It's time for Will to do some "recovery" in the bathroom. And what will he find when he leaves? Well, we'll have to find out, won't we?

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 Semi-Final Round of the second Pokemon Academy Best Girl contest has begun! Which three of these six girls will make it to the Finals? So far we've only got a few votes in, so show your support for your best girl and vote on the poll in my profile! We want this competition to be close, after all! Who's going to win?!

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

DarthMonkey: No, I haven't.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Well, who can say, really?

JoshGamerV: The odds are high.

Aquahaze675: I wonder why she would do that of her own accord.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 677

Will splashed cold water on his face and stared at his reflection in the mirror. It had all been a dream, he had to keep reminding himself of that.

It wasn't making him feel any better.

Sure, that human Misato hadn't been real, and the weird, romantic feelings that he felt for her didn't mean anything about the real Misato, since she was just a creation of his mind designed to be human and, frankly, the perfect date for him, as far as he could see.

But that didn't matter. The problem was the fact that he was dreaming about Misato at all in the first place.

And that was NOT somewhere he wanted to be.

Dreaming about Misato?! That Mechadoll? And the topic of that dream… no, no, he was just stressed because of how confusing their "date" had been, and how she had changed her appearance so drastically. That had caused him to have that bizarre dream.

Will splashed some more water on his face to clear his head, this was getting him nowhere. What the hell was he even doing?

I should just go, he thought. He really should. Clearly, Misato expected him to leave. He hadn't checked his phone so he wasn't sure what time it was, but he figured that it was past the time allotted for their date.

Which was why he was surprised to find out that when he got out of the bathroom, Misato was still standing next to the couch, staring right at him.

"Misato? What are you still doing here?" Will asked, glancing at the clock to make sure he hadn't gotten the time wrong. He hadn't, they were actually a few minutes over when Misato had scheduled for their date to end.

"You told me that you were coming back," Misato replied. "With that in mind it became necessary to remain here until your return, even if that would interfere with my other scheduled activities. This date cannot conclude until we have parted properly."

Will wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean. He gave her a curious look. "What do you mean by we have to part properly?" He asked, suspicious of her intentions. He had been expecting their parting earlier to be that, but was there something else that she wanted to do?

And if there was… was it going to be something that he would like? The idea actually scared him, for some reason. Just being around this Misato was starting to bring back memories of the smiling face from his dream.

So it seems that whatever world I find myself in, I'm with one Misato while having memories about the other that mess with my feelings, Will bitterly acknowledged. This was all so much easier when Misato was just a Mechadoll, what was with all this romantic context?

And yet in spite of his discomfort with the circumstances of the two of them going on these practice "dates", the idea of shunning Misato and putting his focus towards other activities never crossed his mind.

"So, does that mean that you want to end things here, now that I'm back?" Will asked. His voice was pretty hopeful, but there was something nagging at the back of his mind, something that he had forgotten about from his dream.

He pushed that nagging thought aside and focused on the Misato in front of him.

"Affirmative. This date has reached its natural conclusion. Further interaction would only be detrimental to the pacing of my interaction with human romantic culture," Misato declared. "We can separate at this point in time if that is your desire."

It was his desire, but for some reason he still wasn't completely sure. There was something about the way Misato was looking at him, it was almost… expectant. Like there was something she wanted him to say, and couldn't bring up herself.

But that was nonsense. That would be a masterful display of not only emotion, but understanding of social grace. And Misato shouldn't have been capable of that, not independently. Unless there was something that was involved in dating that Will was obligated to do, of course, and she was expecting him to fulfill that obligation.

Fuck, that was probably it, wasn't it?

They weren't allowed to part until Will fulfilled his obligation. Or, if he did, then Misato would probably hold that against him somehow, and- Wait, it wasn't like he was getting graded, or like they were really dating, so why the hell would he care about something like that?

Will shook his head to clear his thoughts, and returned back to the present, where Misato was still staring at him with those empty eyes of hers. He let out a sigh, and decided that the right thing to do, even if he didn't necessarily need to, was play along.

This was for Misato's sake, after all, helping her with her research into the human experience, so it was essential that he step in and do his best for that, at least. The question was, what was Misato looking for him to say?

This was actually where it benefitted Will to know about how Misato operated. Because the dream version of her was human, the way she acted was sometimes hard to predict. But Misato was a Mechadoll who behaved on pattern. So if Will had to guess what her intentions were based on how she had acted today, then what he had to say was probably something about how he had enjoyed his date with her.

Or, even if he hadn't enjoyed it, at least sharing his thoughts on the matter. For Misato that would probably be enough.

Will opened his mouth to let her know what he thought, but before he could tell her, something occurred to him. That nagging thing from the date before, the one in his dream, had finally returned to him, and he had to take a moment to think about it.

Dream Misato had been a lot of things. Emotional, creative, spontaneous, and the thing that Will found most notable was the fact that she had been able to come up with an idea for what they could do on their date that was actually creative and romantic, all the things that his Misato was completely incapable of.

Misato had planned this date, and while it had been rather by the numbers as far as romantic dates went, when it came to the last activity she had completely messed up, because it just wasn't fun to read in a library on a date. At least, not for him, anyway.

But the Roselia Gardens? While Will wasn't exactly the biggest fan of gardens (or strolls through said gardens) he couldn't deny that it was a creative choice, at least in terms of date activities that would occur to a Mechadoll. Maybe… it wouldn't be the worst thing, if he asked Misato to continue their date and go to the Roselia Gardens, like the date he had been on with her counterpart? While the idea of continuing the date came as an honest shock to Will, he couldn't deny the value in it.

After all, that had been Misato's biggest failing on their date. So maybe he could actually help educate her, by showing her an example of what a romantic activity was supposed to look like independent of any source.

It couldn't hurt, right?

The only problem was, Will wasn't sure if she would actually go along with it. After all, their date was supposed to end here. And arguing with Misato was like, well, arguing with a computer. If there was something that she had to do right now, then there wouldn't be any convincing of her, she would just do it.

But on the other hand, if he could compel her with some logical arguments about why the two of them should continue their date, then the chance was that she might see the logic in it and agree to continue with him.

…

Will was overthinking it. At the end of the day, whether or not Misato's research proved to be a success wasn't THAT important to him. If Misato heard what he had to suggest and still decided no, then what was the big deal?

That made him feel significantly better, and so he calmed down and reminded himself that it didn't really matter what his response was.

As he was calming down, though, he realized he had probably been standing here, lost in thought, for hours, like a moron. How long had he had his mouth open like this? And Misato hadn't said a word, of course, or moved a muscle. She didn't have those, after all. She just stared at him patiently and waited for him to say something.

Will was actually finding himself grateful that this was the Mechadoll Misato and not the human one. The human probably wouldn't have been so accepting of something so dumb. He quickly shut his mouth and refocused.

"Um, listen, this is going to sound kind of… well, very odd, but can I ask you something?" Will asked Misato, cursing himself internally for being such a sod. Why was he getting flustered?! It's not like he was asking a real girl, she was a Mechadoll! He was letting the dream influence his decision way too damn much.

"Affirmative. You are free to ask me any question that you desire. However, I am programmed to provide responses that are acceptable according to my processing system, so if your question requires an answer that would violate my programming or my confidentiality settings then I will not be able to provide you with a satisfactory answer," Misato replied.

Ah. It was good to be back.

"Um… I know you said that you wanted the date to end here, that you thought it was the best choice, but… do we need to end it here?" Will asked.

"Affirmative. The date has reached the set ending time. We have exceeded that time by 11 minutes 25 seconds," Misato replied. "Once you commence with initiating the proper procedures for saying farewell, the date will officially be concluded."

Okay, so this idea was dead in the water. But Will still felt like trying, it's not like she could say "no" any more harshly than that, and it's not like her "no" would actually be that painful for him, so he decided to go with it anyway.

"Well, I know that we've exceeded the time that you budgeted for our date, but I was wondering if we could ignore that, and do something else, instead," Will asked, realizing that he was already messing this up. He wasn't appealing to logic or reason like he had planned to, it sounded like he was actually asking out a real girl. "Well, what I mean, is that you and I are doing this practice date thing in order for you to learn more about romantic dates on Valentine's Day, right?"

"Affirmative," Misato confirmed.

"But this date, well… this last part, in the library, it wasn't… I don't think it's a good place to end this date," Will explained. "There's something missing in your preparations for a date, that thing I mentioned before. I don't think you're capable of spontaneously coming up with date ideas with the express intention of making them romantic."

He looked around the library, raising his arms to emphasize his point. "Considering you came up with this as your idea, and, well, it's not very romantic."

"The logic behind your statement is sound. This date was designed in order to appeal to your tastes in both an enjoyable activity and a romantic activity. Although you have not provided enough input to determine whether or not you found this date enjoyable to any degree of statistical significance, based on your objections the only valid conclusion to draw is that you have not found this activity to be romantic," Misato agreed. "This means that this activity has failed to meet one of its two intended criteria. This is a failing in preparation, that cannot be argued."

Well, don't be too hard on yourself, Will resisted the urge to snark. There were more important things to focus on right now. "What if I suggested an activity that you could use to draw reference to?" Will suggested. "Something that would be romantic, even without being based on any other activity you have observed in a date? If we did something else, if our date continued, maybe you could learn something that would help you plan more dates in the future."

Will still wasn't sure if that would work, if he was perfectly honest. In fact, best case scenario was that Misato would accompany him to the Roselia Gardens, and then file that information away somewhere and attempt to do the exact same thing on their next date.

She may have been an AI capable of learning, but that was a far-cry from being able to generate organic ideas on her own.

But still, maybe if he described the difference between the two activities, she might be able to understand the reasoning behind his thoughts, and implement something herself later on. She was adaptable, after all.

It would all come down to just how adaptable she could be. And if Will was being honest, his inner scientist was telling him that could be something very interesting to test indeed. Perhaps this experiment could benefit more than just Misato. He was looking forward, actually, to seeing what she would do.

Assuming, of course, that she actually agreed with him, and went along with the date idea. He studied her closely, but her face hadn't changed, of course. He wondered what was taking so long for her to come up with an answer; it wasn't like the question was that hard, and considering how fast he had seen her think, she definitely should have said something by this point, so what was going on here? It almost made him wonder-

Finally, Misato answered, and her answer was a game-changer. Needless to say, it had sufficiently broken Will's concentration, and he needed to take a moment to process it to make sure that he had heard right.

"Sorry, what was that? I was thinking about something else, can you repeat what you just said?" Will asked.

"Affirmative. Do you want me to continue our date?" Misato repeated.

So, no, he hadn't misheard. Misato was asking him if he wanted to continue the date. But… but why would she do that? It wasn't like how he personally thought would have been a relevant factor to whether or not continuing the date was a good idea, right?

That feeling of confusion was what made it impossible for Will to come up with a decent answer to that question for quite some time.

And it wasn't as if Misato was pressuring him to answer, or anything, at least not any differently than the way she usually did. She was just staring at him with those lifeless eyes, waiting for him to provide an answer.

Somehow, the fact that she was doing it without even intending to made it that much worse. The fact that she would just patiently wait here for him to say something was unnerving, and another reminder that he wasn't with a human, but a Mechadoll.

He thought about her question. Misato wouldn't ask something meaningless, there had to be a point. Were his feelings the point? Well, that was a problem, because Will's feelings on the matter were rather complex.

Did Will really want their date to continue? He wanted to help Misato, sure, and he was interested by what she might do. Would that be the kind of answer that she wanted? And it wasn't like Misato was that skilled at telling when he was lying, either, he could probably just say yes anyway and she would believe it.

For some reason, though, he didn't feel like he should. But as for his answer, he knew that he could say yes without lying.

"Yes," he said, nodding his head.

"Clarification required," Misato continued. "What is the reason that you want to continue our date? I will factor your answer into my decision-making process in order to determine whether or not this date will continue."

"Uh…" Will hadn't been expecting Misato to have him justify his answer. It reminded him of when his teachers told him that he had to write his response in a complete sentence. He didn't know what to say, so he just decided to tell the truth.

After all, it's not like his reasoning was wrong, right? "I already told you," Will reminded her. "I want to help you learn more about romantic dates."

"Affirmative. Is that the only reason that you wish to continue with the date?" Misato confirmed. What other reason would there be? Will nodded. "Understood. If that is the case then I have determined that your request does not possess suitable justification to overturn the previous decision to end the date at this point."

Will wasn't sure what the problem with his answer was. Maybe he needed a stronger argument? "Well, in that case-"

"If there is any further reasoning you wish to provide for why you desire to continue our date you may present it at this time," Misato interrupted him. She still hadn't moved to leave. Now, Will was even more confused.

Misato must have thought there was something else that Will could say to convince her. Or maybe she was just programmed to be receptive to any ideas, and did not have any notion of what he could say that would change her position. No, it was probably the second one. So that returned the matter back to the original issue, "did he want to continue their date?"

He'd been avoiding it, but… could Misato really be looking for an emotional answer to that question? Logic certainly wasn't working. If Will trying to help her achieve her original goal for the date wasn't a good enough reason to convince her to change her mind, then Will wasn't going to come up with a logical answer to the problem.

Misato had said before… that this was for his sake, right? Him enjoying himself on their date was important.

So… maybe she really did want to know if he wanted to continue the date. Not just for her sake, but because it was actually something that he wanted to do, spending time with her.

The thing was, Will wasn't sure what answer he could give to that.

Did he want to continue the date? Not just because Misato wanted to, or because he thought it would be interesting to observe her… but because he was actually having fun with her? Or at least, could imagine himself having fun with her?

He thought about the date he'd had with the dream Misato, and the smiling look on her face. Was it possible he could have fun with her?

There was only one way to find out.

"Misato, I want to continue the date," Will said.

"This has already been established. Please explain your reasoning," was Misato's answer. Not the most romantic thing she could have said.

"I think that if we continue the date… it might be fun." That was the most Will could say. He couldn't guarantee fun, but he could at least acknowledge the possibility.

"Understood. The reason you have provided gives me acceptable cause to reconsider the decision to call an end to our date," Misato replied. "It is acceptable to continue our date for as long as you believe it will lead to you having fun."

Will was surprised that it had been so easy. Misato… he really didn't understand what she wanted at all, did he?

No, I don't think he does.