This chapter was painful to write. I hate Val. I really hate Val. And knowing what she's going to do later on makes me hater her even more. Val will just keep doing more things to build hate towards her. Because she apparently hasn't done enough horrific things. I hate it here. This shit is just wrong. Review or whatever.
KedharS: Oh yeah. That's what's happening if I have anything to say about it.
Aquahaze675: Pretty much.
JoshGamerV: Yeah, pretty awful. I hate having to write it, almost as much as I hate Val.
Thunder Fire: Sadly, Rui's nice and safe, so Val's got pretty good leverage.
MikySP: Sadly, it doesn't look like Ayame will keep the advantage over her. Val is going to regain her dominance this chapter, for sure, and make you hate her even more.
Mercury – Mercuraneous: Yeah, Kitty's arc was a very subtle one. It looked like her role was to be focused in one direction, and then it turns out, no, she was nothing like what we expected she would turn out to be.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 418
"Finally, Val! What took you so long?" Blake and Ayame, all three now dressed in more appropriate clothing for hiking, had been guided by Val up the path leading towards Mt. Silver. Ayame had contemplated running off into the night more than once, or even ambushing the evil girl holding them prisoner, but the knowledge that if she tried it could spell the end for her family kept her rooted in place, walking at her boyfriend's side even as she fumed with rage at the circumstances they found themselves in. The group of three had passed the clearing the couple had eaten at that day, and walked even further up the mountain, to where two figures awaited them at the spot where raised ground had started to make the transition to icy rock face. A steep ledge overlooking the valley and forest below, and more importantly, overlooking the Toujou family's cabin. Indeed, an unnaturally strong avalanche would threaten to do some serious damage if it was engineered properly. Of the two people that met them in the flashlight-illuminated darkness, the one who spoke did it with a voice that both Blake and Ayame recognized, but from different places.
Peeking out from under the hood of a thick blue parka was a set of curly locks framing a pale face and a pair of expressive blue eyes that belonged to the woman named Rui, who they had encountered before. It seemed that she had finally found a climate that forced her to conceal most of her skin. She glanced suspiciously at the two, shining her flashlight from one of them to the other before her eyes widened in realization.
"Wait! What?" She gasped. "That girl's a student at the Pokemon Academy, you know? What are they doing here?"
"You were on Mt. Chimney!" Ayame gasped, recognizing the pale face in the light's glow and remembering where she'd seen the girl before.
"You remember me, huh?" Rui laughed. "That's right, name's Rui." She turned and shined the light of her flashlight on Blake. "I remember her a little, but what's your name, cutie?"
"We've met before," Blake coldly rebuffed her. "In Galar."
A strange smile spread across Rui's crimson lips.
"Have we now?" She mused in a sing-song voice. "Can't say I remember. See, I have a difficult time remembering boys that aren't my type, and sorry, but you're just not the right fit."
Blake didn't mind her lack of interest in the slightest.
"He's Blake," Val volunteered, and even though she was behind him Blake could hear the smirk on her face as she followed up with, "Blake Harker. Surly you must have heard about him. You know, talkative sisters, and all that."
"Oh, I've heard all about him, I remember now," Rui laughed. Her eyes brightened. "You're Reiner's friend, right? How's he doing?"
"He's doing fine," Blake dryly replied. "He and his girlfriend are as happy as ever."
That certainly soured the perky girl's mood. Now Val was the only one smiling, and it was a big one.
"Oh, that's just perfect! I just knew I was right on the money, with the way you just spoiled her night like that!" She cackled, her mocking voice stinging Blake's ears, already sensitive from the cold. "Maybe she'll even cry!"
"That twig?" Rui snorted, running her hand down her body as though her curvy figure wasn't hidden behind a bulky coat. "Like she could stand up to all of this. Reiner's only been subjected to half my… firepower, as it were…"
She turned her attention back to Val.
"So why are they here?"
"Certain issues arose," Val shrugged, walking past the two of them and standing chest to chest with Rui. "Had to bring them along as hostages. Think of them as extra bodies to throw at the problem."
"I thought that was why we hired Team Rocket?" Rui scowled.
Val shrugged again, glancing back at Ayame and Blake. Even in the darkness, Blake could see her eyes glittering with madness.
"They clearly didn't work out. But these two? I have a good feeling about them, let me tell you. And worst comes to worst, we can leave them to freeze on the mountain. …Well, the girl, at least. As for Blake, well…" Val licked her lips. "There are 'plans' for him."
"This is all your fault," another voice grumbled. The other figure there, the taller one dressed in black, face covered by a scarf, had finally spoken. He stood at a distance from the others, but he was now engaged in the conversation, and he clearly wasn't happy.
"My fault?" Val asked, placing her hand over her chest, her voice carrying a tone of shock and faux-outrage. "What did I do?"
"We could have just gone onto the mountain and looked for the damn Oracle ourselves, but no, you had to complicate things, didn't you?" The man growled through his muffler. "You had to go off into town to have your fun and play your little games, and now we're behind schedule!"
"It's called 'recon', Preya, and you would do well to use a little of it next time two trainees hand your ass to you," Val coolly shot back. Blake's eye twitched as he caught the man's name. Preya, that was the person who Sango had mentioned trying to steal the Oracle from during the Pokemon Ranger Probationary Exam, the one that Marion knew.
Preya did not respond, glowering at Val from beneath his hood.
"Did you learn anything useful?" Rui broke the tension with her cheery voice. "Something we can use to find the Oracle?"
"Just a little bit of detail about the pokemon, the climate zones, nothing a little bit of web searching wouldn't tell me," Val admitted. Blake bitterly acknowledged the irony that the mess he and Ayame had found themselves in was totally pointless, as Val had not needed to invade the Toujou household if THAT was all she sought to learn. But then she mentioned something else.
"Oh, and something about a guardian," she remembered. "Some pokemon I'd wager, protecting the mountain. But it shouldn't be that much of a problem for us. Especially since I took extra care to make sure these two left their pokeballs all warm and toasty back home."
"So you found out nothing of value," Preya spat. "Just some dumb urban legend. You didn't learn anything about where the Oracle is at all, did you?"
"That's why we have you, or did you forget?" Val said, her tone dismissive. "Mr. Radar. That harmonia of yours can lead us right to it, right?"
"Radar?" Preya growled. He stomped through the snow and grabbed Val by the collar. "This blasted power isn't fucking radar! But go ahead, say it again. I've got half a mind to shove you off this mountain, you absolute fucking cunt!"
Val didn't flinch at his threats in the slightest. Blake took no small pleasure in the knowledge that even Val's so-called teammates hated her so blatantly.
"Cheery," she chirped. "It's nice to see you're still just as hateful towards women as always, Preya."
"Only noisy ones like you," he replied.
Val smiled, barely seen in the darkness on her face, and before anyone could blink she had not only removed Preya's hand from her collar, but moved around him and pushed him down so that she could pull his arm back with one hand while the other pushed down on his shoulder-blade, threatening to dislocate his shoulder.
"Now, that's not nice, calling a girl 'noisy' like that," Val sighed, shaking her head and going "tsk-tsk" at him. "Let me make something clear, Preya, you aren't the one in charge here. If I wanted to, I could be the one pushing you off the mountain."
"Are you crazy?!" Preya spat out. "You need me to find that Oracle, you bitch!"
"…See, but, I don't," Val said. "I've got some leverage now, you see. All I have to do is make a call to a certain young lady with harmonia, and let her know that her beloved big brother is waiting for her on Mt. Silver, and she'll be here before your body hits the ground. Sounds like a plan to me."
"Valerie!"
"Who's in charge again?" Val asked, turning her ear closer to him.
"F-fine, you're in charge!" Preya gasped out, as certain as Blake that Val would probably push him off the ledge, even though it would take who knows how long for Guinevere to actually get there. Val probably was bluffing, but Preya wasn't about to throw his life away just to prove it. So he gave her what she wanted, and she let him up.
"Excellent!" Val grinned, clapping her hands together. "Lead the way, little monster!"
Preya glowered at her with a look filled with nothing but hatred. He turned from her, pulling his coat tighter, and they headed up the mountain.
"What was that?" Ayame whispered to Blake. "Infighting?"
"I don't really know," Blake said, still feeling a little shaken at how casually Val had threatened to call his sister. For a brief moment he had actually hoped… but no, it wouldn't have been worth it, not even if the only casualty was someone like that.
"That?" Val's voice interrupted the two of them, somehow managing to have wiggled her way between them without their noticing. "That was me asserting my authority over my tool."
"Your tool?" Blake asked, quite certain that, like most things she said and did, he would not like what Val had to say.
"He's just like Kate," Val scoffed. "A fucking poison user, did you know? Hey, Blake, maybe you could make out with him a little? That does seem to be your type, right?"
She glanced at Ayame pointedly, looking at her with pity in her eyes.
"Well, I guess he's not quite as masculine as your usual fare, but I think you'll be able to make do," she smirked. Ayame glared at her, wanting to push Val off the mountain herself. But she kept her temper, trying hard not to react at all to anything the girl was saying. She could see it in her eyes, that was exactly what she wanted.
"You really hate poison type pokemon that much?" She asked instead.
Val snorted incredulously, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, please, are you kidding? No one gives a damn about something like that. It was a joke, Aya. Just a joke."
"Don't call me that," Ayame warned, but it was without bite considering her position as a hostage, and they both knew it.
"Don't call you what?" Val playfully asked. "Aya? Why don't you want me to call you 'Aya', Aya? Does it bother you, Aya?"
Ayame took a deep breath, and let it out, forcing a smile to her lips.
"No, it doesn't bother me at all," she said.
"Great! You're a real champ, Aya!" She turned her attention back to Blake. "As for you, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you Blake?"
Blake didn't answer, but Val didn't need him to.
"He's a monster you know," she purred. "Him and all those harmonia users? They're all monsters and freaks, not like us normal folks?"
She was trying to get a rise out of him. It was painfully obvious what her goal was, and he wasn't about to give into her mischievous nonsense. Blake held his tongue and said nothing, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of responding to her goading.
Like that would actually make her stop, though.
"Harmonia users are useful tools like this," Val admitted. "But people? No, can't think of them that way. At least Kate, for however much of a piece of waste she is, isn't an inhuman freak like them. Like your sister."
He knew that was coming, and he wasn't going to let her get to him. He wanted to punch her face in, and paint the snow red with her blood, but he couldn't. Even if he could somehow overpower the girl, which he was no longer certain he could do, the minute her tried that would be the end for him and Ayame. So he could only fume in impotent rage as Val continued to mock the sister that he loved so dearly, saying horrid things that he would have killed someone else for saying.
"And that dead, vacant look in her eyes? Harmonia users are freaks, but that weirdo is in a class all of her own. I still can't believe she just gave you the Oracle like that back in Galar! All that work we put in, and she just hands it away like the retarded mistake that she is," Val said, relishing in the pure rage she could see in his eyes. She leaned in close, pulling back his hood and letting her breath tickle against his ear, "but what else would you expect from the sort of absolute freak of nature who would want to have sex with her own brother?"
Val leaned in even closer, her slimy tongue running up the side of Blake's neck.
"With trash like that and Kate sniffing around you as your only options, no wonder you settled for an oversized cunt like that one. You just don't know what it's like to be with a real woman. But don't worry, when we're done here, I'll be happy to show you everything you need to-"
That was what finally got Blake to lose his cool. He shoved Val off him and whirled around, his vision red with fury. He swung at her in the dark, but he never made contact. The world spun out from under him and he hit snow, grunting in pain as he felt the coldness seep into his exposed collar.
"You actually tried to hit me!" Val marveled, standing over him, her face wild with excitement. "I can't believe you actually tried to hit me!"
She pulled her foot back and kicked him in the side, Blake curling up in pain as he found it difficult to breathe.
"Blake!" Ayame wailed, her own emotions getting the best of her as she ran at Val. But the curly-haired girl saw that one coming, turning on her heel and holding up her knife, pointing it right at the tall girl. The threat in her eyes was obvious, even in the dark. Ayame could only watch helplessly as Val turned her attention back to Ayame's boyfriend.
"What. Makes. You. Think. You. Have. The. Right. To. Try. And. Hit. ME?!" Val demanded, punctuating every word with another kick to his stomach.
"Stop it, please!" Ayame blubbered.
"I'll stop when he's learned his lesson," Val purred, brushing a lock of hair out of her face, licking her lips. The air around her may have been cold, but inside she was feeling nothing but the warm fuzzies as she kept abusing him.
"Val!"
Val finally stopped when Rui called out to her. Her face shifted into a look of irritation as she turned back to Rui.
"I don't comment on your proclivities, Rui, so don't interrupt me when I'm playing with my toys," Val growled. "Don't forget, we're here for you, after all, to find YOUR Oracle. These two have nothing to do with you, I brought them along for my own entertainment."
"You're slowing us down," Rui calmly replied. "Yes, we know, you're the one in charge. But remember our orders, we have to find this Oracle as soon as we can, and report back. But if you keep doing stuff like this, we're only going to be in trouble. The weather's getting worse, you know, and the later it gets the colder it's going to get. And you said it yourself. We can't just let that guy die, right? So just forget him and let's keep moving!"
Val sighed, and glanced at Blake, crumbled in the ground at her feet. She kneeled down next to him, giving him a wide smile.
"Let's consider that payback for everything that happened in Galar, 'kay champ?" She asked, as though she had just pulled off something as harmless as short-sheeting his bed, and hadn't been just violently beating the air out of his lungs.
Blake only responded with a cough, struggling back to his feet. Ayame watched him with tears in her eyes.
"So, here's how it's going to go down," Val explained, standing up so that they were staring at each other eye to eye. "Now, I know that things may get… intense. But I have a sinking feeling that you're not the type of person to just leave well-enough alone. And I also know that if my only threat is going to be wiping out that little cabin, well, that will just make you even more unhinged, and that's just no fun for me. I'm just trying to enjoy myself a little, but you're all 'oooh, waah, anger noises' and it's really irritating me, you know? So look. I'm not so dumb as to think that you won't behave violently. So go ahead, lash out if you want."
She turned her cheek to him, and pointed at it.
"Go ahead, hit me," she suggested. "We all know you want to. And since I'm such a nice lady, I'll give you a freebie. Go on, free hits. You'd have to be as retarded as your ugly sister to not take the opportunity for some free hits."
She closed her eyes and bit her lip, as if the punch she was expecting would be orgasmic. But Blake kept his hands at his sides, not taking the bait.
Val relaxed, opening her eyes and turning back to him.
"Thought so," she purred. "Good boy. Now, here's the new arrangement. I'll let you hit me as much as you want. But be careful… anything you do to me, well…"
Val turned back to look at Ayame, her eyes shining.
"Your girlfriend will go through it, too," Val explained, gesturing towards Blake's girlfriend. "I'll treat her to every last abuse you inflict on me."
She smirked.
"Good. I'm glad we're all on the same page. This is going to be so much fun!" Val skipped through the snow after Rui, the light from her flashlight dancing across the ground. She turned back and called down the mountain, "come on you two! Get a move on!"
"Blake," Ayame sobbed out, reaching a tender hand towards him, "are you okay?"
"…I'm fine," Blake said, feeling rather like crying himself. He felt his legs were about to collapse, but he stumbled forward, trying to remain strong. He and Ayame slowly trudged up the mountain, hoping that things wouldn't get any worse.
But sadly they will. These chapters are really hurting to write, why do I put up with this?