Blake has gone to Dokukage for training! Will the shinobi be able to help him? What awaits Blake down this path, will the ninja be able to train him up and get him ready to defeat Elaina? Is there anything he can 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

KedharS: Maybe, just maybe…

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 712

While Blake eagerly awaited Dokukage's training, across campus, things were a little less tense and worrisome. In fact, they were downright pleasant!

Julia had spent the night over at Kitty's place, and the two girls were headed back to the Bulbasaur House, with actual smiles on their faces.

Working on caretaking all day yesterday had done marvels for Julia's mood. She wasn't as nervous and scared as she had been before, even though what had happened with Dakota still traumatized her. Maybe this was a turn for the better.

When she returned to her room with her best friend in tow, she could see that her positive attitude wasn't infectious.

Nikita in particular looked to be in a father foul mood, glaring at the two of them from where she sat on Julia's bed. Kitty went pale in the face. Right… she had left her roommate here.

"Welcome back," Nikita said, trying very hard to keep the frustration out of her voice. "How have things been, guys? Enjoy your night?"

"Sorry, Nikita, it totally slipped my mind!" Kitty apologized, bowing her head sheepishly.

Nikita wasn't impressed. "You know that because of curfew rules I had to sleep over here, right? By the time Sango and Cynthia came back, it was way too late to ask them to bring me back to my dorm."

"Yes, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," Kitty apologized again. "I was too concerned with taking care of my friend, sorry…"

Nikita sighed. It was really difficult to stay mad at Kitty, especially when she made that face with the big watering eyes. She shook her head. "It's okay, Kitty, don't worry about it," she said. "Besides, we have other, more important things to deal with."

Kitty blinked. "More important? What do you mean?"

"Didn't you guys get my text?" Sango asked. "I sent it to the groupchat."

Julia and Kitty glanced at each other. Neither had bothered checking their phones.

Cynthia sighed, sitting up in bed and shaking her head. "Okay, look, we've got a really serious fucking problem here, can you guys turn your phones on next time?"

"We were busy," Julia said, crossing her arms in front of her chest indignantly.

"Well, this is more important than that!" Sango snapped.

Kitty didn't like what was going on. There was a lot of hostility in the air, and it was making her feel really uncomfortable. She turned to look at Julia, and could see that she was starting to get a little tense herself.

"What's going on?" Julia asked sharply. "You guys look like you're really worried about something, what was the important news?"

Cynthia sighed. "Blake is going to battle Elaina Bishop in two days," she said.

Kitty froze, her face locked in a mask of stunned terror. Elaina Bishop? That Elaina Bishop?! No way, no, that was super not good!

"He wants to save her or something," Sango muttered. "That harmonia of hers, it's going out of control, what else is new?"

"It's just like with you, Kitty," Cynthia sighed. "She's trying to get control of herself, but she can't. And Blake thinks that if he can fight her again and win, then maybe he can get her to go back to the way she was before."

"Whatever that means," Sango said. "Look, I don't think that Elaina's a bad person, but it's not like we're talking about Kitty here. Who even knows if 'the way she was before' is any different than how she is right now?"

It was rather strange to hear those words coming from the mouth of Sango, who considered harmonia user Marion one of her closest friends. But it was her friendship with Marion that made her more sensitive than most to Elaina's condition, and worried that, in spite of Blake's efforts, he wouldn't be able to do anything to help her.

Marion had tried to get her harmonia under control, after all, and that hadn't exactly gone well. Who was to say that Blake would fare any better?

She understood where he was coming from. It was just that, to her, she didn't see this as something that would result in a positive outcome. So she had lodged her concerns with Blake, and left it up to him to make a decision.

Even if it had been a decision that she personally didn't agree with.

Kitty found herself, unfortunately, agreeing with Sango. And that made her feel awful. More than anyone, she should be able to relate to Elaina and understand what the girl was going through, and to an extent she did. She even understood what it was like to be so lost in that power that you would reject the help of those around you.

She understood Elaina, and she understood Blake. But she still thought that this was way too risky. Elaina wasn't her. Kitty may have been strong thanks to her harmonia, but that was nothing compared to the power that Elaina could muster. Thinking clearly, it was obvious to see the difference between the two, whatever her harmonia-crazed self had believed.

Blake may have managed to defeat and get through to Kitty, but would it be the same with Elaina? Somehow Kitty doubted it.

But in spite of her own feelings on the matter, she turned to Cynthia and Sango and gave them a reassuring smile.

"Blake is going to be fine," she said. "I believe in him." Sango and Cynthia were less sure. And truthfully, not even Kitty was fully sure, herself.

But there was one thing she did know, and that was that Blake was going to fight for Elaina because he believed it was right. There was nothing that any of them could do to talk him out of this, and that meant there was no need for her to verbalize her own doubts. What if someone had tried to talk him out of saving her?

So no, she wouldn't say anything. She would calmly and patiently believe in her friend, and wish for the best, even as fear seized her heart.

Julia was far less understanding.

"No… No!" She shouted, shaking her head in disbelief. Kitty shot her head around to look at her friend. Julia was trembling in fear. "Elaina Bishop?! Are you kidding me?! He's… He's going to fight her? No way, no, he can't! I won't allow it!"

"Hey, it's not about allowing anything," Cynthia said. "We're just saying-"

"She's going to kill him!" Julia exclaimed. "He just came back! We just lost Dakota, and now you're saying that you want him to… no, that's insane!"

"No one 'wants' him to do anything!" Sango said. "We can't exactly talk him out of it!"

"Then let me go and smack some sense in to him!" She growled, her fear and anger overpowering her common sense. She turned and headed for the door, only to feel a tug on her hand. Stunned, she turned and looked over her shoulder at Kitty, who was staring adamantly back at her.

"It's okay, Julia," Kitty said softly, shaking her head. "Believe in him."

Julia winced, her heart aching. She needed to break free of Kitty's grasp, to go find Blake and convince him to end this nonsense, but seeing the insistent look in her eyes, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She sighed, slumping over in defeat. "Fine. I guess… I can believe in him."

She just hoped he would be okay.

Right now, at least, Blake was feeling pretty okay. He waited eagerly for Dokukage's training regiment to start. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, he stared at the ninja with eyes so bright they were practically blinding.

Cynthia had talked up how amazing Dokukage was because he was a ninja, and Blake had lost to him himself so he knew how skilled of a trainer his fellow student was. And the way he carried himself, the way he had come off when they trained previously, Blake had to admit that he could see where Cynthia was coming from.

But none of that compared to what he saw right now. Dokukage, acting as though Elaina was no big deal, it was beyond belief. He remembered seeing the shinobi fight in the first round of the Phantom Cup, against that trainer, Keahi Revanche, and defeating his Shadow Pokemon without losing a single one of his own.

Yeah… maybe it was possible that this guy really was at a level where he could stand up to Elaina, and if that was the case, then he was the perfect person to teach Blake how to fight against her! "Please, master, I need you to show me how to fight her!"

Dokukage remained composed on the surface, but on the inside, he baulked. Shit. Fuck. This was really not good, he was being called "master" now. He didn't have the qualifications to be someone's master! He didn't even know what he was doing himself! Blake was completely getting the wrong idea, but Dokukage couldn't exactly set him straight, either.

He needed… He needed to come up with a way to discourage this course of action without making it seem like he was directly trying to get Blake to stop.

Come on, think, think you fool! There must be something, some way to go about this! You cannot be so foolish as to allow your fellow student to battle Elaina Bishop! You need to show him how unprepared he would be! Dokukage didn't think that even he, with his skills and his preparations, would be able to prevail.

No, there was only one thing to do. He had to come up with a training plan so harsh and so impossible that over the course of the next three days he would completely crush Blake's spirit so harshly that he would reconsider everything, and thus make sure that the boy wouldn't ever think to challenge Elaina Bishop to a pokemon battle ever again.

It was the only way to be sure.

"Blake, if you are truly resolved to undertake this training, then I will not stop you. But be warned, this training will be difficult. Are you sure?" Dokukage asked.

Blake nodded. "Yes, master, I am. But if you mind me asking, before we start…"

"Is there something about the training that you have a question about?" Dokukage asked. Kids! So impatient! At least give me a chance to explain the fucking training before you start with your shit questions, you think that you're the only one having a problem with this?!

"No, master, it's not about the training," Blake said, shaking his head. "It's more of a personal question actually."

"Very well, speak," Dokukage said. And stop with the master! You're making me incredibly uncomfortable! He was not used to being called master. It reminded him of his sensei, and those were memories he wanted to banish.

"I was just sort of surprised that you would have an iphone," Blake said, scratching his head sheepishly. "It just strikes me as kind of odd, you know? I mean, considering you're a ninja, I would have expected you to communicate by, like, Carrier Pidgey or something, not a text message."

Dokukage's poker face nearly broke to an eye twitch of frustration. Talk about prejudice! Ninjas not being allowed to have iphones?! What sort of ridiculousness was that?!

"The ways of the shinobi may seem indecipherable to one such as yourself," Dokukage calmly replied. "It is not something you need to concern yourself with for the sake of our training. Now, would you like to prepare? Or are you ready to go now?"

Dokukage was looking for any excuse to take a break. He was planning to do another training session where he disappeared, and hopefully Blake would never be able to find him this time. He felt a little bad, but he couldn't be responsible for this mess!

"I'm ready now, master!" Blake said. "I can't waste any time, I need to get as strong as I can as soon as possible, the more time I spend training the better!"

Shit. Dokukage had just the absolute worst luck. Here was Blake, a bright-eyed kid ready to do whatever it took to get stronger, and he was trying to get him to leave. He felt just awful. If only he could be the kind of heartless shinobi that he aspired to be, but no, he still had his own moral code. So he nodded his head, and agreed.

"Very well. Then let us go to the training area."

"We aren't going to train here?" Blake asked, confused.

"This is not an adequate place," Dokukage said, shaking his head. "Where we will train shall be far more… vigorous."

He was going to help Blake train. But not because he wanted him to win. Dokukage still believed that it was a foolish endeavor.

So he would give Blake the harshest training regiment he could think of, bordering on impossible, in order to discourage him.

"Your first lesson. Send out your pokemon. And then you will meditate here," Dokukage said. He had come to the base of one of the large waterfalls on campus, recently thawed from the approaching spring. The water was rushing, but it was still ice-cold. The perfect temperature.

"You want my pokemon to meditate under a waterfall?" Blake asked, not sure how that would lead to a stronger pokemon team. "Are you sure?"

"Are you questioning the methods of your master?" Dokukage asked. "With this method, you and your pokemon will learn to focus your thoughts and calm down your mind, in order to achieve inner balance. That is what is most important, after all. More than powerful moves, weaknesses or resistances, the key to strength is inner focus."

Or something along those lines, whatever. It was all very zen. At least he wasn't teaching Blake to walk on water like his own sensei did.

"Do you want me to do it as well, master?" Blake asked in disbelief. He looked warily at the waterfall, it looked really cold.

Oh, shit. Dokukage hadn't meant it to come across like that. Um… but he couldn't exactly back out now, that wouldn't make for a very convincing master, now would it? Mentally beating himself up about compromising the health of one of his fellow students, Dokukage begrudgingly confirmed Blake's question with a terse nod.

"A trainer must be attuned to the needs of his pokemon," Dokukage explained. "He must share in everything, their joys, their hardships, and especially their training. He must ask nothing of his pokemon that he is not willing to undertake himself. That is the way of the shinobi."

Blake looked up at him in awe, and Dokukage felt another wave of guilt roll over him. He really was making this kid think he was amazing, but really he was just talking out of his ass and trying to get Blake to quit.

Well, I might as well go all the way with it, Dokukage decided. If Blake was going to train under a waterfall, then he was going to make the training as difficult as possible in order to convince him to stop.

"Another thing to consider, Blake Harker. Do your pokemon wear clothes when they meditate?" Dokukage asked. This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy. No way will he go through with this, this is crazy. "Then do you think you should wear them yourself?"

Blake went pale, and he clutched his arms inward. Dokukage assumed that he was baulking at the idea of getting under a freezing waterfall in the winter, and while Blake certainly wasn't thrilled about that idea, there was something else that he was more reluctant about.

Blake had some issues with his body. He had felt uncomfortable enough showing it to Aya, and that was when he knew that she wouldn't judge him, she would accept him for who he was, scars and all. But to show it to a stranger…

"I understand that this is a difficult thing to ask of you," Dokukage said, lowering his head and closing his eyes. "If you do not wish to go through with the training, then it is best that we stop here." Do it you fool, just get out of here already!

Blake swallowed, and took another look at the waterfall. Somehow it was like he could SEE how cold it was, and that just made him feel even more frozen.

He swallowed, and composed himself. This was for Elaina. His own personal feelings and insecurities weren't important right now.

"I'll do it," he decided, turning his eyes towards Dokukage. The ninja stared at him, trying very hard to keep the shock from his face.

"Then by all means, proceed," Dokukage said, unable to believe his own eyes.

Blake picked up his pokeballs and released his pokemon, all of his pokemon. He hadn't yet decided on his team for fighting against Elaina yet, so he brought them all with him. While he explained to his team what the plan was, Dokukage was shocked that they would go through with it themselves. Pokemon were loyal, sure, but even his team might be reluctant to train under a freezing waterfall just for a pokemon battle.

Even Blake's Salamence was willing to undergo the training, and from what Dokukage had heard that pokemon never followed his orders.

Blake then stripped his clothes off and set them down on one of the rocks. Dokukage permitted him, at least, to wear his boxers, because he wasn't a monster. But when he saw what Blake had underneath his clothes, he felt very similar to one.

Dokukage hadn't expected Blake to be so damaged. The boy's body was covered with scars, so many and so large that it made him feel sick to his stomach. What had he been through, to sustain such injury? Dokukage couldn't begin to imagine. The scars left on him from the harshness of his own training were nothing in comparison to Blake's.

He was going to reconsider, but he found that he couldn't. Blake was so adamant about this training process now, and he couldn't discourage him. It would call into question his abilities as Blake's "master" and might throw his whole deception into question; if Dokukage was exposed, he would never be able to continue with his guise.

And besides, this was for Blake's sake, after all! He needed to do this, he needed to break Blake's spirit with harsh training to discourage him!

…Only Blake wasn't getting discouraged. He was actually doing it, meditating underneath the frozen waterfall without a care in the world.

Dokukage admitted that maybe he had a knack for being a sensei. But that didn't mean he wanted Blake to succeed! He had to give in at some point!

Two hours later and Blake was still under that fucking waterfall, what the fucking hell. What was this kid made of?! It couldn't be possible that he actually thought that this training would succeed in making him a better trainer?

He certainly acted like he was, and he was even starting to win Dokukage over a little. With this amount of dedication, could it be possible that…

No, Dokukage wouldn't accept it! There was no way that a little meditation under a waterfall could help Blake become strong enough to defeat Elaina Bishop of all people! She was terrifying, with that destructive power, she would tear Blake apart!

But Dokukage had to face reality. Even though he knew that it would be an attempt doomed to failure, Blake clearly didn't think so. It was futile, but Blake was still going to go through with it, no matter what anyone said. Even if he had to meditate under a freezing waterfall.

There was nothing Dokukage could do to discourage him. Blake was going to go through with this, so that meant that Dokukage had a different choice to make.

I won't be able to discourage him. So should I send him into battle unprepared? As a shinobi, such an act would be disgusting. If I can't break his spirit, then I'm going to have to temper it into a weapon, Dokukage decided. He smiled beneath his mask. Wow, I sound just like an anime character with lines like that, no wonder sensei was so fond of this sort of thing!

"Blake Harker!" Dokukage shouted, his voice carrying over the rush of the waterfall. Blake barely heard him, cracking an eye open to meet Dokukage's fierce gaze from across the pond. With the swiftness of a ninja, Dokukage quickly leapt to stand in front of him, holding out his hand.

"Dress. We shall move onto the next stage of your training," he declared.

Shit. I am so fucking fucked. I can't believe I'm going along with this fucking nonsense, Dokukage wished he could be somewhere else right now. He wished he didn't have to be this responsible, but he didn't have a choice.

He needed to put some actual care into Blake's training, and make sure he wouldn't get too destroyed. He didn't want to be responsible for the kid dying.

This is going to be one big fucking pain in the ass… he internally groaned.

Yes, Dokukage, I do believe it will be.