Here's the next chapter, the climax of the engagement of Blake and Alcea, the moment we've been waiting for! Alcea Vermeil vs. Holly Vermeil! The war of the roses (whatever, deal with it) to see who will become Blake's fiancé! Will Alcea utterly thrash her little sister? Or will true (immature) love prevail? Remember to review!
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
Hellraiserphoenix: Interesting it certainly will be.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Dakota is quite a good tool to use to get masses worked up properly.
Rosealine gold: Well, this arc's just about done with this chapter, and the next one's sure to be a doozy!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 235
Wednesday's newspaper was quite the read. The headliner was, of course, Dakota's announcement of the upcoming battle between Alcea and her sister the following day.
The Smartin' in the Garden!
This Thursday, be sure to check out the exciting match between our very own Alcea Vermeil, and her little sister Holly Vermeil! These sisters have had their ups and downs, but tomorrow it's all coming to a head! Why? For the sake of a boy! That's right, Alcea Vermeil is engaged to be married to Pokemon Academy's Blake Harker, but her sister is having none of it! She doesn't want her sister to get married to the boy she has a crush on, and so to steal her sister's boyfriend away, she's challenged her to a 1 on 1 pokemon battle! The match will be held at 9 in the morning at the Roselia Gardens' very own, custom-made battlefield, so our queen will have the home court advantage! Come and show your support for true love, and see the climactic battle between sisters in a war for the heart! Tickets can be purchased at…
It was a story like that, one that caused a large amount of students to assemble at the Roselia Gardens to get a glimpse of this sister of the beautiful Alcea Vermeil.
Dakota had conveniently forgotten to mention she was 12. Needless to say, several of the observers were more than a little disappointed. But there were a handful who were more invested in the result of this battle. Blake's friends, with the notable exception of Ayame Toujou, were packed in the front row. Dakota primed her camera to take some good shots. Akira and Serefina glanced at each other and rolled their eyes, but both were still smiling, happy that Dakota's reporting had done some good for once. Akira in particular was content to just go out on what was almost a normal date with her.
Other couples were less cheery about this.
"Going on a romantic garden date with Nick, and I have to spend it watching a battle," Callie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest impatiently. "Come on, it's not like that kid is going to beat Alcea anyway, she's super tough."
"Come on, Callie, we can go check out the gardens some other time," Nick reminded her.
Nikita and Reiner were sitting beside one another in silence, both wondering if they were at a point where they could hold each other's hand.
"Come on, Holly, take her down!" Cynthia chortled. "Show her that being one of the Eight Leaders doesn't mean jack!"
"Hey!" Callie snapped at her.
"Her highness is quite powerful," Julia reminded her. "It seems unlikely to think she would lose."
"So you're calling her that now too, huh?" Reiner smirked.
"What of it?" Julia snidely replied, glaring at him.
"I-I think Holly could win…" Kitty piped up. "She… she seems really invested…"
"Yeah, that's the spirit, Kitty! Let's cheer her on together!" Cynthia grinned, slapping the shy girl on the back.
Sango was seated at the end of their little row, an empty spot between her and the boisterous Cynthia, which was temporarily filled by Silver. She was checking her phone for an update. She'd invited Marion to come, but hadn't heard back. The match was about to start, what was taking her so long?
Stupid question. The better question to ask was "where was she fishing this time?"
Her phone dinged.
FishFreak: Yo 3go. Not gonna make it.
FishFreak: Caught up fishing lol.
FishFreak: You know how it be lol.
Sango rolled her eyes. She shouldn't have had expectations. She moved to put her phone away, but a shadow stood in front of her, blocking out the sun. Sango squinted, glancing up at her.
"Seat taken?" Caelia Auburne looked down at Sango with an empty gaze that sent a shiver down her spine.
"Uhum…" Sango swallowed, glancing at Silver. The small pokemon was also slightly intimidated by the girl. Sango reached over and picked him up.
"I-I guess not."
Caelia said nothing more, and sat down between the two girls.
"Hey, you're Caelia, right?" Cynthia said, greeting the brown-haired girl. "I'm Cynthia! What's up?"
Caelia didn't take the hand offered, she didn't even glance in the girl's direction, which slightly miffed Cynthia.
"Hey, what's that smell?" Cynthia asked, noting the smell of mold coming off from the girl. "Are you not washing your clothes properly? You should, you know! Proper clothes maintenance is important because blah blah blah…"
Caelia had zero interest in the redhead's attempts to bond with her. All of her attention was devoted to the battlefield, where Alcea was standing pensively. Holly was not in position, though. She was busy with the VIP seats.
The "VIP seats" in this case being a small row of folding chairs specially set up opposite of the normal bleachers of the battlefield, for today only. Alcea's parents would get a front-row seat to their daughters' match. Blake, the "prize" in question was also located there, along with Kate. There were two other guests filling in the rest of the awning-covered viewer box, as well. Holding a pair of microphones attached to a speaker, Lila and Darla were seated, paid special compensation to report on the match. They sat on either side of Blake, to ensure that the prize would not run off. It was something Alcea had arranged for her own amusement.
"Holly, you do your best out there, okay sweetie?" Julianna asked, petting her daughter on the cheek.
"Don't worry, Allie's an amazing fighter, so don't feel bad if you can't win. You just give it your all!" Louis laughed.
"I will!" Holly nodded, her face bright with joy. "Petil and I are going to win, just you watch."
"Petil?" Julianna asked.
"That's the name I chose for her," Holly explained. "I'll introduce her to you after the battle!"
Holly walked past Blake on her way to the challenger's box, smiling at him. Blake smiled back. Holly was getting the recognition from her parents that she wanted, and was ready to fight Alcea with all of her strength.
"Good luck!" Kate called after Holly. She added under her breath, "you'll need it…"
Holly stood proudly opposite her sister, crossing her arms under her chest and smirking, a haughty look on her face.
"Sister! Thank you for going to the trouble of setting up this stage for me!" Holly declared. "I couldn't ask for a better stage to defeat you on! Today is the day I step out from your shadow and prove which one of us is truly the better sister!"
Alcea smiled politely in response.
"And with that, the gauntlet has been thrown!" Lila announced.
"That's right, Lila! This war of sisters begins with a fierce declaration!" Darla agreed.
"But Holly looks like just a child, can she really stand up to someone of Alcea's caliber?" Lila asked.
"Win or lose doesn't matter!" Darla declared. "What matters is guts!"
Lila rolled her eyes. Like that makes it worthwhile to get dressed up on a weekday to cover some family squabble…
"She's right! Sister, let me show you what I've trained for!" Holly declared. "Petil! Go! Let's show her!"
"Petil!" Petil cried, landing on the ground.
"A Petilil?" Alcea blinked. She smiled. "And you named her Petil? That's so precious! I just love your first pokemon, Holly!"
"Oh, uh…" Holly blushed, taken aback by her sister's compliments. "Th-thank you! But don't think I'll take it easy on you!"
"I would hope for nothing less," Alcea agreed. "Venus! Laissez-nous danser!"
From a tornado of red and black petals, her Venusaur landed on the grassy battlefield, bellowing.
"Petil!" Holly shouted. "Use-"
"Hidden power."
Venus opened her mouth, a sphere of crimson flames burning between her teeth. She spat the orb at the small grass pokemon faster than either Holly or her pokemon expected, the flames engulfing Petil instantly.
"Peeeee!" Petil wailed, the fire burning away. She fell onto the ground, burned, knocked out completely in one hit.
Because Alcea Vermeil was a woman for whom the word "mercy" did not exist.
Holly blinked, staring at her unconscious pokemon. Her eyes began watering and she bit her lip, her face turning red and her cheeks puffing up as she held her breath. Her body began to tremble as she resisted the urge to-
"UWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Holly wailed, large rivers of tears streaming down her face and messing up the makeup that her mother had prepared for her special day. She sobbed in a way that brought tears to the stunned audience as well, the girl's hopes ruthlessly crushed with a single blow.
"Wha…" Lila gaped.
"What's the big idea, huh?!" Darla, professional that she was, was the first to recover from this sudden anticlimax. "We came out here for this?! Is that all our job is now?! Provide commentary for battles that end in a single move?!"
Darla fumed as Lila tried desperately to calm her partner down. Blake and Kate glanced at each other over the older girl's steaming head with a look that said "should have expected that, to be honest."
The plan had been for Alcea to throw the match, let Holly win, and then wait for her crush to wear off.
Alcea, apparently, had a plan of her own.
"Holly!" Julianna cried, running over to her sobbing daughter. She pulled the girl into a big hug, not minding the stains to her white dress from Holly crying into her chest.
"Uwweee… I trained so much… we twied so haaaawrd… Petil, she… waaah, moommmy!" Holly wailed, Julianna patting her on the back of her trembling head. Louis walked up beside the two, picking Holly's pokeball up off the ground and recalling her unconscious pokemon. Her turned to Alcea, a stern look on his face.
"Allie, I know I told you to do your best, but this was…" Louis tried not to sound upset with his daughter, as he knew to some extent Alcea was doing what was expected of her. But even so… "But even so, you could have gone easy on her."
"He's right!" Julianna cried, looking up from her younger daughter. "Holly is just a child! How could you be so cruel to your own sister?"
Alcea listened to her parent's harsh words with a cold expression. She recalled Venus to her pokeball and stepped forward, her pace swift and determined. The stern look on her face gave the two adults pause. Normally, Alcea was the picture of composure and grace, a polite and lovely girl with a range of beautiful smiles. But the look on her face now was one that she had taken great care to not show her parents. A queen was not just humble and polite. Kindness untampered by sternness was fragile. Although she looked up at her father, she was looking down on him with the cold, practiced glare she used when disciplining unruly underclassmen. It was a look that neither parent was accustomed to, and so they were caught quite off guard.
"Holly is not a child," Alcea replied, her tone stern and even, like she was delivering a report. "She is no longer someone to be pampered and babied by you, mother."
"But…" Julianna looked down at her crying daughter.
"When I step out onto this battlefield, I cease to be Alcea Vermeil, sister, daughter, friend, classmate. I am no more or less than Alcea Vermeil, pokemon trainer. Likewise, when Holly stepped onto the battlefield in front of me, she was no longer my sister, but my opponent. You ask me to treat her with anything less than the respect I would give to an opponent? That I would 'not try' because the trainer before me was bound to me by blood?"
Louis and Julianna had no reply to that.
"Telling me that I should have gone easy on her, not tried my hardest, telling me that I am cruel for using my full strength… are you not the ones truly being cruel to her?" Alcea demanded.
"Wh-what?" Julianna asked. "No, Allie, what are you-"
"Listen to my words, mother," Alcea interrupted her mother, her eyes tightening into a glare. "I know better than anyone how much Holly has trained in preparation for today. Every night, Kate gives me a report on Holly's progress and the effort she's put in. Day after day, she trained and trained to try and beat me at my best. And you're telling me that I should have rewarded that hard work by patronizing her, is it? Coddling her and pretending like her efforts were meaningless? She came to fight Alcea Vermeil, and that is exactly what I gave to her!"
Alcea panted, her face flushed with passion.
"You think I don't know how much that girl has tried to stand out to you? She tries her hardest to be seen by others, to be noticed for her efforts. Holly, is that what you would have wanted from me? To continue treating you like a childish little girl who can't fight her own battles, is it? Or did you want to stand up to me as an equal, and be treated as such?"
"*sniff*… Waaah…" Holly was still crying, wiping her face with her sleeves. "I… I jus' wandded… to be cool wike you…"
"Holly…" Julianna looked down at her daughter.
"Mommy and daddy… *sniff* they're always talging about how stwong and tawented you are, sis! I wanted to show evewybody that I could do it tooooo! Waaaah!"
Alcea smiled. She walked over to Holly and knelt down beside her, reaching out gently patting the girl's red hair. Julianna moved back as Alcea tilted Holly's head to face her, the smaller trainer's green eyes still filled with tears.
"The wisest man I've met once said to me 'with this loss, you've reached a wall. Those who are truly strong… are those who never give up. In this world, there are always walls that we run into. And you must go beyond, move past, and rise above them. Continuing to press forward, until you reach the summit of the strongest, and then go beyond even that.' It was those words that drove me to become stronger than I was. He encouraged me to do my hardest, to become a master of the grass types. Stronger than I was yesterday, and stronger still tomorrow. As your elder sister, I'll always be there as an obstacle for you to overcome. So if you want to catch the eye of everyone… then keep training struggle as hard as you can, and I assure you… those who know will see you for the hard-working girl you are."
Holly began to tear up again.
"Big sis!" She sobbed, throwing herself into Alcea's breasts, crying her eyes out once more. Alcea smiled warmly, nuzzling her chin against Holly's hair as she rubbed the back of her head.
As she comforted her sister, Alcea glanced up at her mother and father, who were standing awkwardly off to the side.
"You see?" She asked them plainly. "For far too long, you have treated Holly and I as children who must be protected. When what we both want so desperately is to be seen for who we are. To have our hard work and our efforts acknowledged by the mother and father we love so dearly. I do not know what it is like to be a parent, that is so… but I do know that I have cultivated a great many flowers. Each one, I nurtured from a seed, gave them water and sunlight, kind words and tender care. All so that they might bloom beautifully, as they were meant to. I wonder… that is what it means to be a parent, is it? A desire to see one's child flourish. But at some point, given enough love and nurturing, flowers grow on their own. No matter how you try, you cannot make them beautiful. They bloom as they intend, even if you would desire them to remain in the bud."
Alcea rose from the ground and stood before her parents with determination in her eyes, holding her hand over her breast.
"If I am to flourish, I cannot do it in the garden you wish to build for me. My dream…" Alcea took a deep breath, and shouted for the school to hear. "I wish to create a sea of blue roses, stretching as far as the eye can see!"
Louis and Julianna were taken aback by this declaration, as was most of the rest of the audience. Blake and Kate shared knowing smirks.
"So you see?" Alcea smiled. "My flowers are far too large to be contained in your garden. I must reach out and see things with my own eyes. And so for that reason… I am renouncing my engagement to Blake Harker at this time!"
"Wh-what? Allie-" Louis gasped, but Alcea cut him off again.
"I will decide the own course of my life, father. And Holly shall do the same. I know you only wish to keep us safe, but a flower must be exposed to the world if it is to bloom! The sunlight, the rain, these things are all part of this world. A flower hidden away in the darkness can only wilt."
Alcea smiled.
"Thank you for the time you have spent tending to me until now. But it is time for me to stand on my own two feet. If you cannot accept me as your daughter, and as an individual trainer… then I would prefer you to see me as a trainer than as a daughter. I am prepared to renounce my name and status if it means I can continue to grow on my own."
"Sister!" Holly gasped, tugging frantically on her dress. "You can't!"
But Alcea's eyes did not falter. She stared adamantly at her father, green flames burning in her skull as she faced him down.
Louis sighed, his body slacking. He reached up and scratched his beard, shaking his head.
"What am I going to do with such a troublesome daughter…" he sighed.
"Louis, you aren't saying you would throw our beloved Allie into the cold, are you?!" Julianna exclaimed.
"Of course not!" The tall man protested. "I was only talking about how stunned I am. I didn't expect her to have become so willful!"
"I always strive to maintain the perfect image of politeness and decorum, father," Alcea said, flashing a perfect smile. She lifted the hem of her skirt in a perfect curtsy as well. "But even the most beautiful rose must have its thorns, if it is to defend itself."
"What am I going to tell Richard Harker," Louis groaned, his tone a little too loud and theatrical to sound genuine. "I promised his son a perfect young lady for a bride, there's no way I can allow him to marry some disobedient girl who would say such rude things to her father! Such a misrepresentation would be disastrous for our family's reputation. I suppose I have no choice but to call this whole thing off!"
He smiled at Alcea and she smiled back at him, nodding her head.
"Wait! If she's no longer marrying him, does that mean I can marry Blake instead?!" Holly asked, her tearstained face brightening.
Darla and Lila turned their heads to look at Blake, who suddenly wanted to be very far away from here.
"Uh…" Louis's eyes trailed to Alcea, who glared at him and shook her head. His wife looked back at him worriedly.
"I-I suppose I'll have to talk about that w-with him," Louis said, laughing uncomfortably. "All this talk about choosing your own path, I suppose… well, I don't know if it's the right time to discuss things like marriage and engagements, you know?"
"But Alcea said it herself!" Holly huffed, stomping over to her father. "I'm not a kid anymore! And I want Blake!"
Louis glanced at Alcea, the look on his face begging his daughter for help. Alcea rolled her eyes.
"This and that are separate matters, is it?" Alcea smiled, gently pulling Alcea back. "You may not be a child, but you aren't quite grown up yet, are you? Now is too early to be talking about matters of love."
Holly puffed up her cheeks indignantly.
"You say that, but what do you know?!" She demanded. "Have you been in love before, big sis?! How am I supposed to act, then? Tell me!"
"Uh…" Alcea cleared her throat. "S-such things are of no concern to a child."
"But you said-!"
As the two siblings bickered, Louis and Julianna looked at the smiles on their faces. Of all the smiles the parents had seen on their daughters since the day their family was reunited, these were the brightest of all.
So with that, this engagement nonsense has finally come to a close! Next chapter we bid farewell to the families of Blake and Alcea, and prepare for the next arc! And I promise you… it's going to be a good one.
Two words.
Blake. Backstory.
That is all.