Time to explore the fallout of the fire, and what Blake's condition really is.
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: Bad things happened.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Caelia certainly seems like the primary suspect, considering her behavior and her… specialties.
Hellraiserphoenix: Caelia would certainly do just about anything to keep Blake with her. But would that include potentially killing him, I wonder?
JoshGamerV: It certainly looks that way.
KyubiMaster9: Don't worry, someone is going to try and get to the bottom of this fire. It just may not be who you think it is.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 227
"Sango."
"Umuuh…" Sango mumbled, blinking. For a brief moment, she didn't know where she was or what she was doing.
"Come on, they said we can go see Blake," Julia continued. Sango's eyes snapped open and she sat up in her seat, wide-awake. She couldn't believe she'd drifted off! One look outside said enough. It was already light out.
Sango gently patted Silver on the head, the small pokemon waking up as well. Silver floated up off of Sango's lap, Sango stretching and getting up out of the seat. The group of six headed into the halls, finding the room that the receptionist had referred them to.
Sango took a deep breath and reached up to knock on the door. Cynthia was less patient, and pulled the door open, stepping inside.
"Blake!" Cynthia shouted, Sango right on her heels.
"There are sick people here," Julia reminded her as the others headed inside after her.
"Oh! Lookie, your friends came!" Marion chirped, glancing up. She was sitting at his bedside, molding rice in her hands.
"Marion?" Sango sputtered. She glanced from the tanned girl to Blake. Blake was sitting up in his bed dressed in a hospital gown, his face looking perfectly content
"Hey Sango!" Marion said. "What took ya so long?"
"…They wouldn't let us inside," Sango replied. She ignored Marion and looked at Blake, her brown furrowed with worry. "Blake, are you…?"
"I'm fine," Blake replied. His voice was a little hoarse. "No burns, no scarring. There's just a little *cough* irritation in my lungs. According to the doctor, I'll be perfectly fine."
Blake turned to the table next to his bed, where his pokeballs and the other stuff he had salvaged from the boat were. "Yeah, my pokemon and I, Richard, Sephiria, we all managed to get out."
"Really?" Sango asked, the tension draining out of her.
"Pheew, what a relief," Cynthia said, wiping her forehead. "You sure you're good, then?"
"Yup! I was there for the whole thing!" Marion said, saluting. "I fished him up out of the water myself, and treated him immediately."
"Thanks," Blake nodded to her. "Yeah, according to the doctor, I just have to take some anti-inflammatories for the next few weeks, and I'll be good as new. In the meantime, I'm just going to have some shortness of breath. It's nothing to be concerned about."
"Uwweeeeh!" Kitty sobbed, running over to Blake's side, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Blake! I was sho worrieeed!"
"Um, hey, thanks, it's okay," Blake smiled, petting Kitty's white hair as she cried into his sleeve. "But, uh… shouldn't you get dressed?"
Kitty glanced down, realizing that she was only wearing her pajamas, which was a large shirt that made a makeshift dress. She didn't even have socks on.
"Uweeh!" Kitty cried, her face turning bright red. She pulled her shirt down as low as she could and stumbled back, hiding behind Julia. Blake chuckled, his laugh turning into a cough halfway through.
"Done!" Marion chirped, holding up the riceball she'd just finished. "One Lumineon riceball, freshly made! One bite will have you back up to 100%!"
"Thanks," Blake said, taking the riceball from Marion and biting into it. "Tastes ashy."
Marion laughed at that, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Will for awhile! But no worries, that'll go away!"
"Blake, what happened?" Reiner asked, sitting next to him. "Your boat really burned down?"
"Yeah," Blake said, nodding. "According to Marion, Richard is in pretty bad condition, a lot worse than me. Sephiria came to check up on me a little while ago, and then went to go see what's up with him."
"Yeah, that old guy was in pretty bad shape," Marion confirmed. "I don't think it was anything critical, but definitely worse than you. You should be free to go by the end of the day, but as for him… I think he'd still probably be on a respirator or something."
Blake winced at hearing that. The last thing he wanted was for his foster father to be permanently scarred. He made it a point to go check on him the minute they let him leave.
"Do you have idea what happened?" Nick asked. "Like a fuel leak or something?"
"It must have been," Blake said. "I mean, what else was it gonna be?"
"It must have been… arson!" Cynthia declared, a look of suspicion crossing her face, her eyes darting around as if there could be an arsonist hiding in the room right now.
"I don't think so," Blake dryly replied.
Before Cynthia could expand on her thinking, the door opened behind them.
Everyone glanced to see Caelia walk into the room. She looked past the crowd, her eye staring intently at Blake.
"Caelia!" Blake said.
"Oh, it's you!" Marion said.
Caelia didn't respond to either of them.
"You know her?" Blake asked, surprised.
"Nope!" Marion said, shaking her head. "But I remember her from earlier! She was one of the first students at the scene! She was watching really closely while I fished you out and gave first aid! Seems like she was really worried about you!"
Blake turned to Caelia.
"Really?"
Caelia gave a small nod in affirmation.
"Are you… okay?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" Blake said, though the coughing fit that followed said otherwise. "Don't worry."
"No burns?" Her voice carried worry in it, which was surprising. That was something he hadn't heard from her before. He was kind of happy that she was so concerned about him.
"Yeah, no burns or anything. Just some smoke inhalation. Minor stuff, really. I'll be back to 100% before you know it!"
"…I see."
Caelia nodded again, and turned to leave. She door had barely closed behind her, before it was pulled out into the hall again, someone else bursting into the room.
"Blake!" Ayame shouted. Her face was flushed with panic, and she shoved past the others to run to his side.
"Ayame?" Blake barely had time to get her name out before she threw herself onto him, the six-foot version of Kitty's previous move, making it slightly more uncomfortable.
"Blake, I'm sorry!" Ayame wailed. "I was sleeping and I didn't get Sango's message until just now! I came as soon as I could, but when I was running my ribs started to hurt and I had to walk, I… I…!"
"Ayame, it's fine, it's fine," Blake said. "You can let go now."
Ayame shook her head, smearing snot onto Blake's clothes.
"No!" She blubbered. "I don't-"
"Ayame, this is kind of embarrassing," Blake said, glancing at Reiner's smirking face. Kitty was bright red with embarrassment and Julia rolled her eyes. Nick looked a little uncomfortable, while Cynthia just smiled a knowing smile, wiggling her eyebrows at Blake as if to say "I knew it!" Sango was a little more difficult to read. She seemed to just be relieved that Blake was okay.
"Sorry," Ayame mumbled, getting off of Blake and wiping her eyes. Cynthia handed her a tissue and she blew her nose, tossing it in the wastebasket.
"Blake, are you okay?" Ayame asked, once the initial worry had worn off. "Like, really okay? Sango said you got in an accident. What happened?"
"There was a fire," Blake explained. "But it's okay. Everyone's fine, well, I mean, not fine, but we're alive, and I don't think even Richard's injuries were that critical."
Ayame sighed in relief, a smile breaking out across her face.
"I'm so glad…" Ayame said, falling to her knees. She winced in pain, placing a hand against her chest. "Ow, I really messed up running all the way here."
"Aw, I thought it was sweet!" Cynthia giggled, walking over and patting her on the back. "How romantic!"
"Er… no, we're just… friends," Ayame said, her eyes shooting away from Blake to look down at the floor.
"Uh-huh, suuuuure," Cynthia giggled.
"Cynthia…" Blake narrowed his eyes. Cynthia popped up, giggling.
"Oh, don't be shy, Blake. You should be relishing it, you know. So many cute girls coming to pay you visit, and Sango! Oh, and those two morons as well."
"Hey!" Reiner and Nick said, frowning.
"HEY!" Sango exclaimed, pissed at the implication that she wasn't cute.
"I saw Caelia earlier," Ayame said, standing up. She glanced at Reiner, raising her eyebrow. Raiser grumbled and got out of his chair, letting the injured girl take his place. "She come to visit you, too?"
"Yeah, she just wanted to check in."
"Cool," Ayame said, nodding. For some reason, the idea of Caelia and hospitals made her uncomfortable. Ever since her own hospitalization, thinking about Caelia made her shiver in fear for some reason. Even though as far as she could tell, Caelia was a perfectly nice, if a little off, girl.
"Anyway!" Marion chirped, rising to her feet and cleaning up after the remains of the riceballs she'd made. "I gotta get going! Time to get some fishing done! Glad you're okay, Blake! Get better soon!"
Marion tilted the brim of her straw hat at Blake, smiling. She flounced out of the room.
"What about you guys?" Blake asked the others. "Aren't classes starting soon?"
"Oh, shoot! That's right! We have those joint class battle tests today!" Nick grumbled. "But don't you think it's okay if we stay here?"
Sango wanted to stay, since she probably wasn't going to be much good in the battle test, even with a borrowed pokemon from Cynthia. Besides, how could she concentrate knowing that Blake was stuck in the hospital? Even if he wasn't in that bad of condition, it still wasn't…
"No way!" Cynthia protested. "I'm staying here!"
"You can't just skip the test," Julia protested. "I mean, I don't like Monday tests either, but come on."
"But if we leave now, I'm going to miss out on all the juicy romcom stuff!" Cynthia explained. "All of us first years are gonna go, and then Blake and Ayame are gonna be here alone and get up to all sorts of stuff! My curiosity is telling me I need to-"
Ayame's face turned bright red, and Julia clamped her hand over Cynthia's mouth. Surprisingly, Sango didn't share her concerns. She didn't want to leave Blake, but it had nothing to do with Ayame. Honestly, she was glad that Ayame would be with him after they left. Blake clearly would need someone to be with him after this troubling time. And if that person couldn't be Sango… she was glad, at least, that it could be Ayame.
I wonder when I first started feeling this way, Sango thought, a small smile crossing her face. I care more about Blake being happy than me being happy with him…
The idea of Blake and Ayame getting together still stung. Even in spite of the fact that Blake had shot her down, and that they were both asserting they were only friends, Sango could see that Ayame still wasn't over him. It had only been a few days ago, after all. How could she have gotten over Blake that fast? Blake was a harder read, at the very least he appreciated Ayame's presence.
But Blake doesn't love her. Or me. Or anyone…
Sango shook her head, clapping her cheeks with her hands.
Why am I thinking that way? This isn't the time for thoughts like that! Blake was just in an accident, and here I am concerning myself with stupid thoughts about romance! Now isn't the time, Sango! Keep it together!
"Uh…" Cynthia looked at Sango with a confused expression on her face. Out of nowhere, Sango had just slapped her cheeks. "Sango, you good?"
"I'm fine!" Sango declared. "I'm just getting control over myself."
Sango turned to Blake, and smiled.
"I'm sure you don't want our concern for you to get in the way of our schoolwork, right, Blake?" Sango asked.
"Yeah, you know me pretty well," Blake nodded, cracking a smile to return to her.
"Right! So you just focus on getting better, and we'll get out of your hair, c'mon guys!" Sango said, turning to the door. Silver flew after her.
Sango stood at the door and tilted her head back, flashing a Blake a smile.
"I'll be back later today, and I'll be bringing you some good news of my victory today, Blake!" Sango called, heading out into the hall.
"Well, she's fired up! Wait for me!" Cynthia charged after her.
"Bye," Nick said, heading out. "Hope you feel better, Blake."
"I hope you get better too," Kitty whispered. "I-I'm gonna go get dressed."
"Yeah, we'll be back soon," Julia said. She glanced at Ayame and smirked. "Meanwhile you two can spend the time making out, sound good?"
"Wha- bu- NO!" Ayame said, blushing. Julia and Kitty headed out, Kitty chastising Julia for her teasing as they went.
"Hope you feel better soon, dude," Reiner said, glancing back at him. "It'd suck if you became unable to go on Professor Reinhart's expedition due to something like this."
"I think I'm gonna have to pass on it due to dropping out first," Blake replied. "Sorry to say."
"Hey!" Ayame scowled, lightly slapping the back of her hand against his shoulder. "Don't joke about that. You said you weren't going to give up, didn't you?"
"Well, either way, you try your best and get better soon," Reiner said, heading out. He stopped at the doorway and turned back.
"Listen, Blake… this might not be any of my business… but you've been talking with the girls about your problems, and you didn't talk with me any."
"Oh?" Blake inquired, raising his eyebrow.
"My family wants me to go into the battle course and become a pokemon master, or a gym leader, or some other thing. But see… I want to be a researcher, and archaeologist. But my family was so insistent, I thought that I didn't have much of a choice. But Nikita… she asked me what I wanted. She wanted to support me, no matter what I wanted to do. That was the first time I thought that it was okay to go against my family's wishes. So… what about you?"
"I want to stay here," Blake said.
"And are you going to fight for it?" Reiner asked. "I'm going to fight for what I want. Seeing your indecision the other day… it helped me make up my mind. You do the same, got it?"
"I already have," Blake said, nodding.
"…That's good," Reiner said, smiling. "Good luck, then. Get better soon."
"You're quite wise for a man in his boxers," Blake replied.
"Sh-shut up! It's Cynthia's fault! Damn girl…" Reiner's face flushed and he headed outside, Ayame and Blake snickering. Ayame turned to look at him, becoming acutely aware that they were the only ones in the room now. It was the first time they'd seen each other since their final kiss, when they had both affirmed that they probably would not be anything more than friends.
"So, uh, Blake, how're you doing?" Ayame asked.
"Same as before, sore throat, dry mouth, irritated eyes, the whole nine yards," Blake dryly remarked.
Ayame scowled, an awkward silence hanging over them. It seemed that going back to being friends was going to be a little more difficult than they thought.
"So, uh, it sucks that your boat burned down," Ayame remarked, standing up. "Well… is 'burned down' the right phrase to use? I mean, it's not a building. Is 'burned up' better?"
"What, you don't know your up from your down?" Blake asked, smiling. "You really are a meatheaded jock."
"That wasn't what I meant and you know it!" Ayame scowled.
"Nah, it's fine, really," Blake said, shaking his head. "No, I don't have much attachment to that old boat. And all my stuff is stored in my room on campus. Pretty much everything important to me, I got out of there while it was burning."
Blake gestured to the table with his pokeballs on it. Ayame walked over to it, seeing his music player and headphones. Her eyes widened. She lifted up a waterlogged iris, and turned to Blake, holding it up.
"Important things?" She asked quietly.
"I grabbed it to try and use the water in the vase, but it didn't work," Blake replied. "I guess I kept it without even realizing."
"I see…" Ayame said, a small smile crossing her face.
"Sorry about that," Blake said, looking at the iris with a guilty expression on his face. "I held it so tightly I smashed it. It's wrecked."
Ayame looked down at the flower. He wasn't wrong. The petals had been crushed, and the stem was bent and twisted. All life had been completely drained from the flower. It was sad to see. Ayame turned it over in her fingers, and returned to her seat at Blake's side.
"It's okay, don't feel bad," Ayame smiled, shaking her head. "It would have wilted sooner or later, anyway. Nothing lasts forever."
Ayame held it up to him.
"It still has its color, though. Even if it isn't as pretty as it was before… I still think it's beautiful."
Blake frowned, the sadness on her face sending a wave of guilt through him. Their eyes met and he tried to find something to say to reassure her.
"Ayame…"
"Ho. An affair before we are even wed, is it?"
Blake and Ayame gasped, jolting up nearly a foot in the air.
Alcea stepped into the room, accompanied by her parents and her sister.
"Blake!" Holly wailed, running over to him. She was bawling. She wrapped her small arms around him in a hug, crying into his chest like Kitty and Ayame before her.
"I heard what happened," Julianna said. "I'm so sorry. Is your father okay?"
"Yeah, he's doing fine."
"That's a relief," Louis said, smiling. "I'd heard that you were injured, but I'm glad that it doesn't appear to be anything serious."
"Ally was so worried about you," Julianna giggled. Alcea rolled her eyes.
"And you're…" Louis looked over Ayame, vaguely recognizing her. His smile soured. "Ah, the girlfriend…"
"Oh, me?!" Ayame said, glancing frantically between Alcea and Blake. "N-no, no, I'm just a friend! That thing at the dinner party, that was just, um, you know, a prank!"
"…I see," Louis said, frowning.
"Father," Alcea spoke up, stepping between her parents and Ayame, "if you do not mind, may I speak with Blake alone? I have much to say to him."
Louis blinked, and glanced at Ayame.
"Please. This is… quite private, is it?" Alcea said, holding her hand to her lips and turning bright red. Louis's face broke out into a broad smile.
"Hah! Well, if that's what you want, of course! Let's go, Holly!"
"No, I don't wanna!" Holly pouted. "I want to stay with Blake! He's my-"
Alcea placed a hand over her sister's mouth, smiling down at her. She leaned in and whispered into Holly's ear, "some things have the right time and place to be mentioned, is it?"
Holly shivered, letting go of Blake. She obediently returned to her father's side.
"What about her?" Julianna asked, looking over Ayame with dissatisfaction. Ayame scowled.
"It is fine," Alcea replied. "She should be here to hear this, as well."
"Well, alright then. You get better soon, Blake!" Louis said, waving to the young boy. "I'll go pay Richard a visit, see how he's doing."
"Thank you, sir," Blake said. "Tell him I hope he's feeling better."
"Will do!" With a laugh from his gut, Louis headed out the door, followed by Julianna and Holly, Holly looking over her shoulder. Before she left, she paused and shot a glare at Ayame.
"Stay away from him, you commoner tramp!" Holly hissed at the tall girl. Ayame stuck her tongue out in response. Holly pulled down her eyelid and stuck her tongue out as well, and Ayame then flipped her off. Holly was about to do the same, before Julianna's slender hand reached out and pulled her into the hall. Ayame cackled victoriously.
"Well now, here we are," Alcea said, taking the other chair. The three of them sat in a circle. Blake, his fiancé, and the woman who had confessed her love to him and forced multiple kisses onto him.
Blake wouldn't say he felt like he was in more danger than during the fire last night, but he certainly wasn't feeling like sunshine and rainbows, either.
So what will happen here? And what started that fire, anyway? Will Richard make a full recovery, or are his wounds more severe than we thought? Will Ayame and Alcea reach an accords?