Cynthia and Caelia depart in order to find Sango! But does Sango want to be found? Will she be able to help? We'll have to find out!

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile! The story is finally completed! Thank you for reading!

The Elimination Round of the second Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest is over, and now we've entered the Semi-Final Round! Unfortunately, we didn't get as many votes as we did last time. In fact, compared to 22 unique voters last time, we only got 11. It looks like, sadly, this story has declined in popularity. But that's okay! Let's take a look at our competitors! Who has made it to the Final 5?

Ayame: 6

Sylvia: 6

Marion: 5

Sango: 5

Elaina: 5

Elizabeth: 4

Kate: 4

Maddi: 4

Caelia: 3

Kitty: 3

Cynthia: 3

Carrie: 2

Nikita: 2

Alcea: 1

Julia: 1

Olivia: 1

Dakota: 0

Darla: 0

Lila: 0

So unlike last time, the Top 5 is pretty clear. Ayame, Sylvia, Sango, Marion, and Elaina will all advance to the Semi-Finals. Kate and Alcea from last time, sadly, did not make it into this round, replaced by Sylvia and Elaina, but the biggest shock of all must be Cynthia. Last year, she was the overwhelming champion of the Elimination Round with a whopping 15 votes, but in this last year she has clearly been overshadowed by other girls, dropping down to a measly 3. And also unlike last year, this year there were girls who got no votes at all! But similarly to last year there will still be 6 people in the Semi-Finals, as, due to a technical error, Valerie should have been included in the Elimination Round, so she will move onto the Semi-Finals. Like last time, each person now gets the chance to cast 3 votes for which three girls they want to see in the top 3! Voting will end in October, and then we move onto the Finals! So vote for your best girl! Convince me that this story is still popular, I'm begging you!

Semi-Finalists: Ayame, Sylvia, Marion, Sango, Elaina, Valerie

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: I don't really know how to answer that question, there's too many. Sango likes the Ranger series.

The Unknown Man 110: She already has.

KedharS: Yes, it did.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Yeah, Cynthia's hiding a lot of baggage behind that smile.

JoshGamerV: Do you also forget water is wet?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 659

Today had not been one of Sango's better days. Yes, certainly, she was overjoyed by the fact that Blake was back. It was one of the happiest moments of her life, that instant when she saw him sitting on the bed and knew that he was alright.

But that didn't mean that today was going very well.

The big problem was that without Blake's disappearance to keep her motivated, her two weeks of accumulated fatigue were starting to catch up to her. And it didn't help that Marion, one of the sources of that fatigue, was driving her crazy at this very moment in a way that Sango had just needed to take a break from.

So, needless to say, she wasn't exactly motivated to make a quick return to the lake to keep doing her job, when Marion was outright refusing to help her. Sango let out a sigh. It really was her fault, for expecting Marion to be in any way diligent with her responsibilities when fishing was right there.

She really couldn't thank Aidan enough for this. Stepping in to help gave her the perfect opportunity to take a break from that insanity.

Sango smiled, good old reliable Aidan, always there to lend a helping hand. He had really saved her here, she needed to do something nice for him to show how grateful she was.

Sango truly did not understand anything at all.

Humming to herself, she pushed a cart filled with fishing poles from Marion's fishing place, and was taking her sweet time in doing it. It wasn't like she was in any hurry. The longer she took to get back, the better, as far as she was concerned.

If she returned, then she'd just find herself in that position again, being driven ragged. So she was going to put that off for as long as she reasonably could, and hope that Aidan could handle things while she took a much-needed breather.

She was grateful to Aidan, but not THAT grateful.

"Oh! Hey, there's Sango right now! Sango! Hey! Over here!"

Sango jumped in surprise, looking around wildly. She hadn't expected Cynthia of all people to be on this section of the campus, considering that the only thing in the area was the lake they were holding the contest in, and Cynthia was not only single, but the boy she was interested in would probably not be appreciating her fishing up a Luvdisc for him.

But no, there she was, tromping down the path with a big smile on her face, waving cheerily at Sango as she approached.

…And with her other hand, she was dragging someone behind her, the last person Sango expected to see on Valentine's Day.

What the heck was Cynthia doing with Caelia Auburn? Sango was so startled by that she nearly let go of the cart, but quickly regained her composure. For an instant, she was tempted to just book it up the path and ditch Cynthia and the other girl, but she thought better about it.

After all, a conversation would allow Sango to take her sweet time getting back to Marion, and having to put up with that mess again, and she could see that as nothing but an absolute win in her book. So she stopped, turned, and waited for Cynthia and Caelia to catch up to her.

"Hey, Cynthia, it looks like you managed to score yourself quite the date," Sango wryly noted, raising her eyebrow. She turned to Caelia and smiled at her, knowing that Caelia was a rather damaged girl. "Hello there, Caelia. It's nice to see you again. How are you doing?"

Sango was mature enough to not be bothered by Caelia's lack of interaction. Luckily, Cynthia was more than talkative enough for the both of them.

"Well, without Blake, we're here having a bit of a girl's day," Cynthia explained with an awkward laugh, smiling over her shoulder at Caelia. "Since, you know… we both had kind of a rough time with the whole 'Blake going missing' thing, you know?"

Sango gasped in shock. She didn't know that Caelia was aware of what had happened to Blake! She was about to ask for more details, but caught herself.

After all, that wasn't any of her business, and Caelia probably wouldn't want to talk about it anyway. And asking Cynthia would be even worse, since she DEFINITELY didn't have any right to be talking about it.

So she let the subject drop, instead changing the topic towards inquiring as to what Cynthia and Caelia were doing here, of all places.

"I'll admit, I don't know a lot about 'girls days'," Sango admitted, raising her eyebrow, "but I assume that's stuff like clothes shopping, or getting your nails done?" Sango wanted to smack herself across the face. Beauty plans were probably not going to go over well with someone in Caelia's condition, considering her burns. She quickly changed her focus back to the matter at hand, "so why did you guys come out here, huh?"

"To find you, of course!" Cynthia chirped, a broad smile spreading across her face.

Sango felt her heart sink in her chest. She really didn't like that sound of that.

"T-To find me? Why?" Sango asked, swallowing.

Now it was Cynthia's turn to think quickly on her feet. She felt a little awkward telling Sango about how her motivation to keep on going in spite of the pain she must have been feeling was an enormous motivating factor in getting Cynthia to stand up again and find a way to keep going on, and she was certainly not going to mention the fact that she had contemplated suicide during that time. She had no idea how Sango would react if she did that.

And she also knew that there was NO WAY she was going to tell Sango about Caelia's own emotional problems or brush with contemplating suicide, because that was another thing that Sango really had no business at all knowing about.

So of course, Cynthia decided to lie through her teeth.

"Well, I knew that you were helping Marion out up here and I wanted to come stop by and see what you were up to!" Cynthia explained. Well, it wasn't QUITE a lie. "After all, we can't have a girl's day if you're not there, considering that you're also single and alone on Valentine's Day, even if it is by your own choice!"

Sango resisted the urge to punch Cynthia in the teeth.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you," she sighed. "But you won't be getting much entertainment out of me. It's only getting more crowded at the lake, and they're going to need all hands on deck if they want to work through this."

She nodded down at the cart full of fishing rods that she had been pushing. "So many people that the rods we had weren't enough. Hell, for all I know, by the time we get there, there STILL might not be enough for everyone that needs them!"

She shook her head, and gave Cynthia a regretful smile. As much as she liked the idea of hanging out with her friend and spending the day with her, it didn't look like that was in the cards. After all, she needed to help Marion and relieve Aidan of his duties, she needed to do the responsible thing. And Cynthia was a lot of things, but she definitely wasn't very responsible.

"Sorry, I guess I won't be able to hang out," Sango apologized.

Cynthia wasn't fazed at all, her bright smile not dimming a bit.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that!" She laughed, patting Sango on the shoulder. "Come on, we can have a blast up at the lake!"

Sango needed a moment to process that.

"Wait, huh?!" Sango hadn't been expecting Cynthia, of all people, to want to go see what was going on up there, and hang around with Sango all day.

That had the makings of one of the most miserable experiences Sango could have possibly imagined. Sure, Sango loved Cynthia, she was one of her best friends. But Cynthia could be annoying on her best days, and this was FAR from one of Sango's best days.

It was one thing if they were just going to be hanging out as friends, but Sango was going to be working. And in her current mental state, working around a hyperactive and annoying Cynthia and trying to accomplish anything only meant more headaches.

"No, no, I couldn't ask you to do that!" Sango said, shaking her head and waving her arms frantically. "After all, you're going to be so bored up at the lake! I'm gonna be manning the desk the whole time, so what are you even going to do?! There's nothing to do up there except go fishing, you guys should find something way more fun!"

"That's fine!" Cynthia said, ignoring Sango entirely. She wasn't about to be rebuffed so easily! "We can just go fishing, sound like a plan, Caelia?"

After hearing that little statement from Cynthia, Sango wondered if she, and not Blake, was the one who had gotten transferred to some sort of bizarre hell dimension where the laws of physics didn't work properly.

Cynthia wanted to go fishing?

Cynthia?

Sango had grown to like fishing quite a lot in the past month and a half since Marion's absence, where she had learned quite a bit. It was a fun and relaxing hobby, great for winding down and focusing yourself and getting in touch with nature in order to better understand your place in the universe and appreciate the slow things in life.

Simply put, it wasn't the sort of hobby that someone could find enjoyable unless they were blessed with an abundance of patience.

And Cynthia was perhaps the most impatient and hyperactive person that Sango had ever met. The girl simply had zero ability to sit still. Sango was energetic and liked to have a good time, but even she needed to relax sometimes!

For Cynthia, "relax" was just not in her dictionary. Well, it was, she just wasn't using a definition that most people would agree with.

Even when she was relaxing she would have to be doing something.

So no, Sango couldn't see how putting Cynthia and fishing rods together could in any way result in a positive outcome.

And unfortunately for Sango, she was not going to be the one who would be making that little decision here today.

"Did I hear you say you wanted to try fishing?!" Marion exclaimed, popping up from behind Sango and causing the girl to let out a scream of surprise.

"M-M-Marion?!" Sango sputtered in shock, turning to Marion and going pale at the sight of her sparkling blue eyes shining with excitement. "What are… what are you doing here?! Shouldn't you be up there, helping?!"

"I was," Marion nodded, rocking back and forth on her feet and practically bursting with energy. "But then I heard that someone was talking about fishing down here, and I just got abso-positive-a-lutely sure that I had to be here! So what's going on, you girls want to get into fishing?! Alright, sounds like a blast, you're gonna love it to bits!"

Sango could see the situation rapidly descending from "Bad" into the territory of "Worse". Hell, Marion had practically moved into the suburbs of "Worse" and was inviting guests to come over and have a barbecue at this point.

Sango hung her head in resignation. This was not going to be fun. So much for her short break from work.

"Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Marion cried, jumping from one foot to the other as she eyed Cynthia and Caelia with glee. She knew Cynthia well enough, but Caelia wasn't really someone she was all that familiar with.

But either way, she was just thrilled to have someone to go fishing with! More fishing friends to pull along in her wake, coming back for her break was just the best idea she'd ever had, she couldn't believe how lucky she'd gotten!

Cynthia was feeling a similar stroke of luck at this very moment. Sango was who she'd been looking for, but she was a quick thinker and realized just how much help Marion could be in accomplishing her goals for today.

"Yeah, we would LOVE to learn more about fishing!" Cynthia nodded, stepping behind Caelia and pushing her forward. "See, my friend Caelia here, she's a really big fan of Fire type pokemon, so she doesn't have much appreciation for Water types! But I was telling her all about how she can't just keep herself cooped up in her room all day, and how she has to get out and socialize some more, and find some hobbies to keep her engaged!"

"Yeah, totally!" Marion said, nodding eagerly as she swallowed Cynthia's shit with a big spoon and an even bigger smile on her face. "Yeah, fishing is absolutely a hobby that people can get engaged in and find to be the best ever! In fact, there are people out there who would say that fishing is more important than breathing in some ways, did you know that?!"

Sango was pretty sure that there were only a few people who would say that, and the only one she could think of was standing right in front of her. But she kept her mouth shut and let Marion dream her crazy dream.

"Yeah, so I asked her, and she finally agreed that she would give it a try, isn't that right, Caelia?" Cynthia asked, giving Caelia an encouraging nudge forward while hoping that this would be one of those times that she would choose to keep her mouth shut.

Caelia blinked her eye. "No," she said, not being able to read the mood at all, as usual, much to Cynthia's irritation. She didn't let it get the better of her, though, and continued to press her attack. This was too perfect, after all!

"You don't?" Cynthia asked. "But fishing is so fun, right, Marion? Sango? I mean, I haven't tried it myself, but you guys make it out to look like such a blast, am I right?

"What? You don't want to go fishing?!" Marion exclaimed, shocked that anyone would say such a thing. "Cynthia's totally right, fishing is, like, the best thing in the world! You really aren't going to give it a shot?"

She stared at Caelia with a pleading expression, tears filling her eyes.

Unfortunately for the fishing fanatic, Caelia was exactly the wrong person to try to sway with emotional pleas like that.

"Not interested, looks boring," Caelia said, shaking her head slightly. "Fire pokemon better. Water not good. Water bad. Hate water."

"Oh, come on, she's just being shy," Cynthia laughed, shaking her head. "Come on, Caelia, just give it a shot! You know you'll like it, are you that afraid of having fun?"

"Not afraid. Not interested," Caelia corrected her, much to Cynthia's irritation. She knew that it was rude to try and force Caelia to do something that she wasn't interested in, but she couldn't help herself, this was for Caelia's own good!

After all, Caelia had no passion, no joy in her life, if Cynthia didn't know better, she would say that Caelia had no emotions at all.

But passion? Joy? Excitement? Sango might have been amazing in those categories, and her dedication might have been the reason Cynthia was still breathing, but even she had to bow down in acknowledgement of someone who was far more skilled at drawing people in and building up positive feelings inside of them.

Compared to Marion Rivers, Sango was a rank amateur.

Cynthia was sure that Marion was just the ball of energy that she needed to pull Caelia out of her shell. Because Cynthia may have been persistent, but if there was one thing that she'd learned about Marion from Sango's stories about her, it was that Marion was probably very close to being actually freaking insane.

And persistence couldn't beat obsession on the best of days.

And luckily for Cynthia, Marion seemed to be of a similar mindset as she studied Caelia, aghast at the Fire type trainer's declarations.

"Water BAD?! HATE water?!" Marion exclaimed, and for a moment Sango and Cynthia could swear that she was hyperventilating. The look on her face was like the look of someone being told that the chocolate bar that they'd just eaten was shit.

Luckily, Marion made a quick recovery, and a big smile spread across her face. There was a conspiratorial gleam in her eye that made Sango want to cry in defeat and Cynthia want to cheer in victory, respectively.

"I'm not going to let you say stuff like that without knowing what you're talking about," Marion said, shaking her head. "No, no, that's not okay!"

"Come on, Marion, she didn't mean it like that," Sango tried to explain, but even she could see that was probably a futile gesture at this point.

Once Marion got going, there was no stopping her.

"Okay, fire girl! You think that fishing is useless?! You think that you hate water? Well, that's not going to fly in MY book, no way! Nopers, you're not going to just go around saying stuff like that while I'm here!" Marion declared, shaking her head.

She grabbed Caelia by the wrist, and fortunately it was the one without the burns.

"You look like a girl that needs some real thrills in her life!" Marion decided. "And luckily, I'm the perfect gal to give them to you! I won't let you look at fishing with that dead look in your eye, I'm going to change your whole world! Come on now, let's get a move on! There's fishing to be done!"

Marion turned and tugged a frankly stunned Caelia, rushing towards the lake as fast as she could while Sango and Cynthia just watched.

"Phew," Cynthia said, sighing in relief. "That's a weight off of my shoulders. Can't wait to go see how she's able to help Caelia."

Sango was less enthused. She stared in slack-jawed horror after the two girls, shaking her head in disbelief. "…What have you done?" She asked, turning to Cynthia, unable to believe what she had just seen.

Caelia and fishing? Why do I have the feeling that's NOT going to go well? …Oh, right, because I have a brain and know that Caelia won't even be able to feel a fishing pole in her hands, that's why. Anyway, get those votes for the Semi-Finals in!