What happened to Ayame? Will she be okay? What happened to that smoothie?!
Rosealine gold: Maddi will get involved in the next chapter, don't worry.
Aquahaze675: Just the usual ones, arsenic berries and cyanide berries.
Hellraiserphoenix: She just has a talent for poisoning people.
JoshGamerV: Evidently yes. She kind of does that sometimes.
Thunder Fire: She didn't MEAN to poison Ayame, it's just the kind of person she is. A bad cook.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 477
"Ayame!" Sango gasped, leaping from her seat and running over to the tall girl. Blake knelt down beside Ayame, his face white with panic.
"What-what happened?!" Kate blanched.
Sango was two seconds away from calling the nurse when Ayame shot up in a jerky motion, knocking both Sango and Blake back, a positively miserable look on her face. Hands clenched against her mouth, she pushed past the crowd gathering around her and dashed into the common room bathroom at one of the fastest speeds she'd ever run, the slamming door behind her making the building shake. Seconds later, the horrible muffled sounds of vomiting, coughing, hacking, and just general misery could be heard through the door.
"What did you do to that smoothie?" Sango demanded, turning on Kate. Kate held her arms up defensively, eyes wide, shaking her head.
"I-I didn't do anything! I followed the directions and used the right ingredients!" Kate protested, not understanding how her smoothie had made things go that way. "I don't know how this happened, it should be fine!"
All eyes turned to the purplish-blue drink, which Ayame had spilled in the heat of her momentary collapse. It was currently oozing onto the carpet, a noxious scent rising up. Everyone took a few steps away from it, staring at it like it was a pile of hazardous waste.
"I think it's eating through the carpet," Callie cheerily mentioned. Kate gasped, and ran back into the kitchen to get some paper towels. She began to desperately wipe down the toxic concoction that her horrid food skills had just produced.
"Yeah, honestly, you guys should have seen this one coming," Dakota mentioned. "I did an article last year on Kate's utter failure in the culinary arts. Everything she touches turns into poison. She can't even boil water without making it undrinkable for humans."
"I can boil water!" Kate snapped. "Milady loves the tea I prepare for her."
"Wow, you can boil water?" Dakota snottily replied. "I guess that means your cooking skills are on par with a Bunsen burner!"
Kate seethed at her, but didn't have a witty comeback in return since it was true, she was an absolutely DREADFUL cook. But… but smoothies weren't cooking! It was just a freaking blender, how did she mess that up?!
"It's okay, Kate," Callie assured her, kneeling down next to the girl and giving her a comforting pat on the back. "I'm not very good at cooking, either."
"Thanks," Kate said, looking up from the mess she was cleaning, a small smile on her face.
"And if it makes you feel better, Dakota can't cook at all either," Akira piped up, Dakota jamming him in the side.
"That's not important now!" She snapped.
"Well, we could wait for Ayame to come back…" Cynthia's suggestion was interrupted by another wave of vomiting coming from the bathroom, even louder than before. Her voice trailed off and she changed her position. "Actually, let's just keep the game going. Kate, you're still Ayame's maid, so you keep cleaning her mess."
The sludgy smoothie had already burned away the paper towel in her hands, and she had to go get more. That was an irritation, and everyone kind of pitied her, but a few of them saw it as karma for what had just happened with Sylvia.
"Okay, Akira, it's your turn," Cynthia said.
"Dakota, Truth or Dare?" Akira automatically asked, startling Dakota.
"W-what?" Dakota wasn't prepared for Akira to ask her, so she looked tensely at him. Wait… was he going to make her be his maid? A goofy grin spread across her lips, maybe that wouldn't be so bad after all. It might even be-
Keep it in your pants, girl. Now is NOT the time. Unfortunately, with Akira, it was never the time. They hadn't even gotten past first base!
"Dare!" Dakota said, hoping that Akira would actually dare her to do something… well, daring.
"I dare you to remove all the stuff you use to monitor me out of my bedroom, now," Akira coldly demanded.
Dakota scowled at him, while Nick, Reiner, Callie, and Blake all snickered, joined in by Julia and Cynthia and even Sango and Kitty. Sylvia was rolling around laughing. Serefina just nodded in agreement.
"You suck, Aki."
"Do it, now," Akira stated.
"I refuse." Dakota replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest and turning her nose up at the very IDEA of not keeping her boyfriend under 24/7 video surveillance.
"Well, that makes you Akira's maid," Serefina laughed, walking over to Dakota and patting her on the back.
"Fine," Dakota smiled, putting on her best service personality. "Master, how can your loyal maid serve you today?"
"I want you to go to my bedroom and remove all monitoring devices from it," Akira immediately ordered his new maid.
"Eat shit and die, Master!" Dakota cheerfully replied.
The two exchanged testy looks.
Akira sighed. "Fine, then give Serefina a massage anywhere she wants," he suggested.
"Boobs, please," Cynthia requested.
"Seconded," Reiner agreed, Nikita shooting him a dirty look. He glanced at her and shrugged his shoulders, not sure what she wanted from him. He was just a guy. She rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion.
"Thirded," Giselle added.
"Back massage, please," Serefina stated with a smile, ignoring the students' attempts to get Dakota to grope her.
"Fitting that you would need one," Dakota said, rolling her eyes. Serefina ignored her and leaned forward, presenting her back to Dakota's hands. Dakota got off from her couch and walked over to the couch Serefina was sitting on, beginning the massage and signaling to Kate that the position of maid had changed.
"Oh, of course, just as I finish," Kate scowled, hopping up from the mess she had just finished cleaning up. Everyone glanced at it. There was a big mark on the floor where the smoothie had eaten away the carpet, revealing the floorboards underneath. Blake had begun to get very worried for Ayame. Was she okay?
As if to answer his worries, Ayame stumbled out of the bathroom, her face pale and sweaty. She looked like death warmed over.
"Aya, are you good?" Blake asked, rising up to greet her, but Ayame lazily waved her hand to dismiss him. Unfortunately, due to her anxiety, sudden bouts of queasiness leading to vomiting was not an uncommon occurrence for her. Didn't make her feel any better, though.
"Ayame, come with me," Sango said, rising from her seat and taking Ayame by the hand. "I have some stuff to help your stomach settle, some berries."
"Right," Ayame muttered, glancing at Blake. He was watching after her with a worried look on his face that made her feel kind of warm inside. She was glad he was worried about her.
"Dakota, you're next," Cynthia reminded her fellow redhead. Dakota had a sly look on her face. She already knew exactly what she wanted.
"Caelia Auburn!" Dakota proclaimed, turning her attention to the girl who had been sitting off in the corner. "Truth or Dare?"
Everyone was surprised by this, because Dakota didn't seem to have any connection with Caelia at all. Serefina, on the other hand, wasn't surprised at all. Dakota had come to her a few days ago expressing her frustration about trying to uncover the truth about what had happened with Caelia and that odd Chandelure of hers. So she was trying to dig stuff out of her under the pretext of the game.
Sylvia also suspected what Dakota was up to, and didn't know if Caelia was going to go along with it. But if she did, well…
It would certainly be amusing if the Phantom's plans came crumbling down due to a particularly savvy reporter's efforts in a game of Truth or Dare, so she was willing to let this play out. Besides, Caelia wasn't a very forthright person to begin with.
"…are," Caelia muttered.
"Huh?" Dakota asked, frowning, thinking that she hadn't heard properly. But she was pretty sure she'd heard the brunette say "dare". "Sorry, I didn't hear that, could you say that again?"
"…Don't care," Caelia repeated.
"Come on now, Caelia, you have to play, it's fun!" Sylvia said, putting a bright smile on her face. Caelia stared at her with an empty look in her eye. "So, which do you prefer? Truth? Or Dare?"
"Dare," Caelia said after a moment's pause, much to Dakota's disappointment. It was what Sylvia expected, though. Caelia wasn't much one for sharing. And she had such little concern for her body, she would really give a damn what her dare was. So of course she would pick that one. Sylvia said a quiet and insincere apology to the reporter for her failure.
Meanwhile, Dakota fumed, trying to come up with a dare to get back at the girl.
Then, she calmed down, and thought of something that would be entertaining, instead.
"Caelia, I dare you to say something dirty to the person on your left," Dakota ordered. Caelia stared blankly at her.
"Uh…" Aidan was the person sitting to the left of Caelia, and he wasn't exactly that thrilled to be on the receiving end of whatever dirty talk she would give.
"I don't know what that is," Caelia replied.
Sylvia decided to field this one. Caelia wasn't exactly the most sexual being in the world, and that right there was an understatement.
"You don't mind if I tell her what to say, do you?" Sylvia asked, batting her eyelashes innocently at Dakota. "I don't think Caelia knows what to say."
"Sure," Dakota shrugged. It would be entertaining either way, as long as Caelia was the one doing the talking.
Sylvia walked over to Caelia's chair and knelt down next to her, whispering in Caelia's ear. Caelia nodded, and turned to face Aidan, who was feeling a little uncomfortable in his chair beside her, squirming in his seat.
"Oh baby," Caelia began, the utter lack of emotion in her voice making the whole thing seem forced and awkward. "Your rippling muscles. So firm and hard. I want to run by tongue all over them and lick up your sweat. It really gets my juices flowing. I want you to just pick me up, throw me down, and go to town on me until I can't walk."
The atmosphere of the room was like being at a funeral. Dakota had thought that the normally deadpan Caelia being forced to say those words would have been good for a few laughs. But the completely ambivalent, hollow tone of her voice made the entire thing uncomfortable to witness. It was like the girl was empty inside. She glanced at Aidan, almost feeling bad that he had been on the receiving end of this whole thing.
Caelia had stopped talking, but the air of tension was still hanging over the room. No one really felt comfortable to talk about what had just happened, or even try to move on, they all just kind of sat there suffocating under the uncomfortable atmosphere. To everyone's relief, Ayame and Sango came downstairs about a minute later, which took everyone's mind off of the awkwardness that had just occurred.
"Ayame!" Blake brightened up, seeing that Ayame's complexion had improved and she was smiling now. "You feeling better?"
"Yep," Ayame said, nodding. "I just had to get some berries in me, and wash out the taste of vomit in my mouth with some mouthwash."
"I just gave her a few Pecha Berriees," Sango explained. "They're good for dealing with poisons."
She said the second part while glancing pointedly at Kate, who squirmed in her seat with a guilty look on her face.
"…Sorry about that," Kate said, glancing up at Ayame. "I didn't mean to give you something that awful, I just… I'm not very good at that sort of stuff."
"You're not good at blending together berries and milk." Ayame stated, her tone highlighting her incredulity at that statement.
"Guess not," Kate admitted.
Ayame sighed, and rubbed her palm against her forehead in frustration.
"Well, no harm done," she decided, walking back to her seat. She glanced at the smoldering hole in the carpet right beside it, and decided not to ask any further questions. "Just don't give me anymore smoothies, okay?"
"Deal," Kate said, chuckling a little.
"Well, now that that's all settled, let's get back to the game!" Sylvia declared, startling everybody. The last round had been so uncomfortable that everyone had tried putting it out of their minds. But it was Caelia's turn now, and they all turned their attention to her. "Okay, Caelia, who do you want to go next?" Sylvia asked.
"Huh?"
"Who do you want to ask Truth or Dare to?" Sylvia clarified. "Anybody but Dakota."
"…Oh," Caelia said, nodding. She turned her head to stare at the others with her empty eye. But her choice was a pretty obvious one. "Blake. Truth or Dare?"
Blake didn't really know what truths Caelia would ask of him, and now that he thought about it… Sylvia might use Caelia as a mouthpiece to get him to reveal something bad. There were a lot of secrets in his past, and Sylvia had a talent for uncovering stuff like that. He wasn't particularly interested in playing into her little game.
A dare, though… that could go even worse. But that was what he was going to go with. If Sylvia even got a chance to ASK a Truth through Caelia, well, that in and of itself could be bad, and reveal some problematic secrets he was trying to keep, well, secret. So Dare was the safer option here, since he could always just turn it down and be Caelia's maid.
"Dare," Blake replied.
"Hug me." Her response was so fast that a few people weren't sure they had heard her. But she stared at Blake with a surprising amount of determination.
"Wow! You're pretty bold, Caelia!" Sylvia applauded her. "Asking for a hug from a guy with a girlfriend? Spicy!"
Caelia didn't respond, continuing to stare at Blake.
Cynthia looked sympathetically at Caelia, understanding where she was coming from. But the question was, was Blake okay with doing it? And what about Ayame?
Blake himself was asking that exact same question. He glanced at Ayame, asking with his eyes what she thought he should do. Ayame… she wasn't sure. She didn't like him hugging girls, but… it was just hugging, right? Nothing wrong with that. And with Caelia…
Ayame remembered Caelia's burns. She didn't know much about the girl, but she was clearly interested in Blake in some capacity. Maybe letting Blake hug her was a good thing? She sighed, and nodded her head, giving him permission.
"…Okay then," Blake agreed. He got up off the couch and walked over to Caelia, standing in front of her. She glanced down, and stood up, rising up into a bit of a slouch as she always did, her empty blue eye staring into his brown ones. Normally her eye was completely dead, but Blake thought he could see a little bit of life in it this time.
But he didn't get why she was doing this. Caelia had already told him that she wasn't capable of feeling anything. So why did she even want him to hug her? It wouldn't really do anything for her, since she wouldn't feel it.
Right?
But still, Caelia held her hands out insistently. Blake stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, giving her an awkward hug. She was so light, it was like he could barely feel her. But he felt her arms gently wrap around his back and hug him a little tighter. He wondered, could she feel his as well? She couldn't, right?
Blake glanced down and saw, to his surprise, that Caelia's eye was closed. That… why? Wouldn't that be just like being in the dark? And Caelia hated being in the dark, so why…
He gasped. A single tear rolled down the side of her cheek, so fine that for a moment he didn't even realize she was crying. She opened her eye and stepped back, pulling from him so quickly it was like she wasn't even there, and the only sign of her presence was the lingering phantom of her warm touch against him.
"Well, that was… huh." Sylvia didn't even know how to respond to that. "Okay, Blake, you can return to your seat now, we're done with you."
Blake glanced at Caelia one last time, the stain of her tear still there but her face as unreadable as ever. He returned to his seat.
"How was it?" Ayame asked, trying to sound teasing but coming off more anxious than anything. She played that off with an elbow in the side, "feel good?"
"Sure, whatever," Blake said. "It's my turn now, right?" He looked around desperately for someone who he could call on that could ease some of the awkwardness off his shoulders.
While he was doing that, Caelia was still thinking about the hug. When he hugged her… she couldn't feel it. Not… not the way she was supposed to. But… she felt warmth. A soft warmth in her chest. So rare that she had to close her eye, just to let that warmth spread through her, fill her world with nothing but that feeling. But… then she felt the sadness that came with knowing it was just temporary. She couldn't bear it. And already… that sensation was starting to fade, and her world was growing darker and emptier. As it always did.
"Okay, Dakota, Truth or Dare?" Blake asked, turning to Dakota.
"What? Me again?" Dakota asked, looking up from where she was rubbing Serefina's shoulders. "Fine, Truth."
Blake smiled triumphantly.
"Are all the stories that you write about my love life with girls other than Ayame fake, yes or no?" Blake demanded.
Dakota scowled.
"No, they're not fake, they're exaggerated!" Dakota replied.
"Exaggerated how much?" Blake demanded.
"Enough to sell the story, duh," Dakota said, rolling her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Dakota," the warning tone in Akira's voice brought a scowl to Dakota's face. She rolled her eyes and grumbled, before hanging her head.
"Okay, fine, no, not everything I said is completely accurate," she admitted. "Come on! Playing up the harem aspects of your dating life is good for selling issues!"
"But there are no 'harem aspects'!" Blake protested, placing his hand over Ayame's. "There's only one girl I want to be with, and she's right here!"
Dakota made a sour face, but everyone else went "awww" at the romantic display. Even Kate looked a little brightened by what he'd just said.
"Fine," Dakota scowled. She wanted to feel better, and giving Serefina a back massage, as much as she loved her friend, she was in a foul mood right now, having been called a liar. And she wanted something to make up for it. "My turn!"
With a smirk, Dakota turned her attention to her boyfriend, who had so kindly forced her to give her roommate a massage like a maid. Akira flinched as he saw the sparkle in her eye, that was never a good sign.
"Aki, Truth or Dare."
"Uh…" With Dakota, Akira couldn't be sure what his correct choice was going to be. Truth with Dakota was never a good thing. Dare, on the other hand… also had a pretty big chance to backfire. But he decided to trust that Dakota wasn't going to completely screw him over. "Dare."
Dakota smiled triumphantly, and for a moment Akira was terrified that he'd made the wrong decision after all.
"Aki, I dare you to treat me like a princess for the rest of the night!" Dakota declared.
"Uh…" Akira wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to that.
"Oh, that's the most adorable thing I've ever heard!" Callie cooed.
"That's so sweet…" Kitty smiled, blushing.
"I think I'm gonna gag on that," Cynthia admitted. "Too wholesome."
"I-I guess," Akira said, nodding, but he was really starting to doubt his decision. It was clear Dakota wanted him to show her that he treasured her, but…
Well, it was Dakota. The chance of her not taking advantage of this was close to zero.
Aww, some sweetness. This was a pretty sweet chapter in general, if you ask me. Hopefully things will go well. We'll get more Truths and Dares coming next chapter!