With the battle between Blake and Elaina on the horizon, it's time for what we've all been waiting for, a look into Elaina's past! What did she go through, before winding up with Gerard Alkwest and at the Pokemon Academy?

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: Hopefully that's how it goes.

KedharS: Unfortunately true.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: We could say, yes.

Hellraiserphoenix: Things are definitely being spread, that's for sure. It should be interesting.

Guest: Maybe. Sad, too.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 713

While Blake was training to get stronger to defeat Elaina Bishop, the girl in question was facing the situation with just as much apprehension, surprisingly. She wasn't sure what to make of things, the idea that Blake would "save" her in three days time had made her both worried and hopeful, not sure what to expect. But it was definitely making her nervous. And those nerves remained right up until the day of the match herself.

The night before the battle with Blake, Elaina went to sleep in a fit of restlessness, stirring and twisting as she found it difficult to sleep.

When she finally managed to fall asleep, things only got worse. She dreamed of a time that she had tried very hard to forget.

Elaina was around five years old when she washed up on the shores of Ula'ula Island. She didn't know for sure how old she was, because her memories were all in a jumble. She couldn't remember anything, not even her name. Her clothes had been ruined by the ocean waves, and the only testament to her identity was a hand-carved wooden flute with two wings, one of silver and one of gold, decorating the surface.

It would become her most cherished possession. It was clutched tightly in her small little fingers, like she knew just how important it was even while she was unconscious.

Although Elaina would not acknowledge it now, it was incredibly fortunate that she had washed up where she had, right outside the Aether House. One of the other children came across her, and shocked, called for help. The administrators came to find her, and brought her back to the Aether House to check in with her.

It was a complicated situation. Elaina had no ID, and what memories she had were spotty. She couldn't even remember her name, and a flute wasn't exactly a way to trace her identity. No one on Ula'ula Island reported missing a child, so the then-nameless Elaina was brought to the orphanage to be raised temporarily while they tried to track down her family.

By two months, it was clear that no one on Alola had any knowledge of her. The police were forced to assume that she was on a passenger boat and had been washed overboard, and the chances of reuniting with her family was low. By that point, Elaina had been named as such by the administrators of the Aether House. It was intended to be a temporary name, just something to be used in the interim, but it was all she had as an identity.

Life in the Aether House was fun, in those first few years. Elaina loved the pokemon, she loved playing with them, and loved playing music for them. She found that she had quite an ear for music. When she brought her flute to her lips, her fingers seemed to move out of reflex, like she was born to do it; songs from the fog of her memory danced through the air, drawing pokemon to her. And one song in particular played stronger than any other in her heart.

It was a song that she remembered from deep within her past. She didn't know what it was, but it felt like it connected to her past.

Elaina was a shy girl. She didn't make nearly as many human friends as she did pokemon friends. It wasn't like she disliked her fellow children at the Aether House, in her heart she really wanted to be friends with them. But she was shy. She'd never made friends before, and the idea that they might not like her was really worrying.

So instead of playing with the other kids, she would cling to the Oranguru named Headmaster, who she felt most comfortable with. Even the other Aether Foundation Employees found themselves kept at a distance from the shy girl.

In spite of her shyness, she did love her time there, she really did. But then it all came to an end one horrible day.

The horrid day started out exciting for Elaina. A pokemon professor from Melemele Island was coming to visit the Aether House, and bringing with him three pokemon to help the kids there learn about pokemon battles.

Elaina went to bed the night before with Butterfrees fluttering in her stomach. She couldn't wait! She loved pokemon, and the chance for a real battle with one was exciting. She was ten years old, by all estimations, which meant that she was at an age where people would be competing in pokemon battles and going on adventures already.

Secretly, she hoped that she could get a pokemon of her very own, and begin exploring the Alola Region. She wouldn't tell anyone this, of course, and certainly not why. But even if she didn't, it wouldn't be hard to guess at what she was hoping for. Many children in the Aether House could sympathize with her goal.

Elaina knew she had a family out there. By this point, more of her memories had come back, memories in particular about a woman with a kind smile, a woman who could only be her mother. She had family out there, and she wanted to find her.

A mother's love… there was a time when she'd had that. She knew it in the bottom of her heart, and she couldn't bear the thought of not being able to find it again.

So when Professor Kukui came to the Aether House, she held great expectations about the visit.

Little did she know, those expectations would be dashed, far more horribly than she ever could have imagined.

The three pokemon that were being donated to the Aether House were a Litten, a Popplio, and a Rowlet.

Elaina fell in love with the Rowlet the second she saw him. He was so soft and sweet-looking, she just knew which pokemon she would chose for her match. It was like the pokemon was calling to her, and she found herself drawing closer.

"So, you want to use Rowlet for your battle, huh?" Kukui laughed. Elaina nodded eagerly, hugging him. Kukui nodded his head. "Sounds good, missy! And what's your name, if I may ask?"

"Elaina…" Elaina said quietly, hugging the Rowlet closer to her chest. She still felt a little nervous about talking to other human beings, but holding the Rowlet made her feel a lot better about it.

The other child, a girl named Nami, chose Litten for her pokemon, and yet another mock pokemon battle began.

"Litten, use ember!" Nami ordered.

"Litten!" The Litten opened his mouth and fired a burst of flames at the Rowlet. The bird pokemon let out a squawk of pain as the embers scorched him. Elaina cried out in worry for her pokemon, when a surge of pain shot through her skull.

"A-Ah!" Elaina gasped, holding her head. She felt a burning sensation in her chest, shaking. She felt like she was going to cry. But she didn't cry. It was strange. She could feel the pokemon's pain, and it felt like she could hear the pokemon's voice in her head, but that… that was impossible, right? "R-Rowlet, use, um, leafage!"

"Rowlet!" Rowlet flapped his wings, sending a blast of leaves out the struck the Litten, but the fire pokemon shrugged it off.

"Another ember, Litten!" Nami ordered.

"Lit!" The Litten took a deep breath, and spat another blast of flames at Rowlet. The flames struck, lighting the pokemon on fire.

Elaina screamed. She was burning, she was burning! She fell to her knees and clutched herself, smacking at flames that weren't there. The pain bursting through her head was overpowering her, and with a cry a blast of wind swept across the field, pushing a few of the other kids over.

"Row…" Rowlet whimpered, and Elaina could feel how much pain he was in. The ember attack had burned him, and that made her cry. She didn't want him to be hurt anymore.

"Rowlet!" Elaina screamed. Rowlet flapped his wings and took to the sky, and beating his wings hard a massive blast of wind erupted, smacking the Litten in the face. The small pokemon let out a wail as he was flung through the air, crashing into the other child, knocking both of them over.

Elaina panted, starting to cool down. Her head was still throbbing in pain, but she could see clearly now. And the first thing she saw were the eyes of the others.

They were all looking at her with confusion and disbelief.

Nami sat up and began to cry. She had cuts all over her from being hit with the wind attack. The Headmaster rushed over and scooped the girl up in his arms and began to rock her. Elaina stared in shock.

She… She had done that? She didn't mean to, it had just…

She started to cry, too. She turned and ran back into the Aether House, locking herself away in her room, curled up underneath the blankets.

Elaina had no idea what had happened. She was scared. She didn't want to battle ever again, ot if she was going to feel that pain again.

After the professor's visit, things had returned to a tense level of normalcy. The other kids looked tensely at Elaina, and kept their distance. She didn't blame them, she felt miserable, too. She had tried to apologize to Nami, but the other girl ran away when she came close.

The next few years were miserable. Elaina played with the pokemon at the Aether House, especially the Rowlet. But whenever she did, she would get headaches, and more accidents would happen. Wind began hitting others around her, both people and pokemon, and pokemon battles? When she even attempted one, it would be with disastrous results.

By the time she was 12 years old, the other children at the Aether House wanted nothing to do with her. They were consciously ignoring her now, and she heard the whispers whenever she got close. She spent more and more time locked up in her room or playing with the pokemon, and then it all came to a head one fateful day.

"Why are you even here?" One boy demanded one day, while she was building a sandcastle with the Rowlet.

Elaina glanced warily up at him. She didn't want to say anything, but she was also afraid of what would happen if she ignored him.

"What?" She asked.

"Everyone hates you, you know," he sneered. "You're a freak who hurts people."

"N-No!" Elaina said, shaking her head. "I don't… it's an accident, I don't know what you mean!"

"What are you!?" Another boy demanded. She turned to look at him, confused.

"Wh-What?" She didn't know what he was asking.

"Whenever you get upset, it's like… it's like a tornado!" The boy said, not sure how to describe what he had experienced. "Are you a freak? Is that it?"

"I-I don't know! I'm not trying to do anything, really!" Elaina pleaded. "It's just… whenever I'm around pokemon, I just…"

A splitting headache shot through Elaina's head and she nearly fell over, shaking.

"Just go away!" The first boy shouted. "Everyone's scared of you, we don't want you here!"

"B-But…" Elaina let out a pathetic whimper. This was her home. Where was she supposed to go? Once upon a time she had dreamed of traveling Alola, but as she'd grown older she knew better now. She had no idea of life outside the Aether House; what she would face outside scared her.

"Just go!" The boy stomped over to her and grabbed her arm tightly. Elaina let out a gasp of pain.

"Let go of me!" She wailed, swatting at him. Then, Rowlet leapt up to her aid. He flapped his wings and flew at the boy, and another surge of pain shot through Elaina's head.

Squawking in disbelief, Rowlet began to glow green, and a blast of leaves flew from his feathers, striking the two boys and carving large chunks of flesh off of them. The boy screamed in pain and fell into the sand, the beach turning red.

Elaina stared in shock. She let out a scream, and passed out herself.

The boys were rushed to the hospital, and Elaina was confined to her room. She pleaded with the orphanage directors, telling them that it was all an accident, that the Rowlet hadn't meant to attack them.

The Aether Foundation employees agreed, they didn't blame Rowlet; they felt it was her fault.

That came as a complete surprise to Elaina. She didn't know what to think.

"My fault…?" Elaina asked.

They explained that they had been observing Elaina and her behaviors, and judged that there was something wrong with her. This was not the first strange incident involving her, and even the workers had been wary of approaching her in fear of being attacked.

"But… But I didn't mean to do anything!" She pleaded. She looked at the Headmaster, but the Oranguru shook his head. He wouldn't help her either.

They assured her that they weren't just going to kick her out onto the street, but they needed to think of alternative solutions.

That night, Elaina sat in her bed and clutched Rowlet tightly to her chest, tears soaking her feathers.

"It's not fair," she sniffled. "I don't… I don't want to hurt people…"

The next day was the first time someone hit Elaina.

The other kids were calling her terrible things. They said she was a monster and a freak. They told her to go away, get out of there, yelling at her that no one wanted her there. She looked desperately to the other kids, but found no sympathy there. All she saw her scornful eyes.

It was two weeks of enduring that abuse before Elaina finally snapped. When the Aether Foundation employees looked the other way, that was the final straw. She had just been trying to live her life and be herself, but everyone looked at her like she was a monster.

Holding Rowlet tightly to her chest, she let out a scream, and a blast of wind stronger than any before erupted from around her in a tornado, knocking everyone away.

Panting, she looked around the Aether House. She couldn't see a home there anymore. She loved the pokemon, but everyone else looked at her with hatred and disgust. And she couldn't stand it for another minute.

With Rowlet wrapped in her arms and her flute clutched tightly in her hands, she let out a cry and ran out the door and into the night.

Elaina felt empty. She didn't know where she was going, she didn't have any idea what she was going to do. Rowlet walked beside her, but she still felt so alone.

Tears rolled down her face, but she didn't feel sad. She felt… empty.

What was even the point?

Is it really my fault? She asked herself. Am I really just a monster that hurts other people?

She couldn't stand it. She didn't want to be someone who hurt other people. She didn't want to hurt the people at Aether House. At the beginning, they were all so nice to her.

Was this going to be just how it went from now on? Whenever she talked to people or got close to them, she would just end up hurting them?

She didn't want to live with that, she couldn't.

Elaina didn't know how long she had walked, but it was starting to get cold. She realized that the forest was long-gone, and now here she was, walking on the base of Mt. Hokulani. A flash of light from above caused her to raise her wary head, and what she saw momentarily set her problems aside as she stared in awe.

Shooting stars filled the sky. It was a meteor shower, filling the night with color. As she gazed upon it, words from her past caught her ears.

"It's a shooting star, sweetheart," her momma's gentle voice whispered in her ear as she rocked her. "Make a wish."

"I wanna stay with momma forever!" She remembered herself saying.

Elaina began to tremble. Her lip quivered and she burst into tears. "MOMMA!" She wailed, falling to her knees. "I WANNA GO HOME!"

She sniveled and sobbed, staring up at the meteors flashing above her, ignoring her pleas. Wiping her eyes, she unsteadily rose to her feet and took a deep breath.

She needed to make a wish. A wish more important than any other she'd made. Because she didn't want to live like this, scared and alone and destined to hurt people and be the target of their hatred.

"Shooting stars!" She shouted. "Please, grant my wish! I don't want to keep going on like this! My head hurts, and I hate hurting people, I don't… I don't want to be alone anymore! So please… please save me from all this pain!"

She panted, staring up at the sky, and continued. "If this is my life… I don't want it! I don't want ANY of this! So… if I'm going to live a life with just pain and hatred, then I don't want it! Let me die, then! Take me or grant my wish, please!"

She kept watching the stars, not sure what kind of answer she was expecting to get. Maybe none at all. How much of a child was she, to think that her life would change so easily just because she wished on a shooting star?

And then it did change. One of the shooting stars changed course in the sky, and fell to the ground, a glowing orb of light growing bigger and bigger as it plummeted towards her.

Elaina's heart broke as she saw it. So that was the universe's answer. She was destined to misery and loneliness after all. If that was the case, then she might as well let it end. She closed her eyes, and waited for the end to come.

The meteor struck.

Elaina awoke to the bright sun. She didn't expect to see it ever again.

"What… What happened?" She looked around. Rowlet was sleeping next to her, and floating in front of her was… a pokemon?

It looked like a big rock, bobbing around her and spinning. Shaped like a stony star, she could just barely make out a face on the rough surface of it.

"Well, what a surprise. I came to Ula'ula Island to observe the Hokulani Meteor Shower, and while I was looking for rock samples I didn't expect to come across someone else here."

Elaina gasped, and turned to see a teenage boy a few years older than her walk up, an intrigued look on his face.

"Who… Who are you?" Elaina asked cautiously.

"My name is Gerard, Gerard Alkwest," the boy introduced himself. "Do you have a name?"

"…Elaina…" Elaina murmured, still not sure who this boy was.

"Well, I won't ask what a girl like you is doing in a place like this," Gerard said, looking around the mountainside. "But are you hungry? If so, I can get you something to eat?"

Elaina swallowed, her stomach was rumbling.

"Well?" Gerard asked, holding out a hand to her. "Do you want to come with me?"

Elaina wasn't sure. But she took his hand all the same.

The cracking sun awoke Elaina from her dream of the past. Her face was still wet with tears. She sat up in bed, her heart aching.

Well, she said to herself, It's time to go see Blake.

Three days have passed. And now, for the climactic battle!