Sylvia wonders about the possible location of the flash drive in this chapter! And a few mysteries start to get uncovered! Where is the flash drive?! Who could have it?!

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!

ON ANOTHER IMPORTANT NOTE! The contest has reached the judging stage! And one of my stories, Love Bites, has made it to the semi-finals of the Impossible Romance category! But I need votes! If you would like to support me, go to MyAnimeList/MAL, find the flag for Impossible Romance, and download the app to cast your vote! It would be much appreciated!

The Pokemon Academy Best Girl 2 Finals are up and running! Who do you think is deserving of the title of Best Girl in the second year of the contest? Cast your votes! We've only gotten one vote so far, and I know that a lot of people are reading, so come on guys! The poll's in the profile, who do you think deserves to take the crown?

Finalists: Sylvia, Marion, Sango

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: You got a lot of stuff right. Not everything, but a lot. Want to know what you got wrong? Sorry, not gonna say.

JoshGamerV: Lipstick huh? Well, let's find out!

KedharS: Hahaha no.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: We are taking a break from the main cast. Akira, Dakota, and Serefina are absolutely not part of the main cast.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 693

Sylvia strolled down the hall, stroking her chin in contemplation. There was only one answer she could come up with that would explain the missing flash drive, but it just didn't seem to make sense. She had initially thought that Dakota had replaced the contents of her lipstick with the flash drive, but that had been readily dismissed. While she didn't know how big the flash drive was, that lipstick tube was way too small to hide one, and the police surely would have noticed. And where would the lipstick have gone, anyway?

No, that answer didn't make any sense.

But there was something else that came to mind. Something that while not really all that likely, was more likely than any other possibility that came to mind.

The attacker took the flash drive. Possible, but unlikely. Which meant that there was someone who had managed to sneak into the library between the attack and the police getting to the scene of the crime. Was that even possible?

Sylvia wasn't quite sure how.

She knew that the smart thing to do was assume that the flash drive was in the possession of whoever had attacked Dakota.

But that wasn't an answer that Sylvia was willing to live with.

It was just too boring and predictable of an answer, where was the fun in that? It meant that the mystery was over. The attacker had successfully concealed the evidence, and now there was no way for her to find out the truth.

No, Sylvia wanted the fun, sexy answer, the idea that the flash drive had just been taken by the killer was out of the question!

That meant someone had spirited it away somehow, it was the only solution Sylvia would allow herself to accept.

Sure, a good detective wouldn't do something like that. She'd probably let the facts and evidence point to the most likely scenario.

But facts and evidence were for Mechadolls like Misato, Sylvia preferred to weigh her chances with a bit more… whimsy.

This thief was like a ghost, having infiltrated an active crime scene and spirited away the flash drive without anyone being the wiser. Maybe it had been before the police showed up, maybe during, maybe after.

But whenever it had happened, Sylvia wouldn't accept any truth other than it had happened. She had a ghost to hunt down.

That flash drive was somewhere, after all, and Sylvia wouldn't leave a thread dangling.

While Sylvia headed off, Serefina found herself unsure of what to do now.

For the first time since the incident, she found herself with free time on her hands. She wasn't reporting what she knew to the police, or consoling Akira, or investigating with Sylvia.

So what was she supposed to do now? She didn't really know how to handle this. She looked tentatively at Akira, who, to her horror, had done so much worse. He seemed to have regressed into his previous comatose appearance, staring off into the distance.

"Hey, let me… let me walk you back," Serefina said. "I'll take you home, if you want."

Akira shook his head. "No," he whispered. "Not… no."

Serefina could understand that. Personally, she didn't want to go back to her room, either. She hadn't set foot in there since she'd heard about what happened to Dakota. She just couldn't bring herself to do it.

There were too many memories in that room, memories she didn't want to face right now. If she went back, Dakota would be there, and until she knew whether or not her friend would be coming back home that wasn't something she was ready to face.

Like Akira, she wanted a distraction.

"…Want to come to work with me?" Serefina asked quietly. "I have some… caretaking duties that I still need to do today."

Serefina probably could have taken some time off if she had asked. Lord knows, she definitely had earned it, given what she was currently putting up with emotionally. But that wasn't the kind of person she was.

Serefina needed something to keep her mind off of things. And working to help pokemon who needed it was the perfect out; it would help her emotional state immensely, giving her something to direct her anxieties and worries towards.

And maybe the pokemon would help her feel some comfort.

Right now, though, there was something else she needed to do first. It wasn't something she wanted to do, but she didn't have a choice.

When Dakota had been attacked, it wasn't just her and Akira that she had left behind, there were others who cared about her even more, and would feel her presence even stronger. And that was why Serefina found herself walking back to her room, with Akira following behind her like an obedient little Growlithe.

Serefina stopped in front of her door, and took a deep breath.

It's okay, Serefina. You can do this. You're strong, you can go inside. She slipped her key into the door and turned it, stepping inside.

"Seri! Hey, you won't believe what I just heard! I've got a huge scoop, let me tell you all about it!" Dakota shouted, looking up eagerly from her desk.

…Except Dakota wasn't here.

Serefina looked at the ghost of her friend fade away into nothing, her heart breaking in her chest as she turned away from that side of the room.

She sucked in a breath of air and glanced back at Akira, who was standing in the doorway, tense.

"Just stay there," she whispered. She didn't want him facing what she barely had the strength to face herself.

Biting her lip, she turned and ran over to Dakota's dresser, where her belt of pokeballs sat, untouched for some time.

"I'm sorry little guys," she whispered, resisting the urge to burst out crying. "But your trainer's going to be gone for a while. Until then, I… I-I'll take… c-care of you."

So this must have been what Kitty felt like when she'd had to take responsibility over Blake's pokemon, Serefina bitterly mused. Shaking her head, she turned and stormed out of the room as fast as possible, belt in hand. She couldn't stand being there a second longer.

Slamming the door behind her, she avoided even looking at Akira. "I-I got her pokemon," she explained. "Let's… let's just go."

She had been afraid, earlier, to take Akira back to her room out of fear that he wouldn't be able to handle it. But no, it was always about her. She knew that SHE had been the one who wouldn't be able to handle coming back here.

Setting her backpack down, Serefina unzipped it to put Dakota's pokeballs inside for storage.

What she saw made her blood run cold.

No, that… that's not possible. How? She asked herself, stunned by what she was seeing. It just couldn't be, it wasn't possible. But Serefina didn't know what to say about it.

Dakota's flash drive was sitting there nestled into her spare clothes, staring up at her, much to her shock. She reached in and picked it up, as if to verify that it was true. Yes, the flash drive was really there. She recognized it immediately, bright red with Dakota's name sloppily scrawled on one side and the words "PRIVATE!" on the other.

But what was it doing here? It didn't make any sense. The last she'd seen it was when Dakota had taken it with her. How did it get into her backpack, then?

Because she didn't put it there, and she knew damn well that Dakota didn't. Sylvia must have put it in there, but… what would even be the point?

The only reason she could think of that would make Sylvia put the flash drive in her backpack would be to try and frame her. But then why would Sylvia have asked for Serefina's help, when trying to figure out what was wrong? She wouldn't have alluded to the flash drive in her questioning if she was trying to frame Serefina, she hadn't even thought about it until she saw the photos. No, it wouldn't make sense for Sylvia to try to frame her after that.

And besides, when did Sylvia even have a chance to touch her backpack? For obvious reasons, Serefina had been on her guard around Sylvia the entire time she was near the girl. One of her ghost pokemon, maybe? But that still didn't explain why.

No, it couldn't be Sylvia. The only time the bag wasn't on her person was when she had left it behind during her police interview, and then the only person that was nearby was…

Serefina felt a chill run down her spine. She turned to look at Akira incredulously.

What was she even thinking right now? No, it was crazy. Akira was practically comatose back then, how could she think that he had found the flash drive and slipped it into her bag when she wasn't looking? That didn't make any sense.

Why would he do that?

"Akira, what… what is this?" Serefina asked, showing it to him. "This is… Dakota's flash drive, isn't it? I found it in my backpack, but… I don't see how it got there."

It was just a question, not an accusation. She wanted to know what was happening. Because Akira… it didn't make sense that Akira was the one to do it. She wanted to understand the truth, because it just wasn't making sense to her.

Akira stared silently at her. His eyes showed no response to seeing the flash drive, like it didn't matter to him. He turned from the flash drive to Serefina, and the spark she saw in his eyes…

No. This wasn't him. This wasn't Akira.

"What's going on here?" Serefina demanded, glaring suspiciously at the person she was no longer sure what her friend. "Who are you? Because those eyes aren't Akira's eyes."

Akira still didn't say anything. But his face shifted, as though the spark of difference in his eyes spread across him like a ripple.

"I can explain," he said, his voice sounding softer.

"Who are you?!" Serefina demanded, grabbing "Akira" by the collar. She didn't know if this was some game of Sylvia's, but if it was, then-

"You already know," the stranger snapped, shaking free of Serefina. "I'm Satsuki."

Serefina gasped. No, wait, but…

"Satsuki-?!" Serefina shook her head in disbelief. "But you… didn't you pass on?"

Satsuki gave a soft smile, one that Serefina couldn't understand. It looked sad.

"It's not that simple," she replied. "I'm always here. Watching over my Dear Akira."

This seemed a lot more than "watching over" though. Serefina wasn't sure she was okay with this. Satsuki… she'd stolen Akira's body? Serefina remembered when Satsuki had possessed her. It had been one of the shortest and longest periods of her life. It had been warm and soft, sharing Satsuki's emotions, but at the end of it she had felt like crying.

"How is this possible?" Serefina asked. "How long have you been possessing him?"

"Since the beginning," Satsuki said. She reached up and ran her fingers along her face, searching for a scar that wasn't there. "Since Dakota was attacked, really."

Serefina crossed her arms in front of her chest, and raised her eyebrow. She pulled Satsuki back into her room. It was painful to be there, but figuring out what was going on (and keeping Satsuki's identity secret) was more important than her own emotional health.

Serefina sat Satsuki down on her bed and sat in a chair across from her. "Okay. Explain."

"It's a long story-"

"I. Have. Time."

Satsuki gulped, and nodded. Serefina felt a little twinge of pleasure at the fact that an actual ghost was afraid of her. It was rather ironic.

"Normally, I'm just… well, it's complicated, I can't quite explain it," Satsuki looked like she was more than a little confused herself. She began to shake, and Serefina thought that she could see tears in her eyes. "Look, it's not… I'm not always watching in, like, the real way? I don't know, my head kind of hurts…"

Serefina realized that Satsuki had died as a young girl. She was interacting with her conversation partner like Akira was still himself, or like Satsuki was someone her age. But she wasn't, she was a child. A child from an abusive home who had killed herself to get away.

Remembering what Akira had confided in her, she immediately softened up. She got up and sat down beside her, wrapping a comforting arm over Satsuki. The girl immediately buried herself in Serefina's chest.

Serefina gasped out a moan, her face turning red.

"Whoa, hey, no need to touch me there!" She said, pulling back a little. She suddenly realized that, in a manner of speaking, her friend's boyfriend had just copped a feel.

"O-Oh, sorry," Satsuki apologized. "You're um… well I didn't know my mom very well, so…"

Ugh. More guilt. Serefina sighed. "It's okay, sweetie. Just don't do it again, okay?"

Satsuki sniffled, and nodded. Serefina smiled warmly at her. "Hey, you're okay. Want to tell me what happened?"

"I didn't really get… um… conscious of myself, until something happened," Satsuki said. "I felt Dakota's… well, ghosts, they have this feeling of, I guess… death? I felt her at death's door, she was crying out for help, and so I immediately went to my Dear Akira, and helped him get to her."

So that was how he had found her so fast. "Thank you, Satsuki," Serefina said. If she hadn't been there, then Dakota's death would have been a guarantee.

"When my Dear Akira saw Dakota… he broke down. He screamed and fell. And I was there, seeing it," she continued. "He-"

"Wait, did you see who did it?!" Serefina cried. Not sure if a ghost's testimony would hold up in court, but it was better than nothing.

Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky.

"I didn't," Satsuki said. "I only got there when he did."

Serefina sighed. Well, it was worth asking, anyway. "So, then what did you do?"

"I tried to reach out to him, but he wasn't responding," Satsuki said. "He didn't even call for help. He just stood there in shock."

Serefina knew that Akira had called the police. So what was she say-

"Oh!" Serefina gasped in realization. "So that meant that you had-"

"It's very difficult to possess someone," Satsuki said. "Unless you're like that blonde girl. It was easy with her, but with you…"

Serefina remembered how quickly the girl had been expelled, and how much strain she had felt after that happened.

"But you've been inside Akira this whole time?" She asked.

"I can occupy a body as long as there's no dominant soul," Satsuki said. "Right now, Dear Akira's soul has withdrawn in on itself in shock. He wouldn't… he can't hear anything right now. Seeing what happened to him, I knew that I needed to step in and help. So I did. I took over his body and called the police to save Dakota's life. And that's when I saw it…"

A sad smile crossed her face. "That Gyarados, the one Dakota colored red… it would have gone unnoticed by anyone else. But not by Dear Akira. And not by me. It made me happy, to see her tell me just how special I am to the two of them. I knew it had to be a message from her."

She lifted the flash drive from Serefina's hand and showed it to her. "This was hidden inside. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that Dakota had hid it. It was important. So I took it, and hid it from everyone."

She looked hopefully at Serefina. "Is… is that okay?"

"Why didn't you show it to the police?" Serefina asked. A bitter look crossed Satsuki's face, and she turned away from Serefina, clenching the flash drive tighter in her grasp.

"Police?" Satsuki asked, the word rolling off her tongue like venom. "What would they do? Tell me that I'm overreacting? That everything's okay, and I'm just making a big deal out of nothing? That my father loves me, and he-"

She caught herself and shook her head, a haunted look crossing her face. Serefina winced in sympathy, remembering again just how awful Satsuki's childhood had really been.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, knowing those words were hollow comfort to a girl who had taken her own life out of a feeling of worthlessness.

Satsuki shook her head. Her eyes were glassy. "The police won't help. They never help. That's why I put it in your backpack. Because I don't know what it is. But… you do, right?"

She turned to Serefina, her face filled with hope. "Can… Can you help me, Serefina? I know you care about my Dear Akira and Dakota, just like me. I… I can't really do anything on my own. And not for much longer, either."

"Huh?" Serefina asked, confused. "What do you mean?"

"Akira is still here. He can hear and see everything, but it isn't really sinking in. Until now. Since we went to the library and my Dear Akira saw that scene again… it shocked him. Now he's waking up. His thoughts are bleeding through again, and… it won't be long before I have to go. And since you can only talk to me like this, I'm… here. Asking for your help."

"You need my help? To solve the mystery?" Serefina asked. Satsuki nodded.

"I want to find out what happened too. I want my Dear Akira to be happy. And finding the truth… that might be able to help him do it," Satsuki said.

Her eyes were filled with desperation. Serefina gave her a smile to reassure her.

"Don't worry, Satsuki," Serefina said. She reached up and placed her hand on Satsuki's cheek. "I love him."

Satsuki gasped and looked at her in a mixture of shock and outrage. Serefina gasped. "No no no! Not like that! He's my friend! I don't love him like that!"

"…Okay," Satsuki said, still giving Serefina a suspicious look.

"What I meant was, because I love him so much, I'm going to do whatever I can to make him happy," she assured her. "I'm on the case!"

Satsuki sighed in relief.

"…But I'm probably not as helpful as Sylvia," she admitted.

Satsuki didn't have anything to say on Sylvia right now. Her opinion of the girl was conflicted, to say the least. Serefina didn't push the issue, either. But there was something else that she cared about more. Something she was afraid to ask, but had to.

"Satsuki… I probably don't want to know the answer to this, but I need to. Can you tell me?" Serefina asked, her heart pounding in her chest and stinging with painful fear.

"What?" Satsuki asked, confused.

"Dakota… you're a ghost, so you would know… is Dakota… is she…"

Say it, just say it, she ordered herself, keeping her hopes down in fear that her fears were going to be validated.

"Is she alive?"

Well, Satsuki? Answer the question. We're DYING to know. Heh.