We continue to play the game of Pokemon Jeopardy! With the last shocking question, things are certainly going off the rails. How will the other questions fare? Any other stumpers awaiting our competitors? We'll have to find out!

KedharS: She's certainly leaping forward, that's a good girl!

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Points can definitely change, and there are a lot of categories and questions still left unanswered. Or, more accurately, answers left un-questioned.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Yup, you gotta love it.

Rus0804: Hello.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 739

The "Jigglypuff" question had left a sour taste in everyone's mouth, most of all Olivia. To think she was booted down into fifth place, of all places, and why? Because some stupid gag about a Jigglypuff looking round when seen from above? This was unacceptable!

Of course, even thinking that, she didn't begrudge Aya. Aya was just doing her best. No, her ire was reserved for Lukas, who had decided to include that ridiculous question in the first place. And even though she was smiling, she let him know full well with her eyes just what she thought of his little joke on her.

Lukas began to sweat. He could feel the intensity of the Empress's gaze on him, and knew that he was seriously in trouble. He swallowed, and pretended like everything was okay for the sake of the show. He knew that was what he had to do now, otherwise things would get very bad, very fast. "Okay! Ayame Toujou!" He said, a little too loudly. "As you currently have the board, what category do you want to go for next?"

Pokemon Battles, Pokemon Fashion, Pokemon Health, and Pokemon Species had been exhausted. The board was nearly half-finished, and it was Ayame's game.

She considered her options. Pokemon Moves still had the 4 and 5 questions up, and Pokemon Myths and Legends had only had the 1 category picked. The other four categories, The Pokemon World, Evolution, The Pokedex Says…, and Economics, were all fair game.

The issue was, Ayame wasn't exactly a quiz master. She knew some stuff, but she wasn't nearly well-versed in any of the remaining categories to be confident in her selection. So she chose what she figured would be the easiest one.

"I'll take 'Evolution' for 1 point," she declared, trying to pad her lead as best as she could to secure a higher ranking. She had no illusions about winning this competition, she wasn't knowledgeable enough. So she wanted to climb as high as she could before the other students began getting questions they could answer.

If one thing gave her the edge, it was her reflexes. She was confident that no one could slap that buzzer as fast as she could. So if she guessed all the remaining 1 categories and the questions were easy enough, then she could take the lead and respond before anyone could get an answer out. It was a risky plan, and not really one that would make a winning strategy, but for where Ayame was at in the game it was what she had to work with.

Lukas read the question.

"This pokemon is the only known pokemon to evolve as a result of the weather."

Ayame went blank. This was the EASY question? She had no fucking idea! She was expecting, like, a question about which form Eevee evolved into, not-

While Ayame was bemoaning her misstep, the buzzer sounded out, all eyes turning to see who had answered the question. It was Serefina, with a confident smile on her face.

"What is Sliggoo?" She asked.

"Correct!" Lukas said, nodding, Serefina earning herself another point.

"Wow!" Sango said, turning back to look at Serefina with a bright look in her eyes. "You got that?"

"Sliggoo evolves into Goodra if you train it enough while it's raining," Serefina said. "I should know, I have a Goodra, after all!" Darla nodded in agreement, her eyes flashing in admiration for Serefina's skills at raising a Dragon type.

"Whoa, you have a Goodra?" Sango asked excitedly. She realized that even though she spent a lot of time working with Serefina, she barely knew anything about the girl or her party. "Can I see it sometime?"

Serefina smiled sheepishly, scratching her head. "Sorry, Sango, she doesn't exactly play nice with others, so I'm not permitted to have other trainers look after her."

"Serefina, the board is yours," Lukas called. "What category are you choosing next?"

"Oh!" Serefina said, brightening up. "Hmm… well, I'll continue with Evolution for 2 points!" She declared, confidence swelling in her chest at the idea of making use of all her knowledge about pokemon evolution from her training as a breeder.

"Alright," Lukas nodded, "to evolve this pokemon, you must level it up while also holding it upside down!"

Sango's eyes bulged. No way was there a pokemon that evolved like-

Serefina slapped the buzzer again.

"What is Inkay?" She asked, and Lukas nodded, applauding. She smiled, her point total rising to 5. She turned to the other girls. "You see, last year a trainer was trying to evolve their Inkay and asked us to help! I had to go through some research notes to find the correct method."

Sango had never seen an Inkay before, but the thought a pokemon could evolve by holding it upside down was both hilarious and kind of creepy.

"Now then," Serefina said, turning her attention back to Lukas, "Evolution for 3 points!"

At this rate, Serefina would seize a commanding lead in no time!

"This sweet pokemon's flavor and form is determined by the type of sweet it's holding when it evolves and the method of mixing the sweet is blended with!" Lukas announced. Again, Sango thought that was the most out-there thing she'd ever heard. A pokemon that evolved with sweets? Mixing? Was this a pokemon or a cake?

Great, and now she was thinking about cake. And she hadn't eaten breakfast this morning so she could fit into her dress.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Serefina who snapped her hand on the buzzer this time. It was Lila, of all people.

"I know!" Lila exclaimed. "What is Alcremie?!"

"Correct!" Lukas said, amazed that Lila had once again gotten a question right. Lila swooned.

"Oh, I just adore Alcremie," she gushed. "So many flavors, they're all just so sweet and adorable I wish I could have all of them!"

"A pokemon that you evolve by baking?" Cynthia mused, intrigued by the possibility. "Dang, now I want one of those! With my culinary abilities, I could certainly raise a great one! I have to look into this now, dang it!"

Serefina wasn't upset that she'd missed the chance to answer the question and rise even higher, she was fine with it. It was just a game, after all. And now it was Lila's turn to play.

"Lila, pick one," Lukas said, turning to the girl. She may have gotten 3 points from the answer, but that still left her in last place.

"Hmmmm…" Lila said, stroking her chin and furrowing her brow like this was a difficult question. "Oh! I know! The Pokemon World for 1 point! That's gotta be an easy one, since it's just about, like, places and stuff! And I know all about shopping malls!"

Darla suppressed a smirk. Lila was playing her role as the ditzy blonde flawlessly.

Lukas nodded. "This Unova-based movie studio is known for creating short films starring pokemon and trainers!"

Olivia, of course, responded quicker than anyone. "What is Pokestar Studios?" She asked, shooting Alcea a look as the score was tied up. Alcea didn't let herself be goaded. Sango felt a little miffed, she had once again lost a question to Olivia. She knew Pokestar Studios, of course, she had even starred in one of their productions when she was a little kid.

Sometimes, it was scary how fast Olivia was with that buzzer. It was like she had something to prove.

"Our Empress seizes the board, what category do you want next?" Lukas asked, turning to Olivia. Olivia decided it was time to start taking things seriously.

"Economics for 3 points," she said, narrowing her eyes. People might look at Olivia and see another pretty face that the camera loved, but they tended to forget that there was a razor-sharp wit hiding beneath that smile, and a girl who could handle her business.

"Okay, this world-famous perfume brand was created by a scientist who diluted the odors of noxious pokemon like Koffing and Skuntank!" Lukas read.

It was the sort of question Olivia was born to answer. But as she slapped down her hand, she heard the sound of a buzzer beside her, and she turned hot with rage.

"What is Nomia Fragrance?" Alcea asked, ignoring Olivia's stares to look right at Lukas.

Kate held her hand over her mouth and began to tear up. Coming from Alcea, that meant more than anything. Her highness had never expressed an interest in Kate's family or her father's line of work before, but she knew it well enough to immediately respond when it came up.

She couldn't have been more touched if she tried.

Alcea held her head high as her score rose to take the lead with 13 points, and Olivia silently fumed. Now, the board was back under Alcea's control.

"The Pokemon World for 2 points," she declared.

Lukas nodded. "In this location, if one levels up their Eevee, they might find it evolving into a Glaceon!"

Gabrielle snatched up the buzzer before anyone could even blink. "Where is Ice Rock?"

"Correct!" Lukas declared, and Gabrielle moved up to 8 points.

"Evolution for 4 points," Gabrielle said. Lukas nodded, this next one was a bit of a stumper.

"Contrary to popular urban legend, this pokemon does not, in fact, evolve from Arbok!" Lukas declared.

Everyone looked at him with a blank stare.

"…Arbok doesn't evolve," Kate muttered under her breath.

A shaky hand rang the buzzer.

"Ayame, do you know the question?" Lukas asked, turning to Ayame. Her face was scarlet and she averted her eyes, muttering something under her breath.

Lukas walked over to the stands and leaned a little closer. "I'm sorry, but we have to hear the answer to the question a little louder or it doesn't count."

"Okay!" Ayame exclaimed, flustered. "What is Seviper?!"

"Wait, people think Seviper evolve from Arbok?" Sango asked. "Who's dumb enough to believe something like that?"

"Wait, they don't?" Lila asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Too much, Lila, reign it in a little," Darla murmured under her breath, rolling her eyes.

"Aya," Olivia said calmly, staring at Ayame and giving her a sweet smile that tried really, really hard to be free of judgment. "Is there something you'd like to say?"

"I was five, okay?!" Ayame sputtered. "And-And they were saying it on TV all the time, so I just assumed it was true!"

She sunk back in her seat, red in the face.

Lukas cleared his throat. "Ahem. Well, with that admission, Ayame rises back to the lead with 16 points! So, Ayame, what selection do you want next?"

Ayame considered her options. There were only two categories left with answers for "1" point, and she didn't know shit about Economics, so… "I'll take The Pokedex Says… for 1 point."

Lukas nodded, turning to the board and taking his spot in the center of the stage again. "Stories go that this pokemon grabs the hands of small children and drags them away to the afterlife. It dislikes heavy children," he read.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the stage. That… was dark.

Sango slapped the buzzer. She actually, believe it or not, knew the answer to this one. And she had her mom to thank for it.

"What is Drifloon?" She asked. Lukas nodded, his eyes shining.

"Correct!" Lukas laughed. "Yes, Drifloon are known for carrying away little children!"

No one else seemed to be as amused as he was. The Milotic Dome got real quiet.

Sango sighed in relief as she pulled her way up into third place with that question. As a Pokemon Ranger, her mom knew quite a lot about pokemon and what they were capable of, and often advised Sango on what pokemon were dangerous. And she'd especially said that Drifloon were dangerous pokemon. Sango wasn't afraid of ghosts anymore, but as a child she'd been terrified by the warnings her mother had given her about Drifloon coming to take her away, and she'd gone to sleep hugging Silver close and listening to the windows rattle the wind.

Sure, there weren't any Drifloon in Castelia City, but they could float on the wind! They could have been anywhere!

"Okay, next question!" Lukas said, turning to Sango. "What are you going to pick?"

It had been some time since Sango had gotten to choose, and she was honestly kind of stumped. She didn't know much about money, and The Pokemon World was a possible choice, but she wasn't as confident as she was young and hadn't done much traveling. Oooh, if only she had paid more attention to where her dad would tell her he was going!

"I'll keep going with The Pokedex Says… for 2 points," she decided. At least this was a category she thought she might have a decent shot at.

The next question confirmed her suspicions.

"This pokemon's body temperature is approximately 18,000 degrees F," Lukas declared. "Water is vaporized upon contact. If this pokemon is caught in the rain, the raindrops instantly turn into steam, cloaking the area in a thick fog."

"No fucking way," Ayame said, shaking her head in disbelief. She had forgotten all about the fact that she was onstage right now, and only expressing complete shock. "That's, like, twice as hot as the sun! No pokemon could be that hot or the world would fry!"

Sango knew it. Ayame was right on the money, and she not only knew which pokemon the entry was about, but also that it was bogus. One day after school she had come home in tears to her dad, terrified that the world was gonna burn up because her teacher had told her that Magcargo were so hot. Uboss had snapped and called up the school, cursing them out for filling his daughter's head with a bunch of "junk science" thought up "by ten year old kids with too much imagination."

She stopped going to her dad with her problems not long after that little incident.

But even though she knew the answer, she still wasn't fast enough. She slapped her hand down, but Serefina beat her to the punch. "What is Magcargo?" She asked.

"Correct!" Lukas nodded. Serefina smiled proudly as her score rose up to 7 points.

"We raise a lot of eggs, and Magcargo are one of the many pokemon we rely on for their body heat to do it," Serefina explained. She winked at the audience. "But don't worry, it's just a rumor, they aren't REALLY that hot."

The audience laughed. Then, Cynthia's voice shouted in an echo, "you're that hot!" and Serefina's face flushed.

She quickly cleared her throat. "Where were we? Oh, yes! Evolution for 5!" She said.

Lukas nodded, going to the last Evolution question. "These two pokemon are the only pokemon who evolve when being traded with one another."

Sango, again, had no idea.

But someone did.

Olivia slapped her hand down, smiling confidently. "What are Shelmet and Karrablast?" She asked, to the surprise of the audience. Lukas even seemed to be taken aback by that one, staring at Olivia in confusion.

"That's… correct," he mumbled, surprised.

Olivia shrugged. "Why so surprised? Karrablast evolve by stealing Shelmet's shells. It's a rather bold action to make such a, frankly, inept fashion statement, but it shouldn't be that surprising."

Lukas didn't really have a response for that, so he just said something vague and nodded, another category knocked out. The game was getting closer and closer to the end.

Olivia leaned back, smiling confidently. With that, she had 15 points now, having rocketed past Darla, Alcea, and Sango into a comfy second place.

"I'll go with Economics for 1 point next," Olivia decided, eager to knock out some easy ones. It was the last "1" on the board.

"In battles for money, this held item makes your pokemon naturally obtain more money after winning," Lukas read.

This time, to Sango's shock, she had finally, FINALLY managed to beat Olivia to the punch, slapping down the buzzer so fast and hard her hand stung.

"What is the amulet coin?" She asked, Olivia glancing next to her with a cold, piercing gaze even as she smiled. Sango didn't let herself get intimidated, however, she knew that she was right.

"Correct!" Lukas declared, and Sango's point total bumped up to 13. She was still in this! "Now, Sango, what's your next choice?"

Sango honestly wasn't sure. She carefully considered her choices before finally deciding that rather than continue with Economics, or try her hand at Pokemon Myths and Legends, she would stick with what was safe and familiar.

"The Pokedex Says… for 3 points," Sango declared, and immediately a buzzer went off and lights started flashing above her.

Lukas smirked.

"Congratulations, Sango! You've just triggered our daily double!" The words "daily double" flashed up on the screen as Lukas applauded. "Now, it's make it or break it time! You can select any number of points to wager on this next question, and if you get it right, we'll give you that many! But if you get it wrong, then they'll be gone! So what are you gonna do?!"

Sango froze. That… was not what she had expected. She had gone into this question thinking that she might get 3 points, but hearing that she could bet it all? And lose? No that was way too risky, she couldn't do something like that, not when she didn't even know what the question was. She was about to say she would just bet the three points and be done with it, but before the words could come out she paused, and considered her situation.

She was on the stage, with all eyes turned to her. She wasn't particularly invested in this contest, it wasn't like she expected to win. But… a bunch of the Ranger Course was watching her right now, and had faith in her. Could she really look them in the eye if she just took the safe route and didn't risk it all?"

Sango grit her teeth. No, no she couldn't. She was gonna give it everything she had, she wasn't going to meekly take the easy path! If she was gonna fight, she was gonna fight! That's what Marion, Blake, Cynthia, and Ayame would do, and she wasn't going to back down!

"I'll bet all my points!" She declared confidently, the audience stunned into shock.

"Woooooo! Thatta girl!" Ayame cheered, applauding Sango, who turned to look back at her with surprise. Ayame winked and gave her a thumbs' up, which relieved Sango slightly. Sure she made the correct decision, she turned back to Lukas, who was staring at her in surprise.

"You're sure?" He asked. She nodded.

"Absolutely."

Lukas shrugged. "Okay then! And our daily double answer is… 'This pokemon's droppings are hot, so people used to put them in their clothes to keep themselves warm!"

The stadium went silent.

"Seriously?" Olivia said, holding her nose in disgust. "That's repulsive!"

"Eeewww!" Lila groaned, waving her hands frantically like some of those droppings were clinging to her already. "That is soooooo gross!"

Serefina was nonplussed. As a breeder, she'd seen far worse.

But none of them were on the spot like Sango was. All eyes turned to her. Did she know who's that pokemon?

Sango stood still as the grave. Her face got progressively redder and redder and her eyes began to tear up. She did know. It was mentioned in the survival guides that were mandatory work for her Probationary Ranger exam. And yes, it was disgusting. But she knew.

But… could she really just give the answer? Let everyone in the Milotic Dome, which was most of the student body, know that she knew which pokemon's leavings could be used to warm yourself up? That… That seemed like a fate worse than death. Social suicide that she would never recover from.

She could just say she didn't know, forfeit her points, and go on with her life. But her pride… she bit her tongue, and managed to spit it out.

"What… what is… Darumaka?" She asked, feeling like she was about to cry.

"C-Correct," Lukas said, dumbfounded. "And with that, Sango rockets all the way up to 26 points, and takes a commanding lead of the game!"

Sango fell back in her seat, deflating. She had taken first place. But at what cost?

Jokes aside, Sango is exactly the kind of girl who would use Darumaka droppings for warmth if she needed to. Practicality first, that's my girl.