While everyone's enjoying the Lava Cookies, the kids need to think about what they're going to do today! What plans will they come up with? Cynthia's probably got a million ideas, but the question is, what will she want to do? It's gotta be something that Caelia and Elaina can take part in, which might be a difficult ask. That's pretty unlikely.

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, Caelia might have her problems, but she can definitely generate wholesome vibes that make everyone feel better!

ZenoZen: Thank you! Glad you're still reading!

Hyphenman: Caelia CAN taste. It's just so limited that she can't really tell.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1043


"So what are we going to do today?" Julia asked. She was licking her fingers clean in spite of her assertion that she wasn't interested in more Lava Cookies. "We've just been kind of hanging around not doing anything. Personally I was thinking about hitting the beach."

"The… the beach?" Elaina asked, going pale. The beach meant… bathing suits. She swallowed, shaking her head. "I-I don't think that's a good idea!"

"I'm also not sure if I want to go to the beach," Kitty admitted. "I mean, swimming would be fine, but… all those people…"

"I'm not interested in the beach anyway," Cynthia said, returning to the group. That answer was a bit of a shock to almost everyone. But not Blake, who had come in to join them. He'd already talked this over with her earlier in the morning.

"R-Really?" Kitty asked, her jaw dropping.

"YOU don't want to go to the beach to see all the people in swimsuits?" Julia asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "Really? You? What's the catch?"

"It's complicated," Cynthia huffed, glancing at Blake. He nodded in agreement. Neither one wanted to bring up the situation of Caelia.

Julia and Kitty both sensed that something was amiss. But they didn't focus on it. If Cynthia didn't want to go to the beach, there was no need to press the issue. And Elaina certainly wasn't interested in going herself.

"So if not the beach, what DO you guys want to do?"

Everyone turned to the door to see Reiner leaning in the entryway, a curious look on his face. Nick and Will were behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Julia scowled, her mood immediately souring due to Reiner's presence. "This is the girl's room, you know."

"Hey, I'm just here to join in the discussion," Reiner scowled back. "What's the big issue? I'm curious myself. We're all here together as friends."

"Some of us, anyway," Julia muttered under her breath.

"Hey, come on," Kitty said, stepping in the middle, holding her arms up to separate the two of them in order to prevent any fighting.

"I'm curious myself," Nick said, stepping around Reiner. His anxious smile melted Julia's heart a little, and she sighed. "Okay, fine," she said. "You guys can come."

"What about Sango and Aidan?" Reiner asked.

"Ah, forget about 'em," Cynthia said, waving her hand. "They're probably going off and making out somewhere. We'll talk to them later."

"So what's this plan, if we're not going to the beach?" Julia asked.

A dark look crossed Cynthia's face, sending a shiver down Blake's spine. He didn't like her mischievous expressions.

"My idea," Cynthia said, "is we do a test of courage."

Kitty flinched, her entire body shivering. "Wh-What!? A test of courage?!"

"Yep," Cynthia nodded. "It's a lot of fun! We can prove who's better than who! We just have to wait for night to fall, that's all."

"You know we got, like, zero sleep last night, right?" Will asked, raising his eyebrow.

Cynthia rolled her eyes, flapping her fingers open and shut like a mouth. "You guys can stay up another night, what's the big deal? Julia was sleeping basically all day, and she's totally fine right now, right?" She shrugged, looking at Julia.

Julia scowled.

"I-I'm in!" Elaina exclaimed, startling everyone. They all looked at her.

"You want to go?" Blake asked, surprised.

"Y-Yes!" Elaina nodded rapidly. "I can be brave! Very brave!"

"M-Me too!" Kitty nodded. She didn't want Elaina to out-bravery her. "I want to go too! That… that's okay, right?" She turned to Julia, who didn't want to say no to such an adamant expression. Julia could only sigh.

"…Fine, I'm in," she agreed. "Can't speak for the rest of you, though."

"I want to go too," Nick said. "It sounds like fun."

"Same," Reiner agreed.

"I'll go too," Will agreed.

So it seemed like everyone was up to go. But that led to one other issue. Blake glanced across the room at where Caelia was sitting.

"Cynthia, what about… you know?" He asked, nodding to Caelia.

Caelia was staring off into the distance, not participating in the conversation.

Cynthia winced. Along with not being able to swim, or enjoy the taste of food, Caelia's lack of touch made it difficult to take her to dark places. She would have violent panic attacks when in total darkness. Thankfully, she brought her own nightlight, meaning that the girls were able to light up the room enough to soothe her.

But bringing her on a test of courage would still be a major problem. She might have a big meltdown if they brought her to a dark place.

Cynthia was adamant though. Without Caelia, they wouldn't have as much fun. And besides this trip was for her, too! So what if she couldn't swim, or taste how good a Lava Cookie was. She was still part of their group, and Cynthia wanted to make sure that there was something they could all do together in order to have fun.

She fished into her backpack, and took out a couple of flashlights. "Okay, problem solved!" She grinned, flicking them on and off.

"So this test of courage, what is it?" Nick asked, confused. "Will we just walk around the wilderness or something?"

"With wild pokemon? That would certainly test our courage," Will agreed. But he wasn't very excited about that idea.

"Yeah, Cynthia, what's the plan?" Blake asked her.

Cynthia had a wild smile on her face. "Have you guys heard the story of Jagged Pass?" She whispered in a hushed voice.

"…Yeah, obviously," Julia said, rolling her eyes. "It's that pathway leading down from Mt. Chimney to the Lavaridge City. But not the hiking path. It's pretty dangerous and hard to navigate. Not great for tourism, unfortunately."

"So what's the idea?" Blake asked.

Cynthia smirked. She stood up and closed the door, drawing the windows. Then she flicked off the lights, darkening the room to just a dull glow from the night light. She crouched down beside it, her face lit up with a glow.

"Well… the Jagged Pass… once upon a time, it was a major tourism destination. And there was a family that lived there," Cynthia's voice dropped and her expression took on a mischievous glint. "A rich family owned aaallll that land, in a biiiiiig fancy house. And their youngest daughter was the most lovely girl ever."

"Really? What happened?" Kitty asked.

"There was a major storm… and a landslide. The whole family was WIPED OUT!" Cynthia exclaimed, slapping her hands together. Startled, Kitty fell over and screamed.

"Wow, all of them?" Nick gasped.

"ALL of them! ALL dead!" Cynthia shouted. "They were WIPED FROM THE EARTH! The house fell to ruin along with the Jagged Pass, and the whole trail was rendered impassable… but you see, there is still one trail still there. The trail up to that old house… up to Emberly Place."

Blake could swear he heard a thunderclap overhead. Which was rather impressive, considering that there was no rainfall.

"So what do you think?" Cynthia asked, her voice low and haunting. "Are you all… ready to see that old house? Be careful, though… there are rumors that ghosts still fly around the Jagged Pass, and occupy that house… the spirits of that departed family have been seen wandering around…" She stood up and flicked the lights back on.

Blake had to admit, she had a pretty good sales pitch. Even he felt a little creeped out by that story she'd told.

"That… that's not a true story, right?" Kitty laughed. Her voice was filled with fear.

"Couldn't be, she's just making it up," Reiner laughed.

"Uh… I've heard it actually," Julia said, startling everyone.

"Wait, really?" Blake asked.

"Wait, really?" Cynthia's jaw dropped. "Err, I mean, of course! I certainly didn't just make up a story about a creepy house on the hill or anything like that!"

"Yeah, I read about it a few years ago," Julia said. "There was a landslide that wiped out the path. Because of it, the family's sick daughter was unable to get to the hospital on time, and she passed away. In despair, the family sold the ruined property and moved to Unova."

"That doesn't sound like the story you told," Blake smirked. Cynthia shot him an angry look, flipping him off.

"Whatever! Close enough!" She scoffed.

"Well, that sounds tragic, but not very scary," Kitty said, trying to sound like it wasn't a very big deal. She wasn't trying very successfully though. "So I mean… it's not a big problem, right? Just a local tragedy a few years back."

"Ten years back," Julia clarified.

"Yeah, ten years back," Kitty nodded. "Anyway, that's… not so scary, right?"

The screen door slid opened with a rattle and she jumped into the air and screamed.

It was Sango.

"Whoa, Kitty! What's going on?" Sango gasped, rushing over to her. "Are you okay?"

"I-It's nothing," Kitty stammered, shaking her head. She wiped the sweat off her brow. "Anyway, uh… we were just talking about going on a test of courage."

"Oh, that sounds like fun," Sango said, sitting down next to the white-haired girl. "So what's the story? Haunted house or something?"

"No, just a tragedy," Reiner said, shaking his head.

"Shut up, you don't know anything," Julia snapped. "Anyway, we're talking about the Jagged Pass. After the landslide, there were lots of people who came to the Jagged Pass to help make it safer. But the issue was, they weren't alone…"

Now it was Julia's time to take on a haunted voice. She had a wild look in her eyes.

"People saw… the daughter. Wandering through the wastelands… she didn't attack anyone, but she was there, a ghost haunting the Jagged Pass. And that's not the only thing. There have been many sightings over the last ten years. But nobody could track the ghost down. It was like she just disappeared… never to be seen again."

A silence fell over the room, and then-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Julia shrieked, and everyone but Caelia screamed.

Kitty curled up into a ball and started to cry, rocking back and forth.

"Kitty, are you okay?" Julia came back down to earth and approached her shaking friend. "I-I was just kidding around, there's no need to be frightened…"

"Too scary, ghosts too scary," Kitty mumbled, shaking her head. "They're evil… wicked… please don't hurt me…"

"Way to go, Julia, you broke Kitty," Reiner clicked his tongue, shaking his head.

Julia glared at him. "Shut your mouth," she scowled. "Anyway. If you want to go through the Jagged Pass, now you know the true story."

"I, uh… can we go back to Cynthia's please?" Nick asked. "I think that on was better. I don't want to deal with a real ghost."

"It's not a big deal," Sango said, rolling her eyes. "Ghosts aren't too much of a problem."

"Just because you're not afraid of ghosts doesn't mean the rest of us are so good with it," Blake warned her. "But you're right, probably nothing will happen, right?"

Everyone looked around, hoping that the test of courage would go okay. Cynthia was wondering if maybe she'd bitten off more than she could chew. She went over to see how Caelia was doing, hoping she hadn't scared the other girl too much.

"Caelia, are you scared?" She asked worriedly. "I mean, that was a pretty intense horror story, you know? I hope you weren't frightened. Do you still want to go on the test of courage anyway?" Her voice was hopeful, but she wasn't.

Caelia stared silently at her. "Not scared," she mumbled.

"Great, so you'll come?!" Cynthia asked.

"Not interested… in haunted house," Caelia mutteed. That was when Cynthia realized that she'd never invited Caelia to the test of courage in the first place.

"Oh, uh… come on, Caelia! It'll be fun!" Cynthia tried to talk it up with a smile. "You'll get to wander around in the dark all you want!"

Caelia blinked. "Blake."

"Hmm? What about him?" Cynthia asked, confused.

"Go with Blake," she insisted. "Then go. Okay?"

"Well, uh… we're going to be drawing lots," Cynthia said. "So I can't promise you that, sorry. But I'd really appreciate you coming."

Caelia's expression clouded over.

"Come on Caelia, you should come," Blake said, smiling. "It'll be fun, even if we won't be partnered up together, don't you think?"

Caelia turned to him, staring at him in silence.

Then she nodded.

Cynthia sighed with relief.

"Great!" She cheered. "Everyone else, are you guys willing to go?"

Everyone nodded together. Kitty and Elaina were the only holdouts.

"Scared?!" Elaina sputtered. "I'm not scared! I'm incredibly powerful! I have harmonia! I would never be scared by something like this! Who do you think I am?"

"Why are you shaking then?" Cynthia asked, glancing at Elaina's trembling figure.

"Because… it's cold in here!" Elaina said. "There's a draft, that's why!"

Cynthia gave her a dull stare.

"…Cold. In a hot spring inn. Beside a volcano. In the Hoenn Region. In the middle of spring. In the afternoon. You think it's cold?"

Elaina averted her eyes. "Uh… yes. Yes, it's cold."

"…Well, I'm not going to argue with that," Cynthia said. "Hey, if you want to come, no skin off my nose, go wild."

"I will go wild!" Elaina said. "I'm not scared. Not at all! I'm going to show everyone just how great my test of courage bravery is! That's how it works, right?"

"…Yeah, sure thing," Cynthia said, hoping she could partner up with Elaina. She wanted to see just how freaked out the other girl would get.

"What about you, Kitty?" Julia asked. "Are you going to go on the test of courage with us? Or are you still frightened?"

"W-Well…" Kitty swallowed, looking at Julia's face. Truthfully, she was pretty worried about going on the test of courage. She didn't want to walk all the way up Jagged Pass; it would be incredibly stressful and difficult just making the hike, and even if she did, what would happen to her? Knowing her luck, she'd probably wind up getting haunted by the ghost herself! She didn't want to run into her because she was terrified.

"I-I don't… I don't…" She stared down at the floor. This just wasn't the kind of girl she was. She wasn't as brave as her friends were.

But she was going to try to be. She took a deep breath and exhaled, and forced a brave smile onto her face.

"I'll do it!" Kitty decided, making a fist. She was barely even trembling.

She'd been through a lot of things over the course of her time at the Pokemon Academy, and a lot of them were scary. She couldn't keep being a frightened little kitty-cat, she needed to become a brave one!

Blake watched the others and felt a shiver run down his spine.

For some reason, he had a bad feeling about this test of courage. But he didn't bother saying anything, knowing that there probably wouldn't be a point.

I'm probably just getting worried about nothing, just like this whole business with Aya, he decided, squeezing the ribbon in his pocket. It certainly wasn't like he was afraid of anything.

"So what else are we going to do?" Sango asked. "A test of courage is no good during the day, we need to go at night, and that's not for a couple more hours. So what are we going to do to pass the time, then?"

Cynthia opened her mouth to answer but the door slid open, and Aidan walked into the room. He looked exhausted.

"So this is where everyone is?" He asked, looking around. Arion plodded into the room and went to sleep.

"Aidan!" Cynthia brightened. "Just in time! Want to hear about what we're doing tonight?"

Aidan's smile froze on his face. He didn't like that look in her eye.


Well, a test of courage… what could happen on the Jagged Pass? Could it really be haunted? Will there be any drama to be found?