How will Serefina and Akira find a way to get through the password page? Dakota's annoying program is pretty annoying, will they be able to find a way to get around it? Let's see what they have planned.

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: What could the password be? We'll have to find out!

KedharS: She could be annoying from beyond the grave.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Well, let's just see. "Normal" is going to go out the window pretty soon, though, I promise you that.

JoshGamerV: Well, maybe they will.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 696

Things were very awkward for Serefina and Akira. Neither one of them had Mirar's contact information, so all they could think to do was go to the Newspaper Club to see him about the issue with the flash drive.

Akira wasn't sure that they could trust him, but Serefina was confident. She explained that Dakota only had good things to say about Mirar, and that it was fine if they went to him for help on this issue because if she could trust him, then they could trust him.

Akira begrudgingly admitted that if Dakota could trust someone, that meant they could probably be trusted. So the next issue to worry about was how to get this obnoxious V-Tuber on the laptop to shut up so they could get it across campus.

Unfortunately, neither one of them was willing to remove the flash drive, out of risk that the whole mess would just explode in their faces. Which meant that what ended up happening was that they closed the screen, which did not, unfortunately, shut up the thing, and stuffed it down in Serefina's backpack so they could get it across campus.

Serefina's face was bright red as the muffled sounds of Decoder rang out of her backpack. She hid her face in her hands, and Akira felt a little embarrassed himself, walking awkwardly ahead of her. But this wasn't about the strange looks they were getting, it was about getting to Mirar to figure out what Dakota had uncovered.

Heads certainly turned when the two entered the Newspaper Club. Considering the depressing atmosphere of the clubroom, their presence was certainly a welcome change. Akira shifted around awkwardly, feeling the pressure of everyone's eyes.

He couldn't blame them.

The Newspaper Club was filled with reporters and investigators, and all of them had strong opinions about Dakota. While Akira had never heard her say nice things about any of them specifically, she definitely expressed how much she respected and cared for them, even if they weren't really her friends.

Judging by how upset they looked right now, Akira wondered if that feeling was mutual. They seemed genuinely upset by Dakota's attack, which made him feel surprisingly good.

Dakota was a very obnoxious person. It was often difficult for Akira to imagine her having close friends. So seeing that her club actually cared about her made him feel good.

There's a place for you here, you idiot, he thought about her. So come on, wake up already and get back here.

Akira was tragically unaware that Dakota was brain dead. She was never going to wake up again.

Serefina was more focused on Mirar than the state of the Newspaper Club. Specifically, she wanted to make sure that she didn't have to keep carrying this embarrassing laptop around. Mirar had to have some way to fix this, he had to.

Even if she didn't care about figuring out the truth, the problem was she still couldn't use her laptop for its intended purpose. She was locked out, which meant that when school started back up again, then she would be kind of screwed.

Okay, so maybe her urgency in helping Dakota was somewhat blunted by the V-Tuber virus she'd installed in her hard drive, and by the fact that her friend wasn't actually in danger anymore. She just wanted the girl to wake up.

Dakota should just wake up already and come back, so she could keep being the annoying girl that Serefina loved.

It was an odd feeling, missing Dakota. Not something that Serefina would have ever expected. But right now, it was more important to figure out what was going on, to keep her safe. And fix her computer. Both of those things were important.

And once that whole mess had been settled, then she and Akira could take a trip back to the mainland and visit Dakota to see how she was doing. Hopefully, the redhead was under protective custody, considering her life was still probably in danger.

"I said, what do the two of you want?"

Akira and Serefina had been so invested in their own issues that they hadn't even noticed that someone had been trying to talk to them.

It didn't help that Mirar was the kind of guy who was really easy to ignore, either. He sat at his desk, nondescript as ever, staring at the two of them with a slightly irritated expression on his face. "So? You're here, aren't you? What is it?"

Akira was the one to recover first. "Mirar, we need your help," he said.

Mirar raised his eyebrow. "I'm busy right now. There's a lot to do here, you know. We're writing an article about what happened to Dakota."

He turned his attention back to his computer. "And with the amount of work that Dakota left behind, we're not exactly moving at a brusque pace. Who would have thought that we'd find ourselves in this tight of a bind without that annoying girl?"

Serefina could definitely sympathize. She knew that Dakota did a lot of work for the Newspaper Club, she practically ran the whole thing even though she was just the vice president. Which made her absence quite a big blow.

Maybe this was a mistake, hoping that Mirar would be able to help. But she pressed on anyway, this was important.

And besides, she had a trump card of her own to play.

"You're writing a report on Dakota's attack?" Serefina asked.

"Yes," Mirar said, typing something into his computer. "So I don't have time to help sophomores with their issues."

"What if we told you that there was something we could offer you to help?" Serefina asked, a conspiratorial smile crossing her face. "After all, I've been investigating what happened myself, and I have some evidence that might be able to help your paper. Of course, we'll need your help to uncover it."

That got Mirar's attention. He stopped typing, raising his eyes from the screen and turning them towards Serefina and Akira. He was usually pretty nondescript and expressionless, but this time there was a flicker of curiosity Serefina could see.

"Explain," Mirar said. He glanced at Serefina's backpack. "Does it have something to do with that annoying screeching coming from your bag?"

Serefina's face flushed, her confidence sputtering and dying. "Err… that, I mean… well…"

She shook her head, quickly regaining her focus.

"It's related, yes. But we have need for your… special skills," she explained. "And this, well… the information is kind of sensitive, so…"

She glanced at the other students in the Newspaper Club. Dakota trusted Mirar, and so Serefina could trust him. But the other students in the Newspaper Club she was less sure about. Any one of them could be a plant by the Phantom, or capable of being bribed, or whatever. This was too important to risk over something like that.

"…Can we talk in private, please?" She asked.

Mirar leaned back and stroked his chin, staring at the other students in his club.

"…I can at least hear you out," he agreed, rising from his seat and gesturing to the two of them. "We'll go to my research room. It's one of the most private places on this island."

Serefina brightened. He was going to listen to them! That made her feel a lot more reassured. She followed after Mirar with Akira in tow, the three of them heading into the side room of the Newspaper Club.

The room was surprisingly empty. The only thing of note was a massive, old computer on a table, which made Akira remember the whole mess that had gone on with Misato and Sylvia back when they had tried to take over the computer club.

It nearly made him smirk. All that effort, and the two of them had just been invited in.

"So what's going on with that computer?" Mirar asked, gesturing to Serefina's backpack, surprising the two of them.

"How did you know it was a computer?" Akira asked suspiciously as Serefina took her backpack off and took out the laptop.

"I recognize the sound of Dakota's program," he replied. "She tested it on our computers to make sure it worked, after all."

So he'd known all along what was going on with this thing? That was a little bit frustrating. But Akira didn't let it bother him.

"We were trying to get into her flash drive," Serefina said, setting the laptop down on the desk and opening it up to show Mirar the V-Tuber. "But unfortunately, we're stuck on the password acceptance screen, and neither one of us knows what to do."

"I see," Mirar said, clearly not all that interested. "She put up that firewall to keep people out of her flash drive, so of course it's not going to be easy to get through. But that's not anything that I care about. If you're just here about some malware, go somewhere else."

Serefina scowled. "Come on! We need your help!"

"That ability of yours, to get into the minds of other people and become them, it's exactly what we need to get into the drive," Akira explained. "You're probably the only one who could come up with Dakota's password. So come on, Mirar. Help us out!"

"I agreed to hear you out because you said that you have some evidence that can help in my story about Dakota's attack," Mirar scowled. "But I have no interest in something like this. So tell me what it is you have to tell me, and then I'll help."

"Dakota's attack IS related to the flash drive," Akira said, his voice rising higher and higher. He was nearly shouting, and Serefina was starting to get worried. Considering what she knew about Akira's mental state right now, she had hoped that the knowledge of Dakota's condition had made a positive change.

But right now, she was a lot less sure of that. Maybe he was just pretending to be okay, and was only repressing his rage.

"What are you talking about?" Mirar asked suspiciously.

"This whole thing, that's what," Akira explained, waving at the laptop. "See, that flash drive, Dakota had it on her when she got attacked."

Mirar gasped, his eyes widening. Another rare sign of emotion from the blank slate. "What? Wait, what are you talking about?"

"You should know full well that Dakota never goes anywhere without that flash drive, so she obviously had it on her when she was attacked," Akira reminded him. Mirar begrudgingly had to accept that with a nod.

"So how did you get a hold of it?" Mirar asked, the exact question that Akira had been waiting to answer.

Not that he knew the answer. He turned to Serefina, and gave her an expectant look. This was her time to shine.

Serefina just felt a little bit flustered. She explained things to the two of them as best as she could, without giving away anything she didn't have to.

Mirar listened to the whole story in silence. When Serefina was done, he stared at her, considering what she had said.

"I see, that is… interesting," he said, which Serefina hoped was a good thing? It didn't sound like he was bored, at least.

"We need to get into that flash drive so we can see just what Dakota figured out!" Serefina continued. "So, will you help us?"

Mirar glanced at the laptop, and the annoying V-Tuber that had been talking in the background the whole time.

"I have something I need to reveal myself," he admitted. "But I would request that the information doesn't leave this room. Is that acceptable?"

Serefina and Akira were definitely intrigued by THAT.

"What do you mean?" Akira asked suspiciously. Serefina was a lot less suspicious or worried, she just wanted to know what he did.

"What is it? Of course we agree!" Serefina said, nodding eagerly. She shook Akira's arm to convince him to agree, too. With a grumble, Akira nodded.

"Then I'll tell you," Mirar said. "Honestly, I have a fairly good idea of most of the evidence that's on that flash drive."

Serefina and Akira gasped in shock.

"Wait, what?!" Akira exclaimed. "What are you talking about?! How do you know anything about what's on here?!"

"Because I'm one of the people who helped her with her research," Mirar calmly explained. "When she was investigating certain things, she consulted me, and I provided her with a significant bit of data that may have led her down an investigation path that wound up putting her here. So I have an idea of what might have happened."

That was enough for Akira. He leapt forward and grabbed Mirar by the collar.

"What did she find out?!" He demanded. "What did you tell her?! Do you know who attacked her, then?!"

Mirar was nonplussed by Akira's attack. "I know fairly well, yes," he admitted. "But I have no intention of telling you."

"What?!" Akira roared.

"Akira, wait! Hold on!" Serefina wailed, running over and pulling the two of them apart. "Akira, we need his help! Calm down! What's the matter with you?!"

"He knows what happened!" Akira exclaimed, struggling against Serefina. "He knows, and he hasn't said anything!"

"Maybe it's complicated!" Serefina defended Mirar. She didn't know why he was keeping this a secret, but she wasn't about to condemn him without hearing the whole story. She turned to Mirar. "What are you talking about? Why won't you tell us?"

"Because this is dangerous information," Mirar said. "Right now, my only knowledge would just be suspicion. There's no fact to back up my assumption. And in spite of what Dakota Evans would have you believe, this newspaper is not in the business of touting out unsupported rumors and pretending they're facts."

Serefina didn't have anything to say to that. She could understand what Mirar was saying, even though she didn't like it very much.

"Then… just tell us," she said. "I'm sure that Akira and I won't do anything with this information," she whimpered. "We won't go around spreading rumors."

Mirar shook his head. It seemed that even though they trusted him, that didn't go very far in helping his trust of them.

Which, considering Akira had just attacked him, made a lot of sense.

"Without evidence to support my allegations, there would be no gain in reporting them," Mirar calmly stated.

"Then you won't help us?" Serefina asked.

"I didn't say that, did I?" Mirar said, shaking his head. "With evidence, I'll gladly publish anything that you want."

Mirar turned to the laptop. "And if I had to guess, I would say that the allegations, suspicions, and rumors that I brought to Dakota's attention are in fact supported by evidence, if that laptop is anything to go off of."

Serefina wondered what he was talking about. "You… yeah, you're right!" She quickly changed her tune when she thought about it. "They wouldn't have tried to kill her if she hadn't uncovered any evidence, right?"

"Don't be too sure about that," Akira bitterly rejected. "It's Dakota. She might publish even without evidence, after all. They might have just attacked her to keep her mouth shut, even if she couldn't prove anything."

"I gave Dakota this information quite some time ago," Mirar said, shaking his head. "And she sat on it without immediately publishing. She might be… her, but even she's not reckless enough to publish something so scandalous and dangerous without doing her due diligence."

Neither Serefina nor Akira were as confident in that as Mirar was, but then again neither of them knew just what this little mystery entailed. Keeping their mouths shut, they nodded in agreement. "Okay, sure," Serefina admitted, even if she wasn't as confident.

"…Fine," Akira scowled.

"Good," Mirar said, nodding. He glanced back at the laptop. "It may take some time to get through that password, but I'll be able to do it. Just leave it with me.

"What?!" Serefina exclaimed. "No way! I need my computer, you can't just take it! You need to figure it out now!"

Mirar raised his eyebrow, walked over to the computer, and pulled out the flash drive before Serefina could object. The screen immediately switched off.

"No!" Serefina gasped, terrified that all of her files were going to be uploaded to the internet. For an instant she could see her life crumble in front of her.

"Don't worry about it," Mirar said. "You're concerned about how the V-Tuber was talking about uploading your data? That was just a bluff. Dakota wouldn't be able to do something like that."

Serefina's look of despair was replaced with a look of outrage. That stupid bitch! Serefina wanted to smack her. But she'd have to wait until she recovered.

"If there's nothing else, then could I ask you to leave?" Mirar asked, closing the laptop and handed it back over to Serefina. "This will take some time, even if I'm devoting all my energy towards it. You understand."

Serefina nodded, but Akira was a lot more reluctant. In spite of Serefina's assurance that Dakota was alive, he was still worried. Something was wrong, he just didn't know what.

The two sophomores left the Newspaper Club, discussing things.

It was just another nod to their unprofessional natures.

"So do you think Mirar will be able to get through that flash drive?" Serefina asked. She had been confident before, but right now, she wasn't so sure.

"I hope so," Akira said. He added under his breath, "he better."

"Mirar is really smart," Sylvia assured the two of them. "I don't think we need to be worried."

"That's true," Serefina agreed. "That ability of his to pretend to be Dakota will really come in handy getting through the password."

"Yeah, I just wish we could do something!" Akira scowled. "Just sitting around like this sucks!"

…

Serefina and Akira whirled around to see Sylvia walking behind them, a cocky smirk on her lips.

"Well, you two have been busy since I was gone," she said, narrowing her eyes. "So, you found the flash drive, did you?"

"Sylvia, that's…" Serefina's mouth flopped like a gasping Magikarp, not sure what she should say.

"Oh, don't even try to deny it, you're not very good at lying," Sylvia said, waving her hand. "Even if you hadn't said anything, it's written all over your face right now. Though I must say, I'm curious how you discovered it. How about a trade? I have some information about Dakota's condition that might interest you. And not only that… I've also learned the culprit who attacked her! And all without that measly little flash drive."

"What?!" Serefina exclaimed.

"WHAT?!" Akira roared.

Sylvia's eyes were shining. "Oh, I just can't help it! Forget the trade, I would just feel SO BAD if I left you floundering like this! Do you want to know? Oh, I just know you do! So I'll tell you."

She smirked.

"The Phantom was the one who attacked her," she said, and Akira's face filled with rage. Satsuki's necklace burned hot against his skin, and he could practically feel their combined rage burning through him.

Sylvia relished in his anger. If he was this mad right now… oh, she couldn't imagine what his reaction would be when he heard that Dakota was brain dead!

What would he do then? Well, that would be a show indeed.

Sylvia, always starting shit. She's going to drive that knife in and twist until Akira completely falls into a pit of despair, that's for sure. Evil bitch.