The group has made it to Agate Village, and learned some surprising information about what's going on here! That's not good at all! But what about the other group, the Commander's group? How are they handling things? Before we can check back in with them, let's focus on unwinding, it's been a long hike after all, and the kids need to clean themselves up.

The Elimination Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 is coming to a close! There's only about a week left, so make sure to get those votes in! We've only got a couple of people who have voted so far, so try to vote if you can, if you want your girl to be the third year champion, and if you want this contest to happen for a fourth time! You can vote for up to 5 girls, so make sure your favorites have a chance to shine!

Nominated: Ange, Ayame, Caelia, Chloe, Cynthia, Donoma, Elaina, Kate, Maddi, Marion, Misato, Ryoko, Sango, Satsuki, Sylvia, Vic

KedharS: Because the police would immediately start investigating Gwen's family. Which means dragging Blake into this whole mess, and once again confronting him with the fact that his beloved sister is hurting people. She doesn't want him to have to go through that again, seeing how crushed he was by it the last two times.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Don't worry, it will be a little bit before Olivia and Alcea meet up again, there are still preparations to be made.

Hyphenman: To be honest, I'd like to read that anyway lol.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 989

After the initial shock from the police officer and learning that two terrorists had attacked Agate Village, Hiromi and the other students went to the Pokemon Center to unwind and decompress. They felt like they'd been through a long day already and needed a rest, even though the day wasn't even half-over at this point.

That's when they learned something very unfortunate.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said diplomatically. "Due to lack of demand and space issues, we do not rent out rooms to pokemon trainers at this location. I insist that you must find other accommodations to suit your needs."

"Seriously?!" Hiromi asked in disbelief. This was the first she'd ever heard about a Pokemon Center not renting out rooms to traveling trainers.

But then… Hiromi had never been a pokemon trainer, had she? No, she'd always been a Pokemon Ranger, and because of that, she always traveled to locations where Ranger Bases were, which meant she'd always had a place to sleep. And even in the event of staying out in the wilds, she would be camping instead of looking for a Pokemon Center.

So in truth, she was completely caught off-guard by this situation.

"We're very sorry for the inconvenience," the nurse said even as she gave a calm and polite smiled. "But unfortunately, all the rooms we possess are currently in use. Whether as residences for staff, or as treatment rooms for potential patients. I'm truly sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

For the first time, the smile left the nurse's face, and was replaced with a look of remorse. "I could grant you permission to stay in the waiting room… but that isn't advisable with the size of your party or the accommodations we can provide."

"No, no, it's fine," Hiromi said. She was honestly starting to feel bad for reacting the way she did. Of course she shouldn't have inspected that the nurse would just let them stay. She put on a smile that eased the nurse's heart. "Don't worry, we'll find our own way. We've been camping up till now, after all!"

The nurse sighed in relief, smiling a little. "I'm glad to hear it," she said. "And of course, should the need arise, our public facilities such as washrooms and phone lines and the PC are still available to you! Thank you for your understanding."

"That's definitely a load off," Hiromi nodded in agreement. The other girls sighed in relief. To their great shame, they'd been forced to do several… "questionable" things while on their two and a half day hike, and were looking forward to using a real bathroom for a change.

Not to mention a real shower.

"Oh, I almost forgot," the nurse said, gesturing to a room near the counter. "Your things arrived the other day, if you'd like to collect them now."

Hiromi had almost forgotten about all their luggage. "Thanks! That would be great!" But before she could go, there was already a mad dash into the other room. The two at the front of the line, shockingly, were Lila and Olivia.

"…Well they certainly made a speedy recovery," Darla dryly noted. Changing into fresh clothes was enough to get Lila to forget all about her fatigue, it seemed.

Lila popped her head out of the storage room. "Excuse me, nurse, did I hear you correctly that we're allowed to use the showers here?"

Her eyes were deathly serious. The idea of a real shower was a matter of life and death to a girl like her, after all that time in the wilds.

Nurse Joy smiled. "Absolutely! And rest assured, the Pokemon Center's water is specially treated with an advanced filtration system to remove the majority of chemical contaminants, so it will not have any adverse effects on hair or skin or eyes. You may use it as you wish."

Lila was thrilled. She grabbed her bag and immediately ran to the showers, and Olivia wasn't far behind her. Soon enough, the girls were forming a line, all of them wanting to clean off the "outside" they were covered in.

While they were doing that, Hiromi thought it best to go see what Andrea and the others were doing. They were already relaxing in the waiting room, so after thanking Nurse Joy for her time Hiromi went over to talk.

"So it appears that we won't be able to stay here," she said, frowning. "They don't have enough rooms for us."

"I expected that," Andrea nodded. She didn't seem all that perturbed. "That's why we brought that camping gear in the first place. In spite of being a tourist locale, the villagers here are a bit wary of strangers, so there aren't any businesses like inns or hostels that we could rely on. At the same time, their respect for nature means they don't put much stock in private property, so they won't complain if we set up a campsite in the middle of town, even, as long as we don't make a mess."

That was good to hear, but Hiromi was still a little worried. After all, her students, the girls in particular, had not been all that enthusiastic about camping. She knew that some of them, particularly Lila and Olivia, had been looking forward to sleeping in a real bed for once. And if she told them that they'd have to sleep outside, well…

Hiromi sighed. It just couldn't be helped. Like Andrea said, the people of Agate Village were wary of strangers. And certainly, the recent terrorist attack would have reaffirmed that belief. So she couldn't exactly be upset if they decided that they didn't want them here at all.

She hoped the girls would be grateful that they were allowed to camp in the village at all, rather than be thrown out.

As for those girls, Lila and Olivia were luxuriating in a much-needed shower. Due to the fact that it was a Pokemon Center, while the shower was not particularly luxurious, it was very spacious. After all, pokemon came in all shapes and sizes, and needed to be clean as much as humans did. So the showers at a Pokemon Center were designed to accommodate the vast majority of pokemon, save for extreme outliers such as Wailord.

Because of that, it was less a private facility and more of a group shower dynamic. While there was enough room to fit at least ten girls (albeit uncomfortably) Hiromi had insisted that they go in groups of two.

She'd noted during the nights in the tent just how much some of her students seemed to be chafing under all this close proximity with each other, feeling uncomfortable and lacking room, and she didn't want to make them even more upset by forcing them all to get naked together too.

It certainly wasn't the case that she feared if she saw girls like Olivia and Donoma naked it would make her feel self-conscious. Of course not, she was an adult, she didn't have concerns like that. Especially not when it came to children.

What this meant was that Olivia and Lila had a very large shower all to themselves, and were taking a moment to relax in comfort after the painful last couple of days.

"Aaaahh…" Lila sighed, feeling the water wash over her and clean away the layers of dirt. "This is pure bliss…"

Olivia, who had spent quite a large expense on the bathroom of her own room back at the Pokemon Academy, didn't quite agree. While this was nice, it didn't come close to the level of quality she was used to. At the same time, however, after not having ANYTHING for the past few days, she could already feel her brain getting fooled into thinking that this was something grand.

"It would be nicer if there were a tub," she admitted. Lila groaned in agreement.

"Oh, god, yes, just a large tub to lounge in… relax… oh, why couldn't we go on a field trip to Hoenn?! It's been so long since I've had a nice soak in a comfy hot spring…" The baths in Lavaridge were one of the main draws, and Lila couldn't wait to go back. Her favorite inn was one run by this lovely elderly couple, it was so warm and spacious, and yet cozy.

Somehow, even when she was finally getting the shower that she'd been dreaming of, Lila still found a way to want even more. That was just the nature of a girl who'd grown up in poverty and learned the taste of luxury. She was terrified of getting used to cheap showers and slipping back into that pre-fame mindset.

Olivia, on the other hand, was handling it a little better, in no small part due to having already solidified her resolve. The shower had been refreshing at first, certainly, but now relaxation had taken a backseat to her ambitions.

She was about to go to war, and this shower was a crucial step in the preparation. As she washed her hair, she did so diligently, delicately, with the finest shampoo she had. She scrubbed at her skin until it shined, making sure both not to rub so hard it turned red, and also not to leave any one part under flowing water for too long, lest it wrinkle.

Everything needed to be perfect. She didn't know if Alcea was still in Agate Village, but she felt more certain than ever that she was. The police officer's mention of the terrorists attacking the village had cemented that in Olivia's mind.

That woman, she'd said that the terrorists were driven off by pokemon trainers. And one of those terrorists had been Gwen Harker, Kanone's younger sister, and Cynthia's daughter. Which meant she had harmonia. Olivia didn't need to be an expert on pokemon battles to know that there were not a lot of trainers who could fight a harmonia user evenly, let alone drive one off. The only people she could think of were capable of such things were trainers like the Commander and Alcea.

Which meant those two had to be responsible for it. That was the only conclusion to draw. They had fought off the terrorists. And with that being the case, it was almost-certain that they were still somewhere in town.

Agate Village was smaller than the Pokemon Academy's main campus. It would be child's play to track them down.

And when she did… she was going to give Alcea quite the surprise.

While she was formulating her plans, she didn't think for even one second that Alcea may have gotten hurt or killed by the terrorists. The fact that Olivia was not concerned at all about that was a testament to how much faith she had in her rival's abilities, even if she would never verbalize such a thing or even think about it on a conscious level.

At the same time as she was formulating her plan, Lila's thoughts were filled with concerns of her own. She watched the Empress from the side as she absentmindedly cleaned herself, thinking about the other girl.

To Lila's eye, Olivia was the pinnacle of beauty. Certainly, she lacked a certain seductiveness and adult appeal, due to her age, but that was to be expected. For what a girl in high school could aspire to in terms of appearance, you would be hard-pressed to find someone with greater beauty than the Empress.

Like most women, Lila looked upon her with a frustrating mixture of envy and awe. She radiated that sort of aura, like a movie star, or a model (of which she was both) and that made her so much more difficult.

There were countless people who disdained Olivia for her looks, influence, and position. Even among students in other courses, it was difficult to find a girl who did not have a perspective about the Empress one way or the other. Some loved her, some hated her, and most were stuck in a strange combination of both.

For Lila, what she felt couldn't be considered hate. Or even dislike, really. She was firmly in the admiration camp, and (although she would never tell anyone) her feelings for the other girl occasionally drifted to things a little more intense than just admiration. But only under the cover of darkness. No, Lila's negative thoughts towards Olivia were solely rooted in envy.

This was often the case for the Empress's detractors. Lila just happened to be one of them who could acknowledge it consciously due to her own status as a rising idol giving her the self-esteem necessary to see Olivia as a peer, and not someone who needed to be taken down.

Not that any of the girls who disliked Olivia said so directly, of course. It was difficult for an ordinary student to take an openly antagonistic stance against any of the Daevas, but Olivia was by far the hardest. The Phantom, the Commander, and the Mermaid all had various levels of disinterest about what people thought about them.

But the Empress was… petty. And not only petty, she was the member of the Daevas who had, by far, the most direct intentions towards socialization. With Valon's focus on science, Alden's obsession with fighting, and Marion's… Marion-ness, Olivia was, for lack of a better word, the center of the social world in the Pokemon Academy.

You didn't get on her bad side. You treated her with courtesy and respect at all times, even if you cursed her in your head and talked about her mercilessly behind her back. That was just how things were done in the Appeals Course, which was, as the most socially-aware of all the courses, where such things as public reputations mattered most.

Most of those girls who thought badly of her, though, only did so because secretly they wanted to BE Olivia, and resented the fact that they couldn't. Lila could never prove it, but she suspected that someone as savvy as Olivia wouldn't have risen to her position if she weren't fully aware of who thought badly of her to themselves.

Such thoughts were easily dealt with, though. Lila had seen it herself. A girl would be muttering to her friends just how fake and annoying Olivia was, and how much she hated that she acted so much better than everybody. Then, Olivia would come up to her and say hello, and invite her to go shopping. Immediately the venomous bitches would fall all over themselves to please their Empress, even more than the guys who wanted to get in her pants thinking that they could finally be "the one" who got Olivia to consider the opposite sex.

Lila even knew a girl or two that had absolutely loathed the Empress, and yet had all but thrown themselves in Olivia's bed the second she gave them the slightest inkling of interest. Lila found them to be the funniest.

So yes, Lila was checking her out. Because while she wasn't exactly like those other girls, she could empathize with them. Lila had always been pretty, and because of that, boys had often treated her special when she was a kid. Which had led to the girls making fun of her, mainly about the fact that she was poorer than they were.

It had never quite reached the level of bullying, but she had definitely felt a wall of isolation from her peers growing up. She knew what it felt like to not be part of the inner circle, and not feel worthy enough to hang out with the "popular kids".

Everyone wanted to feel special. Everyone felt the need to be wanted. And the ones the Empress gave attention to were thrilled by it. They fawned over Olivia even more than the others. She had a masterful talent for taking her most vocal critics and turning them into her loudest supporters, it was really astounding.

Lila had dyed her hair blonde because Olivia looked beautiful as a blonde. Lila's first day at the academy, when she saw that thick and natural blonde hair on a face so similar to her own, yet so much prettier, Lila felt they were from different worlds. So of course she dyed it, and she still did. Because she was afraid of not fitting in again.

"You guys are still showering? You know there's a line, right?"

Startled, Lila glanced up to see Darla had entered the shower as well, and she didn't seem all that happy. Which wasn't new, it was just…

"H-How long have we-"

"Too long."

Lila's weak attempt at mercy was harshly rebuffed by the dragon girl, who glanced over at Olivia with a scowl.

Unlike Lila, who had been startled by the intrusion, Olivia hadn't even stopped her maintenance routine, still working on her hair.

"I'll be out when I'm done," she said, as if she didn't care how many people she inconvenienced.

Lila winced, turning to Darla.

"I-I'm just finishing up," she assured her. "Sorry I took so long, it's just-"

"Don't worry, I get it," Darla said, her face softening. She actually cracked a smile. "Not everyone's cut out for that rugged look, you know?"

Lila smiled back, relieved. Then she flashed a coy grin of her own. "But you do it so well, sometimes I get jealous! These last few days have been a good reminder not to try, though."

With that, she finished up with her shower and began to dry off, stepping aside to let Darla change herself.

She watched her friend, feeling her tension easing just by Darla's presence.

It had been the same back then, too.

Lila's life didn't really start until she met Darla. That was when everything changed. She wasn't alone at school anymore. Now she was the best friend of the coolest girl in town. Darla was tough and funny and had an aura that drew people to her, even when she pushed them away. With her deep tan and exotic red eyes, boys became smitten with her, but unlike with Lila, the girls didn't care. As they entered their rebellious phases, everyone wanted to be friends with the "bad girl".

All the girls who'd made fun of her for being poor? They all wanted to hang out with her now, because she was Darla's girl now. You wanted Darla to go to your birthday party? Better invite Lila, or she wouldn't bother going.

It didn't matter to Lila that nobody really liked her, they just liked Darla. Because Darla liked her. And the rest of the girls could eat Numel droppings for all they mattered.

Lila was filled with awe as she stared at her best friend, but she quickly excused herself as Darla began taking off her underwear. Her partner might not have cared, but she wasn't quite that brave herself just yet.

So another nice little breather chapter as the girls prepare themselves. Hopefully they'll find somewhere to stay. I wonder if there are any good places to camp around town?