Here comes the continuation of the climax! Will Sylvia be able to seize control of the club? Or will someone manage to stop her? What is Akira planning? Remember to review!
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: We'll just have to see.
TREBOR.E: There are lots of clubs on campus.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 161
"I'm a very patient woman," Sylvia said, smiling. "I can wait as long as it takes. Please direct me to the pertinent files. If you refuse, I shall be forced to report this incident to the faculty, which may result in your club being forced to disband. And none of this want that, right?"
Mirar's frown deepened slightly. He was backed into a corner, and everyone knew it. He sighed, and nodded his head, gesturing to the door on the wall behind him.
"My, my, I had thought this to be a closet," Sylvia purred, stepping around the desk and walking to the door. "But I suppose not. Misato, if you would so kindly?"
Misato nodded, and Sylvia gestured for her to come over, the two stepping into the room.
"Well now, this is a surprise!" Sylvia said, although it came as no surprise at all. In the center of the room was a very large computer system made up of blinking lights and wires, not unlike the system used to store Misato's data when outside of her body. But where that computer had been built by Misato's own hand and was the pinnacle of computer engineering, this construct was… ancient.
"Fascinating. A land-locked computer with its own connection. Completely isolated from the campus system." Misato walked around the large computer, observing it from all angles. "It does not use wireless connectivity of any sort."
"It's so old! Like something from the 60's!" Sylvia noted. "Are you gonna be compatible?"
"Affirmative," Misato confirmed. "Although the technology is rudimentary, my systems possess backwards compatibility with all manner of software. It will take a significant portion of time to properly synchronize and convert the data into a format that I can access, but there will be no problem with recovery or connectivity."
"I see…" Sylvia said, nodding. "Well, before we get a look, we'd better head back and pay our last respects to the Newspaper Club. Let's go, Misato!"
She flounced back into the main building, a beaming smile on her face. Misato followed after her.
"Everything looks all stored and accounted for! I can't wait to get started! Thank you for all your hard work and your compliance, everyone! We'll be sure to include that in our observations! Now, since it doesn't seem like there's anything further left to discuss, Misato and I shall move on to the next step of our-"
A "plink" distracted the gathered members of the Newspaper Club, much to Sylvia's consternation. To make things worse, it was followed by another, and another! It was the sound of pebbles striking the large windows in the back of the room.
"Who has the nerve to interrupt my speech?" Sylvia huffed, storming over to the window and sliding it open, just in time to greet a medium-sized stone with her face.
"OW!" Sylvia cried, clutching her nose angrily. "How dare you?!"
She stuck her head out of the window, incensed, glaring down at the interloper. It was Akira! He was standing in the quad, underneath the window. There was a shopping bag on the ground next to him, and he looked up at the Newspaper Clubroom earnestly.
"Sorry, I'm not throwing with my best hand," Akira called up to her.
"Akira?! What are you doing here?!" Sylvia exclaimed, gritting her teeth.
"Akira?!" Dakota gasped, glancing over her shoulder. She rose to her feet, unsteady and confused.
"I'm here for Dakota," Akira called up to Sylvia. "Can you send her over?"
"What do you want from her?!" Sylvia exclaimed. "Just go away! This has nothing to do with you! We don't have time for your romantic escapades!"
"Uh, actually, it does," Akira shouted back. "Didn't you hear? Dakota and I are dating now, and if you're trying to mess with my girlfriend's club, then I'm going to take issue with it."
"WHAAAAT?!" Dakota, her face bright red, pushed Sylvia aside as she leaned practically all the way out the window. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! WHO'S DATING?! I'M NOT YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"
Akira cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"Uh, pretty sure you are?" He replied. "Didn't you see the email?"
"What email?" Dakota said, confused.
Akira held up a piece of paper with his good hand.
"I sent you a copy, didn't you read it? Check the Newspaper Club's email, you idiot!"
Dakota ran to the nearest computer and logged in, completely confused. She opened her email, and found that Akira had in fact sent something to the Newspaper Club's email. She opened the attachment and looked over it, her eyes widening. Somehow, the red on her face only got deeper.
SHOCKING SCANDAL REVEALED:
Vice-President of the Newspaper Club and intrepid reporter Dakota Evans has been revealed to be in a secret relationship with Fall Festival Tournament Finalist Akira Saroyan. This stunning revelation has cast a pall over her previous articles in which she disparaged his conduct, causing reporters to seek further answers. Dakota Evans has been unable to be reached for questioning, but included is an interview this reporter had with Akira Saroyan outlining the nature of their relationship. For further details…
"Wh-wh-wh-what is the meaning of this garbage?!" Dakota exclaimed. "Secret Relationship?! There's no such thing!"
Dakota ran back to the window, out of breath. Her eyes were stained with tears and burning with fury.
"This is just a bunch of-!"
"Pretty sure it's true," Akira said. "Aren't you the one always preaching about how you only publish true stories?"
"But this is-!"
"I have a hard copy right here," Akira said, holding up the sheet of paper in his hands for closer inspection. "Looks to me like you guys just published a big expose on our secret love affair. Next time you guys are planning to out us, a little warning, thanks."
"B-but…"
"You know as well as I do, if it's published in the paper, then it's gotta be the truth," Akira replied, shrugging his shoulders. "You can shout 'fake news' all you want, but I'm pretty sure that article is still going out on the front page."
"Sounds interesting," Mirar confirmed, giving a thumbs up, even though he could barely hear the boy and couldn't see him at all. He was just going along with what Akira's email had told him to do, after all.
"Are you saying… why…" Dakota was in tears at this point, but she wasn't sure if they were out of sadness, anger, joy, or some combination of the three. "I… rejected you… I've treated you so terribly… you have Satsuki… so why… why would you… ever come here after everything that happened?"
"…" Akira frowned, thinking for a bit.
"You said a lot of stuff back then, Dakota," he finally answered. "About how you were dumping me for my sake, about how you didn't want to hurt me. I went along with it because that was what you wanted… but I don't remember you ever asking me what I wanted."
"That's… I just…"
"That article is my answer," Akira shouted up to her. "I haven't changed how I felt one bit. Even if I can't stand your attitude, or the way you don't care about hurting people by accident if it means a good story… even if you might end up majorly screwing up in the future… I'm fine with all that. I don't mind a girl who causes trouble, even a total pain like you."
Dakota fell to her knees and clutched at the windowsill, sobbing, every word from his lips like a ray of sun striking her heart.
"I know how important this club is to you," Akira replied. "So I'm here to help you defend it. So what do you say?"
Akira held his hand up to her, smiling.
"Let's put everything past us, okay? And move on to-"
Dakota's foot landed squarely in his face, cutting off his moving speech.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She exclaimed, grabbing him by the throat and throttling him. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EMBARASSING THIS IS, YOU ASS?!"
"You're… supposed… to jump… into my arms…" Akira mumbled, blood trickling from his nose as his head rocked back and forth.
"How the hell am I supposed to do that when you've got your arm in a sling?! And after you pull this stunt for the whole campus to see, are you mental?! You're lucky a dropkick was the worst of it!"
"I was trying to be romantic! Besides, who are you to talk about embarrassment?! You plastered my confession all over the front page last year for your stupid story! So now that the shoe's on the other foot, you suddenly have a problem with it?!"
"You're damn right I have a problem with it! There's a time and a place, stupid Akira!" Dakota shouted back at him, dropping his collar and getting off of him.
"Are you… serious…?" She asked him quietly, looking down at him with tears in her eyes as Akira caught his breath. "Can I… really believe you? When you said you picked me… do you really… want someone as awful as me by your side…?"
Akira frowned and looked away from her, his face bright red.
"Of course I do… you idiot…" He mumbled, unable to meet her eyes out of embarrassment. "I… got you this."
He reached down to the bag at his side and held it out to her. Dakota took it from him and looked inside, her eyes watering up again.
"You remembered…" She whimpered, tears falling down her cheeks as she looked at the new camera sitting in the bag.
"Well, I mean… you broke your last one because you were running to my side," Akira tried to play it off. "So I mean… of course I would buy you a new one, dummy."
"Aki!" Dakota cried, lunging towards him and hugging him tightly, pressing her lips against his. Akira broke it off in surprise, the second unexpected kiss of the day.
"Look, um, we can… discuss this later," Akira said, blushing, staring up at the second story room. Sylvia scowled down at the two of them with a look of contempt in her eyes. "In the meantime… we still need to do something about her."
Akira reached down to his belt, and Satsuki emerged from her pokeball with a roar that shook the campus.
"Akira, I don't think you can let out a pokemon this big!" Dakota said worriedly as she and Akira got on Satsuki's back.
"Don't worry about it, since when did you care about the rules?" Akira smirked, Dakota looking down with a guilty expression on her face. Satsuki reared up to her full length, bringing the two students up to the second floor. She stared Sylvia in the eyes with a fearsome expression, Sylvia's eyes widening in recognition as she saw the scar etched on the serpentine pokemon's scales.
So that's what it was… Sylvia smiled in spite of herself as Akira and Dakota climbed into the clubroom. Akira recalled Satsuki to his pokeball, and the two students glared at Sylvia.
"Well, welcome to the party, Akira," Sylvia applauded, quickly regaining control of her brief moment of shock. "I must extend my congratulations to the two of you. I'm glad you were able to work through all your relationship issues amicably. It's so much better when everyone's getting along! …That being said, just as a boyfriend, you still don't have any authority to interfere, so I'm going to have to ask the two of you to go and make out somewhere and leave me to my work. Okay?"
Akira frowned, glaring at Sylvia as the blonde's eyes flashed excitedly, expecting a confrontation.
"Actually, I'm here to submit this."
Akira reached into his pocket and withdrew a folded up piece of paper.
"Starting now, I'm a member of the Newspaper Club."
Sylvia blinked, and then a smile crossed her face.
"That's not-"
"I'll be taking that," Mirar appeared out of nowhere and snatched the folded paper just as Sylvia was about to take it, looking over the contents of the form. "Everything looks to be in order. Welcome to the club, Mr. Saroyan. Nice to have you with us on this auspicious occasion."
"So you're an official club member now, big deal," Sylvia shrugged.
"I heard the whole story," Akira replied. "You're using that girl, Misato, to scan the records Mirar has taken of all the students on campus, right? In order to make sure that everything is on the up and up, since Mirar no longer has the authority of the Eight Leaders."
"Something like that," Sylvia replied, nodding her head. "And we were just about to get started before you guys started reenacting 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' over here."
"I'm going to fight you on that," Akira told her. "Starting now, since I'm a member of the Newspaper Club, I'm going to give Mirar the green light to keep his work going. I'm a future member of the Eight Leaders, after all. And that means I'm intending to stake my claim on the Newspaper Club right now."
Sylvia's eye twitched at that, but she still kept her cool.
"Sorry, Akira. It's not as simple as that," she purred, walking over to him. She circled her finger around his collar, and batted her eyelashes. "See… you're only a prospective member. But I'm a fully-fledged member of the Eight Leaders, in word and deed. All you are is a sophomore who WILL become a member, next year. Which means you have all of the authority… of an ordinary sophomore."
Sylvia smirked, shrugging her shoulders.
"Sorry, Akira. Come back next time, 'kay?"
Dakota and Akira glanced worriedly at each other as Sylvia stood back, basking in triumph. There had been a few hiccups, but everything was still on track.
"Actually…"
A calm voice broke the tense silence, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Rafe stood up from his chair and cleared his throat.
"Rafe?" Sylvia said, narrowing her eyes. "What are you still doing here? There's no reason for you to-"
"I do believe that I can be of some help," Rafe interrupted her. "You see, while it's true that Akira is only a prospective member, and you're a full-fledged member indeed, Miss Sylvia, have you already forgotten the last time we had a conversation on the nature of succession in the Eight Leaders?"
Sylvia's eyes widened and she gulped.
"I do believe that, as my successor, Akira will become a member of the Eight Leaders when I retire, isn't that right?" Rafe asked.
"W-well, yes, but let's not-"
"In that case, let's consider this my resignation, sound good?" Rafe asked, clapping his hands together. Dakota and Akira gasped in shock, and Mirar rolled his eyes.
"W-wait, you can't!" Sylvia exclaimed.
"Well, I don't want to, but it really seems like the only choice," Rafe replied. "How about you two back off from your ambitions today? Sound good? You just go on home like nothing happened."
"We can't just-"
"Or, you can try to force the issue. In that case, I'll have no choice but to retire… and I guess that would make Akira my replacement, now wouldn't it? And as a member of the Newspaper Club, he'll be fully capable of approving Mirar's actions as being in line with the conditions of the campus privacy laws, isn't that right? That way, Miss Misato won't need to concern herself with going over all that footage! I think that would be a marvelous situation, wouldn't you agree?"
Sylvia's mouth opened and closed as she sputtered out possible responses, glancing helplessly to Misato. But there wasn't anything she could do.
"But I must thank you for calling me," Rafe smiled. "If you hadn't invited me here, this entire thing wouldn't have gone so swimmingly. You've been a wonderful help, Miss Sylvia."
Sylvia glared at Rafe and resisted the urge to storm across the room. Instead, she stretched her lips into a forced smile.
"There's no need for you to retire, Rafe," Sylvia replied. "You've made your point abundantly clear. Indeed, we shall withdraw for now. Thank you for all your consideration."
She turned to Akira and Dakota, and gave them a smile as well.
"I wish the two of you the best," Sylvia congratulated them, the venom in her voice telling them to drop dead. "Let's go, Misato."
"Affirmative," Misato replied, following Sylvia as she stormed out of the room.
Dakota and Akira glanced at each other and sighed in relief, sinking to the floor. Dakota was far more exhausted than Akira was. She leaned her head against his shoulder and smiled, listening to the sound of his heartbeat. With all her problems swept away… it seemed like she could finally find some measure of peace.
Misato followed Sylvia, who stopped in the center of the quad, and stretched.
"How unfortunate," Sylvia sighed. "All that hard work… and it ended up being a total failure!"
"Affirmative," Misato agreed.
Sylvia whirled around and jammed her finger in Misato's face, her expression adamant.
"Just so we're clear, that was not my fault! I did the best I could! I tried my hardest! It wasn't my fault that things went down the way they did! You saw the whole thing, right?"
"Affirmative," Misato replied, nodding her head. Sylvia sighed in relief.
"Good… I couldn't imagine what would happen if the Phantom were to blame me for all this."
"It was an interesting experience," Misato replied. "Even if the assignment was a failure, it was not due to any improper planning on your part. If Akira had not arrived when he did and confessed his feelings, then the operation would have been successful. The chances of such an event occurring were statistically insignificant. It was the unpredictability of human emotion."
Sylvia stopped walking and turned back to Misato. Her lips slowly spread up into a smile.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, Misato dearest. Humans are far easier to understand than you might think."
"Elaborate."
"No, nothing, just musing…" Sylvia purred. "What a shame. I really did try my hardest to get those files. Who would have imagined that Akira would show up and confess just when he was needed the most? And I tried so hard… ah, well. I can't say I feel terribly about how things went, at any rate."
Misato paused. The words Sylvia was saying seemed to contradict her position. Misato needed further information.
"Elaborate."
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Sylvia said, licking her lips, her eyes twinkling in the morning sun. "I was just thinking about how dreadfully boring and predictable things would have been if we had succeeded, and gotten ahold of those files… why, the war would have been over in snap! I certainly wouldn't have been satisfied with that. Still, even with the best laid plans, it seems that not even we could account for everything."
Sylvia narrowed her eyes.
"Those were my personal feelings on the matter. So we are clear, I still did everything in my power to get those files, as you saw. I can hardly be blamed for the actions of a lone boy. What control do I have over Akira's love life? You know as well as I do, Misato, humans are not nearly so boring and predictable that I could have ever expected such an outcome as that! Why, it would take a level of foresight that would simply be unfeasible!"
Misato did not know how to respond to that. Sylvia was certainly right. There was no causality that Misato could discern that would have led to those events occurring with any degree of certainty. Human actions were, of course, unpredictable. The Phantom would be informed of that fact. Their failure today was entirely due to unforeseeable circumstances.
"Understood," Misato nodded. Sylvia smiled and patted the mechadoll on her the cheek, turning on her heel and walking back toward her dorm. Specter floated after her. Sylvia hummed a tune as she walked, quite proud of herself.
Ah, nothing beats watching humans scurrying around and trying their hardest. Thank you for all your hard work everyone! You played your parts beautifully 'till the end! I need to thank you later for this opportunity, Valon. I look forward to the battles to come. There's nothing duller than a one-sided war after all, but with this tragic failure, things are sure to be quite exciting, I promise you.
Who doesn't love a happy ending?