Here it comes! The battle of hearts you've been waiting for, Ayame vs. Elaina, the matchup to figure out who will win Blake's heart! …Ayame. Ayame won Blake's heart. As for the battle? Well, we'll have to see that for ourselves, now won't we?

KedharS: Well, hopefully things will go better for her.

Pokemonking0924: We can always hope.

Aquahaze675: Maybe she has a plan. Maybe it's Maybelline.

Hellraiserphoenix: It should an interesting battle, and one filled with surprises.

Thunder Fire: Definitely, and that's not the only surprise I've got in store.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 341

"Are… are you guys sure that doing this here is a good idea?" Sango shivered, looking around worriedly. They were standing in the field outside of Pikachu House. It wasn't an official battlefield or anything like that. Honestly, Sango was a little worried she'd find herself caught up in this whole thing. It didn't seem like a good turn of events.

Please be okay, Ayame… Sango wished. A chill ran down her spine as she remembered what Sylvia had whispered to her that morning.

"Who knows? If you keep an open mind, opportunity could strike at any time."

Sango held her hand over her mouth and resisted the urge to throw up. She couldn't believe that the thought had crossed her mind even for a moment, but it was the fault of that blasted Sylvia Driscoll, who put it there.

The idea that she could think Ayame would get killed and that would free up Blake… the moment it crossed her mind she felt sick to her stomach. That horrid woman, trying to get her to imagine an outcome like that?! If anything happened to Ayame, Sango would be crying as hard as anyone.

"AYAME!" Sango shouted. "You can do it!"

Ayame blinked and glanced back at Sango, giving her a thumbs up.

"I'm back."

Sango turned her head to see Maddi walk out of the Pikachu House. She had gone with Duskull to put away the stuff she had picked out, but now she was coming back by herself.

"Where's Duskull?" Sango asked worriedly. "Is it alright to leave him on his own right now?"

"I wasn't bringing him here, that's for sure," Maddi replied. "I'm not letting him get injured in this fight. And at the same time… I couldn't just not watch this."

Maddi narrowed her eyes, staring at the two girls in front of her from behind her bangs.

Sango understood where Maddi was coming from. She was really worried herself. The atmosphere around Elaina and Ayame was chilling.

But still, I had no idea that Elaina felt that way about Blake… Sango blushed a little. It was surprising. She knew that Blake was close to her, but that Elaina actually…

Sango shook her head frantically.

What are you even getting concerned over?! Blake already has Ayame you dunce!

"Sango."

Maddi looked at Sango pointedly.

"Hmm?"

"You can put the pokemon food down now."

Sango looked down at the heavy bag in her hands, realizing she'd been carrying it the entire time. She laughed sheepishly and dropped it into the snow with slushing sound.

"Thanks." Maddi immediately sat down on the cushion to avoid sitting in the snow.

Sango seethed at the girl.

"Well? Ready to do this?" Ayame called.

"Pathetic," Elaina scoffed, shaking her head. Her rage fueled the wind roaring around her. Her head was already throbbing in pain, the symptoms from earlier coming back with a vengeance as she forced her power out. That didn't bode well, but she didn't care any longer.

"You sure you're okay?" Ayame asked. "Because you look like you're about to collapse."

"Excuses," Elaina growled at her. "Noctre! Go!"

"Yeah, I know that one," Ayame said, rolling her eyes. "Isn't that always your first move? How predictable."

Still… that one's a tough one, she had to admit. Elaina always made the same opening gambit, because it had a good chance of working.

That Noivern might be recovered… but another battle, after that last one? Has her stamina improved, any, I wonder?

Ayame cracked a smile.

"We'll start off strong ourselves, then!" She declared. "Snows, come on out!"

Ayame threw out her first pokeball, and her Glalie emerged. He opened his mouth and roared, a blast of cold air blowing across the battlefield.

"Ooh, an ice type, nice choice to start with," Maddi nodded in acknowledgment.

"Yeah, but that Noivern has fire moves," Sango reminded her.

"Noctre, melt that snowball into slush!" Elaina growled.

"Nooooii!" Noctre howled, her mouth opening wide. A blast of flames erupted from her maw, licking across the battlefield and towards the floating ice pokemon.

"Hah! Like we didn't see that fucking coming!" Ayame laughed. "Snows, use double team!"

"Glalie!" Snows moved from side to side with extraordinary speed, and suddenly a single floating head became a dozen, then two dozen, then dozens more than that. The flames passed harmlessly through one of the duplicates, flying over Ayame's head.

"Snows can dodge snowball fastballs thrown at quadruple speed by precision-trained Machamps," Ayame boasted. "Don't think you can hit him that easily!"

"You think those things mean a damn to me?" Elaina scoffed. "Harmless copies don't matter in the least! Noctre! If you can't hit the right one, we'll just have to settle for hitting all of them at once! Blow those pests away with your hurricane!"

"Noivern!" Noctre roared, flapping her wings. She created a massive tornado around her body that swept up snow and ice from the skies and the ground, turning into a whirling maelstrom of destructive icy wind. The hurricane roared across the battlefield, engulfing the copies one after another in its raging torrent.

Here it comes, Ayame winced, bracing herself. Blake wasn't here to keep Elaina under control, so she was firing at Ayame on all cylinders.

"Ayame, run!" Sango exclaimed.

Ayame blinked.

Oh, yeah, right.

Ayame whirled around and booked it from the approaching wind storm, which struck where she had been standing and continued to roar past where she had thrown herself aside to dodge.

"What?!" Elaina gasped, stunned at what was in front of her.

"Surprised?" Ayame grinned, picking herself up out of the snow drift. "You didn't think we could see that one coming, too?"

Green barriers of light shimmered around the pack of Glalie, protecting the pokemon from the hurricane.

"Our evasion isn't the only tactic we've got up our sleeve!" Ayame chortled. "When it comes to defenses, our protective skills will help us block your hurricane!"

"Maybe, but that tactic will only work once," Elaina spat.

"Sango, Madison, I almost forgot- what?!"

Serefina had run up to the two, her boobs bouncing in her jacket as she approached. She reacted in shock when she came across the battle, though, it certainly wasn't what she'd been expecting.

"Serefina?" Sango asked, surprised, glancing over at her. "What's up?"

But whatever Serefina had planned to tell them was forgotten.

"Elaina Bishop?!" Serefina gaped at the masked girl. "And, wait, is that… Ayame?!"

"Oh! Serefina!" Ayame cheered, her face brightening. She waved across the battlefield at the large-breasted caretaker. "Hey! What's up? You come to watch?"

"Ayame what are you doing?!" Serefina exclaimed, storming towards her.

"Hey, we're in the middle of-"

"You shut up right now!" Serefina interrupted Elaina, shooting her a cold glare chilling enough to even give Elaina pause.

Seeing that Elaina wasn't going to get in her way, Serefina stormed over to Ayame and jammed her finger in the girl's coat.

"Are you insane?! You JUST got out of the hospital! What are you thinking, fighting Elaina Bishop?! Don't you know what happened to Akira when he fought her?!"

"I didn't 'just' get out, I got out months ago!" Ayame protested.

"And what, you're so enthusiastic to go back?! Maybe you want to spend your birthday party in intensive care, is that it?!"

Sango and Maddi blanched at her continued outbursts. Serefina was scary when she was concerned for someone.

"Aww, you're so cute for being concerned about me," Ayame giggled, patting her on the cheek. "But you don't need to get in the middle of this. Thanks for caring, but I'm going to be doing my best and taking care of the first years, okay? So just watch!"

"Are you mental?!" Serefina exclaimed.

Ayame gave a half-hearted shrug and a look that was filled with both reluctance and resolution, there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Sorry Serefina, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," Ayame said. She glanced aside at her Glalie and smiled. "Besides, Snows's condition is pretty good, he's all set to be doing his best, just you watch me."

Serefina knew that Ayame was being stubborn and stupid.

But she also knew that a stubborn and stupid Ayame couldn't be reasoned with, and there wasn't anything she could do.

She sighed.

"I'm gonna call a nurse," she huffed. "I don't want another friend getting hospitalized due to pokemon battles."

"Thanks Serefina! You're the best!" Ayame giggled, waving to her as she walked back to Sango and Maddi, her arms crossed angrily under her round chest.

"So, uh, Serefina…" Sango tried reaching out to the girl.

"What?" Serefina snapped, raising her eyebrow and giving a snide look at the girls. Her expression softened, and she sighed.

"Is… is Ayame gonna be alright?" Sango asked worriedly.

"In the head? No, she was always this fucking stupid," Serefina grumbled, rubbing her temples in frustration.

"No, I mean… she's a caretaker, right? Even though she's training for the Pokeathlon, it's not like she can really give Elaina a fight, right?" Sango asked, her voice trembling as she stared worriedly at the tall girl on the other side of the battlefield. Truthfully she wanted to be cheering behind Ayame, but, well… against an opponent like Elaina that wasn't very healthy, so Ayame would understand, right? Sango was still cheering, after all!

"She might be a caretaker, but…" Serefina sighed. "Ayame isn't some amateur, I'll tell you that much. Just watch."

"Are you done?" Elaina scowled behind her mask.

"Annoyed to see someone talking with a friend?" Ayame asked.

Elaina's eye twitched, a physical response of irritation to Ayame's question that went unseen by everyone.

"If you want friends to talk to you just have to ask, you know," Ayame reminded her. Even though she knew it wasn't exactly true, she wanted to provide Elaina with some degree of kind assurance. Ayame wanted to be her friend, at the very least, and she knew that Blake wanted to, as well. Elaina wasn't nearly as isolated as she would like to believe.

"Ridiculous, concerning yourself with something like that!" Elaina roared. "I figured it out already, you know! I don't need something like that! Things like friends, love, they're all things that are beyond my reach! That's why… that's why I put on this mask! To remind myself every moment that I don't belong in that world, not as long as I'm a freak like this!"

Ayame shook her head sadly. It seems like there was just no use trying to get through to her with words, no matter how hard she tried.

Maybe she'll listen after I beat her, and show her that her strength isn't everything, Ayame hoped. It's the best I can do.

"She won't be able to use that protect strategy twice in a row!" Elaina growled. "Noctre, blow those Glalie away with another hurricane!"

"NOIVERN!" Noctre felt her body surging with power as Elaina's harmonia roared back stronger than ever. Elaina could feel the tug of her pokemon pulling her in, and she let herself go, not resisting even a little. She could feel the power coursing through Noctre, she could see what Noctre saw! Everything about her became a part of Noctre, trainer and pokemon united in purpose to destroy the enemy standing in front of them.

Elaina's eyes suddenly throbbed with intense pain. She could see nothing but white.

"Yaargh!" Elaina cried, clutching her face in agony as she stumbled back. Noctre let out a roar, thrashing around. Snow and ice had hit her in the eyes, temporarily blinding her.

"Right on target!" Ayame cheered. "Way to go with that ice shard, Snows!"

"Whoa! That move was so fast I didn't even see it!" Sango gasped.

"That's the Speed and Skill stats that Ayame has spent so much time cultivating," Serefina explained.

"Speed I get, but Skill?" Maddi asked, confused.

"In Pokeathlons, pokemon's stats for battle aren't what are important," Serefina replied. "The five qualities they judge a pokemon's performance on are Speed, Skill, Jumping, Power, and Stamina. Normally, Glalie are focused in Power and Stamina. But Ayame trained her Glalie up well to make him as well-rounded as possible. It helps that a Glalie's natural stats for battling are all balanced at 80, making it an easy transition."

"Well, yeah, of course he's well-rounded, he's a big floating golf ball," Sango replied.

Serefina and Maddi gave Sango an aside glance like she was an idiot. Sango quickly shut her mouth and let the two get back to talking about things that Sango had no authority on, pokemon stats and Pokeathlons."

"Wait, so she just equally distributed the effort values she trained her pokemon with?" Maddi gaped. That was asinine. NO ONE who was serious about training pokemon to fight would do something that brazenly foolish. "But… but that's ridiculous!"

"Ayame doesn't care much for battling," Serefina shrugged. "She wanted her Glalie to be an anchor for her team, capable of any event. So she trained him up to be balanced. And now he's totally well-rounded."

"But she won't win a battle that way!" Maddi protested.

Serefina smirked.

"It's because he's so balanced that he has a chance, actually."

Maddi blinked.

"Huh?"

"Did you see how strong that ice shard was?" Serefina asked. "Even though it was a critical hit, with quadruple effectiveness, do you see how much damage it did?"

Maddi glanced at the thrashing Noivern, and she could see how much damage the blinding attack had inflicted. It looked like Noctre had been hit with a blizzard! It was incredibly more powerful than an ice shard had any right to be, even in the hail!

"But… but what, how?" Maddi stuttered. It was rare that she was caught off-guard like this.

"You probably can't tell," Serefina chuckled. "I barely can. But Ayame? Ayame can see it, clearly as day. Because she spends all her free time taking care of those beloved little round pokemon of hers, keeping them in peak performance."

"Peak performance, sure, but I still don't see how."

"It's in her Glalie's ability," Serefina explained.

Maddi blinked, and then her eyes widened.

"Oh!"

Serefina nodded in confirmation.

"What? What 'oh'?" Sango asked, confused. She didn't get what Maddi had realized.

"Snows's ability is the ability 'Moody'," Serefina explained. "At any given time, one of his stats will increase by several levels and another stat will drop. The problem with Moody is that you can't always be sure what stats will alter, and when. So it's a very unpredictable ability to use in battle."

"Agreed," Maddi nodded. "You have to have a lot of experience to make use of a pokemon with Moody. But Ayame isn't a battler."

"No, but she balanced her Glalie's stats," Serefina reminded her. "And she takes special care to maintain his condition at all times. She said earlier that her Glalie's condition was pretty good. I'm guessing that means she saw that his attack stat had been boosted by Moody this time."

"So because he Glalie's stats are equal, she can tell at just a glance when his mood shifts, and what changes in his stats have occurred?" Maddi asked, stunned. "That's amazing! I don't believe it! So she can adjust her tactics depending on what his condition is!"

"It's how she uses him in Pokeathlons," Serefina agreed. "If he's feeling particularly attacking focused she puts him in a Power Event, if his defenses have boosted she sends him into Stamina Events, and for speed, well, Speed, of course."

"Even with my memory I don't know if I could do that," Maddi admitted.

"It's because she takes such good care of her pokemon," Serefina said, her voice brimming with admiration. "She can tell with just a glance. She might be competing in Pokeathlons, but really that girl is a great caretaker herself."

Sango nodded. She didn't understand everything they were talking about, but what Serefina just said? She got that. She thought back to her interactions with Ayame, and how the older girl always treated her with such care and affection, even when they were rivals in love.

Yeah, she really is a sweet and caring girl, huh? Sango thought, a small smile crossing her lips.

His Attack just rose and his Defense fell," Ayame noted. Time for more fighting, and… oh?

She got a second look at his condition, and a smile crossed her face.

Evasion decrease and Accuracy increase this time, huh? Well, that made this a lot easier.

"Elaina!" Ayame shouted, Elaina raising her head. Her connection had weakened, and her vision was only slightly blurry. Noctre was brushing the chunks of snow and ice out of his eyes as well.

A chill ran down Sango's spine and she shivered.

"Did… did anyone else just feel really, really cold just now?" Sango asked.

"Yeah, even more than before," Maddi murmured, vapor streaming from her mouth.

"I think the temperature dropped," Serefina agreed, wrapping her arms around her body and hugging herself.

"Sever your connection right now," Ayame ordered her.

"What?! Are you mad?" Elaina scoffed. "We're just now getting ready to finish you off!"

Rather than weakening, her harmonia flared back up, Noctre rising to her feet as well. Her vision was blurry and she was panting in pain, but wind was roaring around her.

"I mean it," Ayame warned. "You might not be able to handle the shock!"

"Even if I cared enough to bother, that point passed a long time ago!" Elaina exclaimed. "You think you can stand up to us?! Ridiculous! Noctre, don't let him get the drop on you this time, rip him apart."

"…Then, sorry. Just try to hold on," Ayame pleaded with her. "Snows, do it."

The temperature dropped even more, and now the girls felt like they were lying in the snow, naked. The sky darkened overhead as the clouds gathered together even more tightly, icy winds roaring around them.

"This is…" Serefina gulped.

"What? What is it?" Sango asked.

"Yeah, she's really doing it," Maddi agreed.

"What's she doing?!" Sango exclaimed. "Not a lot of experience with battles, guys, I don't know what's happening here!"

"Sheer cold," Ayame whispered, the cold wind roaring across the battlefield in a blast of ice and snow that overwhelmed even the destructive force of Noctre's hurricane attack. Her winds were beaten away and consumed, the destructive chilling power swallowing Noctre up whole.

Elaina felt her heart stop momentarily and she nearly hit the ground, feeling her body slip away from her as she felt her body freezing solid through Noctre, the attack completely wiping out her pokemon in a single hit.

I can't be the only one who read this chapter and thought "wow, Ayame actually knows how to fight?" This is how a caretaker handles things, she's no amateur, that's for sure. Olympic training wins over prepping for fistfights.