Here's some more character chapters! But don't worry, there's definitely story stuff, too! As well as a more-than-a-little-surprising cameo…
Epifanio Therion: It's okay. Who needs freedom when you've got a hot robot maid as your jailor?
Jay Hayden: Why not seduce the robot and live happily ever after? Why does heartbreak need to be involved?
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: …He said, reading this online, maybe through the use of VR technology.
Tambry96bj: Common sense is irrational anyway.
Controlchaos: Why not write it yourself? It might suck to start out with, but if you're passionate and put effort into it, it could turn out well.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: A member of the Ranger Course.
Hellraiserphoenix: I think she's plenty human as she already is. An odd human, but then again, who isn't?
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 103
The sun was low on the horizon and Serefina was tending to her caretaking duties in when she saw a sight in the distance grass of Floette Fields that brightened the start of her day.
"Ayame!" The curvaceous brunette cheered, standing up to greet her statuesque senior. Ayame strolled up to her with a cool smile and a wave, patting Serefina tenderly on the head.
"Hey, it's been a while."
"I know, I haven't seen you, like, all semester!" Serefina said, making a pouty face. "You haven't come by to say hi at all."
"Sorry, sorry," Ayame said sheepishly. "I was… busy with club activities."
"You always tried too hard," Serefina chastised her. "No one wants to see you kill yourself running, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah," Ayame agreed, sighing. "I… I did some real stupid stuff. But I think… everything is going to be okay."
"So why did you come by?" Serefina asked. "I heard you came by here too, a few days ago, come to train with the wild pokemon?"
"Uh, no, actually, it's about, um…" Ayame looked flustered, to Serefina's surprise. The usually cool girl wasn't the type to seem embarrassed.
"Well, I heard you were friends with a freshman named Blake Harker?"
"I know him," Serefina nodded, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "He's a member of my club. The Empress isn't coming to recruit him, is she?"
"No!" Ayame said, shaking her head. "I mean, yes, she'd like Blake to join up with her organization if given the chance, but, well, stuff happened, and now everything's kind of… in the air…"
She was fumbling for words, and sighed.
"Look, it's not about business, it's personal."
"Personal?" Serefina's eyes widened. In her memory, Ayame wasn't usually much one for "personal".
"Yeah! Look, uh…" Ayame's cheeks turned pink, her eyes shifting to the side. "See… Blake really helped me out yesterday. And since you're friends with him, I was wondering if you could think of anything he might like to repay the favor…?"
Serefina's expression soured as an aura of disgust began radiating from her body.
"You seem pretty excited for something that's just paying back a favor," Serefina said, her tone accusatory. "Wait, wait, don't tell me. I'll guess. You've fallen in love with Blake, haven't you? But no, you can't just be honest and tell him how you feel, that would be too easy! So instead you're just going to dick around for who knows how long and piss him off over and over, and in the end you decide that he'd be happier without you, so you turn him down! Then you're gonna get all teary-eyed even though it was your stupid decision in the first place, and-"
"Uh…" Ayame coughed, cutting into Serefina's rant. "Geez, what happened? You get dumped or something?"
Serefina exhaled, clearly irritated.
"Honestly that would be preferable to what's happening right now," she muttered under her breath.
"Look, look, it's not like that, okay? I seriously just want to get to know him better, honest!" Ayame said. In truth her feelings were a lot more complicated than that, but Serefina seemed in a pretty bad mood for some reason.
"Well, fine," Serefina sighed. "I guess the one who would know him best would be Cynthia or Sango?"
"Who're they?" Ayame asked.
"They're friends of his," Serefina said. "Cynthia is… problematic. Sango is probably the closer of the two, they spend a lot of time in class together. She lives in Bulbasaur House, I believe. She's a cute blonde, and-"
Ayame was already a cloud of dust in the distance.
"…You're welcome," Serefina sighed, rolling her eyes. She could smell trouble. Better to just stay out here with the pokemon while she waited for the dust to clear.
Ayame knocked on the door, stretching.
"Kitty! Hide!" A muffled voice gasped in a whisper. Shuffling could be heard, as well as the sound of something being pushed across the floor.
A few seconds later the door peeked open a crack, piercing blue eyes staring out through it.
"She's not here," Julia said calmly.
"…This is Sango's room, yeah?" Ayame asked, pointing at the nametag next to the door.
Julia blinked. No one would have any reason to come fight Sango in a pokemon battle.
"…Fine," she muttered, stepping away from the door to let Ayame inside.
Ayame stepped into the room. It was quite messy. She glanced around the room, noting that the closet door was shut and a dresser had been pushed in front of it, as casually looking as possible. She rolled her eyes.
"You?!" Sango gasped, her mouth dropping open.
"Oh, hey! I remember you! So you're Sango?" Ayame said, her eyes lighting up as she recognized the familiar blonde.
"Uh, yeah, how did you know?" Sango asked.
"I was talking to Serefina and she said you were the cute blonde, so I figured it was you, yeah?" Ayame asked. Sango glanced aside, blushing in spite of herself.
"C-cute?"
"You've been lied to," Cynthia interjected, drawing Ayame's eye. "She might be blonde, but calling her a 'cute' anything is completely fals-"
Sango glared at the redhead, Ayame chuckling.
"Wow, small dorms like these are real nostalgic," Ayame said, flopping down on the lower bunk of the bunk bed. Sango's bunk, and Sango wasn't exactly happy to see her sitting on it.
"Why are you here?" Sango demanded.
"I was looking for Blake, at first," Ayame explained. "But no one was in his room. Then I came here to talk to you."
"About what?"
"Well, Blake, obviously," Ayame said.
"I knew it!" Cynthia cheered, clapping her hands. "You were on a date with him, yeah? So what's the story between the two of you?! Did you-"
Sango elbowed Cynthia in the stomach, knocking the girl on her butt.
"You told her about that?" Ayame said, her eyes widening. Sango nodded. That was better than letting her know the two of them had followed after their date.
"So how'd it go?" Cynthia asked. Sango wanted to kick her in the teeth. She really, really didn't want to know that.
Ayame beamed, Sango wincing at the happy expression on her face. She regained her composure, and shook her head.
"What did you want to talk about?" Sango demanded, desperate to get them back on track in defiance of Cynthia's desire to keep up the gossip.
"Blake… he really helped me," Ayame explained. "And… I wanted to thank him. But I can't seem to find him. Do… do you know where he might be?"
The girls all looked at one another, but none of them knew where Blake had gone that morning.
"He was gone before I woke up," Cynthia said. "Sango, you were awake early to go running, right? Did you see him?"
"You run?" Ayame interjected, giving Sango a smile.
"…A little," Sango said. It was hard to stay mad at this girl when she seemed so happy, so Sango admitted defeat in her struggle to remain antagonistic. "But when I was going to invite him this morning, Reiner said he'd already gone off somewhere. I don't know where, though."
"Well that's a bummer," Ayame sighed. Suddenly, a light knock from the back of the room echoed out hollowly. Julia's eyes shot to the closet door and then back to Ayame, tensing her good hand into a fist.
Ayame met her glare with an even look, not saying a word.
Another knock. Louder this time, more insistent.
Cynthia looked nervously at Julia, who sighed, giving in. She walked over to the closet and helped Sango move the dresser out of the way. Kitty timidly peeked out of the closet door, staring at Ayame. The tall girl waved, a troubled look on Kitty's face.
"When you said you're looking for Blake…" Kitty said quietly, staring up at Ayame, a look of determination crossing her pale face. "Do you promise that you won't do anything to hurt him?"
"Of course I wouldn't," Ayame said. She smiled reassuringly at the clearly uneasy girl. "Blake is my… friend."
"I see…" Kitty said, flashing a soft smile. "Recently… seniors have been targeting us. So… I'm glad that you're not like that… anymore…"
Ayame baulked, a little embarrassed as she recalled when she'd first encountered these girls, and how she'd acted. It was only like a week ago, but she felt like a lot had changed since then, especially towards Blake.
"We had a pretty rocky start," Ayame admitted, looking down, "but I think that now… we can really be friends."
"I'm glad," Kitty's smile turned into a bright grin, and she walked over to the sitting girl. "Good, good."
Kitty patted Ayame on the head encouragingly, Ayame feeling a little patronized.
"The reason why I asked… I know where Blake went. I saw him last night on the way to the bathroom… his clothes were kind of messed up, so I asked him what was going on. He said he was training somewhere… he called it the Dragon Valley… I don't know where it is, but…"
Ayame stopped her with a hand, smiling, and jumped up.
"Thanks," Ayame said, patting her head in return. "I know where that is. A friend of mine likes to go there."
She turned to the others, smiling warmly.
"Thank you, I'm glad that a nice guy like Blake has such great friends."
"Aww," Cynthia said, smiling sheepishly, Sango frowning uneasily.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Ayame said, reaching into her shirt pocket and withdrawing her phone. "Um… can I get your phone numbers?"
"Sure!" Cynthia said, reaching for her phone. "Why?"
"Well, I mean… I just want to get to know Blake's friends better, you know?" Ayame said, blushing.
"Aww," Cynthia said again, handing over her phone as they swapped contact numbers.
"Sorry, but with everything going on right now, I don't think it's safe for Kitty and I to give our phone numbers out," Julia said, glancing at the shorter girl, who nodded sadly in agreement. "It's the same reason why we're hiding her up here for now."
"I get it," Ayame said, nodding. She turned to Sango. "…Sango?"
Sango stared into her hopeful eyes, feeling uneasy. She didn't really want to be friends with this girl, especially not the way Blake treated her, and the way she seemed to be growing more attached to him. If Sango had her way, she wouldn't spend any more time around this girl than absolutely necessary.
But still… that look in her eyes, the way they were shining eagerly, expressing her honest desire to get to know not only Blake better, but them as well…
Sango handed her phone over, Ayame smiling gratefully.
"Thanks," she said, handing Sango her phone back. "Hey, maybe, sometime… if you're free in the morning… you think we could go for a run together?"
"…Maybe," Sango said, nodding noncommittally.
"Thanks!" Ayame said, grinning, pulling Sango and then Cynthia into tight hugs. She turned to Kitty and leaned down to hug the girl too, even though Kitty barely came up to her waist.
Julia was the only one left. Ayame opened her arms invitingly, but Julia shook her head.
"Nah, not my thing, sorry."
"That's cool," Ayame said, walking to the door. She turned back to the girls, giving them a charming smile befitting a handsome boyish girl like her, and winked. "And don't worry, I won't tell a soul about your little houseguest. Your secret's safe."
Julia smiled gratefully, Kitty giving her a small wave. The sound of her heavy footsteps echoed down the hall as she ran.
Sango slumped down, feeling a little numb. She wasn't sure what she should be feeling, but it sure wasn't relaxed or happy, and certainly not any more confident about telling Blake how she felt about him. She began wondering… if Ayame liked him so much… if he was as attached to her as he seemed… then maybe… he'd be happier if Sango just stepped aside and let the two of them get together. Everything seemed so far away… she could feel her hands trembling. It was so painful, she just… she just wanted it to stop. Why… why did she fall for him just to let it all… end up so painful like this? To have her chest ache at seeing the exuberance of another girl pursuing him so vigorously? It was all… so pointless… No… don't cry. If you cry, then they'll all figure it out. You can't cry! You need to keep it in, until you're alone! If you don't, then…
"So Sango, what are you going to do?" Julia asked.
"Huh?" Sango asked, snapping out of her befuddling thoughts. "What do you mean?"
"You have a test coming up, right?"
"Yeah," Sango said, nodding. "It's really hard. I don't… I don't think I'm gonna pass."
"But you're gonna try, right?" Julia asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Eh?"
"You're going to give it the best you can, right? You won't just give up without trying, because the odds seem stacked against you? That doesn't seem like you, does it?"
"…" Sango smiled softly, nodding. She'd been on the verge of collapse just moments ago, but now she felt reinvigorated.
"You're right, Julia, I wouldn't even think about giving up. If I gave up without even putting my all into it, then I wouldn't be able to hold my head up high, right, Silver?"
"Cast!"
"I've been thinking," Cynthia mused, staring at the open door out into the hall. "Isn't it weird that all three of the boys are gone? What do you think they could be doing so early in the morning? Blake I understand, even Reiner with how weird his schedule has been lately, but Nick?"
"Maybe they've got stuff to do," Julia shrugged. None of them wanted to address the possibility that they'd gotten in a tangle with some of the strange seniors that had been targeting them. That was a worry no one wanted to face just yet.
"Yeah, maybe," Cynthia muddled.
"Callie, why'd you call me so early?" Nick asked, rubbing his eyes as he walked into the Pokemon Fight Club.
"Sorry, Nick," Callie said apologetically, running up to him. Unsurprisingly, it seemed that no one else was present, except for one girl standing in the center of the dojo. She wore a skintight black leotard covered by white shorts and a short white and orange shirt revealing her covered midriff.
She stared silently at Nick from across the room, her eyes distant shimmering slate sticking out from her tan skin, a grey matched by the color of her ribbon-tied hair. She was still as a statue, not even blinking, and yet an aura of power radiated out of her as her face brimmed with composure and confidence.
"Who's she?" Nick asked, blushing at the sight of the intimidating woman, turning to Callie. Callie's expression was a flustered look Nick had never seen before. She'd been embarrassed lots of times, but this was an expression like that of a child in the presence of an idol.
"She's my senpai," Callie said, grabbing Nick by the hand and pulling him toward the center of the room. "Senpai! This is Nick, my… heh… boyfriend."
No reaction from the tanned girl.
"You said she's you senpai?" Nick asked. "You mean, like a senior?"
Callie shook her head. "No, she's a gym leader. I trained at her gym as my internship last year. She's really nice and really strong!"
Nick glanced at the woman. It made sense that someone as tough-looking as her would be a gym leader. But she looked so young! She was almost there age… wasn't she?
"Nick, this is Bea-senpai," Callie introduced, the girl, Bea, lowering her head in a greeting. She still had yet to say a word, or even change her expression.
"I thought… with how you were acting after losing… we both need to get stronger," Callie said, glancing up at Bea adoringly. "And senpai is super tough. Plus, she takes charge of her gym in rotations, so someone else is in charge right now. And since I she wasn't doing anything for her vacation, well, I asked her if she could come by and help train us, and she agreed!"
Callie seemed way more enthusiastic than Nick felt. It made sense, she was a lot closer to the level of a gym leader than he could be. This girl would wipe the floor with him.
Callie walked up to Bea and stood as straight as she could, presenting herself for the gym leader's approval. Nick walked up beside her and did the same. When they were both ready, Bea finally began to move. She stepped up so she was directly in front of Nick, staring him in the eyes.
He felt her foot brush against his leg, then against his arm. He looked down. She was pressing up against him with both her feet, alternating swiftly between them as she maintained her balance. He could feel her toes digging through his clothes and feeling up his muscles. She stepped back gazing deeply into his eyes.
The corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly. She gave the most imperceptible of nods in approval. Callie's expression brightened.
"That means she'll help!" Callie gushed. "Way to go, Nick! We can begin training right away then, right, senpai?"
Bea nodded again. Nick swallowed nervously. Whatever this girl had in store for him, he just hoped he'd survive it.
I think Bea might be a pretty strict teacher. Things may not go as well for Nick as he might hope.