No reviews again thanks to fanfiction, sad because this is an important chapter and I want to see everyone's thoughts! Oh, well, keep reviewing anyway! And don't forget to vote, time is running out!

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! It's almost done! Only 3 days remaining! Who will be the Pokemon Academy Best Girl?

Finalists: Sango, Ayame, Marion

KedharS: But what if they manage to help her? Sometimes you need to harem for the greater good.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 324

Elaina rose to her feet, reinvigorated. The energy she was feeling right now, it was different than what she was feeling before when she used harmonia. She felt so much more… vital. Not like she was being swallowed, pulled in all directions by her harmonia.

She still felt like she was flying, like her feet would never touch the ground, but this time was different. This time, she felt like she could land if she wanted to.

She didn't know how long she would last like this.

And if that was the case, then she would make the most of her abilities while she could still keep ahold of them.

"Ayer!" Elaina cried, stepping away from Blake. Her harmonia surged up, but unlike before, this time she was giving Ayer the strength to recover and not a sliver more. She could feel a stable bridge between her and her pokemon. Ayer flapped his wings and took to the sky, rocks of energy manifesting around him. He released the ancient power in a wave of stone that rained down upon the two water pokemon.

"Shell, protect yourself!" Sango ordered.

"Mist, dodge with agility!" Maddi ordered as well.

"Weiss!" Blake shouted. "Use bullet punch to get that Seadra! Knock him out of the water!"

Mist dodged through the water, but his considerable speed could not be matched by Weiss, who flew faster than a bullet over the river, swinging his claw, hitting Mist in the side and knocking him out of the water.

"Mist!" Maddi cried out as her pokemon spun through the air. While falling, Mist turned his snout on Ayer, and fired a compressed beam of ice that hit Ayer in the wing, freezing it over. The shimmering stones hit Mist, burying him in a wave of rocks and light, Mist getting knocked out by the ancient power as Ayer fell from the sky.

"Shell, now!" Sango called out, keeping her head clear. Shell's shell swung open and he opened his mouth, water swirling around in front of him. He fired a compressed hydro pump that hit Ayer head-on as he fell, engulfing him in a pressurized blast. Ayer hit the ground hard and skidded back, letting out a pained roar.

"Ayer!" Elaina cried, feeling the pain in her chest. But she didn't let herself lose control; she kept her grip on her power, on her concentration, even as she felt Ayer losing consciousness.

"Elaina, are you okay?" Blake asked. He didn't return to his section of the field, instead remaining at her side.

"I… I'm fine," she said, her head throbbing in pain. The agony still hadn't gone away, but it hadn't overwhelmed her, either. "I haven't… lost control yet."

Blake nodded his head.

"Good," he agreed. "You're ready to keep going?"

Elaina nodded, recalling Ayer. Maddi recalled Mist, as well.

"Mukuro!" Elaina shouted, throwing her last pokeball into the air. Her Decidueye emerged in a whirlwind of feathers, ghostly energy swirling around him as he took to the sky.

"Cynder," Maddi sent out her final pokemon as well, her Cyndaquil. The small fire pokemon landed on the cracked stadium, flames erupting from her back as she lowered her head and prepared to attack. Immediately, Cynder opened her mouth, and sent a blast of flames at Mukuro.

"That won't be fast enough," Elaina scoffed. Mukuro's body faded away and he disappeared completely, the flames passing harmlessly through the space he had been occupying.

"Phantom force to escape, huh?" Maddi asked, already cautious. "Sango, you and Shell be careful as well. We don't know where he's emerging, but since there's two of us, then that means that there are two potential targets."

"Weiss as well," Sango said, narrowing her eyes into a cautious stare at the Scizor. "I've seen him fight more than anyone else, I know what he's capable of."

"Weiss!" Blake said, catching Sango's gaze. "Use double team."

Weiss nodded, creating a series of duplicates that filled the battlefield, flying towards Cynder.

"Cynder, flame wheel," Maddi ordered. Cynder curled up into a ball and flames erupted from her back, rolling into a flaming ball to protect herself from Weiss, and from wherever the Decidueye would be coming from.

Sango cracked a smile. Blake didn't know it, because he wasn't looking for it. And he wasn't looking for it because he didn't have the experience of fighting in hail. But Sango was looking. She knew what she was looking for.

The hail was falling down on the battlefield. It wasn't hitting Mukuro, because he was gone. It wasn't hitting Cynder, because she was melting the ice before it could hit her as she rolled across the battlefield. And it wasn't hitting the duplicates of Weiss, because they were afterimages that weren't really there in the first place.

But it was hitting one of them. Because one of them was real.

And Sango spotted him.

"Shell!" Sango called out. "There!"

She pointed at one of the red pokemon, and Shell spotted him immediately through the crack in his shell. He opened it wide and fired another hydro pump, hitting Weiss in the side and catching him completely off-guard. Weiss had thought he was safe under the double team, and hadn't expected an attack coming from the Cloyster, so he was completely washed aside, the afterimages disappearing with his concentration broken. Weiss endured the pain as best as he could, but Cynder wasn't one to let him get away.

Cynder turned and charged right at Weiss, now knowing where the real one was. Her flame wheel surged up as her power increased and she leapt into the air, spinning straight for Weiss. But she never got there. A powerful strike hit her in the side, ghostly energy surging into her body. She was knocked out of the air and rolled across the ground, her flames sputtering out. She quickly rose to her feet and turned around, sending a stream of flames at Weiss and the newly-reappearing Mukuro to drive them back.

Elaina swiped her hand up and down to soothe the burning feeling, Mukuro's wing feathers also slightly singed.

"Thanks, Elaina," Blake said, glancing at Elaina, who nodded her head.

"Cloyster!" Shell shouted, firing a rain of icicles down upon Mukuro and Weiss.

"Weiss, use bullet punch," Blake ordered. Weiss closed his pincers and unleashed a flurry of fast punches, shattering the icicles raining down on the two pokemon. Mukuro flapped his wings and took to the sky, preparing himself. He had two pokemon he had to take down. One rather weakened, the other not. The problem is, he could only fire off one arrow at a time.

"Blake," Elaina said, turning to Blake. "Have Weiss take care of that Cyndaquil as best as he can, understood?"

Blake nodded.

"But first, that Cloyster."

"Right. Weiss, use flash cannon on the Cloyster!"

"Scizor," Weiss nodded, dodging another ember attack from Cynder. He separated from the small pokemon and raised his pincer, firing a compressed beam of light at Shell. Shell clenched his shell tight around his core, protecting himself from the attack as best as he could. He reverted his focus to Cynder, flapping his wings and flying towards the fire pokemon, using his agility to avoid the ember attacks as he closed the distance quickly.

"Cynder, use flame wheel again," Maddi ordered, Cynder creating a curtain of fire to separate herself from the steel pokemon's attacks. She rolled out of the way as Weiss paused, having served his role as a distraction adequately.

Mukuro and Elaina took this moment to strike. Mukuro tucked his wings in and darted towards the water. Leaves swirled around his body in a tornado of slicing blades, and with a flap of his wings he sent a powerful tornado of wind and leaves that raged across the river, the powerful leaf storm engulfing Shell and tearing into him, the blades so sharp they even managed to score deep gashes into the pokemon's tight shell as they lifted him into the air.

"Shell!" Sango cried, the Cloyster flung into the air.

Shell hit the ground and his shell split open to reveal his core, the pokemon having lost consciousness from the force of the powerful grass type move.

"That was… close…" Elaina said, turning her attention back to Mukuro. "Mukuro, next the Cyndaquil, pin her down with spirit shackle!"

Maddi's mind was racing. She couldn't use smokescreen right now, Decidueye worked better in the darkness than Cynder ever could. That meant she had to rely on Cynder's own evasive abilities. "Cynder, dodge with quick attack!"

Cynder rolled out of the way, just barely managing to miss the shadow arrow about to bury itself in her back.

Sango quickly recalled Shell, and sent out her last pokemon.

"Aurora! Get out there and protect Cynder! Use your aurora veil!"

Aurora emerged with a glimmer of light, snow dancing around her body. A veil of rainbow light wrapped around both her and Cynder, protecting both pokemon from damage. Aurora ran forward and opened her mouth, icy energy gathering between her fangs. She fired an ice beam that hit Mukuro in the back, the flying pokemon letting out a cry of pain as he hit the ground, causing Elaina to let out a wince as well, clenching her shoulder.

"Weiss, get the Ninetales!" Blake ordered. Weiss nodded his head and shot forward with another bullet punch.

That had been the moment Maddi had been waiting for, Weiss having taken his eyes off of Cynder completely. Weiss shot forward and hit Aurora in the face, the ice pokemon leaping back to retain her advantage. Weiss took a second to follow after her, and that second was all Cynder needed to fire a series of ghostly fireballs at Weiss, hitting the pokemon in the back with a will-o-wisp attack and inflicting him with a powerful burn.

"Scizor!" Weiss cried in pain, the burns on his scales weakening him considerably while also inflicting agonizing pain.

"Weiss!" Blake cried out.

"Phew," Sango sighed in relief. "Nice work with the burn, Maddi. Even with the aurora veil, that bullet punch did way more damage than it should have. Weiss isn't a pokemon to take lightly."

"Cynder, follow with a will-o-wisp on that Decidueye as well," Maddi ordered. Cynder opened her mouth and fired another barrage of fireballs at Mukuro.

"Don't let her," Blake shouted. Weiss shot forward and jumped in the way of the fireballs, the will-o-wisp attack harmlessly bouncing off his scaled body. He was already burned, so the attack didn't do anything.

"That won't work," Elaina said. "Mukuro!"

Hearing Elaina's silent order, Mukuro sunk deep into the shadows and shot towards Cynder, emerging from the darkness and striking her in the stomach, flinging her into the air.

"Aurora!" Sango shouted, calling Aurora to attention. "Get both of them! Use your blizzard attack!"

Aurora ran forward, placing herself between Cynder and the two enemy pokemon, the hail swirling around her and growing in power. She sent the snow swirling in a massive storm towards Mukuro and Weiss, engulfing them in a wave of freezing wind.

"Weiss!" Blake cried out. Weiss braced himself against the cold, wishing that the freezing wind would soothe his burns, but somehow it made them worse. The force of the blizzard was so intense, Weiss couldn't even move forward. It was all he could do to resist being knocked backwards.

Elaina shivered, the cold Mukuro felt sending a chill down her spine. But the chill was already disappearing, so she was less worried. The blizzard had hit Mukuro, but before it could seriously injure him, she had ordered her pokemon to vanish into the darkness with phantom force, completely avoiding the attack. This had the side-effect of Weiss taking the brunt of the blizzard, but that was fine with Elaina. She was planning a much more damaging attack.

The blizzard died down, showing a half-frozen Scizor, but no Decidueye. In that fraction of a second Maddi knew what had happened, but in that fraction of a second Mukuro had already attack.

"Decidueye," Mukuro murmured, appearing behind Cynder. With a slash of ghostly power, she struck Cynder in the side and sent her flying into Aurora, knocking both pokemon back. Mukuro landed on the ground, panting, slightly weakened from being hit by the blizzard but fully able to keep fighting.

"Cynder!" Maddi cried out.

"Aurora!" Sango shouted as well.

Aurora rose to her feet, not that injured thanks to her aurora veil. Cynder was less lucky, having been knocked unconscious by the phantom force attack. Even with the protection of aurora veil, Mukuro's attack was too powerful. Elaina had put far too much power into it. And yet, just enough to not cause him any more damage than needed to knock him out.

How much power does that girl have? Maddi asked herself, recalling Cynder. She was out of the match now.

"Maddi!" Sango cried out. Maddi shook her head.

"I'm out," she replied. "You keep your head in the game, it's up to you now!"

"R-right," Sango said, nodding. "Aurora, ice beam!"

Aurora opened her mouth and fired a beam of ice at Mukuro, who flew out of the way.

"Weiss, return," Blake said, recalling his weakened Scizor. Weiss could still keep fighting, but in his current state there wasn't a need to press him further. He still had a third pokemon he could make use of, after all.

"Maria, go!" Blake sent out his final pokemon, his Mareanie. The perfect pokemon for fighting against a fairy type. At least, he hoped she could.

"Marea!" Maria chirped, landing on the ground.

"Maria, use poison sting," Blake ordered. Marea puffed her cheeks up and spat a barrage of poisoned needles at Aurora.

"Ice shard!"

Aurora opened her mouth and quickly fired chunks of ice that intercepted the poison, staying quick on her feet to account for the Decidueye flying overhead.

This is bad, Sango frowned. She wasn't sure if she and Aurora could handle two pokemon at once.

"Toxic spikes," Blake ordered. Maria stuck her tentacles out and fired poisonous spikes out of her mouth, and released her spines as well, covering the field with caltrops that hemmed in Aurora's movements, the ice pokemon slowing to a stop.

"We can't get poisoned, Aurora!" Sango shouted. "Use your safeguard!"

Aurora nodded, light shimmering around her body and overlaying upon her aurora veil, her defenses not only boosted, but she was protected from status conditions as well. She could put up with the pain of the spikes without the poison. She moved to run, only to realize… she was trapped in place!

"Nine!" Aurora gasped, struggling to move. But she couldn't. An arrow had buried itself in the ground at her feet, pinning down her shadow. And with her shadow captured, she couldn't move a muscle.

"Aurora!" Sango cried.

"We didn't need the toxic spikes to poison you," Blake told Sango. "We just needed that Ninetales of yours to stop running for a moment."

"With spirit shackle, your Ninetales' movements have been completely sealed," Elaina said. "Now, Mukuro! Use brave bird!"

Energy began coursing through Mukuro's body. Elaina sent a surge of power into him through her harmonia, building this attack as powerful as she could.

"Elaina, is this a good idea?" Blake asked, worried for her health.

"I'm fine," Elaina said. "Right now, that Ninetales is trapped. We need to solve this with a decisive blow, while it can't land an ice beam or a blizzard!"

Indeed, Mukuro was taking special care to stay out of Aurora's reach, keeping to her back where she couldn't attack. He continued to build up power, tucking his wings in and diving forward, flying like a bullet towards Aurora. Energy surged around him and his body began glowing green. He spread his wings wide and slammed into Aurora with a powerful brave bird, hitting Aurora with enough power to knock her free from the spirit shackles. The recoil damage on Elaina was immense, and she fell to her knee, coughing, holding her stomach.

Aurora's aurora veil shattered and she rolled across the ground over the spikes, letting out a cry of pain. The attack was more damaging than she could have imagined, and she tried to stand, but could not. She'd been hit by a single attack, but it was enough to knock her out in one blow, Mukuro nearly losing consciousness with her. Mukuro landed on the ground, panting, badly injured by the recoil. Both he and his trainer were in bad shape. But they had won.

"Sorry, Aurora," Sango sighed, recalling her Ninetales. She didn't feel bad. She'd done her best. Sango smiled slightly. Blake looked happy. She had fought this battle so he could see her fighting for himself, to test herself against him and show him, but somewhere down the line it had become about Elaina and her harmonia. And now it looked like she was okay, even if only slightly.

Blake recalled Maria, and Elaina returned Mukuro to his pokeball as well, her connection severing. She felt weak, and her head was killing her. But she had managed to do it. She had kept control of her harmonia. She wasn't cured, but… this was a step, at least.

"Blake!"

Blake turned to see Ayame run up to him. She threw her arms around him into a hug. Her face was pale with worry.

"Ay-Ayame?" Blake sputtered.

"Are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?" Ayame demanded. She knew all about the injuries battles with harmonia users could result in.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," Blake said. He turned his attention to Elaina. "Elaina, are you okay?"

"I'm drained…" Elaina muttered. She knelt down to her purse, discarded on the ground, and took a pill from it. Keeping her back to the others, she adjusted her mask's positioning to bare her mouth, and gulped down the pill, relief surging through her. She let out a sigh, and refit her mask to her face, standing back up.

Elaina turned back to Blake. She was mobile, but clearly exhausted.

"Would you mind… if I went home early today?" Elaina requested quietly. "I'm rather… exhausted, so… I would like to take a rest. If that's okay with you?"

"Of course," Blake said, nodding. He held his hand out to her. She shook it.

"I'll contact you tomorrow," Elaina said. She turned and walked off.

"…She's not how I expected," Ayame said, Blake returning his attention to her. Ayame's face was filled with a mix of jealousy and sympathy. "She seemed so strong before, and yet… she looks so small right now."

"Blake! Ayame!" Sango jogged up to the two, the couple turning their attention to her. Silver followed after her, returning to his normal form as the hail clouds parted to make room for the sun.

"Sango! You aren't injured either, aren't you?" Ayame asked.

Sango shook her head. She turned her attention to Blake.

"So what did you think?" Sango asked. "I fought my hardest, didn't I?"

"I'll say you did!" Ayame nodded in agreement. "That was fucking awesome! At least the parts I saw! I thought you didn't do pokemon battles?"

"I'm learning," Sango said, blushing, relishing in the praise. "Maddi is teaching me some."

She turned and looked over her shoulder, where Maddi was standing impatiently. She looked back to Blake. He was the one whose thoughts she wanted to hear.

"Blake? What did you think?" Sango asked.

Blake cracked a smile.

"You really made me sweat," Blake said. "That was a really great battle, even with what happened in the middle."

Sango's eyes widened and she beamed from ear to ear, flustering under his kind words. Ayame felt a ping in her heart. She could see that Sango still clearly adored Blake, and her heart went out to the girl, whose heart had been broken.

"Sango," Maddi cleared her throat. "Leave the lovebirds alone. Let's go heal up my pokemon."

"Oh, r-right," Sango said, flustered. She nodded her head eagerly, and followed after Maddi, waving goodbye to Ayame and Blake.

Blake turned to Ayame, and she caught a look of guilt in his eyes.

"Ayame, about me and Elaina-"

"It's fine," Ayame cut him off, shaking her head. She smiled at him, batting her eyelashes, her face flushing. "I'm not jealous or anything, don't worry."

"You sure?" Blake asked. Ayame nodded her head.

"You, uh… earlier you called me 'Aya', so…" Ayame couldn't stop herself from squirming, her face aflame with joy.

"O-oh, I did?" Blake said, averting his eyes from hers. "Sorry, I-"

"No! Please!" Ayame said, shaking her head. "You can call me Aya! You can absolutely call me that! I-I want you to call me that…"

Ayame giggled like the schoolgirl she was, twirling a lock of hair in her hands as she looked down at him with a wide smile revealing her shiny teeth.

"Can… can you call me Aya from now on?"

Blake blushed,

"That… that was just a sudden outburst, I mean, I didn't really think," Blake babbled, still a little embarrassed to call her by her nickname. Before he did it all the time to get her Gogoat, but now that she wanted it, it suddenly became a lot more… intimate.

"So you don't want to?" She asked sadly.

He absolutely wanted to. But it was embarrassing.

"I-I guess, we could try it," He said, unable to meet her hopeful gaze. Her face brightened and she threw her arms around him in a tight hug.

Meanwhile, Elaina returned to her room. She was exhausted, and her headache was returning. She needed to take a nap. She set her mask aside and took another pill, drowsiness slowly creeping into her. She laid back on her bed and drifted off to sleep, awakening in her room seconds later.

She wasn't alone.

Standing over her bed, staring intently at her, was a girl in a white dress with a face identical to her own, and yet… Elaina could see in her eyes that she was someone else entirely.

Elaina scooted back, half-confused and half-scared. This had to have been a dream. There was no other explanation. She calmed her pounding heart.

"Who-? What…?" Elaina sputtered, shaking her head, fumbling for her mask. But as she reached towards her dresser, it pulled away from her, her room stretching out so that it was out of reach of her desperate fingers.

"Who are you?" Elaina whispered, the girl climbing onto the bed.

The girl cracked a smile.

"You know who I am," she whispered in a voice that was both Elaina's and not.

Well, that's nice. We managed to get for ourselves a happy ending. But what's going on with Elaina? Who is this?