Well, not a lot of reviews, surprising, considering the revelations last chapter, but in the meantime let's check up on what's going on with Holly and her training.
As for the Best Girl nominations, still going strong. Anyone else left to add?
Currently Nominated: Sango, Cynthia, Elaina, Kate, Dakota, Ayame, Marion, Kitty, Serefina, Madison
KedharS: She has 5, actually, but 4 of them are devoted solely towards fishing.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 219
"Okay, Holly, here's some ideas I came up with," Kate said, placing a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "There are a few reasons you lost, Holly. First off, lack of coverage. Sadly, we can't do much about that, your Petilil can't fight against grass types conventionally, so we need to raise her power. Now, one way we can do that is with the move growth."
"Growth?" Holly asked, confused.
"Your Petilil is really good at dodging and keeping pokemon on edge," Kate explained. "Growth is a move that can boost her special attacking ability, which all her moves are. So while you avoid the enemy attacks, work on boosting her special attack, so that way even if her moves aren't very effective, they can still hit really strong."
"I see," Holly said, nodding, glancing down at her Petilil as the antidote flushed out the toxins.
"Plus, since you have magical leaf, she doesn't need to focus on aiming her attacks," Blake reminded her. "So she can put her energy towards buffs and evasion."
"Oh, yeah, that was really helpful, right, Petilil?" Holly asked, looking down at her Petilil.
"Peti!" Petilil nodded.
"Another important thing," Kate added, "was that you got poisoned. Have you ever heard of a move called aromatherapy?"
"Aromatherapy?" Holly asked, shaking her head.
"It's a move that cures your pokemon of status conditions like poison," Kate explained. "If you used it, then your Petilil might have been able to put up a better fight after getting poisoned."
"Aromatherapy… okay, we'll try to train to learn that."
"Actually, at her level, she should know it already," Kate reasoned, a confusing frown on her face. "Now that I'm thinking about it… do you know what moves your Petilil knows?"
"Uh… no?" Holly asked, shaking her head. "She knows… energy ball, and magical leaf, absorb, mega drain, and giga drain, and synthesis… stun spore and sleep powder… oh, and leech seed!"
"How do you know that?" Kate asked. "You haven't been spending that much time with her, have you?"
"Oh, I just asked her to use a bunch of moves I know, and she knew all of them!" Holly explained. "But she doesn't know solarbeam or sunny day yet, or petal dance, or-"
"I see…" Kate nodded. "Ask your Petilil to use aromatherapy."
"Okay… Petilil, aromatherapy!" Holly said. Petilil nodded her head, and began glowing green. A soothing aroma wafted across the battlefield.
"Wow! She does know it!" Kate said, her eyes widening. "Okay, try growth next!"
"Growth, Petilil!" Holly ordered. Petilil began glowing green again as her special attack rose.
"So there are some moves she knows," Kate said, nodding. "I wonder why you didn't think of it?"
"I didn't know those moves existed…" Holly sighed. "The ones I told her to use were the only ones she knew…"
"Are you copying moves that Alcea knows?" Blake asked, realizing how Holly knew so many of her Petilil's moves. Holly let out a little "yeep", nodding her head.
"W-well, I mean, she uses a lot of grass moves so-"
"Aw, that's so adorable!" Kate giggled. "You're trying to be just like your big sister! That's the cutest thing I've ever seen!"
Blake wanted to slap his face with the frustration he was feeling.
Holly's shy smile sloughed off of her face and she narrowed her eyes into a cold glare. She picked up Petilil, scowling at Kate.
"SHUT UP!" Holly snapped. "I don't want to be like her! Why would I?! I'm way, way better than her! Stop talking about Alcea like she's all that, I hate her! I hate her!"
Kate was taken aback by Holly's declaration. The little girl ran towards the forest on the edge of the field, sobbing.
"Wh-what did I do?" Kate asked, confused. She looked at Blake in confusion. Blake shook his head.
"Sorry, Kate, I don't think you understand much about that girl."
"Huh? What do you mean? I was just trying to be nice! Isn't that what you asked me to do?"
"You asked Holly if she was trying to be like her sister," Blake said, shaking his head. "That… I think that's the last thing she wants people to think."
"What do you mean?" Kate asked. "Why wouldn't she want to be like her highness?"
"Remember our match?" Blake asked, already following after Holly. "Remember when I told you that you should be yourself, and not try to copy Alcea?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"Holly… probably spent most of her life living in the shadow of her sister," Blake called over his shoulder. "Living in the shadow of someone who seems better than you at everything, being forced to live up to that… she's probably grown quite a large chip on her shoulder."
"…Oh." Kate remembered what Blake had told her back in their battle a few months ago. How everyone expected him to be the next Kanone Harker, and how they would always be comparing the two, and Blake always coming up short. That must have been rough. Blake… Blake probably understood how Holly felt more than Kate ever could. Kate had her own share of baggage… but Blake and Holly seemed to have the same type of baggage. She watched Blake walking off into the forest, unsure of whether or not she should follow after him.
"Holly!" Blake called as he walked through the forest, the light through the leaves casting shadows over his clothes. The sound of tears and crying echoed through the trees, Blake following the sounds of Holly's distant sniffles. A few minutes later, he came across Holly sitting on a tree stump and holding her Petilil tightly to her chest as she sobbed.
"Holly," Blake called out to the little girl, his voice soft and soothing. Holly raised her head and wiped her eyes, setting Petilil down on the grassy floor. She rose to her feet and crossed her arms in front of her chest, staring at Blake with a look that tried to be as haughty as normal, but with her puffy red eyes and quivering lips, it was pretty damn clear that she wasn't succeeding in maintaining her façade. She looked like a soft breeze would cause her to break down crying again.
"Wh-what do you want, commoner?!" Holly shouted, stomping her feet in protest. "I'm done! I don't need your help anymore! I'm Holly Vermeil! I'm the greatest! The absolute best! I'm going to be a better trainer than Alcea ever could be! I'm going to be beautifuller, and gracefuller, and smarter, and… and… I don't need help from a nobody commoner like you!"
Tears were streaming down Holly's cheeks. Blake walked up to her and hugged her, Holly crying into his stomach as he patted her on the back of the head. Petilil bounced up beside her, rubbing her head comfortingly against Holly's leg.
"Holly, do you want to talk?" Blake asked, leading her over to the large tree stump. He helped her sit down, the strength clearly running out of her legs. He sat down beside her.
"I… I have nothing to say to a commoner like you!" Holly sniffed. Still with the commoner talk…
"Then if you don't want to talk, do you mind if I talk a little?" Blake asked.
"Wh-what?" Holly looked at him in confusion for a brief moment, before realizing that Holly Vermeil was not the sort of girl who paid heed to the words of commoners. "Hmph! I don't care in the slightest!"
"Right… well, anyway, I'll keep talking," Blake said, ignoring her haughty façade. "See… when I was younger, I had an older brother. Well, I mean, I still have an older brother, but back then, things were… worse."
Holly tried to pretend like she wasn't interested in where he was going with this.
Blake sighed.
"Do you know of Kanone Harker?"
"Kanone Harker?!" Holly's eyes went wide in surprise, her mouth falling open. "Er… uh, I mean, I think I've heard of him before…"
"Well, that's him," Blake said. "My older brother. One day, I'm sitting in a hospital letting my bones heal, the next day I'm being brought back to a mansion with an older brother who's the star of the pro tour, receiving licensing deals and appearances on talk shows. From then on, it was always 'hey, aren't you Kanone Harker's brother?' Or 'wow, you're Kanone Harker's younger brother? You must be an amazing pokemon trainer!' You know, stuff like that."
Holly found herself nodding unconsciously.
"So because of that, I felt like, you know, there wasn't really a 'me' out there. No one looked at me and saw Blake Harker, they saw the kid who's Kanone's little brother, the one who isn't as good a trainer, the one who spends all his time cooped up in his house with his weird little sister. Even my parents treated me like just someone who couldn't live up to my brother's achievements. Which I mean, that's shitty enough if you're a kid, but when you're adopted, boy, that just makes you feel like the absolute worst…"
Blake rubbed his temples in frustration. "Growing up in that house, with no one seeing me, no one giving me any attention… it made me feel like nobody, like I didn't exist."
Blake glanced at Holly, trying to keep the knowing smile off of his face.
"…But I guess you don't know what that's like."
Holly swallowed. Her small little hands clenched into fists, and she gulped.
"I…" Her voice was soft and she stopped herself, clearly not ready to come clean just yet. One little push was probably all she needed, something to show her that Blake was paying attention to her and interested in what she was saying.
"Hmm?" Blake asked, raising his eyebrow. Holly gulped, her head dropping down.
"I… I do know… what that's like," she replied, her voice above a whisper. "I do…"
"What do you mean?" Blake asked.
"My big sister is five years older than me," Holly said. Back when I was a baby, I would always look up to her. She was a lot of fun, and she was always smiling and playing with me, even though she was so much older. Back then, our parents treated us so nicely, it didn't… it didn't seem like anything special, it was, I guess… what family should be like? But then… when she turned ten… I had a fever that day, so the maids took care of me while our parents took my sister on a cruise. And then… she was gone."
Holly wiped her eyes, looking at Blake. He could tell this was a painful memory for her, how couldn't it be? He reached out and placed a comforting hand over hers.
"Blake…"
"I heard what happened. She was gone for three years, right? That must have been difficult."
Holly winced.
"Actually… no… it… it wasn't," Holly said, shaking her head. "That's the worst of it. Back then, I mean… I was only 5, and I'd lived a very sheltered life. I didn't know what death really meant in those days. All I knew was that the big sister I loved wasn't around anymore, no matter how much I asked my mom and dad about her. And whenever I did… my mom would start crying and my dad's face would turn all frowny and angry… they began to leave the house more and more… it was like everything had fallen apart. Those first few months were horrible… but then… things changed. My parents began to spend a lot of time with me, they would spoil me, treat me like a princess. If I wanted something, they'd give it to me. If I wanted them to stay home and play with me, they would. It was like…"
Holly sniffed, a shaky smile crossing her face. "It was like they were trying to make me so happy, to make up for being unable to protect big sister. And sometimes, after a year or two of that… there were days when I didn't think of my sister at all. Isn't that just the worst? There she was, stranded on that island, and there I was. Being fed banana splits until I barfed."
When Blake had first met her, Holly had seemed like a petulant, haughty little immature brat. But talking with her right now… it seemed like there was more to her than he'd noticed at first. Like her sister, Holly seemed to be a good judge of the moods and character of others, even if she didn't fully realize it yet.
"It still hurt to not have big sis… but otherwise it was a nearly idyllic life… and then, all of a sudden, my daddy got a call. My sister, she… she was alive!"
The joy on Holly's face when she uttered those words could not be understated. It was as though Alcea was rising from the grave right before her very eyes.
"I remember that being the happiest day of my life. There were hugs, and tears, and I was overjoyed. It was like everything was perfect. But then, of course, everything changed. Big sister changed. She didn't have time for me anymore. She was training her pokemon, and then training her pokemon turned to going to tournaments… it was like she wasn't even really back at all. And not only that…"
"All the attention your parents placed on you, that shifted to her, didn't it?" Blake asked. Holly glumly nodded her head.
"They were overjoyed that their beloved daughter had made it home safe… and so they fawned over her, and paid attention to her, and did everything they asked… and my world became very lonely and small…"
Holly was shaking, and Blake wrapped his arm over her shoulder to comfort her.
"I'm a bad little sister… my big sister came back, and I was just thinking about myself. Upset that my parents were paying attention to her, and not to me. I thought it wasn't fair. It was like my world had come crashing down, and like…"
"It's okay," Blake reassured her, hugging her to his side. "You aren't a bad person."
"But… but I… I…"
"Little sisters being envious of their older sisters, and wanting their parents to pay attention to them, that's fine," Blake said. "That's normal. I mean, it's not like you want your sister to still be on that island, right?"
"…Sometimes I did," Holly admitted. "Sometimes I wondered why she had to come back. But I don't anymore, just… when I first started to feel that way, I mean, well…"
"And that's okay. You don't really hate Alcea at all, do you?"
"Huh uh," Holly said, shaking her head.
"I don't hate my brother either," Blake said. "I mean, I kind of hate him sometimes, but still… he's my brother, and he's looked out for me a lot, even if we don't really talk. I appreciate the things he done for me, you know? Don't you love Alcea too?"
"…Yeah," Holly admitted, nodding. "But I don't… I don't want to live in her shadow. That's all it was. Living in her shadow. And then when she got accepted here… I thought that it would be my chance. But my parents still didn't pay me the attention they use to. So, I mean, I started… acting out."
"Acting arrogant and calling people commoners?"
"Well, I… they don't care anyway. I can do whatever I want, and they'll only care about Alcea, only think about what Alcea's doing, only worry about her. They don't care about me anymore. I was just Alcea's replacement."
"So you act out in order to get your parents' attention, huh?" Holly was a little different from Blake. Blake had turned his pain inwards, and buried himself in the only person who cared about him for being Blake, and not for being Kanone's brother. That had been his sister, and to an extent, his mother. But even that hadn't made it hurt any less. It made sense that without someone like that, Holly would act like a rotten, spoiled brat.
"Anything to get looked at, huh? Even if it was to be chastised or punished. You just wanted them to pay attention to you."
"Yeah, yeah, exactly!" Holly cried. "Because no one cares about me! They only care about Alcea now, and I'm just her kid sister! I'm supposed to look cute and be quiet, and I'm sick of it! So if Alcea is gonna be a prim and proper lady, then I need to make people see me for me, you know?!"
"So that's why you're so rude and dismissive of people, shouting that everyone is beneath you and flashing your family prestige in their faces."
"Exactly," Holly nodded, looking up at Blake. Her eyes, which had been drowning in sadness, now glimmered with hope at finding someone who understood where she was coming from. "Exactly! I don't want people to see me as some stupid little sister of Alcea Vermeil! I'm me! I'm me, and I'm right here! So why?! Why won't anyone… why won't anyone look at me and see me, huh?"
She's just trying to be herself. Blake sighed, shaking his head. And yet as hard as she tries…
"Why do you need to use a grass pokemon to beat Alcea?"
"Wh-what?"
"If you want to be different from her, then shouldn't you use something else? You know, Kate, she loves poison pokemon. But she tried to copy Alcea herself, and use grass pokemon, and, well, she learned that it was better to be herself. So what about you, Holly? Are there any pokemon you like?"
Holly glanced down at her feet to see her Petilil, who was looking up at her with hopeful eyes.
"It sucks," Holly frowned, reaching down and picking up her first pokemon. "I like grass pokemon like my sister. Even though I want to be different… it seems even my tastes are the same as hers… I wanted to use a grass type to show not only was I different, but I was better! Anyone can beat a grass type with a fire type, but if I can beat her at her own game, I'll prove once and for all that I'M better than she is! No one will look at me like I'm just a spare, they'll see that Holly Vermeil is amazing! And what's wrong with that, huh?!"
Blake smiled, reaching out and patting Holly on the head.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Blake reassured her. It must be hard. I don't… I don't place my value in pokemon battles, so the fact that Kanone was better than me… I never really felt the need to prove that I could do better. The words of others stung, but I didn't really feel like I needed to prove myself to any of them. To feel like she needs to beat Alcea…
"Holly, can I ask you something, though?"
"What?"
"Why do you think you need to beat Alcea to prove you exist? Is it really that important to you?"
"Of course it is! It's everything!"
"Why can't you find something else you like, and do that, instead? Something that Alcea wouldn't be interested in, like maybe… I don't know, you seem to like fancy clothes, right? Maybe go into fashion design?"
"…" Holly looked down at her designer skirt and sweater. She turned her nose up at the idea. "Nope. Don't wanna."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"Beat Alcea."
Well this was going nowhere.
"Why is that important? You can be your own person without having to compare yourself to her," Blake tried to tell her. Even though she wanted to be seen as her own person, she didn't seem to realize that fighting on the same battlefield as Alcea would clearly draw comparisons between the two. It was only natural.
"Because I have to show her how I'm doing!" Holly insisted. "She needs to see that I can beat her! That she doesn't have to look at me like I'm just an annoying little sister! If she sees that I'm stronger than her now and she doesn't have to be considerate of me anymore, then maybe she'll finally see me as an equal and we can finally-"
Holly slapped her hand over her mouth mid-babble and frantically shook her head.
"Finally what?"
"Nothing, nothing! Shut up, commoner!" Holly snapped.
"Oh wow, you really do love your big sister, don't you?" Blake asked, a knowing smirk crossing his face. Holly's cheeks turned a crimson a few shades lighter than her hair.
"Shut up, I do not!"
"This isn't about you proving you're better than her," Blake laughed. "You want to battle against her because it's fun."
"I don't!" Holly sputtered, shaking her head frantically. She jumped off the stump and started kicking Blake in the shins. "I don't, I don't! I don't want to battle with her, I just have to!"
"Why?" Blake asked, moving his legs out of the way and standing up on the stump so she couldn't keep kicking at him.
"Because!" That was the only answer Holly would give, and she kept yelling it over and over.
"You really just want to play with your big sister again, don't you?"
"No, no, no!" Holly denied it, but the red face and repeated screams of "no", all the while fighting the urge to smile, made it pretty damn clear to Blake that deep down the person whose attention Holly was trying to get the most wasn't her father or mother, or some faceless crowd of people and their expectations. She was just trying to get attention from the person she respected the most.
"Wow, you could give Kate a run for her money, you know that? No wonder you know all those grass moves, you've been paying really close attention to your sister, haven't you?"
"That… that's just so I can beat her!" Holly protested.
"Uh-huh, I'm sure. Admit it, you really idolize your sister and want her to look at you, isn't that right?"
"Uweeh!" Holly wailed. "H-here I thought you knew everything, but you're just a big dumb commoner with stupid ideas who doesn't know anything! Stupid, stupid, stupid commoner!" Holly protested, swinging her fists at him. Blake reached down held her at arms' length with one hand while she flailed helplessly.
"Nah, I think I get it pretty well," Blake laughed. "Let's get started on helping you beat her, sound good?"
Holly blinked, lowering her arms. She looked down shyly and nodded her head. Blake climbed down and sat in front of her, so they were eye to eye. Holly looked at him cautiously, before smiling a soft smile.
"O-okay, sure…" Holly said, nodding. "Thanks, Blake… Really, thanks. I know I'm kinda a brat, but… you were really nice, talking to me and trying to make me feel better. Thanks, Blake."
She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
"Ah, you're using my name now."
"Well, of course I am!" Holly said, moving back and crossing her arms over her chest to put some space between them. "After all, you were kind enough to listen to me! Even though I had no need of such things as comfort, one of noble birth such as myself must repay any debts incurred! So feel happy, Blake! I have seen fit to call you by your name!"
"…Thanks," Blake dryly replied.
"Furthermore, you can now consider yourself my honorary big brother!" Holly declared, standing proudly and placing her hand over her chest. "It is a great honor! You have my blessing to marry my sister!"
"Uh, you realize I have no intention of marrying your sister, right?"
Holly looked at him in confusion.
"Wait, what?"
Blake rolled his eyes.
"I thought you were in love with my sister!" Holly said. "Liar!"
"We both want out of this marriage, but our families say otherwise! They're forcing this whole thing on us!"
"Oh, wow…" Holly said. "That thing I said about Alcea not being able to marry you until I won… that was dumb, huh?"
"Real dumb," Blake replied. Holly scowled back.
"Well, um… that's fine I guess, if you don't want to be my brother," Holly sighed, looking a little sad. "I just thought that since you seem to get me so much that it'd be okay."
"Yeah, to be honest, it's nice having someone to talk to about stuff like this," Blake admitted. "There aren't a lot of people here who get what it's like, living in the shadow of someone famous."
"Maybe if Alcea and I both talk to our parents, they might be able to end the whole thing?" Holly asked hopefully. "You know, as a thank you for talking with me, and helping me train."
"Thanks for the offer, but somehow I doubt it'll be that easy," Blake said, shaking his head. "Our folks are pretty set on our families merging, so I don't think that the engagement can be called off so easily."
"But if you and big sister don't love each other, then you shouldn't get married!" Holly protested. "All my books say the same things, the noble princess must marry the handsome knight who loves her! That's how the happy ending happens! So if you don't love each other, then no happy ending!"
Blake couldn't exactly explain that reality was more complicated than fairy tales, so he just nodded like an idiot.
"We can go talk to my parents and tell them you don't want to marry my sister," Holly said, grabbing Blake by the hands and pulling on him. "It'll be fine! They'll understand."
Blake really doubted they would.
"Besides, since, you know, you don't like my sister and she doesn't like you, well…" Holly's cheeks flushed and she smiled at Blake. The look in her eyes made his blood run cold.
Oh no. What have I done.
"Well, I was just thinking, that since our families want to merge, but big sister doesn't want to marry you, well, I mean…" Holly averted her eyes, brushing locks of perfectly styled hair behind her ear. "I-I guess, if we wanted to…"
He was just trying to give her advice by relating to her situation. There was no way she was suggesting…
"I… what I'm saying is, if you don't want to marry Alcea, then you can always marry me, right? You know, if you want to," Holly suggested.
Oh lord. She was.
"That way, our families are happy, big sister is happy, and we're happy, too!" The smile on Holly's face was probably worth about as much as her father's corporation, but to Blake it only meant bad things. Bad, bad things.
Why. Just… just why? He asked himself, forcing a shaky smile onto his face in response to her proposition.
Last harem member. I swear. Blake, stop relating to emotionally vulnerable people looking for someone to relate to their problems.