Time to deal with the aftermath of the party. How are things going to go? In the meantime, let's celebrate 200 chapters! It's been quite a journey, even if half of those chapters were only written in the last three months.

As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?

Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison

KedharS: …Just friendship? Sure it isn't something more?

Rosealine gold: If you want me to focus more on Maddi's backstory, feel free to provide me with any other things you think might help flesh her out more! There's only a little left, so I really want to make it count.

Tambry96bj: She was there in spirit, even if she doesn't remember. She still enjoyed it.

Rus4408: If the votes say anything about it, I think Cynthia is already part of Blake's harem. Besides, there's only Sango, Ayame, Cynthia, Elaina, and Caelia right now. I don't expect it to get any larger than that. Maybe one more. …Oh and Kate I guess, but no one really cares about her.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 200


Cynthia awoke to the feeling of death seeping through her. Her head was throbbing and she felt waves of exhaustion and nausea washing over her in turn.

What the hell… Cynthia thought, forcing herself to sit upright in spite of the fatigue and soreness she felt. I feel awful… what the hell happened last night…?

Cynthia's head cleared up slightly, and she tried piecing together the night before. There were blurry memories of a faceless crowd of people, something about a friendly bunny, a ton of red cups, and a bizarre image of a Totodile playing bass guitar. Where did THAT come from?

Cynthia shook her head, stretching out her legs and arms before she bumped into something. She glanced to the side and saw Blake lying in bed next to her. Her blood went cold. She glanced down at herself. Her costume was missing, she was just wearing a skimpy nightdress over her underwear. Cynthia's face went pale as she tried desperately to remember what happened last night.

Okay, okay, calm down. Let's think about this clearly.

Blake, Maddi, and I went to a party.

I clearly had too much to drink.

I wake up the next day with Blake in bed with me, in a room that I don't recognize.

My head and my body are both exhausted and sore.

My costume is gone, and I'm barely wearing anything.

No… no matter how you look at it…

I totally freaking decimated the "T" rating, didn't I?!

Cynthia grabbed her head in shock, messing up her hair as she tried to scratch her brain into remembering.

This is bad. This is really, really bad. No, no, no. If this gets out, then this series is totally gonna get removed from the site, right?! At the 200 Chapter mark?! No fucking way. Wait, wait, maybe it got moved to the "M" section. Yeah, yeah, that's gotta be it. We've been heading in that direction for a while now, maybe this is now an "M" story and not a "T" story, right? Right?

Cynthia winced.

No, even if it's an "M" I'm pretty sure that lemons are still restricted content, right? What are you doing, author?! Are you seriously that big a dumbass you'd make a poor judgment error all over again? You think the people have forgotten just because five years have passed?!

Plus… it's Blake, so…

Cynthia paused.

Wait, wait, wait. Let's think about this rationally now.

Even if I was super-drunk, would I really agree to have sex with Blake? I know the kind of guy Blake is, he would never take advantage of me in my sleep, or even when I was drunk. So I had to have been the one to initiate. I know I'm a pervert, but would I really have... do I… do I even think about Blake like that? …N-no, right? Of course not! Blake and I are just friends! I've only thought about him that way a few times, but no way would I… right?

Cynthia took a deep breath, and exhaled.

Right. I'm just overthinking this. There's no way he or I would ever do something. We're just two high schoolers who woke up in the same bed. Happens all the time, right?

Cynthia flung the sheets off of her, seeing that much to her relief, Blake was still wearing the black robes of his costume. He was fully clothed, which means they probably didn't-

Something caught Cynthia's eye, cutting off that train of thought. She looked down at the bed, and spotted a red stain. Her face went pale.

We fucking did it.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

"Blake! Blake, wake the fuck up!" Cynthia shouted, slamming her palms against him.

"Wha-? OW! Cynthia, what the-"

"What did we do?!" Cynthia hissed, shaking him. "WHAT. DID. WE. DO?"

Blake blinked, staring at her bright red face.

"Uh… nothing," Blake said, confused as hell.

"Then what. Is. That?" Cynthia demanded, pointing at the smear of blood on the mattress.

Blake blinked.

"That was your fault!"

"MY fault?!" Cynthia exclaimed. "You… even if I did come onto you, I was drunk! I wasn't going to tell- er, I mean… I never would have done that sober!"

"That's not what I meant," Blake said, rolling up his sleeve to show her his arm. "Look at this! You were using my arm as a scratching post last night, with those nails of yours of course there's blood!"

Cynthia blinked, staring at the red lines cut into Blake's skin, the freshest wounds on his scarred arm.

"Your arm, is that…"

"W-wait, never-" Blake quickly tried to roll his sleeve back down, but Cynthia grabbed his wrist and yanked him towards her, staring at his arm in stunned silence.

"Your arm…" Cynthia said, rolling down his sleeve and looking at his wounds. She glanced up at him in shock. "What is this?"

"I..." Blake muttered, pulling his arm free from her grip and pulling his sleeve over it. He looked aside, his face clearly ashamed but Cynthia didn't know why.

"I don't want to talk about it," Blake told her. Cynthia felt tears welling up in her eyes, just by seeing the pain that was clearly crossing Blake's face. She leaned forward and hugged him to her breast, patting him on the back of the head.

"That's okay," she reassured him. "I'm sorry for asking. It must hurt."

"Yeah…" Blake admitted. "But not as much as you pressing me against your bony chest."

Cynthia shoved him off, giving him a seething look. Blake smirked.

"They aren't that small!" She whined, holding her boobs in her hands as if that would make them grow bigger. "They're bigger than Sango's!"

Blake rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"But compared to Ayame, they-"

"Jerk!" Cynthia chopped him on the head. "She's a senior, that's not fair! Just wait until I start growing, you'll see!"

Blake laughed, much to Cynthia's surprise.

"What, so you're laughing at me now?" Cynthia growled.

"No, not like that," Blake said, shaking his head. "I'm just glad you're in such a good mood now, after the stuff you were talking about last night."

Cynthia turned bright red.

"What did I say?! What did I say?! I didn't say anything weird, did I? Tell me!"

"Nah…" Blake said, sticking his tongue out. Cynthia was about to say something, but the two were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Cynthia? Are you awake yet?"

Olivia's voice came from the other side of the door. Cynthia and Blake looked at each other. Cynthia shrugged, jumping out of bed and running to the door. She opened it to see Olivia standing in front of her, a big a smile on her face. She was out of her costume, wearing a lovely snow-white dress with golden trim, her hair brushed perfectly and her makeup impeccable. Considering the party last night, seeing her looking flawless as usual without even a hair out of place, while Cynthia looked like a warmed-up piece of crap, made Cynthia fume with jealousy.

"I'm glad to see you're okay," Olivia said, sighing in relief. She handed Cynthia a bag. "I laundered your costume, by the way."

"Oh, no, did I-"

"You threw up quite a bit last night," Olivia confirmed. "Luckily for you, we got it off before that happened. It was just a little wet from sweat and rumpled. But it's perfectly intact."

"Oh, thank you," Cynthia smiled. "Thank you so much!"

"Of course!" Olivia said, smiling. "As a host, it's my responsibility. Especially considering your… condition last night."

The way she said "condition" made Cynthia feel a chill in the air. Clearly, Olivia did not appreciate that Cynthia, a freshman, got completely trashed at her party. Olivia glanced past Cynthia, looking Blake dead in the eye. Blake was still in bed. Which meant he'd been in bed all night.

"Blake. You didn't-"

"Nothing happened!" Cynthia interjected. "Don't worry, I swear, nothing happened! Blake would never do something like that, and we're just friends anyway, so-"

"Okay, I understand," Olivia said, smiling. "I know Blake isn't that sort of guy. In the meantime, though, I must request that you change out of your dress, and back into that costume of yours. Blake? If you would come with me?"

Blake nodded, leaving Cynthia to change in peace.


"Now Blake," Olivia spoke with him as they walked downstairs. Blake was only half-paying attention, focusing more on the carnage around them. Or more specifically, the lackthereof. The dormitory was spotless, as immaculate as it had been when Blake had come there a few weeks back for Sango's party. Through means fair or foul, Olivia had completely erased all traces of the party that, by the clock's time of 7:46, had been going until a few short hours prior. "Blake."

Blake's attention was drawn back to Olivia as she led him into the kitchen.

"Coffee?" Olivia asked. Blake nodded, and she walked over to the machine, which seemed to already be brewing something. Quite a sight to see, the Empress making a cup of coffee for him, a peasant. Blake sat down at one of the kitchen tables, and Olivia placed a mug in front of him, sitting across the table with a mug of her own.

"Shall we have a chat, then?" Olivia asked, smiling. "While we wait for your friend to get changed?"

Blake didn't say yes, but he didn't say no, either. Instead, he took his cup of coffee and sipped from it. Blake wasn't really a coffee sort of person, but this was particularly smooth, far more than any other kind he'd had.

"You like?" Olivia smiled. "It's imported. Now, back to the point at hand."

"Sorry for Cynthia," Blake apologized. "She-"

Olivia raised her finger, wagging it back and forth in disagreement.

"No, no, that's not what I want to discuss."

Blake blinked.

"Oh, I see. Then what is it?"

"I got a nice little phone call from my dear Aya last night," Olivia smiled, sipping coolly from her coffee, as though she didn't have a care in the world. And yet, as relaxed as she appeared to be, Blake still felt a bit of discomfort. He felt like he was being interviewed for a job, or meeting the parents of a girl he was interested in. Not that he'd ever done either of those things, but he expected that this was the sort of pressure one would feel themselves under in those circumstances.

"Is she doing better?" Blake asked. Olivia nodded.

"She's doing fine," Olivia replied. "She's coming back in a few days."

"Well, that's good," Blake said, smiling. Olivia smiled back. But her smile was scary, while his was concealing unease.

"In preparation for her arrival, I'll need to make sure her room is in perfect condition," Olivia continued. "Aya's room is usually so organized, you understand, but I must be certain."

Ah. She was bringing up Ayame's room. That gave Blake a real good idea of where things were going.

"Now, imagine my surprise when I heard from Aya that you were in her room while she wasn't there?" Olivia said. "And not only that, I was even more surprised when I heard you were there with another girl."

Blake gulped.

"Are you not going to deny it?"

"There's nothing to deny," Blake replied. "We didn't do anything."

"I see," Olivia narrowed her eyes appraisingly, trying to get a sense of the voracity of Blake's statement. "Nothing?"

"Syvlia Driscoll, she… well, I mean, she wanted to talk to me about something, and there was nowhere we could find privacy, so…"

"So you broke into Aya's room," Olivia clarified. "Even knowing how she feels about you."

Blake winced, hanging his head in guilt.

"I should have asked, but I thought she'd be asleep. She called me, though, and I explained everything! I didn't do anything wrong, so-"

"You explained everything to her," Olivia clarified. "But you never explained anything to me."

"I… I didn't know I needed to," Blake said, confused. "But, um, it's exactly like I said, so…"

"I don't care about what you did last night," Olivia said, waving her hand dismissively. "What I want to know is what you plan to do now, moving forward."

"Moving forward?" Blake asked. "What do you mean?"

"Moving forward," Olivia repeated. "What do you plan to do, moving forward, with Ayame?"

"With… Ayame?"

Olivia narrowed her eyes.

"Don't play dumb," Olivia sneered. "You know exactly how she feels about you, don't even try to pretend you don't at this point. You just admitted it to me! And even so, you're still doing stuff… like this! Aya might trust you, but do you think that means she felt nothing? Hearing you were with another girl, in her room? Even if she knew nothing was going to happen…"

Olivia's voice broke, and she regained her focus, her actress's smile returning to her face.

"She's tough and cool on the outside. But she's still just a girl. She feels hurt like any other girl, and cries like any other girl. And gets her heart broken, just like any other girl. If you're going to just play around with her feelings, if you just like the idea of having her fawn all over you… I won't allow that to happen."

Blake winced.

Olivia reached into her purse, and lifted out a letter, still sealed in an old envelope. She set it gently on the table, pushing it towards Blake.

"What is this?" Blake asked, reaching for it. Olivia stared at him meaningfully, tempting him to take it. He lowered his hand.

"When Aya was in her first year, she was a shy, scared girl," Olivia said. "People made fun of her for her height. She never had the confidence to really ever run. But all that changed when she met a boy. He was another first year, and he made her come out of her shell. He helped her confront the world, something I could never manage to do. I was… quite envious of him, to be honest. Because he was the one who got to be the target of that sweet smile of hers."

Olivia looked wistfully off into the distance before turning back to Blake.

"You know what that's like, I'm quite certain."

Blake nodded his head in agreement.

"In the end, though, for all he did for her… their… whatever it was… only lasted a week. He suddenly disappeared, without a trace. All he left was this letter for her."

Blake blinked, staring at the letter.

"I never opened it. And I never told her about it," Olivia said. "That guy… he came to me, before he left her for good, left the school for good, and asked me to hold onto this letter for Ayame. To only give it to her when the time was right, when she needed to be reassured of his real feelings. I should have torn it to shreds."

Blake nodded his head, understanding Olivia's feelings.

"But at the same time… to do that would be a betrayal of her feelings," Olivia sighed. "Even now, nearly four years later… I still don't know what I should have done. What I do know, though, is that Ayame no longer talks about him. She hasn't talked about him in years. I think maybe… she's forgotten about that guy completely, now."

Olivia absentmindedly tapped her finger against the letter.

"Maybe the day will come when she'll want to read it. Until then… I'll hold onto it for her. But putting that aside… do you know why I'm telling you this, Blake?"

Blake had a fairly good idea.

"That girl has already had her heart broken by one boy who supposedly cared for her, but couldn't be by her side. And I'll be damned if I allow that to happen again. Do you understand me?" Olivia's eyes were serious, piercing into Blake's. "From what she told me, she doesn't mind that you haven't returned her feelings yet. I'm not so understanding a person. Ayame's taken this long to get over that guy. I don't know how long it's going to take her to get over you. But what I do know is that if nothing changes, she'll be hung up on you until graduation. And that's something I'm not going to allow, you understand? So you need to make a choice. You don't need to make it now. But you need to make it soon, you understand me? No more 'not yet's no more 'maybe's. If you want to be with her, then be with her. If you don't want to be with her, then tell her that. If there's no hope for her, don't let her continue believing there is, understand? You might think it's a kindness, but it isn't. You let her be happy, or you let her go. Those are your choices. But this? This pain you're inflicting with your well-meaning intentions? That stops right here. Have I made myself clear?"

Blake nodded his head.

"Say 'yes, ma'am'," Olivia prodded.

"Yes, ma'am," Blake said, staring her in the eyes. Olivia seemed satisfied with this answer. She took the letter back, and slipped it into her purse.

"Then what are you going to do?" Olivia asked, rising from her seat.

"I don't know," Blake said quietly, unable to withstand Olivia's gaze. "I… I care about Ayame, but I don't know if I care about her more than Sango, or Cynthia, or any of my other friends. I don't know if I feel differently about her than everyone else."

Olivia frowned.

"If you don't know, then that's a no," Olivia said. "And that's what you have to tell her. And if you can't bring yourself to do that… then maybe your answer isn't 'no' after all. But sort it out quickly, Blake. If you keep her on the hook like this, then I will not forgive you. I care for you quite a bit, Blake, but Aya is far more precious to me than you could ever be."

Blake nodded his head, Olivia sighing. She turned away from him as she heard Cynthia traipse down the stairs.

"Blake! Blake, where are you?" Cynthia called.

"We're in here," Olivia called, her soft and pretty smiling face replacing her serious one as she went back into her "business mode", calling Cynthia into the kitchen. Cynthia flounced in, not wearing her wig or contacts but her dress looked flawless. In her hand, she held the paper bag Olivia had given her, with her wig inside it.

"Hey! I'm ready to go!" Cynthia greeted them. "Olivia, I left your dress on the bed!"

"Perfect, Blake and I were just chatting," Olivia smiled. Blake wasn't sure he should call it that, but whatever.

"Before we leave, I need to find Maddi!" Cynthia said, frowning. Her voice sounded desperate. "Have you seen her? Cute, really quiet, dressed like a shiny Totodile?"

Olivia smiled.

"Don't worry about her, after her band finished playing, she left to go spend time with them," Olivia reassured her. "Unlike you, she was in the perfect state of mind, so we let her leave."

"She was in the band?!" Cynthia gasped, vague memories of the show forming in her muddled brain. "Oh, yeah, I remember! I must have forgotten!"

Even Blake was surprised, Maddi didn't seem to be the kind of girl who would perform in front of a crowd of people.

"Did she… did she look like she was having fun?" Cynthia asked. Olivia nodded, and smiled.

"That's good, then," Cynthia smiled, relaxing a little. "So she did enjoy herself, after all…"

Cynthia turned to Blake.

"I guess that's everything, then. I'll go see her later. Ready to go?"

Blake smiled, nodding, finishing the last of his coffee. He rose from his seat and followed after her, the two walking side by side.

"Are you good, Blake?" Cynthia asked, glancing at the troubled expression on his face.

"Yeah, it's nothing," Blake said, shaking his head. "Just… bitter coffee, that's all."

"I see…" Cynthia placed a hand on his arm. "Must have been really bitter."

Blake nodded. The coffee might have been smooth, but it came with a bitter truth that Blake couldn't run from anymore.


Relationships are difficult. It looks like Blake needs to decide once and for all where he wants things to go with Ayame. Sadly, with the way things are going it looks like we'll be seeing tears from her pretty soon.