Cynthia challenged Caelia to a battle! Considering how Cynthia is, it makes perfect sense! The best way to become friends with someone is a pokemon battle! Will she be able to get through to Caelia and really bond with her, or will Caelia respond how she always does and emotionlessly reject Cynthia's efforts? Let's find out!
The Final Round of the Pokemon Academy Best Girl Contest 3 has begun! Get the votes going in soon! There are three girls in the finals! Who's going to win? Chloe? Cynthia? Or Vic? One of those girls will become the third best girl, so get those votes in as soon as possible! You've only got one vote this time, so make it count!
Finalists: Chloe, Cynthia, Vic
KedharS: I don't know if it'll be that interesting of a battle honestly.
Jjjdunk1: Yep. Cynthia's answer for everything.
Hyphenman: It has been a while since Caelia battled. I don't even remember how long. But as you'll see, she hasn't lost her step.
Leppyvstheworld: I'd say something like Lugia's song from the second movie.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1040
"Okay Caelia! You ready?" Cynthia called. "Let's do this thing!"
The two girls were facing each other in a battlefield set up on the grounds of the inn, in a cluster of hot springs. It was the field Cynthia had trained with her sister on ever since she was a little girl, and another reminder that she was back home.
She gave out a cheer of joy.
Cynthia had enough energy for the both of them. Caelia, on the other hand, just nodded. She took a pokeball off of her belt, fumbling for the button.
"CHAAAARRR!" Kara threw back her head and roared, flames bursting from her maw. Her eye burned passionately, and she flapped her wings, taking to the sky.
As expected, she led with Kara, Cynthia thought. It's a one on one match… I should use Tristan since he's my strongest. Even if he is weak against Fire and Flying types, his spore and his speed should be a perfect match for her.
But she hesitated.
What am I doing? I'm not going to rely on Tristan to fight all my battles for me. I'll need to use someone else. This is an aerial battle, so… Cynthia made her decision in a fraction of a second. "Elise!" She shouted, sending out her Swellow.
"Swellow!" Elise flapped her wings and joined Kara in the sky, circling around her.
"What's going on?" Kitty asked curiously, walking outside with Julia. Blake was already standing off on the sidelines.
"They're having a battle," he explained.
"Really? Why?" Julia asked, confused.
Blake shrugged. "It's Cynthia. Does she really need a reason?"
"Ah. Good point," Julia nodded.
"Yep, make sense," Kitty agreed.
"Okay Elise! Let's start this off with quick attack!" Cynthia ordered.
"Swellow!" Elise tucked her wings back and picked up speed, turning her beak towards Kara and darting quickly towards the Charizard.
"Char!" Kara opened her mouth and fired a burst of flames at the approaching Swellow, but Elise was more than fast enough, dodging around the flames with her quick attack and striking Kara in the side with her beak.
"Nice work!" Cynthia cheered. "Now quick! Get back!"
With a flutter Elise tumbled away, barely evading the flamethrower headed her way.
"Heat wave," Caelia murmured. Kara flew back and spread her wings, sending a wave of hot air rolling towards Elise. Combined with the steam from the hot spring, the burst of wind threatened to roast Elise alive.
"Quick Elise! Aerial ace!" Cynthia ordered. Elise withstood the heat and disappeared, reappearing behind Kara. She spread her talons and dug them into Kara's back, causing Kara to let out a roar of agony.
Caelia narrowed her eye. "Kara!" She snapped.
Kara turned and raised her claw, flames burning across it. She struck Elise in the chest with a powerful fire punch and smacked her towards the ground.
"Elise!" Cynthia cried.
"CHAR!" Kara opened her mouth wide and fired a massive fire blast at the plummeting Swellow, engulfing her in flames.
"SWEEEEELL!" Elise cried. She flew out of the fire, her feathers singed. The burns on her body left her in serious pain, and she couldn't keep herself upright.
"That's not good," Kitty winced. She could feel Elise's pain from here.
"Those two are really powerful," Julia agreed. She narrowed her eyes in thought. "But things are starting to turn around I think."
"What's starting to turn around?" Everyone turned to see Sango walk up with a plate full of eggs. She was eating as she walked, staring curiously at the fight. "Oh, is Cynthia fighting?" She asked through mouthfuls of breakfast.
The boys came out not long after. Everyone but Elaina was here now, and they were all watching the match with curiosity.
"Elise is in bad shape," Will frowned.
"That's what you think," Julia said. "Just watch."
Cynthia had a worried expression on her face, but a swell of confidence burned in her chest. The fire blast was painful, but they weren't done yet!
"Elise!" She shouted. "Use quick attack!"
"Swellow!" Elise's eyes were sharp. She flapped her wings and soared through the air, turning back to Kara. Her speed was blinding, and she slammed into Kara with incredible force, startling everyone when they saw the Charizard stumble.
Kara fell backwards, clutching her chest. She fired a pitiful burst of flames at Elise, but the Swellow was already flying away.
"Where'd she get that kind of power?" Nick asked, gobsmacked.
"It's Guts," Julia explained. "When a pokemon with Guts is afflicted with a status condition, their strength increases by 50%. They aren't even affected by the attack reduction from the burn, it's quite a good situation to be in, even if Elise is weakening."
"And we're just getting started!" Cynthia crowed. "Elise, use endeavor! Let's bring that Charizard down to our level!"
"There it is!" Reiner grinned.
"Cynthia's best trick!" Nick nodded.
"Let's do this!" Cynthia cheered. Elise flapped her wings and flew towards Kara, her body glowing. She released a burst of energy that slammed into Kara, knocking her backwards.
"CHAAAAR!" Kara roared in pain. She'd dealt serious damage to Elise with her Fire type moves, and now all that damage was being inflicted on her.
But just like Elise hadn't fallen, Kara remained steadfast in the face of her opponent. The air around her started to burn and she began to glow with an orange light.
"That's Blaze," Blake noted. "Her flames are getting even hotter. And that energy… if I'm not mistaken, that's…"
"Kara…" Caelia hissed, her eye flashing with anger. "Dragon dance!"
"CHARIZARD!" Draconic energy swirled in a maelstrom around Kara, increasing her speed and power to absurd levels. Combined with the boost from Blaze, and all it would take was a single fire punch to finish Elise off completely.
But Cynthia was determined to not let that fire punch come. "Elise! You know what to do! Time for your quick attack!"
"Swell!" Elise nodded, circling around Kara and increasing her speed to the point where she was just a blur.
This was one of Cynthia's favorite tactics. After reducing the health of her opponent with endeavor, she would make use of her quick attack to finish off the opponent before they had a chance to respond. There was only one issue with her current plan, and that was the fact that her opponent wasn't at one HP like they usually were when she used this strategy.
But Cynthia wasn't about to give up. She was determined to defeat her opponent, and pushing Elise further on. "Come on, Elise. Just a little bit more… you can do it!"
Elise shot like a bullet and slammed into Kara, hitting her with an incredibly powerful quick attack and dealing her serious damage.
Kara plummeted towards the ground, unmoving. Then her eye snapped open. She flapped her wings and braked before slamming into the rocky battlefield, pulling up and flying into the air, turning towards Elise. Flames burned around her.
"No… no way!" Cynthia gasped in disbelief. She'd counted on that quick attack to finish her off, but they weren't strong enough! And that left her completely vulnerable to a powerful counterattack from her opponent.
Caelia narrowed her eye. Time to finish things. "Heat. Crash."
With a roar, flames burst around Kara in a corona of destructive power. She slammed into Elise and the bird began to burn. Kara wrapped her arms around Elise and hugged her tightly, turning towards the ground and falling like a meteor.
Elise struggled against the Charizard, but she was too badly burned to put up much of a fight. She was too busy screaming.
With one final roar, Kara slammed Elise into the ground, releasing an explosion of hot power that nearly knocked Cynthia off of her feet.
"Whoa!" Kitty shielded her face, and she wasn't the only one. When the dust settled, Elise was lying in the dirt, burned and unconscious, and a battered Kara stood over her, roaring in triumph.
Cynthia fell to her knees, the strength seeping out of her body. She was still smiling, but it was clearly a shaky smile.
"Wow, I'm surprised she lost," Reiner said. "Well… that is Caelia's strongest pokemon, so I guess it's not that much of a shock…"
"Cynthia did her best," Sango said. "She should be proud of herself!"
Cynthia wasn't proud of herself, though. She was happy to battle, and had a lot of fun, but she was still sad that she had lost. But the biggest problem she had was the apparent losing streak she was on. Sh couldn't break it no matter how hard she tried.
"You really are something, Caelia!" She laughed to mask her frustration, scratching her head sheepishly as she recalled Elise to her pokeball. "We tried our best but I guess it just wasn't enough! Even so, I still had a lot of fun!"
Caelia didn't say a word as she returned Kara to her pokeball, staring blankly at Cynthia. She turned and headed back inside.
"Good battle, Caelia!" Cynthia cheerfully called after her, rising to her feet. "Let's do it again, real soon, okay?!"
But the brunette was already gone.
Cynthia sighed, rubbing her forehead. Pokemon battles were usually a great way to bond with a fellow trainer, but apparently Caelia had yet to get that memo.
"Well, that was a short battle," Will sighed, heading back inside after Caelia.
"Good way to warm up for the day though," Nick said. "I'm feeling pretty worked up myself! Hey, Reiner, wanna have a battle ourselves?"
"Eh… sure, why not," the other boy shrugged.
Blake was the last one in, and he paused, looking over his shoulder at Cynthia. She wasn't saying anything, just staring off into the distance with a numb look on her face. He remembered that expression, he'd seen it before. Last week, when Will had beaten her.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, closing the door and walking back over to her. "We should probably get Elise to a Pokemon Center to heal her up, don't you think?"
"…Yeah, you're right," Cynthia murmured. The half-hearted nod she gave wasn't the most glowing endorsement.
"Okay, seriously Cynthia, what's up?" Blake asked suspiciously. "I know you can feel a little down when you lose pokemon battles- who isn't? But it's not like this is the semi-finals of the Fall Festival Tournament, it was just a casual match with a friend. …Sort of a friend."
"Yeah, I know," Cynthia sighed. She still wasn't looking at him, her gaze was focused on the steamy air and the surroundings of the garden.
"So what's up? You aren't usually like this," Blake pressed her.
Finally, she turned to meet his eyes. He was surprised. She didn't look sad. Well, not "sobbing and crying" sad, anyway. Her expression was strangely pensive.
"You know, Blake… I've fought a lot on this field," Cynthia murmured wistfully. A thin smile spread across her lips. "This was where I practiced being a pokemon trainer by having battles with my big sister."
Blake had never met Cynthia's sister, but from the horror stories he'd heard about her, he knew she wasn't Cynthia's favorite pokemon. But this was the happiest Blake had ever seen Cynthia when the topic of Violet came up. He wasn't sure what to say.
"So… you liked battling with your big sister?" He asked lamely.
"She would beat me every time," Cynthia growled, her wistful look morphing into a dark grimace. "What kind of person uses their full strength against a third grader?!"
Ah. Now that was more like Cynthia.
But even then, her expression quickly softened. "It was so much fun," she admitted. "I asked her to battle me practically every day whenever we were both here."
"Really?" Blake felt like he was seeing a side of Cynthia he didn't get to see often. Not only was she confiding about her sister, but she was talking about how much she enjoyed pokemon battles even back when she was a little girl.
"You might not believe me, but back then… I wanted to battle Violet so much because… it was the only time when she was focusing on me," Cyntha admitted, her cheeks flushing a little. "She wasn't thinking about girls or challenging gyms or anything like that, I was the only one she was paying attention to, and that… it was really nice."
Blake nodded. He understood where she was coming from. He thought about his own big brother, and how much he envied Kanone. Back when he was growing up in that big house, he would have killed to be just like him.
"But I thought you hated your sister?" Blake asked. That was the one part of this he was still confused about.
Cynthia's face soured again. "Every girl in the world hates and loves their big sisters, that's just reality," she snapped. Blake burst out laughing.
"Hey! I'm serious here!" Cynthia seethed.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Blake said, shaking his head. He couldn't stop the giggles from escaping. "Listen, Cynthia… is that what this is about? Are you behaving so weirdly because you're back home, and fighting on your childhood battlefield is bringing back nostalgic memories?"
Blake really hoped that was it. But he doubted it. That wouldn't explain Cynthia's reaction to losing to Will. No, there had to be something else here.
Cynthia stared at him for a while, and then sighed.
"It's… not a big deal," she said. She averted her eyes the way she always did when she lied, but before Blake could step in and confront her about it she had already pushed past him and walked back into the inn.
Blake watched her go and sighed. This trip was supposed to be fun, so why did everything have to go so difficultly?
There's seriously something up with Cynthia right now. First that strange business with Elaina in the hot spring, then challenging Caelia to a battle before breakfast… but what is it? He wondered as he followed her inside.
Cynthia was the kind of girl who wore her heart on her sleeve. The only time she kept something to herself was when she was dealing with an issue that was very serious to her, like her feelings for him, or her crippling insecurities, and those moments were few and far in between.
If Blake wanted to know what was going on, he'd need to get closer.
Man… what would Aya say if she knew I was spending my break trying to bond with a girl who has feelings for me? He wondered. Knowing her, she'd probably be fine with it. She was just that nice of a person.
…Great, and now he was thinking about Ayame. With a sigh, he took out his phone and checked his messages. He still hadn't received anything. It had been weeks since he last heard from his girlfriend, and even if they were trying to get past their mutual dependence it wasn't like they were going completely radio silent.
He took out his phone and tried to call again. He was pushing their agreed-upon weekly number of calls, but he was also worried. And that trumped everything… in theory anyway. He dialed her number and listened to the ring. Hopefully this time would be the one where she would finally-
Damn. Voicemail again. He left a message.
Lost in thought, Blake didn't even see Sango and nearly knocked her over.
"Hey! What the heck?!" She huffed, stumbling back. "Blake, you good? You seem kinda lost in thought… everything okay?"
"Oh, Sango, sorry," he apologized. "Yeah, everything's okay… at least, I think it's okay… it's just that I tried to call Aya, but she isn't picking up my calls. I haven't heard from her in a while, so… I was getting kind of worried."
"Ah, don't worry about it," she assured him with a grin, patting him on the shoulder. "She's probably just living it up in the Orre Region, and is having so much fun that she's completely forgotten about her phone! I'm sure she'll get back to you any day now!"
Sango's bright smile had a way of soothing his worries. He let himself relax and found that he was nodding along in agreement.
"Yeah, you're probably right," he smiled.
"Tell you what! Let's forget about her for now," Sango said, grabbing him by the wrist. "Me and some of the others are heading over to the Lava Cookie place to get some boxes! Wanna come? We have to go early or we'll be waiting in line all day!"
At first he resisted, but then he reconsidered. What was wrong about spending the morning with one of his best friends waiting in line to get some cookies? If his girlfriend was having fun in Orre without him, he could have a little fun without her, couldn't he?
"Sure, why not?" He agreed, following Sango down the hall.
Meanwhile, across the inn, Elaina sprang out of her futon. Her eyes were weary and she stared blankly forward. Then she let out a yawn and flopped back down, going back to sleep. It was gonna be one of those days apparently.
Cynthia's battle against Caelia ended in another loss! Darn, the girl's just trying her best, but she can't seem to pull out a win! Hopefully that will all change someday! In the meantime, it seems like everyone's got some issues right now, but hopefully nothing that can't be fixed with a boxful of Lava Cookies!