As our gang is still reeling from the disappearance of Blake, will they be able to keep a cool head and track him down? Or are things just getting worse? Hopefully everyone can keep their cool and find him soon, if not, who knows what's going to happen? Remember to review!
JoshGamerV: That was one of the reasons. Not the story reason though, of course lol.
Aquahaze675: Sylvia's disappearance has some other repercussions than just people being able to live their lives in peace.
KedharS: That would be quite an odd home then.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: He has gone missing, that's why.
Rowlets and Oshawotts: Ayame is not one to cross, that's definitely sure. She's not going to take too kindly to Blake being gone. Time to go on a rampage.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 599
"What are you talking about?" Reiner asked Nikita.
"Well, we might not find any physical evidence here, but we might be able to find some witnesses," Nikita explained.
"Yeah, but we don't remember anything," Nick reminded her.
"No, not you morons," Nikita said, shaking her head. "I mean them."
Nikita turned and pointed to Blake's pokeballs, which were still resting on his bed.
"Uh… what?" Reiner looked at her like she was nuts.
"Well, if we can't figure out what happened, why don't we ask Blake's pokemon what they know about everything?" Nikita asked. "It pays to be thorough after all!"
Reiner and Nick both placed their hands on Nikita's forehead to compare with their own temperature.
"I'm not feverish!" Nikita said, swatting their hands away. "And I don't mean us!"
"Oh, good, for second I thought I was dating a crazy person who thinks that pokemon can talk to her," Reiner sighed in relief.
Nikita rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "No, not me. But remember, we have a secret weapon when it comes to stuff like this, right?" Nikita reached into her bag and took out her cell phone.
"Oh!" Nick and Reiner both gasped in realization.
Meanwhile, Ayame was still working up her courage standing in front of the girls' room. If Cynthia or Sango didn't know anything, then…
Well, she didn't even want to think about that.
What are you so fucking scared of?! Ayame screamed at herself. Are you so afraid that your last hope might extinguish that you're just going to stand out here shaking like a leaf so you can avoid reality, rather than actually moving forward?!
That's right. Blake would want her to move forward. So that's what she was going to do. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
"Yeah? What's up?" Julia called from inside. Ayame was about to speak but before she had the chance Cynthia had already flung the door open. Clearly, the redhead was on a different page than her roommate was.
"Oh! Ayame!" Cynthia said. She leaned out into the hall, looking left and right. "You here alone? Where's Blake?"
Ayame felt a pang go through her heart. That wasn't a good sign.
"That, um… that's actually what I wanted to ask you about," she mumbled. Cynthia blinked.
"Huh? I haven't seen him all day," she said. "We don't share any classes on Mondays, I'm in his Battle Class and his Capturing Class. That's why I was hoping to see him." She sighed, and strolled back into her room, flopping down on Sango's bed with an exaggerated flourish. "I'm going through withdrawal symptoms due to not seeing my beloved Blake."
Ayame rolled her eyes at her theatrics and followed her into the room. Looking around, she realized it was just Cynthia and Julia, Sango wasn't here.
Cynthia poked her head up from the pillow and turned back to her. "So what was that you were saying? About Blake?"
"Blake… he's missing," Ayame replied. "He's not returning his messages, his phone won't take calls, and no one's seen him since last night."
"He wasn't in our Caretaking Class this morning, either," Julia volunteered, turning away from her computer to engage with the discussion. THAT caught Cynthia's attention and she immediately sat up, leaning forward.
"Wait, so he's seriously missing?!" Cynthia said, hopping out of bed and yanking her phone off the charger. She immediately dialed, and a few seconds later threw it onto the bed in frustration, letting out a growl. "Fuck! What do you mean you can't connect?!"
Ayame sighed. So much for finding some answers here. It was clear that neither Cynthia nor Julia had any idea about what could have happened to Blake. And with that understanding the ache in her chest only increased.
"Forget this," Cynthia said, picking her phone back up. "I'm calling Sango! No way she doesn't know anything!"
"Hey? What's up?" Sango replied. "I'm kinda busy right now, is this important?"
"Damn right it's important!" Cynthia said. "Blake's gone missing!"
"Missing?" Sango asked. "I mean, I know he wasn't in Caretaking today, and we didn't see him at lunch, but missing is a little…"
"No one's seen him!" Cynthia replied. "Not since…"
She turned to Ayame.
"Hey, Sango, it's me," Ayame said, leaning in next to the phone. "I was talking with Nick and Reiner, they said they haven't seen him since like 11 last night. No one has."
"That's… seriously?" Sango asked, her voice holding a tone of denial that Ayame recognized all too well. "No, that makes no sense, maybe he's just training again."
"I thought of that already," Ayame said, shaking her head. "He's supposed to be getting trained by Dokukage, but he didn't bring any of his pokemon with him, so I don't think… wait! That could be it! Thanks, Sango, you're a genius!"
"Huh? But I didn't-" Ayame hung up before Sango could correct her, not sure how the older girl's realization was at all due to her.
"Huh? What's going on?" Cynthia demanded.
"Well, Blake's started training with Dokukage," Ayame explained. Her voice was filling with excitement as hope swelled back up in her chest at the thought that there was something she had missed. "You know, the ninja guy? It totally slipped my mind until just now!"
"Wait, Blake's training to be a ninja?!" Cynthia asked, her eyes lighting up. "Without me?! That's no fair! I want to be a ninja too!"
"That's not important right now," Ayame said, shaking her head. "Maybe Blake's going through some super-secret ninja training, and THAT'S why he's gone missing!"
"Yeah!" Cynthia said, nodding eagerly. "Yeah, that's gotta be it! Good thinking, Ayame!"
"Now, there's only one problem," Ayame said, her expression souring again. "We have to find the guy."
"…OH, yeah, I didn't think about that," Cynthia said, nodding. "It's pretty hard to track down a ninja. He could be anywhere… like right there!"
Cynthia whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at her closet. She held there for a few seconds before dropping her hand and laughing sheepishly. She turned back to Ayame and Julia… and then whirled around again, narrowing her eyes.
"Stop, please, just stop," Julia sighed, massaging her temples.
"Oh! I know!" Ayame said, her face lighting up. "Another brilliant idea!" She turned and dashed out of the girl's room.
"Hey! Wait up!" Cynthia called, chasing after her. Julia sighed, rising from her seat and trudging after them. While she wasn't exactly enthusiastic, she was definitely worried for Blake herself, and she wanted to find out if he was okay.
"…So what do you need my help with?" Kitty asked, walking into the boy's room, glancing at Nikita. "You said something about Blake being missing?"
"Exactly," Nikita said. "Blake's missing, and we need your help. His pokemon might know something, and we wanted you to ask them with your harmonia!"
Kitty blinked, and turned to look at Reiner and Nick for clarification. They both had looks of exhaustion and seemed to be telling her "just go with it" with their eyes.
Kitty sighed.
"Nikita, that's not how it works," she explained. "I don't just… interrogate someone like on Law & Order: Special Defense Unit, it's more like, well…"
Kitty was having a hard time explaining what exactly harmonia's connection to pokemon was. She tried again, "I don't just talk to pokemon, it's like a sort-of feeling."
Nikita sighed, dejected. "So you can't help?"
Kitty swallowed. This was really important, she knew that. If Blake really was missing, then she'd do whatever she could to help him! So she'd give it her best. "I'll try, I guess," she finally said. "But one pokemon at a time, okay? …And not his Salamence!"
She shivered, shaking her head.
"Not… just not her. I can try with the rest, but…"
"Don't worry, it's okay," Reiner assured her, patting her on the back. "If it's too much, you don't have to. We'll keep searching the room, and-"
"Nick!" Ayame shouted, practically kicking the door down as she burst into the room.
"Uwaah!" Kitty nearly jumped out of her skin she was so startled, stumbling backwards.
"Ayame? What are you-" Reiner opened his mouth but Ayame was way too busy to listen. He looked past her and saw Cynthia and Julia in the doorway behind her, Cynthia looking troubled and Julia looking frustrated.
"Wh-what?" Nick asked, confused.
"Gimme your girlfriend," Ayame demanded, walking across the room until she towered over him, making Nick shrink back a little. Time away from them had clearly not helped her calm down any, even if she was no longer as frantic and worried. She was still plenty intimidating, though.
"…Get your own," Nick replied.
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Ayame said, shaking her head. "I just thought of something about where Blake could be! He's training under Dokukage, that fucking ninja guy! And Dokukage might have given him some sort of bizarre training instructions! So let me talk to Callie, she's gotta know how I can find him, right?"
"Oh! Oh, yeah, that makes sense," Nick said, calming down a little. "Yeah, let me give her a call."
While Nick dialed up Callie, Julia took the opportunity to walk over to Kitty.
"Hey, you doing okay?" Julia asked. "You're not feeling sick to your stomach or anything, after last night?"
"I'm fine," Kitty assured her with a smile. "I'm doing a lot better since this morning."
"That's good," Julia sighed in relief. She glanced around the room. "So what's up? You come here to lend a hand, too?"
"…I'm going to talk to Blake's pokemon with my harmonia and get clues from them," Kitty dryly replied, her eyes glancing at the pokeballs on Blake's bed.
"…Does it work like that?" Julia asked.
Kitty let out a long, subdued sigh.
"Hey Nick! What's up?" Callie asked. "You wouldn't be happening to be asking me out on a nice romantic date for tonight, would you? The kind of date where maybe you might be asking me out to a dance? Don't tell me! I want it to be a-"
"Stop flirting, this is fucking important," Ayame said, snatching the phone away from Nick.
"Huh?! Who is this? You keep your grubby paws away from my Nicky, you hussy!" Callie screamed, not recognizing Ayame's voice.
"Shut it I'm not interested," Ayame replied. "It's me. Ayame."
"…Oh. What are you doing, calling me from Nick's phone?" Callie said, clearly still miffed. "What do you want?"
"Where's Dokukage?" Ayame demanded. "We need to find him."
"Why should I tell you?" Callie asked. "You think that just because you're tall, shorties like me have to follow your instructions? Greedy girls like you who hug all the height to yourselves? You should be cut off at the knees so-"
"I think your girlfriend's going through something," Ayame said, handing the phone back to Nick. "Make her talk."
"Make me talk?! MAKE me? Oh, if you want me to TALK then I'll talk! I've got some choice words for you, little missy!" Callie screeched.
"If anyone's the 'little' missy here, it's you," Ayame snapped. "We don't have time for your fucking personal vendettas! This is important! Blake's gone missing!"
"Huh?!" Callie asked.
"Sorry, sorry, I'll explain," Nick sighed, relaying the full story to Callie. She took a moment of silence to process everything he had told her, after Ayame explained in more detail why they wanted to find Dokukage.
"Fine," she finally replied, Nick having the foresight to put her on speakerphone. "I'll tell you where he is as soon as you apologize."
"Apologize?" Ayame asked. "For being tall? I'm not fucking-"
"Apologize to Nick!" Callie snapped. "From what it sounds like, it sounds like you're pushing him around right now! And I won't stand for that, you hear me? Look, I get your boyfriend is missing right now and you're freaking out! Believe me, if Nick was gone instead, I'd be even worse!" Her tone softened. "But don't take it out on everyone else. I think you owe Nick and the others an apology."
Ayame looked around. All of her so-called friends were looking rather uncomfortable right now, and she knew that as worried as she might be for Blake, she was messing up pretty bad.
"…Yeah, you're right," she admitted. "My bad. Sorry, guys. I know I'm being kind of a jerk right now. It's just…"
"We get it, don't worry," Kitty assured her, reaching up as high as she could to give Ayame a reassuring pat. Not even able to reach her shoulder. "We're all worried about him too."
"Thanks, Callie," Nick said.
"You need to stand up for yourself more, Nick!" Callie said. "Anyway, you guys want to know where Dokukage is? Well, he's right fucking here, that's where!"
"What?!" Ayame exclaimed.
"Do you want to know why I'm in such a bad fucking mood?" Callie snapped. "Because of that mess last night, I've been here all day in one of the library rooms doing paperwork! All of us are! Because believe it or not, when a stadium gets flooded with creepy shadow miasma, that raises some problems! And even worse, we're short-staffed at the moment! Gerard had some stupid mental breakdown after losing and no one's heard from him, and meanwhile Sylvia's gone off to god-knows-where, because she's certainly not here, helping!"
"Oof, paperwork," Cynthia winced. "Sucks."
"Anyway, if you want to talk to Dokukage, here he is," Callie said. But only silence came from the other end.
Everyone stared at Nick's phone expectantly.
"Dokukage, you have to speak," Callie's exasperated voice came from the other end of the line.
"Understood," Dokukage finally replied. "What do you require of me?"
"It's me, Ayame Toujou," Ayame replied. "You know, Blake's girlfriend?"
"I remember," Dokukage said.
"Well, he's missing right now," Ayame said. "No one's seen him since last night, and it looks like he went out to go meet up with someone. Do you know anything about that? This isn't some sort of ninja training thing, survive in the wilderness by yourself or some fucking shit like that?"
"It isn't," Dokukage replied. "I haven't spoken with him since the end of the Phantom Cup. I told him we would postpone training while I work on resolving things with the other Eight Leaders in Gerard's absence."
Ayame winced. That was what she was afraid of. She kept putting her hopes in people and they kept disappointing her.
"So you didn't hear from him then…" she muttered, her voice sounding hollow to her own ears. "Sorry for wasting you guys' time, then…"
"Wait. There was one thing," Dokukage said. That surprised everyone, they didn't expect him to speak up himself.
"Yeah? What is it?" Ayame asked.
"We've been trying to get in contact with Sylvia all day," he replied. "We could not. It seems she is also missing. I am aware that there is a connection between Sylvia and Blake? It could be that they're together right now."
Ayame let that sink in for a second.
"No, no way," Cynthia laughed. "Blake and Sylvia going off somewhere together? Not in a million years, he hates her!"
"And Blake doesn't hate anybody," Kitty agreed.
"…Assuming he went willingly, of course," Reiner said.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"What?" Reiner asked, shrugging. "It's a reasonable thought. Maybe Sylvia called him out last night, and, well… she abducted him? And right now she's got him tied up somewhere."
"Come on, Reiner, that's just dumb," Cynthia laughed. "She wouldn't…"
Cynthia's voice trailed off as everyone contemplated that line of thinking.
…Actually, no, wait, she would absolutely do something like that. Everyone arrived at the same conclusion simultaneously. On the other end of the line, Dokukage mentally nodded in silent agreement.
"Oh I see…" Ayame said, her hands clenching into fists as she began shaking. "So this is all one of Sylvia's tricks, is that it?"
"She's turning into a Shadow Pokemon," Kitty whimpered, hiding behind Julia for protection from the malevolent aura radiating off of the enraged girl.
While everyone across campus was getting to the bottom of Blake's disappearance, Sango was occupied with other issues at the moment. Or she was trying to, at least.
But right now, she couldn't help but think about Blake.
Was he… was he really missing? She hadn't given it any thought when he hadn't shown up for class that morning, or when he didn't join them for lunch. She just chalked it up to tiredness and spending time with Ayame, respectively.
But no, it seemed he really was gone.
And right now, Sango's heart was hurting. She was supposed to be thinking about a plan to set up the Luvdisc Fishing Day event in Marion's place, but her thoughts were way too jumbled to even begin to think of anything.
"Castform…" Silver floated down next to her, giving her a concerned look.
"Thanks, buddy," Sango smiled at her partner, glad he was back at full strength after the nightmare he'd gone through last night with the shadow sky. "I'm just… I hope he's okay…"
Sango took a deep breath, and reassured herself. Lacking the context that her friends were dealing with, she had no idea how serious the issue really was, and so she was able to put it aside for now. If she'd gotten the whole story she would have thrown her fishing rod aside and ran back to their room as fast as her legs could carry her.
But right now, there was an issue that she felt was more pressing.
"This is ridiculous," Sango sighed, approaching the edge of the treeline leading out to the beach. "I don't know the first thing about setting up fishing events, I barely know how to fish myself. Hopefully Jessica can help. But I really wish that…"
As she came out of the trees and the water stood out in front of her, she gasped in realization at what she saw.
Standing perched upon a large outcropping stretched out over the ocean, staring down at Sango as the large waves rolled up over the bank, was a sight for sore eyes.
Sango gasped in shock, and her ambling gait shifted into a desperate run. No way! No way! It can't be! It was Marion! Marion, standing in the crest of the waves, staring down at her with a bubbly smile and waving at Sango.
"I heard what you said, Sango!" Marion called to her, a wave even taller than her crashing behind her in a curtain of water to serve as a backdrop. "But you needn't worry any longer, because I am here!"
She must be seeing things, there was just no way. But if it was her… Unable to believe it, Sango rubbed her eyes and took another look.
But no, Marion was gone. The waves washed against the rocks, with no fishing girl in sight. She must be losing it.
Sango stopped at the edge of the bank and sighed. Of course she had imagined it. No way Marion was really there. She turned and began walking back towards the dock, dejected.
"Bweeeh! Dumb ol' waves! Washing me away like that!" Marion burst up out of the water, pulling herself up onto the outcropping. "Had to ruin my totes awesome entrance!"
Sango's eyes widened and she whirled around, her jaw dropping.
"Marion!" Sango exclaimed, running over to the dripping girl.
"Yo bud!" Marion waved. "I'm back!"
Marion has returned! While everyone's frantic about Blake's disappearance, a stunning reappearance has shaken things up! What will happen now?