Sango's broken down, thinking that Blake is dead, the poor thing. Everyone's feeling pretty down themselves. Hopefully Rafe can provide everyone with some reassurance that everything will be okay, and that Blake isn't really dead. That would be nice, right?

We've got a decent amount of girls nominated, but there's always room for more! If there are any other girls you think deserve a chance at the title of Pokemon Academy Best Girl, nominate them here!

Currently Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Cynthia, Dakota, Elaina, Kate, Kitty, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

Rosealine gold: Blake's probably the only one that would think to do that, and he's a little bit occupied at the moment.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Trust me, it's just going to get worse from here. Sango's got to keep piling burdens on her shoulders and stay tough, after all.

KedharS: You'll only feel worse for her as time goes on. Unless she decides to try and break the two of them up, of course.

Just a Bad Writer For Fun: You're making a lot of random guesses that turn out to be right on the money lol.

JoshGamerV: Definitely, she's going through a pretty rough time.

Aquahaze675: It's going to be a little more complicated than that.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 614

Aurore studied the tablet, cautiously, at a distance. He had been doing it for some time. And he kept arriving at a very, very bad conclusion.

Someone had broken into his office. Why, he didn't know, because nothing was missing, the only thing out of place being a few books. But they hadn't escaped. They hadn't gone anywhere. Rather, they had disappeared completely.

The Tablet of Hungry Ghosts.

Stories of it had gone back since before recorded history. Passed from ancient civilization to ancient civilization, chaos and destruction following in its wake. The words written upon it never translated, unknown to all. A forgotten language, writing of the ancients, that only a few people had ever been able to read.

And when they did, well… that was the end, as far as the legends went. But he didn't know enough about the tablet, or the secrets behind it. Most data on it had been lost to the ebb of time. There was only one academic he knew of who would likely be more informed on the matter, who might know more about whatever had happened to whoever it was that had broken into his office.

He just hoped that they would know enough to be able to help.

He went to his desk and began dialing, hoping he'd be able to get through.

While the professor was exploring other avenues of research, Sango found herself coming down off her waves of depression and sobering up, looking up at Nikita sadly.

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" Sango whimpered. "Especially not Ayame or Cynthia. I don't want them to know about how I… how I feel. If they found out…"

Sango didn't even want to think about the reaction either girl would have to the knowledge that Sango was in love with Blake. Ayame knew about her prior feelings, of course, but no-doubt thought that Sango had gotten over it by now. And Cynthia didn't even know that much, she thought… well, Sango didn't like thinking about what Cynthia thought her position on love was.

But the idea was, if either of them learned of the yearning still within Sango's breast, what they would think of her… Sango didn't want to know. She shook her head, and peeked at Nikita hopefully, confident that her friend wouldn't spill the beans. She'd kept her secret about Sango's feelings for Blake until now, so a little more should be…

"Of course," Nikita said, shaking her head and giving Sango a kind smile, putting her hand over Sango's. "I won't say a word."

"Thanks, Nikita," Sango smiled. Of course Nikita wouldn't tell anyone. She was just that sweet of a person, after all.

"Are you feeling better now?" Nikita asked as Sango sat up, wiping her eyes. "Or are you going to break out into tears again?"

Sango sniffled a little, she felt like crying, she couldn't say that she didn't. But a look at Nikita reassured her. Her friend favored her with a smile. Even though knowing that Blake… Blake was probably… no, she didn't want to think about that. It would make her cry again.

"I-I don't know," she admitted. "If I keep thinking, then… I think I'm going to cry. I don't know what to do, Nikita. I'm surprised you're… doing so well."

"Well, Blake doesn't mean as much to me as he does to you," Nikita said, taking Sango's hand and gently caressing it to reassure her. "But I do care for him. He's my friend. I guess I'm just better than you are at compartmentalizing, if it doesn't show…"

Sango saw a twinge of sadness in Nikita's eyes, and she lowered her head, sighing. "Sorry, Nikita, I forgot that you're dealing with stuff, too. Blake… Blake really is gone, and I guess I'm just not thinking about things, you know?"

Nikita nodded her head, smiling as best as she could.

"I haven't lost a friend before," she murmured. "It's hard to deal with, trust me. Right now, I'm focusing on rationalization."

She sighed.

"Reiner's a lot better at rationalizing than I am, he's already made peace with the fact that Blake's dead," Nikita said. "I wish I could believe otherwise, but the fact is, I can't find any data to support the idea that he's still alive. If there were just more clues, more evidence, then maybe I could formulate a hypothesis of some kind, but…"

Nikita reached up and began scratching her hair, wracking her head for ideas. Sango noticed her condition and saw that she was dealing with this in her own way, and decided that now wasn't the time to be crying over her own feelings. She needed to be strong, tough. She needed to find her way forward, and not just wallow in her own feelings. She shook her head and rose to her feet, swallowing her grief and bucking up for Nikita's sake.

"Now then! No more crying!" Sango said, hopping out of bed and turning back to Nikita, forcing a big smile onto her face. "We don't have time to feel bad, I've decided, you know what? Blake's not dead! I don't believe it!"

"Huh?" Nikita looked at her, gobsmacked. Sango had just been bawling her eyes out, and here she was now, telling her that there wasn't any use crying? Believing that Blake was still alive? That was quite a mood shift.

Nikita glanced down and saw that Sango's hands were trembling. Sango was shaking like a leaf, even as she kept her smile on her face. The poor thing, she was putting on such a tough front, even though she clearly only wanted to cry.

Yeah, you're right, Sango. It's not very beneficial to just sit around and feel bad. We need to start thinking about solutions, Nikita agreed. The rational parts of Nikita's brain, the parts she treasured so much, they were all telling her to just give up, that Blake was dead, that everything they knew suggested that he was dead.

And yet, she didn't want to believe it. So she didn't. She decided that Sango was right, that Blake was alive. Sure, Sango was probably only saying that so she could feel better and didn't really believe it herself, but that didn't matter to Nikita.

Blake was alive!

Evidence?

Pssh. Nikita didn't need evidence.

She wanted him to be alive, and so she was.

Nikita's past self would have been aghast at her flouting of rationalization and theory, but Nikita didn't care. Sango's enthusiasm was infectious, even if it was faked. Nikita got up and put a smile on her face, nodding in agreement. The two girls returned to the boy's room, Silver following after them. To their surprise, they weren't the only ones headed that way.

"Sango!" Cynthia said, surprised. She'd been walking down the hall. "What are you doing back? I haven't seen you all day! Listen, about the whole stuff with Blake being missing! I went to the Commander, and I told him about it, and he said he and the rest of his group are going to help us look for him, isn't that great?!"

Sango held her hand up and shook her head. "I heard that Blake was missing, yeah. But it looks like the Commander won't need to bother with this. Apparently, he's not just missing. They also think he's dead."

Cynthia went pale.

"Wh-what? Dead? No, no, you're kidding," Cynthia said, shaking her head. "What do you mean dead? That's not true, don't-"

Sango clamped her hand over Cynthia's mouth before the redhead began hyperventilating.

"Cynthia, Cynthia, it's fine," Sango assured her. Cynthia stared up at her questioningly with her blue eyes. "Listen, it's just a possibility. And it's okay. He's not dead, trust me."

She pulled her hand away and Cynthia nodded.

"…So first you tell me he's dead, then you tell me he's not dead," Cynthia said, trying to figure out what was going on. "Sango, after the night I've had, I'm really not in the mood for any mind games, can you be a little more clear?"

Sango sighed, draping her arm over Cynthia's shoulder and leading her towards the boy's room. As the two of them walked down the hall, Nikita took note of Sango's condition. She was certainly doing a lot better, that was for sure.

Nikita glanced at Silver. The Castform had a tense look on his face, staring anxiously at Sango's back as she departed. She frowned. That was what she feared.

After Sango's breakdown earlier, Sango really was just holding it together by a thread. Nikita didn't know how long she could keep up this façade, but she was determined to help her however she could. Sango really was the kind of person who needed support, Nikita had picked up on her tendency to put everything on herself.

"You and me, we've gotta look out for her," Nikita told Silver, who glanced at her in surprise, not used to be addressed. He nodded in agreement.

How on earth did I end up being the one keeping this group together? Nikita asked herself, shaking her head as she followed the girls into the room.

"Oh, hello there," Cynthia said, surprised at seeing Rafe there, and Marion. "I don't remember you two being here when I left."

"Rafe's come to help," Callie explained. "He knows all about Psychic type pokemon."

"And that's relevant because?" Cynthia asked, glancing at Rafe and then at Callie.

Rafe laughed, ignoring Cynthia's questions. He knelt down next to Uni, patting the small round pokemon on the head. "No worries, hello there little one. So I heard, you were saying some things to my friend Kitty here? Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

"Solosis!" Uni chirped.

"Oh, I see, I see," Rafe said, nodding his head. He stroked his chin as he listened to Uni's chirps and whines.

"You… you can understand her?" Kitty asked, stunned.

"What? Hm? Oh, my, no," Rafe laughed, shaking his head. "No, she's just saying 'Solosis' a bunch, I can't understand a word of it."

Callie sighed, rubbing her forehead in frustration.

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, that's the way he is," she said, shaking her head. "He's a little nuts in the head, if you know what I'm saying."

"I enjoy talking to pokemon," Rafe cheerily replied. "Don't you?"

"I don't pretend to have conversations with them," Callie snarked back. "Look, just because you're a Psychic type trainer, it doesn't mean that you have to pretend like you can talk to pokemon, big brother."

"Not at all! I'm just enjoying the flow of conversation, doing as I please," Rafe laughed. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"Every day," Callie groaned through gritted teeth, rubbing her temples. "Every day for my entire life have I had to put up with this macaroon and his craziness."

Rafe's response to his sister's frustration was, unsurprisingly, a placid laugh and a shrug. Everyone else was starting to share in Callie's feelings.

"So if you can't actually talk with Uni, then why are you doing that?" Reiner asked.

"I am talking with Uni," Rafe said, raising his eyebrow in confusion.

"Okay, well, yeah, but you're not, you know!" Reiner exclaimed, getting frustrated. "Do I have to spell it out?"

"Reiner's right, you guys aren't exactly having a conversation!" Nikita agreed, nodding her head. Right now, Rafe seemed to just be wasting time.

"We are having a conversation, I'm just not hearing Uni's side of it," Rafe explained. Nikita's eye twitched. There was only so much that she could put up with in one day, and she was starting to near the end of her rope.

"This was a mistake," Callie muttered, shaking her head. "I knew this was a mistake, and I did it anyway because I thought it was worth the chance like an idiot. What an idiot…"

"Come now, Callie, don't be like that," Rafe laughed, sitting up and walking over to her, placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair gently, Callie's eye twitching at that. "I enjoy our sibling bonding time, don't you?"

"This is 'bonding' to you, huh?" Callie dryly replied, rolling her eyes. "Listen, Rafe-"

"Is what Uni said true?!" Sango blurted out, startling everyone, including herself. She turned bright red and averted her eyes, glancing down at the ground. She had been putting on such a tough façade, but she had to admit that she wasn't as confident as she had made herself out to be. She was worried for Blake, and if Kitty was wrong about everything and she hadn't correctly understood Uni, then all of her strength wasn't necessary.

"What do you mean?" Rafe asked, tilting his head to the side.

Sango baulked.

"Didn't… didn't everyone tell you what happened?" Sango asked. "You know, about what Uni said to Kitty with her harmonia? About the psychic connection with Blake being broken off, and how that means he might be dead?!"

Rafe blinked, staring back at Sango with an innocent smile like he had no idea what she was talking about.

Callie slumped back onto the bed and let out a groan.

"We explained the whole thing to him," she reported.

Sango scowled. She was beginning to share in Callie's frustration.

"So basically, what you're asking me is whether or not your friend's little Solosis here losing her psychic connection with her trainer is because her trainer is dead, or if there's some other cause that could account for that, right?" Rafe clarified.

"YES!" Everyone collectively shouted at him, Uni shrinking back a little in surprise, trembling a little out of fear as well. Everyone shouting was bothering her.

"…If what you told me is true, then yes, Blake is most likely dead," Rafe replied. The relaxed way he said that didn't make anyone feel better. "A psychic bond between a trainer and their pokemon is a powerful thing. A connection between their emotions, their very soul. As long as Blake is still in this world, then it should still be there. But if what Uni says is true and that her connection to Blake is no longer present, then that can only mean that he is no longer anywhere within this world. Unfortunate to say, but that is the sad truth of the matter."

Rafe looked at each of them in turn, his normally positive exterior for once displaying sympathy and sadness for the situation.

"I really am very sorry."

The room was silent for a long while, as everyone let Rafe's words sink in.

Sango fell to her knees. The strength that she had built up was blown away. She curled up and began to cry, Nikita shaking her head in shock. It just… it just wasn't real. Kitty began blubbering and Cynthia punched the wall in frustration.

"What the hell is up with that?!" Cynthia exclaimed. She turned on Rafe angrily. "No! You don't get to come in here and tell me that Blake is dead, you hear me?! No! You do NOT get to do that! What's the matter with you, huh!?"

She turned on Callie, tears in her eyes. "And you, you-! This is all-! If you hadn't-!" Cynthia hung her head, unable to finish any of her sentences. She was being foolish. Of course this wasn't Callie's fault. Callie hadn't done anything. And it wasn't Rafe's fault, either. He was just the messenger. The truth of the matter was, no one was to blame, Blake… Blake was just gone.

And there was no one for Cynthia to turn her anger against.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, turning away from Callie and curling up in the corner, resisting the urge to burst into tears.

"Rafe… I think we should go," Callie said, turning to her brother. She was trying very hard not to cry herself.

Rafe nodded, getting the message. Callie turned to Nick and kissed him on the cheek, seeing how close to tears he was.

"Take care, Nick," she whispered. "Call me… call me if you need to talk. In the meantime, I'll… well, I don't know what I'll do."

She glanced at Rafe. How was she going to report this to the faculty? Blake was dead… because a psychic pokemon couldn't feel her connection with him, and the only reason they knew THAT was because one of the students could communicate with her due to her own special psychic abilities? It wasn't exactly the best process for establishing fact. No way anyone at the school would accept that as an answer.

There was probably something, but Callie was too tired to think about it. Blake was her friend, too, and she absolutely did not want to be thinking about ways to solve other problems right now, she was too busy keeping herself from completely falling apart emotionally.

It was Sango who interrupted her before she could leave.

"Callie," Sango said, looking up from where she was curled up on the floor. She rose to her feet, wiping her face. She was still trying to put on a tough face even now, even though her façade had completely cracked.

"Yeah?" Callie asked, surprised at how easily Sango had put herself back together. Nikita was also stunned. It was almost eerie how Sango's mood kept bouncing back and forth, it was like she was two different people at the same time.

Sango wiped the rest of the tears from her eyes and sniffled, standing up a little taller and locking her jaw. She looked around the room, seeing the condition that everyone was in. Marion was the only one who didn't look torn up about the news, and even she wasn't smiling.

I can't cry… I can't cry! Gotta be strong… gotta be strong… Sango reminded herself. She took a deep breath, calming her nerves, before speaking to Callie again.

"You can't tell Ayame. That goes for everybody. Ayame can't know about what's happened to Blake, no matter what." She looked around the room as those words sunk in. Everyone was coming to the horrifying realization that Sango was absolutely right. Ayame had gone psychotic when she thought Blake was missing.

If she knew that he was dead…

No one wanted to think about what she might do.

Darn. So it looks like Blake really is dead, that sucks. Oh well. I guess we'll have to end the series here.