Things seem to be going well for the most part. But don't be mistaken. Not everything is hunky-dory at the Pokemon Academy, and the student body is still filled with anger and fear. What will come from this? Let's take a look at someone who's still filled with fear and uncertainty, and how she plans to deal with that.

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 a few votes 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: Yep, there's definitely some important stuff going on right now. Things are heading to a major climax, and what's going to come from that? Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we? As for what the µ Gene did to her… Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Um, yeah! If that's something you want to do, go for it! I'm fully onboard! I just don't want to be the one in control of it, lmao. I have enough work writing. But if you want to, I'm totally fine with it!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 707

Elaina gazed out her window at the snow below.

She didn't know that she could still feel this lonely. It made her heart ache, wondering just when she would be free.

She hadn't seen Gerard in some time. But she couldn't help that. After all, the school had demanded that their students not be allowed to leave on their own. And that meant that Elaina, with no one to call a friend, or even an escort, was out of luck.

It wasn't that she actually wanted to leave her room or anything. There wasn't much waiting for her beyond the walls. But somehow, she felt more like a prisoner than ever before, and sealed away in this place had kept her feeling of loneliness growing at a steady rate.

Having spent most of this year in her room already, the fact that she could still want to leave was frightening to her.

She saw her Blake's smiling face pass through her thoughts, and she flinched. Why? Why was she still thinking about him? It stung her like a dagger in the heart, and it was enough to make her turn away from the window, tears burning in her eyes.

Blake… Blake Harker…

What did she want from him? Why was he still trapped in her mind? She already knew that Blake didn't care about her. Not the way that she had wanted, and saddest of all, not in the way that had mattered most to her.

He didn't even care about her enough to be worried for her. Gerard had told her the full story, and it had broken her heart.

Blake only cared about her because of his sister. She was the one that mattered to him. Elaina was just a convenient subject because they both happened to possess harmonia. That was why he no longer focused on her.

Because of Katherine Kuroso. The girl who was known as Kitty had possessed harmonia. She had nearly been driven off the deep end by it, the same as Elaina so often had. But Blake had managed to reach her, he'd managed to pull her back, convince her to hold her powers in.

Elaina didn't know how, but it had worked. Kitty was no longer violent and obsessed with her own strength. The feelings that emanated from the other girl were as gentle and sweet as they had once been.

Elaina would have given anything for that to be her. For her to be the one who was free from her burden of harmonia, allowed to reach out and live a normal life, be able to control her harmonia and not hurt other people, not feel this drive.

But she wasn't Kitty. Kitty had been brought back from the brink, but Blake hadn't even tried to do the same with her. She could see why, now. Because he had gotten what he needed to out of the other girl, he had found out that it was possible to save his sister.

Blake didn't need Elaina anymore, he had everything he could want.

Acknowledging that fact had nearly destroyed her. Because as much as she wanted to hate Blake, she couldn't forget the support he had given her. She couldn't forget the warmth of his hand around hers, or the kindness of his voice, or that passionate look in his eyes.

She wanted to hate him, but she just couldn't. He had shown her far too much concern for that. Which meant she had to try that much harder to hate him, in order to keep from being fooled by his sweet lies again.

She had tried. She really had tried.

Perhaps this house arrest was a good thing for her mental health. Every day that went without seeing him was a day that she could find it a little easier to hate him.

All of that went out the window the minute she learned that he had gone missing. When she discovered that he had been captured in some bizarre stone tablet from history, sealed away god knows where, that had been it. Her hatred of Blake, or what she thought was hatred, had all faded away. Now here she was, trapped again. It had been three weeks since that epiphany, and she wasn't in any better of a mental state than she had been.

Am I really so lost? Elaina asked. Why? Why can't I get over him? What is the matter with me? What do I want?!

She slammed her hands against the windowsill and pulled the blinds down, the room dimming to match her mood. Flinging her mask aside, she threw herself onto the bed and hugged her pillow, resisting the urge to scream.

She wanted to hate. So badly did she want to hate. And there was a lot for her to hate as well. She hated Blake!

She didn't hate Blake.

Why hadn't he come to see her? When he had come back from wherever it was that she had been trapped, he could have come see her. He should have come see her. Tell her that he was alive and okay. She had been so relieved to hear that he was okay, and…

And he hadn't even spared her a thought.

She didn't care that the day he had returned had been right before Valentine's Day, or that he was going to be spending that day with his girlfriend. Those were just details to her, not something that she needed to concern herself with. What bothered her was the fact that he hadn't thought about her in the slightest.

Blake had used to care so much for her, she had once thought. But the fact that he hadn't come to check on her, to make sure she was okay, that told her all that she needed to know. He had said before, when he lost to her in their battle, that he wasn't going anywhere.

Liar.

He had left her. He had been taken away, and when he came back, it wasn't her he went to, he stayed with his friends. The normal people, the people who weren't freaks and monsters. The people that he cared about, the people who weren't her.

People like Ayame Toujou.

She was someone that Elaina loathed. She had what Elaina had wanted most. Blake's love and adoration. She knew that was what her heart desired the most. For Blake to not only reach out to her and comfort her, but for him to love her.

Maybe she even wanted that more than to be accepted by other people for who she was, to be normal. But that didn't matter.

None of those things she wanted had any chance of happening. Right now, all she could do was live her life and think about Gerard, the person who actually trusted and cared about her, the person who actually wanted to help her.

Because unlike Blake, Gerard still had use for her. And that's why she needed to be better for him. Because he needed her, and he wanted her.

But now, he wasn't here, either. She couldn't stand it! It was agitating her. She didn't care about some killer, she didn't care about the fact that Dakota Evans, someone who mattered less than nothing to her, had been attacked.

No one would ever hurt her. She was Elaina Bishop, after all.

So why did she need to be locked up in her room like some prisoner?

It was a rough moment for her. The moment that she had to make a decision, even though it was a dangerous one. If the school found out, she would probably get in a lot of trouble. But right now, her own wellbeing was more important.

Elaina was used to loneliness, but not like this. Gerard would be leaving for the Orre Region in a few weeks. He would be going somewhere that she couldn't help him. And that was something that she couldn't stand. She needed to see him before he went. She needed to get his comfort, in order to make her feel better.

She rose from her bed and walked across her room to retrieve her mask. It was rare that she ventured outside of her room, especially in a situation like this, where she would only be drawing more attention to herself.

But seeing Gerard one more time, getting reassurance from him, that was what mattered the most. Because Gerard wouldn't come to her. He didn't have friends to serve as escorts the way that other students did.

He was alone, just like her. So if she wanted to see him, she would have to go to him herself. So that's what she intended to do.

She pulled on her coat and stepped out of her door. She was surprised at the weight bearing down on her chest. Leaving her room had always been hard, due to the anxiety of stepping out into a world where everyone hated her, but right now it felt even worse. After all, it wasn't every day that going outside could result in penalties from the faculty themselves.

But Elaina couldn't bring herself to care about that. Besides, what would they do to her? She didn't really care about her grades or her school record. As long as she was useful to Gerard, she could be expelled for all she cared.

Blake's face flashed through her mind again, and she felt like crying.

It's not like she had anything else worth attending this school for, after all.

Hardening her heart, Elaina descended the stairs and stepped out into the cold, the cool morning air causing her skin to shiver behind her freezing porcelain mask. But she withstood it and walked forward, taking the quickest route to Gerard's room as she could.

When Elaina reached the main part of campus, she began to reconsider her decision.

She was used to stares. People looking at her in fear and turning away from her, separating to make way for her so they wouldn't have to cross her path.

But right now, it felt a lot worse. She could feel them staring at her in a way they hadn't before. It wasn't just fear, or hatred, or disgust. There was something else mixed in as well, something that she wasn't able to identify. But the fact that the look in their eyes made her feel smaller than usual struck her as worrisome.

It also didn't help that she was alone, and everyone else was in groups of two or more. That made her feel even more alone and isolated somehow.

"Is that her?" She caught the whisper of one student with her ears.

"Yeah, I think it is," the student's partner replied.

"What's she doing here?" Another student asked. "All on her own like that? Isn't she worried about the killer?"

"Why would she?" A harsh voice muttered. "I bet she was the one who attacked that girl."

That voice gave her pause. She stopped in place and looked around, trying to find out who had said it. Someone thought that she had been the one to attack Dakota Evans? How ridiculous was that? She never would have…

"What? You think the rumors are true?!"

"Oh, shit! She's looking this way!"

Elaina suddenly felt something familiar. Terrifyingly familiar. Everyone was looking at her like a monster, treating her with hatred and loathing, thinking that she was… That she had…

Elaina shivered, feeling alone. This had been a mistake. She still wasn't used to feelings like this, even with all of her experience.

But she wasn't going to be overcome. She focused on her hatred, let that gather around her in a familiar tempest. If they were going to look at her with such loathing, then she was going to respond with violence and hatred in return.

It was only fair.

"Elaina?"

The wind dispersed and Elaina's head jerked up in surprise, trying to find the owner of that familiar voice. It couldn't be, why was he here?!

There he was. Blake was staring at her in disbelief. She didn't even care that he was with that girl, Ayame Toujou. She felt too much relief just seeing him there, looking at his eyes. She could see it so clearly. There wasn't hatred or loathing in those eyes, not like the others. That was one thing she was always grateful for. Even though he had just been using her…

He never saw her as someone to be disgusted or hated. He may have been using her, but he was still someone who cared about her enough to see her as a person, and not a target of scorn or ridicule. He, at least, still saw her as Elaina Bishop.

Maybe that was why she just couldn't bring herself to get over him. Because even if he couldn't love her that way, he still saw her as a person.

"Blake…" Elaina whispered. And then everything exploded around her.

The others had been treating her like a figure on a screen, a monster from the movies, not as someone who was there with them. When she spoke, that all changed.

"Hey!" An angry voice shouted. "Who the hell do you think you are, you witch?!" She gasped, turning in the direction of that voice, when another voice shouted at her again.

"You were the one who killed her, weren't you?! Admit it!" The student demanded.

"N-NO, I didn't kill-"

White filled her vision. Someone had… what? She reached up and brushed something cold from her mask. Somebody had flung snow in her face, what the hell was up with that?

"She did it! Why else would she be here by herself?"

"She's hurt other people before, you know it's got to be her!"

"You… You don't think she was going to go after someone else, was she?" A fearful girl asked.

"Someone call Campus Security! She's not only breaking curfew, she's definitely the killer!" Someone shouted.

Elaina shivered. She couldn't let that happen. Wind swirled up around her, and she prepared to lash out at the people surrounding her. She couldn't let this happen, she couldn't let-

"Hey, leave her alone!" And suddenly, there he was.

Blake broke through the crowd, pulling away from his girlfriend, and stood in front of her, trying to convince the others to stop.

That should have made her happy. But it didn't. It filled her with rage instead.

Why was he here?! Why couldn't he just leave her alone?! She didn't want him! She didn't need him! Why couldn't he just let her be?!

"What are you doing?" One of the students in the mob demanded. "That witch is the one who attacked that other girl!"

"How do you know?" Blake demanded. "Were you there? Because I have no idea who attacked Dakota! You can't just go blaming her just because you're scared! Do you think Dakota would be happy, knowing that you guys were making blind accusations without any evidence?!"

The crowd went silent for a second, and Blake felt a twinge of hope. If he could just get them to settle down and thing clearly…

"Yes!" Someone called from the back. Blake flinched. He didn't really have a response for that, considering who he was talking about. Maybe he should have thought twice before defending Elaina the way he had.

"…Okay, but, like, what if she was a reasonable human being?" Blake awkwardly tried to deflect, but the lull in the mob was long passed.

"Even if she didn't attack her, who cares?!" One girl shouted. "She still hurt a bunch of other people, and now she's going around pretending like that doesn't matter?! She's put students in the hospital, and no one's going to do anything! We don't want someone like that here!"

Blake took a step back, suddenly feeling very alone. He turned to Aya for support, seeing her ribbon above the crowd. But even she looked like she didn't know what to do.

This was really getting out of hand. Most of the students were sick and tired of Elaina and how she hurt people. Anyone who listened to the jeers of the audience when she fought would know that much. But no one had been bold enough to confront her directly until now.

It had to be because things had finally been pushed too far. With Dakota's assault, the fear the student body felt towards Elaina Bishop had finally tipped over the edge, and resulted in the kind of horrible situation that always happened when scared people banded together against a common foe that they hated and feared.

There was a lynch mob forming right before Blake's eyes, and if he didn't get out of the way soon they were going to go through him to get to Elaina.

It wasn't Elaina that Blake was worried about, though. Not in a physical sense. He didn't think she was in danger of, say, being strung up or even beaten up. Her harmonia… he could already feel the wind kicking up around him, a strong breeze pressing against his back.

He was afraid that Elaina would let loose to protect herself. If that happened…

Elaina was making things very, very difficult right now. He was trying to protect her from the mob, but he was also trying to protect the mob from her. Maybe if they were thinking rationally then they wouldn't be so outwardly aggressive to a woman who could whip them around like a tornado, but mobs weren't the sort of people who could be reasoned with when things got this far.

Terror seized Blake and he began to feel the pressure striking him. He shook his head, and tried to find a way out of this before things got too violent.

"What's going on here?"

Salvation came from the most unlikely of sources. A whirlwind of sand spun in the air, followed by an immense roar that overwhelmed the mob's angry growls. Heads turned and jaws dropped as Olivia Himeko walked forward, the students parting before her like a waves.

The Garchomp towering behind the Empress didn't hurt matters, either.

"This is the most uncivilized display I've ever seen," Olivia scoffed, glaring at the crowd. "This is what's so insufferable about you commoners. Targeting some child because you're scared and angry? Pathetic. All you're saying is that you're looking for someone to blame. Why not work on yourselves, before taking out your frustrations and worries on someone else?"

She narrowed her eyes, and her Garchomp flexed, scales shining and blades glistening dangerously.

"Unless you would like me to carve the real meaning of fear into your skin?" She growled.

The mob scattered like bowling pins, no one exactly enthusiastic about confronting an angry Empress and her Garchomp.

Blake sighed in relief. He turned to Olivia to say thanks, but she glared sharply at him, shaking her head. She pointed behind him at Elaina, who was still crouched on the ground, staring up at him past her mask.

Olivia was right. Blake needed to check on Elaina first!

"H-Hey, Elaina…" Blake said, reaching out a hand to her. "Are you-"

"Why did you come here, damn you?!" Elaina roared, springing to her feet. A blast of wind hit Blake in the face and knocked him over. "You don't care about me! You won't hold me, or look after me! I don't want you here, LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Blake stared up at her in disbelief as Elaina stormed away, her anger spinning around her like a tornado.

He didn't know what to say.

Well. Things are certainly not going well for Elaina. Hopefully she can turn things around, but if not… Well, I'm not looking forward to what's going to happen, then.