After such a long night, folks are going to need some rest in the morning. I wonder who ended up winning the game of two truths and a lie? And yes, we cut it after one chapter, because too much of that would get repetitive, sorry. We've got to pick up the pace!

KedharS: It's definitely wholesome, which is good. Callie and Alcea need some positive moments for sure.

Omesta: Don't worry, Ange will pop back up soon enough, we'll be getting plenty of her in this arc.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: Not for a little bit longer though.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 884

The sun dawned on a bright Orre Region the next day, and dragged along with it several girls who really would have liked to get some more sleep.

Ayame was used to waking up early so she was fine with it, even if she had to go along with her mother's rules about not being able to go on any morning runs because it wasn't safe to walk the streets alone.

On the other hand, Olivia was still fast asleep in bed.

"Hey, Olivia, we need to wake up and go to breakfast…" Ayame yawned, checking the clock. They still had an hour left before they actually had to meet, but Ayame knew just how much time Olivia needed to prepare herself in the mornings. And after a long night like last night where they had stayed up until midnight for the "slumber party" she would probably need even more preparation time on top of the usual amount.

Ayame loved Olivia, but it couldn't be denied that her best friend was kind of a diva.

But surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, it wasn't preparation time that Olivia was after. She glanced groggily up at Ayame from her bed and slumped back down, hugging her pillow tightly and burying her face into it.

"Go 'way Ayame. I needa sleep," she mumbled.

"You can't just sleep," Ayame groaned. "We have breakfast today! We're going out to eat at that bakery Giselle wants."

"I stayed up all night last night, I didn't get to bed until 12! I need my beauty sleep!" Olivia complained. She would never forgive Hiromi for keeping them up with that stupid "slumber party" idea for as long as she lived.

Ayame sighed. "Fine. I'll go tell my mom that you want to get more sleep."

She got out of bed and got changed, and went to go report the situation to her mother. Hiromi was a little sympathetic.

"Gee… I guess I didn't really think of that," she admitted, sighing. She flopped down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling thinking about the night before. "Yeah, I guess I need to learn a little more about this chaperone thing…"

"I don't think it's good practice to encourage your students to stay up so late," Ayame informed her mother. "I know you just wanted us to have fun, but still, you need to think about your students' health too, remember."

"I know, I know," Hiromi sighed. "Don't you think I don't know that? I messed up. It's just that you and your sister were always so independent, I didn't ever really need to think about stuff like that when it came to you."

"Trust me, Olivia's pretty independent herself," Ayame smiled. "But yeah. Next time, try being a little bit more responsible of an adult, mom."

"I am responsible!" Hiromi gasped, shocked by her daughter's accusation. She sat up in bed, her face enflamed. "Remember?! I chewed Olivia out big time for sneaking away like that, because that's what a good chaperone does!"

"Mom, I'm pretty sure Olivia wasn't actually sneaking off," Ayame reminded her. "I think that was all one big misunderstanding. She's not the type to do something like that."

Although she's definitely the type of girl to hold everyone up for her own selfish whims, Ayame had to silently admit. No sense in telling her mother that, though. She also didn't think mentioning that a good chaperone probably wouldn't have talked about her sex life with a bunch of students either. That would just be more trouble.

Hiromi sighed and nursed her temples. "When I signed up for this, I didn't expect looking after teenagers to be so hard. I was a Pokemon Ranger, and taking care of wild pokemon was way less stressful than this!"

"…Mom you've been chaperone for, like, a day," Ayame said.

"And I've already messed up!" Hiromi wailed. "I just wanted everyone to have a fun slumber party, I didn't even think about the health concerns of making you girls stay up late! That's not what a good chaperone does, I was just trying to be like one of the girls!"

Ayame did recognize that her mother had a bit of a problem with acting more like a teenager on a field trip herself than as a responsible adult. A big part of that was due to how independent she and her sister had always been, how responsible her father had always been, as well as the fact that physically, her mom looked younger than SHE did.

"Okay, from now on, I'm not going to do just what I want to do," Hiromi said. "I'm going to make whatever choice is best for you kids!"

She sounded confident, and Ayame was glad that she wasn't down. For a second, Ayame feared that her mother would actually start crying, but no, Hiromi was a lot stronger than that.

"Still, I don't want to be too forceful," Hiromi decided. "After all, it was my fault that Olivia's in such a situation where she needs to catch up on her sleep, so I guess we can put off having breakfast for a little while longer."

Ayame frowned. "One second mom," she said, turning and walking back to her room.

As expected, Olivia was still fast asleep in her bed without a care in the world. Ayame stormed in and yanked the covers off of her.

"Hey!" Olivia groaned, turning and shooting a glare at her friend. But she quickly backed off when she saw that Ayame was in a bit of a foul mood.

"Get dressed," Ayame said. "We're getting ready for breakfast."

"I need my beauty sleep!" Olivia whined. "Blame your mom for making us stay up so late!"

Ayame sighed. She knew that Olivia wasn't wrong, and that if Hiromi hadn't made them stay up for that slumber party then she wouldn't be complaining right now.

But at the same time, Hiromi was trying her best. And Olivia was taking advantage of that to be selfish again. Because at the end of the day, Olivia could get by with less sleep. She just didn't want to, because she was being lazy and vain.

And Ayame might have loved Olivia like another sister, but that didn't mean she was gonna let Olivia have her way when it was about something like this.

"Olivia, you can conceal it with makeup," Ayame groused. Olivia tensed, knowing Ayame only used her name when she meant business. Ayame continued, "you don't need to keep sleeping, are you really interested in keeping everybody waiting? You know Giselle was really looking forward to this bakery after all."

Olivia sighed. "Come on, just thirty more minutes?" She begged, wiping the crust from her eyes. She knew on some level that she was being selfish, but at the same time she really did feel wiped out after last night.

Ayame glanced at the clock. It said 8:02. She sighed in resignation. "Okay, sure. But we're leaving at 8:40 whether you're ready to be seen in public or not, so if you think you can take a shower, do your hair, and fix your makeup in only ten minutes then-" Ayame didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence because Olivia catapulted out of bed so fast it was like someone had set it on fire, and tore into the bathroom.

"…Take your time," Ayame mumbled, rolling her eyes in disbelief. God, she loved her, but Olivia could be such a drama queen.

Leaving Olivia to her preparations, Ayame returned to check in with her mom and let her know that everything was okay.

"Don't worry mom, Olivia changed her mind. She was just being lazy," Ayame said. "We'll be ready to leave at 8:40 just as planned."

"Oh, really? That's great!" Hiromi said, sighing in relief. "I'll get ready, then."

Leaving her mom to her own devices, Ayame was stuck with a great deal of nothing to do. Usually when she had free time, she would exercise, but again, running wasn't an option. She couldn't even go for a walk.

She was basically a prisoner in the hotel.

Since she didn't have any interest in the pool (she'd have to get out practically as soon as she got in, after all) she decided to just tool around the lobby. She'd brought a few books along that she could read, so it wasn't like there was NOTHING to do.

She found a spot in the lobby to plop herself down with a good book. It was something that Blake had lent her, which meant it was all about ruins and stuff. It might have been interesting if there was anything about the Orre Region, but Orre didn't have much in the way of holy relics or the like. But wait, there was one entry…

Ayame had just flipped open to the section on Agate Village and this thing called the "Relic Stone" when someone loudly called her name.

"Ayame!"

She cringed. The owner of that familiar voice was someone she knew well. So much for getting in any reading before breakfast.

Ayame glanced up to confirm that yes indeed, it was Donoma. She was surprisingly dressed down, at least as much as a girl like her ever dressed down, wearing one of her sleeveless black dresses without the corset for once. Not that she needed it to maintain her figure. Surely some people would find her a pleasant sight, but Ayame certainly wasn't one of them.

But she was much happier to see the girl who was accompanying Donoma, Giselle, wearing another one of her Chinese outfits. And she looked more tired than even Olivia did this morning, which made sense. It couldn't be easy hanging around Donoma as a roommate.

Still, Giselle wasn't enough to pick up her mood towards Donoma.

"So what are you reading?" Donoma asked, skipping over to Ayame.

"Nothing," Ayame muttered, shutting her book. "What are you two doing here? We aren't meeting for another half an hour at least."

"Well, I would have been fine just lounging back in the room," Donoma sighed theatrically. "But this little lady was getting anxious. Imagine, winning the game last night and getting to pick your own restaurant, and still not looking forward to it? Unbelievable. So I came after her to see if there was any big scoop going down, something interesting to scope out!"

Donoma smirked and made a camera sign with her fingers, pointed squarely at Ayame. "And lo and behold, I was right. The sporty track star has a hidden nerdy streak, sitting in the hotel lobby reading books about ruins. Methinks that boyfriend of yours is rubbing off on you, and not in the fun way." She cackled like a Mightyena.

Ayame rolled her eyes in disgust, she hated how crude Donoma could be. Didn't she get enough of that last night?

Giselle glanced down bashfully. "W-Well… I wanted to eat there, but… I mean… what if people don't like it? I mean I might not have the best taste in food, so…"

"Giselle, you're a great chef. Of course you know what kind of stuff is good," Ayame assured her. "And pastries sound like a great place for breakfast, I'm sure Lila will be thrilled." If there was a statement that could have been made last night that no one would believe was a lie, it would be Lila and her love of sweets.

Giselle sighed anyway. Ayame could see that she was bothered by a lot more than just picking a bad restaurant.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked, putting Donoma out of her mind and turning to her friend. "Are you still concerned about what happened last night?"

The other girl nodded glumly. Ayame could understand why that was a bit of a sore spot for Giselle. Last night had been… okay, well, it hadn't exactly been fun, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. At least not for most of the girls.

Giselle, on the other hand, had received a rather rude awakening to Olivia's perception of her. Or rather, her lack of perception about her.

She'd won the game because she'd gotten the least amount of points, but it wasn't something to be proud of. It was a testament to how little Olivia knew about her, and how little she actually cared about getting to know her.

And when it was someone as cool and impressive as Olivia, that was a revelation that really stung. Giselle was in the Appeals Course, and Olivia was the Empress. Anyone in that course would have been thrilled to be invited into Olivia's personal group for the field trip.

But Olivia didn't care about Giselle at all. She didn't have any good connections, and she wasn't someone who was likely to become a sexual partner, and it wasn't like her talents were record-breaking or anything.

So in Olivia's eyes Giselle had very limited utility, and her friendship just as much so.

It was one of the parts of Olivia that Ayame found distasteful. Because as good of a friend as Olivia could be to people she was close to, or had taken an interest in, when it came to people who were just "there" she couldn't really be bothered to give a damn. It was an aspect of her obsession with star-like qualities in part, but the main factor was her own overblown ego and vanity.

There were a lot of qualities Ayame found admirable in Olivia Himeko, but this certainly wasn't one of them. Giselle was a shy person as it was, and last night had probably been rather crushing. But at the same time, what could Ayame really do?

Giselle was her friend, but so was Olivia. She hated being stuck in the middle like this, it was one of the reasons she tried not to get so close to others. She'd observed the catty girl drama all through middle school, and to her chagrin she'd ended up in one herself.

Hopefully breakfast will help smooth things over, Giselle could really do with a win today, Ayame thought, giving her friend a sympathetic look.

While things were complicated in Gateon Port, those inconveniences were very simple compared to the issues that were present in Pyrite Town.

The Phantom's group had a ton of internal problems, and at times like these, people who did their best on their own would want to take a break. No wonder Ange had snuck off into the night to do some investigating of her own!

The discomfort was only compounded by the fact that no one was allowed to leave the hotel for any reason. Pyrite Town was dangerous, after all, and they all had to stick together, Ditto transformations notwithstanding.

Of course, Ange wasn't the only one capable of sneaking out of the hotel without a trace.

Dokukage touched down on the street and disappeared into the darkness. He needed some time alone to ponder his thoughts before jumping back into that nest of Sharpedo.

Luckily, Pyrite Town was the perfect place to escape from your worries. The sun wouldn't rise for a couple hours yet, but there were still people wandering the streets, namely trainers looking to battle in the early hours, desperate to increase their funds.

He avoided them easily. A trained ninja such as himself didn't need to be concerned with a couple of street rogues.

But Dokukage was having a hard time convincing himself of that.

Don't worry. You don't need to worry. You've trained for this. Even if someone approaches you with a knife, there's nothing to be concerned about. All you have to do is remember what sensei told you about disarming opponents, Dokukage reminded himself as he slunk through the slums. What did he say again…?

"Conventional weapons can't be compared with the capabilities of a trained shinobi. Remember, if someone comes at you with a knife, you just need to perform the rasengan and defeat them in one blow."

Dokukage punched the wall.

YOU FUCKING OTAKU! He screamed internally. WHY IS EVERYTHING YOU TEACH TIED TO NARUTO DAMN IT?!

Dokukage took a breath and recomposed himself. Now wasn't the time to lose his cool. If he drew attention to himself, that would just bring in more problems.

He was skilled in pokemon battles to be sure, but the Orre Region was a bit of a problem for him. Everyone wanted to fight double battles, and his ninja skills were far less effective when he had multiple pokemon to account for. He was really best suited for one on one bouts.

With a sigh, Dokukage turned and continued down the street. Then he bumped into someone.

For most people, bumping into someone on the street was a common occurrence. You would say "excuse me" and apologize for the accident, and the two of you would go about your day without ever thinking of it again.

But Dokukage wasn't an ordinary person. He was a ninja. And ninjas didn't just "bump into" people. He had been concealing his presence perfectly, maneuvering through the crowd without anyone so much as looking his way.

And it wasn't like he'd let his guard down, he had been incredibly careful. For someone to run into him like that…

Dokukage whirled around and chased after the cloaked figure. As if they perceived what was going on themselves, the figure picked up the pace. There was no doubt about it now, that bump had been intentional.

Someone was trying to get Dokukage's attention, someone with the skills to do it. And the number of people who could do that was an incredibly limited number.

Dokukage pursued the cloak through the crowd, not even bothering to conceal his presence anymore. It wasn't like he was remaining in one place long enough for anyone to challenge him to a pokemon battle anyway. Picking up speed, his target ducked down an alley and Dokukage followed, only to find himself in a dead end.

But that was nothing for a ninja. His head shot up and he scaled the walls, climbing onto the roof of one of the buildings where his target had been waiting for him.

And when the cloaked figure leapt from building to building to start the chase up again, Dokukage was right there with them.

He didn't know how long he'd kept the chase up, but by the time the cloaked figure stopped, the sun had already started to rise.

"Not bad, Dokukage," they said, with a voice he knew all too well. "You've maintained your training excellently."

Pulling back the hood of their cloak, they turned back to greet him with a familiar face.

As usual, Dokukage didn't let the inner turmoil wracking his mind get the better of him. "As have you, Shinobu."

Well! A Dokukage chapter! That's certainly not something anyone would have expected!