Blake and Ayame have only gotten closer together this Valentine's Day. What waits for them at the end of their dinner? Will Ayame's wishes come true? Will Blake realize that he wants to be with her, the same way she wants to be with him? Or will he come to a different conclusion? Will something else happen to interrupt the two of them? What other surprises await us as the Valentine's Day arc reaches its shocking climax? We'll have to find out! I will say, it should be pretty exciting!

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!

There are only a few days left in the Semi-Final Round of the second Pokemon Academy Best Girl contest! Which three of these six girls will make it to the Finals? So far we've only got a few votes in, and by that, I mean only five people have voted! Is that really all we can get to narrow down to our finalist, just five votes? 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

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Not exactly. The next arc will take a more serious tone, and not be as focused on shipping. It's important that we had all these breathers in between.

KedharS: That would be never.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Sadly I cut the dance, since nobody we know is going.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 687

"Fuck! 7 stones short!" Ayame groaned, counting up the difference on the go board. It was their second game that night, and her second loss. This was her board, in HER room, so wasn't that supposed to give her the home field advantage?

"7 stones, huh? It's getting closer," Blake teased. "I guess that's what happens when I step away from the game for a few years."

"Oh, already making excuses for when I beat you, huh?" Ayame snapped, a smile spreading across her face in spite of herself.

Blake's eyes widened in a fake approximation of horror. "Beat me? Really? And when was the last time that happened?"

"Shut… Shut up!" Ayame fumed, scowling at him.

The two burst out laughing. But Blake's laugh was disrupted by a yawn. "…Haaaaaanhh… Oh, sorry, he apologized. I guess it's getting late."

Ayame checked the time, wow, it was getting late. "Yeah, you're right, I had no idea. Go really takes a long time, huh? I guess that means no game."

Blake sighed, that was a bit of a pity. "I guess we'll have to save your dazzling win for tomorrow, huh?" He winked, rising to his feet and letting out another yawn. "I better get back."

Ayame blinked. "…Oh."

Blake glanced down at her in surprise, confused by her muted reaction. He saw the look of disappointment on her face and then saw the way that she glanced towards the bed, and realization dawned on him.

"…Oh," he said, feeling his face heat up.

"I-I just thought, since… you came back to my room, and everything, and you said what you said at… at dinner, well…" Ayame couldn't believe she'd misunderstood. After Blake's awkward statement at dinner the topic had been dropped, and she'd just kind of assumed that he was onboard. She really had to get better about stuff like this.

"Look, it's fine, it's not like, well…" Ayame had thought it was going to happen, but now that it wasn't she wasn't about to pressure him into staying, that would be awful!

"…I mean, it's not… it's not like I'm in any hurry to get home, or anything," Blake said quietly, glancing at Aya's bed and then back at her embarrassed face.

Seeing the transition from shocked and appalled to surprised, to curious, and then finally to hopeful was rather cute.

Even though Blake was nervous, he still felt like this was the right thing to do.

Blake loved Aya. He wanted to be with her so badly. He wasn't sure if he was ready, but…

No, he was sure. That time he had spent without her had convinced him of that more than anything else. Whatever the future held for the two of them, there was something that Blake was more sure of than anything, and it was that he loved Aya and wanted to be with her now, in the present.

Ayame seemed to sense that something about him had changed, and she looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and eagerness. She rose slowly to his feet, staring down into his eyes, and swallowed nervously.

She extended her hand to him, and wrapped her fingers around his. Neither one of them said anything, they just stared into each other's eyes and listened to the sound of their hearts beating in unison. It was like they were the only people left in the world.

It was Blake who made the first move. He stepped closer to her, leaning up and pressing his lips against hers. He reached his other hand around her waist and pulled her in closer, as she held him tightly, pressing her hand against his back.

The two parted momentarily, breathing hard. Their faces were flushed and they both opened their mouths to say something, but their voices caught in their throats. That was fine, they didn't need any words at this point.

Blake and Ayame grew closer than ever before that evening, locked away in their own private little world late into the night. Because of this, they were completely unaware of what had just transpired a few hours earlier that night.

There was another couple, who was very much not together on Valentine's Day. And no one knew just how prophetic that could end up being.

Akira waited impatiently in the restaurant for Dakota to show up. He felt like this was a recurring problem. He would invite her out to a date, and then she'd show up unbelievably late, if she even came at all.

Hell, he was pretty sure that the waitress was even the same pink-haired woman who had served them last time!

Needless to say, this wasn't unexpected behavior. But come on, he assumed she at least would have put in the effort to show up on time for their date on Valentine's Day, of all days. Considering how much she'd been griping about the state of their relationship, and how much she wanted the two of them to make progress and really take the chance to spend time together and work on their relationship before he left for his study abroad.

Akira let out a sigh of frustration and cleared his thoughts. There was no sense in getting upset over this. Dakota was in a rough place, he knew that. He really shouldn't hold it against her. He'd seen the condition she'd been in the past few weeks, and talked with Serefina about their concerns for her in private.

Dakota… she hadn't been doing well, and she hadn't been looking well. Part of Akira had wondered whether or not he should just call off the date altogether, but Serefina had convinced him otherwise, telling him that something like that was exactly what Dakota needed to move forward and not be trapped in the library forever.

Akira could understand that, and that was why he'd decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and kept the reservation.

But of course, she was a no-show.

Akira was feeling charitable, so he decided to think that Dakota was just late because she was catching up on her sleep. Judging by the bags under her eyes, she certainly needed it. He wouldn't begrudge her at all for putting her health ahead of their relationship.

But Akira knew Dakota well enough to know that was complete BS. Screw putting her health ahead of their relationship, he bet she was probably typing away on her computer, having blown him off in order to get some work done on her newest story.

He took out his phone and tried her number again. Of course, put right to voice mail. She was either blowing him off, or so engrossed in what she was doing she had turned her phone off completely, and either way it didn't mean good things for getting in contact with her, much to Akira's chagrin. He was tempted to call Serefina next, to ask what was going on, when his phone rang out all on its own, as if Serefina had heard him thinking about her and had called him first.

"Hey, Serefina, what's up?"

On the other end, Serefina let out a long sigh. "Akira, is Dakota with you? Please tell me she is."

Well, that wasn't a good sign.

"Uh, no, she isn't," Akira said. "I haven't heard from her all day."

"Of fucking course," Serefina groaned.

"I've been trying her for like half an hour now," Akira said. "She's late to our date and isn't picking up her phone. I thought that she was catching up on her sleep, but-"

"She was," Serefina interrupted him. "I managed to talk her into putting down her computer and getting some sleep. Then when I came to check up on her, she sprung out of bed and ran out of here with her camera and computer so fast that she left her phone behind, can you believe that?"

So that's why she wasn't answering. Akira let out a groan of frustration. It sounded so much like Dakota that he could see it clearly. She had probably caught wind of a great scoop, and blown off their date to go to the library.

"I'm sorry, Akira," Serefina apologized. "I wish she wouldn't do stuff like this. I know she cares about you a lot, really, it just feels like her priorities are in the wrong place sometimes. But don't hold it against her, she really does want to make this work."

If she wanted to make this work, then she would actually be trying, Akira bitterly noted. But he knew better than to say something like that in front of Serefina. Instead, he just nodded silently. "Yeah, I know," he murmured.

"I'm really sorry," Serefina apologized again.

"Dakota's just passionate," Akira said, not that he accepted that as an excuse. "Don't worry about her, everything will be fine. I'm not going to break up with her over something like this." Akira was in too deep.

Serefina sighed with relief. "I'm glad. I'm sorry about this. I hope that whatever it is that Dakota is doing, it's worth hurting you like this."

Akira didn't want to know. But he was going to wait here for just a little longer, hoping that in spite of her focus on whatever story she was chasing, she would eventually remember that they had a date, and come to meet up with him anyway.

It was a fool's hope, but it was the only kind of hope that he had left.

But unfortunately for Akira, Dakota wasn't going to be coming to meet him this evening.

Right now, she was focusing on something much more serious. Her date was the last thing on her mind. Someone might say that it was bad for her to blow off her boyfriend like that, but some things were more important than others, and this was one of them.

Technically, she wasn't even supposed to be here. The library was closed, and everyone had already left. But she'd used Micah's connections in order to arrange for her to stay in after hours so she could put in some effort into researching something important.

And it was damn good that she had, because she couldn't believe what she had found, poking through the old textbooks. Looking into the familiar-looking crystal had led her to other research materials, and she had correlated them with what she already knew to find out something horrifying.

The crystal… if it was what the research suggested it was, then that meant it would have some very dangerous properties. The Shadow Pokemon and Cipher, Misato Daisan, Silph Co., Professor Decker's study in genetics and form changes, they were connecting together in a picture that Dakota couldn't believe.

It was all coming together like the pieces of a puzzle assembled by the hands of a lunatic, crafting something that made Dakota wonder who the architect of such a thing could be. The Phantom was ostensibly a teenager, but she knew that couldn't be true. And if this conspiracy she had lighted on was fact, then that meant this was a plan decades in the making, if not longer.

Dakota had to tell someone. She had never felt her spark of journalism burn so brightly, the evidence fueling it into an inferno. She pulled her flashdrive out of her computer and pocketed it, sliding her laptop into her bag. She needed to put these books away, and then-

"Well, what's going on here?"

The cold whisper made Dakota freeze in place. No. No, it couldn't be. He couldn't be here…

She couldn't let on that there was anything wrong. She turned with a calm smile on her face, and glanced up at the Phantom.

"Oh! Wow, you startled me," she laughed, knowing that she was probably dead if the monster in front of her suspected anything was wrong. "I didn't expect anyone else would be here."

"Neither did I," the Phantom laughed, his voice devoid of mirth. His green eyes flashed like he was piercing through her lies, and she felt herself squirm in her seat. "Especially not you. Don't you have a date tonight? I'm sure I heard that somewhere. I have to wonder what you'd be doing blowing off Valentine's Day night to dig through dusty old books and research papers in the library."

He gestured at the stack of research materials in front of Dakota, including a particularly heavy tome that she had been referring to.

"Oh!" She gasped, having totally forgotten about her date with Akira. Crap, he was going to be worried. Shit. That was about the time she realized she had forgotten her phone. "I totally forgot about my date with Aki! Sorry, I have to be going!"

She got up out of her chair and took one last look into the Phantom's eyes, and that's when she saw it. That flash.

He knew.

He knew that she knew.

They stared at each other in silence for a few agonizing seconds, and then the Phantom lunged.

If Dakota hadn't seen the recognition in his eyes, it could have ended there. But she managed to dodge his attack, and grabbed the massive tome from the table. She swung it into his face, knocking him over, screamed, turned, and ran into the stacks.

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! Dakota was screaming her lungs out, but only in her mind. She couldn't draw any more attention to herself, lest the Phantom catch her. She ran through the bookshelves, searching desperately for the exit, but she was in pure panic mode and couldn't find her way out. It was like she was running deeper into the maze, with the only thing to ground her was the distant sound of the Phantom's footsteps in hot pursuit behind her.

She was dead if he caught her. That much was certain. How could she have been so stupid as to forget both her phone AND her pokeballs back in her room?! She raised her head and desperately looked for the familiar green exit sign, but all she could see were the dim shadows of the empty library.

Then she hit the dead end.

Emphasis on dead, she darkly noted. The tunnel of bookshelves ended in another bookshelf. There was nowhere left to run. She could hear the pound of the Phantom's footsteps getting closer, and knew that backtracking was pointless. He had trapped her, and she only had moments to think.

The first thought to flash through her head was Akira, and it hurt. I'm sorry, Aki. I'm not going to make it to dinner.

But that was all she could spare towards him. The Phantom was seconds away, and if he caught her, he'd destroy all the evidence. The flashdrive burned hot in her pocket, and she had to find some way to get rid of it. But there was something else in her pocket, too, a tube of lipstick Serefina had forced on her for her date.

She could kiss Seri right now, but that would have to wait. She'd do that and more if she ever saw her friend again, that was for sure.

She had just finished when the shadow of the Phantom filled the corridor behind her. And then came the darkness and the pain. She screamed, because that was the only thing left that she could do.

Akira checked his phone. Dakota still hadn't shown up, and he was beginning to get a bad feeling. He didn't quite know what it was, but it was an ominous sense that something really bad was happening. He shook his head, that was just nerves. This had just been more of Dakota's mess.

The waitress refilled his ice water for the sixth time, giving him the stinkeye. He reached for his glass, and as his fingers wrapped around it, it suddenly burst into pieces. Akira yanked his hand back, startled.

"Oh!" The pink-haired waitress gasped. "I'm so sorry I don't know what happened, are you okay?!" But Akira shrugged her off and got out of the booth. His hand wasn't even cut, but a bad omen like that was making him worried. He was probably just paranoid, but he couldn't shake that feeling…

He decided to call Serefina again. But she still hadn't seen Dakota. She couldn't still be at the library, could she? It was closed.

An image flashed into Akira's head, unprompted. Satsuki's smiling face. Why… why was he thinking about her now? He shook his head, not wanting to think about her, but for some reason the image still wasn't going away.

Satsuki's smiling face was burning behind his eyes, telling him something, and he felt his heart race. No, that… that was nothing, that wasn't…

Satsuki's smiling face again.

He knew that face. He had seen it every night for years. The night Satsuki had died. The last time he'd ever seen her alive, the last smile she'd given him.

Suddenly, Akira couldn't stay here. He shoved the waitress aside and ran out of the restaurant. He wasn't sure what was compelling him, but he knew that it was fear. Satsuki… he had lost her because he had ignored such an obvious signal. Now… for some reason, he was being reminded of her again, with Dakota.

Why? Why was he thinking about her now? Was it… no, no, that was ridiculous. But he couldn't doubt his fears. That Dakota, just like Satsuki…

Damn it, where was she?! Running into the night, he found the library, locked, of course. He had a hot second to think, to cool down, and then a glowing shimmer of red beyond the doors made him forget that completely. He grabbed one of the large trash cans from the ground and flung it at the glass door, smashing it to pieces. An alarm blared out, but Akira didn't care. He climbed over the glass and ran into the library, shouting for Dakota.

She didn't reply. If she was here, she wasn't answering.

Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay. It wasn't like he had a reason to think that she wasn't okay, certainly not one to justify this seriously suspect behavior. But he couldn't shake his fear that something was happening. He needed to find her. He had been too late to save Satsuki. He wasn't going to make the same mistake this time.

He flung on the lights and ran into the bookshelves, searching for her, but damn it, this place was like a maze, and he couldn't-

Then he saw her. Satsuki, standing in front of him, as if she had responded to his pleas and had come to guide him to Dakota just in time. She was only there for a second, her hand raised and finger pointing to the left. He followed her finger and an instant later the ghostly figure flickered from view. Akira dashed in the direction Satsuki had indicated, knowing that whether it was ghost or vision or hallucination, Satsuki would never steer him wrong.

When Akira turned the corner, all he saw was red. The sickening stench of blood struck him, and he fell to his knees in horror, nearly sick upon himself.

Whelp, as I promised. Three couples have a happy evening, one couple ends in tragedy.