With the Cuteness Competition coming to a close, it's time to tally up the points. Who had the cutest performance? What are the scores now? And what competition is next, the Coolness Competition or the Toughness Competition? And what will those competitions entail, I wonder? We'll have to find out!

Pokemonking0924: Well, we'll have to see what the competitions are all about! We'll be getting one of them this chapter!

KedharS: Definitely, all the girls are cute in their own way.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Interesting ranking.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 747

Sango had watched the performances from the television in her dressing room, so she knew how good everyone else had done. Because of this, she didn't expect to do exceptionally well, everyone else's performances seemed so much better than hers. But even if that was the case, she would hold her head high and be proud of what she'd accomplished.

"Now!" Lukas called through the screen, gesturing to the large overhead monitor. "Now, we'll see just what our judges think of our young ladies' performances! Who was the cutest one there? Let's check the results!"

The monitor flashed and revealed the ranks. First, it displayed how many points each girl had gotten from this competition.

Ayame: 10 points

Serefina: 8 ponts

Darla: 6 points

Lila: 6 points

Sango: 5 points

Gabrielle: 4 points

Olivia: 2 points

Alcea: 1 point

"What?!" Kate exclaimed in disbelief, leaping out of her chair. "How?! How is this possible?! There's no way her highness could have come in last in that competition, no way at all!"

"I guess Alcea's performance was just seen as more elegant and beautiful than 'cute'," Cynthia said. She wasn't about to say that it was a little boring. She knew it was something quite well-done, and that for someone who respected such beautiful things it was surely an exceptional display. Even a philistine like Cynthia could see that. But at the same time, it wasn't the sort of performance that appealed to Cynthia's personal tastes. And apparently, the judges agreed.

Kate levied a glare Cynthia's way that was filled with so much loathing it would have made Valerie beam with pride. Cynthia shrugged, she was too astounded by the performances she'd seen to bother with Kate's bad mood.

After displaying the points that the girls had gotten, the screen then shifted to show the changes to the overall point totals for the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest.

Ayame: 24 points

Darla: 24 points

Olivia: 24 points

Alcea: 23 points

Sango: 20 points

Lila: 15 points

Serefina: 15 points

Gabrielle: 12 points

"What a shakeup!" Lukas cried. "We've had a major shift in the point totals now, and our two-way tie for first between Olivia and Alcea has now become a three-way tie for first between Ayame, Darla, and Olivia! But Alcea's close on her heels, it looks like it's still anybody's game!"

Lukas was playing it up, but it was pretty clear he was full of shit. Yes, technically anyone could still win, but it was pretty clear that there were certain people who had a better chance than others. Sango, for example, could still feasibly win, but Gabrielle? The girls in first place had twice as many points as she did, for her to win would take a major miracle.

So yes, it was still possible. It was just a question of probabilities. And the probabilities made it clear that Gabrielle's chances to win were slim to none, and that Serefina and Lila were in the same boat themselves.

But Lukas wasn't about to let things like numbers bring the excited vibe down. Instead, he turned his attention to the main screen again, and moved onto the next category. "Now, the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest is rising to a climax!" He called. "Our young ladies have been giving it their all, and there are only two competitions left! The Coolness Competition, and the Toughness Competition! Which one will come next? Which ones will our girls win? Let's find out!"

The wheel reappeared on the screen, but now it looked rather comical. Three of the five sections were blacked out, leaving only the yellow and red sections still it up. Lukas cleared his throat and took out his phone, typing in something quickly. The screen fritzed for a second and then the wheel changed as well.

Now, it was split in half. One half red, one half yellow. It was down to a flip of the coin, and the wheel spun, landing on the red half.

"So it looks like the next round will be the Coolness Competition!" Lukas said. "And the Coolness Competition is quite a special one indeed!" His smile took on a mischievous gleam that made Sango worried to see.

Lukas turned to the judges. "For this competition, our judges are going to play a special role. They'll be determining the winners! The winners of what, you might ask? Why, that's very simple of course, a very special sort of competition!"

Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Get on with it!" She shouted. She could recognize someone trying to stall when she heard them. Screw building suspense, this contest had been going on for hours and she wanted to fast forward through the boring parts.

Lukas shot a dirty look in her general vicinity, not quite sure where the jeer had come from but not really caring. What was important was setting the stage for this contest, and he had the perfect idea in mind about how to do that.

"The Coolness Competition… is a test of our lady's coolness," Lukas said, not explaining a damn thing. At this point he was drawing it out mostly out of spite. "And the best way to do that… is with a pokemon battle."

The crowd fell silent, taking that all in.

"What?" Someone asked, not sure if they had heard right.

Sango stared numbly at the screen, her eyes bulging out in shock. A pokemon battle?! What? Since when was this some sort of tournament, like the Phantom Cup? Just when she thought there was a chance that maybe she could win, she was doomed to failure right from the start.

Mostly, the audience was confused. Even Cynthia was confused. But Kate was too happy to be confused. She pumped her fists up triumphantly in the air, and cheered "yes!" She was ecstatic that this would be a pokemon battle, because pokemon battles were Alcea's specialty.

"Her highness is certain to win!" Kate boasted, holding her hand over her chest. "No one can hope to match her in terms of battles, she's the strongest girl in the school!"

Cynthia admitted that Kate definitely had a point. This seemed like a pretty easy sweep for Alcea. But at the same time, she couldn't help but worry about Sango. Was Sango going to be using Silver as her pokemon? She only had one, after all.

"Now, I'm sure that you're wondering how this is going to work," Lukas said. He walked to the side as the stage shifted, the floor parting to reveal a makeshift battle stadium. "But let me assure you that we aren't going to get into some major pokemon tournament or anything like that. We don't have the time. And speaking of time…"

He turned his attention up to the screen, which turned black, save for a large countdown displaying "5:00" to everyone.

"These battles will be speed battles," he explained. "Each person will only be allowed one pokemon. And that one pokemon will be their pokemon of choice through the entire competition. With their pokemon, they will fight for five minutes. When one of the pokemon faints or the five minute timer is up, the battle is over!"

"Wait, but what happens if the five minutes are up and neither pokemon faints?" Cynthia asked, not sure how that worked. She liked the idea of speed battles, but she thought that there were a lot of holes in the idea.

"Now, I'm sure someone of you might be wondering what will happen if the timer hits zero, and neither pokemon faints," Lukas said, preparing to answer Cynthia's question even though he hadn't heard it. "As I said before, our judges will be playing a special role in this competition! While these speed battles are happening, they'll be assessing the girls and their pokemon in terms of which pokemon had a cooler performance!"

Cynthia blinked in surprise, her jaw dropping. "That… seems arbitrary," she said, confused. What exactly entailed a "cooler" performance?

"So that's why those three are the judges," Maddi quietly noted.

"Huh?" Cynthia asked, turning to look at her friend. "What do you mean?"

"Akira, Ian, and Kanone Harker are all notable pokemon trainers," Maddi explained. "Kanone goes without saying, while Akira and Ian are some of the strongest battlers in their years. This is why those three were chosen specifically instead of just any random guy. Anyone can be an adequate judge of Beauty or Cuteness, but when it comes to pokemon battles, you need experts."

"So when he says coolness, he probably means that they'll be determining which pokemon should win based on how awesome their fight was?" Cynthia clarified. It was starting to make sense to her now. "Yeah, I kinda get it."

"It should be interesting," Maddi mused. "But there's still a problem. Sango."

"What's the big deal?" Kate snorted. "You heard that guy, they're only going to be using one pokemon. Sango has one pokemon, so no problem. Besides, it's not like she'd have a chance against her highness anyway."

Cynthia ignored Kate. "Yeah… Sango has Silver, but there's no way she's going to use him for a fight," she agreed. "She cares about his safety way too much. He hasn't even been trained to fight, either, there's not much she can do about that…"

It was quite a problem. Sango would either enter Silver and immediately lose, or not enter Silver and thus be ineligible.

"I helped her get better at battling, but without any pokemon there's not a whole lot she can do about it," Maddi sighed.

"I mean, you could just loan her some pokemon again, right?" Cynthia suggested. "That would be fine, probably."

"I would," Maddi said, "but I left my pokeballs back in my room."

"What?!" Cynthia exclaimed. "Why!? Now what are we going to do?!"

Maddi scowled at her. "I didn't even really care about this whole thing in the first place," she muttered. "How was I supposed to know I should bring my pokeballs? And what about you? You're a pokemon trainer, maybe give her one."

Cynthia blushed. "W-Well, uh… I also… didn't bring any of my pokemon…"

Maddi rolled her eyes. "There, see?"

"B-But I didn't think that I'd need to!" Cynthia sputtered.

"Exactly, and neither did I," Maddi scoffed.

So in summary, after taking a quick poll, it became clear that no one had pokemon to help Sango out. Cynthia sighed and slumped down in her seat. This wasn't going to go well.

Lukas waited for all the grumbles and gasps of confusion to settle down a little. When he sensed a lull in the conversation he cleared his throat loudly.

"Now, as I was saying, our judges will determine the winner in the instance that five minutes aren't enough for a decisive victory," Lukas explained. "You don't need to worry too much about what makes a 'cool' performance! Our girls will have their pokemon fight the best that they can in order to win, and that should be more than cool enough! Now, let's look at how we'll set up our brackets!"

Luka was just going along like the idea that the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest coming down to a pokemon battle was a totally normal thing. A few people had some problems with it, but now that Cynthia had gotten a chance to sit with it, it made sense.

From the beginning, this hadn't been some ordinary beauty pageant, and honestly, it probably shouldn't be.

After all, this was the Miss Pokemon Academy Contest, a contest to determine who deserved the title of Miss Pokemon Academy. And the Pokemon Academy was about a lot more than just pokemon contests, being cute, smart, and beautiful. Pokemon Battles were a major part of it, too, and whoever was "Miss Pokemon Academy" should at least be skilled enough to do well in pokemon battles along with all the other things.

So while some of the students were confused, Cynthia wasn't.

"Hey, guys, what's up? What did I miss?" Blake asked, pushing through the crowd and returning to his seat. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised.

"Oh, Blake, you're back!" Claire said, surprised. That surprise lasted for about a second before twisting into a coy smirk. "So, how was your alone time with Ayame? After that steamy little show you two put on, I bet you got right to work disciplining your little maid, didn't you?"

Blake leveled a glare at his friend. "Shut up, Claire, this isn't the time for stuff like that. We didn't do anything."

"Oh, I get you," Claire nodded in "understanding" of what Blake was saying. "You're saving it for later, that's cool."

Blake rolled his eyes.

"The next competition is going to be pokemon battles," Kitty explained to Blake, desperate to change the subject.

Cynthia felt the same way. Discussions about Blake's sex life were fun when she was in the mood, but at the same time they were a little painful for her, too. This was going to be a lot more interesting, and besides, she was excited to see some pokemon battles! This contest had been great so far, and it was only going to get better!

"To set up our brackets," Lukas explained, "we took a look at the rankings of our ladies, from first to last. And then we cut that list in half! So it looks like this."

Lukas gestured at the screen, which shifted to show just pictures of each of the girls, taken from their profiles, along with their points. Then, Sango, Lila, Serefina, and Gabrielle were all shifted to the side, sliding up to make two columns of four.

"And from there it becomes simple," he grinned. "Our brackets are…"

The screen shifted again. Each row moved down into their own slot below a small bracket, revealing the matches.

"Our first match! Ayame Toujou vs. Sango Akana!" Lukas explained. "Then, following that match, we have Darla Drake vs. Lila Seelie, then Olivia Himeko vs. Serefina Kafefusa, and finally Alcea Vermeil vs. Gabrielle Breaux!"

"Well, those are some matches," Blake said, raising his eyebrow in surprise.

"Her highness is fighting against Gabrielle?" Kate said, surprised. She smirked. "It should be an easy victory for her highness!"

Kate was the only one thinking about Alcea right now. The issue everyone else was concerned about was Sango, and what she was going to end up doing. It was definitely not a situation that she was used to fighting in, that was for sure.

Sango herself stared at the screen in shock.

A pokemon battle. She was going to have to fight in a pokemon battle.

Sango turned to Silver, her Castform looking back at her with an innocent smile on her face. She grit her teeth and shook her head. Nope, this was absolutely not going to happen. She wasn't going to have Silver get involved in this fight.

The problem was, without Silver, there wasn't anything she could do. It's not like she had any pokemon that she could battle with, which meant that she couldn't participate in this competition. She sighed, and slumped down into her couch.

Then, someone gave her a bit of saving grace.

"Excuse me," Kanone said, raising his hand. Lukas turned back to look at him, surprised. He hadn't expected the judge to have anything to say right now.

"Oh? Yes, do you have a question?" Lukas asked.

"Yes, if I understand this right, you're saying that our lovely young competitors will be taking part in a series of pokemon battles, yes?" Kanone asked.

"That's right," Lukas said, nodding. "They'll each choose one of their pokemon to battle against the other competitors."

Kanone nodded thoughtfully. "I see, thank you for clarifying. But there's still something that I'm confused about."

"Oh? What's confusing?" Lukas asked, feeling a little confused himself.

"Well, looking at these young ladies and I can see that several of them are more than suited for battling. And even those who aren't accustomed to it, most of them have pokemon that are, at least, competent enough at pokemon battles to put up a decent fight," Kanone explained. "But… what if a trainer doesn't have a pokemon capable of fighting?"

Lukas didn't know what to make of that question. "W-Well, I mean, even people like the Empress who aren't the biggest fan of pokemon battles, they'll still be expected to-"

"What I mean is," Kanone interrupted him, "suppose one of those girls had a pokemon who wasn't at all suited for battles. That would put her at quite an unfair disadvantage, wouldn't you agree?"

Sango gasped, sitting up in her seat and staring intently at the screen. Yeah! Exactly, she and Silver could never take part in a pokemon battle, that just wasn't possible! It felt like Kanone was talking specifically to her.

Lukas was taken aback. "W-Well, I didn't… we haven't really planned for that contingency, so I don't really know what to say," he admitted sheepishly. He tried to push through it with a smile, but it was clear he hadn't been expecting Kanone to ask a question like that.

Kanone laughed. "Good, good, but back to my point. Now, it may not be entirely clear to you, but I have a bit of an affinity for pokemon, and I can tell when a pokemon is suited for fighting and when they are not. And I'm sorry to say, but some of our competitors do not have pokemon that would make for a fair fight. So I was merely asking if we could do something to help support them? Make the rules a little bit more fair and balanced?"

Lukas blanched. "W-Well, I guess… that sounds fair? What did you have in mind?"

Kanone shrugged. "The way I've heard it, for pokemon tournaments, this school has a rental system, yes? Where trainers can use their own pokemon, or rent some from someone else? Could that be acceptable? If one of the girls doesn't feel comfortable using her own pokemon, she can just borrow someone else's!"

Lukas considered that. "W-Well… I guess… that would be okay?" He said, a little relieved that Kanone wasn't proposing something drastic, like completely changing the Coolness Competition.

"Yeah, that's great!" Cynthia cheered. "Now Sango can fight, too! She just needs to use a rental pokemon!"

"…We already thought of that, remember?" Maddi reminded Cynthia. "None of us have any pokemon to loan her, so where's she gonna get one?"

Cynthia sat back down in her seat, a sheepish look crossing her face. "O-Oh," she stammered, looking down and blushing. "I didn't think of that."

Indeed, that was certainly a problem. But unlike her friends, Sango wasn't worrying about that problem right now. She was more focused on the fact that thankfully, she at least wouldn't have to worry about choosing between using Silver and being disqualified from the competition.

The Coolness Competition is next! And we're going back to this story's roots, with a quick pokemon battle! This is going to be quite an interesting exchange, how will things work out for our girls? Who will emerge the victor?