"So, earlier this morning, we had to get urine, stool, follicle, and swab samples for Miltank to put them into different lab tests; however, we just have to pass them as we're not allowed to interpret them out loud. Which is odd, because why would we need to do that if we're in the field? Is there a foldable urine analyzer out there?"
First week of February, second month of Anthony's internship to become an associate field researcher. Anthony, Zubat, that is now often in the head of Miltank, instead of Anthony as well as Miltank itself, are looking at a screen with Hana and Ben in it. It was now the lunch break of Anthony from his job to gather results from the tests given to the Pokemons he was tasked to tend, and Anthony just happened to receive a video call from his parents, which he did to ask this question, and of course, to give an update to the Miltank.
Hearing the question of Anthony, their son, the couple chuckled before Ben replied: "No, they don't, but most of the time you can request a Nurse Joy accompany you in the field with one, or you can formally request to operate the Pokémon Center near your area, but only Nurse Joys can interpret them."
At this juncture, Anthony suddenly heard something unusual.
"Aren't nurses allowed to interpret the results of these kinds of tests?"
This is what Anthony was most confused about in the system of medicine in this world, for it says that nurses are not allowed to interpret results like such, the same as in his world, but 'Nurse' Joys clearly can. This is something that the previous Anthony didn't study, because, yes, you guessed it, he was lazy. Thankfully, his mother is not stingy with teachings.
"'Nurse' Joys are actually 'Nurse' Joy, MD, but they only uses 'Dr.' with instructors in the academy of Nurse Joys... or whatever the name of the academy is and in the lab you're interning in, the 'nurses' you are referring to are their helpers such as human nurses that gives you your Pokeballs after the general treatment of Pokemons as well as Chanseys and Blissleys."
Anthony's eyes frowned a little at this.
_Then what do you call the nurses? Layman's term from world to world can really be different..._
Seeing the confusion on their son's face, the two didn't start to explain why the Joys wanted to be called nurses until everyone did, because they had no idea why. This is something they were confused about, Officer Jennies too, because while it is technically true that they are all "officers", they felt that people like the Chief of Police should be called 'Chief' rather than a generic term.
The two instead changed the topic.
"So, how is your long-term project with Miltank going?"
Hearing that it was called Miltank, that's unusually quiet despite being a rather accepted nuisance, perked its ears up and made a pointing motion towards itself. Anthony looked at this with a smile before answering:
"Yes, Miltank is doing quite all right. In its first days with me until now, I have made it train its stamina and strength tirelessly, causing its fats to be reduced to levels more appropriate for a Pokemon trained for battle than being a fattened cattle; however, Miltank still needs a lot more training to achieve optimal shape."
Hana nodded at this with satisfaction, obviously pleased that her son is doing just fine without them advising him on how to raise a Pokémon. While it's technically not a forbidden thing to ask for advice, specifically if it's meant for scaffolding purposes, Anthony explicitly made it clear that he would ask for advice to the very minimum, which he did to the point where he only asked them what the most protein-packed berry and grasses are for a Pokémon.
_They say that it's not a good attitude to not be inquisitive if you want to be a researcher... but that's only when you're talking to yourself as a professional already, if you're still learning, you have to make it to a minimum, unless you want to be dependent on the other party._
Or so that's what Hana and Ben were thinking, for they themselves asked a lot of questions to Prof. Oak, who didn't complain because he likes answering questions and he knew that they won't make serious contributions in the field research community, besides being adventurous enough to nose-dive volcanoes that some researchers are obviously afraid to do.
By heart, Prof. Oak knew that Hana and Ben were meant to be trainers.
_Perhaps our son has a change of heart?_
Hana and Ben have the same thing in mind whilst Anthony was ranting about how did Miltank's newfound stamina made it a more annoying Pokemon during the night as he will find out that it escaped with other Pokemons to go the cafeteria, though of course they didn't particularly care as long as their son find what he's doing fulfilling and not something he have just done out of curiosity (though knowing their son, they knew that Anthony won't change career paths because its a hassle), they decided to probe it.
"By the way, Melissa said that you've become a rather active distributor during the data collection process of her dissertation. Have you become interested in research as of late?"
Anthony knew what this implied, first 'Are you sure you're not just doing this for a spurt of fun?', this is because Anthony knew that the previous owner of the body was a lazy bastard who made him need to learn things he should have already known. After all, his parents are the Lebron James and Michael Jordan of the Pokémon World. Second, Melissa has been going to his house by making an excuse to partner with his parents to collect data, and is probably reporting his shit to them.
The latter, of course, is not that serious, so he answered honestly.
"Not that I'm interested, but it's a pretty good way to go up the ranks, especially if your research is timely like Ma'am Melissa."
Anthony actually has the privilege to read the raw version of the interpretation part, and because kids in this world are not chronically online and don't want any AI to do their own work, it has a lot of errors and needs a lot of grammatical revision grammar-wise. However, Anthony now fully understood the main goal of the dissertation: to know the effects, statistical relationship, and implications of Flip classroom if you use it as an integral part of the academic curriculum, specifically analytical chemistry, instead of Online classes to rebuild the appeal of formal education, which did pretty well. One must remember that teaching chemistry tests is not easy using video only, but Melissa was somehow able to use the intervention properly.
Also, the result showed significant improvement in engagement of trainers who used the flipped classroom instead of those who were given the usual classroom style. As it was said, this world is about adventuring, no one wanted to be holed up listening to how to make coffee dry to measure how many coffees are there, while others are catching Pokemons.
Anthony felt like he just had a very good idea on how to revolutionize the Pokémon world's academia, and then he could do a dissertation too. Which is, of course is currently impossible, and Anthony is not sure if it will ever be possible. Hana and Ben smiled at this. Ben then said.
"It is, however, the hard part is making any major contribution since the Pokémon Professors are hugging all the discoveries in the mainline field of the world. Melissa is very innovative to be able to use the long-term income generator of Gym leaders as an academic weapon."
Anthony nodded at this, for he agrees, though there is a question of why phenomenal Professors missed such a golden opportunity; he knew that a contribution is a contribution. Still, he didn't really know if it would be widely adopted in the near future, and Melissa needed to focus on that topic if she really wanted to make it the norm, like how Prof. Oak focuses on how to improve the Pokedex.
"If I have something like that idea, maybe I can apply for a Senior Breeder through dissertation too, but as it is said, it's hard to contribute to the field of knowledge of something that was rigorously studied, so I might just focus on being a trainer and making contributions until I become a senior breeder."
Just as Anthony finished answering, Zubat and Miltank suddenly craned their head towards the door. Zubat then made a 'Zuu' sound while pointing at the door before Anthony heard a knock.
"Anthony, why are you always away if the intercom in the cafeteria sounded out? There's a general meeting for us interns announced by Professor Oak."
It was Mary who made Ben and Hana's eyes light up as they looked at each other. It seems like their son is doing just fine, though they didn't know that Anthony had something different in his mind.
_The real question is, why in the world don't the rooms have an intercom if you can install it in the damn cafeteria? I'm taking care of a battle-ready Miltank here; I have to read a lot of books about them, or I'll mess it up._
Anthony sighed before saying to his parents.
"I guess I have to go now mom, Dad, see you again, maybe tonight."
Ben and Hana nodded and said bye whilst the two Pokemons also waved their wings and hands respectively, before their master turned off the call and went to the meeting place, which is the training field where they met up the first time for their orientation and first activity. This fact is, of course, known by the experienced Hana and Ben (with the help of Melissa's efforts on getting close to her idols), so they didn't question their son, though, as if longing, they still both looked at their screen.
_I wonder how well Anthony will perform._
Such were their thoughts before opening their daycare again.
____________
"Pickaa!"
Anthony looked at Mary's Pickachu that also got attached to Miltank, though on its shoulders use its small finger to point forward as if to say 'Post Haste'. Also, it left itself alone to wait for Miltank and Zubat, as it won't receive nagging from Mary, who's quite strict with her time. This makes Anthony wonder if Pickachu is being properly taken care of, but given how its fur and overall physique look robust, which is to say that Mary is just really naggy about time and not an abusive trainer of some sort, it should be fine.
While having such thoughts, Anthony finally reached the battlefield and could see that some interns were already there, chatting with their own circles, but generally were still greeting each other genuinely. Anthony reckoned that such is the case because these interns are just kids and not college students.
But that's beyond the point of the general meeting, so after Anthony made some small talk with the kids about how their Caterpies or Weedles became so big and strong now, and stopping the urge to claim that that's what she said, Anthony sat down on a seat with Mary and watched how Pikachu's cheeks got stretched out by its owner.
Zubat and Miltank also found their own seat whilst waiting for Prof. Oak, that's actually rarely seen these days outside of his own personal lab. Soon, the Professor was already in the venue, prompting the interns, including Anthony, to stop talking among themselves while also telling their Pokémon to stay quiet. Seeing the discipline of the interns, Prof. Oak smiled and said.
"Hello everyone, today, I have an important announcement."
Even though he said that with a straight voice, Prof. Oak is still Prof. Oak, so the kids weren't that uncomfortable, but just went for an appropriate amount of seriousness for the announcement. Anthony, however, actually felt quite odd for his parents to video call him during the day as they knew them 3 are all busy.
Usually, their talk and casual chat always happen at night, thus he somehow had a hunch that something huge was about to be announced today, thus his eyes were quite peeled.
"As you all know, today we have made you pass the lab results of your Pokemons to see how well you have been tending to them. This will be one of the bases of your final grades and whether you pass or not by December. However, of course, physical examinations don't encompass the entirety of a Pokémon's health; we also have to measure how strong your bond is with your Pokemons."
"Because of that, we will be having an intern-only tournament."
For a moment, the silence of the interns was deafening before their shouts.