This chapter, our heroes face the most difficult opponent of them all. How will this new foe challenge our main characters? It will rely on all their smarts to get out of this tricky situation.
Hellraiserphoenix: Unfortunately, the kind of "date" Ayame was insinuating is a little, erm… explicit for a "T" rated story.
KedharS: Oh, really? How complicated could it get?
JoshGamerV: Thanks for the rereads, if I'm doing my job right, things get better when you read them multiple times.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: I try to make my characters be as three-dimensional as I can. A story is only as good as the characters who drive it, after all. I'll check the PM, I didn't know you sent something else.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 139
Kitty knocked on the door to Blake's room, seeing if anyone was there. She'd gone to see Julia, but the girls' room was empty. What about the boys, then?
Reiner opened the door, and much to Kitty's relief, everyone had crammed into the boys' room, bunched up around two desks that had been put together.
"Aagh! No good! I can't figure this damn thing out!" Cynthia groaned. Nick was the only one absent. Everyone else, Blake, Julia, Cynthia, and Sango, were working on what looked like tests.
"What's up, Kitty?" Reiner asked.
"Uum, in my Pokemon Capturing class… I have to work on the practice midterm… but I don't have any friends to help me in that class. And since the curriculum is the same, I was wondering if you guys could help?" Kitty asked hopefully. Her face fell when she saw the conflict on Reiner's face.
"Yeah, uh… we're having some problems of our own," Reiner said, nodding to Cynthia and Sango's grumbling, stepping back so Kitty could get inside. Kitty joined the circle of students, noting they had all gotten much further than she had. Reiner came and joined her as well.
"Why do we have to test this stuff?" Sango groaned. "I don't give a damn about capturing pokemon! Can't I just abstain?"
"It's your own fault," Julia sighed. "You spent so much time cramming for that Pokemon Ranger Probationary Exam that you completely skipped over your other studies."
"That test was way more important, and way, way more difficult!" Sango objected. "This… I don't have the brainpower for all this cramming… it looks like more all-nighters…"
"I just want to skip the tests and go straight to the trip," Cynthia whined.
Blake nodded in agreement. This practice test was pretty difficult. Professor Green said that if they could solve this, then they should be able to solve every question on the midterm, but it looked like that would be easier said than done. Nick was absent, having gone with Callie earlier that day to say goodbye to her "senpai" (whoever that was) and said he'd come back later on. In the meantime, he, Julia, and Reiner had all gotten much further than the two girls who hated studying, having solved all the questions except question number 5. He'd scanned the textbook through every possible relevant chapter, and gone over all their notes, but none of them could still find the right answer.
"I… I don't get how to do problem 5," Kitty admitted a few minutes later. "Can I get some help?"
"Ugh, that one's the hardest, for sure," Cynthia agreed. "I don't get it at all."
"It's asking for which of the listed pokemon at the given level is easiest to capture with a great ball, right?" Julia confirmed. "But I don't know if we can calculate that with the information given. I've been looking in the text for the capture rates, but-"
"Math sucks…" Sango groaned.
"But," Julia continued, a little irritated at the interruption, "not only are they not there, but without them, we can't apply the proper formulas to calculate."
"Why is capturing so damn hard? Why do we gotta study this?" Cynthia whined. "Let's just throw a pokeball and catch the darn things, we don't need to do calculus for this!"
"Yeah, it might be pointless, but we still need to do it if we want to know what to do," Blake said. "There's gotta be some purpose behind the question, it's not like she actually expects us to have all the capture rates for every pokemon memorized for the test."
"I think I have an idea," Reiner said. "We can get help from someone else in class. I'll call Nikita over."
"Oh, just what we wanted to see," Cynthia said sarcastically. "You going around flirting with your girlfriend."
"I agree with Reiner," Blake said. "Nikita consistently gets the best grades in our Pokemon Myths & Legends class."
"…Fine, fine," Cynthia shrugged. "Call her over, anything to get this done fast."
By the time Nikita arrived, everyone had finished their tests, with the exception of the elusive Question 5.
"Reiner, what's going on?" Nikita asked, blushing. "You called me over, and… er, I mean, we're just friends, and-"
"They know," Reiner interjected. "Cynthia figured things out fast, after just seeing us together once."
Nikita sighed in relief, nodding.
"Yeah, so, uh, we're going out," Nikita said, nodding to Reiner, her skin returning to its normal chocolate hue as the redness in her cheeks faded.
"Yeah, we know," Cynthia said, nodding. "You two have been scurrying around for weeks. Come hang out with us normally, y'know?"
"Yeah, I'll do that," Nikita said, nodding. "Now, you guys said you needed some help on a test question, right? No sweat!"
"Then you've already finished the practice worksheet!?" Sango asked hopefully.
"Hah! I didn't even attempt it," Nikita smiled. "Something like that is a waste of time. I just studied over the textbook until I knew everything. I don't need to confirm my preparedness by doing a little practice test. What's the problem you guys can't solve?"
Julia said nothing, and handed her test over to Nikita to look over.
"Question 5."
"I see, I see…"
Nikita looked at the sheet for a while. Her expression was confident at first, but grew a little shaky. She looked a little sick, and her were hands trembling.
"I… I don't know the answer…" Nikita gasped. "How… how can this be?! I looked over the entire textbook, cover to cover! I took perfect notes, both in class and in the practical lessons! This wasn't anywhere in there! Calculating capture rates?! How is someone supposed to do that without any data given?!"
"Ho, not so smug now, are we?" Cynthia scoffed, Nikita glaring at her.
"I… I don't know… I'm sorry, I can't help…" Nikita's amber eyes were flecked with tears, and her face made her look like she was about to cry.
"Whoa… Nikita's, like, the smartest student in the freshman year," Blake gawked. "And she can't solve it? What is this, some kind of trick to destroy our confidence before the test or something?"
"What trick?" Everyone turned to the door to see Nick enter, a confused look on his face. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We're working on the practice test for our Pokemon Capturing class," Cynthia sighed. "It's a pain in the ass! We're stuck on this one problem, and none of us get it!"
"Question 5, right?" Nick clarified, the others looking at him in surprise.
"Oh, you knew about it?" Reiner asked, surprised.
"I tried to finish it yesterday," Nick explained. "I didn't get Question 5 at all."
"So you didn't put it off until the last minute like these guys?" Nikita asked, impressed. "That's really smart." Everyone else in the room glared at her, Cynthia and Sango looking particularly guilty, last-minute all-nighters being their primary studying method.
"Yeah, I was going to ask Callie about it, but she had to go to an emergency meeting of the Eight Leaders, so I lost my chance. That's why I came back here."
"Oh, that's it!" Reiner said, his face surprisingly excited. "Even if we can't figure out the answer to this question, that's fine! The older students have got to know something, right? Like Akira."
"Akira's still hospitalized," Blake said, shaking his head. "But I have Eli and Serefina's numbers since we're in the Pokemon Friends club. I can give them a call."
"Oh, and I can contact my upperclassmen in the Pokemon Survival club, too," Sango agreed, taking out her phone as well. "And I'll give Aidan a call, too. He should be working on this test as well, maybe he's figured it out.
"Wouldn't hurt," Julia agreed. "As for me… I'll call up Kate. And I know a guy, Daryl, I can give him a call, too, see if he can come help."
"Eli and Serefina are no-goes," Blake said, closing his phone, shaking his head. "Serefina has to work overtime preparing for the Pokemon Caretaking class's midterm, and Eli said all her free time is being devoted to her upcoming contests. So no dice there."
"Same, no help," Sango sighed. "What a shock, no one in the ranger course is good at solving pokemon capturing problems. Aidan is going to drop by to get some help, though, if that's okay."
"Yeah, sure," Cynthia sighed. "Another guy who can't help us solve the problem, why not? Heck, let's just call in all our classmates and pack 'em in here."
"Sarcasm aside, I'll tell him he can come," Sango dryly replied, typing into her phone.
"What about Dakota?" Blake suggested. "Does anyone have her number?"
Everyone looked at each other, shaking their heads.
"I don't think any of us want it," Cynthia replied.
"Sorry, guys… if only I had paid better attention in class…" Nikita sighed. "I really thought I knew all the material… I'm shocked that there's something I didn't know…"
"D-don't feel bad…" Kitty said, shaking her head. "Your notes… they're really thorough… looking over them, a lot of stuff… it makes a lot of sense, so… thanks. I'm feeling a lot more confident about the test now."
"You're welcome," Nikita smiled, nodding gratefully at the small girl.
"Well, it looks like I'm going to be the only one to come through," Julia said. "Kate and Daryl are on their way."
A few minutes later, a knock on the door came. Nick, the last to come in, was now the de-facto doorman, since everyone else had already claimed a spot.
"What's up you guys?" Kate asked, walking inside. "Need some help with some problems, eh? Julia explained it to me! Lemme take a look at what the issue is!"
Blake handed her paper over to Kate, who looked it over for a few moments. A smirk crossed her face.
"Got it!" Kate bragged. "The answer is the level 42 Muk, of course!"
"Really?" Nikita gasped, surprised.
"Dude, awesome!" Cynthia cheered.
"But how did you figure it out?" Kitty wondered.
"Simple," Kate said, smiling. "It's simple reasoning! You just have to look at the question through the lens of what the asker is looking for. And the asker wants you to solve the question with the clearest answer possible. And obviously, the poison type pokemon is the easiest out of the four options listed here!"
"And that answer is obvious how?" Blake asked.
"…Well, because poison types have always been easier for me to get along with than other types of pokemon, that's why."
Blake pressed his palm against his face in frustration, completely shocked that they had taken Kate seriously for even a second.
"Okay, you can leave," he muttered, standing up and pointing toward the door.
"Are you doubting my answer?!" Kate exclaimed.
"I'm doubting your sanity."
Kate's face turned angry with her embarrassment and she leapt to her feet, glaring at Blake.
"Fine, if you don't want my help, then just watch," Kate said, plopping herself down on Blake's bed. "I'll wait here until you guys solve it, and you'll see I'm right!"
"Fine, but get off my bed."
"Th-this is your bed?!" Kate exclaimed, her cheeks turning bright red. "You-! You how dare you try to lure me into your bed, you pervert?!"
Blake sighed, shaking his head. Kate sat down on Nick's bed instead.
Another knock on the door.
"If that's Daryl, he'll probably be able to solve it," Julia mentioned. Nick opened the door, but rather than Daryl, it was another student entirely. The boy at the door was very tall, towering over the rest of them with a tanned, fit body. He had curly brown hair and sharp, hazel eyes. His looks were very handsome, which made him a strange contrast with the last student to come inside. Perched on his broad shoulder was his small blue and black Shinx, Arion.
"Aidan!" Sango said, her face brightening. She gestured for him to come inside. Aidan nodded to her, but still didn't enter the room, baulking slightly at the number of people inside already. With the addition of Kate, the number of students in the room totaled up to 9, 10 with his presence. Not exactly a comfortable fit.
"You guys… having a party or something?" Aidan inquired, looking uncomfortably around the room at the various unfamiliar faces.
"I already told you, we're all stuck on this dumb Question 5," Sango sighed, standing up and walking over to him. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him inside, Aidan's cheeks turning pink in embarrassment.
"I know, but I didn't expect there would be so many people…" Aidan said, a little flustered. Kitty averted her eyes, embarrassed. The two were in the same class, after all, and it was kind of awkward meeting under these circumstances. "Besides, I've only done, like, half the questions… I don't know the answer to Question 5, either."
"What a surprise," Cynthia said, her eyes flicking up and down Aidan's cut figure, batting her eyelashes at him. "A hunk like you is built for much better things than… studying…"
She licked her lips, and Sango rolled her eyes. Everyone else wisely chose not to comment.
"Like working out?" Aidan asked, completely missing the insinuation. Cynthia rolled her eyes this time, and Sango sniggered in response.
"I wonder what's taking Daryl so long?" Julia asked, confused. She checked her phone. "Oh, right. He doesn't know where we live."
This elicited a chorus of groans from the room.
"Hey, Sango, where's Silver?" Aidan asked.
"He's arriving tomorrow," Sango explained. "His ship will be here any time now."
"That's good," Aidan said, nodding. "Congratulations, by the way. I never got a chance to tell you."
"Thanks," Sango said, smiling. "Sorry, there was a party, but it was a surprise, so I didn't get to invite you."
Aidan shrugged, smiling, sitting down next to Cynthia, Sango sitting on the other side of him, next to Blake.
Cynthia blinked, and shrugged. Well, too bad. He's hot, but I guess Sango can have him, They've got a good mood going, anyhow.
"So you said you've only solved about half the questions?" Nikita asked Aidan. He nodded. "Well, then if you like, I can help you work out the other ones."
"That would be great!" Aidan said, nodding.
"Wow, I guess you were right, there are a lot of people here." Nick had given up on opening the door every five minutes, so he'd just left it open. This meant the last of their scheduled arrivals, Daryl, didn't have to knock, he could just walk in. Unlike the others, Daryl looked like someone who could actually get the job done. But maybe that was just the glasses. His gaunt form and dark skin gave him the look of a rather nerdy sort of guy, and although his beanie was stylish it didn't detract from the overall smartness of his appearance. His green eyes were shining behind his glasses, with the lazy confidence of a guy who got easily bored of school questions. At least, that was the hope that went through the freshmen as they looked at him.
"Hey, Daryl," Julia said, nodding to the older student. He knelt down beside her, smirking.
"So Julia, what's this difficult problem you got for me?" He grinned. "Must be quite a tricky one of the smartest student in the freshman year couldn't solve it."
He glanced at Nikita as he said this, the girl's amber eyes flashing in anger. Reiner glared at him and began to stand, and he held his hands up in apology.
Julia pointed out the question to him and he scanned over it, confused.
"Okay, obviously you can't answer this, what the heck?" Daryl said, shaking his head. "I don't even remember doing a problem like this…"
"So you don't know the answer?" Nick sighed, clearly deflated, Nikita looking on smugly.
Daryl shrugged.
"No, sorry, I don't. I'm not even sure if we can really solve this with what I've learned so far. Maybe someone else could, but I don't specialize in catching or anything like that… I remember that most of this class was boring, and I ignored a lot of it."
Damn lazy geniuses… Sango and Cynthia glared their feelings of bad will at him.
"Sorry guys," Daryl shrugged, standing up and leaving the room, more than a little embarrassed.
"…Well, so much for that," Kitty sighed. "I guess there's nothing left we can do…"
"No, no, it's not over yet," Julia said, shaking her head. "Just because Daryl couldn't solve it doesn't mean it's completely hopeless."
"She's right," Nick agreed. "Even if a sophomore couldn't figure it out, that doesn't mean a junior or senior couldn't."
"Good thinking," Nikita agreed. "Let's go through our contacts, see if we have anyone else we can think of."
"Unfortunately, Callie's busy," Nick said, shaking his head.
"Her highness is similarly engaged," Kate piped up.
"Gabrielle, too," Reiner murmured, frowning.
"Oh! What about Marion?" Kitty asked. "She's a senior, right?"
Sango nodded.
"Yeah, great idea," Cynthia nodded. "A senior should know the answer to this question, absolutely not problem!"
Sango glanced at Blake. The discomfort on her face was clear.
"Yeah, but… she's an idiot."
Blake nodded in agreement.
"…Oh, yeah," Kitty said, looking down, embarrassed. So much for that short-lived plan.
"I guess that just leaves…" Blake typed something into his phone, texting the only other senior he knew.
"Yo, Blake, need some help?" Ayame burst in a few minutes later, wiping sweat from her brow. She'd clearly run all the way there. "Don't worry! A dinky question on some freshman prep quiz is nothing compared to a senior's knowhow!"
She swiped Sango's paper and glanced over it, Sango looking up at her with a frown on her face.
"…I dunno," Ayame shrugged. "I'm more of a 'cram everything in at the last moment and then forget it' type of student."
A chorus of groans rang out again.
"Why did we think a muscleheaded jock like that would be able to help," Cynthia grumbled.
"Hey!" Ayame, Sango, and Aidan cried at once, Cynthia rolling her eyes and giving an obnoxious snort.
"Hey, I'm not gonna take a fucking insult like that from you," Ayame scowled.
"I'll yank those rabbit-ears right off of your head, ribbons!" Cynthia shouted back.
"Okay, okay, that's enough," Blake said, standing up so he could step in between the tall senior and the shorter girl who were fuming at each other.
"It's fine, it's fine, I've got a bunch of seniors' contacts!" Ayame declared, pulling out her phone. "I'll just call up the boss."
"Yo, boss, I need to solve a problem for you. It's for Blake's Pokemon Capturing class! We need to know which of these pokemon have the highest chance to be caught by a great ball!"
"…" Ayame heard Olivia's reply, and scowled.
"Fucker!" Ayame exclaimed, slamming her phone shut.
"What did she say?" Blake asked.
"She said she was too busy trying to catch a fucking girl to waste her time catching pokemon," Ayame grumbled. "I don't think anyone else I know would be able to solve this, either, fuck…"
"We have to go through the rest of our contacts, I guess…" Nick sighed. "I've been looking stuff up online, and even the internet isn't certain about the capture rates of some of these."
"…I can think of one more guy," Nikita said, frowning. "Or at least… his girlfriend might be able to help."
"Girlfriend? Who?" Reiner asked, confused.
"You know Will Harmond, right?" Nikita asked. "He's a friend of mine, we're in the same Pokemon Type Advantage class."
"O-o-o-h yeah, he's in our Pokemon Battling Class, right, Blake?" Cynthia confirmed with him. "And he got decently far into the tournament, right?"
"Yeah, well, it seems that he has this super-smart girlfriend," Nikita said. "Like… super smart. She's been causing this huge stir by coming to the library every day and clearing out book after book. Someone as smart as that… she could solve it, right?"
"Are you talking about Misato Daisan?" Reiner asked. "The girl who's been following him around?"
Nikita nodded.
The others looked at one another in confusion, not entirely sure what the couple was talking about. But Ayame's expression had turned into a scowl.
"Misato Daisan," she muttered, shaking her head. "The Phantom's little robot maid."
"Huh?" Blake said, narrowing his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh… I've met her before," Ayame said, frowning. She turned to Reiner and Nikita. "She's about this tall, right? With blue hair and dead eyes?"
Reiner and Nikita both nodded as Ayame indicated the appearance of Misato accurately.
"Thought so. Yeah, she's the right hand of Richard Valon, the Phantom. She acts like… well, a robot. Heck, rumor has it she is a robot. I don't think we should count on her."
Reiner frowned.
"Well, I know Will, and I trust him," Reiner said. "I don't think there's a problem asking her for help."
Ayame scoffed, shrugging her shoulders.
"The boss doesn't trust the Phantom and his goons, and neither do I."
The air in the room was tense, and everyone looked at each other with anxiety in their faces.
"All of a sudden, Muk doesn't look like such a bad answer, does it?" Kate piped up, Ayame silencing her with a glare.
"…I'll call him up anyway," Reiner decided. "If that's okay with the rest of you?"
"Kitty's the one with issues with the Phantom and his people," Julia said, glancing at Kitty. "What do you think?"
Kitty's face brightened, glad that Julia was deferring to her.
"I think… if it solves this problem… that it's okay," Kitty decided, nodding.
Everyone else seemed to agree to that. Ayame was the only objection, but it wasn't her test, so she didn't bother objecting.
"I'll stick around in case things get dicey," Ayame said, plopping down on Blake's bed. Kate shot her a dirty look.
About half an hour later, the copper-haired student they recognized as Will walked into the room, a taller girl with lightning-blue hair following behind him. Her uniform was slightly altered, the vest missing and the shirt unbuttoned, revealing a bright tank-top that bared her midriff and slight amount of cleavage, the top the same color as her hair. On the sleeve of her shirt was the yellow armband of the Research Course.
"Um, hey," Will said, waving awkwardly at the crowd of students. He recognized most of them, being in a lot of their classes, but the only ones he was really friends with were Reiner and Nikita. "I'm Will, nice to see you all again. This is Misato."
"Greetings," Misato said, her voice hollow and robotic. "I am Misato Daisan. Spelled 'Beauty' and 'Wisdom' as well as 'The Third'."
"You guys were having trouble with the Pokemon Capturing Pretest, right?" Will asked. "So was I. But thanks to her, I got the right answer."
"Seriously?! Like, seriously?!" Cynthia gasped, her face brightening. "That's great! Finally, our hope has arrived!"
"That's a relief," Sango sighed, Aidan nodding in agreement.
"Told ya this was the right choice," Nikita said, smiling to Reiner, who smiled back.
"Feh," Ayame scoffed. Blake glanced at her, and she forced a smile to her face.
"Thank you for the help," Kitty said quietly.
"Yeah, thanks," Julia said, still wary of the older student, but not overly antagonistic.
"What they said," Nick agreed. "But how are you able to figure it out?"
Will smirked.
"With Misato, we have the force of a super-computer," he said. Seriously…
"The process was simple," Misato explained. "I have memorized that capture rate of every pokemon recorded by the Pokemon Research Society. Calculating that number as it applies to each of the indicated levels will arrive at a base line that can then be compared with the capture level of a great ball."
"…That's simple?" Cynthia asked, her brain short circuiting.
"My head hurts thinking about that much math…" Sango groaned.
"Wait, so you need to memorize every pokemon's capture rate for this question?!" Nikita exclaimed. "That's not fair!"
"Yeah, that's nuts," Reiner said, shaking his head.
"So… what's the answer?" Kitty asked quietly.
"The answer is C," Misato replied. "The Level 42 Muk."
The room was silent for a few long moments.
"Woop, there it is!" Kate crowed, jumping off the bed victoriously, smirking down at Blake. Blake refused to dignify her boasting with an answer, his face hot with embarrassment. "Hah! I told you! I told you!"
"Later, losers!" She cackled, walking out of the room.
"This is so bogus," Cynthia scoffed. "We had to know this by memorizing capture rates? No way we can be expected to do that!"
"Affirmative. There is no way to arrive at the correct answer to any degree of certainty beyond memorization of the capture rates of the indicated pokemon," Misato confirmed. Cynthia uttered a string of expletives at the blank-faced girl, Misato not reacting one bit.
"Is there anything else you require of me?" Misato asked.
"No, I think we can go," Will said, noting the rising hostility in the room, not towards Misato but toward the sadistic Professor Green, who had apparently put a nigh-impossible problem on her practice test, and would presumably do the same on the midterm. The only thing they could hope for was that questions of that sort wouldn't be worth that many points. Will and Misato quietly exited.
"This can't be for real," Aidan said. "Would the professor really do that?"
"I don't know…" Kitty said, clearly worried.
"She would, alright," Ayame sighed, getting off of Blake's bed. "Professor Green is a well-known sadist. Good luck, you lot." She left the room with a wave, leaving the freshmen behind.
"I'll go check the course website," Blake said, shaking his head. "There's just no way…"
"…" His face flinched, and his eyes narrowed. The irritation was plain to see, and clearly out of place on the normally reserved Blake. Clearly, whatever he just read had really pissed him off.
"What's it say?" Sango asked.
Blake inhaled in frustration, breathing out slowly to regain his composure.
"Let me read it to you. 'Attention Students. It has recently come to my attention that there was a typo on the practice test I sent to you all two weeks ago. On Question 5, I forgot to mention the default capture rates for the listed pokemon, meaning that it would be impossible to solve the problems without anything to multiply the levels by. I will now list the capture rates in the below link. I apologize if this has caused any of you unnecessary stress right before the test tomorrow, but I suppose it's to be expected considering no one brought this mistake to my attention until the day before the midterm. Next time, you slackers shouldn't put off your studies until the very last minute. –Professor Green'."
Sango and Cynthia looked away from each other, the guilt on their faces clear to see. Everyone else gave equally guilty and uncomfortable looks, feeling a little ashamed for not attempting their studying with the practice test until the night before the actual exam. Everyone except Nikita, who was resisting the urge to burst out laughing.
"…Maybe next time we can do our studying a little earlier, huh?" Kitty quietly suggested. Everyone else nodded in agreement, vowing to not let things get this out of hand on the next test they took.
So, our main characters faced the most critical problem of them all: studying. Goodness knows with all the stuff that's been going on in their lives recently, they haven't really had the time to be hitting the books.