After Julia's little star of a chapter, we'll get back to our main plot. The Orre Region? No, not that, Cynthia recruiting people to come with her to the Hoenn Region! Now it's time for the confrontation between Cynthia and Will! Can she convince the antisocial boy to come with her to her grandparents' inn? Or is Will too busy pining over Misato?

The Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! Get the votes going in soon! There are three girls in the finals! Who's going to win? Chloe? Cynthia? Or Vic? One of those girls will become the third best girl, so get those votes in as soon as possible! You've only got one vote this time, so make it count!

Finalists: Chloe, Cynthia, Vic

KedharS: Yeah, Julia definitely has some sad moments in her backstory. I focused on her in order to give her some time to shine.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1029

"The library, huh?" Cynthia said, staring at the large building Nikita had led them to.

"Yup, Will spends a lot of time reading in the library," Nikita said. "Most of the time he's studying, but even when he's not he still likes reading."

"Are you going to be okay, Cynthia?" Blake asked worriedly.

"Hmm? What do you mean? I already said Will and I are cool, don't worry!" Cynthia assured him with a grin.

"Oh, not that, I'm just worried that if you cross the threshold of a library you'll burst into flames," Blake replied.

Cynthia socked him in the shoulder.

"Very funny," she scoffed.

"Well, if that's all, I'll be-" Nikita didn't get a chance to finish her statement, because Cynthia grabbed her by the collar and dragged her inside. Blake gave an exasperated sigh, and she stared at him with a look of resignation. They were both on the same page about this.

Will was engrossed in a book when the trio came upon him.

"Will!" Cynthia declared in a voice definitely not suited for use in the library. He was so startled he nearly fell out of his chair.

The librarian shushed Cynthia with a glare, but she ignored her, focusing her attention on Will directly, her eyes shining.

"Wha… Nikita? What's going on?" Will's eyes slid from Cynthia to his friend, hoping she could explain to him what Cynthia was doing here. Nikita just let out an exasperated sigh and shrugged.

"So, whatcha reading?" Cynthia asked, leaning forward curiously.

"…A book," Will dryly replied. Socializing wasn't exactly his strong suit. It wasn't like he had an issue with Cynthia per se, she was actually a rather pleasant person to be around. But he sort of was… awkward around girls. Especially friendly girls like her.

"Oh, really? What kinda book? What's it about?" Cynthia was trying very hard to get interest in Will, but it may have been having the opposite effect.

Cynthia's perkiness was catching him off guard, and immediately his mind flashed to Misato. She was the opposite of Cynthia in every way… but why was she coming to mind now? He shook his head to clear his thoughts and flashed her the cover.

"'Theory of Robotics and Consciousness'," Cynthia read. Her brain stared to short circuit like she was the robot. "Um… cool, so… like robots and stuff?"

"It's metaphysics," Nikita explained. "You see, Will here's dating that girl Misato, from the Phantom Cup? She's a… what was it called again? A Mechadoll?"

"We're not dating!" Will blurted out. "She's… well, she's a friend… sort of…" He felt his face heat up from the double-team of both girls. Cynthia was gushing about how cool it was to be dating a robot, clearly not listening to a word he was saying, and the rare mischievous side of Nikta was in full bloom, she was staring at him with an amused smirk.

He looked desperately to Blake for help, but he turned and looked away, not wanting to get involved in this mess.

Will let out a groan.

"So anyway, Will, leaving your girlfriend aside," Cynthia said, waving off the notion of Will dating a Mechadoll, much to his chagrin, "I wanted to talk to you about your plans for spring break! Got anything doing?"

Will raised his eyebrow. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Like, family plans? Your girlfriend's not here, so-"

"Cynthia shove it," Blake said, finally taking some mercy on Will. "I think you've played this joke out as far as it'll go."

"Fiiiiiiine," Cynthia groaned, rolling her eyes with an exaggerated sigh.

"I-I don't really have any plans, I'm just going home to visit my family," Will said, incredibly confused about why Cynthia could possibly be asking him about his plans for break. "Why?"

"Because Blake and I and a few other friends were planning on going to the Hoenn Region!" Cynthia chirped, her eyes shining. "My grandparents own a hot spring, you know, the one we stayed at on the field trip to Lavaridge? And I was wondering if you wanted to come!"

"W-Wait, what?" Will wasn't sure he'd heard that right. Cynthia was inviting him… to go on a trip over spring break? Him of all people?

"It's simple," Cynthia said, raising her eyebrow like it was an obvious thing. "I want you to come on the trip with us! I can invite 10 friends, and I'd like you to come! So what do you say? Want to have some fun?"

"I, uh…" Will didn't know what to say. "But… we aren't that close. Why would you want to invite me on your trip?" He glanced at Nikita. "Are you going?"

"Nope," Nikita shook her head. "I'm working with Professor Reinhart. But Reiner's going, so it's not like you won't know ANYBODY."

"I-I see… I'm still not sure why you want me to come, though," Will said. They weren't close. At all. So why was she asking?

Cynthia blinked, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Because I thought it would be fun. Don't you think it would be fun? You're a pretty cool guy, after all. And it's not like I have any grudge against ya or anything!"

Will was even more confused. That didn't sound like a reason. And the reason behind his confusion was that he failed to understand how the mind of a girl like Cynthia worked. As someone who was an introvert by nature, Will didn't think it made sense to invite random strangers and acquaintances on fun outings.

But Cynthia was different. She loved making friends. To her, a trip like this was one big opportunity to make friends, and even if she and Will weren't close now, they could become friends by having fun in the Hoenn Region! She was just that type of girl.

…Well, there was another reason, too.

"I'm inviting Blake, and his roommates," Cynthia continued her explanation. "And also another dude, Aidan. He's cool. But that's only four guys. There's another girl I want to invite, so with me, Sango, Julia, Kitty, and her, that makes five girls. So don't you think a trip like this is loads more fun with a close number of girls and guys?"

Blake wondered who the last slot would go to. If Cynthia could invite 10 friends, there would be 11 of them. Five boys and five girls, and one left over. He didn't bother thinking further, assuming that Cynthia had something else in mind.

Will calmed down. Okay. That was reasoning he could understand. "Yeah, I get it," he sighed. "I'm just there to round out the numbers."

"No! It's not just that!" Cynthia assured him, leaning in so close that Will felt his heart skip a beat. "I wouldn't just invite a random guy to come with me! We're friends! Or at least, we're on the way to becoming friends!"

A sly grin spread across Cynthia's lips. She unclipped a pokeball from her belt and flashed it to Will. "But first, let's battle!"

Will was taken aback. "Buh… battle? You want… a pokemon battle?"

Cynthia nodded eagerly. "We didn't get a chance in the Fall Festival Tournament! And since the campus emptied out, I haven't really had a good challenge! So what do you think, Will? Want a battle with little ol' me?"

She gave him a flirty wink, making the best use of her charms. Will was helpless against her sparkling eyes.

He sighed. "I… I guess so…" He closed his book and set it aside.

"Okay, um, first I'm gonna remind you two that we're in a library," Nikita cleared her throat. "So maybe, um…"

"Ah, come on!" Cynthia laughed. "I'm not that reckless! Let's go find a battlefield somewhere, so our pokemon can really go wild!"

"You know, you don't have to fight her if you don't want to," Blake reminded him.

Will shook his head and stood up. "It'll be a good challenge. To be honest, it's been a while since I've had a good fight myself."

After checking out his book, he followed the bubbly Cynthia out the door so they could find somewhere to battle.

"…You know," Nikita said in exasperation, "when I told you to go find somewhere to fight besides the library, I didn't mean right in the middle of campus!"

Cynthia and Will were standing in the quad, facing each other on the open field. There were buildings all around them, and one misplaced attack could mean some serious damage.

Neither trainer seemed to mind.

"It's okay!" Cynthia assured her with a grin. "There's nobody here anyway. And besides, we'll be really careful, right Will?"

Will just shrugged. He still wasn't sure what to make of this honestly. But he felt an itch to battle, and if Cynthia felt the same, he'd acquiesce.

"Fine, well, I'm not sticking around to see you two get in trouble. I fulfilled my part by bringing you two together, so I'm heading out." Nikita turned and trudged away.

"By, Nikita! Thanks for the help!" Cynthia called after her. Then she turned to Will with a fierce grin. "So Will! Ready to do this thing?"

Will nodded. "How many pokemon should we use?"

Cynthia tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's go with three each! That's a good number!"

"Sounds good." Will needed to think carefully about Cynthia. She was probably in the top three trainers of their year, if he was being honest. Her results in the Fall Festival Tournament and Winter Tag Tournament spoke for themselves. That put her a few steps above him. So he would need to think carefully about this.

Her ace is her Breloom and its spore, and she loves leading with him. But that doesn't mean she'll absolutely do that. I'll need to keep my cards close to my chest, while at the same time I'll rely on the best counter I've got. Will considered his options, and finally chose the pokemon who would be the best match for Cynthia's ace.

"Pixie, go!" He said, sending out his first pokemon, his Togetic.

"Toge!" Pixie hummed, flapping her wings and dancing through the air. She wore a smile that could rival Cynthia's.

…At least for a few seconds. But with how Cynthia's face lit up with glee, it quickly became overshadowed.

"She's so cute!" Cynthia gushed. "But she won't be a match for this cutie!"

Cynthia flung her pokeball into the air, and a pokemon emerged in a flurry of ice crystals.

"Vulpix!" Aud yipped, her fur shimmering in the sunlight.

"Cynthia, you're using Aud?" Blake gasped, surprised. With the way Cynthia babied her little Vulpix it was definitely a move he didn't expect. And Will didn't expect it either; he didn't even know Cynthia HAD a Vulpix!

"Aud's growing every day!" Cynthia winked. "I wanted her first battle to be a casual one, where she could try her best without any pressure!" She turned to the field and called out, "Aud! You can do it, sweetie!"

"Vulpix!" Aud turned back to her trainer and nodded eagerly.

"What a cute pokemon," Will said. "Pixie, use air cutter!"

"Togetic!" Pixie flapped her wings and summoned blades of air that cut through the sky towards Aud, hitting her before she could respond. The Togetic was fast!

"Vuuulll!" Aud yipped, tumbling back through the grass, pushed by the powerful wind.

"Aud! You can do it!" Cynthia cried. To Blake's surprise, little Aud quickly got back on her feet, growling an adorable growl at Pixie.

"Great recovery! Use icy wind!" Cynthia ordered. Aud opened her mouth and retaliated against Pixie's wind blast with wind of her own, infused with ice and snow. The small icy wind rolled towards Pixie, but the Togetic was more than ready.

"Blow it away with air cutter," Will ordered. Pixie flapped her wings and dispelled the ice attack, only for more ice to shoot through like bullets, piercing the small pokemon's side.

"Toge-?" Pixie gasped in shock as she stumbled, nearly falling out of the air.

"That's our ice shard!" Cynthia grinned. "Faster than the eye could see!"

"I see, so you took advantage of ice shard's speed to fire it immediately after you used icy wind. Then when the Togetic blew the icy wind away, the chunks of ice behind it had a straight shot forward," Blake noted. Quite an impressive combo, especially with a Vulpix so young. His Skorupi Silver had hatched at around the same time, and he wasn't sure if the little guy was even ready to battle at all, let alone like this. Once again, Blake was left in awe of Cynthia's skill as a trainer.

She's probably even better than me, honestly, he begrudgingly admitted. It had been a while since their last serious fight, but he wasn't confident in his chances. Her training with the Commander had really caused her to grow a lot.

Cynthia felt Blake's gaze, turning his way with a smug grin. "Well, you feeling pressured, seeing my brilliant display?" She boasted. "You haven't been slacking off on training your pokemon, have you Blake?"

Blake wasn't amused. "We train just fine," he replied.

"Well, if you weren't spending so much time with your girlfriend, maybe you'd be able to reach my level," Cynthia called back.

He narrowed his eyes and Cynthia quickly realized she'd found the line. She cleared her throat and turned her attention back to the battle. Just in time, too, because Pixie had recovered and had just fired a shockwave at Aud.

"Vulpix!" Aud cried as the electricity zapped her. But she quickly recovered. Shock wave might have been a powerful Electric type move that never missed, but unlike most electric attacks it didn't have the ability to paralyze. So she quickly shrugged it off and fired back an attack of her own.

One that Cynthia liked quite a bit.

"Confuse ray!" She ordered, a wicked smile crossing her face. Aud opened her mouth and an ominous orb glowing with an eerie light zigzagged across the battlefield, its unnerving energy stimulating confusion in any who followed it too closely.

Will had expected that, though. Not that move exactly, but he'd sent out Pixie to deal with Cynthia's Breloom, so he assumed she'd use status moves. Which was one of the reasons (besides her Fairy/Flying type) that Pixie was chosen.

"Safeguard," he ordered. An aura of light shimmered into existence around Pixie's body, nullifying any confusing effects of the orb.

Cynthia smiled. "Just what we were waiting for!" She crowed triumphantly. "Now, Aud, time for our secret weapon!"

"Vulpix!" Aud nodded. She got up on her hind legs and pressed her front paws together, clapping joyfully.

"Look, Blake!" Cynthia swung her head around with a gleeful smile. "I taught her how to applaud, isn't it cool?!"

"Yeah, it's a nice trick," Blake admitted. But he doubted that tricks would be enough to defeat Will's Togetic.

"You mean 'an ice trick' right?" Cynthia smirked.

Blake rolled his eyes at the terrible pun.

"No more jokes," Will scowled. He appreciated Cynthia's positive energy and could empathize with her fawning over her pokemon, but he'd come here for a battle! "Pixie, use aerial ace!"

But Pixie didn't move. Instead, the aura of light that covered her glowed even brighter. Will stared at his pokemon, feeling like the confuse ray had struck him instead.

"Pixie, what are you doing?!" He cried.

"Togetic!" Pixie proclaimed, placing her tiny hands on her hips and flying a little higher. She looked very proud of herself.

"She's showing off, that's what," Cynthia smirked. "She's quite proud of that safeguard, and wants to show just how good she is with it."

"…But that's stupid," Blake said. "Safeguard lasts for a while. Using it multiple times is pointless, why would she do that?"

Cynthia waggled her finger back and forth. "Because she wants to make Aud smile, of course, wouldn't you?"

Blake gave her an unamused stare until she clarified.

"I had Aud," Cynthia cleared her throat, "use encore."

"Encore?!" Will sputtered in disbelief.

"It's a very special move," Cynthia grinned. "When it's used, the pokemon who it's used on will feel so proud of their last move, that they'll use it again- and again, and again, and again! Your Togetic's so proud of her safeguard, she just can't stop!"

Then her grin took a dark turn. "And while she's doing that, she can't use any other moves. Now, Aud! Use icy wind!"

"Vulpix!" Aud opened her mouth, firing a blast of ice at Pixie, who was still showing off her safeguard. The chilling winds struck the flying pokemon and sent a chill through her body, causing her to tumble from the sky.

"Pixie!" Will cried.

"I used that confuse ray as bait because I knew you had something like safeguard up your sleeve," Cynthia cackled. "It was just what I wanted… and now your Togetic has no chance of fighting back! What do you think? Brilliant, isn't it?"

Blake buried his face in his hand. "Why is it that you always pick the most annoying strategies in the world?" He groaned. He could already imagine how Cynthia would use that little trick against him, and he didn't like it.

"Because I'm brilliant, that's why!" Cynthia boasted. "Now, Aud, use icy wind again! His Togetic can't fight back, so get while the getting's good, that's what I say!"

"Vulpix!" Aud cheered, firing another icy wind blast that struck the grounded Togetic again.

And all Pixie could do was use safeguard in response.

Whelp, Cynthia goes back to her roots with another annoying move. Some things just never change. I wonder what ridiculous strategy she'll pull out of her sleeve next? It'll certainly be a sight to see, that's for sure.