Tia and Aidan visit the university research lab to schedule her thesis defense.
Tia and Aidan arrived at the Kanto Institute of Technology in Saffron City roughly a week after Tia had finished writing her dissertation. They entered the building housing the Department of Applied Pokemon Knowledge. It was late afternoon, but students and researchers were still hard at work on their projects.
Tia and Aidan entered the Pokemon Tools Lab, where several students were at work building and testing a variety of Pokemon-related instruments.
“Hey,” Tia waved to a male student working on a Silph Scope, “Do you know where Professor Acai is?”
The student looked up and smiled. “Tia! Back to your old stomping grounds, I see?”
Tia made a face, and introduced him. “Aidan, this is Taiyu, the head lab TA. Taiyu, Aidan.”
Taiyu shook his hand, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Aidan, huh?” Then something clicked in his mind. “Ohhh. So this must be the guy everyone’s been talking about!”
Several students abruptly stopped what they were doing and walked over to them.
Tia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, ‘everyone’?”
“About six months ago, there was a guy who came to the campus, asking for you,” one student said.
“The department head told him you were away doing an internship in Johto,” another one said, grinning. “It got the entire department’s attention, because you never said a word about it!”
“Yeah, we were wondering, how did you catch such a good-looking guy?”
Aidan looked back at Tia, embarrassed. “Uh…”
“I guess he finally found you, then!”
“We were talking about how much of a miracle it was – I mean, you were so married to your work…”
Tia sighed. “You guys…”
“What’s going on here?” A loud voice boomed from the other side of the lab. A tall, well-built woman elbowed through the crowd. “Ms. Cade! You’re back!”
“Hello, Professor Acai,” Tia greeted her. “I’m here to ask whether you’d be available to schedule a thesis defense.”
The crowd immediately went quiet. “You’re finished?” Professor Acai asked, smiling.
Tia nodded.
The room erupted in a flurry of talking and congratulations.
“Hey, don’t start celebrating yet,” Tia said, laughing, “I still have to defend the thesis!”
“But you’re so close to finishing…”
“Yeah, some of us have been here for years without finishing…”
Professor Acai looked over at Aidan. “Why, hello again, young man. I assume you found the person you were looking for?” She gave him a wink. She turned to Tia and said, “So you two finally found each other. I’m so happy for you!”
Tia reddened. “Not you too, Professor.”
The professor laughed, then grew serious. “So, yes, I will be available for a thesis defense. How many others?”
“There’s Kurt from Azalea Town, and then you,” Tia said, counting on a hand. “And there’s Professor Marigold from Silph, Co., Professor Larimar from Devon Corporation, and Professor Haumea from the Gingko Group.”
Professor Acai nodded.
“I’ll be sending you a copy of my thesis for review next week,” Tia said.
Professor Acai looked up at a calendar on the wall. “If everything goes well,” she said, “you could be defending within the next few months.”
Tia let out a deep breath. “I hope so.”