Now that Misty's caught wind of Sylvia's nature as a manipulative and cruel person, she's put a stop to it! …By asking Sylvia really nicely to not do it anymore. I'm sure that will be put an end to Sylvia's mind games and manipulations, and her attempts to goad Akira into losing his temper. She's certainly the kind of person who does what others ask, after all, so she would never go against what Misty ordered her to do, right?

Right.

KedharS: Fair enough.

Just a Bad Writer for Fun: True, but she's very good at manipulating the situation to suit her own ends, so there's certainly a way she can get under Akira's skin in spite of Misty, it's just the kind of thing she would do.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 834

It had been about a week since the events at the Cerulean Cape had transpired, and Sylvia was making sure that she was on her best behavior.

It wasn't because of Misty's threats, of course. Even though she could tell that the redhead was serious, Sylvia getting kicked out of the program wasn't a major concern for her; it would be an inconvenience, certainly, but she never let the judgment of others get in the way of doing things that she wanted to do, even if, in this case, it would result in her being removed from Kanto before she could take her trip to Lavender Town.

No, her reasons for refraining from tormenting Akira any further and playing the role of "good girl" were far more pragmatic in nature.

She'd worked Akira up about as much as she was going to, and any further prodding would jeopardize their relationship (tumultuous as it already was) and she couldn't hazard that. Not until the two of them went to talk to Mr. Fuji, anyway.

Sylvia could take her time tormenting him as she liked when all that was over.

Akira was also letting his guard down around her a little more. She'd been very careful in her performance; she knew that Akira would see through her immediately if she turned into sugar and sweetness. So she behaved in a more playful, reserved manner. This gave the appearance that she wasn't redeemed, but at least controlled.

Akira was suspicious of her, because he was always suspicious. So she played to that, made him think that she wasn't planning anything, and not happy about the restrictions, either, adding in several complaints under her breath when he was nearby, about how she had to keep playing along in order to stay in Misty's good graces.

Enough of that over the course of the week, and she reached a point where she could hold a civil discussion with Akira- exactly like the one she was having right now, while they relaxed out by one of the pools.

"It sucks my phone's messed up," Akira groused. The one bit of break that he'd manage to scrounge up after all the hard work he'd put in training with Misty and her pokemon in order to get a better handle on Water types, and he wasn't able to do anything that enjoyable because he didn't have anything to do. "I'll need to get a new one when we get back to the academy- I haven't heard from anyone in weeks."

Sylvia had to resist the urge to smirk. She was happy that Akira hadn't felt the need to bring his laptop, and that he didn't feel pressured by the lack of contact with his friends. It helped that he wasn't a very social person to begin with.

And he didn't suspect Sylvia's interference at all, which was perfect.

"Why wait? Why don't you get a new phone now?" Sylvia suggested. Putting the idea in his mind would raise a new wrinkle, since she didn't want him to make any contact with Dakota whatsoever- at the same time, though, she knew that Akira had certainly thought about getting a new phone already, and clearly hadn't, which meant that he had dismissed the idea already.

"No, there's no point. I'd have to go through a whole mess of connecting the phone to a foreign network, setting everything up… it's better if I just wait. It's not like anything's going to change in the next few weeks, right?" He laughed. Akira was resigned to the fact that Dakota might not ever wake up; that was the whole reason he had come here, after all, to see what he could, little as it might end up being.

"Well, it'll definitely be cheaper," Sylvia agreed, giving him an encouraging smile. "For now, just sit back and relax, and enjoy the pool!" Just as she had predicted, suggesting he get a new phone wasn't a threat to her goals at all, and in the end it bought her some positive points with the boy, since it looked like she was being genuinely helpful.

…Which, of course, she was.

If Akira learned that Dakota was awake, it might lead to him calling the whole trip off, and that certainly wouldn't be good. And even if he agreed to go along with her, he might not have the same fervor and passion that she needed from him.

And then Sylvia would get nothing.

Akira might be satisfied with Dakota waking up, but he would have no way of knowing what other mysteries were hidden inside her genetic code now that she was a walking, talking host of the µ Gene. Only Dr. Fuji would know, and if they wanted to prevent any complications with Dakota, they would need to talk with him.

So really, it was in his best interest that he didn't know Dakota had come out of her coma! She was really doing him a favor.

…And if she happened to learn a few new secrets about Project ADAM and the µ Gene which she could use to sow some chaos, that was just an added bonus, and certainly not something Akira would complain about.

She was helping him, and that girlfriend of his, it was only right that she do a little something for herself as well, right?

Akira, to his credit, didn't believe that Sylvia was talking to him and encouraging him purely out of the goodness of whatever she had in the place of a heart. Misty had her on a short leash, and there was only so many ways she could needle him. This was probably the latest version of getting under his skin, by trying to be a friend to get him later.

Sylvia had to be on her best behavior. It was for that exact reason, Misty's ban on messing with Akira directly, that he assumed she was trying to pretend to be his friend, as well as dressing the way that she was.

"What do you think, Akira? Tempting you a little bit?" Sylvia asked, flashing him a flirtatious smile as she leaned against the railing of the pool, putting her body on display. She was wearing a skimpy bikini, black fabric covering very little, with frills of white lace decorating the edges. She posed in a way to emphasize her allure, even though she doubted it would have much of an effect on Akira, if any effect at all.

It did have some effect, at least. Akira was suitably flustered by her appearance, even if he wasn't tempted in the slightest.

"Sylvia, what are you doing?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

She smirked.

"Oh, nothing much. Just… putting on a show…" She sighed throatily, stretching back to emphasize her stomach and chest. "Misty told me that I should be on my… best behavior, and I thought that maybe you and I could… kiss and make up?"

Akira didn't even bother to feign interest.

"You know that's never going to happen. And here I thought we were having a decent conversation for once, before you had to go and ruin it like that."

Sylvia shrugged her shoulders. She sauntered over to the deck chair he was lounging on, and ran her finger along his collar. "Hey, we are having a decent conversation, Akira. You should know better than anyone that I'm just playing around."

Akira gave her a cold look. She gave him a smile in return.

"…Besides, you're not really my type," she added.

"Somehow, I get the feeling you don't really have a type. That would require you having some semblance of feeling for another human being, and I'm not entirely convinced that's even possible," Akira dryly replied.

Sylvia gasped in mock injury. "Why, Akira! I can't believe it! To think you would say something so rude, why, it brings a tear to my eye! Didn't you hear from Misty? We need to be on our best behavior, or else she might call the Pokemon Academy and have us returned home! And that means no petty insults like that one!"

She patted him on the shoulder, a smarmy grin wrapped across her face. "And I would hate to have that happen. I'm looking out for your best interests, after all."

Akira was well-aware that the only "best interests" Sylvia ever looked out for were her own. He brushed her hand aside and sat up, giving her a "do-you-really-think-I'm-that-stupid?" stare. "Do you really think I'm that stupid?" He asked.

"Misty says I'm not allowed to answer that question honestly," Sylvia purred. She was quite enjoying this repartee. While Akira was far from her intellectual equal (as were about 99.999999% of the human race) it was still a delight to play these sorts of games with him nevertheless; the way someone might play with their favorite pokemon.

"Sylvia, Misty's rules about not messing with people and making them angry were for you, specifically," Akira reminded her with a polite smile. "I don't remember her saying anything about me not being allowed to mess with you."

"Fair enough," Sylvia nodded in agreement. "But back to the matter at hand, I do in fact have a type, Akira, not that it's any of your business."

Akira didn't really give a damn, but he knew how much Sylvia loved the sound of her own voice, so there was no getting out of this. It was better to just say nothing and let it end that much sooner rather than show any interest in what she was saying.

"My type of guy is… well, not necessarily attractive, not in a conventional sense. But certainly a lot of fun to play with. Easily goaded and manipulated because he's not all that clever, with a good conscience that just ends up feeling awful about the way I get him to do whatever I want… and because he's so simple-minded it's so much fun to rile him up and watch him get angry… oh!" She gasped in fake realization and turned her eyes to Akira as if she was seeing him in a new light.

"Wait, now that I said it out loud, I guess you are my type, after all! Sorry about the confusion, I just wasn't even thinking of it."

Akira rolled his eyes. "Yes, Sylvia, I get it, you're very funny," he groaned, lying back on the chair to signal that he was done with this discussion. Even if she wasn't intentionally tormenting him, Sylvia was still a handful at her best. "Are you done yet? I was enjoying my time relaxing, and I'd like to get back to it if you don't mind."

"Really? Because it sounded to me like you were complaining that you didn't have anything to do since your phone was busted up," Sylvia mused with a smirk.

Akira shot her a dirty look, and she backed off. She didn't want to ruin any of the "good will" that she'd earned with him so far, so she deftly let the issue drop, and moved onto a change in the subject that he would be a little more interested in.

"I get that you want to enjoy some relaxing time on your trip, but there are other issues that need our attention," she reminded him, taking care not to urge him too much. "You remember what we were talking about a few weeks back, on the cape?"

"Lavender Town, right?" Akira nodded, getting back in the mood of the conversation. Now that was something he was interested in talking about. "Yeah, I know. You want to go see Mr. Fuji. I get it. I'm right there with you. But it's not exactly like we can just go there NOW."

"Fair enough, fair enough," Sylvia agreed. "But I talked to Misty yesterday about arranging us some free time to do just that."

Akira's eyes widened. "What did she say?"

"Well, she wasn't fond of the idea," Sylvia admitted. "After all, she wants us to use our time here to train our pokemon. But I explained to her that we don't get a chance to go to Kanto very often, and even though we're here to train, all work and no play will just lead to us getting more stressed out and frustrated, which could hamper our progress in our training."

Akira scowled at her. Something didn't sit quite right with what she was telling him. "Really, is that the only thing?"

Sylvia averted her eyes and shrugged. "Weeeeelllll, I didn't say OUR training. I sort of made a point to emphasize that YOU were getting stressed out and felt like you'd hit a brick wall in your training and needed some time to clear your head. I'm sorry, Akira, I thought it would be the best way to get her to agree!"

The smile she wore while making her apology assured Akira just how unapologetic she really felt about the whole thing.

Akira groaned and shook his head. "Great. So now she's convinced that I'm stressed out and getting nowhere with my training. Thanks a bunch."

"…Well, aren't you?"

"I'm making loads of progress with my training, thank you very much!" He snapped.

"…Right, but it's pretty clear you're stressed out," Sylvia shrugged. "…As the rudeness of your outburst just proved."

Akira glared at her, but he didn't really have anything he could say to the contrary. He grumbled and hung his head.

"Look, it's all going to work out anyway," Sylvia assured him. "After I talked with her, she considered what I was saying, and agreed that we'll get the weekend off! Isn't that great? We'll be in Lavender Town by the end of the week!"

That lifted Akira's spirits, Sylvia's malicious misrepresentation completely forgotten. He focused on the fact that by making Akira out to be so stressed, they had actually gotten what they wanted, which was the chance to go to Lavender Town.

"Uh… if a weekend really going to be enough time to travel to Lavender Town?" Akira asked, concerned. "I mean, I guess we can go through Saffron City by bus, but don't you think it would be a bit of a tight timetable?"

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Please. We're NOT going to Saffron City."

"What?! Why? That's the shortest route!" Akira protested.

"Yeah, and the most boring one. Do you really want to go on a trip through Saffron City, on a bus of all things, when you could do something SO much more exciting?"

Akira didn't like the way she was smiling. It gave him a really bad feeling about what she was going to suggest. But he had to resist that. "Yes. Yes, I do, because I think it's for the best that we get to Lavender Town as fast as possible."

Sylvia didn't let him get even an inch. "And without my help, there's no way you're going to be able to track down Mr. Fuji," she assured him with a smile. "Which means that we're going to do this my way, isn't that right?"

Akira couldn't say anything back to that smile. Sylvia had his balls in a vice, that much was certain. The only thing he could do was sigh and meekly nod his head in agreement.

"…Yeah. Fine. Whatever."

"Great! Then we'll be making our trip through Rock Tunnel!" Sylvia decided, clapping her hands excitedly.

"Hmm? What's this now? The two of you are going on a trip?"

Akira jumped up, shocked, and turned to see Misty approaching them with a concerned look on her face. He had completely forgotten she was still here, taking care of the other Water type pokemon in the gym!

"W-Well, that's… I mean, we were just talking, and…" Akira was fumbling for words, not sure what to say. The idea that they were going on a trip to Lavender Town was something that he'd been trying to keep secret from Misty, not sure how she would react to hearing that he had used his study experience in order to get to Kanto so he could find Mr. Fuji.

And even more unfortunately for him, his inability to come up with an acceptable explanation opened the doors to Sylvia, who was more than happy to provide one of her own.

"Yes, exactly!" She chirped. "Remember what we were talking about before, about how Akira was having some problems getting a handle on his pokemon training due to all the stress of having to work so long? Well, I thought that it would be best if I spent the weekend with him going on a sightseeing trip, you know, taking a look at the local spots around Kanto! What do you think, Misty?"

Misty was surprised to hear something like that. When she'd offered to give them the weekend off, she expected that they would just go around Cerulean for a little bit, or maybe relax in the gym like they were doing now.

"You two… were planning a trip?" She asked suspiciously, looking between the eager Sylvia and the far less enthusiastic Akira. With what she'd gathered about their relationship over the two weeks she'd gotten to know them, the idea of them having fun on a trip together sounded a little hard to believe. More than a little.

"Yep!" Sylvia assured her with a grin. "We've been getting along great recently, ever since you talked some sense into me before! Now we're the closest of friends, and Akira can't wait to go on a trip with me, ain't that right, buddy?"

She draped her arm over his shoulder and squeezed tightly against him, pushing her scantily clad body against him in a suggestive manner. Akira, to his credit, was more flustered by Misty's sudden appearance than by Sylvia's aggressive sexuality.

But it didn't look that way to Misty, who was taken aback by the confusion and shock on his face, and the redness of his complexion.

"I-I guess… yes, that's the truth," Akira admitted. He felt ashamed for lying to Misty like that, but what could he do? Sylvia had put him on the spot, and it's not like he could just admit that they weren't going on an overnight trip together because they had gotten so close, but because they were working together to uncover something about a secret genetic experiment created by the Silph Corporation in order to aid his girlfriend.

She might have found that a tad hard to believe.

Even now, she was still looking at them suspiciously, only this time with a little more confusion than before.

Then she remembered her responsibilities. "Well… I'm not sure how I feel about that," she admitted. "The two of you are under my care, after all, I don't think I would be a very good gym leader if I let a couple of students wander the region unsupervised."

A chill went down Akira's spine. That wasn't good. That wasn't good at all! They needed to go to Lavender Town, he couldn't have Misty just put the kibosh on the whole idea! He looked to Sylvia desperately for answers, and she shrugged.

"Anyway, I'll think about it," Misty said, extending some compassion. "In the meantime, Akira, we need to do some more training."

"W-Why just me?" Akira asked, confused.

"Sylvia said you were having some blocks, trying to figure out what to do? That you were overworking yourself?" Misty inquired. "That's the reason you guys need that break time, right? Well, in the meantime, I was hoping that I could lighten some of that load by helping you out a little bit, what do you say?"

Her smile may have been an attempt at reassurance, but Akira just felt a shiver run down his spine. He turned to Sylvia, who gave him a wicked smirk in return.

He sighed. If they wanted any chance of the trip this weekend to happen, then Akira had to play his part.

And that meant he had to pretend like he was stuck on his training. Sylvia might have been on her best behavior, but it was clear that even then she could still screw things up for him.

Oof, Akira's got it tough. Can they convince Misty to let them travel to Lavender Town to talk with Mr. Fuji? Remember to review!