Tragically, Elaina has rejected Blake's offer to save her. It's all out of his hands now. He can only try and get through to her with fighting. Will he be able to succeed? Or will he prove to still not be strong enough to defeat her?

The Pokemon Academy Best Girl 2 Finals are up and running! We've almost reached the end, only a few days left, and I'm dying to know! 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, so who do you think deserves to take the crown?

Finalists: Sylvia, Marion, Sango

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Well, we'll have to find out. Hopefully he'll be able to get through to her.

Guest: Elaina snapping at Gerard was a long time coming.

KedharS: Like I've said, it was a very big influence on her character's creation and role in the story.

Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Welcome back!

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 717

"Mukuro, slice that Crawdaunt up with your leaf blade!" Elaina ordered. Mukuro spread his wings, flying towards Cory and sharpening his feathers into a long, green blade.

"Cory, return!" Blake said, raising his pokeball up to call back his Crawdaunt.

"You can't return!" Elaina exclaimed. "Your Crawdaunt is sealed by our spirit shackles, it's pointless, completely pointless!"

Blake narrowed his eyes. "Oh, really?" A red beam of light shot out from his pokeball and wrapped around Cory, pulling him back into its light. Cory slipped from his shell, a thin carapace falling harmlessly onto the ground.

"How?!" Elaina roared. "That's not possible!"

Dokukage smirked behind his mask. "A ninja," he scoffed, "is never trapped."

"I've seen you fight, Elaina," Blake replied. "And I know what your Decidueye is capable of. I wasn't about to let Cory be trapped in a battle with him if I could help it. That's why I borrowed a shed shell from Dokukage! Cory won't be trapped by your arrows!"

"Blake learned from the matches in the Phantom Cup," Sylvia said, stroking her chin. "It's vital to have an avenue of escape, to make sure that you can't be pinned down. Brilliantly executed, if I do say so myself."

She smirked, and shrugged her shoulders. "Of course, I find it better to use Ghost type pokemon, and not let your pokemon get trapped at all."

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "What-ever! Blake, I think that was an amazing thing you did, it was totally awesome! You're just like a real ninja out there, get her!"

"Now, Elaina, you thought that my pokemon were trapped, but really, you're the one who's trapped," Blake informed her. "Weiss! Come out!"

Blake sent out his next pokemon. It was Weiss. The crimson pokemon emerged from his pokeball, scraping his red scales against the sharp stones.

"Weiss!" Cynthia cheered excitedly.

"Yeah, that's his ace!" Sango nodded.

Kitty wasn't as excited as her friends. She was worried that Blake was playing his ace so early. Weiss was really strong, and Blake should have come up with a way to get rid of those stealth rocks before he thought of sending him out. But there was nothing to do about it right now. She just had to hope that Weiss would be enough to take care of that Mukuro.

Weiss flapped his wings, and glared at Mukuro, landing gently on the ground. He stood encircled by stones, but he remained perfectly still.

"Your Scizor… that's one of your strongest pokemon, isn't that right?" Elaina said, her voice surprisingly calm judging by the typhoon roaring around her. "I see. With that in mind, let me show you the difference in our ability. Since it seems that's what matters the most to you!"

With the end of her sentence, the air around her changed completely. Mukuro shot forward, flapping his wings, shadows dancing across his feathers.

"Go, Mukuro!" Elaina ordered, boosting Mukuro's strength with her harmonia, along with the added bonus of swords dance.

But Blake wasn't fazed, and neither was Weiss. Both trainer and pokemon were waiting for the approach of the ghostly attacker.

"What's he doing?!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Why aren't they dodging?! Are they mental!"

"Come on, Blake, give Weiss an order! Use iron defense, use bullet punch, use something!" Sango shouted.

Nikita looked warily at Reiner. She didn't have much skill with battling, so she couldn't say for sure one way or the other. But she was definitely feeling a little worried. "Reiner, is this…"

She saw that her boyfriend was way more invested in watching the match than listening to her, so she dropped it.

Only two people in Blake's corner knew what he was planning, and they both agreed completely. Callie wore a big smile, and Dokukage kept his approval hidden behind his mask. Blake was following his training perfectly.

Excellent, Dokukage smiled on the inside. A real ninja… no, a real pokemon trainer, knows when to respond. Watch and wait, wait for the moment when your opponent reaches the perfect point, and when they do…

Mukuro was seconds away, preparing to strike with a shadow claw. And then, Weiss exploded. Like he was dancing, he stepped out of the way, leaving barely an afterimage behind him. Mukuro sliced through air, leaving him wide-open for Weiss's counterattack. Weiss raised his pincer and swung in a sharp, fast strike, hitting Mukuro in the jaw with a quick jab and knocking him back into one of the hovering stones.

"Urgh!" Elaina felt pain shoot through her mouth, and she held her jaw. That strike was powerful.

"Now Weiss, use swords dance," Blake ordered. The trick room meant that he would have to be careful about raising Weiss's speed, but right now, he was quick enough to give Mukuro quite the fight. Weiss nodded his head.

Weiss danced in a way he never had before. Raising his claw, he danced and turned around the stones, taking excellent care to avoid their sharp surfaces while maximizing his attack boosts, preparing himself to strike.

"Mukuro!" Elaina shouted, her harmonia surging. Mukuro flew forward and disappeared into the darkness, preparing to strike. "Now, shoot!"

From nowhere, a spectral arrow shot forth, piercing right for Weiss's shadow. But it never even came close. Even though he was shooting from behind, Weiss was able to perceive the attack, and respond to it, turning and snatching the arrow out of the air, crushing it to pieces with the powerful grip of his pincers.

"How?!" Elaina gasped in disbelief.

"Now Weiss, defog!" Blake ordered. Weiss flapped his wings and cleared the field, sending the stones tumbling away. And now that everything was cleared up, he could really begin to attack.

Elaina felt her forehead get wet, and she stopped herself. What the hell?! What's going on? This… are you telling me… that I'm actually feeling pressured right now?

She bit her lip in frustration. No way. No fucking way! Like I could lose to someone like Blake now, after all this!

Her pokemon were stronger than his, and her harmonia made them even moreso. Their last match had proven that. If she was going to lose, it wouldn't be because her pokemon were weak. It would come down to her harmonia.

That would be the deciding factor. Would she have the strength to win? Did she have the will to win? Yes! She did, she would! She would do whatever she could! I won't lose here! I can't lose here! Telling me how he's going to save me, ignoring everything, treating me like… like!

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Elaina roared, her harmonia bursting forward. Mukuro emerged from the shadows, ghostly energy swirling around him. He raised his wings, and flew towards Weiss, preparing to strike. He slammed into the Scizor… but Weiss wasn't there any longer. He had replaced himself with a wooden log, which was quickly torn to pieces by Mukuro's attack.

"Now Weiss! Night slash!"

Weiss blurred into sight, his claw at his waist. He stepped forward and swung his pincer up like drawing a sword, slashing a massive blade of darkness across Mukuro's chest.

"Decidueye!" Mukuro cried in pain, and Elaina clutched her chest, nearly losing her balance. No… she couldn't fall, that would be like admitting defeat!

"Mukuro! Don't you dare give into this!" Elaina roared. Her lips warmed with blood from her nose as a splitting headache wracked her, and she lunged forward, the barrier between herself and Mukuro blurring so much it was practically gone.

Mukuro righted himself, focusing ghostly power and disappearing into the shadows. Weiss glanced his way and then stood still, waiting for his opponent to strike.

"Wow, this… this is amazing…" Cynthia said, her jaw dropping. "Weiss… got this powerful in only three days?"

It seemed downright impossible for a pokemon to get so strong so quickly. Cynthia had been training with the Commander for a while now, and none of her pokemon were even close to that level, not even Tristan.

A pang of jealousy streaked through her chest and she grimaced. It just didn't seem fair.

"It was only three days… and I can understand that you are surprised," Dokukage calmly stated. Cynthia nearly jumped out of her shoes in shock.

"What?! Holy shit, you really are a ninja!" Cynthia exclaimed. "I didn't hear you at all, you must've, like, teleported or something! Holy!"

Dokukage raised an eyebrow and Sango rolled her eyes.

"Cynthia, he just walked over," she informed her friend, resisting the urge to laugh. Things were way too serious for her to bust up at her friend's complete overreaction about everything related to Dokukage and ninjas.

Cynthia blinked, and nodded. "Oh… okay."

She looked a little deflated.

"I initially intended just to train Blake's pokemon a little, show them the basics of how my own pokemon fight," Dokukage said, staring at Weiss as the pokemon waited serenely for his opponent to come out of hiding. "My Scizor in particular has a very extensive fighting style that is difficult to replicate. Even facing it directly before, a clever pokemon would have taken weeks to begin to imitate it. An ordinary pokemon, anyway…"

He shook his head. "But that Scizor… I've never seen a pokemon so motivated before. Just like his trainer, he was desperate to learn everything there was to offer about this fighting style. He's still a little rough around the edges, but make no mistake… when I was training that pokemon, his skill at picking up combat was something that amazed me. He is more than capable of putting up an incredible fight, as you've just seen," he continued, lifting his hand and gesturing at the Bug type pokemon. "The only explanation I have for it is the fact that that pokemon wants to win more than anything else. A will that powerful is the only way that it could learn so quickly and grow so much in such a short period of time," he explained.

Cynthia couldn't help but smile. She had been disappointed, irritated, and hell, more than a little jealous.

But right now, she was seething with something else, and that was raw excitement.

Weiss… you've grown so powerful, just because you want to win? To save Elaina Bishop… to think that you would get this powerful… I can't believe it! I want this fight to be over so badly, so that I can fight you myself! Cynthia was trembling with fighting spirit, she couldn't wait! What any good trainer needed was to fight against a challenging foe, in order to get stronger herself!

"Come on, Weiss!" Cynthia shouted. "You can show her what for!"

Of course, as skilled as Weiss may have been, there wasn't much he could respond to when it came to Mukuro's next attack. The Decidueye erupted from the shadows, and with him came the full force of Elaina's harmonia, twisted and engulfed in tendrils of shadow grasping for the Bug type pokemon from all sides.

"Weiss! Iron defense!" Blake shouted, realizing that there was no feasible way for Weiss to escape. Weiss clearly realized the same thing, and raised his claws, his body shining a bright silver as his scales hardened, the shadows bouncing off him. They were scoring cuts, but nothing serious, in spite of Elaina's best efforts.

The fact that she couldn't deal a serious blow to the pokemon was starting to frustrate her. She focused her harmonia, directing it into Mukuro, commanding him to break through Weiss's hardened scales and knock him unconscious.

But right now, there wasn't much she could do. It didn't help that Mukuro's typing wasn't the best matchup for the Bug/Steel type Scizor, either.

It would be the smart choice to recall Mukuro and switch to a pokemon who stood a better chance of defeating the Scizor in a straight match.

But right now, Elaina wasn't concerned with that. She wanted to defeat Blake, and she wasn't thinking about anything else at the moment. The idea of switching Mukuro out refused to cross her mind, because to her, that would be tantamount to admitting her own weakness. So she focused her harmonia directing as much as she had into it.

And suddenly, she could see Weiss clearer than anything. She was looking through Mukuro's eyes, seeing him standing there, withstanding Mukuro's assault. There was no sense in continuing right now, though. She flapped her wings and separated from Weiss, putting some distance between the two of them.

She could see that Weiss was still waiting for her to strike. So that was Blake's game. He wasn't going to have his Scizor make a move to strike, he was just going to react to her moves, and counterattack. Elaina narrowed her eyes, that was fine with her.

If that's how it works… then we'll put everything we have into our attack, Elaina decided. She would show Blake that his Scizor wasn't enough to stop her! She had more than enough power up her sleeve, and she was going to use as much of it as we need to.

Right, Mukuro? She confirmed with her Decidueye, smiling slightly when she felt her partner respond positively.

"Than take it all!" She exclaimed, holding open her hands. She focused her harmonia, directing all of it towards Mukuro. Mukuro flapped his wings and shot towards Weiss, his body glowing with bright green light.

"Weiss, go," Blake ordered. As Mukuro approached, Weiss raised his pincers, and began swaying from side to side. Suddenly, multiple copies of Weiss spread out in a ring, surrounding Mukuro as he continued to fly towards where the original had been standing.

"Yeah, way to go, Blake!" Cynthia cheered. "The shadow clone jutsu!"

"Cynthia, it's just double team," Sango said, rolling her eyes. That being said, there was no denying that she was excited to see the move working. Stuff like that was a good way to defeat Elaina, force her to expend her energy on copies!

"Ridiculous!" Elaia shouted, raising her hand. Mukuro pulled up and the light around his body focused into his feathers, and he spun. Whipping his wing around at a speed faster than Blake would have thought possible under the trick room, a long leaf blade extended and pierced one of the copies, dispersing it immediately. As Mukuro turned, the leaf blade began slicing through the Scizor one after another, drawing closer and closer to the original copy.

"Weiss!" Blake shouted. "Watch out!"

But his words were seconds too late. Weiss had just barely enough time to raise his pincers to guard against the blade as it slammed into him, pushing him across the battlefield as the copies faded out of existence.

Weiss was knocked back, but he wasn't going to lose his balance. He narrowed his eyes and glared at Mukuro, letting his arms fall to his sides as he prepared for Mukuro to attack him again.

Mukuro ducked down and shot towards Weiss again, green light wrapping around him a second time. His speed had increased again, even though that shouldn't have been possible under the effects of trick room.

Maybe that's just a side-effect of harmonia, Blake guessed. Not even trick room is having an effect… are her powers going so out of control that she's even glitching up the moves… that's not good, it seems like she's losing control…

"Brave bird!" Elaina shouted, the light around Mukuro's body releasing in a massive burst of energy. She fell back, her body shaking. She had put everything she had into that strike, all her speed and power, and for a moment her harmonia had completely flickered out, and her connection with Mukuro snapped from the force of the blow. That had the benefit of protecting her from the aftereffects of Mukuro's brave bird, the recoil damage doing serious pain to her pokemon.

But they were in perfect agreement, if Mukuro could defeat the Scizor, nothing else mattered to the two of them.

And things were looking very good in that respect. Weiss didn't have time to dodge with a substitute, Mukuro was too fast for him. There was nothing he could do but endure the move, and try to stay standing.

It was a difficult task. The power of the blow nearly knocked him over, but he refused to let himself fall. He was reminded of when he fought against that Gallade. Another pokemon, lost to the madness of his trainer's harmonia. He had fought as hard as he could, but it hadn't been enough.

Weiss wasn't going to ever feel that weak and helpless ever again. Blake, his trainer, was working his hardest to reach the people important to him, and Weiss was the pokemon that he had to rely on in order to do it.

Weiss was going to win this, for his trainer's sake. He had to protect him!

Weiss pushed forward through the brave bird, ignoring the painful energy burning against his scales. He raised his pincers and lunged, his claws itching to strike the opposing pokemon.

It went unseen by everyone there. But as Weiss resolved himself to strike, the stone on the necklace Blake had received from Dokukage flashed for a second.

Weiss's pincer hit Mukuro in the face, the bird pokemon still reeling from the force of the recoil damage he had brought on himself from using brave bird. Normally Mukuro would have passed through a normal strike like that, but Weiss hadn't just punched, he had put everything he had into a bullet punch.

Mukuro was knocked backwards, pain surging through his face.

"Yes! Weiss is pushing him back!" Cynthia said.

"But he took a lot of damage from that attack," Julia reminded her. "Still, you're right. Between exhausting his energy with those repeated leaf storms, and the recoil damage of brave bird, Decidueye seems to be on its last legs."

"Mukuro!" Elaina shouted. "Shadow claw!"

Her harmonia sparked back up, and she reached out to her partner. Weiss raised his claw and prepared a night slash to finish off the Decidueye, who conjured a blade of shadows over his own wing. He flew towards Weiss and slashed at him, but once again, Weiss didn't allow the attack to connect. Unlike before, Mukuro's speed was at a normal level.

And that meant Weiss could rely on his training to dodge the stroke like before, raising his pincer and striking Mukuro in the gut as the bird pokemon passed.

Elaina doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as Mukuro crumpled and fell to the ground. She could feel her connection snapping, her beloved pokemon falling unconscious.

"Whoa… no way…" Sango whispered in shock. "Elaina… just lost her second pokemon."

"Yeah!" Cynthia cheered. "That's what I love to see! Blake's taken the lead! Against Elaina Bishop! Can you believe it?!"

She was overflowing with excitement. "Isn't this great? Ayame?"

Cynthia skipped over to Ayame and patted her on the shoulder. Ayame nodded absentmindedly in agreement. It was definitely good, but… she couldn't help but feel that this battle was far from over.

Is Ayame right? Elaina has only lost two pokemon, is the match really going to go that easily? No way, right? This thing is just getting started!