yeah... who is this guy?"

"I don't know, but he's good!"

Magical Leaves burst into the air like a Beedrill swarm and as if Finn's face was a honey pot. Rainbow blades shredded the air in a cyclone around Finn, forcing him to bring one hand to his eyes. Thankfully, Reverb didn't enchant the leaves to hurt, just annoy, but the little cuts that grazed Finn's skin still stung. Bawang, however, roared in pain as the Magical Leaves scratched against his scales. Jets of blue flame - little Dragon Rages - whooshed from his nostrils, burning off some smatterings of leaves, but the grass-type attack manoeuvred around them like little ninjas.

Finn, Ran and Bawang were so thoroughly trapped by the Magical Leaf that they only realised something was amiss when they heard the crowd's screams swell. Finn's eyes narrowed, looking beyond the dazzling leaves. Isaac had made his way up Bawang's back!

The swordsman burned - and he found stillness in that heat. Any idiot could burn a forest down but it took a true fighter to channel that flame.

Finn thought.

He didn't want to injure Isaac. He also didn't want to jeopardise Bawang, whose body they were fighting on. He had to get Isaac off with as little damage as possible.

"Bawang, make it rain. Ran, scream at them."

Bawang roared, scaring the sky itself into releasing its waters over them, sending rain cascading down his scales. Finn hooked himself around Bawang's trident horn. But more importantly, he covered his ears.

Ran let his lungs loose in a terrible, primal Screech. Finn blocked out his ears tight, and his grip on his wet crown grew tighter.

Isaac Merlo