Blake has thrown down the gauntlet! In three days he's going to fight Elaina in order to save her! But will he be able to do it? Is he strong enough to do it? Or will he find himself lacking, unable to bring her out of the darkness? What will he do?

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

Rowlets and Oshawotts: It will certainly be an interesting outcome, but we'll have to see whether or not he's properly prepared.

Venoms Cross 2: Some are more deserving of redemption than others.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Sango may not want to admit it but having a "mom" is making her feel warm and fuzzy.

JoshGamerV: This time, decisively.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 711

Blake woke up that morning more resolved than he had been in a long time. The last week had been confusing and kind of depressing, and he'd spent most of it trying very hard not to think about what had happened to Dakota.

Blake didn't have the most positive experiences when it came to hospitals and doctors, or women in comas. Dakota reminded him way too much about his mother for comfort.

"Blake! Come on, get up!" An insistent and familiarly annoying knock on the door signaled the start of the day, and Blake got out of bed with a stretch. Walking over to the door, he greeted his guest with his best attempt at a smile.

Cynthia beamed up at him like some bizarre amalgamation of all his guilt and doubts about the situation. Hair as red as Dakota's with the same name as his mother, Cynthia Fafnir had made him feel a little more uncomfortable than usual over this past week.

"Hey, Cynthia, what's up?" Blake dryly asked.

Cynthia pouted, crossing her arms over her chest. "How rude! And here I came to help you, Blake! Why you gotta be like that?"

Blake forced a smile onto his face. Without a shred of emotion he recited, "Cynthia, hello, good morning. Lovely to see you this fine day. If I may ask, why have you graced me with your wonderful presence?"

Shrugging off his sarcasm with a roll of her shoulders and a cheeky grin, Cynthia flounced into the room and flung herself onto his bed.

"That's more like it!" She crowed. "Now, back to my point! We need to talk about this whole mess you've gotten yourself into with Elaina!"

Blake rubbed his temples. "There is no 'mess' Cynthia, just drop it."

Cynthia scowled. "No, I will NOT 'just drop it', this is important, Blake! You challenged her to a match in three days! Three! Days!"

"Yes, and that's not a mess," Blake replied. "I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to challenge her to a battle, and I'm going to save her."

"Yeah, obviously, I'm not saying that you should just stop battling," Cynthia said, rolling her eyes. "I didn't come here to talk you out of fighting her."

"Oh," Blake said, taking a newfound interest in what she was saying. After Cynthia had turned in for the night Sango had spent most of it lecturing him on why he was doing such a crazy and reckless thing and about how he should think about his friends and Aya and a whole bunch of stuff that he had already considered, before finally excusing herself to take care of family obligations.

Needless to say, Blake had not been in the most positive of moods after all that had transpired. He cared about his friends, he really did, and he could understand that they were worried about him throwing himself into a battle with an opponent as dangerous as Elaina.

But this was something he had to do. He had talked himself into it all last night. Having faced the same risk when he fought Kitty, and when he had fought Elaina the first time, he knew what he was getting himself into, and it was imperative that he fight her. She needed him to, and he needed to face what she had to give him. If he wanted to have a chance at bringing his sister back-

He'd had to correct those thoughts back then. That had been precisely the issue with Elaina in the first place. She didn't like the fact that he saw her as a way of helping his sister.

That dilemma had also kept him up. Tormented him, forcing him to ask if she really did have a point, if Blake really did care about Elaina as much as he claimed he did, or if this was all just an excuse. Was he only helping Elaina to see if he could?

He had gratefully arrived at the conclusion that, no, it wasn't about his sister. True, Gwen's condition had been what had motivated Blake to reach out to Elaina, but it wasn't out of some misguided need to use her to achieve his own goals.

He wanted to help Elaina because he didn't want to see what had happened to Gwen happen to someone else. It was the same reason he had tried to keep Kitty's powers under control, and stepped in to help her when she fell as far as she did.

Blake wanted to protect and help people who were suffering from harmonia, Elaina included. There wasn't anything wrong with that.

But those issues had all been for last night. Right now, he was more concerned with his redheaded best friend and the cheeky smirk on her face, sitting in his bed without telling him why, exactly, she had come here.

She perked up immediately. "So anyway, the reason I came to talk, nothing about talking you out of doing it," she confirmed again, shaking her head. "No, if this is something you set your mind to, then you've got my total support! There's just something I want to confirm with you first."

"What do you want, then, Cynthia, if you're not here to talk me out of this?" Blake asked. The way she was looking at him wasn't playful anymore, she looked concerned.

"I just want to know what your plan is for helping her," Cynthia explained. "And how I can help. Even if I trust you, I'm still worried. Sango's worried. Reiner's worried, and that guy doesn't seem to get worried about anything."

She shrugged. "So, just… you'd set a lot of minds at ease around here if you just told us what the strategy is, you know?"

Blake gulped, and averted his eyes. Well… he was still thinking about that, actually. "I guess… I'm going to fight her and win, for starters…" He weakly offered.

Cynthia's jaw hit the floor. "You have GOT to be kidding me," she said in disbelief. "Seriously? Seriously?! I come in here all 'I trust you, Blake, you know what you're doing' and you're telling me that your big plan is to just beat her in a pokemon battle?!"

Blake nodded meekly.

Cynthia leapt off the bed, pacing around the room in disbelief. "Blake! She tears people apart with tornados just because they make her mad! And I heard the anger in her voice the same as you did, you made her really fucking mad!"

"You don't think I don't know that she's a tough opponent?" Blake exclaimed. "Unlike you, I actually fought her one on one, I know full-well what she's capable of!"

"Then why are you behaving like such an idiot?!" Cynthia cried. "You're going in against a juggernaut like that without thinking things through! What was all that confidence for, then? Three days? What was that about?"

"I thought it sounded cool…"

Cynthia wanted to scream, but she managed to keep her emotions under control and calm herself back down.

"It's okay, Blake, it's okay," she said, as if that somehow made any of this okay. "Look, you were really passionate, it was late, you wanted to show off in front of your girlfriend, I get it. But now's the time to move on from the games, and admit that this is a serious fucking mess you've found yourself in, and start thinking about ways of backing out."

"Absolutely not," Blake said automatically. "Look, Cynthia, I'm glad you're this worried about me, I really am. But you're not going to talk me out of this. Which, by the way, you promised that you weren't here to do, remember?"

"That was when I thought you knew what you were doing," Cynthia snapped, "don't you play coy with me."

"I need to save Elaina," Blake said. "It's as simple as that. If you want to talk me out of that, then you can stop right here, understand?"

Cynthia glared at him. She opened her mouth to say something, probably another rebuke about him being an idiot, but she closed it and shook her head in defeat.

"Cynthia, you don't understand. Elaina… she's in a fragile place right now. She's all alone. And she's hurting," Blake said, looking his friend in the eyes. He was begging her to understand, pleading with her, hoping that someone would see his side of things. Sango hadn't. And while Aya had been supportive of his decision, he could see that she didn't want him to, either.

But what about Cynthia? Her eyes were telling him she didn't understand, either.

"I don't understand, I know," Cynthia admitted, shaking her head. "I just think… I don't know what to think! We're teenagers, we aren't supposed to be dealing with shit like this! My biggest concern should be that the guy I like is dating someone else, not that he's going to throw his life away battling some woman with magic wind powers!"

Blake had to laugh at that, even if he wasn't feeling very joyful. It was just absurd. But it was a great way to break the tension.

"I need to get stronger," he insisted. "I don't know what else to do, to be honest. But I managed to get through to Kitty when I fought her, and I managed to get Elaina to start seeing reason, even for just a second, in our battle. I think… I managed to get her to see, at least, that I wasn't going to back down until I helped her."

Blake clenched his fist in resolution.

Not that that ended up helping her, he bitterly admitted to himself.

Cynthia sighed. She could see the resolve in his eyes. "Do you really think that you'll get strong enough to help her by training?" She asked.

Blake nodded. "I have to," he said. "I need to make up for my mistakes, and show her that there's someone who cares for her."

Blake had never seen Elaina lose a battle before. Part of him wasn't even sure if she COULD lose, or if her harmonia would simply overpower everything. But he knew he had to try. "If I can defeat her, if I can prove that she can lose… then maybe, maybe that can help somehow. Maybe people won't see her as some unreachable monster anymore, and understand that she's just a normal girl like everyone else. And maybe even she'll be able to think that way…"

It was a long shot, and Blake knew it. But unlike Kitty, Elaina's problem was a lot more ingrained and a lot harder to shake. Even if he could beat her, he wasn't sure if he could actually get the student body to accept her. He wasn't sure if that was ever going to happen.

But he had to try. He had to do whatever he could to save Elaina, even if that meant putting himself at risk.

It might have been because of the mask, but he couldn't help but see his sister's face whenever he looked at her. And no one should have to go through what Gwen went through, not if there was anything he could do to help them.

"…If that's what you think," Cynthia said, her eyes showing the futility of this whole mess.

"Then if that's everything, you can go," Blake said. He had training to do, and didn't have the time to spend humoring his friend, even if it had been a long time since the two had had a decent conversation with one another.

Cynthia was having a similar feeling, apparently. She scowled at him. "Look, Blake, fine. You won't back out of it. I don't like it, but I understand."

Her face softened, and she gave him a look filled with sorrow.

"I'm worried. Look, if you don't know what your plan is and you really won't back down from this, then can I at least help?" She suggested. "It's been a long time since you and I have hung out together. And this isn't me complaining that you're a bad friend or anything, but I was wondering if I could help you train." She tried to put a smile on her face, rather unsuccessfully. "You know, it would be like old times, what do you say?"

Blake shook his head. As tempting as it was to hang out with Cynthia and train with her, he wasn't sure if she would be equipped to help him fight against Elaina. She hadn't performed all that well in her own match against the girl.

Cynthia disagreed. "Come on, Blake! I just want to help!" She sighed. "Okay, fine, I get it, this is your own thing, I'll leave you alone."

"Thank you, that means a lot," Blake said, grateful that Cynthia was willing to leave him on his own. He was grateful that she was offering help, but he had something else in mind.

He just had to hope that the person in question would be willing to go along with it.

"I'll leave you alone, then," Cynthia sighed, seeing that it would be fruitless to try to talk any sense into him. "But please, Blake, I'm asking you to take care of yourself, okay? I don't want you to do anything stupid."

She walked past him, stopping at the door to give him one last forlorn look.

"…Don't, Blake," she said quietly. "I know you have to, and I'm not trying to stop you, because I know that's pointless. But… don't."

Blake raised his eyebrow. "So how is this not you trying to stop me, again?" He asked.

"Because I know you never listen to me, that's why," Cynthia said, flashing him a coy smirk. "That 'don't' right there was how I felt as your friend, someone who cares about you and doesn't want to see you get hurt."

Now Blake was a little curious. "So, uh… what are you talking about otherwise, then? What else are you feeling right now?"

"Well, the Pokemon Battler in me is jealous as hell, that's what!" Cynthia loudly exclaimed. She smacked Blake in the chest. "Look at Mr. Big Shot over here, getting to go toe to toe with Elaina Bishop?! For a second time?! I want to fight her, damn it!"

"You did fight her, and she tore you apart!" Blake said.

"Yeah, but it would be an amazing battle, jerk!" Cynthia said, pounding him jokingly a few more times before skipping back. The smile on her face was as bright as always. "Take care, Blake! And make sure you give her a good thrashing!"

With a wink, she ducked out the door and headed back to her room. Blake shook his head in disbelief. That girl was something else, alright.

It wasn't until Cynthia made it back to her room that she let the smile slide off of her face. She resisted the urge to cry, and ran over to her bed instead, climbing up and throwing herself face-first into her pillow.

She screamed in frustration, she hated that this was happening. But there wasn't anything that she could do to stop it.

Blake, meanwhile, was in a bit of a conundrum himself. He'd snuck out of his dorm, violating the curfew rules, and headed to the agreed-upon location. This was important, and it wasn't the time to be following rules right now.

He stopped in the clearing and greeted the person who was waiting for him.

"So…" Dokukage said, not even bothering to look at Blake. "You've finally come to take my training seriously, have you?"

Blake's heart was pounding in his chest. Before the incident had occurred, he had been working with Dokukage to train his pokemon. He hadn't taken the time to go see him since he had returned, but as a ninja (or, well, a member of the Eight Leaders) he was sure that Dokukage was well aware.

It was time he decided to really give getting stronger an honest try again, anything to help him defeat Elaina.

"Yes, sir," Blake said, nodding. "I've come to have you train me again."

Dokukage nearly jumped out of his skin. SHIT! FUCK! HE WAS ACTUALLY THERE!

He had been practicing lines to say when Blake arrived, testing them to see which sounded the most appropriate for a ninja. He had no idea that Blake had walked in on him in the middle of it! He could just die of embarrassment.

But that would give away too much. He would have to play through it! He rose to his feet and turned to Blake, giving him an intense glare. If he put the other boy on the defensive, then maybe Blake wouldn't think twice about what he had just seen!

"So tell me," Dokukage calmly said, "do you believe that you are worthy to resume tutelage under me?" Yeah, that was it. Get him to question himself and that way he wouldn't question you. Of course, Dokukage was a nice enough guy that he would help Blake out no matter what, but as a ninja it was important to carry that mysterious air that would suggest otherwise.

"I… I know that I've missed out on some training," Blake said, looking down. "I'm sorry, sir. There was a lot of unfortunate stuff, but I'm going to take this seriously, I promised."

Good, he was resolved to do this. That would make it easier for Dokukage to "cave" to his demands. He narrowed his eyes. "I see. You mentioned in your message that this was urgent. And so here I am, inquiring what is so important to you?"

"I want to get stronger!" Blake begged, like that wasn't obvious from his mere presence. It was what he said next that nearly shattered Dokukage's façade, though.

"I need to become strong enough to defeat Elaina Bishop!" He proclaimed.

Dokukage felt his heart stop.

Elaina Bishop? Elaina fucking Bishop? Blake wanted to battle ELAINA FUCKING BISHOP? Oh, HELL NO! This was the worst case scenario of worst case scenarios! Dokukage was skilled, fine, but Elaina Bishop was…

She was horrifying! And Blake expected Dokukage to be of ANY help in training him to fight someone with as much monstrous strength as that?

Dokukage had to come up with a reason to decline, no, better yet, he had to come up with a reason to convince Blake not to pursue this ridiculous course of action! It was practically suicide! He was a member of the Eight Leaders, if someone found out that he was encouraging one of the other students to…

Dokukage didn't even want to think about that.

While Dokukage was having his mental breakdown, it was like he was a million miles away. His body didn't even twitch he was so detached, and that amazed Blake.

Most of the campus ran in fear of Elaina, even his friends had pleaded with him in their own ways not to go through with it. Aya didn't even want him to, but Dokukage…

Dokukage stared at Blake as though the notion of defeating Elaina was nothing at all to him, like Blake didn't have a concern in the world. It was astounding.

Seeing that look of confidence in his eyes, for the first time Blake was certain that he could do it. Dokukage could help him become strong enough to save Elaina from her darkness!

After what felt like an eternity, Dokukage finally spoke.

"Are you certain that this is the path you wish to tread?" He asked, his voice calm and even. "If you set down this road, there may be no return for you."

The look in his eyes was fierce. But Blake wouldn't give in. "Yes," he declared. "I need to get strong enough to save her! I'll do anything, so please! Teach me how to be stronger!"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKK! Dokukage screamed internally.

Will the great ninja master help Blake obtain the strength to defeat Elaina? Or will the training blow up in his face? Find out next time, on Naruto: Shippuden!