This chapter, we draw an end to our time at the Pokemon Academy for quite a while. Everyone is preparing for their departure, and saying their goodbyes. The trip will certainly be an exciting one, and it's going to be long, too! So we're going to have to be prepared, this is gonna be a long haul!

KedharS: I like the chapters when I can explore Cynthia's vulnerable side. Without it, she'd basically just be a pervert.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 821

Akira took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

He hated coming here.

He had preparations to make. His flight to Cerulean City would be taking off in a few hours and he needed to get back. A five hour flight with Sylvia fucking Driscoll. Needless to say, it wasn't something he was looking forward to.

But before he could go to Cerulean, there was one last thing he needed to take care of, someone else he needed to see first.

"Hey girl," Akira winced, walking into Dakota's hospital room.

Since her admission nearly a month ago there had been no change in her condition. She was lying in bed with her eyes closed. She was as lovely as a doll and just as still. Her face was rosy, and it looked like she was just sleeping.

At a glance, one might mistake that for being the case. The doctor said that he couldn't see anything wrong with her. He had been baffled, everyone had been. Dakota's brain damage had been fully healed, with no explanation. He said that in her present condition, it wouldn't be surprising if she woke up at any time.

But she wasn't waking up. She was still asleep, hooked up to a machine that monitored her brainwave activity. It was beeping out a metronome, showing no changes. Under better circumstances, Akira made have made a joke that minimal brain activity was nothing new for Dakota. But right now, he didn't feel like laughing.

He walked to her side and sat next to her. As much as he hated coming to visit her, seeing her in this condition, he couldn't deny that he still felt warmed by her presence even so.

There was a strand of hair out of place, falling across her eye. This wasn't new, Dakota's hair was nearly impossible to keep under control. Akira reached up and brushed it over her brow. He still came here to take care of her whenever he could.

As his finger grazed her lip, he was certain he'd heard her sigh. But that didn't mean anything. It was just a physiological response, an evacuation of air in her lungs. There weren't any changes in her brain scanner.

"Hey, sorry to tell you this… but I think I'm going to miss your birthday after all," Akira apologized. He didn't know if she could hear him in her present state, but being around her like this, telling her things and talking about how he was doing, it made him feel better. It made him feel like she wasn't really gone.

"I know you're probably going to give me crap when you wake up, so I thought I should get my apologies out of the way now. Since I'm going to be leaving and won't be seeing you for a while. I just wanted to say… it's okay if you get mad at me. It's my fault, after all… so you can chew me out as much as you want, curse me, whatever. I'll be fine with it."

Akira tried to keep smiling. But tears kept rolling down his cheeks to spite him. "Just… just come back, Dakota, just wake up, and you can yell at me as much as you want…"

He'd plead to her to wake up so many times now. And it was always the same, no change to her condition. But this wasn't the usual visit he made to her bedside. There was something else he needed to tell her.

"There's… something else I need to apologize to you for, too," he confessed. Something that had filled him with guilt since Sylvia told him the truth about Professor Decker last week. "When I used the µ Gene to save you… I thought that it was the only way. It was the only way. And I told myself that it was okay if something bad happened, because there couldn't be anything worse than losing you. And really… I didn't think that anything was going to happen. I didn't think that anything would go wrong… No. No, that's not it. I wasn't thinking at all. I was just… desperate. And now you're like this, and I… I just want you to wake up."

Akira honestly had no idea what Professor Decker was planning. Sylvia had pretty much stated that he shouldn't have trusted the old man, and that there was more to the µ Gene than he knew, but she hadn't given him any specifics. She said the answers were in Kanto, but that wouldn't be of any comfort to Dakota.

No, what was he thinking?

Nothing he said would be any comfort to Dakota anyway. She was unconscious. He could have told her that the µ Gene was the perfect cure and it would do the same amount of good.

But either way, he wasn't going to lie to her. He was going to let her know the truth.

"I don't know if there's a way I can wake you up," he apologized. "But no matter what happens… I'm going to keep looking. The answers to what happened to you… the secrets of Professor Decker, the µ Gene, and Project ADAM… they're in Kanto. And I'm going to work with Sylvia to try and uncover the truth."

He knew that if Dakota was awake she'd probably have something to say about that. Her animosity towards Sylvia wasn't exactly a national secret. But that didn't matter. Even though he didn't trust Sylvia either, he needed to rely on her anyway.

"…So yeah. I hope that there's some way to help you. I'm going to try my hardest, and if I succeed… I hope to see you smile again someday, Dakota," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes. He'd said what he needed to say, and staying here any longer would only be more painful for him. He rose from his seat.

"So… see you…" he murmured, leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. "I love you."

He kept wiping away the tears, and left the room.

But because Akira was in no shape to look at her right now, he didn't see the machine show a slight blip in brain activity as he left. Or the twitch of Dakota's finger.

Meanwhile, back at the Pokemon Academy, the day was rather hectic. The luggage had already been loaded at the airport, and people were packing onto the boats headed to mainland to catch the flights to their various destinations. A large portion of students would be shipping out, and that meant there was practically no order at all.

But at the Commander's quarters, things were as orderly as ever under Vic's harsh scrutiny.

"Our flight leaves in six hours," she barked. "Have you all got your carry-ons packed? It's a tight schedule, we'll be heading to the ferry in half an hour."

Everyone was in various states of excitement. Tommy was looking forward to the trip, but Vic's attitude was putting him in a bad mood. Maddi's mood wasn't much better. She didn't really care much about the Orre Region, this was all one big inconvenience to her. But at least she wasn't grumbling about it under her breath.

Mason was reading as usual. The dark-haired boy was the least social out of the Commander's inner circle, and for a group that contained Maddi, that was saying something.

The two people who were really excited about this trip were Ross and Keya. Keya especially, the childish boy was excited to visit Agate Village. He knew that Vic's mother was a harmonia user like he was, and wanted the chance to talk to her. And Ross was just excited to see the place where they would be creating the Battle Frontier.

"Now now, Vic, no need to be so harsh on them," Alden laughed, walking into the meeting room. "We should all take inspiration from Keya and be excited about this trip! It's our last trip as seniors, after all, we should make the most of it!"

He glanced at Maddi.

"…Well, for some of us, anyway."

Maddi shrugged. She didn't really care about any special consideration. What was more important to her was the fact that she'd be in the desert, which wasn't somewhere she wanted to be. She justified her poor mood with that excuse.

The truth was, she was actually going to miss her friends. Sango was the friend she was going to miss the most, but whether she would admit it or not, she was even feeling like she was going to miss Cynthia of all people.

Even if it was just a little bit.

"Commander!" Vic visibly brightened seeing Alden walk in, and then her expression turned sour when she saw that he wasn't alone. There was a girl standing next to him. "…Wait, who is that? I don't remember authorizing anyone to join these meetings."

"Thank you for mentioning that," Alden smiled. He stepped aside, practically shoving the cute girl into the spotlight. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to someone who will be joining us on our trip to the Orre Region. She's quite smart, and I'm sure she'll be a valuable asset not just to our organization, but to the future of the Battle Frontier! So without further ado, this is Chloe Rosenberg!"

The girl, Chloe, waved awkwardly at them. "Hi," she shyly greeted everybody. She wasn't a fan of being put on the spot like this.

Meanwhile, Vic seethed.

Vic might not have had such a big problem with the girl if not for the fact that she was very pretty. She had petite features and a sweet face, just the opposite of herself. While both girls had midnight-colored hair, Vic's was cut sensibly short with a sharp edge, while the other girl wore hers down to the middle of her back. The sides were tied up with rose clips into pigtails that reached her shoulders, and seemed to shimmer brightly.

But as beautiful as she was, she wasn't flawless. A scar shaped like a sideways "V" crossed over her right eye, which was covered with an eye-patch in the shape of a dark blue rose, her bangs covering the top portion of it. Her other eye was as blue as the sky.

The smile she wore was bright and sunny… for about a second. Then she quickly ducked behind the Commander.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Alden laughed. "It's okay! Vic just looks mean, she won't bite!"

Vic wasn't so sure about that. She didn't know who this girl was, but she definitely didn't like trusting strangers. This was supposed to be a private meeting… who was this girl, and why was the Commander bringing her in at the eleventh hour?

That's when Vic noticed what she was wearing. It was just a normal school uniform, but what was most important was her armband. It showed that she was a junior, which meant that she was coming with them on the trip, but what Vic cared about was the color.

It was bright gold.

"What's she doing here?!" Vic practically shouted, immediately reaching for the pokeballs on her waist. "She's in the Research Course!"

"Y-Yeep!" The girl gasped.

"Hey, what's the matter with that?" Alden laughed. "So what if she's in the Research Course? She's going to be coming with us on the trip!"

Vic couldn't believe what she was hearing. She trusted the Commander's judgment with anything, but didn't he see how dangerous this was?

"The Research Course is controlled by the Phantom!" She exclaimed. "That means we can't trust anyone in that group!"

"Hey, come on now, you know it's not like that," Alden said. "Just because the Phantom controls the clubs and school groups that are in the Research Course and most of the students in the Research Course are allied with him, that doesn't mean Chloe here is a threat or a danger! Just take it easy, she's a nice girl once you get to know her."

Vic's distrust of the girl might have been because she was a member of the Research Course, but her distaste with her was simply because she was a girl working closely with the Commander. That was enough to guarantee that Vic wanted nothing to do with her.

But at the same time, her hands were tied. She wanted to speak out in criticism against the Commander's decision to invite this girl into their inner circle, but that wasn't her place. She was meant to follow the Commander's orders, and she'd already pushed the envelope quite a bit with respect to that.

So the only thing she could do was suck it up and try to gently bring up the issue. "Commander… are you sure that we can trust her?" She asked, trying not to sound too forceful in case she ended up upsetting him.

Alden wasn't bothered by the question. He'd expected Vic to be a hard sell. She was always distrustful when he brought someone new in.

Of course, he completely failed to realize that her distrust and suspicion was because the last few people that he invited into the organization were girls, like Maddi and Cynthia and now Chloe, or in the case of Anabel, someone who spoke to him on a deeper level (and wasn't that bad looking theirself, either.)

So yeah, he completely missed the point. But that wasn't important.

"Vic, it's as simple as this. Even though she's a member of the Research Course, I could tell right away that we needed to have her join us. My 'Sense' was screaming the minute I laid my eyes on her, and that's enough!" Alden declared, bringing an end to the topic.

There wasn't anything left for Vic to say. Alden had made his decision, and she would abide by it. But she would be keeping a close watch on this Chloe Rosenberg… if the girl turned out to be a spy, then there would be no mercy for her.

"Uhum, um…" Chloe looked around awkwardly. She hadn't gotten the chance to finish making her introduction, and the mood was really uncomfortable. She hadn't been sure when the Commander had said he planned to introduce her to his inner circle, and had practically begged him to let her meet them one by one.

But just like how Vic couldn't reason with the Commander when he set his mind to something, neither could she.

And thus she found herself unable to oppose such a strong-willed person when he insisted that introductions would go smoother if she just greeted them all at once.

Of course, the better thing to do would have been to have met them all before the trip, of course. But the Commander had just come across her the other day, and wasn't exactly the "planning" type. It didn't matter how inconvenient that made things for her, of course, not at all!

So now she was surrounded by strangers, most of whom were older than her, and were looking at her with suspicion.

"It… It's very nice to meet all of you!" She said, lowering her head in a frantic bow. She would have to spend this trip getting to know them better.

Needless to say, she wasn't happy about suddenly being thrust into a situation like this just because the Commander was appreciative of her talents. She had to hope that everything would turn out okay, or this would be really awkward.

"Now then!" Alden said, clapping his hands and drawing everyone's attention. "Since we've got introductions out of the way, it's almost time for our ferry to leave! We'd best make sure our bags are packed, right Vic?"

"R-Right," Vic said, relieved that the Commander didn't hold her prior objections against her. "Let's get a move on, everyone."

Chloe was starting to panic again. This was all going so fast! And now people were going to be seeing her traveling through campus with the Commander's inner circle? It was unthinkable! She frantically dug through her bag, finding her medical mask. She slipped it over her face and sighed with relief. Now no one would recognize her.

She was short, too. If she clung to the shadows and kept her head low, maybe no one would recognize her.

While the Commander's group was preparing to leave, another group was already saying their goodbyes and setting off.

The Empress was standing on the dock, giving consideration to her best friend. Aya had a lot of goodbyes to say, after all.

"You'll make sure to look after Smiley, right?" She asked Blake hopefully.

"Of course, Aya, you know I will," Blake smiled back at her.

Ayame hugged him tightly, squeezing so hard she practically snapped his spine. She didn't want to let go, because if she let go, then she'd have to say goodbye. She'd have to leave.

She'd already said her goodbyes to the others. All of Blake's friends had come to see her off, even the ones she didn't know very well like Nikita. Callie was there as well, since the Eight Leaders would be among the last to depart. They'd exchanged a look of awkwardness, since they would be meeting up again soon. Ayame had saved Blake's goodbye for last.

"I'm going to miss you, Blake," she said, even though she didn't need to. They both knew that was the case.

"I'm going to miss you, too," Blake agreed. "And I'll try and call you every night if I can."

Ayame grinned. "That's okay. Don't break your back doing it, remember what we agreed?" They'd both decided that, while they would love to hear from the other, this trip would be spent prioritizing the people around them, the friends they were with.

They didn't want to increase their codependency on each other, after all.

"If you want, Blake, you can give me a call sometime~" Donoma called from her seat on the ferry, giving him a wink. Wearing her school uniform didn't make her any less inappropriately dressed, considering that she'd unbuttoned her blouse enough where peeks at her bra could be seen. But Blake didn't give her the slightest look.

"No, that's fine," he sharply said, returning his attention to Aya.

Ayame shot a glare at Donoma herself.

"You know, Blake, we do have to get going at some point," Olivia said, clearing her throat. "But if you two want to continue saying your goodbyes, Blake, you could always come with us."

Blake and Ayame shared a look.

"Nah, that's okay," Blake said, laughing her suggestion off. He kissed Aya on the lips quickly, startling her. "We'll be just fine."

Ayame beamed at him. They were already making progress. Before, Blake would have insisted on spending as much time with Ayame as he could have. But he was showing both her and himself that he could be by himself just fine.

She kissed him back.

"I guess we'll see each other in 44 days," she promised. The two parted ways and Ayame turned to walk towards the ferry with Olivia.

"Wait, Aya!" Blake called after her. She glanced back at him.

He flipped her off.

Ayame giggled like a little girl and flipped him off right back.

"Why do you two do that all the time?" Olivia asked, confused.

Ayame beamed at her. "It's just one of those things," she mused.

The ferry left port a few minutes later. Blake stood on the dock and watched it go, a longing feeling in his chest.

Honestly, he'd wanted to take Olivia up on his offer. Aya was really gone now, and he already missed her. Even though it had only been a few minutes.

But he wasn't going to let it get the best of him. This was what was good for them both. So he wasn't going to be sad, or mope around.

Cynthia cautiously approached him. "Hey, Blake… you okay?" She asked. She was a little nervous about talking to him, considering the situation that she had been in last night. She had been waiting up for him, and he didn't return to his room until morning. She knew how their date had ended, and she hated it.

But right now, she was Blake's friend. That was what was most important.

Blake glanced back at her. He smiled.

"Yeah," he assured her. "I'm doing just fine. Hey, want to go and play some video games or something when we get back to the room?"

Cynthia wasn't sure she'd heard him properly.

Had he just… suggested they do something? Together?

He had!

Cynthia's face lit up like Christmas. She hugged him so hard she practically knocked him into the water.

Aww, that's sweet! Cynthia and Blake are going to hang out! So this was the last of the "preparation" chapters, everyone will be heading off to where they need to go! That means for Sylvia and Akira, they'll be heading to Cerulean City, Kate will be heading to Virbank City, and all the juniors and seniors will be going to the Orre Region! This trip will certainly be an exciting one for our cast, what will they have to face in these new places?