Before we can move onto the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, it's time for an intermission! What will we have to discuss? Competitors, judges, the audience, there are a few issues to iron out before we can get to the actual event! But it's going to be quite a show!

Aakareo Kokokuhikari: The error point-outs are still helpful! Thanks!

Sike thats the wrong number: Because I'm still updating it.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Thanks!

Hellraiserphoenix: Only the Beauty Competition is an actual Pokemon Contest, the other events are something else entirely.

KedharS: That would be quite something indeed.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 732

Sango was in the process figuring out what she was planning to do for her Pokemon Contest performance, when a knock on the door shook her out of her prep work. Confused, she stood up from the dressing room mirror and turned to the door. "Come in?" She asked.

The door opened, and the first person to burst through the door was Nikita, her eyes bright and shiny as she rushed over to Sango, surprising her.

"Sango! What the heck?!" Nikita gushed, grabbing her by the hands. "I can't believe you made it into the Miss Pokemon Academy semi-finals!"

"N-Nikita?" Sango gasped, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Nikita wasn't alone. Behind her came the rest of Sango's friends, most of them, anyway. Kitty and Julia were quick to follow, along with Reiner, Nick, and Callie. Maddi came in next, and Cynthia hung back in the doorway, a look of caution on her face.

"We came here to wish you good luck," Kitty said, smiling sweetly at Sango. "I-I think it's really cool that you're participating in this contest! Against girls like Olivia and Alcea… w-wow…" She turned bright red and averted her eyes. "I-I know that if it was me, I would probably be dying of embarrassment, so the fact that you're giving it your all is really amazing, at-at least that's what I think, anyway," Kitty said, laughing a little.

Sango smiled. Yeah, she really was trying her best.

"Well, I mean… I'm also a little nervous too," she admitted, glancing back at her reflection in the mirror. "After all, it's not like… it's not like I'm used to looking like this, you know?" She said. "I'm giving it my best, but…"

Sango shook her head, not quite ready to let her insecurity out to play with all of her friends. "Anyway, yeah, it wasn't my plan, but now here I am, and I'm going to give it my all!" She put on a confident smile, but felt no less sure of what was going to come.

"I'm still surprised that you would agree to join a contest like this at all though," Julia said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Wouldn't you usually be the type of person who would, I don't know, be more likely to get embarrassed by something like this?"

Sango flinched a little, her smile flickering. "Oh, you know how it is," she laughed. "Sometimes we just end up getting into situations we don't expect."

She shot Cynthia a look out of the corner of her eye. "I wonder who would be responsible for such a thing?" She mused quietly.

Cynthia's face went pale and she averted her eyes sheepishly. Sango's snide aside didn't have an impact on anyone else, who must not have noticed who she was calling out. Their attention was still focused on her.

In the meantime, Sango was scanning the crowd, and noticed that someone was missing. "Oh, Blake didn't come?" She asked, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"Nah, he said he had someone else he wanted to see," Reiner said, waving his hand dismissively. "Knowing him, I'd wager that he's off spending time congratulating his girlfriend on making it to the semi-finals herself."

Sango laughed. "Yeah, that's Blake alright, always giving Ayame his top priority!" She knew it wasn't appropriate for her to be upset that Blake had chosen to go visit his girlfriend instead of her, but she couldn't help how she felt.

"I still think it's kind of rude," Julia sniffed. "I mean, yeah, Ayame is doing her best, too, but I think Sango is in need of a lot more support. He should be more sensitive and come wish you the best with the rest of us!"

"No, no, that's okay!" Sango said, waving her hands frantically. "Blake wants Ayame to win! It makes total sense that he'd go encourage her, she's his girlfriend! Meanwhile I'm just his friend, so he would definitely want her to win over me!"

Realizing how pathetic that sounded, Sango quickly changed gears. "Besides," she added, "this competition is just for fun! We're not taking it that seriously, at least, I'm not! And knowing Ayame, she probably isn't, either!"

Well, Sango was taking it a LITTLE seriously. But not THAT seriously. The part she was taking seriously was how everyone saw her. She was going to do the best she could, but if she didn't win, what was the big deal?

"I think you should just give it your best." That bit of advice came from the source that no one would have expected, Maddi, who was sitting on one of the nice plush chairs in the dressing room and scanning through her phone. Everyone stared at her.

Maddi glanced up, a quizzical look on her face. "What? I think this is a stupid contest, but she clearly signed up for it because she wanted to do her best, so I say why bother worrying about anything? If she wants to take it easy, that's cool."

Sango was relieved that Maddi thought that way. "Yeah, you're right, thanks, Maddi. Like I said, Ayame and I probably aren't going to take things too seriously, it's just for fun." Once again, she decided not to correct her that Cynthia had been the one to sign her up for this contest as a little joke, much to Cynthia's relief. Sango didn't want to give Maddi another reason to hold a grudge against Cynthia, not when the two of them were finally somewhere that was friend-adjacent.

"I think that's a great idea," Callie said, nodding in agreement. "Ayame's pretty tough and cool, but you're right, she's probably feeling pretty lax."

Sango agreed. Knowing Ayame, Sango was certain that her athletic friend definitely felt the same. There was no point in getting so invested over something so trivial, right? Ayame was cool and confident, she wouldn't be getting nervous, especially not with Blake there to support her.

Ayame would be perfectly fine.

Ayame was anything but perfectly fine. She was crouching in front of the toilet, dry heaving in preparation for hurling her guts out.

This wasn't the first time Ayame had placed in the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, she'd done it before. But this was the first time she'd made it into the semifinals while having a boyfriend, and that made things a little more awkward than she would have liked.

Luckily, Blake had told her that he needed some space to deal with how he felt about what happened to Elaina. That had been perfect for her, since she hadn't wanted to tell Blake about what Olivia had planned, out of embarrassment. So she had been avoiding Blake for the last few days to keep him from seeing how red in the face she was.

Of course, she was used to having everyone's eyes on her from her many competitions, and this one was no different, even if she was supposed to be showing off her beauty instead of her athletic prowess. So she'd put on her best performance on the stage, but she knew that Blake was almost certainly in the audience, and was cheering her on with all of his heart.

You would think that knowing that would make her feel happy, knowing her boyfriend was out there cheering for her.

But it did not. It actually made her feel really embarrassed, knowing he was seeing her in "performance" mode. She'd barely gotten through the staging introduction without throwing up, hence the reason why she was dry-heaving right now.

Because even if she had made it through that, knowledge of what was coming next was only making her more uneasy and embarrassed.

It just had to be the Beauty Event. That was always the most embarrassing one, because Ayame was NOT good at Pokemon Contests. The other ones were relatively doable, even the Cuteness Event, but NOT the Beauty Event.

Urgh. There it was, another urge to throw up. She began puking into the toilet bowl, which was fortunately doing a great job of keeping her mind off of this whole mess. Ayame was used to it by this point.

Didn't mean it felt good, though.

If there was one thing she was grateful for, it was the fact that Blake hadn't come to check up on how she was doing. She had actually been expecting that he would spend the intermission checking in with her, even just to give her some words of encouragement, like what had happened with the Phantom Cup.

Ayame loved Blake, and she loved that he cared about her enough to check up on her and make sure she was doing her best. But she always got super nervous with tournaments like these, and spent most of them puking her guts out. And while Ayame may not have been like most girls, in this instance she certainly was. Most girls didn't want their boyfriends to see them getting sick all over themselves, and Ayame was no exception. So she had been dreading him coming to see her while she was in her pre-show jitters stage.

But fortunately, he was nowhere to be seen.

She was a little miffed, and also a little grateful. It was a strange state to be in, wondering where he was and being upset that he didn't come to see her, while also being relieved that he wouldn't see her in this condition.

Maybe he was with Sango? That girl definitely needed his support more than Ayame did, that was for sure. Ayame may be getting nervous, but Sango had never done anything like this before, and knowing how she often thought of herself appearance-wise, she would probably need Blake to give her encouragement more.

In the meantime, she was happy to just let things go as they were, and put up with the sickness that was overwhelming her. It took her mind off of wondering what had happened to her boyfriend, and what she was going to do for her performance.

Both Sango and Ayame assumed that Blake was off giving the other some encouraging support, checking in to make sure that they were okay.

But they were both wrong! So where was Blake in all this, where had he gone? He said he wanted to see someone, but if it wasn't his girlfriend or one of his best friends, who was it?

The person he was seeing was the person who he needed to talk to the most right now, and that wasn't one of the participants, it was one of the judges.

"Kanone."

Blake had tracked down his older brother through basic logic. At an intermission, Kanone would no-doubt be swarmed by the students who were his fans. To avoid this, he was certainly assigned a room to keep them away, so it was just a matter of finding where that room was. A quick text to Olivia, the person who had organized this contest in the first place, and he figured out where his older brother was hiding out.

And now it was time for a little family reunion.

"Well, hey there, Kanone~" Claire purred, twirling one of her pigtails as she batted her eyelashes at Blake's brother, slinking her way into his dressing room, much to Blake's annoyance and Kanone's amusement.

"Hey there, Blake," Kanone smiled, stepping aside and letting Blake into the room. "It's been a while. I see you've brought company, too."

"I tried to ditch her, but it's easier said than done," Blake dryly remarked. As much as he loved Claire, she was certainly an annoyance sometimes, even more so than Cynthia. Especially when it came to stuff like this. But it was a relief to have her here nonetheless, because his family drama had a tendency of turning…

Dramatic.

"So what can I help you with today?" Kanone asked, flashing one of his front-page smiles. "Or is this just a social call to check in on your big brother after he made such a long trip for the sake of one of your friends?"

Blake knew better than that. "Really, a social call?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

Kanone shrugged his shoulders and closed the door behind them, walking over and sitting down on the couch. "It's been known to happen. Besides, your big brother is getting lonely. You never call, you never write, it's always business business business."

"I'm busy," Blake said, narrowing his eyes. "And you are, too. I'm still trying to find Gwen, which seems like a lot more than what you're doing."

It was way over the line, but the contest was going to be getting back soon, so there was no time for the niceties.

Kanone's smile slipped away and his face darkened, his eyes narrowing into a glare. "You know damn well that I'm doing everything I can, Blake."

"Then why are you here?" Blake demanded, not about to just let his brother talk down to him like this. "Taking place in this stupid contest of all things? How is that helping, huh? Because it looks like you're just goofing off and not taking things seriously!"

"Hey!" Claire exclaimed from where she was lounging on a couch. "Some of us happen to be taking this contest very seriously, thank you very much!"

Blake ignored her. "Kanone, do you have any idea how hard I've been working trying to do what you asked me to? Kitty and Elaina, remember them?"

"Those two girls with harmonia?" Kanone asked. "Yes, the little one with the cat ears and the one wearing the mask who kept losing control."

"Well, guess what? They both completely went off the deep-end," Blake scowled. "And I had to be the one to bring them back, while you were off doing whatever the hell it was you were doing! Do you know what I had to go through for that? How hard it was? And you, you could have helped them yourself, but no, you just decided to push it all onto me. And now I have to be the one to save Gwen! Do you even care that I saw her in the Galar Region? Because it doesn't seem like you did. Or that my friends ran into her in Hoenn? Well?"

"I care," Kanone growled. "But right now, I'm here for a different reason. The whole world doesn't revolve around Guinevere, Blake."

"It does for me!" Blake exploded, slamming his fist against one of the tables so hard he swore he could hear the wood crack.

Blake panted, taking a moment to catch his breath. He straightened up and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"H-Hey, maybe we should just calm down for a little bit, okay?" Claire asked, getting up and stepping between the two brothers. She didn't like conflict, and while she knew that family was a sensitive subject for Blake, she didn't think that Kanone was actually in the wrong here, either. She knew how much both brothers cared for Gwen.

Kanone sighed, rubbing his temples. He stood up and walked over to his brother. Blake flinched, glaring cautiously up at him.

"Blake… you just don't understand," Kanone said, shaking his head. His expression softened. "I came here for your sake, after all."

Blake blinked. That hadn't been what he'd expected to hear. He looked suspiciously at his brother. "My sake? What do you mean by that?"

"Claire?" Kanone asked, glancing at the brunette and raising his eyebrow. "What's going on here, didn't you tell him?"

Claire gulped and averted her eyes.

"Uhum, um…"

"Claire?" Blake turned to look suspiciously at his friend. The guilty look on her flustered face, the way she wasn't meeting his eyes, and the sweat dotting her forehead, they were about as incriminating as it got. "Claire?!"

"H-Hey, come on now!" Claire said, waving her hands frantically and stepping back. "It-It's not what you think, really!"

"You didn't tell him I was coming?" Kanone asked, stunned.

"W-Well, he had a lot he was dealing with, what, with the whole Elaina Bishop thing, and I just thought, well…" She was desperately fishing for excuses but Blake was having none of it. He glared at her silently and stepped closer, causing her to shrink back.

"You knew?" Blake asked.

"W-Well…" She definitely knew, it was clear as day. "I… may have guessed? I-I didn't think he was actually going to come, I mean… I just said… well, I told him that… you maybe… had gotten a girlfriend, and she was participating in a contest at your school, and well…"

"I said I might drop by to see how things were going," Kanone offered. "I made it very clear that she should tell you that I might be paying you a visit."

Blake's glare darkened and Claire gulped.

"Well, it's what you get!" She pouted, crossing her arms under her chest and turning her head with a huff, her pigtails bouncing.

"What do you mean it's what I get?!" Blake exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how freaked out I was about the whole Elaina thing? And knowing Kanone would be coming, that would have seriously helped a ton! Are you mental?!"

"You didn't tell me you came back from that horrible hell-dimension place!" Claire wailed. "So I thought that it would be okay if I just let it be a surprise! Besides, it all worked out okay in the end! Come on, Blake, if Kanone had been there instead, do you really think that would have made a difference? Really?"

"Of course!" Blake cried. "Kanone knows so much more about harmonia than I do! He could have reached Elaina in ways I never could! Right now, she's still isolated and alone, but if Kanone had been there, then-"

"That's not true and you know it!" Claire snapped, her defensiveness and worry seemingly vanishing in the aether as her temper flared up. She pointed an accusatory finger at Blake. "You're just saying those things because you're the one who's scared and insecure, just like you accused Elaina of being, don't you dare deny it!"

Blake had no idea what she was talking about. "What?!" He exclaimed. "That's mental! Of course it would have helped. Kanone is-"

"Kanone knows more about harmonia, fine," Claire said, putting her hands on her hips and standing with a defiant glare. "But you're just using that as an excuse because you want to dodge responsibility. You may not like it, but you're still counting on your brother, right? That's why you got so mad at him just now, because you think he's the one who's going to save Gwen! And that he should have saved Elaina, and not you!"

"Well… he knows more, so-"

"So what?" Claire asked. "Remind me again, which brother was it that Gwen was so attached to? Which one was it that she would glare at me for playing with?"

"Err…" Okay, Claire had a bit of a point there. "But that still-"

"Kanone might know more about harmonia, Blake, but think about Elaina. Do you really think that he had a better chance of getting through to her than you did?"

Blake was about to answer, but then he remembered what had happened with Marion. Marion knew all about harmonia. But when she'd tried to help Elaina, Elaina had pushed her away all the same. Maybe… maybe it was because of him, after all?

"This is why I find you two so infuriating together," Claire sighed, slamming her palm against her forehead. "When Kanone's not around, you can act really brave and responsible, Blake! But whenever he shows up, you suddenly turn into a milksop who wants his big brother to solve all the problems for him. That's why I kept my mouth shut, because I knew that battle was important to you, and you wouldn't have given it your all if you could have just relied on Kanone instead. And if you hadn't given it your all, you absolutely would have lost, isn't that right?"

Blake couldn't deny one word out of her mouth. Claire was always annoying, but even more annoying when she was right.

Meanwhile, Kanone had been watching the exchange in silent contemplation. Sensing a lull in the conversation, he asked a question that had been nagging at him since Claire had let a certain detail slip from her lips.

"What's this about a hell dimension?" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

Whoops. Guess Blake's family wasn't told about the whole mess with the tablet. Well, with that awkward family drama resolved, it looks like there's some more coming soon. And what about the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, when will we be getting to the performance portion of that?