Here's another chapter, with more from Will and Misato, and everyone is preparing for the Will and Nick vs. Kitty and Nikita battle! What's that going to entail?

KedharS: Well that wouldn't be logical.

Thunder Fire: …Maybe.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 351

Nick and Will met up at the Blastoise Fountain. Nick wasn't alone, of course, as usual, Callie was right at his side. The real surprise though was that Will ALSO wasn't alone, in spite of his tendency towards being antisocial. Rather, following directly behind him was Misato Daisan, much to Nick and Callie's surprise.

"Oh! I remember you!" Callie said. "You're Misat Daisan! We did that Escape Room together!"

"Affirmative," Misato nodded.

"So what's up?" Callie giggled, smiling mischievously. "You two on a date?"

"No, we aren't you," Will replied, rolling his eyes. Misato did not respond. Her parameters for the terminology of what entailed a "date" prevented her from directly confirming or denying whether or not this activity counted, serving as a reminder to reassess her programming to have more strict parameters.

"At this time the terminology to describe the relationship between Will Harmond and myself is not capable of applying the qualities that are characteristic of a 'date' to describe our interactions," Misato finally replied.

Callie took a moment to process what she was saying. Misato had used a lot of big words just then. But there was one sequence that she picked up. She smirked.

"'At this time' eh?" Callie smirked, and that brought a grin to Nick's face as well. Will's face, however, turned a little pink with embarrassment.

"Affirmative. At this time there is not enough data present to declare with any statistical significance the possibility of whether or not the relationship between Will Harmond and myself will transition to a stage where dating would be the appropriate terminology to define our interactions," Misato explained. "Therefore 'at this time' is the most accurate terminology to describe the current state of our relationship."

"I can declare with absolute 'statistical significance' that the answer is 'no'," Will stated.

"Elaborate. The current data I have access to is not adequate to arrive at that conclusion as a certainty with any statistical significance."

"The data you need to process is the fact that I'm not interested," Will replied.

"Elaborate. On what basis can you draw the conclusion that your opinion on the state of our relationship is a constant incapable of change? Human beings are defined by their illogical actions based on their emotions, I request further elaboration on how you can declare to any degree of certainty that your own perspective will not change over time?"

"That… uh…" Will wasn't quite sure how to formulate a response to that. Misato was staring at him with the same hollow look in her eyes even as she said such outrageous things. Her volume and her straightforwardness in the center of the plaza was starting to draw a crowd, much to Will's growing chagrin.

"Sounds like someone might be a little eager," Callie snickered, Nick joining in. "I think she really wants you to change your mind, Will~"

"Negative. I hold no opinion on the decision that Will makes. I am outlining the potential possibilities and explaining that there is not a basis to reject the possibility of a relationship developing when all existing data states that it is a valid possible development."

"…Which means you want it to happen," Callie added.

Misato turned to Callie. One would think she was confused, but it did not show on her empty face.

"Elaborate."

"Well, I mean, it takes two people to have a relationship," Callie said. "So I mean, if you're saying that there is a possibility for Will to want to pursue a relationship with you-"

"There isn't," Will interrupted, Callie shooting him a dirty look.

"…Then wouldn't that mean you have to account for the possibility that you will want to pursue a relationship with him? Since you haven't rejected the possibility of your relationship developing, then that means you acknowledge that it's possible for you to like him!" She crowed triumphantly, shooting Nick a victorious look.

Misato considered this perspective.

"…Unknown. As I have never entered a relationship with another individual that could be considered romantic, I do not possess any data on the development of my own desire to pursue one. Therefore I cannot factor data on my own desires into the determination of potential outcomes in the future. I can no more declare that it is impossible to develop an interest in pursuing a relationship with Will than I could declare that it is impossible to develop an interest in pursuing you, or Nick, or any other person that I have encountered."

Callie blinked. She threw up her arm in front of Nick protectively.

"Pursuing me or Nick is impossible," Callie determined for her.

"I cannot declare that with any-"

"I can," Callie coldly replied. No more joking around now.

"…Hey, how about we please DROP THIS," Will said, unbelievably embarrassed by Misato's behavior, and what made it even worse was the fact that she had no idea what was wrong about what she was saying.

"Stay away from Nick," Callie growled. "You have Will, stick with him."

"Affirmative," Misato replied.

Will looked desperately to Nick.

"I'm with Will," Nick said, picking up on the signals Will was giving him. "We have some battles to get to, so we should probably get on that. Will, you said that you texted Nikita about battling her and Kitty? Did she text back?"

"…Fine," Callie said, nodding her head.

"Affirmative," Misato agreed.

Will let out a sigh of relief and fished his phone out of his pocket.

"Yeah, she said that they're up for it," Will confirmed. "And that they're going to meet us at the Blastoise Fountain."

Will looked up from his phone and glanced around. There was still a decent crowd of people. He texted Nikita again, asking if they were here yet.

"Yes," Nikita texted back.

"Okay, well, we're by the fountain," Will replied.

"We know."

Will sighed.

"Well, where are you then?"

"Not coming out. Too embarrassing. Let's go to the library."

Will's forehead throbbed in irritation. But he understood where she was coming from. They were sort of the center of attention right now, and Nikita and Kitty were naturally shy people. As an antisocial person himself, he understood that they would not want to get anywhere close to this. He let out a sigh and turned to the others.

"Okay, so they're going to meet us in the library," he told them.

"Affirmative." Will thought he saw a glint of eagerness in Misato's eye at that, though he must have been seeing things.

"Well, let's get going then!" Callie chirped. "I can't wait to see what Kitty's up to! It's been a while since we've hung out!"

With that decision, the group of four headed to the library to meet up with Kitty and Nikita. Fortunately (though not for Misato) Nikita and Kitty were easy to find, waiting outside the library for the group to arrive.

"Hey guys, sorry about all the commotion," Will said, waving to them.

"No worries," Kitty grinned.

"Wouldn't have been a commotion if you didn't bring that clingy girlfriend of yours," Nikita smirked at him.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Will insisted.

"Yet," Nick whispered under his breath, Callie giving him a discrete fist-bump. They both knew what was going on, no matter how much Will might deny it.

"Kitty!" Callie cooed, running past Will and throwing herself into a big bear hug around her fellow shorty.

"C-Callie!" Kitty gasped. "Ch-choking, can't breathe…"

"Sorry, sorry!" Callie chuckled, letting go of Kitty and taking a step back, a smile on her face. "It's just been a while since I saw ya! We really need to hang out more!"

"Your schedule's packed, that's why," Kitty laughed, catching her breath. "I'm the one who's free most of the time."

Callie sighed.

"I know, it sucks. Now that we've got finals for this semester, I barely have any free time! You guys don't get how rough it is being a junior, I barely have the time for dates with Nick! It's so totally not fair, plus I have my duties as the First Leader, ugh, what a pain!"

Kitty not her head sympathetically.

Will cleared his throat.

"This is all well and good, guys, but actually, we were hoping that we could get that battle started?"

Kitty and Nikita shared a glance.

"If you want to, then yeah," Nikita said, nodding. "We can find an outdoor arena somewhere where we can fight if you guys want."

"Unnecessary."

Everyone turned to Misato in surprise.

"I have completed a survey of all existing battlefields currently in use," Misato explained. "There is a battlefield that is not currently being used by any student or team of students. I have reserved it. It would serve the purpose of your battle adequately."

"Wow, seriously? How?" Callie asked, surprised.

"The method was-"

"She's a fast texter," Will interrupted, shooting Misato a look that he already knew would go over her head. It probably wasn't the best idea for the other students to become aware of the fact that Misato was a robot. Or an android, or a mechadoll, or whatever the actual terminology was, that didn't really matter. What was important is continuing to pass her off as just a somewhat strange (okay, very strange) human being.

The mechadoll thing probably wasn't something that the Phantom wanted becoming common knowledge.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Callie asked. Even though she wasn't one of the people doing the actual fighting, she was clearly the most eager to get going. So Misato led the way to a small indoor stadium in the main campus building, Callie eager on her heels. The four who would actually be fighting trailed behind them.

"I'm surprised you guys wanted to fight us," Nikita said.

"You're not thinking that you can score an easy win off of us, are you?" Kitty asked, her face a mixture of irritation and disappointment.

"No, nothing like that," Will said, shaking his head. "You guys have a better score than us, to be honest. We've lost a couple of times."

"Yeah, you guys are doing really well," Nick agreed, nodding. "I'm actually kind of surprised, Kitty, you're doing really well."

"It, a… well, I've been kind of worried, but I'm really trying my best," Kitty said, a blush spreading across her face. "I… I want to become even stronger than I am now!"

"You can do it, Kitty!" Nikita cheered her partner and roommate on.

Nick nodded his head in agreement, understanding exactly where she was coming from. Will didn't say anything, but he understood, too.

While their group headed into the indoor arena, Julia and Reiner had just finished up with a pokemon battle of their own when a certain unwelcome guest made her appearance.

"Wow, that was quite a battle you two!" Julia and Reiner recalled their pokemon, and turned in the direction the nearly-mocking applause was coming from.

"You," Julia seethed, glaring at Sylvia Driscoll, her frilly white dress with black lace and ribbons standing out against the snow. Floating around her head was the ghost type pokemon, her Shuppet, Specter, a wicked smile on her face that mirrored the one her trainer so often wore. Clearly, whatever she wanted with them wasn't going to be good, whatever it was.

"My, such anger," Sylvia chuckled, giving Julia a wave. "Nice to see you, too!"

"Sylvia Driscoll, right?" Reiner asked, remembering her well enough. "What are you doing here? I'm assuming you aren't part of the Tag Tournament, are you?"

"Just because my sweet Specter is at my side, that doesn't mean I have any intention of fighting," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "Actually, I came here to see you, Julia."

She glanced at Reiner.

"You I don't much care about either way."

Reiner scowled at her.

Sylvia returned her attention to Julia.

"So if I recall correctly, you're a good friend of Katherine Kuroso, right?"

Julia's eyes widened, and her face twisted into a snarl as she stormed towards Sylvia in response, clearly not amused with whatever it was Sylvia was insinuating. Sylvia had already attempted to bring Kitty to the Phantom once before, and Julia had harbored a loathing for the bottle blonde ever since. And yet clearly, Sylvia was intent on pushing her buttons anyway.

"Oh, right, sorry," Sylvia said, not really caring about Julia's approach. She put on a smile of feigned sympathy. "I suppose I should have said you were a good friend of Katherine Kuroso. Not anymore, from what I hear."

Julia stopped in front of Sylvia resisting every impulse in her body that was telling her to grab the skanky blonde by her thin little throat and wring her neck until noise stopped coming out of her mouth. It was a difficult task, made no easier by the defiant glimmer in Sylvia's blue eyes.

"You stay away from Kitty, you understand me?" Julia growled.

Sylvia's eyes widened and her lips turned into a comical "O" of shock and outrage. She placed her hand over her chest as though the thought she would ever do something to Kitty was unthinkable.

"The thought that I would ever do something to Kitty is unthinkable!" Sylvia exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. "Such a cute little girl? I wish nothing but the best for someone as sweet as her, just the same as you."

Julia wanted to deck her. The smarmy tone in Sylvia's voice was infuriating, and it was pretty damn clear she was trying to piss Julia off.

"…Fine, fine, you don't like me, you don't trust me, I get it," Sylvia sighed. "Even though all I did was send that friend of yours a nice, sweet invitation for a meeting. I would have just treated her nicely, not poorly, but sure, I get it."

"Point?" Julia snarled.

"That I'm here to help," Sylvia smiled. "I came to give you a nice little tidbit of information, along with some advice."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Julia asked. "I don't want any of your advice."

"Even if it's about Kitty?" Sylvia smirked. Julia flinched.

"You leave her alone," Julia whispered.

"Yeah, you said that one already," Sylvia scoffed.

"Julia, Julia, let's just calm down and listen to what she has to say," Reiner said, stepping between Sylvia and Julia, raising his hands up. At this rate, Julia looked like she was ready to kill the girl.

"Start. Talking." Julia's tone of voice was not one for arguing with. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and widened her stance, shooting Sylvia the death glare to end all death glares. "That's what you're good at, right? You like listening to yourself talk. So start talking. What the hell does any of this shit have to do with Kitty, and what the hell do you want with her? And if I don't like what you have to say…"

"I get the picture," Sylvia rolled her eyes, nodding. A smile curled up her lips again. "I was just curious about whether or not you've seen Kitty fight before, that's all."

Julia blinked.

"Of course I have."

"Recently?" Sylvia inquired.

"What do you mean?" Julia belligerently asked.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. Did she seriously not get what she was talking about?

"Please don't tell me you're this dense," Sylvia groaned. "Or are you just being willfully ignorant at this point?"

"Those are some interesting words for someone who likes all their teeth being in their mouth," Julia threatened.

"…Fine, fine, I get it, no sense of humor," Sylvia laughed, raising her arms in a defeated gesture of surrender, a rueful smirk crossing her face again somehow, even though it had never left. Sylvia seemed to be skilled at making her smirking expressions look brand new.

"What about Kitty?"

"What I was only asking you is if you've seen Kitty fighting recently," Sylvia clarified. "Fighting with her harmonia. Like she was meant to."

Julia flinched at that. She… she shook her head, no, she hadn't. She… she didn't want to get close to Kitty while she was using that power. She…

Why hadn't she?

She couldn't think of a reason other than the fact that she didn't want to see Kitty get hurt.

"I figured not," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "But she's fighting right now, you know, or about to."

"What?" Julia gasped, surprised. Well, not that surprised, really, Kitty was in the tournament after all, and doing pretty well, so it made sense that she would be fighting. The surprising part was that Sylvia knew about it, or that she was telling Julia about it. It made Julia suspicious, and she clenched her hands into fists.

Sylvia nodded her head.

"Yeah, she and her partner… Nikita, I think her name was? The one with the really forgettable boyfriend?"

"Hey!" Reiner exclaimed, Sylvia's eyes twinkling playfully at him as she smirked before directing her attention back to Julia.

"So what? What about it?" Julia demanded.

"Well, see, there's someone who's attention has been… let's say, 'drawn' to Kitty recently, especially since she's really been getting a hang of this harmonia of hers."

Sylvia smirked as Julia's eyes widened.

"…And I think we ALL know who that 'someone' is, don't you?"

"The Phantom's keeping an eye on Kitty?" Reiner gasped. Julia nodded grimly.

"Well, I can't say for sure," Sylvia said. "But let's just say there's a certain young lady by the name of Misato Daisan, you know her, right? Hair like the sky, and just as empty? Talks weird, annoyingly literal in a refreshing sort of way, sorta-kinda-maybe with Will in a 'not quite specific' way? The girl from the Escape Rooms? Ring any bells?"

Sylvia looked back and forth between Julia and Reiner. They didn't seem to get it. She sighed.

"Well, Misato has what you might call a photographic memory," Sylvia explained to the two. Putting it lightly…

"So?" Julia asked.

"She also happens to be Richard Valon's right hand," Sylvia explained. "And right as we speak, she's watching Kitty's battle like a hawk, all to see what she has in store for her abilities. See what she's capable of. See what he can use her for."

Julia's face went as white as the snow around her.

"No. Never."

Julia grabbed Sylvia by the collar, growling at her.

"Where is she?!"

"If you let me go, I'll be happy to tell you," Sylvia said.

"WHERE?!"

"In the main building on campus, Stadium B," Sylvia said. "Look, Julia, I'm on your side! I don't want anything to happen to that girl, that's why I came here to speak to you, to let you know that she was in trouble."

Julia dropped Sylvia's collar and whirled around, running through the snow towards the center of campus.

"Julia!" Reiner exclaimed, running after her.

"…A thank you would be nice," Sylvia coughed, straightening the collar of her dress. Watching the two disappear into the distance, a smile slowly crossed her face.

"…Happy to help," she whispered after them, chuckling to herself as she walked the other way, Specter floating after her.

Sylvia continues to be a bitch. It is incapable for her to not be a bitch, evidently.