Here's another breather chapter! We check in on Julia for a little while in this one, and we also get a look at how Cynthia and Caelia are doing! Will Cynthia be able to keep things going well with her teammate, or will Caelia's irrationality and obsession make things difficult? We can only hope that things will go well.
KedharS: Well, they might accomplish some more in the future chapters, just not now.
Thunder Fire: Well, this is a pretty prestigious school, training up the best of the best in the field of pokemon. It makes sense that the highest trainers in the school would be forming a lot of connections in their fields.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 348
"So, how are you getting along with Sharpedo?" Marion asked, walking out to where Julia was watching the Sharpedo in his tank.
"No idea," Julia said, looking back to her. "It was only this morning we were taking care of his tank, you know."
"Long day," Marion said, stretching, looking up at the darkening sky. "How did it go?"
"Rough," Julia said, kneeling in the snow and staring intently at the shadowed pokemon in the tank. "There were some hard experiences. I won all my other matches today, but at the beginning of the day I had a major loss. I fought against Elaina Bishop."
"…You too, huh?" Marion murmured, walking over to Julia and sitting down next to her. "It's been a rough day for me, too. I had my own encounter with her."
"I fought her in order to figure out more about harmonia," Julia said. She turned to Marion. "I wanted to get to know more about it. How I could connect to Kitty, who has it."
"…And what did you learn?"
"When I fought against her, I was really scared at first," Julia said. "See, I fought her once before. And she hurt me really bad, broke my arm. I thought I was strong enough to move past it, but I was still scared when I was staring down all that power again."
"…Understandable," Marion said, nodding. "Harmonia is very frightening to be on the other side of. It can hurt, cause pain to both pokemon and trainer. If someone doesn't have control over their powers, the effects can be devastating."
There was a lull of silence as Marion stared into the dark waters of the tank.
"…So is that what you learned?" Marion asked quietly. "To fear the abilities of those who have harmonia?"
"…No," Julia said, shaking her head. "I'm not afraid of her anymore."
"…Oh?" Marion asked, her eyes widening. She turned to Julia and gave her an interesting look. "You aren't? What do you mean?"
"When I was fighting her, I was scared," Julia explained. "But then she started… I guess the word is breaking down."
"Breaking down?"
"She got angry, upset, her powers went wild. Not like before, when she was lashing out at me, this time she was completely losing control," Julia explained. "It was like she was scared and hurt, not someone to be scared of."
"…I see," Marion said, nodding. "So you aren't afraid of her anymore?"
"Not anymore," Julia confirmed. "Right now, though, I'm just angry at her."
"Angry?" Marion asked, curious.
"Blake was trying to help her, and she kept pushing him away," Julia grumbled. "Even though she was going wild, he kept trying, and she kept rejecting him. Then she ran off… I don't understand why she keeps doing stuff like that. It seems like Blake wants to help her, but she doesn't want his help, and every time she rejects it it's like she's making things worse for everybody. I really pisses me off! Why can't she just let him be there for her?! If she's in trouble, she should just let someone who cares for her be there for her! It's not that hard, damn it!"
Marion stared silently at her with her clear blue eyes, looking at the discomfort and worry on Julia's face.
"Are you really talking about Elaina right now?" She asked.
Julia winced, before her face hardened.
"Of course I-"
"Elaina and Kitty aren't the same," Marion said quietly. Julia flinched at that observation.
"That-that's not what-"
"I think it is what you meant," Marion corrected her. Julia bit her lip, staring down at the snow, which was much darker thanks to the approaching night.
"I'm more worried for her now than ever before," Julia said. "Before I was worried that she would be hurt by using her harmonia in battle, now… now I'm concerned that her harmonia might drive her off the deep end like it did to Elaina. I just… I just want to help her, but she keeps pushing me off and keeping me at a distance. I know you said that I need to understand why for myself, but it just isn't making any sense to me."
"Elaina and Kitty aren't the same," Marion repeated, placing her hand on Julia's shoulder. "Kitty has better control of her abilities than Elaina does, because Kitty isn't trying to run from them, she isn't trying to run from anything. She isn't even trying to run from you."
"She sure feels that way," Julia grumbled.
Marion shook her head.
"She's not running from you. She's running towards you," Marion explained. "I know it might not look that way. But she's changing and growing, she's not going to be the same shy girl that she used to be. I've gotten to know her very well over the last few weeks, and I've learned a lot about how she used to be, and who she wants to be. Kitty has begun to accept who she is, are you ready to accept who she is yourself?"
"Of course I am!" Julia insisted.
"Then what about this Sharpedo?" Marion asked, gesturing towards the shark pokemon in the tank. "Are you ready to accept him for who he is?"
"What do you mean?" Julia asked, not sure what Mairon meant by accepting the Sharpedo. She didn't have anything against the pokemon, after all.
Marion shook her head.
"I guess you're not ready yet," she sighed, rising to her feet. "I hope the moment will come when you can accept that Sharpedo for who he is, and when you do, I think you'll finally be able to understand Kitty."
Julia scowled. Marion kept saying that, but she still didn't understand. She wanted to go talk to Kitty right now, but Kitty had asked her for her space.
This must be what Blake feels like when he tries to reach out to Elaina and she keeps pushing him away, Julia thought, remembering what had happened that day with Elaina. She hoped that Kitty wouldn't end up the same.
I just… I just want us to be like we were before…
She looked into the Sharpedo's tank, but the water pokemon's shiny red eyes reflected no sympathy for her plight.
Julia had separated from Reiner early, but across campus, another team had stuck together through thick and thin the entire day.
Cynthia stretched, yawning. It was a late night. They had racked up a lot of wins today, and were quite clearly in the lead by a wide margin. According to the leaderboard, Blake and Elaina also were undefeated, the only ones who were, but Cynthia had gotten way more wins than they had. Apparently, that team didn't participate in even close to the same number of matches. Cynthia smirked at that thought.
Probably because Blake is spending too much time with his girlfriend, she bitterly noted, finding the whole thing sardonically amusing. But it irked her that BLAKE was able to find someone and she couldn't. It wasn't fair! Every time she saw him and his super-hot girlfriend flirting it up across campus it just made her so mad!
And to make it worse, he couldn't be satisfied with just one hottie, no, he also got to team up with Elaina Bishop, who, in spite of her scariness and danger (which kinda made her a whole lot hotter in Cynthia's eyes, no lie) had one of the most rocking bodies Cynthia had ever seen. Blake had chosen that smokeshow over her, and she was, like, his best friend! They were the perfect pairing! So why hadn't he picked her?
She wasn't bitter. Why would she be bitter? She was so, totally, NOT bitter. So, Blake chose another girl over her! So what?!
She didn't want to be his girlfriend anyway!
…Tag team partner. She didn't want to be his tag team partner. If she was his tag team partner then she wouldn't be able to battle him, after all! So she hadn't wanted to be on the same team with him! It wouldn't make sense for her to want to do that! She liked battling Blake! They were rivals, it wouldn't have made sense for her to want to team up with him and fight at his side, she would want to fight against him! No way did she want to give that up to spend all day hanging out with Blake and battling at his side! So of course she didn't want to be his tag team partner! She didn't want to be his tag team partner at all! That was it. Nothing else.
…Fuck you.
Cynthia glanced across the table at the girl she had chosen for her teammate.
Caelia Auburn.
The two of them were eating dinner. Well, Cynthia was eating dinner. Caelia was mindless shoveling some mushy soup into her mouth. She wasn't looking up, they weren't speaking, it was barely even something that could be considered "getting dinner together".
But there was a reason for it.
Sango and Cynthia were worried. Really worried. Caelia… there was something off about her. She was obsessive about Blake. To an insane degree. Cynthia had watched a lot of anime, and she knew perfectly well what a yandere was. And this Caelia seemed to fit the bill. She hadn't gone, like, "psycho-yandere smile" yandere, but Cynthia wasn't even 100% sure that Caelia knew how to smile.
So Cynthia was having dinner with her. Because as long as they were hanging out together, Caelia wouldn't be sniffing around Blake, which meant that she wouldn't find out about Blake's relationship with Ayame, which meant that she wouldn't go on a psycho-killing spree, which would be in all their best interests.
She might not like that Blake and Ayame were dating, but that didn't mean she wanted anything to happen to her. She liked Ayame as a person, she was a cool girl.
She just didn't like the fact that she was dating Blake, and taking up all his free time. They'd barely hung out at all since he started dating the track star.
"Hey, Caelia, what are you doing after this?" Cynthia asked. She was gonna try and keep Caelia's attention occupied, but more importantly, she wanted to get to know the fire trainer a little better. Caelia was a little odd, certainly, and in their time together Cynthia had grown more and more unnerved by the silent girl who seemed to be a bizarre combination between nihilistic and unstably aggressive, which made Cynthia unsure how to maneuver around her.
"What?" Caelia asked, glancing up at Cynthia with her hollow eye.
"Well, I was just thinking, after we finish dinner we could go back to my place and hang out, what do you think?"
"…No thank you," Caelia said, barely shaking her head.
"Oh? Why not? Busy?"
"Not busy. Don't want," Caelie replied coldly.
"Well, that's fine then!" Cynthia chirped. "I'll just go back to your place and hang out with you! Doesn't that sound like fun?"
"No," Caelia replied.
"Come on, it'll be fun!"
"Hanging out. Not fun. Rather be alone."
Cynthia scowled. Maddi was antisocial, but it was nothing compared to this girl. It seemed like Caelia wasn't even interested in doing anything.
"Hey… I know we're teaming up to fight against Blake and Elaina, but…" Cynthia looked at her with a look of concern. "Are you okay?"
"Doesn't matter," Caelia responded.
Cynthia scowled again.
"Caelia, I'm trying to get to know you better, geez," Cynthia sighed. "I mean, we've been teaming up and fighting together all week, and you barely even talk to me. I was hoping, you know, that we could get closer and maybe even become friends."
"No friends, don't need friends," Caelia replied softly. "Just Blake, only Blake."
"You really like Blake, huh?" Cynthia asked.
Caelia nodded. Cynthia narrowed her eyes. She could see a little spark of light in Caelia's eye. So there was some life there, after all.
"Want to talk about him a little?" Cynthia asked, smiling. It looked like she'd finally found her way into Caelia's good graces. "I know quite a bit about Blake, after all. Don't you want to get to know a little bit more about him?"
Caelia's eye widened.
"…Yes," she murmured, nodding her head slightly.
"Cool! Want to head back to my place then? Unless you'd like to hang out back at yours."
"Don't care."
"Cool! Let's head to my place, then!" Cynthia cheered. The two girls finished eating, and Cynthia led Caelia back to her dorm while sharing stories with her about Blake.
"…And then, Blake and I fell into the lake!" Cynthia laughed, opening the door and heading into her room. Lucky her, Julia and Sango were both out at the moment. Cynthia gently set her backpack down and then flopped down on Sango's bed, too lazy to climb up into her own bunk. She leaned back and stretched out her arms and legs, relaxing. She glanced up. Caelia was, uh… not getting into the relaxing spirit. She stood in the center of the room, staring off into the distance. She wasn't even sitting down, which made Cynthia feel uncomfortable. It was clear that the girl was not feeling all that set at ease in Cynthia's room.
"Want to take a seat?" Cynthia asked, sitting up and patting the bed beside her.
"Not really."
Cynthia sighed. She stood up and took Caelia by the arm, pulling her down onto the bed with her. Her arm felt a little weird, but Cynthia ignored it, probably something about her long-sleeved sweater's fabric.
Next up, Cynthia told Caelia all about her battle with Blake. Caelia was clearly listening intently to the story, but Cynthia wasn't feeling all that happy about it, even though she loved telling the story about how she finally managed to defeat Blake after all her training.
The issue was, Cynthia wasn't exactly feeling anything back from Caelia. She wanted Caelia to be interacting with the conversation, and using it to draw the girl out of her shell. Problem was, Caelia wasn't playing ball.
Caelia just listened to her talk without interacting in the slightest. That wasn't what Cynthia wanted to happen.
Cynthia had a new idea, then.
"Oh, hey! Caelia! Remember when we all took part in that Escape Room?" Cynthia asked. "Back during that Pokemon Day Festival!"
"Yes," Caelia nodded.
Cynthia leaned down and pulled up her backpack, unzipping it and pulling out a light blue pokemon egg from within it, holding it up to show it to Caelia.
"Look at this! It's my pokemon egg!" Cynthia said. "It's growing bigger and warmer each day, I can't wait for this little cutie to hatch!"
Caelia didn't say anything to that, much to Cynthia's consternation. It seemed like Caelia just was not interested in being friends at all.
"Come on, don't you want to hold it? Even for just a little."
"Not interested."
"Come on, come on, just hold it!" Cynthia said urgently, shoving the egg into Caelia's hands.
Caelia looked down at the egg. She couldn't feel anything in her hands. Cynthia said it was warm. Caelia couldn't tell one way or the other. She wasn't able to feel it. She looked silently down at the pokemon egg, not sure what the point of any of this was. Rather than learning more about Blake, the girl was just talking about this egg now.
Then something caught her attention. It wasn't something she felt, it was something she saw. The egg seemed to throb, somehow. Then she heard something. A small crack. Her eye widened. A spider web of cracks began appearing across the surface of the light blue shell of the egg, light emerging from within the cracks.
"No way!" Cynthia gasped. The cracks grew wider.
"Oh," Caelia murmured.
The egg grew big, the cracks widened even more, and then the egg burst into pieces in a flash, Cynthia shield her eyes as the pieces of eggshells fell past her hands and landed on the floor.
"Vulpix…" a soft voice cried out.
Cynthia's eyes bugged out as she looked at the small white-blue fox pokemon sitting in Caelia's lap among the remains of the snow-colored egg.
Caelia blinked.
A… Vulpix?
"A Vulpix!?" Cynthia gasped, eye eyes shining brightly. She reached out and lifted the small pokemon out of Caelia's lap, and looked at it. The small pokemon's bright blue eyes stared back at her, blinking, and she let out a sigh.
"Vulpix?" The Vulpix said, confirming once again what it was, even though it looked like no Vulpix that Cynthia had ever seen before.
"You… are the most precious thing I've ever seen," Cynthia whispered, hugging the small pokemon to her chest. The Vulpix's fur was soft and cold. She cuddled the Vulpix gently, giving her as much warmth as she could.
"It's a Vulpix…" Caelia echoed, confused. "But Vulpix are fire type…"
"I know, right?" Cynthia asked, glancing up at Caelia as she cradled the baby pokemon. "I like them quite a bit myself, but this one is most definitely the cutest one I've ever seen."
Caelia's eye slightly twitched.
"No. My Vulpix is cuter."
Cynthia blinked.
"Huh?"
"Mine. Cuter."
Caelia's tone was insistent, and she glared at Cynthia with her eye.
"Willa. Cuter."
Cynthia smiled. For the first time, Caelia was getting engaged in the conversation.
"No she's not," she laughed. "My newborn Vulpix is adorable!"
Caelia rose to her feet and glared down at Cynthia. She looked down at her waist and found the pokeball, pressing the button on it.
"Willa," Caelia said, releasing her own Vulpix, the reddish-orange pokemon emerging. It was slightly bigger than Cynthia's newborn, but there were other differences as well. Cynthia's white Vulpix had wavy fur, and a lot more of an ethereal aura around her.
"Willa cuter," Caelia insisted.
"Vulpix cuter," Cynthia fired back.
Admittedly, Cynthia thought that Caelia's Vulpix was also rather precious. But her Vulpix was her new precious cinnamon bun, and she'd be damned if she admitted that another pokemon was even close to being as cute as her little snowflake darling!
Neither girl was willing to give in, this was something that would go on for quite some time.
Just a short chapter, a little bit of a breather. Cynthia's egg is the second to hatch!