After a touching night between Ruka and Sango, we return to the inn for some bonding between Ruka and her actual trainer, Cynthia! What will the morning bring for Cynthia, now that she's caught a new, cute pokemon? It should be a fun time. Also, what do the others think about this new pokemon? Will they be happy? Or a little worried about the little Zorua's pranks?

KedharS: Yep, Sango opens the door for a lot of wholesome moments, especially when she's opening up to people who've also lost things like she has.

Hyphenman: Nice theory. And I don't know where all the reviewers have gone. It is what it is, sometimes arcs just don't grab people and sometimes they do. So it goes.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 1056

It was close to dawn by the time Ruka and Sango made it back to the inn. Ruka was clenching her precious diary and picture tightly to her chest, and Sango was just exhausted. When they entered the girls' room, Sango just wanted to flop down on her futon and go back to sleep.

"Zor…" Ruka tugged on Sango's sleeve and the other girl turned to her. Ruka was wearing a bashful smile.

"Thank you for coming with me," Ruka signed. "I appreciate it."

Sango's shoulders slumped and she gave Ruka a half-hearted shrug.

"What else am I gonna do?" She asked. "I know how important a momento is for the people you care about."

She patted Ruka on the head and ruffled her hair. "And don't worry, I'll b sure to start teaching Cynthia some sign language too so you'll be able to talk to each other. Leave it all to me, okay?"

Ruka beamed up at Sango and nodded gratefully. She set the book and picture down beside the futons and crawled in next to Cynthia. She was happy to see that th girl's exprssion seemed to relax whe she crawled in, as if Cynthia really had been missing her. She dropped the illusion and returned to her pokemon form, wriggling in between Cynthia's arms. After returning to her embrace, everything felt nice and warm.

"Zorua…" Ruka sighed wistfully, excited for what the morning would bring.

A smile spread across Cynthia's face unknowingly as she hugged Ruka to her breast. Her dream had taken a turn for the better now that she had her cute little pokemon back, not that she could ever realize what had happened.

Cynthia was having a very strange dream. In her dream, she and the others were having fun playing on the beach together, even Caelia.

Could you blame her? The beaches of Slateport City were one of the most popular attractions in the whole region. Hoenn was surrounded by water, but but when it came to cool and splashy fun in the sun, Slateport City couldn't be beat. Anyone would want to spend at least one day of Spring Break there, it was tradition!

But Cynthia didn't have the heart to suggest it. As much as she wanted to enjoy the beach with Calia, she knew it was out of the question. The other girl had proven her inability to cope with water already on Valentine's Day, and Cynthia was well aware that any attempt to pressure her would just end up even worse. Caelia and water just didn't mix, so what fun was there to have at the beach for a girl like that, watching everyone else enjoy themselves but not being able to participate?

It was Cynthia's responsibility to make sure that everyone was enjoying themselves, even someone like Caelia who didn't want to do anything. If that meant Cynthia's desires would have to take a back seat, well…

She was fine with that. She'd already found Ruka. An adorable and precious Zorua who was just looking for a friend. And now she was one of Cynthia's pokemon. Whatever happened next after this, nothing could change that fact, and Cynthia was overjoyed to have such a precious pokemon.

But she still dreamed of the water. She woke up feeling a strange emptiness in her gut, wishing that things could be different. If only there was some way for Caelia to enjoy the water… but she couldn't think of any.

Instead, her attention turned to the little Zorua in her arms, and the bright expression on the small pokemon's face.

It made her smile herself.

Deciding to let Ruka sleep in, she crawled out of her futon and gently nestled it around her. "Pleasant dreams," she whispered, patting the cooing pokemon on the head. She turned and looked around the room. Things were about how she expected. Elaina was oversleeping as usual, thrashing around in her sleep like a tornado. At the same time, in contrast, Caelia was nestled in her futon looking as still as a corpse.

Kitty and Julia were nowhere to b seen, which was surprising. Right up until Cynthia checked her phone and realized how lat it was. She gasped in shock. She should have woken up an hour ago! She'd nearly missed breakfast!

Hurriedly, Cynthia raced to put some presentable clothes on, when she realized that something else was different, too.

Sango was still here. And she was still asleep. How odd. Cynthia knew full well how much of a morning person Sango was. She'd been woken up more than a few times when the sun wasn't even up yet to hear Sango preparing for he runs. But she wasn't running right now. She was wrapped up in her futon snoring away.

Cynthia thought it was actually kind of adorable to see her look so peaceful like this, and agreed to let Sango get some rest. She must have been up late.

Not having any idea of how accurate she was, Cynthia stepped out into the hall and nearly crashed into Aidan, which was a surprise.

"Oh, hey Cynthia," the boy greeted her. His Shinx purred in a friendly manner.

"Hey there Aidan, heading out to catch some breakfast?" Cynthia asked.

Aidan shook his head. "Actually, I was looking for Sango," he said. "We were suppose to go for a run this morning but she never showed up. Is she in there right now?"

"Yuppers," Cynthia nodded. "Looks like she had a late night last night, and needs to catch up on her sleep."

"Oh, I see," Aidan said, surprised. "Well, okay then."

"Maybe we could go eat breakfast together?" Cynthia asked, batting her eyelashes. "Just the two of us? It would be like a little date."

"Uh…" Aidan turned red, and his eyes skipped down to look over Cynthia's body for a moment before shooting back up to her face. He glanced away, and the shameful expression he wore was enough for Cynthia to realize what he was thinking about.

"H-Hey!" She sputtered, covering her chest. "It was just a joke, you jerk!" She knew it was uncalled for, but could you blame her? Thanks to Sora's little show, all of her friends had seen what her naked body looked like. Even Blake. Especially Blake. It just wasn't fair. Certainly she would have liked, once upon a time (as in, "still now") to show everything about herself to Blake, but he'd made it clear that he was in love with Ayame, and for as long as that remained true he had zero sexual or romantic interest in Cynthia or anyone else.

Cynthia had agreed to that, and was even okay with it, but it still made her heart hurt.

And now he'd seen her naked. And so had Aidan, and all the others. She sighed and rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Listen, Aidan, I would really appreciate it if you could just forget everything you saw last night. And t the last five minutes as well, okay? Let's just say 'good morning' and pretend we haven't seen each other before now, okay?" She asked, smiling cheerfully.

Aidan opened his mouth to reply but Cynthia quickly cut him off. "Oh, and if you agree," she added, "then I won't tell Sango you've been stealing her underwear for weeks. Sounds like a great deal, don't you think so?"

Aidan's jaw dropped and he stared at Cynthia in shock, not sure what to say to that. "Wh-What?!" He gasped. "But I… I don't do stuff like that! I would never! Sango's my friend, you can't seriously think that I would-!"

Cynthia shrugged. "Well, then it should make for a pretty easy agreement, don't you think?" She didn't like using lies and blackmail (well, not any more than the average high school girl) but if that's what it took to get rid of the awkwardness then she would lie with the best of them.

Aidan just looked sick to his stomach. He nodded reluctantly. He and Arion followed Cynthia down the hall while she hummed cheerily to herself.

When they got to the dining room, Cynthia found the two missing girls, just finishing their breakfast. They both had tense looks on their faces.

Did they still think Cynthia was in a bad mood? That wasn't good. She should really make sure to convince them otherwise.

"Good morning!" Cynthia greeted them with a grin and a wave, like everything was normal. "Breakfast taste good?"

"O-Oh!" Kitty jumped in her seat, surprised. "Y-Yes, everything's fine. Good morning! And breakfast was delicious. You grandma is a really good cook!"

"So jumpy," Cynthia laughed. "For real though, what were you guys planning today? I wanted to play with Ruka a little and show her around town, Kitty, you in? Sango's fast asleep so we could use a translator."

Julia scowled. "I don't think it's appropriate to use Kitty's abilities as some sort of translation device," she growled.

"Julia, it's fine," Kitty assured her friend with a smile. "Actually, Cynthia, we were just talking about you, you know?"

Cynthia raised her eyebrow. "Really? Me? Why?"

Kitty took a deep breath, and then reached for her belt. She unclipped her pokeballs and set them on the table.

"Your pokemon?" Cynthia stilled wasn't getting it. She stared questioningly at the pokeballs on the table and Kitty's glum look.

She nodded.

"I was thinking about pokemon… and I've always treasured mine," Kitty said. "Meomo, Marisa, Larisa, and even Pearl, they're all very important to me. But seeing the way you were with that Zorua, Ruka…" She sighed.

"It really made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, you know?" She asked.

Cynthia nodded. She could understand where Kitty was coming from. After all, Ruka was the most adorable thing in the world.

"So what are you saying?" She asked.

Julia glanced between the awkward-looking Kitty and the confused Cynthia, and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Kitty, if you don't want to tell her, then I can-"

"No, I'll tell her," Kitty said, shaking her head. "I… want more pokemon," she mumbled, feeling a weight lifting off her shoulders.

Cynthia blinked, surprised. "Really? I thought you were happy with the ones you already have though. You want more?"

"Of course I'm happy with the ones I have," Kitty said. "But… I still want to make more friends, you know? Like you've been doing. Since coming to the Pokemon Academy, you've caught Leon, you hatched Aud, and now you even have Ruka. And me, well… I just have Pearl, from an egg Marion gave me. I only have four pokemon."

"What's wrong with that?" Cynthia shrugged. She didn't really care one way or another if Kitty wanted more pokemon, but she didn't see the big deal when it came to the 'mons that the white-haired girl already had."

"It's because everyone else we know already has a full team," Kitty said glumly. "Reiner, Nick, you and Julia, of course, and Blake… even Nikita, who only has five pokemon, has that egg which is going to hatch any time now!"

"Oh, yeah, the egg," Cynthia nodded. She'd almost forgotten since it had been so long since she'd hatched Aud herself. "Dang, I wonder when that thing's going to hatch?"

Kitty sighed. "And me… I just have these four. So I want to catch a new pokemon! Even just one more, to catch up to you guys!"

"Hey, hold on now." The person stepping into the conversation was an unlikely source, mainly because it was someone they barely knew, Aidan.

"What do you want?" Julia grimaced, not pleased that some stranger had butted into the middle of their conversation, even if he WAS Sango's friend.

Aidan winced, put off slightly.

"Look, all I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if you have only four pokemon," Aidan said. He lifted Arion up off the ground and placed him on th table. "I only have Arion as my partner, you know? I don't think your value as a trainer is determined by how many pokemon you have."

Julia scowled. She was irritated because that was pretty good advice actually, especially for someone like Kitty who was chronically plagued with low self-esteem. She should have been the one to come up with that!

But Kitty wasn't convinced. "Um… yeah, I know," she admitted. "It's okay not to want more pokemon on your party. But honestly… I still do. Not because it will make me a better trainer or anything, I just want more friends."

She took a deep breath, and sighed.

"The truth is… I was worried about catching new pokemon."

Julia was caught off-guard by that statement. "Worried? Why?" She asked.

"Because… I've only really ever had these three, for the longest time. And then, with my harmonia… I was scared about getting close to other pokemon. I was worried that if I did, my power would sort of… oh, I just can't explain it!"

She didn't have the words. But when she thought about catching new pokemon, Blake's Salamence came to mind. A wild pokemon that had been hurt by harmonia and scarred by the attempt to bond with it. If something like that could happen, then what if Kitty tried to make a bond with her pokemon herself? What if THAT went wrong?

She didn't even want to think about it.

But then Pearl had hatched, and she'd bonded with her cute little Clamperl nicely. That had been the catalyst, along with seeing all her other friends expand their parties.

"Honestly, it doesn't matter anymore," Kitty assured everybody, shaking her head. She was smiling. "I may have been worried before… but I'm not anymore."

"That's great!" Julia sighed in relief.

"Glad to hear it," Aidan agreed, nodding.

"Well, if you want to catch pokemon, I'm your gal," Cynthia boasted. "I've caught all sorts!"

Julia snorted.

"Hey!" Cynthia snapped. "What was the last pokemon you caught, huh?"

"Fang, remember?" Julia reminded her. "And Percy before that."

"Well, I just caught Ruka," Cynthia replied. "Plus, I know all about the pokemon you can catch around here," she boasted.

"I'm from the Hoenn Region too, you know!" Julia snapped. "Kitty, I can definitely help you, right? Just ask!"

Kitty felt a little flattered that they both wanted to help her. She smiled.

"W-Well… I was talking about it with Julia before, so… I do kind of want her help… sorry, Cynthia," she apologized.

Julia smirked, sitting up a little higher in her seat. "And there it is."

"Whatever," Cynthia scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"W-Wait, Cynthia, I would still love your help!" Kitty assured her. "It's just… well, you just caught Ruka, didn't you?"

Cynthia blinked. "Yeah? Why?"

"Well… when you catch a pokemon… I think it's really important that you take care of it," Kitty asserted. "You should spend today bonding with her, don't you think?"

Julia was proud of how mature Kitty clearly was. Meanwhile, Cynthia was thinking about what she just said.

"Yeah, you're right," she agreed after a pause. "And I know just the perfect thing to do! I'm gonna give her some Lava Cookies, then get Sango to spend the day with us too, to translate!" She was already planning out all the fun things she wanted to do with Ruka.

Aidan didn't say anything, but he had a pretty good idea about how Sango would react to Cynthia demanding she spend the entire day following her around to translate what Ruka was saying in sign language.

Of course, he could have also served as translator, but he didn't want to throw that out there. He was a nice guy, but not THAT nice.

"Well, good to hear," Julia said. She turned to Kitty. "So I guess it'll just be the two of us, then?" She asked.

Kitty turned red at the sound of that. Julia clearly didn't mean anything by it, but it certainly SOUNDED like she was asking her on a date.

"Y-Yes, that would be fine," Kitty said, flustered. She quickly gathered up her pokeballs and put away her dishes, before fleeing the room.

Julia sighed and followed after her, waving goodbye to the others. She caught up with Kitty in the entrance hall.

"Sorry for running off like that…" Kitty apologized. She was honestly looking forward to spending the day with her friend. And luckily for her, Julia just shrugged it off like it was nothing.

"No big deal, hey, so what pokemon do you want to catch?" Julia asked. In spite of her earlier claims, she didn't know the Hoenn Region all that well. But she hoped that she could be of some use to Kitty's search.

"Um… a cute one?" Kitty asked hopefully.

Julia forced a smile onto her face. She hoped that this would be okay. Kitty really was a sweet girl with a lot of love to give to pokemon, and she was the kind of trainer who deserved to have a whole party, at least, if not even more pokemon.

Sometimes, Julia thought that Kitty's sweetness was more fitting for a girl aiming for the Caretaker Course. But if she wanted to catch pokemon to use in pokemon battles, that was more than suitable as well. She admired Kitty's gentle heart sometimes, especially in situations like this, when she just wanted to find more pokemon to love.

So with her head held high and her resolve solidified, Kitty walked out of the inn and headed towards the wilds around Lavaridge Town, determined to capture a wild pokemon to add to her party. Julia followed after her, silently encouraging her friend to do her best.

This is perfect! Kitty, seeing Cynthia and all her other friends form bonds with new pokemon, has decided that enough is enough, and she wants to capture more pokemon of her own! Will she be successful? What pokemon will she catch? And what about Cynthia, how will her time with Ruka go? And can she come up with fun activities for everyone to do, even Caelia and Elaina?