Kate's arc will be put on pause, and now we'll put some more focus on Sango's issues. Kate's gone quite a while, but Sango has her own problems to deal with. Hopefully, things will go better for her. Hopefully.

Pokemon Academy Best Girl Elimination Round is still going strong! Keep those votes coming, a few girls are pulling ahead, but things aren't done just yet! We've still got a good chance of girls getting into the final 5!

Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison, Alcea

KedharS: Harem power 2 OP plz nerf.

ConfusedCradily: Well, Kate's picture of happiness is being the meat in an Alcea-Blake sandwich, and I can promise you that ain't happening. Why does Kate need a man to be happy, anyway? She can be happy all on her own.

DJ Dib Dab: It's November. We'll get a beach episode when we get to spring and summer. They'll be in swimsuits for the hot spring, but no beach.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 247

The dining hall of the Hotel Ionia was a splendid thing. A high ceiling with hanging chandeliers every 10 feet, casting the room in a lovely glow. A massive fireplace with an opening the size of a car roared in the far wall, heating up the room nice warm. The chairs were all hand-carved and elegantly decorated, and the tablecloths were made of the finest silk. The students sat down at a long table capable of fitting 16, but one of their number was missing.

Blake glanced across the room, where Sango was seated at a 4-person table along with Professor Reinhart. There was a man and woman that Blake didn't recognize seated there, as well. The man was tall with dark black hair and a fierce look in his eye, and Blake assumed that must have been Sango's father. The woman had short brown hair and a smile like the sun, and eyes that twinkled like the sky. Blake assumed she was Sango's mother.

"Why's Sango eating over there?" Nikita wondered. Sango had her back to their table, so she couldn't get a good look.

"Probably wants to spend some quality time with her folks," Reiner explained. "And she's not the only one to get some quality time around here."

Because they were all sitting in their groups, there were two of them on either side of the table. Reiner and Nikita were sitting next to each other, of course, and directly across from them were Blake and a very flustered Kate.

"Come on, it wasn't like that," Blake said, rolling his eyes and taking a sip from his glass of water. "She just needed my help fixing her hair."

"O-oh, is… is that what they're calling it now?" Nikita shakily asked, unused to ribbing others in this regard. She smiled. Along with Cynthia, Blake had been needling her and Reiner about how far they'd gotten for weeks, and it was nice to have the shoe on the other foot now.

"Nothing happened!" Kate protested, her face hot with embarrassment.

Well… something had happened.

About an hour prior, Kate had come to the door in search of Blake.

It's just a kiss, she reminded herself. Just a kiss…

When the door opened, however, her mind went blank. It wasn't Blake at the door, but Reiner. That's when she remembered that Blake wasn't exactly staying in the room alone. And not only that, but the boys had company. Nikita was sitting on one of the beds, looking at her apprehensively.

"Yeah? You need something?" Reiner asked. "You wanted to talk to Blake, right?"

"Uh…" Kate's brain had gone off-track, thrown off by Reiner's presence. "Right, right! Blake, um…"

Kate glanced desperately at Blake. Blake stood up and walked over to her, taking Reiner's place at the door as Reiner returned back to the bed with Nikita.

She was NOT kissing him. Not a chance. There's no way it would be just a kiss. Not with witnesses. Absolutely not.

"Um, I was just… about your offer…" Kate looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling very ashamed of what she had been planning. She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair, glancing back up at him. "Can you, um… fix my hair? For dinner?"

"Of course," Blake said after a moment's pause, smiling good-naturedly. It seemed that Kate had toned down from the hostility earlier, and was now at a more level ground. "Let me just get my brush. Does our bathroom work?"

"Uh, sure, of course," Kate said, nodding. She stepped into the room, feeling as though Reiner and Nikita were both staring at her. She looked around, feeling a little uncomfortable. Did they… could they see that she had been planning on kissing him? Of course not, right? She felt her cheeks start to get hot, and she tried to will her heartrate to slow down.

Blake led Kate into the bathroom and sat her down on the toilet so he could start working on her hair. Wow, the toilets here were heated and everything, this really was a high-class hotel.

As Blake began working the tangles out of her hair for the second time today, Kate looked across the bathroom at the wide mirror stretching across the far wall. Blake… he was so attentive. Making sure that every last hair was in place. He was really…

He's putting so much work into this… just because I asked him. He isn't asking for anything in return, he just… he wants me to look nice and feel better about myself.

Kate held her hand against her breast, feeling the pounding of her heart against her palm. As she felt the soothing beat, a small smile crossed her lips as her face softened. She realized then and there that she didn't need to kiss him anymore. The answer was on her face, clear as a sunny day.

How could I have been so dumb? She asked herself. Of course she liked him. Of course she did. All this… she had just been scared to admit it to herself. Worried that if she actually let herself think about him like that, that he would eventually betray her and she would suffer. But Blake wouldn't try to hurt her. He really… he really…

"Kate, are you okay?" Blake asked, shaking her from her thoughts.

"W-what?" Kate asked, blinking. She realized that her face was wet. She reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Oh, yeah… just… it's been a long day."

"Are you still thinking about those girls?" Blake gently inquired. "Or maybe Valerie Chiester?"

Kate shook her head. He was the only thing on her mind at the moment.

"No, it's not about that," Kate said. "I'm just… I'm so happy."

A big smile bloomed across Kate's face. But as happy as she felt having him care for her like this, realizing her feelings came with a darkness that Kate had been repressing right alongside them.

I like Blake, she understood. But Blake, he won't… he doesn't like me that way. I can't… I can't let him know how I feel. If he were to reject me, that…

A throb went through her heart and she winced, clutching her chest tighter.

That was the plan. She'd keep her mouth shut and keep her feelings to herself. She knew now that Blake was her first love. And at the same time, she realized that her first love was going to end in her heart being broken. The last time she sat before him like this, with her heart open for him to see, she had asked Blake if someone like her was capable of being loved by others. She understood now that yes, she could. Blake and Alcea had been showing her that from the start, and she had been too blind to see it. But the love she could get from Blake… it wasn't the love she wanted from him. He saw her as a friend at best, and a nuisance at worst. What room was there to go forward in a relationship like that?

So no. She wasn't going to tell him. She didn't have that kind of strength. She wasn't like Ayame, who could force a kiss onto him so easily. She wasn't like Holly, who was so prideful that she would proclaim her feelings with no hesitation. She was Kate, and she was scared. Scared of being rejected. Scared of things changing between her and the boy that she had tried so hard to hide from.

There wasn't a future she could see between her and Blake. Not yet, anyway. And that realization stung. But even stronger than that, was the understanding that with Blake's gesture of kindness, the number of people in this world she could put her faith in had just doubled. Blake cared for her. Blake was there for her.

And for Kate Nomia that was answer enough.

"So what do you think they're talking about?" Reiner asked, glancing over his shoulder at Sango's table.

Things at Sango's table were, to put it in a single word, tense. The dining hall did not allow pokemon, so Sango had been forced to leave her beloved partner back in her room. That made her already not in a very good mood. Things did not improve, either.

This woman, this Elizabeth Skye, or "Doctor Skye" as she referred to herself, kept trying to… connect with her. She was asking Sango a whole bunch of questions that were none of her damn business and Sango had no interest in asking. She didn't pay the woman any mind, and was instead staring coldly at her father.

"So, um, Sango, I hear you've got quite a healthy appetite," Elizabeth said, trying to keep a sweet smile with such a nothing conversation topic. But Sango had already moved past the other attempts at making conversation. "You know, the food here is very delicious, so I think you're in for a nice treat."

"Not hungry," Sango testily replied, not even turning to the woman.

Professor Reinhart, the odd one out at the table of four, was paying no mind to the family spat that was occurring right before his eyes. He was paying very diligent attention to the menu sitting in front of him as the Akanas settled their business.

"Sango, you are being rude," Uboss Akana chided her.

Sango's eye twitched. A scornful, incredulous smile crossed her lips and she leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Am I, dad? Am I being rude?" Sango sarcastically asked. "Well, you know what I think is rude? The fact that you've completely forgot about mom and are now chasing around after some other piece of tail while she's lying in a grave! That's what I think is rude."

"Sango-" Uboss raised his voice, but Sango cut him off.

"No, you are being disrespectful to mom's memory!" Sango hissed, slapping her hand on the table hard enough to shake the glasses. "What? You expect to just bring some strange woman here and what? Tell me you're seeing her now? That she's my mom's replacement, is that it?"

"Sango, I'm not trying to-"

Sango shut Elizabeth up with a glare, holding her finger up and pointing it at the woman.

"No one's talking to you," Sango snapped. "This is a family matter, and you aren't family."

Elizabeth's mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide with shock.

"Why do you even give a damn, huh?" Sango demanded, turning her furor back towards her father. "Bringing her here like this, first time I'm hearing about her. How long has this been going on?"

Uboss Akana shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Two years, thereabouts," he replied. Sango's eyes widened and she mouthed the words "two years", breaking out into harsh, sarcastic laughter.

"Two years," she giggled. "Two years."

She turned her head and called out to the others.

"Blake, Reiner! You hear that? Two years! Ha! Ha ha ha!"

Blake and Reiner glanced at each other. They didn't have any damn clue what she was talking about.

"Two. Years." Sango whirled back to confront Uboss Akana with a look that made the grown man flinch. "You've been together for two years. And then, what, you think 'oh, right, I've got a daughter who's been grieving her mother's passing, think we should come talk about it with her'?"

"That wasn't-"

"You didn't think even once?" Sango demanded. "To, oh, I don't know, maybe drop a line? Give me a call and say 'hey, Sango, I've forgotten all about your mom, I'm banging some pixie cut?' That notion never even crossed your mind?"

Uboss didn't have anything to say to that.

"Of course it didn't," Sango said, shaking her head. "No, that would require you to actually give a damn about me, wouldn't it?"

"Of course I care about you," Uboss softly replied. "That's why I wanted to tell you about this now."

He turned to look at Elizabeth, and then back at Sango.

"I asked Elizabeth to marry me," he told her. Sango snorted, rolling her eyes. "I love her."

"Of course you do," Sango rolled her eyes again. "I don't want to hear this. And if you were really interested in hearing what I had to say on the subject, then you would have told me LONG before now. Where was this when we met last time, huh? Right, no, you weren't expecting to see me then, I caught you off-guard. So what, you needed to be prepared to tell me my mom has been replaced? The hell you say!"

"Sango-"

"No, don't 'Sango' me. You're my father," Sango said, shaking her head. "And Maya is my mother!" She waved her hand dismissively at Elizabeth. "Not… this woman here."

"I meant to tell you, but… how could I?" Uboss demanded. "I know how you feel about Maya. I knew you would react like this. How could I have told you in a way that would make you understand?"

"You want me to understand?" Sango snorted. "Oh. I understand. I got it, dad. You've moved on from mom, trust me, that's plain as day. You said it yourself, right? She's some archaeologist? So you two get to go on adventures together, all over the place. She seems like a much better fit for you than someone like mom. Someone who was actually there. Someone who didn't go traveling the world in search of adventures, someone who dedicated herself to her work and her daughter."

"Sango, that isn't fair and you know it," Uboss snapped. He was growing to be as angry as she was. "I don't want you disrespecting Elizabeth anymore."

"And I don't want you disrespecting my mom," Sango growled. Her eyes began to tear up. "I don't want you disrespecting me."

Her voice came out choked with anger and sadness as she spat out her pain all over him. She didn't give a damn that they were in public, or that one the school teachers was right at there table. She didn't care that she was making herself look like a fool in front of this woman, or in front of the hotel staff. She didn't care that the other students, including her friends, might hear every hateful thing she had to say. Right now, the resentment of her father that had been building up for years was ready to spill out, and she wasn't about to stop it.

"I gave up on contacting you a long time ago," Sango growled. "Because reaching out to you, hoping to hear from you, all that I could expect from that was disappointment. Because that's what you are to me. A disappointment. You haven't been there for me when I needed you. After mom died? You ran off! Going from one place to the other, while my whole world was coming down! And yes, I know, you had to work. You needed to make money to provide for me!"

Sango rose from her seat, jamming her finger into her chest.

"But I needed you! Not your money. I needed my dad to hug me and tell me that it was going to be okay! A check in the mail from some region I've never heard of can't tuck me in at night or read me a bedtime story. Souvenirs and antiques on the doorstep wouldn't tell me I'm beautiful when the girls in school would pick on me. I lost my mother, dad. And I lost you, too."

Sango turned and glared at Elizabeth.

"And now you come here acting like a father? Like you want… what? My permission? My blessing? Just a heads up? You think I give a damn about that? When I was hugging Silver and crying into my pillow every night, telling myself that my dad was working hard for me, and so I needed to be strong and grown up all on my own, so he wouldn't worry? Comforting myself with the thought that you were doing your best? What were you doing? Oh, you were doing her."

It was cruel and awful, but Sango felt a twinge of pride at the pain she saw flash across Elizabeth's face.

"We were a family," Sango reminded Uboss. "You, me, and mom. And then when mom died, you abandoned me. And then you went and hooked up with her. Like we didn't even exist anymore. No, you just wanted to look forward, didn't you? Forget all about your old wife and move on with a new model. And your daughter, well, she would just be a nuisance. That's what I am to you, isn't it? Just an inconvenient reminder of a woman you got over a long time ago."

Uboss sat quietly through Sango's tirade, his expression inscrutable.

"Are you done?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah," Sango snapped, placing her hands on the table and leaning forward. "I'm done. You want my blessing? Fine. Go ahead. Marry her. You see, I don't care. You want to start some new family with some random woman? Fine. Do it. Go be with her, have some kids with her that you'll spend time with, a family you can actually be a family for. But I don't want any part of it. You didn't want me to be your family, so now we both get what we want. I'm. Done."

Sango whirled around and stormed out. She didn't want to eat. She didn't even want to see the face of her "father" for a second longer.

"Sango!" Uboss Akana moved to get out of his seat, but Elizabeth put her hand over his and shook her head.

"Dear, I don't think it's a good idea," Elizabeth quietly told him.

"I need to talk with her," Uboss said. "She can't just-"

"I'll go," Elizabeth said, standing up. "She doesn't want anything to do with you right now. I know we haven't talked at all tonight, but… I still want to go speak with her. At least it's better than you at the moment, dear."

Uboss glowered, but nodded. Elizabeth rose from her seat and headed off after Sango.

Blake, Reiner, Nikita, and Kate stared at Sango walking away. They hadn't heard any of the conversation over the noise in the room, but it was clear that she was upset about something.

"Should we go after her?" Blake asked. Reiner and Nikita glanced at each other.

"It's a family thing," Kate quietly said. "Maybe we shouldn't…"

Blake glanced at the brunette following after Sango, the woman he thought was Sango's mother. He nodded his head, agreeing with Kate. This was best left between family.

So Sango's just about had it with her dad. Will she be able to repair her family relationship? What does Elizabeth have to tell her?