We've got some anxiety and feelings beginning to take hold here! We check out a little more on Ayame in this chapter, and then let's see what's going on with Elaina and Blake! Well this should be interesting, anyway.

The Finals have begun! The Pokemon Academy Best Girl Finals is heating up, I can't wait to see how it goes. The race is really close, and it's still anyone's game, showing just how great these girls really are. Any one of them deserves the title of Pokemon Academy Best Girl, but only one of them will be able to win! If you haven't voted for your best girl yet, better get those votes in quick! This contest is gonna be a close one it looks like, a single vote makes all the difference! Who will be the Pokemon Academy Best Girl?

Finalists: Sango, Ayame, Marion

Hellraiserphoenix: Don't worry, I'm certainly going to explore more of Olivia and Ayame's friendship and the origin of it. We will see contests in the future (actually I'm surprised we haven't by now) and we'll also be seeing Ayame do some pokeathlon-related things, once she's all healed up. Hopefully that'll be satisfying enough.

Thunder Fire: I was trying to fool people, so writing that first part really hurt.

Aquahaze675: Well, we'll have to see, now won't we?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 314

Ayame took a deep breath, looking up at the Bulbasaur House that Blake lived in, her heart pounding in her chest anxiously. A part of her wasn't sure that she could do this, but it was a very small part. She waited outside the door for someone to leave, and then slipped around them and headed inside, as she often did for buildings she didn't have card access to.

Ayame headed upstairs to Blake's room. It's fine, she told herself. This is normal. All you're doing is paying your boyfriend a visit, there's nothing wrong with that. No need to feel guilty or anything, you're just being a caring girlfriend!

Never mind that she knew full well that it was the first day of the tournament and Blake was almost certainly not home. Her brain was willfully skirting around that little detail, forbidding it entry into the conscious portions of her mind.

As Ayame approached Blake's door, she ran into one of his roommates, Reiner, coming out of it. He was one of the ones that Ayame wasn't all that close with. While she'd seen traces of a snarky personality here and there, most of the time he was very quiet and reserved, like he wasn't much one for small talk. Ayame didn't have a problem with that, of course, he seemed like a decent guy. But of Blake's friends he was one of the ones she didn't know well.

"Oh, Ayame."

It was surprising that he was the one to speak up first.

"Um, hey," She said, waving to him. He was staring at her… was that suspicion in her eyes?

"Um, I'm here to-"

"Looking for Blake?" Reiner accurately guessed. Well, Ayame WAS a senior. Not much of a reason she could have for walking around a freshman dorm rather than to be looking for her boyfriend. She nodded her head.

"Uhum, yeah, I am," she admitted, trying to look past him and into the boys' room. "Is he in?"

Reiner shook his head.

"Nah, he left early to go hang out with Elaina Bishop, of all people. Can you believe that he actually picked her to be his partner for this tag battle?"

Ayame nodded her head, trying to keep from looking too bitter. She could believe it, alright, didn't mean she had to like it.

"Man, talk about a scary combination," Reiner continued, shaking his head with a sigh, "I'm trying my best here and even I don't know if my partner and I would be able to beat those two, you know? And it's not like we're weak or anything."

Ayame sighed. Blake wasn't in. That was a shame.

"Do you know when Blake might be coming back?" She asked hopefully.

"Nah. I'm actually gonna go meet up with Julia right now, so our schedules won't be overlapping. It really sucks, studying for finals while at the same time practicing for this tournament, if I'm having trouble I can't believe someone like Cynthia is so carefree about it."

"Knowing her she's probably forgotten all about the fact that she has tests, and is just devoting her time to pokemon battles," Ayame laughed. Reiner joined in as well, and it felt almost… comfortable. He may not have been engaging when she was hanging out with their friend group, but on his own he seemed a lot more personable.

"Hey, if you want, you wanna hang inside while you wait for Blake to come back?" Reiner asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Eh?!" Ayame gasped, her face turning pink. "I-I couldn't do something like that! J-just staying in your room, Blake's room, by myself, that would- that would be-!"

Reiner smirked.

"What, you aren't going to get up to anything inappropriate, are you?"

"I would never do something like-!?"

Reiner snickered. "Ah, there it is!"

Ayame blinked.

"Wh-what?"

"Around us, you've always got this intimidating aura of composure, even when you're being friendly," Reiner explained. "But Blake's always talking about how when the two of you are alone, you get flustered so easily, and how adorable it is when you do. Sorry, I just wanted to see what all the hype was about. He wasn't wrong though."

"Th… th-that's…" Ayame's face grew redder and redder. "BLAAAAAKE! Don't tell your friends about THAAAAAT!"

"Don't worry, I trust you," Reiner laughed. "Go ahead, I know Blake would be cool with it. And don't be afraid to loosen up a little around us, y'know?"

Ayame scowled, storming past Reiner and into the boys' room, his laughter echoing in her ears as he walked down the hallway.

Ayame closed the door behind her. It had been a while since she went into Blake's room.

I think the midterms, maybe? When I was helping them study? That was the last time I was here, right? She tried to piece together her timeline of her visits, but in the end it just painted a picture that she didn't spend nearly enough time in her boyfriend's room.

"W-well, that's fine, right?" Ayame reassured herself. "I mean, we're taking things slow, so spending too much time in Blake's room, that would be a little…"

She shook her head frantically as she thought of what doing things in Blake's room would entail.

"B-besides, Blake has roommates with girlfriends, so it's not a big deal! I'm sure they don't spend a lot of time here either!"

As she said this, her eyes landed on a stack of genetics textbooks that belonged to Nikita, and averted her eyes, landing on a karate uniform way too small to belong to Nick folded neatly in the hamper.

"I'm the oldest and I still lose in girlfriend points," Ayame moaned, hanging her head in shame.

She shook her head, regaining her bearings.

It's fine, it's fine, Blake spends a lot of his time at my place, that makes up for it, right?!

She let out a long sigh and walked further into the room. She remembered which bed belonged to Blake. He was in the bottom bunk of the bunkbed. She slung her bag off of her shoulder and dropped it on the ground, leaning back on Blake's mattress and staring up at the frame above her.

So this is Blake's bed… she mused, nestling her head down into the pillow and closing her eyes. He wakes up every day like this…

There was so much about him that Ayame didn't know. He'd told her so much, but it never felt like it was enough. But just lying here, leaning back in his bed… she felt close to him somehow, even though he wasn't here. It was like she could still feel him here, with her.

It was like there was some trace of him left behind. Lingering in the air, filling her with warmth… she could practically smell him…

Ayame's eyes snapped open and she shot out of bed so fast she bonked her head on the frame above her, causing her to yelp in pain. When the throbbing stopped she thought harder on what she'd just been pondering, her face glowing a shameful scarlet.

Smell?! Smell?! I'm thinking about his SMELL now?! Doesn't that just make me a pervert?! Ayame held her head in her hands and groaned. She really was just a dirty pervert, snuggling up in her boyfriend's bed and smelling his sheets while he was gone, that was just sick.

"No, no, calm down, it's fine," Ayame's inner Olivia reassured her. "You're not some creepy stalker that broke in. You were invited. And it's not like you're a stranger, Blake's your boyfriend. He would be FINE with this. I'm sure lots of girlfriends do stuff like this when they're in their boyfriends' rooms, you're just being normal."

"Yeah, yeah, that's right, I'm just being normal," Ayame reassured herself, taking a few deep breaths to steady her heartbeat and calm herself down a little more. "Just a normal girlfriend, that's all, nothing suspicious here."

…

"I'm an adult woman smelling the sheets of her underage boyfriend! That isn't normal at AAAAALLLL!" Ayame wailed, scratching frantically at her hair in frustration. She waved her elbows around and inadvertently knocked something over, catching her attention. She turned her head. There was a small shelf built into the side of the bed, next to the pillow, a mini nightstand. She'd knocked off of it a small stuffed Snivy.

The one she had given him for his birthday. He'd been keeping it next to his bed, the same way that she had been.

Ayame's vision was starting to blur thanks to the tears in her eyes. She picked up the stuffed pokemon and clutched it to her chest, crying. How could she have been so stupid as to have doubts? He treasured her stuffed toy as much as she treasured his.

"Blake you dummy!" She whimpered through her tears, unable to stop the enormous smile spreading across her face. "That's cheating, doing something so sneaky!"

Meanwhile, across campus, Blake was occupied in something else significant. They were at one of the large outdoor battlefields, on a piece of grassy flatlands, in order to minimize the damage that Elaina's harmonia might wreak on area around her.

It was nice in theory, anyway.

"Noctre!" Elaina shouted, the wind breaking around her. "Blow them away with hurricane!"

"NOOOOIII!" Noctre roared, flapping her wings and creating a massive blast of wind that blew both the pokemon across from her away, the pokemon crying out in pain as they lost consciousness.

"I knew this was a mistake," one of the trainers sighed, recalling her pokemon.

"We never should have accepted a battle with a monster like that!" Her partner agreed, nodding his head.

Blake sighed, feeling bad for the two of them. He and Elaina had defeated three teams of trainers by this point, and it was just past lunch time.

More like, Elaina had decimated everyone in their way. Fortunately, no one had gotten seriously injured yet. It was practically a miracle. Since her meeting with Marion this morning, Elaina's harmonia was apparently going out of whack. She was trying to stop from going overboard, out of deference to him, but he doubted that would last. More like, her opponents were so weak that none of them had been able to pressure her enough to lose what control she could force down on her abilities. If Elaina fought someone strong enough to push her…

Blake was certain she'd snap, and snap hard. Even after three casual battles, it looked like she was troubled. He couldn't see her face, but her chest was heaving like she was breathing hard, and he could see sweat on her throat.

"Elaina, are you-"

"Let's find more opponents," Elaina snapped. Blake swallowed. Due to the rules of the tournament, you weren't allowed to reject your first official battle of the day. That was the only reason they'd gotten three battles today. NO ONE wanted to fight Elaina Bishop. Certainly not the fledglings who were just here to have fun, and not to really aim to win. And surprisingly, not even the more confident trainers who thought highly of their abilities and wanted to fight challenging trainers wanted to tangle with her.

Elaina Bishop simply altered the rules. Without the compulsory battles, this would have been a rather pointless two weeks.

I really doubt we'll be able to find anyone else who hasn't battled today, Blake felt. And he could tell that Elaina clearly needed to recover, or else she'd probably hurt someone else, or even herself. If only Marion had been able to help…

"Blake!" Elaina said, turning to him. She had already recalled her Noivern and was waiting for him to return Weiss to his pokeball. "We must go find more trainers."

Blake silently returned Weiss to his pokeball and shook his head.

"Sorry, but I think we should take a break," he replied.

"A break," Elaina scowled, though he couldn't see it. "From what? You have been no help in those battles. What do you need a break from?"

"It's not a break for me," Blake replied, giving Elaina a concerned look. "I think you need a break, Elaina, don't you?"

"Nonsense, it's only 2 in the afternoon," Elaina replied. "I don't need anything like a break! Not one of these matches has been close to a challenge for me!"

"Don't you remember what happened the last time you taxed yourself?" Blake demanded, storming over to her. "You can't be serious! Do you want to end up in a coma again? We've beaten three teams now, isn't that enough for the first day?"

"You aren't the one to decide how I'm feeling!" Elaina snorted indignantly, glaring at Blake from behind her mask. "This is my body, Blake, you don't even have harmonia yourself! So what do you know, huh?!"

Blake didn't really know what to say to that.

"Why do you want to fight so badly?" Blake asked. "Didn't you say before, that you didn't want to hurt people? Then why not just take things easily?"

"That's…" Elaina paused. She hadn't even intended to fight in this tournament in the first place, had she? So why did she care now?

"…Sorry," Elaina said, shaking her head, holding her head. It was throbbing with pain. There was something that she felt was driving her, even if she didn't want to fight, it was like she was caught in the surge of the battle, and her mind was hazy. That wasn't good. She shook her head, clearing that fog obscuring her thoughts. With a clear mind, she took another look at the situation and realized that Blake was right, there wasn't really a need for her to keep fighting.

"I'm… I'm a little lost, is all," Elaina admitted, shaking her head again. "Just… you're right, I'm a lot more exhausted than I realized…"

She was swaying. Even though the battles hadn't been that taxing from what it had seemed, clearly they were having an effect of some sort on her.

"What's wrong?!" Blake asked, holding an arm out to steady her. She nearly fell, but clung to his arm for support before she could. "Elaina, are you okay?"

"No, I… my head hurts, I'm feeling dizzy… voices… pokemon voices, they're…" Elaina pushed away from him and wobbled forward, holding her head. He couldn't see her face, but it was clear that she was in pain.

She's getting worse, Blake realized.

"Elaina, I think your harmonia is getting worse," Blake warned her.

"It's not getting worse…" she shook her head to dismiss his concerns. "It's getting… it's getting harder to control… less stable… but worse, no, it…"

"That is worse," Blake said. He reached out to her but she shrank away from him, shaking her head.

"No, just… I'll get it under control. I just need to sleep, recover some energy, then I can…"

She was fine in the battle just now. Blake couldn't help but note the concerning state his tag partner seemed to be in at the moment.

"How's your head?" He asked.

"Agony," Elaina muttered. She sat down on the ground and tucked her legs beneath her body, trying to clear her thoughts. Maybe if she lied down… "I can't… I was fine just now, so why…"

She looked up at him.

"What's happening?" She asked quietly. "Why am… why does my body feel this way? Why is this thing happening to me now?"

She wasn't angry, like she had been moments before. Her tone sounded more like a frightened child asking a parent for help.

But Blake didn't know how to help her. Guinevere hadn't gone through this, not that he could have seen, and he didn't know if his brother had, either. From what she described… had Kitty gone through something similar? If so, he hadn't seen it.

He could really only think of one person they should speak to, and after what had happened this morning, getting Elaina on board with that plan was looking rather unlikely.

"Elaina, we should see Marion," Blake advised her.

"No, not… not her," Elaina said, shaking her head. "This didn't start until we… until she… I think she's the one who did this to me."

The anger was slowly making its way back into her voice as her tone hardened. She rose to her feet, taking a few shaky steps away from him. She was starting to feel better… marginally. Her head was still throbbing, but the bouts of dizziness were starting to shorten and occur less frequently, and the voices had dimmed to barely whispers. If not for the pain, she would have been fine…

"You think Marion did something to you?" Blake asked worriedly.

"No, I don't know… would she?" Elaina was so lost. Why was this happening to her? Another throb of pain caused her to wail, and she nearly lost her balance. Thinking was starting to become really difficult for the girl.

"Marion wouldn't do this on purpose," Blake said. At the same time, though, there was so much about harmonia he didn't know. Could it have been possible, that some sort of feedback between Marion's harmonia and Elaina's had caused Elaina to get screwed up? Marion had seemed strange when they left, and Elaina had been irritable ever since. Blake didn't know enough to say if bringing Elaina to see her again would be a good thing. So what was he going to do, sit here and watch someone fall to pieces right before his eyes?

Blake had another idea. It was a longshot, but when it came to harmonia, anything was possible. And at worst, this was something that Elaina would probably need to reduce the backlash of her harmonia in general, regardless of whether or not it helped her in her current predicament.

"Elaina," Blake said, offering his hand to her. She didn't even turn around to look at him. He walked up behind her and then stepped around so that they were face to mask.

"What?" Elaina whispered. She was shaking. Whether it was out of anger, pain, or fear, Blake couldn't say. Her mask hid all of that. But he was going to ask anyway.

"Can you come back to my room with me?" Blake asked her.

"…What?" Elaina asked incredulously. "Why would you want something like that?"

She doubted that Blake was planning to take advantage of her weakened state to do anything, and besides, he wasn't that kind of person. Was he planning to just ask…?

…No, didn't he have a girlfriend?

"For one thing, you need to lie down," Blake said. "If you don't lie down, then you're going to fall down, and that's really not going to be good. Both my roommates are in the tournament, so they won't mind if you use one of their beds to recover. Just get a nice rest. And besides, there's something I have back in my room that might be able to help."

Elaina was intrigued.

"What are you talking about?"

"My brother… he left me with a box of some special pills," Blake explained. "I don't know exactly how they work, but I was giving them to Kitty while she was getting her powers under control. My brother says they can suppress the more painful side-effects of harmonia as it's developing. They may be able to help your… current issue, and if not, well, your headaches will probably be treated better, don't you think?"

"You would… you would do that?" Elaina asked, her eyes widening behind her mask. She had heard of no such special drug. Gerard had not told her of such a thing. One of the worst parts of her powers, besides turning her into a pariah in the eyes of the world, was the pain and fatigue that came along with it. Could overcoming that… could it really be so simple?

"Of course," Blake said, nodding his head. He smiled in a way that made her heart skip a beat. "I told you I wanted to help you, didn't I?"

"…Then… then if you're right, please…" Elaina whispered, the fog clearing from her mind slightly. "Please take me there…"

"Of course," Blake said. Elaina was having trouble walking, so he let her lean against him to keep her balance. Elaina rested her head on his shoulder. The flush of her face was the exhaustion of her powers, and the weakness in her knees was likely the same.

But the pounding of her heart, she knew that could only be because the feelings that she kept trying to kill off… they kept finding some way to worm themselves back in. More than ever, she wished she could be normal. In her fantasy, being normal would mean Blake's current girlfriend was out of the picture, and Elaina was by his side.

Why couldn't that dream come true?

So Blake and Elaina returning to Blake's room! Clearly, this can only go well for all parties involved.