The field trip to Hoenn begins in this chapter! And how do we start it? With a cruise, of course. Because historically, going on cruises in Pokemon has always been a good idea.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: No, Sango's father will be showing up in Galar, during Professor Reinhart's extra credit expedition at the end of November. This is a separate event.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Well, I've got some bad news for you, then. Don't worry. Last one. Or, I guess, second to last one. Technically. Don't worry about it. Just trying to round out the harem.
Hellraiserphoenix: Elaina's circumstances are complicated. And no, Sango's father won't be making an appearance in Hoenn.
TREBOR.E: You can always submit a character. But don't expect them to show up for a while. Right now the cast is pretty big as it is, so I don't know when I can get to use characters. PM me, we can talk about it.
JoshGamerV: Yup, and this time she actually is a character.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 142
"Blake!" Blake woke up, bleary-eyed, to Sango shaking him awake.
"Wha…" Blake yawned, sitting up in bed. It was pitch black outside, the sun wasn't even up yet.
"Come on! We're meeting up at the fountain! Let's go!" She went over to Reiner's bed to wake him up as well, leaving Blake sitting in the dark.
Blake liked Ayame and Sango. They were fun to be around. Sango's energy and eagerness made her a friend you'd always want to hang out with, since she'd always be doing new things. Ayame's forceful personality and cool attitude gave her a sharp, refined edge that clashed with her embarrassment in the most adorable way possible.
But lord, did he loathe the fact they had been in perfect lockstep about taking the first boat to Hoenn. There would be boats coming and going every couple of hours, and it was a full-day cruise to Slateport. Following that, the groups from the first boat would take a bus up to Lavaridge Town, and then from there begin the day-long trek up the mountain. The trip would take approximately four days in total, which was a nice break. Or at least it would have been if not for the hyper-athlete duo wanting to get a move on as soon as possible. To get there by six, Sango had woken him up at five. And he really wanted to sleep.
Blake yawned and reached into his closet for the change of clothes he'd prepared for that morning. The rest of his luggage was packed beside his bed. He exited the room, clothes in hand, and walked to the single-occupant bathroom on their floor.
Blake stripped off his pajamas and took a pause to stare at himself in the mirror. He'd grown up with these scars for as long as he could remember, but it still didn't comfort him anymore to look at. Absentmindedly, he traced his finger across a particularly thick bulge of flesh traveling up his side that once upon a time had taken countless stitches to sew back together. Now it didn't even hurt. Blake sighed. Girls like a guy with some scars, but that didn't mean they wanted the guy who looked like he'd lost a fight with an airplane propeller. The real inconvenience was that this trip was going to be to a volcano. Blake tended to avoid hot places, since hot places were the bane of the skin-covering clothing he always wore. Even so, there was no avoiding it. He put on his clothes, making sure everything was covered, and then stepped outside.
A few minutes later, Blake, Sango, and an extremely sleepy Reiner walked out of the dorm, Silver floating behind Sango.
"How are you guys not sleepy?" Reiner yawned. "It's barely sunrise…"
"Oh, I am," Blake muttered. "I've just gotten used to it over the last few months thanks to my absurd schedule."
"Right, you guys do your Caretaking Practicum real damn early, too," Reiner said, patting Blake on the shoulder sympathetically. "Rough."
"Come on, guys, it's not that big a deal!" Sango laughed. "This is easy! Come on, I'll race you there!"
"…Sango's a crazy one, though."
"You got that right," Blake yawned, nodding his head.
They arrived at the Blastoise Fountain at 5:45, and to their surprise they were not the first ones there. Caelia stood in front of the fountain, arms crossed, her eye staring blankly at the three students. Like the rest of them, she was not dressed in her uniform. Instead, she wore a black turtleneck sweater and badly worn jeans. And, of course, her long gloves covered the skin of her hands and lower arms. They weren't the best clothes to go hiking in, but the hike wouldn't actually be happening for another couple of days. Even though it was freezing, she didn't seem the slightest bit cold, unlike the rest of them who had bundled up under several layers to greet the early October chill.
"Oh, you're here already?" Sango smiled, walking up to her. "You were actually really eager for this trip, right? Me too! I barely got any sleep last night!"
Caelia blinked.
Reiner gave Blake a sideways glance.
"This is 'barely got any sleep' from her? I got 8 hours and I'm still only half-awake."
Blake shook his head in defeat. There was just no competing with Sango's energy.
"You said to come here by six. I arrived early in order to make sure I wasn't late," Caelia muttered.
Sango shrugged.
"Just what I like to see, a bunch of eager students!" Ayame walked up to them, her duffel bag in her hand and a large backpack on her back. Her eyes were shining eagerly. If there was anyone who had been looking forward to this trip, it was her.
More students arrived, all of them looking as tired and reluctant as Reiner and Blake felt. They gathered in their different groups, around 30 or so students in total.
Aidan and his Shinx, Arion, arrived a few minutes later, and Will arrived after that, minutes before six.
"Alright, guys! We're on time!" Ayame cheered, pumping her fist in the air. "Let's move out, guys! This trip is going to be a blast!"
Ayame led her group to the docks, where a medium-sized cruise ship was anchored.
"Wow!" Sango gasped, her eyes shining eagerly as she stared up at the large vessel.
"A cruise ship, nice," Will grinned. "It looks like we're going to be traveling in style."
The seven students walked onto the ship alongside the other groups, with Professor Leaf Green and Professor Kellyn Lunark serving as the trip coordinators leading them.
The two professors spoke to the receptionist at the front desk of the ship's help desk, working out the rooms that the students would be staying in for the trip to Hoenn. Professor Green was clearly not pleased about having to be responsible for the early groups, and she made her frustration clearly known with her pissed off expression.
Ayame received their room keys from the professor, looking at the numbers printed on them.
"Okay, so Blake and Aidan will be staying in Room 305, Reiner and Will in 307, and then Caelia, Sango, and I will be staying across the hall in Room 306. That's lucky! I didn't expect for our rooms to be that close together!"
"We reserved the third level rooms for the school trip," Professor Lunark explained. "So there will be a bunch of freshmen there."
"Okay, the lot of you!" Professor Green shouted, the whispers of excitement of the less sleepy students quieting down. "We're going to take attendance, and then go put our stuff away in the rooms. After that, we'll head to the dining room on the fifth floor. After breakfast, then it's free time. Remember to use the buddy system. No one goes anywhere on the ship without being accompanied by another member of their group. We don't want anyone causing any trouble, you hear?"
"You could say it's for their safety," Professor Lunark suggested. Professor Green rolled her eyes and scowled.
"Okay, I'm going to go report that we're all here," Ayame said, going over to where the other Senior Group Leaders were gathering. She came back a few minutes later, nodding.
"Let's get to our rooms, then. But first…" Ayame picked a brochure off the reception desk, and unfolded it, revealing a map of the ship's floors. The groups packed into the elevators, and traveled to the third level of the ship. Professor Green guided them to guest quarters, and Ayame found their rooms. Luckily, they were fairly close to the entrance and the elevators, which would make traveling around the ship relatively easy.
Blake was stunned by the room. It seemed that the school had pulled out all the stops for this cruise. Two king-sized beds next to each other and a large flat screen TV hung on the wall, and fancy, embroidered chairs were sitting on an intricately designed rug. There was a connected bathroom with a tub nearly as large as Blake's bed back on campus, a mini-bar stocked with food and drinks of all kinds, and an elegant glass and metal table. There was a beautiful wide bay window connecting to a small alcove veranda overlooking the ocean, and even a nice little chandelier.
"Hey, Blake, check this out," Reiner called. Blake turned to the door on the side of the wall, which Reiner stepped through to greet him and Aidan. "Our rooms connect."
"That is cool," Blake said, smiling.
"Hey, boys, you all unpacked?" Ayame's voice called from the door. "Because we're heading off to go eat!"
Blake looked at the suitcase he'd thrown on his bed, still sealed up. He glanced at Aidan, who had already taken out his clothes for the next day and hung them up in the closet. Blake stripped off the extra layers of clothing along with his jacket, leaving only his jeans and long sleeved shirt.
Well, this is good enough.
Blake and Aidan stepped outside, Ayame having already moved on to Will and Reiner's room.
"Sorry, Aidan, we can't bring our pokemon to the dining hall," Sango said, glancing at Aidan's Shinx with an apologetic frown.
"Shinx…" Arion looked down sadly. Aidan knelt down and patted him on the head.
"That's okay, buddy. You just stay here and protect the rooms, okay? I'll bring you back something later!"
"Shinx!" Arion nodded happily.
When they reached the dining hall, Blake was once again blown away by the luxury the school had spent on this trip. The breakfast was a buffet, filled with food selections of all kinds. The sizzling smells of bacon and sausage smacked him in the face, calling him forwards, but the make-your-own omelet station distracted him. Sango laughed at Blake's indecisiveness and went over to the part of the buffet dedicated to creating fruit salads, marveling at how many choices there were. Every berry she'd ever read about had been carved into small slices and separated into different containers. It was a veritable treasure trove of flavors to delight both people and pokemon. She sighed. Silver would have loved this. Once she'd taken a few pieces of each kind of berry, she moved onto Kalosian Toast, piling up a mountain and then drowning it in a couple liters of syrup. She found the table reserved for Group 11 and placed her trays down, and then hopping off towards the desert section for a couple dozen scones and fruit tarts.
Blake hadn't had a meal this good since he was home. This was easily comparable with the meals that his father's staff used to prepare for breakfast. He was surprised by how much he missed eating high quality food.
Blake glanced next to him at Caelia. Whereas the other members of their group had chosen a wild and vast selection of food, Caelia's plate was almost empty. A few pieces of bacon and eggs, and some water.
"That's not a lot," Blake said, trying to rope her into the conversation that the other members of the group were currently engaging in.
"Not very hungry," Caelia murmured. She stabbed a piece of bacon with her fork and began to chew it slowly, emphasizing that she was not interested in conversing.
The breakfast had been so luxurious and enjoyable that no one had realized the ship had begun moving in the interim. After they finished eating, they would be permitted free time until lunch.
"So what do you guys want to do next?" Ayame asked the group as they walked down the hall back towards their rooms. "There're all sorts of stuff we can do on this cruise, you know! We're only here until tomorrow morning, so we need to do everything we want!"
"I know!" Sango said, holding up the map of the boat. "We can go swimming!"
"In October?" Reiner asked, shocked.
"Yeah, you see, this ship has a heated pool and a Jacuzzi," Ayame nodded. "That's why I suggested we all bring bathing suits! I'm all for it, Sango!"
She draped her arm over Sango's shoulder and winked at Blake.
"What about you, boys?" She asked.
"I'm cool with it," Reiner said, nodding. Will shook his head. He wasn't very interested.
"Sure!" Aidan said. "I like swimming quite a bit."
"I know, we can tell," Sango giggled, patting his muscular arm.
"What about you, Blake?" Ayame grinned, stopping in place, causing the group to pause. She leaned close to Blake and tilted her head to the side, batting her eyelashes. "I'm sure that you'd like to see me in my swimsuit, wouldn't you?"
"Oh, you bet," Blake nodded, smiling. "But I'll still have to pass."
"Oh…" Ayame frowned, her face falling. That was a bummer. She'd spent the entirety of last night with Olivia picking out a swimsuit that she was sure would knock his socks off, and he wasn't even going to go swimming?
"You don't want to swim?" Sango asked, confused. "Why not?"
Blake swallowed. This was certainly not a circumstance that he wanted to be in, and he definitely didn't want to show his scars to his friends right now (not to mention an entire pool of strangers) if he wanted to show them at all.
"I will not swim, either," Caelia said. She walked over to the door of the girls' room.
"What? Why not?" Sango cried. The reason she had suggested swimming in the first place was because she had hoped that getting Caelia in the water would be a good way for her to break out of her shell. "I think it will be fun, don't you?"
"Probably, yes," Caelia said, nodding. "I know. But I can't swim."
"…" Sango blushed in embarrassment. That made a lot of sense.
Ayame scowled. "Well, I guess it'll just be the four of us, then."
She winked at Blake again, walking to her room.
"Even if you won't be swimming… that doesn't mean I can come over and give you a little peak, eh?" She giggled flirtatiously and headed inside to go get changed. Sango followed after her, a little embarrassed.
Blake leaned back on his bed and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. He wondered… what should he spend his time doing while he was waiting for the ship to get into dock? He reached down to his neck and put his headphones over his ears, closing his eyes to listen. Not sure how long he'd been dozing off for, he was shaken awake by a strong hand. He blinked, looking up at the large, tan giant towering over him.
"…Hey, Aidan, what's up?" Blake asked. He looked at Aidan's shirtless body and felt a smidgeon insecure by the boy's figure. His shoulders were broad and his tanned six-pack looked like two solid piles of rock. There wasn't a part of him that didn't look like it had been pushed into the peak of athletic perfection. At the very least, Blake was grateful that Aiden didn't seem to mind him staring.
Blake sat up and climbed out of bed, walking over to the door. "What's up?"
"Delivery," Ayame's husky voice whispered from the hall. Blake shrugged and opened the door.
"What do you think?" She purred. Ayame's bikini was the same sky blue as her hair ribbon, only her ribbon was not part of the ensemble today, meaning her bangs were covering her forehead and eyes almost seductively. Instead, her top was tied in a similar styled bow in the front, the ribbon ears hanging down. The strapless top held her decently sized breasts high on her body, emphasizing her toned, flat stomach and the lean muscles that made it up. Her legs were long and strong, her bikini bottoms revealing them in their full glory in a way that not even her bloomers did when she'd worn them. Noticing where his eyes had landed, Ayame did a twirl, curving her back and stretching her legs as she glanced behind her at Blake, emphasizing the curve of her rear.
Ayame smiled, quite pleased with herself. Blake was at a loss for words, clearly Olivia had chosen well.
Returning to a more natural stance, Ayame turned to face Blake again.
"Not just me, either. Sango?"
Blake turned to notice Sango for the first time. She swallowed. Even though her body was in very good shape, it was still hard to compete with a senior like Ayame. But even then, she still stood with confidence. Her swimsuit was more modest than Ayame's was, but she had still mustered up enough strength to wear a two-piece, which for her, was a fairly large step. It was cut not to emphasize her chest like Ayame's was, but moreso to conceal it. It was solid black in color with white lines, and it reached up to her neck, only revealing her shoulders, and down to just above her midriff. The bottoms did not reveal as much leg as Ayame's did, either, and were a higher cut than hers as well. If Ayame had come to seduce, Sango's suit was designed to sleek, fluid movement in water, with just a slight tint of femininity to emphasize her toned arms, legs and stomach muscles, some of her best features.
"Wow, you both look great," Blake said, nodding in approval.
"Sure we can't get you to come?" Sango asked. Blake shook his head. "Enjoy yourself, guys." Aidan stepped past him, Arion following after his partner, as did Silver follow Sango. At the same time, Reiner was coming out of his room, as well.
"Blake!" Ayame called back. "If you head out somewhere, make sure you take Will or Caelia with you, got it? Otherwise, stay in the rooms!"
Blake nodded back at her, flipping her off. She stuck her middle finger out in response, as well.
Blake yawned. He probably had a few hours to kill. He supposed he could spend his time catching up on his sleep, or maybe reading…
He glanced at the door of the girls' room, where Caelia was hiding out.
I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask, he told himself, walking across the hall and knocking on the door.
I wonder, what shenanigans will our cast get up to on this cruise?